It is quite surprising how little news – or talk in general – there has been about the demise of the xServe RAID. I guess one reason for lack of discussion about the news is that most people never had any connection to the product or the product category in general.
Personally, I’m very disappointed with Apples decision to pull the plug. For the last year I’ve worked closely with one of these machines (along with an xServe) and come to really like the fact that when ever there was problems it was just one number to call to solve it. That was the single biggest reason why we went with it instead of getting a cheaper third party raid system. We didn’t want two manufacturers blaming each other in case we encountered issues. And, in fact, I think this is a major reason why so many people like their Mac’s; both hardware and the OS are made by one company giving Apple a head start on removing compatibility issues. (This reminds me of the time I was working at UCCA and we had to wipe 6 Dell PC’s and reinstall. We couldn’t find the original DVD that came with the machine, Windows XP SP2 wouldn’t work as there was so many obscure Dell specific drivers needed and it ended up taking us weeks to get new disks from Dell.)
Another reason why this decision is upsetting is the way Apple pulled the plug. It’s quite a lot of fun to follow Steve Jobs keynotes at Macworld and WWDC Expo’s to see all the new cool things Apple has created. It’s exciting as most of the new products they launch seem to come out of blue. Having this custom of secrecy drives curiosity making them a company worth follow. Curiosity, after all, is one of those things that separate apes, cats and men from rest of mammals.
But xServe RAID is – or was – not an iPod. iPod is something you buy because you want it or you just happen to get it as a birthday present. You don’t plan 6 months ahead on ‘investing’ in it. The xServe RAID is different. You have meetings about it. You allocate chunks of your budget for it. You evaluate different options. You talk to your managers about it to justify spending £10000 on something you will rely on for the next 5 years. You need that piece of metal and 14 hard drives to be supported for that period of time. Same goes for any other piece of enterprise hardware.
I’m not going to speculate on the reasoning why Apple decided on this move but I will offer two suggestions on how Apple should’ve done this differently.
1. Phase it out. Tell you customers 3 months before the product it due for cancellation that these are the last units to be made, they will be supported for the expected life time of about 5 years but no more will be made after February 2008.
2. Press release. Be open about the fact that you had to suck up and leave the competition. I know it’s shameful enough to have a competing product advertised at the spot where you used to have your own crown jewel but you should still address it.
Anyhow, the RAID is gone and only positive side of this is that we might start seeing these systems on eBay. They’ll make a fantastic bedside table.
–kristian
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