>> Announcer: Live from Berlin, Germany, it's The Cube covering NetApp Insight 2017. Brought to you by NetApp. >> Welcome back to The Cube's live coverage of NetApp Insight here in Berlin, Germany. I'm your host Rebecca Knight along with my co-host Peter Burris. We are join by Alfred Manhart. He is the Senior Direct Channel and System Integrator Ischemia for NetApp, and Lars Gobel, who is the Head of Strategy and Innovation for DARZ. Thanks so much for joining us. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for the invitation. >> So Manfred, I mean Alfred, before the cameras were rolling, you were talking a little bit about key partnerships and why they are so critical to helping NetApp manage the data and help it flow freely. Can you tell our viewers a little bit more about the partnerships aspect? >> So we have, of course, partnering with NetApp is a base of our strategy. It's not just a initiative. So partnering is key for us. And what we currently see is that the partner landscape has to change. The existing partner that what we are trying to help them to transform to the digital world change the world with data on one side and on the other side we need additional new partner that make the complex customer-oriented offering become reality. This is an example probably DARZ's staff anyhow, but they build up this kind of multiple partnerships to offer the customer-related offering and solution for the end customers. >> Great, great. So tell us how you fit in here Lars? I mean, as important of partnerships. >> So, we are in a situation that IT is getting more and more complex. And we also get into the position that the understand is now clear that not the company can internally are the best at every part. So, for example, Global Innovation Index makes analyzes with the outcome that everywhere where partnerships exists, the innovation is much higher. And today we talk over new business model, we talk over innovation, scalability, flexibility, and for these topics and all the for the new size of environments and also of the challenges the customers have. They need the best for every part of the solutions and we at DARZ, a full IT service provider, try to bring that together. So we offer from co-location housing over private co-hosting up to a public cloud and hyper cloud scenarios complete bandwidth. So we bring together Amazon Web Service and Microsoft Azure to realize one solution for the customer. >> So, every large enterprise is gonna have multiple relationships like the one that they have with you. And while you are helping to bring Amazon and Azure and others under the DARZ umbrella of services, there is gonna have to be something that connects them a little bit more deeply, right? That's probably gonna be data. >> Lars: Yeah. >> So tell us a little bit about that underlying fabric that's going to be required to ensure that data can be rendered in all of these different environments and sourced from all of these different environments according to the needs of business. What do you think? What will NetApp's role in that be? >> That's an interesting one. I think the world from a partnership perspective is even getting more complex, yeah? Instead of making everything as a single one st-- One initial shot, more technical, it's more outcome-based, longer-term based. So if you're not thinking that way, what should be my desired outcome of what-- How my world should look like in a year, in two years from now, you probably choose the wrong partner from the beginning. So this kind of being relevant and being prepared for the future, for all the challenges that are coming up, is very, very important. And data is a short-term issue and of course you have to consider what you want to do with data long term. That is the challenge to balance out the short-term benefits with the long-term objective you have. And thus makes the world more complex. >> So what do you look for in a partner? As you said, you could realize too late you chose the wrong partner from the beginning. But what are sort of the key characteristics and attributes that you want? >> OK, from our perspective we also, we do two things. On the one side, we concentrate on the existing partners and support them on their way to the new world. Yeah? Not all of them will make it. Yeah? And on the other side, we have an acquisition program in place, that we address the partner that are needed for the future and also expand the ecosystem with partners, which are probably we are not even aware of. Talking about coder partners, alliance partners, cloud partners we currently have not in our portfolio. So it's both, driving the existing channel ecosystem to the digital world and acquiring partners that are needed for the future. >> Great. Well Alfred, Lars, thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been great having you. >> Thank you >> Thank you very much for inviting us. >> I'm Rebecca Knight for Peter Burris, we will have more from NetApp Insight just after this. (upbeat music)