>>Mhm Yes. Hi lisa Martin here with the cube we are covering Dell technologies world, the digital event experience. I have two guests here with me today that are new to the program. So I would like to welcome David Lowe, the Director of product management for Dell Technologies. David. Welcome to the >>program. Hi, how are you >>doing well? And Catherine Ward is here as well, customer experience strategist at Dell Technologies Catherine, it's great to have you join us. Thanks. Happy to be here lisa. So we're talking about embracing as a service. That was a big announcement at Dell Technologies World as we were talking before we went live just a few months ago in the end of 2020 where the new Dell Technologies cloud console was announced. David start with our audience in terms of describing the apex council, what it is when it was launched and give us some color around that. >>Absolutely. Back in october we announced the Dell Technologies cloud console as part of unveiling the apex vision and this was really uh in response to what we heard from our customers about the need to be able to take advantage of cloud and as a service, operating models, being able to take advantage of our products and services around infrastructure in a way that really uh you know, met their needs in terms of the business results that they were trying to drive the kind of flexibility that they needed about how to get those offerings in place and be able to to run them having simplicity and how they managed those offers while also having just a greater degree of control, of course, that's afforded by having infrastructure running on premises versus uh in the public cloud. So with the apex console today, again, we're just listening to what customers say about being able to double down on that vision and provide even more functionality and capabilities on top of additional services that we're making available in the apex console today, >>Captain, let's get some point of view from the customers. David mentioned them a number of times. Obviously this is why you're doing this, but how does apex designed to help simplify operations? What are some of the things that you're hearing from the customer experience about it being able to simplify ops? >>Yeah, absolutely. So we've we've talked to many customers that's part of my team's job to ensure we're delivering a great experience. We've really heard >>that customers >>appreciate that they can now subscribe to services and and that the Dell offers. Um we've heard a lot from customers and sales folks that tells us that not every project they want to do is funded in a complex way. And so one of the great benefits of Dell clouds offers and the apex console is being able to get things in an op X way so they can pay on a subscription, uh sorry, so they can play on a subscription basis uh to meet, you know, their business needs is one major positive that we've been hearing from customers. >>One of the things that I read when apex launched a few months ago was this really as a way to demonstrate cloud as an operating model rather than a destination and lets you get both of your opinions on that and since launched what you thought, David, we'll start with you. >>Yeah, Well that's it's a great it's a great concept that customers really that really resonates with customers. So I mean, you know, cloud as an operating model has been something that many companies have moved towards over the last, you know, 10, 15 years, where there are fundamental characteristics of cloud that are defined as being on demand, being self service, providing easier access with elastic scale and then also just paying for what you use. And and and these are the things that customers really care about. And so as part of the apex vision and unveiling today in the in the apex console where offering services, for example, like apex storage services, where customers will have the ability to subscribe to that service on demand through the Apex Council in a self service way, they'll be able to take advantage of it in a way they pay for what they use because on top of a a committed storage capacity, it's an on demand usage model, uh and they have the ability to come in at any time and increase as their business demands what storage is available to them. So we really are capitalizing on those cloud characteristics that customers want to be able to take advantage of but doing so, you know, on top of uh, infrastructure products from Dell that customers have trusted for decades. >>Right. So one of the things that we've talked about so many times in the last year is the acceleration that we've seen in every industry with perspective digital transformation and seeing so many businesses in every industry pivot multiple times here. And that speed up, you know, like, you know, here we are using SAS applications to communicate and to reach customers. I'd love to know Katherine, what some of the things are that you've learned since the initial launch. Kind of given the interesting times that we're in, what are some of the things that you've learned from customer feedback that are going to be utilized to help uh, uh, kind of modify the product going forward? >>Yeah, absolutely. So one thing is customers echoing David, really value self serve. They want to be able to do things on their time when they want. And one of the great things that customers can do through the console is build solutions, choose services that best meet their needs, they don't have to involve sales, they obviously can if they want to, but they don't have to. And that is a big selling point key, you know, meets a key need of that. We've heard from customers, I'd say. The second thing that we've heard from folks is that they really like how we have set up our role based access >>and identity >>management capabilities. Uh and I'll give you an example, So there are company very large companies, let's say who may have one finance department and they are the only people who are empowered to sign off on orders, let's say. So maybe a more purchaser type role, you may have an entire separate set of folks who are more technical folks who understand how to configure an offer, how to put it all together and those, but those folks can't buy. Um And so we have built in some workflows um to help support those processes that we've heard from customers that they have, and by doing that they can ensure appropriate separation of duties according to their internal policies as well as help them get a handle on unexpected spend from I. T. Services. >>Catherine is really touching on an incredibly important point there that customers over the last 10 years as they've used cloud services from other providers. We know that the democratization of cloud, that said that anybody can come in off the street with a credit card and start using services. That's a great way for people to get up and running. But that also leads to the problem of shadow I. T. It also leads to uh you know, an unbounded expenses and and you know difficulty in managing costs and unpredictable expenditure. So we've seen over time how even other cloud providers have had to come back laser and based on customer feedback, start adding governance, start adding policies, start adding, you know budget management and spend controls, uh Start ensuring that the kind of workflow that Catherine mentioned is in place around uh you know, ordering And we decided to put that in just from day 1. So when customers come to the apex console, they're going to be coming in the context of a company or an organization where there will be users that have specific roles. And as Catherine mentioned, they'll have specific permissions that might align with their particular job function and there will be governance that an administrator can implement to ensure that only certain people can perform certain tasks, which, you know, we already know from customer feedback is incredibly important to give customers that kind of control that they might not get or that they might have been asking for from other cloud providers in order to ensure that this is truly like an enterprise grade level of servants. >>Yeah. And just to play off that David, you know, I've talked also while I also, I talked to customers a lot also make sure I interact quite a bit with our sales team so to get their views as well. And there's a university customer that we have who has this exact problem of shadow it. And they were, their goal was to unify and get all their main campuses on same system, following same policies, same procedures, same infrastructure. Um And one of the key challenges that they have is people, developers get excited, they want to build stuff and they will go to the public cloud, use a credit card for example and just get up and running. And now this company realizes that a those folks kind of going off and doing some of that on their own are actually spending more than their central it spends. So again I think it's a real world problem that we think we're we're well positioned to solve. >>Yeah, those guardrails seem really outstanding for customers to be able to get that. You both mentioned shadow I. T. And that's one of the things that we know so easy to spin up services. But yet you then disconnect I thi from different business units which is always a challenge for organizations. So having the governance and the role based access controls really provides your customers with more of a chance to, as you said I think a minute ago David consume and only pay for what they're consuming but also have that line of sight that visibility across who's using these services. What are we paying? Are we are we getting what we need and are we ensuring that we're getting more control over our environment? I can't even imagine how much more important that is these days with so many people still scattered and remote. >>Yeah and and and and and and it's it's just really part of the whole customer lifecycle as they work with our services. So after customer is able to subscribe to something like apex data storage services and after it has been deployed at their data center they'll be able to come in to the apex council, they'll be able to see information about that subscription and about the infrastructure that they're running including having health monitoring and alerts and be able to see the capacity usage of that service. Uh And with that telemetry and insight then be able to take action. Uh Perhaps as you say to you know either uh you know put in place additional controls within their teams on on spending or consumption or increase the available storage that they have to ensure that it meets uh their business needs. And and as we build out this end and life cycle within the apex console customers will see more and more features coming to help with you know tagging of expenditure for show back purpose is to simplify the way in which uh you know both I. T. Teams and financial uh personnel within a company are able to ensure that they're being responsible and and have that governance over over what's being consumed and spent. >>Yeah. Absolutely critical. Catherine talked to us about for existing Dell customers, how can they access the apex console? What's the what's the process there that you advise? >>Yeah. Great great question. So the good news is if you already have a Dell account, whether you're an existing premier customer or perhaps you visit us through Dell dot com your credentials will work. All you need to do is talk to your sales team, your sales representative and ask them to be enabled and the process typically goes that they will sales will help enable an administrator and from there the administrator at your company can start giving access and assigning those roles as as as you as you need. >>Just a little bit of a pivot on that. And what are we talking about in terms of time frame when we think of cloud services being able to spend them up knowing that there's still so much remote work going on. How quickly can Adele customer follow that process that you just mentioned and activate these services? >>Yeah, that's a great question. So our goal is to be able to, once, you know, we have your interest, we understand what you want to get you equipment and get you up and running within 14 days is our is our goal and our target. Um It's a lot depends on on what the customer needs and if they can get, you know, if they can accept delivery that quickly and all that. But but that is our that's our goal is get you up and running in 14 days. >>Excellent. That time to values David. Go ahead. >>Oh yeah, the the getting access to the council can be can be can be, you know, certainly a lot faster. But as Catherine said, you know, once you get into the console and you want to be able to consume the services, especially for those infrastructure services that are going to show up and be deployed at your data center. Uh You know, we we include features like integrated site survey that customers are going to see shortly when they're able to go through the subscription process and enter information about their physical data center. Maybe uh you know, physical access characteristics or power or networking configurations that they have So that our deployment services team knows what to expect when they show up. We can get everything wrapped and stacked and ready to go put it on the truck and have it uh you know, to the customer as quickly as possible as Catherine said, with the time to value promise of 14 days. >>Excellent. And that fast access last question David, before we wrap up, talk to us about what's next? This was only announced in the last 67 months so lots of Development and progress, lots of customer feedback helping to tune the services. What can customers expect you know going out the rest of 20 calendar year 2021 >>more. Just I mean you know we'll have access for more customers in more countries to be able to consume more services and more capabilities within the console to provide that richer and to end experience today we already have access Uh for the console within 17 countries around the world with customers from the US and. UK. and France and Germany already able to subscribe to certain services. We have access for apex data storage services and other countries uh Coming very soon. Uh So we'll be adding more countries or languages will be adding more services uh in the coming months. And as we alluded to earlier more capabilities to ensure that the end and experience that customers have crosses all of the different boundaries within their organizations and supports all of the different roles who need to be able to come in and do everything from discover services. Subscribe to them, provision, resources, uh manage, operate support and and and build solutions on on top of what they have. So it really is all about ensuring that it's a single consistent and to end life cycle within the apex console. >>Well, that word more was perfect when I said, what's coming next book? And folks expect more? It's like that. But wait, there's >>more. So I'm sure >>folks will will get a lot more information as the event unfolds in the weeks after David and Catherine. Thank you for joining me talking to me about all of the progress that's happened in such a short amount of time with apex concept. We look forward to seeing what's next. >>Thanks lisa. >>Thanks for having us. >>My pleasure for David Lo and Catherine Ward. I'm lisa martin. You're watching the cubes coverage of Dell technologies world, The virtual event experience. Yeah, yeah.

>> Narrator: Live from Orlando, Florida, it's theCUBE covering Microsoft Ignite. Brought to you by Cohesity. >> Welcome back everyone to theCUBE's live coverage of Microsoft Ignite. We are wrapping up a three, the first day of a three-day show. I'm your host Rebecca Knight, along with my co-host Stu Miniman. We are joined by Scott Lowe. He is the CEO of ActualTech Media. Thanks so much for coming on theCUBE. >> Thank you for having us. >> And also David Davis, director of events at ActualTech Media. Thank you so much for coming on. >> Thank you. >> So, you are a former CIO that started ActualTech Media in 2012, tell our viewers, a little bit about Actual, what was the vision and what did you set out to create? What kind of content were you setting out to create? >> You know what we started and what we have today are actually very, very different things. We started off to create sort of an empire of websites that provide content to people. What we do now is we're helping connect enterprise IT vendors with buyers, that's really what we've settled on over the years. We've found our path about six years ago, five years ago, and we've been executing on that ever since. And that's our mission, is to help buyers find the right enterprise IT solutions. >> So how do you do that? I mean, what's the lead generation that it takes? >> Sure. I mean we basically for our clients who are companies including Cohesity and companies like it, we do event series we call MegaCast, EcoCast, virtual summits, webinars, things like that. We have a significant audience that we draw from to drive those events. And we also created our own content series, we call Gorilla Guide, which is a series of books to help educate IT buyers about solutions on the market about different technologies and try to help them understand the lay of an ever-evolving landscape that seems to be changing faster than it ever has before. >> Yeah, and actually one of the reasons I invited the two of you is, you both have deep background in this environment. Scott, before the Gorilla Guides, you wrote big books about Microsoft, and David, you've been training people on this ever environment but the pace is faster. You're talking about it's changing all the time. So I'd love for both of you, just here 2019 Microsoft Ignite, first impressions, how you think of Microsoft in the ecosystem. David, let's start with you. >> I mean, it's my third Microsoft Ignite and every time I come here I'm really blown away by kind of the scope of the show compared to the typical infrastructure shows that I go to. Those shows are more you know, the plumbing of the data center. This show is the keynote, is like using AI and ML to cure cancer and provide food for the world and it's just, like, really empowering and exciting and I find it very personally exciting. And Microsoft Azure just seems to be on a breakneck pace to catch up with AWS and Office 365 and all these innovations they keep coming out with, have been really impressive so I've been excited about the show, what about you Scott? >> Same, I mean, I think that when we talk about other shows, we are really looking at plumbing. That's a good word. When we're here we're looking at real solutions that are helping solve big problems. And because Microsoft has such a wide ecosystem from which to, in which it participates, from productivity and enterprise to driving quantum computing, to artificial intelligence to help tractors talk to the internet. I mean just, it does everything and it does it increasingly well. Microsoft hasn't always been thought of as the most innovative company in the world but I think in the last few years we've seen a different Microsoft and I think that has a lot to do with Satya, and the leadership change but it also has to do with just a renewed vision for what the future looks like in the terms of IT. >> And what does that future look like? I mean it is interesting because Microsoft is a middle-aged company compared to all these young upstarts that really, that much more DNA of innovation, of course Microsoft has innovation in its DNA but how would you describe what is driving the change at Microsoft? This is not your father's Microsoft. >> Honestly, the Microsoft we see today and the Microsoft we saw 10 years ago are not the same company. This is, I feel like Microsoft is almost a startup again. And I think if you look at Microsoft as a company, it has its hands in so much that each individual silo is almost a startup feel in the way it's brought to market. Let's just look at Azure. I mean, Azure has been playing catch up in a lot of ways to AWS for a lot of years just like a lot of smaller companies are playing catch up to some of their bigger cousins in the market. But Azure has proven itself, it's still not quite as capable as its bigger, you know, its bigger sibling AWS but it's more capable than GCP for example. But as Microsoft continues to iterate that service, it gets ever more capable, it gets ever deeper into the organization and I think it's something that I see that across Microsoft and everything that it's doing. It's not just Azure that's like this. It's like this with, you know, we've been looking at Windows virtual desktops. That's not all that sexy and exciting on the surface, no pun intended on surface, sorry. But it's something that the world needs at this point. And how we're trying to handle computing in the enterprise as we move into 2020. >> There's so much, you know, there's a few shows I go to every year where you just drink from the fire hose when you go to the keynote. This absolutely is one. Amazon absolutely is one where you come through in the breath and depth of what they offer. So we've spent a lot time saying something like Azure Arc, it is early. And still trying to understand exactly where that fits, by the end of the day, I'm like, wait, it's management but actually it's highly tied to the application, which really is the strength of Microsoft if you talk about what Microsoft knows. Microsoft knows your apps, you're running so many of those apps, not just Office but SQL and some of the various pieces. I'd love to hear what, give me one or two things that jumped out at you either that you want to dig into or that you've been saying "Oh I've been waiting for that." >> I mean I was really impressed with the technical keynote where they talked about Azure Stack Edge and they have this mini server that can be ruggedized or even put in a backpack, and he had the demo going with the server, a person sitting next to him using the server and he said "It has battery power," so he pulled the power plug on it and it kept working and then he said "And it's rugged," and he just dropped it on the ground and it bounced on the ground and he said "See, the demo just keeps on running." So I was like okay, that's cool, that's pretty impressive. >> Yeah we actually had the HPE, an HPE representative on the program. They're super excited to have their gear in the keynote and those of us with a hardware background do like to wrap our arms around some sheet metal every once in a while and touch this thing, software might be eating the world. >> We call you server huggers too. >> Exactly, am I an Edge hugger now? >> I guess you probably are. >> Yeah it's free shruggs. >> When it comes to, in my opinion, Arc and Edge, I'm sorry, Azure Stack, I think it shows some incredible opportunity for Microsoft moving forward. I mean Microsoft has a formidable presence in the enterprise and not just the enterprise, from the SMB to the mid-market to the enterprise. Everybody, almost, has something Microsoft. So there's an opportunity for Microsoft to further that incursion into the enterprise that can help them be a driver for Azure. Because when you think about a lot of the challenges people have with cloud it's around adoption and integration. That's not quite a soft problem but close enough when you start thinking about the myriad of technologies that Microsoft is bringing out. >> Yeah, so Scott I think your background, you worked in some of the commercial markets, you talk about the education space, areas where Microsoft had a strong history. Are they still as prominent today as they might've been back in the days when you were a CIO? >> Yes and no, it depends on the organization. If I look K12, I think Google's had a lot of inroads there because of Google Apps for Education, whether that's good or bad is really a different opinion but I think Google's taken a lot of Microsoft's market share there. And higher education, we still see a lot of Google colleges and universities of course, but we see a lot with O365. And a lot of that is because of the pricing which you can't beat free. But it also has to do with the capability that the Stack brings to bare. So I think that Microsoft is playing differently than they used to, not necessarily, probably a little bit more strongly in some ways and weaker in others. >> Another, I'd love to hear you say, think about is, the Microsoft of old I think of as rather proprietary and you will do all Microsoft. We had one of the Microsoft partner executives on the program today and he was talking about embracing VMware, embracing Red Hat, not something that you would've thought of Microsoft in the past. How do you think of Microsoft just as a trusted partner in the ecosystem today? >> Yeah, you bring up that word trust and in fact we were talking about that at lunch, Microsoft, we feel like has so much more trust when it comes to our data, when it comes to our applications. I mean there's another cloud provider that starts with a G that's well-known for selling data, selling data that they own, you know. And he talked about in the keynote today, we protect your data and the security around your data and I feel like trust is going to be a big factor in the future when people think about which cloud should I trust? Microsoft seems like they have a leg up on some other competitors. >> I may be naive but I actually trust Microsoft and I have for a long time. There's other companies I don't trust. And Microsoft I actually do trust because for Microsoft, our data is not their resource to mine. They're using it to give me things but they're not using it to sell things to other people. Does that make sense? I mean, that is we're not the product of Microsoft. And it might be a little more expensive because of that in some ways but I think it provides that layer of trust that you're not necessarily going to get from other providers in the near term. >> So we're nearing the end of 2019, what is on deck for IT pros in 2020? I'll start with you, I want to hear both your impressions but I'll start with you. >> That's a great question, we're actually doing a big event this week. In fact and that's the topic is the pillars of IT for 2020. >> I might've done some research. >> Yeah, yeah. So I mean, in fact, I was at a local user group recently and I was asking IT professionals that very question. You know, where are you going to spend your budget in 2020? What are you going to re-architect? And there was a lot of answers around security. That was I think probably the most popular one that I heard. Automation, some people were interested in that and improving the efficiency of their infrastructure I think overall. No matter how they do it, hyperconvergence or something like that, just overall improving things to make their life easier. >> For me, I look at the role of the CIO and to look into 2020, I think we see a lot legacy challenges that are still not solved. Some new opportunities is probably a good word. Some of the legacy challenges are what's the role of IT? That's the age old question. I think we saw the next phase of IT business align with digital transformation and now we're going to look for what's next, right? 'Cause that phrase is now going out of style. But we're still looking for ways that we can do more with technology than we ever have. And as I look at some of the things that happened at the show this morning that were announced, I see a lot opportunity for CIOs and for organizations as a whole to do more than they ever have before without having to bring a whole lot more complexity to the organization. But I also think to see some of the things that have to be addressed. Security is a board level issue and it's a top issue for the CIO, it's a make or break your career type issue at this point. And I think going into 2020 as we look at some of these technologies, it becomes even more important because it's going to all require new focus on security. We have an opportunity around to actually solve the data analytics problem at some point here in the near future. That hasn't always been possible and now we have the tools to do it. And we have tools that can do it without having to hire a whole bunch of IT experts through some of things like companies like Microsoft can bring into market. >> Would love to get your viewpoint on the future of work. We've been saying what is the role of IT? And we say in its best light, IT helps drive innovation and actually can be a leader inside the business. But we know that the roles have been changing inside a company. Microsoft talks rather aspirationally about citizen developers, and we're going to empower everyone to be their best out there. But what does that mean to the person that has been a Cis Admin or going through certifications or trying to learn the latest on hyperconvergence infrastructure and Kubernetes and the latest buzzword that they heard of? >> I mean, I think that's exciting, especially for people who are new in IT or people who have the time to invest in learning development, they were talking about power apps in the keynote. I was excited, I wanted to try it for myself, it looks fun and easy. But in reality, in the real world of IT organizations, things take time. I mean I talked to a CIO at a large bank and he said "Hey, I have 10 stand administrators "and we're going to move to hyperconvergence "when they die or retire." So things take time, that's my take, Scott. >> For me, I think it's the enabling new ways to work. If you look at ActualTech Media, we're 100% virtual. We don't have, people ask where we're headquartered, we have a PO box in North Charleston, South Carolina and the rest of us work in Microsoft Teams. For me one of the most exciting things I've looked at in the last year is Teams. I absolutely adore the tool. >> I've heard a couple of people talking about you know people thought Teams was dying and Slack was killing it but Teams is really good. What is it about it that drives your business? >> So we used to use Slack, we used Skype, and then we used Slack. And Slack was good for what it was, it's an instant messaging tool that makes sure that you can get in touch with people right away and you can share a file. What it lacks is context. Once something is scrolled off the screen, that's it, you don't ever look at it again. And what we get with Teams is an ability to provide context for the work we do. So we were working on one of our Gorilla Guide books this week collaboratively inside Teams. We had the document open in one window and we were chatting about it in a chat in Teams in the other window. But the document lived in the same channel that we were having the conversation. So enabled a great degree of collaboration that we just couldn't get with Slack. That's not to say Slack's not a great tool, for what it is, it's a great tool and I still use it for other teams, which sounds weird. But I love the ability that we've had to bring additional tools into Teams that we didn't have before. When we bought, when we bought, when we deployed Teams, we got rid of Slack, we got rid of Smartsheet and we're in the process of getting rid of Dropbox. And it wasn't 'cause we wanted to save money, I mean it's nice, but at the end of the day it's about improving workflows especially when you don't live in the same office. You don't get to talk to each other over the water cooler. >> So particularly for distributed virtual teams, Microsoft Teams. >> It's a beautiful thing >> It's a beautiful thing. >> And also even with clients, now that Teams has guest capability, we have guest teams that we work on, work with clients in the same way we work internally. So it's become a central hub for just about everything we do. Literally Teams is open on my laptop and on my phone 24/7. It's an app that never closes. >> That's a powerful endorsement. >> It is. >> Scott, thank you so much for coming on theCUBE, David thank you so much. >> Thank you for having us. >> Thank you. >> I'm Rebecca Knight for Stu Miniman, we will see you tomorrow for more of theCUBE's live coverage from Microsoft Ignite.