"Caspar" "It solves no problems today."

Well, except for the need to store scientific research results in such a way that they "can be displayed hundreds of years hence when systems have no idea what a CD or DVD or JPEG is."

I am not surprised to these results in the Blitz of News in this showcase....

Mainly, for a long time now, Companies that are involved in the business of Innovation and technology are being asked too early in the Product cycle for details.

All the big guys, IBM, HP, SUN, Intel, AMD, Microsoft and even Silicon Graphics.... all the ones doing the actual research, into the Tech of the future, the ones that are commercialising technology from the Lab to the Customer have the same issue.

NOTHING is a surprise anymore, those greedy money people need to know where their money are being absorbed... only thing is they are Under NDA's but it ends in the news, so I personally am not surprised...

Microsoft cannot be excluded, or blamed for the premature release of VISTA, and thus its demise for now..... Pressure from the the Stock market to release, to announce, and to lay ALL on the table for whom ever to see....

SUN Was forced to open its labs for all to see, after investors wanted to see what they were doing with such a high percentage of earnings going there..... SO even thought they are working on 16 core processors, and forced to talk 2 years before its release, injecting negativity into the markets...

I see fewer roadmaps, as a cause of this, it would help if the Value of the NDA was understood, ONLY too many want to hit the news with NEWS, self gain and realisation, and that moment of FAME.......

Greed is rife among us now, and I cannot see that changing, only the further demise of research and technology willing to disclose their roadmaps, but they need funding, and this is where the circle completes....

Chris Parker

Given IBM are now not adding SSDs to the DS8000 series, this ancient box will now come lower down the foodchain than the EMC CX4 arrays (RAID-6 and SSDs).

Mind you, the DS8000 series was never a serious contender for the top end Tier 1 arrays from HDS (including HP and Sun here), Fuji or EMC due to the limited number of storage processors. In fact the DS8000 could only seriously compete with the EMC CX3 series of Tier 2 arrays.

Even with SSDs, the DS8000 is very long in the tooth and missing critical functionality that its peers have launched or have had out for many years. The lack of investment in this platform shows.

Also, the CX4 can now be considered tier #1/0, with modular front end connectivity options, functionality and scalability.

CX4 considered tier 0/1 - yeah in your dreams. A windows box running your top tier storage... hehe

Seriously though, not sure how many CX customers will be paying the $30K per SSD to put in a mid-range box. Maybe its an admission that a big box like DMX isn't needed anymore?

Anyway, Chris's tone here is 'very register' and I counter some of his points over here :

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/storagevirtualization?entry=some_people_are_hard_to