But by the morning of Saturday, Oct. 18, the gFiler document had been deleted from IBM's Website. Lanspery says she doesn't know which division of IBM posted the document, what the document referred to exactly, or why it was deleted.
NetApp declined to comment on the IBM document. "Unfortunately we cannot disclose any information at this time," says a company spokeswoman.
Industry watchers have been expecting IBM to take its NAS strategy in a new direction since it phased out its low-end Windows-based NAS systems this summer (see IBM Kills Runts of NAS Litter and IBM to Scrap Windows NAS Lines?).
But analysts caution that even if an IBM/NetApp deal on the gFiler gateway were in play, it likely would not be a reflection of IBM's longer-term NAS approach. "IBM offers all kinds of solutions... Many of them are only tactical in response to specific customer requests," says John McArthur, group VP of storage research at IDC, who notes that he has no firsthand information about what IBM is doing with the NetApp NAS gateway.
Adds Tony Prigmore, senior analyst with Enterprise Storage Group Inc.: "IBM is clearly committed to branding their own enterprise NAS solution leveraging IBM technology."
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
