>> Hi, I'm Stu Miniman with theCUBE and we're here at the Winslow Technology Group User Conference for Dell EMC. Happy to be joined by the keynote speaker for the event, Jeremy Burton, CMO of Dell. Jeremy great to see ya. >> Thanks Stu, always good to be on theCUBE. >> Yeah, so Jeremy, you've been on theCUBE since the inaugural event back at actually EMC World, here in Boston. >> Yeah. >> Just a short drive from where we are today >> I know, seven years. >> Yeah, seven years ago, 2010, wow, pretty amazing. One of the things you talk about Dell and EMC coming together, truly the scale and distribution is a big piece of that. So being here at a user conference for one of the partners of the company that been with Compellent since like the earliest days and with Dell and now with Dell EMC. You know, what is the importance of the channel to Dell and Dell EMC? >> Yeah I think, I mean look at relationships. A company like the Scots, they've been around 15 years. They've had wins with customers, they have trusted relationships there. And sometimes actually, they're better at presenting a solution to the customer than even we are. I mean we've got a lot of capabilities, but they're businesses deliver an outcome for the customer. And so at times they're pretty adept at really understanding you know, in local markets in particular, what that customer's business is and what the best solution for them is and giving them impartial advice. >> Yeah. Jeremy, in a recent interview you did with us, I was struck by, you talked about when we make strategy. We used to put together the five-year plan. These days, two years, things are changing drastically. >> Right. >> Turn back to, you've been with EMC and now Dell, you know, for seven years, you know, two years ago was just when Dell was looking to buy EMC. When you talked to your partners and your end user customers, how are they keeping up with change? What are some of the biggest challenges you're seeing from the user base? >> Yeah I think it's particularly difficult right now because, you know, we've all seen the cloud phenomenon. You've also got the digital thing going on at the same time. There's the big data thing going on at the same and also look, the computing devices that people use are starting to change. So, I think what you've always got to do and what we always try and do, we can't, we don't know exactly what's going to happen in future, but I think we've got a good idea of what the general themes are, and so I think the best thing we can do to help our users along with us is articulate those very clearly. What do we think of the next three, four, five years, the key themes that you should be watching are? And then you're right, like a couple of years you can have a product road map and then some aspirations beyond that what you might want to do, but the reality is if you lock into a three, four year road map and articulate it and get committed to it, I mean it could quite easily change and certainly it's more of the development team's move to like agile methodologies. There's not always really now the need to do that because you kind of build those cost corrections into the development process. >> Yeah, Jeremy, as the CMO I need to ask you about brand. >> Yeah, okay. >> So, you know, we're sitting here in the shadows of Fenway Park, used to be an EMC level, there's now a Dell EMC level. In the keynote you talked about really how Dell is a lot like Alphabet, which is the Google holding company. Dell, Dell EMC, Vergestry, Morrisey, Pivotal, VMware, all these pieces. All of the transformations going on. What do people look to the Dell family? Where do you make your mark in your brand? >> Yeah, I mean all of, the brand campaign that we're in right now, all of the effort is going and all of the money to the point is going to Dell Technologies. That was the new company that we created. And we want to make sure that people understand that Dell Technologies is maybe not what you thought. Dell was evolved. I mean most people think of Dell, they think of the PC. That's what Michael made his name selling. But Dell Technologies it goes a mile wide and a mile deep at this point and so really what we're trying to do with the brand campaign is put everything into Dell Technologies, understand the capabilities of that, and then look, over the next few years we can then reinforce what Dell, the PC business, Dell EMC, the data center business, VMware, Pivotal and so on, how they plug in. So really I think for the next year or so, we're going to kind of keep kind of beating on Dell Technologies and make sure everyone understands that. And then over time, you know, reinforce whether the ingredient brands. It really is, and Dell Technologies is a family of brands. That's the approach we're taking. >> Yeah, last thing I want to ask you, Jeremy. You talked about how we've seen the progression of kind of IT responding to the business and now IT really being a major driver for the business. >> Yeah. >> Maybe you could talk, you know, what are you seeing in customers, you know, how is it, you know, IT is a central point for so many companies? >> Yeah I mean it's exciting times. It's exciting and scary, I think, for the IT teams, because I'd even go further and say IT is the business in many companies now. I've seen many models, some companies have felt that their IT team couldn't adapt to be the new digital team and so they've created a second IT function. You know, sometimes you hear it mode one IT, mode two IT. But look, I've also been in companies where the CIO has really been like on it with the business, and they built out that capability within the existing IT structure, so I think the opportunity for IT folks is being more relevant than they've ever been in the past. And actually, supporting the business, doing real competitive differentiation, which it's maybe been a while since some IT departments landed there. And the threat though is that if you don't get on board, you could find yourself with your nose pressed against the window looking at a different IT operation doing the work that maybe you want to do as an IT pro. So it's exciting times and scary times together. >> Alright, well Jeremy Burton, appreciate you joining us here on theCUBE and we have lots of coverage here from the WTG Dell EMC User Event. Thanks for watching theCUBE.