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Mark: Here at Dell Technologies, I've done something which is surprisingly difficult, which is to get away from the noise and the hubbub. I've done that because I wanted to spend a couple of minutes talking with Sam Grocott. Let's keep it easy, Sam. I know it's a long complex title, but Vice President of Marketing for what everyone knows as Dell EMC.

Sam: That's right. That works perfectly.

Mark: Okay. So, for someone who wasn't at the event, maybe for those who are just inundated with too much news, what's the chief two or three elements of news from your area of the business?

Sam: Yeah, the big announcements that we made are really three-fold. The first was the unveiling of the new Dell Technologies Cloud, which is a combination of our hyper-converged infrastructure with VMware Cloud Foundation suite that provides this consistent operating experience for your on-prem hybrid cloud. There's two versions of that, one is fully managed by a customer, the other is fully managed by Dell Technologies. So it can be an as-a-service deployment model or an on-prem fully managed CapEx purchase.

The unique thing that we can do that nobody else can do is providing consistent operating experience, both from the infrastructure down to the silicon of the hardware platforms. But more importantly, we also announced partnerships with AWS, as well as Microsoft Azure, so you can extend your data in your workloads from your on-premise infrastructure to the public cloud but never having a different operating model or a different set of tools or applications to use.

It's all from a single VMware experience that is consistent across wherever the data lives.

Mark: And I just want to highlight, we introduced you as Dell EMC.

Sam: Right.

Mark: And then you talked cloud. I think people are used to the overall Dell organization talking cloud, but it's always been an adjunct or we have a relationship with.

Sam: Right.

Mark: Just, you know, stressing from my perspective, as much as from yours, or from my use as much as yours, that you're talking about if you like the meaty main body of Dell EMC, Dell embracing the cloud.

Sam: Exactly. And what we've done which is different than years past is we're doing this in full alignment with VMware.

Mark: Right.

Sam: So everything that we're doing, Pat and Jeff have set a very strategic, aggressive set of goals and outcomes that we're expecting. And I think cloud is our number one project that we've been working together on, and we're very excited to get that first version of that product out at this event. And then we're going to continue to add to it throughout the rest of the year.

Mark: By the way, I'm waiting for the rebranding. I've always had this desire that it's going to be called VM Everywhere. I know, you know, right?

Sam: Now, the brand for this one is Dell Technologies Cloud, and that's important because, typically, when people think about Dell Technologies, they think of a family of different companies, "Oh, these are Dell Technologies Solutions." So whether it's a Dell Technologies Cloud, which we introduced which includes Dell EMC infrastructure and VMware, or the other announcement which is Dell Technologies Unified Workspace, which is Dell clients with VMware and SecureWorks, those three companies come in together to create that experience.

Dell Technologies Solutions is going to be way more than just a family of companies. It's going to mean actual products now.

Mark: And do you think...I mean, one of the things I wanted to ask you about, I know that your organization has done really well in terms of the market share particularly, but I think it is fair to say that, over the years, both Dell and EMC were known as extremely efficient in very different markets and in different styles, box-shifters, to use a colloquialism. And I know that's changing, how do you continue to grow market share?

Is this engagement, this embrace of cloud, the route to do that? I mean, you know, number one, it's hard to stay there. How do you keep growing this?

Sam: Absolutely. We're pleased but not satisfied. You'll hear that constantly, from the leadership team. Yes, we're excited about the success we've had, but there's so much more that we can do. We are so much more strategic in what we can provide a customer. I think that'll be the key for us unlocking continued growth and success.

Mark: So, would it be fair to say in closing here that, probably because I wrote about this before I got here and I'm pleased actually to see it here, but my expectation was that the event would be less about product, still important, less about portfolio, very important, but really about more a change in philosophy, the way the company approaches markets?

Is that a fair summary?

Sam: Yes. You know, look, we launched a brand new next-generation Unity, next-generation data protection with PowerProtect. We delivered a lot of products that's very important to our growth and showcasing innovation on new technologies across the portfolio. But this positioning and this move to Dell Technologies Solutions, of which we introduced our first of two, first two now, we will continue to introduce these as we go and provide more of an integrated end-to-end stack for our customers and partners out there.

So, yes, this is the beginning of a major shift, out of individual piece part selling and into full stack solutions across the entire Dell Technology portfolio.

Mark: All right, Sam, thank you very much. But as Sam says, I mean, I think it's fascinating because whilst the part of the company he is responsible for from a marketing perspective has made huge changes, and the other parts of the company are doing the same at the same time, I think educating the market about the degree to which this entire organization has changed still got a way to go.

Sam: Absolutely.

Mark: But congratulations on the progress so far.

Sam: Thank you very much.

Mark: Thank you.

Sam: Thanks for the opportunity.