As the applications of software and virtualization continue expanding in scope and versatility, the hardware on which those services rely is earning its own share of attention. And behind that hardware, the alliances of manufacturing and retailing are driven by more pragmatic goals than speculation, according to Pete Murray (pictured), vice president of Original Equipment Manufacturer and Internet of Things sales worldwide at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

“We never start with the technology; we always start with the business problem that we’re trying to solve,” Murray said.

Murray joined John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, during the HPE Discover event in Las Vegas, Nevada. Murray covered a number of topics relating to HPE’s business strategies for the near future, as well as the importance of the relationships between HPE and its OEM partners. (*Disclosure below.)

HPE’s market strategy is partly based on the anticipated ubiquity of connected devices in the near future, and as HPE looks to capitalize on that wave, it is keeping its options open as to where its heaviest investments should be, Murray explained.

“We’re focused mainly by industry,” he said, adding that HPE counts the industries of healthcare, business, telecommunications and transportation among those in which it has significant OEM partnering.

“What we bring is what we’re really good at, which is providing an innovative, quality-based, compute-based solution with a world-class supply chain and global support,” Murray said. And while customization has been drawing attention and customers in some parts of HPE’s focuses, Murray felt that his sector hadn’t fully moved into that stage yet.

“What we tend to find is that we’ve actually got some pretty strong offerings that our customers use off the shelf, so in a lot of cases, customization is relatively small,” he said, though he anticipated that would change “as we’re moving into the [Internet of Things] world [where] a lot of the fundamental business problems we’re trying to tackle are the same but each implementation is just slightly different.”

OEM directing

With its worldwide OEM sales force and numerous partners, HPE has “both a direct and an indirect sales route to market,” Murray said, explaining that HPE works with its OEM partners to plan when a new feature or technology will be implemented to best capitalize on the opportunities it offers.

And as those partnerships move forward, Murray sees the biggest potential to be in the realm of manufacturing right now. “We see opportunities to drive … efficiencies and cost savings out by collecting up and using the data which they’re currently generating. But they’re actually not looking at the business insights within it. So manufacturing is a key opportunity for us,” he said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of HPE Discover US 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for HPE Discover US 2017. Neither Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. nor other sponsors have editorial control on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE