A few weeks ago, I wrote in this column about the difference between storage and storing. I'd like to use EMC/RSA as a case in point.

EMC is often regarded on Wall Street as a bellwether stock for the rest of the storage industry. That's wrong- headed in a way because EMC is clearly no longer a pure-play storage company. What's worse is that when EMC sneezes (as it did last week when it projected a revenue shortfall for 2Q06) other storage stocks can catch a cold.

However, seeing EMC as a bellwether is right-headed in another way. EMC is diversifying. It has bought into server virtualization, content management, and now security. But look closely at some of the other pure-play storage veterans. They're diversifying as well. NetApp is breaking its NAS boundaries. HDS is partnering with software vendors of numerous stripes. Brocade now has file management technologies.

So in my mind, these companies are diversifying themselves away from merely selling data storage -- basically capacity measured now in petabytes -- to selling the art of storing. To me, storing is a higher-level (and higher value) information management practice. That's where I think these companies are going. Whether or not EMC is actually leading this charge is beside the point, but in this case EMC deserves its bellwether reputation. It's not a lone diversifier.

One more point. I've said it before and I'll say it again. In order to be a storing vendor, a services offering is essential. If you want to diversify, then great, go get 'em. But integrating the diverse piece parts into a unified whole for each customer who brings a different set of problems to the table -- that's the real opportunity. It's about connecting the content management-storage security-active archive-etc. dots. That's selling storing.