(techno music) >> Live from Barcelona, Spain it's theCUBE. Covering Cisco Live! Europe. Brought to you by Cisco and it's ecosystem partners. >> Hello everyone, welcome back to theCUBE's live coverage in Barcelona for Cisco Live! 2019. I'm John Furrier co-host of theCUBE with Dave Vellante. Our next guest is Wendy Mars. She is the president of Cisco EMEAR. Europe, Middle East, and Africa and Russia. Welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for joining us. >> Great to be here. >> One of the themes this year certainly is Cloud. Data is starting to come together. The other backdrop is besides security and all the things going on with data, is the global landscape. So Cisco, obviously North America everyone knows what's going on over there at Cisco Live!. What's happening in Europe? Obviously GDPR has been hot in the past year. What's new, what's the scene like here? >> You know I think that certainly the scene is one of huge excitement. You know, from our customers across the whole region of Europe, Middle East, Africa, Russia. It's an incredibly diverse region. But you know if you look at the different countries, the different markets, one thing that absolutely is a constant theme that we hear is the desire and the appetite to gain the benefit from transformation. You know, in the digital transformation and what that value can be. And realizing that. If we look for ours, you know, within Cisco and the positioning around and realizing the secure, intelligent platform is absolutely resonating. Things like Multi-Cloud and realizing that. Reinventing the network. The security challenge in dealing with that. And how you address it with the multi-domain architecture approach. Our customers are really engaged in the conversation, want to learn more. Most importantly, want help with the how. Show me how to do it. >> You guys must be leading the conversation within Cisco. Obviously your team in Europe, Middle East, and Africa and Russia because the complexity around compliance and data has been front and center now for 24 months. >> Yes. >> Now hitting mainstream global landscape. >> Yup. >> This is really impacting the architecture. I mean, look at the, how intent based networking is developing. Policy based fill in the blank. To connecting to multiple clouds. >> Yup. >> So, kind of complex, a whole new architecture, re-imagining networking. How are you guys seeing the trends now? Is it still at the tipping point? Is it still early? What's your assessment of the role of data as it gets more complex, more compliant driven? >> I think that it certainly, if you look for organizations, the power of being able to understand and the importance of your data, where it resides. Being able to demonstrate that. Having the integrity and the quality of that data is extremely important as well. There's a heightened awareness in the market and for organizations. Global organizations who conduct business in EMEAR. You know, of course and we are one of those as well. A knowledge and understanding and appreciation of compliance and regulation. It's only going to become more intense, you know, as we go forward. For organizations to really have robust and rigorous processes around all of that. Technology can be an enabler in the process as well. >> What are the unique aspects, Wendy, in the region? You obviously have visibility on what goes on in North America. What's different in Europe? Especially in the context of Cloud, Multi-Cloud, obviously GDPR, although it's a framework now for everybody. >> Yup. >> Around the world. But what's unique? In the region. >> So I think the uniqueness is, you know, if you look from a Multi-Cloud standpoint for example where organizations are, have been I would say, depending on some of the countries and markets, a little bit more hesitant around a movement to Cloud. Now there is a movement but it's more one of, well what is appropriate for me and how do I ensure I can embrace Multi-Cloud in a way that makes sense for my business? So rather than a full move to public there's been a selected. Based on application and workload environments. Also understanding the security. Back to compliance. And also the regulation. Impacts of some of those movements as well. Of course that depends upon the vertical or the industry in which those organizations are operating. For those who are highly regulated like healthcare, the pharmaceutical sector there's a deep inspect that goes on there as well. I think there's a further requirement for due diligence around some of those topics as well. >> Well, you know, the Snowden backlash had some paranoia for sure with... Everybody said it's going to go to two or three clouds and that's clearly not been the case. >> Yup. >> You have, you know, many dozens and hundreds of service providers that are specialists, obviously, in the region. So, we heard today about, really, an end to end architecture. >> Mmm-hmm. >> Which is a bold and ambitious vision. You have a technical background as well. I wonder if you could just describe sort of how that's all going to to transpire. How do you take the customers on their journey? What are they asking you for help with? Where do you see it going? >> Yeah, so if you look at, you know, from David this morning. David Geckeler and what he talked about. Really for those different domains there are competencies, you know, a few things. There's the data center, there is the edge, there was the security world, the collaboration world. The reality of it is though, that as an enterprise or any organization indeed consumes those things. They want to be able to work across all of those areas. They want the innovation to work in a seamless manner. Because at the end of the day the problem to solve to is simplify for me. I need to automate, reduce complexity. I want to roll out and deploy policy. In a consistent and cohesive way. In order to make that happen you have to have these environments able to talk to each other. More importantly push that policy in a cohesive manner across these environments. For ours it's a journey. It's not something you can do overnight. You have to work within your engineering teams and your ecosystem in order to bring that to life. Do it in a way where the customer can consume it. >> I think you really nailed what we see in the trend as well. This cross domain component. With API's now, which are open, are pushing data around. >> Yup. >> You're moving data from point A to point B. Sounds like networking to me. Policy is important. >> Yup. >> But the configuration, the deployment which used to be hard is now being automated. So the question I have for you, we're here in the DevNet zone, I mean it's packed, people are learning about programming. What is the impact of all this to developers who are trying to build apps and your ecosystem? Because there's got to be an opportunity there. Some might go the way of the old guard and kind of fade away. Some new kinds of providers might rise up. >> Yeah, you know there's huge opportunity here and I think it's opportunity around the requirement for new skills, new competencies. Also around new capability to bring this to life. Because if you look from a development standpoint, if you look at how you realize value with organizations and where does the money flow between some of these environments is interesting. The ecosystem itself, for Cisco, what I believe makes this even more powerful is bringing to life for them and accelerating with the ecosystem. At the end of the day the customer will buy an ecosystem style environment. For us to be able to work with all of those parties as we have over many years. There will be new players, the ISV community, the developer community that we work with, that will be really powerful for us as we move. >> So you see the ecosystem growing significantly? Ecosystem growing? >> Absolutely, absolutely. >> What are some examples... >> I mean just look at here, look at all the organizations that are here. >> Well I think the development trends clearly intersecting with networking as it's more programmable. Right? >> Yup. >> That's the big takeaway for us. You can program the network, you have infrastructure as code. That's the DevOps promise. >> Yup. >> That's now here. The question we're looking at is, okay, what's going to be the impact to value creation? If I'm a customer, what does it mean to me? As we look at that I tend to think about the Cisco original business model. Enabling technology. How would you answer that question of what's being enabled today? What's the big ah-ha for customers? What are you guys enabling for your partners and your tech? >> Yeah, so I think a big part of it is we see now a lot of the conversation is around what is use case. It's not just a, I've got some cool stuff, show me the cool stuff that works, it's how do I apply that into my environment to derive value? And that value may be around efficiency. It may be around provisioning in a more rapid manner. Automating in a more realized manner. Lots of different instances where organizations are going to see the benefit associated with that but also it allows them to free up time of their people and their teams to move into newer areas as well. As they move their own business models. It's a massive transition that's happening in the industry overall. It's not just, we're not just changing for the sake of change, we're changing because the market is asking us to do that. >> So customers have to make bets on who their Multi-Cloud provider is going to be. >> Yup. >> Obviously Cisco is coming at that from a position of networking strength. Which is a good place to come from. There are other, there are alternatives. >> Sure. >> Cause it's a big market. >> Yup. >> And it's strategic. What gives you confidence that Cisco is the right solution? What are you telling your customers in that regard? >> If I look at the, what gives me confidence is the fact that we have an openness. If you look from an API standpoint, a developer's standpoint, we've always operated in a mode of an openness so that you have an environment where anyone can write to. That's, people want that, it's incredibly important. So not having a proprietary stance is very powerful. I think also being able to work with a ecosystem that's there, where you have a dependency on others and you meet in the channel on certain solutions and innovations as well. So you empower a greater community to start to drive that acceleration with you as well. If I have a look at the, we talk about reinventing the network. It's happening, it's happening now. You see us doing it and just how important the network is. More than ever before in this transition. Around a number of areas with security, with policy. We see it come to life now. >> Well the old saying the network is the computer. Well duh. (laughter) Cisco is the network. >> Yup. >> I got to ask you about Brexit. As somebody who's based in the UK. >> Yup. Thoughts on effects that that has. Obviously Cisco, a global company but your perspectives on Brexit. >> Yeah, so if I look for a, you know, as someone who lives in the UK, you know, clearly we hear about Brexit a lot. As you do in your country as well. I would say for as we are very, Cisco is a global company, we're very familiar with working with these types of instances and situations. The UK remains for us an incredibly important market and will continue to be. We'll continue to invest from a capabilities and a skills standpoint. I think just for us now, working with our teams there and making sure that there's, we minimize any impacts based on scenarios. To our customers and our partners. And think it through. >> Rules change, you'll adapt. >> Yeah. >> I got to ask you about R, the Russia piece. >> Uh-huh. >> Russia's GDP is about the size of Spain if I'm correct. Interesting that you carve that out as distinct opportunity. How's the business going there? Maybe some comments around Russia. >> Sure. I can't talk directly about business performances, we're in quiet period. I guess we call it out specifically because it is not part of Europe, Middle East or Africa. But is a very important part of our region of EMEAR. If I look forwards of, you know, we believe that there's significant opportunity for us. In that market we have a fantastic team that work closely where, there again with our customers and partners. We believe there's absolutely the opportunity there for us at Cisco in that market. >> Do you have a development team there as well or, or? >> We have capability there that works locally with all of our teams and, you know, engineering competence, sales teams, etc. as well. Yeah. >> Some good math teached there in Russia. >> Wendy, how are you guys organized in your territory? How do you guys maintain close to the customer in the countries? Is it a country strategy? How, just for the people who don't know your business? >> Yeah, it is a country strategy. We have about 123 countries within EMEAR. We have teams that live and operate in all of those countries. That stay very close to us from a regional perspective. So we're one team, you know, that really drives that scale. I have a fantastic opportunity to go and visit those teams. And spend a lot of time on the road. I enjoy it and they do too, you know. >> Is there anything that you could talk to your customers that are watching here or anyone interested. As you guys have transformed as a company, certainly if you look at what Cisco's done over the past few years. A complete transformation, building on your base. You've been through it, you've been agile and getting nimble. >> Yup. >> Being more use case driven, etc., etc. What have you learned? What's your learnings? What would you pay it forward in terms of advice? >> Yeah, if I look at it we're not through, we're still, you know, we're still on the journey. I think a big part of it is accepting and acknowledging a need for change is really important. A big part of this change is culture. If I look forwards within Cisco and the culture of our teams, our people. Having an attitude and a style of a desire, a curiosity. And a willingness for change is really, really important. As we talk about the transformation topic, you need both. Technology is incredibly important and powerful but you need a spirit and a culture in your people and your teams to want to drive that change with you. >> You need that culture DNA, it starts at the top. Well thank you for taking the time. >> A pleasure. >> We look forward to following your progress as we take our CUBE global the next couple years. Looking forward to keeping an eye on what you guys are doing. Thanks for joining us. >> Thank you. Great to see you. >> With theCUBE here live in Barcelona for Cisco Live! 2019. We'll be back with more after this short break. (techno music) (silence)