Had yet another interesting conversation yesterday that left me puzzled.
The customer said "well, we're probably going to take a hard look at Hyper-V from Microsoft, so we don't expect EMC to be much help".
I was stunned that he would have that perspective. And then I realized why -- the optics were all wrong.
So let me set the record straight?
The Basics
Virtualization is in the process of changing computing as we know it. Not only does it offer superior economics, it makes IT more responsive to the business.
Removes friction, so to speak.
And, it's pretty clear that VMware is leading the charge, and is way out in front on this IT uber-trend.
But that doesn't mean that they're the only company that'll have something to offer in this space. Customers like alternatives -- and, before long, we'll probably live in a world where customers have choices regarding their hypervisors (and associated management stacks).
Why would this be any different than what happened in processors, operating systems, databases, etc.? Market evolution forces lead to certain outcomes over time, and I couldn't logically argue that virtualization is any different.
And, naturally, we're preparing for the day when customers seriously start looking at deploying at other virtualization stacks.
Let's Take Microsoft
OK, so Hyper-V may be a tad late, and might not have the rich feature set that VMware offers. Fine.
But I'm starting to meet a few customers that are extremely committed to Microsoft, and intend to give Hyper-V a run for its money.
And I, for one, don't see any upside in trying to talk them out of it ;-)
From EMC's perspective, Microsoft is an extremely important partner. We're engaged with them across most of their IT portfolio -- people are usually surprised when they learn how broad and deep our Microsoft relationship is: technologies, services, joint engagements -- it's a very long story with a few surprises.
There's just no way we'd turn up our nose at a key enabling technology from Microsoft -- period.
So, we're doing all the pre-work required for advanced support of a virtualization environment. Things like qualifying it with our storage products. Testing the parts of the portfolio that are likely to have issues with virtualization, finding the gaps, and getting fixes into the roadmap. Making sure our people are trained on the intersection between Microsoft's Hyper-V and the EMC portfolio.
All the unglamorous, heavy-lifting, long-lead-time work required to fully support a virtualized environment.
We Do Have A Few Advantages Here
First, we know where to look. I was at ground-zero for this process when we first took on VMware readiness some years back. We know what kinds of things are likely to have challenges in any virtualized environment.
Second, we have the benefit of being virtualization-ready for VMware. Much of the architectural work to fully understand and leverage optimization is already in our portfolio -- much heavy lifting -- and making it do the same for another virtualization environment is far easier than starting from scratch.
Finally, we have a willing partner in Microsoft who's delivered a product that -- while not GA yet -- is showing all signs of being able to do exactly what it says on the tin.
Yes, We Have A Relationship With VMware
I think this customer thought that -- because of our financial relationship with VMware -- somehow that meant we wouldn't support other virtualization environments.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
As an example, we make storage arrays. We also support non-EMC storage arrays with our management software, replication software, security software, document software, services, etc. etc.
Customers make choices on their technologies, we have to support them, or risk losing the business. And I think that virtualization is one of those choices that they'll be making.
Now, if you ask us our opinion as to the pros and cons of different virtualization environments, of course, we'll share them.
Opinions? We have a few of those around here ...
But in many cases, customers make their choices, and that's that.
So, are you going to take a look at Hyper-V when it's available?
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