The virtualization blueprint and commitment of "adventurers"

Author: Guo talks about the international financial crisis, NetApp company co-founder, chief strategic officer Liu Guanxin appears very rational. He believes that, while the international financial crisis has brought many uncertainties, but one thing's for sure, is that enterprise consolidation and the consequent consolidation of data centers will accelerate, and users desperately need newer, optimized architectures to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and hope to optimize their IT architecture with new technologies,　　This is definitely an opportunity for NetApp. Promotion efficiency is key 13 years old with the family from Hong Kong immigrants to the United States, 30 years old with partners to create a NetApp company, Liu Guanxin is one of the few successful start-up in Silicon Valley Chinese-American.　　From "grassroots" to the elite, Liu Guanxin's life experience is full of adventurous spirit and defying the rough spirit of struggle. As the chief strategist responsible for developing the company's marketing strategy, Liu Guanxin, a technology-born strategist, believes that the current job content is much more interesting than the simple software development of the past.　　Invent new products, new technology is not Liu Guanxin pursuit of the ultimate goal, the use of advanced technology to meet customer demand is the driving force of his work. As chief strategic officer, Liu Guanxin to the situation and foresight. How will NetApp cope with the sudden international financial crisis? "For NetApp, in this uncertain economy, there are ways to improve the efficiency of the company's operations, in addition to thinking about how to keep the market growing faster," Liu Guanxin said. There has been some recent consolidation within NetApp to make the company work more efficiently. At the same time, NetApp is always focused on helping customers better meet their needs, through innovative technology to improve the operational efficiency of the entire system, reducing costs, including server virtualization and storage virtualization and so on. Crisis？　　Opportunity？ The dotcom bubble burst in 2001, the US economy plunged into recession, and NetApp's turnover in the 2001 fiscal year plunged 20%. At the time, NetApp's customers focused on the High-tech sector. In response to the situation, NetApp decisively adjusted the strategy to attack the traditional industry market, and in less than a year, NetApp's business was back on a fast track. Today, NetApp customers, 70% from the traditional market, 30% from High-tech fields.　　In this regard, Liu Guanxin that no one can accurately predict the future, but NetApp's biggest advantage is the ability to quickly strain. "In fact, every economic crisis pushes customers to adopt new technologies," he said. It is often the case that customers are forced to adopt new technologies to reduce costs when they really meet the challenges of an economic crisis. The recession of the 80 's pushed up the popularity of PCs, which accelerated the use of the Internet in the 90, and the collapse of the dotcom bubble in 2001 facilitated storage reform and development. NetApp has been an advocate and beneficiary of technological innovation for the past more than 10 years.　　"Liu Guanxin said. As we all know, NeTapp is known for "Unified storage." NetApp used to promote the technology in the 90 's. However, while customers were more focused on how to accelerate their business, they agreed that the technical advantages of unified storage did not take into account the widespread adoption of unified storage offerings.　　2001 years later, when customers meet new challenges, they notice that unified storage is a very good product for business needs. "In fact, any change, especially in the IT environment, can be risky," he said. "For CIOs, avoiding risk was a priority, especially in the 90 's," Liu Guanxin said. But by the year 2001, the CIO concept had changed. For them, the biggest challenge is how to better reduce the enterprise's it costs, optimize the operating environment, otherwise it may lose their jobs. "Innovation is NetApp's corporate tenet, and this innovation is ongoing, regardless of external causes such as financial crises." NetApp has been trying to help customers reduce costs by taking the lead in using ATA technology, protecting data reliability, RAID-DP technology, and using cloning and streamlining configuration technologies.　　Liu Guanxin confidently stated that NetApp's innovative "virtualization Commitment project" can help customers improve storage utilization and reduce costs. Reduce storage capacity requirements for 50% in October 2008, NetApp pledged to customers that NetApp storage solutions can help customers reduce the storage capacity required in virtualized environments by 50% compared to traditional storage solutions. NetApp ensures that customers who adopt NetApp solutions and their unique and efficient storage technologies can reduce overall storage usage and improve system performance.　　NetApp puts forward a "virtualization commitment project" that fully reflects NetApp's confidence in using virtualization technology to help customers succeed, but on the other, NetApp has to take a risk because the commitment to reduce storage capacity 50% is written in black and white on the contract. "We are very confident about this commitment. With such a project, we can use more accurate numbers to show our customers what benefits efficient storage solutions can bring to the enterprise. At the same time, this approach also allows us to communicate with customers become more direct and transparent. "From a global perspective, the project has generated a positive response in the market, and customers are interested in it," Liu Guanxin said. The project has also effectively boosted the company's sales growth. "In fact, adventure and innovation are NetApp's corporate culture. Before starting NetApp, Liu Guanxin had tried a computer pen business but failed.　　NetApp management often encourages employees not to be afraid of failure, to try and innovate. "In our contacts with customers, we found that while many customers are familiar with NetApp technology, they do not fully leverage each of the core technical points of NetApp." ”"By virtualizing commitment projects, users will become more aware of how NetApp's optimized storage solutions improve efficiency and reduce costs," Liu Guanxin said. Some users thought that using NetApp solutions would increase efficiency by 50%, but in fact the increase in efficiency could reach 70%. "Today, NetApp has extended the virtualization Commitment project to non-NetApp storage systems and is committed to reducing the 50% storage capacity requirements for the customer's VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft virtualized environments."