Now that EMC World 2010 is comfortably in our collective rear view mirror, I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on a few interesting themes that came out of this event.
In many ways, EMC World is becoming more of an industry event, and less of an EMC-specific event, so what happens here affects just about all of us, and not just those affiliated with EMC.
On The Surface Of It ...
By any measure, it was a successful event as such events go. More people than expected, more exhibitors than expected -- with both groups telling us repeatedly that the event was wonderful from their perspectives.
But an industry event such as EMC World has to be examined beyond simple statistics and surveys -- there are powerful forces at work here.
Journey To The Private Cloud
Yes, I know everyone who attended (or watched!) was a bit overwhelmed by this drumbeat, but there's a significance here that might have escaped a few people: this is the first time a major vendor has categorically declared that the industry would shift to a cloud-based model, but also provided clear direction on the pathway and the enabling technologies required.
By comparison, just about every other decent-sized IT vendor is either ambivalent or unclear regarding what they think the future brings. By comparison, EMC was extremely declarative and attempted to provide as much clarity as possible.
Does this mean we'll see other major vendors become declarative about how they see the future of IT unfolding before too long?
A Plethora Of New Technology
It's usually the case for major trade shows that vendors will announce one thing or another.
By comparison, EMC unleashed a barrage of new products and technologies: VPLEX, surprising enhancements to CLARiiON and Celerra, interesting new backup integration with a performance boost, even a new interesting Ionix storage configuration management capability.
Given EMC's market leadership in storage networking, many found this announcement regarding EMC's investment in accelerating the transition to converged networks (with Brocade joining Cisco) to be declarative as well.
And EMC's recently renamed Information Intelligence Group had a lot to talk about -- new directions, new capabilities and new partnerships that are still in the process of being announced.
I also found it interesting that some of our exhibitors -- such as STEC -- used the venue to make announcements as well. Makes a certain sense, though. And if you went probing around in various booths and sessions, you probably got a few sneak previews that weren't formally announced as well.
In many ways, there was almost too much product news to digest -- will this be the new standard for industry events?
Reshaping The Landscape
Structural changes were afoot as well. Many were surprised to see a true industry legend -- Michael Capellas -- join Acadia as its new CEO and leading the VCE joint ventures. If you were a bit skeptical before, perhaps you need to re-evaluate.
EMC also announced an advisory panel to help guide the industry transition to a private cloud model, and held its first open meeting at EMC World.
Strong evidence was apparent around the new ecosystems that will be required for success in the cloud, as evidenced by the progress of the Atmos team.
All against a backdrop of an expanding digital universe and our collective need to preserve our information heritage.
In A Word: Passion
For those who were watching the action remotely -- be it via streaming video, Twitter, photos or blog posts -- you probably got a sense of vibrancy of the event.
Just about everyone was fired up, and excited to be there. People knew that change was in the air -- there was very little discussion around business-as-usual -- and wanted to learn and exchange viewpoints in a way that I hadn't seen before.
The social media scene was a bit over-the-top for some: from the now-famous Blogger's Lounge to the live streaming from The Cube to the bazillions of tweets -- EMC's investments in outreach and engagement were very much evident. In many ways, the physical event was simply a way to meet people you already knew, but hadn't met in person yet. The "EMC community" was a real and tangible entity at the event -- you could see it everywhere.
What Lies Ahead?
There was a lot to digest at the event. Sure, there were plenty of announcement, keynotes and sessions, but -- at least to me -- it was pretty clear that change was in the air.
And I, for one, was very pleased to be there.
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