Rather than report back on specific sessions I’m posting an overview of the event, for a number of reasons:
– there are plenty of excellent posts on the sessions already available from the likes of Pie and Alexandra to name but two;
– I didn’t get to go to as many sessions as I would have liked;
– I’ve just got back and have got a few things on in the next 2-3 weeks.
The key messages I picked up from the event were:
– No change in Strategy. This is positive. EMC set a strategy 12 months ago and are now executing on it. The next 12 months will be critical to this execution as they release xCP2.0 and D7 and the D2 client matures further.
– xCP2.0. The more I see and hear of this the more impressed I am. The things I noted were:
- Improved deployment through xMS;
- 2.0 is on target for this year, 2.1 will be next year and then 2.2 in 2014;
- Uses tcServer as the App Server and for 2.1 the OS will be MS only with both Oracle and SQL Server supported as the Database;
- xCP 2.0 is now feature complete, they are bug fixing and testing;
- Performance is much better in D7 and xCP2.0, should require much less compute in order to run these products;
- It looks quick and easy to make changes to applications but I still need to understand how this will work in a true production environment;
- More to know about some of the details around deploying solutions such as impact on in-flight processes and also amendments to the data model – I suspect the latter will be something which comes when NGIS comes along;
– D2. Unfortunately I did not get anywhere near enough time to look at this produce but what I did see was impressive. I was very interested to hear the story from some colleagues in the US who were very pleased with the product and have implemented a full engineering solution in a matter of weeks including features such as Transmittals and Bulk Uploads.
– Syncplicity. This was the only big new thing of the event and it was clear that it is a deal which has been pushed through at the last minute. Its an intriguing deal and one which I am sure people will be sitting down and working out how to move it forward pretty quickly. Some of the features of Syncplicity looked neat and I believe it will be a welcome addition to the portfolio once they have a fully integrated vision of how it fits with the other products.
– Mobile. This cuts across all three of the above but this is an area where EMC are pushing hard. I’m particularly intrigued as to how xCP will perform on a mobile device, in 2.0 it will be available via Safari on iPads.
It was an interesting experience for me as it my first EMC World, having only attended Momentum’s in Europe before. It is a strange feeling being the small group in such a large conference and I’m sorry but the chance to look at racks of servers is not something which rocks my boat. Nevertheless the IIG people really go out of their way to create a sense of community within the Momentum conference and once I found the calm of the Momentum lounge then things looked up.
Overall then these are exciting times for EMC. 12 months ago everything was paper talk, now we’re seeing things happen. This time next year we will know if the transformation has been successful.I predict the efforts of EMC will lead to a period of growth. What will be interesting is to consider who EMC’s competitors are. Alongside OpenText and Oracle on the ECM play I predict they will start to see themselves come up against SAP and more focussed solutions more.
Observing Content Management 