1.008: emc world 2008 - the follow up begins
Most of us have managed to find our way home from Sin City, and now we deal with the rapid decompression as we reenter the atmosphere of EMC World, the Work Edition.
Thankfully, those of us who are US-based had the extra 24-hours afforded by the Memorial Day holiday.
Lots was learned at EMC World, both by our customers and by the EMC developers that ran nearly 100% of the sessions. For customers, future IT strategies will be tuned to better leverage the current and future technologies; and for development, a better understanding of customer requirements and use cases will serve to refine the future products and implementations. Enabling and leveraging this symbiotic relationship between supplier and consumer is the foundation of what EMC World is all about.
If this was your first EMC World, I'm sure you were overwhelmed by both the breadth of topics and the unfettered access to the people who create these products.
And if you've never been to an EMC World (aka Wizards, aka Tech Summit), then you're probably wondering what all the hype has been about.
I'll use the words of a customer to explain...
a view from the outside, looking in
This customer sent a follow-up email to Brian Gallagher, SVP and GM of the Symmetrix Product Group. Brian shared the email with his staff, and I received permission from the originator to reprint it here (sender's name and company redacted in adherence to the customer's policies):
Hi Brian,
I enjoyed meeting with you last week at EMC World both during and after the sessions. It was a highly productive week for me meeting with all the EMC folks discussing new offerings, products and features that are available to us. For example, I am excited to move forward on MC 73, HyperPAVs, DSE and maybe EzSM and SMC this year.
The EMC team has always been informative and available to us and last week was no exception. I had multiple and lengthy discussions about software and micro code enhancements, support and product direction. I left the conference confident in EMC delivery, planning to embrace and exploit new features with the Symms and with a message that EMC is a solution partner for us.
You should know the EMC people I spoke with [names redacted] are candid, enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable people. They are fabulous EMC resources!
Looking forward to seeing you at our EBC in July.
This email is exemplary of what makes EMC World unique and special - the direct linkage between technologists, strategists and developers. And I'm sure that there will be dozens more messages like this one flying around EMC this week (along with the inevitable list of follow-up sessions with account teams as new awareness is translated into implementation).
This really is what it's all about.
And yes, even as EMC World has gained the polish and glitz of a marketing-driven event over the past few years, at its very core the event is still all about hi-fidelity bi-directional information sharing designed to deepen the understanding, align the objectives and strengthen the bond between developer and user. From new product feature reviews and best practices sessions, to hands-on tutorials and the usability challenges, to the birds-of-a-feather break-outs and 1-on-1 strategy and NDA sessions, everything is geared to enable conversations that will have both immediate and long-term impact on the strategies and implementations of virtually everyone who walked into the Mandalay Bay Convention Center last week.
Thanks to all of the Smart People who made EMC World 2008 a success - customers, partners and EMC employees alike. It couldn't have happened without you...and you were the reason it happened in the first place.
If you'd like to share your own EMC World experiences or feedback, send me an email or post a comment below...
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