Show vs. Functionality
by Jesse on Feb.19, 2009, under Opinion
Anil Gupta had an interesting post on his blog that I found interesting:
Included in his post was a peice of marketing fluff from Craig Nunes, VP Marketing at 3Par, about how great their arrays are.
Of course they are…especially if you are VP of their marketing department. It’s there job to promote, therefore from an engineering standpoint anything they say should be taken with a grain of salt.
Truthfully I can’t say one way or another, because looking across a CoLo cage at one a few weeks ago was actually the first time I’ve ever SEEN a 3Par array.
It was pretty.
I tend to follow one rule when it comes to storage arrays:
The effectiveness of an array is inversely proportional to the count and speed of the blinking lights on the exterior of the array.
Any time I see lots of blinking lights I think to myself – what are those blinking lights covering for?
I offer as proof:
1. Symmetrix – black box. No blinking lights, very few lights at all on the exterior actually, and the ones on the interior are mostly covered up even when the doors are open.
2. Clariion – it’s been interesting to see the maturation of the Clariion product over the years. The old FC (and IP) series had the typical blinking green lights on the outside, plus the amber lights for “Alert” statuses. As the line has matured they’ve gone further and further away from the lights. Note that the AX, being a lower-tier than the CX, has more lights on it.
3. Centerra – other than the activity lights on the network switch in the back of the cabinet, I’m hard pressed to know if these are powered on.
I’d offer more examples, but it’s 6pm and time for me to head home.
/Jg
February 19th, 2009 on 7:55 pm
Jesse, thanks for the shout out. We have a lot more then blinky lights. If you’d like to know more about what we do I’d be happy to talk to you. FWIW, the post from Anil was from 2007 and Craig Nunes is still our VP of marketing.
February 19th, 2009 on 10:56 pm
I should learn to look at post dates.
I agree, and my post was intended more as a tongue-in-cheek than anything else, as well as a back-handed comment about people blindly posting press-releases.
I have a policy against such free press, not because I’m in this for the money, (trust me, this blog actually costs me money to run)
I get 2 or three such press releases a week “for publication.”
I am an engineer in the strictest definition. Much to the chagrin of my sales teams, I refuse to say something works that I’ve not directly seen work. (When I worked @ MTI I was asked to fake enough test reports that I know how it’s done – never did it myself though)
This is probably why my blog has ended up being so EMC-Centric. I just don’t get a lot of opportunities to play with the other vendors’ toys.
February 20th, 2009 on 4:51 am
So what you’re saying is, the IBM ESS 800 is the best disk array out there, because it’s a black van sized monolith with not a single external LED?
February 20th, 2009 on 7:19 am
I’m saying they didn’t feel the need to compensate for their lack of performance / functionality with blinking lights.
IBM is a slightly different beast in this regard though. In their opinion, they’re perfect. Regardless of any contravening reality.
I’m (as is my policy) not saying one way or another whether it’s deserved, I’ve never seen one in action. However I have in fact migrated a few customers off them so that *IS* an indication of sorts.
February 20th, 2009 on 10:34 am
I follow your blog because it’s about storage and because it has an implementation perspective. It has content that doesn’t show up in other places – and yes, it does have a bit of an EMC bias, but that’s understandable considering that’s what you’ve been working with for a long time. The offer still stands, if you have an interest in finding out what 3PAR or its products are about, I can help.
February 20th, 2009 on 9:49 pm
I dunno Jesse, I have a couple san friends that love them…Say they work a treat. Gotta be faster than a clairion in any case
February 21st, 2009 on 10:28 am
As I’ve said to everyone in the past – send me one and I’ll be happy to look it over. But I don’t write about hardware I don’t touch.
It’s a personal policy, keeps me from getting lulled into believing PR, and has the added bonus of getting me new toys to play with every so often.
Jg
February 22nd, 2009 on 11:56 am
That’s a great idea until someone sends you a symm and you have to power the bloody thing….That would teach you a lesson!
February 22nd, 2009 on 10:43 pm
Hey – if someone sent me a Symm, I’d bloody well find a way to plug it in and test it.
When I worked for EMC, I was in R&D up on South Street, my job was to break stuff. I was damned good at my job.