Eric Herzog | Oracle OpenWorld 2013

In their ongoing coverage of Oracle Open World 2013, John Furrier and Stu Miniman spoke with Eric Herzog SVP of Product Management and Product Marketing at EMC. The three discuss new trends in data storage, EMC's continued success with Flash and what makes for successful acquisitions.

Given that EMC is the leading service provider in the world, Herzog says the company ensures its storage solutions are in tune with the right applications. EMC plug-ins work well with the Oracle enterprise manager so that DBAs can easily manage a Vmax or VNX solution. Herzog also says that EMC performance is exceptional and recently launched a new VNX product in the "Speed to Lead" launch in Milan, Italy. This EMC product is tuned to both database and data warehouse applications to optimize and deliver the best ROI and TCO for Oracle databases and/or applications that sit on top of Oracle databases.

Miniman asks how EMC is positioned in a competitive field relative to several emerging startups. Miniman observes, "it really has been startups that have been taking the hype and the mindshare." Herzog iterates that EMC is the largest provider of Flash of any storage vendor providing Flash across the product line. He also suggests, "People don't realize our experience, [we] started doing flash before any other storage company. And, it's across the product family: high-end, low-end, mid-range...No matter where you look, we're about Flash and we've been about Flash. [Quite] honestly, EMC has got the flash guys a little shaken because of the broad portfolio, multiple price points, and multiple technologies all delivering [the] right tool for the right job."

Miniman notes that a recent survey indicated that 55 percent of Oracle workloads were virtualized and the number seems to be increasing rapidly. He asks if the intersection of Flash coming down market and virtualization are fueling the push for VNX products. Herzog explains that people are stratifying their workloads. And, while many things are suited to a Vmax, according to Herzog, "If it's not a 'tier 1 mission critical or we will go out of business,' they're putting it on the VNX." Another factor in the adoption of VNX is performance, given that VNX has the best cost per transaction for an Oracle workload. Herzog says, "When you're putting an Oracle workload in this virtualization market space, the best integration has been VNX and that saves time to deploy."

Furrier references Joe Tucci's keynote in which, he described Oracle's differentiated technology stack as "built horizontally" and asks what this means to Herzog. According to Herzog, EMC has converged infrastructure with the VCE company and has an Oracle-centric solution as well as a Vspex product line. EMC offers much integration and was recently recognized as the number one vendor for purpose built backup.

Furrier suggests one of the hardest components of an acquisition is taking in the acquired company culture and asks Herzog's perspective on how EMC integrates companies so well. Citing the Extreme I/O acquisition, Herzog says he learned that EMC had to accept that it couldn't always "do everything the EMC way." He notes that EMC has learned from the cultures of acquired companies and adds, "When you look at our competitor, their acquisition record is mediocre at best. You've got all the backup acquisitions that we've done. [We] are focused on the right tool for the right product for the end user."

Herzog has also noticed an excitable trend in the investment community, in which investors decide "if its Flash I will acquire." To this, Furrier says, "When the music stops, you better be sitting down in a chair."

Eric Herzog, EMC, at Oracle OpenWorld 2013 with John Furrier and Dave Vellante

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