Zerowait Corporation

Recently, we have gotten a slew of calls from customers who are startled by the cost of
upgrading to a NetApp 940 or 960 from an F840. Most of the customers I talk too simply want to add storage to their units, but NetApp is trying to force them to upgrade. We reccomend the simple drive swap alternative. If you have 36GB or 72 GB drives why not just upgrade those drives to 144GB drives? Zerowait will provide a trade in value on the 36’s and provide you with 144’s at a price point that keeps you well within your budget. More storage and a lower price point !

Talking about budgets, I was talking to a “C” level fellow the other day who was complaining that if he bought the new NetApp equipment he would have to reduce his staff levels because the licenses were so expensive. I suggested that he simply use transferable licensed equipment and then he could maintain his staff and increase his storage.

Transferable licensed NetApp filers are available from Zerowait and we can ship them right away. So you can maintain your service levels if you purchase your storage wisely. Now that is
Storage Resource Management (SRM)!

Many of us have heard the term “5 Nines” in reference to reliability. But do we really know what that means? I found an old article, from 2002, that explains the term and what it really means. 5 Nines is less than 5 minutes 15 seconds of down time per year!

It is interesting to note that the nations electrical grid has an average of 8 hours down time per year, which is 99.9% availability, or 3 Nines. The Zerowait engineers tell me that their average response time to an emergency outage call is 15 to 20 minutes (usually much less), which is actually better than 99.99%, or 4 nines.

How reliable is your network and can Zerowait make it better? Give the Zerowait engineers a call, they are more reliable than your electric service and can help you make your network more reliable as well!

Could it be that someone is finally getting it right? It looks as if Sun is going to make it easier to get a legal copy Solaris for your used system. Here is a link to an article I found at Processor.com.

All we need to do now is convince NetApp how good this type of policy is for everyone involved!

Until then, Zerowait can still provide you with used NetApp, complete with transferable software licenses and support. Call Zerowait for details!

Yesterday I mentioned something about calling the Zerowait engineers to talk about your IT needs. Sometimes it is easy to asses your needs. When you go out shopping for a car, you know if you have 4 kids to take to school, or if you will be entering the next Nascar race. It’s usually pretty easy to decide if you need a mini-van or a Mini Cooper.

Other things are not quite as easy to figure out. Do you need a complete multi vitamin, or just calcium and zinc? This is not as easy to decide because we are not all very educated in the dietary needs of the human body, so the answers aren’t nearly as obvious.

IT equipment is kind of like that. We aren’t all fully educated in the ins and outs of different quad cards, fiber vs. optical, to cluster or not. It’s usually pretty obvious what and how much you need to store and how you are going to use it. The big question is how to accomplish your goals in the most cost efficient way, without compromising speed, usability, and security.

This is where the help of Zerowait’s highly educated and well experienced engineers can be a great asset to you and your company. Based on the information that you provide, the Zerowait engineers can help decide the best equipment for your needs. They can evaluate your current setup, and then suggest setting changes or minor upgrades that will improve current performance, or they can help you develop a new system to handle current and future needs. Either way you can be sure that they are going to give you the best advice for your needs.

Zerowait’s goal is to earn your trust and keep you as a happy customer for years to come!

I was out last night shopping for a new pair of good old work sneakers. I’m sure you have all done this in the last year or so. As I was meandering up and down the numerous isles of tennis shoes, walking shoes, and running shoes, I came to a realization. Besides the fact that they have more names for sneakers than the Eskimos have for snow or that they now have a specific shoe for everything from running to sleeping, I realize that a good old comfortable pair of Converse, Chuck Taylors, the shoes I always just called sneakers, will do everything I need them to do.

Why do I mention this? Well, like the good old Converse, Chuck Taylors, sometimes a good old NetApp F760 will do everything you need it to do. Why be forced to spend the big bucks on NetApps latest and greatest product when all you need is an F760. NetApp won’t sell you an F760, or support one you already own, but thanks to Zerowait, you can still buy and support the equipment that meets your specific needs.

I’m sure professional runners and semi-pro walkers need special shoes, but do I need a $200 pair of gardening shoes and a pair of $150 walking shoes, when a $30 dollar pair of sneakers will work just fine? You may need more than an F760, or maybe not, so call Zerowait, to talk to the Zerowait engineers about your needs. Zerowait has what you need at a price that you can afford!

Today I offer some technical information for anyone operating NetApp filers. I was talking with July Linett about NetApp software and the way they are classified. July offered this information:

These are the classifications used by NTAP for their software releases.

* Release Candidate (RC): An initial posting of the release on the NetApp on the Web (NOW) site Intended for customers to start validating the release before rolling it into mission-critical environments.

* General Availability (GA): Has key qualifications completed that address compatibility with other key products Includes fixes for critical bugs found in the RC releases.

* General Deployment (GD): A field-proven release based on adoption and quality metrics. Has all certifications completed.

What does all this mean to you? If you are running a version labeled RC, you better have a good reason, because it is not field tested and proven. You may absolutely need a certain feature that is not available anywhere else, but you are taking a chance. GA is ok, you may need it to fix a particular bug that you experienced. If you want to be certain that you are safe, GD is the best, most of the known bugs are worked out. However, GD might not have all the features you need. If you want to know the ins and outs of the software you are running, give Zerowait a call. The Zerowait engineers can give you valuable advice about what software you should be running.

Greetings from Interop Las Vegas. The conference is going pretty well, very busy. I just got off my panel discussion and I think it was rather interesting. We got some very interesting questions from the attendees. There seems to be a lot of concern that storage systems are not very interoperable. Randy Chalfont of Storagetek mentioned that vendor’s like to ‘lock in customers’ for the long term with proprietary hardware, maybe some of the storage vendores would like the conference name changed to anti- interop? Anti-op the evil twin of Interop?

I received a lot of questions about our NetApp upgrades, service and support over the last couple of days. And between conference sessions a lot of folks have asked me to explain the transferable license issues to them for their NetApp equipment.

There are quite a few members of the Zerowait family of customers here, I am having dinner with a couple tonight.

By now I’m sure you have seen the “Deals of the week” page on the Zerowait web site. Maybe you don’t need a Network Appliance F840C NFS Cluster. Maybe since NetApp put an end to support on your equipment ,all you need is hardware support on your system. Could you need a card or a power supply or even a couple of drives? What ever you need, call Zerowait. It may not be the deal of the week, but you’ll find it is quite a deal.

I learned, more than a few years ago, that Zerowait is a good friend to have.

Good Monday to you! How many of you will be attending the Data Management & Compliance Summit at Networld+Interop in Las Vegas, Nevada this week? I hope you all get a chance to go, I expect that it will be interesting and informative. Among the list of talented speakers is Zerowait’s own Mike Linett!
If you gat a chance to make it to Vegas this week we hope you stop in to hear what Mike has to say. Also, mike still has some time free (it’s best to keep him away from the slots), if you would like to get together with him and learn more about how Zerowait can help you with your equipment and support needs, give Zerowait a call. Mike would be happy to meet you and hear about your specific needs.

Happy Friday to everyone! While I was off repairing my health, I received an email from respected information technology consultant and author, Jon William Toigo. Jon writes:

Hey Cap:

JWT

Well Jon, I can tell you that Mike Linett frequently talks about the same issues. That’s why Zerowait has made it their mission to provide support for all NetApp equipment, even after it falls off NetApp’s support list. Through my relationship with Zerowait, I am finding that there are a large number of NetApp users out there who are beginning to see this too. Zerowait gets more calls every week from frustrated NetApp users who need support for the equipment no longer supported by NetApp. They are very happy to find someone as knowledgeable as Zerowait, willing to provide this missing support.

Anyone else who would like to add to this or any other discussion, please feel free to use the comments link to the right and send me an email. Have a great weekend!