Sanjay Mirchandani, CIO of EMC, sat in on theCube for a discussion at EMCWorld 2012.  The topics were rapid and we were fortunate enough to discuss some of the great things going on at EMC with him.  (See full video below).

Kicking off was a discussion on customer perspective and how people want proof-points.  Building infrastructure for the sake of infrastructure provides no value.  EMC translates value as being around agility, speed, and time to market, marking a shift in how some internal customers think about things.  They want services faster, not necessarily perfect but quicker so work can start together and get it right.

The business is working through layers on top of cloud, thus we are looking at services such as platform as a services, true Business Intelligence as a service.  The environment is also seeing introduction of thousands of devices a month into network.  So the customer is interested in layers and is evaluating how to bring true user experience and give our users productivity outside of email.

One of the visions is – BI as a service, being the first layer of value on cloud infrastructure.  A significant area in shadow IT is business reporting.   This is typically spawned because of the notions that IT can’t report fast enough, or report in the way we want, or as frequently and in the format they are looking for.  This is usually focused around some kind of reporting system.  EMC is addressing this by using a layered approach, that being the basic component of cloud infrastructure, Greenplum technologies, and delivering one version of the truth, taking away the noise of “where is the data”.

This approach helps customers build skills to the analytics they want and provides them with data science as a service.  Clients are free to use SAS or Microsoft reporting tools at that point, or any tools they would like to integrate.  In essence, with delivery of competency around the tools, data scientists are enabled with subject matter expertise around the data, freeing the customer to go off with that information in any way they want.

Sanjay discusses some of the work and thought that drives the current mission of his team.  An inspired analysis takes place of where data resides and the response to that being an enablement of platform, delivering competency around the tools and really delivering value to the business.   As far as credentials, the data tiers and best practices are applied to the access model throughout.

Wikibon’s recent IT transformation survey was discussed, and disclosed some interesting tidbits about shadow IT trends.  In response, Sanjay shares that present day cloud computing out in the open and has come out of dark corners.  So the challenge is to embrace it or get out fo the way.  EMC’s product has to act as the brokers of value – not about authorship, or about where it was built or where it was written,  but how soon can we add value to the business.

Transforming IT is about infrastructure, self-service, automation, cataloging into one presentable service.  Sanjay’s goal is to break down the big box of IT into little black boxes, so customers can pick and choose what they want at price points and service level they want.  All of this will be presented as much as an automated service catalog as possible. Getting there means there is a lot of transformation involved.  Transforming IT was all about IT, and Sanjay uses an analogy of the components of a factory that is built.  Transforming the business in that same analogy is building the widgets you want on that factory floor.  Transforming you is the factor that Sanjay states is the most pivotal, but likely to receive the least attention.  It is critical because it covers the bits of the end user and the knowledge of what people need to do with these efforts, then drive value from it.   Transformation is occurring at all levels of business into new levels that go beyond normal business function and into new innovation.  It is up to IT to adapt to that transformation.

EMC’s project Propel is discussed.  A go-live date is on the horizon.  The virtualized SAP implementation on vBlock allows EMC to ‘trim the fat’ and take their environment into the future.  Core systems have been revamped from the app layer to every layer – a complete rebuild and new line of business solutions.  Only data and database are coming over to the new system.  All the other components are brand new.  EMC is focused on not only transforming the business, but they are undergoing that transformation themselves, truly living the transformation as well as preaching it.