Serendipities

Rejuvenation

Today is the day that this blog becomes something other than it has been.   Very much other…

What it will become has not yet been determined – and may never be determined.

Still, authorial intent is only aspect of the experience.  There is you and your determination(s) as to what you’re reading, what that experience means for you and how, if at all, it connects you to the author of posts or – hopefully – comments.

In the end, or better, at this ending, I find myself thinking of a plain spoken response offered by a pro football head coach in response to a reporter’s question about his team and what it was.  The coach replied, “you are what your record says you are”.

For now, please pardon, if not indulge me in the opacity of this initial dispatch and the obviousness of the yet undiscussed hard tack in topics and themes that it intimates.  The new direction will both mark and form the reinvention of this outlet which will be what it is when it occurs and also when you encounter it.

For now, it is what the words say it is.  It is not yet what imagination, inspiration and insight wish it to be.

In keeping with the football theme, its halftime and the score is tied.  The new half promises to be a whole new ballgame.

I invite and look forward to your input – always.

EMC World - Update 2

I had the opportunity to attend the first half of Mark Lewis' keynote on Tuesday morning. Mark is the Senior Vice President of EMC's Content Management & Archive unit. I found his opening theme to be interesting, though the messaging did not convey the true power of the metaphor he used.

The metaphor Mark employed pertained to money, value and intelligence. His description of money and value began with great promise. Money, or a discussion thereof, invariably grabs listeners’ attention. Such was the state of keynote attendees, sitting poised to here of a very powerful comparison that could and would speak them as well as to any stakeholder in the IT purchasing chain who may not be so “close” to the technology.

The metaphor was built on the fact that money is “dumb.” As a thing, it has no intrinsic value. Money only derives value in context. Mark then compared information to money, and twisted the metaphor by stating that information must become intelligent. It maybe a semantic difference, but I think Mark would have delivered a more powerful message by declaring the need – nay, necessity – for “dumb” data.

In service of brevity, let me state that the reason money is powerful is because it is absolutely fungible. Money only derives value in context. Money has no absolute value as evidenced by Foreign Exchange fluctuations and notions of price. As I said, and Mark began by stating, money is necessarily and beneficially “dumb”.

Data too is dumb. Data (or “content” if they can be used as synonyms) only becomes intelligent when the context ascribes value to "data" that's employed for a purpose. Even at rest, data may have value, but "rest" is merely one characteristic of that specific data instance's context.

The message conveyed in the Keynote was that content is becoming intelligent. The truth is that the context is becoming intelligent and data must get "dumber." In fact, I'd argue that the success of De-Duplication technology is a result of end-user's realizing that data is dumb and that eliminating dumb redundancies is a relatively easy and necessary process.

Under this slightly modified scheme, dumb information becomes, like money, absolutely fungible and therefore far more powerful. The "value context," one of a million or billion individuated states of experience, becomes the point where value and intelligence are added to data much like a merger & acquisition is a specific "value context" and money, dumb money, becomes the medium to exchange value between parties - even across distinct currencies.

EMC World 2008 - Update 1

The morning began with a Q & A with EMC President and CEO Joe Tucci exclusively for analysts. The most common theme analyst questions returned to, despite Tucci's initial attempts to deflect the subject, was "clod computing." As one might expect, analysts were interested in getting Tucci to make a definitive statement regarding EMC's intentions vis-a-vis acquisitionsaquisitions, products and strategy.

To his credit and after several analyst questions on the subject, Tucci turned the question back on the room. He asked for a show of hands from the group as to how many analysts "believed" in cloud computing. All save one analyst indicated belief, though he didn't necessarily achieving a consensus on the "hows" and "whens" fo Clound Computing among the group. Tucci then did what analysts seemed to want. He made a definitive statement on the matter.

Tucci's stated that he and EMC think "Cloud Computing" will happen as new, additional infrastructure. He was unambiguous in saying that he thought "Cloud Computing" would not displace existing infrastructure "during the remaining years [he's] in the industry." The view Tucci sketched comports with analysis I have articulated here and will be writing about more through Breakaway Information Group publications. In the end, my view is that the Cloud will primarily provide new services for some market segments. However, business technology users across all horizontally segmented business sizes will slowly begin to blend owner-operated and cloud-operated functions.

My last thought on blending, for this update, is that middle-ware, in the non-traditional sense, will be the vehicle through which blending will occur. Middleware will provide the translation and intelligent expression layer for information as well as "servlet", VM, Java/CRE orchestration that is a requisite for predictable high value service blending. When I asked Tucci about EMC's orientation regarding middle-ware, he replied that EMC currently had enough on its plate. It is true that EMC has done a good job driving revenue growth across its acquired product lines, but without a footprint in middle-ware, the opportunity to be an infrastructure actor facilitating the emerging "blended" IT world will be difficult.

UPDATE: As part of the back and forth of the Q&A, Tucci revealed that EMC has established a distinct division for Could Computing. Expect more on this subject soon too.

Microsoft Live Mesh: Putting The "Cloud" To Work For Data Mobility

OK, the title is a bit misleading in that Microsoft's Live Mesh infrastructure becomes a centralized holding pen for all manner of non-transactional information saved by Mesh subscribers. So, from one perspective data is centralized which can lead some people to think its immobile. However, the true outcome is that Mesh subscribers can employ any device across any network or nearly any latency state to access and use their data. Yes, use as in read, enter, manipulate, change, update, delete and save back to their Mesh data pen in the "cloud." It is the extraordinary degree to mobility facilitated by Mesh that distinguishes it from other like services.

One major platform differentiator for Live Mesh is that Microsoft chose to use REST for data packaging and transference. This is a critical and differentiating technology decision by Microsoft. Other services, whether consumer or Enterprise oriented have followed a different path, making integration and/or the development of complementary functionality or applications more challenging. Today, Mesh is still verbose in terms of its templates and XML editing interfaces, but the "soon to come" pictures depict an Mesh programming world that is driven by graphical metaphors.

Mesh is a platform and process that flows from Lotus/Groove creator Ray Ozzie's mind. For those who had (are) used Groove, Mesh employs similar language, but really delivers on the richness of experience that I for one expected as a Groove user. Add to that the multi-device flexibility of Mesh and the reality one though one might experience with Groove is now at hand.

There's much buzz these days about "cloud computing." The term needs to be clarified as it lends itself to too many bad interpretations. First of all, references to "cloud" anything in It are meant for consumption by techy/geeky types who are deeply interested in the "how to" of technology. End user a.k.a. consumer a.k.a. people are distinctly disinterested in the term "cloud." In fact, beyond being a misleading technical metaphor (I'll get to this in another entry), it conjures images as varied and ultimately dangerous to the project of proselytizing as insubstantial, airy and ineffectual to a classic reference to the vapid musing of Socrates according to Aristophanes.

With Live Mesh, the the truth of the matter is that it changes the way anyone can work with nearly any data, as the data is where you are, where you were and were you will be. That's the key! In the end, its the information cloud that is your companion. You need not carry or pack it, but its there.

I guess its fair to say that I'm impressed with Live Mesh. The platform's capabilities comport with the views on application portability and data mobility this analyst has been speaking about for 5 years or more. Kudos to Microsoft and kudos to those who have come together under that roof to deliver this service.

Symantec Grab Of AppStream Shows Proper Focus

What a difference a day makes. Just yesterday I posted to this medium about the challenges emerging from the deceptively rapid blurring of lines between programs and applications. The key problem as I see it it that distinct elements of state, configuration, version and ultimately portability of a virtualized OS or application can become lost in a "computing cloud" (locally owned or internet-based). Such a loss can lead to technical problems or operational issues, most risky in this latter category is a fouled compliance process.

Symantec, via its VERITAS software group, has had its eye on this problem for sometime. Its obvious to many that some of the tools in the Altiris portfolio can address these matters. But, the nature of this root problem is far more subtle and tough to address than the vendors of virtualization solutions will confess. Well before Symantec considered adding VERITAS to its family, the folks at VERITAS (Burton and Bregman) planted a flag in the sand with the insightful yet misunderstood acquisition of Ejascent. The merger of that technology with CommandCentral showed promise JVM-centric applications. However, as time moved forward the containerization of operating systems (a la VMware, Microsoft's Hyper-V/Virtual Server, SW Soft and others) over took the mind-share of application virtualization and portability due to shear capital savings on hardware. Symantec has both benefited and struggled with IT buyers hardware parsimony.

Not that the AppStream buy will end the struggle with IT buyers' new views, but it does put Symantec back in the thick of the data center race - a race to define the landscape for Service Oriented Infrastructure. Symantec has an interesting situation, amplified by this pick-up, as its can now counter-balance heavy-weights HP, IBM and EMC; an act its VERITAS legacy knows well. Symantec can also leverage its position as incumbent in the Enterprise data center in distinction to Microsoft/Softgrid, Citrix/Xen and VMware - all being relative new comers especially to the EDC.

So, as I said yesterday, the reality is that infrastructure matters a great deal. And not just to technology innovators, but to IT professionals and buyers trying to keep afloat with new applications, various flavors of virtualization and ever shrinking capital budgets. With this acquisition, Symantec has refreshed it opportunities with these and others customers.

Focusing On The Cloud, Or The Real Challenge?

Discussion of the Computing Cloud have returned to the forefront, if they've ever really receded from post "boom" media and vendor marketing pitches. Cloud Computing is an intriguing notion and has seemingly become an achievable state of infrastructure, especially for organizations that have either deep-pockets or deep (compelling?) needs.

But underneath Cloud Computing, what is really happening? What is the real metamorphosis that has occurred to make such an outcome attainable? I'll tip my hand by saying that this outcome is result of several significant prerequisites.

The first prerequisite is robust and manageable local/wide area networking, meaning transmission and verbose protocols. The second, and complementary prerequisite, is distributed computing. I'm sure that sounds to many readers like the definition of "cloud computing," but I assure you its not. Distributed computing means that it is no longer cost prohibitive to implement like servers across multiple tiers of infrastructure nor does such a deployment scheme prohibit an organization from running the applications it chooses - in the main. Again, sounds like "cloud computing," but not yet. These two prerequisites are broadly available to organizations of all sizes today. The gating factors to deploying systems that capitalize on these changes are cost, skills, need and vision - to name a few.

The third, and certainly not final, component is the metamorphosis is the one that will present the biggest challenge, and also deliver the biggest most affective outcomes. Yes, even bigger than both the 20 year revolution in networking and the 15 year revolution in distributed computing. On the "plus-side," I don't expect this revolution to take a decade more to deliver results. Still, some could argue, as even my own past statements can imply, that this revolution has been in the making for nearly a decade already. So, what is it I'm talking about?

The change that I believe poses a new and ultimately liberating challenge is that programs and data will become essentially indistinguishable.

To level set, we are not near to the day when data is "executable," but that capability is closer than you may think. The at-hand instantiation of "programs as data," and vice-versa, is found in server and application virtualization. Server virtualization is, today, premised on this change. Those IT professionals wrestling with the novel impact of virtualization on data protection and recovery schemes are all too familiar with this condition.

Today, virtualized servers are transformed into a file. That file contains all of the many programmatic elements and installed applications of a traditional operating system. It also holds specific notations regarding state, configuration and security elements of the encapsulated system. It also includes information about the "hard" network and the "soft" network pathways, qualities of services, I/O prioritization and - of course - proprietary information or data.

The object, or VM file itself, must be captured and cataloged in a number of management systems. Those systems are the virtual infrastructure manager or other systems management frameworks, CMDB-based change control and inventory system(s), compliance enforcement, security and identity systems and lastly, but not least, data protection schemes from back-up to BC/DR and migration. As many storage-centric professionals know, the act of moving or "failing-over" a VM from one physical system to another, or even within the confines of a common blade system, requires a very complex ballet within the supporting SAN that demands the exact coordination of WWN relocation, port reassignment and path redirection (with all of the zoning and QoS attributes intact). Not a trivial act!

So, what does it mean for storage/information management when, as the above example foreshadows, data and programs become nearly indistinguishable? For one, its easy to see that a major burden or operational obligation is pushed out of the domain of sever/host based functionality and into the realm of networking and information management. By way of a plug, and toward keeping this, and most entries to this BLOG, short, I'll point you to the first in a series of vision papers produced by my firm. The TAP Model, and other forthcoming and complementary papers, are meant to address this issue either directly or the impact of the transformation of programs and data within explicit functional domains.

This BLOG will be primarily concerned with these changes and their impact on the "legacy," meaning the infrastructure you are tasked with running as if it were a part Indy car, part open sand-box.

One final word. The "cloud" is obviously a metaphor. So, think of it as such. What do clouds do? They obscure and hide clear skies, produce thunder, lightening and rain and can be the heart of a storm. So, when looking at the "cloud," your cloud, remember to look for the internal components that come with clouds. I'll expand on this metaphor and clarify other aspects of the "data/program" duality.

More to come, soon!

Tic TAP Toe

With the recent public, launch of my firm, the Breakaway Information Group, I also released a work long in the making. That work is a vision presented as a reference model called TAP, an acronym standing-in for specifically defined information and functionality "zones" as well as a metaphor speaking to an organization's ability to exploit - or tap - all of its information resources deeply and cheaply. The introduction to this framework is available at my firm's site.


The TAP Model, as a vision, is meant to open the door to a dialog based on the "three R's" - and I don't mean readin', 'riting' and 'rithmetic. To me, being a former integrator, the "three R's" are robust, realistic, reachable. So often, discussions of technological solutions blur, too often violently, sci-fi-like functionality and revolutionary but low-impact capability all at a remove from the necessary details that make each instantiation of infrastructure unique. It is understandable that innovation is usually spoken of in great abstraction. If the object of innovation were so specific that it could be discussed by stake-holders of varied interest in deep detail, the likelihood of this innovation having broad appeal would be suspect. Thus, we're left with a conundrum; how to relate the general to the specific while creating descriptive room for variety.

The TAP Model, in the introductory paper, seeks to strike this balance. The goal was to identify the broadest range of challenges facing IT professionals tasked with managing storage and/or information assets and to map these responsibilities to an understanding of information architecture that embraces the truly revolutionary changes at the application layer. By application layer, I do mean both the environment defined as software, being business, consumer, peer-to-peer or other applications. I also mean that nebulous space known as the top of the OSI stack where elements of data are transmitted and assembled in a meaningful way to applications and end-users. As such, the TAP Model seeks to corral all of those elements that are regularly left out of various procedural or "marketese" driven descriptions of infrastructure's value and potential.

I say potential purposefully. As time and IT solution maturity has marched forward, the notion of potentiality has migrated away from what infrastructure can do toward what applications and processes must do. However, like any other infrastructure intensive activity - be it trains, planes or automobiles - the greatest plans for achievement must find themselves rooted in a solid base! That base, in a world fused and propelled by information, is infrastructure. As such, the TAP Model and BIG seek to reinvigorate the discussion of infrastructure by recognizing the very necessary enabling foundation it provides. TAP is the first foray into an investigation of innovation positively adapting existing practices and programs in a way that respects the robust, reliable and reachable goals of IT professionals, business owners, investors and solution vendors.

Join us in this inquiry.

Breaking Away

This post marks the beginning of a new chapter.  In a few short days, I'll be launching my new, independently run analyst firm called the Breakaway Information Group.  As Tuesday the 15th slowly come to the front of the calendar, it is not trepidation I'm experiencing - oddly.  The sensation is more like a when a question is still taking shape but not yet formed.  Its shot through with vibrant energy, the hum of curiosity.  The curiosity is seeking to know how far? how much can be said.

and who cares....

I care.  And hopeful you will too.

The launch of Breakaway, sometimes to be referred to as BIG Analysis, is both conclusion and first act.  As many who know me know, I've struggled and stumbled in efforts to assemble my thoughts, thoughts that burst forward with novel ideas about the world I live in professionally.  From an immature concept labeled DAL to the newly minted and very mature TAP Model, I've been filled driven by an interest in viewing the whole of the dependent parts of IT infrastructure in a way that ties together what I know to be the ways its outputs are used and the way its "inputs" are managed.  yes, an ambiguous statement; the conclusion of confusion while also a door to a new chamber with new learning that may well prove useful.  This brings me to the galvanizing characteristics of immature and nebulous concepts as they grew, persistently demanding my attention, until sufficiently mature that it merited its own vehicle.

Breakaway, and this BLOG, will not be solely concerned with the TAP Model or other "hifalutin" abstractions.  Both will be, as their design allows. vehicles to explore and share insights, learning and new experiences arrived at in concert with many intentional and unwitting contributors (co-conspirators?).   In short, I'm as excited about this endeavor as any I've been lucky enough to participate in.  The difference, of course, is that this is mine - as much as it can be considering the nature of the "work."

So, without further ado, allow me to invite you to visit.  Comment, criticize, even complain.  But also dare to reveal experiences that will help others (me included) learn and become better at a difficult thing - that thing being a steward to the means of today's intelligent production.  To me, that's what information "infrastructure" is.  As this and other BLOGs evidence, novel forms and vehicles for the exchange of intelligence is what and how the "IT" of Serendipities evolves in an affirmative and useful fashion.

Welcome to the rebirth of Serendipities, the impending launch of Breakaway Information Group and my future.

StorMagic: A Smart Tool for SMBs and Their VARs

StorMagic is a vendor name you may not have heard, yet.  The company's core solution is based on the relatively new, yet robust Ethernet standard for storage communications known as iSCSI.  The solution, a software bundle, creates a means to access data captured within server-connected storage systems.  Data can then be copied or migrated onto "white box" storage targets that are network-connected.  Data volumes are automatically mounted and labeled for Windows server and client access.

The cool aspect of this solution and StorMagic's "route to market" is that the company will provide the software or a hardware/software bundle to SMB VARs.  Either way, VARs serving this market now have a low-cost, margin-creating tool that allows them - and their customers - to move forward into the beneficial world of networked storage.  For SMB businesses themselves, the notion of networked storage has been daunting due to the capital and operational expenses of the technology.  Unfortunately, these costs (real and perceived) have fore-closed on an avenue of enhanced data protection and more effective use of cost saving server virtualization technologies. 

I can't help but encourage SMBs to engage local VARs who offer the StorMagic solution.  By "engage" I mean give them a call, do an evaluation, talk to them about benefits enabled by networked storage such as server virtualization.  The immediate benefits realized in data protection and capacity management alone, via a solution like StorMagic, can be compelling for SMBs accustomed to buying more servers or disk drives and who are grappling with drive letter "sprawl" after having implemented a number of small network-attached hard drive systems from Fry's or BestBuy.

VARs will benefit because they can now expand the range of solutions offered to cash and talent constrained small businesses offering them real technological advancements without the need to "throw-out the old, to get the new."  Since the StorMagic solution uses many standard technologies, Ethernet being one, an small business's current cable plant may well be robust enough to go with this product today.

My thoughts on this solution and the value to SMB end-users and their VARs may seem overly glowing.  The truth is that I spent the better part of 8 years as a VAR serving this exact market in the through the 1990s.  Even though its been a few years since I turned a wrench, my conversations with SMB technologists leads me to conclude that there's still a goodly amount of Windows NT and Windows Server 2000 and too little server virtualization.  StorMagic and a smart VAR opens the door for SMBs to more forward into a technology arena - and cost savings arena - that until recently was owned by the large companies.  In the end, StorMagic merits the look.

Introduction - of sorts

This being an introduction, it might be most appropriate to provide biographical information, lists of interests or some other information providing you the reader with insight into who I am and why its worth reading further. However blogs were meant to capture those qualities that the author is who his or her readership believes him/her to be. If this is the case, which I think it very likely it is, I'll offer only a thumbnail sketch of the pertinent details. The blog itself will take on a character - my character - as an expression of my contributions and our exchanges.

The person -- virtualized. 

It may be foolhardy to enter the blogosphere with such a heady initial subject. But before I jump off and expound, allow me to provide some context of the autobiographical sort. I am and have been an analyst, an industry analyst. For much of the past six years I've had the pleasure of plying my craft with various firms. When I first became an analyst actually did not know what an analyst was. I knew what the dictionary said. However I had been in the field installing, integrating and babysitting hardware and software solutions and the people who use them. At the periphery of this world lived the industry analyst. On occasion the analyst would find her way into our world -- but only in spirit never in body. Analysts were people that our customers referred to - much like an auto mechanic presented with a “Road & Track” article by a nervous or nervously enthusiastic owner. This person provided comfort to the consumer but not always wisdom or insight. This is what I knew – and what I know – because this condition is not limited to the past or past tense.

So by way of autobiography, I have endeavored to fuse these disparate aspects of the information technology industry. The last ingredient of this fusion, this blending of types, concerns, perspectives is a brief but rich experience I garnered working with a hardware vendor at well-funded early stage startup in Seattle. 

At this point an image is probably taking shape in your mind. The introduction so far been well short of a thousand words is I suspect leaving you with a rather spartan picture. And this is where it ties back to my mention of the virtualized person. For you who don't know me (and even if you do) the picture your mind is painting and the context your mind is establishing relies on the specific colors from the limited palette I have provided thus far. Its is an abstract, or is an art historian may say a detail. At the risk of being too academic or for that matter technical how does one distinguish between the abstract or the virtualized and the real.

This last question/statement is one of several seeds or concepts that I will continually revisit as I discussion the technology marketplace, uses of products and solutions by end-users and the creative application and innovation pursued by engineers, developers and crafty users as each seeks to make sense of information in a context and distinguished those contexts across discrete technical realms.

And I will before to very long provide an actual biography with some tangible fact. Facts are good. They are necessary to facilitate any conversation(s) that emerge. I intend to facilitate high degrees of freedom – conceptually – yet always want to return to solid ground which is where we live and work and love - and apply the motifs of our dreams.