2.046: virtualizing hitachi math

I cannot resist. Forth-with a demonstrative specimen of fact-based FUD, from yours truly:

Earlier this week, Beth Pariseau posted an interview she had with Hu Yoshida (see Hitachi Data Systems' Yoshida talks Sun/Oracle, USP refresh and storage virtualization). Beth's last question in this interview provides some almost shocking insight into the actual number of deployments of Hitachi's virtualization capabilities on the USP-V:

SearchStorage.com: Do you have any numbers or percentages about customers virtualizing external storage?

Yoshida: Fifty percent of our controllers are virtualization enabled, and of those enabled, about 25% virtualize third-party storage.

Simple math thus says that roughly 12.5% of USP-V and –VM controllers are actually virtualizing 3rd party storage (25% of 50% = 12.5%).

(By the way, if we took Hu literally, we could assume that the 50% that are NOT "virtualization enabled" are in fact AMS' and the rest are USP-V's, thus making the percentage of USP-V and VMs that front 3rd party storage a mere 6.25%.)

Given all the blog posts that Hu has written for the past several years, extolling the virtues of virtualization, that number seems really, really small.

But, it must be true, for the very next day, HDS announced (and Hu blogs on) a new HDS Professional Services offering to "speed storage virtualization implementations." The basic premise of this offering? HDS is apparently finding that in a significant portion of their customer base (using Hu's words):

…the virtualization technologies become shelf ware…

So in effect, HDS (and Hu) now admit that the numbers they've been quoting for years that 50% of USP-Vs and VMs were actually using virtualization were bogus. Clear admission of the fact that they too have been avid practitioners of Making Stuff Up (MSU).

As PFC Gomer Pyle used to say: Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Also in this post, Hu also provides us with another example of Hitachi Math by using the results of a validated survey of USP-V customers to make claims that "86% of USP V and VM customers have increased their performance" as compared to "their prior environment."

NFW! 86% of people who bought YOUR NEW STUFF found that it ran faster than their OLD STUFF?

hold on now…wait just a minute!

Did that survey actually find that 14% of HDS' NEW STUFF customers say it actually ran SLOWER than their OLD STUFF?

OMG!

You just can't make this stuff up!

(Please do not try this at home – I am a trained professional!)

technorati tags: Hitachi Math,HDS,Hu Yoshida,UVM,customer adoption,shelfware,shelf ware,USP-V,USP-VM