Virtual Geek

Fourth (and BEST!) of series of Holiday Gifts–HUGE “Santa Chad” Giveaways!!!

I’ve got a series of blog posts lined up in the giving spirit of the holiday season (which commercially started the moment Halloween ends – in the US they start with Thanksgiving, rest of world starts ramping up the advertising for Christmas and the other many Nov/Dec holidays).

I’ll give away the punchline now – here are the four gift blog posts:

1. UBERAlign from Nick Weaver – a CRAZY awesome tool that everyone VMware Admin should have in the kitbag going fwd – regardless of whether you use EMC storage or not – the rest Nick – thank you!
2. Recordings of many VMworld sessions – and fixes to broken FTP links to the core FTP content – sorry this has taken so long, but have been a busy, busy little beaver on many things – mostly 2012 planning.
3. SRM Survey – have a chance to influence SRM roadmaps – how cool is that?
4. And this is the biggie… The “Santa Chad” 2011 giveaways – with something for everyone!!!

What are we giving away?  Literally tens of thousands of dollars worth of cool toys that everyone should have in their “holiday wish list”!   No kidding – many SSDs, many Iomega IX2 Cloud Edition units, many Iomega PX4s, iPads, and even a loaded VNX3300e!

 

Read on for details…  There’s a LOT – so read on and read for the details – there is no easier contest, I’m sure!

Official Unofficial VMware/Storage Survey 2011 Edition!

This is the second annual VMware and Storage survey on Virtual Geek!

You can see the results from 2010 here.

Like last year – the results will be shared publicly… This year – survey respondents who complete the survey will be entered to win a series of awesome prizes to be randomly selected.  The prizes will be awarded on Dec 16th, 2011.  These prizes are:

• 10 x Iomega SSD
• 10 x Iomega IX2 Cloud Edition
• 2 x iPad gen 1
• 5 x iPad gen 2
• 1 x VNXe 3300 with 10GbE/1GbE and 15 x 600GB 10K RPM spindles (!!)

It’s easy – it’s for the community – and hey, you can win awesome prizes!   It will take minutes – so read on!

Third of series of Holiday Gifts–training and influence re SRM and EMC…

[NOTE: FYI – before you ask… the MirrorView SRA for SRM 5 is in final stages of VMware cert – getting questions – but it’s very, very close – all other SRAs for SRM 5 are posted]

I’ve got a series of blog posts lined up in the giving spirit of the holiday season (which commercially started the moment Halloween ends – in the US they start with Thanksgiving, rest of world starts ramping up the advertising for Christmas and the other many Nov/Dec holidays).

I’ll give away the punchline now – here are the four gift blog posts:

1. UBERAlign from Nick Weaver – a CRAZY awesome tool that everyone VMware Admin should have in the kitbag going fwd – regardless of whether you use EMC storage or not – the rest Nick – thank you!
2. Recordings of many VMworld sessions – and fixes to broken FTP links to the core FTP content – sorry this has taken so long, but have been a busy, busy little beaver on many things – mostly 2012 planning.
3. SRM Survey – have a chance to influence SRM roadmaps – how cool is that?
4. Huge (literally huge!!) “Santa Chad” giveaway contest. There will be more Iomega devices, more iPads, more VNXe 3300’s than we’ve done in any other giveaway… Stay tuned for details – will post details early next week.

So – without further ado, a little more on #3, a pair of surveys with the ability to influence SRM roadmaps and what EMC does…

Second of series of Holiday Gifts–VMworld 2011 session content!

I’ve got a series of blog posts lined up in the giving spirit of the holiday season (which commercially started the moment Halloween ends – in the US they start with Thanksgiving, rest of world starts ramping up the advertising for Christmas and the other many Nov/Dec holidays).

I’ll give away the punchline now – here are the four gift blog posts:

1. UBERAlign from Nick Weaver – a CRAZY awesome tool that everyone VMware Admin should have in the kitbag going fwd – regardless of whether you use EMC storage or not – the rest Nick – thank you!
2. Recordings of many VMworld sessions – and fixes to broken FTP links to the core FTP content – sorry this has taken so long, but have been a busy, busy little beaver on many things – mostly 2012 planning.
3. SRM Survey – have a chance to influence SRM roadmaps – how cool is that?
4. Huge (literally huge!!) “Santa Chad” giveaway contest. There will be more Iomega devices, more iPads, more VNXe 3300’s than we’ve done in any other giveaway… Stay tuned for details – will post details early next week.

So – without further ado, a little more on #2, recordings of VMworld sessions (and downloadable content).

First of a series of Holiday Gifts–UBERAlign

I’ve got a series of blog posts lined up in the giving spirit of the holiday season (which commercially started the moment Halloween ends – in the US they start with Thanksgiving, rest of world starts ramping up the advertising for Christmas and the other many Nov/Dec holidays).

I’ll give away the punchline now – here are the four gift blog posts:

1. UBERAlign from Nick Weaver – a CRAZY awesome tool that everyone VMware Admin should have in the kitbag going fwd – regardless of whether you use EMC storage or not – the rest Nick – thank you!
2. Recordings of many VMworld sessions – and fixes to broken FTP links to the core FTP content – sorry this has taken so long, but have been a busy, busy little beaver on many things – mostly 2012 planning.
3. SRM Survey – have a chance to influence SRM roadmaps – how cool is that?
4. Huge (literally huge!!) “Santa Chad” giveaway contest.   There will be more Iomega devices, more iPads, more VNXe 3300’s than we’ve done in any other giveaway…  Stay tuned for details – will post details early next week.

So – without further ado, a little more on #1, UBERAlign from Nick Weaver…

“Chad’s Maxims for Startups”

A little off-topic for my blog, but I’ve been thinking about this for the last 6 months (first public mention was here), and thought to myself “these maxims are actually true in my experience, it’s worth writing them down”.

Startup land is fascinating – and I have incredible respect for the creativity and innovation they bring into the marketplace.  Having come to EMC (a large incumbent) through the acquisition of a tiny startup, and having done several startups myself I look back on the startup period with realistic (not rosy tint), and fond memories.  I love it here at EMC, and am surprised, learn and expand every day.

So, without further ado, here are “Chad’s Startup Maxims”:

It’s interesting to watch this space, as we’re in a fresh wave of storage startups.  

If you’re a founder, then #2 isn’t that important (startups without large revenue streams can have OK outcomes for founders at smaller valuations, but the only way an individual makes out is if the valuation is driven by a material revenue stream – which means large numbers of customers).

Personally, I’m amazed constantly on the inside how much EMC is all over #3 and #4.  We’re not perfect (not by a long shot!), but that awareness means that while we do lose sometimes to the new folks – after a relatively short period of time, we learn and adapt, and that usually means the number of customers is relatively small, and the period of #3 is very short.

It’s very hard (but not impossible) for a startup to navigate “Chad’s Maxims” – and you can point to several cases in point where they did – but my view is that it’s relatively rare.   I wonder if any VCs have looked at this analytically – as it seems to me that Rule #4 is particularly tough in storage space, which makes investment models a little unique.