Chuck's Blog

Is There A Cloud In Your Future?

I am at the stage where I'm constantly thinking about a new concept.  It's burning a hole in my head right now, it is.

In a few months, I'll probably be able to articulate it clearly and concisely, but right now I'm rambling a bit.

If you can bear with me during my learning curve, I'd like to start a discussion about what I'm starting to realize may be the *real* next-gen IT.

Something that makes things like SOA, grid, virtualization, etc. look like warm-ups for the main act.

Products vs. Features

I missed the EMC earnings call the other day.  Too bad, I heard it was pretty well received ;-)

I did read the transcript, and I noticed that Joe Tucci made an important point that I think reflects the evolution of the storage business, and -- more broadly -- all sorts of technology innovation.

And it's been a useful way to frame the discussion, both internally and externally.

Tomorrow's Thinfrastructure

Occasionally, I trip across a clever word to describe a relatively complex concept.

This one comes from Kartik, one of our field CTO types.

And I think it's a handy way to describe many aspects of tomorrow's IT infrastructure.

It's Been A Bloggy Year ...

So, I happened to notice that I've been blogging here for about a year.

Happy blogoversery, as they say. My, how time flies.

Just for the records -- that's 157 long-ish posts (of varying quality) and about 500-1500 hits per day.

Not entirely bad for a corporate blogger, I'd offer.

So, here's what I've noticed so far.

SaaS: It's All About Trust, Isn't It?

Like you, I subscribe to various news feeds. 

Most of them pass by as the usual info-smog we've all grown to be so accustomed to.

But today, I saw one that made me stop and thing a bit about an important topic in a new way.

And that's SaaS -- generically known as Software as a Service.  For me, the topic is a bit broader, and includes any IT capability that could be delivered as an external service, and not just software.

Securing The Next Platform

I don't know about you, but I'm doing an awfully large amount of work from my mobile device these days.

Yes, I know we call it a "phone".  But I don't make many voice calls with it.  Do you?

I do email.  And lately, I've gotten pretty addicted to the browser.

For me -- it's my next platform -- the one I want. 

But how to secure it?

Yes, We Occasionally Have Some Vigorous Debates

So, sometimes I'm accused of presenting a homogenous view of EMC's perspective.

If I'm doing that, I apologize.  Like any company, we've got our own internal debates on technology, strategy, etc.  Since I write the blog, it's usually my viewpoint that emerges.

So, today, I thought I'd share with you a behind-the-scenes debate sparked by one of my, ahem, more one-sided posts.

FCoE Made Simple

Well, one of the familiar things that popped up again at SNW was various vendors talking about FCoE -- Fibre Channel over Ethernet.

I really don't understand what the "controversy" might be about. 

Must be a slow news day for some people ;-)

Free Market IT

If you watch the various EMC blogs, you're probably aware we're holding an Innovation Conference. 

From across the reaches of EMC, we brought people with an innovative streak together to collaborate. 

To put it mildly, it was very, very cool.

There was a contest for best innovative proposals.  More good ideas than I could fully comprehend.

But I happened to sit in on a customer presentation who really set the tone for advanced IT thinking.

Creating The Social Computer

I don't know if I've shared this with you, but I sort of have a new set of responsibilities at EMC.

One of them is to figure out how we get more proficient at social media.  And in the process, I've developed a pretty good storyline about why this is important, and how to think about doing it.

And, since many of the people who read here also think about broader topics, I thought I'd devote a post to this -- framed in technology tools.

Is XAM Finally Here?

Well, no, not really, but if you're at SNW, you can see it being demonstrated at the EMC booth.

Why do I think the XAM standard is so cool? 

It's an important standard as we go beyond simplistic file system semantics, and start thinking about broader mechanisms to embed metadata alongside content.

And if we ever hope to tame the information flood, we're going to need something like XAM in the very near future.

Now it's up to vendors (and their users) to decide whether it's going to succeed, or not.

Integration -- The New Killer App?

So, many of us have been asked the same question about a bazillion times ...

"So, EMC has acquired all this technology .. what are you doing to integrate it?"

And the answer is -- a lot -- but it comes out in ways that are not always obvious, but I would argue are certainly useful and attractive.

And today's example is a rather obscure product announcement that illustrates a broader theme.

EMC's Secret Sales Force

I try to read everything that's written about EMC.  It's getting a lot harder to do this these days, but I try.

One of the themes that seems to come up in articles is EMC's crack sales force.  And it's true -- we've got a direct sales force that's legendary in bringing EMC's value proposition to customers and making them successful with it.

But today, I'd like to use this post to talk a bit about EMC's "secret" sales force -- our Technical Consultants, or TC's.

EMC Moves Into The IMSP Market?

You probably saw the recent announcement regarding EMC's acquisition of Berkeley Data Systems, and their very popular offering, Mozy.

So what's going on here?

You could look at it tactically (which many people do), or strategically (a bit less common).

I'd like to offer a few thoughts from a strategic perspective.

Information Philosophy Day

Two quick things I wanted to share with you.

First, there's now a cool downloadable widget -- the Information Clock -- provided by IDC and EMC.  It estimates the amount of information we're generating every second of every day. 

Feel free to use it in your next IT budget request.

Second, they shot some video of me being interviewed around broader societal issues associated with our rapid transformation to an information society.  The interview went on a lot longer, but they got a few nice bits on tape that you might find interesting (QuickTime format, 100MB, about 9 min).

Creating The Virtual Runbook

Discussions move fast in this industry, especially with customers.

Yes, server/desktop virtualization is cool.  We're in, they say.

Yes, we get that the supporting infrastructure may have to change -- servers, storage, backup, replication, management, security, etc.  We're evaluating that one.

But what about the most important part of IT -- the people and process?