"It's not the tragedies that kill us; it's the messes."
Dorothy Parker
The acquisition of EMC by Dell is a tragedy for Boston and the storage industry whose impact on the start-up world will be felt globally.
You need to read Antonio Rodriguez's take on it called Garbage trucks and the death of EMC to get a truly pessimistic view.
Or something a bit more practical, Changes in the IT Industry, from the always spot-on Chuck Hollis. In this light, Chuck's moves from EMC to VMware to Oracle seem logical response to the external stimulus of commoditization.
I am mourning the death of a respected competitor and a true industry leader. EMC's unique culture of arrogance and ruthless determination impacted everyone they could touch, which was many of us and global. EMC does not believe in luck or the mythical 'better product'. They earned every dollar and percentage of market share.
Demanding, but also willing to work just as hard alongside you, is the EMC culture. When I was running operations in dot-com land, they worked me, my board, my partners and even my competitors to surround my little project with EMC. In subsequent years, they acquired well and used their salesforce as a cudgel to introduce technology to companies. Every start-up I've worked with would be pleased - and a little intimidated - to have EMC buy you.
Companies, technology and even people I know have gone to Dell and disappeared. I hope EMC isn't one of them.
"The report of my death was an exaggeration"
Mark Twain
