Comments on: More on Greenplum and EMC

By: Bob Zurek

Bob Zurek — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:26:15 +0000

With respect to any acquisition of a smaller company by a much larger company. Some words of advice to the employees being integrated into the larger company. In this case EMC buying the smaller Greenplum. I’ve been thru several acquisitions in my career. Here some thoughts.
- Be open minded
- Don’t bitch about the processes, expense system or email system, etc. Not worth it. It is what it is.
- Be willing to adjust
- Take advantage of every opportunity in the new company including training, etc.
- Try to help make the integration go smooth in any way you can.
- Be a leader
- Have fun and stay focused. You still have to continue to build and ship the product your acquirer just bought.

I’m sure others might pipe in on this with advice. As many folks that follow this blog have been thru acquisitions.

By: Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:26:08 +0000

Let’s hope Greenplum software stays available for download and that ‘roll-your-own’ MPP systems in which OS, server and storage can be setup as required (within limits of course!) continue to be possible.

Anyway, well done to Luke and team.

By: Metricmine

Metricmine — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:58:08 +0000

Wonder what this means for Greenplum’s average selling price, now that they will be paired/sold with the premium priced storage vendor.
http://bit.ly/bDpQc4 as one data point.

By: Storagezilla

Storagezilla — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 02:14:37 +0000

@Curt

You’d be surprised at how people no longer get the urge to form an exploratory committee when Pat says he wants something done.

By: Curt Monash

Curt Monash — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:10:10 +0000

@Storagezilla,

I hope you’re right! But I was also referring to the 10s of EMC employees who can get involved in deciding whether to move forward with one partnership agreement. That’s VERY recent history …

By: Storagezilla

Storagezilla — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:38:51 +0000

“will immunize Greenplum against and generally counteract some of EMC’s traditionally stifling bureaucracy.”

Full disclosure I’m an EMC employee.
Stifling bureaucracy is a historical view when you look at how divisions such as VMware, RSA and Data Domain (Backup Recovery Systems) are operating today.

EMC doesn’t look to acquire products, it looks to acquire talent, expertise and experience. As such I look forward to the Greenplum team leading EMC into new markets by acting as the heart of the what will be a growing Data Computing Product Division.