>> From the SiliconANGLE Media office in Boston, Massachusetts, it's theCUBE. Now, here's your host, Dave Vellante. >> Hi, Dave Vellante here, with John Siegel, Vice President of product marketing at Dell EMC. John, what does it mean to be a leader in hyperconversion infrastructure? >> First of all, thanks for asking. It's been quite a year, 2017, for us. Just this past quarter, we became the leader, Dell EMC did, and the number one leader in hyperconversion infrastructure, and we want to thank, certainly, our customers out there, as well, We think it was also due to the fact that we have a full portfolio at HCI, and really strong partnerships with folks like the VMware. >> OK, so, how about workload progression? VDI was really sort of the initial sweet spot, it's true, of hyperconversion. Has it evolved, and how has it evolved? >> It has evolved quite a bit, really, I think over the past coupl years we've seen it evolve from HCI really addressing, like you said, VDI workloads, small consolidation-type projects, text EV, really, to a majority of virtualized workloads in the data center. In fact, with the announcement this week, with the support now of 14th generation PowerEdged servers, we think we've taken it to another level where, because of 14th generation power servers, we have the ability to now provide the power, if you will. The performance, and the predictable performance in particular, that workloads require, mission-critical workloads require in the data center. >> OK, so we've ticked the performance box. What about the economics piece? How is hyperconversion infrastructure helping IT operations lower cost? >> Ya know, it's I think that's one of the main reasons that HCI crossed the chasm in the past year. It's because it's become a no-brainer, from an economics perspective. As customers look to transform IT and move away from traditional IT, the TCO advantage relative to traditional IT is 30-40%. I mean, you name it. I think Wikibon's done a number of studies this year, as well. I mean, you name it, across the board. So, it's really become a no-brainer there. And it's also become very compelling relative to public cloud, as well. The on-prem model. So, if you look at whether it's traditional IT, or whether you look at public cloud, I think what we're finding now is true private cloud built on, if you will, HCI portfolio is becoming a compelling way for customers to transform their data center, and to build on top of that cloud-operating model. >> OK, so speaking of public cloud, what's Dell EMC's point of view on cloud generally? >> So, our view is that the cloud is an operating model. It's not a place. So, really, what it's all about is providing that turn-key, self service-type experience, regardless of where your data is, if you will. Whether it's off-prem, whether it's on-prem, I mean, clearly, we don't have a strong opinion of that, other than that we want to make the on-prem experience as cloud-like as possible, and we think that starts with a critical foundation of HCI. >> OK, John. You mentioned PowerEdged servers before, a lot of people say it's just servers, it's a commodity, what say you? >> I'll tell you what. So, first of all, HCI is defined by software, right? And then I think we've talked about in the past, but it's really the combination of software with hardware that really delivers that turn-key outcome that customers expect when it comes to hyperconversed infrastructure. And this announcement is really about that combination of software and hardware, and the hardware, in particular, is the star of the show. It's 14th generation PowerEdged servers. What this brings to the table is powerful, predictable performance, first and foremost. The ability, now, to support mission-critical workloads. This is something that we haven't had the ability to really do before in the past. It can now support mission-critical workloads in the data center, first and foremost. So, it's powerful from that perspective. It's purposeful, in that it can now support any configuration. We actually can support up to 20 million different configurations, I'm not kidding here, when it comes to PowerEdged configurations with VXRail, as an example. And PowerEdged, 14th generation servers are actually purpose-built for HCI. They're addressing over 150 different customer requirements out there, from performance, to reliability, to manageability, to deployment, because, typically, a commodity server's really built as a compute engine. Instead, what PowerEdge servers are about, the 14th generation ones, is they're really, literally, custom-built for HCI, and that's why we think this is going to help take HCI to a whole new level, and allow customers to now start to deploy HCI across their data center to build that foundation for the cloud. >> Excellent. I think you nailed it. To give you the last word, just maybe summarize the announcement, final thoughts, HCI, wherever you want to go. >> I'll tell you what. I mean, we're just so excited. I think HCI has, as I said, become the foundation for the cloud. And, we've got a full portfolio. We give customers choice. You know, regardless of the type of use case they have, regardless of the type of workload they have, we have an HCI answer for our customers. Some customers, for example, want to start small and grow with appliances, others want to actually transform their network, as well. So, we have VxRack, as an example, there, where customers that want to transform more of the stack. We're excited to have that as an option for customers, too. So really, across the board, we're providing anything from Ready Nodes, where customers can do a little more of the work themselves, to appliances like VXRail and Xe series, where it's a turnkey experience across a server the compute and storage, all the way up to VxRacks, where we're making the entire data center, if you will, turnkey, as a foundation for that cloud-operating model. >> OK, awesome. Let's see, I lied. Last word is mine. CrowdChat on December 1, where it's kind of an ask me anything on the announcement. >> Ask me, ask Chad, ask whoever anything. >> Great, and then where do people go to get more information? >> Dellemc.com/HCI. We keep it simple, my friend. >> That's great. John, thanks very much. Appreciate ya comin. All right, thanks for watching, everybody. We'll see ya next time. (upbeat music)