The myriad of cloud, hybrid cloud and public cloud solutions can overwhelm enterprise customers searching for the right networking products that need to work seamlessly with software-heavy computing environments. Add in the mix of traditional, on-premises data centers, and confusion can prevail in the emerging software-defined world of networking.

“The whole world’s moving to software-defined,” said Tom Burns (pictured), senior vice president and general manager of networking and solutions at Dell EMC. “When you talk about all these solutions, cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud, when you think about software-defined X, you think the network is pretty darn important, right? I often say, ‘If the network is not working, it’s going to be a pretty cloudy day. It’s not going to connect.’”

Burns spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at the Dell Technologies World event in Las Vegas. They discussed the varying software-defined solutions for the networking world and where Dell fits into this burgeoning market. (* Disclosure below.)

Scaling out and up

Dell’s family of technologies is doing well on Wall Street, claiming its best growth in data centers. Yet its partner ecosystem is crucial to maintaining market reach. Cumulus Networks, Big Switch, IP Infusion and Pluribus Networks are just some of Dell’s partners for networking operating software alternatives; dove-tailed with software-defined wide-area network, there’s VeloCloud Networks Inc. and Silver Peak Inc. getting an uptick in the service provider space, according to Burns.

It’s busy behind the infrastructure curtain these days at Dell, as the company continues to integrate acquired technologies from the EMC Federation. Dell has traded in an older Vblock converged infrastructure appliance, moving it to the networking team, in favor of its next-gen VxBlock system. The networking team is also working closely with the storage division to help solve more customers problems.

Dell EMC also kicked off a disaggregation of its software about around four years ago when open-source trends began to impact rival market players, according to Burns. “Customers are looking to interchange their solutions by a particular vendor,” he said. “The customer buying is varied. They can look at disaggregation as an opportunity to give them that agility and capability … to continue to manage in the old world but move to the new world of disaggregation, software-defined.”

Meanwhile, Dell continues to build the full stack.

“If you think about 30 years ago, it was about transforming personal computing. … You think of the changes that occurred now with the mainframe and x86. … At Dell technologies or Dell EMC, we’re really geared toward SDX type of market, virtualization, layer two and layer three. … We’re really hoping customers transform the way networking is being managed and operated,” he said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Dell Technologies World 2018 event. (* Disclosure: Dell EMC sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Dell EMC nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE