When Dell Inc. and EMC Corp. merged in 2016, there were many preconceived notions about how things would shake out between the two industry giants. To the surprise of many, Dell and EMC were able to work as one quite quickly after the merger, and have since made progress together.

“I think we hit on a bit of an inflection point,” said David Goulden, president of Dell EMC. He explained that he believes they were able to hit a real requirement that their mutual customers had for a broadly based, technologically innovative company — one that can push the envelope with them.

During this week’s Dell EMC World in Las Vegas, Goulden spoke to host John Furrier (@furrier) and guest host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor), of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio about the effects of the Dell EMC merger and long-term business strategies. (* Disclosure below.)

Customers are seeking partners, not just suppliers

Goulden said that the focus of Dell EMC is a long-term game, looking three to five years in the future, where they see an even more consolidated industry than today. The company believes it has a unique position as an essential infrastructure, broad-based platform.

Organizations are looking to have fewer information technology suppliers, and they want the ones they retain to be strategic and more capable, Goulden pointed out. Essentially, businesses are seeking fewer suppliers but more partners.

Dell EMC is building applications for big data Hadoop, building infrastructure for Internet of Things, and building applications for the next generation of digital transformation. Therefore, the infrastructure side of the business is able to address IT transformation and digital transformation at the infrastructure layer. And, according to Goulden, Dell EMC has the best tool out there with its platform as a service tool Pivotal for digital transformation applications.

“I think that gives us a lot of credibility,” said Goulden.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of Dell EMC World 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Dell EMC World. Neither Dell nor other sponsors have editorial influence on content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE