Charles Makes a Point (or Two)

I was searching Google for something totally different, but found this page and i'm glad i did, thank you, good read.

Thanks for posting this. I just stumbled on your blog but I like your style. Keep going.

Your take is right on. I agree. Thanks.

Thanks for the information. This is interesting.

Have you read my change management model blog post? Usually applying those steps towards change are useful in any situation.

To whom this may concern:
I feel this was a very well written article and very true to a lot of situations not only in the business world but in each humans personal world. My comment to this article is that if you want this to happen in your business you need to make your intentions fully aware to all your employees and there has to be follow up communication to make sure that both employee and employer are both on the same page at all times. Resistance to change is always present in everyone. All human beings are resistant to change even if they can't admit it readily to themselves. Change happens in all human's lives. It could be good or it could be bad. Some people can get over bad changes a lot quicker than others. But a fact of life is that whatever someone else thinks is a bad change, someone else might look at it as a good change. This is why I feel that the lines of communication have to remain open at all times. Thank you for reading my take on this very well written article.

SFB --

I'm not surprised that they would make the claim. It's actually a good chess move, and one that is frequently deployed against the top vendors in their given space.

I don't think it's going to fly, for a couple of reasons. First, the de-dupe space has new competitors and new combinations of old competitors popping up seemingly every day (did you see CommVault and Dell's earth-shattering announcement today? Get this, you can buy CommVault software with Dell hardware; color me shocked :-]). This space is so new and so ripe for differing approaches that this acquisition really doesn't hurt competition. In fact, it might bolster it, since NTAP already has a target de-dupe product built into their array anyway.

The second reason I don't think it will fly is that the way you can look at the market is so widely varied. There is no one way to do de-dupe. There are new ways cropping up that could completely destroy the current market structure for the technology. It's been awhile since I've looked at anti-trust definitions, but there are threshholds that must be met beyond just market coverage, and the rules are pretty strict.

It's a good question to raise by the NTAP guys, for sure. I think it is a legitimate question, but not a legitimate barrier to stopping the deal, and EMC has a great legal team who understands these issues very well, and they are well equipped to answer any questions raised by the Feds. It may delay closure, though, and as long as that happens, it means NTAP has a chance to launch another round of offensive strikes.

Either way, for me as an architect, it makes talking about these issues much easier because more people are being educated on the technology. THAT, I love.

NetApp is out there saying EMC's acquisition of Data Domain will create an antitrust issue because the combined company will have a 50-70% market share depending upon which market you look at.

http://blogs.netapp.com/jay/2009/06/deduplicating-customer-choice.html

What's your take?

Well, I don't know what my "arrogant thoughts" are, actually. I don't think any of my comments were particularly arrogant, just thoughts on the matter.

My normal thoughts on the matter are that if you consider what Tucci is doing as begging, you have a very curious view of things. I've not read one legitimate commentary on this little competition between NTAP and EMC as begging by either side. It's good free market competition for a nice little company.

Furthermore, this battle is so far from over, it is barely just getting started. You seem to forget the fact that EMC has more cash and fluid investment available to them than NTAP's entire market cap. That is a pretty good pool of resource to draw from to draw this out. I'm not privvy to any information that says Tucci and the EMC Board will draw it out, obviously, but it sure seems to me that it is in their favor to sow more confusion and delay in the marketplace, and they can.

I hope that if EMC does win the battle, you'll be courageous enough to come back and post a nice comment on just how wrong you were. I'll sure be posting congrats to NTAP on the victory if they pull it off.

On another note, I'm also not sure why an anonymous person who doesn't post their name would think it appropriate or necessary to be insulting in their comment. I believe in robust debate, but I don't have to post abuse, and there's your one and only strike. If you should decide to post again, do so politely, and your comments will be posted. If not, they will be deleted. Thanks for honoring the rules!

So what are your arrogant thoughts now that EMC lost the battle for Data Domain while EMC CEO begged for Data Domain over Avamar junk?