EMC pulls out VSPEX: I'll hyper-converge you in a minute

Disclosure - EMCer here (Chad Sakac).

Chris, thank you for noticing the launch and writing about it. I suppose there's no surprise that as we enter the Hyper-converged market, that the existing players (Nutanix and Simplivity as quoted) wouldn't have nothing nice to say :-)

I'm disappointed (but not surprised I suppose) by Dheeraj's poop flinging.

Put simply: having a portfolio is about trying to solve a broader set of use cases, a broader set of challenges.

ScaleIO is doing GREAT. The growth rate we expect in 2015 would shock the system for a startup. Just like XtremIO, which now is north of $1B, when we enter a market, we think about it, we plan, we design, we acquire - and we go in with full force.

Today, with ScaleIO, we have customers with PBs in use. It's super-power is that it can scale to infinity and beyond (hundreds, thousands of nodes), and has OPEN support (not pinned to vSphere). Lots of openstack customers and use cases with KVM as an example. Lots of interest in CoreOS support. There is already a docker container based deployment model. Oh - and when it comes to vSphere us, there are ENORMOUS customers (think 100,000+ VMs) using vSphere that have elected ScaleIO to have a software storage layer that can support their massive vSphere environment, and ALSO their non-vSphere environments because they want heterogeneity in their kernel mode virtualization layer.

That's CHOICE.

The fact of the matter is that there is an enormous set of customers (generally smaller in size, but enormous in count) of the customers who are looking for turn-key hyper-converged customers use vSphere (so that matches the "vSphere only" VSAN design center).

Those customers bias to "simplicity above all else" (and there is NOTHING simpler than VSPEX Blue - and happy to show that to anyone who would like to try). They are also happy with a more contained amount of hardware variation. That's the design point: Simple, start small + grow, hyper-integrated with vSphere. This is the formula for an "appliance".

Let me point out a couple examples that illustrate the fault in the facile argument of "everything is a nail" that is so common from single-product companies:

1) We have a lot of at scale customers who want CI, including all the integrated support model. Increasingly they want things like NSX to be part of the integrated stack solution. Ultimately, it will be part of VSPEX Blue also, but that means building it into the full appliance model, including management and support (unless one would consider managing the appliance and the vSphere layer seperately an "appliance" - I wouldn't).

For customers who want that "built for YOU" experience (engineered CI systems) - VCE now supports that more sophisticated deployment model, now: http://www.vce.com/about/media/news?id=tcm:20-27188

2) conversely, if we wanted to create an engineered (again - think "built for YOU") hyper-converged design vs an appliance (think "here is the fixed list of what can be constructed, and you can order it and be running in minutes" model that you see from VSPEX Blue, Nutanix, Simplivity) the VCE engineered system approach and approach would of course use ScaleIO, because of the fact that it could be used in a broad set of use cases.

Perhaps there might (?) be a little concern with what we've launched (which will undoubtedly make life a little harder)... coupled that we might not be done :-)

I've got a lot of respect for the team at Nutanix that really got the the Hyper-Converged ball rolling, and other competitors like Simplivity. I respect their founders, their technology, and their employees.

I'm glad to be competing with them for the customer - and invite all customers to put us all through our paces. EMC and our EMC partners are here to compete to win their business.

Our CI portfolio is broad today - and we certainly don't think that everything looks like a nail. Our CI portfolio will continue to expand. ScaleIO will be a big part of that, regardless of what others may suggest :-)

For better or worse (and I think healthy competition is almost always good) - it's on like Donkey Kong!

Chad

How is this exceptional EMC Solution...

.... different from any other EVO:RAIL solution that already has been or will be launched by pretty much anyone before summer?

I mean: Marketing aside, this is just a bunch of servers (which I doubt EMC produce themselves) with VMware capabilites and tools that are available to anyone who buys a license.