UPDATED 10:48 EDT / MAY 13 2014

An insider’s look into EMC’s service provider strategy for the hybrid cloud era | #EMCworld

David Trigg - EMC World 2014 - theCUBEEnterprise budgeting for services is outpacing overall IT spending and shows no sign of slowing in the foreseeable future, a trend that has led EMC to revisit its partnering strategy and implement a new channel framework that goes beyond the traditional requirements of resellers and systems integrators. David Trigg, the driving force behind this well-timed change of direction, dropped by theCUBE during the recently concluded EMC World 2014 conference to discuss how his company is responding to the expanding role of service providers in the marketplace with Wikibon senior analyst Stu Miniman.

Trigg is the vice president and general manager of the storage stalwart’s Global Service Providers group, a unit that serves not one but two distinct functions within the EMC federation. The division is responsible for managing relationships with service providers and, on the technical side, supplying them with solutions, training and other resources that can prove helpful in driving sales. The innovation that comes out of those partnerships eventually finds its way back into EMC’s hybrid cloud portfolio, Trigg says, which consists of the company’s on-premise solutions, VMware’s vCloud Hybrid Service and the Pivotal CF platform-as-a-service line.

Redefining cloud service providers

 

The rise of cloud computing has broadened the definition of what a service provider is, driving the emergence of thousands of new players each with their own spin on the core model.  EMC took that into account when it launched its service provider program in 2011, according to Trigg, and has positioned itself accordingly.

“We didn’t define service providers because we didn’t want to necessary partner with every large telco under the sun, which could have been bias a little bit,” he details. ”So we have officially in the last three years have gone out and partnered with a little bit over 100 service providers globally, and we got a random mix of service providers.” That includes pure-plays, outsourcing firms and even enterprise customers such as NYSE with large IT organizations that act as internal service providers. Yet despite the tremendous diversity out there, Trigg still views this space as relatively immature and in need of consolidation.

“Right now we’re seeing a tale of two worlds: you have the large-scale service providers that can go hyperscale, make the big investments – it’s obviously not a poor’s man game to play. And then you see the niche player and they serve a specific market, whether it’s a specific geo, a specific technology, enabling a specific support model or model,” he says. “The ones that we find are struggling are the ones that find themselves between those worlds.”

The large players will continue to play a central role in the industry on the long term, Trigg estimates, as will the niche firms that manage to differentiate. But once the cloud provider market settles down, many of the “me-too” companies on the border between those two segments will fall victim to the ensuing contraction and will either have to diversify or go out of the business. That’s why EMC is taking care not to put all of its channel eggs in one basket, partnering across the full spectrum of providers for a guaranteed place in the hybrid cloud.

Business agility is attainable

 

True interoperability across on- and off-premise environments is still beyond reach for the most part, Trigg admits, but the underlying premise of increased business agility is very much attainable. As he explains, “it’s less about enabling a truly seamless hybrid cloud (we’re just starting to get there) and more about giving customers options and choice in where to put their workloads.” As a result, professional services are dominating the hybrid computing discussion today, but the focus is beginning to shift higher up the value chain as the ecosystem matures. EMC is now attempting to address that through its cloud provider program.

“We are putting together much more of a certification program, looking at offer standardization, how do we match up SLAs, how do we make sure we got minimum tech criteria. That’s what 2014 is about, that and enabling the hybrid cloud,” Trigg details. To that end, the storage vendor is forging new alliances and investing in engineering throughout its federation of companies. EMC sees the industry continuing on its current growth trajectory for at least another three to five years, and it fully intends to capitalize on that momentum.

“We’ve got plenty of runway to continue but there will also be maturation, the requirements gonna become more clear – all of those things will become more refined and focused over time, which is great because it will help all of us continue to compete and help support those markets,” Trigg concludes.


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