Today, we have the second batch of winners in the Great 2005 Storage Haiku Contest. Obviously a lot of people have spent a lot of time on some of these. I'd like to think at least 50% of that was on the clock.

Award for Best Entry from Asia/Pacific:

Data, truth, beauty.
The IT sea finds each on
Its own SAN island.

-Anonymous

The Climb-the-Corporate-Ladder Award:

Design a system
Or head up a committee
The latter, of course.

- Charles Tuite

Best Submission From An Unrepentant Yankee Fan:

Better to prevent
Than realize it's too late
Backup, backup now...

- Herman Chin,
FalconStor

Best Contribution From a Federal Employee Perhaps Offering Insight Into Why Things Are The Way They Are:

Forget about RAID
No nightly backup exists
I deleted files

- Barry Kozak

Award for Gentlest Potshot at a Fellow Employee (pre-ILM):

XX's e-mail
Zipping its way to his love
Pleads for compliance

- M

The I've-Had-It-With-The-Marketing-Hype-And-I'm-Not-Going-To-Take-It-Anymore Award:

An appliance!
Maybe yes, maybe no.
Too simple to tell.

- Tony DiCenzo

Several contributions that did not win one of the top prizes were nonetheless excellent and deserve honorable mention.  The Honorable Mentions are:

Storage growth explodes.
Bits and bytes spill to the floor.
A new vendor speaks.

- Anonymous

Quantum eight tape box
5 dailies plus 4 full tapes
More hot dogs than buns
  
- Ross Braden,
Clarus Systems

NAS and SAN mirrors?
Are the two one, or still two?
"Explain!" says CFO

- Charles Tuite

The following three I judged to be the best of all the entries. Each really does seem to capture the zen of IT and then places it nicely within the format of a haiku. 

Second Runner Up Award:

Platters spin, quiet hum,
Then noise, chatter, seeking data,
Backups have begun.

- Richard L. Johnson,
  Cingular

First Runner Up Award:

You think it is all.
Data and information.
It is not wisdom.

- Anonymous

Grand Prize Winner:

All drives stop spinning
The sound of grown men screaming
Inevitable

- Brad O'Neil

Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to all who contributed. Hopefully there has been some therapy value for both contributors and readers alike.

Next week, back to work.