A recent study by The Info Pro research firm suggests that some seismic shifts are underway. Is EMC losing top-of-mind recognition in the data center? Are mid-size enterprises more likely to embrace new technology?
In an article in Data Storage Connection, TIP talks about some of its findings from a series of interviews with a couple of hundred data center denizens. TIP runs the series about every 6 months. About 150 were F1000 types and another 85 were mid-size enterprise.
Naturally, the article and the accompanying slide presentation are designed to sell the report, but it is worth watching for marketing mavens. They focus on what people consider “exciting” technologies.
Random comments
In no particular order:
- EMC’s unaided top-of-mind seems to be on a steady downward slide. One might have thought the hype around VMware would have changed that. Of course the stock market seems to forgotten that too.
- Newbies 3Par, Data Domain, F5, Compellent, and Isilon are trending up.
- Biggest surprise: HP is in the weeds behind behind Data Domain, Sun and F5.
The StorageMojo take
EMC may be paying the price for all of its not-terribly-storage-related acquisitions like RSA and VMware. Or maybe its aging architectures are taking their toll. Whatever it is, the upcoming Hulk/Maui launch is a chance to burnish the corporate image. But not too brightly since the v1 software will be weak.
HP is clearly in trouble. I’m biased – I shipped the very first StorageWorks product back around ’91 – but for an organization that used to have bright and creative developers and good marketing, their top-of-mind stinks. Time to shake up HP storage marketing: there’s an art to marketing to and through a large direct sales force. Megatons of brochures don’t sell products – people do.
The newbies seem to be doing well in mid-size enterprises where they can more easily migrate to a new vendor. But while the glass house grinds slowly, entrenched vendors can be displaced. Time to rethink the value proposition.
Comments welcome, of course.
Yes, I’m lazy and not perusing the above link. So my question is… where are they seeing isilon uptake? From my understanding of the platform, it’s horrible for 99% of the workloads out there. Great for streaming large files, but that’s about it. Maybe I’ve been misinformed?
Somehow I suspect this research pre-dates last week’s announcements.
Granted, if *I* ran The Info Pro, I’d probably want to get this “bad” news out as quickly as possible, given the surprise announcement from the Evil Machine Company last week. Especially since everyone knows there are at least a couple more announcements still to come.
The wise may want to hold on to their money until TIP completes its next round of surveys.
with the caveat that i am not a big EMC fan, this does not surprise me. EMC has a history of arrogance and narrow product focus (most of their own hardware requires different software). I once sat in on a technical briefing that was set up by my old employer, and for 3.5 hours the only thing i walked away with is that 1) EMC has a lot of money and 2) they buy companies. now dont get me wrong, i understand that big companies get this way through the buying and selling assets, but when i take time away from my customers for a technical briefing, i dont want to hear what the bean counters are up to.
so i am glad to hear that EMC is looking at a bloody nose.
It seems the fundamental issues for HP and EMC may have similarities. EMC’s slide in maintaining ‘top of mind’ implies a loss of creativity and innovation to solve tangible customer problems directly related to storage. In essence a loss of focus.
As for HP, for years they have suffered with problems marketing storage. Perhaps complacency has set in and marketing needs to be shaken up. A number of talented storage people have cycled through the HP Storage marketing organization. David Scott (CEO 3PAR), Mark Lewis (Sr. VP & GM @EMC) to name a few. Both had very short stints.
Which begs the question, aside from the opportunity you went to, why leave so quickly? Could the challenge of marketing storage from within such a large corporate environment be so full of red-tape it is impossible to truly be creative? Only they know.
Regardless though, HP would be well advised to do a deep dive on why this seems to be a perpetual problem.
The Storage Industry is not immune to the same “lack of customer focus” and inability to deliver this, if they cared what it was, as GM (still trying to morph into a viable entity), the old AT&T and others — your favorite here.
One of the reasons GM can’t morph, and the new AT&T will be no more successful than the old AT&T, is the historic gutting of people with talent and the ability to get the job done. Cutting costs does not grow a business. It satisfies stockholders and the bonus/incentive program.
This is the main reason most acquisitions of new technology never do anything for the purchaser. They don’t have the talent and ability left internally to do anything with the acquisition. If they did they would have done it already.
From a mailing list I am on…
This writer wanted the “turbo Hayabusa” of Storage…
“I believe this is the equivalent of a turbo Hayabusa.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/storage/640gb-flash-hard-drive-for-a-paltry-19000-308398.php”
[rdpcomment]
This is the typical mentality. Everything is solved by infinite horsepower.
Disk spinning at “light speed” would solve all problems. In
acceleration this is true.
In the number of ad hoc (unstructured) Information space operations you can complete in a finite time, this is not true.
It might be true if all operations were done in IDC “performance optimized†(think SAS) storage. All “light speed” operation bets are off if Information has to be retrieved from “capacity optimized†(think SATA) storage or worse (tape? – shudder).
[Storage Design of the Future]
“[comment1]
> Also, if you want a “turbo Hayabusa” then you should go with a hardware
> raid solution. Raid0. You’d need multiple disks to make a RAID 0
> solution work. Two disks at least.
[comment2]
For a Turbo Hayabusa, you’d need a lot more disks than that. You’ll
need 4Gb FCSW SAN networking with wire-speed switches, large numbers
of FC connected 15KRPM SASI disks, and a few terabytes of SSD to act
as a high-speed cache.”
[rdpcomment]
Do the design above with all Flash…
[rdpcomment]
Have you thought how limiting the current designs of “large” Flash drives are?
They are “plug replacements” for rotating rust.
They don’t have to be. If the Speed Limit of the Information Universe
in the I/O area was re-thought you might see several orders of
magnitude increase in throughput. I believe this will be the next wave
once the “rotating rust plug replacement” phase passes.
[Smart Oven]
Have you any knowledge of the “Smart Ovens” that are out now?
How about “Smart Washing Machines”?
[Smart Storage]
Isn’t it about time for “Smart Storage” to make an appearance?
This should have been first.
I want “Smart Storage” for the same reasons people want “Smart Ovens”.
They deliver the desired results in half the time with little or no heat.
It took the introduction of Japanese cars to bury Detroit and the V-8.
Maybe Flash will be the thing for Storage.
Smart Storage is the Future. For commodity prices.
The customer landscape has changed.