I got a link where a competitor was talking up how "they invest more in VMware than EMC". It was forwarded to me a lot over the last couple of days - it's here: http://www.virtualization.info/2008/06/netapp-aggressively-invests-on-vmware.html.
Some things are absolutely not PR worthy - like obvious investments that companies should be making in any disruptive technology. I can't help to get a bit tweaked when people then make the jump of hyperbolic claims of "we're investing more than EMC, and we're better", sometimes heard as "we have product _____" deployed at "VMware/Microsoft/Oracle".
News flash - these partners must, by definition - be Switzerland, and look after their own best interests. We work hard to make sure we work with our Alliance partners, and vice-versa.
To lay it all out there - not as chest beating (because investments mean jack - only execution matters) - here goes.
So, what are our investments in a nutshell? (in order of importance, not $$)? Looking - all my posts seem well, a wee bit long, a wee bit verbose - so I'm leaving the detail for people who actually want to follow. Here's the nutshell - according to my tally, it's north of $200M this year. Purpose is not chest beating - just responding to the "more investments" claims that get thrown out like mad.
BTW - we are still actively hiring furiously here globally in our VMware Specialists. If you're a person the local VMware SEs look to for guidance, if you are a huge contributor on the VMware communities, if you are the person who your local VMUG turns to give guidance on a topic, if you're been a VCP before it was an obvious thing to do - I want to talk to you : -)
Want a break down and detail about what were investing where? It is interesting to see where our priorities are. Read on.
- People - I think people and focus are the mandatory first step for execution - this has been about a $15M investment since the beginning of this year.
- We've created a business unit at the same level as our major business units (CLARiiON, Symmetrix, Celerra, Resource Management, Information Management) - this is composed of 20 people at HQ in various functions that drive their respective groups (like engineering, sales, marketing) - 100% dedicated to VMware.
- We've build a VMware specialist field team of 20 people in the Americas, 10 in EMEA and 10 in APJ - 100% dedicated to VMware. People tend to build organizations that are like themselves - and I'm a big believer that the technical people in the field (designing, implementing, and supporting) make the world go around. These people are the best of the best - an elite delta force. See my earlier comment about hiring....
- Training - I think VMware is a cross-functional core competency for EMC as it touches everything we do. - i.e. every Technical Consultant, every Solution Architect, every Sales person needs to understand it, as if they were a VMware SE, a VMware Solution Architect, or a VMware salesperson. This has been about a $1M spend since the beginning of this year.
- Our we've undertaken a VCP crash training program - we have 300 VCPs on staff now (they do the normal full training), and are adding 50 per quarter
- 100% of our Americas sales folks have undergone the VMware Sales training, and it's a very high 80% in EMEA and APJ
- We've put 700 technical people through a compressed version of the "Virtual Infrastructure Install and Configure" course - we call these folks VMware Champions ([email protected])
- Our hyper-elite VMware Specialists ([email protected]) are of course VCP certified, but are also starting the VCDX program.
- Engineering - joint engineering and integration is mandatory ~$100M - sounds like a lot, but our annual R&D budget is north of $1B, and we have 5000 engineers. Regardless of what you may think - it's illogical to assume they are all crazy or stupid. I bet you we have a bell-curve distribution just like everyone - but it's a BIG bell.
- This is WAY to long to enumerate, but there are hundreds of engineering resources in the thousands we have focused on VMware integration
- Example 1 - all our Resource Management tools (for storage, networks, applications, and change control and compliance are already integrated with Virtual Center and use the ESX server APIs)
- Many of our products are available as Virtual Appliances - and this list is growing longer every day. Some are that way for customers to buy, some to try. More will be available to buy that way every day. Here's a great example: http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/1259. We have a Virtual Storage Array, our File Virtualization product is available as a Virtual Appliance (how do you like that for a double-virtualization whammy?), all our resource management tools (which can help manage VMware environments) are available as Virtual Appliances.
- 100% of EMC products are supported running as VMs.
- Example 2 - We had +60% of the beta customers in the Site Recovery Manager beta, and ALL replication types (sync/async/continuous, IP/Layer2/dark fiber, homogenous/heterogenous, and customers from the smallest entry arrays up to the largest high-end enterprise configs that people bet their Fortune 100 business on). They are all qual'ed and ready for GA. It's easy for a vendor to say "we have the best Site Recovery Manager integration" - ask them to prove it.
- Example 3 - All the engineering teams needs to focus their 6-12-18 month roadmaps towards "VMware Affinity", indentify to the business when their product will be available as a virtual appliance.
- Example 4 - now that the VIM client is extensible, and APIs are getting hardened - we are looking at every possible way we can extend those interfaces.
- Example 5 - we are involved with all of VMware's betas and all "long term future" projects (at least those that intersect with our space). I don't claim exclusivity for EMC there (VMware and EMC are independent - VMware needs to be open in all APIs), but know that anyone who claims advantage or VMware preference in these areas is not honest. It's up to each vendor to execute, and at EMC, that's my job.
- Solutioneering and interop - this is a critical ante if you're serious about the customers ~$100M per year
- e-lab and the VMware HCL team do a lot of work - we have a lot of joint EMC/VMware customers (north of 50,000) - if you take a look at the VMware HCL for storage (PDF) - you'll notice that EMC is there a LOT. Competitors will say it's because we have a lot of solutions versus their one, and they have one. Right. If you have one solution - of course it's the second coming and solves every problem. Not every customer is the same - sometimes you need something general-purpose, sometimes you need something purpose-built. Now, the other thing that it seems to me we do focus on is not only qual'ing the current configs, but also our older generation arrays. Some vendors do, some dont - we do, and will continue to do so.
- Joint solution testing - again, not making any claim that EMC is unique, but everyone should look to vendors to provide discrete, clear guidance on use cases.
- Look for yourself here:http://www.vmware.com/partners/alliances/technology/emc-whitepapers.html ;
- here (Exchange 2007 on VMware on EMC - 500 user increments, tested up to 16K users on a single ESX server): http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/partners/emc/vmware_emc_dell_exchange2007_ref_arch_wp.pdf
- here (SQL Server 2005 on VMware on EMC); http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/virtual_solution_sql_server_wp.pdf
- and here (Oracle on VMware on EMC); Read White Paper
- There are many, many more.
- Alliance - Alliance investments are last in the list - only because without the others, they are a total waste of time and money.
- We have provided several million dollars of equipment to VMware for joint support and development purposes. Have other also? ABSOLUTELY if they are smart. VMware has also purchased a great deal of EMC infrastructure solutions for their own use, in the same way that EMC has from VMware. EMC has about 3000 ESX servers deployed globally. We have a formal ELA - as independent companies - EMC buys from VMware, VMware buys from EMC.
- I am sending $10M of equipment to VMware field offices so that VMware always has the choice of demonstrating their solutions on EMC.
- There are 196 joint VMware/EMC events through the end of 2008 - here are some examples.
- We are platinum sponsors at EVERY VMware Forum event to date (not everyone listed as a Platinum does all sites like we have), and intend to continue that tradition: http://info.vmware.com/content/VirtualizationForum_Home
- We have always been a platinum sponsor at EVERY VMworld, and intend to continue that tradition: http://www.vmworld.com/vmworld/registration.jspa?ref=EMC
That's not an exhaustive list, but I'm exhausted :-)
are you still hiring VMware specialists on EMC?
regards
Jose Ruelas
Posted by: Jose B Ruelas | December 19, 2008 at 12:28 PM