Chuck's Blog

2012: A Good Year In Storage For EMC

There’s simply no arguing with the numbers – EMC continues to do very well indeed in the broader storage market and continuing to gain share in almost all sub-segments. 

While we’re not ones to rest on our laurels, I thought it would be good to dive down a bit deeper into some of the more interesting stories behind those big numbers.

For example, our mid-range product division (EMC’s USD – makers of the VNX and VNXe storage arrays) has certainly had an exceptional year.  Many of the powerful forces at play in the industry happen much faster and stronger in this incredibly competitive segment of the broader storage marketplace. 

I took some time to sit down with Eric Herzog, SVP of Product Management and Product Marketing, to get his views on 2012, and what things we might see in 2013.

EMC MegaLaunch II Overview

This morning, EMC is announcing 42 new or updated storage products.  That's a lot to consider.

Why 42?  

Other than the obvious reference from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, it's one more than the 41 products we announced at our last MegaLaunch event in early 2011.

I've done my best to look at each group of new or improved products, and share the highlights (as I see them) in an extended series of posts linked below.

I thought in this post I'd share what I think are the big trends motivating all this new R&D.

VNX: Charting The Changes

When we introduced the VNX and VNXe at the beginning of 2011 to replace our CLARiiON and Celerra products, we were sort of holding our collective breath here at EMC. 

Up close, we knew they were amazing products -- but would customers and partners embrace them?

The answer now is clear: it's an unequivocal "yes!"

Both products have turned out to be runaway successes.  We're delighting our existing customers and partners, and we've also been able to attract a lot more new adherents to the fold.  Along the way, the product has garnered more industry awards than I care to count. 

Industry market share numbers have shifted as a result.  It's now the hot product to beat if you're a competitor in this category.

Not one to rest on our laurels, the EMC team has been busy extending and enhancing the VNX and VNXe offering, and -- as part of EMC World 2012 -- there are new capabilities to consider.

My personal favorite in this batch of announcements?  The new EMC AppSync -- integrated data protection that creates protection as a service for virtual environments. 

You're going to like this one as well :)

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 …. 

Of VMAX and VNX

A recent tweet from a customer sparked an interesting discussion earlier this week.

@chuckhollis What decision making factors do you think are most important for a client deciding between mid-tier and enterprise storage?

Great question.  

I struggled to provide a meaningful answer in 140 characters or less, but probably didn't do a good job. 

In EMC's case, the reference is to VMAX (usually described as enterprise storage) and VNX (usually described as mid-tier).  Please keep in mind that the category descriptors are imprecise and often vigorously debated and spun by vendors -- so that's not my goal here.

So let me try again ... this time, with a bit more room to stretch out.

Giving The VNXe A Spin From Your Desktop

Ever been curious about the VNXe?

You know, the next-generation entry-level enteprise storage array from EMC with the killer, easy-to-use GUI?  The one that everyone likes so much?

Well, now you can give it a whirl -- with almost no effort and without the need for annoying online registration, which inevitably results in more email spam.

Simply download this .exe file and you'll get a full, working emulation of a VNXe.  I've played with previous versions, and I was able to put it through most of its paces without the need for pbysical hardware.  

Hey, it was so easy that even *I* could do it :)

Disclaimer: I haven't downloaded this specific version, and -- since all I have is my Mac and iPad on the road, I'll have to trust that it works just as well as previous versions I've used.

If you're looking for an amazingly functional, simple and cost-effective storage array, it's certainly worth the download.   However, if you're a storage geek like me, you'd probably be curious as to what a state-of-the-art storage GUI looks like that's aimed at the IT generalist vs. storage specialist.

Let me know what you think?

Thanks to the VNXe team for making this amazingly functional demo available to us all!

Why Measuring Simplicity Can Be Complex

Anyone who works in IT knows that product simplicity and usability is important today, and becoming even more important going forward.

We at EMC spend a lot of time on this topic.  And, when it comes to usability, there's always room for improvement.

But, unfortunately, there are no generally accepted standards for usability.  Sure, we can count mouse clicks for commonly performed tasks, but we all know there's far more to the story than that.  Worse yet, it all can devolve into a marketing shouting match, with very useful information for users of products to objectively evaluate.  Not a good thing.

As a result, we've now started to turn to third party firms to evaluate our products' usability.  Tell us the good, tell us the bad -- but, most importantly, tell us where we need to get better.

And, in the spirit of transparency, I'd like to share the methodology and the results with you.

Dear NetApp Customer

On behalf of EMC, I'm writing to you today with a simple proposition: 

For your next storage purchase, perhaps you'd want to consider EMC?

Make no mistake: NetApp is a good company with a good product.  And they've enjoyed some good success over the years.

But things move fast in the storage industry.  

If you haven't taken a close look at EMC recently, there are some compelling reasons as to why maybe you should ...

VNXe: The Soul Of A New Array – Part 4

You’re at the final installment of my blog series detailing the “story behind the story” of EMC’s new VNXe.

In part 1, I described the context of the project, and what specific challenges EMC is addressing.

In part 2, I touched briefly on some of the rather unique design assumptions that went into the product and its ecosystem.

In part 3, I explored how the expanded notion of “system” fundamentally changed just about everything we did around the product: how it was sold, supported, upgraded, etc.

And in this post, I’d like to come back on some of the bigger ideas in the product, and how they will likely impact storage array thinking going forward.

VNXe: The Soul Of A New Array – Part 3

You’re now deep into a multi-part blog series on the background behind an entirely new storage product from EMC: the VNXe, code named “Neo”.

In part 1, I described the context of the project, and what specific problems we were trying to solve.

In part 2, I touched briefly on some of the rather unique design assumptions that went into the product and its ecosystem.

And in this post, I’d like to explore how the expanded notion of “system” fundamentally changed just about everything we did around the product: how it was sold, supported, upgraded, etc.