(bright music) >> Hey everyone, welcome back to theCUBE's continuing coverage of Snowflake Summit 22, live from Caesar's Forum in Las Vegas. I'm Lisa Martin here with about 7,000 plus folks, and this next Cube segment, two words, girl power. Please welcome one of our alumni back to the program, Colleen Kapase, SVP, Worldwide Partners and Alliances at Snowflake and Poornima Ramaswamy, EVP of Global Partnerships and Chief of Staff to the CEO. Ladies, welcome to the program! >> Thank you, very happy to be here, amazing event! >> Isn't it? It's so great to see this many people. Yesterday, the keynote, we got in barely, standing room only. I know there was at least one overflow room, maybe two. People are chomping at the bit to hear what Snowflake and its ecosystem has been up to the last three years, since 2019. >> It's been phenomenal! Since the last time we met together, as humans coming together, and then seeing the step function growth three years later, I don't think, we didn't grow gradually. We just jumped three years ahead, and people have just been hungry for the information and the sharing and the joint education, so it's been a phenomenal show. >> It has been, Poornima, talk to us about the Qlik partnership with Snowflake. What's it all about? What's your joint vision, your joint strategy? Give us all that good stuff. >> Sure, so speaking of three years, this relationship has been in existence for the last three years. We were at the last Snowflake Conference in 2019, and I liked what Frank said, even though we were not in-person in life the innovation has continued and our relationship has strengthened over the last three years as well. So it's interesting that everything that Frank and everything that was mentioned at the keynote yesterday is completely in alignment with Qlik's vision and strategy as well. We are focused on making data available for quick decision making, in a timely manner, for in the moment business decisions as such. The world has gone topsy-turvy in the last two years, so you want to know things that are changing as they happen and not one day late, one month late or one quarter late, because then the world's already passed you, that business moment has passed you. That's been our focus. We've got a dual product strategy and portfolio. We collaborate really strongly with Snowflake on both of those to make the most amount of data, made available on the Snowflake platform in the shortest amount of time, so that it's fresh, and it's timely for business decision makers to get access to it, to make decisions as they are dealing with supply chain challenges and people challenges and so on and can make those moments count as such. >> They have to, one of the things that we've learned in the pandemic is access to real-time data is no longer a, oh, that's great, nice to have. It's table stakes for businesses in every industry. Consumer expectations have risen to a level we've probably never seen, and let's face it, they're not going to go down. Nobody's going to want less data, slower. (laughs) Colleen, talk about the Qlik partnership from your Snowflake's perspective. >> Yeah, it's been fabulous, and we started on the BI side and keep evolving it, frankly with more technology, more solutions, making that real-time access, not just the the BI side of having the business intelligence and seeing the data but moving beyond that to the governance side, and that's such a huge piece of the relationship as well, and the trustworthy that executives have with the data, who's seeing it and how are we leveraging it, and we keep expanding that too and having some fun too. I know you guys have been making some acquisitions. >> Talk to us about what's going on at Qlik and some news today as well, acquisitions news, what's the deal? >> Yeah, so like I mentioned, we have a dual product strategy, a Qlik data integration platform and a Qlik analytics platform. And we are strengthening, making sure that we align with Snowflake's vision of all workloads, SaaS only and governed. So the announcement today was we do provide real-time data using our Qlik data integration platform into Snowflake, but that real-time data has to make its way into the hands of the business decision makers as well. So we launched what we call as direct query into Snowflake, so as and when data gets into the Snowflake platform, now customers for specific use cases can choose to access that data as it comes in by accessing it directly on Snowflake. And there are other use cases where the data's already been prepared and so on, and they'll continue using the Qlik analytics platform, but this direct query access will make a world of difference in terms of that active intelligence, in-the-moment decision making. The second announcement that we did was the SaaS first and going all into SaaS, so we are doing our data movement investments in our SaaS platform, and one of our first investments is on the Snowflake platform, going direct into Snowflake, and our data ingestion now, our data replication real-time is going to be available natively into the Snowflake platform through our SaaS data transformation investment that we've made. So those are the two big announcements, and governance has been the cornerstone for our platform end-to-end, right from the beginning, and that strength continues, and that's, again, completely in alignment with the vision that Snowflake has as well. >> I couldn't agree more, that native integration, we used to think about bringing the data to the work, and now it's bring the work to the data, because that's the secure environment, the governed environment, and that's what we're seeing with our product roadmaps together and where we're going, and it gives customers just peace of mind. When you're bringing the work to the data, it's more secure, it's more governed, and that real-time access, it's speed, because boy, so many executives have to make real-time decisions quickly. The world is moving faster than it ever has before, and I've never had an executive say, "Oh yeah, I'll just wait and get the data later." That's not a conversation they have. I need it, and I need it now, and I need it at my fingertips, and I need more of my entire organization to have access to that data, what I feel secure and safe to share with them. And so, having Qlik make that possible is just fantastic. >> The security piece is absolutely critical. We've seen such changes to the threat landscape in the last couple of years. It's no longer now a, if we get hit by a cyber attack, it's a matter of when. And the volume of data just keeps proliferating, proliferating, proliferating, which obviously is not going to slow down either. So having the governance factor, the ability to share data securely, leveraging powerful analytics across to customers and partners and ecosystem, it sounds like to me a pretty big differentiator of what Snowflake is delivering to its customers and the ecosystem. >> It is, and I would say one of the things that has held folks back from moving to the cloud before, was governance. Is this just going to be a free for all, Lisa? I'm not feeling secure with that. And so, having the ability to extend our ecosystem and work on that governance together gives executives peace of mind, that they can easily determine who's going to have access to what, which makes a transition to the cloud faster. And that's what we're looking for, because to have our customers experience the benefits of cloud and the moving up and moving down from a data perspective and really getting access to the data cloud, that's where the nirvana is, and so you guys are helping make that possible and provide that peace of mind, so it's amazing. >> You talk about peace of mind, and it's one of those things we think, oh, it's a marketing term or it's a soft term. It's actually not, it's completely measurable, and it's something that I talk to a lot of C-suite, and the statement of "I sleep better at night," is real. There's gravity with it, knowing that they can trust where the data is. The access is governed. It just keeps getting more and more critical every day. >> Colleen: Well, it's a newsworthy event, frankly- >> Absolutely, nobody wants don't to be a headline. >> If things don't go right, that's people's jobs on the line that's reputations, and that's careers, so that is so important, and I think with a lot of our customers that's our conversations directly of how can you ensure that this is going to be a secure experience? And it's Snowflake and some of our superpowers, and frankly, some of our partners superpowers too, together it's better. >> I can bring this home with a customer example, a couple of customer examples. So Urban Outfitters, I think they're a well-known brand. They've got about 650 stores, to your point on governed autonomy is what I call it. But then it's not just about helping with decision making at the top. You want to be able to make decision making at all levels, so we speak about data democratization. It's about not just strategic decisions that you make for a two-year timeframe or a five-year timeframe. It's about decisions that you want to make today in the first half of the day versus the second half of the day. So Urban Outfitters is a common customer, and during the pandemic they had to change their in-stores into distribution centers. They had to look at their supply chain landscape, because there were supply chain bottlenecks that are still happening today. So, with the power of both Qlik data integration and Qlik analytics, but then the combined power of Qlik and Snowflake, the customer actually was able to make insights available to their in-store managers, to their distribution centers, and from a time perspective, what used to take them days, or, in fact, sometimes even weeks, they're now able to get data in 15 minutes refresh time for their operational decision makers, their distribution centers and their order taking systems, so they're able to make decisions on which brands are moving, not moving. Do they need to change the product position in their stores? Do they need to change their suppliers today? Because, for what's going to be in their inventory one month later, because they are foreseeing, they're able to predict the supply chain bottlenecks that are coming in. They're able to do all of that today because that power of a governed autonomous environment that we've built but real-time data making fresh data available through Snowflake and easy-to-use dashboards and visualization through the analytics platform that we've got. And another customer ABB, 37 different SAP source systems being refreshed every two minutes, worldwide for B2B transactions to be able to make all of those decisions. >> And what you're talking about there, especially with their Urban Outfitters example, I think that's one that everybody as a consumer of clothing and apparel, what you just described, what Qlik and Snowflake enabled there, that could have very well saved that organization. We saw a lot of retailers that were not able to make that pivot. >> Poornima: Yep, no, and it did. >> You are exactly right. I think the differentiation on a lot of our core customers together of combing through, not just surviving but thriving through the pandemic, access to data and supply chain management, and it's these types of solutions that are game changing, and that's why Snowflake's not being sold just to the IT department, it's the business decision makers where they have to make decisions, and one of the things that surprised us the most was we had the star schema COVID data up on our data marketplace and the access to that, that we had our customers to determine supply chain management. What's open? What are the rules per state, per region? Where should we put supply? Where should we not? It was phenomenal. So when you have tools like what Qlik offers together with that data coming through the community, I think that's where a lot of executives experience the power of the data cloud, and that's what we want to see. And we're helping real businesses. We say we want to drive outcomes. Supply chain management was a massive outcome that we helped over the last two years. >> And that was critical, obviously we're still in that from a macro economic perspective. It's still a challenge for a lot of folks, but it was life and death. It was, initially, how do we survive this? And to your point, Colleen, now we've got this foundation, now we can thrive, and we can leave the competition who wasn't able to move this fast in the dust behind us. >> A foreseen function for change, really, and then that change wasn't just different, it was better. >> Yeah, it is better, and it now sets the foundation for the next stage of innovation, which is auto ML and AI ML. You're looking back, you're saying, "Okay this is all the data, "so these are the decisions I had to make in the moment." But then now they can start looking at what are the midterm and the long term strategic decisions I have to make, because I can now predict what are the interconnectedness or the second secondary level and the tertiary level impact for worldwide events. There's a pandemic. We are passed the pandemic. There's flood somewhere. There's fire somewhere. China shuts down every so often. You need new suppliers. How do you get out of your way in terms of making daily decisions, but start planning ahead? I think auto ML, AI ML, and data's going to be the foundation for that and real-time data at that. So what Snowflake's doing in terms of the investment in that space, and Qlik has acquired companies in the auto ML space and driving more automation, that time-to-business value and time-to-predictive insights is going to become very key. >> Absolutely key and also really a lifeline for organizations to be able to do that. >> And I have to say, it's a source of pride for us to see our partners growing and thriving in this environment too. Like some of these acquisitions they're making, Lisa, in the machine learning space, it's awesome. This is where customers want to go. They've got all this fabulous data. They now know how to access it real time. How do I use queries to make me smarter? How do I use this machine learning to look at a vast amount of data in a very real time fashion and make business decisions from? That's the future, that's where we're going. So to see you guys expand from BI, to governance, to machine learning, we're really, Lisa, watching companies in our ecosystem grow as we grow, and that's the piece I take a lot of personal pride in, and it's the fun part of the job, frankly. >> Yeah, as you should take part in that, and that's something too, that's been thematic the last... We were recovering this show yesterday and today that the growth and the substance of the Snowflake ecosystem. You see it, you feel it, and you hear it. >> Yeah, well in Frank Slootman's book, "Amp It Up," there's actually a section that he talks about, because I think he has some amazing lifelong advice on his journey of growth, and he tells us that, "Hey you can attach your company, "your personal career energy to an elevator going up "and a company and a high growth story "or a flat or declining." And it's harder in a flat and declining space, and Snowflake we certainly see as an elevator skyrocketing up and these organizations surrounding us with their technologies and capabilities to have joint outcomes, they're doing fantastic too. I've heard this story over and over again this week. I love seeing this story too with Qlik, and it's just amazing. >> I bet, Ladies, thank you so much for joining me, talking about the Snowflake-Qlik partnership, the better together power, and also, you're just scratching the surface. The future, the momentum, you can feel it. >> Yeah, I love it. >> We appreciate your insights and your time and good luck! >> Thank you, thank you. >> And let's let the girl bosses go! (laughs) >> Exactly! (laughs) For my girl boss guests, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE's coverage of Snowflake Summit 22, live from Caesar's Forum in Las Vegas. I'll be right back with my next guest. (bright music)

>>We're here at the Data cloud Summer 2020. Tracking the rise of the data cloud. We're talking about the ecosystem powering the next generation of innovation in cloud. You know, for decades, the technology industry has been powered by great products. Well, the cloud introduced a new type of platform that transcended point products. And the next generation of cloud platforms is unlocking data centric ecosystems where access to data is that the core of innovation tapping the resource is of many versus the capabilities of one. Casey McGee is here. He's the vice president of Global I S V. Sales at Microsoft in He's joined by Colleen Capsule, who is the VP of partnerships and global alliances that snowflake folks, welcome to the Cube. It's great to see you. Thanks. >>Very good to see you. Thank you. >>You're >>very welcome. So, Casey, let me start with you, please. Microsoft's get a long heritage. Of course, working with partners renowned in that regard built a unbelievable ecosystem, the envy of many in the industry. So if you think about as enterprises, they're speeding up their cloud adoption. What are you seeing is the role and the importance of ecosystem the i s v ecosystem specifically in helping make customers outcomes successful. >>Yeah, let me start by saying, we have, ah, 45 year history of partnerships. So from our very beginning as a company, we invested to build these partnerships. And so let me start by saying from day one we looked at a diverse ecosystem as one of the most important strategies for us, uh, both to bring innovation to customers and also to drive growth. And so we're looking to build that environment even today. So 45 years later, focused on how do we zero in on the business outcomes that matter most to >>customers usually >>identified by the industry that they're serving and so really building an ecosystem that helps us serve >>both the >>customers and the business outcomes They're looking to drive. And so we're building that ecosystem of SVs on the Microsoft cloud and focused on bringing that innovation as a platform provider through those companies. >>Okay, so let's let's stay on that for a moment if we can. I mean, you work with a lot of I s V s and you got a big portfolio of your own solutions. Now, sometimes they overlap with the I S V offerings of your partners. How do you balance the focus on, you know, First Party Solutions and third party I E S p Partner Solutions? >>Yeah, First and foremost, we're a platform company. So our whole intent is to bring value to that partner ecosystem. While sometimes that means we may have offers in market day that may complement one another. Our focus is really on serving the customer. So anytime we see that we're looking at what is the most desired outcome for a customer driving innovation into that into that specific business requirements? So for us, it's always focusing on the customer and really zeroing in on making sure that we're solving their business problems. Sometimes we do that together with partners like snowflakes. Sometimes that means we do that on our own. But the key for us is really deeply understanding what's important customer and then bringing the best of the Microsoft and Snowflakes scenarios to bear. >>You know, Casey, I appreciate that a lot of times people say Dave, don't Don't ask me that question. It's kind of uncomfortable. So, Colleen, I wanna bring you into the discussion. How does snowflake view this dynamic? Where you simultaneously partnering and competing sometimes with some of the big cloud companies on the planet? >>Yeah, Dave, I think it's a great question. And really, in this era of innovation, so many large companies, like Microsoft are so diverse in their products, said it's almost impossible for them to not have some overlap with most of their ecosystem. But I think Casey said it really well to long as we stay laser focused on the customer. Um, and there are a lot of very happy snowflake customers and happy as your customers, we really win together. And I think we're finding ways in which we're working better and better together, uh, from a technology standpoint and from a field standpoint. And customers want to see us come together and bring best of breed solution. So, um, I think we're doing a lot better, and I'm looking forward to our future to >>So Casey Snowflake, you know, they're really growing. They got a pretty large footprint on on Azure because they're gonna hundreds of customers here, you know, that are active on that platform. I >>wonder if you >>could talk about the product integration points that you kind of completed initially on then kind of what's on the horizon that you see is particularly important for your joint customers. >>You have to say so. One of the things that I love about this partnership is that while we start with what the customer wants, we bring that back into the engineering level relationship that we have between the two companies. And so that's produced some pretty, incredibly rich functionality together. So let me start by saying, You know, we've got eight azure regions today, with nine coming on soon on. So we have a geographic diversity that is important for many of our customers. We've also got a Siris of engineering level integrations that we've already built. So that's functionality for Azure privately because well, as integration between power bi I, Azure data factory and Azure data, like all of this back again to serve the business outcomes that are required for our customers. So it's this level of integration that I think really speaks to the power of the partnership, so were intently focused on the democratization of data. So we know that snowflake is the premier partner to help us do that so getting that right >>is >>key to enabling high concurrency use cases with large numbers of businesses, users coming together and getting the performance they expect. >>I appreciate that case because a lot of times, you know, look at the press release. Sometimes we laugh. We call them Barney deals. You know I love you, You love me. But I listened for, you know, the word engineering and integration. Those air sort of important triggers Colleen or Casey, too. But I want to start with Colleen. Anything you would add to that. Are there things that you guys have worked on together that you're particularly proud of, or maybe that have push the envelope and enabled new capabilities for customers Would have given you great feedback Any any examples you can share >>Great question on beer, definitely focusing on making sure stability is a core value for both of us, and so that what we offer that our customers can trust eyes going to work well and be dependable. So that's a key focus for us. Um, we're also looking at How can we advance into the future? What can we do around machine learning? It's a an area that's really exciting for a lot of the sea XO level leadership at our customers. So we're certainly focused on that. Um, and also looking at power bi I and the visualization of how do we bring these solutions together as well? I'd also say, at the same time, we're trying to make the buying experience frictionless for our customers. So we're also leveraging and innovating with azure is market place so that our customers can easily acquire Snowflake together with azure. And even that is being helpful for our customers. Casey, what are your thoughts too? Let me add to >>that. I think the work that we've done with power bi I is >>pretty >>pretty powerful. I mean, ultimately, we've got customers out there that are looking to better visualize the data better informed decisions that they're making so as much as a i n m l. And the inherent power of the data that's being stored within snowflake, um is important in and of itself. How r b I really unlocks that and helps drive better decisions, better visualization. Onda helped drive to decision outcomes that are important to the customer. So I love the work that we're doing on power by on stuff >>like, Yeah, >>you guys both mentioned, you know, machine learning. I mean, there really are an ecosystem of tools. And the thing to me about azure, it's It's all about Optionality you mentioned earlier case. You guys are a platform. So, you know, customer A may want to use power. Bi I. Another custom might want to use another visualization tool. Find from a platform perspective. You really don't care, do you? So I wonder, Colleen, if we could and again maybe case you can chime in afterwards. You guys, obviously everybody these days, but you particularly focused on customer outcomes. That's the sort of starting point and snowflake for sure, is built pretty significant experience Working with large enterprises and working along the side alongside of Microsoft. You get other partners in your experience what a customer is really looking for out of the two joint companies when they engage with Snowflake and Microsoft, so that one plus one is, you know, much bigger than 2 may be calling. You could start. >>Yeah, I definitely think that what our customers are looking for is both trust and seamlessness. They just want the technology to work. The beauty of snowflake is our ease of use. Um, so many customers have questions about their business. More so now in this guy, um, you know, pandemic world than ever before. So the seamlessness, the ease of use, um, the frictionless. All of these things really matter to our joint customers and seeing our teams come together to in the field to show. Here's how Snowflake and Azure are better together, um, in your local area and having examples of customers where we've had wind winds, which I'd say, Casey, we're getting more and more of those every day, frankly, so pretty exciting times Onda having our sales teams work as a partnership. Even though we compete, we know where we play well together on guy. See us doing that over and over again, more and more around the world to which is really important as snowflake pushes forward, you know, beyond the North America, geography ease into stronger and stronger in the global, um, regions where frankly, Microsoft had a long, storied history at, so that's very exciting, especially in Europe and Asia. >>Okay, so anything you would add to that >>Yeah, >>calling it's well said, I think it ultimately, what customers are looking for is that when our two companies come together, we bring new innovation, new ideas, new ways to solve old problems. And so I think what I love about this partnership is ultimately when we come together, whether it's engineering teams coming together to build new product, whether it's our sales and marketing teams out in front of the customers across that spectrum, I think customers looking for US toe help bring new ideas. And I love the fact that we've engineered this partnership to do to do just that. But ultimately we're focused on how do we come together and build something new and different? And I think we can solve some of the most challenging problems with the power of the data on the innovation that we're bringing to the table. >>I mean, you know, Casey, I mean, everybody is really quite an odd and amazed that Microsoft's transformation, um and really openness and willingness to really, really change and lean into some of the big waves. I >>wonder if you >>could talk about your multi platform strategy and what problems that you're solving in conjunction with snowflake. >>Yeah, let me start by saying, You know, I think as much as we appreciate that that feedback on on the progress that we've been striving for. I mean, we're still learning every day, looking for new opportunities to learn from customers from partners. And so, ah, lot of what you see on the outside is the result of a really focused culture really focusing on what's important to our customers focusing on how do we build diversity and inclusion to everything we do, whether that's within Microsoft with our partners or customers on. Ultimately, how do we show up? Aziz? One Microsoft. I call one Microsoft kind of the partners gift. It's ultimately how do our companies show up together? So I think if you look multi platform, we have the same concept, right? We have the Microsoft cloud that we're offering out in the marketplace. The Microsoft Cloud consists of what we're serving up. A Sfar is the platform consists what we're serving up for data and AI modern workplace on business applications. And so this multi cloud strategy for us is really focused on how do we bring innovation across each of the solution areas that matter most to customers And so I see, Really, the power of the snowflake partnership playing in there. >>Awesome calling. Are there any examples you can share Where, you know, maybe this partnership is unlocked. The customer opportunity or unique value? >>Yeah. I can't speak about the customer specific, but what I can do and say is, um you know, Casey and I play very corporate roles in terms of we're thinking about the long term partnership. We're driving the strategy. Um, hey, look, we'll get called in. We're working a deal right now. It's almost close of, uh, of the quarter for us who are literally working on an opportunity right now. How can we win together? How can we be competitive? The customers? The CEO has asked us to come together to work out that solution. Um, very large, well known brand and were able to get up to the very senior levels of our customer era companies very quickly to make decisions on what do we need to do to be better and stronger together? And, uh um, that's really what a partnership is about. You could do the long term plans in the strategic, and you can have great products But when you're executives, come pick up the phone and call each other toe work on a particular deal for particular customers need, uh, I think that's where the power of the partnership really comes together. And that's where we're at. And that's been a growth opportunity for us. This year's wasn't necessarily where we were at. And I really have to thank Casey for that. He's done a ton, Um, you know, getting us the right glue between our executives, making sure the relationships air there and making sure the trust is there. So when our customers needs to come together, that dialogue and the that shared addiction of putting customers first is there between both companies. So thank you, Casey. >>No, thanks. Coming. Feeling's mutual. >>Well, I think this is key because as a cent upfront, we've gone from sort of very product focused the platform focus. And now we're tapping the power of the ecosystem. That's not always easy to get all the parts moving together. But we live in this. A P I economy you could say is, Hey, I'm I'm a company. Everything is gonna be homogeneous. Everything is gonna be my stack and maybe That's one way to solve the problem. But really, that's not how customers want to solve the problem. Okay, so I'll give you last word. >>Yeah, let me just end by saying, You know, first off, the cultures between our two companies couldn't be more well aligned. So I think ultimately, when you ask yourself the question, what do we do? The best show up in front of our customers. It is focused on there. This is outcomes focused on the things that matter most to them. And this partnership will show up well, I think ultimately our greatest opportunity eyes to tap into that need that interest on. I couldn't be happier about the partnership on the fact that we are so well aligned. So thank you for that. >>Well, guys, thanks very much for coming in the Cube and unpacking some of the really critical aspects of the ecosystem was really a pleasure having you. >>Thank you so much for having us. Alright, >>Keep it right there. Everybody, this is Dave Volonte for the Cube were powering on with data Cloud Summit 2020. Keep it right there.

>> Announcer: Live from Palo Alto. It's the Cube, Covering Women Transforming Technology 2017. Brought to you by VMware. >> Welcome back to the Cube's coverage of Women Transforming Technology here at VMware. I'm Rebecca Knight, your host. I'm joined by Colleen Kapase, she is the vice president of Partner Go to Market Programs and Incentives here at VMware. Colleen thanks so much for joining us. >> Thank you for having me, I appreciate it. >> So you are a Channel Chief, that sounds so, it's a great title I love it. (laughs) Can you explain to our viewers a little bit about what you do? >> Absolutely, and maybe my mom will watch this cause she still doesn't quite understand. >> Mom are you listening, okay. >> What I do. Channel Chief is a wonderful opportunity to drive the sales strategy inside a technology vendor through multiple different partners who sell our technology around the world. What many people don't know in the technology industry is trillions and trillions of dollars of our sales go through partners. In fact we even partner with ourselves. VMware partners with Google and Amazon and Dell and everyone else in the industry to help ourselves sell because customers don't buy a technology, they buy a solution. So much like the retail industry, where clothes are made by a brand, it's not necessarily sold by that brand. It's sold Nordstrom's or Bloomingdale's etc. Same thing in technology. So my role as a Channel Chief is to manage those relationships. VMware has about 60,000 partners worldwide, and so our focus as a Channel Chief is how do I get those partners to sell our technology, and not just sell it, but deliver it, and install it, and architect it, and put a whole solution together because VMware is often sold with many other technologies. The server side, the networking side, the storage side, and put a solution together for our customers. So that's what I get up and think about every day, is how do I get these partners to sell VMware. >> So you, it's a sales role. >> Colleen: It is. >> And are there many other, and you're also in corporate. >> Colleen: Yes. >> Channel Chief. Are there many other women in these leadership roles? >> Yeah, not as much as I would like to see today. But I think it's beginning to grow as a career that's well suited, frankly, for women. It is a corporate role, in many cases, and there's different kinds of Channel Chief. There's a field Channel Chief that's out there meeting with all the different partners, putting together the business cases and how can we sell more in the future. My role, and one that's really growing in the industry is a corporate Channel Chief. We think though the incentives. Almost like the comp plan for a sales person, but it's what's the comp plan for a partner. How do we pay them, what behaviors do we want to reward for. What behaviors do we want to stop rewarding for. And how do we want to move the cheese, if you will, on the sales team that happens every year, it's a very natural thing but we're thinking about these for businesses versus individuals. Another piece is what's the legal requirements of working with us, what's the training requirements, which technology do you need to know, how do we need to increase those technologies. The wonderful thing is a Channel Chief, really, we touch the marketing department, the legal department, the finance department, the sales department, most importantly, the business unit department that creates the technology. How do we sell it. You're almost like a mini CEO within the company. But if you do it at a corporate level, it's also a role that doesn't require a lot of travel. And that seems to be one of the main inhibitors for women that I see in sales, is the road warrior piece is something that just doesn't work for a lot of women. So being a corporate Channel Chief you can be involved in the strategy, doing the research, setting the direction. But have a bit more of a stable home life as well, so you can balance work and home. >> Right, and you can get to a certain point of influence in your career without having to be out there as much. >> Absolutely, but I always refer to it again as that mini CEO because you're really that hub and spoke, you touch so many different departments and you're solving so many company problems that are really at the central piece. Hey, it's amazing, we've created networking virtualization, how are we going to sell it? Who do we sell it with? What does it displace, what does it replace? How do we explain it to customers? Who was selling networking already that could help us do this? Really it's the hub of everything. >> And because you're collaborating with all these different business units, as you say, gets your brain working in different ways too which is fun. >> Absolutely. >> And, not to be generic, but having that collaborative spirit that many of us women have, it really works well for you. You have to be able to understand, and put yourself in the position of finance, of the business unit, of the legal team, and be able to communicate with all of 'em, okay this is how we're going to bring this technology to market. >> So for a viewer out there, that sounds like something I'd like to do, how did you get started? How did you become a Channel Chief? >> Yep, not so interesting story but I'll share with you anyways. >> Rebecca: We only want interesting stories Colleen. >> I came from a family that had a doctor, and a teaching background from my parents. So when I said I wanted to go into business I think they wanted to disown me somewhat, and didn't really know how to guide me, so I was really on my own. Went to the University of Washington Business School and really went to the career center and saw consulting. And in my mind I'm like, ah consulting, I can try different things, do different things and learn more about business to find my niche, and it happened to be a channel consulting company based out of Seattle, Washington. So I actually started as an intern. And there are multiple different channel consulting companies that still exist, especially in the Bay area, in Boston are two of the main headquarters of those. I got to see what is a channel strategist do in hardware vendors, software vendors. I worked for Compaq, I worked in HP, I worked in Inktomi. I quickly learned that software had more monies so that seemed like a good direction to go. There's a small group of folks that understand channel. But they're very willing to train the next generation. So it's a very niche, really profession. If you understand it, and if you listen to the partners, and you bring back their voice within your vendor, you can be very well respected in the industry as well. >> Now you're also on the diversity council here at VMware. >> Colleen: Yes. >> What are some of the things you're working on to make this a more inclusive work environment? >> Great question. Some of the things that we're working on within VMware, that I think is very important, especially because VMware has our engineering background is the math behind the problem statement. How are we doing as a company? We have created wonderful dashboards that really sit down with our leaders and really look at diversity. How many women to we have in the company? How many do we have at individual contributors all the way up in to the vice president level. How many come in from a recruitment standpoint, how many do we promote and how many do we lose? What I've found is, sitting down with our leadership, male and female and looking at the math and the dashboards of where we stand as a company gives us a single foundation to start from, and then figure out how are we going to continue to improve that? I'm sure, as you know, VMware's recently come out with our statistics of being 23%, for instance female. And then we're constantly looking at how can we improve upon that. We have educating people in the programs that we have. People of Difference, our PODS for instance. We have a VM inclusion, People of Difference, POD, around women and that's when we get together and talk about how can we support each other, what are some tactics that we can come with to support each other even just in a meeting. You know you can sit in a meeting, and you know that old adage of you can say something and then possibly a male repeats it and you weren't listened the first time. But what's amazing to watch in VMware, now other women are trained to stop in that meeting, say, ah, actually I think Colleen just said that, so nice of you to repeat that. Handled in a nice almost fun kind of way. >> That's not always easy to do though. >> No it's not. >> I mean, that takes a deft touch. So are you also in those training sessions? Are you, is there sort of an EQ component to it? >> Absolutely, and we practice. So we literally have groups of ourselves, that we go through the training and we practice, and we hold each other accountable, and say in two weeks find one example where that happened to a colleague or yourself and how did you correct the situation or not correct the situation. Let's talk about it, why did you or didn't you. Holding each other accountable seems to be a big, big piece of, I think, the success at VMware. Cause you can discuss the problem and have a support group of agreeing on what the issue is, but not take action to fix it. And so those support groups, and coming together, and saying here's the issue, and here's how I addressed it in my small way, in my one meeting, and those death by a thousand cuts starts to stop, and you find you have alliances with other women who are supporting women, and we're all trying to come together to further the cause, which is a great feeling. >> So, I mean, this sounds as though things are, that VMware is aware of this and is trying to improve the culture. But Silicon Valley gets a lot of bad press, particularly lately, particularly this last week. >> Colleen: Yes. >> Of being an intolerant place, or being sexist. Is it as bad as we're hearing? >> I've certainly heard some of the stories at some of the other tech vendors recently. I'd hate to think it's that way at every single company. I know that Uber's story is recently come up, that's pretty serious, I think. Do I think everyone experiences it as a female at some level, whether it's the joke or the football talk, or not feeling included, or the cigar lounge. I think that happens to some extent everywhere. Did the seriousness of what we're hearing come out in the press happen everywhere, I hope not. I haven't had those types of experience. But I think almost everyone has had it. You know, just a mispositioning of a statement that did offend, or hey, how was maternity leave handled by male leadership. And there's something I'm pretty, pretty passionate about, that we're beginning discussion at VMware, which is a reverse mentor. So we're really asking some of our male leaders to look at having a female or diverse candidate reverse mentor. So someone lower than you, honestly, in the pecking order, telling you, or being there as someone you can bounce something off of. Hey I was thinking of doing this, would this bother you as a woman? Or when they see you say something or do something, or hey did you notice you, you know, leader, you had a panel and it was all men. Really having a relationship where they can have those conversations, cause sometimes what we're finding is the men just really aren't aware. And you want to think that they are, and I think we're so super aware and more vigilant of it that they would be more aware, but I think having the ability as a leader to learn from your team or someone specifically on you team that you have trust. >> But the people who have the reverse mentors, aren't they already a self selecting group in the sense of their already the ones who are aware that there are problems. I mean, I'm just thinking about it, >> Yeah >> It sounds like a great idea, but how do you get that leader who maybe is a little more bullheaded or just unaware, oblivious, to say you need this, you need someone of, who has a different perspective than you, telling you how it is, or telling you what his or her experiences. >> I think that's a great question. Something we're pretty focused on is diversity. We're not necessarily doing it to be nice. We're doing it for business outcomes. I think the hope is, you have, maybe the leaders who are self selecting who come and do the reverse mentoring, are aware of their organization and how they need to improve. But what we can show is, if they work on it over time, they get better business outcomes. And in sales business outcomes is very clear and easy to see. (Rebecca laughing) So the teams that have the more diverse teams, and lean in to the issue, even if they were more self selecting, if they have the better business outcomes, if they have the better sales over time, it becomes less of a, hey the person who is bullish who doesn't want to, he needs you to do this to be nice, it's more, this person got better sales results than you did, so why don't we take a page out of what they did and try some of these things. And I think if we can keep in on business outcomes, that's part of the way we can win. In sales, that's a little easier than on the technical side. >> There's a clear ROI >> Colleen: Absolutely. When you look at it. No, and I think that's a really good point because you do think of diversity training as kind of this squishy thing, that you can't necessarily always quantify. >> Colleen: Yeah. >> What are you, what are you seeing, and what are you hearing from your colleagues, your other Channel Chiefs in terms of what's happening? (sighs) >> Great question. There's not enough of us, so I actually just met with four of them yesterday from Brocade, and Riverbed, and Sungard, and we had a discussion of what's working or what's not working. I think we're seeing a better understanding from all of our peers on male and female, of there's an issue, we're not diverse. The statistics are being published now. We're seeing companies come out, VMware published, where are we at. And you can just kind of look at the numbers and say we have a ways to go. >> So you're benchmarking yourself, but then you're also benchmarking yourself against, >> Against others. >> Yes. >> I think more people are coming out and, you know, I think Facebook, and Apple sort of started some of that trend, but Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, they're all publishing now their percent of leadership that is women. So I think we have an agreement on, we've got an issue, we could see mathematically we have a problem. We need to improve that. I don't think some of the smaller companies have the assets and the resources to solve the problem yet. And they're looking at some of the larger companies, what are you doing, and what tools are you developing and how can we learn from you. Cause when you talk to some of those smaller companies that maybe are more likely to have some of the female leaderships in those positions, they still don't know how they are going to solve this problem completely. >> Thinking about the top women in Silicon Valley, or top women in the technology industry, the names we know that are in the press all the time, the Sheryl Sanberg's, and Jenny Remedy's, who do you think are some of the unsung heroes? >> Oh, unsung heroes. You know, I, in my world, in the channel world I see a much smaller community of women. I see the women in VMware frankly. I think Betsy and what she's done at VMware as our chief people officer, and really taking the issue on, pretty head on, and even, you know, to the point of having the Women Transforming Technology event here at VMware and sponsoring it, and getting Dell to sponsor it, and Pivotal and the other sponsors. I think that's been huge, and that's been a journey watching her on as well. Cause she's been at VMware 12 to 14 years, I think. And having a female founder of VMware wasn't an issue, you didn't think of it, that was actually one of the things used to recruit me here, that i was very excited about at VMware. But over time we saw things change and maybe the dynamics as we grew fast, diversity didn't necessarily grow. And she was the one who said we need to stop, if we need to be thoughtful about this, we need to think. This isn't going to get VMware the best business outcomes, and she's really been pushing the issue quite strongly at VMware. I'm in awe of her. I don't see her discussed as much as Sheryl Sanberg and the luminaries out there, but I've been seeing her battles within VMware and she's been making a huge difference. >> Colleen Kapase, thank you so much for joining us. >> Yeah, thank you for having me, I appreciate it. >> We're at Women Transforming Technology here at VMware. I'm Rebecca Knight, we'll be right back. (techno music) (techno music)

(intro music) >> Good evening. Welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of day one of Snowflake Summit 22 live from Caesar's Forum in Las Vegas. Lisa Martin, here with Dave Vellante. Dave, we have had an action-packed day one. A lot of news coming out this morning. We've talked to Snowflake folks. We've talked to partners, we've talked to customers. A lot going on today. >> It's our light day. Tomorrow it even gets more intense. >> I know. I'm a little scared. (Dave Vellante laughing) We've got another partner of Snowflakes onboard with us here. Please welcome, let me get this, Sudhir Chaturvedi, President and Executive Board Member at LTI. How did I do? >> Yeah, very well, actually. (laughing) >> Dave Vellante: Outstanding. >> Welcome to the program. Tell us a little bit about you and then talk to the audience about LTI and what you're doing with Snowflake. >> Sure. So, LTI is a global technology consulting and services firm. We had (indistinct) out of India. We're part of a large conglomerate, which is over 80 years old. Our founders were two Danish engineers who came to India and were essentially stuck when World War II broke out, and they created a company that's lasted 80 years. So we are very proud of our heritage. We come from an engineering background and frankly what we do with Snowflake is really bring that engineering DNA to Snowflake. So we are, we've been a partner of Snowflake. We are an elite partner of Snowflake, and we work with them across all regions in the world, actually. 50 plus customers today. So, we have great partnership for today. >> And I have a note here. It says you're the GSI Delivery Platform Partner of the Year. Congratulations. What does that entail? What are the requirements to get that award? >> Yeah, I know we are very proud that we are the Delivery Platform Partner of the Year this year. We were the Innovation Partner of the Year, last year. So it shows the journey from innovation to execution in showing delivery. I think what it entails is that we've been recognized for leadership and excellence in executing Snowflake programs at scale, the migration programs and the implementation programs that we've done for customers across the globe. >> Take us back, how did you first find Snowflake? When did you decide to lean in as a company? >> Yeah, it's a great question actually. You know, in fact, so we went public as a company in 2016 and at that time, how do I put it politely? People weren't expecting that much of us. They thought we'll be one amongst many other companies. And we decided that we will vector the company on data, digital, and cloud, and we'll make bets on partners that are perhaps unknown at that time. So in late 2017, early 2018, we started partnering with Snowflake. And since then I must, you know, hand it to Snowflake. We have an phenomenal partnership with them. I just met Frank this morning. Chris Degnan is their Chief Revenue Officer, Colleen Kapase. All of these people have been tremendous in terms of how they work together with us across the world to bring what essentially is phenomenal technology to our clients. >> What was the allure back then? It was, you know, cloud data warehouse, simplified data warehouse, the technically splitting storage from compute, you know, infinite, blah, blah, blah. Was that the allure and saying or did you have a broader vision? >> No, I think what happened was clients were struggling with data because data and applications in our world were sort of very tightly intertwined and they weren't really leveraging data for making realtime decisions. So the moment we saw the promise of Snowflake that you can create true data on cloud, which on sort of all data on cloud, you know what Frank was talking about this morning, and it's available in real time and you can do a lot of things on it. We said, this is technology of the future. It truly is because it separated storage and compute. It did many things that were not possible before. So I think the thing is when you see promising technology as a GSI, you always wonder, should we wait for it to be proven before we jump in? >> Dave Vellante: Right. >> Or should we jump in right up front and help them prove the model? And we decided to take the first approach where we jumped in right up front. >> Dave Vellante: You bet. >> And I think that's helped us earlier. >> Jumped in head first, pandemic hits, they go public. >> Yes. >> Lots of stuff going on. Talk to us about how you're leveraging the power this flywheel that Snowflake has created that I think is just getting bigger and faster. >> Sudhir: Absolutely. >> How are you leveraging the power of the technology to really deliver business outcomes for clients? >> No, that's a great question. And the thing with our initial focus was to get people onto data on cloud and with Snowflake, but now it's really around driving business outcomes from there. So we have a suite called Fosfor which is a data to decisions product suite, which is Snowflake ready. We've also launched PolarSled too which is based on business outcomes. So what we've done is we've done is we've actually created about 155 NorthStars. So various industry sectors, what business outcome do you want to achieve? We call that a NorthStar. And then we say, how do you achieve it with Snowflake? You know, so what we are doing is we're saying let's achieve the business outcome that's going to drive more consumption, but essentially, you know, we live in a difficult world, a increasingly difficult world. So we want to help people take better database decisions. >> Well, what are some of the more interesting ways in which your clients are using Snowflake? >> Yeah, I think when I look at, for example, we have a client in the financial services sector who was struggling with, you know, they're one of the largest asset management and fund management companies in the world. They're a household name, everybody knows them. And they probably have an EFT or some sort of 401k with them. And what they were struggling with was to say, how do I actually get various sources of data together in a way that I can make better asset, you know, better fund management decisions because otherwise it was left to a lot of very traditional equity research reporting and fund managers taking their expertise. Here, the data from multiple sources being available, running some AIML routines on it, we're able to show them patterns in various asset classes, on options, on investments that they hadn't seen before. And now that they've jumped headlong into it, 15 of their units across the world are using it now. So I think the power of once you see data in action that it's sort of, it's almost like the superpower that smart people get. It's like, yeah, like you suddenly arm them with so much more than they had previously. And then they get so much better at what they're doing. And ultimately consumers like us benefit from that. So, you know, that's really where we want to go. >> What's LTIs like best sweet spot where, you go into a client and you know, wow, this is a perfect fit for what we do? >> Yeah. So I think I would say banking and insurance is 47% of our business. We really understand that business extremely well. The other aspect of that is because we come from a manufacturing heritage. We've had that as well. And media is something we've done more recently. So, you know we've got a media cloud along with Snowflake. So I would say these are the sectors that we are, so we've been very domain focused as a client, as a company. You know, domain first, technology, we'll work with whatever technology the domain needs but that's really been helpful to us all. And this is where that whole point of NorthStar and Fosfor comes back in, which is, today, I think without the data on cloud you would've never achieved the kind of outcomes that we are able to achieve with our clients today. >> How did you feel about the recent sales pivot that Snowflake has made in terms of retail, but also healthcare and life sciences? Talk to me about that and is that enabling your joint customers to really leverage? >> Yeah, no, I think it's very exciting. We are working with clients on that. They like the new model. They're looking forward to, I think what clients are now doing is they're putting data perhaps ahead of even in these times where people are looking at, you know, we are seeing seven or eight very difficult macroeconomic trends. People are wondering, clients are wondering, what's this going to mean for their business in the future? So they're looking at spends and saying, what do I prioritize? But what I find is that that data spend only goes up, you know? So, our own data practice has sort of grown fourfold in the last six years, you know? So it's been just an exponential growth for us. And essentially Snowflake is our largest bet in that space even over every other technology that's out there. So I think clients, when they see that combination of how Snowflake is changing and what we can bring to them, I think the model works well for them. >> You know, ecosystem is one of the areas that we always pay attention to. You can see, just look around,. I mean, you compare 2019 to where we are today. What's the importance of ecosystem to LTI and how do you see it evolving? >> That's a great question. So, you know, it's like, I think in About a Boy, you know, Hugh Grant says that no man is an island. You know, and I think the same thing applies for companies. Any company, no matter what size they are, if they think that they can do everything themselves and I think they're not going to be successful in the long run. We believe that the ecosystem of partnerships is what drives all the best outcomes for our clients and our clients expect that today. They want (indistinct) partners to work together. And the thing with an ecosystem is, you know no one person can dominate an ecosystem, you know? The customer has to be at the center of the ecosystem and then everybody in the ecosystem is actually saying how best do I service the customer? So I think if you have that kind of customer centricity and you understand that ecosystems, you know, on your own you'll never be as good as an ecosystem. I think you nailed it, but it requires, a partnering ethos and that's what we really like about Snowflake. Such a strong partnering ethos. I still, I keep telling people if I text or message Chris or Colleen, I'll get a response in within 15, 20 minutes. You know, that's invaluable when you're trying to do great things for your joint clients, you know, so. >> Sounds like there's a lot of synergies there around the customer obsession, customer centricity. >> Absolutely. I think responsiveness in today's world is key. You know, I think the first people to respond, even if it's to say, you know what, I hear you I'm going to get back to you. I think, you know, people love that about you. It's easy to say customer centric. It's difficult to actually practice it in real life. And we believe that, for us, responsiveness is the key. We'll respond no matter what time of day or night. And the other thing is we'll respond even with our partners, right? We are not going to respond on our own and then bring everybody else along. Even things like, I don't know this but I can refer you to a partner who can help you do this. That's also a response. >> That responsiveness is so critical, especially in this day and age where I think one of the things that was in short supply during COVID and one of the many things is patience and tolerance. >> Correct. >> Right? On us as consumers and our business lives. So being able to respond even just to say we're checking, don't know yet, that builds trust between organizations with customers. >> Well, yeah, absolutely. In fact, you know, even the first year of the pandemic we grew nine and a half percent, year and year. >> In India, we were the fastest growing company that year. And if anybody asked me why did you grow nine and half percent when the industry grew at -1%, you know, in that financial. I think it was the speed at which we responded between February and June to client requests. We responded even before, I know I was in calls till 12:30 in the night working with clients to say, okay how do we fix this? How do we change this? How do we stop doing something? How do we cut costs, whatever they needed. And what we did in the first three months actually helped us our first four months when the first wave of the pandemic really hit. Actually clients were like these guys were on our side when times are tough. Let's sort of bet on them. And the data business actually grew. And I keep saying this, you know, whenever a big macro trend hits when there's more uncertainty, people look to the data because your judgment and experience is no longer applicable. Nobody in the world had any experience or judgment that could be applied in COVID times, right? So you need to now look at the data and say, okay, is the data telling me something that I would never come to know based on my own experience? And I think, you know, this is what I call the real database decisions is no company in the world will say we don't do it. But I think today's world, we are seeing real time data decisions being taken. We see it in the supply chain all the time. We see it in how banks are processing interest rate rises, et cetera. It's the speed at which they're acting would not be possible without a data first kind of approach they've taken. >> Right. And it has to be real time these days. >> It has to be. >> Every organization. That's no longer a nice to have. >> No, you know, and data is getting out of date also so quickly. I mean, in today's world, with the war in Ukraine I think the first thing we realized was that almost every parameter on commodity, whether it was oil or steel or shipping or whatever, it changed so rapidly that the only way to predict, many of our clients were not able to to tell their customers when they would be able to deliver products and service or products, especially manufacturing clients because they just didn't know when they would get their materials and go get their parts, et cetera. And we used data to say, okay, let's at least establish a base on which, because clients get disappointed, more customers get disappointed when you don't meet a delivery date. So we wanted to say, let's make it more predictable, even in unpredictable times. So we were able to manage expectations. We were able to do that better. Without the data there was no way it would've happened. There was just no way. And frankly, for us, Snowflake is the reason. For us it's our biggest bet in the data space. And that's how most of the work that we are doing in supply chain, in fact, I'm just headed to a manufacturing event that our team has organized, which is with Snowflake on data on cloud for manufacturing clients. So we've been slightly behind the curve compared to some of the others, but now seeing the promise and saying, hey let's go for this. >> There's a tremendous amount of potential. We're only scratching the surface. We thank you so much >> Sudhir: Thank you. >> For joining David me on the program, talking about LTI, the power of what you're doing together with Snowflake. We'll let you get to that manufacturing event. I'm sure that they are looking forward to talking to you. >> Yeah, no. Thank you so much. It was lovely to speak to you. Thank you so much. >> Likewise. My pleasure. For our guest and Dave Vellante, this is Lisa Martin signing off from the show floor of Snowflake Summit 22. Day one coverage is complete. Dave and I look forward to seeing you bright and early tomorrow for a jam packed day two. Thanks so much for watching. Take good care. (outro music)

>> We're here at the Data Cloud Summit 2020, tracking the rise of the data cloud. And we're talking about the ecosystem powering the next generation of innovation in cloud, you know, for decades, the technology industry has been powered by great products. Well, the cloud introduced a new type of platform that transcended point products and the next generation of cloud platforms is unlocking data-centric ecosystems where access to data is at the core of innovation, tapping the resources of many versus the capabilities of one. Casey McGee is here. He's the vice president of global ISV sales at Microsoft, and he's joined by Colleen Kapase, who is the VP of partnerships and global alliances at Snowflake. Folks, welcome to theCUBE. It's great to see you. >> Thanks Dave, good to see you. Thank you. >> Thanks for having us here. >> You're very welcome. So, Casey, let me start with you please. You know, Microsoft's got a long heritage, of course, working with partners, you're renowned in that regard, built a unbelievable ecosystem, the envy of many in the industry. So if you think about as enterprises, they're speeding up their cloud adoption, what are you seeing as the role and the importance of ecosystem, the ISV ecosystem specifically, in helping make customers' outcomes successful? >> Yeah, let me start by saying we have a 45 year history of partnership, so from our very beginning as a company, we invested to build these partnerships. And so let me start by saying from day one, we looked at a diverse ecosystem as one of the most important strategies for us, both to bring innovation to customers and also to drive growth. And so we're looking to build that environment even today. So 45 years later, focused on how do we zero in on the business outcomes that matter most to customers, usually identified by the industry that they're serving. So really building an ecosystem that helps us serve both the customers and the business outcomes they're looking to drive. And so we're building that ecosystem of ISVs on the Microsoft cloud and focused on bringing that innovation as a platform provider through those companies. >> So Casey, let's stay on that for a moment, if we can. I mean, you work with a lot of ISVs and you got a big portfolio of your own solutions. Now, sometimes they overlap with the ISV offerings of your partners. How do you balance the focus on first party solutions and third-party ISV partner solutions? >> Yeah, first and foremost, we're a platform company. So our whole intent is to bring value to that partner ecosystem. Well, sometimes that means we may have offers in market that may compliment one another. Our focus is really on serving the customer. So anytime we see that, we're looking at what is the most desired outcome for our customer, driving innovation into that specific business requirement. So for us, it's always focusing on the customer, and really zeroing in on making sure that we're solving their business problems. Sometimes we do that together with partners like Snowflake. Sometimes that means we do that on our own, but the key for us is really deeply understanding what's important to the customer and then bringing the best of the Microsoft and Snowflake scenarios to bear. >> You know, Casey, I appreciate that. A lot times people say "Dave, don't ask me that question. It's kind of uncomfortable." So Colleen, I want to bring you into the discussion. How does Snowflake view this dynamic, where you're simultaneously partnering and competing sometimes with some of the big cloud companies on the planet? >> Yeah, Dave, I think it's a great question, and really in this era of innovation, so many large companies like Microsoft are so diverse in their product set, it's almost impossible for them to not have some overlap with most of their ecosystem. But I think Casey said it really well, as long as we stay laser focused on the customer, and there are a lot of very happy Snowflake customers and happy Azure customers, we really win together. And I think we're finding ways in which we're working better and better together, from a technology standpoint, and from a field standpoint. And customers want to see us come together and bring best of breed solutions. So I think we're doing a lot better, and I'm looking forward to our future, too. >> So Casey, Snowflake, you know, they're really growing, they've got a pretty large footprint on Azure. You're talking hundreds of customers here that are active on that platform. I wonder if you could talk about the product integration points that you kind of completed initially, and then kind of what's on the horizon that you see as particularly important for your joint customers? >> You have to say, so one of the things that I love about this partnership is that, well, we start with what the customer wants. We bring that back into the engineering-level relationship that we have between the two companies. And so that's produced some pretty incredibly rich functionality together. So let me start by saying, you know, we've got eight Azure regions today with nine coming on soon. And so we have a geographic diversity that is important for many of our customers. We've also got a series of engineering-level integrations that we've already built. So that's functionality for Azure Private Link, as well as integration between Power BI, Azure Data Factory, and Azure Data Lake, all of this back again to serve the business outcomes that are required for our customers. So it's this level of integration that I think really speaks to the power of the partnership. So we are intently focused on the democratization of data. So we know that Snowflake is the premier partner to help us do that. So getting that right is key to enabling high concurrency use cases with large numbers of businesses, users coming together, and getting the performance they expect. >> Yeah, I appreciate that Casey, because a lot of times I'll, you know, I'll look at the press release. Sometimes we laugh, we call them Barney deals. You know, "I love you. You love me." But I listen for the word engineering and integration. Those are sort of important triggers. Colleen, or Casey too, but I want to start with Colleen. I mean, anything you would add to that, are there things that you guys have worked on together that you're particularly proud of, or maybe that have pushed the envelope and enabled new capabilities for customers where they've given you great feedback? Any examples you can share? >> Great question. And we're definitely focusing on making sure stability is a core value for both of us, so that what we offer, that our customers can trust, is going to work well and be dependable, so that's a key focus for us. We're also looking at how can we advance into the future, what can we do around machine learning, it's an area that's really exciting for a lot of the CXO-level leadership at our customers, so we're certainly focused on that. And also looking at Power BI and the visualization of how do we bring these solutions together as well. I'd also say at the same time, we're trying to make the buying experience frictionless for our customers, so we're also leveraging and innovating with Azure's Marketplace, so that our customers can easily acquire Snowflake together with Azure. And even that is being helpful for our customers. Casey, what are your thoughts, too? >> Yeah, let me add to that. I think the work that we've done with Power BI is pretty, pretty powerful. I mean, ultimately, we've got customers out there that are looking to better visualize the data, better inform decisions that they're making. So as much as AI and ML and the inherent power of the data that's being stored within Snowflake is important in and of itself, Power BI really unlocks that and helps drive better decisions, better visualization, and help drive to decision outcomes that are important to the customer. So I love the work that we're doing on Power BI and Snowflake. >> Yeah, and you guys both mentioned, you know, machine learning. I mean, they really are an ecosystem of tools. And the thing to me about Azure, it's all about optionality. You mentioned earlier, Casey, you guys are a platform. So, you know, customer A may want to use Power BI. Another customer might want to use another visualization tool, fine, from a platform perspective, you really don't care, do you? So I wonder Colleen, if we could, and again, maybe Casey can chime in afterwards. You guys, obviously everybody these days, but you in particular, you're focused on customer outcomes. That's the sort of starting point, and Snowflake for sure has built pretty significant experience working with large enterprises and working alongside of Microsoft to get other partners. In your experience, what are customers really looking for out of the two joint companies when they engage with Snowflake and Microsoft, so that one plus one is, you know, much bigger than two. Maybe Colleen, you could start. >> Yeah, I definitely think that what our customers are looking for is both trust and seamlessness. They just want the technology to work. The beauty of Snowflake is our ease of use. So many customers have questions about their business, more so now in this pandemic world than ever before. So the seamlessness, the ease of use, the frictionless, all of these things really matter to our joint customers, and seeing our teams come together, too, in the field, to show here's how Snowflake and Azure are better together, in your local area, and having examples of customers where we've had win-wins, which I'd say Casey, we're getting more and more of those every day, frankly, so it's pretty exciting times. And having our sales teams work as a partnership, even though we compete, we know where we play well together, and I see us doing that over and over again, more and more, around the world, too, which is really important as Snowflake pushes forward, beyond the North America geographies into stronger and stronger in the global regions, where frankly, Microsoft's had a long, storied history at. That's very exciting, especially in Europe and Asia. >> Casey, anything you'd add to that? >> Yeah. Colleen, it's well said. I think ultimately, what customers are looking for is that when our two companies come together, we bring new innovation, new ideas, new ways to solve old problems. And so I think what I love about this partnership is ultimately when we come together, whether it's engineering teams coming together to build new product, whether it's our sales and marketing teams out in front of the customers, across that spectrum, I think customers are looking for us to help bring new ideas. And I love the fact that we've engineered this partnership to do just that. And ultimately we're focused on how do we come together and build something new and different. And I think we can solve some of the most challenging problems with the power of the data and the innovation that we're bringing to the table. >> I mean, you know, Casey, I mean, everybody's really quite in awe and amazed at Microsoft's transformation, and really openness and willingness to really, change and lean into some of the big waves. I wonder if you could talk about your multi-platform strategy and what problems that you're solving in conjunction with Snowflake. >> Yeah, let me start by saying, you know, I think as much as we appreciate that feedback on the progress that we've been striving for, I mean, we're still learning every day, looking for new opportunities to learn from customers, from partners, and so a lot of what you see on the outside is the result of a really focused culture, really focusing on what's important to our customers, focusing on how do we build diversity and inclusion to everything we do, whether that's within Microsoft, with our partners, our customers, and ultimately, how do we show up as one Microsoft, I call one Microsoft kind of the partner's gift. It's ultimately how do our companies show up together? So I think if you look multi-platform, we have the same concept, right? We have the Microsoft cloud that we're offering out in the marketplace. The Microsoft cloud consists of what we're serving up as far as the platform, consists of what we're serving up for data and AI, modern workplace and business applications. And so this multi-cloud strategy for us is really focused on how do we bring innovation across each of the solution areas that matter most to customers. And so I see really the power of the Snowflake partnership playing in there. >> Awesome. Colleen, are there any examples you can share where, maybe this partnership has unlocked the customer opportunity or unique value? >> Yeah, I can't speak about the customer-specific, but what I can do and say is, Casey and I play very corporate roles in terms of we're thinking about the long-term partnership, we're driving the strategy. But hey, look, we'll get called in, we're working a deal right now, it's almost close of the quarter for us, we're literally working on an opportunity right now, how can we win together, how can we be competitive, the customers, the CIO has asked us to come together, to work on that solution. Very large, well-known brand. And we're able to get up to the very senior levels of our companies very quickly to make decisions on what do we need to do to be better and stronger together. And that's really what a partnership is about, you can do the long-term plans and the strategics and you can have great products, but when your executives can pick up the phone and call each other to work on a particular deal, for a particular customer's need, I think that's where the power of the partnership really comes together, and that's where we're at. And that's been a growth opportunity for us this year, is, wasn't necessarily where we were at, and I really have to thank Casey for that. He's done a ton, getting us the right glue between our executives, making sure the relationships are there, and making sure the trust is there, so when our customers need us to come together, that dialogue and that shared diction of putting customers first is there between both companies. So thank you, Casey. >> Oh, thanks, Colleen, the feeling's mutual. >> Well, I think this is key because as I said up front, we've gone from sort of very product-focused to platform-focused. And now we're tapping the power of the ecosystem. That's not always easy to get all the parts moving together, but we live in this API economy. You could say "Hey, I'm a company, everything's going to be homogeneous. Everything is going to be my stack." And maybe that's one way to solve the problem, but really that's not how customers want to solve the problem. Casey, I'll give you the last word. >> Yeah, let me just end by saying, you know, first off the cultures between our two companies couldn't be more well aligned. So I think ultimately when you ask yourself the question, "What do we do to best show up in front of our customers?" It is, focus on their business outcomes, focus on the things that matter most to them. And this partnership will show up well. And I think ultimately our greatest opportunity is to tap into that need, to that interest. And I couldn't be happier about the partnership and the fact that we are so well aligned. So thank you for that. >> Well guys, thanks very much for coming on theCUBE and unpacking some of the really critical aspects of the ecosystem. It was really a pleasure having you. >> Thank you so much for having us. >> Okay, and thank you for watching. Keep it right there. We've got more great content coming your way at the Data Cloud Summit.