A longstanding partnership between Dell Technologies Inc. and DXC Technology Co. provides a window into the process of cloud transformation and how businesses are on the modernization trail.

In an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, key executives from Dell and DXC shared their insights during the “Driving Business Results With Cloud Transformation” event, which examined how the cloud operating model can transform key aspects of infrastructure. It also highlighted the dynamic roles that governance, security and business resilience are now playing in areas such as smart manufacturing innovation. (* Disclosure below.)

Here are five insights you might have missed from this exclusive event:

1. Dell is crafting a multi-edge strategy for the manufacturing floor.

As manufacturing machines become more connected, the industrial sector will have to deal with multi-pronged edge management. That’s because edge devices can now perform a variety of functions in the modernized industrial plant. Dell has built a portfolio of offerings around the edge space to support manufacturing environments, including Project Frontier, a platform for scale-up edge computing.

“We start to think about two edges in a manufacturing floor,” said Todd Edmunds, global chief technology officer of smart manufacturing, edge compute and digital twin at Dell, in an interview with SiliconANGLE. “There’s a far edge or thin edge that sits way down on that plant and consists of industrial hardened devices that do connectivity. We see another edge evolving above that which is much more of a data and analytics and enterprise grade application layer that sits in the factory itself.”

2. DXC sees Industry 4.0 as key driver in the growth of greenfield factories.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, has become a central component in business transformation. Edge computing is just one element in how manufacturers are looking to improve downtime, decrease the maintenance cycle of equipment and improve product quality.

This has led to the rise of greenfield factories, manufacturing plants constructed from the ground up to take full advantage of advanced technology. One study in Europe has found that a return on investment in greenfield industrial parks was more than triple that of brownfield or existing manufacturing facilities.

“Customers are looking at Industry 4.0 for greenfield factories,” said Aditi Banerjee, vice president and general manager of aerospace, defense and manufacturing at DXC, in an interview during theCUBE’s event. “Investments are going directly into building factories with new technologies and new competencies. It’s for industrial IoT, having the right data platforms to drive computational analytics and outcomes, as well as looking at edge versus cloud.”

3. Dell and DXC are redoubling efforts to secure critical data in cross-platform environments.

There was a clear acknowledgement during the broadcast that enterprises must accept the inevitable when it comes to cybersecurity: Infrastructure will be hacked and damage control will be key.

“We’re recognizing that we can’t be perfect 100% of the time against 100% of the bad actors,” said Jim Shook (pictured, left), global director of the cybersecurity and compliance practice at Dell, in an interview with SiliconANGLE. “Let’s protect as much as possible so we keep the bad actors out as much as we can, but then let’s have the ability to adapt to and recover to the extent the bad actors are successful.”

This reality is shaping how key enterprise players such as Dell and DXC structure cybersecurity solutions. The focus is on protecting critical data and having a comprehensive plan for recovery in the event of a compromise. And that now includes safeguarding data generated by internet-of-things devices as well.

“That data flowing through an IoT device is as sensitive now as your core mainframe infrastructure data,” said Andrew Gonzalez (pictured, right), partner sales principal of cloud and infrastructure, America at DXC, during the broadcast. “We put together with our security operations centers, a forensic and recovery plan and a runbook for the client. It’s being able to cleanse and remediate so that we can get that data back into production.”

4. Not everything needs to go to the cloud, and managing expectations is important.

Enterprise adoption of a hybrid model shows no signs of letting up. As companies such as Dell and DXC advise clients, the realities of managing IT to meet business needs still demands an ability to manage resources between cloud and on-premises operations.

“What we find is a lot of clients don’t have the underlying infrastructure in place today to get to where they want to go,” said Jay Dowling, Americas sales lead of cloud and infrastructure services at DXC, in a conversation with theCUBE. “With DXC’s philosophy, not everything necessarily needs to go to cloud to be cost optimized. In many cases, you can run applications in your own data center or on-prem, in a hybrid or multicloud environment, and still be optimized from a cost/spend standpoint.”

For businesses that pursue cloud adoption, it’s important to ensure flexibility, be very clear on what the impact will be on the enterprise and communicate key milestones to important stakeholders.

“You have to manage expectations in moving to cloud on what business factors will be affected, how you achieve cost savings and how you will achieve business impact over the journey,” said Jim Miller, chief technologist of cloud and infrastructure services at DXC, in his interview with SiliconANGLE. “This means reporting out on that with very strict metrics to all of your stakeholders.”

5. Digital disruption has reshaped the corporate landscape, and cloud success depends heavily on results.

In theCUBE’s interview with Dell’s Todd Edmunds, he made a telling point about the volatile nature of today’s corporate era. As Edmunds noted, 52% of Fortune 500 companies since 2000 have gone bankrupt, been acquired or disappeared entirely because of digital disruption.

This statistic is from a study conducted by Constellation Research Inc.. An additional report from Innosight Holdings LLC charted the average tenure of firms listed in the S&P 500 and found it had dropped from 61 years in 1958 to 18 years in 2011. By 2027, Innosight predicts that 75% of today’s S&P 500 participants will be replaced.

There are many reasons for corporate churn, ranging from mergers and restructurings to exiting particular markets. However, the sales metric continues to be a key determinant for corporate success. Customers vote with their wallets, and the success of cloud transformation will ultimately be measured on whether it results in a thriving, profitable business or not.

Here is theCUBE’s complete event video:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the “Driving Business Results With Cloud Transformation” event. Neither DXC Technology Co., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE