So it has been quite some time since I last posted, far too long. Since my last post, a number of things have changed. The company I was working for decided to exit the Datacenter business, causing our small team of four to seek employment elsewhere. One went back to EMC, one moved on to Cisco, one is currently contracting, and I have moved over to Hewlett Packard as a Pre-Sales Storage Solutions Architect, a position more in line with my personal preferences, and a direction I have been wanting to go in for some time.
This position means the focus of my blog will change, it wouldn’t be in my best interests to write about EMC products since they are a competitor, and I plan to focus more on storage, although I do want to continue to talk about vmware in the event any of my former customers stumble on this blog.
A bit about why I chose to join HP. Anyone who follows any tech news knows that our stock prices are lower than we would like, something I knew coming in to the position. HP has also not, in my opinion, been a strong player in the storage market historically.
The EVA was an interesting product. It was a very different way of thinking about storage, and it’s performance was not at the level of it’s competitors. While it did play well in some markets, it was not a market leader for the most part.
Recognizing this, HP purchased Left Hand Networks. This company was mostly a software play, and honestly a bit ahead of it’s time. Realizing that they could completely abstract the software from the hardware, was a little strange to most of us. HP saw an opportunity to increase their portfolio, and give them a play in the SMB markets.
Realizing the EVA was not keeping up, HP acquired 3Par following a bidding war with Dell. Again, not a traditional storage platform though. 3Par was built as a storage server, not another modular array. The true unique value here is that they took the concept of virtualizing the storage to the next level.
When a friend, who I had worked with before told me he was joining HP as a Sales Specialist, and asked me to look into the possibility of joining him in the Pre-Sales role, I was pretty surprised. I chose to join HP because after looking at the product portfolio, after looking at the leadership team, after looking at the company history, I am convinced that while it may be a rough ride for a bit, HP is in a great position to deliver exceptional products, which will return the company to its former glory. We have the people, the technology, and the leadership to execute, that is why I joined HP.
I will try to update more often on HP storage and virtualization topics, the future is bright, and only getting better.