Most vendors want product differentiation, but it can be hard being very different, and superlatives can actually be off-putting. Indeed, since any review of the Titan (whether the first generation, the 2000 or the 3000) can all-too quickly turn into a list of almost-ridiculously-good-specifications and extremely-broad-capabilities, the human temptation to dismiss something as too good to be true is hard to fight. If everything were based off data-sheet specifications alone, it's hard to see how BlueArc's product would lose, but the numbers themselves can blind as easily as they can dazzle–it must always be remembered that users buy products as means to ends and not as ends in themselves. Fortunately for BlueArc, the Titan 3000 has plenty of ability to provide value (as the previous section outlines), but market success is based on execution as much as product. That is where BlueArc must now focus its efforts.
There's no doubt that Titan 3000 is an impressive step forward for BlueArc. ESG applauds the architecture, the scalability, the common software and the API. The only common function missing is de-duplication, and surely it's only a matter of time before that too is added. Now–purely and simply–BlueArc needs to get to be considered in more deals. The large incumbent suppliers, and the other emerging vendors, are hardly likely to endorse the concept of future-proofed storage or any other overarching claims that BlueArc can, legitimately, make. Legitimacy is not the point here–there's so much richness in the Titan 3000 offering that BlueArc needs to continue finding focused areas and concentrate on the appropriate attributes to that area, thus becoming the actual and de-facto experts. Web 2.0 storage certainly seems to be one wave BlueArc should consider riding; and, if ever there was such a thing as a perfect storm, then consolidation is another.
Until now, BlueArc has faced a Catch 22 situation a narrow niche focus is not wide enough for its product's capabilities, and yet an extremely wide market focus is not narrow enough to exist within the company's resources. Now it looks as if this may resolve itself in BlueArc–s favor as market needs and drivers move towards BlueArc and Titan 3000. This is way more preferable than the company having to change the perception (of a whole market over many decades) that general purpose storage is an oxymoron. Now, of course, an approach still needs to be chosen–hiring an expanded top-notch storage sales team, ensuring the margins in the channel drive faster adoption there, or expanding into more vertical industries that match its product capabilities. BlueArc must choose one or a combination of these options and then continue to execute with precision.
What is clear is that BlueArc has, in the Titan range with its single management and new flagship Titan 3000, a highly capable offering on which to stake its claim to be a no-compromise, general-purpose storage system. Such terminology–no compromise, general-purpose storage–still seems strange to even write; but, if BlueArc can capitalize on what Titan provides, it just could make the industry add this to its lexicon.
