Chuck's Blog

Introducing EMC ViPR: A Breathtaking Approach To Software-Defined Storage

I'd like to think I have a pretty good capacity for approaching new technology concepts, internalizing them and explaining them effectively. 

Those capabilities were severely put to the test when I first approached EMC's new product announced at EMC World: ViPR.
 
The effort paid off: I came away with a deeper understanding of some of the more powerful forces at work in our industry, as well as a breathtaking appreciation for what ViPR intends to achieve: both now and into the future.
 
Rather than debate terminology and categories, the best approach with ViPR might be to relax, follow the discussion, and come to your own conclusions: what ViPR does, what it means to the IT industry, and -- most importantly -- how it might affect you in your world.
 
Trust me, the journey will be rewarding ...

Why Cloud Was So Darn Confusing

Many of us have watched trends wash over the industry landscape.  Some come and go quickly; others make more substantive changes.

I've had the unfortunate privilege of observing many different waves hit, and I'd like to think I can learn a bit from each one.

As we sit here in 2013, it was only four short years ago that the first vituperative cloud arguments started to erupt online: true clouds vs. fake clouds, clouderati, accusations of cloudwashing -- remember all that?

From my perspective, the root cause was simple: collectively we were using a single term with multiple meanings -- and thus being perceived very differently depending on your viewpoint.

History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme: the same phenomenon was evident when the big data conversation erupted a few years back.  Once again, a single term was being stretched and tortured to mean very different things to very different audiences.   Frustration and cynicism is an inevitable by-product.

I suppose the most recent phenomenon is software-defined anything.

Those of us who are vendors and industry-watchers historically have matters much worse for everyone else.  We focus on one shiny aspect or another of the discussion, and often don't take the time to construct a broad enough perspective for the less-entrenched participants.

Since IT is an industry powered by big ideas, I think we're doing ourselves a disservice.  People can't act on a concept until they understand it -- in their terms, not yours.

When Enterprise IT Met Macroeconomics

I came across a fascinating read that juxtaposes two of my favorite subjects: enterprise IT and macroeconomics.

In "How The Internet Is Making Us Poor", Christopher Mims reprises an excellent case around how progressively more use of enterprise IT is fundamentally restructuring our economy, and -- more importantly -- our labor force. 

Vast categories of familiar middle-class jobs ('cognitive workers') are now at risk around the globe, thanks to software eating the world. It's happened before (e.g. agriculture, manufacturing) but perhaps never at this pace and scale.

While I'm not advocating a Luddite stance, perhaps we all should be somewhat more cognizant of the macro changes we are collectively enabling, one modest IT project at a time.

Does Horizontal Win?

Joe Tucci -- Chairman and CEO of EMC -- thinks so.

Conventional IT industry wisdom presumes the ultimate vendor goal is to "own the stack": not only the key components your customer needs, but the key interfaces between them. 

Alternatives are discouraged, increasingly more is bought from a smaller number of vendors, revenues and margins increase, competitors are at a disadvantage, and so on.

Large-scale industry examples are everywhere: IBM, Microsoft, HP, Oracle etc.

At yesterday's "Strategic Forum for Institutional Investors", we saw a veritable fireworks show of powerful ideas from Pat Gelsinger (CEO of VMware), David Goulden (COO of core EMC), and -- most interesting for the audience -- Paul Maritz who shared the rationale and structure of the new Pivotal initiative.

But I think Joe gets the prize for the most subtly controversial idea of the day: how does one become a disruptive stack vendor without the traditional model of "owning of the stack"?

I think his argument is pretty compelling.

ITaaS -- Creating That Retail Experience For Your Users

ITaaS: a familiar topic to many of my readers. 

But there's a new (and interesting) perspective: when you go through all this transformation stuff, how does IT function appear to the average knowledge worker in a large organization? 

I'll give you a hint, and it's very familiar. 

We all know how to buy and use technology in our personal lives, why should our corporate lives be any different?  Sellers of consumer tech strive to create great online retail experiences, why wouldn't we import that idea  into the enterprise IT world?

We have an excellent example of this concept within EMC itself: our own "InfinIT"-branded one-stop shop for most of your day-to-day end-user IT needs.  It's slick, well-marketed and very representational of what happens when IT re-orients around making IT easy to consume vs. easy for the IT organization.

Perhaps you've done better in your own IT group, and -- if you have -- congratulations!  For everyone else, the tour might be very interesting indeed.

From Compute Clouds To Dataclouds

Evolution and differentiation -- a powerful theme in life sciences.  Also in IT.

Just as our current understanding of clouds evolved from what came before, clouds themselves will inevitably evolve and differentiate.  Crossbreed cloud concepts with big data concepts, and the offspring is what we're starting to informally call a "datacloud".  

Children not only can inherit the best traits of their parents, but often they exhibit talents that neither parent had.  The same is true of dataclouds -- clear lineage with the parents, but showing some unique traits as well.

It was great to see the positive reaction on my recent post "From Databases To Dataclouds".  Lots of interesting discussions resulted, so now I'm encouraged to share more of the thinking.

Since many of us are familiar with cloud concepts as well as big data concepts, I'd like to outline my case as to why the latter will inevitably shape the former.

Hardware In An Era Of Software-Defined Everything

The next mountain to climb is clearly in sight: it's the software-defined data center, or SDDC.

Many might justifiably see SDDC as a linear extension of familiar server virtualization concepts, now being applied to things like storage and networks. 

While that's quite true, there's a much smaller group who sees something far more impactful -- a complete re-thinking of cloud-scale IT infrastructures: both software and hardware.

I have recently converted to this second smaller group, sorry to say.  As a result, I have become much more extreme than usual around the potential of what's in play here -- nothing less than yet another redrawing of the industry: the vendors who supply, and the cloud-scale customers who consume.

From a vendor perspective, it really doesn't matter where you play in the stack -- there's nowhere to hide.  SDDC concepts are going to change your world. 

If you didn't like the previous disruptive waves, you're really going to hate this next one.

Yes, much of what we think of as "hardware" today becomes dynamic, virtual services under software control.  But, in this new world, we start thinking about hardware differently as well -- especially at scale.

From Databases To Dataclouds

I was fortunate to sit through a wonderful, thought-provoking session given by Charles Fan, who is now the SVP of storage, data and applications at VMware. 

I've known Charles through many roles over the years (he has a most fascinating career story) and I can always count on him for a fresh, insightful perspective.

The event itself was pretty interesting as well: it was one of EMC's TAP (technology advisory program) sessions. 

Various groups at EMC routinely run small, informal forums where customers and partners are invited to come in around a specific topic, listen to what we have to say, and -- most importantly -- share their unique perspectives. 

There's about 20% EMC talking and 80% listening, which is one of the reasons I enjoy them so much.

This one did not disappoint -- we were discussing the shifting database landscape, and wanted to really understand what our customers were seeing and experiencing.   

Charles was kind enough to lead a discussion on the future state of databases and data management.

After the session, I asked Charles if I could share the essence of his presentation with a wider audience.  Graciously, he agreed. 

I hope you find this as thought-provoking as I did.

Software-Defined Storage And The Potential For Disruption

Last weekend, two weather systems merged off the coast of New England, creating a blizzard of "historic proportions".  Each weather system wasn't particularly important by itself; but somewhat disruptive when combined. 

And it took a while to dig out :)

I believe a similar pattern is brewing in our IT world -- two trends are on a collision course; with the likely result being a significant disruption in the storage sector.

The first trend is, of course, the software-defined data center, and all its software-defined subcategories: server, network, storage, etc. 

Anything that's virtualized has demonstrated it's far easier to consume: easier to acquire, provision, and manage -- and that includes storage.

The second trend is the insatiable demand for ever more storage capacity and associated functionality.  Historically a market with healthy growth, it shows clear signs of ratcheting into an entirely new gear, fueled by demand for all sorts of big data applications.

Although this particular IT mega-storm isn't here yet, you can see what's likely to happen.  And all of us are advised to think ahead.

The Big Picture

This year, I was very honored to receive multiple invitations to speak at customer events. 

Many of the larger IT organizations EMC works with have their own internal kickoffs for the new year.  Frequently, they go looking for someone who can bring an outside perspective -- a context -- to their situation. 

Somehow, they find me.  And I am very flattered to be considered worthy for that task.

But it's not an easy gig.

You can't just show up wearing your IT vendor badge, and blather on about your various products and technologies.  I've seen vendors do that before, and I'm pretty sure they won't be invited back.

Nor can you go too "big picture" either -- you can start with big ideas, but you have to bring those same concepts back to their world and make them relevant and somewhat actionable.

And, of course, you've got to do all of this in about 25 minutes, while holding people's attention.

Unfortunately, this year I only was able to accept a few of these invitations. 

For everyone else, I thought I'd do the next big thing -- share my 2013 keynote presentation via this blog post.  If you're a regular reader, you'll certainly see familiar material -- just re-assembled and re-packaged to be more consumable.

Even if you're not part of a large IT organization that's having a kickoff, you might find this material worthwhile to consider as you start the new year.