This blog is about my 'Personal Journey' within the storage community. Like the Alchemist, I too have had the very fortunate opportunity to work for some of the greatest storage technology companies in the storage industry.  From startup to global 2000 company, I have been a part of a number of storage inflection points and would like to believe I had a hand in taking them from what was, to what is.  I helped to build the first on-site support organization for a software company called VERITAS, and this group still exists today and is called Business Critical Support.  I was a part of one of the industries more thought provoking technology analyst firm ESG.  I helped in the acquisition of Connected Corporation  by Iron Mountain.  One of the least likely 'storage companies' but none the less they store more information as a service company than any other.  I had the great experience to define their digital strategy post acquisition.  I spent some time trying to develop a hybrid Edmunds.com and Better Business Bureau from the storage industry called Idix.  I also helped in the acquisition of Avamar to EMC where I then spent 3 years in the office of the CTO for the SSG (Storage Software Group).  I have also spent time building the industries most intelligent storage wiki - Wikibon.  I helped to define a new market space called "Real-time Compression" for primary storage optimization with a company called Storwize which was acqiuired by IBM.  I spent some time at Catalogic Software where I helped in positioning the ONLY software-only copy data management (CDM) solution in the market.  I then moved on to  INFINIDAT.  Why? One reason: To store humanities data... forever.  Yes, a lofty goal, but one I want to be a part of.  However, the reality is data isn't going to one place, it will be stored in many places and need to be managed with solutions that can help clients meet the needs of their business.  This is why I choose to go back to IBM.  IBM is probably the only company on the planet that can help clients meet all the objectives they need to within the organization to deliver on the promise of extracting the most value out of the worlds most valuable resource, data.

I have had the great fortune to work with some of the industries finest.  Mark Leslie, Steve Dupliessie, Moshe Yanai, Bob Brennan, Ed Walsh, Rory Bolt, Dan Cobb, Chuck Hollis, Dave Vellante, Marc Farley, Kurt Bilderback, Rich Pappas, Mindy Anderson, and Randy Arseneau are only a few of the more than 100's of folks I have had the great pleasure to know or work with.

And while I will not be turning myself into the wind, I am and always will be in search of the ultimate storage truth.  Its difficult.  Like every answer in IT, "It depends", there is a great deal of nuance as to what the storage truth really is.  That said, I do hope that you find this blog interesting, insightful, and thoughtful. I encourage you to leave comments and ask questions of me.  In the end, it can only make this blog, and our industry a better place.