The formula behind the Network Appliance success? Early on, it partnered with Microsoft to provide access in and out of Windows clients.
I must disagree with the author. The formula behind Netapp's success was that its product takes 20 minutes (really!) to install, has actual, field measured reliability in excess of 99.95%. The product supported NFS (Unix) only in its first, and very successful, incarnation. The CIFS (Windows) compatibility came in 1996 (late, as I recall) and was not easy to manage for MSFT sys admins, as it used Unix commands. The Unix guys, however, liked it.
NTAP's aggressive sales execution and a direct focus on Auspex installed base was also brilliant. The Auspex customers already understood NAS, so all the NTAP rep needed to do was deliver an eval unit for 30days then compare pricing for upgrading the proprietary Auspex versus buying a new NetApp, based on standard off the shelf components. Auspex was, indeed, the low hanging fruit!
My point is that this author was a little shallow in his accounting for NTAP's success. |
