Chuck's Blog

Why Measuring Simplicity Can Be Complex

Anyone who works in IT knows that product simplicity and usability is important today, and becoming even more important going forward.

We at EMC spend a lot of time on this topic.  And, when it comes to usability, there's always room for improvement.

But, unfortunately, there are no generally accepted standards for usability.  Sure, we can count mouse clicks for commonly performed tasks, but we all know there's far more to the story than that.  Worse yet, it all can devolve into a marketing shouting match, with very useful information for users of products to objectively evaluate.  Not a good thing.

As a result, we've now started to turn to third party firms to evaluate our products' usability.  Tell us the good, tell us the bad -- but, most importantly, tell us where we need to get better.

And, in the spirit of transparency, I'd like to share the methodology and the results with you.

Game Over In The CPU Wars?

I don't know how many of us paid any particular notice to Intel's recent announcement of the E7 processors.  I mean, isn't it more of the faster, bigger, more efficient, more functional same?

Well -- yes and no.

For me, it's the final sign that -- yes -- the era of Big Unix on proprietary RISC processors is finally coming to a close.

HP Throws Down Its Cloud Hand

Not that I obsessively track EMC's competitors in the IT industry, but HP is a different beast altogether. 

By revenue, they're the largest IT company in the world.  Although they may not have the panache of a Google or Apple, like IBM, they've got a boatload of potential capabilities.

And, after more than 30 years in the IT industry, you learn to treat very large elephants with respect.

So, it was with more than passing interest that I pawed through the various commentary from Leo Apotheker on how HP intends to play their "cloud hand".

The good news: he was very clear.  The problem: I think in some respects HP might have made the wrong strategic choice.

Storage Market Evolution: The Longer View

IDC recently released their storage market share estimates for both the fourth quarter of 2010, as well as the full calendar year.

While there's much to be gleaned from the latest estimates, I though it'd be interesting to take the long view: by charting the market changes from 2002 through  the more recent 2010.

That's nine full years of market evolution.  What can we learn?

I Respectfully Disagree

I enjoyed reading Chris Mellor's recent ramblings on "Converged Stacks Will Retard Storage Innovation".

He makes a plausible argument: the rapid shift to converged and integrated infrastructures (e.g. VCE Vblocks) will make it harder for the erstwhile small startup to play, and thus hamper an important source of innovation in the storage industry.

After thinking about it for a while, I've decided precisely the opposite is likely to be true -- and here's why.

When Is A Backup Really A Backup?

I must be getting old and crotchety.

I keep seeing various marketing spins around "local backups" and I sort of shake my head and wonder if the world is going mad, or maybe it's just me?

See if you agree with my line of reasoning.

Welcome to EMC

Dear Isilon Team:

Today is the day that we're announcing that the acquisition is mostly complete.  Sure, there are still a few procedural things left to be done, but I'm told it's OK to come out of our cone of silence and start talking.

You'll probably be receiving all sorts of official communications over the next few days welcoming you to the EMC family.  I thought I'd add my personal thoughts as well.

Looking Ahead To 2011

Yep, it's that time of year when pundits and wannabe pundits start making their prognostications about the year ahead.

Since I'm in the latter class (wannabe pundit) part of me feels obligated to offer up my somewhat unique and biased views.  In some sense, you can see this as a preview of many of the themes that I'll be inevitably exploring during 2011.

EMC To Acquire Isilon

Well, today's news confirmed what was long discussed -- EMC's intent to acquire Isilon.  The full webcast, plus supporting materials, can be found here.

So, what's this all about?  And what might be different going forward?

Glad you asked ...

A Quick Update From NetApp

As I was scanning the morning emails, I found a link to this gem, basically pre-announcing NetApp's announcement for tomorrow.  The biggest surprise was that there really wasn't much of a surprise -- just about everything they announced was already public knowledge.

However, working as I do for EMC, I'm somewhat obligated to offer up some sort of commentary when one of our storage competitors makes an announcement.