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Faceoff in the Vertical

5:00 PM -- Given Isilon's love of publicity, the company's announcement yesterday of a new OEM agreement with Schlumberger is positively cryptic: fifty words and out. (See Isilon Signs Schlumberger OEM.) What gives?

Maybe there's not much to say. The news that Isilon has an OEM deal with Schlumberger, a big player in oil and gas IT consulting, isn't surprising. Isilon's been included in Schlumberger accounts for awhile, along with EMC, Network Appliance, SGI, and Voltaire. (Schlumberger wasn't able to provide a full list of their storage OEMs at press time.)

Then again, by playing it short and sweet, Isilon's taking the high ground. What better way to ensure any wrath from NetApp appears unprovoked, in the companies' ongoing clash over clustered NAS?

After all, it's just a couple of short weeks since Dan Warmenhoven acknowledged being "pissed off" with Isilon, thanks to comparisons about clustered NAS allegedly made during Isilon's IPO roadshow. (See NetApp Stokes Competitive Fires.)

And to top it off, the venue for Isilon's announcement was Schlumberger's U.S. technical symposium in Las Vegas, where, presumably, neither Isilon nor NetApp care to look petty or provocative.

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