(soft music) >> Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Cube's covers of Splunk's dot com virtual event, their annual summit. I'm John Ferry, host of the cube. We've been covering dot conf since twenty twelve. Usually a physical event in person. This year it's virtual. I'm here with Claire Hockin, the CMO of Splunk. She's been here three and a half years. Your first year as CMO, and you got to go virtual from physical. Welcome to the cube. Good to see you. >> Thank you very much, John. Great. >> I got to ask you, I mean, this has been the most impressive virtual venue, you've taken over the hotel here in Silicon valley. You're entire teams here. It feels like there's a dynamic of like the teamwork. You can kind of feel the vibe. It's almost like a little VIP Splunk event, but you're broadcasting it to the world. Tell us what's happening. >> Yeah, it's been, I think for everyone a year where we really hope to be back to having a hybrid event, so having a big virtual component, but running dot conf as we had before from Las Vegas, which wasn't possible. So what we thought in the last six weeks is that we would actually bring the Splunk studio to a physical location. So we've been live all of this week from California, where we're sitting today and really thought through bringing the best of that programming to our, you know, our amazing audience of twenty six thousand people. So we were sitting here in a studio, we have a whole live stage and we've activated the best of dot conf to bring as many Splunkers as we can. And as many external guests to make it feel as real and as vibrant as possible. So. >> I have to say I'm very impressed. Since twenty twelve we've been watching the culture evolve. Splunk has always been that next big thing. And then the next big thing again, it seems to be the theme as data becomes so bigger and more important even than ever. There's a new Splunk emerging, another kind of next big thing. And this kind of says the patterns like do something big, that's new, operationalize it and do something new again. This is a theme, big part of this culture here. Can you share more about how you see this evolving? >> Sure. And I think that's what makes Splunk such a great place to be. And I think it attracts people who like to continually challenge reinvent. And I think we've spent a lot of time this year building out our portfolio, going through this cloud transformation. It just gives you a whole new landscape of how you unlock that power of data and how customers use it. So we've had a lot of fun, always building on top of that building, you know, our partnerships, what customers do and really having fun with it. I think one of the best things about Splunk is we do have this incredibly fun and playful brand and as data just becomes something that is more and more powerful, it's really relatable. And we have fun with activating that and storytelling. So, yeah. >> And you have a new manager, Teresa Carlson came in from Amazon web services. You have a lot more messaging kind of building on previous messaging. How are you handling and looking at the aperture of, that's growing from a messaging standpoint, you have a partner verse, which has rebranded of your solution of your ecosystem, kind of a lot of action going on in your world. What's the update? >> Yeah. It keeps us busy. And I think at one end, you know, the number of people that are using Splunk inside any customer base is just growing. So you have different kinds of users. And this year we're really working hard on how to partner and position Splunk with developers, but at the top end of that, the value of data and the idea of having a data foundation is something that's incredibly compelling for CTOs. So working really hard about looking at Splunk and data from that perspective, as well as the individual uses across areas like security and observability. So. >> You know, one of the things I wanted to ask you is, I was thinking about this when I was driving in this morning, Splunk has a lot of customers and you keep your customers and you've have a lot of customers that organically came into the Splunk through the product leadership and just great product. And then as security became more important, Splunk kind of takes that territory now. Now mainstream enterprise with the platform are leaning into Splunk solutions, and now you've got an ecosystem. So it's just becoming bigger and bigger just seems that the scale of the Splunk is growing radically bigger than it was, Is that happening? And what's your take on that? >> I think that's definitely a thing, John. So I think that the power of the ecosystem is amazing. We have customers, partners, as you've seen and everything just joins up. So we're seeing more and more dot joining through data. And we're just seeing this incredible velocity in terms of what's possible and how we can co-build with our partners and do more and more with our customers. So Splunk moves incredibly quickly. And I think if anything, we're just, gaining velocity, which is fun and also really challenging. >> Cloud-scale. And certainly during the pandemic, you guys had a tailwind on the business side, talk about the journey that you've had with Splunk as in your career and also for the customers. How are they reacting and what can they expect as Splunk continues to evolve? >> I think we're working really hard to make sure that Splunk is easier to use. Everything gets every more integrated. And I think our goal and our vision is you just capture your data and you can apply it to any use case using Splunk. And to make it sort of easier see that data in action. And one of the things I love from today was the dashboard studio. They're just these beautiful visualizations that really are inspiring around how data is working in your organization. And for me, I've been a Splunker for three and a half years. And I just think there is just so much to do, and there's so much of our story ahead of us and so much potential. So just really enjoying working with customers on the next data frontier, really. >> You have the Jedi Knight from Star Wars speaking, you had the F1 car racing. Lando was here, kind of the young Jedi, the old Jedi. The generations are coming together. You're seeing that old IT world, which relied on Splunk. And now you have this new developer real-time shifting left with security DevOps now going mainstream, you kind of have the confluences of these cultures coming together. It's not really clashing. It's kind of jelling. How are you handling that? How do you see that? What's Splunk kind of doing? Because I can see the themes, am I right? >> No, no. One of the stories from this morning that really struck me is we have Cal Poly and we worked with Cal Poly on their security and they actually have their students using Splunk and they run their whole security environment. And at the very top end, you have Walmart, the Fortune one, just using Splunk at a massive, incredible scale. And I think that's the power of data. I mean, data is something that everyone should and can be able to use. And that's what we're really seeing is unlocking the ability to bring, you know, bring all of your data in service of what you're trying to do, which is fun. And it just keeps growing. >> We had Zach Brown, the CEO of F1 McLaren Racing Team, here on the queue earlier. And it was interesting cause I was like driving the advantage with data, you know, kind of cliche, but they're using data very specifically, highly competitive. It almost kind of feels like a cloud kind of scale model because we've got thousands of people working on the team. They're on the track, they're competing, they're using data, they got to be agile and they got to be fast real time. Kind of sounds like the current enterprise's these days. >> Absolutely. And I think what's interesting about McLaren that the thing I love is either they have hundreds of terabytes of data moving at just at incredible speed through Splunk Enterprise, but it all goes back to their mission control in the UK. And there are 32 people that look at all that data. And I think it's got a half second delay and they make all the decisions for the car on the track. And that I think is a great lesson to any enterprises you have to, you know, you have to bring all that data together and you have to look at it and take decisions centrally for the benefit of your whole team. And I think McLaren is a really good example of when you do that it pays dividends and the team has had a really, really great season. >> Well, I want to say congratulations for pulling off a great virtual event. I know you had your physical event was on track and literally canceled the last minute because of the pandemic with the Delta virus. But it was amazing, made for digital TV kind of event. >> Absolutely, >> This is the future of media. >> Absolutely. And it is a lot of fun. And I think I'm really proud. We have done all of this with our in-house team, the brand, the experiences that you see, which is really fantastic. And it's given us a lot of ideas for sort of, you know, digital media and how we story tell, and really connect to our twenty thousand customers or two hundred and thirty thousand community members and keep everyone connected through digital. So this has been a lot of fun and a really nice moment for us this week. >> You know it's interesting, I was saying to the team here on one of our breaks, is that when you have this kind of agility with media to tell your own story directly, you're almost telling more stories there before. And there's a lot to tell you have a lot of successful customers, the new partners. What's the coolest story that you've seen. What would you share that you think is your favorite? If you could pick one or a few of them, what are your top stories that you see happening? >> So I've talked about Cal Poly, which I love because it's students and you know, the scale of Walmart, but there are so many stories. And I think the ones that I love most are the data heroes. We talk about the data here is a lot of Splunk and the people that are able to harness that data and to take action on that data and make something amazing happen. And we just see that time and time again, across all kinds of organizations where data heroes are surfacing, those insights. Those red flags, if you like and helping organizations stay on step ahead. And Conf is really a celebration of that. I think that's why we do this every year. And we really celebrate those data heroes. So across the program, probably too many to mention, but in every industry and at every scale, people are, you know, making things happen with data and that's an incredibly exciting place to be. >> Well you have a lot of great customers to, to use as references. But I got to ask you that as you go forward this year in marketing, what are your plans to take on this new dynamic? You've got hybrid events, you've got the community is always popular and thriving with Splunk at large-scale enterprises, global system integrators, doing business deals with you guys, as you guys are continuing to grow and grow and grow, what's the strategy? How do you keep the Splunk coolness going? Cause that's, you know, you guys are growing so fast. That's your job, is to keep things on track. What's your strategy? >> I think I look at that and just, we put the customer at the heart of that. And we think, you know, who are the personas, who are the people that use Splunk? What's their experience? What are they trying to do? What are those challenges? And we design those moments to help them move forward faster. And so that I think is just a really good north star. It is really unifying and our partners and customers, and every Splunker gets really behind that. So stay focused on that. >> Thanks for coming on the Cube, really appreciate it. Congratulations for great event. And thanks for having the Cube. We love coming in and sharing our media partnership with you. Thank you for coming. >> Thank you so much. And next year is your tenth year John. So we look forward to celebrating that as well. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thanks for coming on. Okay it's the Cube coverage here live in the Splunk studios. We are a virtual event, but it's turning out to be a hybrid event. It's like a VIP event, a lot of great stories. Check them out online. They'll be recycling through so much digital content. This is truly a great digital event. Jeffery, hot of the Cube. Thanks for watching. (soft music)

>>Hello, and welcome back to the cubes coverage of splunk.com here in the virtual studios in Silicon valley broadcasting around the world's a virtual event. Um, John four-year host of the queue. We've got a great guest, Zach brown, chief executive officer of McLaren racing, really looking forward to this interview, Zach, welcome to the queue. Well, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. So we have a huge fan base in the tech community. A lot of geeks love the neurons. They love the tech behind the sport. Uh, and Netflix is driving to survive. Series has absolutely catapulted the popularity of F1 in the tech community. So congratulations on all the success in that program and on, and then on the >>Thank you very much, it's been a, it's been a good run. We've won our first race in a while, but we still have a ways to go to get in that, uh, world championship that, uh, >>So for the techies out there and the folks in our audience that aren't familiar with, the specifics of the racing team and the dynamics, take a minute to explain what you guys do. >>Uh, so McLaren racing, uh, which has a variety of, uh, racing teams, uh, a formula one team in indie car team and extremely team and an e-sports team. Uh, we're the second most successful form of the one team in the history of sport. Now 183 wins 182, uh, when I joined 20 world championships and, uh, we're, we're close to a thousand people to, to run a couple of racing cars and, uh, currently third in the championship, uh, with Lando Norris and, uh, Daniel, Ricardo. >>So talk about the, um, the, the dynamics of the spore. Obviously data is big part of it. Uh, we see the, a lot of the coverage. You can see anything can happen overnight. It's very quick. Um, technology has been being, uh, playing a big role in sport. What's your vision on how that's evolving? Are you happy with where things are, uh, and where do you see it going? >>Yeah, it does some interesting stats. So, um, the car that qualifies first at the beginning of the year, if you didn't touch, it would be last by the end of the year. So that's the pace of a development of a, of a formula one car. We change a, uh, and develop a new part on the car every 14 minutes, 365 days, days a year. Um, and technology plays a huge role. Uh, it's, it's probably the most technical, um, evolved sport in the world. Uh, both safety data, uh, the innovation it's it's awesome. And what a lot of people don't know is a lot of what we develop in a formula. One car ends up in other parts of the world, whether it was a ventilators that we helped develop for the UK government, uh, to working with our, uh, various partners or safety and innovation in the automotive industry. >>You know, I love it. I always loved the IOT internet of things, story around cars, because sensors or instrumentation is a big part of it. Um, and it all comes together. So it's pretty, it's not simple. No, give it feel, give it a taste a little bit about what's it. How complicated is it, how you guys pay attention to the details? What's important. Take us through some of the, some of the inside the ropes around the IOT of the sensors and all the data. >>Yeah. So we have over 300 sensors on our race car. We collect the one and a half terabytes of data. Every race weekend, we have a thousand people, um, and the strong majority of those are working around data and technology, as opposed to physically touching the car out of those thousand people, you probably only have about 60 or 70. They're actually touch the race card at a race weekend. We've been doing connected cars for about 25 years. So that's kind of a new thing here to, to most people, but we've been communicating back and forth with our race car for, for decades all around the world. And what a lot of people don't realize is it all starts in our mission control back in our factory in Woking, England. So wherever we are around the world, the racing team actually starts in England. >>So I want to ask you about the personalities on the team. How big is the staff? What's the makeup of the personnel has to get the drivers. They're critical. They're a very dynamic personalities. We'll come to the side question on that later, but what's the staff look like on when you guys put this together. So you get, you get race day and you got back office support. >>What's the team look like? Yeah. So you've got about a thousand people that, that make up the collective team. You'll have about a hundred in marketing. Uh, you'll have about a hundred in finance, HR, and then you kind of get to the, the racing team. If you'd like 800 people, you have about a hundred people traveling to each race, uh, about 50 people back at the factory, working with data and communications that are grand Prix weekend. And then everybody else is designing manufacturing, production laminating. So we run 24, 7 shifts, uh, three shifts, uh, in certain parts. Uh, we develop, uh, 85% of the car changes of what's allowed to be changed start of the year to the, the end of the year. So the development is, is unbelievable. >>I know you're here in the U S for the U S grand Prix in Austin. Um, coming up, I'm just curious how cars get transported. >>Uh, w when we're traveling around the world, uh, they, they travel on 7 47 and are flown around the world. And then when we're in Europe, we have about 18 trucks that were communing around when we're kind of in the European part of the circuit is usually in the middle of the year. But when we're going to Australia or Singapore, Bahrain, those are, those are on planes form of the one actually does that. They give us an allocation of, of space, and then we have to write a check if we need more space than where >>Yeah. We're allowed. Yeah. And that brings up the security question, because honestly, there's a lot of fans, a lot of people are into it. Also, this potentially security risks. Have you guys thought about that obviously like physical moving the supply chain around from event event, but also technology risk. Um, how do you guys think about security? >>Yeah, it's, it's critically important. We've had, uh, fortunately we've not had any breach of our technology. We have had a breach in the late nineties of our radio communications and, uh, it was in Australia, Mika Hakkinen and a fan, uh, who I think was probably having some fun and were able to break into our radio channel and actually asked Mika to pit. He pitted team wasn't ready. And fortunately, we will run in one, two, but we actually had to reverse the drivers. So security is >>Critically important, probably Katie Scrivener, and they all look, I just hack the radio, was talking to the driver. That is a funny story, but it could be serious. I mean, now you have all kinds of >>The stuff going on and, and, you know, there's a lot of money at stake, you know, so, you know, we're fortunate in this particular instance, it didn't hurt us cause we were running one, two, so we could reverse the drivers and the right guide one. Um, but you know, that could decide, uh, a world championship and you have, you know, tens of millions of dollars online, but even besides the economics, we want to win races. >>You know, what's funny is that you guys have a lot of serious on the line stakes with these races, but you're known for having a lot of fun, the team team dynamic. I have to ask you, when you finish on the podium one and two, there's a Shui with the drivers. How'd that go down. It was pretty, pretty a big spectacle online and >>Yeah, it was, it was good, fun. That's something, obviously Daniel Ricardo is kind of developed as his thing when he, uh, when he wins. And, uh, when we were, uh, before we went on the podium, he said to me, you're going to do the shoe. Yes, of course. In the car show you got to do, we have to like a bunch of 12 year old kids, uh, on the podium, but that's where we're just big kids going, motor racing and >>The end of the day. Well, I gotta say you guys come across really strong as a team, and I love the fun and, you know, competitive side. So congratulations on that, I think is good on the competitive side, take me through the advantage, driving the advantage with data, because that's really the theme here at.com, which is Splunk, which they're a big partner, as well as your other sponsors. Data's big, you know, and it's striving an advantage. Where do you see that coming from? Take us through where you guys see the advantages. Yes. >>So, you know, everything we do is, is precision and, you know, every second, every 10th counts and, um, you know, you can get all this data in, but what do you do with this data? And the humans can, uh, real, uh, react as quickly as is, you know, people like Splunk who can help us, uh, not only collect data, but help us understand data. And, um, you know, typically there's one pit stop, which can be the difference between winning and losing. Um, you have all these different scenarios playing out with weather with tire wear competition. And so, you know, we live by data. We didn't, uh, when, in, in Russia, when we, uh, could have, and it was because we got a bit emotionally caught up in the excitement of trying to win the race instead of staying disciplined and focused on, on data. And so it's a very data-driven sport when I'm on the pit wall, there's a thing called racer instinct, which is my 30 years in the sport. And, uh, your experience and your kind of your gut to make decisions. And every time our team makes a decision that I'm sitting there going, I'm not sure that was the right decision. They're staring at data. I'm not, I'm trusting my 30 years of experience. They'd beat me nine out of 10. >>Yeah. I mean, you know, this is a huge topic too, in the industry, explainable AI is one of the hottest trends in computer science where there's so much algorithms involved. The gut instinct is now coming back. What algorithms are available, knowing when to deploy what algorithms or what data to pay attention to is a huge new gut factor. Yep. Can you explain how the young drivers and the experience folks in the industry are dealing with this new instinct full data-driven? >>Yeah. That's, you know, that's what we have 50 people back at the factory doing, and they're looking at all sorts of information coming in, and then they're taking that information and they're feeding it to our head of strategy. Who's then feeding it to our racing director. Who's getting all these data points in from tire to performance, to reliability, and then the human data from both drivers coming through their engineers. And then he gets all that information in. He has to process it immediately and make decisions, but it's, it's a data-driven sport. >>I saw Lando walking around, got a selfie with them. It's great. Everyone's loving it on Twitter. My family, like get an autograph, the future of the sport. He's a young young driver. So that instincts coming in the future sport comes up all the time. The tires are a big discussion point, but also you've got a lot of presets going on, a lot of data, a lot of going on and you see the future where there's remote, you know, kind of video game you're in the pit wall and you can make decisions and deploy on behalf of the drivers. Is that something that >>Well, that technology is there and we used to do that, but now it's been outlawed because there's a real push to make sure the drivers are driving the car. So that technology is here. It has been deployed in the past. We could do it, but we're trying to find as a sport, the balance between, you know, letting the driver do it. So he, or she might make a mistake and a little bit of excitement to it. So, um, we now there are certain protocols on what we communicate. Um, we can't, um, everything has to be driver fed into the car. So we can now you'll hear all sorts of codes that we're talking through, which there are, um, about 300 different adjustments the driver can make on the steering wheel, which is unbelievable. And so that's us seeing information, getting data in coming to conclusions that we're giving him or her information that we think will help make the car >>A lot of new dimensions for drivers to think about when they're being successful with the gut, that the track data everything's kind of coming together. >>Yeah. It's amazing. Um, when you listen to these drivers on the radio, you forget that they're going 200 plus miles an hour. Cause they sound quite relaxed in this very, you know, open and easy communication of here's what I'm feeling with. Again, we're talking all these codes and then we all, because we can hear each other, there's a lot of trickery that goes on. So for a driver to be going to turn a miles an hour, taking this information and then know what code we're talking, are we kind of throwing a code out there to put the competition off is pretty amazing that they can take this all in. >>You know, I wish I was younger again, like we're old school and the younger generation, I was having a few conversations with a lot of the young audience. They wanted me to ask you, when are you guys going to metaverse the tracks? When can I get involved and participate and maybe even make the team, or how do I become more active, engaged with the McLaren racing team? >>And that technology is almost, we're actually, um, that's in development. So I, I think it won't be long before, you know, Sunday you can log on, uh, and, and race Lando around Monaco and be in the race. So that, that technology is around the corner. >>That's the shadow thing to developing. I see that. E-sports just quick. I know you've got to go on, but last minute we have here, e-sports, what's the future of e-sports with the team, >>But e-sports been great for the sport. You know, it's gone from, you know, when I was growing up, it was video games and now it's real simulation. And, uh, so we've held, I think we're going four years into it. Now we were the first team to really develop any sports platform and we've had competitors go on to help us with our simulation. So it's, it's real racially developed the race car before it goes on the racetrack it's in simulation. And that's where e-sports, >>And this is the new advantage. This is a new normal, this is where you guys see the data driving. The >>Definitely. And I think the other thing it is, you know, somewhat stick and ball sports, you can play in school. And motor racing has historically been partying, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now with e-sports you have a less expensive platform to let young men and women around the world, but a steering wheel in their hand and go motor racing. So I think it's also going to kind of bring that younger generation of fan and >>There's so much collective intelligence, potentially competitive advantage data. Again, data coming up final word to end the segment, Splunk, big partner on the data side, obviously helping you guys financially, as well as you do need some sponsorship support to make the team run. Um, what's the relationship with Splunk? Take a minute to talk about the plug. >>It's been a, it's been great, you know, they're, they're two big contributors. We need a lot of money to run the racing team. So they're a great partner in that respect, but more importantly, they're helping us with our whole data journey, making smarter, quicker decisions. So their contribution to being part of the race team. And, uh, we used our technology. Um, it has been great. And I think, um, you know, if I look at our technology partners, uh, we have many that all contribute to making a >>Yeah. I mean, it really is nice. It's data inaction, it's teamwork, it's competitive, it's fun. That's kind of a good, good, >>I think fun is the center of everything that we do. It's the center of everything spunk does. Cause I think if you have fun, people enjoy going to working a little bit harder. We're seven days a week. And uh, you know, a lot of teammates you've got to work well together. So I think if you're having fun, you enjoy what you're doing and it doesn't feel like work. >>Congratulations on climbing up in the rankings and everything on your team. Two great drivers. Thanks for coming on the cube. We appreciate it. Thank you. All right. We're here. The key. We like to have fun here and get all the action on the tech side. Honestly, F1 is technology enabled data, driving the advantage and driving to is a great Netflix series. Check it out. McLaren's featured heavily in there and got a great team. Zach brown Siegel. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. I'm sure for your host. Thank you for watching.