Chuck's Blog

The Limitations Of (Storage) Models

Memes come and go in this industry. 

One popular one that's making the rounds is the Doeswijk Data Model, as described by my esteemed colleague and competitor Hu Yoshida over at HDS.

Now, I don't have problems with simple models to illustrate a concept or two, but every model (and analogy!) has its limitations.

In this case, I've now started to see a few people use this model as a basis for creating their overall storage strategy, and the results -- well -- haven't been pretty.

I do want to thank Hu for sharing the model.  And while I want to praise its strengths, I also want to highlight a few key intellectual flaws that can lead you astray if you're not careful.

Press and Analysts React To Private Cloud

I've worked with the press and analyst community for many years. 

Say what you will, but I've found them a very good barometer of what ideas will fly, and which ones won't. 

Sure, they don't actually buy IT products.  But they do get exposed to just about every IT pitch in the world, and they usually have a good nose for what's going to be a popular discussion, and what won't.

I've now had a few outings where I've had an opportunity to share private cloud concepts with these folks -- and how VMware, Cisco and EMC are working together to accelerate this vision.

The reactions have been mostly favorable, but with a few interesting wrinkles here and there.

Storage Made Simple?

Ever have to explain this storage stuff to someone who doesn't really have a background in it?

I find myself speaking to all sorts of people these days, including more and more that are relatively new to all of this.   One example is at press events -- there are people who follow these topics closely, and those that are relative newcomers.

The first few times I tried to explain the wide world of storage to an outsider, I'm afraid I made a terrible mess of everything, and ended up leaving people more confused as a result!

As a result, I've been searching for a quick way to explain to people why storage is such an interesting topic to so many people.  I've sketched out some of the key ideas below.

Let me know how I did?

FCoE, iSCSI and the Meaning of Life

Lots of great content coming out of EMC World, including this very thorough treatise by Stuart Miniman of Blog Stu fame. 

Update: saw this blurb today that IBM is "embracing" FCoE -- at least the server guys are!

I'll link more as I see them ...

EMC World Wrap Up

I'm sorry.

I really intended to spend more time blogging about EMC World this week, but I just got caught up in the whirlwind of so much activity, and now I'm forced to take more of a retrospective view.

It got so crazy that I literally let myself get scheduled in two places at the exact same time.  I really wanted to go to the EMC Blogger's meet & greet on Tuesday, but I found myself being the Master of Ceremonies for part of our presales conference at the exact same time.

My apologies and regrets for not being able to join my social brethren at that meet up.

But -- that being said -- there's a pile of interesting observations I'd like to share.

EMC Takes Atmos Storage OnLine

Perhaps the first big announcement to come out of EMC World is the twin combination of the new Atmos OnLine service, as well as AT&T's new Synaptic Storage as a Service based on Atmos.

While the new services and capabilities are interesting in their own right, I think they're emblematic of certain trends we'll inevitably see more of in the future.

And that's worth discussing ...

EMC World -- Initial Impressions

Hi everyone -- we're all down at EMC World.  Lots to talk about in terms of concepts and technology, but I thought I'd use this first post to focus more on less-quantifiable aspects of this gathering.

Over many years, I've developed a certain cynicism around industry events in general: they're too big, or they're too marketing-focused, or they're just plain boring.

That doesn't seem to be the case with EMC World.

Can You Help?

This post is important -- but a bit off-topic.

All of us in the EMC community are rebroadcasting this request for help.  Please take a moment to consider if you or someone you know would consider helping saving a life.

Thanks!

Oracle Wins Virtual Iron, Customers Lose

Sometimes you see things in this industry that make you shake your head and wonder.

Such is the situation with Oracle's recent acquisition of Virtual Iron. 

Put in the context of other recent activities, the picture is crystal clear: it appears that Oracle intends to use their market power with databases to force customers to consider their soon-to-be-announced virtualization stack.

And, from a customer perspective, this will not be a good thing.

Symmetrix V-Max: What It Takes To Deliver A New Architecture

Well, it's been a while since we announced the new Symmetrix V-Max. 

Industry watchers realized that there was a new way of thinking about enterprise storage: delivered by EMC.  Customers and prospects have been deluging our web sites and sales organizations wanting to know more.

And competitors?  My impression is that they're figuring out what to do next.

One common theme I've noticed in the competitive response was the usual unproven, risky, etc.  It's a predictable competitor response. 

I knew better.  I felt it unjustified.  As a result, I did a bit of digging around to see just how much work went into building and testing the Symmetrix V-Max before we shipped the first one.

And I think you'd be interested in the stats ...