Storage Nation

In my discussions with customers, I often ask the "V" question: how are you doing with virtualization? Occasionally I get an interesting response: they're entrenched IBM customer, and they point to the use of virtualization on their mainframe, and perhaps their big AIX boxen, and say they're largely virtualized.  Asked and answered. I need to ask them a better question: how are you doing with pooling of resources? The Bigger The Better Any time you pool resources, you're angling for a better outcome.  Lower cost-to-serve through scale efficiencies.  The ability to load-level across multiple, shifting demands.  Being able to react quickly to new and unforseen demands.  Efficient processes that manage resources in the aggregate, rather than individually

I know, there's a LOT to read and digest coming out of VMworld these days. As an occasionally proliferate blogger myself, I have to hand it to Chad — he's turned loose a veritable supernova of meaty and significant technology-oriented posts in the last few days.  I'm impressed, and I don't impress easily.  I know how much work is behind each and every one of these posts. If you have a moment, please check these out: vCloud Director and UIM VPLEX, Long Distance VM Teleportation, and a great offer ..

Just wanted to share the most recent (and the funniest!) EMC 20% Guarantee video, this one starring Oggie — The Prince of Dataness.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak on a panel here at the "Everything Channel" event in Dallas. Ostensibly, we were supposed to be talking about 2011 storage opportunities for resellers and solution providers.  But, somehow, we got into a number of far more interesting areas, including the strategic importance of the above topic. We ran out of time, but the thought keeps rattling around in my head … The Basic Premise As the IT industry goes through yet another dramatic consolidation and transition, newer skills will command a premium, and traditional skills less so.  Generating new skills requires non-trivial investment: either hiring, training or usually both.

This morning's M+A news was equally as interesting as the news from a week ago: HP submitted a bid to top Dell's offer for 3PAR.  And, if 3PAR trading prices are any indication, there's investor confidence that the price will go higher still. When I wrote about Dell's bid last Monday , my central premise was "it's all about competing with HP, folks". Turns out I was closer to the truth than I thought.

I've been invited down to the xChange gathering next Monday to speak on a panel with some of my industry compatriots on the above topic. Although I can improvise as well as the next guy (and sound pretty good in the process!), I really enjoy open-ended topics like this that make me step back and reflect a bit.  As a result, I came up with way more material than I could ever fit into a 90 second panel soundbite.

Some of my favorite customer time is when I spend 1×1 time with a CIO or other IT leader and just chat.

No matter what you do, there's always a strong incentive to do what's expedient, as opposed to taking a more thoughtful approach.  For example, everyone has good intentions when putting their IT environments together, but it's so easy to get lost in the moment. The distractions can be plentiful and tempting: feeling bound by legacy decisions, a vendor offering a too-good-to-be-true deal, perhaps a shiny technology bauble that distracts. We're starting to have far more engagements with customers and partners around end-to-end fully virtualized environments, rather than just individual piece-parts.

I'm on vacation this week — no blogging, no twitter, etc. — but I did manage to get around to checking my blog for any interesting comments.

Today is the day that VMware announces the availability of 4.1, and a key set of storage integration APIs (VAAI) that provide all sorts of cool speed-ups between server and storage.  EMC's announcement of day-one support is here . Chad Sakac (our legendary Virtual Geek ) does a great job of explaining what they are, how to use them, and what they can do for you.  If your passion is hands-on tech, please head on over there. However, if you're more like me, and are always curious about what things might mean in a broader sense, this post might be more to your liking …