The Bigger Truth

Check out this video blog entry to see why, rather than "software-defined everything,"  we need to think about data-defined infrastructure, a model in which IT designs everything from the data outwards, in order to make sure that we store, protect, and deliver it in a way that supports the business to make money or save money.

Software-defined everything.  SFE.  The latest craze in marketing mayhem.

There, of course, is some legitimacy to the phrase - but doesn't software already "define" everything in our IT world?  Doesn't software provide the execution sets that tell our "stuff" what we want it to do?  Therefore, isn't everything really already software-defined in many ways?

Long time friend and ESG'er Mike Beaudet has taken on this year's ESG Charity sponsorship efforts and is leading the charge to raise awareness and funding for a local chapter of Best Buddies (Along with Tom Brady, mind you.).

I talk about the need for both disciplines - archiving and backup - as separate, but complementary tasks in this video blog.

I was a bit surprised at the lack of interest in HP's Moonshot announcement by the big media. I suppose I understand the complexity combined with HP's less than stellar PR maneuvers over the last few years could keep some folks at bay, but this announcement has all the makings of a MASSIVE and exciting outcome.

Nothing is ever truly new in IT, and Big Data is no exception. Big Data in 2013 is SAP(ERP)  twenty years ago. Or Siebel (CRM) 12 years ago. It's rolling out the exact same way.

The storage should optimize itself constantly within the constraints we give it.  If it meets your demands, it should then optimize for power, or put data somewhere else, or take up less space, etc.  All the "hard" tasks that are impossible for a human to do, are exactly possible for a machine to do.  We just don't want to let it do them for some unknown reason.  It's true outside of storage of course, but storage is awful at this.  We'd want the same things to apply to application workloads - and forget about storage/server/network stuff altogether, but we need to walk before we run.

It will take a long time to live down the debacle of the last few years. Having said that, I'm happy to report that [HP] may be my new favorite company to watch and talk about. Why you ask? Because they are doing really, really smart things.

When a vendor service sits you down and teaches you or helps you in some way while everything is WORKING, a real bi-directional "skin in the game" relationship can be formed.  I EXPECT that you will fix the thing i bought that just blew up.  So successfully doing so does not elevate you in our relationship. Smart companies do what is NOT expected.

Seems we have a large hole between technological/social capabilities and desires and old industrial habits. It isn't about the tech or the desire—it's about politics, stupidity, and the human trait that abhors change.

In the case of Dell, there no longer is any value in dealing with Wall St. for Mr. Dell, et. al.  He/they already have all the money they could ever want, so why bother to suffer fools if they don't have to?  Now he/they can operate the business with a long term strategy - focus on products, customers, and employees instead of the 28 year old controlling a billion bucks of stock without ever having a real job, and try to get something done.

So now not only is it near impossible to become a big giant company that becomes the market leader in a big giant market - it's become just as hard to hold on to that position.  For 50 years those who have been lucky/brilliant enough to claim a market have had the almost anointed right to maintain that status forever (even if their stuff sucks).  No more.

If we all fundamentally believe that data is the reason for IT—and what pearls of wisdom we can glean from it (along with what riches, both literally and metaphorically we can take from it), then where we differ is how we act in our "worship" of said data. And in that respect, we can differ wildly. (Sound familiar?)

I'll be working hard from the beach next week.  Pity me.

Go Pats.

Most of us celebrate a "new" year by hashing up some false resolution to an "old" problem.  So do most businesses.

HP is the equivalent of the NE Patriots last Sunday vs. the 49ers - everyone knows all the pieces are there, all you have to do is not shoot yourself in the foot and you win.  Oops.

Interesting meeting I attended yesterday with the nation's largest VARs.  One problem they all face - inability to find good, high-level talent to add to their ranks. That spawned a few areas of discussion:

There are really only two ways things can go for us IT industry folk over the next five to ten years, in my opinion, and I shall discuss both.

Moving existing legacy applications to the cloud take armies of consultants, tons of dough, and an obscene amount of time. In order to see significant MONEY spent to migrate/move existing apps to the cloud (private or public), we must overcome certain obstacles.