George Crump of Storage Switzerland attended this week’s Dell Storage Forum and stopped by theCube for a chat with Wikibon’s Dave Vellante. In just over 20 minutes the two analysts managed to cover a number of different topics in surprising depth (full video below).

Crump started by noting his personal observations this year: Dell is no longer starting out in the storage industry, but is now much more committed than a year before and has a number of additional assets as well. The company transited from being a reseller to offering up its own IP in a relatively port period of time, and it’s suitably geared up for a serious play.

The conversation shifted to the mid-market, and the role it plays in Dell’s storage strategy. In this area the emphasis is on simplicity, and acquisitions such as Compellent are helping to cement the vendor’s position. Clump noted that Dell has historically been very apt when it comes to competing.

The firm started out in the PC market at a time when several big players were battling over a very crowded space. Eventually it managed to move ahead of its old rivals and take a place alongside Microsoft and a few select others, thanks to the efforts of a few execs that are still with the company today.

From here on out, Vellante and Clump decided to delve into today’s hot trends – flash in particular.  The Storage Switzerland founder has a lot of faith in this space, even though he admitted the technology is not fully enterprise yet, and he has proof to back his optimism up. He pointed at the fact that there’s a reason behind the relatively large number of flash startups out there – because there’s tangible business value in it for the customers.

The discussion later shifted to some of the bigger players in this space and their different value props, including Fusion-io and Violin Memory. Check out the video below for the full scoop.