Chuck's Blog

The Challenge Of "Innovating Innovation" In Large Corporations

I think I'm fortunate that I get to meet with people on a broad range of topics -- and not necessarily just IT stuff, either :)

The appeal of "innovation" as a topic of executive discussion is near-universal: the more competitive your business, the more you care about fostering all forms of innovation within your ranks.

EMC is generally seen as a successful company, operating at global scale in an incredibly fast-moving and competitive industry.  How we think about important topics (such as innovation) can often be instructive to others who are grappling with similar challenges -- albeit in a different context.

This Wednesday, EMC kicks off its 5th annual Innovation Conference.  Although the event itself is quite impressive in its own right, it's far more impressive as just one component of an overall approach to innovation across many fronts.

Rather than simply beat our chests about how innovative we think we might be, we prefer to take a more serious approach and try to share with our customers and partners how we view the innovation challenge, what we've done about it, and the lessons we've learned in the process.

And I've found there are more than a few tidbits here for other corporate leaders who recognize the importance of fostering innovation across their enterprises.

Worker Safety In The Information Age

The modern economy is increasingly built on a cadre of knowledge workers who consume and process enormous amounts of information. 

But these information-intense models are not without their risks, as we are continually reminded.

One of the big stories of 2011 was the rise of APTs -- advanced persistent threats -- that are causing us to re-think many long-held precepts around information security.  There are new security philosophies emerging; new process and tools -- and new focus areas to consider

As Art Coviello put it so eloquently in his RSA keynote -- "people are the new perimeter".  But how do we arm our knowledge workers to handle information -- in all its forms -- safely?

Rather than scratch our heads and wonder how best to close this seemingly brand-new proficiency gap, I think it's useful to review how earlier "trade" industries -- manufacturing, construction, shipbuilding, etc. -- identified this particular problem, and created the foundational methodologies to manage worker safety in an earlier age.

We often forget than seemingly new problems have sometimes been solved before, just in a different context.  

And this might be just such an example.

Five Impressions From Mumbai

I do get to travel a fair amount as part of my role with EMC.  The act of traveling itself can be mind-numbing, but you get rewarded with all sorts of fresh experiences and perspectives on the other end.  

Such is the case with this trip.

I hadn't been to India in many years, but am now here in support of the annual EMC Forum.  The differences between then and now are striking, to say the least.

The EMC Forum itself qualifies as a raging success.  There are two parts to the event, an IT leadership focused event today (attended by ~200 CIOs and similar) and a broader-based IT professional event tomorrow.  

Customers, prospects, press and our partners are here in full force -- it's a big deal.  Sure, there are plenty of technologies here, but these events are really about sharing ideas.

I thought I'd share with you my five key impressions I've gathered so far.

The Squabble Over Single File Systems

Many of you are endlessly entertained by the back-and-forth bickering between us storage vendors over things like benchmarks. 

Sometimes the disagreement is over how the test was conducted, or the use of "lab queen" configurations that would never be found in a customer environment.

And, occasionally, there's very strong disagreement around comparing two very unlike things using a common standard.   That's what this post is about.

Why should you care? 

In a world of exploding data growth, massive scale and limited resources, how you do things may end up being more important than what you do. 

I believe many IT architects will want to take note of this particular debate, because you'll be seeing ever-more variations of this same theme in the near future.

Raising Kids In The Information Age

As adults, most of us are hard-wired to take parenting very seriously indeed.

Although the mission of raising kids hasn't really changed over the generations, the context certainly has.  

The world is now a very different place when I was growing up.  I'd like to be able to reach back into my own childhood experiences as source material for modern challenges; unfortunately, though, way too much has changed.

I find myself having to think hard and long about where the world is going, and how best to prepare my children to thrive in it.

Since many of you reading this are faced with similar tasks (or will be soon!) I thought I'd share a few aspects of how I'm trying to raise my kids in this new world.  

Take this unsolicited advice with a grain of salt: every situation is different.  And while there is no guarantee on how my kids will eventually turn out, I am rather pleased as to where they are in their journeys.

From Monopoly To Marketplace: Price Signals And Why They Should Matter To Enterprise IT

Maybe it's my background in economics, but I've never failed to be impressed by the elegant simplicity of a functioning marketplace.

Pricing is the key signalling mechanism between participants: not only between consumers and suppliers, but between suppliers competing for those consumers.

Through price signalling, marketplaces can often achieve a healthy equilibrium: the right kinds of goods and services are produced, and in the right amount.  

Price signalling between competitors is perhaps the major driver of innovation in competitive markets -- you either have to invest in cost-reducing existing propositions, or innovate to create new ones for your customers to consider.

And, to this day, no one has come up with a better economic optimization mechanism.

What's the tie-in to enterprise IT?  

As more enterprise IT groups strive to compete for their internal customers, they are forced to price their services against alternatives.  And, as a result, they gain the benefit of a powerful signalling mechanism that -- ultimately -- is more powerful than any "requirements planning process" could ever be.

Why EMC Cares So Much About SAP

Today's news release is making the rounds here at EMC: SAP annointing the EMC/VMware combination as preferred partners for cloud.  A somewhat similar release was issued by our compatriots at VCE only a few days ago.

More than a few people here are extremely enthused; I tend to be a bit more reserved simply because it's only the latest signpost of a deep symbiotic corporate relationship that goes back for more than a decade.

That being said, it's also a fascinating industry case study of how one company (EMC) can -- over time -- wrap its entire value proposition around that of another company -- SAP.

"No Compromise" -- And Why It's Important When It Comes To IT Vendor Services

Being an IT professional isn't exactly the easiest career choice in the world.  

On one side you've got cranky users and a difficult budget picture.  And on the other side you've got complex technology from multiple vendors to select, implement and support.

In an increasingly commoditized world, I would argue that "service quality" from your vendors is an important differentiator -- important now, more important going forward.

If you've bought a new car recently, you'll notice just how much service -- before, during and after the sale -- is a key part of the dealer's pitch. 

Like any competitive differentiator, the natural incentive exists for all players to invest in stepping up their game.  What was once arguably unique quickly becomes table stakes.  If you equate "service" to "product" for just a moment, it's fairly obvious that you wouldn't put a product out there without some mechanism to continually improve it.  

The story here is simple -- it's about how EMC Global Services has invested in continual process improvement -- and how these investments are paying off in not only customer satisfaction, but industry recognition.

My devious motivation?  

I'd like to encourage you to ask harder questions of your IT vendors, if you're not already :)

Why IT Groups Will Invest In Marketing

When I first started suggesting this to IT leaders a few years ago, I often got met with polite yet quizzical stares -- as in what the heck is he talking about?

Now, as more IT leaders realize that -- essentially -- they now have to compete for their internal customers' business, they're asking "what do external IT service providers have that we don't?"

And a key part of the answer is an entirely new IT function that communicates what IT is already doing -- and listens closely as to what IT should do next.

In a word: it's marketing

Catching Up With VNX

At the beginning of this year, EMC announced over 40 new storage products and enhancements.  Among these, a great deal of attention was focused on the new VNX and its smaller sibling, the VNXe. 

The VNX brought together the traditional CLARiiON and Celerra storage arrays into a single, unified platform: more powerful and far easier to use than its predecessors.  The VNXe was a strategic foray into what we saw as an under-served market: storage for the IT generalist: the VNXe takes simplicity and cost-effectiveness to new levels in this important market segment. 

That was then, what about now? 

On the tail of EMC’s positive Q3 earnings results, I wanted to dig a bit deeper into what was going on in this important storage segment: how were the existing products doing, and what was new in this space? 

And there ended being a lot to talk about ….