THE VULNERABILITY OF TECHNICAL SECRETS TO REVERSE ENGINEERING: IMPLICATIONS FOR COMPANY POLICY By Cenkhan Kodak M.S. in Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering (2001) University of Massachusetts at Amherst Submitted to the Systems Design and Management Program In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering and Management At the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY FEBRUARY 2008 © 2008 Cenkhan Kodak. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and Distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created Signature of the Author: m- /7 Systems Desigq and Management Program r\ Ja iry 2008 Certified by: 7 Professoi ,ric von Hippel Thesis Supervisor, MIT mSchgQl o•.Ma genfer t Certified by: MASSACHUSES INSTITUTE= Pat Hale OF TEOHiNOLOGY Director, Systems Design and Management Program MAY 0 6 2008 I-I .a,:IARCHIVES -2- THE VULNERABILITY OF TECHNICAL SECRETS TO REVERSE ENGINEERING: IMPLICATIONS FOR COMPANY POLICY By Cenkhan Kodak Submitted to the Systems Design and Engineering Program On February 04 2008, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Engineering and Management Abstract In this thesis I will explore the controversial topic of reverse engineering, illustrating with case examples drawn from the data storage industry. I will explore intellectual property rights issues including, users' fair-use provisions that permit reverse engineering. I will also explore the nature of the practice via several types of analyses including: the costs and benefits of reverse engineering; the practical limitations of reverse engineering; and a layered approach to reverse engineering as it applies to complex systems. I will conclude with a discussion of innovation and its relationship to reverse engineering Thesis Supervisor: Eric von Hippel Title: Professor, Management of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Sloan School of Management, MIT -3- -4- Acknowledgment I would like to acknowledge and thank MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Eric von Hippel for guiding me throughout this effort. His book Democratization of Innovation and his lecture notes on user innovation inspired me to start this work. His quick and straight to the point comments helped me tremendously with the direction of my writing. It has been a great pleasure working with him. I also like to thank my mother Nermin Kodak, my father Ytiksel Kodak and my brother Volkan Kodak with all my heart. They were very patient with me when I was writing this thesis. They cooked for me, pampered me, gave me advice on what & how to write and stood by me when I was going through stressful times. Everything happened with their encouragement; even application to MIT for business education was their idea. What more could I ask for? I am grateful to my family. I also like to recognize MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Charles Fine and Harvard Business School Professor Robert Huckman who introduced me to Operations Strategy. Also I would like to thank Bob, Amanda and Ann from the MIT Online Writing and Communication Center. They reviewed my prose and provided much needed clarification, rephrasing and elimination of punctuation errors. Finally, I would like to express gratitude to my boss Bill Landers, Regie Wolff and Joel Schwartz who have given me unwavering support while I was juggling my work and academic commitments, as well as to Pat Hale, our Director at the MIT Systems Design and Management Program and William Foley, our Academic Coordinator. -5- -6- Contents CHAPTER 1.......................................................................................................... - 10- Overview ............................................................................................................... - 10- CHAPTER 2.......................................................................................................... - 12- Reverse Engineering and Introduction to Data Storage Industry.......................... - 12 - 2.1 Defining Reverse Engineering: Taxonomy......................................... ...... - 12 - 2.2 Classic View on Reverse Engineering ...................................................... - 16 - 2.3 Intro to Data Storage System s................................................................... - 22 - 2.4 Data Storage Industry Reverse Engineering Practices.............................. - 31 - CHAPTER 3.......................................................................................................... - 36- Capturing Innovations in Data Storage Industry.............................................. ..... - 36 - 3.1 The Reverse Engineering Business............................................................ - 37 - 3.2 Adapting Impulse Response Analysis to Storage Array Characterization - 40 - 3.3 W hat can be captured? .............................................................................. - 45- 3.4 W hat can't be captured? .............................................. .............................. - 48 - CHAPTER 4 ........................................................................................................... 51- The Reverse Engineering Framework and Cost Analysis..................................... - 51 - 4.1 Introduction to Fractals and Self-Similarity.......................................... .... - 52 - 4.2 Costs of Reverse Engineering ................................................................... - 58 - CHAPTER 5 .......................................................................................................... - 67- Benefits of Reverse Engineering ........................................................................... - 67 - 5.1 Creativity ................................................................................................... - 68 - 5.2 Economic Benefits of Reverse Engineering.............................................. - 72 - 5.3 Benefits for other stake holders................................................................. - 76 - 5.4 Strategic Directions ................................................................................... - 79- 5.5 Checks and Balances................................................................................. - 79 - Bibliography.......................................................................................................... - 81 - -7- List of Figures Figure 1: Architectural Principals behind Data Storage Systems.....................-... 23 - Figure 2: Visual Definition of Performability ........................................................ - 24- Figure 3: Family of Data Storage Arrays offered by HP StorageWorks ................... - 28- Figure 4: Family of Storage Arrays offered by EMC Corp ...................................... - 29- Figure 5: First Generation Full Fibre Channel EVA 5000 Systems Architecture.....- 30- Figure 6: HSV110 Storage Controller Block Diagram for EVA 5000 Storage Array - 30 - Figure 7:2006 External Controller Based Market Share.......................................... - 32 - Figure 8: Classic Black Box System Model............................................................. - 38 - Figure 9: Closed Black Box Model for Data Storage Systems.................................. - 40- Figure 10: Linear Time Invariant System Model and its differential expression in general form ....................................................................................................................... - 4 1 - Figure 11: Subsystem Level Reverse Engineering Model......................................... - 45 - Figure 12: Microcosm of Von Koch Snow Flake ................................................. - 55- Figure 13: Growth of Microcosm to Macrocosm; Von Koch Snowflake at iteration four........................................................................................................................ - 55 - Figure 14: Mandelbrot Set (Right) Julia Set (Left) .................................................. - 55 - Figure 15: Computer Rendering Fractal Mountain and Moon using Self-Similar A lgorithm s............................................................................................................. - 56 - Figure 16: Tiered Reverse Engineering Approach to Data Storage Systems.......- 57 - Figure 17: Creativity . ............................................................................................ - 69 - -8- List of Tables Table 1: Data Storage Array Systems Compatibility and Limits............................... - 28 - Table 2: CX3 UltraScale Disk array Characteristics..................................................- 29 - Table 3: Fixed Costs. *Power costs will be structured in the next two pages........ - 60- T able 4: Variable C osts........................................................................................... - 61 - Table 5: Itemized Power Consumption of a Storage Array ..................................... - 63 - -9- CHAPTER 1 Overview Corporations traditionally have sought to protect their innovations in part by revealing as little as possible about their internal design - keeping important technologies as trade secrets hidden somewhere within their products. In this thesis, I will explain that reverse engineering is a powerful tool that can be deployed to uncover such trade secrets. Competing manufacturers of similar products often know at least something about or similar to their rivals' trade