EMC is transforming its business in the wake of changing market dynamics and mounting pressure from Amazon and OpenStack. CEO Joe Tucci doesn’t want any inefficiencies getting in the way of his growth plans.

This week the storage behemoth disclosed that it will be firing 1,004 workers across its Information Storage, RSA Information Security and Information Intelligence businesses in an effort to reduce long-term operational spending. The cuts are meant to offset the one percent profit slump EMC reported last quarter.

According to a recent SEC filing uncovered by The Register, the massive round of layoffs will cost EMC roughly $80 million. An estimated $73 million of that will go to worker compensation, and the remainder will be used to cover various administrative expenses.

“The actions will impact positions around the globe covering our Information Storage, RSA Information Security and Information Intelligence Group segments, and is expected to result in a total charge of approximately $80.0 million, with total cash payments associated with the plan expected to be approximately $73.0 million.”

Word of the job cuts got out on Day two of EMC World 2013, the vendor’s annual Las Vegas product expo. Several new products made their debut at the event, including a storage management platform that separates him data from the control layer and a Big Data-driven security solution.

EMC is doubling down on services to exploit new cloud and Big Data opportunities, according to senior vice president of services Mike Koehler. The executive told SiliconAngle CEO John Furrier and Wikibon’s Dave Vellante that his firm has transformed from a company led by product sales to one that focuses on production and solutions. In a follow-up interview, EMC global channel VP Jeff Taylor discussed the role of the channel in the company’s change of strategy.

The result is a software-driven initiative that’s looking to make storage smarter, faster and more scalable.  If EMC can make its products more efficient for its growing federation of Services, perhaps the company itself can improve efficiences across the board.  But that will take time, despite EMC’s aggressive decision to push software-defined storage, curbing some of the market disruption the industry’s already seen.

“Many have said that it is very early in the software-defined storage [space], all of EMC’s competitors have been coming out and attacking this, and everybody is looking close at it,” says Wikibon senior analyst Stu Miniman during an appearance on this morning’s Live NewsDesk Show with Kristin Feledy. “We’re in the early days of software-defined storage but it’s an aggressive bet because in many ways this could potentially disrupt some of their business, it could lower margins.”

See Miniman’s entire segment below.