Chuck's Blog

This Friday Is "Hug Your Security Professional" Day

OK, I admit it. 

Until EMC acquired RSA, I attempted to stay far away from security-related discussions.  Usually, these involved very hard questions with very few good answers.  Or so I thought.

Now that I've been orbiting around RSA and their world of security professionals for several years, my perspective has changed dramatically.

It's an increasingly important topic to both us as IT professionals, and us as consumers.

The questions are getting harder, but the answers are getting much better.

And, most often, the people who focus on security are perhaps the most under-appreciated group within the technology realm.

I mean, really, how many of us welcome a visit from our security people?  My impression is that it's right up there with visit from HR, legal or the finance auditors.

And that needs to change ...

EMC And Microsoft: Towards A More Balanced Perspective

Yesterday was a busy day.  EMC made our big FAST announcement.  And, almost as an attempt to  distract, one of our competitors announced an expanded relationship with Microsoft.

The majority of the buzz yesterday was around the first topic.  That's good. But I noticed a thread of speculation that perhaps EMC and Microsoft were moving farther apart?

Nothing could be further than the truth.

So, I thought I'd use this post to share with you a bit of detail behind the scenes.  If you're interested in Microsoft, or just how corporate alliances work in the IT world, you might be interested in this post.

FAST And The Continuing Virtualization Of Storage - Part 3

This post is the third (and hopefully final) post in a series triggered by EMC's announcement of FAST going GA today.

The first post described the primary impacts of the FAST technology, and noted similarities / synergies between the virtualization of servers and the continuing virtualization of storage.

The second post juxtaposed FAST technology with other storage efficiency technologies, and offered up a new take on storage tiering, most of which is generally available as of today.

This post goes even further, and talks a bit about how people and process will likely change going forward, especially for those of you who touch storage on a daily basis.

FAST And The Continuing Virtualization Of Storage - Part 2

In my previous post, I attempted to present some of the basic impacts of FAST -- fully automated storage tiering, and how they were reflective of a Big Theme I want call the continuing virtualization of storage.

This theme plays out in two primary ways -- one of which is storage's continuing alignment with fully virtualized servers and networks.  And the other is how -- once we fully abstract logical from physical -- many more things are possible in the storage domain than we might previously have assumed.

This second post digs in deep on the second idea -- what new things are now possible once we fully embrace "virtualized storage"? 

And one of those "new things" is an entirely new take on storage tiering.

FAST And The Continuing Virtualization Of Storage - Part 1

Today's thematic post was triggered by EMC's announcement that FAST (fully automated storage tiering)  is now GA (generally available) on Symmetrix, CLARiiON and Celerra product lines.

Rather than get into the gritty details, I saw today's announcement as just another step in the journey of storage becoming a fully virtualized and dynamic resource, much in the way networks have been, and servers are fast becoming.

Changing Definitions By Redrawing The Lines

It's a very fun time in IT, especially if you work in a larger enterprise or service provider.

Whether you call it pervasive virtualization, private cloud, or whatever -- the boundaries between traditional disciplines are being redrawn, and -- as a result -- many of the words and concepts we're so familiar with take on very different meanings.

As IT professionals (whether customer, vendor or consultant), I would argue that we all need to be very congnizant of helping people migrate from traditional meanings to newer ones.

In this post, I wanted to share three personal examples of somewhat familiar concepts where I believe this is happening right now.

The Private Cloud / VCE Presentation

For most of this year, I've relied on a single deck to explain the concepts of a private cloud and describe the recently announced VCE Coalition.

This rather long post is basically a scripted version of the presentation -- although there are always a few things that usually get said that go above and beyond what's here.

Disclaimer: these are the slides and the story that I've personally been using recently.  I'm not entirely sure if it's 100% official or sanctioned or anything else like that. Hope you find this useful and entertaining!

Peering Into The Storage Crystal Ball

The economy seems to be picking up a bit, especially for us IT vendors.

As a result, we're getting more high-level queries from big IT shops than usual. 

A particularly interesting storage RFI (request for information) crossed my desk last week.  The long-term questions gave me an opportunity to elaborate a bit on what's new in the storage world -- both today, and in the near future.

I thought it'd make a good blog post for everyone.  I've obscured a few details to protect confidentiality (both ours and theirs!), but -- otherwise -- you may find it a good read.

Bonus question: see if you can guess the industry segment?

Top Ten Vblock Questions -- So Far!

So, I've been in front of lots of customers since the VCE Coalition announcement, and a lot of them focus primarily on the Vblock itself.

I thought I'd share the questions I'm getting -- and how I'm answering them.

Note: in addition to customer/partner focused questions, there's been a whole lot of snarky sniping from various competitors and others who may have a different agenda.  All part of the fun.  I'll try and cover their concerns later, but -- for now -- we'll focus on the people who pay the bills!

Is 2010 The Year Of Widespread Desktop Virtualization?

Many of think this could be the case.  It looks like a "perfect storm" cloud be shaping up in the industry to fundamentally change this piece of the IT landscape.

The thought is timely, given VMware's recent VMware View 4 announcement.  Check out the details from VMware here, or see Chad's excellent writeup here.

So, let's look at the enablers -- and the inhibitors -- and how they might play out in the very near future.