Chuck's Blog

Not All Clouds Are Private Clouds

I've been trying to lay low on the whole private cloud things for a while -- really I have.

But then I stumbled across a blog post that brought some key points into focus for me, and did a lot to reinforce some of my fundamental beliefs.

Not that I need any more reinforcement, mind you ...

Meet Pat Gelsinger

Pat Gelsinger now runs All Things Product here at EMC.

If you ever have a chance to meet him in person, you should.  He's one of those very unique individuals in our industry.

When Pat describes his view of EMC, he tends to use the phrase "a technology person's technology company".    When people at EMC describe their view of Pat, we tend to use the phrase "a technologist's technologist".  Nice synergy, no?

I'd go a bit further, since I've seen him in action for a while.  In a room of very experienced people, he can easily be the most experienced one there.  In a room of very smart people, ditto.  And in the company of passionate, visionary people, he can do the same. 

That's a very powerful combination, if you think about it.

I was fortunate to come across this short, informal video of Pat made right after the VCE announcement last year.  If you're curious, it offers a nice view into his unique personality and style.

Personally, I think we're very, very fortunate to have him here leading us.

Game On!

We all knew it was coming -- HP and Microsoft's eventual response to the VCE Coalition announcement from last November.

Both companies are quite formidable separately ; collectively, what could this mean going forward?

Disclosure: as an EMC employee (and as someone intimately involved in VCE activities), my biases will be very clear going forward.  That being said, I will do my best to compare and contrast the focus areas, and try to avoid general snarky-ness :-)

Dear IT Leader

As we enter 2010, I thought it important to reach out to you directly.

I know, you get bombarded by IT vendors all the time, so I understand your natural skepticism.

My message is simple: the industry is in the process of trying to offer you a substantially better way of doing your job.  That age-old phrase of "IT as a service" is going to mean something very different very quickly.

And I wanted to make sure that this important development didn't get lost in all the industry noise.

As I meet people in your role, it's often the case that you can get consumed by the overwhelming demands of day-to-day priorities.  I know I do.

As a result, I feel it's my responsibility to share the important trends that are in the process of changing how you do your job -- and your relationship to the organization you serve.

Make Your (Storage) Voice Heard!

If you're like most people in our industry, I'm sure you have many opportunities to participate in all sorts of industry surveys.  It seems these days that everyone wants your opinion.

For the last three years, EMC Education Services has sponsored a comprehensive survey of IT professionals on the perennially touchy subject of information storage and management challenges.

Last year, over 1,400 IT professionals shared their opinions, which resulted in a fascinating composite view of shared challenges and priorities across the globe.

The results are typically shared at EMC World; last year's report can be found here (PowerLink credentials may be required).  EMC employees and other vendors do not participate. 

In addition to sharing our results publicly, the results of this survey are a key input to our product, services and education teams.  We consider it one of the most useful "state of the state" surveys out there.

So -- consider making your voice heard!  More information can be found at the EMC Proven Professional community site here, or take the survey directly here.

Thanks to Gina Minks (@gminks) for the tip!

Overcoming Virtual Challenges

Over the last few weeks, I've been doing an informal survey of IT organizations aggressively pursuing virtualization, as part of some other work I'm doing.

I wanted to share with you the common themes that I'm finding over and over again -- you either know these things already, or -- perhaps -- might find them interesting in your particular situation.

Building The Information Utility -- Closing Thoughts

If you've made it this far, we've on an interesting journey together -- exploring concepts around an internal "information utility" for our organizations.

Yes, some pre-reading is required: an initial discussion here, concepts of efficiency here, building control models here, and -- of course -- how we might think about choice.

In this post, we come full circle, and talk about how organizations might get from here to there.

Building Choice Into Our Information Utility -- Part 4

You're deep into a series of posts where I attempt to lay the foundations of an idealized "information utility" for most enterprises.

The idea is simple: the vast majority of enterprise information isn't particularly mission critical, and we should start thinking in terms of an internal "information utility" that's modeled after phones, power, etc.

Before you dive into this one, I'd recommend that you spend a moment reading this post, this post and this post.

Ready?

Control and The Information Utility -- Part 3

You're midway through a series of posts exploring the concept of an idealized "information utility" for enterprises -- something that can do a better job of handling the 97% of all corporate data that isn't mission critical.

By way of prerequisite, I'd encourage you to read this introduction, and the subsequent post on efficiency.

Ready to dig into "control" concepts?

Here we go.

Making The Information Utility Efficient -- Part 2

You're midway through a sequence of posts describing the concept of building an "information utility" for the non-mission-critical information that's drowning every enterprise.

I did my best to lay out an initial conceptual framework here.  Much of what I say here will make far more sense if you have the chance to read this first.

In this post, I want to drill down on the enabling technologies and automated operational models that have the potential of dramatically transforming the efficiency of how we store, protect, manage and leverage our enterprise information.

In the next two posts, I want to explore related concepts: "control", and "choice".