Two heads are better than one, the common saying goes, especially when those heads belong to a federation comprised of EMC, Pivotal Software, Inc., VMware, Inc. and RSA Security, Inc.

On theCUBE during the Hadoop Summit 2015, Michael Cucchi, Pivotal’s senior director of outbound product, discussed the company’s recent collaborations.

“The federation provides the guidance and can do the pre-engineering required to deliver something that’s rapidly providing value to the customer,” he said. “It’s complex to put so many pieces together at an enterprise-class level, and that’s where we’re pioneering together.”

Making data proof future-proof and accessible

Ryan Peterson, chief solutions strategist EMC, also joined theCUBE to discuss how customers need to rethink their data plan to take advantage of the latest technology.

“Customers want to know where to move their data so that it’s future-proof and accessible,” he said. “If you move your data into a tool set, then you’ve locked your data into that tool set. The future of the data lake is about keeping that data in raw form and making it accessible to any tool set. Ultimately, customers can abstract that value up into Cloud Foundry where I can build any app against that data.”

Customers should also be aware of the shift from gathering data to building applications.

“Application providers are offering new capabilities that you can just buy, as opposed to having to build manually,” said Peterson. “That shift to app development and to automated apps is the future in my perspective.”

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