EMC Corp. not only works with partners such as VCE Company, LLC when developing infrastructure, but also with competitors such as Oracle. During EMC World 2015, EMC Solutions Director Jason Kotsaftis explained to theCUBE hosts Stu Miniman and Steve Chambers that EMC’s collaboration with VCE’s Vblock gives them standardization with flexibility at the database and application layer.

“Customers can choose what they want to run,” he said. “They get standardization of the server network storage, but they have the option to deploy different apps and workloads over time.”

Giving customer standardization and flexibility

EMC shares Oracle’s vision of the cloud, at least in some respects. “When it comes to the application owner, we both want to standardize infrastructure,” Kotsaftis said. “But in terms of implementation, we have different visions. The Vblock provides standardization, but it’s open; it’s designed to run many different things. Our view of the data center is aligned to what we see customers doing today. Ninety percent of our customers run more than Oracle. The VCE architecture gives a customer standardization as well as flexibility.”

Kotsaftis notes that open source software is gaining ground in database applications and for smaller, departmental functions. He also sees a bright future for all flash array, including the XtremIO.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of EMC World 2015.