Microsoft Hogs the Spotlight

CHICAGO -- Storage Decisions 2003 -- Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) definitely stole the show here this week. The computer software giants grandstand launch of its Windows Storage Server 2003 was big enough to overshadow every other event -- and most vendors seemed to accept this as their fate, with many releasing only news related to the Microsoft splash (see Microsoft Raises NAS Roof and Vendors Jump to Back Microsoft NAS).

Of the 14 press releases listed on the Storage Decisions Website on Thursday, half were related to the Microsoft launch. And while vendors were pledging their oaths of Redmond allegiance, analysts at the show predicted that the Windows Storage Server will change the competitive face of NAS going forward.

“This is going to be the underlying NAS architecture,” says Enterprise Storage Group Inc. senior analyst Steve Duplessie. “The value for anybody going forward’s going to be: What are you going to wrap around it?” [Ed. note: And how many times I've been asked that question...]

Microsoft wasn’t going to risk being upstaged. The company sponsored a luxury cruise around Lake Michigan, where guests were greeted by characters including Charlie Chaplin, Elvis, and Lucille Ball [ed. note: all of whom were celebrity NAS administrators in their day, of course], and even had chocolate Windows Storage Server statuettes made for the occasion.

Figure 1: Lucy and Elvis welcome guests aboard the Microsoft cruise

Mob Scene

While this week’s conference may have been lacking in new vendor initiatives, there were no complaints about low end-user turnout. Unlike the Storage Networking World conference in April, where at least one vendor threw a temper tantrum over the lack of actual IT buyers, Storage Decisions claimed that at least 525 high-level financial and IT decision-makers turned up for the show (see Three Days in the Desert).

"We got $1.5 million in business from last year’s show, but this year it could be scary," claims Storability Inc. CEO Tim Leisman.

He means scary in a good way: "These people all have huge budgets... We’re shocked -- I mean, we’re overwhelmed." Leisman says that at least 250 people stopped by the Storability booth during the three hours the show-floor was open on Wednesday alone. Of course, the company is raffling off a really smooth sports car, which we suspect may have had something to do with it.

Figure 3: Leisman shows off Storability's grand prize

When in Doubt, Pundit

Meanwhile, the industry analysts were out en masse at this conference, offering up their advice on what products to buy, and how to keep the cost of storage down.

In his keynote speech on Wednesday, Gartner Inc. analyst Nick Allen, for instance, recommended that IT administrators keep a diverse range of vendors in their shop, to avoid getting locked into one vendor’s products and prices.

He also pointed out that, while ATA disks may have sent storage prices plummeting, administrators need to consider their environment carefully before splurging on a shipload of cheap disk. “Users are drooling at the lower cost,” he said. “While the price of this stuff is compelling, the market isn’t in particularly good shape.”

Users who have predictable storage growth, and who won’t be surprised by a sudden peak in demand, should therefore buy their storage in small increments, he said.Meanwhile, the “Rate the Switch Vendor” session, moderated by Enterprise Storage Group’s Nancy Marrone on Wednesday, reached a unanimous conclusion: While McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA) appears to be weathering the onslaught from Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) fairly well, Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD) is seriously slipping.

No one, however, seems to buy that ever-recurring rumor that Cisco is preparing to buy Brocade. Least of all Cisco: “Yeah, and we’re going to buy EMC, too,” a company rep guffawed. We're pretty sure he was only kidding...

Heard on the Floor

While Computer Associates International Inc. (CA) (NYSE: CA) was busy announcing a partnership with Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) on Wednesday for backing up laptops to NAS boxes, word on the showroom floor was that Sony will soon incorporate other software backup products into its NAS server as well (see Sony, CA Intro Mobile Backup).

“We will have solutions for Veritas Software Corp. (Nasdaq: VRTS) and Dantz Development Corp. in a couple months,” says Douglas Stringer, Sony’s business development manager for Tape Storage Solutions.At the moment, Sony is using CA’s BrightStor Mobile backup software to help customers ensure that their employees’ laptops are backed up often and securely.

But there is more to this story. While Sony is beta testing Veritas’s NetBackup Professional software for desktop and laptop backups, and expects to offer it as a NAS option soon, the company may end up having to get a much bigger package from the software giant.

A Veritas employee, who asked not to be named, has confirmed that the company is planning to repackage its mobile backup software into the upcoming launch of its Backup Exec 9.1. “Our Backup Exec product is well accepted -- it has 60 percent market share,” the employee says. “It makes sense to take products that are less developed and try to sell them as a piece of that.”

Charlie Chaplin, who was last seen stuffing a chocolate Windows Storage Server statuette into his mouth, declined to comment.

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— Eugénie Larson, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch