Chuck's Blog

Information Infrastructure for SOA

I'm called on frequently to speak about a variety of topics, and -- recently -- there's been a renewed interest in infrastructure associated with SOA.

You probably know about SOA -- service-oriented architectures.  It's a (relatively) new way of thinking about how applications are designed, developed and deployed.  .

But, like anything else, anything big and hairy (like SOA) has serious infrastructure implications. 

And SOA -- at scale -- is no exception.

Thought Provoking Video Of The Day

You know that all of us at EMC think a lot about information, informationists and how information is changing the way we live, work and play.

If you like "future histories", you'll like this ...

Come See Us All At EMC World

I'd like to invite you to come join all of us at the upcoming EMC World in Las Vegas May 19-22.

I know what you might be thinking -- you're probably not crazy about most trade shows.  And, generally speaking, I'm in the same camp.

But you might want to consider this one.

NetApp Takes Benchmarketing To New Levels!

That's what the press release SHOULD have said ...

I thought I had seen it all before.

But my colleagues at NetApp win this week's prize for "creative marketing".

They've just submitted SPC-1 benchmarks on a few of EMC's products. 

And written a nice press release as well.

My oh my ...

Seismic Shifts In Outsourcing Land

It wasn't too long ago that outsourcers were causing considerable consternation in both IT customers and vendors.

Mega-outsourcing was all the rage.  If you were a large IT organization, you took this trend very seriously, for all the right reasons.  And if you were an IT vendor like EMC, your world was very different if your customer got outsourced.

But I think that the outsourcing marketplace itself is going through some pretty massive changes.  And, as I spend more time with outsourcers, I realize that some are moving quickly towards the new reality, and other -- well -- others are moving a bit more slowly.

And, if you're an industry watcher like me, it's an interesting story for customers, vendors and outsourcers alike.

EMC Does SaaS -- Reading Between The Lines

A relatively big announcement from EMC today, not so much on what we're doing specifically, but how we see the IT marketplace is evolving in very important ways.

The press release looks innocuous enough, doesn't it?  EMC announcing an enterprise version of Mozy-based backup.  Sure, that makes sense, sort of.

But I think there's a much more interesting story here ...

Enterprise Flash Drives and DMX -- The Aftermath

Every now and then, I get a ringside seat on a textbook example of human behavior in this industry.

And, I have to share with you, the reaction to EMC's recent announcement of enterprise flash drives for the DMX was very interesting, less about the factual content of what was said, but the different positions everyone took, and why.

And, going back over past experiences, I'm realizing that the last few days is a template of how a fiercely competitive, vibrant industry (e.g. storage) reacts to something truly new.

Live From Las Vegas!

This week, many of us are out in Las Vegas for our big annual internal meeting.

If you're not particularly interested in EMC culture, this would be a good post to skip.

Otherwise, you might be interested in this "state of the union" post ...

Enterprise Storage Strikes Back!

In the industry press, there's a certain group of people who disdain the enterprise approach to storage, thinking the world's important information will be entirely stored on commodity boxes running open source software.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. 

High-end storage arrays such as the DMX reflect the very latest in storage technology.  And there are a lot of very serious IT people out there who won't run their business on anything else.

Today, EMC announced some fascinating upgrades to the DMX -- including one that I'm sure will absolutely intrigue most storage techies like myself -- enterprise flash drives.

But, as with most things that EMC announces, there's two stories here: not only what we did, but how we did it.

It's Not About Web 2.0 Storage

If you're surfing our little corner of the blogosphere, you might have noticed that a spontaneous debate has broken out about the idea of "web 2.0 storage": what it is, what it isn't, and so on.

One catalyst seems to be the availability of all sorts of free (or low cost) over-the-network storage schemes from Google, Amazon and others.  Another catalyst was IBM trying to position their recent acquisition of XiV to revive their storage business.

I'm sure there's more that's been written around this, but here's the point: I think this "web 2.0 storage" discussion, as currently framed, is a big head-fake. 

And, while I have no problem with competitors running off on a wild goose chase, I think there's an important cadre of IT thinkers that will want to focus on what's going to be important here.