Zerowait Corporation

Opening the door to NetApp savings:

A lot of NetApp’s customers call us and complain about NetApp prices for service, support and upgrades. After they call us, they explain their needs and requirements and we provide them with an affordable alternative to NetApp’s high prices. When customers have 10, 20 or 30 NetApp filers the savings with our service and support policies can amount to several thousand dollars.

In addition to the real savings that these customers receive on their NetApp filer support, they also receive our services that illustrate how they can more efficiently allocate their NetApp storage resources. NetApp’s sales folks are in business to sell you more storage, not to show you how to efficiently use your current storage. At Zerowait, our focus is on helping customers capture cost savings hidden in the NetApp infrastructure.

If storage efficiency is important to your organization, give us a call. We look forward to speaking with you.

What is your total cost of storage?

Do you consider your overhead costs when you look at your storage costs? How much does it cost for your non critical storage to be on your most expensive storage assets? This graph shows the weighted cost of storage for a single NetApp 840 filer given the cost parameters we were provided with. What is interesting is the cost of MP3 storage on this corporate asset. I wonder if the stockholders know how much it costs to store MP3’s on their NetApp storage? Maybe they don’t care?

Zerowait can help you discover your total cost of storage.

What does 4 hour support mean to you? What does it mean to your vendor?

This should be such a simple answer to get, and yet in talking to customers who have purchased 4 hour support from NetApp there seems to be quite a few different interpretations.

When does the clock start ticking on the 4 hour delivery? Does it start when your autosupport of a problem goes out to NetApp? Does it start when you call NetApp to open a trouble ticket? Does it start when NetApp confirms with you a problem? I have heard all of these answers.

Does NetApp’s 4 hour support mean a NetApp engineer will deliver and install the replacement parts and get your system up and serving data again within 4 hours or just show up in 4 hours?
Some customers have told us that 24/7 & 365 days a year they will have a NetApp engineer at customer site and putting in the parts to get them running again within 4 hours. Other folks have told me that they have some delivery guy show up and drop off parts. And yet a few other folks have told me that their NetApp 4 hour support is only M-F 8AM -5PM. Outside those hours the parts will be delivered Next Business Day.

There seems to be some confusion amongst NetApp’s customers about what 4 hour support means, but there is no confusion about the cost of the 4 hour support from NetApp. Universally we hear that is is very expensive. Zerowait currently offers Next Business Day parts replacement and also a replace to an OnSite spares kit program. This provides our customers with immediate access to their critical spares requirements. Additionally we are working on our domestic parts depot program now, and it should be rolled out in the next few months. If you have thoughts on what the best practices are for a 4 hours support program please write us and let us know what interests you the most.

Zerowait Service and Support policies.

Over the last few years our service & support business has been growing very consistently. You can view our latest press release here.

About 90% of our Zerowait Parts Assurance (ZPA) policies are in the contiguous 48 states. But we also are supporting customers overseas in
Europe, Asia and South America. At a recent conference, several European and Asian companies asked if they could partner with us for their regions. And we are currently reviewing their proposals. We are also working diligently on our domestic network of 4 hour or less parts depots.

We understand that our customers need service and support policies that fit their budget and their unique requirements. Not all customers fit into a stovepipe service solution, so we customize our support options to their needs. Whether our customer requires a single site supported or multiple sites and assistance managing their NetApp storage infrastructure our engineers, and support folks can help them.

If you are looking for an affordable and high availability service and support solution for your NetApp requirements, please give us a call. You will be glad you did.

Storage Pollution

Watching how clouds flow through the Appalachian mountain valleys the other day on the way back from Chicago reminded me of some of the charts and graphs I have see of how available storage works it way through an organization. Storage is viewed almost like air in many organizations. End users don’t recognize that there are costs involved with using storage.

Management costs, operational costs, migration costs, and on and on. But like air, the individual does not see his cost of polluting the environment. Society and government agencies regulate air pollution, but only storage managers can slow the growth of wasteful storage within the organization. Should we call wasted storage usage storage pollution?

Zerowait is working with some of our larger customers on software to help them manage storage pollution by looking at the costs of storage by user, extension and client. If you are interested in learning more about controlling your storage costs, please give us a call

NEW ZEROWAIT PRESS RELEASE

Ice over Altoona!

The forecast was for a clear day. But over Altoona, PA I was in the clouds and light rain at 5000 feet. I was watching my thermometer drop toward freezing, and before you knew it, I had accumulated a coating of rime ice. I called Pittsburgh approach & told them I was accumulating ice, I asked if I could climb out of the clouds. they gave me the ok and at 6500 I broke out. The ice did not sublimate until I reached Harrisburg, PA. I landed about 30 minutes later without any problems.

Our storage customers often run into unforecasted conditions with their storage hardware. Sometime it is because a new application takes up more storage then anticipated, sometimes it is a configuration issue. But when they call us for engineering help, our prime concern is to make certain that we can solve our customers problem quickly and then to stabilize their NetApp storage environment, and then we look at how to improve their storage to avoid the situation in the future.

Sometimes the forecast is wrong, but as long as you have an alternative solution, and a reliable ally you can make it through and land safely. This is true in computer storage and flying. This weekend the folks at the FAA’s Pittsburgh facility were able to help me through, and I sure appreciated their help!

Maybe it is time to update?

How do you determine when it is time to replace your equipment? Is it a capacity decision, a financial decision or a reliability decision? Do you review all of your upgrade options or just trust that your chosen storage vendor?

Since your storage solution has to last 5 to 7 years it pays to take a long term veiw of your service , support and upgrade costs. Also remember that your storage vendor contract is negotiable, you have to ask for them to put license transferability in the license agreement and also you should make certain to put a not on you PO mentioning that you would like to have the ability to use third party support as an option in the future.

Stop, don’t walk, you can’t do that!

Over the last few years I have been given free advice on our business many times. Typically, it involves what we can’t do for this reason or that. We were told by the sales folks at NetApp when we were resellers for them that there was no such thing as a transferable software license from them. We learned that that was not true, NetApp grants transferable licenses to those that ask for them. Zerowait sells transferable licensed filers all of the time now. It makes sense for customers and it makes sense for the organization that is selling their older filer to maximize their return on investment. Having a transferable license for your NetApp equipment is a good idea, you should ask for one from you NetApp sales person and also write “transferable licenses required” on your Purchase Order when you buy your new NetApp equipment.

Zerowait was also told that it was impossible to build a business as a third party service and support organization specializing in NetApp products. We were told it was too much of a Niche product and that no big companies would buy third party support from a small company like ours. Well, that also was not true, just look at our customer page on the web. I think you will agree that we have built a pretty substantial customer base.

So, when you are told by your NetApp sales person that you can’t buy transferable licensed filers, give us a call or send us an email and we will send you a sample of NetApp’s license transfer documents. If your NetApp sales person tells you that you can’t get service, support, parts and upgrades from Zerowait just ask him why not? And if you just want to get a better price from NetApp, show them a quote from Zerowait.

Zerowait provides high availability service, support and upgrades for your NetApp equipment.

I’m in Chicago for a conference and also visiting with some customers. Lefthand Networks has sold their equipment into at least two of NetApp’s accounts in town. Both accounts seem very happy with the price point and performance. Jon Toigo has told me to watch these guys. Perhaps NetApp should also?

External Combustion – 100 years ago it was high tech

Times change, and so does technology. Sometimes things improve but often there are unintended consequences. Recently a number of our customers have been asking them to help them upgrade their NetApp firmware. One of our first steps is to try to get an understanding as to what the company does and how it uses its filers. The reason we try to ascertain this is that some of NetApp’s firmware releases have a lot of bugs. So while the upgrade may fix one problem it might introduce two or three new ones. Since we maintain so many NetApp filers we have the knowledge to help you navigate the upgrade minefield and avoid some of the nasty surprises.

There are a lot of NetApp customers still running version 5.3 of ontap in NFS only shops on their F760’s without a bit of trouble. They have no reason to upgrade, their systems are stable, and they are happy with their systems as they are. These customers rely on Zerowait for our parts replacement services and our technical support. Although their reasons may vary a little, the main reason that Zerowait continues to add service and support customers is that our support is so much more affordable then NetApp’s.

At our warehouses, we keep a tremendous stock of legacy NetApp equipment. If you are looking for an affordable alternative to NetApp for parts, service, support or upgrades I hope you will give us call and perhaps join the Zerowait family of satisfied customers.