The Bloor Perspective: EMC's top spot scrutinised, UK Even-More-Online, revenge of the helpdeskers

In this week's look at a range of recent developments, Robin Bloor and his colleagues consider giant EMC's relationship with software firms, the latest spurt in UK web usage, and the case of the revolting iDesk staff...

EMC's name cropped up among the glitz and glamour of CA World last week. Computer Associates was announcing BrightStor - its new brand name for the advanced storage management capabilities it is about to release. Naturally, in order to get the best from this solution, CA needs partners and the one at the top of its list is storage specialist EMC. Now, you may think EMC would be a natural choice as a partner given it is one of leading suppliers of storage hardware but that is not the kind of perception EMC has been keen to promote of late. Over a period of time, it has been trying to promote the idea that it has a software solution that could rival those of the big players - CA, Legato, Tivoli and Veritas, to name but four. It seems, however, that this message is not getting across because as the left hand juggles with software, the right is selling tin as fast as it can. It is blindingly obvious to just about everybody that storage management is no longer an issue about disk space or RAID or HSM controllers attached to a system. Even a SAN doesn't get all of its capabilities just by plugging a shed load of disks onto a network. The really clever stuff is controlled by software. As you would expect, software allows the creation of a logical view of the physical devices that are available. That way, it is relatively easy to change the size and capabilities within the logical environment to match specific needs. This is the reason why EMC has been making noises about its own software capabilities. You don't have to look too closely, however, to see that its solution only seems to work with one manufacturer's hardware. Wonder which one? Nobody can take that solution seriously. This leaves EMC as a supplier of hardware into a market that is dominated by the capabilities of software. That makes it an also-ran rather than a leader - relying on partnerships with the major players rather than leading the way. *What we want from the web* Recent reports have shown more and more UK residents are getting online, with more than 10 million households now having net access, an increase of four million over the last 12 months. They are the basic numbers but the important question is: What are people doing once they're connected? Emailing remains popular but growth is static. Shopping online continues to increase in popularity with over half of the surfing population having carried out some online transaction, with books continuing to be the perennial favourite purchase. But perhaps one of the more surprising statistics is that users increasingly value the information content of the internet, particularly the quality and volume of information available to them. The desire for content is further borne out by figures that show just over half of the web population would be willing to pay for content if it were billed on an aggregated basis and be of a high quality. In terms of the surfing public's perceptions of the internet, they are mainly concerned about possible fraud and the morality issues associated with areas such as pornography. This is followed through with the view that over 70 per cent of surfers believe the net should be regulated in some way. Penetration into everyday lives is shown by over 60 per cent of users considering the internet as part of modern living. *Why employees attack* The uses and abuses of email have been in the news a lot lately but iDesk has discovered a newish twist in the tale, quite probably to its cost. Laying off 100-plus employees may have saved it some money but the online forum they set up to slag the company off could threaten iDesk's whole business. iDesk supplies technical support to a number of large UK ISPs, a service in which quality and reliability are key requirements. So how do you react when employees laid off by your supplier accuse the company of providing customers with misleading performance statistics, possessing low technical capability, favouring nepotism and tolerating a drug culture? The accusations don't end there, or even with the laid-off employees - former employees have joined in the act to apparently publicly destroy the company's credibility. Damaging as this must be to iDesk's future business, that company's fate is not our concern here. The question is: Is such ex-employee action likely to become common in the future and is there anything companies in similar situations can do to prevent it? If libel is ruled out on the basis of fair comment, the ex-staff can hardly be sacked for breach of contract after the contract has been ended. In cases where the gripes are arguably unjustified and a handful of ex-employees at most are involved, common sense may dismiss the allegations as sour grapes. But we all know no company works as smoothly and competently on the inside as it pretends to on the outside. The opportunity for mischief is wide open. Clear trouble making may be countered quite quickly but probably not before damage to the business occurs, quite possibly on a scale that would dwarf any PR counter-budget. The principal lesson ought to be that paying lip service to product/service quality and, above all, staff relations could backfire disastrously in the web age.