back to article Storage slump? Dunno what you're talking about, beams EMC

EMC basically saw off most signs of a storage slump with a two per cent revenue rise in its second quarter 2015, although with revenue being reduced after paying $75m in a VMware pricing settlement with the US government. Revenues of $5.98bn generated profits of $487m, 17 per cent down on profits a year ago, but still well …

  1. Vaughn Stewart

    Slump or a time of transition?

    Due to their marketshare, EMC is the vendor most impacted by the massive amount of disruption occurring in the storage industry. I expect they will be very successful transitioning their customer base from expensive legacy platforms, to modern, efficient and cost effective technologies. I'm confident EMC will be just fine in the long run.

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Re: Slump or a time of transition?

      They may be, Vaughn. But they'll go through a slump here right soon as the legacy arrays struggle to catch attention, especially at the eye-watering prices they are charging. Heck, people are even willing to buy from you over at Pure at your prices rather than EMC, and they do it in a big way! And you guys charge $virgins!

      But hyperconvergence is coming. It's driving down costs. Datacenter convergence is already emerging, driving down costs further. Software defined infrastructure plays are being researched and endgame machines are being assembled.

      Worse, companies are managing to build just fine arrays on commodity hardware. Those afraid of the future and wishing to cling to arrays are increasingly able to find tried and tested arrays for a fraction the cost of EMC. That's bad for them.

      That said, unlike NetApp, EMC seems to understand the above. Or, at least, some people at EMC understand the above and haven't been fired yet. The really ambitious, aggressive people that could see change was coming all left for Pure ages ago. The ambitious but not aggressive people that could see change was coming left EMC to form their own startups. And the ambitious but socially gregarious people that could see change was coming came from all over to join Solidfire.

      That still leaves a huge collection of very technically talented, albeit not overly ambitious people at EMC that see change is occurring and have more than enough talent to drive innovation internally. Nobody at EMC seems to be interested in purging them, so EMC won't head down Netapp's path.

      The $64B question is: will EMC tap those unambitious, but technically talented individuals who can see the changes required by soliciting their opinions and then listening to them? This is the "good management" question. The ambitious people all left. Ambition is required to raise one's head above the parapet and volunteer opinions.

      EMC will, or it won't. If it doesn't, it will have to rely on acquisitions to see it through. Again: it isn't NetApp here. Sometimes the acquisitions go okay with EMC. Unfortunately, that's only "sometimes". And EMC probably doesn't have too many chances to play "marry the sweetheart" before its star starts permanently fading.

      So who will be around to compete with it? Netapp? Pure? Solidfire? Tintri? Nutanix? SimpliVity? Coho?

      There are dozens upon dozens of storage, CI, HCI, DCI and IEM companies out there now, beavering away in stealth or evolving organically from other concerns. There isn't room for them all.

      It isn't just tech that will pick the winners. Good tech is part of the story. You need a company where the sales, marketing and evangelist roles are populated by people whom you don't want to blend and then pour into the sewer. You need prices that companies can afford. You need continual development to not only meet the challenges of this refresh, but the next and the next after that.

      I, for one, am curious to see whom the people that actually matter - the customers - pick to survive.

      1. Dave Nicholson - EMC

        Re: Slump or a time of transition?

        Working to transform a $25B a year company so that it can thrive in a new world is hard.

        It is quite an ambitious endeavor.

        Gleeful critics and disruption greet you at every turn. It isn't for the feint of heart.

        Vaughn is a class act, by the way.

        1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

          Re: Slump or a time of transition?

          Working to transform a $25B a year company so that it can thrive in a new world is hard.

          It is quite an ambitious endeavor.

          It requires a sort of communal ambition combined with a series amount of pride in one's work. That's totally different from the sort of "shank your grandma for a bent copper" personal ambition that is what has largely driven the exodus from EMC. And EMC isn't alone, I should point out. For the past 5 7 years you've basically been able to find VMware executives on Craigslist. That's before we get into the madness at NetApp!

          Gleeful critics and disruption greet you at every turn. It isn't for the feint of heart.

          Everyone has to deal with critics. Nobody gets a free pass. And I'd say that being a $25B company makes you better able to deal with disruption than a startup.

          Look at EMC. A number of different disruptive technologies have appeared in the storage landscape and EMC has been able to lollygag for years, planning their next move. Meanwhile, companies like Maxta, SimpliVity and others have seen their disruptive "product" (hyperconvergence) become a mere feature.

          Nutanix sees it, is researching, adapting, moving beyond "just hyperconvergence" to a much larger and more complete vertical stack. The others are trying, but Nutanix has stolen a big march. EMC sees all of this (we hope) as well as where it is going and should (if they don't screw up) be able to not only catch up with Nutanix (and the others) but be able to leapfrog them as well.

          But that won't come from those scrabbling for personal position and gain. It will come from the really long, hard work of those who will labour for years in secret and then earn little more than their individual paycheques. Just another day's work. Just punching the clock. (EMC could buy, but it may be too late to buy Nutanix, and it's entirely possible that none of the others would be both far enough along and a good enough cultural fit to assimilate for hte 5-10 years required to bring a full stack product to market.)

          Vaughn is a class act, by the way.

          He's seemed okay enough. Bit snippy, but I actually rather like that about people; usually means they're being honest. Lives and breathes rarefied air though. Doesn't seem to have much time for plebians. Pretty normal in his line of work; can't really complain about it much.

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