Chuck's Blog

Big Data Hits The Big Time in Davos

2012-01-26T13:30:09-05:00

If you're a rock musician, you know you've "made it" when you get inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. If you're a societal mega-trend, you know you've hit the big time when you've become the main show...

Change Is In The Air: CIO Magazine Poll Results

2012-01-23T11:46:09-05:00

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I've been writing extensively on IT transformation - where IT decides it needs to compete for internal IT business, and organizes appropriately. Why? It's a really big deal. As a...

Analytically Enabling The Enterprise via BI As A Service

2012-01-20T16:06:32-05:00

Many amazing things being done in our EMC IT group these days. The original premise was that -- once we had made enough progress on transitioning to an ITaaS model -- the value-added strategic IT initiatives would start to come...

The Daunting Challenge Of Mobilizing Your Enterprise

2012-01-18T17:50:17-05:00

Around the globe, IT strategists are starting to grapple with the rapidly emerging challenge of mobilizing their enterprises. Call it the end of the PC era, call it what you will -- but the trends are undeniable. People prefer a...

Creating Actionable Intelligence: The Brave New World Of Information Security

2012-01-17T09:14:47-05:00

If you've been paying attention in the security world, you'll probably sense that a sea-change is well underway. The forces behind the "perfect storm" are assembled and quickly gathering strength. More information in more places. Higher-value information targets. And an...

The Six Key Attributes Of Great Leaders

2012-01-16T13:22:32-05:00

We're all still sort of buzzing from the EMC 2012 Leadership meeting, which I guess is a good thing. I wanted to circle back and share with you one of the best thoughts from Joe Tucci's presentation to the assembled...

The Journey To Big Data Analytics

2012-01-12T17:29:11-05:00

Our story so far ... Many now realize that big data analytics is the next big thing in creating value from information. As such, more than a few people are wondering how they might think about their journey: how they...

Thoughts From EMC's 2012 Leadership Meeting

2012-01-11T14:56:25-05:00

Some -- but not all of you -- follow EMC quite closely. Your reasons may vary, but you do seem to pay attention to us. Thank you for that. Many of us have just returned from our annual leadership meeting....

Building Your IT Factory

2012-01-11T11:48:35-05:00

Analogies can be powerful tools. The good ones are descriptive: sort of an intellectual shortcut to a set of concepts and ideas. They save time. But I think the very best analogies can become predictive models: you can examine them...

Understanding The Big Data Analytics Mindset

2011-12-20T16:43:42-05:00

I now have been in front of about a half-dozen executive audiences (usually sponsored by IT leadership!) to discuss what EMC might know about how to go about achieving big data analytics proficiency. They -- rightly so -- think there...

It's The Big Launch Day For EMC IT's ITaaS

2011-12-19T15:00:01-05:00

I consider it an article of faith that many enterprise IT organizations will need to learn to compete for their internal customers. If you've been following this blog, you know I've been drawing heavily on the experiences of EMC's own...

EMC Atmos And The Challenge Of Doing Things Differently

2011-12-16T15:56:47-05:00

There are two ways to bring a new technology to market. One way is to give people a better product to do exactly what they're doing today: no process change required. Another way is to give people a better way...

EMC vLab: What Happens When You Point A Cloud At A Business Challenge

2011-12-15T16:04:43-05:00

Clouds are exceptionally difficult to discuss in the abstract. They become much more real and tangible when you associate them with a particular business challenge. As a result, I've started to collect various "cloud meets business" success stories. They're all...

Ten Career Tips I've Learned The Hard Way

2011-12-14T16:51:59-05:00

It's the holiday season, and I was wondering what sort of practical gift I might offer to my readers? My colleague Chad Sakac does great with his "Santa Chad" giveaways, but -- alas -- I don't have the budget for...

Why The Cloud Discussion Is So Polarizing

2011-12-13T18:15:46-05:00

Over the years, you've probably learned that you don't talk about politics or religion at social gatherings. If you're in the IT industry, you'd probably add "cloud" to the list of topics you approach with some caution, especially in larger...

The Big Posts Of 2011

2011-12-09T16:27:10-05:00

It's been an exceptionally busy year -- for the industry, for our customers and partners, and for EMC. I, for one, will be looking forward to a bit of quiet time to refresh and regroup before diving into 2012. In...

Greenplum UAP And Enabling Your Data Science Team

2011-12-08T11:31:17-05:00

It must be Data Science Week here at EMC. I've already written about our latest findings from the EMC Data Science Survey, and shared how EMC Education is offering their first Data Science Associate coursework to support the increased demand...

Big Data Analytics: The New Corporate "Six Sigma"?

2011-12-05T09:14:19-05:00

If you've been around for a while, you'll remember how a giant wave of Six Sigma investments crashed over corporations around the world in an effort to improve competitiveness. At EMC, we all went to Six Sigma class, and learned...

Understanding The New Rock Star: The EMC Data Science Survey

2011-12-05T09:13:28-05:00

Many people are now aware that big data analytics is quickly becoming the next competitive ante: to improve existing business processes, create new ones -- even a foundation for entering entirely new businesses. The race is now on to acquire...

Dear B2B Marketers: Why Are You Spending Money To Annoy Me?

2011-12-01T13:31:54-05:00

This one is a bit of a rant, and somewhat off-topic. Hope you don't mind. Being somewhat affiliated with the marketing functions here at EMC, I tend to be rather sensitized to how I'm being marketed to by other organizations....

The Challenge Of "Innovating Innovation" In Large Corporations

2011-11-28T16:21:10-05:00

I think I'm fortunate that I get to meet with people on a broad range of topics -- and not necessarily just IT stuff, either :) The appeal of "innovation" as a topic of executive discussion is near-universal: the more...

Worker Safety In The Information Age

2011-11-17T14:01:12-05:00

The modern economy is increasingly built on a cadre of knowledge workers who consume and process enormous amounts of information. But these information-intense models are not without their risks, as we are continually reminded. One of the big stories of...

Five Impressions From Mumbai

2011-11-17T12:57:28-05:00

I do get to travel a fair amount as part of my role with EMC. The act of traveling itself can be mind-numbing, but you get rewarded with all sorts of fresh experiences and perspectives on the other end. Such...

The Squabble Over Single File Systems

2011-11-16T15:32:16-05:00

Many of you are endlessly entertained by the back-and-forth bickering between us storage vendors over things like benchmarks. Sometimes the disagreement is over how the test was conducted, or the use of "lab queen" configurations that would never be found...

Raising Kids In The Information Age

2011-11-15T11:34:29-05:00

As adults, most of us are hard-wired to take parenting very seriously indeed. Although the mission of raising kids hasn't really changed over the generations, the context certainly has. The world is now a very different place when I was...

From Monopoly To Marketplace: Price Signals And Why They Should Matter To Enterprise IT

2011-11-10T17:13:19-05:00

Maybe it's my background in economics, but I've never failed to be impressed by the elegant simplicity of a functioning marketplace. Pricing is the key signalling mechanism between participants: not only between consumers and suppliers, but between suppliers competing for...

Why EMC Cares So Much About SAP

2011-11-10T11:18:18-05:00

Today's news release is making the rounds here at EMC: SAP annointing the EMC/VMware combination as preferred partners for cloud. A somewhat similar release was issued by our compatriots at VCE only a few days ago. More than a few...

"No Compromise" -- And Why It's Important When It Comes To IT Vendor Services

2011-11-08T11:21:26-05:00

Being an IT professional isn't exactly the easiest career choice in the world. On one side you've got cranky users and a difficult budget picture. And on the other side you've got complex technology from multiple vendors to select, implement...

Why IT Groups Will Invest In Marketing

2011-11-07T23:15:41-05:00

When I first started suggesting this to IT leaders a few years ago, I often got met with polite yet quizzical stares -- as in what the heck is he talking about? Now, as more IT leaders realize that --...

Catching Up With VNX

2011-11-01T10:22:49-04:00

At the beginning of this year, EMC announced over 40 new storage products and enhancements. Among these, a great deal of attention was focused on the new VNX and its smaller sibling, the VNXe. The VNX brought together the traditional...

Ten IT Predictions For 2012

2011-10-28T11:35:50-04:00

It's getting to be that time of year when many of us start thinking about 2012. Planning season is well underway at EMC, as it is for many of our customers and partners. Maybe you're doing some of your own...

Cloud And The Act Of Being Selfish

2011-10-27T09:00:49-04:00

When people ask me "why do you blog?" I'm very clear -- I do it for me. Yes, of course EMC benefits greatly, but I benefit as well. When I'm coaching aspiring bloggers, I make sure that they have their...

Achieving Financial Transparency

2011-10-26T15:15:08-04:00

You're in the middle of a sequence of posts recapping the key thoughts and discussions resulting from EMC's recent IT Leadership Council, the main theme being "IT Transformation". The background and context behind the event can be found here. A...

Organizing For Success

2011-10-26T14:08:42-04:00

Maybe I'm getting more cynical as my career progresses. I've found I can take a quick look at just about any org chart, and quickly figure out how well the team is doing -- or not -- as the case...

Leading An IT Transformation

2011-10-25T15:48:16-04:00

Leading a transformational change in any large organization is not for the faint of heart. Even more so when the subject of said transformation is a large, entrenched IT organization delivering mission-critical services. But that is exactly the situation so...

A Transformational Gathering of IT Leaders

2011-10-21T16:20:01-04:00

I am now back in the office after 2.5 days in a room with 100+ IT leaders, collectively tackling the single most difficult challenge in IT today: how do you transform an IT organization to be more strategically relevant to...

The Dark Side Of Clouds

2011-10-18T12:32:40-04:00

In my travels, I'm starting to see a disturbing trend. I don't like it one bit. The setup is easy. Business is demanding more from IT. IT wants to respond by being able to deliver cloud-like services internally. A group...

Doing More With Less: VCE Vblocks and EMC UIM

2011-10-18T10:00:20-04:00

OK, I admit it, I'm a big fan of the Vblock concept, and -- by extension -- UIM, the Unified Infrastructure Manager provided by EMC. Why? It represents some of the very best thinking in cloud-like infrastructure available today. More...

The Shape Of The New Storage Market

2011-10-14T16:15:08-04:00

Part of my role here at EMC is to spend time with what we call the "industry influencers" -- the press, analysts, and the consultants who ostensibly shape public perceptions. When it comes to EMC's storage business, they collectively seem...

Clouds and Public Policy -- The Developing Economy View

2011-10-14T13:58:52-04:00

A while back, I wrote a post recapping the work of the CLOUD2 advisory group, chartered with giving the US government a useful perspective on areas where US public policy can help -- or hurt -- in helping to capitalize...

A Thoughtful Day

2011-10-06T12:36:47-04:00

This morning, like many people I woke up to the news that Steve Jobs had passed. I've been thinking about it constantly all day -- so much so that I'm sort of surprised at myself. And I've tried to come...

An Organizational Health Check For IT?

2011-10-06T11:09:50-04:00

As you get on in life, it's inevitable that your doctor wants to run more tests just to make sure you're healthy -- and stay that way. Personal health isn't something that can be taken for granted -- and neither...

Shifts Happen

2011-10-04T06:52:08-04:00

The advent of lower-cost, higher-performing flash storage is quickly restructuring the familiar storage business. The advent of flash storage (or SSD) actually impacts two familiar storage technologies. Compared to spinning disks, it's far faster and thus cheaper per unit of...

Better Information Management, Better Healthcare Delivery

2011-09-30T15:37:49-04:00

One of my recent posts ("Cloud, Big Data and Healthcare") was a bit more popular than I expected. More than a few people contacted me to share that one of the most important (and interesting) areas in healthcare delivery was...

Considering Clouds And Public Policy

2011-09-30T11:33:10-04:00

If you're like me, you probably understand that cloud concepts represent a transformational way of doing IT. Which brings up a thorny question -- what role, if any, should public policy play in maximizing the value and minimizing the harm?...

The Vendor Beating

2011-09-29T11:18:20-04:00

We've all seen parents berate their children, and managers berate their employees. It's not pleasant to watch, but it happens. As an employee of a large IT vendor, I've been at the receiving end of a reasonable number of vendor...

Learning To Compete -- The Real Challenge Of ITaaS

2011-09-27T10:30:46-04:00

Competition is the engine that drives us all forward. At an individual level, we compete with others who might be able to do a better job, or do things for a lower cost. At a corporate level, our companies compete...

Cloud, Big Data … and Healthcare

2011-09-22T17:51:30-04:00

Healthcare is a fascinating industry. From the drug companies and the insurance companies to the hospitals and clinics -- it's an enormously complex and fast-moving value chain that has a single goal: to help each and every one of us...

A Big Effort To Support Big Data

2011-09-22T06:39:09-04:00

Industry opinions around the topic of big data analytics range from wild-eyed enthusiasm to hardened cynicism. My personal take? The cynics should move on and find something better to grumble about; there's absolutely stunning potential being driven by a perfect...

2011 EMC EMEA Analyst Summit Recap

2011-09-22T04:05:50-04:00

As part of my nature, I'm always seeking out different and unique perspectives. No one really likes business travel, but one of its frequent rewards is the opportunity to interact with people who bring something different to the party. Such...