I ran into an especially long-winded post in a competitor’s blog – it is very confused even by the standards of someone who claims paternity for the ‘online backup industry’. Initially, I thought it was just the phrase ‘online-backup’, but later it transpired that it was the whole industry for which parentage was being claimed. Much the same thing happened with me when one day in 1993, I asked my friend near the refrigerator, ‘(We) Got Milk?’ and thereby INVENTED the phrase ‘Got Milk?’. AND pasteurization. AND the whole dairy industry. Giggle.
I wouldn’t have written this post hadn’t it been certified as ‘good entertainment’ and a ‘GREAT sport!’ by the CEO of Remote-Backup.
Firstly, I thank Rob for his admission about the goof-ups he has made in his claims on our product in his website (yes – you read it right. Stuff written about STOREGRID on RBS website; I too didn’t believe it when I heard! Note: this is not their forum I am talking about here). But surely sir, it beats me why there should be pages and pages of RBS’s ill-conceived notions and baseless opinions on Vembu StoreGrid on your website.
Admitting two of the baseless comments that are hosted on your site is commendable, but it still leaves a lot to be desired.
Wait, the post gets better. He goes on to claim that he studied Buddhist and Hindu philosophy (!). Too bad I don’t know what these are, because it could have prepared me for what came on next. What then followed was an absolutely hilarious exposition of his philosophy using an analogy of climbing mountains, snow, gravity and few other sundries. But I was left truly impressed with the vivid analogy actually. Honest.
(Note to self: Re-read the analogy for tips when packing for next trekking trip).
Somewhere in the depths of these mysterious oriental philosophies that Rob has mastered, perhaps lie the reasons for keeping a closed forum for RBS partners. I am not going to unearth any meaning out of the following quote – except maybe note that it sounds suspiciously like a convenient excuse for keeping adverse partner comments ‘private and privileged’ or maybe that the forum is way too dull to be admitted publicly.
“Vembu’s forum is used for technical support, including support of evaluation customers and those who are not Service Providers. Mine is not. Vembu relies on help from their few service providers to offer support. I do not. My forum is specifically intended for my own Service Providers to swap ideas and resources about marketing, business practices, pricing, and yes, some technical issues. But it is not used for technical support, and the conversations therein are private and privileged among RBS Service Providers only, and not the general public. Therefore, my Service Provider’s Forum should be private. “
One can only conclude that all the aforesaid philosophies in the repertoire of the esteemed author didn’t include any injunctions on ‘Free Speech’. So much for claims of being the only American firm in an imagined competitive array – or perhaps there is an exception for those with paternity claims on the whole thing lock, stock and barrel.
It’s not geography, but the spirit with which one works that matters.
On the contrary, the Vembu StoreGrid forum is home to lively discussions on all topics listed above and not just technical issues (and since the forum is open, one can actually verify this!). But yes, we haven’t had a thread on philosophy yet though. Nor one on trekking uphill in the snow…
As for our technical support, the Vembu technical support team works 24×7 for both our partners and prospective (evaluating) partners. Our technical support includes support through email, phone, instant messenger and remote sessions. We have never informed our evaluating service provider partners that technical support is only through forums. StoreGrid users will vouch for the fact that on occasion, even premium support options like telephone/remote sessions have been offered to partners and evaluating partners alike for their convenience.
I was especially struck by this gem of reasoning and the judgment passed on our technical support.
“Vembu relies on help from their few service providers to offer support.”
Merely the fact that there are technical posts in our forum doesn’t mean that we rely on partners to resolve technical queries. What matters is that most of our partners think otherwise. We in fact enjoy the healthy debate and learning opportunities created by these forum threads. I pray that similar galloping sallies of mental reasoning such as the above haven’t creeped into to the inner workings of the RBS software.
“My customers like it that way, and actually pay to have access to it (the forum).”
Tee Hee. Here’s where I started seriously thinking if he had been just pulling the readers’ legs all along.
What prompted me to write this post after a good deal of deliberation is this fact – I have reason to believe somebody from RBS personally plagued our technical support and partner relations teams today. For one, our technical support faced an unusual query on our internal processes on a support ticket coming from one rob@remote-XXXXXX.com. Next, one of my colleagues in the partner relations team received a call with inquisitive queries on our internal process from someone who towards the end of the call claimed to be the ‘President of Remote-Backup Systems’. I fail to see how this qualifies as ‘great entertainment’ or even a good sport.
P.S. We value legal copyrights and have used only paid images in all of our marketing collateral including our blogs. Another example of jumping the gun in concluding something adverse on Vembu.
P.S.2 Let us focus on the product and servicing our partners and let the market decide who deserves to be in business.
The above post was written by Gokul Sriram of Vembu Technologies. Vembu Technologies is a backup software vendor whose product, StoreGrid, powers the online backup services of a large number of service providers across the globe. Besides remote backup, StoreGrid is also used for on premise backups of workstations and servers at various companies & universities.
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