There's a lot to talk about in today's VCE announcement, but one aspect that deserves closer inspection is Acadia, the joint professional services company being announced today.
The good news: there's a lot of good thinking that's gone into Acadia. The challenge: if our competitors are going to take an unfair swipe at something, it's a likely target.
So, let's get started: what is it, why does it exist, how is it different, etc.?
The good news: there's a lot of good thinking that's gone into Acadia. The challenge: if our competitors are going to take an unfair swipe at something, it's a likely target.
So, let's get started: what is it, why does it exist, how is it different, etc.?
In a word, it's all about enablement.
The Challenge
Early on when the three companies were sitting down discussing our shared opportunity, we started to realize that there was a functional gap in the value chain between our technologies and customers who wanted to use them quickly.
It was pretty easy to see that entirely new skills and methodologies were going to be needed in this fully-virtualized private cloud world. Sure, the technologies were rather new, but -- more importantly -- the operational and consumption models of clouds were very different than what we'd seen in traditional IT, service provider and outsourcing settings.
Without these "next generation" skills and methodologies, we believed there was going to be an awfully slow transition within the industry -- one that wasn't really necessary, the more we thought about it.
So, how best to accelerate the development and delivery of these next-generation skills and methodologies?
Going A Bit Deeper
Each of the three companies knew their respective products pretty well. But none really had the "critical mass" within their existing organizations to build this new professional services capability. Between us, we had a lot of the ingredients, but we felt there were some important pieces missing.
All three companies believed that there were some pretty damn good system integrators out there who had great knowledge about customers, technology and process, but weren't tooled up to deliver these next generation services.
We all agreed that the best outcome would be to create an independent organization to enable these system integrators and consultants to bootstrap their own practices with new capabilities.
Thus was born a project code-named "Alpine" -- how do we structure a professional services capability that enables the partner ecosystem to be successful with private cloud technology, private cloud operational models and private cloud consumption models?
Early Decisions
We saw there were plenty of options of doing things gradually and incrementally with customers and service providers. As technology gradually was refreshed, we could insert the new stuff, and -- patiently over time -- begin to introduce the new operational and consumption models.
But we were meeting people who thought differently. Early on, we were directly challenged by several large customers to put together an approach that could deliver tangible benefits in a matter of months, rather than years.
We homed in on a core concept -- BOT (build, operate, transfer) -- as the underlying model we needed to deliver.
The Power Of BOT
If I am being brutally honest, there's a fair number of IT organizations that can't seem to get out of their own way when it comes to large-scale transformational approaches. Big ideas can often get mired down in a stormy cloud of people, process and politics.
Or, as one IT leader put it, "changing the technology is easy, changing the organization is hard".
The idea with BOT is to largely bypass the people and process responsible for the legacy, demonstrate a pocket of success within the data center, and then help orient the organization towards adopting the new model with the BOT project as a proof-of-concept.
Hence BOT -- build, operate, transfer. Results can be demonstrated in a matter of a few months, rather than years. IT remains in control.
Working With SIs and Partners
One of the key areas I believe that Acadia (as part of VCE) is different than HP's and IBM's approach is motivation. Acadia is all about enablement of the partner ecosystem, and not competing with it.
If you think about it, collectively this group of independents bring an enormous amount of value to the table. They understand their customers. They understand the legacy. They bring unique skills in verticals, adjacent technologies and methodologies.
That being said, we do have a few large organizations that want to deal with Acadia directly -- that's inevitable. And I think it's a good thing that the Acadia team do a few of these themselves to make sure they know what we're doing.
Nothing like a dozen or so customer engagement to teach you the difference between theory and practice :-)
But actions always speak louder than words. As Acadia works with its partners, these partners will quickly figure out that the motivation is to help grow the SI's business, and make their clients successful with the new approach.
Getting To Good Faster
I do have to point out that this new option doesn't take anything else off the table.
EMC, Cisco and VMware still offer a broad portfolio of professional and consultative services independently, as before. EMC especially has dramatically ramped up its services portfolio around private cloud and the supporting technologies and methodologies.
And SIs and consultants can still offer other approaches to IT transformation, if a customer desires it.
The Bottom Line?
There's a new way of doing IT infrastructure: private cloud. It implies different technology, different operational models and different consumption models. Every time I present private cloud concepts to IT leaders, they're extremely interested. Some have even stated flatly "we're all in, how do we get started?".
If you're an IT organization, once you figure out what you want, you want to get there sooner than later.
And Acadia offers a new option to achieve precisely that goal.
Early on when the three companies were sitting down discussing our shared opportunity, we started to realize that there was a functional gap in the value chain between our technologies and customers who wanted to use them quickly.
It was pretty easy to see that entirely new skills and methodologies were going to be needed in this fully-virtualized private cloud world. Sure, the technologies were rather new, but -- more importantly -- the operational and consumption models of clouds were very different than what we'd seen in traditional IT, service provider and outsourcing settings.
Without these "next generation" skills and methodologies, we believed there was going to be an awfully slow transition within the industry -- one that wasn't really necessary, the more we thought about it.
So, how best to accelerate the development and delivery of these next-generation skills and methodologies?
Going A Bit Deeper
Each of the three companies knew their respective products pretty well. But none really had the "critical mass" within their existing organizations to build this new professional services capability. Between us, we had a lot of the ingredients, but we felt there were some important pieces missing.
All three companies believed that there were some pretty damn good system integrators out there who had great knowledge about customers, technology and process, but weren't tooled up to deliver these next generation services.
We all agreed that the best outcome would be to create an independent organization to enable these system integrators and consultants to bootstrap their own practices with new capabilities.
Thus was born a project code-named "Alpine" -- how do we structure a professional services capability that enables the partner ecosystem to be successful with private cloud technology, private cloud operational models and private cloud consumption models?
Early Decisions
We saw there were plenty of options of doing things gradually and incrementally with customers and service providers. As technology gradually was refreshed, we could insert the new stuff, and -- patiently over time -- begin to introduce the new operational and consumption models.
But we were meeting people who thought differently. Early on, we were directly challenged by several large customers to put together an approach that could deliver tangible benefits in a matter of months, rather than years.
We homed in on a core concept -- BOT (build, operate, transfer) -- as the underlying model we needed to deliver.
The Power Of BOT
If I am being brutally honest, there's a fair number of IT organizations that can't seem to get out of their own way when it comes to large-scale transformational approaches. Big ideas can often get mired down in a stormy cloud of people, process and politics.
Or, as one IT leader put it, "changing the technology is easy, changing the organization is hard".
The idea with BOT is to largely bypass the people and process responsible for the legacy, demonstrate a pocket of success within the data center, and then help orient the organization towards adopting the new model with the BOT project as a proof-of-concept.
At a tactical level, senior IT management picks out a few areas they'd like to point the new model at. The VCE BOT-trained system integrator stands up a good chunk of infrastructure, either migrates existing applications or stands up new ones, and operates it for a while.
The metrics of the new environment is compared against the legacy environment. Confidence is established. Progress is made.
Given the advantages of the technology and the operational model, it's hardly a fair comparison. Soon, it's pretty clear to everyone that there's a better way of doing things. And then the work starts to expand the scope of the new model to incorporate more aspects of the IT landscape, and eventually transfer operations back to the IT organization.Hence BOT -- build, operate, transfer. Results can be demonstrated in a matter of a few months, rather than years. IT remains in control.
Working With SIs and Partners
One of the key areas I believe that Acadia (as part of VCE) is different than HP's and IBM's approach is motivation. Acadia is all about enablement of the partner ecosystem, and not competing with it.
If you think about it, collectively this group of independents bring an enormous amount of value to the table. They understand their customers. They understand the legacy. They bring unique skills in verticals, adjacent technologies and methodologies.
Attempting to build a professional services organization to compete with Accenture, CSC, Cap Gemini, Wipro, TCS, et. al. would be foolhardy, to say the least. Are you listening, HP? :-)
That being said, we do have a few large organizations that want to deal with Acadia directly -- that's inevitable. And I think it's a good thing that the Acadia team do a few of these themselves to make sure they know what we're doing.
Nothing like a dozen or so customer engagement to teach you the difference between theory and practice :-)
But actions always speak louder than words. As Acadia works with its partners, these partners will quickly figure out that the motivation is to help grow the SI's business, and make their clients successful with the new approach.
Getting To Good Faster
I do have to point out that this new option doesn't take anything else off the table.
EMC, Cisco and VMware still offer a broad portfolio of professional and consultative services independently, as before. EMC especially has dramatically ramped up its services portfolio around private cloud and the supporting technologies and methodologies.
And SIs and consultants can still offer other approaches to IT transformation, if a customer desires it.
The Bottom Line?
There's a new way of doing IT infrastructure: private cloud. It implies different technology, different operational models and different consumption models. Every time I present private cloud concepts to IT leaders, they're extremely interested. Some have even stated flatly "we're all in, how do we get started?".
If you're an IT organization, once you figure out what you want, you want to get there sooner than later.
And Acadia offers a new option to achieve precisely that goal.
When will Acadia be hiring? Sounds like a intriguing opportunity!
Posted by: B | November 03, 2009 at 01:07 PM
Having knowledge of the disciplines of market leaders like EMC, I can assure anyone, EMC has some mighty powerful tricks in it's quiver. Further, EMC has been very busy over the last decade ensuring it would not be a one trick pony going forward. Joe Tucci has transformed EMC from the Storage company it was to an awesome infrastructure play.
I have known Chuck Hollis for more than a decade and cannot name anybody more knowledgeable in compute infrastructure delivery. EMC has always known it is better to be first and fast than to merely produce a product and label it as better. It is still about first to market, easy to implement and creating that same EMC Effect that generated the first $12B revenue stream for EMC.
Looking forward to the updates Chuck...keep up the great work
Posted by: Mike White | November 03, 2009 at 01:45 PM
Can I try and put this article in one paragraph Chuck? I'm a channel focused Technical Advisor within HP.
Basically, Arcadia will sell a silo'ed solution, and charge for the install. The customer will then move (or create new) parts of the Datacenter Applications to this new silo'ed solution. You measure it. Customer loves it. Then you can: a) sell direct to customer. b) Sell through an SI. c) sell through a reseller. In the case of B & C, Arcadia can charge for the install, and SI / Reseller adds there value, while learning to do the install themselves.
Is that right? If so, how is this any different to the traditional approach? HP installs or demo's a Proof of Concept (no charge), and can run it for up to 3 months. Customer sees benefits. Customer purchases solution over time.
If Customer wants to deal with HP themselves, then they can go and speak to ES (Enterprise Services, formally EDS). Alternatively customer can buy direct, and get the install from qualified EB (Enterprise Business) engineers. Finally, the customer can go to a qualified HP Gold partner (who include many of the SI's) who also have the skill in house to help install and support this solution. HP will always provide the training and support to these partners.
Remember, the HP Channel are what has made HP the #1 IT Company in the world.
Chuck, you should look into what HP Converged Infrastructure is all about. Virtualized - Resilience - Orchestration - Optimisation - Modular.
Posted by: Jeremy Arnold | November 03, 2009 at 02:06 PM
Hi Jeremy
I didn't expect anyone at HP (or NetApp) to be especially overjoyed at this announcement.
My argument to the contrary goes something like this:
- HP is lagging in core technology and delivery models.
I am very aware of what HP is offering the market today, and have a good idea what the next 12 months look like in your roadmap. Compared to an integrated stack from Cisco, EMC and VMware -- well, you're going to be playing a lot of defense going forward.
- HP is not investing in creating an open ecosystem of system integrators, consultants and delivery models.
In the HP model, all roads lead back to the former EDS (now HP Enterprise Services). Yes, HP has a nice channel; so does EMC, and Cisco and VMware.
Look forward to meeting y'all in the marketplace -- I love going head-to-head with a good competitor!
-- Chuck
Posted by: Chuck Hollis | November 03, 2009 at 02:21 PM
Quote: "I didn't expect anyone at HP (or NetApp)"
Comment: You believe NetApp to be your No.2 competitor, I reckon they would be pretty chuffed with this announcement. Not bad at all for a storage company that only provides filers...
Posted by: Paul P | November 04, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Hi Paul
Ummm, perhaps your assuming too much.
EMC does a lot of stuff -- storage, backup, archiving, management, security, content management, even hypervisors if you think about it.
We have well defined competitors in each category.
In the "mid-tier modular storage category", I'd offer that we compete with NetApp, HP's EDS and a few others. In the "high-end enterprise storage category", only HDS is left to go compete with. In the consumer segment, it's a bunch of smaller players who are going against Iomega.
Ditto for Ionix, RSA, Documentum, et. al.
Frankly, we spend far more time thinking about HP and IBM. We sort of realize that NetApp has a tough road ahead of them, and have turned the majority of our focus elsewhere.
Although they always seem to be up for a good blog war or two! Gotta admire their spunk in the face of adversity.
Thanks for the comment.
-- Chuck
Posted by: Chuck Hollis | November 04, 2009 at 12:33 PM