In the second day of theCUBE coverage of HP Discover 2013 in Barcelona, co-hosts John Furrier and Dave Vellante sat down with Tom Joyce, Senior VP and GM of HP Converged Systems. Joyce talked about some of HP’s current trends in converged infrastructure and where the Converged Systems division is headed in the near future.

Convergence has been a topic of conversation for many years, and HP started talking about it 5 years ago. Its acquisition of 3PAR, development of HP Networking, its new ProLiant Gen8 systems and many other advancements have all contributed to its development in converged infrastructure. Joyce explained that HP has enjoyed tremendous growth, but customers still desire more simplicity, more efficiency and a faster moving business model.

In order to better meet the needs of the customers, HP Converged Systems is focusing on bringing components together but also re-engineering how HP does business. Recognizing that the whole is greater that the sum of its parts, Joyce said HP is addressing its converged systems in a holistic manner rather than each individual piece. This requires a high level of engineering and coordination in three main areas:

1. systems engineering
2. software engineering
3. operations engineering

HP CEO Meg Whitman has spent a great amount of time with the operations people ensuring that they offer customers a new level of understanding. She has also focused on energizing HP’s marketing strategies. The company assigned the codename “project sharks” to its new converged systems and has carried over that codename into marketing, even generating excitement among customers.

Furrier then asked Joyce who the target audience was for converged infrastructure, if it was exclusively for high-level enterprise customers. Joyce replied that HP believes much of the other converged offerings on the market are too high end. While it will offer an enterprise system called ConvergedSystem 700, it will also offer a more affordable option called ConvergedSystem 300, which is well under $100,000.

When asked about the company’s future plans, Joyce pointed out that HP Moonshot System, its new software-defined server, is high on the to-do list. He pointed out that much of hp.com itself is already running on Moonshot and is doing quite well, even during this week of high web traffic from HP Discover.

Finally, Furrier asked what HP’s bumper sticker would say as it is leaving HP Discover. Joyce replied, “Welcome to the new Shark Week. Everybody else better get out of the water.”