EMC CEO Joe Tucci still plans to step down next year. A few internal candidates, including former Intel CTO and current EMC President Pat Gelsinger, are still in the running. And the company faces, as do all major technology companies, a serious responsibility in adapting itself sufficiently to the emerging demand for cloud computing.

A Bloomberg News story earlier today focused on Gelsinger and a few other internal candidates, their respective strengths, and the likelihood of them assuming the top job. Nothing new here, really.

I've never heard a bad word about Pat Gelsinger, and have found him to be quite intelligent (as expected) and gracious, in both formal presentations and in person. I was impressed years ago when I saw that he listed his two-year Associate's degree in his academic credentials. Even with an MS from Stanford, the man has a humility about him that's not necessarily associated with very top executives.

EMC's core storage business is one of brutal competitiveness and hard feelings. Reading the online debates among storage analysts and partisans can seem like a triathlon of jousting, muay thai, and a knife fight. Yet one of EMC's severe critics (who works for the competition) has said he wished Gelsinger worked for his company instead of the hated EMC.

Storage lies at the core of cloud computing - virtualization started there, years ago, and the deployment and management of storage resources that adds even more complexity to cloud structures than the processing end. So EMC will face severe, unending challenges in a business that has seen the per-gigabyte price of its product drop about 99.999% in recent years, as demand has become ever more insatiable.

Then There's This
Oh, and EMC is majority owner of VMWare, one of the icons of cloud computing, but a company with its hypergrowth years behind it, now facing the challenge of maintaining established market leadership while convincing major markets in Asia to embrace its vision and products.

One also suspects we haven't reached the end of the storyline with the token-hacking scandal involving RSA Security, now also owned by EMC. Was Lockheed Martin breached or not? How many other defense contractors have been attacked? How many successfully? How bad is this token compromise story after all?

The fact of several internal EMC candidates competing for the CEO's job is not a story. There are mony months left for passive-aggressive internal fighting, naked competition, and the intrusion of outside candidates into the mix. As with all technology companies today, the final decision will hinge on whether the Board of Directors feels a techie, a beancounter, or a car salesman will be the best fit for the future.

Given the complexity of the cloud computing challenge and the potential problems in cleaning up the RSA mess, I'd bet on the techie, were I a betting man.