Chuck's Blog

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.