Mike has a point!
Incumbent vendors have a huge opportunity because of the thousands of Mikes out there. And a few have the formula right! They can and do optimize their time to market by not sticking to the typical “not invented here” syndrome. The best storage companies have shown an ability to advance products with a combination of internal, OEM and strategic acquisitions as sources for the “kit” they offer. For example, more enlightened vendors optimize by “sticking to their knitting” doing what they do best, build hardware and operating software that optimizes their product offerings. Once they establish base level architecture and systems, they source features from the best-of-breed suppliers (yes Mike those smaller companies!) for advanced efficiency, automated tiering, performance, for example, to embellish and differentiate their offerings. The result is that the enlightened incumbent vendor can deliver products to market faster and more efficiently, that is differentiated from their competitors and more closely addresses their customers “pain.” The result is that the Mikes of the world can have the security of the incumbent vendor with rapid time-to-market solutions to address their needs. You just have to make sure you pick the right ones!
Because there are aspiring companies who have advanced efficiency, automated tiering, performance, data optimization and deduplication, the pressure has never been higher to obtain the best-of-breed and embed it into the incumbent vendor offerings. Today there is increasing momentum to build out the next generation of storage solutions that optimize feature sets, differentiate and deliver quickly. A few have it right! Mike has a point!