I like to think I know a lot about what's going on at EMC. At least, I try.
Sometimes, though, I get a pleasant surprise of something cool that's going on that missed my radar screen.
Had such an experience yesterday. Someone asked "where are the EMC product forums where people can share information, workarounds, etc.?". I was worried that -- somehow -- we'd missed this along the way.
Turns out I'm pleasantly surprised. Not only do we have a products forum, but it's big, sprawling, active, funny, engaging, etc. Nothing worse than a boring discussion forum, right?
So here ya go: http://forums.emc.com/forums/index.jspa
Registration is required, but there are lots of ways to get that: customer, partner, internal EMC person, etc. If there's an audience that can't get to this site and wants to, let me know and I'll see what I can do about it.
Thanks!

Hi Chuck,
Its one of the things that rears its ugly head every now and again in the storage world...... keeping it a closed community and making it hard to get the information you want. Id like to have an account and be able to browse the EMC user forums but Im closed out because Im not associated with a customer company. A tad annoying in my opinion.
I frequently use the HDS and HP storage forums and like the openness of them. Both allow you to easily browse as an anonymous user and of course you have to join before you can contribute. On the HP forums you can link you user account in with support contracts etc for extra benefits etc if you so choose.
I know some of the big iron vendors have a hard time changing and opening up, but Im sure if a supposedly shy and reclusive Japerican company can start to open up then surely EMC can too.
Id personally be impressed if EMC relaxed their forum membership requirements and made it easier to access.
Cheers
Posted by: Nigel Poulton | January 25, 2007 at 03:42 PM
You make an obvious point. There is a huge community that is neither customer nor partner who would benefit from participating in the forums, and we would all benefit from their participation.
I've teed this up at a pretty high level for people to go work on. The issue isn't so much policy, it's getting the mechanics to work right.
Thanks for the valuable suggestion, Nigel. I'll keep you (and everyone else) updated.
Posted by: Chuck Hollis | January 30, 2007 at 02:43 PM