>> From around the globe it's theCUBE, with digital coverage of AWS Public Sector Partner Awards brought to you by Amazon Web Services. >> Hello everyone. Welcome to the special CUBE coverage Of AWS Partner Awards Show. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE. We're here in our Palo Alto, California studio doing the remote interviews with our quarantine crew. Obviously during this time of COVID we're remote with the best Remote Work Solution Award for AWS Partner Awards goes to Tyler Technologies and the City of Alvin Municipal Court, and we have Sandy Peters, Vice President General Manager of Virtual Courts, an Incode court system. Sandy is here to talk about that and Sonya Cates, who's the City of Alvin's Municipal Court Court Administrator. Welcome and congratulations for the Best Remote Work Solution. We're remote! Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> (chuckles) Thanks, John, thanks. >> Okay so Sandy I'll start with you. Tyler Technologies, you're the General Manager of the Incode Court. This is a solution that you're deploying with the city of Alvin to do some things. Take a minute to explain what you guys are doing together, what does your group at Tyler do and how is it working with City of Alvin? >> Yeah John, Tyler Technologies is just completely focused on local, state and federal government software and services and particularly, the Incode court application focuses on municipal court, which is what Sonya is the Court Administrator for in Alvin. We have about 900 clients across the US that do that same thing. We had this idea about coming up with a remote solution for ability for someone to, instead of having to go to court to see a judge that they could do that remotely and really have the same experience and so we sort of launched off on that and worked with several different of our clients and came up with a way for that to happen. Sonya got involved in it very early on and has been instrumental in helping us continue to make it successful. >> Sonya, talk about the City of Alvin's municipal court system. Obviously with COVID people are sheltering in place and they're not moving around much. You have to have a solution. Talk about the partnership with Tyler. How did this come together, how do you guys work? Take us through that. >> Well we have a great relationship with Tyler Technologies. They are very instrumental in our day-to-day processing. They sent out an email with the idea, due to COVID, and soon as we received the email we decided that was the best solution for our court and we just immediately jumped on board with it so we could resolve cases and not get behind. >> So the Virtual Court means, okay, I get a ticket, I want to appeal it, normally I'd show up and now I can't so it interfaces it? Take me through the solution and where does AWS fit into all this? I'm assuming it's on the cloud. >> It definitely is on the cloud, John, and that's exactly right. So if you get a citation, sometimes you may want to appeal it; sometimes you just want to find out what your options are and you are going to go appear before a judge. You can do that remotely now through our application. It supports all the video, you can upload documents, exchange those supporting documents and then it interfaces with our case management system so that, as changes are made on the case, they're reflected and the defendant can see those and so it just, really, the whole idea is remotely being able to go before the judge, find out what your options are go through that process, and then at the very end it gives them a way to completely take care of that case and within a few minutes it can be completely resolved. >> Sonya take us through the City of Alvin's court system there. What's the challenges that you have and what was some of the feedback when you first brought this out? Take us through what happened. >> Well, to be honest, for us it was unknown territory. We were a little nervous, we were a little scared to do something of this sort but with the situation at hand we had to figure out something and this was the best fit for us. There was other options available but we prefer to stay within Tyler and utilize the system to its fullest so that's why we just said, "Okay, let's do this." I have a judge that's amazing that is very tech savvy and he was on board and my city manager. So just working with Tyler each step of the way and them comforting us, in a sense, to let us know, "Hey it's okay. "We're here each step of the way. "We'll build this together," and that's kind of where we started with the whole project. >> So this is a low-hanging fruit, obviously. It's not jury, I'm assuming. Not a jury kind of situation. It's more of other, non-jury activities, right? >> Right. It's the day-to-day court, you know, non-jury. We're not doing any jury trials right now until after the governor allows us. So it's just the regular, you know, pre-trials, the attorney dockets, arraignments and those sorts of cases. >> I'd love to be on the planning sessions as you start to roll out the software for jury selection. We'll go into that- >> I'm excited, I'm ready. >> Kind of like, what's your Facebook handle look like? (laughs) >> Yeah. >> You know, it's going to be digital surveillance. I don't know, could be crazy. But this is the future. This is what we're talking about here. This is all cloud scale. One of the benefits of cloud is taking things and doing experiments. We hear that all the time. Take us through the judge. So you said he's tech savvy. Are these like Zoom-like calls, is there a workflow? I'm just trying to envision what stood up in terms of the Incode Virtual Court side, Sandy. Sonya, what's it like? Take me through the experience. >> Well everything's tied in together, whereas Zoom and other options out there, it's separated from your software. So that was one of the perks of going through Tyler with this Virtual Court is because everything's tied into one. We don't have to enter data or anything. After the docket's over it's all live. Our forms, as soon as the defendant and the judge make an agreement, it's put into TCM where the defendant can see it live, sign the orders and immediately get it back to us and there's no delay time, there's no down time, and it's housed in one. So we're not having to miss data or, you know, it eliminates a lot of errors, clerical errors or cases from being missed. >> And the judge handles everything, right? He deals with the personal interactions, reviews the data, the defendant makes their case? >> Well (crosstalk), the clerics do a lot, too. He's talking, and as he's talking, we're entering his orders as he's speaking. >> So it's real-time- >> So we're interacting. >> This is true agility. Sandy, this is the future. This is where the solutions start to get the scale. So what's next? What is the vision? How do you guys see the next step because we all know that COVID will be over soon, we hope faster than it's happened, but it'll be a hybrid world and I think this shows a template for efficiencies. >> Right. Yes, yeah, I think that's a great point and it is the future. We're going to continue to leverage our relationship with AWS which has just been incredible through this process and went way beyond what we were expecting just in terms of resources and helping us even just within our own development processes, as we brought something to scale and in learning how to load test and really build applications that can scale out. So we believe it is the future and Sonya makes a great point many times because they live in an area where, sometimes, there's other natural disasters, like hurricanes, that can disrupt what's going on for them. But then, also, as you just think about, really, what I would call responsibility. As we move forward, we have a responsibility to provide ways that people can take care of things and not put themselves at risk as we move into the future, past COVID. So we're going to continue to leverage the technology that AWS provides, the scalability, how we can load test and everything and it was really a no-brainer for us to run this application on the AWS services for us. >> And Sonya, it's also not just about justice, not only getting the folks who are speeding and taking care of the penalties there, but it's also potentially for justice. If someone is not guilty or they want to get... business has to continue, right? So this extends into the use case of remote, hybrid, the future, because- >> Oh yes. >> Work can be distributed. Now you have efficiencies. This is going to create a connected system, which ultimately can be a connected community. >> Yeah, and it's going to reduce the failure to appear for court cases, also, so that'll be less warrants, more compliance, and it's a better relationship between us, the court, and our defendants, because they have the option of not having to leave work or miss appointments. You know, they can still tend to their case and do other things that they need to do without taking and spending, you know, couple of hours sitting in a room at the court. >> That's a huge point, Sandy. This is about resource utilization on both sides; not just the courts and the City of Alvin, on the municipal side, the citizens. It's efficiency. I mean how many people don't show up because they can't get out of work or they need to make their paycheck or they have their family needs need to be met. So all these things play into the psychology (chuckles) of life. This is digital life, virtualization of life. It really is a big thing. >> Yeah, yeah. I think you're exactly right, I mean, you're hitting on some great points. That's exactly right and when you think about what has to happen for you to go and maybe go before a judge and take off work, you got to go fight traffic, you got to find parking, you may have to have someone that takes care of your children. There's all sorts of things you're having to go through just to get down and be in front of a judge that this can help with and I think it's just one aspect, to your point, of really trying to think of really starting to help government think about how to be more customer centric, how to provide some ways for people to take care of what they need to take care of. So we're really trying, and your point about connected communities is a huge key point for us at Tyler, as we think of ways that we can help a community be more connected, for sure. >> Well you know I'm huge into whole civic relationships and having a productive government and having citizens be served for that reason and having it be a community, and now more than ever, transparency is helpful, right? This only helps things. So you guys are doing a really great job of, one, enabling a work environment remotely, in this case, it's for the courts to be operational, which they need to be, but it clearly can extend. So Sonya, I've got to ask you the question. I'd love to get your commentary on surprises when you rolled this out. You know, were people like, "Oh my god, no one's ever going to use it," or, "It's just too techie," or has there been any pleasant surprises or things that surprised you that you didn't think was going to happen? Give us some kind of commentary on some observations that you've seen from rolling out the Best Remote Work Solution. >> It's been very interesting. Our actual first defendant, he was elderly, and so we were kind of concerned. Okay, will he know how to connect and he did amazing. So that's kind of where we knew if we could reach the older generation and he can connect, all these younger defendants and younger people shouldn't have any issue. So we explained to him, "Hey, you're our first defendant. "This is new to us, it's new to you," and he did awesome. So that kind of gave us the confidence we needed to pursue it even more and push it out there and give the defendants options. There's been, we've looked (chuckles)... Some people forget, and so do I, that we're on camera and, you know (John laughs), we can see up noses, they forget they're in their vehicle, you know, it may hit a few bumps. >> John: There are dogs barking in the back (laughs). >> You know like, okay, maybe we need to pull over. (laughs) So it's been an experience but a pleasant experience and it gave us... We didn't want to backlog cases throughout this COVID and having the virtual option through Tyler has, we were, when COVID first started, we got behind, until we launched, we had about 800 cases we got behind on, and then soon as we launched out Virtual Court, now we're caught up, my court's running smooth, everything's great and there's no backlog of cases. >> Clear the backlog. The question I want to ask is that elderly first user. Did he or she get an early adopter discount on the sentence? (laughs) >> The judge was kind. (laughs) But he did awesome, I was shocked. >> I kind of resent the elderly remark, Sonya, but that's okay. (laughs) I think she's referring to me. >> No, no, no. He was in his 80s. >> Okay, I feel a little, I feel young, then. Well you guys, congratulations. I'd like to get your parting thoughts just with cloud technology. A lot of other folks out there are looking at re-imagining public service, specifically around these times where there's a lot of emotional stress, like, you got backlogged, you don't want to have the court get backlogged. I can see that. People don't want tickets hanging out there. But that kind of encapsulates people's feelings right now and I think remote citizenship is coming. Just your thoughts on how you see this as a beginning, starting point for cloud computing enabling the efficiencies, the solutions and the applications for a more connected community experience. Sonya, we'll start with you. >> Okay. I can see this, this is the way we're going to keep things. We like the option, the flexibility that our defendants, our citizens have. It's opened our eyes, and if there's other courts out there that are kind of hesitant to go ahead and jump in and do it, I strongly recommend just do it. It's scary in the very beginning because a lot of us were not used to it, but after you get through it and you go through the changes, it's so worth it in the end and you'll see such a... More of a compliance for both sides and, you know, it reduces the stress on staff having to send out mail notices for failure to appears and stuff of that sort. Reduce warrants. So it's been a win-win all the way around. So if I could reach any court out there that's kind of on the line of doing it, just do it. >> All right, yeah, great. Sandy. >> Yeah, and John, for us, cloud is the future. I mean every application we have, we're actively working, if it's not already a cloud-based solution, it will be and we're a huge believer in the scalability. But when you look at applications like this, as an example, of Tyler Virtual Court, where it's really a win-win situation. It's better for the court; they can continue to carry on their business; it's better for the citizen because now they can actually take care of something that they weren't going to be able to take care of in the past, and as we continue to find win-win solutions, cloud-based solutions are going to be at the core of that in terms of just how easy it is to access and roll out. So it's a big part of our future and we believe it's a big part of our customers' future, as well. >> Well congratulations. Modernization has positive impacts if done right. More time is freed up to work on maybe personal things and connect those communities and bring people together. Congratulations, Tyler Technologies and the City of Alvin for the Best Remote Work Solution and it's the court system. Get those tickets paid, clear that backlog and now you got all the time in the world, Sonya, to kind of work on other things. What do you do with all your free time? >> I'm going to take a vacation! (laughs) >> Thank you so much for having this conversation and, again, congratulations. Thanks for your time. >> Thank you. >> Thanks a lot, John, thank you. >> Okay this is the CUBE's covering of AWS Public Sector Partner Awards Show. I'm John Furrier with the Best Remote Work Solution. Thanks for watching. (futuristic marimba music)

>>from the >>Cube Studios in Palo Alto and Boston connecting with thought leaders all around the world. This is a cube conversation >>over and welcome to this special cube coverage of AWS Partner Awards show. I'm John Furrier, host of The Cube. We're here in our Palo Alto, California studio is doing the remote interviews with our quarantine Cruelty during this time of covert were remote with the best remote Work solution award for AWS Partner Awards goes to Tyler Technologies in the city of Alvin Municipal Court. And we have Sandy, Peter's vice president, general manager of virtual courts and in code court system. Sandy's here to talk about that. And Sonya Gates, who is a city of albums. Mutual court court administrator. Welcome. And congratulations for the best promote work solution. We're remote. Congratulations. Okay, so, CNI, I'll start with you. Tyler Technologies, You're the general manager of the encode Court. This is a vert. This is a solution that you're deploying with the city of Alvin to do some things. Take a minute to explain what you guys are doing together. What is your group of Tyler do And how is it working with City of Album? >>John Tyler Technologies is just completely focused on ah, local, state and federal government software and services. And, uh, particularly the code court application focuses on municipal court, which is what Sonya is the court administrator for Calvin. We have about 900 clients across the U. S that do that same thing. We had this idea about coming up with a remote solution for, ah, ability for someone toe instead of having to go to court to see a judge that they could do that remotely and really have the same experience. And so we sort of launched off on that Ah, and worked with several different of our clients and came up with a way for for that happens on you. I got involved in it very early on and has been instrumental in helping us continue to make it successful. >>When you talk about the city of albums based court system I've seen with Koven, people are sheltering in place and they're not moving around much. You have to have a solution. Talk about the partnership with Tyler. How did this come together? How do you guys were? Take us through that. >>Well, we we have a great relationship with Tyler Technologies. They are very instrumental in our day to day processing. They send out an email with the idea due to Coben, And as soon as we receive the email, we decided that was the best solution for for our court. And we just immediately jumped on board with it so we could resolve cases and not get behind. >>So the virtual court means okay, I get a ticket, I want to appeal it. No way would show up. And now I can't. So it interfaces and take me through the solution. And what is a best fit involved in some some things on the cloud. >>It definitely is on the cloud, John. And, um and that's exactly right. So if you get ah, you get a citation, sometimes you may want to appeal that sometimes you just wanna find out what your options are, and you are going to go appear before a judge. You can do that remotely now, through this through our application, it supports all the video. You can upload documents, exchange those ah, supporting documents. Ah, and ah. And then it interfaces with our case management system so that a sea change is we made on the case. They're reflected and the defendant can see those. And so it just really the whole idea is remotely being ableto go before the judge find out what your options are. Go through that process. And then at the very end, it gives them a way. The completely take care of that case on Within a few minutes, it could be completely resolved. >>So take us through the city of Alvin's court system there. What's the challenges that you have? Um And what was some of the feedback when you first brought this out? Take us through what happened? >>Well, to be honest, it was for us, it was unknown territory. We were a little nervous. We were a little scared to do something of this sort. But with the situation at hand, we had to figure out something, and this was the best fit for us. There was other options available, but we we prefer to stay within Tyler and utilize the system to its fullest. So that why we just said, Okay, let's do this. I have a judge. That's amazing. That is very tech savvy. And he was on board and my city manager. So just working with Tyler each way. You know, each step of the way, you know, in them comforting us in a sense, you know, to let us know. Hey, it's okay. We're here. Each step of the way will be built this together. And that's kind of where we started with the whole project. >>So this is a low hanging fruit. Obviously, it's not Jury, I'm assuming not a jury kind of situations. More of other non jury activities, right? >>It's the day to day court, you know, non jury. We're not doing any during Charles right now until after the governor allows us. So it's just the regular, you know, pre trials, the attorney dockets, arrangements and those sorts of cases. >>I'd be love to be on the planning sessions As you start to roll out the software for jury selection. We'll go into that kind of like what you're looking to look like, You know, it's going to be a digital surveillance. I don't know. It could be crazy, but this >>is the >>future. This is what we're talking about here. This is cloud scale. One of the benefits of cloud is is taking things and doing experiments. We hear that all the time. What's take us through the judge. So you see these tech savvy of these, like Zoom like, calls it like Is there a workflow trying? Envision what stood up in terms of the encode virtual courtside? Sandy, Sonia, What's What's it like? What's that? Take me through the experience? >>Well, everything's tied in together where a zoom and other options out there it's separated from your software so that, you know, that was one of the parts of going through Tyler with this virtual port is because everything's tied into one. We don't have to enter data or anything. After the dock, it's over. It's all live our forms. As soon as the defendant and the judge make an agreement, it put into TCM where the defendant can see it live, signed the orders and immediately get it back to us. And there's no delay time. There's no downtime, Um, and it's housed in one. So we're not having the mis data or, you know, it eliminates a lot of errors. Clerical errors are cases from being miss, >>and the judge handles everything right. He just he deals with the personal interactions reviews the data the defendant makes >>the clarity do a lot to. He's talking. And as he's talking, we're entering his orders as we speak. >>So it's real time thing. This is true agility. Sadie, this is the future. This is where the solutions start to get the scale. So what's next? What is the vision? How do you guys see the next step? Because, I mean, we all know that, you know, Kobe will be over soon. We hope faster than it's happened. But it will be a hybrid world. And I think this shows a template for efficiency. >>Yes. Yeah, I think that's a great point. And it is the future. We're going to continue to leverage our relationship with AWS, which has just been incredible to this process, and and, uh, we went way beyond what we were expecting just in terms of resource is and, uh, and helping us even just within our own development processes as we as we brought something to scale on in learning how to have a low test and, uh, really build applications that can scale out. And so we believe it is the future. And ah, Sonia makes a great point many times because they live in an area where sometimes there's other natural disasters, like hurricanes that can disrupt what's going on for them. Ah, but then also as you, as you just think about really what I would call a responsibility. As we move forward, we have a responsibility to provide ways that people can take care of things Ah, and not put themselves at risk. And a swee move into the future past Covad. Then s O. We're going to continue to leverage the technology that AWS provides the scalability, the how we can load test and everything. And, uh and it was really a no brainer for us toe run this application on the AWS services for us >>and Sonia. It's also not just about justice, not only getting the folks who are speeding and taking care of the penalties there, but it's also potentially for justice. If someone is not guilty or they want to get business has to continue, right? So this extends into the use case of remote hybrid the future because our work can be distributed now you have efficiencies. This is going to create a connected system which ultimately can be a connected community. >>Yeah, and it's going to reduce the failure to a rate here for court cases. Also, um, so that'll be less warrant more compliant, Um, in the easier. Well, it's a better relationship between us, the court and our defendants because they have the option of not having to leave work or miss appointments. You know, they can still attended their case and do other things that they need to do without taking a spin. A, you know, a couple of hours and sit in a room. And you know the court. >>That's a huge point. Sandy. This is about resource utilization on both sides, not just the court's and the city of Alvin on the municipal side. The citizens, it's efficiency. I mean, how many people don't show up because they can't get out of work or they need to make their paycheck or they have their their family? These need to be met. So all these things play into the psychology of of the way of life. This is digital life, virtualization of of the of life. It really is a big thing. >>Yeah. Yeah, I think I think you're exactly right. I mean you're hitting on some of the some great points. That's exactly right. And when you think about what has to happen for you to go and maybe go before a judge and ah, take off work, you've got to go buy traffic, find parking. You may have to have someone that takes care of your Children. There's there's all sorts of things that you're having to go through just to get down and and be in front of a judge that this can help with. And I think it's just one aspect to your point, really trying to think of, uh, really starting to help government think about how to be more customer centric out of provide some ways for people Teoh take care of of what they need to take care of. Uh and, uh and so we're really trying in your your point about connected communities. Is is a huge key point for us at Tyler, as we think of ways that we can help a community be more connected for sure. >>Well, you know, I'm huge into whole civic relationships and having a productive government and having citizens be served for that reasons and having it be a community. And this and now more than ever, transparency is helpful, right? This only helps things. So you guys are doing a really great job of one enabling a work environment remotely. In this case, it's for the courts to be operational. Is they need to be, But it clearly can extend. So, Sanjay, I gotta ask you the question. I'd love to get your commentary on surprises when you rolled this out. You know where people like Oh, my God, no one's ever going to use it or it's just too techy. Or has there been any pleasant surprises or things that surprised you that you didn't think was gonna happen to >>give us >>some kind of commentary on some observations that you've seen from from remote working, rolling out the best remote work solution? >>It's been very interesting. Um, we read our actual first defendant. He was elderly, and so we were kind of concerned. Okay, well, we know how to connect, you know, and he did amazing. So that's kind of where we knew if if we could reach the older generation and he can connect all these younger defendants and you know, younger people what shouldn't have any issues. So he was, you know, we explained to him, Hey, you're our first defendant. This is new to us. It's new to you. And he did awesome. So that kind of gave us the confidence we needed to pursue it even more and push it out there and give the defendants options. There's been, um we've looked. Some people forget, and so do I. That were on camera. And, you know, we see up with this, um, they forget their vehicle, you know, made it a few bumps, but it was like walking in the background. Yeah. Um, so it's been It's been an experience, but a pleasant experience. And it gave us where we didn't want a backlog of cases. There are over and having the virtual option through Tyler has We were like, Oh, it first started. We got behind until we launched about. We had about 800 cases we got behind on. And then as soon as we launched out virtual port. Now we're caught up, my courts running smooth, everything's great, and there's no backlog of cases. >>Clear. The backlog of the question I want to ask is that elderly first a user that did he or she get an early adopter discount on the sentence? >>Fine. Yeah, I was shocked. >>I kind of resent the elderly remark. I think he's referring to me. >>No, no, no, he was and he was in his eighties. >>Okay, I feel I feel young men while you guys congratulations. I like to get your parting thoughts. Just with cloud technology. A lot of other folks out there are looking at re imagining public service specifically around these times where there's a lot of emotional stress, like you got back long. You don't want to have the court get back. You can see that people don't want tickets hanging out there. But that kind of encapsulate people's feelings right now. And I think remote citizenship is coming. Just your thoughts on how you see this as a beginning starting point for cloud computing enabling the efficiencies, the solutions and the applications for more connected community experience. So we'll start with you. >>Okay. Um, I can see this. This is the way we're going to keep things. We like the option. The flexibility that are defendants or citizens have, um it it's opened our eyes And if you're if there's other courts out there that are kind of hesitant to go ahead and jump in and do it, I strongly recommend Just do it. It's It's scary in the very beginning because a lot of us, we're not used to it. But after you get through it and you go through the changes, it's It's so working in the end and you'll see such a more of a compliance for both sides and you know, it reduces the stress on staff. Having to send out Mel notice is, you know, for fire to appears and stuff of that sort produced warrants. So it's been a win win all the way around. Um, so if I could reach any court out there, that's kind on the line of doing that. Just just do it, >>Alright? Yeah, great. Sandy >>Gun and yeah, John. For us, Cloud is the future. I mean, every every application we have. Ah, we're actively working. If it's not already a cloud based solution, it will be Ah, and And we're a huge believer in the scalability. But But when you look at applications like this is as an example, Ah Tyler, virtual court, where it's really a win win situation. It's it's better for the court. They can continue to carry on their business. It's better for the citizen because now they can actually take care of something that they weren't going to be able to take care of in the past. And, Ah, and as we continue to find Win Win, uh, solutions cloud based solutions, they're going to be at the core of that in terms of just how easy it is to say excess and roll out. So it's a big part of our future, and we believe it's a big part of of our customer future as well. >>Well, congratulations. Modernization has positive impacts if done right, more times freed up to work on maybe personal things and connect those communes and bring people together. Congratulations. Tyler Technologies in the City of Album for the best remote work solution. It's the court system. Get those tickets paid, clear that backlog. And now you've got all the time in the world. So you take I work on other things. What do >>you do with your free time? I'm gonna take a vacation. Thank >>you so much. For thanks. Conversation and again. Congratulations. Thanks for time. >>Thank you. >>Okay, this is the Cube's coverage of AWS Public Sector Partners. Awards show I'm John Furrier with best remote work solution. Thanks for watching. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

>> Announcer: From around the globe, it's "theCUBE" with digital coverage of AWS Public Sector Partner Awards, brought to you by Amazon Web Services. >> Welcome to the AWS Public Sector Awards Program. This year, AWS partnered with "theCUBE" to interview a selection of the award winners and their clients. My name is Jeff Frick. I'm the GM and host of "theCUBE" and to share more on the award program and this year's winners, I'd like to introduce Sandy Carter, joining us from Seattle. She is the VP Worldwide Public Sector Partners and Programs for AWS. Sandy, great to see you. >> So great to see you too, Jeff. Everything's going well. >> Yeah, exactly. How are you doing? So you're in Seattle, you're sheltering in place, but you're getting through and business moves on and you guys are doing a lot of exciting things based on some of the challenges that have come from COVID. >> Absolutely. And we're even making our logo signs out of Legos to support our home offices. So we're having a blast and we're really helping a lot of our customers and our partners through this time as they are helping us as well. >> Right. So let's jump into it. So you run Partners and Programs. Share with everyone why partners are so important to Amazon and AWS specifically and public sector specifically? >> Yeah, Jeff, the partner business, of course, is critical to public sector. For us, partners represent that overall customer experience. They're often subject matter experts at raising awareness, helping customers evaluate AWS and some of the workloads. They help accelerate procurement, deploy services, and most important, our partners support our customer missions. And mission is almost everything in public sector. Now for us, public sector is not just government, but it's also education, nonprofits, healthcare, depending upon where you are in the world, it could also be travel and transportation or oil and gas. It's a really big mission that our partners go on every day with us in the field and the real world. >> Right, so one of the things that comes up all the time, if anyone's spent any time listening to Amazon content, whether it's Bezos or Andy, talks about customer obsession and this constant drive around customer obsession. Now, I noticed you've got 18 awards and people can see all the awards later today or they can go to the website, but I noticed like a third of your awards are customer obsession. So you've really kind of taken that customer obsession theme, if you will, and pushed it in and through all these awards and award categories. So talk about customer obsession in the context of these awards. >> Well, customer obsession for us is everything. Everything that we do starts with the customer and then works backwards. So if you think about what's been happening during these COVID times, like call center wait times are astronomical, too long. Customers are waiting too long. We've been helping States and local governments and countries really implement artificial intelligence and have that ability to answer calls quickly. That's one example of working backwards from a customer. Another example might be having limited access to data. So Jeff, we've always said, and I know "theCUBE's" always said that data is queen or king, but during COVID, data became so essential. So working backwards from our customers, leaders needed to make emergency decisions and did not have immediate access to data. So we had a lot of partners who said, "Hey, I can help you with that. "I can build a data lake. "I can use analytics to help you get to that data." So those were just some examples of how our partners did some extraordinary things, working backwards from their customer. >> Right, well, the other thing obviously is COVID, we've been at this now since mid-March and there was a lot of challenges that came out of COVID. But the other thing that came out of it is this light switch moment for digital transformation and initiatives that were potentially running or thought about running or moving slow. Suddenly digital transformation came to the top of everybody's priorities because of COVID and they had no other choice. And I noticed you've got a couple of COVID-19 specific winners in your list. I wonder if you can speak to some of the challenges that arose that they responded to, to earn some of these COVID awards. >> Yeah, it was funny, Jeff, I'm sure you saw it too on social media. There was a slide that said, "Who drove your digital transformation? "Was it your CEO, your CIO, your chief marketing officer, "or was it COVID?" And, of course, everybody picked COVID. So some of the areas that our partners focused in on was the failure of some legacy systems that occurred, decade old mission critical systems and websites, failed under the stress because they couldn't go up for the demand like the cloud can. We also saw limited remote access. You and I were chatting before, how do you do remote work? How does that work? So employees had limited access to systems, to tools, to data that they needed. And so our customers were really, again, really in want of a solution for remote work. And we had a lot of partners who really stepped up. And then of course, looking at the tech skills that existed, I'm sure you had people call you. I had people call me saying, "I don't really know how to get on Zoom or WebEx or Chime. "Can you help me?" And our customers experience the same thing. Employees don't have the same level of technical skills. And so we saw partners step up with training systems, for example. I was really impressed with the scrappiness of our partners and the way that they always started with the customer, working backwards. But they pivoted because COVID really did create some of these new opportunities in the marketplace. >> Right. So we've got a full program running at the conclusion of this conversation which people will get to see the winners and see some of the solution providers. And we've got three tracks, like you said, the government, nonprofit and education, and there's 18 award winners. And I wouldn't ask you to pick your favorite kid, but I'm going to ask you to share a couple of favorites amongst these award winners that really jumped out to you. >> Okay, I will but first I'll just say, Jeff, that we did have 18 winners and amongst them, they had over 45 customer references. They averaged over six years of experience with AWS and they spread across every single geo. So I thought that was pretty amazing. They also spanned across a couple of different areas, a set of technical capabilities like AI-ML, migration, you know, having a skill for Amazon Connect, which is our call center. They spread a cost missions that you talked about for education, healthcare, DOD. And then they also had a lot of special focus on migration. This was one of Andy's really big, big themes at re:Invent. And so we wanted to reinforce that as well with our partners. So a couple of highlights. So I'm going to start with migration because that was a really big one for Andy at re:Invent, as well as Teresa, our head of public sector. So one of our award winners is around migration is the Navy and SAP NS2. They were asked to migrate 26 ERPs across 50 landscapes with 60,000 users accessing the data from around the globe or another one of my favorites was the Accenture Award where they help the government of Canada and they help them through some of the employment and social development areas that they need to focus in on, really launching a 2,600 person contact center to help deal with some of the spikes in call volumes and other areas. And then let me see. I would also call out Maxar. Maxar set up a high performance computing or HPC environment for a number of weather prediction areas for NOAA, which was also very essential because it wasn't just COVID. Right now, we're in the midst of hurricane season. And how can you optimize that performance and cost even more? Or my last one I'll do, I promise, Jeff, is mission-based, which is Tyler Technologies and they help the city of Alvin in Texas and their municipal courts. Like how do you continue to do court systems? How do you implement a virtual court? And that's exactly what Tyler technology helped to have happen in Texas. So those are just some of the favorite ones that I have today, Jeff. >> (laughs) That's great. And again, everybody can watch interviews with the selection of these people. They'll be running, starting at the bottom of the hour and really get to meet the solution providers as well as the customers that put some of these things in. I've been fortunate to cover a couple of the AWS IMAGINE shows, which are really small public sector shows around nonprofits and education. And it's pretty amazing, once you get out of the commercial space, some of the things that are being enabled by cloud generally and AWS specifically around things that people aren't thinking, missing children, community colleges and education for quick employment. And there's just so many really meaningful, you said mission type of activities going on out there that you guys support. So that's really exciting to keep up with. So before we close out and let everybody watch the award winners, your priorities for 2020? We're kind of halfway through, it's a very strange year. I'm sure every plan that was written and approved in January got ripped up to shreds (Sandy laughs) by April. So Sandy, what are some of your priorities for what you're working on with partners and programs and public sector for the balance of the year? >> Yeah, I would start out by reemphasizing migration. I think migration is really crucial, taking something that's on premises and moving it to the cloud. And the reason that's so important, moving forward, is that the discussion we just had, Jeff, around digital transformation, the cloud provides you so much on-demand capacity. You can just scale and do so many more things. We're also seeing a big focus on cyber security. A lot of our customers across the globe now need to secure remote education, their call centers, their portals, their elections. So cyber security will continue to be really important. As well as our Amazon Connect area. So Amazon Connect, this amazing call center that we've integrated with salesforce, one of our other award winners continues to grow rapidly as we see more and more demand for that as well. And Jeff, I would be remiss to also not call out the mission areas. So whether that's helping with public safety or whether that is assisting in healthcare or our new telemedicine, just providing that, not just the technology, but the mission help too, really understanding what's required and delivering that will be really important. And Jeff, we can't end the key without talking about #techforgood either, right? >> Right, right. Something that's close to both our hearts. >> (chuckles) So we did have some really cool award winners that I think one, because of that #techforgood. So Axial3D, for instance, really helped out Belfast Hospital. And they won an award for AI-ML because of the way that they help surgeons save lives. And this is, your intro here was really important to me. It's not just about your super power for profit. That's important because you have to stay in business, but that super power for purpose is equally as important. We didn't do an award this time for startups, but we have also been working with Hello Alice who set up an entire, saying a website is too small, but they've used AI and ML through SageMaker to tag stories and help for small businesses and other startups that are diverse either through gender or race or be in veteran-owned. They're doing an amazing thing. So we continue, at Amazon to focus on #techforgood, as I know, you guys do at "theCUBE" as well. >> Right, right. Well, we used to call it a word and the triple line accounting. So it's not only just for profitability, but also for your employees and your constituents, which include your customers and your partners, but also the broader community and doing well for the broader community. And I do think, the younger people today that are entering the workforce have really forced that conversation and raised the status of mission-based activities. And really trying to think beyond just the bottom line, you still need to make money cause you got to pay the bills and keep the lights on, but that shouldn't be the only thing. And it shouldn't be really at the expense of everything else. So that's great to hear. And again, I think that the tech for good angle is a really, really important one. It probably doesn't get enough pub compared to some of the other stuff that we see in the news. So Sandy, congratulations to you and the team for weeding through all the applicants, selecting these 18 lucky winners. And thank you for giving us the opportunity to interview a few of them and share their stories on "theCUBE" and on this program. And, that's what we love, love to do since we can't be together in person as we have been so many times in the past. >> Yeah, so Jeff, if we could just show that slide real quick as we end. As we end, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of these partners who were here. All 18, you're going to get to hear most of them. I don't want to take away from their thunder, but I know that "theCUBE" has been doing interviews with them and their customers, see and hear the amazing stories that they have and how they really have helped customers beyond what we can normally even expect because they are award winners. So Jeff, thank you and "theCUBE" for helping us to find a way to get their stories out. Because it's not normal times, we didn't have our public conference, but this is a great way to celebrate each and every one of these 18. So I want to say, thank you, congratulations. And from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate all the great work that you're doing. And to the rest of our partners, I hope that I see you on this list in our next award ceremony. >> Alright, well, thank you Sandy, for those kind words. And without further ado, we will end this segment, this kickoff and people can jump into the award-winner segments and learn lots. And hopefully, it won't be too long, Sandy, till we can actually meet again in-person. So thank you for watching this portion and enjoy the rest of the show. (calm music)

>> Announcer: From around the globe, it's "theCUBE" with digital coverage of AWS Public Sector Partner Awards, brought to you by Amazon Web Services. >> Welcome to the AWS Public Sector Awards Program. This year, AWS partnered with "theCUBE" to interview a selection of the award winners and their clients. My name is Jeff Frick. I'm the GM and host of "theCUBE" and to share more on the award program and this year's winners, I'd like to introduce Sandy Carter, joining us from Seattle. She is the VP Worldwide Public Sector Partners and Programs for AWS. Sandy, great to see you. >> So great to see you too, Jeff. Everything's going well. >> Yeah, exactly. How are you doing? So you're in Seattle, you're sheltering in place, but you're getting through and business moves on and you guys are doing a lot of exciting things based on some of the challenges that have come from COVID. >> Absolutely. And we're even making our logo signs out of Legos to support our home offices. So we're having a blast and we're really helping a lot of our customers and our partners through this time as they are helping us as well. >> Right. So let's jump into it. So you run Partners and Programs. Share with everyone why partners are so important to Amazon and AWS specifically and public sector specifically? >> Yeah, Jeff, the partner business, of course, is critical to public sector. For us, partners represent that overall customer experience. They're often subject matter experts at raising awareness, helping customers evaluate AWS and some of the workloads. They help accelerate procurement, deploy services, and most important, our partners support our customer missions. And mission is almost everything in public sector. Now for us, public sector is not just government, but it's also education, nonprofits, healthcare, depending upon where you are in the world, it could also be travel and transportation or oil and gas. It's a really big mission that our partners go on every day with us in the field and the real world. >> Right, so one of the things that comes up all the time, if anyone's spent any time listening to Amazon content, whether it's Bezos or Andy, talks about customer obsession and this constant drive around customer obsession. Now, I noticed you've got 18 awards and people can see all the awards later today or they can go to the website, but I noticed like a third of your awards are customer obsession. So you've really kind of taken that customer obsession theme, if you will, and pushed it in and through all these awards and award categories. So talk about customer obsession in the context of these awards. >> Well, customer obsession for us is everything. Everything that we do starts with the customer and then works backwards. So if you think about what's been happening during these COVID times, like call center wait times are astronomical, too long. Customers are waiting too long. We've been helping States and local governments and countries really implement artificial intelligence and have that ability to answer calls quickly. That's one example of working backwards from a customer. Another example might be having limited access to data. So Jeff, we've always said, and I know "theCUBE's" always said that data is queen or king, but during COVID, data became so essential. So working backwards from our customers, leaders needed to make emergency decisions and did not have immediate access to data. So we had a lot of partners who said, "Hey, I can help you with that. "I can build a data lake. "I can use analytics to help you get to that data." So those were just some examples of how our partners did some extraordinary things, working backwards from their customer. >> Right, well, the other thing obviously is COVID, we've been at this now since mid-March and there was a lot of challenges that came out of COVID. But the other thing that came out of it is this light switch moment for digital transformation and initiatives that were potentially running or thought about running or moving slow. Suddenly digital transformation came to the top of everybody's priorities because of COVID and they had no other choice. And I noticed you've got a couple of COVID-19 specific winners in your list. I wonder if you can speak to some of the challenges that arose that they responded to, to earn some of these COVID awards. >> Yeah, it was funny, Jeff, I'm sure you saw it too on social media. There was a slide that said, "Who drove your digital transformation? "Was it your CEO, your CIO, your chief marketing officer, "or was it COVID?" And, of course, everybody picked COVID. So some of the areas that our partners focused in on was the failure of some legacy systems that occurred, decade old mission critical systems and websites, failed under the stress because they couldn't go up for the demand like the cloud can. We also saw limited remote access. You and I were chatting before, how do you do remote work? How does that work? So employees had limited access to systems, to tools, to data that they needed. And so our customers were really, again, really in want of a solution for remote work. And we had a lot of partners who really stepped up. And then of course, looking at the tech skills that existed, I'm sure you had people call you. I had people call me saying, "I don't really know how to get on Zoom or WebEx or Chime. "Can you help me?" And our customers experience the same thing. Employees don't have the same level of technical skills. And so we saw partners step up with training systems, for example. I was really impressed with the scrappiness of our partners and the way that they always started with the customer, working backwards. But they pivoted because COVID really did create some of these new opportunities in the marketplace. >> Right. So we've got a full program running at the conclusion of this conversation which people will get to see the winners and see some of the solution providers. And we've got three tracks, like you said, the government, nonprofit and education, and there's 18 award winners. And I wouldn't ask you to pick your favorite kid, but I'm going to ask you to share a couple of favorites amongst these award winners that really jumped out to you. >> Okay, I will but first I'll just say, Jeff, that we did have 18 winners and amongst them, they had over 45 customer references. They averaged over six years of experience with AWS and they spread across every single geo. So I thought that was pretty amazing. They also spanned across a couple of different areas, a set of technical capabilities like AI-ML, migration, you know, having a skill for Amazon Connect, which is our call center. They spread a cost missions that you talked about for education, healthcare, DOD. And then they also had a lot of special focus on migration. This was one of Andy's really big, big themes at re:Invent. And so we wanted to reinforce that as well with our partners. So a couple of highlights. So I'm going to start with migration because that was a really big one for Andy at re:Invent, as well as Teresa, our head of public sector. So one of our award winners is around migration is the Navy and SAP NS2. They were asked to migrate 26 ERPs across 50 landscapes with 60,000 users accessing the data from around the globe or another one of my favorites was the Accenture Award where they help the government of Canada and they help them through some of the employment and social development areas that they need to focus in on, really launching a 2,600 person contact center to help deal with some of the spikes in call volumes and other areas. And then let me see. I would also call out Maxar. Maxar set up a high performance computing or HPC environment for a number of weather prediction areas for NOAA, which was also very essential because it wasn't just COVID. Right now, we're in the midst of hurricane season. And how can you optimize that performance and cost even more? Or my last one I'll do, I promise, Jeff, is mission-based, which is Tyler Technologies and they help the city of Alvin in Texas and their municipal courts. Like how do you continue to do court systems? How do you implement a virtual court? And that's exactly what Tyler technology helped to have happen in Texas. So those are just some of the favorite ones that I have today, Jeff. >> (laughs) That's great. And again, everybody can watch interviews with the selection of these people. They'll be running, starting at the bottom of the hour and really get to meet the solution providers as well as the customers that put some of these things in. I've been fortunate to cover a couple of the AWS IMAGINE shows, which are really small public sector shows around nonprofits and education. And it's pretty amazing, once you get out of the commercial space, some of the things that are being enabled by cloud generally and AWS specifically around things that people aren't thinking, missing children, community colleges and education for quick employment. And there's just so many really meaningful, you said mission type of activities going on out there that you guys support. So that's really exciting to keep up with. So before we close out and let everybody watch the award winners, your priorities for 2020? We're kind of halfway through, it's a very strange year. I'm sure every plan that was written and approved in January got ripped up to shreds (Sandy laughs) by April. So Sandy, what are some of your priorities for what you're working on with partners and programs and public sector for the balance of the year? >> Yeah, I would start out by reemphasizing migration. I think migration is really crucial, taking something that's on premises and moving it to the cloud. And the reason that's so important, moving forward, is that the discussion we just had, Jeff, around digital transformation, the cloud provides you so much on-demand capacity. You can just scale and do so many more things. We're also seeing a big focus on cyber security. A lot of our customers across the globe now need to secure remote education, their call centers, their portals, their elections. So cyber security will continue to be really important. As well as our Amazon Connect area. So Amazon Connect, this amazing call center that we've integrated with salesforce, one of our other award winners continues to grow rapidly as we see more and more demand for that as well. And Jeff, I would be remiss to also not call out the mission areas. So whether that's helping with public safety or whether that is assisting in healthcare or our new telemedicine, just providing that, not just the technology, but the mission help too, really understanding what's required and delivering that will be really important. And Jeff, we can't end the key without talking about #techforgood either, right? >> Right, right. Something that's close to both our hearts. >> (chuckles) So we did have some really cool award winners that I think one, because of that #techforgood. So Axial3D, for instance, really helped out Belfast Hospital. And they won an award for AI-ML because of the way that they help surgeons save lives. And this is, your intro here was really important to me. It's not just about your super power for profit. That's important because you have to stay in business, but that super power for purpose is equally as important. We didn't do an award this time for startups, but we have also been working with Hello Alice who set up an entire, saying a website is too small, but they've used AI and ML through SageMaker to tag stories and help for small businesses and other startups that are diverse either through gender or race or be in veteran-owned. They're doing an amazing thing. So we continue, at Amazon to focus on #techforgood, as I know, you guys do at "theCUBE" as well. >> Right, right. Well, we used to call it a word and the triple line accounting. So it's not only just for profitability, but also for your employees and your constituents, which include your customers and your partners, but also the broader community and doing well for the broader community. And I do think, the younger people today that are entering the workforce have really forced that conversation and raised the status of mission-based activities. And really trying to think beyond just the bottom line, you still need to make money cause you got to pay the bills and keep the lights on, but that shouldn't be the only thing. And it shouldn't be really at the expense of everything else. So that's great to hear. And again, I think that the tech for good angle is a really, really important one. It probably doesn't get enough pub compared to some of the other stuff that we see in the news. So Sandy, congratulations to you and the team for weeding through all the applicants, selecting these 18 lucky winners. And thank you for giving us the opportunity to interview a few of them and share their stories on "theCUBE" and on this program. And, that's what we love, love to do since we can't be together in person as we have been so many times in the past. >> Yeah, so Jeff, if we could just show that slide real quick as we end. As we end, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of these partners who were here. All 18, you're going to get to hear most of them. I don't want to take away from their thunder, but I know that "theCUBE" has been doing interviews with them and their customers, see and hear the amazing stories that they have and how they really have helped customers beyond what we can normally even expect because they are award winners. So Jeff, thank you and "theCUBE" for helping us to find a way to get their stories out. Because it's not normal times, we didn't have our public conference, but this is a great way to celebrate each and every one of these 18. So I want to say, thank you, congratulations. And from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate all the great work that you're doing. And to the rest of our partners, I hope that I see you on this list in our next award ceremony. >> Alright, well, thank you Sandy, for those kind words. And without further ado, we will end this segment, this kickoff and people can jump into the award-winner segments and learn lots. And hopefully, it won't be too long, Sandy, till we can actually meet again in-person. So thank you for watching this portion and enjoy the rest of the show. (calm music)

>> Narrator: From the CUBE Studios in Palo Alto in Boston, connecting with thought leaders all around the world this is theCUBE Conversation. >> Hi everybody, This is Dave Vellante and welcome to this CUBE Conversation. We've been following a company called Actifio for quite some time. Now they've really popularized the concept of copy data management. Really innovative Boston based Waltham based company. And with me Brian Regan who's the chief marketing officer and Paul Forte who's the newly minted chief revenue officer of Actifio. Guys great to see you. I wish we were face to face at your June event but this will have to do. >> You're welcome. >> Thanks Dave. >> You bet Dave. >> Yeah, so Brian you've been on theCUBE a bunch. I'm going to start with Paul if that's okay. Paul, let's talk a little bit about your background. You've done a number of stints at a variety of companies. Big companies like IBM and others as well. What attracted you to Actifio? >> Yes Dave I would say in all honesty, I've been a software guy and candidly a data specific leader for many many years. And so IT infrastructure particularly associated around data has always been sort of my forte for on and onwards there. And so Actifio was just smack dab in the middle of that. And so when I was looking for my next adventure I had an opportunity to meet with Ash our CEO and founder and describe and discuss kind of what Actifio was all about. And candidly, the number of connections that we had that were the same. There are a lot of OEM relationships with people that I actually worked with and for some that work for me historically. So it was almost this perfect world. And I'm a Boston guy so it is in my old backyard. And yeah it was a perfect match for what I was looking for. Which was really a small growth company that was trying to get to the next level that had compelling technology in a space that I was super familiar with and could understand and articulate the value proposition. >> Well as we say in Boston, Paulie we got to get you back here. (laughs) >> I know (mumbles) so I'll pack my car. >> (laughs) Yeah. So Brian... >> For 25 years, I still got it. >> let's talk about the climate right now. I mean nobody expected this of course. And it's funny I saw Ash at an event in Boston last fall. We were talking like "Hey, what are you expecting for next year?" "Yeah a little bit of softening" but nobody expected this sort of black swan. But you guys I just got your press release. You put it out. You had a good quarter. You had a record first quarter. What's going on in the marketplace. How are you guys doing? >> Yeah, well I think that today more than ever businesses are realizing that data is what is actually going to carry them through this crisis. And that data whether it's changing the nature of how companies interact with their customers, how they manage through their supply chain and frankly how they take care of their employees, is all very data centric. And so businesses that are protecting that data that are helping businesses get faster access to that data and ultimately give them choice as to where they manage that data. On premises, in the cloud and hybrid configuration. Those are the businesses that are really going to be top of a CIO's mind. I think RQ1 is a demonstration that customers voted with their wallets and they are confident in Actifio as an important part of their data supply chain. >> Paul I want to come back to you. First of all I want to let people know you're an Ex-Army Ranger. So thank you for your service, that's awesome. >> You're welcome (mumbles). >> I was talking to Frank Slootman, I interviewed in the other day and he was sharing with me sort of how he manages and he says "Yeah I manage by a playbook". He's a situational manager and that's something that he learned in the military. Well it's weird. This is a situation. (Paul laughs) And that really is kind of how you're trained. And of course we've never seen anything like this but you're trained to deal with things that you've never seen before. So how you seeing organizations generally, Actifio specifically kind of manage through this crisis. What are some of the moves that you'are advising, recommending? Give us some insight there. >> Yeah, so it's really interesting. It's funny that you mentioned my military background. So I was just having this discussion with one of my leaders the other day. That one of the things that they trained for in the military, is the eventuality of chaos. So when you do an exercise we will literally tap the leader on the shoulder and say okay you are now dead. And without that person being allowed to speak they take a knee and the (mumbles) unit has to go on. And so what happens is you learn by muscle memory like how to react in times of crisis and you know this is a classic example of leadership in crisis. And so it's just interesting. So to me you have a playbook. I think everybody needs to start with a playbook and then start with the plan. I can't remember if it was Mike Tyson but one of my famous quotes was "Plan is good until somebody punches you in the face". (Dave laughs) >> That's the reality of what just happened to business across the globe. This is just a punch in the face. And so you've got a playbook that you rely on and then you have to remain nimble and creative and candidly opportunistic. And from a leadership perspective, I think you can't lose your confidence. Right, so I've watched some of my friends and I've watched some other businesses cripple in the midst of this pandemic because they're afraid instead of looking at this. In my first commentary in our first staff meeting Brian, if I remember it was this, okay so what makes Actifio great in this environment? Not why is it not great? And so we didn't get scared. We jumped right into it. We adjusted our playbook a little bit and candidly we just had a record quarter. And we took down deals. Honestly Dave we took down deals in every single geography around the globe to include Italy. It was insane, it was really fun. >> Okay, so this wasn't just one monster deal that gave you that record quarter. It was really a broad based demand. >> Yeah, so if you dug underneath the covers you would see that we had the largest number of transactions ever in the first quarter. We had the largest average selling price in the first quarter ever. We had the largest contribution from our nano partners and our OEM partners ever. And we had the highest number ever. And so it was really a nice truly balanced performance across the globe and across the size of deal sets and candidly across industries. >> Interesting, you used the term opportunistic and I get right on. You obviously don't want to be chasing ambulances. At the same time, we've talked to a lot of CEOs and essentially what they're doing and I'd like to get your feedback on this Brian. You're kind of reassessing the ideal profile of a customer. You're reassessing your value proposition in the context of the current pandemic. And I noticed that you guys in your press release talked about cyber resiliency. You talked about digital initiatives, data center, transformations etc. So maybe you could talk a little bit about that, Brian. Did you do those things, how did you do those things? What kind of pace were you guys at? How did you do it remotely with everybody working from home? Give us some color on that. >> Sure, and if Ash, if he were here he would probably remind us that Actifio was born in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis. So we have essentially been book ended by two black swans over the last decade. The lessons we learned in 2008 are every bit is as relevant today. Everything starts with cost containment and cost reduction. Hence in protection of the business and so CIOs in the midst of this shock to the system. I think we're very much looking at what are the absolutely vital and critical initiatives and what is a "nice to have" and I'm going to hit pause on nice to have and invest entirely in the critical initiative. And the critical initiatives tended to be around getting people safely working remotely. Getting people safe access to their systems and their applications and their data. And then ultimately it also became about protecting the systems from malicious individuals in the state actors. Unfortunately as we've seen in other times of crisis this is when crime and cyber crime particularly tends to spike, particularly against industries that don't have the strong safeguards in place to really ensure the resiliency in their applications. So we very much went a little bit back to the 2008 playbook around helping people get control of their costs, helping people continue to do the things they need to do at a much more infrastructural light manner. But also really emphasized the fact that if you are under attack or if you are concerned that you're infected but you don't know when, instant access to data and a time machine that can take you back and forth to those points in time is something that is something that is incredibly valuable. >> So let's dig into cyber resiliency. So specifically what is Actifio doing for its customers from a product standpoint, capabilities, maybe it's part of the 10C announcement as well but can you give us some specifics on where you fit in. Let's take that use case, cyber resiliency? >> Yeah, absolutely. So I think there's a stack of capabilities when it comes to cyber resiliency. At the lowest level, you need a time machine because most people don't know when they're infected. And so the ability to go back in time, test the recoverability of data, test the validity of the data is step one. Step two is once you found the clean point, being able to resume operations, being able to resume the applications operation instantly or very rapidly is the next phase. And that's something that Actifio was founded on this notion of instant access to data. And then the third phase and this is really where our partnerships really shine is you probably want to go back and mitigate that risk. You want to go back and clean that system. You want to go back and find the infection and eliminate it. And that's where our partnership with IBM for example, resiliency services and their cyber incident recovery solutions which takes the Actifio platform and then wrappers in a complete manage services around it. So they can help the customer not only get their systems and applications back on their feet but clean the systems and allow them to resume operations normally on a much safer and more stable ground. >> Okay, so that's interesting. So Paul was it kind of new adoptions? Was it increases from existing customers combination? Can you talk to that? >> Yeah, totally. So ironically to really come clean the metrics that we had in the first quarter were very similar to do with the metrics that we see historically. So the mix with mean our existing customer base and then our new customer acquisition were very similar to our historical metrics which candidly we were a little surprised by. We anticipated that the majority of our business would come from that safe harbor of your existing customer base. But candidly we had a really nice split which was great which meant that our value proposition was resonating not only with our existing customer base where you would expect it but also in any of our new customers as well who had been evaluating us that either accelerate it or just continue down the path of adoption during the timeframe of COVID-19. Across industries I would say that again there were some industries I would say that pushed pause. And so the ones that you can imagine that accelerated during this past period were the ones you would think of, right? So financial institutions primarily as well as some of the medical. So some of those transactions, healthcare and medical they accelerated along with financial institutions. And then I would say that we did have some industries that pushed pause. You can probably guess what some of those are. Among the majority of those were the ones that were dealing with the small and midsize businesses or consumer-facing businesses, things like retail and stuff like that. Well we typically do have a pretty nice resonance and a really nice value proposition but there were definitely some transactions that we saw basically just pause. Like we're going to come back. But overall yeah the feedback was just in general. It felt like any other quarter and it felt like just pretty normal. As strange as that sounds. 'Cause I know speaking to a lot of my friends in peer companies, peer software companies, they didn't have that experience but we did pretty well. >> That's interesting, you're right. Certain industries, airlines, I'm interviewing a CIO of a major resort next week. Really interested to hear how they're dealing with this but those are obviously depressed and they've dialed everything down. But we were one of the first to report that work from home pivot, it didn't, it didn't buffer the decline in IT spending that were expected to be down maybe as much as 5% this year but it definitely offset it. What about Cloud? We're seeing elevated levels in Cloud demand. Guys have offerings there. What are you seeing in Cloud guys? >> Do you want to take it Brian? >> Yeah, I'll start and then Paul please weigh in. I think that the move to the cloud that we've been witnessing and the acceleration of the move to cloud that we've been we've been witnessing over the past several years probably ramped up in intensity over the last two months. The projects that might have been on the 18 to 24 month roadmap have of all of a sudden been accelerated into maybe this year of our roadmap. But in terms of the wholesale everything moves to Cloud and I abandoned my on-premises estate. I don't think we've seen that quite yet. I think that the world is still hybrid when it comes to Cloud. Although I do think that the beneficiaries of this are probably the non-number one and number two Cloud providers but the rest of the hyper-scalers who are fighting for market shares because now they have an opportunity to perhaps, Google for example, a strategic partner of ours has a huge offering when it comes to enabling work from home and the remote work. So leveraging that as a platform and then extending into their enterprise offerings, I think it gives them a wedge that the Amazon might not have for example. So it's an acceleration of interest but I think it's just a continuation of the trend that we've been seeing for years. >> Yeah, and I would add a little bit Dave. The IBM held their Think Conferences past week. I don't know if you had an opportunity to participate. They're one of our OEM partners and... >> Dave: Oh Yeah, we covered it. >> When our CEO presented his opening his opening remarks it was really about digital transformation and he really put it down to two things and said any business that's trying to transform is either talking about hybrid Clouds or they're talking about AI and machine learning. And that's kind of it, right? And so every digital business is talking in one of those categories. And when I look to Q1 it's interesting that we really didn't see anything other than as Brian talked about all of the cloud business which is some version of an acceleration. But outside of that the customers that are in those industries that are in position to accelerate and double down during this opportunity did so and those that did not just peeled back a little bit. But overall I would agree with IBM's assessment of the market that those are kind of the two hotspots and hybrid Cloud is hot and the good news is, we've got a nice value prop right in the middle of it. >> Yeah, Alvin Chris has talked about, and he has it, maybe not a thing but he talked earlier in his remarks on the earnings call just in public statements that IBM must win the battle the architectural battle, the hybrid Cloud. And also that he wants to lead with a more technical sell essentially, which is to mean those two things are great news for you guys, obviously Red Hat is the linchpin of that. I want to ask you guys about your conference, Data-Driven. So we were there last year it was a really great intimate event. Of course you can't have the physical events anymore. So you've pushed to September or you're going all digital? Give us the update on that Brian. >> We're eager to have theCube participate in our September event. So I'm sure we'll be talking more about that in the coming weeks, but also >> Dave: Awesome, love it. (Brian laughs) >> Exactly, so you can tell Frank to put that in there. So we've been participating in some of the other conferences most notably last week learning a lot and really trying to cherry pick the best ideas and the best tactics we're putting on the digital event. I think that as we look to September and as we look to put on a really rich digital event one of the things that is first and foremost in our minds is we want to actually produce more on demand digital content particularly from a technology standpoint. Our technology sessions last year were oversubscribed. The digital format allows people to stream whenever they can and frankly as many sessions as they might want. So I think we can be far more efficient in terms of delivering technical content for the users of our technology. And then we're also eager to have as we've done with data driven in years past, our customers tell the story of how they're using data. And this year certainly I think we're going to hear a lot of stories about in particular how they use data during this incredible crisis and hopefully renewal from the crisis. >> Well one of my favorite interviews last year at your show was the guy from DraftKings. So hopefully they'll be back on and we'll have some football to talk about, well let's hope. >> Amen. >> I Want to end with just sort of this notion of we've been so tactical the last eight weeks. Right? You guys too I'm sure. Just making sure you're there for customers, making sure your employees are okay. But as we start to think about coming out of this into a Post-COVID Era and it looks like it's going to be with us for a while but we getting back to Quaseye opening. So I'm hearing hybrid is here to stay. We agree for sure. Cyber resiliency is very interesting. I think one of the things we've said is that companies may sub-optimize near term profitability to make sure that they've got the flexibility and business resiliency in place. That's obviously something that is I think good news for you guys but I'll start with Paul and then maybe Brian you can bring us home. How do you see this sort of emergence from this lockdown and into the Post-COVID Era? >> Yeah, this is a really interesting topic for me. In fact I've had many discussions over the last couple of weeks with some of our investors as well as with our executive staff. And so my personal belief is that the way buying and selling has occured, for IT specifically at the enterprise level, it's about to go through a transformation, no different than we watched the transformation of SAS businesses when you basically replaced a cold calling sales person with an inside and inbound marketing kind of effort followed up with SDR and BDR. Because what we're finding is that our clients now are able to meet more frequently because we don't have the friction of airplane ride or physical building to go through. And so that whole thing has been removed from the sales process. So it's interesting to me that one of the things that I'm starting to see is that the amount of activity that our sales organization is doing and the amount of physical calls that were going on, they happen to be online. However, way higher than what we can (mumbles), you coupled that with the cost savings of not traveling around the globe and not being in offices. And I really think that those companies that embrace this new model, are going to find ways to penetrate more customers in a less expensive way. And I do believe that the professional sales enterprise sales person of tomorrow is going to look different than it looks today. And so I'm super excited to be in a company that is smack dab in the middle of selling to enterprise clients and watching us learn together how we're going to buy, sell and market to each other in this post-COVID way. 'Cause the only thing I really do know it's just not going to be the way it used to be. What is it going to look like? I think all of us are placing bets and I don't think anybody has the answer yet. But it's going to look different for sure. >> They're very, very thoughtful comments. And so Brian, you know our thinking is the differentiation in the war. Gets one in digital. How is that affecting your marketing and your things around that? >> We fortunately decided coming into 2020, our fiscal 21, that we were actually going to overweigh digital anyway. We felt that, it was far more effective, we were seeing far better conversion rates. We saw way better ROI in terms of very targeted additive digital campaigns or general purpose ABM type of efforts. So our strategy had essentially been set and what this provided us is the opportunity to essentially redirect all of the other funds into digital. So we have essentially a two pronged marketing attack, right now, which is digital creating inbounds and BDRs that are calling on those inbounds that are created digitally. And so it's going to be a really interesting transition back when physical events if and when they do actually back and spawn, how much we decide to actually go back into that. To some extent we've talked about this in the past Dave. The physical events and the sheer spectacle and the sheer audacity of having to spend a million dollars just to break through that was an unsustainable model. (laughs) And so I think this is hastening perhaps the decline or demise of really silly marketing expense and getting back to telling customers what they need to know to help and assist their buying journey and their investigation journey into new technology. >> There in the IT world is hybrid. And I think the events world is also going to be hybrid. Intimate, they're going to live on but they're also going to have a major digital component to them. I'm very excited that there's a lot of learnings now in digital especially around events and by September, a lot of the bugs are going to be worked out. You know we've been going, feels like 24/7, but really excited to have you guys on. Thanks so much, really looking forward to working with you in September at Data-Driven. So guys thanks a lot for coming on theCUBE. >> Oh my gosh, thank you Dave. So nice to be here, Thank you. >> All right, stay safe. >> Thanks Dave, always a pleasure. You too. >> Thank you everybody, thank you. And thanks for watching. This is Dave Vellante for theCUBE and we'll see you next time. (gentle music)