Doing something bizarre, skipping an Ed Bueche session. Going to listen to Mark Arbour talk about the OnDemand offering. While not true cloud, theoretically it can deliver some of the same benefits to consumers. Will be interesting.
Documentum
EMC World 2012: Jeetu Keynote, Roadmap for Transforming Your World
Here we are at the second big keynote of the Momentum part of the EMC World conference. Jeetu Patel, CSO and CMO, and Rohit Ghai, VP Products. Not sure what to expect beyond an update on how they are executing on the strategy.
EMC World 2012: Rick Devenuti’s Documentum Keynote
Now for the big session, the Documentum keynote. I keep hearing promises of big things. I’ll be happy with consistency and advancement of last year’s strategy. I never expect immediate turn-around from any established company. If they are still on track, I’ll be happy.
EMC World 2012: xCP 2.0–Insider’s View
Time to hear how the Early Access program is going for xCP 2.0. Kenwood Tsai is going to talk about the program and have several participants, including Erin Riley from Beach Street, speak on their experiences. It is still 6 months from release but I’ve heard positive things so far so I am curious to hear what is being said.
EMC World 2012: Documentum Architecture
Here we, as in the whole gang, are at Jeroen van Rotterdam’s session on Documentum Architecture. I have to see this, even if I never implement Documentum again. I am just too curious to not attend, plus Jeroen is a very entertaining speaker.
EMC World 2012: Rules of the Road
Another year, another EMC World. Big difference this time is that this year it almost didn’t happen.
As you know, I’m now the AIIM CIO. We don’t use Documentum, though we do have an EMC storage array. We aren’t delivery partners with EMC. Jeetu does sit on our board and EMC does sponsor some of our events. So while we do have a relationship with EMC, it isn’t one that would lead to my attending EMC World.
Then a funny thing happened, I wrote a post about how I still felt part of the Documentum Community. Before I knew it, I had swung by the Developer Conference and I was scheduled to speak at this year’s EMC World on A Brave New World for Information Management.
So I’m back, though I never really went away.
We are only a week away so I thought I’d reiterate my ground rules for this, and any, conference. For those that are unfamiliar, I pretty much type notes at every sessions and hit publish at the end of the session, essentially sharing my session notes with you. These rules are very similar to last years Rules (I even cut-and-paste for a draft), but I’ve updated a bit as I do every year.
All “live” posts that follow these rules will start EMC World 2012:. This is to clearly identify them for everyone. If I write a post before/during/after the conference that doesn’t adhere to what I am laying-out here, it won’t have that prefix.
Just a heads-up, my session mix will vary a little this year. I’ll still hit the keynote, roadmap, Ed Bueche’s, and Jeroen van Rotterdam’s sessions. I’m also going to be spending more time on the floor, blogger’s lounge, and some Big Data sessions. You may have noticed, Big Data is exploding out of the marketing niche and starting to be come relevant for all Information Professionals.
Disclaimers
I’m going to be running a basic disclaimer in all my posts. If for some reason I forget to paste it in, this disclaimer applies to all EMC World 2012: prefixed posts and you can be sure I’ll be adding the disclaimer as soon as I notice that it is missing. This is because I will be writing the posts during/after sessions and I will hear things that I may misconstrue or that talk about future events.
All information in this post was gathered from the presenters and presentation. It does not reflect my opinion unless clearly indicated (Italics in parenthesis). Any errors are most likely from my misunderstanding a statement or imperfectly recording the information. Updates to correct information are reflected in red, but may not be otherwise indicated.
All statements about the future of EMC products and strategy are subject to change at any time due to a large variety of factors.
As indicated, if I learn later that something I posted was incorrect, I will endeavor to correct it, but it may not be immediate.
The Content Management Expert Paradox
Several weeks ago, Alan Pelz-Sharpe tweeted an observation that I have observed many times that is paradoxical in nature.
Many/Most CMS projects fail, but few/any CMS professionals have ever worked on a failed project 🙂
While this quote was likely referencing more Web Content Management (WCM) efforts than the broader world of Content Management, I have noticed this as well. In fact, this is something that seems to be true among all branches of Content Management.
Aside from people hiding their failures, I think there is an additional factor.
Failure begets Transition.
Before I dive into that, I will now confess to my least successful projects. I am only listing projects where I had a significant role and am aware of the final outcome for the project.
EMC’s 2012 Documentum Developer Conference
As I mentioned last month, EMC finally decided to hold a developer conference again. It is currently taking place in the form of focused tech training, but yesterday was the overview day. I was there for the evening events to get a feel for how things had gone.
Overall, I heard good things. Jeroen van Rotterdam was there to actually speak on the Next Generation Information Server (NGIS). Lee Dallas and Mike Mohen was also in attendance. For those that don’t know Mike, he is the host of the always popular DFS Real World Examples and Best Practices sessions at EMC World. In fact, the quality of the speakers was pretty good and the only negative thing I heard was that there was only one day of individual sessions.
When people want more of everything, that is a pretty good thing. The EMC people were sitting around at the end of the day thinking about what to do for the next one. That is a very good indicator for the Documentum developers that make the systems work.
Dreaming of the Documentum Community and Conferences
I had a dream that I was at the upcoming Documentum Developer Conference and TechSet next month here in the DC area. (Seriously, I did. Was a little strange, even for me.) I was wandering around, saying hi to people I knew, sharing a quick drink. Soon enough, the next set of sessions started and everyone went to go learn while I went off to….no idea actually as I then woke up.
I decided to take the dream as a sign that I needed to write about the event. Why? Because this reflects a return to something that was a regular occurrence back before EMC took over the conferences. It deserves recognition.
Oh, and I plan on swinging by to say hello and want to see you there.
The End of an Era
In my last post I mentioned that I have been very busy of late. Well, part of that work has been working towards this…I am leaving the world of consulting. That’s right, after spending almost my entire career being a hired gun, I am choosing sides and becoming a “client”.
More than that, but I am leaving the world of Documentum. This year, for the first time since I started attending in 2000, I will miss the Documentum conference, aka EMC World.
These are some big changes for me. I thought I’d take some time and share.
Consult, Rinse, and Repeat
Five years ago, I was hired to build/lead the Enterprise Content Management practice at Washington Consulting, Inc. (WCI). Over the years, through ups and downs, I became a Director and the capabilities of WCI grew. Today WCI is in a much stronger position, by any measure, to solve the Information Management problems of its clients.
Meanwhile, the repetition started to become obvious. While the technology kept evolving and changing, the core challenges were constant. Organizational resistance, short-term financial goals, and the desire to just “throw” the system over the wall and see what users do with it.
So it became obvious that it was time for new challenges. Of course, there is a side effect…
Leaving Documentum
I am leaving the world of Documentum behind. While that wasn’t a goal, I wasn’t trying to stay in the world of Documentum either.
The next year is going to be critical for EMC and their Documentum line. The Cloud-based Content Management train is leaving the station and this is the year that EMC can grab a spot in first class. It is going to be fun to watch.
Watch I will. Too many friends, colleagues, and clients have a vested interest in the outcome for me not to care. I’ve poured a lot of energy into that world over the years and I’ll always have an intense curiosity regarding Documentum’s fate. I’m rooting for EMC to succeed.
I’ll always care, it just isn’t going to be my problem anymore. At least for now.
The Next Chapter
So what is next? That is the subject for a post in the next week. I’m going to a position that I’ve been wanting for years with an organization that seems to be a natural fit. Since I’ve made the decision, the most consistent feedback I’ve received is, “That’s perfect!”
It likely isn’t perfect but it seemed like the right choice.
Word of Pie 