Compellent Customer Council (C3) Meets to Discuss Data Storage, Shift in "The Force" May 20, 2005
Renowned Jedi, Data Storage Master Yoda, Addresses Council Regarding Emerging Hope in Battle with The Dark Side of Networked Storage; Introduces Top Benefits of Being a Jedi Storage Administrator
Minneapolis, May 20, 2005 — The Compellent Customer Council (C3), a formalized product development program bringing end users and Compellent experts together to understand and address today’s storage requirements, met on Thurs., May 19, 2005, to discuss data storage and a shift in The Force felt by all Jedi Storage Administrators.
Yoda, the renowned Jedi and Data Storage Master, interpreted the shift as a sign of new hope for humanity and simplified network storage administration.
“Storage administrators, frustrated they are,” said Yoda. “Frustration is the path to The Dark Side. Frustration leads to excess storage, excess storage leads to wasted weekends. That is not the way of the Jedi Storage Administrator.”
“Quick and simple volume management, data recovery they want. Top ten list, provide I will,” added Yoda.
Yoda’s Top Benefits of Being a Jedi Storage Administrator:
- Use Jedi mind trick on users inquiring about yet another file recovery (i.e. “This isn’t the help desk you’re looking for.”)
- Able to barter with Jawa to trade old droids for new higher capacity drives
- Opportunity to “unlearn what you have learned” about command line volume management
- Never again having to go into Toshi Station to pickup power converters, additional SATA drives
- Try not. Virtualize storage. Or do not. There is no try.
- Intuitively detect disturbances in The Force and anomalies in tape backups
- Dynamically change RAID levels on multiple volumes while blast shield on helmet is down
- Cut open tauntaun to stay warm while working in air-conditioned data center
- Innate connection to the single pool of storage that surrounds us, penetrates us, binds the galaxy together
- Access to user profile data to know that she’s your sister, before you kiss her
Commonly, Jedi and storage administrators are faced with storage solutions that burden them with unnecessary cost and complexity, pain and slow, agonizing death. Frequently used tactics of The Dark Side include forced “rip and replace” upgrades, constriction and snapping of the neck and the inability to mix and match Fibre Channel and SATA disks on a single system.
Jedi Storage Administrators attending the Council meeting had varying reactions to the shift in The Force. “Years ago, I was locked in to a single vendor – well, technically it was encasement in carbonite – I didn’t have the flexibility to grow,” commented one administrator.
Another Jedi commented, “That Death Star looks a lot like my old monolithic storage array. Too bad they’re going to have to rip and replace it within 18 months.”
The next Compellent Customer Council meeting is scheduled for Thurs., Sept. 15, 2005. May the Force be with you.
About the Compellent Customer Council
Driven by interest from end users and storage resellers, Compellent formalized its interactive product development strategy in early 2003 by forming the Compellent Customer Council (C3) — involving dozens of customers in structured meetings to provide input on the design and development of Compellent’s product and support offerings. The C3 meets at regular intervals to review product development progress, identify and set future priorities and discuss industry trends and technologies.