Zerowait Corporation

Sometimes two technologies converge and bring a whole new wrinkle to our business. 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. The next article I read did surprise me. This article says that Hitachi is coming out with 1 TB disk drives in 2007. Since most filers are sold with about 1 TB of storage, it seems like Hitachi might have a disruptive technology on its drawing board, how will this development effect the low end of NetApp’s product line? Strategic planning in the enterprise storage world will change radically when storage disk capacity quadruples in 2 years.

Who are your friends? Anyone can tell you what you want to hear, but your friends will also tell you what you don’t want to hear.

Today, I am going to be your friend. I happen to know that there are still a large number of you still running systems with 18GB and 36GB drives. Most know that NetApp doesn’t make those anymore. A smart person may think that there won’t be a big demand for older smaller drives, so there will be plenty available for a long time. So they will hold on to those systems and be able to replace those drives, cheap, for a long time. An even smarter person will realize there are a lot of smart people out there holding on to those systems and the demand for a finite quantity of drives may drive the price up or even deplete the supply.

What am I trying to say? If you have one of these systems, and you don’t have the need to upgrade, you might want to start picking up some spare drives. Zerowait has them, but even Zerowait is beginning to have a hard time finding more out there. You may even want to pick up ZPA hardware support from Zerowait. Then you wont have to find the drives, Zerowait would find them for you!

Today I am writing from Nassau. It’s almost time to head back home, so I will be brief yet again.

I have mentioned more than once that Zerowait is a great place to get hardware support and used equipment, but did you know you can get world class technical support from Zerowait as well? If you are about to make a major system change or just want to learn a new technique, it is always a good idea to have an expertly trained engineer standing by, just incase things don’t quite go as planned.

Through Zerowait, you can get support by the hour as you need it, or you can pre-purchase blocks of time (at a discount) that you can use as you need them. Zerowait Engineers are a great standby asset for those times when you or your IT guys get in a little over your head. However, do them a favor and if you are planning a change to your system, give the Zerowait engineers plenty of heads up first, not only will they be ready for your call, but they will also be able to give you a couple of good tips so that you don’t need to call them in the middle of the night with an unexpected emergency.

Have a great weekend!

I got called out, last minute to do some world traveling, so I’m going to be a little brief today. Yesterday I mentioned that if you bought a used F760, Zerowait can provide hardware support for it. Did you know that Zerowait can provide you with Hardware support and technical support on all your NetApp Equipment? Well they can and at a great price! If you call them they can give you a quote – 888.811.0808 .

My point yesterday was that we should take test numbers with a grain of salt. But I added some test info, which brought me a few questions about performance. It seems that there must be a fair number of people actually looking at the FAS270. Is it right for you?

Let’s compare the F840, the F940, and the FAS270.

840 does about 11000 ops/sec
940 does about 17000 ops/sec
270 does about 07000 ops/sec
(Clustered filers yield more, but it’s short of 2.x)

Another big thing to look at is capacity, network and redundancy.

The 840 will support 6TB RAW, 12 TB in a cluster.
The 940 will support 12TB RAW, 24 TB in a cluster.
The 270 will support 6TB RAW, A clustered 270 still only supports 6TB RAW

The 840 and 940 can have multiple NICs, HBAs, SCSI, FCP cards added to them. As a network filer you could configure these boxes with redundant HBAs, create ether channel with 4 GigE ports for more throughput and redundancy, connect to redundant switches, etc.

The 270 has 2 GigE ports, one fiber channel for connecting an additional shelf, and one fiber channel that functions as an initiator for tape drives.

Is the 270 good for you? You need to answer these questions first:
What is the application?
What is the expected growth?
What are the uptime requirements?
What are the performance requirements?
How much space do you have?

The 270 is a nice compact machine for the small office or home office, but it is not really for enterprise class, business critical applications.

A nice used, inexpensive 840 (With or with out a transferable license) is probably the best choice unless you need the power and scalability of a 940.

If you really want a bargain and space is not critical, you can get a used 760. (I didn’t mention them since it is almost impossible to get one with a transferable license these days.) You can get a good-used 760 for a great price and Zerowait will even provide hardware support to keep things running smoothly.

I was talking to Mike Linett the other day and he mentioned something that was very interesting. He said that many of Zerowait’s customers have been asking about the FAS270. You see it sounds life a great deal, a fast, easy, and inexpensive system. At least that’s what NetApp’s test numbers show.

There is a major flaw in test numbers; just take a look at who is doing the testing. Wouldn’t it be in NetApp’s best interest to have test numbers that look real good? If it were my job to set up a test for the sales department, I would make sure that the configuration set up and data used be just the right stuff to make the equipment look lightning fast and flawless. That’s called making the boss happy.

Another option is to go to an independent source for testing, however, the test configuration and the files used in the testing may not be the same as what you use. So something that sounds really good may not work for you.

Now back to the FAS270, we are lead to believe that it is a fast, easy, and inexpensive system. Just take a look at these test numbers on the FAS270 and keep in mind these numbers are from Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Now compare these numbers test numbers on the F840. It looks to me like in two very similar tests, the older out dated F840 is actually faster and better than the newer FAS270.
Sounds like the 840 is what you want, but you can’t get one from NetApp anymore. So what do you do? Call Zerowait!

Ok, I have been talking a lot about Zerowait and giving you a bit of a look into Zerowait’s past; well, I have good reason for doing this. If I expect you to take the advice that Zerowait will give, contract Zerowait for your support needs, and buy Zerowait products, then I have to show you that they are the best.

I know I have already posted one link to a Jon Toigo article, but I’m going to post another, in fact over time I will probably post more. You see, Jon is definitely recognized as an expert in the field and he, as well as many others, thinks of Zerowait in the same way. He often calls Zerowait to ask their opinion or quote them for an article he is writing.

Here is a link to a 2003 Jon Toigo article, Addressing Storage Growth with Limited Budgets. Check it out then call Zerowait to help you with your company’s concerns, growth plans, and support needs.

I thought that today I would give you a little history lesson. I have been trying to slowly introduce you to the Zerowait philosophy as well as its history and general thought processes. So while searching through some archives and old links, I came across this Radware web link. I know it was written a long time ago, but it not only shows that Zerowait has been working with Network Appliance for a long time, but Zerowait, for a great many years, has been relied upon as an expert in the field.

Have a great weekend and Happy Easter!

You will often see me quote Mike Linett, President of Zerowait, or at least refer to something he said. Well, here are a couple of chances for you to meet him in person. In April, he will be attending the ASCDI SPRING CONFERENCE. This will be held on April 13th and 14th in Orlando, Florida. If you would like to schedule a personal meeting with Mike, you can do so by calling Zerowait at 888-811-0808. If you really want to make Mike happy, plan to meet him in Lakeland, FL at the Sun’n Fun fly-in.

Now if Orlando is in the wrong part of the country for you, you can also find him speaking in Las Vegas, Nevada, at Networld+Interop, The Data Management & Compliance Summit. Face it, we could all use a good excuse to go to Vegas. This will be May 3rd to May 5th. You can also call and schedule a meeting with Mike while he’s in Las Vegas by calling Zerowait, 888-811-0808.

There will also be other opportunities to catch up with Mike during his frequent trips around the country visiting with Zerowait customers, both big and small. I have him working on putting a schedule of cities and dates on the Zerowait web site to make it easier for us to know where to find him; I’ll post it when gets it there. Try to meet with him; he would love to get to know you.

Here is yet another interview with NetApp cofounder David Hitz. This one can be found at the CRN website. What is David really trying to tell us, and do we believe it? Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think, I am still looking to post some good quotes from our readers!