Global CIO: EMC Embraces Cloud And Says It Loud With Huge Q1

** "Our first and largest opportunity is help CIOs transform their data centers into private clouds. The attribute of a private clouds that this will give CIOs the ability to truly offer their internal and external customers IT as a service. IT as a service is an IT environment where application workloads are truly policy and service level driven. IT as a service is an IT environment that is far more automated, flexible, and dynamic than today’s data center environment. IT as a service is an IT environment that advanced security, availability, and control to a higher level. IT as a service is an IT environment that will deliver significantly lower costs." – Tucci

** "As this recent survey shows, almost every single CIO spending priority this year is either on technology that puts customers on the path to the private cloud or is a benefit of having a private cloud." -- Goulden

** ". . . we believe there is no company better positioned to guide customers along their journey to their private cloud and there is no doubt that’s exactly where customers are heading." – Goulden

** "All three of these drivers benefitted us in the quarter as EMC is a trusted partner not only for customer’s requirements today but also going forward as they embark on their own journeys to a private cloud." – Goulden

** "Customer interest in cloud computing is really picking up. At EMC our strategy to bridge internal private clouds and external public clouds is spot on." -- Goulden

** "Our partnership with Cisco continues to gain momentum. In Q1 our VCE coalition was up and running. Its focus on helping customers accelerate their move to cloud infrastructures has really struck a cord and interest has been outstanding." -- Goulden

** "Customers are embracing the new security paradigms that are necessary for private cloud infrastructures to proliferate. As you saw in the quarter, EMC, RSA and VMware are working hard together with partners like Intel on approaches to information centric security that will accelerate the adoption of private cloud infrastructures." -- Goulden

** "There is no vendor with a broad and innovative technology solutions set, the depth of experience and a proven track record to provide information infrastructures that can [match our ability to] safely and securely transition customers' data centers at their own pace to private clouds."

There were more such comments—lots more—but I think you get the picture. Yes, it's just one company's view, and yes, EMC sure has a vested interest in seeing lots of CIOs adopt this outlook because that would help lead to many more buoyant earnings announcements for EMC.

But the issue is bigger than EMC, and it's bigger than any one vendor. Coming out of the IT nightmare of late 2008 and almost all of 2009, many CIOs know all too well that their infrastructures simply cannot meet the soaring information demands of 2010 and beyond. And so the question is, what do I do to fix this?

EMC says the answer is simple: cloud computing.

More important, EMC's customers are saying the exact same thing, and EMC's got the best-ever first-quarter results as proof.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Global CIO: Cloud Computing's Deadly Vulnerability—And How To Avoid It

Global CIO: How CEOs See Cloud Computing

Global CIO: IBM Sees Surge In Customers' Transformation Projects

Global CIO: Google CEO Schmidt's Top 10 Reasons Why Mobile Is #1

Global CIO: The Top 10 CIO Issues For 2010

Global CIO: Hewlett-Packard CEO Hurd Shifts Strategy Toward Services

Bob Evans is senior VP and director of InformationWeek's Global CIO unit. To find out more about Bob Evans, please visit his page. For more Global CIO perspectives, check out Global CIO, or write to Bob at [email protected].