SanDisk Corp. is in a unique position in the storage space. The company works with provider partners and is now competing for a spot to service the enterprise client. Rich Petersen, director of software marketing at SanDisk, spoke with Dave Vallente and David Foyer of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, at VMworld 2015 in San Francisco about its partnership with VMware, Inc. and where the company is going in the future.

A valued partner

Over the past five years, SanDisk has been expanding its focus to serve enterprise customers in what the company sees as an opportunity to utilize flash technology. SanDisk’s most recent partnership with VMware produced Flashsoft software.

According to Petersen, the two companies collaborated for about a year and a half to design write-back caching to support for data in VMware’s product environment.

The tip of the iceberg

“SanDisk’s strategy to move into the enterprise market is to level the playing field for all ecosystem partners,” Petersen said. “The company will employ a hybrid strategy that includes a sales, channel and I/O presence efforts.” SanDisk will maintain reseller relationships with VMware, other collaborative partners and server vendors.

Peterson commented about SanDisk’s unique position in the value chain. “Enterprise is a big opportunity, and they have only just seen the tip of the iceberg for flash,” he said. In order capture the enterprise client, Petersen said there is a need to drive technology and drive costs down.  He continued, “Our success hinges on getting the end users the technology they need, and we need to win on both fronts, with customers and partners.”

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

Photo by SiliconANGLE