Installing Cisco WAAS? Just pay professional services to do it!

A recent blog posted by Beth Pariseau in searchstorage shed some limited light on longstanding rumors we had been hearing about various problems EMC was having with Cisco WAAS.  It appears that EMC will now require customers buying Cisco WAAS to also purchase the Professional Services in order to install it.  This is a striking development from a vendor who's flagship product--the Symmetrix--is known to be so difficult configure that customers rarely attempt to do it themselves.  But while WAAS requires professional services for installation, no such requirement exists for the Symmetrix.  In fact, my friends who are EMC sales reps tell me they rarely--if ever--sell Professional Services whey they sell Symmetrix storage.

As EMC's customers know, the Symmetrix storage array is an enormously-sophisticated product.  Core to its functionality is the binfile, a lengthly and complex text-based configuration file.  In fact, the binfile is so complex that it requires many hours of study and classwork to understand; the general practice is for the EMC customer engineer to generate and maintain the binfile, while the customer rarely if ever even touches it.  And yet, in most cases EMC is able to perform the deployment without charging the customer for any Professional Services.

So it is puzzling, given the sophistication of EMC's storage solution, that WAAS would require professional services while EMC's own Symmetrix storage can be installed without it.  Why is that?  Could it be that WAAS is more difficult to configure than the Symmetrix storage array itself?  Perhaps there are hidden kinks and issues in the WAAS configuration and deployment process that EMC doesn't want to expose customers to?

Whatever the real reason might be, EMC's recommendation should be taken seriously.  Only trained experts who are familiar and knowledgeable with the WAAS solution should attempt to deploy it in a production network.  Of course, once the consulting experts you've paid for have completed their work and left to do other jobs, the question arises as to what are you going to do if you need to modify, upgrade, or otherwise reconfigure the WAAS solution.  Are you comfortable performing changes to a configuration that you are entirely unfamiliar with?   Or should you out-source again, pay additional $$$ for more professional services?

Comments

[Cisco WAAS vs Riverbed]

Yeah, most EMC reps have actually stopped promoting the Cisco WAAS product and only promote the Silver Peak solution. Without EMC, Silver Peak would be out of business. It will be interesting to see if EMC decides to buy Silver Peak down the road as they only play in that niche and have limited features.

Justin Lofton
VP of Engineering
Tredent Data Systems, Inc.

[Josh Tseng]

My previous company before Riverbed got much of its revenue through EMC Select. I know from experience that EMC demands huge discounts to sell through them, and I would bet that Silver Peak isn't getting much gross profit. For a startup, it's a slow death if that's your main revenue source. Yes, EMC can generate revenue for you, but not enough to cover your costs. Silver Peak's D-round funding was in January this year (2008). They've taken annual infusions of cash prior to that, so I'd speculate that in another 6-9 months their cash reserves will start looking pretty desperate.