It’s no secret that migrating to the cloud is hard. It’s even harder when a company must support legacy software applications because that means they need a hybrid cloud solution. As hybrid cloud plants one foot in the cloud, and one on-premises, it shares the complexities of both worlds. To succeed, companies need a partner who knows the way, and the way involves more than just technology, according to Bill Reid (pictured), distinguished engineer and senior director of product management, hybrid cloud platforms, at Dell EMC, Dell Technologies Inc.’s infrastructure group.

“We built the product, the enterprise hybrid cloud, but customers have to realize this is a people and process transformation at the same time,” Reid said.

Reid spoke with host John Walls (@JohnWalls21) and guest host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor) of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the recent Dell EMC World in Las Vegas. They discussed hybrid cloud and helping companies through the digital cloud transformation. (* Disclosure below.)

Becoming a decision broker

The world of hybrid cloud is a complex place, with so many options it can be difficult for a company to know what they need. Dell EMC is trying to address this by building systems directly to produce the outcomes its customers want. From a hybrid cloud platform, Dell EMC can leverage technology to be a broker for the on-cloud, off-cloud decision companies need to make, according to Reid.

There is no perfect solution, however, he added. But through conversation with the company’s service groups, Dell EMC has come up with a pattern for approaches to on-premises and cloud systems. The leading starter in this process is cost, but there’s also a culture concern. “We can help them from a technology standpoint; they’ve got to be ready for that people-process change,” Reid said.

Dell EMC has learned through its adoptions to focus on automation and repeatability when it comes to hybrid cloud, Reid explained. Also, the company knows many customers want to start small and then scale out. Because of this, it offers ways to learn what the change looks like at a small scale before running a full deployment.

Another lesson is that cloud-native is a big part of the conversation. To meet this need, Dell EMC offers cloud-native solutions that bring a developer-ready infrastructure to the table. Through partnership with VMware, this hybrid solution can be linked into a public cloud by any managed virtual machine, such as those provided by major cloud vendors, Reid concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s 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