For those of you who have been following what’s going on – there are large investments being made in EMC and Cisco personnel to support our VMware-focused go-to-market (if they strike you as large, they are DWARFED by investments on the engineering side).
Note that this doesn’t mean we don’t have a go-to-market around Hyper-V (see my post on that here), and that you won’t see activity with other partners (e.g. Dell for EMC, other storage and management vendors with Cisco) but rather that there is overwhelming customer demand for more “VMware/Cisco”, “VMware/EMC”, and “VMware/Cisco/EMC” (VCE) resources.
The way this works is that at EMC we have a team we call “vSpecialists” that focus exclusively on VMware/EMC. People colloquially call the vSpecialist team other things:
- “Chad’s vArmy” (I’m not a super-fan of this one – not because I don’t support the military, but rather because the analogy is a bit off: one is recruited or is conscripted into an army – whereas on our team one volunteers; the military thrives on hierarchical structures – whereas on our team there are leaders, not managers)
- “vGeek Squad” (more my cup o’ tea as I’m a geek :-)
These operate at a theatre level, but are tightly aligned with our divisional resources. They support engagements with customer that center around VMware/EMC – working to make sure our technologies come together to help the customer, and outside/before any “paid professional services” (there are literally more than a thousand VCP certified at EMC now if you include delivery).
They get to play/use all the latest technologies, in fact, are mandated to be using those that are 6-12 months ahead of GA.
The goal by the end of 2010 is that there are roughly 304 of these vSpecialist folks around the globe.
There is also the VCE coalition Solution Support Team (SST). This is a organization that is composed of Cisco, VMware and EMC employees working together, all matrixed into a leader at Cisco (Alan Button). On the EMC side, our contribution to the SST comes from the vSpecialist team. In other words – if you’re an EMC vSpecialist, and further hyper-specialize in Cisco, you’re also a member of the SST. While I don’t want to encourage the militaristic analogy – think of this as the “vArmy’s” “vRangers” :-)
While it may strike people as weird to matrix into a partner – I don’t think it’s weird at all. While people view the Vblock as synonymous with the VCE initiative – on it’s own, the Vblock is just a bill of materials. VCE is characterized by:
- Integrated technology roadmap (look at UIM as one example of many)
- Integrated sales support (look at the SST as one example of many)
- Integrated support (literally handling calls via a dedicated cross-company team)
- Where necessary, new consumption models supported by the Joint Venture.
Personally, the growing matrix team (one of many – some of which are headed up by Cisco folks, some by EMCers, some by VMware folks) is one of the strongest visible manifestations of the VCE coalition.
Both EMC, Cisco and VMware’s resources in these area are being invested in heavily – and we want YOU! If you’re interested – please read on for details on roles, and how to apply.
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