Virtual Geek

3 really cool “somethings” and two “uh ohs”

One thing I think is important is to share when we find something cool.

This past week, I found 3.  So, I’m sharing :-)

Also – I think it’s important that we share “uh ohs” (to avoid any pain and suffering we can)

Read on for my 3 cool “somethings”, and 2 “uh ohs” from the last week.

WARNING: Coming to EMC Bootcamp at VMware PEX? Need NDA!

Folks, hope to see you at the EMC Bootcamp at VMware PEX – Monday Feb 13th, starting at 8:30am…

Warning, and a heads up – I’ve gotten the OK from Pat G to present some sensitive information (more “partners that invest in us, we invest in them – and work to treat the same as EMCers”).

Please, PLEASE come with a signed 2-way NDA – at least for the opener which starts at 8:30am sharp and is scheduled until 10:30am.    You can find out more (including the NDA) here.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

VFCache: Hello World! (…and covers come off Project Thunder)

If it isn’t clear, I totally dig working at EMC.   There is so much innovation, so much change, so much action, so much opportunity – it’s nuts.  I try to stay as even handed as I can on the blog, but sometimes, the enthusiasm just can’t be contained :-)

With Pat Gelsinger leading the products team over the last year – the rate of innovation (both organic and inorganic) has increased, and with Jeremy Burton leading our marketing – the “go big or go home” way that we talk to the market, it makes it a lot of fun… and as a nerd… so many toys to play with!

Today EMC officially makes VFCache generally available.  It’s been GA internally since mid-January, and has gone through a lot of beta time – which is why there are customers at launch.   We’ve been talking about this as “Project Lightning” since EMC World, and just like we did with FAST – we show, we listen, and then it arrives.

With VFCache now on the market – I think that EMC is the only vendor with an “end to end” solution that leverages the disruptive positive effect that flash can have within an enterprise: from server PCIe based read caches, server PCIe based non-volatile storage, through to flash as shared array cache, and shared non-volatile storage (with automated tiering to boot).

So – what’s the story?  What’s the hardware?  What’s the software?  Where are the v1.0 holes (they always exist!)? What’s the roadmap? What about the startups in this space?   What the heck is Project Thunder?  This will be a long post (even by my verbose standards), which I’ll break into “Why”, “What”, “What’s next” sections…  'Read on, dear reader, read on!

Some Friday Funnies, and customers sharing their view….

REMEMBER – tune in for the big reveal on EMC Project Lightning on Monday (which will itself include the “hello world” of Lightning, but also the “hello world” for the NEXT big project in that vein) here.  Trust me – it’s pretty darn cool.  I’ll do a blog post on Monday – so stay tuned for that too..

ALSO – the window on the first wave of EMC Presales transformation is starting to close – the reqs I mentioned here have been up for a few days, and interviews start over the next two weeks.   APPLY NOW.   There will be subsequent waves too – remember to sign for email notification on virtualgeek (or to EMC’s Brassring HR site), and you’ll see ‘em as they post.

OK – read on for some things I thought were darn awesome and darn funny :-)

Get ready for a Lightning Strike!

Feb 6th will be an exciting day!  The covers will come off EMC Project Lightning, something we’ve alluded to in 2011.  In fact, for those of you at VMworld, I did a demo of lightning integrated into vCenter in SPO3977 that got rave reviews (the next version of VSI – our vCenter plugin integrates with Lightning – pretty cool).

While PCIe-based flash hardware itself is becoming a commodity very fast (see great stuff from Micron, LSI – even Intel Ramsdale, and when these folks get in, expect volumes/commoditization to accelerate) – it’s been a bit of an internal joke… you see, whenever we previewed Lightning, we have always held up the prototype hardware at whatever state it has been in, because humans “get” new hardware in a way they don’t “get” new software. Something to do with being tactile and the reptilian brain methinks :-)

Ah – but commoditization is a good thing – commoditization = mass adoption :-)   Project Lightning is all about “how do we create value on top of PCIe-based Flash, which will be everywhere….

So, it should be no surprise that project Lighting – both in it’s initial GA version and in it’s roadmap and evolution is much, much more about software (coupled of course, kick-a$$ PCIe-based flash hardware).   I’ll do a deep dive blog post on Monday the 6th, but you can follow the big “unveil” and participate in the QnA by clicking on the below…   2012 is off with a BANG!  (wait till you see what we have in store for EMC World :-)