Charles Makes a Point (or Two)

EMC wins the Data Domain battle. 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/31829763/site/14081545

No real surprise to me, but an exciting thing for sure.  What I find interesting in CNBC's article is the continued speculation that NTAP may chase down CommVault, FalconStor, or Sepaton.  Even more interesting is the notion that NTAP might put themselves up for sale.  Of course, as an ex-EMCer, the idea they might put themselves on the auction block is not a new rumor, but I haven't seen too many folks repeating that idea outside 76 South Street or EMC Field offices.

I don't plan on making this a rumor mill blog, but this one's pretty good. StreetInsider.com and other financial sites are speculating that if EMC wins the battle for Data Domain (how could they not?), NTAP will go after CommVault.

Now THAT's an interesting move that has a wild chance at success!  (In case you couldn't tell, that was written with a lot of sarcasm).

If I were CommVault folks, I'd be worried right about now.  NTAP has a great track record of buying software companies and turning them into, well, bought companies.  Topio went away, Spinnaker is nowhere to really be seen outside of a roadmap slide that shows the same 'Coming Soon' graphic quarter after quarter, the Decru product seems to show up less and less every time I cross paths with NTAP -- are you detecting a theme here?  

NTAP does some things very well.  They should be rightly credited with driving the unified storage market to the point it is at today, pushing the thinking of the marketplace to places many didn't think it would go.  They have proven that 'good enough' in many situations is really good enough, and unified storage platforms can effectively solve many storage needs in the middle and upper middle marketplace.

They also do some things not so well.  They don't utilize space on the array very efficiently.  Their implementation of Fibre Channel is a little less performant than I'd like it to be at scale.  Their track record of acquiring at least moderately successful software companies and turning them into a game-changing feature or product line is, well, less than stellar.  They tend to get a little too testy when someone questions their technical methodologies.  Nothing horrific.  They aren't a bad company, and their technology is good, just not as good as others, in my opinion.

To me, this acquisition just doesn't make sense.  NTAP doesn't have a history of being able to sell software effectively.  Bringing a company like CommVault into the fold will take superior execution and understanding that the model for selling software can be quite different than that of selling hardware.  It took EMC several tries to grasp this, and it almost didn't work out very well for them (and in some cases it could be debated that they grasped it in time.  Legato, anyone?).  

How do you go from all but acquiring another hardware player that seems a perfect fit to a forced software buy?  You're not going to take CommVault and integrate it into the filers like you could the DD code.  Even if they could make it work, it would suck down so much performance on the array you'd have to buy FOUR of them to get anything accomplished in your environment.  Do you buy them and just leave them alone, letting them do their thing but add to the bottom line?  Maybe, but that doesn't really seem to gain them much.  Or do you swallow them up hoping it makes you more attractive to HP and they then gobble you both up to replace their anemic and ailing EVA line and obtain a modern backup product?  That doesn't seem to be 'in your face' enough for Donatelli to do, but it might just be enough of a poke in Tucci's eye to do it.  It would certainly stir the pot up a little more, and would make some rational sense.  It seems more likely to me that HP will pursue heavy R & D in the LeftHand product and try to turn some of that 'Invent' power loose to turn the storage world upside down.

What a weird day this turned out to be.