Dell EMC launched the latest generation of its PowerEdge server portfolio at Dell EMC World in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 14th-generation server brings together better compute, scalability and security, answering enterprise client requests for better automation and productivity with simplified lifecycle management, according to Yanbing Li (pictured), senior vice president and general manager of storage and availability at VMware Inc.

“We are very excited to work with Dell very closely on the 14G development and launch it. We are really looking for ‘better together’ opportunities,” Li said. “Coming from my business unit, storage and availability, we are [using] hyper-converged infrastructure solutions on top of the 14G server.”

Li spoke with Rebecca Knight (@knightrm) and Paul Gillin (@pgillin), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, during Dell EMC World about the technology capabilities that VMware is developing in conjunction with Dell Technologies Inc. She shared information about how the company’s focus is on customer requirements. (*Disclosure below.)

Customers are influencing technology

Leading the storage and availability business unit at VMware, Li is excited about the 14G technology and how it will enhance her work with Hosted Desktop Infrastructure. She believes that this translates to better storage performance and capacity for vSAN, VMware’s software-defined data center product offering.

“We [the engineering teams] have been working very closely behind the scenes … aiming to make our solutions available, vSAN software ready for 14G on day zero. We’re really taking advantage of the hardware innovation from the very beginning [until] they are available to our customers,” Li said.

VMware recently launched the 6th generation of its flagship product in the storage and availability line, vSAN. The company is on the 6th generation within three years because it is continually improving capabilities and is driven by customers’ demands, Li noted.

“[They] have asked us for better performance, better TCO, better security, better operation simplicity. In all these things we’re responding … all our customers are asking us to better improve their experience,” she said.

vSAN software powers VMware’s hyper-converged infrastructure solution, and according to Li, VMware’s chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger predicts that most companies will be moving to a hyper-converged infrastructure. Hyper-converged is not just compute and storage; it is also layered on a software-defined network, Li explained. Part of Gelsinger’s prediction also included a fully automated management suite to run an end-to-end software-defined data center solution that continuously extends across VMware’s cross-cloud architecture.

Going back to the customer, Li spoke about the market demand for a fully-integrated set of services, highlighting that it is too difficult for the average enterprise to adopt services at a point product level.

“Our new products suite called VMware Cloud Foundation is an integrated software stack, a turnkey stack, with full lifecycle management work for an on-premise environment, as well as extending into the cloud,” Li stated.

In other efforts at the company, Li discussed the mission to create a more inclusive environment. She is part of VMinclusion, which is what she refers to as a business service approach to creating a more inclusive workplace environment.

“I’m just dying to see a more diverse crowd at events like this. Clearly, we still have a lot of work to do, but I’m excited to see quite a few of female speakers on the main stage,” she said.  

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of Dell EMC World 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Dell EMC World. Neither Dell nor other sponsors have editorial influence on content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE