The merger of Dell and EMC has led to a huge, complex portfolio, encompassing many different channel partners and technologies. This “embarrassment of riches” has the potential to overwhelm customers, who generally seek simplified, black and white solutions. However, more and more it’s a hybridized world in information technology. So how do customers choose the right SaaS solution?

Armughan Ahmad, SVP of global solutions and technology alliances, Dell EMC, at Dell Technologies Inc., joined Stu Miniman (@stu) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during Dell EMC World, held in Austin, TX, to talk about how he views managing the combined portfolio of Dell EMC and how he believes customers can best be served by all of this choice.

A ‘Sears Catalog’ of services

Vellante asked about the dramatically expanded portfolio that Dell EMC is now offering and how Ahmad’s team is handling this. Ahmad explained that his team is leading with alliances and working with a broader system of partners, using the Dell EMC Blueprints program to bring it all together. This program makes it faster and easier to identify and acquire pre-tested, validated solutions aligned to use cases, accelerating innovation, reducing risk and lowering total cost of ownership.

“We always like to start with, what is the customer interested in doing? [For example], are they [on] a walk or a run journey? Those are the discussions we want to have. Once we know what workloads, then what platform do they want to use to run it?” said Ahmad.

He went on to explain that it’s not so much a silo conversation as an ecosystem conversation and learning to pinpoint what works best for each client’s unique needs.

A new operational model

Miniman said that the biggest gap he sees with this merger is different, conflicting operating models; he asked if there is a new operational model within Dell EMC.

“A lot of customers are building [by] using the old ways of doing things [i.e., server hugging] … a lot of silos and fiefdoms. I think we need to disrupt the internal systems. [The question we need to ask is], how do we drive [a] workload focus?” Ahmad concluded.

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

Photo by SiliconANGLE