FYI -- Back from my annual beach vacation.
Despite pulling the plug on the Data Domain deal, Kaushik Roy, analyst at Wedbush Morgan indicates that NetApp may bid on CommVault or FalconStor, while Jayson Noland, analyst at R.W. Baird, doesn't see a new NetApp acquisition in the near term. James Rogers at TheStreet.com even suggests the $57 million break-up fee could be thrown at further R&D.
More interestingly, George Crump at Byte and Switch proposes a strategy to "create and extend" an API for FAS Deduplication (much like Symantec OST), as well as further development of some sort of hybrid Open Systems SnapVault (OSSV) with intellectual property from Ocarina, Permabit, Exagrid, etc.
But beyond dedupe, the big picture is really about managing your data -- not devices.
I'm talking top-of-mind issues like .... What do I gain by automation of storage provisioning, file cleanup, etc.? Can I secure my data without disruption to my applications? How fast can I clone my VMs / DBs / files? Is it possible to virtualize my storage assets? What makes snapshots better backups?
Long-term, I believe this is a win-win situation for shareholders, the channel, and customers. Stay tuned!
