Chuck's Blog

Enterprise Flash Drives -- An Update

So, they've been in the market as part of EMC's DMX for a while -- what have we learned?

A lot -- and the story just keeps getting better and better.

Let me bring you up to date on what we're seeing.

Have I Seen This Movie Before?

Lots of interest in data deduplication (3D) in the storage community these days.

And why not?  Storage requirements are going through the roof, and we all strongly suspect there's a lot of redundant data lying around.

But I was thinking about this the other day, and it brought back some old tech memories.

I Can See Clearly Now ...

The cloud discussion is all the rage these days in our industry.  And it's not just a topical press thing, customers really want to know what's going on, and what it all means.

As of late, I've had to share EMC's views repeatedly. 

And it ain't so hazy ...

Back From Down Under

I spent last week visiting Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland and got to do it all: a few keynotes, multiple press briefings, and -- best of all -- quality time with customers and partners.

My usual trick on these timezone-warping trips is to not try and adjust to the time zone.  This time, I ended up getting my internal clock turned around in just enough time so I could come back to the US and do it all over again. 

As I write this, I'm in a jet-lagged brain fog.  Not fun.

The good news?  As with any trip, I learned a few new things that I wanted to share with you.

There's The Beef!

Hats off to Chad and the rest of his extended team for this post on the latest solution validation results with SharePoint in a virtualized environment.

The headline is hard to miss -- 74% power savings as compared to a physical environment, with equal to better application performance.

But don't stop there -- keep scrolling down for more on exactly how EMC does this solution validation, where to get all the beefy details, and more.

Great stuff, Chad -- keep it coming!

Off The Grid For A While

No, I'm not taking an extended vacation -- I wish. 

I'm leaving this evening for a swing through ANZ (Australia and New Zealand) next week, and I'm not sure about my ability to post -- not due to technology limitations, but to brain fatigue.

I guess I had this naive image of a leisurely swing through some colorful spots with a bit of time off to catch the sights.  My admin just forwarded my schedule, it's a riot of color codes showing back-to-back time allocations from the time I land to the time I leave.

Now I hope I can take the occasional biology break ;-)

The Great Data Placement Debate

Sooner or later, data has to land on a physical device.  And, with great oversimplification, there are two schools of thought about how best to do this.

One school of thought is that data placement matters, and there should be the option for precise control of where data lands.  And there's another school of thought that it really shouldn't matter.

Both approaches have their pros and cons.  But as storage technologies transition to much faster (and slower) devices, I think there's going to be some interesting vendor positioning exercises going on ...

The CFO Of Information Is Gonna Need A System

One of my persistent themes is that tomorrow's CIO will have to think of themselves as the "CFO of information".  The parallels between the evolution of how we've learned to manage money, and how we're going to have to learn to manage information are striking.

There's a very strong linkage between this thought, and RSA's recent offerings around DLP -- data loss prevention.

I've looked at different IT products over my entire career, and have learned to evaluate them in terms of the "big thoughts" they embed.  Of course, execution against those ideas matter as well ...

And I've been watching how RSA's DLP suite is rolling to market, and have been absolutely fascinated by the thinking behind it.

If you're a fan of big ideas, there's a lot to consider in this offering ...

Feature Lust By Storage People

Another day, another interesting conversation.

Today's conversation was with a customer who was ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED that they HAD TO HAVE thin provisioning on their storage arrays, and HAVE IT TODAY.

So, rather than argue, I thought I'd ask a few questions, just to make sure I understood what they were after.

And it was interesting, to say the least.

Commentary On Commentary

So, the big news today was the management shuffle at VMware.

Much has been written about it, and much more undoubtedly will.

But -- sheesh -- some people are getting absolutely irrational with their commentary. 

All I can say is -- get a grip, please. 

The real surprise for me is that it was such a surprise for so many people.  If you think about it, successful companies often go through different phases, and it's not unusual for different management skills and styles to be required during the journey. 

VMware is undoubtedly a great company, with a revolutionary product and a stellar management team. 

Not that much has changed, has it?

I hope it doesn't take too long for people to return to their senses ...

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[update: saw this piece yesterday which more accurately reflects how many of us here are thinking about things ..]