I think we all know the drill. Whenever you’re writing for public consumption (blogs, articles, papers, books, etc.), there’s this little thing called “fact checking” that’s required. True, it can be an annoying process that might cause you to miss a deadline or arrive late at a party, but we’re all obliged to do it. If your buddy tells you that BMW decided to stop building cars, would you post that in a blog without checking it out first? Of course not, but there is at least one person out there in blog-land that must have been really late to that party, or, in the spirit of Stephen Colbert, entered into the world of “truthiness”.

The past few weeks have been pretty busy here at HDS with some rather big announcements such as our mid-market virtual controller, the USP VM, and a certification with “VMware Infrastructure 3” (VI3). So when someone pointed out to me that Chuck Hollis of EMC fame claimed, two days after our VMware announcement, that our certification with VMware was, in fact, a pre-announcement and that we could not have been qualified because it’s “devilishly hard” (and we all know that only EMC can do “devilishly hard” things?). I had to set the record straight. First off, it was not “devilishly hard” at all, and if Chuck had actually read our press release he would have noticed that a VMware executive was quoted in the release. And if you look at VMware’s HCL list, you’ll see that ONLY Hitachi is listed for both internal storage AND external virtualized storage.

Another statement Chuck made was that EMC has “a boatload of experience with quals in general, storage virtualization in particular.” This struck me as a rather odd thing to say since “InVista” is not qualified under this supposedly secret VMware program and, in fact, hasn’t really hit the streets yet and it was originally announced 2 ½ years ago. So who has the experience in storage virtualization? The truth is EMC is really not doing very much in storage virtualization at all.

But in spite of Chuck’s rants, end-to-end virtualization is a big deal.

• Our Host Storage Domains allow multiple images (up to 1024) to attach via the same physical port, each securely protected and each starting their domains at LUN0 for boot from a SAN.
• Non-disruptive any-to-any data movement in support of VMotion activity
• QoS to ensure that the critical applications and servers get the resources required.
• A full suite of data replication products.

EMC doesn’t have an equivalent offering, and Chuck’s blog, in my mind, is just a “since-we-don’t-have-we’ll-poke-fun-at-those-who-do” routine.

Here are some other comments from analysts:

• ESG - “‘Day 1’ Support for VMware ESX Server 3.0: This will better facilitate the integration of server and storage virtualization strategies. Additionally, it should come as no surprise that HDS is the first vendor certified for external storage virtualization by VMware for its Infrastructure 3 program.”
• Illuminata - “Upon shipment, the USP VM will support attachment to virtualized server environments running VMware ESX 3.0.2. The USP VM, its Universal Volume Manager (for management of heterogeneous external storage volumes), and array management software will also have been certified by VMware. As such, HDS will have been the first vendor to obtain external storage virtualization certification directly from VMware.”"For VMware users in particular, understanding virtualized storage controllers like the USP VM is highly useful.”
• Ovum - “HDS announced day one support for VMware ESX Server 3.0, allowing for enhanced integration of server and storage virtualization strategies for additional efficiencies.”
• Josh Krischer and Associates - “This embedded virtualization layer is particularly useful for supporting heterogeneous clusters and server virtualization such as VMware ESX. In fact, Hitachi claims that it is the first vendor to obtain external storage virtualization certification from VMware and the USP VM has ‘Day 1’ support for VMware ESX Server 3.0 to facilitate the integration of server and storage virtualization infrastructures.”

I feel better now and at least I can enjoy the party.

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