I’ve been spending the week at the NetApp Insight event in Macau, China, talking to a host of NetApp partners and sales engineers from all over the Asia-Pacific region about the NetApp Syncsort Integrated Backup (NSB) solution.
While NSB was launched in 2010, Syncsort has only recently begun to deliver the solution in the region via our distribution partner, Distribution Central. Based on the conversations I’ve been having, it’s not a moment too soon!
I spoke to dozens of folks yesterday, and over and over it’s the same theme. Users need better data protection solutions and the partner community here is excited about how NSB can take NetApp’s world-class data protection features (Snapshots, FlexClone, SnapMirror) and extend them into non-NetApp storage environments.
At one point during last night’s cocktail reception, I spoke to four Australian NetApp sales engineers in a row and they all confirmed that they are currently working on opportunities to solve customer problems with NSB. They were all eager to learn more about the solution’s unique value proposition and how it works!
When I share information about how NSB has helped take an 18-hour backup window and reduce it to 45 minutes or less, people’s eyes really light up. The problem is real, and folks here are ready to take NSB out to their users in a big way.
Good thing too, because it was not easy to get here. Just for fun, here’s the journey I took to get to the event:
* Two hour flight from New York to Detroit
* Four hour layover in Detroit
* 16 hour flight to Hong Kong (I watched three movies and we weren’t even close to arriving!)
* 30 minute cab ride from Hong Kong airport to the Macau ferry terminal
* One hour ferry ride, Hong Kong to Macau
* 20 minute shuttle bus from ferry terminal to hotel
On Friday, I get to do it all over again only this time in reverse. While the travel is not easy, the trip and the great conversations here at Insight have been well worth it!
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