the storage anarchist

0.054: viral video marketing

If you also follow Chuck Hollis' blog, you've already seen this.

But for the rest of you, the wacky bunch over at wallstrip.com have created a vidblog about EMC and its recent stock surge (here on YouTube or here on wallstrip.com). Wallstrip.com also covered the VMware IPO earlier in the year, if you're interested in a little flashback here at years-end.

Now, I don't think either of these videos are going to meet David Vellante's standing $1,000 challenge for anyone to create a viral storage video that gets more than 225,000 YouTube views within 12 months. But they are politely fun and surprisingly accurate (and no, they weren't sponsored by EMC).

EMC did sponsor a contest this year for home-made viral videos - you can see the entrants and winners here.

I don't know if they're planning to repeat the contest in 2008, but if you have the Viral Video itch, you could always just save a screen dump of David's challenge (in the comments to my hitachi rifs mr. t post) and post your entry on YouTube. Drop me a pointer, and I'll handle the advertising for you (and I won't even ask for a cut!).

 Happy Holidays!

0.053: when 2 + 2 isn't 4

IBM seems to be learning Hitachi math.

At least, some of their field sales representatives appear to be experimenting with Hitachi's notorious approach of magically mangling numbers in order to subliminally mislead perceptions.

In a recent RFP (one that I admittedly heard about third hand), the customer-to-be reportedly specified that all bidders must propose only storage systems that are 4Gb/s Fibre Channel front and back.

Now, if you follow high-end storage at all, you know that ONLY the EMC DMX-4 and the Hitachi/HP/Sun USP-V today employ a 4Gb/s FC back-end, while all models of the IBM DS8300 use only a 2Gb FC back-end. A simple fact that's easily verified reading the specification sheets for each product - no room for argument.

So imagine the buyers' surprise to receive a proposal from their local IBM rep, complete with  written confirmation that the proposed DS8300 Turbo did indeed come with a 4Gb FC back-end!

As I've been told, the fun didn't stop there. When the customer confronted his (or her, I'm not sure) friendly IBM-badged sales representative, they were even more surprised to be told that the 8300's back-end indeed was 4Gb/s. The rep explained, with a totally straight face, that each disk drive was serviced by not one, but TWO 2Gb/s Fibre Channel connections, which clearly adds up to the required 4Gb/s.

You just gotta admire the chutzpah!

0.052: ahhll-be-bahhk!

Wow, where did the time go?

Seems like only yesterday, I was doing back-to-back blogs on Thin Provisioning with the Boys of Wikibon. But all of a sudden, here it is 32 days since my last blog post.

No, I didn't fall into a crevasse. And I wasn't censored by my management. And I didn't just give up - no such luck (sorry, HHSNBN).

Like my blogging cohorts Storagezilla and Len, I just got overloaded with other things, and blogging didn't make it onto my todo list for the past month or so. (Unlike Chuck, our job descriptions don't include "blog at least twice a day!").

So, I apologize for my absence. The time was well spent, including face-to-face meetings with key customers, prospects, industry analysts and yes, even my family  over the Thanksgiving holidays. Got a complete physical and my first over-50 plumbing checkup(doc says I'll probably live, at least  long enough to pay his bill). Even snuck in a vacation week in Olde Victorian Cape May, all dressed up for the holidays, where I took more than a few photos that I'm rather proud of.

Most importantly, I had the honor to participate in three separate customer advisory events, one of EMC's "secret weapons" for making sure our roadmaps and plans are aligned with our customers requirements and expectations. Hopefully I'll be able to share a little of our learning from those with you in the coming months (and if you're one of the customers who participated in those events, thanks again for investing your valuable time to provide us with your insights and feedback).

And of course, it's the end of the fiscal year, the end of the biggest quarter of the year, the time for getting budgets and headcounts aligned for the coming year, and the time we prepare materials, collateral and positioning for our Q1 sales kickoffs and announcements. Oh, and it's the holiday season to boot (thank goodness for Amazon.com this year!).

Lots going on.Thankfully, in my absence, my blogging peers have kept the misleading blogketing, chicken littles, and market share fiction writers in check (thanks, guys - I owe you a couple 's, to be sure ).

So, in the inimitable words of the Governator, I promise, I'll be back, and soon!