(Techno music) >> Live from San Francisco, celebrating ten years of high tech coverage, it's The Cube. Covering VMworld 2019. Brought to you by VMware and it's ecosystem partners. >> Well we are in Moscone Center North here in San Francisco, the city by the bay. Gorgeous day outside. Day two of our coverage here on the Cube. Vmworld 2019. I'm John Walls with John Troyer. John good to see you today. >> Great to be here with you. >> Good for day two. We have a couple of authors with us today, both from VMware. Rosa Lear who is the Director of Marketing at VeloCloud, in the business unit there. Rosa thank you for being with us. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate that. And Dave Twinam, who is the Director of Systems Engineering in that business unit at VMware. And this is the book that they have collaborate on I think with 12 others, there were 14 who came together on this project. It's called SD-WAN one on one, the what, the why, and the how. This is going to answer all those riddles, all those puzzles that you have about how to software define wide area network work, where are the pitfalls, where are the challenges, what are we going to do to solve our problems. So folks what was the genesis of this? It's a hefty thing for sure, >> (Rosa) It is, yes. And really well illustrated, we'll get into that in a little bit, but what was the genesis of this? Rosa if you would first, what drove you to put this together? >> Sure, there are a lot of books out there on the market that are focused on the SD-WAN because it's such a hot topic, but what we saw was a big deficit on how does it actually work. Getting down into that second, third layer of what people are looking for. So it's not so superficial. They really want to know how does it work, how do I integrate it into my network, what are the steps that I go through. So it's not a user manual, but it definitely gives you that deep perspective of what SD-WAN can provide and how to implement it into your network. >> So the target audience would be who? >> Network engineers, we also got stuff in here for the business owners, so CTO's. We actually have two characters that help outline a lot of the comments, or a lot of the meat of the book. One is Elvina. She's the CTO, so she really describes what her business needs are. And then there's Rodney who is her network engineer who actually implements this, the architect, so it's told from their perspective and really introducing each of the chapters, the concepts, and the takeaways. >> So Dave as you've been doing this, you're talking to customers out there, what's the state of the art here, where are we with the evolution of SD-WAN? It's kind of a noisy space from my perspective. Also from a VMware perspective, this brings VMware out of the data center into the network, and network edge, and wide area network. So can you just talk a little bit about what are the problems people are seeing, and that they're solving with SD-WAN, and why are network engineers interested in taking this as their bedtime reading. >> Absolutely, clearly what we're seeing in the marketplace is that there is a lot of noise out there, there are a lot of vendors that are in the SD-WAN space. I think it's important to note though that we are number one. It's always a good place to be. So while VMware is a newer kind of entrant into the wide area market in particular we already have a leadership position via the VeloCloud acquisition, and obviously the continued enhancements to the portfolio from there. So the reality is that SD-WAN, it's kind of funny we have the why at the beginning of the book, more and more customers aren't asking the why. They know why they need it, which is it's the natural evolution of their wide area infrastructure. They know that software is the future, that's why we are here at Vmworld cause we're all about software, and understanding how they can evolve to meet those business challenges in a software framework versus the traditional rip and replace hardware based model over the past. >> And you're on one side of the equation obviously, you're supplying this information, supplying the services, developing the solutions whatever. How much listening do you do to the other side to put together something like this? Cause I would assume you had to have a real sense of what the problems are and what the questions are. What is the what, what is the why, what is the how that's going on on the customer side of this. Tell me about that process if you will. >> Sure, so one of the unique parts of this book is that with these other authors that we brought in to put this book together, and we did this within five days which is a great project, but we really took the people out of the field. So these are the engineers that helped create this book are the ones who are shoulder to shoulder with the customer. Helping them that implementation, talking to them about how they actually implement this. So they talk to the customers, this is brought out from the field. It's not some guy sitting in an ivory tower talking about what you should do. This is actually what you should do because this is the best practice, this is what we hear from customers, this is what works best for all of the people we've implemented SD-WAN with. >> You did this in five days? >> Five days, so we hired a company. >> (John) How many of you 14? >> There was 15 of us. >> 15 in five days, we're you locked up for >> Yes. 24 hours around the clock. I read you went to Miami, I remember that, but I didn't realize it was in that compressed of a time frame. >> Oh yeah, it was great. I mean we all learned, I think, a lot because we come from different geography's. We came from different deployment models and so forth. And yeah we just all got together. >> I love the idea of the book spread. So you've captured a moment in time, of the technology, of the marketplace, but you said this isn't a dummies book, isn't an intro, nor is it a how to manual right. It's not a product manual. So I'm thinking it should be somewhat conceptual and have a life span of more then just the latest release of anything right. Is that part of the goal here? Is this going to have a lifespan? >> Absolutely. >> I mean what do you envision? Again it's interesting you're both engineering and you said the CTO, the CXO level can get some understanding of why some things are going on. >> Sure, you think about it from a CXO perspective right. What are the business challenges that that individual sees. They don't necessarily care about the bits and bites of networking underneath. They know that they need a network, but they also know that it's a really expensive part of their budget. So they need to understand how does it actually support the business and ultimately how can they do more with it, and ideally what we always hear is do more with less. So how do we get to that point and understanding then that's one need that comes from the business side. Well how do we complement that from the technical side of things. How do we solve those problems. But the reality is we're not solving technical problems just to solve technical problems. We're solving them to actually meet the needs of the business. So kind of seeing both side and how they come together is critical to it and I think that's something we tried hard to put into the book. >> When you have a collaboration like this, and you said you brought 15 people together, I'm sure there has to be some disagreement at some point or some discussion. So what were some of those points that came up where somebody thought that perhaps maybe a little more attention here, maybe a little less attention there. Maybe this is something we should bring, no that's not touch that base. How about those discussions, that back and forth, and how did you settle that with so many people in the room? >> So one of the things that we first outlined when we started this process was that this is a safe space. That nobody is really wrong, cause we're also bringing in different perspectives here. So we definitely all decided that we're going to treat each other respectfully. There was a lot of arguments here and there about certain things but we all are professional so we all figured out what the right thing was to do. >> So let's talk about the order, let's talk about how you dealt with it, the what's and the whys. You said why almost didn't make the cut but did make the dress rehearsal and the publishing. How do you put together something like this, that is not a user manual, cause that's the first thing I thought of. I thought okay, you're going to show me what SD-WANS all about and how I'm going to deploy it. VMwares services or solutions rather on my network. But that's not what this is all about. How did you parts that? How did you decide this is the direction we're going to go, and not just make it a how to for people or a dummies. >> So we already have a dummies book, so you should check that out. There's also a PDF on our website, velocloud.com, so we needed another layer, another book that would go deeper on that. We needed something that, I mean you can always write a user manual. Anybody can sit in a room and put that together, but we wanted something that was different. That was actually going to, I guess, comfort customers who were looking at the solution. Give them the right idea that this is what they need, and also what they were going to get into. That's a big question, you don't understand what the implementations going to be like until you're in it. So this gives you that view. So you can use it as a pre-customer read, or you can use it post-sales and really help define what you need to do when you're implementing. >> Nice, nice. We're here at VMworld 2019, this is my you know millionth VMworld. Very interesting, a lot of talk at the top level. Apps and kubernetes and that sort of stuff. At the bottom level, networking and a lot of other things, that maybe the traditional admin, Vsphere admin, already kind of a silo busters from old rolls is already here but sometimes when the networking folks talk with the server folks the words mean different things. They're slightly different tribes lets say. App performance is an SD-WAN context may mean something completely different then app performance in a data center, server context. So you're here at the show. You've got the network edge zone down in the show floor. You've got a booth there, you've got activities, obviously a lot of break out sessions. How have the networker's mixed with the admins? How has it been? And you all are from VeloCloud which has been with VMware for? >> (Rosa) Almost two years in December. >> Talk about both that integration, both corporately and you know here at the show. >> You want to go first? >> Sure, the event has been fantastic for us. We are getting a lot of traction. We actually did a book signing for this book yesterday with six of the authors. 96 books are gone, and I feel like the conversations are really migrating to the networking space. The wide area networking space rather then just data center. You're right there is a lot of overlap in the technology and the lingo and jargon, but I think if we know what were talking about in terms of wide area networking I think those conversations can easily be fudged or gaped. >> Just I would add, I've been at VMware about five years now so I was on the NSX team prior to moving over to the Velo team. So five years ago there was virtually no presence of networking. We were the only networking people here for the most part, And that's really changed substantially. And this year in particular is the first year where there are a lot of networking folks that are roaming the halls here. Whether its understanding the NSX side of the house or whether its SD-WAN there is a significantly greater presence then there's ever been previously. So the other piece is realizing we're a networking company now and a security company right. Those components are integral as a part of the solution and so the makeup has actually begun to change a little bit and there's more co-mingling then there's ever been before in this space. >> You touch on security in the book? >> Absolutely there's an entire chapter on it. >> So C-Cell might be interested as well? >> Absolutely. >> All right so the book I've seen is for purchase here on site. >> (Rosa) Yes. >> In case somebody's watching and they're here tell them where they can get it. >> Go the the VMware book store, it's in Moscone West, and then we also will be making it available on Amazon starting next week. >> All right so here's again a look at the book. SD-WAN one on one, the what, the why and the how. Rosa, Dave thanks for being with us. Congratulations on, I assume first book? >> For me yes. >> Third for me. >> Oh okay, a practiced hand. (laughing) >> First print though. >> Not fair. Thank you both, appreciate the time. >> (in unison) Thank you. >> Back with more continued coverage here on the cube of Vmworld 2019. (techno music)