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Technology Stocks : Network Appliance -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Boplicity who wrote (5188)	11/20/2000 3:47:17 PM
From: DownSouth	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 10934

Are you saying no company will be able to develop higher performance, higher reliability, simpler operation, and larger scalability per $ of total cost of ownership, to use your words? I hard time accepting that. I am saying that no one has and that the barriers to entry are significant. All of the products that we have seen thus far are repackaged hardware running on general purpose OS with no innovation for file systems nor dis-integration of the file system to a special purpose appliance. Why can't they close the gap? Some of the brightest minds in the technology are with-in the halls of those companies. Good for them. They need to get to work. First they have to get permission to do so from their higher-ups who seem to think that they have a marketing/sales problem rather than a technology problem. They are waking up to this fact, but they are 2 years behind. By the way, the very nature of disruptive innovation is that the current rulers of the market are not able to make the margin, customer, cultural, technological sacrifices necessary to meet the threat. The answer to "why" is "just because". Why can't they make them so they do [perform like NTAP]? How is DELL able to win a contract of the Navy size without having the above? Ask them why they can't [perform like NTAP]. Or think about what you know about IPR, disruptive innovation, barriers to entry, corporate culture. Dell won the Navy contract by promising to meet minimum performance metrics, promising to meet the hypothetical delivery schedules and underbidding their competitors. ah now we are getting somewhere. I don't think we are. Yes I know NTAP's software is big part of the picture. But, why can't they also do the above? Do what? Win the Navy contract? Because NTAP chose not to take the risk of margin sacrifices necessary to win the business or impacting their other customer's delivery requirements in order to meet the Navy's requirements. Or are you asking why the box makers can perform like NTAP? If so, how many times must you ask that question. If you don't understand my answers, I am sorry. If you don't believe my answers, sell your NTAP longs. I'm sick of hearing that DS. If you all do not want to hear a voice that is questioning, then so be it! "Even Greg" ridiculous. Where did I mentioned TA in the my last questions to you today? Maybe someone that comes along with fresh eyes will be able top see the picture clearer. I'm not saying I'm that person just making a point. I tire of your shortterm perspectives, GM. I don't get your point. Your calling NTAP a "broken stock" a few months ago was a TA call with no context, no facts. You didn't mention TA then, either. Was it based on your dd or FA? I think not. That was ridiculous. You're asking questions now, I believe, because you wish to argue ("make a point"). Not because you wish to learn or teach. Can you list the negatives surrounding the NTAP story. In other words what could trip them up? I suggest you look at their last annual report, which contains their 10-K with risk factors listed beginning on Page 7. GM, if you wish to carry on this dialog, please do so. I am not bored.

To: Boplicity who wrote (5188)	11/20/2000 10:09:01 PM
From: riposte	Respond to of 10934

Arguing for Arguing's Sake Greg - I just can't escape the feeling that you're arguing for the sake of arguing with your post #5188. History is full of examples of countries/companies/animals who, despite seemingly overwhelming superiority, were unable to adapt to new circumstances. It is also full of examples of 99.9999% of the population watching an event unfold, and not responding to it. I am a perfect example of that! I watched the Internet grow. I could have come up with some kind of idea, started a company, taken it public, and become an "Internet Billionaire", like Jeff Bezos. But I didn't. And I'm not rich, because of it. That's the breaks, eh? To ask "Why can't they....?" is pointless, because it's the wrong question. The obvious answer to "Why can't they...?" is " They can!" The real questions are "will they?" and "if so, when or how will they?" Most "will not" for any number of reasons. You asked about the Navy contract. One reason they might have been willing to accept Dell's hardware is that perhaps they didn't know any better. I posted recently about the fact that, despite being in the IT business, I have not met, in the company I work for, any information technology professional, including NT and UNIX system administrators, company who even knows what NAS is! Wait! I take that back! I've met exactly one, and HE had never heard of NetApp! (I do my best to remedy that particular situation, BTW...) If you don't (or barely) know what NAS is, how do you know what you need to be looking for? At work, I'm one of two database administrators for "my" system. I also do more normal development activities. We're considered a "critical" application, so we have a hot backup of our UNIX hardware, our database, and our application software. Trying to keep all this stuff in sync is a huge headache. Plunking our application on NetApp filers could make that headache go away! Completely. Why? Because NetApp filers are NAS? No, it's because they're a data storage/management solution. If I spec an RFP for a "NAS" solution, I'm asking for the wrong thing! What I'm really looking for is an easy-to-install/set-up data storage solution that also provides reliability, manageability, scalability, high performance, and data backup/recovery capabilities. You want "cheap NAS?" Check out snapserver.com. NetApp will never win a "how much NAS storage/$" war with them! You need more? netapp.com I urge you to re-read DS' posts. Then, spend some quality time over @ netapp.com Read, really read - the material over there. Keep the "solution" idea in mind - I think it'll give some insight as to where NetApp may be headed next, keeping it ahead of the competition. Regards, Steve