After three days of innovation, new releases and even motorcycles, John Furrier, founder of Silicon Angle, and Dave Vellante, chief analyst at Wikibon, wrapped up their experiences at EMC World 2015 with some predictions for the future.

Vellante summed up his view. “EMC’s sort of a bit of an enigma in a way to me, because … they’re growing faster than their peers, they’ve got some really key strategic assets like VMware and obviously many others, they’re investing in new technologies and proving that they can bring in new tech, acquire new tech like XtremeIO and make it work,” he said. “And they’ve got a big install base. The enigma is … for three years, the stock’s been flat. The street doesn’t recognize it even though they’re growing faster than their peers, and they’re throwing off increasing amounts of profit, they’ve got strong free cash flow, they’re investing in the future, all the things you want out of a successful company, but they’re not getting rewarded for it.”

The market’s hesitation surrounding EMC

One reason for the market’s hesitation may be, according to Vellante, that “while they’re doing very well in a lot of different areas … they’ve got to keep putting gas on the fire for the new stuff and try to do a managed decline for the old stuff. That’s always a tricky transition. But if you’re going to be a company in transition, you’ve got to recognize it …. [and] EMC seems to be doing that.”

Vellante’s wondered, “Are they moving fast enough … and do they have the right platform to build out the next round of big data apps?”

Furrier agreed, adding questions of his own, given that EMC is in the process of integrating so many different companies. He was optimistic about their move to break out their divisions into core and emerging, but he agreed that they have to find a way to get out of the “box” business and into platforms.

“They’ve got to build an operating system for the data center and for the enterprise,” Furrier said. “That includes enabling some sort of disrupting asset for the customer.” Eventually, he said, “They do have to have a game-changing move. And it’s going to look like API-based, real-time, really, really fast horsepower, unlimited compute, and I think it’s certainly the app business.”

Game-changing value

Furrier added, “The first company that can provide that kind of game-changing value for the customer, in whatever configuration, that puts EMC into the zone to do something different” — and one way they’re adding value is through aggressive M&A, Furrier emphasized.

“They’ve got to buy companies, I believe,” he said. “XtremIO’s proof points to that they can go to the well, get something emerging, and plug it in mainstream. That formula totally works for me.”

Vellante said the same. “The point is, they bought a company with no product and they brought that in and are now exploding it,” he said. “The more they can do that, that’s a way better return on investment than going out to try to swallow some huge company.”

In the end, Vellante said that his bumper sticker takeaway was that EMC is, or is trying to be “infrastructure for the digital era. That’s the company’s opportunity and challenge. They’re not there yet, but there’s a lot of money to be made getting there.”

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