Damned CSOs

2:45 PM -- Vendors aren't exactly the most self-reflective entities in the world, ditto their CEOs. But I appreciated the way EMC's Joe Tucci stood front and center last week and took responsibility for EMC's crap quarter. (See Tucci: EMC's Problems 'Self-Induced'.)

Less widely reported was an emerging market dynamic Tucci cited as part of decresed revenues: Sales cycles are getting longer.

"There are more checks in the system," Tucci said during last Friday's conference call. "You have chief security officers getting involved in decisions in storage now, which you hadn't seen before."

An interesting comment, but I'm not buying it. Especially with the advent of so much compliance regulation, there are lots more fingerprints on those storage purchase orders. That's not something that just started happening in the last couple quarters.

Further, it's hard to imagine that a CSO would take longer to review a storage purchase than the legal department, or God forbid, accounts payable.Maybe what Tucci's doing is laying groundwork for any subsequent hits the company may take as it moves more fully into the security realm. (See EMC Secures RSA for $2.1B.) Will the RSA acquisition fundamentally alter EMC's earnings picture? I doubt it. But best to have some kind of excuse in your back pocket, in case you find yourself front and center again, trying to explain why things look as bleak as they do.

Terry Sweeney, Editor in Chief, Byte and Switch