Reiterating Why I Blog

This morning I got an email from Linked-In telling me about all the new groups I should join, and since I’m on vacation today and trying not to get too bored I decided to bite.

One of those groups was “Storage Professionals” and I figured what the hell, sign me up. After clicking the sign-up link I seen a discussion thread with the following question:

“Is EVA4400 a better storage [system] or EMC VNX5300?”

It seems like a question that would be easy to answer, but also much of that easy answer is going to be biased by your experience right? I clicked the link and started reading and, of course (not to my surprise) the vendor FUD began.

What started as a simple question from an IT guy turned into one vendor rep bashing the other. In fact, the first comment was from a guy pushing NetApp instead of the EVA or the VNX. After laughing a little I clicked the person’s profile link and sure enough “Senior Systems Engineer at NetApp” was his official title.

The trend continued throughout the thread and I’m not really sure the customer ever got his answer, which in my experience is pretty typical…. after all its sales right?

What happened in that discussion combined with sitting through vendor “kool-aid” drinking sessions is exactly why I started this blog. I would much rather share my real world experiences with their technology and even explain the background of the situation, and then tell you what my mileage was. From there it’s your decision on what works best for you and your environment I think that is the best way to share why you think a product is good or bad, bashing the other guy with pure sales marketing is not the way to go.

Back to my vacation! Have a great day.

Oh here is the link if you are interested in reading the linked in discussion: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Is-EVA-4400-better-storage-93470.S.77373239?qid=35b2f497-7708-41e7-99e6-3c049ab8b238&trk=group_most_popular-0-b-ttl&goback=.gmp_93470

 

 

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2 Responses to "Reiterating Why I Blog"

  1. Howdy, Dimitris from NetApp here.

    Yes, the vendors want to sell stuff, but dismissing qualified vendor engineer comments as FUD is misplaced anger to say the least.

    When I read such questions it feels to me like someone is asking something like:

    “I am trying to decide between a Chevy Cavalier and a BMW 320, which one should I buy?”

    The fact is there are plenty of cars, each with its pros and cons.

    Most customers asking such questions don’t even qualify the question, for example WHY you only can choose between the 2 models mentioned (sometimes there are valid, non-technical reasons).

    A lot of the vendor engineers have extensive IT experience, often having worked as a customer of IT for many years before going to a vendor.

    So my advice is this:

    If someone posts something with some valid content and not just “check out Product X, it is teh snappy” – maybe there’s a point to the comment.

    You know, we don’t get lobotomized when we join vendors (at least not all of us 🙂

    D

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