Jason Nolet, SVP of Data Center Switching, Routing and Analytics at Brocade, is a “frequent flier” on theCUBE and had a lot to say about the future of converged infrastructure during EMC World 2015.

“A lot of customers are opting for that middle ground of reference architectures,” he said. “And that is between a single skew delivered by a single vendor and a full do-it-yourself model, the in-between model is a reference architecture, and VSPEX is the poster child for that.”

Opting for the middle ground

This in-between model seems to be making customers very happy.

“What we hear continuously from customers is they like the balance of having something that’s tested, certified, delivered, by a single vendor, single-channel partner in the case of VSPEX, but one that gives them choice at every layer of the component,” Nolet explained. “And we think that ultimately represents a great balance between all of the benefits and pros of converged infrastructure. So reference architecture we think is the sweet spot, and that’s resonating very strongly with the customers.”

The new IP

The market is facing significant disruption from “the new IP,” big data, and the Internet of Things, but Nolet believes they’re up to the challenge.

“The fact that any application, any data set, wants to be accessed from any device, at any time, anywhere, these are things that previous network technologies were never designed to accommodate,” he said. “And so the ‘new IP’ is the notion that there is a new architecture, there’s a new philosophy around how you build next-generation networks, data center and otherwise, to accommodate these mega trends in the industry.”

This is creating a “relevance gap” for a lot of companies that realize their infrastructures are not going to survive the next 10 years.

But there is a solution, according to Nolet. “We think ultimately that the new IP, and the philosophy around open architectures and open source, the philosophies around a more software-centric architecture going forward, the notion that customers want a very strong ecosystem of partnerships that can deliver best-of-breed technology at every layer of the stack, I think is what most customers believe now is the answer to this relevance gap.”

Driving a very strong agenda around software-centric networking

Still, the biggest problem the industry faces in an “Internet-of-Things kind of environment“ is still scale.

“That’s frankly where we’ve been driving a very strong agenda around software-centric networking,” Nolet said. “The more we can deliver network services and software form factor rather than the legacy purpose-built boutique appliances, the better it is for customers to be able to scale up that environment in real-time.”

This allows business-critical tasks to run smoothly, something Nolet recognizes can only be done in partnership with other companies. “We feel like we continue to be the best company on the planet in terms of our ability to partner,” he said. “It’s foundational to our business model, and there’s no better example than EMC.”

Make sure to check out this entertaining video with Nolet and EMC’s Chad Sakac that captures insights into Brocade and EMC’s long-lasting tech partnership.

Watch the full EMC World interview with Nolet below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of EMC World 2015.