 Live from the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. It's theCUBE, covering VMworld 2016. Brought to you by VMware and its ecosystem sponsors. Now, here's your host, John Furrier. Okay, welcome back everyone. We are live at VMworld 2016 here in Las Vegas. This is SiliconANGLE, Media's theCUBE, our flagship program. We go out to the events and extract the signals. I'm John Furrier, the co-host of theCUBE and founder of SiliconANGLE. Our next guest is Chuck Smith, who's the Vice President and General Manager of the America Server Business Unit at HP Enterprise, or HPE, and Don Jones VP of the ISV Strategic Alliance again at HP Enterprise HPE. Welcome back to theCUBE, guys. Great to see you guys again. Good seeing you. Thanks for having us. We had a great chat at HP Discover this past year on the strategy of the data center. Obviously, you know, Composable has been a great mess. I love that. And you're not really hearing Composable here as VMworld, but you guys are partnering heavily with VMware. VMware has a great position in the data center. So the first question is, what are you guys doing here at VMware? And what are some of the conversations? What's the relationship with HPE and VMware? Anything new extension? Obviously, the partnerships been there for a while. So maybe I'll start on the partnership and you can talk about the technology. That sounds good, yeah. So if you think about it, there are more VMware products running on HP infrastructure than any other infrastructure product on the planet. So there's a natural synergy for us to work closely with VMware. Michael always jokes, the first call he made when he decided that acquisition was to Meg Whitman to guarantee that VMware would remain independent. So we're excited to work with these guys. We've got some great solutions that we're announcing this week and we've got good products already in the market that customers can buy today. I asked the VMware team, because I'm going to interview Pat Gelsinger tomorrow at three o'clock. So tomorrow, Tuesday at three o'clock, Pat Gelsinger will be live. And I said, look it, this is really post-EMC Federation VMware. Long live Dell technologies, but VMware being independent is a real critical part of this ecosystem. What I call VMware Ecosystem 2.0, which is, listen, everyone's going to have direct access to the technology. No favoritism going on of any kind, not that there was, I can prove, but that the Scuttlebutt was with EMC, kind of that invisible hand always had that kind of vibe going on. And that was kind of a cloud around that ecosystem in the past, but now the independence is key. And so we're going to talk about that, but they're clear. VMware does not want to be known as Dell technologies, you know, back pocket, you know, partner. They're looking to be very independent. So how are you guys taking that and how are you taking it to the next level? Because now VMware clearly put it in the south-south, they're saying, no, no, no, we are rebooting the ecosystem. That's my word. That's not their word, but this new 2.0 ecosystem is cloud. It's essentially the composable message. Yeah. I mean, way over simplifying it, there's really three pillars we're thinking about. The first is, how do we get together and do joint innovation? And that's truly joint innovation. Differentiates both of us. We're one plus one equals three. The second is, what's our go-to-market strategy to go tell that story and drive customer demand and adoption? And then finally, what's our precision sales cadence in the field with the VMware reps and the HP reps jointly calling on customers and driving those great solutions market? Chuck, talk about the technology play because HP has always partnered. I've known HP, I worked there for seven years back in the late 80s, 90s, even through it's now, the DNA of HP is partnerships. The ecosystem partners and being open. I'll see you in the data center with servers. Well, I mean, so you started with composable and composable and VMware and vSphere and all the elements from a VMware portfolio are integrated into our strategy there. You know, that's not solely our strategy, but it's a key element of it. And we're here talking about that. It's a key part of the infrastructure play. We actually are launching around integration of helium, our cloud stack with the NSX so that you can actually have software to find networking. There's a number of other things we're doing in terms of just the expansion of our vSAN ready node qualifications. So whether it be across storage, servers, composable networking, as well as the lifecycle support, all of that is part of our technology offering and footprint. And from an alliance perspective, we continue to do the same thing we've done. We've been at every VMworld since its inception. We were absolutely the partner of choice and at Don's point, we're the majority leader whether it's computing NSX, whether it's storage, whether it's NSX, all of the integration we've done. So all of the technology that we're doing is linked very much into their portfolio and vice versa. I mean, it's not a secret. I mean, the folks who may or may not know for the younger generation, HPE had a huge footprint in the data center. In fact, if I was going to call HPE anything at this point, it's more of a data center company than anything else of its stuff that they have. You all see software, you guys have software and other things, but your real legacy as a company history and innovation is data center. Oh, that's absolutely right. And so big slot of sense. So the question is, okay, and I want to get your thoughts on this because I remember it was a 2012 Paul Moritz, I remember the big announcement was, this is the year that there's more virtualized servers than actual physical servers. Oh, the Twitter stream is blow, oh, that's a death to the server business. Actually not. Same thing we're hearing here from Kelsinger is that by 2021, there'll be more machine enabled than human connected to the internet. So you're seeing the IoT explosion, the server business is still booming. Talk through that trend, because that is a key part of virtualization relationship with the data center. Now it looks out at the IoT. How do you guys tell that story? How do you tie that together? Well, I think if you look at just the curves that Pat showed, right? He certainly showed that the traditional IT as it's defined today is going to decline pretty rapidly, but service provider, private cloud, as well as workload center computing around IoT or high performance computing or some of these mission critical apps are going to continue to grow as an element of the broader infrastructure. If you combine those two curves, what it says is this business is still growing. Where it's located, how it's instrumented, how it's deployed is going to be different, but the infrastructure is still mattering and you can't run cloud on software. You run it on infrastructure. So I got to get you guys to take this. You must have had a little bit of a, you know, smile when Pat was talking about, you know, his keynote, he talked about ecosystem, HP success there and competitive advance check, hybrid cloud check, operations, kind of focus of cloud check, all where you guys are strong. But the thing that got me, and this is where I want to get your thoughts is, he said the word manage cloud as key. That is what HP's been saying for how many years now. This is kind of the focus operationalizing cloud. I mean, how does that resonate and how does that translate into the customer conversation? Well, I think, you know, it's very consistent with the strategy that we've been articulating for some time, so it's no surprise. And we've been executing on that. We've publicly stated our strategy is to deliver hybrid IT solutions to solve customers toughest problems and really to transition into this new world. I mean, that's not the sole thing we have to do. We have to have to secure their data. We have to help them with big data problems. We have to help them drive mobility and the shift to, you know, mobile devices as well as internet of things. So all these things are part of our strategy as well. We've been messaging it. It's not a surprise because that's what most customers are telling us and VMware that they're talking about. All right, so CXO or CXO talks to you. They say Chuck, okay, give me the update on the relationship with VMware vis-a-vis the technology. Not the strategic alliance, but like the technology. Where's the investment from an innovation strategy standpoint with VMware? Well, I think we just talked about it. We're investing to integrate VMware, whether it be ESX or there, if you will, upset components into our composable infrastructure. That's going to be a key component because quite honestly, our customers want that. There's huge integration with our three-part storage and how we're making that work. We're doing a lot of work. Matter of fact, we're leading the way in terms of the integration of our tools with NSX. Our overriding management platform in one view. That's all integrated and instrumented at a leadership position relative to anybody, other tools within the VMware ecosystem. We've got that open, so it's not exclusive to VMware. On one view. On one view, correct. So all of that is a big part of it. So our data center strategy is very much, if you will, co-exist and we are developing and innovating alongside VMware as part of our strategy. So one view, a lot of props on one view. A lot of people like that product. VMware customers the same way. I really haven't dug into that. Yeah, yeah, so what they like is that they can have, if you will, a single pane of glass from an infrastructure management from a virtual and physical management. If they want to pop into vSphere or some of the other consoles that are specific to a VMware product, they can do that directly from one view. They can do it whether it's servers and compute, whether it's storage volumes. Now whether it's networking and essentially instrumenting, deploying or managing a network overlay. So all of that is a big part of what we bring to the table and all from a single pane of glass. And a business standpoint. P and L-wise, how's the growth? Any update on some of the stats on? We're in our quiet period, so we can't really talk about that. I would tell you though, we're very excited about our strategy, what we're doing at HPE. And as you said, we're the leader in the data center. We got to make that a better known fact out there, but the bottom line is it's a big part of what we're doing. And I think the alliance that we have with VMware and others, the partnership, if you will, just DNA that we have within Hewlett-Petkin Enterprise is what makes us successful now and will for the future. Don, I want to get your thoughts because I want to get from a strategic alliance standpoint, obviously HPE has a great HPE now. Had a great relationship and now HPE is a great relationship with VMware, but you got to be pretty pumped to see IBM cloud up on stage, only from the standpoint of, to our point earlier about the VMware, really putting it out there saying, no, no, no, we are going to be independent because now Dell used to compete with IBM and HPE. Now they're all together in one big independent company. How does that affect you guys and talk about that relationship and when you see those kinds of moves? Yeah, two parts. So one, it's great to see that openness that VMware is going to be independent and that IBM partnership, I think is a testimony to that. If you look at that announcement, we're going to continue to work with VMware in that space and we're going to continue to develop and go. When I think about what we announced this week, it was kind of interesting. A lot of the things that we talked about were on the new wave, the new generation of solution sets. So a couple of examples and Chuck mentioned it briefly was open stack integration with NSX. So HPE Helion is now integrated with NSX. The second thing that we announced was around IoT and our edge line 4,000 server certified for NSX. That solution set will be the most powerful solution set for IoT using NSX in the marketplace. It seems like NSX has got a lot more kind of there under the covers that people aren't really talking about. It used to be, okay, it's just a serious free cycled in to some SDDC strategy for VMware. It's a nice talking stick. It's got some security, I mean, the security, can you guys just spend a minute and talk about NSX and what that means because it's kind of a network and it's got some security aspects to it. But what does that mean to the customer? What's the impact to them? Well, I think, you know, I mean, don't go into too much detail, but for us it is where customers are in a VMware environment and they actually want to instrument, you know, or deploy a particular network topology. They can do that in software. So it's much easier for them, first of all, to get that infrastructure and the network, you know, set up and then to manage it. And then if they want to change it within a, you know, within an environment, they can do that essentially, you know, with the click of a tool. And so that's absolutely what the benefit is. Software defined networking NSX essentially allows them to do that all in a secure way. The why we've integrated into the OpenStack and HealIn is so that essentially it's not just about the, if you will, the network overlay, but also how do you actually deploy the service on top? How do you actually deploy the, you know, the application ultimately in that environment? That's why we've integrated it into HealInStack and OpenStack. So would you say that this is a true statement if I said to a customer, if I was an HP rep, the relationship with VMware, vis-a-vis NSX we just said is a key part of our composable infrastructure strategy? Yes. No, without a doubt. Absolutely. Yeah. Relationship, what's next? What's going on? Any secret deals you can share? Nothing we can share right now. I know you're quiet, period, but come on. I mean, it's going to continue to more the same. Any kind of like high level, well, you know, as you saw us announced with Docker, with Microsoft, with VMware, we're concentrating very much on the outer edges, right? It's everything from Azure for IoT, to the IoT announcement for Edgeline, with VMware, so there's a lot of focus on that side. And you'll see us continue to do that. Containers will be our strategy and certainly more to come. So John, talk about this VM world. The folks watching who aren't here, what's different about VMware this year? What's the big aha on this keynote? What's the key point surfacing out of the first day here? Yeah, I think the transition, for me the transition, and it's been over the last 18 months, right? This used to be really a hypervisor company. And I'm seeing VMware really change and moving into different directions that are going to be beneficial to the entire ecosystem. Everything from EUC under Sanjay's area to, you know, VSAN and NSX, it's a different conversation than we've had traditionally with VMware and with our customers, our joint customers. And that digital workspace stuff that Sanjay's working on certainly is enabled, checked by your team's work on the server side and the composable, essentially, that's composable from a VMware standpoint. No, and it's a key area that we've been working on with them for some time and, you know, we'll see. We're going to be on stage tomorrow and they'll talk about some of the work and then we're in the booth and demonstrating how we've worked together in those spaces and there's going to be more to come, for sure. You know, the one thing I was going to say about the alliance is that what I see is that more and more partners coming to HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise just because of our presence in the data center, our bias to partnership and how we actually, you know, execute that and stay open in that ecosystem. Yeah, I get the question all the time from people I talk to say, hey, you know, John, Split, HP, HP, I go, look at HP, he's basically a data center company with all this greatness kind of wrapped around it that's got, you know, different markets, certainly not seem multi, you know, multinational company, but they're the roots in the innovations, the data center. I mean, you look at the, you know, the compute side all the way up through the stack and certainly the Docker stuff appeals to the app side. So, you know, I love the composable messaging. I think that was, you know, one, I think I walked away from HP to discover this year was that's a home run and you guys make that happen and you are making it happen. So final question, Chuck, is that what's different for your standpoint relative to the tech, VMworld this year, what's different this year? What's the new thing that's coming out of VMworld that's different that might not be obvious to the folks that are paying attention? Well, I think we're, you know, instead of, you know, as Don said, I'd just say the same thing. Instead of it being at that sort of infrastructure, hypervisor layer, it's a software defined data center. It's essentially the cloud foundation, cloud platform, there's a lot of discussion about how VMware and for that matter, how HP enables customers going into a hybrid cloud because it's a hybrid world. There's going to be elements that are going to be on-prem. There's going to be elements that are public. Some is going to be SaaS. Some of it's going to be, you know, infrastructure as a service, being able to broker and manage that, that's what's happening today. And that's- I mean, my takeaway is that, I agree 100%, but I would add to that is that my takeaway is that you can see him really sharp on the focus on a persona basis to the cloud ops sky. And understanding obviously digital transformation is happening. The other one is, this is kind of nuanced, but kind of a public, you know, admission that public cloud is real. And so, okay, how do you put that together in the hybrid scenario? And of course, manage to manage cloud thing becomes what happens in hybrid. So I think that's all stuff we've talked about in the past. You guys had a good vision on that. And again, you had converge infrastructure first. And I love the Composal. I think that's the way to go. So congratulations. Thanks for coming on theCUBE. Thanks. Checked on here. HPE, HPE Enterprise here at VMworld 2016, talking about the partnership, the importance, the neutral independence of VMware in the ecosystem 2.0 as it transfers the cloud. I'm John Furrier, you're watching theCUBE.