B. Stephen Brunner's IT Storage Blog

Flash Drive Technology -what is all the hype about?

EMC released the next generation of storage performance and ILM breakthrough through solid state disks (SSD) over a year ago.  Today, they continue to be the only major vendor to provide Flash as an offering.  SSD in the storage world is also known as Enterprise Flash Drives (EFD).  Now these are not your typical off the shelf USB thumb drives that use SSD.  We are talking about capabilities and an internal architecture that enables wicked performance, internal caching, exponentially faster response times (sub, millisecond versus millisecond) and limitless read and write hits.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - I demonstrate below that not only are flash drives practical in use, but also lower cost, and a far greater strategy that will set you apart from your competition.  I give you a mathematical example, and provide you to a press release of an EMC customer who has applied flash drives to their CRM application, to out with their competition.

Let's see the math, that proves lower cost through hardware assets, administrative reduction, and power consumption.

EMC to aquire Data Domain

My new Data Domain colleagues, please call me / email anytime.  I love working here.  I've been at start up's and large tech companies like this for many years.  And its so great being here.  I can tell you more details why. PRESS RELEASE Data Domain Agrees to be Acquired by EMC for $33.50 per share, Terminates Merger Agreement with NetApp, and Cancels Special Meeting of Stockholders Scheduled for August 14, 2009

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul. 8, 2009-- Data Domain, Inc. (NASDAQ:DDUP) announced today that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) providing for the acquisition of Data Domain by EMC. Pursuant to the definitive merger agreement with EMC and consistent with the tender offer previously commenced by EMC, EMC will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Data Domain common stock for $33.50 per share in cash.

Read more

http://ir.datadomain.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=211053&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1305776&highlight=

http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2009/20090708-02.htm

Roll The Credits!

How often is it that you see EMC play a role on the big screen or on TV?  Let’s see if you can recognize your favorite storage arrays in these supporting roles.

Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe with the CLARiiON systems (far right)

Eagle Eye with the Symmetrix DMX.

 

RSA Secure ID in the Sum of All Fears, with Ben Affleck.

RSA Secure ID again, this time in the series, Fringe.

Look for more great appearances coming soon in 2009!  Are there other movies or television spotlights that you know about?  List them here...

A Way to Save $ In 2008 for Your IT Purchases (both Hardware and Software)

Have you heard of this stimulus given to companies that the IT division can leverage?  I am surprised by not hearing more customers aware of this.  President Bush signed into law the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008.  As one of its provisions, the Act allows for additional first-year bonus depreciation of 50% of the adjusted basis of "qualified property" for the year in which the property is placed in service.  The legislation covers investments made in both Hardware and Software.  The Depreciation Bonus pertains to Tax Accounting (not Book Accounting).  Customers that purchase Capital equipment in 2008 will be able to depreciate (on a tax basis only) 50% of the equipment cost in year 1.  The equipment needs to be in use by December 31, 2008.  The Act expires at the end of 2008.  This is important if you already made IT purchases (or plan to before Dec 31, 2008).

The Benefits to you will be as follows:

1. The Act enables a company to accelerate Tax depreciation in 2008 - thus reducing 2008 tax obligations.  Larger upfront depreciation translates into initial lower tax obligations – this is the perceived value of the legislation.
2. Free Cash Flow: There is a second benefit for companies that place an emphasis on Free Cash Flow (FCF).  FCF is a metric used to gives investors a much clearer view of a company's ability to generate cash (and thus profits).
3. The Stimulus Act will not be attractive to all organizations – i.e. Non Profits are not candidates.

With only two months left in the year –you will find the fact that the Act will expire this quarter.

Here is an example of enhanced cash-flow for the acceleration of depreciation deduction on hardware placed in service date of 2008 vs 2009. The cash flow savings is calculated using a 35% federal tax rate.

Recent IT Spend Results

Have you ever wondered what other IT managers and leaders are investing their budgets into?  Here are some really interesting market research results.  Thank you to my friend, Chad Sakac, he posted an article today referencing the following.  On Sept 8th, Goldman Sachs released their annual survey analyzing IT spending - the "Independent Insight"  here's how THEY describe it.  In this post, I am taking most of the content from Chad and rewording it slightly.

"This is the 42nd issue in our IT Spending Survey series. Our survey panel is made up of 100 managers with strategic decision-making authority at multinational Fortune 1000 companies."

Note that this is FT1000 (EMC is doing excellent in all segments, take it for what it is, no more, no less ...but it does seem to fit very closely with Illinois and Indiana company demographics)

Interesting EMC Customer Facts

Interesting facts about EMC...

Did you know?

    * 100% of Securities firms on the 2006 Fortune Global 500 list are EMC customers
    * 24 of 25 Banks listed on the Fortune 500 use EMC
    * 45 of 50 Insurers listed on the Fortune 500 are EMC customers
    * 100% of Telecos on the 2006 Fortune Global 500 list rely on EMC
    * 49 of the top 50 Oil Companies listed on the Forbes 2000 are EMC customers
    * All 50 US State Governments have purchased EMC products since 2003
    * 100% of Aerospace & Defense firms on the 2006 Fortune Global 500 use EMC
    * 7 of 10 of the top General Merchandisers on the 2006 Fortune Global 500 use EMC