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It's got to be one of the most popular "grabber" lines in the industry, right?
And who doesn't want to save money on storage?
On the average, corporate capacity grows 60% per year. And, even if media prices fall 20-30%, it doesn't take a math major to realize that -- every year -- you're gonna be spending more money on the round, brown spinning stuff unless steps are taken.
So, here's what I've been telling people.
So today, I'd like to share with you a little thing that'll probably have a big impact.
It's a fun game -- take something innocuous, and see if you can follow the impact trail.
No, I didn't get lost somewhere in the IT buzzword dictionary.
I've started to use the phrase to capture some basic concepts around one of the most mundane (yet) important tasks in IT -- migrations.
And I'd like to offer some thought as to why we might be thinking of this differently in the near future, if not today.
I get to meet with customers on a frequent basis. And I like to share my thoughts and impressions of these experiences here on Ye Olde Blog.
Yesterday, I had the chance to meet with a group of real cool IT guys.
They weren't talking about next-gen IT, they were doing it.
And it made me think.
For every force in the universe, there appears to be a counter-force.
And VMware's meteoric IPO has raised enormous speculation as to whether they'll be able to keep up their growth rate (and market position) indefinitely.
One example of this thinking is a well-written piece by Ashlee Vance over at El Reg that succinctly summarizes the prevailing thinking on the topic.
BTW, I love the work that Ashlee does, and The Register is one of my daily mandatory reads.
But I think that there's more going on here that most people realize.
I'm not trying to predict the future here (no one can do that), I'm just trying to add more to the speculative mix, mostly based on personal experience.
Thought I was done with posts for today, but I came across this really interesting piece from Forrester Research: The State Of Data Security In North America.
Or, if you're busy today, the press release has a nice summary of the conclusions.
Yes, EMC (actually, RSA) sponsored it, but -- vendor biases aside -- I found it pretty interesting on a couple of levels ...
Continue reading "Information Security Heats Up (Again, and Again ...)" »
I've really enjoyed watching the VMware IPO, and seeing all of EMC's traditional (and newer) competitors pile in to the VMware opportunity.
It's also even more fun to watch them try to pitch their old wares into the new world without having some basic understanding about how things fundamentally change when you really look at what server virtualization does to your infrastructure.
Is it that they haven't figured it out yet? Or, maybe they're suspecting that it's a bit different, but haven't fully grasped the full implications just yet ...
Sorry, there's no way I can avoid getting a bit sarcastic in this post, so my apologies in advance. I'm in therapy about this issue, but it isn't working well ...
Today, I'm going to offer a few insights to my brethren in the storage and infrastructure industry with a few examples on how some things change once you really understand what's going on here.
Those of you in the biz, you may want to drop a note to your marketing department that's churning out PDFs and webcasts to hold up a just a bit until you figure out how you want to handle some of these issues.
Otherwise you're going to have to answer some pretty hard questions.
Consider this a preview of the server virtualization pop quiz for 2008.
Continue reading "Free Lessons In VMware For Storage and Infrastructure Vendors" »
Nothing like a dazzling IPO to get people really interested in something -- like VMware.
I've been repeatedly asked to deliver the key thoughts (at least, from an EMC perspective) about what's happening here.
So we've created this little podcast -- just a few minutes long -- hope you find it useful!
For more that I've written on this subject, please look here.
I think you all know I've been at EMC a long time.
Some people say too long, but I digress ;-)
I really like when we get something right, especially when we started off really bad at it. And it's even better when it's something very, very important.
ROBO stands for Remote Office / Branch Office. It's one of those secret-handshake industry terms we all fall into the trap of using without really understanding what we're talking about.
Why is this interesting?
First, people realize that the information outside the data center can be the most expensive / risky / unproductive information in the environment.
And second, lots of vendors are piling in with solutions in this space, and it is becoming very noisy and confusing.
So, I thought it'd be worth a post or two to step back and offer a few thoughts on the topic.
As you know, I meet with a lot of customers. Most of the time, we talk about the growing importance of information, and the new role IT will have to play in the future. Or we talk about technology: EMC's and others.
But once in a while, we get into the very important (yet sensitive) topic of the IT organization itself -- what should it look like going forward?
And I have seen a noticable and inescapable trend towards what I've come to call "thin IT organizations".
So, I thought I'd use this post as an opportunity for a bit of self-reflection.
Maybe a few thoughts on what I and others are doing with this new form of communication.
In itself, this is an interesting topic -- at least to me! And if you're reading this, it's probably interesting to you as well ...
Well, everybody saw it yesterday -- the big VMware IPO.
And, finally, I can get back to blogging a bit more on the topic.
I think there's speculation (at least in my mind) as to why it was so successful?
Back when I was an angst-ridden teenager, I took it upon myself to carve "CH+JD" enwrapped in a heart on a tree in our local park.
At the time, she was the target of all my affections. Now, I can't even remember what the initials stood for.
Unfortunately, she probably didn't know who I was, and then there was the small matter of her boyfriend and the several-dozen potential suitors who were probably carving similar initials in similar trees.
Our friends at NetApp must believe in the power of positive thinking -- even when the facts might not be in their favor.
Last week, they offered a breathless press release on their new "commitment" to VMware, and did up a splashy number on their home page.
This annoys me on several levels, and I thought I'd share with you just why I'm so annoyed.
Drat!
I was meaning to get an authorative post out on this topic, but Steven Hill over at Network World beat me to it, bigtime. Go see an excellent writeup on this interesting arena here.
So why is this so interesting -- at least to me?
Or, more accurately, RSA (a division of EMC) acquires Tablus. You're welcome to read the press release here.
But what's really going on here?
A bit of commentary has been floating around blogland about the increased need for trained, certified storage administrators.
I thought I'd use this post to share EMC's views on this problem, and what we've been trying to do about it.
I was talking to someone who reads me on a semi-regular basis, and they asked for a "organized by topics" page to make navigation a bit easier.
I hadn't realized that I've got over 100+ posts now, most of them short essays in their own right.
New topical page can be found here ...
I was asked to do a short, internal podcast for EMC employees on the concept of "being an informationist", and thought I'd share it with you all.
The audio quality isn't the greatest, and it's definitely slanted towards an internal EMC audience but maybe you'll find it useful!
Find it here
Like many people, I fly way too much.
Occasionally, the plane will be power climbing, out of the airport, and the pilot for some reason will pull back sharply on the throttle. I'll go immediately from dozing to a very alert state, wondering "what's next?"
Network Appliance has just had such an experience.
And I bet more than a few people are wondering "what's next?"
Had a customer surprise the heck out of me with an extremely interesting take on thin clients.
They weren't just talking about doing it -- they had it up and running.
And it was for reasons I hadn't expected ...
No, not IT governance. Information governance.
OK, if you're a regular reader of this blog, you know my rant.
At most companies, there's pretty good governance around something else that's important -- financials.
What about information governance?
