Don’t shoot the Messenger’s Friends….

Word has reached me that EMC Marketing may not be reacting so well to my previous post; yet if truth be known, I actually toned down what I really wanted to write because I wanted to ensure that people who I like and have time for didn’t catch so much flack. Although I speak only for myself, I know that I am not the only person who feels similarly about the current strain of EMC Marketing.

What I found so disappointing with the Mega-Launch is that with-in the hype and general hullabaloo; there are some interesting pearls but they got lost.

The re-write of the VNX2 code is very long overdue and from what I see gives EMC a solid base for their mid-range offering; it should allow them to support their current user-base whilst they work out how to transform them into the scale-out world.

It will allow them to take advantage of the tick-tock releases from Intel and if they have done serious work on the RAID code; it would surprise me if they haven’t at least enabled the possibility of a different data-protection method in the future; for example a micro-RAID enabling RAID to be better distributed across all disks and improving re-build times.

To move to a more modular software architecture has to be sensible and should allow them to transition to a software only virtual array in the future.

If they’d talked about such things as opposed to concentrating on the hype; putting the VNX2 into a context of future innovation…that’d been more interesting.

Of course EMC continue to talk very fast about VNX being a unified platform when all reality; we know it’s not really…not in the way that NetApp is. But that’s fine but it still grates that Marketing smoke and mirrors are involved.

But the VNX2 announcement is not without problems either; can I take an existing VNX and migrate non-disruptively to this new code? Do I have to take services and products such as VPLEX to enable this?

And then there was the ViPR GA announcement; much more detail and context could have been put around this; especially when aligned with the Nile ‘product’. I can see the beginnings of a platform strategy emerging and an interesting one at that. I’d be interested to know how some of their partner’s products fit into the picture; companies such as Panzura for example?

Yet where are the blogs, the context setting for these announcements? This side of EMC ‘marketing’ has sadly vanished only to be replaced by glitz. I think if the announcements had been accompanied by blogs and commentary more akin to Storagezilla’s here; much could have been forgiven and the announcement could have put to one side as the carnival it was.

It is sad that I miss Chuck’s take on these announcements; I know that Chuck was a real drum beater for EMC but there would have been technical content and interesting pearls in the blog. These days, it seems that the real detail has to be obtained face-to-face where most of the crap can be cut through.

So with a VMAX announcement probably due next year, probably at EMC World…I would hope for a more considered approach and a more balanced approach but I shan’t be holding my breath. Breathless seems to be the current EMC Marketing approach.

EMC have some good, some great and some products with serious challenges….I know from my day-to-day dealings with EMC that some are really trying to shift culture and convince customers that they are different.

Today’s Megalaunch leads me to question that.