>> Voiceover: Live from Washington D.C., it's theCube, covering AWS Public Sector Summit 2017, brought to you by Amazon Web Services and its partner Ecosystem. >> Good morning, welcome back here on theCube, the Silicon Valley or Siliconangle TV flagship broadcast, here as we continue our coverage live from the Nation's capital, Washington D.C., the AWS Public Sector Summit 2017. I'm John Walls, we're glad to have you hear on theCube along with John Furrier, good morning. >> Morning. >> Good night? >> Great night. I had two great meetings, learned some information, got some exclusive material for a story that has to do with government stuff. >> So you were kind of working then weren't you? >> I'm always working. We're in D.C. I want to put my ear to the ground and bring all these stories back to my show, Silicon Valley Friday Show, which has been on hiatus during the month of May and June for all theCube events. >> Slacker. >> I got some great metadata as they say. (laughter) >> Good about data. >> I went home and watched the Nat's game. That was my big night. Jeff McAllister is with us now, he is the GM of the Americas for Druva and Jeff, glad to have you on theCube, we appreciate the time. >> Oh gee, thank you for the opportunity and it's a pleasure to meet you. >> Alright so you guys are all data, all the time on the Cloud right? >> That's right. >> All about data protection and security, availability. Tell us a little big more just about Druva and then we'll get into maybe your relationship with AWS but first off about you, about Druva. >> I've been fortunate to be with Druva since we really embarked on our enterprise strategy. I've been part of the team that made the investment a couple of years ago to start to pursue FedRAMP and some of the specifications for the Federal Government. And as you know, we are Cloud native. We are for the Cloud and built on the Cloud. We've been a partner with AWS for over eight years now. So we've had a very strong working relationship with them and the opportunity to come and speak here today and with you gentlemen, has really been tremendously exciting and frankly they're absolutely wonderful partners to go to market with. >> Yeah, talk about a minute about how integral that obviously is to your business to have not just a relationship, but to have the relationship that you do with AWS. >> Well, AWS obviously provides a world-class platform on which to build a service like ours. For our customers, it means tremendous levels of security, tremendous data durability, a reliability and availability of that data, but also the idea that many of our customers are very mobile. They have great geographic dispersion among their employees. Their employees are engaging in other parts of the world. So availability of that Cloud and that Cloud infrastructure, in local areas is tremendously important. And for our Federal customers, the certification for ITAR and other things that are specific to that market, having a platform like GovCloud, built specifically to their specifications, to service them, creates great leverage for us and our customers. >> John F.: I mean, eight year relationship, and that's going back. >> Yes it is. >> And they're only 10 years old and they spent their 10th birthday going on their 11th year, just AWS. So, obviously they saw some federal action right away, or public sector action right away. Nature of the Cloud, very friendly to developers back then. But still it was building blocks foundational back then. >> That's right, exactly. >> What's changed? How would you chronicalize that change other than the massive growth we've seen in the market place which we've chronicalized as well but I mean, from your perspective in the public sector, this is on a nice trajectory. >> I've been in the business now for over 30 years. Started out at Data General through Sun Microsystems and I've seen much of the industry change. The one thing that has been very impressive with the public sector, is that the interval in product innovation would come to the public sector a year or two years behind what we saw in the commercial marketplace. That time and space is absolutely shrinking down to nothing. They are pursuing the same business continuity, data transformation issues the Cloud-first strategies that our commercial customers are. And frankly, the government worker today has become more mobile. And the requirements to protect that data and secure it, are at an all-time high. And the AWS platform in combination with what we do, really provides a level of security that is hard to do on your own. >> So yesterday, we talked about a term I coined, or phrase I coined, around the seminal moments in GovCloud's history and really in the Amazon public sector. Is called "the shot heard around the Cloud", and that was the CIA deal where AWS came in and beat IBM, which had a lock-in spec and they're old-school IBM, they know how to sell. The sponsorships, they had everything locked and loaded. Who knows what they were doing, wining and dining. You know how the Federal Government is? >> Jeff: That's right. >> Things were very much picked out, everything's buttoned up and then boom, Shadow IT is happening, Amazon wins. Since then, we've seen a lot of change in how people are securing, how people are deploying. >> Jeff: Right. >> No better example than data protection because there's no wall, there's no firewall. You're in the middle of it. Talk about that dynamic about how the no walls, no perimeter in the Cloud has changed the role of data and data protection. >> Sure. So, gone are the days where we can dictate the device, how somebody wants to work, what solutions they're going to use. Cloud applications like Office 365, Box, Slack, other, have really created an environment where the IT folks, want to stimulate innovation, stimulate the work in places where people want to get done. But then provide the same level of protection and governance that they would on a non-platform solution. So, watching that evolution take place, its really driven us to really have to be mindful that we're in the performance business and with that performance we have to be respectful of the requirements from a security and protection standpoint that our customers call for. FIP certification became fundamental for us being able to service the government. That led us into the pursuit now of FedRAMP, which we're now FedRAMP ready. But all of those things provide the infrastructure to allow them to embrace these new strategies and this digital transformation, be it in my Cloud-first strategy or my mobility strategy, and be able to extend that same level of security that I would need, and provide that flexibility for my users to get their jobs done. >> Yeah and honestly, Cloud native, as you know, we love Cloud native, we've covered it. >> We do too. >> Covered it from day one. (laughs) Cloud-first is kind of like a moniker that people use. >> Sure. >> Kind of an ethos. It's more of a manifesto, it's more agile. But really Amazon has never hidden the ball in the fact what they believe the future will be and that is API economy. And from day one it's all about APIs and they believe that you should have APIs everywhere. The Cloud has no perimeter so that changes the security game. But the one thing that's emerged out of all this, is a new SaaS business model for businesses and government, and federal, and education. So everything's as a service. >> Jeff: Correct. >> That is a huge deal and this is maybe nuanced a bit, but how does public sector turn into a service model with the Cloud? 'Cause that's something that everyone's kind of going at. You have Cloud natives great, we're going to be Cloud natives, check. But really what they're getting to is, everything's as a service. >> Right. It's created a lot of flexibility in the buying process. First of all, you're bringing that elasticity of demand, right? So they are able to embrace the idea that, I only pay for the services I actually consume. So, should I have a movement in employees, should I change in structure, should my usage suddenly spike, I have the ability to adjust on the fly. That's a big part of it. But the other piece of it is that we can deliver our service at a fixed price cost for a certain period of time within that government fiscal year. So not only does it become easy to manage technologically, but from a budget stand point, it makes it a very predictable cost. I'm no longer having an explosion of data that I have to manage and go off books to try and find data to provide those IOPS and storage on sight. I can simply continue to go at the same budget level that I've already set aside. >> One dynamic that has come up while you brought this up, 'cause I think it's relevant to what we were just talking about is, lock-in. Right? I mean the word lock-in has always been vendor lock-in but really that's on one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is user lock-in. So last night, one of my secret meetings I had last night was with a senior government official and we were talking about how, they're all pissed 'cause they got Microsoft Surfaces instead of Macs. They wanted Macs. So they were just handed a bunch of Microsoft Surfaces. No offense Microsoft, I love the Surface personally, but I've got a Mac here. The point is, they didn't want it. >> Jeff: Right. >> It was forced down their throat. >> Let's just shut that for a moment here. (laughs) >> This is the old way. We made a decision, we're going with this product. So this is really the flexibility point is, very interesting, 'cause now with the Cloud, you can actually do these really agile deployments. >> Jeff: Exactly. >> And give people more choice. >> That's right. The time to value on these products, we have a very large defense contractor inside the Beltway. We were able to deploy to 23,000 users worldwide in under six weeks. But we understand that we're in the performance business and the idea that our customers could leave us at any point in time when the term is up, keeps us very conscious of the specifications that they require. And frankly, it requires us to be innovative on their behalf. Certainly taking their feedback, but really starting to anticipate their requirements, so that we continue to earn that business year over year. And frankly, if you want to talk about lock-in, SaaS provides tremendous flexibility to switch when a contractor isn't performing to spec, versus a perpetual license where I'm locked in for the duration. >> And that's a fear obviously that they're going to use their dollars wisely. I want to get you to weigh in on Druva's digital transformation in back of the customer. Obviously you guys are doing well, you're in the sweet spot, data protection is a hot area. It's one of the hottest area no one really kind of looks at, but it's really hot with the Cloud. What impact are you having with customers and how are you rolling out your value proposition to the public sector? What are the key highlights? I mean, how do they work with you? Is it FedRAMP? Is it GovCloud? Just take us through your value proposition with respect to the- >> Our value proposition, I think is fairly unique. So first, we run on the most wildly accepted Cloud platform by the public sector, AWS GovCloud. Without question the market leader there. We bring all of our experience from the commercial marketplace into that same experience on GovCloud. With the added certifications of FIPS, certification 140-2 moderate. Our FedRAMP in process. We're also HIPPA certified so that we have the ability to address HHS and FDA as some of our customers. 'Cause they also process a lot of personal information that is unique to that particular agency. But at the end of the day, the piece that really is most interesting to our public sector customers is, one, this is a very easy service to bring to the Cloud at lower cost and frankly higher value. The plethora of features and the security, the ease of management that we bring, relieving them of having to manage hundreds of terrabytes of data and apps on behalf of this service, is tremendously beneficial. The predictability of the cost year over year, makes it very very easy to manage. But I think the biggest thing that people have come to embrace is that the innovation that takes place in the Cloud comes to market so much faster in the Cloud. Just think of the QA cycles and how they've been reduced 'cause we're QAing for one platform. Being able to consistently, quarter in, quarter out, deliver that additional feature set and additional value, at no additional cost to our customers, is really what they've really gelled around. >> How do you guys handle the certification processes that are going? I'm sure there'll be more. I mean, they're coming. With all the free-flowing data, I'm sure there's going to be a lot of regulations and policies and governance issues. But you've got to move fast. How do you guys move fast to certify? Is there a secret sauce? Is there a secret playbook? How do you guys stay on top of it? 'Cause automations, machine learning, what's the secret sauce? >> You know, I think it's interesting, part of the uniqueness that is Druva I think is, our ability to anticipate market demand. I think we have a very experienced team of individuals. Look at the choice to go to AWS eight years ago. It was unthinkable at that time, but its turned out to be a visionary sort of choice. We identified that FedRAMP and FIPs certification, three or four years ago, was an absolute mandate to play in this marketplace. So we went there way ahead of our success in the market but we saw a very unique opportunity to go there. So I think it's just a tremendously creative group of people. It's a very dynamic marketplace. And it's one that requires a little bravery and a little bit of thinking in advance of the marketplace. I don't know that we have any magic sauce, but so far it's worked pretty well. I think it's worked out alright. >> I always ask just to see. >> Although that's a good question. >> To that point though, eight years ago when you went, it was a leap right? >> It was. >> Big leap. And now here you are 2017, things are rolling along. I imagine your sale or your pitch has taken on a different tone because you have so much proof in the pudding now, right? >> Oh, it does. A long time ago it was strictly backup. We've now moved into governance, e-discovery, the idea of user behavior analysis so I can find anomalies that may occur so that I can avoid Cryptolocker or other sorts of viruses or things that may be able to affect the operation of my customers. All of those things have come into play that weren't there four years ago. So it's really been an advancement of the added services beyond what we just did in backup, that have really kind of driven the business and differentiated us from the market. But it's still kind of fundamentally that idea that I'm going to protect your data, make it available to you and separate now from your device and really help you manage your data wherever you're doing your work. >> I know we're running tight on time, I do want to get one more question in from your perspective because again, present and creation is really a benefit to Druva, congratulations on that. You get to ride the wave and now the wave is bigger and more sets coming in. That's to use the surfing analogy. But talk about the perspective from your personal standpoint, just the changes going on in this marketplace right now. Teresa Carlson, when we were commenting on our opening, how tenacious she's been. She's knocked on a lot of doors. Eight years ago, what the hell's cloud? No one even knew what it was right? And then the shot heard around the Cloud with the CIA deal and just more and more and more in them, this is just a great business opportunity for Amazon Web Services, not just the enterprise, which they're doing well in now. >> Right. >> They own the startup market. This could be, it could have a 90% market share of public sector. >> That's right, that's right. >> John F.: Talk about the change. What's going on? Is it the perfect storm? Is it like right now, what's the progress. >> Well you know, it seems like its a perfect storm but for somebody who's been banging at it for the last four or five years, it seems to be a little bit more evolutionary. But it's interesting, when I started at Druva, if I looked across our opportunities across the Americas. It was fairly evenly split between the idea that I'm going to do this on premise or I'm going to do it in the Cloud. Today, if I look across all o6f North America and all the commercial entities and public sector entities that we're dealing with, we're probably engaged in well over 500 opportunities at any one time, literally less than two, quarter over quarter, is now on premise. People have come to embrace the idea that this is a place where I can conduct business safely and securely. And frankly, for us, you look at that digital transformation or business transformation, we become two really compelling services to start and experiment with moving to the Cloud. So very often, we are the tip of that spear. Lets backup our endpoint devices to the Cloud, let's get out of that business, 'cause we can do it much more effectively with Druva than we can for ourselves at less cost. >> It's almost the reverse of what on prem was. I've had many opportunities where I've bumped into IT practitioners, friends and what not in the industry. "Oh, I forgot to do the backup plan. I got the procurement going on." It's kind of an afterthought, it's been kind of an afterthought. I am oversimplifying but generally, it's not the primary. When you go outside the walls of a company, into the Cloud where there's no perimeter, it's the first conversation. >> That's right. >> So I hear what you're saying and I totally agree. This is unique, it's a complete flip around. >> Well it's amazing. So often, we're backing up server data to the cloud. So now it used to be just backing up to the Cloud. Now it's, I have the application running in the Cloud and I want to back it up and secure it into another Cloud. It's completely morphing into all sorts of interesting places. But the part that's really interesting is that we will bring to our customers disaster recovery, for example. Well that's a service, we turn it on and if you never experience the disaster, you don't pay for it. It just creates a whole new mindset of how we're going to think and how we're going to approach the infrastructure that we're now building. >> No license fee. It's just if you need it, you get whacked on it and you deserve to get whacked on it because you need the service. >> Well, they know what the cost will be. We've set it up for a nominal fee but if you're fortunate enough that you never experience the problem, why should you pay for it. So literally cutting that price in half, removing the requirement of 2XL Servers and 430 tip. >> John F.: It's a new operating model. >> That's right. And the flexibility that it creates to change to your computing requirements is just phenomenal. >> Well, phenomenal, I think would be a way to describe your ascent as well. >> Oh thank you. >> So congratulations on that front. Glad you could be with us Jeff, at the show. Continued success and we hope to see you down the road on theCube. >> John, John, it was a real pleasure. >> John W.: First time right? >> It was, it was, thank you. >> John W.: You're a tour alum now or a Cube alum. (laughs) >> John F.: Cube alumni. >> Good to have you with us. >> Jeff: Thank you, thank you so much. >> Jeff McAllister with Druva. Back with more here from AWS Public Sector Summit 2017 on theCube. You're watching live in Washington D.C..