Nutanix, Inc. President and CEO Dheeraj Pandey follow a “three H” philosophy: remain hungry, honest and humble.

“Within our family of employees, customers and partners, we’re extremely subservient,” said Pandey. “With the competition we’re different, because we don’t have an overlap of interests.”

Honesty and hunger are ingrained in Nutanix’s DNA, according to Pandey. “Everyone [that advised the company] came together and said, ‘If you don’t build honest products, you’ll get killed along the way.’ That paranoia has kept us honest,” he said.

A solid understanding of applications vital

Pandey also said that a solid understanding of applications takes priority over building an ecosystem. “We work hard to make sure all of our employees understand apps,” he said. “When I say that we’ve carried legacy along with us, it’s because of that understanding of apps and security.”

Although Pandey doesn’t concern himself with building a “platform,” he does value relationships with companies such as Microsoft. “Microsoft is really thinking clearly on multiple fronts,” he said. “They have an inside-out understanding of the private and public Cloud. As a company, we look at them aspirationally. It’s great to learn from them and enable the notion of hybrid Cloud computing.”

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Nutanix .NEXT 2015.