NetApp Announces VMware Products

from the "It's about time" department.

Network Appliance announced February 12th that they were planning to release two products for VMware ESX Server.

The first is SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure. This product will manage backups, recovery, and replication of NetApp storage connected to VMware Virtual Infrastructure systems. More info here: http://www.netapp.com/products/enterprise-software/manageability-software/server-suite/smgr-virtual-infrastructure.html. The product data sheet is here: http://www.netapp.com/ftp/ds_2741_snapmanager.pdf

The second product is Provision Manager which is designed to simplify and accelerate storage provisioning. More info here: http://www.netapp.com/products/enterprise-software/manageability-software/data-suite/provisioning.html. The product data sheet is here: http://www.netapp.com/ftp/ds_2742_provisioningmgr.pdf

In related news, with the release of NetApp OnTap 7.3 deduplication is available in primary storage for Network Appliance systems without the purchase of a Nearstore license. This should improve efficiencies in storage, especially where deployed systems are based on common images.

System Virtualization & the Market

What's the story on VMware these days? Some opine that their run is done. My opinion is they have at least 18-24 months before any competition will start to drag down their growth. I’d expect their rampant profit/growth to start fading during this time due to price cuts to thwart the competition. However their enterprise products will continue to command a premium as long as the value is there (it is) and the competitors are not executing on their current promises (they’re not). Coupled with the strong new product offering in the enterprise space with Site Recovery Manager I think VMware is in the catbird seat for the short term. Survey says this is the case now

This could swing a bit if Linux starts to gain more momentum, but so far it’s still not as pervasive as MSFT (to put it mildly). I expect the linux distros to work better with the Xen based hypervisors than Windows, but it doesn’t seem that linux is displacing windows but instead supplementing it.

I do expect the VMW mothership (EMC) to struggle a bit with some of the upstarts in storage, esp. now that Equallogic has found a sugar daddy of its own in DELL. Enterprise storage is another area that will be undergoing extensive churn for the near term and out a couple of years. It will be exciting to see what happens in the Sun (JAVAD) vs. NetApp (NTAP) legal cagematch they’ve gotten into over storage patents. The line between storage and software continues to blur with Left Hand Networks and their virtual iSCSI appliance for VMware ESX. I bet they’ll IPO or get snapped up soon.

Looks like VMware is firing back regarding Oracle's claims of performance here. I was surprised that it took so long, considering claims of 3x the efficiency of "other leading server virtualization vendors".