Software-defined technology is taking over in the datacenter for businesses seeking agile efficiency in a digitally-driven economy. However, no company is purely a software-defined shop. Each company can run a range of technology, piecing together hardware and software products. The end result is often a complex information technology environment requiring skilled administrators to manage the myriad of moving parts. As Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. rebuilds its company around consultative IT services, the legacy giant seeks to simplify its own products through the recent acquisitions of SimpliVity Inc. and Nimble Storage Inc.

“[SimpliVity’s] mission is to simplify IT. While I didn’t know it before the acquisition, one of HPE’s core strategies is to simplify hybrid IT, which aligns remarkably well,” said Jesse St. Laurent (pictured), chief technologist of hyperconverged systems at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

St. Laurent spoke with host Stu Miniman (@stu) and guest host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor) of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the VMworld conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. They discussed SimpliVity as an HPE company, technology strategies and the need for simplicity. (* Disclosure below.)

HPE improves its software-defined portfolio

To feed their hunger for new product, HPE has acquired a number of companies recently. One of those was SimpliVity, a business built around hyperconverged infrastructure. This strengthened HPE’s role in the datacenter, while forwarding their commitment to software-defined technology.

“Some of the underpinnings of our technology really were about this concept of a data fabric,” St. Laurent said. Taking their products to market required a focus on hyperconverged. However, thanks to the acquisition, SimpliVity has gained access to the HPE portfolio with technology that spans the entire industry. This lets them expand and work with the data fabric idea.

While the technology itself has evolved, the common thread is that hybrid IT is complicated. No customer simply flips a switch to move from one technology to another. Instead, customers live in a messy world with tech from mainframes to hyperconverged. Companies need simple solutions to tame the beasts of that messy world.

SimpliVity has also changed their view on hardware since the acquisition. They had considered a software-optimized version of the stack, but the number of hardware platforms made that difficult. Now under HPE, they can target the HPE suite of hardware solutions.

“Imagine when you own everything about the platform, what else can you do? When you have an army of people who build hardware you can do some really cool stuff,” St. Laurent said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VMworld 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for VMworld 2017. Neither VMware Inc. nor Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE