As I travel – and acting both as an individual presales technical guy as well as the leader of the EMC presales technical community – I’m really struck by the importance of tools.
The stuff we use to build solutions, the environments they must integrate into, the permutations/combinations that go into designs mean that we’re talking about complexity – even when you’re starting with simple but powerful stuff – whether it’s vSphere, Isilon, Data Domain, VNX/Unisphere – heck whatever – it adds up. While that’s the driver of the trend towards converged infrastructure models (ramping fast and furious – there where more than $800M of Vblocks sold in 2011), the fact of the matter is the majority of customers are still using mix, match + integrate.
I spend almost all my time on the road – and right after a great partner event (thank you Varrow for Varrow Madness!), I recorded some of the tools I use while on the road. It may not be sizzle, but it’s a lot of steak – and perhaps useful for my presales technical comrade-in-arms out there!
Beyond these – I’m spending a lot of time on sizing, config tools – and so are a ton of people at HQ – expect lots of stuff on this front in 2012…
Next post will be on the vSphere 5.0 update 1 release – some goodies in there…. but for now – must board this flight to San Fran!
Nice demo, well done!
Posted by: Giuliano Serventi | March 19, 2012 at 09:40 AM
Totally agree with you Chad. Tools are key. Think about doctors, scientists, architects without their tools. You hit a bunch of great reference tools but how about discovery tools. I've been harping on that for at least 5 years. Presales needs tools to assess the environment efficiently. EMC has always lead the charge in the industry with FSA/ESA, perfmon, and VtV.
More assessment tools please for cloud, vdi, DR, etc.
Posted by: Keith Norbie | March 20, 2012 at 08:44 AM
Saw you at Varrow Madness, I enjoyed your keynote, good stuff!
Posted by: Josh Rountree | March 20, 2012 at 11:32 AM
Chad,
I'm looking forward to seeing these sizing and config tools you speak of as a partner TC working in the trenches!
Will
Posted by: Will Huber | March 22, 2012 at 11:12 AM
Love the vLab demo. Care to share what's driving the UI and the orchestration (above the vCD layer)?
Posted by: Rick W | March 22, 2012 at 07:09 PM