 Live from Las Vegas, Nevada, it's theCUBE covering EMC World 2015, brought to you by EMC, Brocade, and VCE. Wikibon.com, join for this segment, kick off of our, we call it the Wikestate, we've got two sets going side by side, is Steve Chambers, newest member of the Wikibon community. Steve, thank you for joining me. Oh, you're welcome, I say this is a great show, great start today, explosions in the main auditorium, new CEO for Cisco, Robin Drama from the very start. Yeah, Steve, absolutely, disruption everywhere, cats and dogs living together, always excitement here. EMC World really, I could say it's the largest storage conference in the industry. A question we have is, where does it stack when you talk about cloud? A lot of talk this morning about the EMC Federation Hybrid Cloud, Enterprise Federation Hybrid Cloud, it's like trying to get the name down sometimes. I know. It seems like VMware and EMC get these names that don't roll off the top, it's like, vCloud Hybrid Service, in terms of the vCloud Air, and now if I remember right, it's the Enterprise Hybrid Cloud with EHC, they call it so, how do they do on the keynote this morning, Steve? So, I mean it was good to see that right up front, and they started talking about software and applications and workloads, which is exactly the right way to come from it, right? But it is complex, we know that, right? So, you know my background, I've built these things, sold these things, I've seen people build them, they're really hard to do. And so I think what really resonates with me when I look at the Federation story is they've got the identity, they've got all the infrastructure underneath it, they've got the pivotal piece, and I think this year that's going to be a real game changer. We've seen, you know, the difference that, you know, you've got Mesosphere, we've got VMware, it's all about containers, Microsoft are talking about it, you know, I think the pivotal piece is going to be a real game changer for them this year. Steve, you've brought up good things, they talk about the DevOps and, you know, modern applications, which I give to Kudos, no containers in this morning's conversation this morning. That's true. I do expect it to come up, I think Chad Sackage is actually giving a session where he's talking about containers and how that fits in, so, you know, didn't check all the buzzwords, but it's a long show. I think that's a Wednesday thing, isn't it, with Chad? I think we'll definitely hear a bit more about containers then. You know, just a quick mention as well yesterday, so the pre-day, I thought that was outstanding yesterday, so it was all about DevOps. Yeah, it was actually so. It's a new group that EMC has called EMC Code. They brought in a bunch of speakers, most of them not EMC, people like Nick Weaver from Intel. That's right. They had Chef on, they had Pivotal on, of course, from the Federation. We have PuppetLabs, we had a guy from Dropbox, and I think those two were outstanding. They changed my thinking on quite a few things. The Dropbox guy, you know, we know APIs are important in the cloud, they're important for consumption reasons, not just glue and infrastructure together, but he explained, you know, the complexities of linking users with clients and servers. That was a really good session. The Puppy guy was really good. It was very Gene Kim-esque, I would say, and I know Jezz Humble is around this week, so, you know, I hope we get some time with him. But they were really good. But I think the best session yesterday for me was the two EMC guys. You know, I don't think people realize how much IT EMC have got, right? You know, we're talking 10,000... You're talking IT, you're saying? The IT within EMC as a company. So, you know, we're talking tens of thousands of nodes that they've got and a lot of storage. I think people forget that. I know it's one of the things that the EMC CIO does a good job with customers and goes and shares his storage. Steve, actually, I just interviewed Vic McGot, who's the CIO of EMC. So we heard a lot about this, really talked about how, you know, it's no longer those two-year ERPs. You know, he said, you know, give me, you know, $10 million in 24 months and I can build you a beautiful Taj Mahal. Today, it's about being faster. I think it's a great one. And seeing what business needs. And that's challenging. So we went from yesterday, where you hung out with, I think it was, what, 300, 400 people and a lot of hoodies. And now here we are, you know, EMC role. It's much more corporate polos. And you know, we've got a few suits here. We're interviewing Mike Olson from Platter right now, and he's wearing a tie. I was like, you know, Mike Olson, you know, usually I expect to see him more in sweats. But you know, it's interesting to see that blur between kind of the enterprise in the cloud and some of the cloud guys are getting a little more formal. Some of the enterprise guys are wearing jeans a little bit more. So... What I know is this is the previous, the Amazon Web Summit fight with those guys. There are a lot more suits there. I think today there is a real mix of people here. I thought the keynote today was a real mix of... Which represents a portfolio that EMC has got. But what I'm really looking forward to this week is seeing how yesterday we were talking about applications and workloads, but we were talking about them in detail, not as a black box. Because I think we often do that, right? As infrastructure guys will say, yeah, it's all about the tier two workload and then just quickly move on. Yesterday it was going into a lot more detail and depth, which I thought was really good. But the two EMC guys that stood up and they said, hey, you know, we thought we'd get into this infrastructure as co-piece. I'm looking forward to seeing more of that this week. But we didn't realize how hard it is. And they actually went through the list of things I tweeted about yesterday, what was difficult, what was easy. And as they went through, they really held their hands up to see EMC guys talking as developers. That was really good. All right. Yeah, Steve, I mean, we're going to talk to a lot of practitioners, like to understand their businesses. You've been here as a customer of EMC. You've been part of a couple of the Federation businesses, both VMware and VCE, who are just now back inside EMC. What's your early impression as an analyst now? You know, that prism, I mean, it's definitely, you know, they start off with the executives, they're giving us a ton of information, we can do good access. You know, what's your take so far? I think what they're doing right now is what we've been shouting at EMC to do for some time, right? They've always had this promise. They said in the keynote this morning that this is a long-term plan. And I think we're starting to see it come to fruition, which is really important. What specifically? Specifically, I think, you know, the bits that weren't talked about much today, but I think we'll hear a lot more tomorrow and Wednesday is around the security piece. We know that's big this year, right? And it's around the move of the intelligence into the platform link. And I think we've had paths for some years. We know Microsoft went into it, then they kind of changed their mind and did the infrastructure stuff. But I think that platform piece is going to be really important because it's going to pull through. You know, that's where people are going to run their software as a service applications. They're going to develop on it. New software is going to go there and it's going to pull through all the other goodness that EMC have got. So I think that's a key part. Yeah, it's interesting. You wrote an interesting article on wikibon.com talking about, often times we talk about, you know, application centric. We're really still talking about infrastructure. We're not going up the stack. EMC has been talking about this third platform now for a couple of years. And I actually felt that there was a lot more discussion about the apps and the data. Talking about the analytics, talking about things like the centers and IOT, if you will. I don't feel we're still quite there, though. Do you know, I think the platform two and a half. That's kind of great. I know it's not on me a little bit. But I think it's accurate. I think we're definitely getting there. But you're right. It's still a little bit tier two apps. All right, so one last bit of news this morning that I want to make sure we cover. Talk about the federation. Joe Tucci is going to be on stage tomorrow with Paul Moritz and Pat Gelsinger. One of Joe's old friends, John Chambers, after 20 years as the chairman and CEO of Cisco is now just no longer going to be CEO. He's just going to be the chairman there. So, Steve, you worked at Cisco for a number of years. What's your reaction? What's the legacy that Chambers leaves behind? And what's it look like to Cisco? Cisco was one of those companies when you were there. It leaves a very positive impression on you. Very good people. Very good products. Very successful business. I joined there when they were just getting into the server market. Everyone said they were crazy, but I think they've been proved correct in that. And that was a sign that we're doing something a little bit different. I mean, the news this morning, we kind of expected it, but maybe not expected, you know, Chuck to get the role. That was a bit of a surprise for me. I mean, congratulations on him. I think he's got a great project ahead of him because with Cisco, I don't know, is this a steady hand on the tiller, or is this someone that's going to change the sale and he's going to tack and drive Cisco into new waters? I don't know what's going to happen, but I want to see some dynamism from Cisco and not just steady as she goes. I mean, you know, is Cisco intercloud? Is that something that we're going to be talking about? Will that be a big driver? Will this new CEO do what Satya has done on the Microsoft side? So what's your take? How is Cisco doing on cloud? Well, I know the intercloud fabric, I've been taken through the software by Cisco. It looks great. From an infrastructure point of view, it looks great. I mean, you look at the size of Cisco's service provider business. They've got enormous reach around the world. So I think of all the companies that could make something like intercloud work, Cisco could. I'm just not sure. Is it the right thing? Is it just yet another infrastructure play? Or are they really listening to guys like the MIT guys we worked on, the second machine age and the platform play? You know, you watch players who are encouraging people to build businesses on them, like the Dropbox guy. He explained their platform model. It sounded great. He said people are making lots of money with us. Yeah. And an interesting note, tie back. So it's Chuck Robbins, the new CEO. I happened to bump into some of the VCE pit bull, and I said, so first of all, aren't you glad that you're back in EMC before this move happened? And they said, yeah, but an interesting note, they actually have a really strong relation with Chuck Robbins. My understanding that he is actually one of the key executives that is working with them. So many people say, oh, now that VCE is back inside of EMC, that Cisco wants nothing to do with it. Nothing can be farther from the truth. We know that Cisco wants to drive revenue. They need growth engines, and companies like EMC and NetApp are driving a ton of UCS sales. So Cisco is a diamond sponsor here at this event. There will be a big presence here. I know we're going to be interviewing a couple of them this week. I think it's just a little bit of mischief, right? I mean, I've been hearing that when I worked at VCE, oh, you know, people don't get on, and nothing's further than the truth, right? I mean, it was such a compelling proposition for customers. Why wouldn't you want to be a part of that, right? And I'm pretty sure Cisco... Yeah, I mean, Steve, the only thing that drives click rates more than worse is if there's M&A going on. So, you know, going back and forth, it's like, oh, wait, there's Cisco and EMC just going to merge. You know, 15 years ago we were having that discussion. There's some interesting acquisition targets, despite what might have happened with, you know, HP and EMC feeling out the waters, you know, a year or so ago. You know, EMC, you know, we're going to see how they're doing this week, but, you know, going strong, because if they are an employer, they usually spend over a billion dollars a year in this acquisition. So, what do you want to give you the final... Any comments on that, or give you the final word on what you want to say? I just think with the Cisco thing, I guess what I hope for all my friends who still work at Cisco is that this is going to give them a new lease of life, right? Change can be good or it can be bad. I think it will be good. They still have some great executives there. I mean, Rob Zagari there, they're still great executives. And they've got a great portfolio. They don't move. I mean, they're a big company, right? You just want these companies to move fast. I mean, saying that about EMC for years, it feels like they're actually getting their nose off. Yeah, it is tough for the 800-pound gorilla to dance. It is, very... So, you know, we know that out there. You know, things move. So, all right, Steve, really excited to be having you co-host on this event. Wall to Wall coverage, two sets here at EMC World in Las Vegas. We're going to dive right into it. So, please stay with us. SiliconANGLE.tv for Buying Stream, wikibon.com. I'm gonna hit Steve and myself and the whole team up on Twitter with any questions you have. And we'll be right back after this break. Andrew Kreitzer, a business operations manager at LinkedIn, and you're watching The Cube. I'm Chris Selland, VP of Business Development for HP...