I have received a lot of positive comments about my updates from the conference, so thank you. I’m a big believer in using critical feedback as a means to improve, if anyone out there has any other feedback for me.

I wanted to jot down a last few thoughts from the week before my brain cells totally recuperate. I’m not sure what I expected going into this first combined Dell EMC world, but I do know that I had a blast and learned a ton.

Just for posterity’s sake, here are my first few updates from the conference

Dell EMC World 2017 – Day 1

Dell EMC World – Day 1, the breakouts

Dell EMC World – Day 2 VMware day!

Strategy

Server Platforms

It was obvious from the start that with Dell purchasing the EMC federation they were going to go after hardware and namely the converged and hyper-converged markets. Beyond that I don’t think I really understood where this giant beast was going. After this past week, a few themes stuck out to me. The first is an affirmation that as the traditional hardware market slows down, Dell Technologies are indeed going to go even harder after the various converged plays. You could see a physical manifestation of this on the floor of the solutions expo. “Traditional” servers were tucked in the back, whereas the products from the converged platform division that Captain Canada leads were large and in charge of the middle of the expo floor. Prior to the acquisition VCE already owned the majority of the hyper/converged space. I don’t see how you can slow DellEMC down now that they have the servers to integrate as well.

Security

If 2015 was the year of flash, and 2016 was the year of DevOps, then I think I’d like to go on the record saying that 2017 is the year of Security. I work for a financial firm, so I may have a bias towards this topic, but I felt like there was a much stronger message around security at this event. It makes sense. If Dell wants to own the entire datacenter, which they obviously do, you have to be able to secure the datacenter. With RSA, SecureWorks and VMware’s NSX already in the portfolio, it’s a pretty good start. When you then look to see how security is getting integrated into each of the disparate product lines all the way down to the new 14G servers, it looks to me like Michael Dell and team know that the products need to not just perform but need to be secure in order to win.

Other things

The Internet of things space (IoT) as well as AR/VR seemed to have a sizable presence at the conference. People have been trying to emphasize cool products years, but it seems like this might be the year where mainstream adoption starts. I can’t remember the precise figure now off the top of my head but I believe in one of the general sessions they were projecting let’s call it the “ancillary” space or non-traditional servers to be a $45 billion industry by the year 2020. Just for reference sake the market cap of Dell when it was taken private again was under $25 billion. I don’t necessarily see how this plays into long-term strategy but it was everywhere in the sessions and on the expo floor and it’s very obviously on the mind of Dell executives.

The Golden Geese

During the opening day’s general session, Michael Dell said to paraphrase “A few years ago we bought Alienware. They were the best at what they were doing, and we let them continue to do it.” The not so subtle message to the community is, we bought these companies not to pillage but to leverage their success and make each other stronger. I was fortunate enough to ask Michael himself later that evening if that indeed was his message, especially as it pertains to VMware. I’m again paraphrasing but his message was. “We didn’t buy these companies to pillage them. We are obviously looking for opportunities to itegrate across Dell Technologies, but these companies are leaders in their respective industries and we’re not going to decimate them.” The answer was much longer (and nuanced) but after listening to Mr. Dell and talking to a number of folks who are way more embedded than I, my fears have finally been (mostly) assuaged. Actually after attending a number of sessions across server/compute/storage/security/networking/operations I truly believe Dell Technologies has an opportunity to build something that is bigger than the sum of their parts.

Networking

As an engineer I’ve always felt that my job at conferences is to go breakout sessions wall-to-wall and learn as much technological stuff as I possibly can. I decided to alter the plan a slight bit for this one. As many have said before me, a large part of attending conferences are the networking opportunities. If you’re inclined and motivated there are countless opportunities to get out and network with folks. Here are a couple of the events I was fortunate enough to take a part in.

Monday

It was an exciting, if not controversial week, in the Dell EMC communities. On Monday I attended the Converged (formerly VCE) User Group meeting. This is where I was fortunate enough to ask Mr. Michael Dell the aforementioned question about the various brands under the new Dell Technologies umbrella. Now I’m a pretty shy guy, but I have never been to a User Group meeting where I haven’t met someone interesting AND learned something AND had a bunch of fun. If you haven’t yet joined up with one of the Dell Technologies communities then you are definitely missing out.

Tuesday

In my role as a systems engineer I have been fortunate enough to work with multiple VCE products across multiple companies. So I was honored to be afforded a chance to attend a technical advisory board meeting for the converged platforms. It was an eye-opening experience to see how the roadmaps & strategies come together and to offer some frank feedback to the people who actually influence these products. Unfortunately I can’t share details from the meeting but needless to say it was a very cool experience that I hope to repeat again.

Oh heavenly beanbag. How I love thee. Let me count the ways. 1, zzzzz #DellEMCWorld — Scott Driver (@VTsnowboarder42) May 10, 2017

Also on Tuesday was the Dell Communities event. As a VMUG leader I was very excited to attend this meeting in order to network with some peers who I’ve only emailed with. It’s always nice when you get to meet someone whom you only know by their email and make a personal connection. After all, that’s really a big part of what VMUG is about. If you’re lucky these events are also very cool opportunities to get facetime with people that you wouldn’t normally be able to sit down with.

And it is Vegas after all, so I was happy to wrap the day by enjoying some of the fine dining and activities that you can only find in sin city. All the while networking with one of our key partners, and meeting some cool people.

The Event itself

This is only my second trip to Dell EMC world, so the sample size is small, but each time I’ve been to the event I’ve been very impressed. From the general sessions, to the breakouts, the registration process, all the way down to how lunch is served so efficiently, it seems to be a really really well run event. I just wish that they would stop using so many disposable water bottles.

One of the fears i have attending a vendor run conference is how deep the marketing and sales pitches will run. I haven’t found Dell EMC world to be any worse than any other presentations that I’ve sat through. Some are worse, some are better in terms of the amount of “pitchiness“. On a whole I found the amount of sales at this event to be quite reasonable given all of the networking and educational opportunities that are provided.

With any luck I’ll be able to see how Dell EMC world has evolved in 2018, but until then I guess I’ll just have to wait to see you all in Vegas this August for VMworld.