Blogs

After the recent Dell Technologies Summit, I posted a video with my summary thoughts on the event, its tone, and its key announcements. (Watch it here.)

But, as mentioned in my blog at the time, I also wanted to drill down a bit more into some of the specific technology areas, as well as get the commentary of some smart people that I am lucky enough to have as colleagues here at ESG. In this companion video, you will hear from Bob Laliberte, Christophe Bertrand, and Scott Sinclair. Six minutes, four brains, multiple insights...

Even if Dell is not quite at its own intended summit yet, it certainly showed a route map, milestones, tools, and (mixing metaphors wildly!) drew a notable line in the sand at its recent event in Austin.

The video here captures my high level (ha - back to the summit metaphor!?) takeaways from the event. I won’t spoil your viewing pleasure by repeating things here....suffice to say that I saw a massive company fully aware of its opportunities, obstacles, and even obligations.

NetApp’s Insight event last week felt very different to me from prior iterations. The degree of "credible spring in its corporate step" was noticeably improved. An outside -- and purely numbers-focused -- observer might find that somewhat counter-intuitive as NetApp's recent financial results have not been what the Sunnyvale outfit would have wanted. Meantime, I’ll also bet that some long-in-the-tooth customer attendees found the changes surprising and even a little jarring. After all, NetApp generally -- and Insight specifically -- has traditionally been a comfortable, technically astute organization. The Filer Cult. Even when it has been way more than that.

Before you panic, I have not lost my command of the English language. I know the title of this blog is grammatically imperfect; but it is also entirely intentional. Hitachi (the overall company) has had dual intentions from the very beginning of its existence over a century ago…not only to develop and produce valuable products and services, but also to find ways of “powering good” (that’s the modern vernacular) in society. Both of its “dual bottom lines” were on full display at Hitachi Vantara’s Next conference last week in Vegas.

Pure Storage turns 10 this year. It celebrated getting all grown up by moving its user Accelerate conference into a more regular venue than prior versions...although choosing a convention center that just happens to be in Dell’s backyard was no doubt deliberate!

VMworld was big – but that’s not really news. It has been big for a while – both from an event perspective, but also from a market impact perspective; after all, VMware is the chosen basis for many applications and users. But this year, the “choir” grew; this was partly the obvious growth of those paying attention, including the newly intended-to-be-acquired Pivotal and Carbon Black…but it was also because of a more cohesive and inclusive message. To use terms that VMware would approve of, the company used its virtually eponymous mega-gathering to ‘make its mark’ in the ‘age of any’ by running even-more-keenly towards a multi-cloud world. Heterogeneity was everywhere…as long as that heterogeneity runs on VMware, of course! Conversations about - and proposals for - hybrid-, multi- and even edge- cloud, were both well-constructed and explained…but also at times served to prudently obfuscate the fact that VMware sees itself as the [benevolent?] spider at the center of this expanding IT web.   

One of the pleasures of my job is speaking at events, some vendor-internal and some public. I say to speak ‘at’ but the formal presenting is really just the job aspect…much of the pleasure comes from the speaking with that naturally accompanies these engagements.

One example was when I addressed HPE’s Americas Storage Sales Kick Off in [mainly cloudy!] Orlando back in January. It was interesting because, frankly, for some time now, ‘storage’ would not be the first choice in a game of word association after HPE is uttered. At least not for anyone who was not in attendance in Orlando! Yes, there’s been progress and of course there are highlights; moreover, HPE is a huge machine so its revenue in all areas is pretty significant. But there has been little really new with which to grab the spotlight for storage – 3PAR and Nimble are established standards, and even HPE’s magnificent InfoSight analytics tool is delivering more genuine value than innovative excitement these days.

That title might sound odd…although to those that have watched HPE closely for the last few years (and back into its HP version), the meaning is probably clear.

My colleagues Scott Sinclair and Bob Laliberte have written insightful summaries and analyses in their blogs about the event. Here are the links to Bob and Scott's blog. There’s no point me reiterating what they have already covered thoroughly. Scott and Bob and I also put together this ESG On Location Video from the event with some additional thoughts.

At Dell Technologies World, I managed to grab some time, video camera in hand, with Sam Grocott. Sam leads marketing for what we’d all traditionally know as Dell EMC.

I asked him to start by briefly summarizing the key announcements at the show for his group, but what then developed was a discussion shaped by the fact – at least for Dell customers – that terms like “traditional” and “his group” are becoming steadily less pertinent as Dell’s strategic cloud embrace demands that it shifts from offering an enormous portfolio of products from largely independent operating units, to be instead a provider of integrated full-stack solutions. This both drives and reflects the market – and Sam explains how important it will be for Dell and its customers.

Spring brings things you expect – tax day (in the US), storms and showers (in much of the Northern hemisphere), and some variant of Dell/EMC/Dell Technologies World (in whatever Las Vegas is!). But this Spring brought something unexpected too – at Dell Technologies World the discussion for the closing general session panel centered on “optimism and happiness in the digital age.” So there!