 information they experience kind of what's going on there it's like real time it's like they were there. That was like going to the gym. Legendary IBM CEO of Symantec and now CEO of Virtual Instrument great to have you on the Cube. So for Cube to be here at a conference like this it's got 15. Good morning I'm Kristen Folletti and welcome to News Desk on Silicon Angle TV for Wednesday June 12th 2013. IBM Edge is running this week at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. Wikibon senior analyst Stu Miniman who has been attending the event joins us now to ride us with some updates as to what's been taking place. Good morning Stu good to see ya. Hey good morning Kristen it's Wednesday it must be that I'm still in Las Vegas. IBM's Ambush Goyal made a statement that the term storage is antiquated and that the industry should focus on data and results. So Stu I want to get your your response to that what's your take on that statement. Yeah it's it's a bit humorous you know he said first of all you think storage is something up in your attic and actually as somebody that you know worked for a major storage company for 10 years the first response everybody would have is like oh I work in storage and they'd say you mean like those big crates or the you know the place where you get a locker no no no no it's about data it's about information and that's where Ambush is going it's it's not about where we have a repository for information or archives it's really about how we get you know you know utilization and results out of what we've done and that was a big thing. Of course what I poke out a little bit is you know IBM has been kind of an afterthought in the storage market competitively for the last few years so it helps to try to reinvent that definition and therefore you can position yourself better. Of course IBM you know it's a huge company has lots of software assets they are you know very big in the services industry and they're trying to be you know hit these new waves of innovation and disruption that are coming into the kind of the data the storage market to become more relevant. Now IBM sees flash as having a major impact on system architectures. Stu is this a new idea? So you know if you listen to the the presentations on flash much of it you could say you know really echoes what Wikibon has been saying for the last couple of years. So no I wouldn't say that it is new as a matter of fact that is one of the criticisms of IBM is you know they do come out sometimes and say we have this great idea I actually went to a session of theirs in 2010 where they said you know flash is going to radically change you know what's going on in storage and we're sitting there saying well EMC has been putting flash into their arrays since 2008 here we are 2013 and we're still talking about flash. We think it's a good message though flash is radically changing the entire software and IBM now has you know pretty solid portfolio everything from what they're doing in extending their easy tier into the server through the flash systems which was the TMS acquisition that they've done. So you know flash is the hot button topic for storage it's been coming for the last five years but we still think there's more innovation we'll see over the next five years than we did the last so it's good to see IBM's on message you know most of the analyst community agrees with kind of the direction that they're looking to take it. You could say that IBM is very bullish on open source projects. How is it possible for IBM then to compete and differentiate in open source environments. Yeah actually I'd go further and say not just bullish I mean that open source is you know critical to IBM strategy and IBM makes bold moves. Remember back a decade ago IBM made a huge push into Linux. You know they've got you know dozens of development areas around the world where people are working on Linux. IBM doesn't just talk about open source they commit resources both dollar wise and people. Dave Vellante was looking through GitHub and looking at OpenStack and I think IBM was like this. I think it was second highest contributor on many of the projects. The Open Daylight Initiative for SDN has IBM really is one of the largest contributors there and what Ambush Gael says is that the way that IBM competes is through execution not through control. So I like that line and you know we also hear HP talk a lot about driving open source so you need to contribute to the community. You need to put together the solutions that build on top of what they have and of course IBM has good software and good services to kind of bring the whole solution together. So you know definitely IBM is well experienced at leveraging open source and one of the things I'd say is open source really typically will pull dollars away from licenses and drive them towards services which is right into the wheelhouse of IBM. Stu what would you say would be some of the highlights at this year's IBM conference and what are some of your top takeaways from this second edge conference. Yeah well definitely the commitment to flash and how broadly it goes across the portfolio. So not only from the hardware components and storage pieces. You heard the whole system through pure systems as to how flash fits into that architecture. Of course you know I hadn't mentioned it but SVC is still critical to what IBM is doing. So you know that allows storage virtualization so we can put flash behind that and that also transitions to what IBM calls software-defined environments. Really what most would probably call software-defined storage. So really they're extending that SVC storage virtualization into the software-defined environment. Really it has to be kind of that orchestration and automation that helps transition it from just being purely virtualization to being software-defined. But you know IBM is you know strongly committed. You know has some good growth areas that they can push into. They talked a lot about commoditization too. As you know IBM still I believe that the quote Dave Vellante always uses from Lou Gersner is they're recovering. They're likely recovering alcoholic. They had a hardware addiction but it's that commitment to open source that's driving the future of where IBM is going. The big takeaway for me is that the conference is doubled in size and you know really everybody seemed to be happy to be there. I wasn't know why is IBM doing this show it's they've only done it for two years they should have done it a couple years sooner and it helped drive strong momentum with the systems integrators and vars as well as the MSPs service providers and you know the the customers I wouldn't say it was like walking amongst you know just a bunch of fanboys but people that really understand what IBM's doing where they're going and you know very positive atmosphere there. When you find yourself interacting with conference attendees what are your discussions about what's buzzing. Yeah so I think you know flash obviously is something that the customers are all looking to pull in and one of the things that was really buzzing was IBM's acquisition of soft layers. So you know IBM hasn't really tried to over hype the cloud. You know IBM's not too often about hype they're about they have a number of solutions they have many different ways they go to market. It's such a large organization and they have so many solutions that it's easy for IBM to play many angles so they have software which gets a cloud stack as well as they're you know heavily working on open stack solutions. So you know customers seem you know quite happy working with IBM and you know just some great conversations is the reality of what they can do and you know there's obviously some things that IBM needs to do better. They need to make strides in storage. Their server business has been a little bit on the decline with the overall server business but you know they're working through their pipeline. They've got a robust roadmap and you know definitely one to watch in the space. Has IBM addressed any of those issues during the conference. You know most of the issues that I heard weren't around the announcements. Things like on their converge system were a little bit over a year into the since the launch of the product. I'd say some of the maturity of the software needs to increase and how they're going to market through the channel. So here are good strong indicators that they're the solution set as well and definitely getting lots of test case environments. Interestingly enough I was talking to the general manager of the solution. I believe it was and they're getting good traction in the emerging markets. So like China and Africa which is different than the rest of the converge infrastructure vendors that have tended to track with the virtualization typically. So heavy North American going to Europe. So IBM is going to some of those lesser server markets but you know nothing that I heard at the show that IBM had you know the announcements that that answered those but we know that IBM is working through and talking and listening to their customers very closely. Well Stu we know you've got a busy travel schedule but thank you so much for taking the time to check in with us great to have you. Thanks we'll be talking to you again soon. And get your daily dose of tech to get you through the midweek slump. Your silicon angle daily roundup fills you in next here on News Desk. We looked at all the programs out there and identified a gap in tech news coverage. There are plenty of tech shows that provide new gadgets and talk about the latest in gaming but those shows are just the tip of the iceberg and we're here for the deep dive.