Chuck's Blog

Big Data Hits The Big Time in Davos

If you're a rock musician, you know you've "made it" when you get inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

If you're a societal mega-trend, you know you've hit the big time when you've become the main show at the World Economic Forum being held in Davos.  

I suppose this is just another indication that big data analytics -- and its breathtaking transformative potential -- has officially hit the major leagues.  

Big data is now officially "big".

The profound societal implications of big data analytics has now overflowed the neat category of the  tech world, and is quickly spilling into pointed discussions around such weighty  topics as global health care, economic development, education, governance, agriculture, privacy, national security and more.

One useful observation is that information is becoming the "new currency".  We're seeing the early days of how aggregated information is becoming the new source of innovation and improvement, power and wealth.

And what better place to discuss this new "information economy" than at the World Economic Forum?

Change Is In The Air: CIO Magazine Poll Results

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I've been writing extensively on IT transformation - where IT decides it needs to compete for internal IT business, and organizes appropriately.

Why?  It's a really big deal.  As a result, I've exhaustively gone through what I felt were the motivations and the challenges for IT changing the way it does business. 

But now, you don't have to listen to me and my endless exhortations.  You can now see how others in the IT profession feel about the topic.

While the poll results might be surprising to you, the only "surprise" I found was perhaps  the degree that the responses tended to correspond to my own personal views.  But that's not really a surprise, since many of my views are nothing more than aggregations of conversations that I frequently have with this audience.

Take a moment, and see for yourself …

Analytically Enabling The Enterprise via BI As A Service

Many amazing things being done in our EMC IT group these days.

The original premise was that -- once we had made enough progress on transitioning to an ITaaS model -- the value-added strategic IT initiatives would start to come hard and fast.  Well, they are.

Why?  

Almost everything IT does now is based on variable, re-usable (and competitive!) services: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS etc.   IT friction is dramatically reduced as a result.

Business users are now marketed to, and not simply told what they can and can't have.  

A financial governance model based on price signals and an internal marketplace is now starting to optimize IT decisions.  

It's a very different IT game here at EMC than just a few short quarters ago.  Perceptions have changed; enthusiasm is everywhere.  And I get the privilege to share it with all of you ...

In a previous post (The Journey To Big Data Analytics), I outlined the process by which most companies we thought would likely acquire and leverage new analytical capabilities.  At a high level, we now feel prepared to start our own internal journey in earnest, much like we're simultaneously tackling the challenge of mobilizing our extended enterprise.

In this post, I'd like to begin to share with you how we're organizing for success around this particular topic.  Yes, we're using plenty of EMC technology (naturally!), but the real key to anything transformative is the organizational approach.

The Daunting Challenge Of Mobilizing Your Enterprise

Around the globe, IT strategists are starting to grapple with the rapidly emerging challenge of mobilizing their enterprises.

Call it the end of the PC era, call it what you will -- but the trends are undeniable.  People prefer a tailored mobile experience.

EMC's own IT group is no exception.  

We need to quickly create broad capabilities to mobilize our workforce, our partners -- and, eventually -- our customers directly.

When EMC IT was investing in transforming to an ITaaS model, I enjoyed sharing with you the many rich experiences and learnings from our journey.

Well, we have the opportunity to do it again -- just on a different topic.  I think there will be much that we can share with all of you as we begin to tackle our own requirements.

Because, sooner or later, I think just about every enterprise IT team will have to face a similar challenge.

Creating Actionable Intelligence: The Brave New World Of Information Security

If you've been paying attention in the security world, you'll probably sense that a sea-change is well underway. The forces behind the "perfect storm" are assembled and quickly gathering strength.

More information in more places. Higher-value information targets.  And an increasingly sophisticated and well-funded set of opponents using APT techniques to secure their prize. 

Most people chartered with responding are very much aware of the new challenges -- but what to do?   

While there are no simplistic answers, there is a clear consensus emerging that this is no mere matter of better technology; it requires a deep and thoughtful organizational response -- a new way of doing things in the new world. 

The latest evidence comes from the SBIC -- the Security for Business Innovation Council --  in their new report "Getting Ahead Of Advanced Threats: Achieving Intelligence-Driven Information Security". The SBIC is a subset of very bright and passionate security leaders in Fortune 1000 settings that regularly gather to make strategic recommendations for the community at large.  

Sponsored by RSA, we've seen a number of useful reports on relevant and topical corporate information security subjects. This one is worth reading -- simply because it sketches out a roadmap of how security leaders will need to go about building their new organizational response in this new world. 

Like anything else, the challenge essentially boils down to organizing for success around a few new principles.

The Six Key Attributes Of Great Leaders

We're all still sort of buzzing from the EMC 2012 Leadership meeting, which I guess is a good thing.

I wanted to circle back and share with you one of the best thoughts from Joe Tucci's presentation to the assembled leadership team.  Many of us found very strong resonance with what he had to say.  

For the things we were already doing, it was nice to get some confirmation.

And, in a few cases, maybe there are a few things we could be doing better :)

The Journey To Big Data Analytics

Our story so far ...

Many now realize that big data analytics is the next big thing in creating value from information. 

As such, more than a few people are wondering how they might think about their journey: how they get from where they are today to where they want to be in a sequence of logical, digestible and justifiable steps.

We spent a great deal of time in 2011 learning from organizations who had visibly achieved this proficiency.  What kinds of skills were required.  How they were organized.  And, more importantly, how they got to where they are today.

We've boiled down our learning into a relatively simple three-phase model that describes that pathway that many organizations seem to follow.

And, if you're wondering how to get started on your own journey, perhaps you'll find this useful.

Thoughts From EMC's 2012 Leadership Meeting

Some -- but not all of you -- follow EMC quite closely.

Your reasons may vary, but you do seem to pay attention to us.  Thank you for that.

Many of us have just returned from our annual leadership meeting.  Think in terms of a hand-selected group of about 400 individuals from across EMC's vast holdings -- coming together for three days to reflect and renew ourselves for the challenges ahead.

I couldn't resist the temptation to offer up a short blog post with a few personal thoughts.

Maybe you're interested, maybe you're not ...

Building Your IT Factory

Analogies can be powerful tools.  The good ones are descriptive: sort of an intellectual shortcut to a set of concepts and ideas.  They save time.

But I think the very best analogies can become predictive models: you can examine them at length and come up with all sorts of useful, forward-looking insights that can make you look eerily prescient.  

If you want to impress people with your crystal ball skills, have a good predictive model or two in your back pocket :)

Such is the case with IT's current transformation to becoming a competitive internal service provider.

In his landmark book "The Big Switch", Nicholas Carr uses the early days of the power generation and distribution industry as a powerful analogy for understanding what was beginning to happen with cloud computing.  

In many aspects, his analogy was a decent predictive model: you could examine how the power industry began, evolved and matured -- and make some interesting predictions about how similar things might happen in the cloud and IT world.

Even if you don't believe in cloud, Nick Carr (or anything else for that matter!) his recounting of the evolution of the power industry is fascinating and insightful.

However, it's been three long years since Nick published his book -- a veritable eternity in our industry -- and I think I can now suggest a better analogy that's proving to be far more powerful in its predictive power.

A modern, competitive factory.  Raw materials in; valuable products out.

Indeed, as I spend more and more time with customers talking about their current transformations, I find myself using factory-based analogies more often to describe concepts and principles.  It works.

And, since so many IT leaders I work with have to explain many things to the people in their world, I thought I'd take the time to expand the analogy.  

Hopefully it will work for them as well as it's worked for me.

Understanding The Big Data Analytics Mindset

I now have been in front of about a half-dozen executive audiences (usually sponsored by IT leadership!) to discuss what EMC might know about how to go about achieving big data analytics proficiency.  

They -- rightly so -- think there might be a powerful new tool at hand, and want to find out more.  I consider myself privileged to speak to them.

The basics of my discussion are fairly straightforward: here are the core concepts, here are why they are important, this is what an organizational model might look like, here are the key skills and roles, here are some examples of how leaders like you went about moving forward, here are some interesting case studies, and so on.  

Normal transformational fare, in my world.

Where it routinely gets sticky is when people struggle is between unlearning the familiar world of traditional BI and gaining an appreciation for the new world of data science.  I struggle to find an effective and repeatable technique -- I have yet to crack the code here.  

But it's important to do.  Unless business leaders realize what's now possible with a fresh approach, they'll only end up incrementally improving what they're already doing today, as opposed to taking that breathtaking quantum leap into a new realm.  

If that's the case, why bother?  So I consider myself less than successful unless I'm able to un-stick a significant portion of the audience from their old perceptions, and wrap them around a greater appreciation of newer concepts.  

I'm looking for that "aha!" moment.

It's The Big Launch Day For EMC IT's ITaaS

I consider it an article of faith that many enterprise IT organizations will need to learn to compete for their internal customers.

If you've been following this blog, you know I've been drawing heavily on the experiences of EMC's own IT organization as they progress through this inevitable transformation.

Today represents an interesting milestone of sorts: the formal internal launch of a "critical mass" of self-provisioned IT services that anyone at EMC can freely consume.  

Yes, they've had many of these internal services out there for a while, but now our EMC IT team has started to actively encourage consumption at scale.

I think this particular event serves as an excellent example of how the thinking changes when enterprise IT goes from being seen as a monopoly to being seen as an aggressive competitor.

If you work in an IT setting that's starting to go through some of these changes, I think you'll find the discussion here very enlightening.

EMC Atmos And The Challenge Of Doing Things Differently

There are two ways to bring a new technology to market.

One way is to give people a better product to do exactly what they're doing today: no process change required.

Another way is to give people a better way to do things: substantial process change required.

Meaningful breakthroughs in technology almost always involve process change.  The downside is that any substantive process change takes significant time and effort.  

There's no shortcut that I'm aware of.

In our world, EMC Atmos is an excellent example of innovative technology that demands both a mindset and process change.  The lessons we've learned about how to go about introducing new technology (and new process!) to large audiences is instructive -- not only to other technology companies like us, but to any IT organization looking to introduce new ways of doing things into their ranks.

As technologists, we obviously have to learn to get good at getting people to actually embrace what we come up with.  Otherwise, the stuff just sits on the shelf :)

EMC vLab: What Happens When You Point A Cloud At A Business Challenge

Clouds are exceptionally difficult to discuss in the abstract.  

They become much more real and tangible when you associate them with a particular business challenge.

As a result, I've started to collect various "cloud meets business" success stories.  They're all very cool, but they take some serious time to write up.

I thought I'd start with an internal one first: how EMC's vLab cloud is changing an important aspect of the way EMC does business.

Although there are aspects that are unique to EMC and our particular situation, I believe there are many useful lessons here that can be more broadly applied.

Ten Career Tips I've Learned The Hard Way

It's the holiday season, and I was wondering what sort of practical gift I might offer to my readers?  

My colleague Chad Sakac does great with his "Santa Chad" giveaways, but -- alas -- I don't have the budget for that sort of thing.  Besides, he's pretty good at it anyway.

After a bit of reflection, I thought I'd do what I could to share the not-so-obvious career lessons I've learned along the way.  Looking back, I wish someone had shared some of this thinking with me 30 years ago when I set out in the working world.  

Then again, I was so darn stubborn back then I probably wouldn't have listened to any of it anyway ...

Take this as unsolicited advice from someone who sees himself as moderately successful.  

Make of it what you will.

Why The Cloud Discussion Is So Polarizing

Over the years, you've probably learned that you don't talk about politics or religion at social gatherings.  

If you're in the IT industry, you'd probably add "cloud" to the list of topics you approach with some  caution, especially in larger settings.

I've often wondered what is it -- exactly -- that makes cloud such a divisive discussion?  

We've been collectively hacking away at the cloud debate for many years now, and -- although there's been some progress in a few areas -- we're nowhere near anything that approaches an industry consensus.  

James Urquhart does an admirable job of tackling this thought in his recent post "Why It's So Hard To Talk About Cloud", but -- after reading it -- I think there's something deeper going on: the incredibly wide swath of stakeholders inevitably leads to an incredibly wide range of divergent perspectives.

For those who are waiting for the debates to subside and a reasonable common ground to emerge, don't hold your breath: there's far too much at stake for all involved.  Smart IT leaders will have do what all leaders usually end up doing: listening to all the perspectives, and deciding their own path forward in the face of rampant and bitter industry arguments.  

And, since the potential benefits of cloud concepts are very great indeed, there's a strong incentive to plan a course of action sooner than later.

The Big Posts Of 2011

It's been an exceptionally busy year -- for the industry, for our customers and partners, and for EMC.  I, for one, will be looking forward to a bit of quiet time to refresh and regroup before diving into 2012.

In this blog, I do what I can to share the continual stream of thoughts and observations that arise as part of my day-to-day duties here at  EMC.  

If you're a regular reader, you realize that can result in a lot of long and often lengthy blog posts.

I thought it might be worthwhile to step back and highlight the big themes -- and the big posts -- of 2011.   My selections are strictly driven by observable impact: the handful of posts that generated the most views, discussion and interest from my readers.

Happy reading!

Greenplum UAP And Enabling Your Data Science Team

It must be Data Science Week here at EMC.  

I've already written about our latest findings from the EMC Data Science Survey, and shared how EMC Education is offering their first Data Science Associate coursework to support the increased demand for knowledgeable individuals.

It's almost inevitable that all of this would be leading up to an EMC product announcement, and -- yes -- that's the case.  

The new Greenplum UAP (unified analytics platform) is especially exciting to me because it appears to be the first integrated software suite that is precisely targeted at the newer style of data science teams.

Here's the pitch: in the new world of big data science analytics, all the value comes from the data science team.  Since it's pretty obvious that (a) knowledgeable data science professionals will be very scarce resources for the forseeable future, and (b) their time is extremely valuable, then ostensibly makes sense to build tailored software environments that maximize their productivity.

That, in a nutshell, is what makes Greenplum UAP so unique and compelling.

Big Data Analytics: The New Corporate "Six Sigma"?

If you've been around for a while, you'll remember how a giant wave of Six Sigma investments crashed over corporations around the world in an effort to improve competitiveness.

At EMC, we all went to Six Sigma class, and learned how to DMAIC key processes, and then DFSS.  My personal favorite was the statapult exercise -- big fun if you've never done it.  

Over time, an army of Six Sigma green belts were developed throughout EMC's ranks, augmented by the ultimate masters: the Six Sigma Black Belts.

Why did so many companies make such a large investment in Six Sigma?  

The answer is painfully simple: it quickly became the new competitive ante.  

You either invested in getting good at Six Sigma, or you had better be prepared to suffer at the hands of competitors who had wisely made that investment.

I think we're seeing the opening scenes of a similar movie: a need for investing in broad-based skills in big data analytics proficiency.  

The case for this particular observation is strengthed by recent results from EMC's Data Science survey -- practitioners point to the lack of these broad based skills as one of the major things holding them back.

This time around, the motivation is also simple: invest in learning to use multiple data sources and the newer tools to better predict the future, or be prepared to suffer at the hands of those who have made that investment.

And today, EMC is announcing a key component of our investments to help our customers and partners get better at this new and important skill set: an associate-level one week course and certification in big data analytics techniques.  

I think it's going to be popular :)

Understanding The New Rock Star: The EMC Data Science Survey

Many people are now aware that big data analytics is quickly becoming the next competitive ante: to improve existing business processes, create new ones -- even a foundation for entering entirely new businesses.  

The race is now on to acquire -- and maximize the productivity of -- the key talent behind this wave: data scientists and their supporting data science teams.

At EMC, we've been working hard to understand who these people are, what makes them different, how they work -- and what they think is important.

Today, I'm pleased to share with all of you a few key highlights from a recent survey of data scientists and traditional BI analysts.

The work was conducted jointly with StrategyOne to get an "inside-out" view of how these people view the world, and -- especially -- how these data science folks are markedly different than the BI analysts that we're more familiar with.

Lots of useful nuggets here ...

Dear B2B Marketers: Why Are You Spending Money To Annoy Me?

This one is a bit of a rant, and somewhat off-topic.  Hope you don't mind.

Being somewhat affiliated with the marketing functions here at EMC, I tend to be rather sensitized to how I'm being marketed to by other organizations.

My frustration with their approach is growing rapidly; there doesn't seem to be an easy cure at hand; and there's no sign of better days ahead.

In a nutshell, it seems that a massive amounts of marketing effort is being spent to annoy me.  And I'm struggling to understand the root causes as to why that might be.

My real fear is that my beloved EMC might be sometimes guilty of the exact same behavior -- and that's not good!

The Challenge Of "Innovating Innovation" In Large Corporations

I think I'm fortunate that I get to meet with people on a broad range of topics -- and not necessarily just IT stuff, either :)

The appeal of "innovation" as a topic of executive discussion is near-universal: the more competitive your business, the more you care about fostering all forms of innovation within your ranks.

EMC is generally seen as a successful company, operating at global scale in an incredibly fast-moving and competitive industry.  How we think about important topics (such as innovation) can often be instructive to others who are grappling with similar challenges -- albeit in a different context.

This Wednesday, EMC kicks off its 5th annual Innovation Conference.  Although the event itself is quite impressive in its own right, it's far more impressive as just one component of an overall approach to innovation across many fronts.

Rather than simply beat our chests about how innovative we think we might be, we prefer to take a more serious approach and try to share with our customers and partners how we view the innovation challenge, what we've done about it, and the lessons we've learned in the process.

And I've found there are more than a few tidbits here for other corporate leaders who recognize the importance of fostering innovation across their enterprises.

Worker Safety In The Information Age

The modern economy is increasingly built on a cadre of knowledge workers who consume and process enormous amounts of information. 

But these information-intense models are not without their risks, as we are continually reminded.

One of the big stories of 2011 was the rise of APTs -- advanced persistent threats -- that are causing us to re-think many long-held precepts around information security.  There are new security philosophies emerging; new process and tools -- and new focus areas to consider

As Art Coviello put it so eloquently in his RSA keynote -- "people are the new perimeter".  But how do we arm our knowledge workers to handle information -- in all its forms -- safely?

Rather than scratch our heads and wonder how best to close this seemingly brand-new proficiency gap, I think it's useful to review how earlier "trade" industries -- manufacturing, construction, shipbuilding, etc. -- identified this particular problem, and created the foundational methodologies to manage worker safety in an earlier age.

We often forget than seemingly new problems have sometimes been solved before, just in a different context.  

And this might be just such an example.

Five Impressions From Mumbai

I do get to travel a fair amount as part of my role with EMC.  The act of traveling itself can be mind-numbing, but you get rewarded with all sorts of fresh experiences and perspectives on the other end.  

Such is the case with this trip.

I hadn't been to India in many years, but am now here in support of the annual EMC Forum.  The differences between then and now are striking, to say the least.

The EMC Forum itself qualifies as a raging success.  There are two parts to the event, an IT leadership focused event today (attended by ~200 CIOs and similar) and a broader-based IT professional event tomorrow.  

Customers, prospects, press and our partners are here in full force -- it's a big deal.  Sure, there are plenty of technologies here, but these events are really about sharing ideas.

I thought I'd share with you my five key impressions I've gathered so far.

The Squabble Over Single File Systems

Many of you are endlessly entertained by the back-and-forth bickering between us storage vendors over things like benchmarks. 

Sometimes the disagreement is over how the test was conducted, or the use of "lab queen" configurations that would never be found in a customer environment.

And, occasionally, there's very strong disagreement around comparing two very unlike things using a common standard.   That's what this post is about.

Why should you care? 

In a world of exploding data growth, massive scale and limited resources, how you do things may end up being more important than what you do. 

I believe many IT architects will want to take note of this particular debate, because you'll be seeing ever-more variations of this same theme in the near future.

Raising Kids In The Information Age

As adults, most of us are hard-wired to take parenting very seriously indeed.

Although the mission of raising kids hasn't really changed over the generations, the context certainly has.  

The world is now a very different place when I was growing up.  I'd like to be able to reach back into my own childhood experiences as source material for modern challenges; unfortunately, though, way too much has changed.

I find myself having to think hard and long about where the world is going, and how best to prepare my children to thrive in it.

Since many of you reading this are faced with similar tasks (or will be soon!) I thought I'd share a few aspects of how I'm trying to raise my kids in this new world.  

Take this unsolicited advice with a grain of salt: every situation is different.  And while there is no guarantee on how my kids will eventually turn out, I am rather pleased as to where they are in their journeys.

From Monopoly To Marketplace: Price Signals And Why They Should Matter To Enterprise IT

Maybe it's my background in economics, but I've never failed to be impressed by the elegant simplicity of a functioning marketplace.

Pricing is the key signalling mechanism between participants: not only between consumers and suppliers, but between suppliers competing for those consumers.

Through price signalling, marketplaces can often achieve a healthy equilibrium: the right kinds of goods and services are produced, and in the right amount.  

Price signalling between competitors is perhaps the major driver of innovation in competitive markets -- you either have to invest in cost-reducing existing propositions, or innovate to create new ones for your customers to consider.

And, to this day, no one has come up with a better economic optimization mechanism.

What's the tie-in to enterprise IT?  

As more enterprise IT groups strive to compete for their internal customers, they are forced to price their services against alternatives.  And, as a result, they gain the benefit of a powerful signalling mechanism that -- ultimately -- is more powerful than any "requirements planning process" could ever be.

Why EMC Cares So Much About SAP

Today's news release is making the rounds here at EMC: SAP annointing the EMC/VMware combination as preferred partners for cloud.  A somewhat similar release was issued by our compatriots at VCE only a few days ago.

More than a few people here are extremely enthused; I tend to be a bit more reserved simply because it's only the latest signpost of a deep symbiotic corporate relationship that goes back for more than a decade.

That being said, it's also a fascinating industry case study of how one company (EMC) can -- over time -- wrap its entire value proposition around that of another company -- SAP.

"No Compromise" -- And Why It's Important When It Comes To IT Vendor Services

Being an IT professional isn't exactly the easiest career choice in the world.  

On one side you've got cranky users and a difficult budget picture.  And on the other side you've got complex technology from multiple vendors to select, implement and support.

In an increasingly commoditized world, I would argue that "service quality" from your vendors is an important differentiator -- important now, more important going forward.

If you've bought a new car recently, you'll notice just how much service -- before, during and after the sale -- is a key part of the dealer's pitch. 

Like any competitive differentiator, the natural incentive exists for all players to invest in stepping up their game.  What was once arguably unique quickly becomes table stakes.  If you equate "service" to "product" for just a moment, it's fairly obvious that you wouldn't put a product out there without some mechanism to continually improve it.  

The story here is simple -- it's about how EMC Global Services has invested in continual process improvement -- and how these investments are paying off in not only customer satisfaction, but industry recognition.

My devious motivation?  

I'd like to encourage you to ask harder questions of your IT vendors, if you're not already :)

Why IT Groups Will Invest In Marketing

When I first started suggesting this to IT leaders a few years ago, I often got met with polite yet quizzical stares -- as in what the heck is he talking about?

Now, as more IT leaders realize that -- essentially -- they now have to compete for their internal customers' business, they're asking "what do external IT service providers have that we don't?"

And a key part of the answer is an entirely new IT function that communicates what IT is already doing -- and listens closely as to what IT should do next.

In a word: it's marketing

Catching Up With VNX

At the beginning of this year, EMC announced over 40 new storage products and enhancements.  Among these, a great deal of attention was focused on the new VNX and its smaller sibling, the VNXe. 

The VNX brought together the traditional CLARiiON and Celerra storage arrays into a single, unified platform: more powerful and far easier to use than its predecessors.  The VNXe was a strategic foray into what we saw as an under-served market: storage for the IT generalist: the VNXe takes simplicity and cost-effectiveness to new levels in this important market segment. 

That was then, what about now? 

On the tail of EMC’s positive Q3 earnings results, I wanted to dig a bit deeper into what was going on in this important storage segment: how were the existing products doing, and what was new in this space? 

And there ended being a lot to talk about …. 

Ten IT Predictions For 2012

It's getting to be that time of year when many of us start thinking about 2012.  Planning season is well underway at EMC, as it is for many of our customers and partners. 

Maybe you're doing some of your own 2012 planning right now?

I thought I'd try and help out by offering up my own personal predictions for those of us in the IT industry: vendors, customers and partners alike. 

These pronouncements aren’t really meant to be definitive -- just hopefully provoke a bit of thought and discussion.  

You also might be interested in the predictions I made a year ago.

See what you think …

Cloud And The Act Of Being Selfish

When people ask me "why do you blog?" I'm very clear -- I do it for me.  Yes, of course EMC benefits greatly, but I benefit as well.  

When I'm coaching aspiring bloggers, I make sure that they have their own self-serving interests clearly in focus, and no one else's.  

Five years, 1000+ posts and many millions of page views later, that ultimately selfish motivation has powered me through just about every distraction imaginable and helped to keep me focused.

It's an investment I continue to make in myself.

I believe that the rank and file of motivated career IT professionals now have an excellent opportunity being presented to them to make an equally selfish move -- to invest in the emerging new set of cloud skills and certifications that are now so much in demand.  

Yes, your employer will benefit greatly -- but so will you.

Achieving Financial Transparency

You're in the middle of a sequence of posts recapping the key thoughts and discussions resulting from EMC's recent IT Leadership Council, the main theme being "IT Transformation".

The background and context behind the event can be found here.  A more brief summary can be found here.

As a starting point, I wrote up Sanjay Mirchandani's excellent foundational presentation "Leading an IT Transformation".  Warning: it's long, even by my verbose standards.

I folllowed that with a thorough recounting of Jon Peirce's amazing presentation on "Organizing For Success", which can be found here.  Warning: it's even longer.

During the event, we shared with the group that we were near completion of what we thought was groundbreaking work on a methodology for achieving financial transparency within the IT function.

Why is this important?  

At the end of the day, it all boils down to people and money as the big levers that IT leaders need to pull on.  Especially transformational IT leaders.  

Jon covered the people side at length.  I believe this white paper represents our best current thinking on how one goes about achieving financial transparency.

Any time there's free market forces at work, intelligent choices tend to get made: what to invest in, how to measure returns, etc.  In many of our minds, financial transparency is the key enabler to achieving a virtual "free market" between internal IT services and the businesses that consume them.

Or, at least as close to one as we're ever likely to get :)

Please -- if you're interested, take a moment to read this, and offer up your thoughts as to overall usefulness, how to improve, etc.  

We think it's going to be a big discussion going forward.

Organizing For Success

Maybe I'm getting more cynical as my career progresses.  I've found I can take a quick look at just about any org chart, and quickly figure out how well the team is doing -- or not -- as the case might be.  

Most of the time, I'm pretty accurate.

The corollary is also true: if you want to deliver different results than you have in the past, you're going to have to take a hard look at your organization: their mission, their structure, their skills -- their very DNA.  

That's what good leaders have to do to achieve results, I've found.

When it comes to IT transformation, the same is inevitably true -- an organization produces what it's organized to do.  

Organize around technology silos, and that's what you'll deliver.  Organize around large and complex projects, the same is true.  Ultimately, if you organize around delivering attractive and competitive IT services that your internal customers want to consume, and that's what you'll eventually deliver.  

And that's exactly the mission that so many IT leaders are facing.

As part of our recent EMC IT Leadership Council, Jon Peirce delivered his experiences in leading just such an IT transformation.  Jon, as you might remember, is the key actor in many previous popular posts, such as "From Silos To Services".  During this presentation, Jon laid out the key concepts and insights better than I've ever seen him do.

If you're an IT leader, or aspire to be one, you'll likely want to invest the time in reading this very lengthy and detailed post.

Leading An IT Transformation

Leading a transformational change in any large organization is not for the faint of heart.  

Even more so when the subject of said transformation is a large, entrenched IT organization delivering mission-critical services.  But that is exactly the situation so many IT leaders find themselves in these days.

At our recent IT Leadership council, Sanjay Mirchandani opened with an extended keynote detailing EMC's IT transformation: the "why", the "how" and the outcomes.  

This post is part of an extended sequence recapping all the excellent content at the event.  The back story and overview can be found here.

Why do I find this presentation particularly interesting?  

There are undoubtedly IT organizations out there that are arguably "better" than EMC's own IT.  And I know for a fact that there is a large population of IT organizations that are still running in a tradtional legacy mode and have yet to begin their journey.

What's fascinating to me about this story is the change: how a large IT organization went from one kind of IT organization to another.

Yes, EMC IT supports a large, global technology company, i.e. EMC itself.  And, yes, our situation and experiences might not be an exact match to your situation and experiences.

But, as I've shared the story over and over again, there is plenty to learn for many IT leaders who are looking for clear (and successful!) examples on how a large IT organization can fundamentally change how it does business.

A Transformational Gathering of IT Leaders

I am now back in the office after 2.5 days in a room with 100+ IT leaders, collectively tackling the single most difficult challenge in IT today: how do you transform an IT organization to be more strategically relevant to the business it serves?  

The event itself -- the EMC IT Leadership Council -- was the first of its kind for us.  Personally, I see it as a huge success on multiple levels.

While no one will claim that we came up with The Perfect Answer, we shared an amazingly comprehensive foundation of transformational perspectives and examples.  No matter where you might be in your IT transformational journey, there were powerful and experiences to share. 

Fair warning: for the next few weeks, you're going to see post after post from me recapping the big concepts and discussions from this event.

If the topic of leading or participating in an IT transformation is on your mind, you're in luck.  This is some of the best IT transformational content I've seen -- ever.  And I get to see a lot of that stuff.

But if your interests trends towards other things, you'll have to put up with me while I get all of this across the wire and into the hands of the people I know can benefit from it.

The Dark Side Of Clouds

In my travels, I'm starting to see a disturbing trend.  I don't like it one bit.

The setup is easy.  Business is demanding more from IT.  IT wants to respond by being able to deliver cloud-like services internally.  A group of smart people assemble to try and tackle the challenge.

And then it all goes horribly, horribly wrong.  

The assembled team decides to invest many months and piles of money to go hand-craft their own "cloud" out of commodity components.  Their management team, for whatever reason, allows them to go do it.  Based on experiences so far, almost no one seems to be able to reach the finish line with a satisfactory result.

The first time I saw this at a large financial institution, I thought it was an anomoly.  I've now seen this for the 7th or 8th time, so there's a pattern forming.  And it's grim.

I've been giving some serious thought as to why some IT groups decide to go down this particular road, and others take a more pragmatic route. 

And, to be honest, it's not a pretty picture.

Doing More With Less: VCE Vblocks and EMC UIM

OK, I admit it, I'm a big fan of the Vblock concept, and -- by extension -- UIM, the Unified Infrastructure Manager provided by EMC.

Why?  It represents some of the very best thinking in cloud-like infrastructure available today.  More and more IT professionals now realize that -- yes -- there's now a better way of doing things. 

I think that anyone who's looked closely at IT-as-a-service concepts realize that rampant standardization coupled with intelligent automation is where the real action is; the hardware simply is an enabler. 

So, it was with great interest that I got a preview a while back on what was coming soon with the next major release of UIM. 

The Shape Of The New Storage Market

Part of my role here at EMC is to spend time with what we call the "industry influencers" -- the press, analysts, and the consultants who ostensibly shape public perceptions.

When it comes to EMC's storage business, they collectively seem to be fascinated by one minor market development or another -- mostly it's about a specific technology and specific vendors.  Only a few seem to have an appreciation for the big, secular trends that are driving the transformation of storage technology -- and the vendors that play.

Although EMC doesn't have an official talk track on "the changing shape of the storage industry", I do have a personal one.

And, if you're interested, I'd like to share the back story of how I put all of the day-to-day discussion into a broader framework.

Clouds and Public Policy -- The Developing Economy View

A while back, I wrote a post recapping the work of the CLOUD2 advisory group, chartered with giving the US government a useful perspective on areas where US public policy can help -- or hurt -- in helping to capitalize on cloud models.

As a reasonably developed economy, the US example is illustrative, but what about developing economies?  How should they look at the potential opportunity from their perspective?

Having just returned from Dubai in the UAE, this was the one topic that seemed to bubble up in most of my conversations with the press, local analysts and many of the larger customers and partners -- how can public policy create new opportunities in the face of a shift to an information economy powered by clouds?

And I think my Dubai experience might be a useful model for other aggressively developing economies.

A Thoughtful Day

This morning, like many people I woke up to the news that Steve Jobs had passed.  I've been thinking about it constantly all day -- so much so that I'm sort of surprised at myself.  

And I've tried to come up with one simple thought to summarize all that cogitation.

Steve Jobs makes us all step back and reflect on just how much impact one person can have.

And that should be inspiration for us all. 

An Organizational Health Check For IT?

As you get on in life, it's inevitable that your doctor wants to run more tests just to make sure you're healthy -- and stay that way.  Personal health isn't something that can be taken for granted -- and neither is organizational health. 

By now, I have seen more than enough well-intentioned enterprise IT groups get clobbered by a seismic change in circumstances.  The world around them changed; they didn't.  Upon reflection, the warning signs were there for all to see, but they most likely weren't recognized and acted upon.

I'd like to do what I can to keep that from happening to others. 

While I'm no doctor, I can suggest a quick diagnostic to help you better understand the organizational health of your IT function.

Even though the IT industry is quickly changing as a whole -- for vendors, IT organizations and the people who use IT -- the rate of change isn't uniform for everyone.   

Maybe you have some time to study the situation and make gradual changes.

And maybe you don't.

Shifts Happen

The advent of lower-cost, higher-performing flash storage is quickly restructuring the familiar storage business.

The advent of flash storage (or SSD) actually impacts two familiar storage technologies. 

Compared to spinning disks, it's far faster and thus cheaper per unit of performance delivered. 

Compared to server-style DRAM, it's somewhat slower but far less expensive per unit of capacity. 

Industry pundits are quite right in asserting that the storage business is changing as a result. 

Unfortunately, they often to point at any number of small storage startups as examples of new thinking, and may occasionally dismiss the more established players such as EMC.

Personally, I think we've got an advantage here -- you see, we've seen this movie before.

Better Information Management, Better Healthcare Delivery

One of my recent posts ("Cloud, Big Data and Healthcare") was a bit more popular than I expected.  

More than a few people contacted me to share that one of the most important (and interesting) areas in healthcare delivery was around the building and exploitation of VNAs -- vendor neutral archives. 

Their case was simple: through the widespread adoption of VNAs, we'll have ultimately better metadata to analyze, and hence an expedited pathway to big data analytics making a meaningful impact on how healthcare is delivered. 

In some sense, it's about finding logical "gravity wells" where useful metadata can be gathered, coalesced and made productive.  

And large image repositories in clinical settings seems to be a leading candidate. 

Considering Clouds And Public Policy

If you're like me, you probably understand that cloud concepts represent a transformational way of doing IT.

Which brings up a thorny question -- what role, if any, should public policy play in maximizing the value and minimizing the harm?  

That is the exact question addressed very successfully by the CLOUD2 report, a compelling piece of work from a broad representation of industry and government stakeholders, co-chaired by Michael Capellas of VCE.

While I'm not generally a fan of comprehensive public policy reports, this one perhaps deserves some of your attention.

First, it provides a case study on the ideal role of government when faced with transformational technology shifts, such as cloud.  Second, the recommendations (while specific to the government's role) can largely be translated to the private sector, especially for organizations operating at global scale.

And, finally, the recommendations largely transcend technology and vendor bias -- no small feat in itself.

The Vendor Beating

We've all seen parents berate their children, and managers berate their employees.  

It's not pleasant to watch, but it happens.  

As an employee of a large IT vendor, I've been at the receiving end of a reasonable number of vendor beatings. 

Occasionally it's richly deserved.  But, sometimes, it's masking a deeper set of issues that have very little to do any vendor whatsoever.

Such was the case a while back when I offered to do a meet-and-greet for a customer coming in to EMC's Executive Briefing Center.

Learning To Compete -- The Real Challenge Of ITaaS

Competition is the engine that drives us all forward.  

At an individual level, we compete with others who might be able to do a better job, or do things for a lower cost.  At a corporate level, our companies compete each and every day for customers.

Organizations within companies have learned to compete as well.  If you deliver a service to the business, there are always external competitors who'd like to show your internal customers a better, faster, cheaper way to get things done.

I believe the necessity to compete for internal customers is the primary engine behind IT-as-a-service concepts.  

Fail to successfully compete, and your internal customers will likely go outside to get what they need.

In this post, I'd like to share with the the most cogent explanation I've seen on this topic to date: what's happening, what it means to IT organizations everywhere, and -- most importantly -- what you can do about it.

Cloud, Big Data … and Healthcare

Healthcare is a fascinating industry. 

From the drug companies and the insurance companies to the hospitals and clinics -- it's an enormously complex and fast-moving value chain that has a single goal: to help each and every one of us live better and longer lives.

If one were to ask the question "in what industry do you see the fastest adoption of cloud and big data", the answer -- at least for me -- would be healthcare.

A Big Effort To Support Big Data

Industry opinions around the topic of big data analytics range from wild-eyed enthusiasm to hardened cynicism.  

My personal take?  

The cynics should move on and find something better to grumble about; there's absolutely stunning potential being driven by a perfect storm of exploding data sources, nose-diving infrastructure costs and new toolsets to make data dance and sing in ways we haven't seriously considered before.

As of late, one of these toolsets -- Hadoop -- has enjoyed more than its fair share of attention. 

One of its primary strengths is supporting efficient batch processing of enormous unstructured data sets.

Yes, you read that right -- batch processing is sexy again :)

The core technologies are thankfully open sourced, with the Apache Hadoop project being the primary core of the effort.  And yesterday, EMC and Greenplum announced a massive donation to the cause.

2011 EMC EMEA Analyst Summit Recap

As part of my nature, I'm always seeking out different and unique perspectives.  No one really likes business travel, but one of its frequent rewards is the opportunity to interact with people who bring something different to the party.

Such was the case with this week's EMEA Industry Analyst Summit.  We were able to assemble 32 very bright, very engaged and very opinionated analysts for a day-and-a-half session in a nice venue. 

If you were following me on Twitter (@chuckhollis or #EMCsummit) you probably got a sense of what was going on in the room.

For those of us who work and live in the United States, the dreaded trap of "US-centricity" is something to be avoided at all costs. 

And there's no better cure than spending some quality time with people who aren't prey to that malady :)