Jeff Carlat, Director, HP Converged Systems and Chris Swahn, VP & GM HP Solutions, Avnet, Live from HP Discover Barcelona 2014 with Dave Vellante Converged systems are in high demand thanks to their ability to meet business needs without the hassle of building infrastructure from the ground up. Jeff Carlat, Director, HP Converged Systems and Chris Swahn, VP & GM HP Solutions, Avnet explained the strengths of HP Converged Systems in their live interview with theCUBE at HP Discover Barcelona. “The market is growing phenomenally,” said Carlat. “Convergence is alive and well because of the business efficiencies that it’s delivering to businesses of all sizes, and the agility that it’s enabling for customers to deploy applications and services.” Carlat said that Do-It-Yourself is “still a very, very large chunk of the total available market,” but convergence is becoming a more attractive option for CIOs. When asked why a company like Avnet would be excited about the simplified deployment of infrastructure with HP Converged Systems, Swahn said: “The value of Avnet as a distributor or as a partner of HP is not just putting things together. It’s solving business problems.” Swahn explained that the focus of the industry has shifted from “piece-part assembly and tweaking” to determining the value of a system for the ultimate end user. According to Swahn, the business units inside HP, such as its 3PAR storage solution, are “focused in on how to best utilize their technology and drive it toward converged solutions.”