(upbeat music) >> Good morning and welcome back to fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. We're here at AWS re:Invent with wall-to-wall coverage all day long on theCUBE. My name is Savannah Peterson and I am joined this morning by the beautiful Lisa Martin. Lisa, good morning. >> Good morning. Good. >> How you feeling day three? >> Day three is we are going to be shot out of a cannon today. The amount of content coming at you from theCUBE today- >> Get ready, you all. >> Us two gals, is a lot. We're going to have some great conversations. >> And we're starting with a really great one with a Cube Alumni to the max. You've been on the show multiple times. >> John: Yeah. >> Very excited to welcome John, the CMO of Couchbase. Welcome. How you doing this morning? >> Thanks. I'm doing great. Great to be here with you. >> How do you feel about the show so far? What's your pulse? >> The show has been great. I say the energy is great. The traffic at our booth, the conversations that we're having, both with prospective customers and even just partners, right? They're all here. The ecosystem is here >> And everyone's finally back in person and it feels so good. >> John: It does. >> So, we're going to dig in a little bit but just in case the audience isn't familiar, tell us about Couchbase. >> Sure. Couchbase is a publicly traded database company. We have a cloud database platform called Capella which is hosted on AWS and GCP. It is used for building mission-critical applications. So, we have great customers, we're building apps that really matter and are using to drive their business. So, we're very excited about that. 30% of the Fortune 100 are Couchbase customers. >> Nice. Talk a little bit about the AWS relationship. >> Mm-hm. Yeah, so we have a great AWS relationship. In fact, yesterday we announced a deepening of that relationship, a strategic collaboration agreement. We're very excited. It's a multi-year agreement. It's focused on go-to market, from a sales and marketing standpoint. We're going to target, you know, various verticals and, you know, really generate joint business between the two of us. So, it's a deepening of a already strong relationship and we're really excited about that. >> Savannah: Yeah. Go ahead. >> What are some of the industry verticals that you're going to be tackling together? >> Well, gaming for one, right? Manufacturing, the workloads that Couchbase is good for are these mission-critical workloads are ones that are really suited for us to be used with AWS. So, we've done some work with them already in those areas and I'm sure we'll be digging in even deeper. >> That's exciting. Speaking of digging in deeper, tell us a little bit more about Capella. >> Capella. It's a cloud databases services I mentioned. We launched it last October and we are super excited by the uptake, the interest that we're seeing. We have a free 30 day trial, so, you know, people can come and try it and get their hands dirty just getting experience with the product and then, you know, become a customer after that. And we're seeing very strong interest from our existing customer base as well. So, we're really excited about how things are going. >> Talk about Capella and the latest release and how it's really enabling Couchbase to invest deeper into the developer experience. >> Yeah, so, at the end of October, we announced a revamp of our user interface, our user experience for Capella really focused on developers. And what we've done is make it so that it's familiar to developers, right? It's a GitHub-like experience. So, developer comes in, they're very familiar, of course, with GitHub, they are familiar with how the Couchbase Capella interface will work. And so that's something that, you know, we've really invested, in fact, we've invested in developers quite a bit. We announced a Couchbase community hub and a Couchbase ambassadors program, both focused on developers and getting out there and building our community. >> A community is a big topic that we've been talking about at all the conferences this year. We're all back in person, in community. How often are you communicating with your community to get feedback on what that experience should be like? >> Yeah, I mean, we actually have a Discord server, so we're in constant communication. (Savannah laughing) >> Savannah: Yes. (John laughing) 24/7. (laughing) >> Basically, you know, we have staff who's dedicated to making sure that the users on there are getting their answers and giving us feedback on the experience. The ambassadors are somebody who have a really strong relationship, who get early insight and give us feedback before we even release a product. So, it gives us a chance to really test-drive it with core developers and get the insight we need before we get it in the market. >> Yeah. It matters so much. You can build it, but they won't come if it's not fantastic. >> John: Exactly. >> Lisa: Right. >> Let's shift a little bit and talk about customers. How, and price, how do you guys compare? >> Customers and? >> And price, your price performance? >> Price, oh. So, customers, we also announced this week a joint customer Arthrex with AWS. Arthrex is a orthopedics medical devices company and they use our Edge capabilities along with running Couchbase on AWS. So, you think of the kinds of surgeries that orthopedic surgeons do, it's scopes and they are often inside. So, what it does is it collects the data, the video data and all of that on a medical devices and then brings it back to a centralized app for the doctors to use sort of in post when they're actually doing further medical recommendations. >> Savannah: It's so cool. >> So, it's cool, the thing about it is it can work whether it's online or offline, it's one of the reasons that Arthrex selected us because the fact that it can, you know, often sometimes there's not connectivity in the operating room, I'd say deep inside of a hospital. So, these devices work regardless and then when they get connectivity, it sinks back to that centralized service. So, it's one of the main reasons that they selected us. >> That's outstanding. You know, one of the things that John Furrier, you know, John, well, you guys go way back. >> John: Way back. >> He had a sit down with Adam Selensky, oh, about 10 days or so ago. He gets an exclusive with the CEO of AWS every pre re:Invent. And one of the things that Adam said is that the role or the title, data analyst, is going to go away, in that every role will have responsibilities of analyzing data. And I always think of that in terms of operations, marketing, finance, sales, but you just brought up physicians as data analysts in their jobs, right? Probably not, we're thinking about it in that way. >> Yeah. >> But it's so interesting how data is really being democratized. >> John: Yeah. >> And how Couchbase is an enabler of that in an operating room. >> John: Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> That's amazing. >> It's a great story. There's many others and I think, you know, we have embedded operational analytics in Couchbase Capella, and, you know, in our offerings in general. So, what that does is allows us to do real-time, highly personalized applications based on that analytics that are coming in real-time from the data from the applications. And so that's something that's actually driving a highly interactive user experience, one that's very personalized and customized. And that's one of the things that our customers really like about what we do. >> It's fascinating. I never thought about it from a medical device perspective. >> Lisa: No, no. >> John: No. >> My gosh is if doctors don't have enough cognitive burden load. >> John: I know. >> You know, right? Like, they don't need to be a data analyst. I would much rather they were just good at the surgery part. That's a piece of the puzzle I need them to do. Yeah, for sure. That's a fascinating customer example. Can you share any other joint AWS examples with us? >> Joint AW- I mean, there's many in the gaming area where, because Couchbase is memory-first architecture, we deliver very, very interactive user experiences and we're used a lot for session management, user ID management in the gaming space, specifically with AWS. It's an area we've done some joint work already and had a lot of success, you know, with small and large gaming companies. >> Yeah. It looks like you also, according to my notes here, we've got things in travel and hospitality as well. >> Yes. Also Carnival Cruises is a great example. We enable their on-ship, on-board experience, highly customized, everybody wears a device called a medallion, and as they move around the ship, it knows where they are and it's able to provide customized services. You walk up to a bar, you have your favorite drink, it can be hit the bar when you land there. >> I'll take that. >> How about that? (laugh) >> That's outstanding. >> Isn't that great? >> Can we carry that onto the AWS show floor? >> Exactly. >> Or Starbucks order? >> Yeah, yeah. Yes, please. Yes, please. Well, another thing that's so interesting these days, is that every company has to be a data company. Say they have to be a software company. They have to be a data company. You just gave some great examples. Hospitality, gaming, healthcare, where that data democratization has to happen. >> John: Yeah. >> Businesses has to transform. But one of the things that Adam also told John is that CIOs, CEOs are coming to him not wanting to talk about technology but about transformation. >> Yeah. >> Huge topic. >> And that's a journey where every customer is at different levels. >> Yeah. >> How is Couchbase helping businesses transform and where are your customer conversations these days? >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, the transformation of the business is a major topic of conversation. So, we completely agree with that. How Couchbase helps is, you know, in our database, one of the things we have is the SQL engine. And so as people are looking to move and modernize their infrastructure, if they're moving off of, or from like a technology that's principally based on SQL but doesn't give all the flexibility of a JSON database or document database like we do, we actually enable them to get more easily onto our platform so that they can start that transformation. And then it's a, you know, it's a journey of how they want to transform their business and it's really focused on how do they better serve their customers and clients, whether it's internal or external? >> It really matters. I mean, and that ease of use as well as the transformation journey. It takes a long time for people to adapt. So, every piece of that puzzle, every Lego being quicker or easier, more intuitive, like you said, with the user experience, we can tell you're very thoughtful. How does this improve the total cost of ownership for your customers? >> That's one of the things that we announced along with that developer changes, was a new storage engine underneath Couchbase Capella. And it's 10 X more dense storage. And what that means is fewer servers. So, fewer servers is a much better cost of ownership story. That plus just the performance of the platform itself, we find, you know, against competition, we can do things on say six nodes that take 18 nodes for others. >> Lisa: Oh wow. >> And we have a great consolidation story as well because we have, it's a multi-modal database, meaning that it has SQL engine, document database, full tech search, eventing and analytics, all these pieces on one common data layer. So, you can actually consolidate off of other technologies onto one, onto Couchbase, and that actually saves you money. So, that's a great story for us. >> There's got to be a sustainability element to that as well? >> Yeah, I mean it's, obviously, if you're using less, using fewer servers, there's a kind of power consumption aspect of it as well. Absolutely. >> Are you finding that a lot of customers and companies we talk to these days have in their RFPs, they must only work with vendors who have an actual ESG program? Are you finding more customers coming to you saying, how can you help us dial down our carbon emissions? >> John: Yeah. >> Savannah: Great question. >> We've got a sustainability program that we've got to meet, we've got commitments to our customers. >> John: Yeah. >> Is that something that's really now kind of a hard and fast requirement? >> We're hearing it, we're definitely hearing it. I wouldn't say it's, you know, massively pervasive but I would say it's a growing component of, as you said, RFPs. And it's something that we feel like we have a great story for. And so, you know, it's something that helps when we get into those conversations, we can clearly articulate how we can provide that value and how we meet some of those needs that they have. >> Yeah, that's awesome. So, we have a bit of a challenge, new to the show at re:Invent. >> John: Mm-hm. >> Where we are prompting you to give us your 30 second Instagram Reel sizzle highlight. Don't worry, I'm not actually timing you, but your thought leadership hot-take on the most important theme or takeaway from this year's show. >> From the conference here. I would say that, and I think this was talked about a little bit by AWS as well, but the convergence of analytics and operational data, you know, through the applications is one that we're certainly seeing as well. It's the reason we have analytics in our database. But as I walk around and look at it, I see that very much as a common theme as well, in terms of what other vendors are saying and just the conversations we're having. So for me, that's one of the things I think would be a takeaway from this show. >> Yeah. Embedded analytics, real-time, everybody wants to know what's going on, in context. >> Yeah. That's right. >> Right now, not last week, not what we're processing from last month. >> Exactly. >> I mean, right? (cross-talking) >> So, I can react and take advantage or take an action if I have to. >> Exactly. And then deliver that personalized experience that we all expect these days. >> Oh, yes. >> I'll take that medallion- >> It's about the medallion. I was like, okay. >> You up with that, John? >> We'll get right on it. >> Lisa: All right. (laughs) >> About this. So, what's next for Couchbase? >> John: Well- >> I know you got the partnership, you've got all this exciting momentum. >> So, we're excited heading into next year. We're going to continue to innovate on Capella, right? Continue to deliver more value, lean into our developer community that we have. We're investing heavily, not just from a product standpoint but from a company standpoint in terms of, you know, our community meetups and some of those things. We have a big community-focused event coming up in March called Connect, Couchbase Connect. So, that's something that we'll, you know, continue to drive. That'll be a major theme for us next year. Cloud and developers and, you know, continuing to enable that ecosystem. >> Lisa: Excellent. >> I just had a Microsoft moment where I saw you saying, "Cloud developers," on stage. (Lisa and Savannah laughing) >> I'm not going Steve Ballmer on you. (all laughing) >> Pardon. I was trying to get someone to sing yesterday. I was hoping you were my Ballmer dance. Oh, man. Well, this has been a really great way to start the day. John, thank you so much for being on the show with us, seriously. And it's great that you keep coming back. I'm glad we haven't scared you off. (John laughing) >> Never. >> Savannah: We will have you anytime. >> Thank you. >> And thank you all for tuning in for yet another fantastic day of all day live coverage here from AWS re:Invent. We are in Sin City, having a fabulous time with Lisa Martin. I'm Savannah Peterson. This is theCUBE and we are the leader in high-tech technology coverage. (upbeat music) (upbeat music fades)