Praveen Akkiraju, CEO of VCE, discussed converged infrastructure trends and the evolution of VCE with theCUBE co-hosts John Furrier and Dave Vellante, live at VMWorld 2013.

Asked about the VMWorld experience, Akkiraju said VCE has partnered with VMware extensively. As far as converged infrastructure is concerned, the customers now understand the fundamental concepts and the benefits, and are trying to determine how it can be used to achieve results. “We have customers at the booth who are sharing their story to truly explain what the value proposition is really all about,” said Akkiraju.

“We’ve got credibility now,” he said, as VCE has reached over 600 customers and “3 years of scars in the back.” Customers now want to have a relationship with VCE, “they believe and understand what they can get from us,” from customer support, to technical expertise. “Converged infrastructure is accepted, we are now helping customers actually deliver their solutions on top of it.”

VCE is on a billion-dollar run rate, growing at about 100 new customers per quarter. The customer base includes Fortune 500, large enterprises, in the energy, healthcare, education, financial fields. The company expended to Japan and Germany, surpassing 1400 employees.

“We continue to add tech talent,” hiring folks with data center, application, and database expertise. Innovation is obviously the heartbeat of any technical company,” Akkiraju said.

What makes VCE so special

Benefiting from a $20 billion investment, VCE’s differentiator is the “innovation we’re bringing, the vision, it’s unique,” revolving around converged infra management software. On the services side, “a lot of customers look to us to give them recommendations on choices they make.”

Exploring VCE’s innovation strategy, Akkiraju said the tagline is “Unleash simplicity,” as simplicity drives their innovation efforts. The focus is on simplifying the operations of that infrastructure, and VCE launched the notion of specialized systems – special workloads which customers are willing to buy as an appliance, thus delivering turnkey solution for high-end, well known use cases. It helps simplify infrastructure, operations, applications on board of the infrastructure.

VCE customers still have lots of legacy infrastructure, “that cannot be flipped on a dime.  We need to be able to go into those environments, insert the new technology and provide a  bridge. That’s where we truly excel,” Akkiraju stated. “We simplify the way technology can be ingested into the data center,” and provide transition services. “You don’t get the benefits of converged infrastructure unless you are willing to transition the processes in your organization,” he added.

VCE promises continued evolution of its innovation road map, delivering new exciting infrastructure and services capabilities. “We’re well ahead of all our target goals,” Akkiraju said, as VCE reached a 50 percent growth rate, compared to the converged infrastructure market growth of 35 percent.