The digital revolution has touched on many facets of the tech world. Few, however, have seen the massive changes that are rippling through the data storage industry. Raw storage used to be expensive; now it’s a commodity. Customers don’t care about how much data they store, but how it’s organized and curated. Data about data is almost as important as the information itself, according to Manuvir Das (pictured), senior vice president of product management at Dell EMC.

“Advances in hardware have changed the game a fair bit, because you can take a software stack that was not optimized for latency to begin with, you can put it on all-flash hardware and you can reduce the round trip a lot,” Das said.

Das spoke to John Furrier (@furrier) and Paul Gillin (@pgillin), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile live-streaming studio, during Dell EMC World in Las Vegas, Nevada. He discussed the new ways customers are using data and Dell EMC’s vision and strategy for the server market. (* Disclosure below.)

The right data storage solution

From a customer’s point of view, there’s a confluence between files and objects in unstructured storage. Dell EMC has been working to bring both of those together in the right sort of solution for any given customer under the banner of the unstructured data storage team, according to Das.

There are three pillars of unstructured storage, Das added: file, which is more for compatibility with traditional workloads; object, that’s optimized for scale to benefit modern workloads; and real-time, streaming data that needs to be storied very quickly.

“What we’ve been working on is how to bring all three together in the right solution for the customer,” Das said.

Up to now, many things in computing have started by considering how much data one can get, and then moving on to what should be done with it, he stated. The low cost of storage has changed this; companies can have as much as they like. Now, data is stored forever, tagged and cataloged, so years down the line the company can use the data in ways they haven’t imagined yet.

Meanwhile, for servers, customers want a complete solution, Das explained. They need horsepower to do work at the edge of the network, plus stuff in the backend that can process massive amounts of data. By combining their powers, Dell EMC has the opportunity to solve both sides at once, he added.

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