Folks, I am seeing a strong PR reaction from EMC on these boards. There was a posting x-posted on the G/K thread this morning that is typical of what we will see.
Basically, the poster says that EMC is going to "roll over" NTAP with new products and increased marketing of the EMC NAS offerings; that NAS is not disruptive; that EMC has had a NAS product for a long time, but hasn't focused on its marketing of that product; that EMC has a new mid-range product that will answer NTAP.
I will be spending some early morning energy on addressing this post and will x-post my response here. My response will contain no new insights, but simply address this poster's conclusions.
Remember, though, NAS is not disruptive! It's NTAP's network appliance approach that is disruptive: 1) the ONTAP OS, written from the ground up to serve data; 2) the WAFL file system, part of ONTAP, and very innovative in the way it writes data, manages data blocks, manages RAID, creates SNAPSHOTs, preserves data integrity with NVRAM; simplifies sys admin; and provides clustered fail over with two filers working as hot, active backup systems.
If EMC announces disruptive innovation or an answer to NTAP's DI it will not be in the form of a re-packaged system based on UNIX/Windows file systems; RAID 1,2,3,or 5; or the ability to connect to the network. DI will be in the form of a new OS and the dis-integration of the file system. I don't think we will see that from EMC, SUNW, or any of the big players. Even the small players are using Windows or some form of UNIX.
Back later.
Jerry |
