I’ve been meaning to weigh in on this, but with the holiday weekend… well, you get the post-weekend weigh-in after everyone has had the chance to say everything good and bad on this (You’d be amazed at how little bad has been said on the subject. I say how little because it’s ALL been re-iterations of the same register article)
….What happened?!?? I was just using ATMOS Yesterday and all of a sudden every competitor of EMC is telling me that ATMOS is DEAD and it’s time to close up shop?!? Whoa, hold on there pardner, that’s not what we’re saying at all! (Yes, that is exactly how *I* read it from the NUMEROUS competitive coverage of this event occurring and happening :))
As far as you and I should be concerned, ATMOS hasn’t changed at all; except perhaps getting a little simpler in your choices of where to store ATMOS.
Prior to this June 29th event, you would have the choice of ATMOS Hosted internally as part of your Private Cloud. ATMOS Hosted externally at EMC’s ATMOS Online, or ATMOS Hosted externally at one of the three Service Providers listed below.
Now… as far as Production Grade ATMOS Online goes; You can choose between Internally, and Externally with the Cloud Service Providers where you can act and operate against their existing SLA structure you may likely be familiar with.
Looks pretty straight-forward if you ask me! I sat down, read all of the data which was available to me, and I saw a strategic decision being taken in order to remove the competitive pressures between EMC’s own sales force, and that of the partners and service providers offering up the ATMOS Cloud Service to the general purpose community. Or in the words of Dave Simpson who so eloquently said:
The winners, of course, are EMC’s Atmos cloud storage partners, which no longer have to compete with EMC. Likewise, EMC no longer has to compete with those partners. It’s a win-win on that front. In fact, on its Atmos web site, EMC is “strongly encouraging” its existing Atmos customers to migrate to one of its partners.
…..
The shuttering of Atmos Online should be seen not as a failure on the part of EMC but, rather, as another prescient and tactical move by the company.
And quite frankly Dave said it well; which I feel takes the whole debate about “where” should I host my Cloud Storage off the table; Discussion point over. But what now?
With the service providers discussion off the table, I think it is important to take the time to focus on customers and the community
The EMC ATMOS Online Community is still strong and hearty. Your vehicle for open discussion on this matter is still available and at your disposal.
The ATMOS Online service can continued to be used for Development Purposes.
Keeping your Cloud Private and doing your own internal testing has never been stronger with the release of the ATMOS Online Virtual Server Appliance (VSA)
And last but not least – Customers DO continue to use this, and STILL will continue to use this. This is best of breed Cloud Storage in a growing world which needs more versatile solutions at your disposal. There will continue to be businesses like eBay who selected ATMOS to create a reliable, scalable cloud infrastructure.
So in the end here; the real winners are YOU! EMC Customers, EMC Partners, EMC Service Providers.
There’s never been a better time to play with ATMOS, and with the public release of the VSA, I’ve been seeing internal and external adoption grow at exponential rates; which means you’ll likely see a lot more perspectives and use-cases of EMC ATMOS which will far trump that of what has been seen up until this point. More fun, more play, more winners! :)
References also discussing this:
Where to get your Cloud On: