Zerowait Corporation

The issue of Transferable system licenses came up at the ASCDI conference because of the announcement that IBM is going to OEM equipment from NetApp. IBM seems to allow license transferability as their Licenses travel with the box. But NetApp takes a much more ‘Stalinist’ approach to license transferability. It will be interesting to find out what happens with this issue.
As most of you already know, Zerowait maintains a stock of Transferable licensed NetApp equipment, so our customers can have all of the advantages of a licensed unit and a reasonable price point.

Happy Friday to you! I am back from Denver where the snow is mostly melted and the weather was a fabulous 72 degrees. The best part is you can be sure that I am safe to act as pilot in command of a Boeing 767 or a Boeing 757 for another 6 months, four hours of nothing but simulated emergencies and the proper recoveries have proven that.

Mike Linett sent me a link to a really good “Buyer Beware” article that he thought I should share with you. I touched on this topic earlier this month when I brought up the cost of re-licensing used equipment and the alternative solutions to expensive, direct from the manufacturer, maintenance contracts.

Rigorous testing and inspection by Zerowait’s highly trained, well experienced engineers means that when you buy used equipment, at great prices, from Zerowait, you are not gambling with corporate funds, but making a sound IT investment.

Today I am at the ASCDI conference in Orlando visiting with many of our customers. It is clearly one of the best organzations that I belong to. Interestingly, Joe Marion the organization’s president, has written an opinon article for Processor magazine that is quite relevant to our business. It is definately worth reading if you have a few minutes available.

Today I head off to Denver to visit the fresh, melting, snow and a simulator, in which I will complete the test that keeps my flying career alive for another 6 months. You see, professional pilots get tested every six months to make sure they still have the skills and the knowledge to keep the 200 people sitting behind them safe. Why six months, why not a year or even two? Well, because the safety of all those people is important enough to make the tests every six months.

How about your data? How important is that? I’d say that it is probably important enough to have your system checked out by an expert every six months or more. Get a support contract with Zerowait. If you do you can have a quarterly review of your network, as well as have your equipment immediately report any issues directly to Zerowait’s expertly trained engineering staff.

Last month I wrote about an article on SearchStorage.com, in this article David Hitz was asked: “EMC is building a powerful software business through acquisitions. Will NetApp go down the same path of moving into adjacent markets to continue to grow the company?”

David’s response included: “We’re not interested at all in going EMC’s route.” I guess a lot has changed since early March 2005! In this article, just one month later, also on SearchStorage.com, we see that NetApp is now going EMC’s route by purchasing software-maker Alacritus.

Would that be a flip or a flop? Remember the link to the right for your comments, I’d love to hear from you!

Hi everyone, hope you had a great weekend! I am just getting in from a very long travel day. It was great weather, but the legs were long.

The ASCDI Spring Conference is almost started! Mike will be flying down early this week. If you plan to be in the area and have not yet made plans to meet with Mike, you are running out of time! Call Zerowait at 888.811.0808, and plan a meeting with him before he is over booked!

Mike is looking forward to meeting a bunch of our customers during the conference.

How much have you snooped around the blog site? Have you noticed off to the right there is a store link? Well you should go there and get registered. In the store you will find much of what Zerowait has to offer, including prices and how to order.

Now since you are a loyal reader of the Zerowait High Availability Blog, I will offer you this tip. After you decide what you want, don’t just order it, call Zerowait first, not only can they make sure it is really what you need, but they may also be able to offer you a discount or a new lower price. Besides it is always nice to have human to human interaction every once in a while.

Have a great weekend! I am off to St Kitts again, with stops in Myrtle Beach and Atlanta. However, before you pack your bags to come along, keep in mind, I will barely have time to get off the plane in any of these locations.

Sometimes an article can tell you something completely unrelated to the main topic. For example, this July 2001 article from SupplyChainBrain.com is about tracking and planning of inventory; however, there is a sentence in there that NetApp users may be very interested in. Almost hidden at the bottom of the first page, it says, “As a result, NetApp needs to recycle defective parts, many of which can be repaired, as quickly as possible…Yet customers are receiving new boards only between 20 and 30 percent of the time. The trick is to maximize the use of a given part before it reaches its inevitable moment of obsolescence.”

I hope the local pet store doesn’t adopt this philosophy with their gold fish, or I may be making far to many trips there to keep live fish in the kids new tank. “Better hurry up and get that one out the door it’s now healthy but getting pretty old.”

Did you know that your replacement parts from NetApp are more than likely used? Could it be that they are not just used, but rebuilt, or even an unchanged piece of another bad system?

When you get a used part from Zerowait, you can be sure that it has been thoroughly checked. Zerowait tests, inspects, and runs all used equipment once when it comes in, then once again before it leaves to go to the customer. All equipment is run, or burned in, for a reasonable amount of time, to insure that it will function to the high standards that you expect.

I have also heard rumors that Neospex will be offering new compatible drives with a three-year replacement warranty. Once in production, they will be available through their exclusive distributor, none other than Zerowait.
Now for the moral of the story. Get your compatible & used equipment from the used/remanufactured equipment specialists, Zerowait! With years of experience, Zerowait can supply you with a system and/or hardware support to keep you up and running. If new and compatible is more to your liking, Neospex, through Zerowait, may soon be able to help you with that too.

You probably saw that Mike Linett submitted a post to the Zerowait High Availability Blog. He will do that from time to time.

Having read his post, I almost passed right over a very interesting statement. Mike said: “Today, I read an article that said that HDS and NetApp were breaking their OEM agreement. This does not surprise me at all, NetApp does not play well with others.” I didn’t want anyone to miss his point, so I asked him to expand on his initial comment.

Mike then filled me in on some NetApp history. You see, some years back, NetApp had a partnership with Dell; NetApp produced 700 series units with the Dell name on it for Dell to sell. As Dell’s direct sales force started to take sales away from the NetApp sales force the OEM deal fell apart. This seems to have had other unintended consequences since the F85 and the F87 were manufactured by Dell, for NetApp, But the support went away when the relationship broke down. This is why Mike recommends that people stay away from Low end NetApp Products. Their history is to drop support on them quickly.

Now we see that the Gfiler relationship with Hitachi Data Systems Inc. has eroded. From a support perspective what does that mean for the oil and gas customers that bought these units?

Today, NetApp has announced a partnership with IBM. How long will this relationship last, and who will be NetApps next partner at the dance?
What does this mean to you? As the relationships with NetApp go away, the support for that equipment dissolves and NetApp goes on to partner with someone else, leaving the current customers standing lonely by the punch bowl.

Here is an article I found on Information Age web site. It paints a pretty grim picture of the used equipment market due to the high cost of re-licensing; with NetApp and Cisco being the main focus.

Not to worry, there are ways around the high costs. One way is to purchase used equipment that has a transferable license. Zerowait has some of those systems available now, and others coming real soon. One of these systems, coupled with a Zerowait backed ZPA policy for hardware support, can save you a lot of money over new equipment.

Now that is only one solution, and that doesn’t get you the Ebay type bargain that the article talks about. If that is what you are looking for then you have more than software licenses to worry about. Yes there are bargains on Ebay, but how much do you want to trust a 760 that has been sitting in someone’s garage since “that computer place down the road” went out of business. How do you know it works and what assurances do you have? What if you start it up and it dies 2 weeks later? Worse yet, what if you have trouble integrating it into your system and it knocks the whole network off line; who will come to your rescue? Certainly not the Ebay seller who wants to know if you need a printer to go with your “Rare, like new F760!”

OK, I know it isn’t always that bad, sometimes you can get a good deal on Ebay, but rather than take a chance, why not buy your used equipment from Zerowait? Zerowait has their highly trained engineers test all equipment that comes in. Once sold, it gets tested again before it gets sent out to you. Zerowait can provide technical assistance as well as hardware support for all used equipment.

The bottom line is, yes, it is more expensive than you think to get used equipment re-licensed through NetApp, but there are ways around those high costs. Call Zerowait and discuss the possibilities.