This article kicks of the launch of a new site, virtual-architect.com, as my old site ethernetstorageguy.com was created when I was working at NetApp and I focused on ethernet connectivity topics for storage connectivity. That work and the introduction of converged infrastructure solutions to the industry gravitated me to a place where I could maximize my prior engineering experiences.

In my travels, meeting with partners and customers throughout the world I am often asked to describe why VCE is different and what brought me to the organization. The answer is multi-part but most directly because I had a belief that converged infrastructure solutions were the data center solution of the future. It was how I believed infrastructure would be bought in the future. The only way to truly realize the benefits of this convergence of data center technologies was actually to work for an organization that could participate actively in the engineering effort associated with the components of the converged infrastructure. Participating was beyond individual component awareness. I mean active engagement in the roadmap of each component through the lens of a unified infrastructure that was more than just storage, compute and virtualization but all – at the same time.

At VCE we have built an organization of people who have experiences in each of the core components, many (like myself) who came from parent company organizations but hold a common awareness, that the sum of the components, developed as an integrated entity, is table stakes for the vision we see for the future.

Integration is a term that describes where we started in November 2009, when the VCE Coalition and Vblock was announced. The future of that integration is exciting and is a direct result of the organization we have been forming since that initial announcement.

Today VCE is an organization comprised a strong engineering talent but what is likely most visible is a worldwide sales engineering team focused on enabling VCE partners and parent companies in the sales of Vblock infrastructure solutions. The less visible engineering organization is what is actually the greatest mass and source of innovation. This only begins to explain the substance of VCE.

The first of these less visible engineering organizations at VCE is Platform/Product Engineering.

Platform Engineering’s responsibility is to own the roadmap and development of everything “in a Vblock” Now many in the industry know the component technologies “in a Vblock”.

Cisco UCS, Cisco Nexus, EMC Unified Storage, VMware Virtualization Products and Technologies

You also know that each of the VCE parent companies have engineering organizations responsible for the development of each component technology and they will continue to. The parent companies engineering focus is to bring products to market with industry leading features and broad market penetration. The goals of these organizations are specific to the parent and rightly so, they focus on market share for the parent company.

VCE Platform Engineering delivers engineering focus which is in addition to the parent engineering organizations. The goals of this organization are to combine parent company products and introduce features which create the worlds most capable converged infrastructure platform. This team is comprised of executive leadership, project management and individual engineers versed in each products capability. The organizations executive leadership focuses teams, to align them with the goals of the collective parent company product initiatives, enabling a strategic focus on Vblock innovation, to compliment the parent companies product & market segment solution goals. The engineers in platform engineering are in effect embedded in parent company product business units and are focused on Vblock as VCE employees. This is essential in the development of a world class converged infrastructure platform as these teams are not distracted by general product compatibility requirements, they are dedicated to Vblock development. Said differently, they are exclusively focused on Cisco, EMC and VMware technologies functioning together as a system.

The Solutions Engineering organization is built in similar structure but deals in the business of everything which operates “on a Vblock”. This team of individuals brings decades of experience with SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and other technologies which operate on Vblocks. These engineers build application reference architectures for the Vblock platforms. They focus exclusively on innovations which provide the broadest value to Vblock customers, running the IT worlds most business critical applications.

Platform Engineering and Solutions Engineering are just some of the substantive focus VCE has built to bring to market the most innovative converged infrastructure solution in the industry. What is the most exciting is knowing what is planned to be released in complement to what Vblock has already delivered to the market.

Stay tuned VCE Partners & Customers the future is bright and 2011 is going to push the industry to change again.

Game On,
Trey