>>from the Cube Studios in Palo Alto and Boston connecting with thought leaders all around the world. This is a cube conversation. >>Welcome back to the Cube's coverage here from Palo Alto, California in our studio with remote interviews during this time of covert 19 with our quarantine crew. I'm John Furrier, your host of the Cube, and we have here the award winners for the best CDU solution from North based loses. Jim Keller, the president and from Harvard Business Publishing and University of Pittsburgh, Chad Burden PhD in data privacy officer of University of Pittsburgh. Thanks for coming on, gentlemen. Appreciate it. >>Thank you. >>So, Jim, we'll start with you. What is the solution that you guys have got the award for and talk about how it all came about? >>Yeah. Thank you for asking. And, uh, it's been a pleasure Worldwide chat and the entire you pitch team. So? So as we as we enter this this this whole covitz situation, our team really got together and started to think about how we could help AWS customers continue their journey with AWS, but also appreciate the fact that everyone was virtual. The budgets were very tight, but Nonetheless, the priorities remained the same. Um, So So we devised a solution which which we call jam sessions, AWS jam sessions and the whole principle behind the notion is that many customers go through AWS training and AWS has a number of other offerings, immersion days and boot camps and other things. But we felt it was really important that we brought forth a solution that enables customers to focus on a use case but do it rapidly in a very concentrated way with our expert team. So we formulated what we call jam sessions, which are essentially very focused, too. Weak engagements, rapid prototyping engagements. So in the context of Chad on the pitch team, it was around a data lake and they had been channels certainly speak to this in much more detail. But the whole notion here was how do you How does the customer get started out? Is how does a customer prove the efficacy of AWS proved that they can get data out of their on premises systems, get it into AWS, make it accessible in the form in this case, a data lake solution, and have the data be consumable. So we have an entire construct that we use, which includes structured education, virtual simultaneous rooms where development occurs with our joint sap prototyping teams. We come back again and do learnings, and we do all of this in the construct of the agile framework. And ideally, by the time we're done with the two weeks, um, the customer achieves some success around achieving the goal of the jam session. But more importantly, their team members have learned a lot about AWS with hands on work, real work. Learn by doing if you will, um, and really marry those two concepts of education and doing and come out of that with an opportunity then to think about the next step in that journey, which in this case be Thea implementation of a data lake in a full scale project kind of initiative. >>Talk about the relationship with the North based solutions. So your customer, you guys were partnering on this, so it's kind of your partnering, but also your they're helping you talk about the relationship and how the interactions went. >>Yeah, so I was faced with a challenge that I think a lot of people in my role is faced with where the demand for data is increasing and demand for more variety of data. And I'm faced with a lot of aging on premise hardware that, um I really don't want to invest any further. And so I know the clouds in the future, but we are so new with the cloud that we don't even know what we don't know. So it has zeroed in on AWS and I was talking with them and I made it very clear. I said, you know, because of our inexperience, you know, we have talented data engineers, but they don't have this type of experience, but I'm confident they can learn. What I'm looking for is a partner who can help us not only prove this out, that it can work, which I had high confidence that it could, but help us identify where we need to be putting our still skilling up. You know what gaps do we have? And you know, aws has so many different components. But we also needed help zeroing in on or our need. You know, what are the pieces we should really be paying attention to and developing those skills. So we got introduced to North Bay and they introduced us to the idea of the jam session, which was perfect. It was really exactly what I was looking for. Um, you know, we made it very clear in the early conversations that this would be side by side development, that my priority was, of course, to meet our deliverables. But it also for my team to learn how to use some of this and learn what they need to dive deeper in at the end of the engagement. I think that's how we got started on then. It was very successful engagement after that >>talk about the jam sessions because I love this. First of all, this is in line with what we're seeing in the marketplace, with rapid innovation now more than ever, with virtual workforces at home given situation, rapid, agile, rapid innovation, rapid development is a key kind of thing. What is a jam session was the approach. Give me a little bit about of it out, but what's your take on the jam sessions? Had it all has it all work? >>It was great because of the large team that north a broad and the variety of skills they brought and then they just had a playbook that worked, right? They broke us up into different groups from the people who be making the data pipeline to the people who then would be consuming it to develop analytics projects. Um, so that part works really well. And, yes, this rapid iterative development, You know, right now, with our current kind of process in our current tools, I have a hard time telling anybody how long it will take to get that new data source online and available to our data analysts who are data scientists because it takes months sometimes and nobody wants that answer. And I don't want to be giving that answer. So what we're really focused on is how do we tighten up our process? How do we still like the right tools so that we can pay, you know, will be two weeks from start to finish and you know you'll be able to make the data available. So the engagement with North of the jam session scheduled like that really helped us prove that. You know, once you have the skills and have the right people, you can do this rapid development and bring more value to our business more quickly, which is really what it's all about. We're out, >>Jim. I want get your thoughts because, you know, we see time and time again with the use cases with the cloud When you got smart people, certainly people who play with data and work with data, they're not. They're pretty savvy. They know the limitations. But when you get the cloud, it's like a car versus a horse or, you know, get a go from point A to point B. But again, the faster is the key. How did you put this all together And what were the key learnings? >>Yeah. So, uh, John, you know, a couple of things that are really important. One is, as Chad mentioned, really smart people, um, on the it side that wanted to wanted to really learn and had had a thirst for learning. Um, and then couple that with the thing that they're trying to learn in the actual use case that we're trying to jointly jointly implement a couple of things that we've learned that they're they're really important. One is, although we have structure, we have a Silla by and we have sort of a pattern of execution. We never lose sight of the fact that every customer's different. Every team members different and in fact chat in this case that team members some had more skills on AWS than others, so we had to be sensitive to that. So what we did was we sort of use our general formula for for the two weeks one week one is very structured, focused on getting folks up to speed and normalize in terms of where they are in their education of aws solution we're building, um, and then we two is really meant to sort of multiple together and really take this the solution that we're trying to execute around, um, and tailor it to the customer. So they were addressing the specific needs both from their team member of perspective and, uh, and the institutions perspective, Um, in total. We've learned that starting the day together and ending today with the recap of that day is really important in terms of ensuring that everyone's on the same page, that they have commonality of knowledge. And then we were addressing any concerns. You know, this stuff we move fast, right? Two weeks is is not a long time to get a lot of rapid prototyping done. So if there is anxiety or folks feel like they're falling behind, you want to make sure we knew that we want to address that quickly that evening or the next morning, recalibrate and and then continue. The other thing that we've learned is that and Chad, the entire Cube team did a phenomenal job of this was really preparation. So we want to We we We have a set of preliminary set of activities that we that we work with our customers sort of lay the foundation for, so that on day one of the jam session, we're ready to go. And with this we're doing this virtually. We don't have the luxury of being in a physical room and having time to sort of get acclimated to the physical constructive of organizing rooms and shares and tables. All of that, we're doing all that virtually so. Joe and the team were tremendous and getting all the preparatory work done. The thing about was involved in a data lake. It's the data and security and access of things Our team needed to work with their team and the prescription that in the formula that we use is really 33 critical things. One is our team members have to be adept that educating on a white board in this case. Secondly, we want to do side by side element. That's that's the whole goal. And then we want team members to to build trust and relationship side by side and then, thirdly and importantly, we want to be able to do over the shoulder mentoring. So as Chad's team members were executing, UI could guide them as we go. And those really those three ingredients really >>talk about the Data Lake on the outcome. As you guys went through this, what was the results of the Data Lake? How did it all? How'd it all turn out? >>Yeah, the result was great. It was exactly what we're looking for. The way I had structured the engagement and working with Jim to do this is I wanted to accomplish two things. I wanted to one prove that we can do what we do today with a star schema Martin model that creates a lot of reports that are important to the business but doesn't really help us grow in our use of data. There was a second component of it that I said, I want I want to show how we do something new and different that we can't do with our existing tools so that I can go back to our executive leadership and say, Hey, you know, by investing in this year's all the possibilities we can do and we've got proof that we can do it. So some natural language processing was one of those and leveraging aws comprehend with key and And the idea here was there are unfortunately relevant today with Cove it. But there are events happening all around campus. And how do students find the right events for them? You know, they're all in the calendar will live pricing national language processing using AWS comprehend and link them to a student's major so that we can then bubble these up to a student. Hey, you know of all these thousands of events here and you might be most interested in you can't do that right now, but using these tools using the skills that north they helped us develop working side by side will help us get there, >>you know, beautiful thing is with these jam sessions. You want to get some success, You go for the next one. You get this Sounds like another jam session opportunity to go in there and do the virtual version as well. As the fall comes up, you have the new reality. And this >>is >>really kind of What I like about this story is you guys did the jam session. First of all, great project, but right in the middle of this new shift of virtual, so it's very interesting. So I want to get your thoughts, Chad, You know, as you guys look at this, I mean on any given Sunday, this is a great project. You get people together, you have the cloud get more agile, get the proof points, show it double down on it. Playbook check. But now you've got the virtual workforce. How did that all play out? Anything surprise you any expectations that were met or things that were new that came out of this? Because this is something that everyone is going through right now. How do I come out of this or deal with current Cove it as it evolves and when I come out of it. I don't have a growth strategy in a team that's deploying and building. What's your take on? >>Yeah, so, yeah, you know, it's a good question. And I was a little concerned about it at first, cause when we had first begun conversations with North Bay, we were planning on a little bit on site and a little bit virtual. And of course, Cove. It happened. Our campuses closed. Nobody's permitted to be there. And so we had to just pivot to 100% virtual. I have to say I didn't notice any problems with it. It didn't impede our progress that didn't impede our communication. I think the playbook that North they had really just worked for that. Now they may have had to adjust it, and Jim can certainly part of that. But you know those morning stand ups for each group that's working the end of day worn out right? That's what those were the things I was joining in on, you know, it wasn't involved in it throughout the day, but I wanted to check in at the end of the day to make sure things are kind of moving along and the communication the transparency that was provided with key, and because of that transparency and that kind of schedule, they already have set up North Bay. We didn't see we didn't have any problems having a fully virtual engagement. In fact, I would probably prefer to do for two engagements moving forward because we can cut down on travel costs for everybody. >>You know, Jim O. Negative thoughts that I think is a huge point that's not just representing with here and illustrate with the example of the success of the EU solution. You guys got the award for, but in a way, covert exposes all the people that are been relying on waterfall based processes. You got to be in a room and argue things out. Our have meetings set up. It takes a lot of time when you when you have a virtual space and an agile process, you make some adjustments. But if you're already agile, it doesn't really impact too much. Can you share your thoughts because you deployed this very successfully? Virtually. >>Yeah, I know it is. Certainly, um, the key is always preparation and on our team did a phenomenal job of making sure that we could deliver equal to or better than virtual experience than we could on site and on site experience. But, John, you're right. You're absolutely right. But it forces you to really do is think about all the things that come natural when you're when you're in a physical room together, you can't take for granted virtually, um, even even interpersonal relationships and how those were built and the trust that's built in. And this whole, as much as this is a technical solution and as much as the teams did you really phenomenal aws work, foundational Lee. It all comes down to trust it, as Chad said, transparency, and it's hard, often hard to to build that into a virtual experience. So part of that preparatory work that I mentioned, we actually spend time doing that. And we spent time with Chad and other team members understanding each of their team members and understanding their strengths, understanding where they were in the education journey and experiential journey a little bit about them personally, right? So so I think. Look, I think the reality in the short and near term is that everything is gonna be virtual North Bay delivers much of their large scale projects. Virtually now, we have a whole methodology around that, and, um, and it's proven. Actually, it's made us better at what we do. >>Yeah, definitely puts the pressure on getting the job done and focusing on the creativity the building out. I want to ask you guys both the same question on this next round, because I think it's super important as people see the reality of cloud and there certainly has been around the benefits of there. But still you have, you know, mentality of, you know, we have to do it ourselves, not invented here. It's a managed services security. You know, there's plenty of objections. If you really want to avoid cloud, you can come up with something if you really look for it. Um, but the reality is, is that there are benefits for the folks out there that are now being accelerated into the cloud for the reasons we cove it and other reasons. What's your advice to them? Why cloud, what's the what's the bet? What comes? What comes out of making a good choice with the cloud? Chad? Is people sitting there going? Okay, I got to get my cloud mojo going What's your What's your What's your advice to those folks sitting out there watching this? >>Yeah, so I would say it. And Jim does this, you know, we have a big vision for data, you know, the whole universe of data. Where does everything is made available? And, um, I can't estimate the demand for all of that yet, right, That's going to evolve over time. So if I'm trying to scale some physical hardware solution, I'm either going to under scale it and not be able to deliver. Or I'm gonna invest too much money for the value in getting what? By moving to the cloud. What that enables me to do is just grow organically and make sure that our spend and the value we're getting from the use are always aligned. Um And then, of course, all the questions that you have availability and acceptability, right? We can just keep growing. And if we're not seeing value in one area, we can just we're no longer spending on that particular area, and we contract that money to a different components of the cloud, so just not being locked into a huge expense up front is really key, I think, >>Jim, your thoughts on Why Cloud? Why now? It's pretty obvious reasons, but benefits for the naysayers sitting on the fence who are? >>Yeah, it's It's a really important question, John and I think that had a lot of important points. I think there's two others that become important. One is, um, agility. Whether that's agility with respect to your in a competitive marketplace, place agility in terms of just retaining team members and staff in a highly competitive environment will go nowhere in particularly in the I t world, um, agility from a cost perspective. So So agility is a theme that comes through and through, over and over and over again in this change, right? So, he said, most companies and most organizations don't they don't know the entirety of what it is they're facing or what the demands are gonna be on their services. The agility is really is really key, and the 2nd 1 is, you know, the notion has often been that you have to have it all figured out. You could start and really our mantra and the jam session was sort of born this way. It's really start by doing, um, pick a use case, Pick a pain point, pick an area of frustration, whatever it might be. And just start the process you learn as you go. Um, and you know, not everything is the right fit for cloud. There are some things for the right reasons where alternatives might be might be appropriate. But by and large, if you if you start by doing And in fact, you know the jam session, learn by doing, and you start to better understand, enterprise will start to better understand what's most applicable to that where they can leverage the best of this bang for the buck if you will, um, and ultimately deliver on the value that that I t is is meant to deliver to the line of business, whatever that whatever that might be. And those two themes come through and through. And thirdly, I'll just add speed now. Speed of transformation, Speed of cost reduction, speed of feature rollout. Um, you know, Chad has users begging for information and access to data. Right? And the team we're sitting there trying to figure how to give it to him quickly. Um, so speed of execution with quality is really paramount as well these days >>and channels. You mentioned scale too, because he's trying to scale up as key and again getting the cloud muscles going for the teams. And culture is critical because, you know, matching that incentives. I think the alignment is critical. Point point. So congratulations, gentlemen. On great award best edu solution, Chad, While I have you here, I want to just get your personal thoughts. Put your industry expert PhD hat on because, you know, one of the things we've been reporting on is a lot of in the edu space higher ed in other areas with people having different education policies. The new reality is with virtual virtualized students and faculty alumni nine in community, the expectations and the data flows are different. Right? So you you had stuff that people use systems, legacy systems, >>kind of. >>It's a good opportunity to look at cloud to build a new abstraction layer and again create that alignment of what can we do? Development wise? I'm sure you're seeing new data flows coming in. I'm sure there's kind of thinking going on around. Okay. As we go forward, how >>do >>we find out who's what. Classes to attend if they're not on site this another jam session. So I see more, more things happening pretty innovative in your world. What's your take on all this? >>Um, I take, you know, So when we did the pivot, we did a pivot right after spring. Great toe. Be virtual for our students, Like a lot of universities dead. And, um, you learn a lot when you go through a crisis kind of like that. And you find all the weaknesses And we had finished the engagement. I think north by that point, or it were in it. And, um, seeing how if we were at our future state, you know, the way I envision the future state, I can now point to the specific things and get specific examples of how we would have been able to more effectively on when these new demands on data came up when new data flows were being created very quickly and, you know, able to point out to the weaknesses of our current ecosystem and how that would be better. Um, so that was really key. And then, you know, it's a This whole thing is an opportunity. It's really accelerated a lot of things that were kind of already in the works, and that's why it's exciting. It's obviously very challenging, you know, and that if it were really right now trying to focus on how do we have a safe campus environment and going with a maximum flexibility and older technology that's involved in that? And, you know, I've already got you know, I've had more unique data requests. >>My desk >>is coded and in the previous five years, you know, >>new patterns, new opportunities to write software. And it's great to see you guys focused on the hierarchy of needs. Really appreciate. I want to just share a funny story. Not funny, but interesting story, because this highlights the creativity that's coming. I was riffing on Zoom with someone in Higher Ed University out here in California, and it was wasn't official. Business was just more riffing on the future, and I said, Hey, wouldn't it be cool if you have, like an abstraction layer that had leverage, canvas, zoom and discord and all the kids are on discourse, their game received. Okay, why discord? It's the hang space people are his connective tissue Well, how do you build notifications through the different silos? So canvas doesn't support certain things? And campuses? The software. Most companies never say years, but that's a use case that we were just riffing on. But that's the kind of ideation that's going to come out of these kinds of jam sessions. You guys having that kind of feeling to? How do you see this new ideation? Rapid prototyping. I only think it's gonna get faster. Accelerated >>It was. Chad said, you know, his requests are multiplying. I'm sure on people are you know, folks are not willing to wait, you know, we're in a hurry up. Hurry up. I wanted now mentality these days with with both, um college attendees as well as those of us. We're trying to deliver on that promise. And I think, John, I think you're absolutely right. And I think that, um, whether it be the fail fast mantra or whether it be can we may even make this work right? Doesn't have lakes, is it is even viable. Um, and is it even cost effective? I can tell you that the we do a lot of work in tech. We do a lot of work in other industries as well. And what what the courseware delivery companies and the infrastructure companies are all trying to deal with and as a result of coaches, they've all had to try to innovate. Um, so we're being asked to challenge ourselves in ways we never been asked to challenge ourselves in terms of speed, of execution, speed of deployment, because these folks need answers, you know, tomorrow, Today, yesterday, not not six months from now. So the the I'll use the word legacy way of thinking is really not one that could be sustained or tolerated any longer. And and I want Chad and others to be able to call us and say, Hey, we need help. We need help quickly. How we go work together, side by side and go prove something. It may not be the most elegant. It may not be the most robust, but we need. We need it kind of tomorrow, and that's really the spirit of the whole. The whole notion of transition >>and new expectations means new solutions that will give you the final word going forward. You're on this wave right now. You got new things coming at you. You get in that foundation set. What's your mindset as you ride this wave? >>I'm optimistic it really It's an exciting time to be in this role. The progress we've made in the county or 2020 despite the challenges we've been faced with with, um cove it and budget issues. Um, I'm optimistic. I love what I saw in the in the jam session. It just kind of confirmed my I believe that this is really the future for the University of Pittsburgh in order to fully realize our vision of maximizing the value of data. >>Awesome. Best Edu solution award for AWS Public sector Congratulations and North based solutions. Jim Keller, President and University of Pittsburgh Chadbourne. Thank you for coming on and sharing your story. Great insights. And again, the wave is here. New expectation, new solutions. Clouds There. You guys got a good approach. Congratulations on the jam session. Thanks. >>Thank you, John. Pleasure. Thank you. Through >>the cube coverage of AWS Public Sector Partner Awards. I'm John Furrow, your host of the Cube. Thanks for watching. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah