You're So Vain, and Precious

2:20 PM -- While we normally try to shield you, gentle reader, from the inner workings of our sausage-making here at Byte and Switch, sometimes it just can't be helped.

Working off an internal editorial request, our supra-caffeinated IT staff sifted through various Webtrends data to find the most commonly search phrases on B&S for 2005. The results were a little unexpected, but worth sharing.

So you're probably thinking, network attached storage, information lifecycle management, server clustering.

And that's where you'd be terribly wrong.

After tossing out the seven of the top 10 phrases -- all variations on byte and/or switch -- the most commonly seached phrase was WAFS, the wide-area file services capability championed by Availl, Brocade, Revivio, and others.WAFS was followed by "gollum." Then came pop singer Carly Simon, who's obviously reinvented herself as some kinda storage doyenne when that whole big-band thing fizzled.

The Web may lie, but Webtrends doesn't. And I'm betting they're smart enough to offer up the standard disclaimer that -- as in real estate -- the information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

A number of vendor names follow Carly on the list, and the first identifiable storage exec to pop up is Kumar Malavalli (23) CEO of InMage Systems Inc.

Then follow a few more vendors, and up pops Luca Cafiero (34) a former Cisco employee who came to them from Andiamo. Skip past a few more company names and land on "the wiggles" (42).

I'm not even going to try to parse that one.Clearly, we've missed two new coverage areas at B&S. And so we're very excited about adding Middle Earth and Heinz as major new cornerstones of the B&S mandate in the coming year.

That ketchup will taste good with the sausage.

Terry Sweeney, Editor in Chief, Byte and Switch

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