3.000: another year older
Another year bolder?
And so, we begin Year Four of the storage anarchist, and judging by recent events, it looks to be another very interesting year.
I've been crazy swamped as I gear up for the upcoming EMC World (and my daughter's wedding, plus a few other things), and haven't managed to get many posts out recently. Turns out this year is no different than the last several years, in fact: I'm spending a lot of time reading, writing, proofing, editing and approving miles of content that's going into this years event and it leaves me little time (or desire) to blog.
Still, the few words I've proffered in the blog and on Twitter seem not to have gone unnoticed.
We've had a few rounds of lively discussions on the meanings and customer value of the notion of Federation, leading up to Marc Farley's attempts to document definitions on behalf of the debaters. I enjoyed some lively chats with the Gestalt IT visitors about some things historical and some things-not-yet-public. And last Friday's little short story has claimed a lot of attention, with customers and competitors across our industry debating whether the vision is real, unique, or even desirable.
What fun!
Perhaps the most enjoyable of recent weeks has been watching how competitors have tried to attack/challenge/undermine the Virtual Storage vision that Pat Gelsinger set out of few weeks ago. I've chuckled as the usual cast of characters have each taken a shot at what they think Pat's analyst briefing was leading up to. Knowing exactly nothing specific about any upcoming announcements, Hu, TonyP and even BarryW have each unleashed a flurry of attacks on whatever it is they imagine is coming. Its actually surprising how much time and effort they are investing in their attempts to discredit whatever it is they think EMC is doing…especially when they don't really know exactly what's coming (and they clearly don't, trust me on this).
How does that Fortune Cookie go? Something like "It's better to keep your mouth closed and have people think you the fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt!"
That Virtual Storage and Federation has gotten so much attention from competitors means that at least they're interested in what we're doing, if not down right worried. And that's a good thing, I guess.
but i'll go you one better
Perhaps the most refreshing of all was an unsolicited comment that I received from a customer yesterday at a briefing I was doing at the Hopkinton Executive Briefing Center. This guy said point blank:
"I thought you guys had lost your way – I really did. But just when I was about to count you out, you introduced VMAX. And I am pleasantly surprised to see just how much more innovation you've been investing in beyond VMAX."
As a member of the teams that have been driving many of these innovations (some not yet publicly announced), I felt very proud to have contributed to earning that compliment.
At that very moment, I also couldn't help but think: "…and maybe that's what the other guys are really so worried about."
I look forward to seeing many of you and EMC World, and I look forward to the discussions we'll be having over the coming weeks and months here in the blog-o-sphere and on Twitter. One thing I'm sure of: we are going to have a LOT of fun things to talk in the next 12 months!
Here's to another year!
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