I have been intrigued by the recent Dilbert comic strips highlighting social media.  The piece below was particularly amusing and got me thinking about social media and corporate strategy.  The comic shows the conflict  between social media adoption and corporate culture and portrays a situation that happens all too frequently.  Many companies desire to engage in social media, but when they recognize the commitment and ensuing open discussions back away.

In the storage industry, social media participation varies.  On one extreme, we have companies like EMC or NetApp who have embraced the medium with a large number of active Twitter participants and bloggers.  The broad range of content and opinions suggests that both companies give employees great leeway. (Although it appears that the amount of freedom varies by division.) However, there is a downside.  At times conversations can devolve into competitive fighting that benefits neither party.  These discussions are frustrating and I know of people who have stopped following argumentative Twitter participants from both companies.  These spats are a byproduct of openness, and would be avoided if the companies implemented stronger controls.  However, by allowing open discord, individual personalities can flourish thus creating a more engaging social media experience. 

While EMC and NetApp are highly active on Twitter, there are plenty of companies in the storage and data protection industry who have limited involvement. It is not clear whether the limited participation is due to a lack of recognition of the importance of the medium or perhaps a Dilbert-like scenario where corporate policy or legal requirements prevents participation.  Social media represents an important outlet to interact with end users, peers and colleagues and I believe that companies who are not participating are missing out on an opportunity.  I understand the fear of trying something new or being involved in a competitive fight, but social media enables new connections that are difficult, if not impossible, to recreate using other mediums.

The problems described above are typically found in large companies that are slow to adopt to new mediums and marketing outlets.  Smaller companies, like SEPATON, typically have an advantage because they are often more agile and willing to try new approaches.  In the case of my employer, SEPATON, I started this blog over two years ago and began tweeting soon thereafter.  It has been a great experience and the numerous interactions with other industry participants has been extremely valuable.  I can say with absolute certainty that social media including Twitter has facilitated many new relationships.

In summary, I believe that social media participation is very important.  It can increase corporate recognition and drive new interactions with current and future customers.  While some companies have an open approach which may not be right for everyone, the strategy of ignoring the outlet is not a recipe for success.  Companies must choose the strategy that works most effectively for them, and I am fortunate that SEPATON has embraced a model of openness.  Companies who are struggling with social media would be well-served to remember that their employees represent them every day in phone calls, events, meetings and webinars.  If you trust your employees to represent you in daily activities why not in social media?  I know that this is a struggle for many companies, but remember if you are not participating, your competitors likely are.

Related posts:

1. My experience with social media and the Super Bowl

Click for larger view – Comic courtesy of xkcd.com

Via Beth Pariseau from TechTarget.

Related posts:

1. W. Curtis Preston Now with TechTarget

Last Sunday I thoroughly enjoyed watching the hard fought Super Bowl between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. It was a close game until the very end when the Saints made a critical interception. Interestingly, one of my lasting memories from the game relates to social media.

I watched the first half of the game with my friends with no thought of social media. The half time show was headlined by The Who, and as the band started, my first thought was, “these guys are unimpressive; I must tweet about it.” I retrieved my Blackberry, starting tweeting with SocialScope and engaged in a lively discussion with my twitter comrades about the merits of the band. As the second half started, the topic moved to the game and the performance of the two teams. It was great seeing a diverse range comments and perspectives.

In summary, my Twitter interactions improved my Super Bowl viewing experience. Some people are skeptical about the value of social media and this scenario is a microcosm of the benefits of the new medium. Where else can you create relationships with people with a common interest that transcends geographic boundaries? I continue to be impressed with the many smart people I meet on Twitter and suggest that my readers try it out. You can find my full Twitter profile here.

Related posts:

1. Social media, corporate strategy & Dilbert

I attended multiple keynote and breakout sessions at SNW last week, but my busy meeting schedule conflicted with many of the morning sessions. I was able to attend to Data Domain’s talk given by Frank Slootman and wanted to provide some commentary.

The bulk of the session was boring and included what appeared to be a standard corporate slide deck which I am sure any salesperson could present in their sleep.  The presentation could be summarized with Data Domain’s usual message: inline deduplication is good and everything else is bad, and, of course, Data Domain’s deduplication is the best.  I was definitely hoping for something more interesting and was sorely disappointed; however, things changed when it came to the Q&A.

Just to provide a bit of background, my experience with SNW is described here.  There were a large number of end users in attendance both at the expo and the keynote sessions and I estimate that many of the show’s 900 end users were in attendance for this talk.  At the end of the planned remarks, Slootman opened the floor to questions.

The first question came from a Data Domain end user who was familiar with Slootman.  The customer started by saying “Frank, we met when you visited our company.”  Slootman acknowledged the statement although it was not clear that he knew the person and things went downhill from there.

The customer was a Data Domain user and expressed frustration about the lack of basic capacity planning tools.  He was annoyed about his systems’ limited advanced warning when space was running low.  The result was that he had to fight with procurement to expedite the purchase of new shelves to ensure that he did not violate business SLAs.  His seemingly simple request was a tool that would allow him to forecast storage requirements for his Data Domain systems so he could plan purchases in advance.  Seems like a reasonable request, right?  Well, not according to Slootman.

First Slootman suggested that the end user pay attention to the automated capacity warnings.  The end user replied “Yes, but when those arrive it is too late.”  (I wonder if this can be adjusted.)  The customer pressed the point and said “I really need this and you promised it!” At this point Slootman became agitated and you would think that he would put on his “the customer is always right” hat and say something vague like “I will look into it and see if I can get it prioritized” or perhaps “I understand your frustration, let’s meet after the show and discuss it.”  Nope, none of the niceties from Slootman, he went straight for the jugular.  His answer was “Look, I have 50 other priorities just like this on the list and yours is on the bottom!”  Ouch!  How is that for customer service?  At this point, the end user’s microphone was disabled and questioning moved elsewhere.

The entire discussion was surprising.  My table comprised a mix of vendors and end users and everyone was looking at each other in wonder.  I even heard a couple of people say “can you believe he said that?”  I was equally surprised especially since everything Slootman had previously said was boring corporate fluff and I would never imagined that he would respond so aggressively to a customer.

In summary, the question about capacity planning was the highlight of the Slootman’s talk.  As the head of EMC’s Backup and Recovery division, you would think that Slootman would take a customer-centric approach to the situation.  Sure the end user was frustrated and perhaps even a bit aggressive, but I would have expected Slootman to take the high road and avoid alienating a customer in a public forum.  Clearly he did not.  Being the head of the division, it makes you wonder what values he is instilling in his own organization.  Is he suggesting that this is an appropriate way to treat customers?  Would it be acceptable for his reps to say the same thing to an agitated end user?  Clearly the answer should be no, but is it?

What do you think?  Is this an appropriate response to a question in a public forum?  Have you seen a similar attitude from others in his group?

Related posts:

1. Poll: Who will acquire Data Domain?
2. It’s final – EMC acquires Data Domain
3. Data Domain & GDA – Bolt-on to the rescue

I returned from SNW in Phoenix last night and wanted to recap the event.  I had 10+ meetings at the show and there were multiple sessions and so am providing my perspectives on the event in general and the sessions I did attend.

Deduplication remains hot and still confuses many
I attended 5 different sessions on deduplication.  The content overlapped quite a bit and yet all but one of them was full.  The presentation in all cases focused primarily on deduplication and data protection.  I heard that there was a great panel discussion on primary storage deduplication which I unfortunately missed. Clearly, primary storage dedupe was not ignored, but it appeared that data protection remained the focus of the dedupe sessions.

Anecdotally, the most common deduplication question related to the difference between target and source deduplication.  It also appeared that deduplication adoption was limited.  When asked who was using some form of deduplication about 50% of the audience raised their hand, but when queried about system size, hands went down rapidly at around 10-15 TB.

The key takeaway is that deduplication remains a strong point of interest.  It appears that end users are still trying to understand the technology and how to implement it on a larger scale.

FCoE is still very early
I sat in on a panel discussion on FCoE with Cisco, Brocade, QLogic, NetApp and LSI/Engenio and augmented this with numerous one-on-one discussions with industry analysts.  In the panel session, the FC focused vendors (primarily Brocade) downplayed the importance of FCoE and suggested that FC would dominate for years to come.  Conversely, the IP focused vendors (Cisco and NetApp) highlighted a key win and were more focused on driving the technology into the FC realm.  Clearly, we are seeing two differing agendas at work and it will be curious to see how it plays out.  In general, the panel agreed that FCoE adoption will not become mainstream before 2011.

The other interesting takeaway is that it appeared that interoperability is still a concern.  Most vendors are on second generation technology and more testing is required.  A plugfest will be taking place at UNH in early November to verify that everything works together.  Part of the challenge is that the FCoE standard is about 90% finalized, and there is the remaining 10% that could cause issues. I wonder whether these interoperability concerns impact potential early adopters.

End user attendance was strong, vendors, not so much
There were far more end users attending the conference than I expected.  This is my fourth SNW and my experience has been that SNW tends draw more vendors than end users.  The expo hall was relatively barren from a vendor perspective and yet there were many end users.  These were real users with serious data storage needs.  It was a refreshing change from past years where vendors dominated the audience.

I am hopeful that the strong end user attendance is a reflection of an improving storage economy as suggested by Sunshine Mugrabi in this Tweet.

It was clear that vendor attendance was down.  We saw far fewer expo hall booths and sponsorship items that you might normally expect were nowhere to be seen.  For example, they did not give out bags, shirts or custom hotel keys and the gala was lower budget than in the past.  I believe that this is a reflection of the current market and vendors trying to cut marketing spend.

In summary, I was pleased with my experience at SNW.  It was a great opportunity to meet with end users, analysts and other vendors and also gain insights into technologies currently in use or under consideration.  My findings in both deduplication and FCoE were consistent with what I have seen in the market and in conversation with others.  Finally, SNW was also a fantastic opportunity to meet other twitterati including the likes of @Valb00, @RayLucchesi, @Mike_Fishman, @StorageMojo, @JohnSWebster, @dvellante and @dfloyer.

Related posts:

1. Tradeshow perspectives
2. Pondering Fibre Channel over Ethernet

It has been a particularly busy week here at SEPATON HQ with limited blogging time.  Instead of a technology oriented post, I thought that I would highlight some marketing items from this week.

Upcoming speaking event
I will be speaking at the Storage Decisions Deduplication Seminar this Tuesday, 8/25 in Hartford, CT.  This free event is open to end users and W. Curtis Preston will be speaking as well.  If you are in the area, visit this URL for registration and location information.

University of New Hampshire press release and case study
SEPATON issued a press release on August 19 highlighting UNH and their deployment of an S2100-ES2 with DeltaStor technology.  UNH is an example of a customer who experienced the challenges with physical tape that I addressed in Streaming LTO-5 and The Fallacy of Faster Tape. The customer struggled to stream his tape drives and did not want to multiplex because of the impact on recovery times.  The SEPATON solution enabled him to dramatically accelerate backups and recoveries and prevented shoe-shining.  Download the case study to read more.

InfoStor article
InfoStor recently posted openBench Lab’s review of SEPATON’s S2100-ES2 with DeltaStor deduplication. openBench tested an S2100-ES2 and DeltaStor with virtual server backups and provide a detailed analysis of the performance and reduction ratios.  The full report will be available on our website shortly and I will update this post with a link when available.

Related posts:

1. SEPATON Performance Revisited

First, AboutRestore.com was recently nominated as a top storage vendor blog over at StorageMonkeys, and there is an open vote to decide the winner. Here is a link to the voting page and I encourage my readers to participate.

Second, I attended the Storage Decisions Data Deduplication Virtual Tradeshow a couple of weeks ago. The last time I attended a virtual trade show was about a year ago and it was interesting to revisit this medium.

Virtual shows are inexpensive to produce and attend, which is beneficial for show producers and presenters. The shows also benefit end users who can avoid spending the time and money of traveling to the show and can fit it into an already busy schedule.

On the flip side, I believe that virtual tradeshows reduce the personal experience of tradeshows. Part of the benefit of a show is the ability to discuss solutions with end users and network with peers. In my experience, both of these benefits are reduced in the virtual show. There is only so much time you can spend in a text chat and most people are too rushed to spend time chatting.

The jury is still out on the benefit of virtual events versus physical tradeshows. However, as technology matures, I am certain that the limitations on virtual shows will be overcome by technologies such as virtual worlds. I am anxious to see how the technology progresses.

Related posts:

1. Tradeshow perspectives
2. Tradeshow giveaway gone bad: the video

For those of you unfamiliar, Twitter is a micro-blogging application with posts of 140 words or less. It is a great forum for discussion and interaction with others in the industry. I particularly enjoy the real-time updates from various analysts and members of the press. You can view my profile here and see my posts in my new sidebar widget.

I am curious about Twitter usage and created the small survey below.

Related posts:

1. My experience with social media and the Super Bowl
2. It’s final – EMC acquires Data Domain

About a week ago, Curtis posted on his blog that he is joining TechTarget as an Executive Editor which essentially means that he will continue to present at various events. He is still an independent consultant and can keep working on his other projects including his Mr. Backup Blog and BackupCentral.

In my opinion, this is a great outcome for both TechTarget and Curtis. The Backup/Deduplication schools will benefit from Curtis’s continued tenure as a featured speaker. He is an engaging presenter and provides a balanced perspective. It is also beneficial for Curtis because he is free to pursue his personal and business interests.

A big congratulations to both TechTarget and Curtis!

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1. W. Curtis Preston on physical tape

I was disappointed to see this announcement from TechTarget. As one would expect, their actions are in response to the current economic situation. I can understand the cutbacks in headcount, but I am disappointed with the cancellation of the print version of Storage Magazine.

Storage is one of the best publications focused on the storage and data protection industry. The periodical contains high quality commentary from numerous industry pundits and provides an opportunity to advertise in print to a targeted audience. Personally, I think that it provided strong value on both fronts.

Those from Tech Target will argue that the content will still be available on the Web, a media that is more in line with their reader requirements. I disagree, I find strong value in physical print. The ability to take the magazine with me and read it on a plane or during a moment of downtime is valuable and that experience is not duplicated on the web. Yes, I have a “smart phone”, but the experience is still is not the same. Additionally, I believe that advertising in a physical magazine is very different from advertising on the Web. Sadly the print option is no longer available.

In short, these are tough times in the economy and I am saddened that the printed Storage has been canned. It was a great publication and its value (at least to me) will decline when it goes web-only. Of course, Tech Target needs to manage its own business and this was a business decision, , Personally, I think that it is a mistake.

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