The Tech Baby has achieved the three Cs – crawling, climbing, and clapping.  You may not think clapping is a big deal, but let’s just say the Tech Family does not have great hand-eye coordination, so it’s nice to see signs that those genes may have skipped a generation.  The Tech Baby claps for everything – sitting up, waking up, drooling, finishing a bottle, eating the TV remote, etc.  He even claps when he falls down.

Some say that IT analysts are very much like the Tech Baby – we like (and clap for) every vendor that we meet.  I wanted to debunk this myth in this week’s bullets:

• Last year, I ran into a company called ZettaPoint - it built database management tool that included database storage reduction, performance management, and ETL optimization capabilities.  Decent markets, but I don’t think the company is still in business or at least financially viable.  My choices to solve some of these issues would be HP, IBM, EMC, Precise Software, and Informatica.
• My colleague Jon Oltsik and I follow the impact of regulatory, industry, and corporate governance compliance on IT infrastructures.  We have talked with Varonis – a provider of file security and governance solutions – a number of times.  Good solution and right timing as there are plenty of regulations driving the need for proper file security and auditing of the security.  I think the company is doing well – especially with its EMC relationship (EMC sells it with Celerra).  If I could confirm its success, I would tell you that it has a solution applicable to the broader market.
• HP buys Ibrix – a great move to expand (or enter – depending on your point of view) the NAS market.  ESG and ESG Lab actually tested a number of Ibrix competitors, including Exanet, over the years.  The Exanet performance numbers were stellar, but I am not sure they are being used to the company’s advantage.  The company hasn’t really (re)surfaced since the HP/Ibrix deal – it’s too bad as it could probably add some value to some big customers looking to expand their file storage environments.
• I am not a “handyman” by any stretch.  I have a nice toolbox that sits in my garage and collects dust.  I use a few of the tools (hammer, screwdriver, etc.) and I neglect the rest (ratchet, pliers, etc).  For me, Quest Software is like that toolbox.  There have some pretty good products in its portfolio – including Vizioncore (backup for virtualized server environments), Monosphere (storage resource management, and Archive Manager (e-mail archiving and compliance), but no one really knows about it, and I am not sure how many actually use it.  Most customers we know think of Quest as the database management company with its Toad and Spotlight tools.

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