Olympian Thanks

On this day of roses and chocolates, we can thank our lucky storage stars that this newsletter (and the Byte and Switch Website) are not being brought to you by NBC.

NBC... You know, the pathos-sodden broadcaster that is coloring every Olympic moment it can in shades of Hallmark.

Sadly, despite its best efforts, this networks human interest sidebars of hardship, woe, and sacrifice are leaving me cold – not more connected to the athletes and activities half a world away. Must-flee TV.

Still, there are possibilities here for shaking up the storage world. Think people with great hair asking the questions. Imagine Bob Costas probing the intricacies of virtualization: "So Mr. Tucci, was it the new scoring system that led you to drop your ILM coach to take up with Invista?"

You can practically hear ex-Brocade exec Greg Reyes at the downhill starting line, telling Mary Carillo, "I'm super-stoked." Or a QLogic exec panting into the camera: “We don’t care who gets the 4-gig credit. It’s about teamwork!”Then too, maybe NBC could gather inspiration from storage stars – like spunky Isilon, who’s helping it manage this treacle in Torino. (See NBC Taps Isilon for Olympics.) After all, broadcasting is among the key storage markets these days, a close second or third to healthcare in the vertical hype relays. (See Healthcare Prescribes Storage.) Surely there are heart-tugging angles afoot in the temporary IT trailers.

For what it's worth, we at B&S have our own heartstrings tale. We tasted some of that agony of defeat this week, too. After what we thought was a generous offer, Michelle Kwan turned down our proposition... to cover the ILM Summit going on this week in Irvine, Calif. We've been on pins and needles awaiting the brave storage execs who will attempt the challenging "Quad Keynote" tomorrow. An eight-footed landing will probably not score well with the judges, or Dick Button.

In a nutshell, thank god for TiVo. And closing ceremonies that can't come soon enough. But let’s not forget what we can learn from NBC: We in the storage world have our own battles to fight, our own – sniff – mountains of data to climb, our own gold medals to win. If a half-pipe race can force a tear or two, so can that RFP on your desk.

— Terry Sweeney, Editor in Chief, Byte and Switch

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