The Service Management Soapbox

As many of you now know, I have resigned my marketing position at EMC. I am still a big fan of EMC’s management technology, having played a major role in its evolution and the expansion of EMC’s ITSM market presence. My affinity for Smarts, a company EMC acquired in early 2005, is what compelled me to join EMC a bit later in 2005. Since then, we’ve grown the business significantly, acquiring nLayers and Voyence in the process. The future remains bright for EMC as a credible challenger to the “Big Four” (HP, IBM, CA, BMC) in the management market. Despite all of this wonderful progress, it was time for me to move on. I wish my delightful and brilliant EMC colleagues nothing but the best as they continue to build the future EMC powerhouse.

One thing I found restrictive was my ability to be absolutely frank about my opinions on market and technology developments. I do not blame EMC for this, it’s just one of the realities of working for a vendor - any vendor. In my 28 years in this business, it was my first foray into the vendor world. It has some delightful elements to it, but also some disadvantages, like anything else. As someone whose principles are solidly based on honesty and open dialog, I had to leave this environment to continue pursuing my mission to change the world by telling the truth. The truth is often unpleasant and when you tell the truth, you often make enemies, but this is who I am and I hope to better leverage this “gift” to help change our profession.

As such, I have not yet made the next step. Where my journey goes next is anybody’s guess, but I suspect it will be back into the analyst community in some form. This was my life before EMC and I enjoyed it. I had the freedom to be honest about what I observed in the world around us.

One thing on the near-term radar is a CMDB book I need to finish, so stay tuned. My co-author and I will wrap it up soon and expect it will hit the shelves of a bookstore near you in the second quarter. As for The Service Management Soapbox, look for more content on vendors and other details that I can now more freely publish.

Our world is changing dramatically. You can view these changes in dismay or with delightful anticipation. I plan to shed light on many of these changes, so you can more effectively capitalize on the opportunity. Change is good. I am excited about the future. I hope you are too!

Warmest regards,
– Glenn –

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 11:32 and is filed under EMC, General ITSM, Management Tools, CMDB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.