0.044: not dead yet, I guess

I feel somewhat like the poor sot at the beginning of the classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail, having tossed my poor plague-ridden uncle into the death-cart -- only to have him whimper "I'm not dead, yet!"

Seems I may have prematurely declared the demise of the DS8000 in my prior blognostications. Oh, the DS6000 has clearly succumbed to a myriad of afflictions, but there's been a growing rumble that there will be an update to the DS8000 Turbo announced on Tuesday, October 23^rd. I'd been hearing about this from my inside-EMC channels for a while now, but today I received what I will conclude is external confirmation in the form of this week's Peer Incite review over at Wikibon.

An excerpt:

On Tuesday October 23^rd the Wikibon community will be reviewing an announcement from one of the world's leading storage suppliers.

The Wikibon community will explore implications for customers, especially emphasizing near term procurement actions. [name redacted], a well known and highly regarded analyst for the storage industry will be the lead analyst on the call.

Each week, Wikibon hosts Peer Incite, a free, unbiased research and advisory call on important storage topics. Please join other practitioners, technologists and consultants as we explore critical storage industry issues.

Now honestly, I don't know how critical this could be in real life, especially given that [name redacted] isn't necessarily all that "unbiased." But if you want to see what all the fuss is about, you'll have to register to participate over at WikiBon.

 

so now what?

Well, since Hitachi just made an announcement a couple of weeks ago, and I'm pretty sure EMC isn't getting covered by [name redacted], I conclude this is an IBM announcement we're talking about here.

So, the question is - what will they announce? Given that Fellow Blogger TonyP is off on vacation for two weeks, I suspect this can't really be all that big of a deal. At least, I doubt the announcement will include any Hitachi Math or SPC results for the new machine, leaving Hitachi in questionable possession of the enterprise SPC pole position. If there were, you just know Tony would have rescheduled his vacation. But even though he's away, I suspect he'll return with something to say, probably posted under the Samuel Clemens headline: The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated!

As a matter of fact, I have heard several rumors about what is to be announced - most notably, that while there may be faster processors, the basic two-node cluster design will be retained (along with all the unexplained dual-node failures and disruptive software upgrades). And probably the pre-announcement of the now-mandatory thin provisioning feature (I wonder if it'll be available for existing DS8000's, or just on the new boxes).

But I'd be curious to hear what YOU'VE heard about this impending announcement. Come on - you can tell me. I promise I won't tell anybody at work!

Comments

[Barry Whyte]

Hehe, and who was it that said knowledge is power.

Could be you are barking up the wrong tree so to speak...

[the storage anarchist]

Hmmm...IBM announcement definitely coming...IBM VP of Branding on vacation...Chief Scientist for SVC NOT on vacation and posting cryptic comments on this blog...

Could it be as I prior envisioned? Will the DS8000 join the DS6000 in the annals of history? Will IBM finally concede the high-end market, and focus everything on the SVC?

Tune in Tuesday, boys and girls, for answers to these and even more exciting questions!!!

[Barry Whyte]

Hate to disappoint but I'm off on leave next week too :)

[Barry Whyte]

Anyway, I'm off now for a week, be interesting if this time delayed post thingy works ;)