Zerowait Corporation

How many technology companies have been able to manage four big projects at once successfully?

Currently it looks like NetApp is trying to manage two operating systems, a sales distribution relationship with IBM, the integration of the Decru security business with its core storage business, and storage virtualization. It might be that they can run two or three but I see serious trouble ahead for NetApp.

In the operating systems they have been telling us for years that they were going to be able to integrate their Ontap and the Spinnaker stuff, but that seems to have been a dream as can be seen by NetApp’s Steve Gomo’s statements.
Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Semiconductor and Systems Conference in Dana Point, California, this week, NetApp CFO Steve Gomo promised that it will be a long time before GX, which is aimed at data intensive applications such as seismic research, converges with 7G. “It could take years,” he said, adding that, over time, the two products will eventually share more and more features.

The Distribution agreement with IBM is running into trouble at the street level where savvy customers are playing the sales reps against each other, and the sales reps are selling what they can get the highest commissions on.
How is the IBM/NetApp deal working out? I hear it’s going nowhere. — B.P., San Jose.

The integration of Decru is taking NetApp’s best Sales Engineers and Sales reps as they move to a higher margin product, as is illustrated clearly b the migration of sales reps and SE’s in NetApp’s DC office for Decru

And finally there is the whole concept of integrating virtualization of name space into NetApp’s products, which Hu Yoshida of HDS seems to think is going to be impossible with a PC based architecture.

NetApp should pick one or two initiatives to work on and do it well.

At Zerowait we specialize in providing an affordable alternative to NetApp’s high priced Service, Support, Parts and Upgrades.

How is the NetApp & IBM deal working out?

According to Steve Duplessie – Everything is going to be just fine.

But looking at the wonderful relationship that NetApp had with Dell’s rebranding of the F700 series and the lovefest that ensued after the Gfilers that came from NETAPP & HDS combined efforts, I would say that NetApp is not one to play well with others. I am certain IBM knows this history.

It might be a great opportunity to get better prices on your NetApp hardware purchases though. Now you have two places to go to get exactly the same parts, perfromance and service contracts. And since NetApp’s sales folks get a commission they might be very willing to let IBM’s sales folks do their missionary sales work and then come in and take the ensuing deals. This has been the practice with NetApp’s sales force and their channel – Let the local channel develop the account and then make it a house account for NetApp’s direct sales force. It makes for a better margin.

In the past few weeks, Zerowait has gotten calls from sales reps asking what we would pay them for older NETAPP equipment they would like to replace in their accounts, so it seems that some brand replacement is happening. But maybe it does not matter to NetApp, since if IBM replaces older NetApp Models with rebranded models, NetApp is still selling more boxes.

It might be that IBM’s management is taking a strategic approach, and they are learning all they can from NetApp. Once they have learned the marketplace they can set up a team in Bangalore to make a better Filer Head than NetApp does. Perhaps they can start with something like a FreeBSD kernel, buy cards from Qlogic & INTEL and ask NEC to make their head units.

Going to Boston

Next week I have to travel to Boston to meet with several customers about their NetApp hardware support. I always like going to Boston, because our customers in the area are all so close together that I can get to see everyone by using their subways. Several of our Boston and Cambridge customers know each other and we have gotten together at the Cambridge brewery a number of times. It looks like we might be doing that again on Tuesday night of next week. If you would like to join us just drop us an email.

Can NetApp and Kazeon Verify their claims?

“Our collaboration with NetApp offers the ultimate solution for enterprises looking to gain complete visibility and instant recovery of online backup data,” said Michael Marchi, VP of Solution Marketing at Kazeon. “By quickly delivering this deep integration and bringing SnapSearch and Recovery software to market, we’re demonstrating that our partnership with NetApp is bringing immediate value and measurable benefits to our customers.”

“NetApp is focused on bringing customers solutions that reduce the complexity and cost of comprehensive enterprise data protection,” said Patrick Rogers, VP of Products and Partners at Network Appliance. “Today we are providing customers with improved visibility and rapid data recovery.”

Perhaps Patrick Rogers and Michael Marchi can provide the analysts and user community with a way to test these claims? I understand that Jon Toigo’s test lab can do comprehensive performance and validation tests. What are the measurable benefits, and how does their new solution reduce complexity?

More Bad Press for NetApp

“It was a dead product once NetApp got hold of it, and we knew that,” he said. But he was unprepared for NetApp’s lack of support for the product, which was still under maintenance and the company’s disregard for the problems he encountered using the technology.

Many customers come to Zerowait for affordable service and support for their unsupported NetApp Filers . We are supporting more and more filers every week. Give us a call if you love your NetApp Filer but are a little dismayed by their service & support pricing.

Thanks to you our Business continues to grow.

We moved into our building on Haines Street in Newark, DE 8 years ago and it looks like we are outgrowing the building now. As we need more office space and warehouse space. We have been looking around town for another building recently, but finding a building that has the combination of power requirements, connectivity, loading docks and convenience to the downtown area is proving difficult. As Newark is a University town there is the added problem that there is always a shortage of office space and parking.

The upside of being in Newark is that it is a vibrant place with lots of places for food and a beer. And of course being from the area, we know a lot of folks in town. And that is nice.

Over the weekend we had to work some overtime to meet the shipping requirements of one of the midwestern states IT departments. They required a F840 and some storage shelves for a major storage upgrade. We will be shipping the equipment out today. Many state agencies have figured out that purchasing transferable licensed NetApp equipment is a great way to get high performance while saving the taxpayer’s money.

Currently, Zerowait has F840, FAS940, F880 and many other transferable licensed filers in stock and ready to be configured for your requirements.

Our Backups are Failing – Shoot the Messenger
– hardware and software vendor response – CYA

On Thursday afternoon I received an email requesting my presence on a conference call from a company with a back up issue. I had not heard of the company before, and I went to our engineering folks and asked if they had spoken to them. They were in the dark as much as I was. At 6:00 PM I called into the conference call and announced who I was and then just started listening. After a few minutes an engineer started reviewing his back up problem. He apologized for his accent and he outlined his infrastructure which includes a Brocade switch, NetApp R200, Veritas back up and some Linux boxes. After a few minutes the NetApp SE called in and introduced himself. And the engineer asked him some questions. It seems that Symantec and NetApp will not provide a clear certain answer as to whether his solution will work. The NetApp Engineer kept asking for the case number and the ticket number, but would make no promises as to whether he could solve their problem. His suggestion was that the customer purchase snapdrive to simplify their SAN – because no one understands SANS. The Symantec guy said that he did not have the authority to certify the solution and the engineer was saying that after 8 months he still did not have a working backup solution and their deadline was two weeks away. They wanted an engineer from NetApp on site next week to solve their problems.

The Symantec guy and the NetApp guy went quiet. So I figured it was my turn to speak. I mentioned that there was a lot of corporate CYA going on in this conference call and the issue had to be among the switch packet size, R200 drive incompatibilities, or firmware problems with their backup software. The NetApp SE wanted to know who I was. So I told them I was with Zerowait – the largest independent third party NetApp support organization. A lot of folks started asking questions and wanted to know how I got invited to the conference call so I told them which attendee I got the email from.

Boy things got interesting then, they very impolitely told me to get off their conference call. I guess Shoot the messenger was their solution. It is a pity too. I am pretty certain we could solve their problem. It sounded like a problem we ran into which was eerily similar recently, and buying more NetApp software is not going to solve the problem.

Recently, I was visiting a NetApp customer with over 50 F760’s which they would like us to support. As NetApp cancels their support options for their customers with the F760 model of equipment we are expanding our service and support programs for these customers. The F760 is probably the most reliable equipment that NetApp ever made. And with proper maintenance it will last for many years more.

Please keep Zerowait in mind if you are looking for affordable service and supprot for your NetApp 700 seriesa and 800 series filers.

NetApp finally Publishes Verifiable results!
Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with anything technical or related to their Filers

Of course their test data is still held hostage and unverifiable.