Fujitsu, NetApp to drop it like it's Vblock: Year 8 is not 2000-and-late

EMC introduced its converged infrastructure Vblock concept, integrating Cisco servers and networking, and EMC storage, in a rack system, in November 2009. Now, eight years later, Fujitsu and NetApp are getting into the idea with NFLEX. The Vblock idea was to converge server, storage and networking infrastructure components for …

[Anonymous Coward]

Except that the Vblock, and converged infrastructure in general, was not invented by EMC but by Cisco. Cisco was shortsighted and got hosed by some very clever contract language but that doesn't change the fact that EMC knew nothing about servers or networks; the push for Arcadia came from Cisco's global customers and EMC hopped on.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure where you're getting your info...EMC was a major investor in Cisco UCS development, as it was designed with the initial intent of Vblock. From the get go, EMC was the majority owner of Arcadia, and EMC sales drove 99% of all Vblock sales.

But I digress...Fujitsu???

[Skeptical Optimist]

Whatever you're drinking, you should stop... as it clearly is affecting you big time. What a bunch of crap...

[Anonymous Coward]

Care to elaborate why?

[Anonymous Coward]

EMC owned 40% of Arcadia/VCE as did Cisco. Intel and Vmware each owned 10%. EMC had a clause in the contract which allowed them to buy the other partners' shares at the five year mark. Cisco still owns 10% of VCE. Intel is no longer in, not sure about Vmware.

EMC never invested in UCS development. That's a completely ridiculous statement.

[baspax]

EMC did not contribute to California. What, pray tell, would they contribute???

The Vblock became a product much much later. Acadia was a post sales delivery model for Cisco and EMC.

I worked for all three companies (not at the same time obviously) around that time.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fudgeitso make servers?! Who knew...

[ROIdude]

VP Client Strategy Nutanix

Agree with Anonymous Coward - EMC had nothing to do with the invention of UCS. In fact, Cisco originally proposed the concept to both HP and IBM - hoping they would build it (with Cisco's assistance). The UCS did, however, become the compute platform not only for vBlock, but also FlexPod, Hitachi UPS & Nimble SmartStack. http://bythebell.com/2016/08/the-roi-of-nutanix-enterprise-cloud-on-cisco-ucs.html

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Come on Reg

Couple of corrections.

1) It was called Acadia not Arcadia

2) Yes EMC contributed to the UCS design. It was called project California

3) Why someone would try to replicate VCE at this point in history is a mystery. That stuff is like white shoes after labor day. Over.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Come on Reg

NetApp seems to be attached to the 10 year old converged concept. It makes sense, from NetApp's perspective, as moving to hypercoverged, and certainly moving to public cloud, really doesn't require NetApp. OnTap would be in the way. C mode never took off so they would just be selling filers, stand alone filers, which do not horizontally scale well and have a bunch of expensive software which has long since been duplicated in less costly, more scalable options. NetApp... much like EMC, really only has a place if you assume that there is a need for a storage sub system, old school subsystem. Everyone has taken, or at least believes, Google's approach of a massively scaled file system with server storage is the way to go... but not so cool if you run strategy at NetApp.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Come on Reg

There is some much FUD in one paragraph I'm not sure where to start. Just for those not aware the converged market is still a growing market worldwide, with the Cisco/NetApp share of the growth far exceeding everyone at over 26% YoY according to IDC. C-Mode never really took off? IDC has NetApp's revenues up at over 16% YoY compared to Dell/EMC at -22% and HPE at -9.2%. Have you seen NetApp's stock price? Up over 100% since the beginning of 2016, and largely due to massive investments in ONTAP's flash, cloud, and bare metal capabilities. Oh yeah, they also have SolidFire and a hyper-converged product as well in-case one size doesn't fit all.

[mrvvg]

For the ignorant, vShape has been around for over four years with Brocade switching -- the NFLEX is a reframing of the vShape with Extreme Networks switches - which are essentially rebranded Brocade datacenter switches.

Customers buy these solutions because they want a single point of support and don't want to have to try and design/build one of these from scratch. Not everybody who buys computing solutions reads the drivel posted by anonymous cowards.

Fujitsu hold numerous world records for performance and low power consumption and they are not made in a cloning factory in China. In the interests of disclosure, I work at Fujitsu and am proud to so do.

As usual, commentards who have nothing productive to contribute should sit on their hands.

[baspax]

Not sure why you were down voted, added an up vote!

Absolutely true, Fujitsu servers have been for decades leaders in performance. So much so that other vendors (Cisco, HPE, and Siemens if I am not mistaken) actually OEM Fujitsu servers for their ultra high-end servers (SAP HANA and Oracle).

You are absolutely right, customers buy these designs for streamlining delivery (assembled in factory or distribution), managed lifecycle, validation and integration of firmwares and patches, and consolidated support.

Look buddy, most folks here operate SMB or commercial environments and are unaware of the challenges in a global enterprise account. Once faced with the challenge of having to manage 3,000 or more blades with 50,000 apps, many would start to appreciate having a streamlined service.