EMC Corp. strives to be a tech enabler of business outcomes according to Howard Elias, president and COO of EMC Global Enterprise Services. This means that EMC works with its partner ecosystem to ensure that customers spend their time and dollars on the highest order possible. “We’ve seen a huge sea change in the ability to simplify the implementation of our technology and to service that technology in more automated ways,” Elias says. “We want to pull out as much of that lower level labor as we can so that we can get the skill sets moving up the stack.”

To better achieve this goal, EMC has stepped up its ability to work across the Federation. “Customers want a pivotal platform on a VMware cloud with EMC infrastructure deployed on a [VCE] Vblock secured by RSA,” Elias says. “We’ve identified targeted accounts that we go after collectively in an aligned way. We have the program management that coordinates the delivery of technology and services across the federation and our partner ecosystem.”

Many times, conversations with these clients involve discussions with the highest-level executives, a change that signifies the value businesses now place on technology. “The conversations are now all throughout the ‘C’ suite: The CFO, CMO, the lines of business,” says Elias. “We’re even making presentations now to boards of companies, because these are very strategic decisions about transforming IT, but also transforming the business—helping customers create the digital future that they need, while making the existing IT infrastructure more efficient and agile. The most progressive customers are using IT transformation as business transformation.”

Elias also notes that almost all EMC customers understand that it’s a “hybrid cloud world.” These customers often have infrastructure in place. EMC helps these customers make strategic decisions. “What’s important is a common capability, common network, common management and orchestration, and common security model,” he says.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more wall-to-wall EMC World coverage from SiliconANGLE and theCUBE.