Chuck's Blog

Additional Postings

For the last few weeks, I've divided my blogging time between this site and a new one I've been helping with: privatecloud.com

Thought I'd give you  quick view into some of my more recent posting over there -- if you're interested!

Top Ten Vblock Questions -- So Far!

So, I've been in front of lots of customers since the VCE Coalition announcement, and a lot of them focus primarily on the Vblock itself.

I thought I'd share the questions I'm getting -- and how I'm answering them.

Note: in addition to customer/partner focused questions, there's been a whole lot of snarky sniping from various competitors and others who may have a different agenda.  All part of the fun.  I'll try and cover their concerns later, but -- for now -- we'll focus on the people who pay the bills!

Is 2010 The Year Of Widespread Desktop Virtualization?

Many of think this could be the case.  It looks like a "perfect storm" cloud be shaping up in the industry to fundamentally change this piece of the IT landscape.

The thought is timely, given VMware's recent VMware View 4 announcement.  Check out the details from VMware here, or see Chad's excellent writeup here.

So, let's look at the enablers -- and the inhibitors -- and how they might play out in the very near future.

Getting To Good: Vblock + Acadia Customer Reaction

So, I now have been in front of 6 different senior IT audiences since Tuesday's announcement.

Note: this might give you a sense of how frequently I have the privilege of interacting with customers.

I've been able to present the case for VCE, focusing on Vblock and Acadia, and I"m starting to see a consistent pattern in the reaction -- at least so far.

Thought I'd share it with you, because I think we're going to see more of this going forward.

The VCE Coalition: Redrawing The Landscape

So, everyone has had a bit of time to digest yesterday's news.

And -- as expected -- there are those that are recognizing that the lines in our industry have been redrawn in a subtle but important way.

Put differently: there's a new "stack" to consider.

Behind The Vblock

 One of the most interesting parts of today’s VCE announcement is the Vblock – pre-integrated infrastructure for virtualization at scale.
 
Today, I thought I’d go behind the scenes, and interview one of the primary architects behind the Vblock – Jim Dowson (EMC Distinguished Engineer & CTO, Global Services).
 
I had the pleasure of hearing Jim and Phil Harris of Cisco (CTO, Strategic Alliances) present the Vblock in detail to one of our partners, and wanted to share some of their insights with you.

Introducing Acadia

There's a lot to talk about in today's VCE announcement, but one aspect that deserves closer inspection is Acadia, the joint professional services company being announced today.

The good news: there's a lot of good thinking that's gone into Acadia.  The challenge: if our competitors are going to take an unfair swipe at something, it's a likely target.

So, let's get started: what is it, why does it exist, how is it different, etc.?

In a word, it's all about enablement.

Introducing www.privatecloud.com

I wanted to let everyone know that one of the projects I've been working on is now available for your perusal.

Privatecloud.com is a joint effort between the VCE coalition to create a portal into the industry-wide private cloud discussion.  If you've been trying to follow all the different conversations, you know how hard it can be.

We've invested some editorial resources in assembling the best discussions and content, and putting it all in one place.

Yes, you'll see the collective views of EMC, Cisco and VMware on the topic, but you'll also get a healthy dose of alternative points of view as well.  I've written a number of pieces for the site, as have others.

And, just to set expectations, we're not going to attempt to be a tech-detail-heavy site (others cover those angles far better); instead, we're going to try and focus on how people are using the technology, rather than the technology itself.

If you've got a moment, please drop by www.privatecloud.com and let us know your thoughts.

Thanks!

Announcing The VCE Coalition

So, today's the big day -- I finally get to talk about something I've been working on for some time: the bringing together of three industry leaders to accelerate the transition to fully virtualized environments and private clouds.

Thankfully, I can stop being coy, and start to speak publicly about this important industry development: what it means for customers, and what it means for the industry.

There are so many interesting angles on this I'm sure I'll have no shortage of blog material for some time to come. 

And -- this being my blog -- I get the luxury of telling the story from my personal perspective.

Learning To Appreciate Technology

Someone sent me this video with an excellent rant on how we (collectively) react to new technology.

Yesterday's radical innovation becomes tomorrow's table-stakes expectation before we know it.

Poignant viewing for all of us that deliver new technology for a living!

Find it on YouTube here.

Ten Things I Wish We Did Better As An Industry

As the economy starts to revive, and IT spending starts to pick up a bit, I've noticed some optimism return to our industry.

Yes, it's great to see some positive earnings reports in the press.  Nothing wrong with that.

But as our collective fortunes improve, I'm concerned that we'll all lose the motivation to take a hard look at ourselves, and work to become better as an industry.

I thought I'd share with you my pet peeves for your consideration.  I'm not singling out EMC, or any other vendor -- just commenting on behaviors we all exhibit that aren't helping matters get any better.

Questions And Answers

Occasionally, I get pinged by a journalist to answer industry-level questions for specific publications. Sometimes the material gets used, sometimes it doesn't.

This time, I thought the questions were deep enough -- and broad enough -- that some of my readers might be interested in the dialog.

I've posted the questions I received through the email, as well as my personal take on what the responses might be.

Let me know if you'd like to see more of this sort of material, or not, as the case may be ...

Can You Trust Your Cloud?

The recent SideKick brouhaha has been an object lesson putting a sharp spotlight on this topic.

Much has been said on this topic, so I won't recap the obvious.  The online service had a really bad day. 

Much finger pointing, lessons all around.

However, as we debate various cloud models, a key aspect between public and private clouds has been highlighted here, and that's around notions of control, transparency and accountability.

Simply put, enterprise IT is always accountable for what happens -- whether it's in the data center, or in the cloud somewhere.

The Paradox Of Positive Elasticity

With so many vendors claiming new efficiencies on their various technologies, will we actually end up spending less money on these technologies, or perhaps end up spending more?

In the spirit of eyes-wide-open IT discussions, we have to be prepared for the likely scenario that cost reductions in IT may -- paradoxically -- result in organizations spending more on IT, and not less.

And, in most cases, we'll be better off as a result.

Big Appliances Vs. Virtual Pools

As the industry starts to move to fully-virtualized models, and cloud-like environments, I'm encountering a specific debate around IT philosophy.

The question revolves which is better for IT: purpose-built appliances, or pools of generic resources that are dynamically used?

And it's turning out to be one of the more contentious issues going forward.

Can You Call A Big Pile Of Disk "Cloud Storage"?

Well, there certainly are many who think so.

On the vendor side, I'd put 3Par, IBM, NetApp and doubtless a few others I forgot to mention.

Being the ever-pragmatic marketeer, I've been guilty of slapping new labels on old ideas a few times over the years -- and sometimes gotten away with it.

But in this case, I don't think it's going to work.  Clouds are very different -- or will be very soon.

I Want To Hear About EMC's Storage Strategy

Should be music to any storage vendor's ears, shouldn't it?

But, more lately, I've started to groan a bit when I hear those words.

Don't get me wrong -- EMC still generally sets the industry standard for advanced storage thinking and capabilities, much to the continual consternation of our competitors.

No, there's more to it than that.  It has to do with how IT is changing, and how I think that specific request is symptomatic of growing and uncomfortable problem.

Cloudy Discussions

I have been actively involved in discussing clouds here on my blog, as well as various customer and industry forums for a little over a year.

I've put forward some fairly definitive concepts (e.g. private cloud) as well as had plenty of time to discuss and occasionally defend my position.  It's added up to quite a few posts.

I went back to one of the foundational posts I did way back in January, and was surprised as to how well the thinking has held up over time.

Today, I'd like to pick up the discussion where my esteemed Cisco colleagues Chris Hoff and James Urquhart have taken the discussion, as they give me a convenient jumping-off point for some deeper topics I've been itching to get into.

A Quick Note On Primary Data Dedupe and I/O Density

My, that's a geeky title for a post, isn't it?

Wanted to dash off a quick observation that might impact your thoughts around this topic.  At the very least, it's something to be aware of.

Fasten your seatbelts ...

"Control Planes" For The Private Cloud

I do tend to fall into a verbal shorthand that might be impenetrable to others.

As I sketch out end-to-end private cloud architectural diagrams to larger enterprises and service providers, I walk through the various abstraction and service layers.

I tend to end with a discussion of "control planes" that orchestrate and secure everything from the user experience all the way to the physical IT infrastructure -- regardless of where that physical infrastructure might be.

One the announcements this week from EMC -- Ionix Data Center Insight (or DCI), reflects a piece of this story, and deserves some discussion. 

Love The FCoE Discussion

You know a topic is getting hot when the FUD gets hot and heavy ...

I think it started when a certain vendor offered their views on FCoE.  In the process, they got a few things wrong, and that's when the good stuff started.

First, Nigel Poulsen posted a a great theory of operation, and then followed up with physical infrastructure considerations.  Great reading and a nice piece of work.

Storagezilla then followed up with a nice referral to EMC's FCoE Techbook.  As you might appreciate, FCoE is a big deal for EMC.  And not in a "golly gee whiz" slick marketing kind of way -- we think this technology has merit, and we're doing everything we can to make it usable in the enterprise.

And this just in: Blogstu offers up all the work he's been doing in this space.

I guess the only piece of FUD left to address is the representation by a certain vendor that you can direct attach an FCoE host *directly* to an FCoE storage array *without* an intervening switch. 

I'm not naming names here, but you can guess who that might be.

Won't work anytime soon.  There's nothing to provide the FC "name server" function.  Probably won't change until late next year. 

Bottom line: enough of FCoE is up and running that we're seeing strong interest for some of the newer builds going on for fully virtualized environments.

Time to put it on your planning horizon :-)

Overcoming Distance

Over the last few centuries, much of mankind's ingenuity has been focused on eliminating the inconvenience of distance. 

From sailing ships to modern air transportation; from hand-carried letters to global telepresence -- we spend a lot of time and money to overcome distance in the physical world.

And, in the next few years, there's going to be an intense focus in IT in doing exacly the same thing.

The Continuing Saga of Oracle On VMware

I knew trouble was afoot a while back, first when Oracle acquired Virtual Iron, and later when they announced their intent to acquire Sun.

I told people at the time "Larry Ellison and Oracle are going to do everything in their power to lock out VMware".  People didn't really believe me.  Now it's pretty clear to all what the picture looks like.

Which brings up the inevitable questions of "why?" and "what happens next?"

So let me attempt a few answers ...

Chargeback Vs. Pricing

As we start to move to more pooled and cloud-like models for enterprise IT infrastructure, the age-old "chargeback" discussion is once again popular, but in an entirely new context.

Most people assume the chargeback discussion is all about how you pay for the cost of IT.  That's somewhat true.

Some people think that taxes are only to pay for the cost of government.  Other people see it as a way of encouraging good social policy.  Both are right to a certain degree.

Within IT, I believe it's becoming more attractive to think in terms of the latter, rather than the former.

Another Year, Another Blogoversary

It's that time of year when I feel obligated to reflect on my blogging experiences.

It's been about three years, 500+ posts, around 600K+ page views, and over two thousand comments.  Whew!

What have I learned?

Managing Your IT Career In Turbulent Times

A while back, I asked for a few suggestions on potential topics that I could explore in this blog.  Some people left comments, but most contacted me directly.

One of the better suggestions came from Bill Bonin, a fellow EMCer.

He observed that I probably spent more time with senior IT executives than most people he knew.

As a result, maybe I could offer up a few observations as to what most IT executives see as the most valuable skills that they're looking for in their organizations going forward?

I thought that was a great idea.

Stacking Storage Technologies To Tame The Information Beast

Good economy or bad, information continues to grow at about 60% every year.  Storage media costs are dropping at approximately 30% per year.  If you stayed awake in math class, you'll realize that -- unless you take some serious steps -- you'll end up spending more on storage each and every year.

A lot of people naively assume that vendors such as EMC want customers to buy more storage.  Actually, the opposite is true -- for the last 5-7 years, we've been working on technologies and strategies to help customers use *less* storage.

Individually, they're compelling.  Collectively, they show the promise of being able to largely flatten the storage expense curve. 

And that's a good thing.

Request For Topics

Hi everyone!

If you're a regular reader of this blog, or other EMC blogs, you know we can cover a lot of different topics -- and they don't all have to be storage related!

I thought I'd put a quick note out and ask my regular readers if there are any themes or topics that you'd like covered -- either new ones, or deeper dives in current themes?

Just to set expectations, I'm not saying I can deliver on what people want to hear more about, or that other EMC bloggers can do so, but I'd be really curious as to what other people are really curious about.

If you have a thought or two, would you mind sharing it in the comments section?

Thanks!

Retooling IT For Private Cloud

Most of the discussion in our industry focuses around technology and use cases.  That's as it should be.

But occasionally a shift comes along that puts the focus squarely back on the people side of our business -- the many hundreds of thousands of IT career professionals who design, implement and manage the enormous IT infrastructure that keeps our modern world spinning.

Any cloud is fundamentally different than traditional IT approaches: it's built differently, operated differently, and consumed differently.  That's what makes it a cloud.

Most of the industry discussion tends to fall around the endpoints -- how it's built, and how it's consumed.

But, for enterprise IT groups wanting to build their own private cloud, establishing the new operational model is going to be a compelling part of the equation.

EMC Acquires Kazeon

[Update: I was informed that the title of this post should have been "EMC To Acquire Kazeon" since the deal's not closed yet.  My bad.]

My my, another busy week.  No shortage of blog topics in my world!

I thought this latest acquisition was worth commenting on, less in terms of the product and what it does, and more in terms of exposing underlying strategic thinking here at EMC.

The press release, as well as Dave Raffo's blog post, cover most of the basics.  We'd been working closely with Kazeon for a while as part of our CMA business (think Documentum, SourceOne, et. al.), and today's announcement can easily be seen as simply another step in a logical progression.

I think that most industry watchers are starting to appreciate that M+A at EMC is a highly-tuned machine with formidable strategy, pipeline and process.  Just recently, we've acquired DataDomain, FastScale and now Kazeon.  All important acquisitions, all relating to different portions of EMC's business. 

But how do these themes relate strategically?

Good question.

Towards A Private Cloud Architecture

I think we're getting ready to take the next step in the discussion around private clouds -- from an initial set of generic concepts, to a more precise articulation of an underlying architecture.

At a surface level, private clouds are basically fully virtualized environments that allow IT organizations to use a dynamic combination of internal and external resources.

From a concept barely discussed just a few months ago, it seems to have risen as a dominant theme in our currently cloud-crazy industry discussion.  I've lost count of the vendors and analysts trying to either co-opt (or distance themselves!) from the term.

The high-level definition above is enough to get the conversation moving in the right direction, but there's a far deeper level of architectural abstraction that eventually needs to be discussed.

And, despite my limited abilities, I'm going to bravely venture out into this next phase of the industry discussion.

Let me know how I do?

Go Ahead, Give It A Try!

Today's news on EMC acquiring FastScale as part of our Ionix portfolio drew a slew of predictable skepticism from many who questioned the viability of this approach.

I was emailing Lynn LeBlanc, CEO of FastScale, and was wondering if there was any easy way that people could try it for themselves.  She immediately came back with the news that there was a limited *free* download people could try to see it working for themselves.

So, here you go.  Have fun ... and let me know what you think!

The Cool Magic of AIM

Yes, I'm going to throw a new term at you -- it's Application Image Management, or AIM. 

Before you scream “buzzword alert!”, take a moment and hear me out, please.

For quite a while, we've understood the potential to transform how application images are defined, managed and delivered in a radically optimized fashion.

And today, EMC is announcing the acquisition of exceptionally intriguing technology that cuts across multiple disciplines and delivers some eye-popping benefits.

How does the potential of running 3x-6x more virtual machines on the exact same hardware grab you?

In Memorium: Dick Egan

We all were stunned to learn of his death. 

To many of us, Dick Egan was a fundamental force of nature.

It goes without saying that Dick was the driving force behind EMC in its early years.  He was personally responsible not only for our stellar success in the beginning, but shaping our cultural DNA in a way that persists to this very day.  Indeed, many aspects of our industry are his direct legacy.

Way back when, Dick Egan *was* EMC.  The company and the man were largely inseparable.  To say he was a man with a vision would be a serious understatement of his contagious enthusiasm. The stories of his unique, compelling (and sometimes outrageous) style still circulate around the halls of the company.

Now that EMC is celebrating its 30th anniversary, it's a bittersweet occasion to look back at the man and the way he shaped so many of our lives.

He may have passed, but his impact will be felt for many, many years to come.

The New Face Of IT Security Infrastructure?

I was pleasantly surprised to see this article where some hands-on reviewers were favorably impressed with RSA's extended DLP (data loss prevention) capabilities.

Yes, it's a pretty cool set of capabilities.  And we could do a feature-by-feature comparison of our stuff vs. their stuff and probably come out ahead.

But it becomes an unfair comparison where we take these capabilities, and put them in the broader context of EMC's emergent stack.

Of Objects And Files

I was pleasantly surprised by the vigorous debate kicked off by one of my recent posts "The Future Doesn't Have A File System". 

Although most of the vigorous rhetoric came from an individual with a clear vested interest (Alex McDonald who is the competitive blogger over at NetApp), he did bring forth some themes that I'm sure are more widely shared.  And, just as vigorously, Paul Carpentier of FilePool (Centera) fame argued the other side of the equation.

I'd like to use this post to step back a bit and lay a bit of groundwork as to why this is such an interesting topic to so many of us looking at architecture.

I Love A Good Disruption

If you're like me, you love to see the continual cycles of disruption that percolate through our industry.

You might wonder why a "disrupto-phile" like me would work for a large, successful behemoth of an IT company like EMC, it's easy. 

It's pretty easy, actually. First, you don't get large and successful without paying attention to disruptive trends.  And, second, it's far more fun when you are the disruptor rather than the disruptee.

Case in point: a rather innocuous announcement from our Iomega subsidiary, found here.

You can say what you want around the pros and the cons of the actual product, but the thinking it represents is interesting. 

Think of it as yet another example of EMC's unique approach to creative disruption.

A Starter Private Cloud For IT

So, it's happening more frequently now.

We go into a large enterprise customer, or perhaps one of our partners, and do our private cloud presentation.

We talk about fully virtualized environments, new operational models, and how VMware, Cisco and EMC are working together to accelerate this world.

And then something very interesting happens with increasing frequency.

The Future Doesn't Have A File System

... at least, not that tree-oriented, heirarchical model we've all gotten so accustomed to.

Sure, there'll be mechanisms for managing information objects, but calling them "file systems" can really hold back our thinking in some subtle yet powerful ways.

Reconsidering Storage As A Service

Yes, many people have tread this ground over the years, but I'd argue it's time for a re-definition of the term.

Properly framed, it can provoke a mindset that transcends historical thinking, and might help pave the way for storage architects out there who are looking for new ways to frame the discussion with their teams to move the ball forward.

You be the judge.

Why I Really Like VMware's SpringSource Acquisition

Sorry I wasn't able to weigh in when this happened last week. 

The good news: the more I think about it, the more I find this particular acquisition absolutely fascinating.

The usual disclaimer: I'm offering my own opinions, and not speaking officially on behalf of VMware, EMC, SpringSource or any other company for that matter.

But, despite the disclaimer, many of us think this is pretty darn cool.

Big VDI With VMware / Cisco / EMC

Came across this gem the other day, and wanted to share. 

Ideally, this would be over at Chad's blog, but I guess he's been swamped with prep for VMworld.

In a nutshell, it's a beefy whitepaper showing Cisco's UCS doing virtual desktop consolidation in an entirely new league.

A couple of highlights:

• This scenario targets heavy-duty knowledge worker use profiles as opposed to occasional desktop users.  Although virtual desktops can potentially apply everywhere, they have special appeal for the power users in some organizations, hence the use of industrial-strength infrastructure for this particular environment.

• This scenario validates the premise that certain VMware consolidation scenarios are memory-limited (vs. CPU or I/O bandwidth), hence the attractiveness of the UCS design.

• As you dig into the white paper, you'll get a sense of the attractiveness of how the UCS Manager's template-based approach complements VMware's and EMC's.

I think this is yet another great example of the power of VCE: VMware, Cisco and EMC working together to accelerate fully virtualized environments and private clouds.  Thanks to the respective teams who did all the hard work!

More to come.

Private Clouds Vs. "aaS" Models

I love to watch how concepts evolve in our industry.

For example, the vendor and analyst community have now standardized (sort of) on certain taxonomies and hierarchies to describe different types of clouds.

My personal favorite comes from The451 "The Cloud Codex" -- it does a great job of putting all the cloudy concepts into a neat, nice and utterly pragmatic hierachy.  Unfortunately, it's copyrighted, so you'll have to contact them if you want a copy.

But they're not the only taxonomy in town.  A number of vendors and a few analysts have gone in a different direction, and decided to describe the enterprise IT cloud world in term of "aaS" -- infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS), and so on.

This sort of taxonomy is resulting in the inevitable question -- what's the relationship between private clouds and these "aaS" models?

And the answer is simple -- in one sense, I can make a strong case that private clouds are a superset of each and every "aaS" model you've ever heard of.

I Want My Personal Cloud

Storagezilla got this one going, and it's a thought that's worth exploring.

So much of the cloud discussion is pointed at businesses -- what about us as individuals?

And -- yes -- there's a potential type of cloud that I think we'll all want.

A personal information cloud.

Private Clouds: Our Story So Far

Ours can be an industry of big ideas. 

Certain ideas can quickly transform the landscape much the way a summer thunderstorm can quickly form and unleash powerful forces around it.

Such appears to be the case with "private clouds".

Starting as an obscure concept introduced at the beginning of this year, it now shows the promise of becoming not only the dominant model for next-gen enterprise IT, but perhaps service providers as well.

While no one in this industry is a definitive authority on anything, I do have the pleasure of being at "ground zero" as this concept was formed and communicated.

And exactly why this concept is becoming so popular is a story in itself.

Data Domain, NetApp And The IT Industry

As I think about this latest acquisition, there are three major themes worth exploring.

The first theme has been covered widely already -- the impact of data deduplication, why it's hot, the value of differing approaches, why it needs to go everywhere in the stack, etc. 

No need to cover that one here.

The second theme is the impact to EMC, Data Domain and our mutual customers. 

I attempted to sketch out how Data Domain's technology and offering could potentially create a surprising amount of scale and synergy when juxtaposed with EMC. 

There were some colorful comments on that one.

The third theme revolves how this acquisition is emblematic of broader themes in the industry, and how a certain class of IT vendors will find themselves with hard choices to make going forward.  Although I'll be using NetApp as an example, the discussion actually covers a fairly broad spectrum of well-known IT players.

And, yes, I'm wearing an asbestos suit ...

Data Domain: The Cone Of Silence Is Lifted

You may or may not know that -- during an acquisition -- we are very limited as to what we can say. 

Rather than run afoul of various mysterious rules and regulations, we all just feel it's better if we clam up until the deal is actually done.

Well, this morning we were informed that -- for all intents and purposes -- we can start talking about the acquisition publicly.

This post covers what it means to EMC, Data Domain and Data Domain's customers. 

I'd like to write a subsequent post at some point with what this means to NetApp -- especially in the broader context of industry consolidation and go-forward strategies.  And it ain't pretty.

So let's dive in, shall we?

A Short Break From Blogging

I just noticed I haven't posted anything since July 1st.  That's unusual.

Well, a week of it was time off.  That was nice. 

But, more importantly, I've been immersed in a few interesting projects that are sucking up just about every waking minute. 

Don't worry, I'll be back -- as soon as the smoke clears!

-- Chuck

Winds Of Change

I really enjoy meeting customers.  However, not every customer interaction is sunshine and lollipops. 

Sometimes, the interactions can be tense at the beginning, but result in an extremely productive discussion.

I had one of those today, and -- as I thought about it -- I realized I'm starting to see this particular situation more often.  It's a harbinger of things to come.

Storage And Cloud

One of the more popular questions that gets directed at me by journalists and others these days is around the above topic.

I guess since EMC does storage -- and is very active in things cloud-like -- they expect us to have some nice sound bites.

Well, I have my pre-packaged answer that's suitable for the press, but -- if you have the time and the interest -- the deeper answer is much more engaging.