HPE has lagged behind other companies in recent years. To become contenders again, it is taking an “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach and partnering with big movers and innovators both inside and outside the traditional IT space. One such partner — a massive one — is GE.

Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, spoke about the partnership during HPE Discover and how it might raise HPE’s profile.

“The big news is GE and HPE getting together,” Vellanted said. “HPE, as we know, has made a big push in Internet of Things,” he said.

In Vellante’s view, HPE is differentiating by “really focusing on edge to core and all the devices in between, the data capabilities, the networking fabric, the storage and compute — again, end to end, really using things like Moonshot [HPE’s software-defined server].”

IT and OT

Frick spoke about the idea of IT (information technology) and OT (operational technology) and how IoT is really a marriage of the two.

“What this Internet of Things really represents is the coming together of those two practices in an integrated system,” he stated.

He also said that taking the data and the exhaust from sensors and putting them to use in the field and optimizing data to change the way work is done are what the marriage of IT and OT is about.

Watch the full video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of HPE Discover 2016.

Photo by SiliconANGLE