On Nov 18, "Shaun T. Erickson" ste@research.bell-labs.com wrote:
John Tatar wrote:
Yesterday, I was at my health club working out and watching CNBC. Here is the CEO of Netapp talking about their last quarter and their product line. What struck me was his statement about the product (This is not an exact quote - but a good approximation.
Interviewer: So you don't have do things like upgrade the OS
NetApp CEO: No, our products are like a refrigerator, how often do you have to upgrade your refrigerator.
So, what does that say for NetApp, if it's CEO is that clueless about his own product (I assume he wasn't intentionally *lying*, so what else *could* it have been, besides lack of clue)?
I wouldn't say Dan is clueless. I've had the opportunity to meet with Dan on a couple of occasions, and he is quite in touch with the aspects, both good and bad, about their product. He does know that some customers do have to upgrade their product from time to time, and sometimes for bug fixes. But the vast majority of the customers, once the system is up and running, they never have to upgrade. As a former customer (former, only because I left my old job at an ISP), I upgraded only once over the course of a year and a half. I had one filer that was up for over a year.
Beside, Dan was addressing stock analysts. Do you really think he's gonna say, "Oh yeah, we've got 5.3.2P3 about ready to ship." or "As a matter of fact, we've got DataONTAP 2000 shipping next week". Come on, think about the audience he's talking to. He's gonna give them the standard appliance speech, which will apply to most NetApp customers.
More often then not, when there is a problem with a filer, the suggested solution is inevitably to "upgrade to the blah-blah-[DPR]something release!". This guy has obviously never admin'd his own product.
He may have never admin'd his own product, but he has listened to those who have (me, for one).
Aaron