(clicking) >> I am Lisa Martin with theCUBE on the ground at Google for the sixth annual Top Women in Cloud Awards event with CloudNOW. Very excited to be joined by next guest, Ajit George, the Managing Director of the Shanti Bhavan Children's Project. Welcome to the cube. >> Hi Lisa, it's great to be here. >> So, I was so excited to have a chat with you. The Shanti Bhavan Children's Project is incredible. Tell us about it, 20 years now, tell us about what that is, how your family is involved, and what it's helping to do for these young children in Bangelore, India? >> Sure, Shanti Bhavan was founded by my father, Dr. Abraham George, 20 years ago, and its goal is to educate children, but also to eliminate poverty and change entire systems of communities and governments. It, the way we achieve this goal is by taking children from the poorest communities in India, giving them a high-quality, boarding school education, from the age of four until they graduate from 12th grade, and we cover everything during that period. So, their healthcare, their clothing, their boarding, food, all of that is taken care of, as well as training in soft skills. So, debate, interpersonal and interview skills, leadership skills, and the whole nine yards. While we educate them in the highest curriculum, the toughest standards in India, and then we pay for their entire college degree afterwards. So, that is 17 years of a high-quality intervention per child from the very first day they start school to the very first day of work. >> That's incredible and you have a very high college graduation rate, isn't that correct? Yeah, that is correct. If they pass out of high school, their high school graduation rate is about 77%, University graduation rate is 98% and so- >> Wow, 98%. >> It's been pretty exciting and they go on from those, from college to multinational companies, like Mercedes-Benz or Amazon, or Goldman Sachs. So, our kids who come from urban slums or rural villages with huts with no running water or electricity are making more in their first five years, than their parents make in a lifetime. So, it's a quantum leap, it is a genuine breaking the cycle of poverty, and the ability to become both, either the primary or the sole breadwinner for their entire family. So, four or five other people are dependent on them at the age of 21. >> And that's incredible, I was watching, there is a Daughters of Destiny, Netflix Original Docuseries. I saw the trailer of it today, incredibly profound. One of the things that, a couple things that really stuck out to me was, this is taking children from poverty to possibility. And also, one of the young girls that was in that trailer had said, "I've got a lot to lose, it's now or never for me." These children seem to really understand the gravity of their situation, and genuinely recognize the opportunity that they've been given. >> Yeah, sure, every single Shanti Bhavan child understands, it's almost like they've won the lottery, they've had an opportunity that no one in their families have ever had, but no one from their communities have had either. They're the first person in their family for generations to get any kind of education, and so that's a powerful opportunity, but it's also an important obligation or duty to give back to the family and to make an impact for the community because they are given this golden ticket, and they want to do something important with it. If they don't succeed, nobody gives them a second chance. Kids from that kind of community, and from that kind of circumstance, don't really have a second chance if they aren't able to make the most of it. So when you hear those stories they're talking about, "hey, I really need to seize this moment." "I need to seize this opportunity," maybe, "my mother's back at home and she needs my help," maybe, "my father's bedridden." A lot of these kids have generational debt, so they owe money to, like a money lender, which is an illegal lender and that's a couple generations back. Maybe their grandparents have taken out this debt, so they have all these debts piled up on them, and they have healthcare bills piled up on them, and they've got housing and all of these other problems. Then they have to educate their younger brothers and sisters and pay for dowries for their family members. It's the enormous responsibilities on one child is huge, but they're able to step up because they're given this powerful education, this great opportunity, so there's a lot of pressure, but there's also this great knowledge that they have a horizon out there that no one in their family has ever had before. >> That's incredible and so in the last couple minutes here, CloudNOW, where we are at the awards event tonight, they've teamed up with Intel, Apcera, and CB Technologies, to launch the Daughters of Destiny STEM scholarship. So exciting, what's that going to mean for current students, at Shanti Bhavan or the future students? >> Right, I think I'm really, really thankful, first of all to CB Technologies, Intel, and Apcera, as well as the CloudNOW. This scholarship is the first of its kind within our program and it allows these three young ladies, who are the first recipients of the scholarship, and hopefully there'll be many more recipients, but these young ladies to get a high-quality college education in the STEM fields, which is their passion. So, it opens doors for them for their education, potentially for internships and maybe job opportunities after college. So, I think this is a gateway to something bright and beautiful. >> Oh, I love that and how you described it for these children as a quantum leap, is as profound as what's been shown in the Netflix series. So, Ajit, thank you so much for joining. I wish we had more time, this is such an incredible project that you're working on, but we thank you for stopping by theCUBE and sharing it with us. >> Thank you so much, Lisa, it's great to be here. >> We want to thank you for watching theCUBE. I'm Lisa Martin on the ground at Google for the CloudNOW, Top Women in Technology Awards. Bye for now. (closing music)

(computer mouse clicking) >> Hi, Lisa Martin on the ground with The Cube at Google for the sixth annual CloudNOW Top Women in Cloud Awards and we're very excited to be joined by one of the award winners, Beth Cohen. You are with Verizon, congratulations on the award, Welcome to The Cube. >> Thank you, yes. >> So tell me what you do for Verizon. >> So what I do for Verizon is I come up with new products, and we've been focusing over the last few years on software defined networking, which is a brand new, cutting edge area that not only Verizon is new to but also the entire world is new to. So what we're doing is we're taking cloud concepts and applying them to network services and I'm actually involved, in addition to that, in a new initiative called edge computing. So there's going to be white paper coming out shortly on that and that all came out of my work at Verizon on the products, the software defined networking products I've been working on. >> Wow, so you are a pioneer. We'll get to more of that a little bit later but what are some of the things that excite you about being on the leading edge of software defined networking and edge computing? >> Well, what's really exciting to me is working with the customers and getting them excited about this new technology and how it's really changing the world. And they're all excited about it because they understand that the future is here and that they need to embrace it. >> So one of the things that I found was really interesting when I was doing some research on you is you've worked with several technology companies to help them change their product strategy direction, taking advantage of the cloud. So I mentioned the work pioneer earlier but you're clearly influential. How have you been able to work with companies of presumably diverse cultures to help them change direction? >> So that's an interesting question. The company has to be ready for it and some companies are not, actually. But the companies, fortunately I've had the opportunity to work with some companies that were ready for either whether they recognized, in one case, their market was disappearing, literally, as their customers were leaving and they didn't have any new customers and they recognized that they needed to take a new direction to survive. And what they did is they had some really unique, interesting technology around high availability and survivability, which is something that companies really need but theirs was a hardware based solution and what I helped them do is to really come up with a new way of looking at it that was a software based solution that they could apply to classrooms. >> Wow, so tell me about the influence there. What's that process like to show them, like you were saying, some of them, customers are drying up, obviously this is an impetus for change, what were some of the obstacles that you helped them identify and overcome to identify, "This is why we have to shift direction, "this is going to be much more beneficial?" >> So, they obviously were in great pain, as their balance sheet was drifting down but they had to realize that their skill sets, that they had some people that had some great skill sets but they had to really think differently about what they were doing. So one of the things I did is help them understand the new technologies that they were going to be adopting. So I did some training, worked out some training with them and gave them a two day training session on a cloud technology and what it was about and how it could apply to them. I also had to understand what they were doing and their secret sauce so that I could really extend that and say, "Okay, your job's not going to go away "but you really need to add some additional skills "to be successful in this new direction." >> What are some of the fears, technology fears, that you've heard as, not just an influencer helping companies to make the right directional changes, but also even at your current career at Verizon? What are some of the things that people are afraid of regarding technology that you can help them see, "Ah, it's not so bad?" (laughing) >> So, you know, Verizon's a telecom and telecom's, what I like to say to people is, "What we're selling is reliability, right, "so every time you make that cell phone call, "it goes through, right?" And Verizon prides itself on that and every time you have that connection, it works every time. Well, there's a lot of technology and a lot of operations and a lot of support services that go on behind the scenes to make that actually happen. And the general public's probably just not aware of that. But the people inside the company are very afraid to get away from, "Well, we've always done this and we have to continue doing "this because we do have that five nines reliability that we "have to deliver," and so it's very difficult to say, "Oh, well we'll do it differently now." So, there has to be a lot of education around, and gaining the trust that yes, this new technology can be used and can deliver those five nine reliability statistics and SLA's that you're used to delivering. >> Do you think it's more of a fear of maybe cultural change than it is actual technology? >> I'd say it's probably a combination of both. Verizon's a technology company so obviously we embrace technology and we have a lot of really smart people working for the company who love technology. But we also, we want to service our customers and we don't want to get that angry phone call about, "The network's down." So, there's kind of a combination to make sure that we deliver to our customers what they expect. >> Exactly. So I mentioned the word pioneer earlier, you have a really interesting career path that I think is very inspirational. In the last couple minutes that we have here, share with us about, how did you get from what you studied in school to being a leader in software defined networking at Verizon? >> Wow, so I studied architecture, as in building architecture, I went to Rhode Island School of Design, which is completely, totally opposite. Although, I do tell people, I learned a whole lot about creativity and critical thinking, which is very valuable skills to apply to being a pioneer because when you're in cutting edge, what I spend most of my time doing is connecting the dots and saying, "Oh, this technology can be applied here," or, "These two technologies can work together, "have you ever thought of that?" "Oh wow, never." (laughing) So that's why I end up spending my career being on the cutting edge of things. >> I love that. You bring up a great point that is, in a lot of fields, no matter what you study, there are great lessons to be learned from, for example, applying the creativity and technology, there's a great value there and so I think that's very inspiring to others who might be interested in different things and know that there's a lot of cross pollination. Last question-- >> I have one more comment about that. >> Oh, please go for it. >> There's no such thing as wasted time, everything I've done over the years has always ended up being a learning experience for me. I spent two years being a cook at a fancy French restaurant in Phillidelphia and that was a learning experience too. (laughing) >> And I love that and you're absolutely right, all these experiences build one on the other on the other and I agree with you that, and I hope a lot of people feel the same, that there isn't a waste of time, it's not a wrong step, it's something that you can learn from and they'll be a better person, a better worker, a better boss for it. >> And a mean cook. >> Exactly, I got to get some recipes from you. So last question, the CloudNOW Top Women in Cloud award, really quickly, how did you find out about that and what does this award mean to you? >> I'm very excited about it. I have to admit, it was a big surprise for me. Somebody nominated me and they sent me a note on LinkedIn and I had completely forgotten about it and then I get this email and so I was like just stunned so I'm very excited about it. >> And it seems, like I've said, I've used the word pioneer a number of times, and you're very inspiring and I'm sure that the people that bestowed the award are very thrilled to have you in the class as this is the sixth year. >> Yes. >> Well Beth, thank you so much for joining us on theCUBE and sharing your story and again, congratulations on the award. >> Thank you again. >> I'm Lisa Martin on the ground with The Cube at Google, thanks so much for watching. Bye for now. (upbeat music)

(click) >> Hey, Lisa Martin on the ground with theCUBE at Google for the Sixth Annual CloudNOW Top Women in Cloud Awards Event, our second year covering this, very excited to be joined by tonight's emcee, Becky Wanta, the founder of RSW1C. Welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you. >> It's great to have you here. So tell us a little bit about what you do and your background as a technology leader. >> So, I've been in technology for close to 40 years. I started out as a software. >> Sorry, I don't even, what? (laughing) >> Ha, ha, ha, it's a long time ago, yeah. So I started out as a developer back in the Department of Defense. So it wasn't rocket science in the early days when I began because it was back when computers took up whole rooms and I realized I had an affinity for that. So, I leveraged that, but then I got into, at that time, and I'm from northern California, if you remember right, the Department of Defense was drawing down. And so I decided I was going to leverage my experience in IT to get into either integrative financial services or healthcare, right. So I took over running all of tech for the Money Store at the time which you would have no idea who that is. And then that got acquired by Wells Fargo First Union, so I took over as their Global CTO for Wells Fargo. And what you'll see is, so let me just tell you about RSW1C because what it is is it's a technology consulting firm that's me. And the reason I have it is because tech changes so much that it's easy to stay current. And when I get brought into companies, and you'll look at me, so I've been the executive officer for tiny little companies like PepsiCo, Wells Fargo, Southwest Airlines. >> The small ones. >> Yeah, tiny, not really, MGM Resorts International, the largest worker's comp company in California, a company that, unborn midsize SMB in southern California that just wrapped up last year. And when I get brought into these companies, I get brought in to transform them. It's at a time in the maturation of these companies, these tiny little brands we've mentioned, where they're ready to jettison IT. So I take that very seriously because I know technology is that gateway to keep that competitive advantage. And the beauty is of that the companies I've mentioned, they're all number one in their markets. And when you're number one, there's only one direction to go, so they take that very seriously. >> How do you come in there and help an MGM Grand Resorts transform? >> So what happened in MGM's case and probably in the last five CIO positions that I've taken, they've met me as a consultant, again, from RSW1C. And then when I look into what needs to happen and I have the conversation, because everybody thinks they want to do digital transformation, and it's not an easy journey and if you don't have the executive sponsorship, don't even try it at home, right? And so, in MGM's case, they had been talking. MGM's the largest taxpayer in Nevada. People think about it as MGM Grand. It's 19 brands on The Strip. >> Is that right? >> It's Bellagio, MGM, so it's the largest taxpayer in Nevada. So it owns 44,860 rooms on The Strip. So if I just counted now, you have Circa Circa, Slots of Fun, Mirage, Bellagio, Monte Carlo, New York, New York, um, MGM Grand Las Vegas, MGM Grand Detroit. They're in the countries and so forth. So it's huge. And that includes Mandalay, ARIA, and all those, so it's huge, right? And so in MGM's case, they knew they wanted to do M life, so M life game changes their industry. And I put that in. This will be our nine year anniversary coming up on Valentine's Day. Thirty years they talked about it, and I put in with a great team And that was part of the transformation into a new way of running their business. >> Wow, we have a couple of minutes left. I'd love to get your perspective on being a female leader in tech. Who were your mentors back in the day? And who are your mentors now? >> So, I don't have any mentors. I never did. Because when I started in the industry, there wasn't a lot of women. And obviously, technology was fairly new which is why one of my passions is around helping the next generation be hugely successful. And one of the things that's important is in the space of tech, I like this mantra, this mantra that says, "How about brains "and beauty that gets you in the door? "How about having the confidence in yourself?" So I want to help a lot of the next generation be hugely successful. And that's what Jocelyn has built with CloudNow, her and Susan. And I'm a big proponent of this because I think it's a chance for us to give back and help the next generation of leaders in a non-traditional way be hugely successful in brands, in companies that are going to unleash their passion and show them how to do that. Because, the good news is that I'm a total bum, Lisa. I've never had a job. I love what I do, and I do it around the clock, so. >> Oh, if only more people could say that. That's so cool. But what we've seen with CloudNow, this is our second year covering it, I love talking to the winners and even the folks that are keynoting or helping to sponsor scholarships. There's so much opportunity. >> There really is. >> And it's so exciting when you can see someone whose life is changing as a result of finding a mentor or having enough conviction to say, "You know what? "I am interested in a STEM field. "I'm going to pursue that." >> Right. >> So, we thank you so much Becky for stopping by theCUBE. And your career is amazing. >> Thanks. >> And I'm sure you probably are mentors to countless, countless men and women out there. >> Absolutely. >> Well, thanks again for stopping by. >> Thank you, Lisa. >> Thank you for watching theCUBE. I'm Lisa Martin on the ground at Google with the CloudNow Sixth Annual Top Women in Cloud Awards Event. Stick around, we'll be right back.

>> Hi, I'm Lisa Martin on the ground with The Cube at Google Headquarters for the sixth annual CloudNOW Top Women and Cloud Awards event. Very excited to be joined by one of the award winners tonight, Alice Steinglass the President of Code.org. Congrats on the award and welcome to The Cube >> Thank you. >> It's great to have you here but first of all tell us about Code.Org. It's a pretty big organization and so what's it all about? >> Yeah, so our goal is that every student should have the opportunity to learn Computer Science. And we're focused on equity and diversity. I was surprised to learn that most schools today don't teach Computer Science. And it's not that most kids don't take Computer Science, it's that even if they wanted to most K12 schools today, the kid can't even take a Computer Science class if they want to. And this unfairly affects students of color, students in poor schools, they even have less of that opportunity today. And so our goal is that every school should offer Computer Science and every child should have the opportunity to take it. >> That's outstanding. How long have you been involved in Code.org and what inspires you to donate so much of your time to this organization? >> Yeah, so I joined about a little bit over two years ago. I'd been working in the tech industry for about 15 years, so I'd seen first hand what the lack of opportunity looks like and I was volunteering in my free time, helping out in schools and I just really wanted to make that my full-time job. I also think as a woman in Computer Science I remember walking into my first Computer Science class and it's a lecture hall with 500 people and you just feel like you're sort of in the wrong place. And it can be intimidating and I think especially when you don't know all the words or all the buzz words, you can feel like, I don't know what that word means, I don't know what BBS is right? So therefore I don't belong in Computer Science and it turns out, you don't need to know what a BBS is to do Computer Science. It's basically Reddit and nobody needs to know Reddit to do Computer Science. >> But that's a really great point that there's a lot of intimidation from kids at young ages, "Do I belong here?" "I like it but..." Like you said, there are things like acronyms that can intimidate someone. But some of the stats I was reading that 25% of students in the US have an account but this isn't just in the United States, you guys are doing some great things globally to get kids involved. So tell us a little bit about the global expansion of Code.org. >> Yeah, so almost half of our students come from around the world. And I think that it's not just about America, it's about every student deserves this opportunity. It's actually cool, most of our translation work, almost all of it is done by volunteer translators and we have organizations around the world like, Programa Il futuro in Italy who has translated all of our content into Italian and is working with the Italian Government and making it part of the national curriculum in Italy. Working with partners in Mexico and all over the world, who are doing great work and right here at home. You don't have to go far away, we're partnered with the Oakland School District which is right here. And we're partnered with San Francisco and all sorts of schools right here in America don't have that opportunity and so that's what we're focused on fixing. Because I was talking about, it's challenging when you don't know it and giving the students an opportunity to learn that in High School gives them the confidence to go and do this if they want to in college. I was lucky, I had a high school Computer Science class and I had a teacher who believed in me. And it makes a huge difference. >> Absolutely. >> So we want to give all students that chance. >> That confidence that you mentioned really is key. If you can just help, you probably think one person, just feel a little bit better that if, "Hey I don't know what this acronym is, how many other people don't know?" and that can just really build upon that. Something that I think is really cool that I've just learned about is the Hour of Code. Tell us about that because this is the perfect week to be talking about it. >> Yeah, you are interviewing me during CS education week. And one way you can celebrate CS education week is the Hour of Code. The Hour of Code has become an international movement. We've had tens of millions of students participating all over the world. This week alone there are over a 100,000 different Hour of Code events that are organized. You can see a map of them all over the world. An Hour of Code is a way of letting a student try Computer Science because I can tell you till I'm blue in the face that it's fun, or that it's interesting or that you can do it. But we see a much bigger impact when students actually try it. Last year we had thousands of students, which we measured. Questions like, I like Computer Science or I want to study Computer Science before and after they tried an Hour of Code. And what we saw was that it really makes a huge difference to try it. But you know the group that it mattered the most to? High school girls. High school girls. >> Fantastic. >> Yeah. Because they had this impression that Computer Science wasn't for them. But then after trying it, they said, "Oh you know what? It's not about sitting around and coding the Fibonacci Series." You can do that with code but you can also make apps and you can design websites and you can create things that have this creativity aspect and they wanted to go on and take it. Most students who do the Hour of Code go beyond the Hour of Code. And our goal with the Hour of Code is not to do one hour of code. One hour of code is not Computer Science, you're not going to learn that much right? >> Right. Getting your toe wet maybe? >> Yeah, get your toe wet. But the real goal is to help teacher teach years of Computer Science. To go from that to saying, "I can teach Computer Science." It's about the students and helping them take it and it's about the teachers and helping them teach it. Most of what we do at Code.org is helping teachers who never learned Computer Science when they went to school, learn Computer Science and learn how to teach it to their students. Because our teachers, they didn't learn Computer Science right? >> Right. >> And so we're asking them to teach the subject which is critically important in the 21st century. But it's a challenge. >> It is. Do you have any favorite stories of maybe a student or a teacher or both that tried this and their eyes were opened, "Wow, this is way more than I thought it was." >> So, there's a local teacher near Seattle, his name is Juan and he also was not a Computer Scientist. He had never taken Computer Science, I think he was teaching Political Science. I'm not sure, but I think that's what he was teaching. And he came to our workshops and he said, "Hey, I can do this. I can teach Computer Science." And we have one week workshops over the summer to help the teachers learn how to teach it. And curriculum and professional development that we provide for schools at no cost to the school to help them get started teaching Computer Science. And he took that leap and he did it. And he said, he went into one of his classes and he's in a district that is mostly under represented minorities and he looked at his class, and his class was all male and there were not very many of the under represented minorities in his class and he said, "Well, I've got to fix this." So he went out and he went to the choir class and he found this woman, our Sally and he said to her, "Hey why are you not in Computer Science right now?" and she said, "Oh, I don't know. I don't even like to sing." >> Oh my gosh, wow. >> So he just marched her right up. He got the form, he switched her over to Computer Science. He got her friend Daisy, he got a whole bunch of women in his class. And they loved it. And our Sally took that class and she kept going and she took Python. >> Wow. >> And she's applying to colleges right now and she wants to be a Computer Science major. >> That's amazing. Recruiting from choir. >> Right. And her parents never went to college. One of them never went to high school. And for her this is an opportunity to be part of all the things that we see in Silicon Valley. And I want to see her do it. >> Great story. Last question, the CloudNOW, and this is the Sixth Annual Top Women in Cloud Award. Congratulations on winning and how did you hear about this and what does it mean to you? >> I think it's a great award. I really love that CloudNOW is doing work to encourage equity and to encourage women in the tech space. I think that has a lot of synergy with the work we're doing at Code.org. Trying to encourage women and young women to be able to have this opportunity and be able to take these courses. And you know, it's okay if they don't want to go into the tech space. Most of them won't but if they have the opportunity to see these courses I hope some of them will be inspired and that when they are inspired they'll have that background, so they can. And for the other ones who go into all sorts of different fields, whether it be design or education or medicine, or marketing or who knows? Knowing how Computer Science works, I think is a critical set of skills for all people everywhere in this day and age. >> I agree. It'll be a great part of their foundation. Well, speaking of inspiration, you've been quite inspirational. Again congratulations Alice on the award and thank you for stopping by the Cube. >> Thanks. >> You've been watching the Cube a lot and we're on ground at Google for the six annual CloudNOW, Top Women in Cloud Awards. I'm Lisa Martin, thanks for joining. We'll be right back.

(click) >> I'm Lisa Martin with theCUBE on the ground at Google for the sixth annual CloudNOW Top Women in Cloud Award Event and we're very excited to be joined by one of the award winners, Neha Jain, Engineering Manager at LinkedIn. Welcome to theCUBE. >> Hi, thank you, Lisa. >> And, second of all, congratulations on the award. We'll talk about that in a second, but one of the things that I found very inspiring when I was doing some research about you is how you describe yourself on LinkedIn. A lot of us use LinkedIn, of course. I love that you said that you love to work on technology that empowers users and uplifts the society. What a beautiful statement. >> Thank you so much. >> Tell me a little bit more about what you mean about that. >> Growing up, I always wanted to be in a space where I was doing something for the community. A little bit about myself is I'm an only child and my father passed away when I was barely a year old. So my mom, who's also disabled, raised me literally single-handedly and we had a lot of help on the way. So the thing that always kept me going and inspired is if I could do it, then anyone can. And I have to make that happen, and that is an obligation or a responsibility that I have toward the world. That's basically what I did. Initially I wanted to become a doctor and help the patients get the best of their health but I couldn't deal with blood. >> That's kind of a key. That was a good decision. >> I was really interested in math as a child, so I was like, "Yeah, let's try this engineering thing. "It also sounds pretty fun." And then that's how I started in the engineering field. Initially I joined a company directly from college, but the work didn't inspire me as much. And then I found out about SlideShare. It was a company in the user-generated space, user-generated content space, and they had a female CEO and I was like, "Oh my God, this is just perfect, "and I have to get there." So I joined SlideShare, and six months later it got acquired by LinkedIn. Interesting turn of events. And then now at LinkedIn, we are in the process of creating economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. And that's a mission I can live for. That's something that inspires me every single day and gets me up in the morning, gets me to work, where we are trying to get the right talent matched with the right job, get the companies the right hire. That's very inspiring work to do. >> As an, and I would say, inspiring female in technology, what are some of the things that once you finished your education, you said your first job, you realized, "This isn't quite what I want." But you have the drive, it sounds like probably innately for you that, "I want something else." You kind of knew what you were looking for. Or maybe you knew, "I know when I get there." >> Yeah, you could say that. It's something that, ah, what I was doing was interesting work, but in terms of impact, it wasn't very clear. So I'm sort of a person who's driven more by results, by metrics or something like that. There should be something tangible that's coming out of it, that I can measure. >> Right, yes, validating, right? >> So then I was like, at that time, internet was taking off, and it was all very -- People were all over the place and there were so many things getting shared. And then Facebook came around and then there was Arab Spring and so many other things that were happening. People were taking ownership of their own lives and their own values. I thought that something in the internet space would be an interesting place to be where you could make the change and empower people, empower your users. And I wasn't willing to move out of India at that point, so it was like, "Let's just join SlideShare." I'd been using SlideShare when I was in college doing researches and working for Google Summer of Code. So then I saw that they had a banner that they were hiring, and I'm like, "Okay, yeah, let's just interview for them." >> And here you are. Within the last couple of minutes here, I want to talk about the Top Women in Cloud Award that you're being honored with tonight. And also something that I thought was really, really honest that you wrote on LinkedIn was your experience with imposter syndrome, which I've had for many years and didn't even know what it was until I read about it. And I think that's so, it's such a strong message, knowing that you've had that, but also seeing how accomplished you are, what does this CloudNOW Top Women in Cloud Award mean to you? >> That's a very good question. That's something that I'd been asking myself as well when I first got nominated for it. So my friend, who is the co-founder of Haliburton School, Silmar, he nominated me for the award. I got the email and I was very excited that okay, this is really interesting. How could I become this person? And then I read the application form. There were five questions and I'm like, "I'm not good enough. "I'll not be selected. "I'll just spend a lot of time filling out "this application form, and it will all be futile." So I thought, "Let's just not do it." But then Silmar, he just didn't nominate me for the award, he pushed me to apply, to fill out the application. >> Because he knew how accomplished you were. >> And I am so grateful to him for that. He started a Google Doc where he copied all the questions, and he started listing all the things that I'd done. >> That's fantastic, Neha. >> He is the kind of mentor or the kind of friend, the kind of force that I guess if all the females and all the people had, the world would be a different place. So that's the kind of inspiration, the kind of support that you want from people. >> Absolutely. >> Then I was talking to my husband and my husband was like, he's a very logical person, he wouldn't give you direct prescriptions that, "Okay, no, you should do it, "you should do that," or this or that. He would ask you questions and then make you decide what you want to do, but in those questions will steer you in the direction. >> Right. >> Which is very clever of him. Very few people have the kind of smartness to do that where you don't even realize that you are being pushed into some of the things. >> It sounds like he helps you think through, and you realize, "I have accomplished a lot. "I am deserving of this award." And here you are, being honored tonight. >> Yeah, so it's like, maybe that's not what I thought. What I thought is that there are things, and I should probably apply for it and not wait, not give up because of the result. So that's something that I've also learned in my life. My mom always tells me, "Don't bind yourself to the result. "Just give your best shot. "That's all which is in your control, "so just do that." And that's basically also what my husband also ended up pointing out to me. So then I was like, "Okay, fine, I'll apply." And it was basically like just three days before the application deadline. So I filled out the application form, sent it out to the LinkedIn's comps team for review, my manager reviewed the entire work-related stuff, and I'm so grateful that they were able to do the review process in time so that I could apply right before the deadline. I don't know what the CloudNOW award will mean for me, and I hope that we are able to drive real change in the tech field and bring more women and more diversity and inclusion and belonging in the community. So today, Vint Cerf was the keynote speaker. And he was saying that when he joined the tech industry there were 50 percent women, and there were women who were programming. And if you've seen the movie Hidden Figures, >> Oh, yes. >> There were women who figured out how to program. >> A very long time ago. >> Yeah, a long time ago. And we've had people like Grace Hopper and all these other women leaders. And now just 20 years later, you would think the situation would get better, but it has actually gotten worse. >> Right. >> So why is it? The thing that falls on us as a responsibility is to figure out why would we change direction for the worse. And, people have gotten smarter, not lesser intelligent, right? So why would women not opt into computer science and give up? There is something that we aren't doing right. And I think a lot of companies have started asking the right question. Like in LinkedIn, we have the diversity, inclusion and belonging initiative. And we try to make these differences in real time. When I joined LinkedIn, when I moved to the United States, I couldn't recognize people because of the variety of facial structures. And I had a lot of difficulty. I had always grown up seeing Indian faces. And I could easy tell that you were Calcutta or you're from Bangalore. And I could tell it from their faces. But that wasn't something here. And I would always confuse people, and that bothered me a lot. But at LinkedIn, all the things that we had, all the initiatives that we had, the culture and the values, they help me feel belonged. And not a single day has passed where I don't feel that I am not the right person for this job. >> You're making a contribution. >> Yeah. >> Well, congratulations Neha on the award. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much for stopping by, and I think you're quite inspirational. >> Thank you so much. >> And we want to thank you for watching. I'm Lisa Martin on the ground with theCUBE at Google. Thanks for watching.

>> I'm Lisa Martin on the ground with The Cube. We're at Google for the sixth annual Top Women in Cloud Awards with CloudNOW. Very excited to be joined by one of their new partners from the Holberton School, Kristin Loyd. You are a scholarship recipient at Holberton. >> Yes, I am. >> Welcome to The Cube. >> Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on. >> It's great to have you here. You have a really interesting background. I want to talk a little bit about the Holberton School, but tell us about your career path to getting into education and software engineering. Were you always a kid interested in technology or was this sort of a zigzaggy path to technology. >> Yeah, it was definitely a little bit more zigzaggy. Growing up, my dad was always into video games and I got to take apart VHSs, but I never really got into it. I just wanted to learn a little bit about everything. So because of that, I went to school to be a teacher, was a student teacher, decided, "Oh, this is a little bit "more than I expected," didn't know what to do. I fell into the financial industry as an assistant there. I was learning a ton, but it wasn't really my passion. I started hanging out with the IT guy there and asking him questions about how our systems worked and decided oh my gosh, maybe this is what I want to do. Fell into Holberton, and I've loved it, and I'm super advocate for it, and I'm very excited to be here. >> That's awesome. So you went and got a four-year degree and then said "You know what, not quite my passion," which is really ... Congratulations on feeling that and going "You know what, I'm going to make a change here." How did you hear about Holberton School? It's a pretty new school, right? >> Yes. >> With a pretty revolutionary approach to helping and assisting with tuition and that sort of thing. What was it about Holberton that attracted you? >> So me being a former future educator, I was really into the model of project and peer learning education, so there's no lectures, there's no formal books to read, but we have access to the internet and Google, and we have access to our library at the school, and we really just learn by doing projects and helping each other. One of my favorite parts about being at the school is, even within my own cohort, there's different levels of knowledge, so I'm always going to be able to help somebody, and somebody's always going to be able to help me. >> It sounds very collaborative ... >> Yes. >> Which it facilitates your learning because you're probably meeting different people that, like you said, are at different levels, and that's a really interesting ... Compare that to your four-year degree in terms of the collaboration. How similar or dissimilar is it? >> So in my four-year education, I still had a cohort model. Being an educator, there was some of use who wanted to do that, right? So we had a lot of classes together, but that was more about individualistic learning. You read the text, you go and you talk about it, and then like bing, bam, boom, okay you know how to teach children now. And that was great for what I was going to be doing. But I learn better as doing projects and having the context of what we're working with and why we're doing things a certain way. And that's really spurred me to want to continue learning in my entire career. >> So you just finished your first year? >> Kristin: Yes. >> So tell me about year two and what you're thinking long-term job wise. >> So first I get to go out and either get an internship or an entry-level position, so I'm looking into doing that now. And then year two, there is one of three tracks you can choose from, so there's low-level, web stack debugging, a couple other tracks are available to students, and so what that is is you go really in depth and have this specialization part. The first year is you can code now, you know C and Python. You can do debugging, right? But specialization years, you go very deep in these concepts and you're able to work in an even smaller cohort and just really dig deep and get that knowledge. >> This last question as we wrap up here, we're at the CloudNOW sixth annual Top Women in Cloud Award event. Tell me a little bit about CloudNOW and what maybe inspires you down the road as you launch you tech career as a female in technology. >> Something that really hit home for me today actually was the diversity and inclusion panel that happened today, and something that Rebecca W said was about being a change maker and being a change agent and having that positive energy going forward because the way you can combat some of these discriminatory remarks or slights is that being this person that can do it and just says, "Okay, well maybe you "think that, but I'm going to show you and prove you "that I'm here, and I'm going to do it," and I think that's the best kind of energy to bring into that, and I'm looking forward to doing that. And also something that was said today was being here at the event, we have a responsibility to represent and to mentor others, and I really take that to heart. So I'm excited to be able to bring maybe some of my knowledge I got here today back to my classmates. >> And continue that collaboration. >> Yes Well, I think you've got great energy, and I know someday you're going to a mentor to a lot of people. Kristen, thank you so much for joining us on The Cube, and we wish you the best of luck finishing out Holberton, and I'm sure we'll see you back on The Cube when you're a technology leader in the near future. >> I would love to. Thank you so much for having me. >> Absolutely. Thank you for watching. I'm Lisa Martin, on the ground with The Cube at Google. Stick around, we'll be right back. (techno music)

(digital clicking noise) >> Hi. Lisa Martin with the CUBE. On the ground at Google for the 6th annual CloudNOW Top Women in Cloud Awards event. We're very excited to be here. And now to be joined by the founder of CloudNOW, Jocelyn Degance Graham. Welcome back to the CUBE. >> Lisa, we are so happy to have you and the CUBE back for the second year. So our 6th annual event and the second year that you've been broadcasting. We're just really delighted to have your team be able to shine a spotlight on the incredible accomplishments of these women in tech. >> It's always so inspiring, Jocelyn, I was telling you before we went live, that I love reading about the people that you're honoring. But you yourself have been awarded a number of times. So you're quite the women in technology as well. >> (laughs) >> I wanted to talk a little bit about CloudNOW and what you've guys have done. Two really big announcements this year. Tell us about that. >> So the big things we've really been working on for 2017 are the scholarships, Lisa. I have to say of all the professional things this year, I really am the most heartened by the work in the scholarships. It is what is most important to me. As so we start by identifying two exceptional academic partners. We had looked at a number of ... We had read the research, we've been looking at how do you most make impact. And have more women join tech, join technical ranks, right? And so there's been a lot of debate and a lot of research about that. And what we have found is that it's very important for women to have a role model in an organization. It does not necessarily even have to be a mentor. It needs to be a role model. The other piece of the equation is the ambition gap. So it's not just about getting tons of women in the pipeline It's also about getting women that really want to take it the whole way. So this kind of combination factor of that next generation of leader that's really going to be able to get to that upper echelon of office. So the academic partners that we selected, we feel like they've really have done a great job of identifying those future leaders. For us to be able to place our investments with them. To gather corporate partnerships that are willing to be able to fund that next generation of leaders. So we have exceptional partners. We have exceptional academic institutions. If I can, I'd love to tell you just a little bit about the academic partners that we've selected. >> Yes, absolutely, please do. >> Yeah, so the first one is Holberton School. And Holberton is in San Francisco. They have a really unique model. They don't charge students any kind of tuition up front. What they do is once the student has gotten their first full-time job, then they start paying back what they would have paid in tuition. And so, it's a remarkably equitable kind of format for education. >> Lisa: It is. >> It's very different than what most people are seeing for colleges and universities. The problem is in how expensive it is to live in San Francisco. >> Lisa: Right. >> So the scholarships are actually a living wage stipend. Because the school is too intensive for the students to actually be able to work. It's a very compact program. Instead of four year, the students are done in two. So that's our first academic partner. The students are getting jobs at fantastic companies like LinkedIn, and NASA. And they are actually out-competing MIT and Stanford grads for those jobs. >> That's phenomenal. >> It is phenomenal. So we are more than happy to suggest to our corporate funders that they put their money on those bets. >> Lisa: Excellent. >> So we've got Google and we've got Accenture that are funding those Holberton scholarships. And then the second academic partner is in Bangalore, India. And it's Shanti Bhavan. You might have seen this with the Netflix documentary, "Daughters of Destiny." >> Lisa: It was incredible. >> Absolutely incredible and absolutely moving. The Shanti Bhavan school, for your viewers that are unfamiliar with it, they take children from the poorest of the poor background, in rural India. They commit to educating these children from the age of four all the way through the university level. The scholarships we put together with the help of Intel and Apcera and CB Technologies are to fund girls studying STEM at the university level in Bangalore. And this is just the beginning, Lisa. We really hope that in 2018 we can increase the number of scholarships and we really hope that we'll be able to increase the number of corporate partnerships as well. Because these students are doing phenomenal things and we really believe that they're going to be taking their place along side any of what the Ivy League graduates would be doing. >> I love that. And in our last minute, talk to us about Google and Google's involvement with you. Because that's pretty remarkable what you've been able to achieve for CloudNOW with Google. >> Thank you. The Google involvement has definitely been an involving partnership. And the funding for Google actually happened ... It was a happy circumstance that I ran into Vint Serf at a party and got introduced to him. I gave him a quick 30 second overview of what CloudNOW had been doing and he handed me his business card and said, "It sounds really interesting, send me an email." >> Wow, from one of the fathers of the internet. That's pretty amazing. >> I couldn't believe how accessible or easy-going he was. But I went ahead and I emailed him. I said, "What I'm looking for is some money for a scholarship fund. I'm not asking you for it, I just know if you were to endorse this, the money would very easily be found." So I went to sleep. Woke up, the very next morning there was a response from Vint and he had sent me the money. >> Oh my goodness. >> And we were done. The fund was closed, we were on our way. >> Wow. >> And what he said in response, it was so beautiful, Lisa. He said, "One does what one can to be of service." That message, I've been really holding it with me for the last several months. "One does what one can to be of service" Because I think it's just a very inspiring message, especially as we all go into 2018 and think about what we're grateful for. I hope there are people in your audience that feel like they can do what they can and will join us in this very heart-felt mission. >> Wow. You are so inspiring Jocelyn. With what you and your partners have created with CloudNOW. We thank you so much for asking us to be here. Our second year with the CUBE. It's a great event to cover. But be proud of what you've accomplished. >> Thank you, Lisa. >> Because it's incredible. >> Thank you for all of your support, it really means a lot to me. >> Excellent. We want to thank you for watching the CUBE, I'm Lisa Martin on the ground at Google for the 6th annual CloudNOW Top Women in Cloud event. Thanks for watching. (digital beat music)

>> Lisa: I'm Lisa Martin with theCUBE. We're on the ground at Google for the 6th Annual CloudNOW Top Women in Cloud Awards. Very excited to be joined by award winner and CUBE alumni Erica Windisch, founder and CTO of Iopipe. Welcome back to theCUBE, Erica. >> Erica: Thank you. Great to have you here, and congratulations on being one of the top women in Cloud. >> Yeah, of course. >> Tell me, when you heard about that you were being recognized, what did that mean to you and where you are in your career? >> Well, oh gosh, I mean it really meant, it was really big for me. I actually wasn't really expecting it. I think I was nominated and I totally forgot. I think somebody had mentioned to me that they were nominating me and I had no idea about it. I totally forgot about it. But I mean, for me it's just so validating because as much as I've, well one, because I've done a lot of interesting things in Cloud and in tech, but I've never really gotten a lot of recognition for that. And also, just recognition, I mean to be quite honest, I'm transgender. So the fact that I was recognized as a woman, Top Ten Women in Cloud Computing, was extra important and special for me. >> Oh, that's awesome. So tell me about your path to being where you are now. Were you always interested in computers and technology, or is that something that you kind of zigzagged your way to? >> Yeah, well, it was one of these things I guess I had some interest. When I was a child, we had BASIC exercises printed in our math books but our teachers never went over it. So I got kind of interested and I would read through those like those little appendums in my math books, and I would start teaching myself BASIC. And I picked up a Commodore 64 and it didn't work and I taught myself BASIC, more BASIC with those manuals. And I just had these little tiny introductions to technology and just self-taught myself everything. Eventually using a high school job to buy myself books and just teaching myself from those books. Managed to grab Linux on some floppy disks, installed it and tried to figure out how to use it. But I didn't really have lot of mentors or anything that I could really follow. At best there were other kids at school who were into computers and I just wanted to try and do what they were doing or do better than they were doing. >> I love that, self-taught, you knew you liked this and you were not afraid to try, "Hey, let me teach myself." That's really inspiring, Erica. >> Yeah. >> So, speaking of inspiring, tell me about the Iopipes story. So you're a TechSource company, tell us a little bit about TechSource, what that investment in IOpipe means. >> Yeah, so, I started, I guess I first started IOpipe two years ago. And I found the co-founder Adam Johnson, who joined me. And we applied for Techstars, got in, and that was like the first validation that we had from outside of ourselves and maybe one angel investor at that time. And that was a really big deal because it really helped accelerate us, give us validation, allow us to make the first hire, and they also taught us a lot about how to refine our elevator pitch, and how to raise money effectively. And then we ended up raising money, of course. So with the end of Techstars we had a lot of visibility, and that helped us raise two and a half million dollars seed round. >> Wow, so a really good launching pad for you. >> Yes, yeah. >> That's fantastic. So tell us a little bit more about the technology, I know that there's AWS Lambda, we just got back from re:Invent last week, so tell us a little bit more about exactly what you guys do. >> Oh yeah, so what we do is we provide a service that allows developers to get better insights into their application, they get observability into the application running a Lambda, as well as debugging and profiling tools. So you can actually get profiling data out of your Lambda and load that into Google DevTools and get Flame Graphs and dig in deep into which function called which function inside of each function call, so every Lambda invocation you can really dig down and see what's happening. We have things like custom metrics and alerts for that. So you can, for instance, we built this bot. I built it in two days. It's a Slack bot that, if you put an image in a Slack, it will run it through Amazon Rekognition and tell you, describe the objects in it, and describe it. So, for instance, if you have visually impaired members of your team, they can find out what was in the images that people pasted. I built it in only two days, and I could use our tool, let's say to extract how many objects were found in that image, whether or not a specific object was found in that image, and then we can create alerts around those, and do searches based on those, and get statistics out of our product on the data that was extracted from those images. So that was really cool, and we actually announced that feature, the profiling feature, at Midnight Madness at re:Invent so it was like the opening ceremony for re:Invent. It was just us, Andy Jassy and Shaquille O'Neal. >> Lisa: What? >> Yeah, and we launched our product, and we did the demo of this Slack bot, and it was a lot of fun. >> Wow! So you were there last week, then? >> I was there, we were there last week, and we were actually the first, myself, my co-founder and one of our engineers were up there and we were the first non-AWS speakers at the entire arena, it was really amazing. >> Wow, amazing. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> So with all the cool announcements that came out last week on Lambda, Serverless, even new features that were announced for recognition, how does that either change the game or maybe kind of ignite the fire under you guys even a little bit more? >> Well I think one of the biggest announcements relative to us was Cloud9. And we knew that this was going to happen, Amazon acquired them a year ago, a year and a half ago, but they finally launched it. And they really doubled down on providing a much better experience for developers of Lambda to make it easier for developers to really build and ship and run that code on Lambda, which provides a much tighter experience for them so that they can on-board into things like IOpipe more easily. So that was really exciting, because I think that's really going to help with the adoption of Lambda. And some of the other features like Alexa for work is really interesting. It will probably just again, a lot of Alexa apps are built on top of Lambda, so all of these are going to provide value to my own company because we can tell you things like, "Well, how are your users interacting "with those Alexa skills?" But I think it's just generally exciting because there's just so many really cool, I mean, I don't know how many things they announced at this re:Invent that were just really amazing. Another one I really loved was Fargate, because I mean I came from Docker, I used to be a maintainer of the Docker engine and something that I was pushing for at that time in OpenStack and other projects, was the idea of just containers completely as a service without the VM management side of things, because with like ECS, you had to manage virtual machines, and I was like, "Well that is a little, like, "I don't want to manage virtual machines, "I just want Amazon to give me containers." So I was really excited that they finally launched Fargate to offer that. >> So the last question in our last couple of minutes here, tell me about the culture and your team that you lead at IOpipe. You were saying before, you know, when you were a kid you were really self-taught and very inspired by your own desire to learn, but tell me a little bit about the people that work for you and how you help inspire them. >> Oh gosh, well I think first of all, we are, right now we're nine people. I would say about four or five of us are under-represented minorities in tech in one way or another. It's really been fantastic that we've been able to have that level of diversity and inclusion. I think part of that is that we started very diverse. You know, a lot of companies will say, well, one of their problems with not having enough diversity is that they hire within their networks, well we hire within our networks, but we started very diverse in the first place. So that organic growth was very natural and very diverse for us, whereas that organic pairing growth can be problematic if you don't start in a very diverse place. So I think that's been really great, and I think that the fact that we have that level of diversity and inclusion with our employees is kind of inspiring, because a lot of workplaces just aren't like that in tech. It's really hard to find, and granted we're only nine right now. I would really hope that we can keep that up and I would like to actually make our workforce even more diverse than it is today. But yeah, I don't know, I just think it's fantastic and I want what we're doing to be a role model and an inspiration to other companies and say, "Yes, you can do this." And also the work people in the workforce, yes, you can be a woman in tech, yes, you can be trans in tech, yes, you can be non-binary in tech. I am binary, but we have non-binary people in staff. And, I don't know, I hope that's inspiring to people and also myself being a transgender founder, I maybe know one or two other people who are transgender founders, it's very uncommon. And I hope that also is an inspiration for people. >> Well I think so, speaking for myself I find you very inspiring. You seem to be someone that's really known for thinking, "I'm not afraid of anything. "I'm just going to try it. "Starting a company, I'm going to try it." And it sounds like you guys are very purposefully building a culture that's very inclusive, and so I think that, as well as your recognition as one of the Top Women in Cloud, be proud of that, Erica. That's awesome. >> Thank you. >> And you got to meet Shaquille O'Neal? >> I got to meet Shaquille O'Neal, yeah. >> I've got to see the photo. (laughs) >> Yeah. >> Well thank you so much Erica for joining us back on theCUBE. Congratulations on the award, and we look forward to seeing exciting things that you do in the future. >> Okay great, thank you. >> I'm Lisa Martin on the ground with theCUBE at Google for the CloudNOW Top Women in Cloud Awards. Thanks for watching, bye for now.

you hi I'm Lisa Martin with the cube on the ground at Google for the 6th annual cloud now top women and cloud awards event and we're very excited to be joined by our next guest jennifer clora the executive producer of the chasing Grace Project welcome to the cube thank you this project is so interesting I was telling you before we went on that I watched the trailer for it and tell us a little bit about the chasing Grace Project what your plans are for this dunkey series being being released and really the the inspiration sure so it's a documentary series of six episodes about women in tech it really talks about the culture of tech the adversities that women face doesn't shy away from those but moves pretty quickly to inspirational stories of women who have navigated a successful path in tech so that other women can learn from those experiences and join us in tech and for those women thinking about leaving maybe inspire them to stay and give them the tools they need to navigate their own paths forward I love that I was very impressed with some of the women that are featured even in the trailer of how honest they were being did you find that they felt either intimidated to share or maybe liberated to say this is what's going on there needs to be voices and faces to it yeah I think there I think women are feeling empowered right now to talk and when they share their stories they're even more empowered by the community of men and women that come around them and give them support so the women that are on camera volunteered to be so I put out a call for stories in a number of places Irish I was inundated with responses I spent four months the beginning of the year interviewing over a hundred women and trying to understand what the collective experience is for women in tech and so these women are not intimidated they're they're powerful amazing women who I am in awe of their courage what were some of the common maybe that the top two or three kind of common challenges that you heard over and over again that women in tech regardless of if they're in marketing like one you and I are or in engineering that they're facing access to opportunity they seem to feel like they hit a wall you know there's the talk about the ceiling but a lot of them talk about they hit a wall that others don't see but all of a sudden they can't go any further a lot of microaggressions that we've all heard and read about dismissiveness being overlooked in medians and for promotions our first episode is on the pay gap we've heard stories about women who have found out their male counterparts are making more than them and the differences and when they confront their bosses and when they don't so a lot of different examples we have some very explicit stories about online harassment there's some of that in the trailer one of the women Cassady shares a really amazing story about that so they vary but certainly it's happening right and we don't want to shy away from that because I think once you acknowledge what's happening and tell those stories you can start to chart the course forward I agree I think that awareness is incredibly important you are also in technology tell me a little bit about your career path in technology did you always aspire to be in tech were you interested in engineering in software or was this sort of a zigzaggy path to where you are now it wasn't a zigzaggy path I went to journalism school and studied communications and my first job out of college was during the dot-com bubble if you will and so I went into tech it was a lucrative you know career path and I fell in love with it at first it was very intimidating because I didn't speak the language but I learned the language and I learned to work with entrepreneurs I've worked with a lot of startups and translating really amazing vision into stories that anyone can understand and so that's been my pathway through tech and I'm grateful to be here and like I said I think one of the one the the mission of the chasing Grace project is to recruit and retain female talent because we as an industry needs you know a diverse workforce but also women need opportunities to these types of careers they're the most lucrative careers in the world and so that economic opportunity for women as individuals and the need that we have in the industry just put underscores the need for these types of stories to be told definitely so we're at the cloud now six annual top women and cloud awards event how did you come to be involved with cloud now and what are some what if some of your perspectives of now being involved with it yeah so I met Jocelyn the founder of cloud now just a few months ago we were introduced through mutual colleagues and she watched the trailer of the chasing Grace project and said you have to come to the event I want to share your project with our community which was so amazing to hear and so I'm super grateful to be here and to be sharing the trailer a little bit later at the event as well as exhibiting for the first time our photo exhibit called persistence that accompanies the documentary so we will host a photo exhibit at every screening of each episode and that will grow over time as more and more women are photographed for the project but the very first showing is here at the event so we were really excited to be able to do that exciting yeah so uses a six-part series correct when can people expect to start seeing episodes so the first episode is is expected around the end of February 18 2018 exactly we're in post-production now on Episode one we shot it a couple weeks ago and we're already planning episode 2 and when our shoot will be in early probably the first two three months of the year so we expect to release episodes every eight to twelve weeks so that people kind of stay connected and and we can bridge episode to episode for example the first episodes on the pay gap the second episode we think may be on female founders and there's a bridge between women who feel like they aren't being paid fairly to wanting to become the owners of their own companies so they can determine their own worth so so we want to make sure there's continuity in the episodes so as you've gone through and and you said interviewed 100 plus women in the last year what are some of the things that inspire you with the chasing grace project that you feel like we're gonna make a difference here yeah I'm inspired by the courage of these women you know there's so much more awareness about women in tech now among both men and women but a lot of times when women speak up they become that women in the office you know that woman who you know is talking and causing trouble and complaining and that's not the case these women are sharing stories that are important for all of us to understand to build a better future through technology so I'm inspired by their courage because it's no small thing to go on camera and talk about your personal story in hopes that it can help other women and help men also be a part of that conversation so I'm inspired by the courage of the women and that's you know I get notes now you know back from women who are part of the project when they see something go live the trailer the photo exhibit today that are just like I'm so excited to be a part of this and I feel empowered and I found my voice I didn't even know I had a story most the time they tell me and they do so I mean I'm inspired by that I love that and it's so great that that they're not intimidated that they are feeling empowered that they have a voice mm-hmm they matter and what they're doing should be valued there should be no differences would be great if we actually get to a world where there aren't it right we're headed there being more attention and eyes to it thank you I'll get there Thank You Jennifer thank you so much for joining my pleasure where can people find once that the episodes go live where can they find the chasing grace episode they can find them at chasing grace film calm we will have an exclusive media partnership or they will also be distributed online but they can always find them on our website excellent well I'm looking forward to watching it I thank you for sharing your story and for inspiring I'll say inspiring me and probably many of our viewers thanks so much thank you for having me I'm Lisa Martin on the ground with the Cuba Google for the cloud now top lemon and clouds award event stick around we'll be right back

>> Hi, I'm Lisa Martin with theCUBE, on the ground at Google for the sixth annual CloudNOW Top Women in Cloud Awards. And we're very excited to be joined by one of the winners this year, Caroline Wong, the Vice President of Security Strategy at Cobalt.io. Welcome to theCUBE, Caroline. >> Thank you for having me. >> It's great to have you here for many reasons, and we know that we're both dog lovers and they're not going to let us talk about dogs for the whole time, but I love that. So, you have previously been at eBay, Zinga, Symantec. Were you a STEM kid from grade school, and always interested in IT? Or is this something that you sort of zig-zagged career-wise, and made this career that you have now? >> So when I was 16 years old, my dad asked me what I wanted to study in college. And I told him Dance or Psychology. >> Wow, that's a different from >> It's different because I was like well, "What do I like? What do I enjoy doing?" And he said you're going to study Engineering, and you're going to do it at the best school that you could get into. And I studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley. I really struggled with the curriculum, but I'm so glad that I do have a formal background in technology. I ended up in Cyber Security pretty randomly, to be honest. I did an IT project management internship at eBay, and when I graduated, I asked my manager if I could work for them full time. And they said there was a hiring freeze in IT, but they had an open position in Information Security. Which at the time, I didn't know what that even meant. The night before my interview, I looked up Information Security on Wikipedia and I memorized the definition. >> (laughter) You know, that just speaks to, and look what you're doing now. You didn't know, and there's probably many other people who are in the same situation, whether they're 16 and wanting to major in Dance or whatnot. I love that, that you were confident enough in yourself, probably in your education to, "let me try that out". When you were studying though, at UC Berkeley, you said there were some challenges there. This brings me back to my own days of studying Physics, which I wasn't good at. What were some of the things that surprised you? For the good? >> Sure, so I'll tell you a story about one of my Electrical Engineering lab courses. Of course, I make friends with the one other student in the class who's like, not quite sure what's going on. And we have teams of three, and so we have to find someone who really knows how to do it. So, what happens is, one of my colleagues fetches the materials for our lab assignment. My other colleague does the lab, and I write the report. And at the time, I'm a little bit embarrassed that I can't do all three. But after all, it is about team work and it turns out, what has helped me tremendously in my career has been my ability to write and to work well with others, and to communicate both verbally and in written form what's going on technically. >> That's outstanding. Just great advice again for others that it's not just about understanding engineering. There's other components that are really critical and will help you be successful. So in addition to the award that you're getting today from CloudNOW, you've been recognized as an Influencer by Women in IT Security, and as a One to Watch Women of Influence. You've also had a lot of publications. So I'm curious, what inspires you to be involved in the community and share your expertise? Not just your education in Engineering and what you're doing with cyber security, but also your path to success? >> Yeah, so for me, I'll contrast it with my sister. She's a Kaiser Pediatrician. And she's known for her whole life that she wanted to be a doctor, and she just went for it. And she was like, here's my target, and I'm just going to make it. I have always been very, sort of go with the flow, like what's right in front of me and what's an interesting problem to solve and how can I just put my whole self into it and apply what I know and try and learn something new. And I've approached my entire career that way. Not really knowing what was going to happen next, but sort of, looking around, trying to see, "Okay, "what does the industry need right now "and how can I apply my skills to try and add value?" >> I love that, that's great. My brother was the same way. Wanted to be a pilot from the time he was probably eight. And there's me, zig-zagging along. But I think that's also, it speaks to, if you have enough confidence in yourself and try things, you can be successful. So I love that. So tell us about your role at Cobalt.io and app security and what you're doing there. >> Yeah so, Cobalt, we provide application security services for cloud companies. Specifically, we provide on-demand manual penetration testing for web apps, mobile apps, and APIs. So we're really trying to help organizations to secure their applications. As a consumer of cloud applications, as a person who works for a company that works with so many different cloud companies, it's critical that security be in place. Because right now, it's not like, any organization, certainly no technology organization, works in a vacuum. Just like a car sources parts from many different organizations, every software, every cloud company sources from many different places. And at each step along that supply chain, you want to make sure that security has been built in. >> Outstanding. Tell me a little bit about your team there, and some of the key elements, to you, for managing a diverse team of folks at Cobalt. >> So we started four years ago. We actually have four Danish founders and so it's really interesting to be in Silicon Valley but have a little bit of a different culture. As a mom of a toddler and expecting in May, it was really important to me to find a job where I really liked the people, and I really respected them, where they liked and respected me, and where I felt I could make a big impact. And what's great about working with this team is, I feel like all of the people I work with actually have a life outside of work. I feel like, in Silicon Valley, so many people work for companies and it's like, that's all they do. And I respect that. If you're super passionate about something and you want to make your whole life about it, fantastic. But my colleagues are extremely brilliant and great at what they do, and then they do other stuff as well. >> It's refreshing to hear that because being in Silicon Valley can take so much time and effort but to be able to have a little bit of balance there, I think, you probably see an impact in productivity? >> Oh, definitely. I mean, people come into our office and they're like, wow people are happy, people seem well rested, people seem really focused and like they're hardworking, and they're excited about what they do, but they're not so stressed out. They're not burning out. People aren't needing to take emergency medical leave because of severe anxiety. So these are just things that I think really benefits the company and also our customers. >> Oh, definitely from a customer perspective. So, tell us a little bit about what winning this Top Women in Cloud Award means to you? >> So I'm just thrilled and totally surprised. For me to have an opportunity to share my story, and to also attend an event like this and be inspired by other women's stories, I mean, I think the mission of CloudNOW is so incredibly important. I don't think there's anything so special about any of the women that won awards tonight. And what I mean by that is, we're not extraordinary, we didn't necessarily overcome any crazy challenges or barriers. I want young women, and people of all types, to know that this is possible. And I think by sharing our stories and how different we are, and how we came from all sorts of different places, I think that can really be inspiring, for the next generation. And that's exactly what technology needs. We need a strong and diverse pipeline if we're going to continue innovating and continue creating. >> That's brilliant advice and I couldn't agree more. I think that some of the stories that we're going to hear from some of the fellow winners such as yourselves show that some really doing groundbreaking work, but others who just persevered, who had an interest in something and followed through with it. And learned along the way, made mistakes, had the opportunity to fail, learn from that, and continue going forward. I personally find that very inspiring. So, Caroline thank you so much for joining us on theCUBE and sharing your story. Best of luck with your new addition. >> Thank you. >> And your dogs, as well as congratulations, again, on the award. >> Thank you so much. >> We want to thank you for watching theCUBE. I'm Lisa Martin on the ground at Google for the CloudNOW Top Women in Cloud Awards event. Bye for now. (techno music)

>> Hi, Lisa Martin, on the ground, with the Cube at Google for the sixth annual CloudNOW Top Women in Cloud awards. And we are very excited to be joined by our next guest, Bridgit Kromhout, the principal Cloud developer advocate from Microsoft. Welcome to the Cube! >> Welcome, to me, wait. You know what? I feel like, it's so funny. I spend so much time hosting podcasts that I'm primed to start welcoming guests. (laughter) So. >> Well, thank you. I feel very welcomed. >> Hi. Thank you so much for having me. >> And we love your Microsoft-reflected hair extensions. That's so fantastic (laughter) So, Bridgit, you are a computer scientist by training, what was your education like? Were you a STEM kid from grade school all the way through graduating college? >> Yeah, it's kind of funny. I actually wasn't and I think that there's maybe a take away there for people who think, oh, it would be too hard to switch into computers. There's too much to learn. I mean, yes, there is a lot to learn, but I didn't have a computer until I was 16, so, and, I didn't know I was going to major in Computer Science until I took a programming class and realized I loved it and dropped all my other classes and completely switched my major. And I think that there's probably a lot of opportunities today that there weren't back when I did this in the 90's. You know, all sorts of boot camps and that sort of thing, but I think probably just that you can choose to go into tech from any starting point. ' Cause, like, not having a computer as a kid, I would go over to friend's houses and play Oregon Trail and, you know, Dive Dysentery, but I wouldn't have that at home and I turned out fine. >> Well, I love that you took a class and you tried it and that was transformative. I think that's one of the great lessons that even your experience can share is, try it. >> Absolutely. >> And it probably opened up your world too. Did it, well yeah, let's talk about that. >> Yeah. >> Did it open up your world to expose more of what computer science is than what you may have thought? >> You know, I had gone to some summer math camps as a teenager and you know, played around with fractals and you know, programs to generate fractals, like on the, I think it was probably SJI workstations, that the college we were at had and it was interesting to me but maybe not necessarily something I could take action on until I got to college and got access to unit systems and it's like the little kid in Jurassic Park, this is a unit system. I know this. (laughter) You know, I think that getting the opportunity to try things, whether it's in an academic setting or just with all of the free resources that are available today, it's super important. >> So, you went to the University of Minnesota, what surprised your or delighted you through your curriculum in computer science, when you were there? >> You know, it's kind of funny. I feel like there was a lot of emphasis on algorithms and data structures and probably, because I was working for the CS department as a Student Systems Administrator at the same time, I kept thinking like, well bigger notation, this is great, but let's talk about troubleshooting things on this, you know, Solaris system, because that's what I would actually do and I think that there is, I've come to realize over time that there's a lot of benefit to both. Like, you could spend a lot of time going down a rabbit hole if you don't have a firm theoretical background of what's actually possible, and how you can speed up a system. So, it's good to have that theoretical background, but I think it's also really important to focus on the like, the observability and the usability of systems and your detailed troubleshooting steps. I think of it like, you spent a lot of time in college taking classes where they emphasize the Scientific Method and you learning to prove that gravity works was never the point. >> Right. >> Because, obviously, we all know that but you learning how to isolate variables and observe accurately, helps a lot in terms of solving problems in production systems later. >> Good insight. So, you're very involved in the community. You are, you mentioned, podcasts. You go to conferences. You blog. What inspires you to share your knowledge, your experiences, and be involved in the community? >> I mean, I think that I had a manager some years ago who encouraged me to speak at a local UN conference and I brought a co-worker and spoke with him and it was a very new experience for me and I was nervous and what I realized is, that the room was full of people who, they weren't there to stare at me or judge me, they were there because they really hoped to get some insights for things they were trying to do and I think realizing that, whatever it is that you're putting out there in the world, people aren't looking at it to judge you, they're looking at it 'cause they need something and realizing that makes it so much more interesting and also, less scary to share. >> I imagine rewarding, as well. >> I think so. Like, especially because people are often looking for ways that they can drive change inside their organization, how they can convince somebody to use the exciting new framework or the exciting new, you know, container orchestration or whatever, that they're trying to use. Like, a lot of times, people who are paying attention to the wider world of tech really want to use exciting new things, but, hey, spoiler alert, if you work in a company with more than two people, there will probably be at least two opinions. >> Yeah. (laughter) >> So, you have to. >> You can basically go and do that, right? >> Yeah. Right? >> Yeah. >> So, you have to have not just all the technical background. I like to joke that, you know, I majored in Computer Science 'cause I didn't want to talk to people and, oops, turns out, tech is full of humans. Software is made of people. >> Yep, right. >> Like sort of an ingredient, right? >> Yeah. >> And, it's like, you can't, you can't avoid that and I say, just embrace it. >> I love that. Do you have any themes to your podcasts or to your blogs? >> Yeah, I think there's a talk I gave a number of times in the last year called, Containers Will Not Fix Your Broken Culture And Other Hard Truths. >> Interesting. >> And, then I gave, I decided a few months after I gave that one enough times that I was bored of hearing myself talk, I started giving one called Computers Are Easy, People Are Hard, because I think that the tech stuff that we're all excited about has a lot of socio-technical components, in terms of the interactions. >> Yeah. >> Like, every single technical choice you want to make has a certain weight and gravity to it of the way the other people feel about how you maybe made their job harder or easier or maybe that they now feel displaced. Maybe they're not sure what their place is in the exciting new world where you changed everything out from under them and they were just hoping to hold on a couple years more, until they retired and I think, as a mid-career professional, shall we put it that way? I, of course, I see all the kids these days TM, but I also see and sympathize with all the people who, who really prefer the industry not have another giant C change right this second. >> Right. >> 'Cause they kind of just want to vest and get out and it's like, I think we have to be empathetic and understanding of everyone's perspective along that entire spectrum, 'cause there's a lot of benefit to exciting change and there's also a lot of benefit to contextual knowledge of your local environment. >> Right. >> And, it's like, people at different ends of, you know, their career trajectory have you know, a varying degree of either of those, and I think it's really important and positive to listen to everyone. >> I love that because culture is something that we talk about a lot with technology executives that we're talking to in the Cube, whether it's a C level or a line of business manager or a product person and cultural change is hard. >> Really hard. >> To impact but, you bring up a great point about where you are on the career trajectory. You're opinions or experience is going to influence that. >> It totally will. I mean, especially because, so, I just started a couple months ago, working at Microsoft. I spent the two years before that working at Pivotal, talking to a lot of our customers in large enterprises and governments and you know, banks and that sort of thing and you have a lot of resistance to and fear of change when it feels like the stakes are really high and there's a lot of uncertainty and so, anywhere that, from a technical point of view, you can help with that uncertainty. Whether it's by, instead of the artisanally, hand-whittled servers in your data center, maybe looking at public Cloud, anything that can make steps more reproducible, so that you don't have to cling so much to what you were doing before and can, hopefully, extend past that. Like, there's a lot of places where that the exciting wave of IT improvement that a lot of orgs are doing intersects with people's desire to maybe have challenges but also, still feel valued. Like, there's a lot of places where, considering those human factors, when making exciting organizational change happen, which everybody needs to for their profit motives or you know, their organizational mission, in general. I think it's really beneficial. >> Speaking of feeling valued, who do you value? Who are some of your mentors that inspire you today? >> You know, it's funny you should ask that because I feel like mentorship is one of those things where I have a giant question mark. I'm not sure if I've had it done right or have ever done it right or whatever. I would say I'm definitely inspired by a lot of the women I know in technology. In particular, like, for example, Jessie Frazelle. I happen to work on the same team with her now at Microsoft, which we did not, either of us, know that the other one was going there when I had her keynote, Dev Up Stays Minneapolis, last summer and then, in just a couple months later, it was like, oh, you're going to Microsoft? What team? We're going to the same team. This is fantastic! >> Wow, that's great. >> But, I bring her up as an example because I think that if you, no matter how long you've been in tech and she's younger than I am and has been in tech a shorter amount of time, and yet, like, she both contributes, you know, solid technical content. She has commits in the Linux kernel, but she also makes sure to put information out there to help other people. I think that, that's a really, it's what I look up to and what I try to emulate is it's great to be technical, but we also have to be human. >> I love that. Well, Bridget, thank you so much for stopping by the Cube and sharing your story and congrats on the award. >> Thank you so much. >> We thank you for watching again. Lisa Martin, on the ground, with the Cube at Google for the CloudNow Top Women in Cloud Awards. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)