NetApp sympathetic to CommVault's Simpana
OEM or reseller deal next year
SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had
Blog There is talk of a possible OEM or reseller deal between NetApp and CommVault next year.
CommVault's Simpana data management software suite was recently upgraded to version 9, which has an end-to-end deduplication capability. NetApp has also shown itself interested in expanding its deduplication offerings – witness its October deal with Fujitsu.
Stifel Nicolaus analysts Aaron Rakers and Matthew Nahorski issued a note recently citing conversations that seemed indicative of a deepening relationship between CommVault and NetApp. This comes after CommVault signed a master distribution agreement with Hitachi Computer Peripherals, which should increase its sales into Japan. There could be integration between CommVault's Simpana 9.0 and NetApp in the areas of snap replication and Snap Protect, particularly with the latter's ability to back up hundreds of virtual machines in a few minutes.
The analysts think it likely CommVault will announce the ability for existing Simpana customers to upgrade to version 9 later this month or in January. ®
COMMENTS
CV is serious about snapshots, and NetApp does it really well.
I'm curious if any custom functionality will result out of this partnership.
As it sits today, CV can use snapshots from most any array to get the job done. NetApp just happens to be very good at snapshots.
What's weird to me is the fact that a customer who is hoping/trying to do array-based snapshots on a large scale for backups probably will figure out on their own that they should look at NetApp if the discover their current midrange array isn't up to the task of a few hundred concurrent snaps. No need to mention names? :)
So, in the absence of custom functionality... I rate this one a 'big deal'.
Re: Dell / CommVault
Absolutely true, they even rebrand the commvault support docs:
http://documentation.commvault.com/dell/release_8_0_0/books_online_1/english_us/prod_info/books_online.htm
Commvault essentially jumps into bed with whoever they need at the time (which leads to interested conversations when you sell Hitachi kit, seeing as a lot of VAR's prefer to put in standard Commvault instead of HDS's OEM flavour since the margin is higher / less paperwork / free training etc.)
As soon as it becomes "awkward" (such as the Exagrid partnership for deduplication before they could do it in v8.0) they just forget it even existed (cue lots of marketing material stating how crap hardware de-dupe is, etc etc)
I think the only benefits of this deal will be the "side effects" - NetApp will get a *few* extra sales through directly bolting on the software for a particular task, and CV will get better integration into NetApp kit, giving the CV resellers a better pitch into sites with existing NetApp kit...
This is good for Commvault how?
NetApp go in and say we can snapshot this, we can snapshot that, we can snapshot the other and we can replicate the snapshots - all involving technologies that involve selling more of their tin and and software. The backup vendor, no matter who they are, ends up being NetApp's bitch with a tiny deal that just backs up their filers to tape for long-term retention.
This is a total non-story and will have such a negligible affect on CV's revenue it's not even worthy of placement - in fact, it may well even cost CV business in the long-term.
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
