Some of you, of a certain vintage, may remember that beautiful song performed by the legendary Louis Armstrong. He recorded it in 1968, and it sold over a million copies, a huge hit for its day. I well remember listening to it on the radio. Note, I was age 0x0C back then, you figure it out!
I was fortunate enough to participate in an event this week – with 15,000 of my closest friends! Anyway, like the song, it was certainly a wonderful ‘World – EMC World, to be specific. As I write this, the show is nearing its end. To try to describe the entire show in the few words of this blog post is impossible, so I’ll give you just a few glimpses into the vibe, the atmosphere, and (of course) the take from my perch as CTO Americas for ISD – the EMC Isilon storage division.
‘World this year had a certain vibe, quite unlike other years and other vendor-specific shows I’ve attended. To a person, the attendees were impressed by what they saw, what they heard in the keynotes and hundreds of breakout sessions, but most importantly what they understood in the final analysis – that EMC is accelerating rapidly. Even from, arguably, a position of market leadership, EMC is growing faster than in many years past. Attendees saw glimpses of new, very cool, very powerful technology – always a hit at a show like this – but beyond that saw the depth of expertise, the depth of offerings, and the depth of commitment that EMC has to their organizations. You see, EMC World really isn’t about EMC per se – it’s about the customers and how they use EMC solutions to transform their IT and optimize their businesses and organizations.
Now, with my EMC Isilon hat on, I can tell you that I was slammed with private meetings with customers and partners – which is a very good thing. The meetings ranged from long-time, established EMC customers exploring Isilon technology and roadmap (OneFS Mavericks!) to partners eager to leverage the benefits of scale-out storage. The excitement around Isilon was palpable. The Hands-On Lab area, always a huge draw for the technologists in the event, had a superb Isilon hands on lab (actually one of the most popular of the hundreds that were offered) that garnered tremendously positive reactions.
Finally, I can tell you from an EMC perspective that our valued customers and partners heard a consistent message – One EMC. While EMC certainly has a large, deep, diversified portfolio of products, services, comprehensive solutions and consulting – the whole enchilada, as they say – it is also true that EMC is becoming recognized by those customers and partners as One EMC. I see this clearly as a CTO, in the broader context. EMC is far more than the sum of its outstanding products. Organizations are establishing a relationship with EMC beyond that of a mere purveyor of products. Ask Dr. Gerry McCartney, the CIO at Purdue University, who stood on stage at ‘World with Sujal Patel, the ISD President, about going beyond a customer-supplier relationship into a true partnership.
As I exit this wonderful ‘World today, I hope you are fortunate enough, as I am, to attend ‘World next year, or continue to attend for many years to come. I look forward to meeting many more of you, and discussing technology in general, Isilon in particular, and how EMC can help you transform IT.