Chuck's Blog

Why Cisco's OTV Matters For The Private Cloud

We've all been hearing about it for a while, but I've just noticed that Cisco is getting more public in talking about their OTV (overlay transport virtualization) technology.

I consider this one of the key "enabling technologies" for many cloud models, and private clouds in particular.

And here's why ...

Private Cloud Adoption -- The TOS Model

"Nothing good is easy ; nothing easy is good".

I don't remember who said that originally, but that thought has always stuck in my head.

And as I work with more organizations who have started down a private cloud road (or something very similar), I'm beginning to see repeatable patterns emerge.

In a previous post, I presented my observations on different adoption models I've been seeing in my travels and conversations.

Today's post has to do with entirely separate discussions in different parts of the organization -- regardless of adoption model.

See if this makes sense to you?

My Friday Rant (Again)

Two weeks ago, I posted "My Friday Rant" -- nothing more than getting a few industry observations off of my chest without provoking the usual competitive response.

People tell me they liked it, so -- yes -- I'm going to attempt to do it again.

And -- once again -- the same disclaimer.  If you don't like rants -- better skip this post!

Exploiting Distance

Last September, I wrote an extended post on "Overcoming Distance".

In it, I made the case that real-world issues around coordinating multiple copies of information at significant distances permeated so much of how we think about IT on a global scale.

Now, looking back, I realize my mindset might have been wrong.

Perhaps we need to start thinking in terms of exploiting what distance can do for us, rather than simply overcoming it.

Where The Rubber Meets The Road

We all know it's a far cry between pretty vendor powerpoints and actually making this stuff work in a live enterprise IT environment.

Fortunately, we are getting much better at bringing our own internal experiences to bear in a way that many people are finding increasingly useful.

And this is shaping up to be pretty cool, indeed ...

Of Storage Guarantees And Other Shenanigans

Chris Evans has some thoughtful commentary about the latest round of "storage guarantees" that are popping up in our industry.

We at EMC are always asked if we're going to do something like that.

The answer is "yes" and "no".

Private Cloud Adoption Models

We've now moved beyond the vision and enabling technology discussion with private clouds.  We're seeing more and more IT organizations start to put adoption strategies in place.

And, with large numbers usually comes inherent patterns.

In this post, I'd like to talk about the three primary adoption models we're seeing, and some of the context that leads to their choices.