Monthly Archives: July 2010

Lies, Damn Lies, and Marketing…

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Yesterday, In his blog posted entitled “Myth Busting: Storage Guarantees“, Vaughn Stewart from NetApp blogged about the EMC 20% Guarantee and posted a chart of storage efficiency features from EMC and NetApp platforms to illustrate his point.  Chuck Hollis from EMC called it “chartsmithing” in comment but didn’t elaborate specifically on the charts deficiencies.  Well allow me to take that ball…

As presented, Vaughn’s chart (below) is technically factual (with one exception which I’ll note), but it plays on the human emotion of Good vs Bad (Green vs Red) by attempting to show more Red on EMC products than there should be.

The first and biggest problem is the chart compares EMC Symmetrix and EMC Clariion dedicated-block storage arrays with NetApp FAS, EMC Celerra, and NetApp vSeries which are all Unified storage systems or gateways.  Rather than put n/a or leave the field blank for NAS features on the block-only arrays, the chart shows a resounding and red NO, leading the reader to assume that the feature should be there but somehow EMC left it out.

As far as keeping things factual, some of the EMC and NetApp features in this chart are not necessarily shipping today (very soon though, and since it affects both vendors I’ll allow it here).  And I must make a correction with respect to EMC Symmetrix and Space Reclamation, which IS available on Symm today.

I’ve taken the liberty of massaging Vaughn’s chart to provide a more balanced view of the feature comparison.  I’ve also added EMC Celerra gateway on Symmetrix to the comparison as well as an additional data point which I felt was important to include.

I’ve included some footnotes in the chart to explain some of the results but I’ll explain a little here as well.

1.) I removed the block only EMC configuration devices because the NetApp devices in the comparison are Unified systems.

2.) I removed the SAN data row for Single Instance storage because Single Instance (identical file) data reduction technology is inherently NAS related.

3.) Zero Space Reclamation is a feature available in Symmetrix storage.  In Clariion, the Compression feature can provide a similar result since zero pages are compressible.

I left the 3 different data reduction techniques as individually listed even though the goal of all of them is to save disk space.  Depending on the data types, each method has strengths and weaknesses.

One question, if a bug in OnTap causes a vSeries to lose access to the disk on a Symmetrix during an online Enginuity upgrade, who do you call?  How would you know ahead of time if EMC hasn’t validated vSeries on Symmetrix like EMC does with many other operating systems/hosts/applications in eLab?

The goal if my post here really is to show how the same data can be presented in different ways to give readers a different impression.  I won’t get into too much as far as technical differences between the products, like how comparing FAS to Symmetrix is like comparing a box truck to a freight train, or how fronting an N+1 loosely coupled clustered, global cached, high-end storage array with a midrange dual-controller gateway for block data might not be in a customer’s best interest.

What do you think?

Category: comparisons, FUD, technologies | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comcast — Professional FUD Slinging…

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When trying to sell something, one of the hard things that I’ve noticed sales people dealing with is the fine line between comparing your own product to your competitors, and slinging FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) about your competitors.  The right way to sell is to show the benefit of your products to your customer and leave the competitor out of the conversation as much as possible.  There are those that have real trouble staying on the right side of the line… and then there are those that just make stuff up, which is worse.

My wife and I were watching TV Monday evening when a Comcast guy rang the doorbell.  We switched to Verizon FiOS a couple years ago and have had zero desire to switch back to Comcast.  The Internet is faster, the SD and HD picture quality is better, and the DVR menu/guides make Comcast’s software look decades old, which it is.

Matt, from Comcast, started by mentioning that they will have trucks in the neighborhood over the next couple weeks, framing the reason for his being there as a courtesy to us so we aren’t worried about all the trucks.  He then asked if we were Comcast customers and when he found out we were Verizon customers he quickly seg-wey’d into the true reason for his visit – FUD Slinging…

He informed us that now that Frontier has purchased FiOS from Verizon, Frontier does not want to the keep the lines maintained so they would be shutting down FiOS.  He stated that we have 3 months to get out of our FiOS contract without a penalty. When I asked him to clarify how Frontier is shutting down FiOS, Matt tells us they are shutting down Residential service, but keeping the Business customers.

Okay, pause right there, there are 3 things wrong with this –

  1. So Frontier spends $billions to buy the FiOS infrastructure from Verizon only to shut it down?  Their investor presentation indicates that ALL new build outs are Fiber-to-the-Home; it would seem a big waste to invest in FTTH but not provide FTTH Services.
  2. Even if Frontier were shutting down some FiOS infrastructure, why would “the largest pure rural telecommunications carrier in the United States” shut down residential services and keep business services?
  3. If Frontier was shutting down FiOS and I had to find an alternative service, why would I have to get out of my contract at all, it seems my contract would end on its own right?

Then as we chatted about why I switched to FiOS in the first place, and he tried REALLY hard to get me to set up an appointment for them to switch me back, I explained how the set top box software is light years ahead of Comcasts and I’d probably want Tivo if I switched back to Comcast.  He then to tell me that Comcast had acquired Tivo.  Seriously?  It’s so easy to check these things.

So I got his phone number and finally got him to leave, saying I’d figure out my schedule and call him in the next couple days.

A little research on the web sets the record straight.  The reality of the situation is that Frontier purchased the FiOS assets from Verizon in order to increase their broadband and TV footprint and will continue to provide the services because FiOS aligns perfectly with their core business.  There is no urgency to switch to another carrier at this time, despite what Comcast says.  Frontier even took the time to update the logo in our DVR software already.

All indications are that Tivo is still independent as well.

So this guy, Matt from Comcast, is hoping that the Frontier acquisition was public enough that we know something is changing, but haven’t looked into it enough yet, and that we’ll be freaked out by his indicating that we only have 3 months to do something.  I’m not even a Comcast customer and yet I feel compelled to write to them to complain.  Well now I’ve complained in public.

Category: announcements, FUD | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Every Cruise is a Shakedown Cruise (in IT terms, every Production environment is also a QA environment)

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It’s the morning of day 2 on a 7 day sailing trip in the San Juan Islands of Puget Sound.  We are 43 nautical miles from our homeport, and I’m sitting at the table watching a diesel mechanic take apart the little engine on our boat.

Over the 4th of July weekend, we spent nearly 3 full days getting the boat ready for this trip.  Washed inside and out, installed new convenience items, changed the oil, checked the transmission fluid, batteries, electrical systems, etc.  We taken several short and long trips with our Cal 2-29 over the past 5 years and there hasn’t been a single trip over 24 hours that didn’t require a repair of some kind.  Once, the bilge pump sucked water INTO the boat and we had to re-plumb the bilge pump system with makeshift hoses available at the nearby port.  Another time, while docking in Friday Harbor, my wife leaned too hard on a stanchion, causing it to break off and sending her into the cold Puget Sound water.  Twice, an over-zealous helmsperson switched from reverse to forward gear while the engine was at speed and tore the flex coupling on the prop shaft in half.  Both times we were close to docking so we just drifted into port and made repairs.  After that we thought we had finally seen the last of the major issues for a while.

On Tuesday morning, we left too early to fuel up so I brought a 5-gallon can of Diesel on board.  35 nautical miles later that proved to be a good idea, when we almost ran out of fuel, while navigating the tight and dangerous Deception Pass.  We refueled without stopping using a makeshift funnel made out of a plastic water bottle.  Afterwards, the engine was clearly turning more than 2000 rpm based on sound and boat speed but the tachometer was showing 600-800 and bouncing wildly.  Something to look at later since the engine seemed okay.

An hour later, on the west side of Fidalgo Island, entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we were planning our final destination for the day when the engine began to lose power for an unknown reason. Finally, we saw what seemed to be unusual black smoke from the exhaust.  At that point we shut down the engine to check on things.  We were a few hundred yards from a rock wall, which was cause for some concern, but we had a little time to assess the situation.

At first glance, the alternator belt was very loose but it didn’t make sense because the bolt that allows for adjustment had clearly not moved.  It turned out that the bolt on the other end of the mounting arm, the one that secures the arm to the engine block, had sheared off and the arm was free of the engine.  Since the engine is an old diesel, which does not require any power or electronic systems to run, we decided we’d try and remove the belt and go without the alternator until we can repair it.  We also found a few random bolts and screws in the engine compartment.

While working to secure the belt out of the way with zip-ties we noticed the starter solenoid had pretty much fallen off of the starter, the spring was visible even.  The bolts had come loose and one was missing, plus reattaching would require a lot of work due to the location of the bolts.  Well, being a single cylinder small diesel, the Farymann A30M can be started with a hand crank when warm, so we secured the solenoid out of the way and figured we’d fire it up with the crank and get to a nearby marina.

Hand cranking failed to produce a running engine, and we really don’t know why, we may have needed the glow plug on which we forgot about until a long time after giving up.  It was looking like we were going to have to call Vessel Assist, when I remembered a story I heard about someone pushing their sailboat with their dinghy lashed to the side of the boat near the stern.  So we secured the dinghy, fired up the Yamaha 2.5hp motor, and amazingly we were moving along at 4knots just in time to move away from the rock wall that was now only about 100 yards away.  An hour later we dinghy-motored our little 35 year old Cal into Flounder Bay on the northwest corner of Fidalgo Island.  Some steaks, corn on the cob, and a healthy dose of Captain Morgan over the next few hours helped the mood and the day was done!

At this point we’ve found that not only was the alternator and starter solenoid loose from the engine, one of the two engine mounts was about 30 minutes of running from falling off also.  It’s likely the loose engine mount added vibration, which caused the other bolts to loosen, causing more bolts to fail completely–a multi-stage failure of sorts.  Today, our goal is to work with the marine service tech to get the engine put back together and tightened up, then see if the engine will run, and assess anything we find there.  At $92.50 per hour, this could be a costly day.

This experience, and the previous ones we’ve had as well, reminded me that you need to be prepared for anything, especially when your life depends on it.  When your customers (internal or external) depend on your IT systems, you should be prepared for anything to go wrong, and you might have to patch things together to get it going until you can fix it the right way.  And that’s okay.  Remember, duct tape and zip-ties can pretty much fix anything!  😉

And it’s only been 24 hours since the trip started.

Follow up here

Category: problems | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,