>> From our studios in the heart of Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, California. This is a CUBE Conversation. >> Hi everyone, welcome to this CUBE Conversation here in Palo Alto, I'm John Furrier. Host of theCUBE here in theCUBE studios. I'm joined with Ronen Schwartz. Senior Vice President and General Manager of Data Integration and Cloud Integration at Informatica, CUBE alumni, been on multiple times, here to do a preview round. Informatica World coming up as well as just catch up. Ronen, great to see you. >> Really happy to see you, you guys have a beautiful place here in Palo Alto. >> I know you live right around the corner so I'm expecting to see you come on multiple times and come in and share your commentary, but I want to get your thoughts, it's been a couple of months since we last chatted, interesting turn of events. If you go back just, you know, September of last year, and then you had Amazon Reinvent. They announced Outpost, multi-cloud starts hitting the scene, first it was hybrid. First it was all public cloud. But now the realization from customers is that this is now a fully blown up cloud world. It's cloud operations, it's just public cloud for unlimited cloud natives activity, on premise for existing workloads, and a complete re-architecture of the enterprise. >> Yes, and I think from Reinvent to Google Next just a week before, I agree with you. It's a world of hybrid and a world of multi-cloud. I think a lot of exciting announcements and a lot of changes, I think from my perspective what I see is that the Informatica customers are truly adopting cloud and hybrid and as data is growing, as data is changing the cloud is the place that they actually address this opportunity in the best way. >> So I know we've talked in the past. Your title is Data Integration, Cloud Integration. Obviously integration is the key point. You're starting to see APIs going to a whole other level, with Google they had acquired Apogee, which is an API marketplace, but with microservices and service meshes and Kubernetes momentum you're starting to see the advent of more programmability. This is a big trend, how is that impacting your world? Because at the end of the day you need the data. >> Yes, it actually means that you can do more things with the data in an easier way and also it means that you can actually share it with more users within the enterprise. I think that especially the whole ability to use containers, and Kubernetes is a great example of how you can do it, it's actually giving you unparalleled scale, as well as simplicity from the obstruction perspective. And it allows more and more developers to build more value from the data that they have. So data is actually in the core. Data is the foundation, and really a lot of this new technology allows you to build up from the data more valuable capabilities. I'm really happy that you're mentioning Apogee because one of the things that Google and Informatica notice together is the need for API to actually leverage data in a better way, and we strike a very strategic partnership that has gone into the market in the last few months allowing every user of Informatica Ipaas to basically publish APIs in a native experience from the Informatica Ipass directly to Apogee and vice versa, everything that you build in Informatica Cloud is basically automatically an API inside Apogee, so users get more value from data faster. >> So can you give an example, 'cause I think this is one of the things we saw at Google as a tell sign or the canary in the cole mine whatever trend parameter is that end to end CICD pipe lining, seamless execution in any environment seems to be the trend. What you're kind of getting at is this kind of cross integration, can you give an example of that Informatica Cloud to Apogee example of benefit to the customer or use case and why that's important. >> Yes, definitely, so if I'm a retailer or a manufacturer, I'm actually looking into automate processes. There is nothing better than deleting the Ipaas from Informatica to actually automate process anything from order to cash or inventory validation or even next best recommendation coming from some AI in the backend. Once you have created this process exposing this process as an API is actually allowing multiple other services. Multiple other capabilities to very easily leverage that, right, so this is basically what we're doing, so what an individual in the retailer is doing is they're actually defining this process of order to cash, and then they're publishing it as an API in one click, at that stage anybody anywhere can very very easily consume that API and basically use this process again and again. >> And that means what? Faster execution of application development? >> It means faster execution of application development. It also means consistency and basically scale so now you don't need to redevelop that. It's available as an API, you can reuse it again and again, so you do it in a consistent way, when you need to update you need to change, you need to modernize this process you modernize it once and use it again and again. >> Sorry to drill down on kind of the unique use case here, but this points to the integration challenges out there and the opportunities. Mentioned Google Next, Google Cloud. You've got a relationship with Amazon. This is part of your strategy for ecosystem. This is critical, integration is becoming Amit Walia was saying that you can compose. Have that foundation for the data and you compose your applications, but if you got to have a lot of composition, you need to have integration points, that's going to be either APIs or some sort of glue layer. This is huge, this is like the entire thesis of cloud architecture. >> Right, and the reality that our customers are facing is basically irrelative from multi-cloud, they will use a best of breed cloud for CRM, a best of breed cloud for ERP as well as a best of breed cloud for their data warehouse, their databases as well as their analytics, AI, et cetera. In that world, the only thing that is kind of common across this cloud is the data. And if you're actually able to allow the data to reside in the best place but you keep the metadata managed centrally by software like the one at Informatica is giving you are getting the best of breed of all of these offerings without actually paying a fine for that. >> So you guys are in a lot of magic quadrants out there in terms of categories of leadership and focus on data from day one. As you talk about your ecosystem, can you explain what that means because you're also an ecosystem partner of cloud players but you also have your own ecosystem. Talk about the ecosystem, how is it laid out? What's the update, what are some of the momentum points, can you share just an overview of how that's all happening? >> Yes, definitely, so when we're looking into our partnership with Microsoft Azure, with AWS, with JCP, we're not talking about just Informatica supporting the technologies that they build, we're talking about Informatica supporting the technologies that they're building as well as their ecosystem of partners. We're talking about an end-to-end solution that supports the entire ecosystem. What that actually translates to is Informatica building services that are giving best of breed experience for users within this cloud environment and really giving you the full power of data management integration, data quality. Master data management, data security. Data catalog across all of this cloud. In a way you're right, we can look at it in the same way as like we have an ecosystem and in that ecosystem we're seeing a lot of strategic partners that are very very large, definitely all of these cloud scales are key partners for us and for our customers, but we're also seeing a huge amount of smaller, innovative vendors that are joining this ecosystem, and Informatica World in May 20th is a great place to come and actually see these vendors. We're actually showing for the first time our AI and cloud ecosystem in one place and these vendors are coming and they're showing how are they leveraging Informatica technology to basically bring new value in AI, in machine learning, in analytics to their customers. If you ask me, like, what is Informatica doing to help them, we're basically making the data available in the best way for their offering, and that kind of allowed them to focus on their innovation rather than how do they work in the different places. >> Rowen, you got ahead of me on the Informatica World question, but you just brought it out, you're doing an innovation. Let's talk about Informatica World. Because again, this data, there's a lot of sessions, so you do the normal thing. We've covered multiple years there. Integration's the key point, what are, why should someone come to Informatica World if they're a customer or a prospect? Now, you mentioned the AI zone. What's the core theme that you're going to be seeing there from your group and from the company? >> Informatica World this year is an amazing place for people to come and see the latest that happens within the cloud and hybrid journey, a great place to actually see next generation analytics and all the innovation there, it is a great place to see customer 360 and master data management and how can that change your organization as well as an amazing place to see data security and data privacy and a lot of other innovations around data. But I would actually say that it's great to see everything that Informatica can share with you. It is a better place to see what our customers and our partners are sharing. And especially from a partnership perspective Informatica World 2019, you're actually going to see leaders from Google, you're going to see leaders from Microsoft, you're going to see leaders from AWS, the people that are leading the best data warehouses in the world the best analytics in the world as well as innovators like DataRobot and Databricks that are changing the world and are actually advancing technology very very fast. >> And the AI zone, there's a cloud and AI zone. I've seen them, I know it's here from the prep. What does that mean, what's someone, AI's going to be hot, I think that's a big theme. Getting clarity around, as Amit kind of shared with us on a previous interview. AI's hot because automation kind of left the blocking and tackling. But the value of creation is going to come from using the data, where's the, and it's not integrated, you can't get the data in. If it's not integrated, you can't leverage machine learning, so having access to data makes machine learning get great. The machine learning gets great, AI is great. So tell us what's going on with it. Give a little sneak preview. >> It's actually amazing what we can do leveraging the iron machine learning today, right? I wake up in the morning and I say Alexa, good morning, and I actually get back what's the weather and what's happening. I'm getting into my car, Google is telling me how fast will I get to the office or the first meeting. I left to come here and I knew exactly what's the best route to take. A lot of that is actually leveraging AI and machine learning, I think it's not a secret that the better your data is the better the machine can learn from the data. And if your data is not good, then learning can actually be really really bad. You know, sometimes I can use, like with my kids. If their learning books are bad, there's no way that they can actually get to the right answer. The same as data, data is so critical. What we're seeing is basically data engineers, data operation becoming a super strategic function to make AI and machine learning even possible. Your ability to collect enough data to make sure that the data is ready and clean for AI and machine learning is critical. And then once the AI and machine learning eventually contributed the automation, the decision making, the recommendation, you have to put it back in to the data pipes so that you are actually able to leverage them to do the right thing. >> You know, you, I think you nailed this one. We've talked about this before but I think more important than ever, data cleansing or data cleaning was always an afterthought in the old data warehouse world where well, we're not getting the answers we wanted so you kind of have to fail to figure out that the data sucks so you had to get the data to be better, now it's much more acute in the sense that people realize that you need quality data so there's now new capabilities to make sure there's a process for doing that on the front end, not on the back end. Talk about that dynamic, because this is something that is critical in the architecture, and how you think about data pipe-lining, data management, the things that you guys do, this is an important trend. Take a minute to explain that. >> Yes, I totally agree with you and I think that the rise of the importance of data quality, and it actually is coming also as part of the pattern of data governance and we want to make sure that the processes exist to make sure that the data that we make available for our AI research, for analytics, for our executives and data workers that this data is really the right data is critical. To actually support that, what we are seeing is people defining data governance process. What are the steps that the data needs to go before it is actually available for the next step? And what is nice today is that this is not people that the data needs to go through. These are processes, automation, that can actually drive data quality, it goes from things that are very very basic. Let's remove duplicate data, but also into the fact that you actually identify anomalies in the data and you ask the right questions so that that data doesn't go in. >> Is this the kind of topics that people will hear at Informatica World? >> Definitely, they will hear about how they can actually help the organization get the data right so that machine learning automation, and hyper growth is actually possible. >> You're excited about this market, aren't you? >> Super excited, I mean I think each and every one of us, we're going to see a lot of innovation coming out and I consider myself lucky that data is actually in the center of all of this innovation and that we're actually able to help the customers and our partners be successful with that. >> Yeah, you and I were talking before you came on camera, I wish I was 23 again right now, this is a great time to be in tech, everything's coming together. You got unlimited compute, machine learning's rocking and rolling, everyone's all kinds of diverse areas to play on, it's kind of intoxicating to be in this environment, isn't it? >> I totally agree, and I will add one additional thing to the reasons, agility. Like the fact that it all is available at your fingertip, and you can actually achieve so much with very little patience is really really amazing. >> This compose ability really as the new developer modernization renaissance. It's happening. >> Yes, yes, and as we usually say it all starts from the data. >> Okay, Ronen Schwartz, we're talking Informatica World but getting an update on what's going on because data integration, cloud integration, this is the number one activity people are spending their time on. You get it right, there's huge benefits. Ronen, thanks for coming in and sharing your insights, appreciate it. >> Hey, my pleasure. >> Okay, this is theCUBE, here for CUBE Conversation here in Palo Alto, California at theCUBE headquarters, I'm John Furrier Thanks for watching. (jazz music)

(upbeat electronic music) >> Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE, covering AWS re:Invent 2018. Brought to you by Amazon Web Services, Intel, and their ecosystem partners. >> Hey, welcome back everyone! This is theCUBE's live coverage here in Las Vegas for Amazon Web Services re:Invent. I'm John Furrier with Lauren Cooney, your hosts here at theCUBE. You got two sets. We have a great guest, CUBE alumni Ronen Schwartz, who's the senior vice president and general manager of Cloud, Big Data and Data Integration for Informatica. As you know, we cover their events. Great to see you. >> Great to see you as well. >> So, one thing that jumps out me here at this show, and I want to get your reaction right out of the gate is, Amazon's scale is unprecedented. And they're using that scale to create differentiation and competitive advantage. This is something that's familiar to you guys. You guys have scale with your data. Big data at scale now is something that's become, I won't say en vogue, it's popular because people are now obviously seeing I need to do better with my data. I need a data platform. No data platform, I'm not successful. Your thoughts. >> I think you're absolutely right, and scale is the key word for customer to be successful. And I truly believe that the cloud is offering this ability of infinite scale and who better than Amazon to actually demonstrate that. We definitely have a lot of customer that are demonstrating scale in a repeatable mode. One of my favorite statistics about Informatica cloud is the fact that the amount of data that we process actually doubles every six months. And every time when I look into the number, the number now is five trillion records in a month. Every time I look at the numbers, I say-- >> In your cloud? >> Just going through our cloud, right? And I'm looking at this number and I'm saying like, can we really double it once again? So far in the last five years, that had actually been a statistic, so, I agree with you, scale is part of the game. >> Talk about what you guys are doing here at re:Invent this year. Obviously your partnership has been there for a while. What's you guys announcing? What's the story? What's the conversation this week for Informatica? >> Informatica is announcing here a solution that we build together with AWS and Tableau, really introducing next generation analytics. If you had want to modernize the way you look and work with data, you actually can get a best-of-breed integration, a data catalog, together with a modern data warehouse in the cloud from Amazon, and basically Tableau, Tableau Cloud, to reach out self-service. All of that could be now started in one button, everything is already integrated, working, optimized for customers, new and existing, to really get value from their data. >> And the future of your business is what? Fill in the blank. The future of Informatica is blank. Fill in the blank. >> Enterprise cloud data management. Really supporting customers in a data-driven, in a data-driven world. Helping customer navigate that, the huge transformation that is happening now with the market with data. >> Ronen, what do you think about Amazon moving up the stack? Obviously there's a lot of services you've seen. Redshift, Kinesis, Aurora, all these are new. Give me those, not just EC2 anymore, although they're touting a lot of EC2, they have the big groundbreaking news around the satellites. It's called, Ground. Something earth's. Satellite provisioning. Ground Station. The provisioning connectivity. So your data's going to get more foam. They're going to create more edge data. >> Right, the world for IT is changing in an unbelievable way. And I do think that Amazon is changing it, some of it is in the upmarket, but they are changing the way operations works, they are changing the way the backend is working. And you're right, I mean, any way, from trucks that go with data to satellites, they are changing the way people work. >> There's kind of changes to the edge, but they're also highlighting analytics, right? Machine learning, AI, this is something that you guys have been doing as well. It's going to put more emphasis on analytics and automation. How does that affect your business? How do you talk to your customers saying, what does this mean for me? I'm an Informatica customer. >> For Informatica, the more data the customer have, the more data the end users are enabled to use, the more business it is for us. It actually means that data is more important. Data is more important means that data management is more important, and this is really where we help customer get value. >> So I have a question, and this is kind of a clarification. So are you talking about when your customers consume, or can understand their data? So is it information or is data? >> You're touching a really important point, which is the difference between raw data and basically valuable data, information, and conclusion. Informatica is helping the customer from identifying the data, discovering the right data, all the way into improving the data with data quality, with normalization, et cetera, all the way to the place that the data is ready to be investigated. To become information. And basically this is our role, and it actually complements really, really nicely the real changes that are happening with the storage, with analytics, analytics and scale. And definitely with the rise of AI, people are not just looking backwards into what the data mean in the past, they actually trying to leverage data in order to guess and understand what will happen going forward. >> So can you give me a use case? Like a customer use case that you have. Understanding that you may or may not be able to talk about a specific customer, but just in general. >> Let me give you a few examples. One of my favorite examples is a lot of the medicines hae been discovered by a practitioner, usually a doctor, identifying something that happened to two of his patients. But the human memory in a single practitioner, like a doctor, that he can remember what happened a few months back, a few years back, for only his patients. Informatica, actually together with AWS, is supporting MD Anderson in a massive implementation of a data lake that collects what happens to millions of patients from hundreds and thousands of hospitals, so that you can actually identify repeatable patterns that can lead to new medicine and new investigation. >> It's also faster innovation because that's when you're running through that data to get the results from the clinical studies and things like that. That is tremendous. That would really increase the speed there. >> You're absolutely right. The next part of that is actually, how do you make innovation faster? This is instead of human beings connecting the dots, machine learning, AI, and other advanced methodologies that help you identify, basically, these patterns. These unique situation that actually can drive somebody to invent a new medicine, it can drive somebody else to sell more effectively, a third-party to do maintenance better, and so on. >> So have you thought about pushing the business a little bit further and innovating with a customer? Co-creation and things along those lines. >> Innovate with the customer, sorry, can you repeat? >> Innovation with a customer. Once they are kind of turning the data into information, and are you looking at co-creating with your customers? Is that something that you're into? >> So Informatica is actually making sure that the data that is driving the innovation is the right data, in the right shape, in the right quality, and is available for the innovation. The innovation that is driven from the data is where tools like AWS, AI, and machine learning, the data warehousing, and others, are actually being leveraged. >> Okay. >> Talk about the update on Amazon's relationship. You guys have had a partnership with them. Is there any updates? What's the current status? >> Definitely. So Informatica basically empowers all of its customers to run any of their Informatica implementation on AWS without any additional cost, and so on. What we have done in the last few years is more than that. We actually helped them optimize how they're running existing workloads, leveraging the power of cloud, or to scaling, automatic performance adjustment, scale up and scale down, in a very effective way. And what we're doing right now to get together with AWS is actually empowering customer to drive migration of data to the cloud. Helping customer identify security and vulnerabilities on the data layer. All of that in an automated way. Where I want to end it up is that today if you're leveraging any of the Amazon data services, any of the storage, et cetera, Informatica is offering an optimized way to bring data from on-premise, from other clouds, to AWS. >> The data catalog is a dream for AI and machine learning. Really, if you think about it, if the brains are going to be in the cloud, data catalog is kind of like the connective tissue. >> I totally agree. I mean it's actually interesting that the classical bottleneck which was compute is actually disappeared. (John laughing) You have an infinite amount of power to compute. Even your ability to have access to advance algorithms, and so on, has been resolved. They're all available as a service to be used. However, these sophisticated, really bright AI users, they're, you're right, they're bottleneck is can I find that data that is needed for me for my algorithm? Can I make sure this data is the right data? The data catalog, or Informatica enterprise data catalog, the catalog don't just go to one place, but to the whole enterprise, is key to reach good AI. >> The FBI just talked today. A big speech this morning at Teresa Carlson's event. They can't put the pieces together on these investigations fast enough for the bad guys because of the database problem. They need to have the catalogs to these data lakes, they need the AI, they need the compute. You guys got it all! Ronen, thanks for joining us. Thanks for sharing your insights again. >> Thank you. >> Hey, my pleasure, really exciting show. A lot, a lot of exciting news. >> Great to see you. >> Thank you. >> All the stuff we talked about three years ago is happening now! Informatica, check it out! Of course theCUBE covers Informatica's events. I do a lot of hosting there. I'm here with Lauren Cooney, here at Amazon re:Invent. Wall-to-wall coverage, three days of programming. Stay with us for more after this short break. (futuristic beep) (futuristic electronic music)