EP25 – Dell Technologies: Storage Portfolio, Data Strategy and VMware’s Key Role – with Pierluca Chiodelli

In this 25th episode of the TECHunplugged Podcast we welcome Pierluca Chiodelli, VP of Product Management Storage Portfolio & Customer Operations at Dell EMC. This episode was recorded live at Dell Technologies World 2019 in Las Vegas. Podcast co-host Max Mortillaro (@darkkavenger) talks with Pierluca about his new role, the “Data Story” of Dell Technologies, what we can expect from the Dell Technologies storage portfolio (especially in terms of midrange storage portfolio consolidation), as well as the growing role of VMware in the entire Dell Technologies ecosystem. About Pierluca Pierluca Chiodelli is currently the VP of Product Management for Storage Portfolio and Customer Operations. Pierluca’s organization oversees the Portfolio Strategy for the Storage BU and is leading the technical resources across the major storage products. The teams are responsible for creating a single storage portfolio vision and drive solutions to enable end users and service providers to transform their operations and deliver information technology as a service. Pierluca has been with DellEMC since 1999, with experience in field support and core engineering across Europe and the Americas. Prior to joining EMC, he worked at Data General and as a consultant for HP Corporation. Pierluca holds one degree in Chemical Engineering and a second one in Information Technology. Show schedule: 00:00 Introductions 01:25 What are Dell Technologies plans to translate their « Data » story into palpable solutions, and how they will bake this into their portfolio 02:40 Customers can buy services in the cloud that have similar capabilities as on-premises products 03:00 The storage portfolio should cover the edge, core, and cloud. Beyond coverage, the necessity to integrate automation in all products 04:00 From a Dell Technologies perspective, VMware Cloud Foundation is the interconnect hub for the entire DT portfolio 04:57 Is Dell moving to a data-centric approach to storage, and what about data mobility? 07:30 Data migration and automation integrations 08:08 Storage is the foundation of everything – are there plans for Dell Technologies to eventually offer a one-stop-shop / portal to consume data and cloud services? 09:40 Unity Cloud Edition – an SDS implementation of Unity for the cloud 11:17 VMware keeps being mentioned in a storage discussion, what is the role of VMware in the Dell Technologies -and especially in the Dell EMC- future? 14:01 Some insights around the rationalisation of Dell EMC’s very broad product portfolio 16:05 The importance of maintaining the installed base, and having a loyal relationship with customers 17:30 More than a portfolio rationalisation, a rationalisation of how platforms and solutions are built 18:20 Final comments: rationalisation is a journey