“Your theory is crazy, but it’s not crazy enough to be true.”
— Niels Bohr
Landing a plane on a pick up truck might seem like a crazy idea. It certainly takes an enormous amount of skill and confidence for both the pilot and the truck driver. And yet, I have seen this done dozens of times without any serious incidents. Of course, it is only done at air shows, under controlled circumstances with little or no wind. It takes a lot of planning and control to do it right in front of a crowd.
When you install your new storage solution or upgrade your storage software do you try it first in a controlled environment? Do you test it under load in real circumstances, or do you just trust your vendors’ tests and their word that everything will work fine right off the bat. Often Enterprise Storage solutions are sold based only on marketing promises and vendor test results. How does the equipment work in your environment? Unlike the air show act of landing a plane on a Pick up truck, today’s storage managers are being asked to install equipment that has to work every time but has never been tested under load in their environment. The short term consequences can often be disastrous to a company that depends on data availability. An on line company that can’t process credit cards or process orders because their data is unavailable is closed until things can be made to work again.
The aerobatic act of landing an airplane on a truck takes practice and a knowledge of the weather conditions. It can’t be done in a high crosswind. Does your transition plan take your network conditions into account? If you are installing the storage equipment, can you rely on your network folks to provision the switches correctly. What is your back out plan?
Zerowait can help you answer your questions and help you plan for a successful NetApp installation. We have installed dozens of NetApp filers in a tremendous variety of conditions. We can help you bring your storage project in for a soft landing within a tight budget.