EMC World 2008

Well folks, I just got back from EMC World 2008 in Las Vegas. It was a fun trip, but man am I tired. There was a lot of walking at the concference as well as a lot of late nights having fun after the conference sessions were over each day.

I'll have some more detailed postings on what I think about some of the technology I saw at EMC World a little later. Right now I just wanted to talk a a bit about the general trends and feelings I got from the convention.

First and foremost, EMC has finally awakened to the fact that people want de-duplicating products, and they want them now. EMC has really been behind the eight ball when it comes to dedupe. I don't know if it was because of their close relationship with FalconStor in the past, or what, but they really didn't have much of a story to tel l when it came to dedupe, and start-ups like Data Domain where definatly eating EMC's lunch in that market. But the EMC giant has definitely awakened from it's slumber, and introduced some interesting new products.

Basically, the new products fall into two categories, first to a software addition to the existing DL400 line which provides deduplication. The second is a new line of deduplication engines that provide much the same capabilities as Data Domain does. The main differences are that EMC's appliances provide the users with a choice between in-line, post processing, or no deduplication at all. They also have a well designed VTL feature which is an area that Data Domain has been struggling in.

The other area that EMC was emphasizing was "green computing". A lot of this was nothing more than marketing hype and spin on existing products. However, they did mention a feature that they would provide soon that really was "green computing". The idea was to spin down drives that weren't currently in use. Now when EMC didn't introduce and specific products yet, they did suggest that we would see this technology first in the VTLs, but that it could make an appearance in the overall CLARiiON line in the not too distant future.

Overall, a lot of EMC marketing around "green", but some new technology and a good opportunity to talk with the folks at EMC about where they are going with some of the products. I got to spend a little sime talk ing with the folks who work on StorageScope about reporting, and support for AIX VIO in Control Center in general.

Finally, I took my wife along so she could have some fun as well, and I think she ended up having more fun than I did. Las Vegas is a great place for shopping, hanging out in the SPA, and generally having a good time. All of which she did while she was there. We also went to see Phantom of the Opera, which was great. Overall, a good trip for both of us. More details on a latter posting.

--joerg