So, I've done the unthinkable - I've decided to go to work for a company again. This time its EqualLogic, the storage manufacturer from Nashua NH that is best known as an iSCSI company, but their (our) technology goes too far beyond iSCSI to be limited by the assumptions that usually go along with iSCSI. Enough on that topic for now, there will probably be lots more on this topic in the months to come.
People have asked, why would a guy who has proclaimed to be unmanageable and unable to work for anybody else go back to work again in a corporate environment shlepping products? The answer is easy; as an analyst/free lance writer, the only way I was able to sustain an income was to shlep products for clients. I should mention that it is possible to make some money writing books, but its never as much as people think it is and the amount of work is extreme. Its not exactly a great business model. Writing for magazines and e-zines doesn't pay either. In the final analysis, I was destined to be a product shlepper.
In the course of my work, there are some products that I really got excited about such as EqualLogic's PS Series and IBM's SAN Volume Controller or Prostor's RDX, but there were a LOT of other products that couldn't fire my imagination to the same degree. Over time, I discovered I wasn't very good at shlepping mediocre products or companies - there was usually something far more interesting in my sphere such as a hot dog stand, video game or a nap.
So I was approached to go to work by somebody that I probably shouldn't mention - but it was real flattering and I was real interested and all that and I liked their ideas and their business and everything a whole lot, but I had made a promise to Don Bulens (CEO at EqualLogic) that if I ever considered going to work again, I would give him a shot at hiring me. So that's how it went down; somebody else got me tipped into thinking about going to work and Don created a position for me that I couldn't really refuse - customer advocate guy.
So now I get to go talk to customers and figure out what they want, what they don't want, talk to them about how they work, what interests them and catches their attention - what they think they will be doing 2, 3, 5 years from now and all the sorts of things people expected me to know as an analyst - but never had the ability to do. I can't believe that somebody is actually going to pay me to do this. Of course I can't believe that more companies don't hire more people to do this sort of thing.
So call or write if you get the urge, we can talk about all kinds of things: storage, business continuity, e-discovery, subsystem architectures, virtualization, the worst world series in history, cat behavior, remote copy and replication, favorite movies, dual parity RAID, whatever. I'm sure we can help each other and have a little fun along the way.
My contact info:
mfarley@equallogic.com
marc@buildingstorage.com
408-210-7931 (cell)
October 31, 2006
October 10, 2006
Google, You Tube and Community
As much as I hate to admit it, not long ago I didn’t even know what You Tube was. A friend of mine in the media business pointed me in their direction last Spring, telling me that this was a company that had the potential to shake the media world off it’s hinges. You Tube’s platform for personal expression is immediate and engaging. Based on the numbers and my own personal experience, the You Tube vortex appears to be very strong. In a year’s time, You Tube went from nothing to becoming the Internet’s reincarnation of Vaudeville, where both audience and players funnel into an electronic mosh pit of video surfing. If you go to look at one 30 second video can you keep from looking at another, and another and another and …….?
But more than just a place to exchange videos, You Tube lets everybody be a critic by giving voice to their opinions. Most of us at one time or another have probably thought we could do a better job than the seemingly humorless or incompetent movie critics in the world. Like most pundits (including technology analysts), there are a small percentage of movie critics who seem to know what they are talking about while the rest just seem to like the sound of their own voices. You Tube gives each of us the power to appreciate things on our own and provides us with a vehicle to critique. In the end, this is probably just as important as the ability to produce and publish videos. The kinds of things people communicate in You Tube are little intangible personal elements of their lives.
And that is what Google sees in the deal. They might be the most heavily used computer-utility in the world, but they haven’t had a way to compete with e-Bay for Internet-user mind share (Google users tend to pass through, whereas e-Bay users tend to spend a lot of time and shop). The thing that makes e-Bay work so well is its feedback system that establishes trust between total strangers. Google wanted to find a similar way for their users to engage each other and they believe they have found the intangible recipe with You Tube. There is no doubt that You Tube can get under your skin. The question is, would you buy a used car from somebody on Google partly because they like the same kind of videos that you do?
The message from Google here is clear: the most important thing in the world for a technology company is to build an excited community. If a company can do that, it can have irresistible market pull. This business philosophy applies broadly beyond Google, e-Bay and the websphere. Providing superior products and technical support are key elements to building an excited community of customers that trusts a vendor and its products and services. People tend to look to analysts for opinions on vendors and products. The analysts are pretty good at understanding the strengths and weaknesses of various vendors, but they seldom know much about products, how they work and how they are managed. If you want to know how a product works or how a vendor’s technical support is, ask a customer with experience. The best companies have the most excited and enthusiastic customers.
But more than just a place to exchange videos, You Tube lets everybody be a critic by giving voice to their opinions. Most of us at one time or another have probably thought we could do a better job than the seemingly humorless or incompetent movie critics in the world. Like most pundits (including technology analysts), there are a small percentage of movie critics who seem to know what they are talking about while the rest just seem to like the sound of their own voices. You Tube gives each of us the power to appreciate things on our own and provides us with a vehicle to critique. In the end, this is probably just as important as the ability to produce and publish videos. The kinds of things people communicate in You Tube are little intangible personal elements of their lives.
And that is what Google sees in the deal. They might be the most heavily used computer-utility in the world, but they haven’t had a way to compete with e-Bay for Internet-user mind share (Google users tend to pass through, whereas e-Bay users tend to spend a lot of time and shop). The thing that makes e-Bay work so well is its feedback system that establishes trust between total strangers. Google wanted to find a similar way for their users to engage each other and they believe they have found the intangible recipe with You Tube. There is no doubt that You Tube can get under your skin. The question is, would you buy a used car from somebody on Google partly because they like the same kind of videos that you do?
The message from Google here is clear: the most important thing in the world for a technology company is to build an excited community. If a company can do that, it can have irresistible market pull. This business philosophy applies broadly beyond Google, e-Bay and the websphere. Providing superior products and technical support are key elements to building an excited community of customers that trusts a vendor and its products and services. People tend to look to analysts for opinions on vendors and products. The analysts are pretty good at understanding the strengths and weaknesses of various vendors, but they seldom know much about products, how they work and how they are managed. If you want to know how a product works or how a vendor’s technical support is, ask a customer with experience. The best companies have the most excited and enthusiastic customers.
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