These look to be Teradata Extreme Data Appliance racks

1. In the first photo, we have rows of swoopy racks – at least 30 are pictured. These appear to be Teradata Extreme Data Appliance racks. The gray color and funky doors give them away.


This photo features rack servers and NetApp storage

2. The second photo includes a 1U rack server with six 2.5″ drives featuring “HP purple” drive eject buttons. There are over 100 in this photo, receding to infinity. Looks like HP ProLiant DL360 G7 servers to me.
3. We also have a 2U rack server with 16 2.5″ drive bays. I count over 20 of these. They don’t quite look like HP to me, but could be high-density HP DL380 G7 servers.
4. What looks like a NetApp FAS6200 to me is at the lower right. It looks to be 6U high, compared to the shelves.
5. We also have a number of disk shelves for the NetApp. I’m guessing NetApp DS2246 shelves.


This still from Apple's official video shows more NetApp storage and HP servers

6. In this third shot, we see more HP 1U servers, possibly ProLiant DL360 G7′s as noted above.
7. We have another NetApp filer “head” similar to the one in the second shot.
8. Some sort of 6U beige rackmount device is found in the bottom of two racks
9. We have many more NetApp disk shelves or 1U servers above

Note that these racks contain many 1U Chatsworth “HotLok” filler panels. They’re not very efficiently racked, but perhaps this was due to flexibility or power requirements…

Stephen’s Stance

Whatever Apple bought for this datacenter, they bought a lot of it. Just the hint that they purchased Isilon bumped parent company EMC’s stock a few months back. I imagine Teradata and NetApp might see similar bumps from these images!

It’s also interesting to speculate on the political implications of Apple’s datacenter buys. Would they still buy HP equipment, now that Palm and WebOS are re-emerging as iOS-killer contenders? Would Jobs’ friendship with Larry Ellison indicate a proclivity to buy Oracle or Pillar Data? Maybe the Apple/Cisco Détente would suggest UCS or even EMC? And what about that rumored Isilon buy. Was that displaced by Teradata and NetApp?

Images from MacRumors.com

Note: This has been one of my most-popular posts, and has been referenced a lot by major news organizations. Here’s a list of those who linked and mentioned me. Thanks!

• The web’s watchful eye fixes on Apple’s cloud gear
• Steve Jobs Provides A Look Inside the iDataCenter
• WWDC: Has Apple turned to Oracle for iCloud?
• What Kind Of Gear Is Apple Using In Its Huge New Data Center? (AAPL)
• How Green Is Apple’s iCloud?

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | What Datacenter Equipment Is Apple Using?
This post was categorized as Apple, Enterprise storage, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

• We kick off this week still focused on Apple (of course) and their new MacBook Air. Although some have suggested it uses a mSATA or PCI Express Mini Card, it definitely does not. Read Apple’s Unconventional New MacBook Air SSD for more information.
• While we’re at it, I posted a video about How to install an internal Apple SuperDrive in an external USB case. Watch for a post soon!
• Finally, I posted another preview: Iomega Bundles Capacity and Performance in New External SSD Drive
• A blast from the past, (not so) Recent comments about FCoE and iSCSI from a 2007 discussion featuring some big names in storage
• Jay posted Drobo FS – A review – worth a read if you’re looking at the FS
• Then there’s Simon’s excellent piece on Running VMware vSphere on an HP MicroServer
• The Keyboard Cult looks at folks like me who love keyboards (mine is a 1987 IBM Model M)
• Four hidden features in vSphere 4.1 is another great read
• Last there’s the Storage Gorilla with Man Bites Dog – Why IBM (and everyone else) should fear EMC’s acquisition of Isilon Systems

Subscribe to my Google Reader feed or follow me on Twitter to see these in real-time.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, October 26, 2010
This post was categorized as Apple, Enterprise storage, Everything. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Although it's fun to speculate about blockbuster purchases, smaller acquisitions make much more sense

The industry is buzzing with rumors that Isilon will be the next big storage acquisition now that 3PAR is safely in HP’s hands. The alleged buyer, EMC, is itself surrounded by rumors of becoming a shared feast for Oracle and Cisco. But there are much more accessible and tasty items on the enterprise IT acquisition menu, and the lower cost of entry makes them much more likely to come about!

Buying Talent, Technology, and Market Share

There are three good reasons companies look to buy others:

1. They lack the talent to play in a certain market. Although engineers are often touted as the prize in tech acquisitions, other kinds of talent (sales, marketing, and leadership) often make more of the difference. But buying talent is perilous because (especially in California), talent can walk out the door.
2. The next gap to be filled is technology itself. Startups are often more innovative and creative, filling new product niches and taking risks on new concepts. This manifests itself as product, of course, but IP and roadmap are equally important.
3. There is also market share to consider. Companies love to crow about their sales leadership, and very little matches the messaging that comes from overtaking a competitor in sales. Buying up a smaller, but not insignificant, competitor is a great way to achieve this!

There are a few more reasons companies get bought, of course. Companies sometimes build up vast cash reserves, making them ripe for a buyout. Others bring together assets that are more valuable split apart and sold off than together. Still other acquisitions are made to keep a competitor from having a key component of the market.

There are many great companies in enterprise IT, often packed to the gills with talent, technology, and market share. NetApp, EMC, Juniper, Symantec, and so many others are loaded with value, yet not all are about to be acquired.

What’s Stopping You?

It’s not easy for a company to buy another. The most-obvious roadblock is financial: As I discussed regarding Oracle, HP, and NetApp, companies can use cash, debt, or stock to make the purchase. Cash is clean and tidy, but each has its own trade-offs. At the end of the day, the purchase price can be too big a hurdle to overcome.

NetApp and Juniper have market caps around $17 billion, making them a very expensive purchase. Symantec is a little smaller at $12 billion, but it’s still large enough to be out of play for many companies. And EMC, at $42 billion, would be a historically-large acquisition, probably requiring more than one company at the table.

Although far smaller, Isilon begins to look expensive once one looks at the prospects for return on investment. Currently priced just under $2 billion, Isilon has solid clustered NAS technology and is a major player in high-performance computing. But they are not even ranked in the top external storage vendors according to IDC, and EMC and NetApp rule the mainstream NAS market. Their annual revenue grew respectably from $61 million in 2006 to $120 million in 2009, but that’s small-potatoes in enterprise IT terms. And with just $79 million in cash and short-term investments, they won’t be bought for plunder either.

Ripe Fruit

Isilon is just too small to justify a multi-billion dollar acquisition, but there are other tastier possibilities in play. Three in particular come to mind:

1. FalconStor has excellent technology, proven over a decade and used by thousands of customers. They have excellent OEM connections, too. And their recent CEO ousting makes them a killer bargain at under $150 million. Seriously – they could make that much revenue next year given a solid sales re-launch. at the very least, their stock (NASDAQ:FALC) is a solid buy!
2. Overland (NASDAQ:OVRL) is in the midst of a re-birth, but their purchases of Snap and MaxiScale make them an acquisition target in my mind. Their astonishingly-small market cap of just under $17 million is less than their quarterly revenue. Yes, they’re losing money, but this would change quickly in the hands of a strong benefactor.
3. Finally there’s big-data protection specialist, Sepaton. It’s hard to say exactly what a purchase would entail, since Sepaton isn’t a public company, but it’s probably safe to assume that the price would be small and the acquired debt somewhat larger. But their technology is just waiting to be blasted prime-time by some big-data gorilla.

See the common theme here? Great technology, huge potential, and a miniscule price. Although none of these would be much of a market share win initially, all could be serious threats to the established players with some sales effort. Any of the big equipment companies (EMC, Dell, IBM, Oracle, or Cisco) would make hay with Overland, and any big software player (Oracle, CA, IBM, HP, or Symantec) would find much to love in FalconStor or Sepaton.

Stephen’s Stance

Although multi-billion dollar blockbuster deals are more fun to speculate about, smaller technology purchases like these can have much greater leverage. I expect at least one of these companies to be snapped up in the next year, and wouldn’t be surprised to see all three gone before Isilon, EMC, or Symantec. Indeed, I just don’t see the business case for an Isilon acquisition today.

Image credit: Cash Register 70 by zizzybaloobah

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Why FalconStor, Overland, and Sepaton Ought To Be Acquired Before Isilon
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The players are lining up for the biggest acquisition game enterprise IT has witnessed in a while

Today is the (a?) day of reckoning in the 3Par saga, with Dell widely expected to make a counter-offer higher than HP’s bid. But this mega deal, like the Data Domain war before it, sends a strong signal to the enterprise IT world: It’s open season on data storage companies! But the rising superpowers are also likely looking at networking as an area of expansion. The game is afoot!

The Competitors

The simple fact is, enterprise IT prefers to buy from large, established names like HP and IBM rather than smaller and less-familiar companies with names like Ocarina, EqualLogic, or even 3Par. The acceleration of sales by enterprise providers is what makes these big acquisitions so successful and why others involving less-powerful players often fail to deliver the same results.

Full-line “superpowers” like IBM, HP and now Dell and the new Oracle can influence purchasing decisions across a broad spectrum of hardware and software. Many large organizations are tightly coupled to one of these vendors, and will give their products stronger consideration even when they are new or unfamiliar. HP is already flexing their muscle selling their broadened network lineup, and Dell found that it could do this in data storage.

Software vendors like Microsoft, Citrix, and Oracle adamantly maintained a neutral stance toward hardware, but Ellison and company seem serious about changing this. Oracle’s success in selling Sun hardware will likely dictate further software acquisitions for Dell and HP, though IBM already has strength there. Then there is Intel, the wild card who just got wilder with their acquisition of McAfee.

Companies with narrower focus like Cisco, EMC, NetApp, Juniper, and Brocade have the same power within their sphere of influence but cannot pull in wholly-distinct products. Cisco is in the midst of this fight with their technically-excellent UCS blade servers: Although they were certainly a strategic CIO-level vendor in the largest organizations, “blades from a networking company” isn’t the as easy a decision as “networking gear from a full-line company.”

The Game

Then one must consider the market in contention. The enterprise IT space is not expanding, especially in the United States. This is very close to a zero-sum game, with Oracle’s or Dell’s wins being HP’s or IBM’s losses and vice-versa. There is massive money in play, and flexibility enough for it to swing between the competitors, but growth is not unlimited.

Enterprise storage and data center and campus networking are two areas where smaller companies retain enviably-large slices of the pie, explaining the interest in these spaces among the superpowers. These verticals still have room for sales to grow without displacing a fierce full-line foe, and the superpowers have lately been weak here. Storage and networking are enticing opportunities, but each slice is similarly dominated by “vertical superpowers” and partners EMC and Cisco.

So this is the game: Four full-line enterprise superpowers battling each other for datacenter dominance and coveting the extra profits of a few verticals. HP clearly believes they can chip away at EMC and Cisco in storage and networking; Dell and IBM have so far focused mainly on storage; and Oracle hasn’t made a move in either direction, instead challenging the other three in the core server and software space.

Pawns or Knights?

So where does this leave the smaller players? Are they merely pawns in the game, waiting to be sacrificed, or are they knights who can wield power across the field? The largest (Cisco and EMC especially) appear to have ambitions of their own as well as the financial and technical strength to shake up the game. They are unlikely to be acquired by the superpowers. Brocade, too, has broad strength in storage and networking but maintains relationships across the board that make an acquisition difficult.

Strong vertical players like Juniper, NetApp, Riverbed, and Compellent are ripe for acquisition, as were Foundry, 3Com, Data Domain, and 3Par. IBM, Dell, and Oracle are all likely buyers of the networking players, though HP may consider filling in where 3Com was found lacking. All four will likely take a strong look at the remaining storage players as well, with the loser in the battle for 3Par likely to be hungry indeed.

One should also consider the potential impact of smaller acquisitions. Although they would not immediately “move the needle” for a massive superpower, there are many excellent technology companies that could be bought low and pushed strongly. The enterprise-class technology at Sepaton, Pillar Data, Xiotech, BlueArc, Extreme Networks, Force10, Blue Coat, Isilon, CommVault, FalconStor, and many others should not be overlooked. If a superpower can drive a larger acquisition to succeed, imagine what they can do with strong but inexpensive technology from one of these!

Stephen’s Stance

This game is nowhere near finished. The 3Par acquisition will not only generate revenue, it will shake up the ranking of data storage array dominance. This is very likely to kick off additional acquisition in the data storage space, spurring either Dell or HP to pick up additional technology and perhaps causing IBM or Oracle to engage as well. With no easy alternatives to 3Par, I expect Compellent, Xiotech, and Pillar to get closer looks, but Sepaton and BlueArc are just as ripe. NetApp may be too expensive at this point, but would be a nice match for Oracle’s strategy.

HP’s acquisition of 3Com could also signal a race to integrate datacenter and campus networking technology into the stack. Many are suggesting a Brocade acquisition, and it would be much cheaper than Juniper, but OEM ties make it a difficult purchase for any of the superpowers. Extreme and Force10 would be excellent and less-expensive alternatives.

We should also keep our eyes outside the superpower space. Intel showed that they can make big moves, and Microsoft might consider a diversification into hardware as well. One should also look to the East, where Huawei could try to enter the Western market with a merger or joint-venture to cast off the China stigma. Although I would love to see a rebel alliance rise (imagine Juniper, NetApp, and Symantec joining forces!) this is not a likely scenario.

Image credit: Chess Board by mosdave

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | The Enterprise IT Acquisition Game
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Everything, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

I’ve long wished for a new enterprise storage superpower. Competition is good for everyone, and the enterprise storage space has always been highly competitive. Traditional SAN storage powers (EMC, HDS, HP, and IBM) have been under continual attack from tech-heavy upstarts like EqualLogic, LeftHand, Compellent, Xiotech, and 3Par. The smaller (revenue-wise) NAS market has been more serial, with NetApp knocking off Auspex, then challenged by EMC. Yet innovators have been thick there as well, from Exanet to Ibrix, Isilon to Onstor.

Through it all, one thing has been clear: The major companies, though perhaps lagging in technology, were usually able to withstand the attack of the upstarts through sheer strength of salesforce. Storage is a strategic investment, and selection of a storage platform is much more far-reaching than many IT product decisions. The inertia of an installed storage environment makes it a real challenge to switch vendors, giving the established players massive leverage.

It became clear to me and many others that the best way for upstart companies (and, by extension, technologies) was to be part of an established vendor’s sales process. OEM relationships were a big part of this (witness the success of BlueArc and even NetApp and HDS) but acquisition was a much stronger proposition. If customers were warmer to OEM products than independent sales, they are much hotter when it comes to acquired technology. HP, Dell, IBM, and EMC have all demonstrated the power that comes when an established company buys a startup and puts the power of their sales force behind these new products.

This explains Dell’s fantastic success with EqualLogic. They took a product that was emerging as dominant in its niche (midrange iSCSI SAN) and blasted it into the market, while at the same time optimizing manufacturing and deployment. EMC did the same with Clariion and DataDomain, and HP is showing strong signs of health with LeftHand and Ibrix. Then there is IBM, who took XIV out of Israel and made it a source of irritation to the rest of the industry.

Many industry watchers have long wondered what would happen if the smaller guys got together, forming a new superpower of their own. Would 3Par, BlueArc, and Sepaton be a real challenger? What about Xiotech or Compellent and Isilon or FalconStor? Is mixing and matching some smaller companies a recipe for success? The answer was often a counter-question: What if someone like Dell, who knows how to manufacture and sell, picked them up instead? This seemed much more like a sure-thing, since the established management and financials stave off potential integration issues.

It appears that this is the future. Established players will pick up smaller companies, fortifying their offerings and accelerating sales in a way the little guys weren’t capable of. Dell’s billion-dollar acquisition of 3Par reportedly headed off a similar offer from HP, and will likely spark another acquisition. I imagine the management teams at Compellent and Xiotech just got a lot busier…

Clearly, Dell and HP are playing this game. IBM and EMC are in it, too. But what about Cisco and Oracle? Could they be planning storage acquisitions of their own, to the detriment of partners like EMC and Hitachi? What about the strong contingent from Japan, NEC and Hitachi? And who gets picked up next? We shall see!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Dell + EqualLogic, Exanet, Ocarina, 3Par = What?
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Hot on the heels of, well, everyone else in the world, Brocade announced that it was adding thin provisioning. Sadly, they have no storage to provision, but they added the feature anyway. “We felt it was important to offer this importantly important feature across all of our products,” Neil Oone, Director of Direct Director Marketing said. “Since every other storage company now offers thin provisioning, we assume it must be critical.” Brocade expects to deliver their thin provisioning support in Q5 of 2020.

In related news, HP today announced it would purchase Data Domain, Compellent, 3Par, and EqualLogic today to solidify their thin provisioning credentials. When told that Isilon had also announced thin provisioning, HP’s Director of Directness claimed “well we’ll just buy them too.”

Sorry to any vendors included here. Note that one item in the above story is true.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2007. | Brocade Adds Thin Provisioning
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.