It’s only 7 a.m., and I’ve learned something new. I woke up early (too early) and was catching up on some blog reading, including this one from Jon Toigo. There, I stumbled on his use of the word bleg, which is a term I did not know. As is my custom, I then went on a random internet walk (using the Google search term define: bleg) to find out what else I didn’t know. That led me to a blogosphere glossary from Blogossary. Have fun scrolling the list, and watch out for blogfat.
Mon 23 Jun 2008
While Looking For A Definition of Bleg, I Find a Blogossary
Posted by jtmcarthur under Social Media, Storage and Data Management
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Sun 15 Jun 2008
Dave Hitz on NetApp: Spear Fishing or Casting a Wide Net?
Posted by jtmcarthur under Product development, Startups, Storage and Data Management, Technology
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I recently had the pleasure of reading a draft of Dave Hitz’ new book (title intentionally withheld, so as not to play the spoiler). Dave is one of the co-founders of NetApp (nee’ Network Appliance), and he wrote the book, at least in part, to give current NetApp employees a view into the early days of the company. At recent growth rates, I suspect that substantially more than half of the employees have been with the company fewer than five years and missed not only the startup days, but the turnaround days, post-2001. (more…)
Thu 3 Apr 2008
Separation of Duties and the Implications for Product Design
Posted by jtmcarthur under Product development, Security, Startups, Storage and Data Management, Technology, Virtualization
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I spent an hour today with an Onaro customer and through the conversation learned a little bit about how different companies handle the separation of duties in IT processing. I met with the customer to better understand the critical decision criteria that were behind his choice of Onaro, what features were most valued and what alternatives were considered. Turns out, at the time of his decision several years ago, he didn’t see many alternatives. Onaro, which was an independent software supplier at the time, was recently acquired by NetApp, a storage systems company.
This customer originally licensed Onaro’s SANscreen offering to ensure that the company’s IT change-control process was being followed in the storage network. SANscreen maps the entire data path from the host bus adapter (HBA) in the server, through the cables and switches, ultimately to the storage array. Anytime someone makes a change to the configuration of his fibre channel storage area network (FC-SAN), he gets a notification. If the change hasn’t been authorized through the change-control process, he investigates. As we were talking he showed me several alerts, that he had just received on his Blackberry, regarding changes that had not been authorized. (more…)
Wed 2 Apr 2008
I'm Now a BzzAgent
Posted by jtmcarthur under Marketing, Selling, Viral Marketing
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I had a conversation with Megan at BzzAgent this week. My interest was peaked, when a former IDC colleague, who now works at Iron Mountain Digital, mentioned BzzAgent.
BzzAgent claims to have 400,000 “buzz agents,” who have agreed to review products and services and to share with their friends and colleagues their honest opinion. BzzAgents get the products for free. They test them. And they create buzz. The buzz could be good, or it could be bad, but it’s buzz. I don’t know if Iron Mountain Digital uses BzzAgent, but I can see the fit, since, Iron Mountain offers desktop and server backup services to homes and businesses.
At the $80,000 entry price that Megan mentioned, you’ll want to get a lot of buzz for the investment, and you’ll want to have enough confidence in your product to expect that most of the buzz will be good. In the consumer products and services area, I see a great opportunity to leverage BzzAgent. It’s hard to see the fit for the kinds of enterprise IT infrastructure providers with whom we are working. But, Megan suggested I check out their Frogpond offering, which I will do when I get a chance.
In the meantime, after listening to the pitch from Megan, I decided to sign up myself. I am now officially a BzzAgent. I’ll let you know how it goes. For now, I’ve just filled out a bunch of surveys about my drinking habits (softdrink and otherwise). Fortunately, the fortunes of Coke and Pepsi don’t depend much on my soft-drink habits. If they did, the companies would be broke.
Tue 1 Apr 2008
One Mediocre Product, One Great Product, One Product.
Posted by jtmcarthur under Marketing, Product development, Selling
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I did a couple of customer-satisfaction interviews today. I won’t tell you the company or describe the product. It’s not important to the discussion, but in case you are wondering, it’s not one of the companies or products I represent. It is important to note that both individuals that I interviewed want the product and the company to succeed.
In the first survey, I got a lot of feedback. Almost an hour’s worth. There was some very positive feedback about certain components of the offering, but I heard many more negative comments, such as:
- They are barely keeping up with free alternatives.
- The leadership was great for a startup, but needs to step aside if they are to get to the next level.
- They are not listening to their customers.
- They treat everyone the same, and don’t listen to the different needs of different customers.
- No one thinks their product or their service is adequate.
- I have to go to a third party to fix the problems they aren’t addressing, and I know other customers who are doing the same thing.
- I shouldn’t have to pay someone else to do the job that they should be doing. (more…)
Sun 30 Mar 2008
A History of Picture Phones: What's The Job To Be Done?
Posted by jtmcarthur under New Markets, Product development, Technology
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My recent blog post on Skype and Logitech inspired one of Skype’s bloggers, Villu Arak, to locate this history of picture phones. If you look through the history, you’ll notice several different jobs that were being proposed for the picture phones: business communication, grandparents staying connected with grandchildren, soldiers calling home. While AT&T’s initial implementations failed, the jobs still needed to be done.
This post by Villu confirms that fact, as he writes about some of the ways that Skype is being used today:
Distant lovers enjoying dinner — and each other’s company — over a free video call.
Local-government officials replacing meetings with multichats.
Homesick soldiers keeping a line open with their families. (more…)
Sun 30 Mar 2008
Data Migration: Bloggers Comment
Posted by jtmcarthur under Startups, Storage and Data Management, Virtualization
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I’ve spent a good part of this past week getting ready for Storage Networking World, co-sponsored by SNIA and ComputerWorld, and the I’m-Not-Going-to-Storage-Networking-World event hosted entirely at his own expense by Jon Toigo at a nearby, but semi-secret, location. In honor of the two events, I felt compelled to write about storage. But first, I’ll start with a one-question qualifying quiz.
Small and Medium Business (SMB) Storage Administrator Qualifying Exam
Question: Your “storage system” consists of 25 disk drives that are housed in 8 separate database and file servers. Some of your applications are growing rapidly and require a lot more storage. Others are not growing. In total, you have plenty of available storage capacity, but it sits inside servers that aren’t accessible to the applications that need extra capacity. You want to move to a storage area network, because you’ve heard that all of the storage will then be available to all of the applications and can be managed as a shared pool. You must accomplish the migration of data from the internal drives to a new, blazingly-fast, infinitely-scalable storage area network without interrupting application availability or data access, and without screwing up volume names. From the following, select the answer that most closely describes the correct approach: (more…)
Thu 27 Mar 2008
Skype, Logitech, and the 1964 World's Fair
Posted by jtmcarthur under Startups, Storage and Data Management, Technology
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While I am constantly immersed in some aspect of technology, on a personal level, I’m a bit of a technology laggard. If something is working, I don’t have a driving need to replace it with the latest technology. I still own one black-and-white television and two of my televisions have rabbit ears, though I won’t keep them past February 17, 2009, when a digital converter will be necessary to allow them to continue to work.
However, having just returned from the U.K., where I spent $0.99 per minute to make calls back to the U.S. on my AT&T Blackberry (that’s with the International Calling Plan discount), I decided I need to join the more-technically-current crowd. Turns out that for many situations, a Logitech camera and microphone together with a Skype account provided the perfect remedy to the pain of expensive international calls.
I was in New York in 1964, to see the 1964 New York World’s Fair. I don’t think that Skype and Logitech are what AT&T had in mind, when they showed their Picturephone at the Fair. It’s rather impressive what 44 years of additional innovation can bring.
Sat 22 Mar 2008
RyanAir is Not in the Airline Business
Posted by jtmcarthur under Marketing, Product development
[2] Comments
RyanAir is in a lot of businesses, but they are definitely not in the airline business. The airplanes they fly are simply the delivery mechanism for a lot of other services. And since the airplane is the method of delivery, RyanAir has done everything they can possible do to reduce their per-plane cost. For example, they have
- Maximized seat density, making it impossible for anyone with an inseam greater than 32″ to slouch in the seat.
- Eliminated the removable safety-instructions card and replaced them with laminated labels on each seatback.
- Eliminated the seat-back pockets so passengers won’t put trash in them, thus reducing the time to clean a plane.
- Boarded and deplaned from both the front and the rear of the plane, thus reducing the airport turnaround time to about 25 minutes.
- Standardized on a single style plane, the Boeing 737-800, to reduce pilot and crew costs.
- Arranged for landing rights and terminal gates in the lowest-cost locations in Europe.
You may be asking, “If RyanAir’s not in the airline business, then what business are they in?” Well, here’s a hint… (more…)
Fri 7 Mar 2008
Why Storage is So Difficult
Posted by jtmcarthur under Product development, Startups, Storage and Data Management
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It’s been just over a year, since I left IDC to form Walden Technology Partners, Inc. with David Burmon. While I didn’t expect to continue spending so much time in the storage and data management industry, that is how things have worked out initially. All of our current clients are involved, at least in part, in some aspect of information protection, storage, or management. And with the continued growth in information and content, a growth that is relatively immune to the effects of economic conditions, it should not have been a surprise to me.
Note that I said that the growth of content is relatively immune to economic conditions. The market for storage hardware and information management software has been proven many times to be highly affected by economic conditions.
Problems in information management have been around forever, and will persist far into the future, as this YouTube video documents. You’ve got to watch it. Really. And it’s not a product pitch. (more…)