EMC Corp’s executive exodus claimed its sixth and seventh victims this week, with the departure of VMware Inc. strategist Chuck Hollis closely followed by that of chief technology officer Ben Fathi.

Other big names to depart the Federation in recent weeks include EMC’s chief strategy guy Jonathan Martin, who jumped ship to Pure Storage, and ex-Syncplicity boss Jeetu Patel, who left to become the chief strategy officer at Box. Throw in the decision of Pivotal Software Inc.’s CEO Paul Maritz to take a back seat, and plenty of observers have been left scratching their heads, wondering if something’s not well in the EMC Federation’s halls of management.

The timing of Hollis’ and Fatih’s departures is less than fortunate, just one week before VMware kicks off its annual VMware conference in San Francisco. What with the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the EMC Federation’s future, which is currently the subject of a proposed, Elliott Management Inc.-inspired break up – or takeover by VMware – or merger with Hewlett-Packard Co. – such departures could well indicate that those ‘in the know’ don’t like the look of whatever’s on the horizon.

So what is going on at EMC?

Absolutely nothing, said Constellation Research Inc.’s Principal Analyst Holger Mueller. The only thing happening is that outside observers are most likely exaggerating any portents of doom the departures suggest, Mueller said. According to him, its business as usual at EMC, and each of the executives who’ve left in the last few weeks probably did so for their own reasons.

“I think it is just a combination of circumstances,” the analyst insisted, pointing out that most of the departing execs weren’t even that “senior” within the actual Federation structure.

“Maritz is the only change at the helm in the actual EMC federation, and Pivotal is the smallest ‘ship’ of the flotilla,” he said, effectively dimissing its importance.

Analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group was similarly unimpressed with any doomsayer theories, backing up Mueller’s argument that most of the departures were ‘normal’ events. He pointed out that EMC is a “huge company”, and so the likelihood that certain executives might decide to leave the company in the same time frame is pretty high.

“Most of the changes are either tied to a divestiture or because of a better offer from the recruiting firms,” he said.

And as for claims that Maritz is supposedly taking a back seat at Pivotal, Enderle argued the opposite was true. What’s really happened is that Maritz has actually been promoted – either because Pivotal’s board wanted to give Rob Mee the CEO role to prevent him from leaving, or because Maritz simply wanted some more personal time.

“The Maritz thing is driving me a bit nuts actually, Enderle said. “He is becoming Executive Chairman, and that is the top executive job in the company.”

If, as the analysts claim, EMC’s recent executive departures are unrelated to the kerfuffle with Elliott Management, then this all bodes well for the greater EMC Federation, which should still be around in its present form for some time to come.

“It stays as long as [EMC President and CEO Joe} Tucci stays,” Enderle said of the Federation. And Tucci could well be around for much longer than some EMC watchers have suggested.

“I don’t see an imminent retirement of Tucci,” said Constellation Research’s Mueller, despite plenty of rumors to the contrary over the last year. “And as long as Tucci is there I don’t see any big changes in the Federation. A storm can be weathered by an experienced crew, and I am not even sure if this is a storm for EMC at this point.”

Image credit: Skeeze via pixabay.com