EMC walks the line with SharePoint support

One of the more interesting alliances that exists in technology today is the one between computing behemoths EMC and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Microsoft displayed a prominent booth at EMC World this week, not coincidentally, the same week it is releasing SharePoint 2010, an incredibly popular content management product. So why would EMC invite a seeming competitor to display prominently at its biggest party of the year? Because, EMC sees Microsoft as a partner it can connect with and use to fill in gaps.

Dave Martin, Senior Product Marketing Manager at EMC, believes it's about exploiting the opportunities around SharePoint. "I won't say there are voids [per se]," Martin said, "but there are opportunities for enhanced capabilities." 

Lance Shaw, Group Product Marketing Manager, EMC Information Intelligence Group, says one of the areas where EMC can fill in is around information governance, an area that has not been traditionally a SharePoint strength. "When you delve into information governance and content management, it's whole different subtleties that drive the need for more depth." He says, while SharePoint does include some of this functionality, it may not go far enough for enterprise class needs. EMC released a new product this week, SourceOne for SharePoint, that could help companies around SharePoint governance issues.

Martin points out that SharePoint has always been strong around collaboration. You can set up a site quickly and add files, but as these sites proliferate and the projects ebb and flow, what happens to all of the documents that are associated with the project? That's where EMC may be able to fill in. They offer two products--Repository Services for Microsoft SharePoint and My Documentum for SharePoint--that seamlessly add documents to the Documentum repository and let SharePoint users access documents from Documentum. 

Martin says the two companies have a great relationship. Outsiders may think the two companies make an odd couple, but the alliance seems to be working for both parties. If they can play to each other's strengths and it works, why not?

For more information:
- see the EMC SourceOne for SharePoint press release

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