>>Hello. Welcome back to the cubes coverage of splunk.com virtual this year. I'm John ferry, host of the cube. And one of the great reasons of great reasons of being on site with the team here is we have to bring remote guests in real guests from all no stories, too small. We bring people into the cube to have the right conversations. We've got Brooke Cunningham area, VP of global partner marketing experience. Brooke, welcome to the cube. Thanks for coming on. >>Hey, thank you, John. This is my sixth dot conflict, but this is actually my first time being on the cube. So I'm delighted. >>Great to have you on these new hybrid events. We can bring people in. You don't have to be here. All the execs are here, the partners are here. Great news is happening all around the world. You guys just announced a new partner program for the cloud called partner verse program. This is kind of, you know, mostly partner news is okay. Okay. Partner news partner ecosystem. But I think this is an important story because Splunk is kind of going to the next level of scale. That's to me is my observations walking away from the keynote, a lot of the partners, great technology, great platform, a lot of growth with cloud. We had formula one on you guys have a growing ecosystem. What is the new announcement partner versus about? >>Yes. Thanks, John. And you are spot on. We are growing for scale and Splunk's partner ecosystem is 2200 strong and we were so delighted to have so much partner success highlighted today on the keynotes. And specifically we have announced an all new spunk Splunk partner program called the Splunk partner verse. So we're taking it to new frontiers for our partners, really built for the cloud to help our partners lean into those cloud transformations with their customer. >>Great. Fro can you walk me through some of the numbers inside the numbers for a second? How many partners do you have and what is this program about specifically? >>Yeah, so 2200 partners that we featured some amazing stories in the keynotes today, around some of the momentum we have with partners like AWS, a center blue buoyant, a partner that just recently rearchitected all of their managed services from Splunk enterprise to Splunk cloud, because as they put it, Splunk is the only solution that can truly offer that hybrid solution for their customers. So all new goodness for our partners to help them lean in, to get enabled around all of the Splunk products, as well as to differentiate, differentiate their offerings with a new badging system. And we're going to help our partners really take that to the market by extending and expanding our marketing and creating an all new solutions catalog for our partners to differentiate themselves to their customers. >>You mentioned a couple things I want to double down on this badging thing, get in some of the nuances, but I want to just point out that, you know, and get your reaction to this when you see growth. And I saw this early on with AWS early on, when they performing, when you start to see the ecosystem grow like this, you start to see more enablement. You see more, money-making going on more, more, um, custom solutions, more agility you. So you started to see these things develop around you guys. So what does all this badging mean? How what's in it for me as a partner? Like how do I win on this? >>Yeah, great question. So first of all, John partner listening is a big part of what we do here at Splunk. And it's specifically a major part of what I do in my role. So we create a lot of forums to get that real deal partner feedback. What do they need to be successful with their customers? Especially as Splunk continues to expand our portfolio. And we heard some really clear feedback from our partners. Number one, they need more enablement faster, especially all those new products. They really want to get enabled around new product areas like observability, their customers are asking for it. They secondly told us that being able to differentiate themselves to customers was key. And that showing that they had core expertise around specific solution areas, types of services, as well as specializations. For example, some of our partners that are authorized learning partners, they really want it to be able to showcase these skills and differentiate that to their customers in the market. And it's not a role for us at Splunk to really help them do that. And so we took that feedback and really incorporated it into this new program, badging specifically will help to address some of those things I mentioned. So for example, a lot of badging around those use case areas, security, observability, AOD migrations, as well as specializations. Like I mentioned, for things like, uh, partners that are doing, uh, learning specific partners that are really helping us extend our reach in, in different international markets and so on. >>Okay. Let me just ask a question on the badge if you don't mind. Um, so you mentioned, you mentioned almost like you were going through like verticals is badging to be much more about discovery from a client customer, uh, end user customer standpoint. Are you looking to create kind of much more categorical differentiation is what's the, what, what's the purpose of the badge? Cause I noticed it was like different verticals. I heard security and >>Yeah, so I would say it's think of it as both. So for example, our partners go to market with us in many different ways. Some of them are selling servicing building. So there'll be partner motion badges to really differentiate the different ways that they're supporting customers from a go-to-market approach and then additional badging to help really identify some of those specialization areas around whether that's clunky use cases, specializations and more, uh, for example, a specific badge that we're rolling out right here at.com is around cloud migrations and partners will be able to get started to get engaged on that badge in preparation for our full-scale launch in February, we'll, they'll start to be able to take advantage of learning pathways, get their teams skilled up, and that will then unlock some new incentives as well as, uh, benefits that they can take advantage of things like accessing or of the Splunk's I've experience and the proof of concept platform and really giving their teams more, uh, capability. And, >>You know, I such a recent cross in the hallway here at dot confidence. She was, she and I were talking about how AI and data is enabling a lot of people to create these solutions. So, you know, you got kind of this almost like Amazon web services dynamic, where it's growing really fast and we're hearing stories, how data is driving value. We had formula one on the cube, the keynotes were giving some examples as you start to see this momentum kind of scaling up to the next level, if you're enabling customers, which you are with data, the monetization or the economic shifts, right? So it's healthy ecosystems, the partners create solutions, they deal with the customer, they're making some money, right? So, so can you share your vision on the unit on the economic equation of how partners are tapping into this? Because I almost imagine, um, a thousand flowers are blooming and then you start to see more value being created and Splunk also gets a cut of it, but there's, there should be that kind of deck. And you can talk about that. >>Yeah, absolutely. In fact, one of the things that I have the opportunity to do with our partners is study our partners, success and profitability. And some of the things that we learned from those studies with our partners is that what's really helping our partners to grow their practices with Blanca and their profitability with that business is really the stickiness that they have with their customers, being able to deliver solutions and services and really be those subject matter experts for their customers. And we know that our most successful and profitable partners are servicing their customers across the Splunk cases. So for example, many of our partners came from a security background and they are super deep, super knowledgeable around security, and they are trusted by their customers as the, you know, subject matter experts around security. And so many of them are starting to lean in on some of the new, additional use cases. Observability is a hot topic with our partners right now it's a new and emerging use cases case for them to transition some of the same sets of data that they are addressing in their current appointments with our customers and bring new value with those new use cases. But that's where we're seeing partner profitability growth. >>I love the channel dynamic. There we go, indirect and real and value creation. I got to ask you about the day-to-day dynamic. Of course we all know about the mark injuries and story. Software's eating the world, okay. Software ate the world. Okay. Now that's done. Now we're data is continuing to drive the value proposition. And so that's going to have an impact on how customer your partners serve their customers, ultimately your customer at the end of the day. How, how is that happening? And from a success standpoint, how would you talk to, uh, where people are on the progress of bringing the most innovative solutions? What, where's the headroom, where do you see that going Brook >>There's? I would say there's just endless opportunity here. And we just see so much innovation in our partner ecosystem to create purpose built solutions for their customers business problems. And that's where I think the value of the data comes to life. Really turning that data into doing as is really the Matic for all the things that we're talking about here, uh, at.com 21, that our partners really see these opportunities and then can replicate some of those same solutions for other customers in the same spaces. So for example, you know, really specialized solutions for healthcare where they're, uh, providing, you know, access to all the data across the hospital, or, um, you heard in guard's keynote about unlocking the value of SAP data. This is just a huge opportunity accessing all that data and really turning that data into doing. And we'll be talking even more about the new SAP relationship and the value for the partner ecosystem to go address those FP data sets in their customers. We'll be talking more about that on our partner feature session, which is tomorrow in day two of dotcom. >>Well, you guys to have a nice mix of business in the partner ecosystem from, you know, small boutiques to high-end system integrators and everything in between, I noticed you're doing a lot with censure. Could you talk about how you guys are partnering with the large global system integrators because they're becoming their own clouds. So, you know, as Jerry Chen at Greylock says, are these castles being built in the cloud with real competitive advantage with data? Again, this is a new phenomenon in the past really two years, you're starting to see explosion of, of scale and refactoring business models with data. What's your, what's your reaction to that? >>Absolutely. In fact, we are really leading in with some of these global systems integrators, and you've heard this exciting news in Theresa Carlson's portion of the keynote earlier today, where we've announced a partner, a center partner business group together. And we're so excited about the center and Splunk partner business group. It's going to elevate the Splunk and essential partnership eCenter has invested in thousands and thousands of joint professionals that are skilled up on flunk. They are building a purpose patients. We have so many amazing examples where Splunk and essential work together to solve real life problems. For example, there's a joint solution that helps address anti-human trafficking. Uh, there's a joint solution that helped with vaccine tracking. I mean, just really powerful examples that are just really extending value to customers and solving real life, data problems. >>Well, you guys have a lot of momentum, bro. Congratulations on the success and partner versus we're going to follow it again. It was built for the cloud. I know it's in the headline. It says flunked launches, new partner program for the cloud. Was there a partner program for the on premises and what's different about on the cloud? Was it kind of new, everything is cloud what's that? What does that mean? That statement? Yeah, >>Absolutely. So we, you know, as we've all seen, customers are leaning into the class that growth to the movement, to the cloud, just accelerated during COVID. And so part of that feedback that I referenced earlier that we heard from our partners, they said, we need help. We need help moving faster. And so that's really the underpinning of the all-new Splunk partner vers program is to really that acceleration to skill up our partners and give them the tools to be successful. And so with that, we did want to rebrand and reinvigorate it to really signal this newness. And as it was mentioning earlier, when we were talking about the badges, it's really about making sure we're providing the partners the right enablement so that they can be ready and able to support their customers on this journey, to the cloud, as well as the access, the resources, the support and the marketing so that they can be successful and really featured their expertise and value in the market. >>Well, Brooke, I want to get one final question before we go. Cause I know you have a lot of experience in the partner ecosystems and over your career. And we just interviewed the formula one CEO, uh, Zach brown, and, and they've been very popular with the, with the Netflix series driving to survive. And I was joking with him driving value with data as channel partners and your partners look to the post pandemic survive and thrive trend that people are going through right now. What should they be thinking about when they look at partner versus, and how Splunk can help them drive an advantage, not only just survive, but to actually drive to an advantage. >>I, I just see this as an opportunity for partners that haven't already leaned into the cloud and helping their customers migrate to the cloud now is the time rapid five acceleration is just essential for organizations to reach their most critical missions and their outcomes. And this one partner versus program is a significant move forward for Splunk partners. And we want to pursue a massive market opportunity focused on the cloud with our partners, for our customers. So I just really encourage our partners to engage, participate and join us on this journey. >>Well, it's a lot of evidence to support this vision. Uh, with pandemic, we saw refab replatforming and refactoring the businesses in the cloud at speeds, that unprecedented deployments. So, uh, cloud can, can bring that scale and speed to the table. It's really incredible. So thank you very much for coming on the cube remotely. Thanks have you had, >>Thank you. This was a delight. Really appreciate the time, John and very excited to have my first opportunity to be a >>Okay. You're a cube alumni. We are here in the studios, Splunk studios for their virtual event here with all the top executives and partners bringing in guests remotely. It's a virtual event. So we'll be back in person. I'm Jennifer, the cube. Thanks for watching.