Solving the Internet of Things (IoT) problems is a major priority for Hitachi Data Systems Corp. (HDS), as demonstrated by its recent acquisition of Pentaho Corp. The Japan-based company built a relationship with Pentaho based on “mutual interest” while Hitachi looked at “hundreds of companies” that handled IoT and Big Data.

“There was simply no question who the best acquisition was, and that was Pentaho,” said Kevin Eggleston, SVP of social innovation and global industries at Hitachi Data Systems (HDS).

Eggleston characterized the organization of Hitachi as historically operating like a conglomerate. However, IoT “has really brought us all together,” he told Dave Vellante and George Gilbert during an interview with theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, at PentahoWorld 2015 in Orlando.

Embedding Pentaho into everything

Currently, HDS has a global sales force of 2,000 employees in the field globally. Eggleston promised a vast expansion, as well as Hitachi’s plan of “embedding Pentaho into everything we do from a solutions perspective.”

Eggleston described HDS’s ecosystem as “huge.” Furthermore, Eggleston stated, “If you’re not partnering to deliver value in this space, you’re not going to be successful.” Despite the company’s 500 data scientists on staff, Eggleston said HDS chooses to partner with the right companies. “We’re really good at a lot of things, but we also recognize we aren’t good at everything. We aren’t too proud to admit that there may be companies that are better of some elements of a solution.”

Our goal in IoT is “to make that [IoT] pie bigger, faster” said Eggleston. “We’ve sensorized everything that we do… so we can deliver great reliability, whether we’re making a compressor or a wind turbine or a gas turbine. We turn that into valuable data to make stuff run better and ultimately to provide new revenue models to our customers.”

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of PentahoWorld 2015. And join in on the conversation by CrowdChatting with theCUBE hosts.

Photo by SiliconANGLE