(upbeat electronic music) >> Narrator: From the VMware campus in Palo Alto, California, it's theCUBE covering Women Transforming Technology. >> Hi, I'm Lisa Martin with theCUBE. We are on the ground at VMware in Palo Alto, with the third annual Women Transforming Technology event and I'm very excited to be joined by the CEO of Women Who Code, Alaina Percival. Alaina, nice to have you here. >> Hi, thank you very much for having me. >> So tell me about Women Who Code. You co-founded it a while ago. Give us a little bit of a background about what your organization is. >> Yeah, Women Who Code is the largest and most active community of technical women in the world. Our mission is to see women excel in technology careers, and that's because we have a vision of women becoming executives, technical executives, founders, board members, and of course through a pathway of being software engineers. >> So Women Who Code started, originally, back in 2011 as a community. Tell me a little bit about the genesis of that and what you've transformed it into, today. >> Yeah, it started off as a local community, and it was just a space to get together with other technologists, and what we started to see is it was this thing that was just fun and kind of our little secret for, you know, that first year, and we realized-- at one point I said, "Hey other women around the world deserve to have this, as well." And, that's really where the focus to grow globally came about and focus on women: building on their skills and building up their leadership skills and if you invite software engineers to a leadership and networking event, they won't come, but we hold an average of five free technical events every single day, throughout the world, and at those events, they're primarily technology events where we weave in a little bit of leadership and networking, but it feels authentic and its an event that software engineers are excited to be. >> Five events per day, that's incredible. So, VMware became a partner back in 2015, when you had around nine or 10,000 members. Now, today, its over 137,000 global members. Talk to us about the strategic partnership with VMware and what that's enabled Women Who Code to achieve. >> Yeah, we can't accomplish what we accomplish without the partners that support us. We try not to charge our members for anything. So, those 1,900 events we put on last year were free. We've given away $2.8 million in our weekly newsletter of scholarships, and conference tickets, encouraging our community to go out there in the broader tech community and we can do those things, we can launch in the cities that we can launch in, we can elevate women as leaders around the world, but we can only do that through partners, and VMware is one of our founding partners and what that took is someone in executive leadership to see who we could be, because we're very small, and we were very local when we came to VMware and talked to them about what our vision was and what we were going to accomplish and I say now, what I said back then, is we've only scratched the surface of what we are going to achieve. >> There's some commonalities, some parallels that Women Who Code has with VMware. You know, this is the third annual Women Transforming Technology event at VMware here and its sold out within hours. Walking into that room it's very empowering. The excitement and the passion are there and you just start to feel a sense of community. Tell me about the parallels that you see with VMware and some of the visions that they share about, not just raising awareness for the diversity gaps and challenges, but also taking a stand to be accountable in that space. And what they announced this morning with Stanford, with this massive $15 million investment in this Innovation Lab of actually wanting to dig deep into these barriers to help identify them to help eradicate them. What are some of the visionary similarities with Women Who Code and VMware? >> Yeah, so what you see with that is you know, you're investing in someone or an organization that already has the potential. Our average age of our community is 30. We have a lot of trouble claiming that you achieve what you achieve in your career, because of us. We know we play a part in it, but we know that potential, that raw power, exists within you, and when someone sees and knows that that's there and gives you what you need to be able to harness that potential, you are able to achieve great things, global things. You're able to change the world, and that's what we do for our members and their careers, and that's what our partners, like VMware do for us. >> I saw on your website: 80% of members experience a positive career impact, after joining Women Who Code. 80% of women, that's huge. >> Yeah, and a lot of that comes from the people that you connect with, the sense of belonging. We had a women at the end of Hackathon, in Manila come up to our leaders, there, and she started crying. She said, "I was about to leave the industry and I realize I have a place." And that sense of belonging that you get from coming to a Women Who Code event that's very welcoming, it can really help to override all of those unconscious biases that you encounter every day, throughout the course of your career, and it helps you to realize, "I'm not alone. There's a lot of really smart, talented women in the tech industry, who want me to be in my job and being in my job isn't just for me. I'm lifting up the people around me, as well." >> So one of the things that we hear a lot about is a lot of focus on STEM programs and getting young girls interested in STEM fields to study in college, but another thing that's huge is the attrition rates. Women are leaving technology at alarming rates, and a lot of people think it's to go off and have children, and it's actually not the case. What are some of the things that have surprised you about women kind of in that, maybe, mid-stage of their career that are leaving, and how can Women Who Code help to impact that, positively? >> Yeah, so what you're speaking to is definitely the data showing that women are leaving their technical careers at a rate of 50% at the mid-career level, and they're leaving their overall careers, if you aggregate women in careers, at a rate of 20% over a 30 year period, so that gap is huge and the industry is a great industry for women. You've got a lot of job security, a lot of job opportunity, a lot of flexibility. All of these things are great for women and their careers, but what you're encountering is often being the only, or one of the only, and you really don't overcome that, until you're getting above 20%, 25%, 30% of that feeling of being the only on a team, and what I think is the biggest issue with women coming into their careers at what kind of wears you down is the unconscious bias. It's something that you encounter on a daily, or multiple times a day basis. That thing that if you complained about a single one of them, you'd be the weird person who complains, at your company. And so, what Women Who Code really does is: one, it helps to create a sense of belonging, it helps to build domain-specific and non-domain-specific skills, it helps you to envision your career, not just the next step in your career, but the step after that, and the step after that, so it's really working to combat those things that you're to, on a daily basis, to provide that sense of community, to remind you, you do belong, and to really help you envision and achieve your career goals, long-term. >> So you have about 137,000 members, globally. And when we had Lily Chang on earlier, she was talking about the Shanghai and Beijing and kind of what that sort of thing meant to her going back there now, on the board. Tell us, maybe give me an example of a real shining star, who joined Women Who Code and was able to get that support, and that guidance, and that camaraderie to continue to be successful, and actually be promoted, and succeed. >> Yeah, so one example that I love is a woman came up to me at an event, last year, and she said, "Hey Alaina, I was going to the Women Who Code Python events, and I now, today, because of what I learned, ended up choosing a path in data science. I'm a senior data scientist, and this year, I'm being flown across country to speak, as an expert in data science. I would not be in this career path, without Women Who Code." Another story that I love is a woman who came up to me at a Hackathon and she told me her story that she had joined Women Who Code, in February, and she was going to our events and kind of figured out what she wanted to do, and by the summer she had transitioned into a new job, gotten a job with The Weather Channel, as a software engineer, and she was making more than double any salary that she had had prior to that. >> Wow. >> And so its career direction, competing job offers, which really increases your likelihood of having a higher salary, those are kind of two examples that I love. The one thing that we haven't talked about is our leadership program. We have a global leadership program, which really actions you to build skill-based volunteering and become a local tech leader. It opens up lines of communication between you and executives at your company. You often get called in as a thought leader at companies. You typically will receive a promotion or a pay increase, at a higher rate than you would otherwise. Some of our leaders get press mentions, get invited to be speakers at conferences, or even advisors on advisory boards. And so, when I look at the stories that are coming from our leaders, one of my favorite stories is a woman in Atlanta. She had a master's in CS. She was inside of the box, you know, the person that every company wants to hire. She was incredibly shy, and when she stepped up as a Women Who Code leader she said, "Oh Alaina, I'm going to be the worst leader." And, okay you've got this. At her first event, she stoop up and she was like, "My name's Erica. Feel free to ask me questions," and kind of sat down, as quickly as possible, but she stood in the front of that room. She began to be perceived by the community, and by herself, as a leader. And in under one year, she was invited, she didn't even apply, to speak at three different tech conferences, and she went from barely being able to say her name in front of a nice community to giving a talk to a standing-room-only crowd. >> Wow, very impactful. And is that for other opportunities that you guys deliver, in terms of public speaking, or was that because she was able to, through Women Who Code, to start to get more confidence in her own capabilities and in her own skin? >> Experience, confidence, self-perception, community-perception, I had one lead at our community tell me that she became a leader at Women Who Code, by regularly attending events. One day, the leader was running late, so she said, "Oh, well, you know I can probably get this started. I've been coming enough," so she went and stood at the front of the room, welcomed everyone, got everything going, said our pitch and she said, by the end of that three-hour event, people thought she was a leader and she began to think, "Oh yeah, I'm a leader," and she says, "Hey, I know that I can get an interview anywhere I want. I know that this opens doors for me." I had one leader tell me that she interviewed with SpaceX, and they specifically told her in the interview that they were impressed with her Women Who Code leadership and that was one of the reasons they were interviewing her. >> Wow, what have been some of the things that have really blown you away, in the few years that this organization has been around? >> It's just the individual stories. It's, every step of the way, the impact that it has in the lives of our leaders in our community. And I honestly feel, everyday, that I get to do this for a job. >> With what VMware announced this morning, with Stanford and this huge investment that they're making into Women's Leadership and Innovation Lab, to look at some significant barriers that women in technology are facing and to identify those barriers that we can then eradicate, what are some of the things that you're looking forward to, from that research and how you think that can actually benefit Women Who Code? >> Yeah, I'm very excited to see what comes out from there. I think we need a lot more research to help us to understand at what point things are happening and what things you can be doing that really help to overcome. I think that combining research with the real-world, in-person action that Women Who Code does and the work that we do with our community would have an even bigger impact. >> I also think what it speaks to is accountability. You know, a very large, very successful, 20-year-old organizations standing up saying, "We actually want to study this," and I think that there's a message there of accountability, which is, I think, a very important one that other organizations can definitely learn from. >> Yeah, I think that also they're going to an organization outside of them and funding that. And so, the research that comes out of there might come back and say, "You're doing this wrong. This is how you can be doing it better." And so, the fact that they're willing to make an investment and say, "Hey, we want to see this better, not only for us. It's not just going to be internal. This data's going out to the world." That's an investment in global change. That's not just holding that in at a personal or organizational level. >> Right, so in addition to that news that came out today, what are some of the things that you're going to walk away, from this third annual Women Transforming Technology event going, "Ah, that was awesome. Now, this gives me even more ideas for Women Who Code." >> Yeah, I think this is a great opportunity to connect with, especially, women who are in leadership positions and figure out how we can better service women at the higher tiers of their career, because you don't stop needing support, and you don't stop growing your career, once you become a director or a vice president. You continue to invest in your career, and you continue to needs support. And so, I'm really looking for ways that we can better serve those women. >> And hopefully, we start to see that attrition number at 50% start to come down. >> Alaina: Definitely. >> Alaina, thanks so much for your time. It was a pleasure to chat with you, and we wish you continued success with Women Who Code. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for watching. I'm Lisa Martin with theCUBE, on the ground at VMware, for the third annual Women Transforming Technology event. Thanks for watching. (funky electronic music)

(upbeat music) >> Announcer: Live from Orlando, Florida, it's the Cube. Covering Pentaho World 2017 brought to you by Hitachi Vantara. >> Welcome back to the Cube's live coverage of Pentaho World brought to you of course by Hitachi Vantara. I am your host Rebecca Knight along with my co-host, Dave Vellante. We're joined by Anthony Deshazor. He is the Chief Solution's Architect and SVP of Customer Success at Pentaho. Thanks so much for coming on the Cube. >> Thank you for having me. Wonderful to be here. >> So before the cameras were rolling, we were talking a little bit about your career. You've been at this company for 12 years. >> Anthony: 12 years. >> And in different iterations of the company. >> Anthony: Right. >> Tell our viewers a little bit about how the company has evolved and also your role has evolved. >> One of the things that I really have watched Pentaho go through is the evolution to be more customer-centric. We began as a technology company. A bunch of geeks getting together. Had some neat tech, we could write some code and it was fun. We enjoyed it, but now as we start getting more customers we realized the technology had to serve the customer versus the customer serving the technology. That's wonderful transformation to go through to figure out how do you take that technology, bend it to the will of the customer and have that customer at the center of all your conversations. That was something that took us about six years to go through. Where we had all the geeks, kind of out of the room and put them in the back. I was one of the geeks so I got excused for some of those strategy conversations. But we got some good sales guys involved, some good marketing people who really brought that customer focus. Along the way we built better solutions 'cause we were listening more to our customers. It's interesting when you hear what people want to do you have a better chance of actually achieving it versus, let me build it and they will come. Other way, what do they need now let me build that. >> And really you said you were a geek, but you also really straddled the non-geek side too-- >> Anthony: Right. >> Because you can speak the other side. How do you do that, what is sort of the secret sauce to? >> I actually attribute that to some of my non-Pentaho, non-technical training. I'm actually a pastor of a church in Orlando, Florida. So I've done a lot of theological studies, a lot of homiletics that teach you how to stand on a stage and how to relate to people, even at a distance. And that actually comes through when you talk one on one with people. They feel like you're actually listening to them. And I actually attribute that all to that training. >> But the underline architecture still has to be malleable in order to accommodate-- >> Absolutely. >> That vision that you just put forth. It's kind of like that platforms versus products. >> Anthony: Yes. >> You built a platform not a product. And if you don't start with a vision of a platform you get a bunch of products. It don't necessarily tie together. Take us back to the early days. Was that part of the design thinking? >> Actually it was. Our five founders at Pentaho had that in their DNA. We had done three startups. I've been luckily enough or maybe stupid enough to do three of their startups. They had done three, I have done all three. But at the very core it was we needed to build something that was embeddable. That can work in process. Something that can be molded to the client's problem. We understood that whatever we built will never be enough. It would never be able to solve all of the problems. So if we put gates around it, it would reduce what we can do. So we wanted to build something that was extendable. Something that was a platform that if we didn't have the functionality you could easily build it. That's one of the reasons why went open source originally. Where all the code was open source. Anyone could extend it, anyone could bend it. Just because we understood there's no way for us, sitting in an ivory tower, to really figure out what's needed. >> And these decisions were made in the early to mid 2000's. >> Anthony: Yes. >> So they way predated Hadoop. >> Anthony: Yes. >> Then you had Hadoop saying okay, we're just going to bring compute to the data. And totally different data paradigm and platform approach. >> Anthony: Yes, yes. >> Was it that sort of philosophy that allowed you to adapt or did you have to do a heavy lift to adapt? >> Actually it wasn't a heavy lift. The legend has it, I wasn't in the conversation but our founding CEO had a conversation with one of our architects. I think they were having drinks or something at one of the local bars or pubs around Orlando, around the Orlando office. They begin to talk about Hadoop, pulled out a white napkin and just drew some things on the back of the napkin. A week later we had our first integration with Haddook. That's built upon that extendable, pluggable architecture that was there at the core. So that's really allowed up to adapt to new technologies to really catch the waves early and maybe sometimes anticipate the waves. >> So in this latest iteration of the company, Hitachi Vantara what can customers expect? >> The one way I can describe it is that it's maturity. You get the size of Hitachi Vantara behind you, you can do things that you could not do with a small company. As great as Pentaho was as a standalone company I believe we'll be that much bigger when you have the whole weight of Hitachi Anatara standing behind you. We had our strategic advisory board yesterday and one of the things I shared with those customers is that now you will see us attack things that we could not even fathom before. We have more developers so we can move features further, faster. We have more people in different regions so now we can do more services, help customers better in far regions like an Apac region for example. Where we struggled in the past as a standalone company. When you have a support center. A whole geography dedicated to Hitachi Vantara already there, it's now how do we instead of build the infrastructure just add that analytic DNA to the infrastructure that already exists. So that's what I think customers will experience very quickly. We can do more faster. We can do more in different locations. And we can even do more at a higher level of efficiency and quality if you would, because we have that backing of Hitachi Vantara. >> You were sharing this off camera. You do a lot of traveling, you talk to a lot of customers. >> Yes. >> You spend a lot of time in the aluminum tube. When you talk to customers and you compare it to now versus in the early days. The technology when you guys started was sort of mysterious and today the technology, there's plenty of it, it's abundant and it's pretty well understood. Sometimes it's hard to make work. But when you guys talk about digital transformation. >> Anthony: Sure. >> And disruption, be the disruptor, not the disruptee. A big thing that's changing is the processes within organizations. Those are largely unknown. It used to be very well known processes. Accounting or HR or whatever it was. Now the processes they're changing everyday. >> Yes. >> Do you have those conversations with customers and how are you as a company adapting and supporting that premise. >> One of the things I've noticed is that we have new roles introduced everyday. (laughter) All of a sudden, we had a data engineer. They used to be called DBA's, now they're data engineers. Now we have data scientists. Some companies I know they have data janitors and we have data prep. All these people now new roles in the organization all related to data. What we've been looking at is how do we make sure that every person, no matter their role understands how to use the data. My interest and my focus here at Pentaho is not just around architecture but also customer success. And we learned very quickly in the last two years as we've been on this customer success journey, you can install the best technology. It can be absolutely pristine from an architectural standpoint. You can get awards on architecture. But if you can't get the people to adapt, to adopt and use the software, use the solution you've basically just wasted your time. So what we've been focused on, how do we identify those new roles? How do we identify what skills do they need? How do we do training on the solution that was built so that no matter what their role is they understand how the solution can add value. How does the solution improve your job? Improve your life experience, maybe get things done faster. Maybe do more than you used to be able to do. But we've gotten out of the old tradition that there's a training department, accounting department. There used to be a time, I'm old enough to say this, where there was business analytics team but now every team has business analytics in it. It's part of someone's job to analyze the data. Even if that's not their primary function. So it's that, how do you make sure that no matter the role they have the skills and they access the data. >> How are you fostering collaboration between those roles? You always hear the stories of data scientists spend 80% of their trying to-- >> Anthony: Clean your data. >> Mess with the data, right. But you're right you've got the data engineer, the quality engineer, the application developer now-- >> Anthony: Yes. >> Data's now the new development kit. >> Anthony: It is. >> So how are you approaching the collaboration across those roles? >> So one of the things we've challenged our customers with is do you have a center of excellence? Doesn't have to be a dedicated center of excellence. It can be a concept or virtual team. But do you have a forum where people can collaborate? If you're doing analytics in a silo, if you're doing data integration in a silo and people are not talking to each other you're missing opportunities for efficiency, for innovation, even for understanding, wait if I do this that allows you to do this better. So how do you create that center of excellence? We have services now, professional services team are working with our customers to start that concept. Let's train one or two people. Make them the go to people for everyone else. >> Rebecca: Evangelists. >> Exactly, they become the evangelist. That helps us in two ways. One it helps us when it comes to getting people to use the technology in the right way. When you have a platform that means people have to use it correctly. You can build some amazing things with Pentaho, but you can also build some pretty, let's just say non-efficient things with the same platform. And then of course, me being the customer guy, they're going to blame the technology and I have to have that very delicate conversation, like not real good technology. It's the builder, it's what you built that's the problem. So we have some experts there that we can train and have them be the guardians, if you would. The custodians of the quality of the solutions. To make sure there's consistency and best practices. But the other side, we're also a renewable based company where we want to get the subscriptions, we want to get the renewals. So if I have evangelist there that can help the company use the solutions, adopt the solutions, that makes the renewal conversations that much easier. >> So I want to talk to you about measuring success. >> Anthony: Sure. >> Because one of the things that came out in the keynote today was Pentaho's underlying principles of social innovation and not just saving companies money or making them more money but also doing good in the world and bettering society. So how do you pitch that to customers? How do customers respond? How do you approach that idea? >> It's a hard one at times, because most companies are focused, I need to solve my problem. I don't care what we're doing about the rest of the world. I have this major pain point. This is what I need you to focus on. >> And fair enough. >> Absolutely, that's what they're paying the money for. That's where we start. We start there, can we get into start solving some problems together. And as the partnership develops, now what else can we do? So it's not just let me go sell this one solution. Let's partner for your good but for the good of the whole society. Are there things we can do that actually make not only your job easier, bring you money, but actually make things better. So some of the customers I love you heard IMS, you heard Dr. Alaina there Ella, excuse me today. I met with some of the other ones that are working with IMS, Dr. Ben. That story's actually close to my heart, 'cause who doesn't want to save money on their insurance but who also doesn't want better and safer cars? That's a social innovation story. Absolutely we're driving down the costs, we're helping companies manage their risks, understand their risks around insurance. But then we're also helping them get feedback on what makes cars better. What makes them safer? How can we avoid accidents? That is social innovation, that's what we're looking for. That's what Brian talked about with that double bottom line. How can we help you achieve your business goals but go beyond that to better society. >> We've heard a lot about transformations. Hitachi's own transformation, Pentaho, pre Hadoop, the Hadoop big data mime. You guys caught that wave. Now you're sort of entering, I don't know if it's your third wave or not. (laughter) Could be your fifth, tenth, I don't know. But there's another big wave coming. >> Anthony: Absolutely. >> Which is industrial IOT, Brian talked about IT and OT coming together. >> Anthony: Coming together. >> And it's early days but what are you seeing in the customer base. It was interesting, Brian very transparent, said how many Hitachi customers are out there? A few hands went up. >> Great, great. >> But not a ton. So as I say it is early days, but on paper the potential is enormous. >> Anthony: Great. >> It's a trillion dollar market, makes a lot of since, you see a lot of big industrial giants going after this and you've got some real assets you can bring to bear. >> Anthony: Right. >> What are the conversations like with customers and where do you see that all going? >> The way we approached customers and what I hear from customers, they don't really mention the word IOT. >> Dave: Okay. >> Most of them don't understand that they have an IOT problem. All they know is, I have this problem. So we're using IOT is to say, you have that outcome. You desire that outcome and to get that outcome you need to get data from all your devices. We have an IOT platform that can help you do that. So where the word even IOT comes up for us, is only in the solution not in the problem. Where I think some companies are missing the mark 'cause they're selling the technology. We have an IOT platform, please come buy our platform. Well, we've been a platform play forever with Pentaho and we understand that if you go there with a blank slate and say here, here's my platform come buy it, people don't understand it. They don't see the value. But if you can come and say, what's the problem you have? What's the outcome you're looking for? Let's focus on the outcome and back our way into the technology. And that's how we're approaching customers. That seems to be working so far. We have some IOT customers today that did not realize that they were doing IOT. >> The big product announcement today with Pentaho 8. What can we expect? >> Scale, that's the one word I would use for Pentaho 8. This is one of the best releases I think we've had. We have a new functionality called Work Nodes. We have customers who have been implementing something similar to this in the field for years. We've now productized it, it allows customers to scale out. We've heard from Brian and from others that to do this right you have to do it at scale. You have to provide this data, this analytics at scale. What our Worker Nodes allows customers to do is spin ups, spin down, distribute the workload on prim in the cloud. We don't really care, it's just we have a workload. You've given us a set of nodes we can work on we're just distribute the workload throughout that and when we're done we can spin them down. That elasticity, that flexibility as absolutely needed for today's data solutions. >> Great, Anthony thank you, you were a great guest. Thanks for coming on the Cube. >> Thank you for having me, thank you. >> I'm Rebecca Knight for Dave Vellante. We will have more from Pentaho World just after this. (upbeat music)