Want to ask an EMC vSpecialist a question? (or… how to get a free ix2/ix4)

One thing we’ve been getting a LOT of requests for is a more public, consolidated place to get information about EMC/VMware stuff, ask technical questions and get technical answers, and where to find out what’s going on.

Inside the walls of EMC, we are using a social media portal (one.emc.com) which is great – an interactive place that is open, and easily searchable.    Externally, however, not so much.   EMC.com is fine, but not interactive.   Powerlink works, but since search is less than perfect – coupled with once again a "non interactive” sense, well…

So… I’m happy to announce the public availability of the “Everything VMware at EMC” public community!   This is an awesome site, and it’s totally open – to the public, to partners, heck, to competitors.

you can find it at the easy to remember URL:

www.emc.com/vmwarecommunity

So – what’s there?

• Discussion forums.   These are monitored by the vSpecialists – a great cadre of EMC, VMware, and Cisco technical experts.   They are all unbelievably skilled.   You can ask anything you want, and we’ll do our best to answer.   Just remember – this is not a replacement for support, as it is best effort.  If you have a support case, immediately call 1-800-svc-4-EMC or VMware.    Also, it is focused on the intersection of EMC and VMware – pure VMware stuff, please go to the VMTN community.  Subscribe (via RSS or email) to get it delivered to you.
• Weekly “30 seconds of VMware”.  We use these internally to note important bugs, blog posts, launches, whitepapers.  Previously only available inside EMC, we’re now sharing this with the customer and partner community openly.   Subscribe (via RSS or email) to get it delivered to you.
• Calendar of events.  There’s literally so much going on every week (webcasts, VMware Knowledge Series, VMware View tour, EMC Forums, customer councils), that’ it’s difficult to keep up to date.   Here’s a simple place where you can see what’s going on that you can leverage. 

• Demo tools.   While I try my best to be a good source here at VirtualGeek, it’s just me talking, and you commenting.   at the “Everything VMware at EMC” community, you can make requests for demos/tools, and anyone can post something cool!
• Breakdowns of topic around the “pillars” of EMC’s business – Storage, Security (RSA), Backup/Recovery (BRS), Management (Ionix)
• Contests and prizes… And here’s the first.   It’s right there on the column on the right of the “Everything VMware at EMC” community… Share your story of how you use VMware, EMC, and Cisco technology together and win (not “enter to win” in the sense that you statisically may or may not based on chance, but until I run out – every story wins) an Iomega ix2 or ix4.   We have loads of customer success stories, but each “lights up my life” a bit – after all, it’s the customers that make the world go round….

The most important criteria as the team put this up there were:

1. wide open.
2. easily searchable.
3. can post in a heartbeat.

So – it’s now up to us.  Will it suck, and die, or blossom into a great tool for us all?   Reminder to be good – if there the content is public, link to it.   If you cut and paste something, attribute it to the author.   EMCers, you cannot use this to bypass the rules that govern confidential content (hint, if noted as confidential, it can’t be posted).

BTW – if you like this idea, but aren’t into this particular community (though if you’re reading my blog, you’ve already kinda “self-selected” as a VMware nut :-), there are other similar ones:

http://www.emc.com/community/

I personally dig the Celerra one (has APIs, SDKs, and much, much more)….

Comments

[Jason Boche]

This sounds like a great program and I wish it much success for EMC and the community. Powerlink is good (and I have gotten help there on more than one instance), but some of the valuable information on Powerlink, that should be available, I'm denied access to. I've seen a similar practice with Cisco and Brocade.

[David Robertson]

Are employyes eligible? I was at a customer, i could use one for my home lab :)

[Jeramiah Dooley]

This is great Chad. Brittany Coulson and the team have done a lot of work, and this has definitely one of the regular check-in sites for my team!

[Eric]

Is the giveaway still going?