Surprise, surprise. After months after bad-mouthing their competitors for their capacity guarantee programs, EMC has done an about face and has announced their own, very restricted, guarantee program.
EMC offers a 20% capacity guarantee, as opposed to 50% from 3PAR's Get Thin Guarantee program. (FWIW, other vendors have also made 50% guarantees) I guess EMC must be concerned they won't really be able to do it. Also, 3PAR's capacity guarantee applies to EMC customers, but EMC's program does not apply to 3PAR customers. What does that say?
(Video note: For readers unfamiliar with #storagebeers, it was an event that started in the UK, by the blogger Storagebod and it has become a meme in the online storage community.)
Hi Marc
I think you misunderstood.
The EMC offer is over-and-above any comparable offer, including (ostensibly) the 50% offers.
Not instead of.
-- Chuck
Posted by: Chuck Hollis | May 24, 2010 at 12:20 PM
Chuck, The 'ostensibly' part is a little tough to figure out. Is that EMC math?
Posted by: marc farley | May 24, 2010 at 01:17 PM
Considering that the only rule I see is that this be comparing 2 arrays that include both SAN and NAS, it seems a little difficult to see how it would apply to 3Par, since you do not have a NAS-capable array. Maybe EMC is targeting a different competitor with this offer.
In the interest of fairness, why don't you post the terms and conditions for 3Par's guarantee up for your readers to compare.
Posted by: Chris | May 24, 2010 at 06:17 PM
Chris, I found this link when I searched on your name: http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbirdwell. If you are an EMC employee, why didn't you identify yourself as such and why did you use a gmail email address with your comment?
FWIW, The cartoon made it pretty clear that EMC's guarantee is directed at Netapp. Also, customers that are interested in checking out our capacity guarantee can do so with us and we are more than happy to go through it with them. The basics of the program are outlined in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TLQOpjKATM
Posted by: marc farley | May 24, 2010 at 11:06 PM
Marc! This is great stuff! I continue to be stunned by your creativity! Keep up the good work!!!
Posted by: Mike Hardy | May 28, 2010 at 09:30 AM
Hey Thanks Mike!, Nice to hear from you.
Posted by: marc farley | May 28, 2010 at 12:38 PM