NetApp SpinServer user walks away:

Ouch - painful, yet not-uncommon story.

This guy buys a huge array from a startup - startup gets bought by vendor - guy has problems with array - vendor doesn't want to know - guy vows never to buy from the vendor again.

Worse, he tells the world about it.

Campbell was so soured by his experience that he's reluctant to look at anything from NetApp, including the upcoming Data OnTap GX. This is the product that NetApp has spent more than two years developing, merging Spinnaker's OS with its own NAS file system.

"These features are hard to make [work] without trying to integrate them," Campbell said.

Instead, he is evaluating EMC Corp., Apple Computer Inc., BlueArc Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Isilon Systems Inc. file systems as possible replacements for Spinnaker. "I'm not happy with anything NetApp has shown me," he said. "We'll keep the Spinnaker and forklift [upgrade] when the time comes."

Ouch. I'm sure someone's going to get a spanking for this one...