Ecosystem is a new word for the world of business, but it becomes more important every day. In the tech world, especially, there’s no one solution, and no one company that can provide every product. To do business in the modern world means cultivating an ecosystem of partners, customers, third parties and legacy support. Developing those relationships must be a prime concern of any company that hopes to succeed.

To learn more about partnerships around Nutanix, Inc., Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Stu Miniman (@stu), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, visited the Nutanix .NEXT Conference 2016 event in Las Vegas. There, they spent time with Laura Padilla, senior director of strategic and technology alliances at Nutanix.

Balancing tech business partnerships

The discussion opened with a look at how Nutanix selects its partners. Padilla explained that the company is trying to balance its partnerships, trying to find the best mix for its needs. It is considering use cases that customers want to see, and the gaps the company needs to fill when it comes to the Nutanix platform.

“We’re prioritizing partners who are doing more engineering work and helping us build the platform,” Padilla said.

She took a moment to describe what these partners need, stating the company sees a lot of partners who have been around for a while and want to modernize.

Measuring partnership success

Although Padilla stated Nutanix has around 53 partners, she also stressed it doesn’t set targets, and if the partners are amazing, the company is happy with that. The goal is helping the business and providing value to customers.

As for what’s next, Padilla explained the company is aligning much more on the platform story. It is also using its partner network to help the company stand out from the competition. Another aim is to work with those partners to add value to the platform and explore new use cases.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the Nutanix .NEXT Conference 2016.

Photo by SiliconANGLE