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To: riposte who wrote (6661)	2/14/2001 12:28:09 PM
From: Hal Barnett	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10934

Steve, To me, The Big Question is: Will NetApp be able to crack the big data center accounts? This may be like the DEC VAX vs. IBM Mainframe competition in the 1980s. Our department brought in the first VAX in what had been an all IBM corporate environment. We had a specific application well suited to the VAX. Over time, more VAX systems were acquired and a broader set of applications were installed (including Oracle). Over the next five years the VAX systems displaced most of the IBM systems through a process of moderately fast evolution. The deciding factors for upper management were: significantly better price-performance advantages along with lower maintenance costs. The acquisition cost of a VAX was about the same as a few years of maintenance on an IBM enterprise system in the mid 1980s. As content management and distribution become more visible problems in large enterprises the price performance issues will be noticed by upper management. See DownSouth's post 6677. The transition to NetApp could take several years but it seems a likely outcome to me. Thus I support the LTBH approach to NetApp. Regards, Hal