The particle physics: Evolution, aspergerism and massless massness
Greatest things in life come and go and all you have left is memories. The LHC's attempt to look for the Higgs particle, often also called the God particle by some who are a too much into the "discovery of evolution thing", sometimes makes me wonder: We all have that in us. There is space and anti-space and then there is the air that breathes it.
VMware is exactly such a software company. The firm has solid faith and tremendous following. The employees breathe and live the Higgs field. This field was created by the folks who brought this company to where it is today.
VMware had better lived in some distant universe, untouched by folks that kept bugging their passion and telling them to say things the way it should have been told. They did a great jo at it but they also got fooled into it. The truth of the matter is exactly that. There is matter and anti-matter. The rest doesn't exist and the world doesn't need to know if it exists. It did find out and got hordes of admins excited about thsi breathtaking technology.
The host-alien love affair: OMG...I have the Higgs in me!
EMC's purchase of VMware was not just a mere mention of some software developer within EMC's ranks, as Joe Tucci would put it. If it is, then he just got lucky as given the flat revenues he's been giving his investors, he'd have to thank Diane and her team for helping him stay where he is the last five years without delivering much value to his investors. Well she saved him from getting fired and then she gets fired instead.
But all this he didn't realzie when he "got lucky" and decided to buy VMware. His luck rose as all the poster boys and girls sold EMC stuff against other hardware competitors such as IBM, HP. All smart guys, I know. But that all happened when EMC discovered that the Higgs particle was within themselves, in their bodies!
There was a chorous to get the Higgs particle out as soon as possible. They didn't realize one thing before coming to the conclusion, is that it is the very Higgs particle that keeps us alive. The search for the unknown, which VMware did was a great thing. They came up with stuff which they called: " Here, we've got the stuff that'll save the universe, and it'll also warm up your coffee as you go about it!"
VMware is that Higgs particle. It has given too much in too short a period of time. Maybe that was the dilemma. It changed too many things, too fast. That scared too many folks. Maybe it didn't even intend to grow that big. It never needed the media and all that stuff. All it needed was a
Le mort petit?
Usurpations are heady. Even the one that describes the french phrase above, they aren't meant to last this long. This one did for five long years and it still is about to have after effects. So I can fully imagine that it was just too much too handle.
I don't really think so but much will change as Diane leaves. That will mean that a lot of products will have to find a way to re-integrate into the new strategy. Cloud computing jacket, maybe? We don't know yet. EMC shoudl have been doing a lot of work, much before at hand to avoid the bigger surprise that they will be confronted with, had they taken enough work to go after the Global Data Center strategy. Do they have one? We don't know.
So it is not VMware we should worry about, I suspect that EMC (and my doomsday predictions have a lot of bigger firms will be faced with extinction at some point of time soon) will have to seriously look at its own sustainability. VMware gave it a breath of fresh air. I can already smell some foul stench emanating from the cracks...
Disclaimer: Although this shock decision may not exactly have been the style EMC should have adopted, I do agree with Greg Ness's wise words here and wish paul lots of luck convincing the internal folks that it is about the war and not about those little battles.
So what can we expect in the coming weeks:
- ESX price gets a considerable cut
- Open Sourcing of ESX will be in the offing soon, to be fully Cloud ready to attack all parties at all fronts
- Some more management shake up
- Some voluntary departures
- Strong (and more) EMC's indulgence in product strategy
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