Hey Calvin - I agree, this is huge for HP. Will it hurt EMC? In the sense that it helps HP, yes. But I think it could actually help EMC in the same way that Ruettgers took EMC to heights higher than Egan and Tucci higher than Ruettgers. As de Gaulle said "The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men."

But I think there is a bigger story here. This is a chess game and HP just moved a pawn on the board. What can the Rook now see that was not visible previously?

wikibon.org/.../weighing-in-on-donatelli

Feeling like Jack Handy...Dave from Wikibon

Calvin,

I was going to ask you how HP managed to steal away Dave.  Perhaps he has aspirations of running his own storage show from the top down.  One must wonder how he'll transition from EMC's formidable marketing machine to HP's. Only time will tell.

One thing is certain.  There is something very wrong with the fact that you first heard this from a source external to HP. Don't you agree?  I know you do.

Kind regards,

Joe

Hi Dave,

I just got done reading your analysis - it is very well thought out and demonstrates your years of experience in the storage industry.  You certainly have me thinking about a few things I didn't think of at first.  Thanks for stopping by.

Calvin

Hey Joe,

Actually I took no offense to not hearing this news first from HP.  Obviously someone on the inside at EMC let the cat out of the bag just prior to this all going public.  I'm sure HP would have preferred to have announced this first.  I was probably the first HP employee who wasn't in the know to see this.  

I have no insight into why Dave is coming to HP but if I try to put myself in his shoes (which I won't for a second pretend I can), running HP's storage, server, and networking business, which is a $20B/year business seems like a nice next step from where he's coming. It also gives him the opportunity to run a systems business versus just the array business he had at EMC

Hope to see you some time soon!

Calvin  

Indeed a smart move, aside from the non competition agreement in his contract with EMC.  Hopefully it's worth the trouble - it seems inevitable that this won't exactly be a clean break.  

I worked for Dave a couple times at EMC and he is probably the smartest guy I every worked with.  It will be worth the trouble.  

Hi Jane - thanks for your comment.  I of course agree with you that its a smart move, especially with the growing importance of storage into today's infrastructure.

Hi Tom,

It's nice to hear from someone with personal experience.  All the best!

Calvin

Dave's background with EMC can only add to our cause. But, the cross business lines between storage, servers and networking are merging. With Matrix, we're starting to sell adaptive infrastructure as a bundle. Whether that's a response to Cisco's UCS or our own initiative is not important. The key thing is we're doing it and HP's strength hasd always been our breadth of offering - so we will lead here.

Dave's inheriting a strong business and with purchases like Polyserve and Lefthand in our storage portfolio and cash in the bank, I am sure we'll see growth through acquisition of competitors and through new business wins.

Now that Procurve is part of ESS, I think we can expect some purchases to ensure we can compete and overtake Cisco's threat around UCS and IBM's recent moves with Broacde.

We may even see a move for Broacde/Foundry and/or Juniper...

Exciting times!