Posts by flashguy

Don't like droopy results, NetApp? Develop server-side SAN

Not seeing it

Much as the first commentator noted, I'm not seeing any revenue declines in the graphs. It looks like just pure seasonality. Of course straight line revenue isn't growth, and that admittedly is what the investment types want. But it seems like you're calling for a panic because of a couple of years of steady 6 billion dollar a year revenue and substantial profits. I'm not sure that makes sense.

Regardless, I would be really surprised to see Georgens lead the company into the server biz. I think they're happy to leave that to Cisco. Besides, from everything T.G. has been saying for the past year or so, it seems NetApp is convinced that data center servers are the more likely candidates to go the way of the dinosaur, with compute going to the cloud while control over their data will remain what the Enterprise really wants. At least that's my read on their direction. And who knows? Maybe they're right.

IBM needs to sell its stuttering storage biz lines

I almost feel bad....

For how silly those IBMers above now look. I take it they were auditioning for a new job with Lenovo.

Just what is Oracle going to plop out as its golden storage egg?

Re: Why does Oracle need storage

Contrary to popular belief, they never terminated their OEM partnership with NetApp. They still sell the 2500-M, though you'll probably pay a heck of a lot more for it than you would if you bought it from Dell, etc.... Which is the real problem with Oracle storage--it costs too much.

SGI gooses InfiniteStorage arrays with new NetApp controllers

Re: Lies from SGI

This is actually NetApp's successor to the base model of the "DCS3700 Power", 2 generations beyond the older LSI-Engenio/current IBM DS3xxx line. It offers 3x the throughput rates of the older model (but as noted, no FC or iSCSI support). Regardless, I'm pretty sure the intended comparison (at price point, hence the "class" qualifier) is either with the IBM Storwize or XIV lines and not the DS.

Surface left on shelves as world+dog slurps up small slates

Re: Samsung Win 8 slate

I suppose it may be worth a warning for some people thinking about a Win 8 slate as a graphics slate. While as I've said I'm generally quite happy with mine, whoever made the decision to remove "Restore Previous Versions" from Windows 8 in favor a network share based solution should be shot. It's a slate OS fer chrissake! My laptop and its CAT 6 is my network share machine. Other than the loss of the function of "restore previous versions" functionality I'm happen. But that bit sucks, bit time.

Re: Samsung Win 8 slate

Yes, it may be the Surface Pro is a more competitive machine. I was a bit leery of the ativ's specs, but all I can say is that its performance has been much better than I suspected; it runs all my drawing apps (including Illustrator CS6) fine (at least if you only have one open at a time), and that 9 hours of battery life is awesome.

Samsung Win 8 slate

It may not be all bad news for Win 8, at least the non-rt version. I bought a samsung ativ smart pc over christmas and quite like it. But I didn't really get the point of RT, I wanted a slate I could use my laptop software on, I wanted an active digitizer for art and handwritten notes, and it was only $50 more than the Windows RT Surface. Frankly, given the price difference, I'm not really sure why someone would buy the Surface Pro coming in a few weeks over the Samsung either. It may be the future of Win 8 is on Samsung, not MS.

Facebook snubs storage barons for cheapo Far East kit - insiders

Not reinventing the wheel.

If this is the future of storage for the biggest data centers, so be it. But a couple of things are worth noting--the first is that the thinking that what works for servers boxes can work for storage boxes is suspect. Switching out your storage boxes at the same rate as your servers is going to cause some massive headaches and overhead costs down the line. And 2nd, a lot of US and UK storage OEMs have already tried this model over the past ten plus years, but failed to deliver the savings customers expected. Too much of the cost was wrapped up in disks, interfaces, fabric, other components, and servicing. If Facebook thinks they going to save much money this way, they are probably dreaming.

NetApp feeds HPC monster: How much cache? That would be telling

Max SSD cache

5 TB per controller array

REVEALED: IBM's new DS3000-killing Storwise storage beast

Re: This should be a hit, but I doubt it replaces the DS3500

"will (likely) be on a completely different level of ... performance than DS3500." You may well be right that they keep the DS3500 for the low end, but I doubt the performance claim. In terms of performance, a DS3500 with half the disks and a throttled cache can outperform this proposed model's "big brother" the V7000 on throughput (see http://www.esg-global.com/lab-reports/ibm-storwize-v7000-real-world-mixed-workload-performance-in-vmware-environments/?keywords=v7000) and (http://www.esg-global.com/lab-reports/ibm-system-storage-ds3500-express-mixed-workload-performance-with-application-aware-data-management/?keywords=ds3500). Load it up with SSDs and a larger cache and the same amount of disks, and I wonder what the IOPs figures would look like.

IBM wrestles controls, pulls midrange array sales out of death dive

Funny numbers

FWIW-- these numbers don't track IDC's on system revenue in regards to IBM. If you have access, just go back to a 2010 quarter and do the math yourself. DS revenues were a lot higher back then. Also, I think DS5xxx is EOL; that's probably why nobody is selling it compared to the vSeries. IBM slotted the Engenio replacement into their more HPC oriented DCS line, rather than their GPC vSeries. Either the analyst who produced these charts is lazy, or a paid hack.

NetApp leapfrogs IBM in storage race for second place

NetApp & IBM

Wow, not to kick a down dog, but as was noted last time you went over these numbers, the IDC figures overstate IBM's relative strength vs. NetApp, as it counts IBM's OEM sales of NetApp kit as part of IBM's totals. Given that, the switch between NetApp and IBM here is rather surprising.

NetApp streaks ahead, avoids trip-up by bum flash leg

Re: E series

I don't remember if it was in the conference call or supplementary commentary with the earnings release, but NetApp said E-Series OEM exceeded forecasts (700 mil as opposed to 600 mil forecast); but it also said E-Series as a whole (OEM+NetApp branded) was a slight miss. I've never been able to track down what the forecast for NetApp branded E-Series was, but the numbers indicate NetApp itself didn't sell a whole lot. Still it appears revenue was slightly higher than it was under LSI-- just under 800 mil I'ld estimate, with most of that coming from Teradata in the midrange and IBM with the entry level.

I'ld agree OnTap 8.1 hasn't made much of splash; but I don't know why. Are there problems with it?

weird conference call

I suppose given the IT sector's general bearish forecasts of late, NetApp may not have had much choice, but it was a weird conference call given Georgens confident assertion ntap would grow another point in TAM this year, while at the same time claiming they didn't have enough visibility to forecast yearly revenue plans, and forecast an extremely conservative Q1. The plan must either be to sell a whole bunch of FAS and E-Series low-end 2xxx boxes or buy another billion dollars in revenue? Is there another Engenio out there?

Adobe Flex SDK bombshell STUNS developers

@CyberCypher

A lot of Flex developers (possibly even a majority???) have moved to FDT from Flex Builder. Because of this, as someone else noted, this announcement (by itself) won't bother many of those most heavily invested in Flex. If you like Flex Builder, try FDT--you'll like it.

The anti-enterprise noise accompanying this announcement is confusing, however; and I wonder what this means for Adobe's support of Connect/ ConnectNow. Coldfusion I'm pretty sure is dead.

I think Adobe is making a huge misstep here. Their roadmap has become a huge confusing mess. The different divisions clearly aren't on the same page, or even in the same book. The company needs to split up.

Axiom to boot out NetApp at Oracle

NetApp likely to keep a foot in the door ....

While you may be right about the eventual fate of the Storagetek/Engenio 6xxx line (as well as the IBM/Engenio DS 5xxx), I doubt either Oracle or IBM plan to drop the more SMB oriented (NetApp/Engenio) Storagetek 2xxx or IBM DS 3xxx line (this has always been the only product line Dell takes from NetApp/Engenio). The margins aren't big enough.

Dell retools for the midmarket

Powervault is NetApp, not Dell

"If you break out the PowerVault, Compellent, Equalogic, and DX Object Storage revenues – these are products that are all owned by Dell"

Unless Dell bought NetApp when I wasn't looking, Powervault (Engenio) is not owned by Dell.

Court OK's Assange Sweden extradition, given 7 days to appeal

Not a UK crime?

From the leaked court documents: "Assange allegedly began having sex with her while she was asleep — the basis of the rape allegation". Is this really not a crime in the U.K.? Is it really not a crime in the U.K. to force yourself on someone condomless, when they have insisted you wear one? Back in the '80s in the US, these issues really came to the fore on many college campuses, with a number of colleges having to institute 'rape awareness' programs to incoming freshman about so-called 'date rape'. This absolutely would be considered rape in the US. Just wondering if there was any similar sort of dialog about this sort of thing in the UK.