>> Announcer: theCUBE presents "Dell Technologies World," brought to you by Dell. >> Hey, everyone. Welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of day one of "Dell Technologies World 2022" live from the Venetian in Las Vegas. They're excited. I dunno if you heard that, a group behind me very excited to be here. Lisa Martin, Dave Vellante. We're very pleased to welcome Jules Johnston, the SVP of channel from Equinix. Jules, welcome to the program. >> Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. >> And those people back there are very excited, if you heard that big applause when we went live. (Jules laughing) So the vibe here is fantastic for the first live "Dell Technologies World" since 2019. A lot of people here, this Expo Hall is packed. A lot of momentum here, but there's also a lot of momentum at Equinix. Talk to us about what's going on. >> Well, so many exciting things for Equinix and this partnership of Dell sort of gives us a chance to share that with partners here throughout the conference. So we are very excited, as you said about and we just were named to the Fortune 500 this year, 77 quarters of growth consecutively. But underpinning that is having made huge investments in what is the world's largest footprint of global data centers, 240 of them on six continents in 66 markets but then interconnecting them. So they have the connections that Dell customers need to the clouds. They have the connections that they need to all of the future SaaS providers. So that foresight to put together that interconnection network across our footprint has set us on the path we're on today, which we're very grateful to be at in. And really, the things that are happening with Equinix and Dell together couldn't be more of the moment. >> Talk to me about the last two years. The moments of the last two years have been very challenging >> They have. >> For everyone. How has the partnership evolved in that time? >> Well, we, together, Dell and Equinix, what we're doing is really helping our shared interface customers navigate the complexities of their digital transformation. And digital transformation is hard. It's not a one and done and it's not an overnight solution. And so, what we are doing is partnering with Dell to think about putting a dedicated Dell IT stack in an Equinix data center to give customers that sovereign adjacency so that they can have that security proximate to all the clouds and everything else they need to participate in the ecosystem. And then pairing that with these interconnected enterprises. So, Dell and we are helping customers then be able to have some of their solution on-prem, some of their solution in the cloud, access public clouds and use that collectively to define what we're calling the intelligent edge, together. And that intelligent edge means so many different things to customers but it is really our honor to work together with Dell to help each customer define that for themselves. >> Equinix is an amazing company. Like you said, it's... I didn't realize it was that many consecutive quarters but it's a 60 billion plus market cap. If you look at the stock chart, it'll blow your mind. Really incredibly successful. And part of the reason... It's funny, 10, 15 years ago, people thought, well... Or, 10 years ago, anyway, the cloud is going to hurt companies like Equinix. It was the exact opposite. And that's because Charles Phillips used to joke, "Friends don't let friends build data centers." >> Yes. >> And it's not a good use of capital for most companies, unless you're in the data center business. Now, of course, you have some of your own as a service offerings. >> We do. >> What's the overlap with Dell? How do they compliment each other? >> It's a good question because... And we get that. Are you and Dell in fact competitors? No, we see them as wholly complimentary. And in fact, we're working with Dell to bring to market things like something we call PowerEdge, which involves their servers. And PowerStore, which involves their storage, and then VxRail, which is really the hyper-converged infrastructure. And those are just a few first of a series of offerings we expect to bring to market with Dell. And if you think about Metal, and it's Equinix Metal that people sometimes think is a competitor, but what Metal does for customers is it really allows them to advance, have the equipment placed in our data centers so that they can access that capacity and according to spikes or needs that they have. That equipment in our data centers that's there for them to avail themselves of that capacity is most often Dell equipment. So we are really doing and executing that bare Metal as a service together. >> What are some of the things that you're hearing from your partner community, in terms of the partnership with Dell? Partners must be excited, the momentum there. What's going on in the partner community? >> So, that's what's near and dear to my heart since that's what I'm responsible for, Equinix's global partnerships. And they're just very excited about what we're doing with Dell. And to be honest with you, all of our top partners are also top partners of Dell. So it makes sense that we bring it together. So, big categories of partners like the world's largest global network service providers, some of whom are here and who we'll meet with, AT&T, Orange Business Services, those folks in addition to the world's largest global systems integrators, Kendra, Deloitte, Accenture, WiPro, DXC. All of these are partners that Dell and we will meet with together to further our, what we call Power of Three, that together we're better. Because as much as Dell and Equinix are delivering, the customers most often don't have the experience they need to execute it without a partner. So they are relying on those partners to take what we are doing and make it their own. And so, they're excited about it. You see, it's a big opportunity for them from a... Of revenue services and an opportunity for them to step into a next level trusted advisor status. So partners are excited and we're going to be spending a lot of time with them the next few days. >> Do you see Equinix... 'Cause these partnerships are not bespoke partnerships. It's an ecosystem that's organic and evolving and growing. Are you a dot connector in a way? Can it be a flywheel effect in your ecosystem? >> Well, so our ecosystems that we provide, wide range of those from high frequency trading to connected cars, to the internet of things and content providers, we do see it as our role to the 10,000 and growing customers that are in our 240 data centers on six continents that provide those ecosystems. It is our mission to continue to grow that, enrich it, because that does differentiate us greatly from another data center provider. And it's the combination of the ecosystem that you'd find and the people you can connect to at Equinix. And then also the leverage of our fabric in order to be able to access your future needs. >> And it's a lot of technology underneath these. It's that first layer one, I guess, if you will, of the data center, right? And so, a lot of your customers or your partner's customers, they just don't want to be in that business as we were saying before. I mean, it's just too expensive. The power requirements are going through the roof. So you got to be really good at managing power. >> You do. In fact... So first of all, you're right. It's extremely difficult for them to also be able to make that commitment to keep a data center they would manage themselves at the level that Equinix is able to invest. So it's very difficult for people to do it themselves. But even show... Another point you mentioned actually about the power, is near and dear to our hearts because Equinix is super committed to sustainability. And so we've made a commitment to wholly renewable energy. And it's something that we talk a lot about how we also help partners like Dell meet their initiatives. So partners like AT&T meet their connected climate goals. So we are actually using that and coming together with Dell on that story, and then helping to amplify that with our partners. >> And that's... How do you do that? That's putting data centers where you can cool with ambient air. Is it being near the Columbia River? What's your strategy in that regard? >> On sustainable... I have to be honest to you. I would be out of my depth if I didn't say... >> This is the high level, yeah. >> So we are deploying some of the latest technologies about that and then experts people who, all they do is really help us to reduce the carbon footprint and be able to offset that, be able to use solar, be able to use wind, be able to take advantage of that. And then also to navigate what's available when you're in 240 locations on six continents. It's not the same options to reduce your power consumption and your burden are different in Africa as we just discovered with our main one acquisition than they are in India or than they are in other parts of the world. So it is for us a journey, and we've been assembling a lot of the talent to do that, >> But you're so large now, even a small percentage improvement can really move the needle. >> And I think because we are the largest, it is incumbent upon us to really set the standard and be committed to it. And we do see other people following, which is a good thing for all of us. >> Well, how important is that in your partnership conversations. That partners have that same focus and commitment on ESG that Equinix has. >> Partners care a lot about it, but customers ask us both all the time. We increasingly see a portion of an RFP or scope of work asking, "Before I decide to go with Equinix and Dell, tell me how you're going to impact the environment. Tell me about your commitment." And so, we are committed to it, but customers are demanding it too. >> So it's... >> Where do you... Go ahead please. >> Oh, I was just going to say, it's coming from the voice of the customer, which Equinix is listening to, we know Dell is listening to it as well. >> I'm sorry, one more time. >> That the sustainability, the ESG demand is coming from the customers, as you were saying. >> Both. I mean, we want to do the right thing and we've made commitments to it, but our customers are holding us accountable to it. And sustainability is now a board level priority. It is for us. And it is for companies like Dell and it is for partners and customers. >> It really is... It's up there with security in terms of the board level conversation. Where do you want to see the partner ecosystem in the next let's call it three to five years. In your business you can look out that far. >> Well, I think that our partners and by that I mean Dell's and our mutual partners, We've been listening to customers with Dell to deliver a flexible set of options for how customers would consume Equinix and Dell. So our partners are going to be integrating a variety of those in order to meet the customer where they are in that journey. Whether they want to buy Apex as a service, whether they want to buy Equinix Metal, whether they want to have a partner put together bespoke, do-it-yourself combination with other services. I mean, the customers are going to demand a choice of options. I think partners are going to embrace multiple versions of that so that they can to meet the customer where they are and take them. >> Well. That's incredibly important these days to meet the customer where they are, the customers have a lot of choice. >> It is. >> But everything that we're all doing is for the customer ultimately at the end of the day. >> Yes, it is. And you know, the customers are getting savvier, but we are all still early in this journey as far as the edge. I think we are all still grappling that. Right now we like to say that as customers are looking to define that, the footprint that we offer together with Dell gives them an awfully robust set of choices for now. And then we want to continue to invest and expand to be wherever they need us. >> Well, that's the thing about your business? It's optionality. I mean, the cloud has a lot of stuff, but you can't get everything you want in the cloud. >> Jules: You can, >> And you can put anything in your data center. That's IT. >> You can, but you may not know what you need yet. And so that's one of the things we spend a lot of time having our solutions, architects and our sales to people together, but they'll talk about future proofing, their strategy. So future proofing, that combination of on-prem and in an Equinix data center, and maybe some public and future proofing, leveraging our fabric so that they might elect different SaaS space services or cloud-based services a year to five years from now than they are even thinking about today. And, they may expand their edge over time, because they may see that as at the customer end point. Today, most businesses are still using a footprint like ours as their edge, but that could change. And so we want to be there when it does. >> Yeah. That's a great point because you don't want to necessarily have to rip it out every co couple of years. If you can have an architecture that can grow. Yeah, sure. You might want to upgrade it. >> Well, and that's one of the most appealing things about services like Metal where they also do prevent that sort of rip and replace, but they also help people navigate the supply chain shortages that are going on right now. So this has been a trying two years for supply chain shortages. And being able to take advantage of Dell equipment already staged at an Equinix data center and partners can then bring their customers a quicker immediate response. >> Have you also seen this? You mentioned the supply chain shortages, some of the many challenges that we've experienced in a last few years. How much of a factor has the great resignation been? The labor shortages, the cybersecurity skills gap, on folks coming to Equinix saying, "Help, we don't have the resources here to do this ourselves." >> We have been fortunate to be... If you're asking me how the reservation has affected us as a company. >> No your customers. >> Oh customers it has. Oh, okay I get it. So it is a challenge for them, but it's an opportunity for our partners. So what I see there is it's been challenging for customers to hold onto that talent, but partners are filling that gap. And we with Equinix being forced to hold onto a lot of our best and brightest. And so we put them together with our partners and we try to help customers fill those gaps. >> Well that's the most important thing, filling those gaps. >> You ever been inside one of these ultra modern data centers? >> I have not, not yet. It's pretty cool, isn't it? >> Have you ever had a tour of one? >> I've never had a tour of an Equinix data center, but I've seen some modern data centers that will blow your mind? >> Well, they come with all the requisite biometrics and man traps and all of the sort of bells and whistles that are actually the first slay of physical security, but then once you get into the data center, then we get into the virtual and the digital security that you would expect. >> Yeah, it's good. And you know, it's not like you drive by the data center, and there's a big sign that says, here's the data center. They're trying to stay a little hidden and then like getting in, it's like getting into Fort Knox. It's probably harder. And then, but then the it's like this giant clean room. It's amazingly clean and just huge. It'll blow your mind. >> And inside the data centers, all the world's networks come together and peer, and then we have inside their, the most direct roam reps to the cloud. So you would expect there's a lot of wires and pipes running very neatly through a very secure clean... >> Cooling systems and power systems that are just... >> Pristine environment for sure. >> Amazing engineering. >> It is really. >> We need a tour. >> Do you let people tour your data center? >> I will bring both of you on a tour. >> Awesome. >> Be my guests. >> I would love to. Great. >> Sounds fantastic. Would love to. >> We'll bring a camera. (laughing) Oh, no, we're not allowed. >> Not today. >> No phones, no phones sequester. So what are some of the things that you're excited about seeing and hearing the next couple of days as this is the first time we've all gotten to be together in so long? >> We are excited about the conversations that we're going to have, power of three that I was talking about. So, we really pride ourselves on having that combination add up to more to benefit the customer. And so this will be sort of a coming out party of sorts. Equinix and Dell will meet with almost 20 different global partners that are really important to both of us. So I am most excited about those conversations and about the education I'm going to get on the ways they're thinking about integrating it differently, because that is good choice for the market. That is good choice for the customer set, for the enterprises out there. So that's what I'm most excited about. >> Awesome, sounds like tremendous opportunity, lots going on this week. But thank you for coming on Jules, >> Oh my pleasure, thank you. talking about... >> How Equinix and Dell better together, the way that your channel partner program is growing and of course the momentum of the company. Can't wait to see what happens next year. >> Thank you. Thank you. Well, we will aim to deliver and thank you again for having us. >> Thanks Jules. >> Our pleasure. For Dave Vellante, I'm Lisa Martin and you're watching theCUBE's live coverage day one, "Dell Technologies World" live from Las Vegas. Stick around, we'll be right back with our next guest. (slow upbeat music)

>> theCUBE presents Dell Technologies World, brought to you by Dell. >> Hey everyone. Welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of day one of Dell Technologies World 2022 Live from the Venetian in Las Vegas. They're excited I dunno if you heard that. A group behind me very excited to be here. Lisa Martin, Dave Vallante. We're very pleased to welcome Jules Johnston, the SVP of channel from Equinix. Jules, welcome to the program. >> Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. >> And those people back there are very excited if you heard that. Big applause going went live. So the vibe here is fantastic for the first live Dell Technologies World since 2019, a lot of people here, this expo hall is packed, lot of momentum here but there's also a lot of momentum at Equinix. Talk to us about what's going on. >> Well, you know, so many exciting things for Equinix and, you know, in this partnership of Dell, it sort of gives us a chance to share that with partners here throughout the conference. So we are very excited, as you said about, and we just, we named to the Fortune 500 this year, 77 quarters of growth consecutively but underpinning that is having made huge investments in what is the world's largest footprint of global data centers, 240 of them on six continents in 66 markets, but then interconnecting them so they have the connections that Dell customers need to the clouds, they have the connections that they need to all of the future SaaS providers. So that foresight to put together that interconnection network across our footprint, has set us on the path we're on today which we're very grateful to be at in and really the things that are happening with Equinix and Dell together couldn't be more of the moment. >> Talk to me about that. The last two years, the moments of the last two years have been very challenging. >> They have been. >> For everyone. How has the partnership evolved in that time? >> Well, you know, we at together, Dell and Equinix what we're doing is really helping our shared interface customers navigate the complexities of their digital transformation and digital transformation is hard, it's not of one and done and it's not an overnight solution and so what we are doing is partnering with Dell to think about putting a dedicated Dell IT stack in an Equinix data center, to give customers that sovereign adjacency so that they can have that security proximate to our all the clouds and everything else they need to participate in the ecosystem and then pairing that with, you know these interconnected enterprises. So Dell and we are helping customers then be able to have some of their solution OnPrem, some of their solution in the cloud, access public clouds and use that collectively to define what we're calling the intelligent edge together and that intelligent edge means so many different things to customers, but it is really our honor to work together with Dell to help each customer define that for themselves. >> Eqiuinix's an amazing company, like you said, I didn't realize it was that many consecutive quarters but it's a 60 billion plus market cap. If you look at the stock chart it'll blow your mind, really incredibly successful and part of the reason is funny, you know, 10, 15 years ago people thought, well, oh, 10 years ago anyway, the cloud is going to hurt companies like Equinix. It was exact opposite and that's because, you know Charles Phillips used to joke, friends don't let friends build data centers. >> Yes. >> Right? And it's not a good use of capital for most companies unless you're in the data center business. Now, of course you have some of your own as a service offerings. >> We do. >> What's the overlap with Dell? How do they compliment each other? >> It's a good question because, you know, and we get that are you and Dell in fact competitors? And no we see them as wholly complimentary and in fact, we're working with Dell to bring to market things like something we call PowerEdge which involves their servers and PowerStore which involves their storage and then VxRail which is really the hyperconverged infrastructure and those are a few first of a series of offerings we expect to bring to market with Dell and if you think about metal and it's Equinix Metal that people sometimes think is a competitor, but what metal does for customers is it really allows them to advance have the equipment placed in our data center so that they can access that capacity and according to spikes or needs that they have. That equipment in our data centers that's there for them to avail themselves to that capacity is most often Dell equipment. So we are really doing and executing that bare metal as a service together. >> What are some of the things that you're hearing from your partner community in terms of the partnership with Dell? Are partners must be excited the momentum there. What's going on in the partner community? >> So, you know, that's what near and dear to my heart since that's what I'm responsible for Equinix's global partnerships, and they are very excited about what we're doing with Dell and to be honest with you, all of our top partners are also top partners of Dell so it makes sense that we bring it together. So, you know, big categories of partners like the world's largest global network service providers, some of whom are here and who we'll meet with the AT&T, Orange Business Services, those folks in addition to the world's largest global systems integrators, Kyndryl, Deloitte, Accenture, Wipro all, DXC, all of these are partners that Dell and we will meet with together to further our, what we call power three that together we're better because as much as Dell and Equinix are delivering, the customers most often don't have the experience they need to execute it without a partner so they are relying on those partners to take what we are doing and make it their own and so if they're excited about it, it's a big opportunity for them from a revenue services and an opportunity for them to step into a next level trusted advisor status so partners are excited and we're going to be spending a lot of time with them the next few days. >> Do you see Equinix, you know, 'cause these partnerships are not bespoke partnerships, it's an ecosystem that's organic and evolving and growing. Are you a dot connector in a way? Can it be a flywheel effect in your ecosystem? >> Well, so our ecosystems that we provide wide range of those from high frequency trading to connected cars, to the internet, things many and content providers that we are, we do see it as our role to, you know, the 10,000 and growing customers that are in our 240 data centers on six continents that provide those ecosystems, it is our mission to continue to grow that and enrich it because that does differentiate us greatly from another data center provider and it's the combination of the ecosystem that you find and the people you can connect to at Equinix and then also the leverage of our fabric in order to be able to access your future needs. >> And there's a lot of technology underneath these, it's that first layer one I guess if you will of the data center, right? And so a lot of your customers or your partners customers, they just don't want to be in that business as we were saying before, I mean it's just too expensive, the power requirements are going through the roof so you got to be really good at managing power. >> You do. In fact, you know, so first of all, you're right, it's extremely difficult for them to also be able to make that kind of commitment to keep a data center they would manage themselves at the level that Equinix is able to invest so it's very difficult for people to do it themselves but even show, another point you mentioned actually about the power is near and dear to our hearts because Equinix is super committed to sustainability and so we've made a commitment to wholly renewable energy and it's something that we talk a lot about how we also help partners like Dell meet their initiatives or partners like AT&T meet their connected climate goals. So we are actually using that and coming together with Dell on that story, so that, and then helping to amplify that with our partners. >> And that's, how do you do that? That's putting data centers where you can cool with ambient air or is it being near the Columbia River? What's your strategy in that regard? >> It's sustainable. I have to be honest to you. I would be out of my depth if I didn't say. >> This is at high level. >> So we are deploying some of the latest technologies about that and then experts. People who, you know who all they do is really help us to reduce the carbon footprint and be able to offset that, be able to use solar, be able to use wind, be able to take advantage of that and then also to navigate what's available when you're in 240 locations on six continents it's not the same options to reduce your power consumption and your burden are different in Africa as we just discovered with our main one acquisition than they are in India or than they are in other parts of the world. So it is for us a journey and we've been assembling a lot of the talent to do that. >> But you're so large now, even a small percentage improvement can really move the needle. >> And I think because we are the largest, it is incumbent upon us to really set the standard and be committed to it and we do see other people following which is a good thing for all of us. >> Well how important is that in your partnership conversations that partners have that same focus and commitment on ESG that Equinix has? >> Partners care a lot about it but customers ask us both all the time. I mean, we increasingly see a portion of an RFP or a scope of work asking, before I decide to go with Equinix and Dell, tell me how you're going to impact the environment, tell me about your commitment and so we are committed to it but customers are demanding it too. >> So it's com-- >> Where do you. Go ahead please. >> Oh I was just going to say, it's coming from the voice of the customer which EquinIx is listening to we know Dell is listening to it as well. >> I'm sorry one more time? >> That the sustainability of the ESG demand is coming from the customers you were saying? >> It both, like I mean, we want to do the right thing and we've made commitments to it but our customers are holding us accountable to it and, you know, sustainability is now a board level priority. It is for us and it is for companies like Dell and it is for our partners and customers. >> It really is. I mean, it's up there with security. >> It is. >> In terms of the board level conversation. Where do you want to see the partner ecosystem in the next, let's call it three to five years? In your business you can look out that far. >> Well, you know, I think that they, our partners, and that I mean Dell's and our mutual partners, you know, we've been listening to customers with Dell to deliver a flexible set of options for how customers would consume Equinix and Dell so our partners are going to be integrating a variety of those in order to meet the customer where they are in that journey, whether they want to buy Apex as a service, whether they want to buy Equinix Metal, whether they want to have a partner put together bespoke do it yourself combination with other services. I mean, the customers are going to demand a choice of options. I think partners are going to embrace multiple versions of that so that they can, you know, to meet the customer where they are and take them. >> Well that's incredibly important these days to meet the customer where they are. The customers have a lot of choice. >> It is. >> But everything that we're all doing is for the customer ultimately at the end of the day. >> Yes, it is and, you know, the customers are getting savvier but we are all still early in this journey, as far as the edge, you know, I mean, I think we're all still grappling that. For right now we like to say that as customers are looking to define that, the footprint that we offer together with Dell gives them an awfully robust set of choices for now and then we want to continue to invest and expand to be wherever they need us. >> Well that's the thing about your business, it's optionality. I mean, the cloud has a lot of stuff but you can't get everything you want in the cloud. >> You can. >> And you can put anything in your data center, that's IT. >> You can, but you may not know what you need yet and so that's one of the things we spend a lot of time having our solutions architects and our sales people together with Dell talk about future proofing, their strategy. So future proofing, that combination of OnPrem and in an Equinix data center and maybe some public and future proofing, leveraging our fabric so that they might elect different SaaS space services or cloud-based services a year to five years from now than the year you're even thinking about today and they may expand their edge over time because they may sort of see that at the customer end point. Today most businesses are still sort of using a footprint like ours as their edge, but that could change and so we want to be there when it does. >> Yeah, that's a great point because you don't want to necessarily have to rip it out every couple of years if you can have an architecture that can grow. Yeah sure, you might want to upgrade it. >> Well, and that's one of the most appealing things about services like metal, where they also, they do sort of prevent that sort of rip and replace but they also help people navigate the supply chain shortages that are going on right now. So you know, this has been a trying two years for supply chain shortages, and being able to take advantage of Dell equipment already staged at an Equinix data center and partners can then bring their customers a quicker immediate response. >> Have you also seen this, you mentioned the supply chain shortages, some of the many challenges that we've experienced in the last few years, how much of a factor has the great resignation been? The labor shortages, the cybersecurity skills gap, on folks coming to Equinix saying help, we don't have the resources here to do this ourselves? >> We have been fortunate to to be... If you're asking about how the reservation has affected us as a company. >> No your customers. >> Oh our customers it has. >> Yes. >> Oh, okay. >> Yes. >> So it is a challenge for them but it's an opportunity for our partners. So what I see there is it's been challenging for customers to hold onto that talent but partners are filling that gap and we've at Equinix have been fortunate to hold onto a lot of our best and brightest and so we put them together with our partners and we try to help customers fill those gaps. >> Well that's the most important thing, filling those gaps. >> You ever been inside one of these ultra modern data centers? >> I have not, not yet. >> It's pretty cool, isn't it? I mean-- >> Have you ever had a tour of one? >> I've never had a tour of an Equinix data center, but I've seen some modern data centers that will blow your mind. >> Well I mean, they come with all the requisite, bio metrics and man traps and all of the sort bells and whistles that are actually the first layer of physical security, but then once you get into the data center then we have sort of, we get into the virtual and the digital security that you would expect. So it's-- >> Yeah, it's good and you know, it's not like you drive by the data center and there's a big sign that says here's the data center, it is kind of, they're trying to stay a little hidden and then it's, getting in it's like getting into fork knots. It's probably harder but then, it's like this giant clean room, right? It's amazingly clean and just huge. It'll blow your mind. >> Inside these data centers, all the world's networks come together and peer, and then we have inside the most direct RomReps to the cloud so you would expect. There's a lot of wires and pipes running very neatly through a very secure, clean-- >> Cooling systems and power systems and it's just. >> Pristine environment for sure. >> Amazing engineering. >> It is. >> So I need a tour. >> You should. Do you let people tour your data centers? >> Well I will bring both of you on a tour. >> Awesome. >> Be my guests. >> I would love to. Yeah, great. >> It sounds fantastic. >> We'd love to. >> So last couple-- >> We'll bring a camera. (both laugh) Oh, no, not allowed. >> Not today. No phones, no phones sequester. >> So what are some of the things that you're excited about seeing and hearing the next couple of days as this is the first time we we've all gotten to be together in so long? >> So well, you know, we are excited about the conversations that we're going to have power of three that I was talking about. So you know, we really pride ourselves on sort of having that combination add up to more to benefit the customer and so this will be sort of a coming out party of sorts for Equinix and Dell will meet with, you know almost 20 different global partners that are really important to both of us so I am most excited about those conversations and about the education I'm going to get on the ways they're thinking about integrating it differently because that is good choice for the market, that is good choice for the customer set so for the enterprises out there so that's what I'm most excited about. >> Awesome, sounds like tremendous opportunity, lots going on this week, but thank you for coming on Jules talking about-- >> Oh, my pleasure >> An hour of Equinix and Dell better together, the way that your channel partner, your program is growing and of course the momentum of the company. Can't wait to see what happens next year. >> Thank you. Thank you, we will aim to deliver and thank you again for having us. >> Thanks Jules. >> Our pleasure. For Dave Vallante, I'm Lisa Martin and you're watching theCUBE's Live Coverage day one Dell Technologies World Live from Las Vegas. Stick around, we'll be right back with our next guest. (upbeat music)

>>The cube presents, Dell technologies world brought to you by Dell. >>Hey everyone. Welcome back to the cubes coverage of day. One of Dell technologies world 2022. Live from the Venetian in Las Vegas. They're excited. I dunno if you heard that a group behind me, very excited to be here. Lisa Martin, Dave ante. We're very pleased to welcome Jules Johns SVP of channel from McQuin. Jill, welcome to the program. >>Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. >>And those people back there are very excited. If you heard that big applause >>That >>Went live <laugh> so the, the vibe here is fantastic for the first live Dell technologies world since 2019. A lot of people here, this expo hall is packed a lot of, of momentum here, but there's also a lot of momentum critics. Talk to us about what's going on. >>Well, and you know, so, so many exciting things for Equinex and, you know, in this partnership of Dell, it gives us a chance to, to share that, uh, with partners here throughout the conference. So we are very excited, as you said about, and we just, we named to the fortune 500 this year, 77 quarters of growth consecutively, but underpinning that is having made huge investments in what is the world's largest footprint of global data centers, 240 of them on six continent in 66 markets, but then interconnecting them. So they have the connections that Dell customers need to the clouds. They have the connections that they need to all of the future SaaS providers, so that foresight to put together that interconnection network across our footprint has set us on the path we're on today, which we're very grateful, um, to be at in. And, and really this, the things that are happening with Equinex and Dell together can, couldn't be more of the moment. >>Talk to me about that. The, the last two years, the moments of the last two years have been very challenging. They have for everyone. How has the partnership evolved in that time? >>Well, you know, we at together, Dell and Equinix, what we're doing is really helping, helping our shared interface, customers navigate the complexities of their digital transformation and, and digital transformation is hard and it's not a one and done, and it's not an overnight solution. And so what we are doing is partnering with Dell to think about putting a dedicated Dell it stack in an Equinex data center to give customers that sovereign adjacency so that they can have that security proximate to our, all the clouds and, and, and all, everything else. They need to participate in the ecosystem. And then pairing that with, you know, these interconnected enterprises. So Dell and we are helping customers then be able to have some of their solution on Preem some of their solution in the cloud access, public clouds, and use that collectively to diff fine. We're calling the intelligent edge together. And that intelligent edge means so many different things to customers, but it is really our honor to work together with Dell to help each customer define that for themselves. >>E's amazing company, like you said, it's, it's, you know, I didn't realize it was that many consecutive quarters, but it's a 60 billion plus market cap. If you look at the stock chart, blow your mind, really incredibly successful. And part of the reason it's funny, you know, 10, 15 years ago, people thought, well, oh, 10 years ago, anyway, the cloud is gonna hurt companies like equity. It was exact opposite it. And, and that's because, you know, Charles Phillips used to joke friends. Don't let friends build data centers. Yes. Right. And, and it's not a good use of capital for most companies, unless you're in the data center business. Now, of course you have some of your own as a service offerings. We do. What's the overlap with, with Dell? How do they compliment each other? It, >>It's a good question because, you know, and we get that, are you and Dell in fact competitors, and no, we see them as who complimentary. And in fact, we're working with Dell to bring to market things like something we call power edge, which involves their servers and power store, which involves their storage. And, and then V RIL, which is really the hyperconverged infrastructure. And those are just few first of a series of offerings we expect to bring to market with Dell. And if you think about metal and, and it's Equinex metal that people sometimes think is a competitor, but what metal does for customers is it really allows them to advance, have the equipment placed in our data centers so that they can access that capacity. And according to spikes or needs that they have that equipment in our data centers, that's there for them to avail themselves of that capacity is most often Dell equipment. So we are really doing and executing that bare metal is a service together. >>What are some of the, the things that you're hearing from, from your partner community, in terms of the partnership with Dell, what are partners supposed be excited, the momentum there what's going on in the partner community? >>So, you know, that is that's, that's what near and dear to my heart, since that's what I'm responsible for. Equinex is global partnerships, and they are very excited about what we're doing with Dell. And to be honest with you, all of our top partners are also top partners of Dell. So it makes that we bring it together. So, you know, big categories of partners like the world's largest global network service providers, some of whom are here and who will meet with the at T orange business services. Those folks, in addition to the world's largest global systems integrators, Kendra, Deloitte, Accenture, we pro, uh, all DXC. All of these are partners that Dell and we will meet with together to further our, what we call power three, that together we're better because as much as Dell and Equinex are delivering the customers, most often don't have the experience. They need to execute it without a partner. So they are relying on those partners to take what we are doing and make it their own. And so, so if they're excited about it, it is a, it's a big opportunity for them from a, a revenue services, a and an opportunity for them to step into a next level, trusted advisor status. So partners are excited and, and we're gonna be spending a lot of time with them the next few days. Do you >>See Equinix? You know, these cuz these partnerships are not bespoke partnerships, it's an ecosystem that's organic and evolving and, and growing. Can it be, are you a dot connector in a way, can it be a flywheel effect in your ecosystem? >>Well, I mean our, so our E ecosystems that, um, that we provide wide range of those from high frequency trading to connected cars, um, to the internet things, many and content providers that we are, we do see it as our role to, you know, the 10,000 and growing customers that are in our 240 data centers and six continents that provide those ecosystems. It's, it is our mission to continue to grow that and enrich it because that does differentiate us greatly from another data center provider. And it's the combination of the ecosystem that you find and the people you can connect to at Equinex, and then also the leverage of our fabric in order to be able to access your future needs. >>And it's a lot of technology underneath these, you know, it's that first layer one, I guess, if you will, of the data center, right. And so a lot of your, your customers or your cus your partner's customers, they just don't want to be in that business. As we were saying before, I mean, it's just too expensive. The, the power requirements are going through the roof, so you gotta be really good at managing power. >>You do. In fact, you know, so first of all, you're right, it's extremely difficult for them to also be able to make that kind of commitment, to keep a data center. They would ran, they would manage themselves at the level that Equinex is able to invest. So it's very difficult for people to do it themselves, but even show another, you mentioned actually about the power is near and dear to our hearts because is super committed to sustainability. And so we've made a commitment to holy renewable energy. And it's something that we talk a lot about how we also help partners like Dell meet their initiatives, so, or partners like at T meet their connected climate goals. So we, we are actually using that and coming together with Dell on that story, so that, and, and then helping to amplify that with our partners. And, >>And that's, that's how do you do that? That's putting data centers where you can cool with ambient air. Is it being near the Columbia river? How what's, what's your strategy in that regard, >>Uh, and sustainable. I have to be honest to you. I, uh, I would be out of my depth if I didn't say >>This is the high level. Yeah. >>So, um, we are deploying some of the latest technologies about that, and then experts people who, you know, who all they do is really help us to, um, to reduce the carbon footprint and be able to offset that, be able to use solar, be able to use wind, be able to take advantage of that. And then also to, um, to navigate what's available when you're in 240 locations on six cotton, it's not the same options to reduce your power consumption. And your burden are different in Africa, as you just discovered with our main one acquisition than they are in India, or then they are in, in other parts of the world. So it is for us a journey, and we've been assembling a lot of the talent to do that, but >>You're so large now, even a small percentage improvement can really move the needle. >>And I think because we are the largest, it is incumbent upon us to really set the standard and be committed to it. And, um, and we do see other people following, which is, is a good thing for all of us. Well, >>How important is that in your partnership conversations that partners have that same focus and commitment on ESG that Equinix has >>Partners care a lot about it, but, uh, customers ask us both all the time. I mean, we increasingly see a portion of an RFP or a scope of work asking before I decide to go with Equinex and Dell, tell me how you're going to impact the environment. Tell me about your commitment. And so, um, so we are committed to it, but customers are demanding it to >>Where >>Do you go ahead please? >>Oh, I was just gonna say, it's, it's coming from the, from the voice of a customer, which Equinox is listening to, we know Dell is listening to it as well. >>I'm so >>Sorry. One more time that, that the, the sustainability of the ESG demand is coming from the customers. You were saying, it, >>It both like, I mean, we wanna do the right thing and we've made commitments to it, but our customers are holding us accountable to it. And, you know, sustainability is now a board level priority. It is for us. And it is for companies like Dell and it is for partners and customers. >>It really is. It's it's, I mean, it's up there with security in terms of the board level conversation, where do you want to see the partner ecosystem in the, the, the next let's call it three to five years in your business? You can look out that far. >>Well, you know, I, I think that, um, they, our partners, um, and I, that, I mean, Dells and our mutual partners, you know, are, we've been listening to customers with Dell to deliver a flexible set of options for how customers would consume Equinex and Dell. So our partners are gonna be integrating a variety of those in order to meet the customer where they are in that journey, whether they wanna buy apex as a service, whether they wanna buy Equinex metal, whether they wanna have car some, uh, a partner put together, bespoke, do it yourself, combination with other services. Uh, I, I mean, the customers are going to demand a choice of options. I think partners are gonna embrace multiple versions of that so that they can, you know, to meet the customer where they are and take them >>Well, that's, that's incredibly important these days to meet customer where they are, the customers have a lot of choice. It is, but everything that we're all doing is for the customer, ultimately at the end of the day, <laugh> >>Yes, it, it, it, it is. And, and, you know, the customers are getting Savier, but we are all still early in this journey, as far as the edge, you know, I mean, I think we are all still, um, we're all still grappling at the, at for right now. We like to say that as customers are looking to define that the, the footprint that we offer together with Dell gives them an, an awfully robust set of choices for now. And then we wanna continue to invest and expand to be wherever they need us. >>Well, that's the thing about your business? It's it's optionality. I mean, you can't, I mean, the cloud has a lot of stuff, but you can't get everything you want in the cloud. You can, and you can put anything in your data center. That's, that's, you know, it, >>You can, but you may not know what you need yet. And so that's one of the things we spend a lot of time having our solutions, architects and our sales people together, but they'll talk about future proofing, their strategy. So future proofing, that combination of OnPrem and in an Equinex data center, and maybe some public and future proofing leveraging our fabric so that they might elect different SaaS space services or cloud based services a year to five years from now than the year, even thinking about today. And, and they may expand their edge over time, because they may, they may sort of see that as a, at the customer end point today, most businesses are still sort of using a footprint like ours as their edge, but that could change. And so we wanna be there when it does. >>Yeah. That's a great point because you don't wanna necessarily have to rip it out every cup of years. If you, if you, if you can have a, an architecture that can grow. Yeah, sure. You might want to upgrade it >>Well, and it's one, that's one of the most appealing things about services like metal, where they also, uh, they do sort of prevent that sort of rip and replace, but they also help people navigate the supply chain shortages that are going on right now. So this that's been, this has been a trying two years for supply chain shortages, and being able to take advantage of Dell equipment already staged at an Equinex data center and partners can then bring their customers a quicker immediate response. Have >>You also seen this? You mentioned the supply chain shortages, some of the many challenges that we've experienced in a last few years, how much of a factor has the great resignation been? The labor shortages, the cybersecurity skills gap on, on folks coming, Tolin saying help. We don't have the resources here to do this ourselves. >>We have been fortunate to, to not, to, to be, um, if you're asking about how the reservation has affected us as a company, no, >>Your customers >>Or customers that has oh, okay. Yes. So it is, it is a challenge for them, but it's an opportunity for our partners. So what I see there is it's been challenging for customers to hold onto that talent, but partners are filling that gap and we've access Aon fortunate to hold onto a lot of our best and brightest. And so we put them together with our partner and we try to help customers fill those gaps. >>Well, that's most important thing, filling those gaps. >>You, you ever been one in inside one of these ultra modern data centers? I have not, >>Not yet. >>It's pretty cool. Isn't it? I mean, >>Have you, have you ever had a tour of one? >>I I've never had a tour of an Equinix data center, but I've seen some modern data centers that will blow your mind. Well, >>I mean, they, they come with all the requisite, uh, bio and man traps and all of the bells and, and, and whistles that are actually the first slay of physical security. But then once you get into the data center, then we have sort, we get into the virtual and the digital security that you would expect. So it's, >>Yeah, it's good. And you know, it's not like you drive by the data center, it's a big sign. Here's the data center. It is kind of, you know, they're trying to stay a little hidden and then like, it's get in. It's like getting into fork knots. It's probably harder. And then, but then the it's, it's like this giant clean room, right? It's amazingly clean and just huge. >>There are all >>Your >>Mind. And inside this data centers, all the world's networks come together and peer, and then we have inside their, the, the most direct rom reps to the cloud. So you would expect there, there's a, there's a lot of wires and pipes running very neatly through a very secure, >>Clean systems and power system >>Environment. For sure. >>Amazing engineering. >>It is really >>A >>Tour. You should, you, if they do, you let people tour >>Your, I, I will bring both of you on a tour. Awesome. >>I, my guess >>Would love to. >>Yeah. Great. Sounds fantastic >>On that. So >>Last >>Couple, we'll bring a camera. <laugh> Oh, no, we're not allowed. Not today. >>No phones, no phones sequester. So what, what are some of the things that you're excited about seeing and hearing the next couple of days as this is the first time we've all gotten to be together in so long? >>So, um, well, you know, we are excited about the conversations that we're gonna have power of three that I was talking about. So, you know, we really pride ourselves on sort of having that combination add up to more, to benefit the customer. And so this will be sort of a coming out party of sorts for Equinex and Dell will meet with you almost 20 different global partners that are really important to both of us. So I am most excited about those conversations and about, uh, the education I'm gonna get on the ways they're thinking about integrating it differently, because that is good choice for the market. That is good choice for the customer set. So for the enterprises out there, so that I'm most excited about. Awesome. >>Sounds like tremendous opportunity, lots going on this week, but thank you for coming on, just talking An hour of Equinix and Dell better together, the way that your channel partner program is growing. And of course the momentum of the company will can't wait to see what happens next year. Thank >>You. Thank you. Well, we aim to deliver and thank you again for having us. Thanks, >>Jules. Our pleasure for Dave Volante. I'm Lisa Martin, and you're watching the cubes live coverage day one, Dell technologies world live from Las Vegas, stick around. We'll be right back with our next guest.

>> [Female VoiceOver] From the CUBE studios in Palo Alto in Boston, connecting with our leaders all around the world, this is a CUBE conversation. >> Hello and welcome to the CUBE conversation here in the Palo Alto studios, I'm John Furrier. Cloud Native News and industry coverage. There are two great guests here to break down what's going on in Cloud Native. we got Rancher Labs, Jim Sarale, Vice President of Global Channels and Alliances and Bryce Cracco Product Manager for NetApp HCI. Guys, thanks for coming on this breaking news around Cloud Native. I mean, this has been really all about Cloud Native for the past year and a half, but this year, certainly with the pandemic, the modern applications are being pushed out faster and faster. A lot of pressure. So congratulations on this announcement, Jim set us up. What is the News? I saw some articles, we've got a story get hit and SiliconANGLE. What's the news with NetApp with Rancher Labs? >> Yeah, thank you. And you're right, we are seeing a vast push with, with the crazy times that we're in right now, but the news really is, you know, Rancher formerly launching our OEM program and launching that with with our Marquee partner with NetApp, you know, when companies get to a certain juncture, you know, an OEM relationship and sometimes means just more of a marketing type relationship but as everybody knows, Rancher is, you know, one of the industry leading multicloud, multi Kubernetes cluster management solutions, open source. And you know, what that means is we're an agnostic play for, for those that are trying to leverage Kubernetes, we've talked with NetApp, we struck a deal with them for them to embed us on their HCI platform. And when you talk about our early in program and, and the things that it entails is really around, you know, how do you get contract vehicles to map go to market strategies? How do you get support, engineering, integration, development, all of those things align with partners. It's not an easy task. It's very important to the go to the kind of go to market strategy that we have. And I think, you know, not only with the market adoption around Kubernetes, Ranchers agnostic play in open source and then obviously, you know, Ranchers come a long way. Our products tried and true. We have nearly 500 customers. We're seeing those customers lean back into some of the OEMs and to the software vendors to have them do more and get them more, I guess, ready for the things that they're doing, an IT operations, how the have dev you know, the app DevOps folks are trying to do more and get applications to market faster. So we're really suited well for organizations like NetApp to take our technology bundle in it and really make it better for their customers experience. So the program allows for contract vehicles, direct integration, support, engineering, pricing, because not one size fits all. As you see the evolution from On-prem to cloud IoT Edge, a lot of different devices from 100s of dollars to 1000s. So Ranchers committed to making sure that we align our products and pricing to fit some of those low compute platforms and also be able to right size our business model to make them successful. >> Well, congratulations, I love the term OEM still kind of hangs around, I'm old enough to remember when it was actually equipment not software, original equipment manufacturer, which essentially, you're essentially letting NetApp embed your code into their equipment or their software. But this is the relationship of a channel and indirect channel for Rancher which you guys are launching, which is total validation. Appreciate that, I like to get into the NetApp side. Bryce, if you don't mind, because, you know, obviously cloud's not new to NetApp storage becoming more critical, hybrid clouds more important. Tell us about the transformation of HCI because I think this is where Kubernetes and it starts to fit in when you see the cloud native surge coming in. How are you guys looking at this opportunity? >> Yeah, you bet when you, when you look at it from a converged infrastructure or hyper-converged infrastructure or hybrid cloud infrastructure perspective. It's always been about simplicity, right. We're not doing anything in the HCI market in general that can't be otherwise done. It's just making it much simpler, reducing that that learning curve and reducing that time to value that our IT customers get. And so I think we saw it, you know, converged infrastructure and hyper-converged infrastructure, all start out with virtualization is kind of the top layer that's facilitated but now obviously Kubernetes is becoming table stakes in the enterprise. So I think we're seeing all the vendors in the space, put in some kind of automatic deployment of Kubernetes or some easier deployment of Kubernetes, making Kubernetes that top layer rather than just virtualization. And, you know, this is a really great opportunity for us at NetApp to be able to do that. Not only with just any Kubernetes package but one that's very well regarded and beloved in the DevOps communities and that's Rancher. So what we have here is kind of something that's great for IT, and really great for DevOps in terms of being able to centralize multi cluster management across a hybrid cloud ecosystem and really empower those DevOps teams, what they to do what they need to do but still keeping IT at the center of it. >> You know, it's interesting, you know, shift left for security DevOps here, DevSecOps, it's all kind of happening with software, software defined, software operated. This is what this is the new operating environment. What is the use cases that presents itself well for this is it from a customer standpoint? Is it they're looking for certain things when you look at the product definition, you say, okay we have NetApp, we have Rancher. Take me through that thinking, what's the customer use case? What are they getting out of this? >> Sure, I think there's a variety of use cases where you see Kubernetes coming into play. And one of the great things about NetApp HCI, is it's not just simple infrastructure but it's also very scalable infrastructure. So that's where a lot of these types of products fall down. As we get to such such a scale point they don't work because of our scalability and our ability to handle mixed workloads. We can really handle any number of use cases. So in a Kubernetes context, this could be anything from IT departments who are going to containerized applications for their own, you know, the applications that they themselves manage, like ERP systems and so forth that are starting to get containerized. It could also be for bespoke applications that the companies are writing themselves, the DevOps teams that actually write the code that makes the company work. And so there, there's kind of a wide variety of use cases in there that are starting to go to Kubernetes. If not there already, the DevOps teams largely are already using Kubernetes. And this is just a great way to centralize it on on one kind of easy button, but yet very scalable and highly performing infrastructure for that kind of consolidation. >> Jim, this is the holy grail we've you guys have been doing since the beginning of Rancher Labs, programmable infrastructure, infrastructure as code, you couldn't get any clear or here when you start to have mainstream, you know, programmable storage and still programmable networking. All of this is happening. This is what we had hoped for the world's now gone full containers. Now you've got Kubernetes and IDC still shows that the enterprises are only like 30 to 40%. Even deep in their toes in on containers. If that, so you see a coupe call and you see all that at VM world, you'll see that re-invent you're going to see mainstream IT, the classic IT with DevOps. What's your reaction to that? Because there this, you know, what's your, what's your what's your take on this? >> Yeah I think you're absolutely right, we are scratching the surface and I think that we will see IT really embrace, right. This, this becomes the opportunity for business enablement to take, to take shape across all different avenues, IT is building infrastructure and make it, you know, allowing compute to be available. And this is kind of, we'll see this surge, not just the IT operations but really having the different groups from app devs to the business line owners, to those pushing applications, understanding the entire ecosystem. You know, we're talking about NetApp and HCI today but you can think of cross the edge, data center edge cloud, retail point of sale systems, getting immediate updates, dealing with IT operations and the compute platforms. It's really just endless. And we're excited. I think the OEM program is going to allow companies like NetApp and in other verticals and industries to really take shape and take advantage of what Rancher's offering to help them be more efficient across what their critical business apps are trying to do. >> Well, congratulations on NetApp, they're very smart company. They've got savvy customers and they're very loyal. Bryce, with that in mind, what's been the reaction you laid out the use cases when you bring this to market with your customers and partners? What's the feedback thumbs up on this and what's the vibe? >> Yeah, we've had some really enthusiastic early reaction, a couple early customers looking at it. You know, it's been a lot of fun and people are really excited that one of the great things about doing this with Rancher is that it's, it's purely open source software. So, you know, our customers love that. It's, there's, it's kind of a low risk proposition for them. They're very well, well hedged they can push this button and get it started on their NetApp HCI with very little, very little lead up to that very little advanced knowledge and just kind of get started. It's actually there's no incremental costs to use it on NetApp HCI. It's just, if you want a joint support model that it, that that there's a fee. And so you can kind of think of it as an indefinite trial period in a way. And I think that's created a lot of early interest and I think yeah I think it's going to be a really great option for our customers. It's going to add a lot of value to the NetApp HCI product. And so far, everyone's been very excited about it. >> You know, I was talking with Dave Vellante, my co-host in the CUBE also does a lot of storage research, knows NetApp as well. We were also commenting about this dynamic and we kind of call this out in 2016 when VMware was having trouble with the cloud operations. And then they decided to get rid of everything and just partner with Amazon. Everyone's like, that's horrible. It's going to be terrible. They're going to lose all their customers but we pointed out and I think this is true here. And I want to get your reaction, both of you guys, if you don't mind commenting what turned out to be the case was is that there was a clear distinction and operator of infrastructure and software development environments with higher level cloud native services. And they're not necessarily competing directly. They're kind of coming together, this idea of operating infrastructure and IT concept when it goes software and goes cloud, it's not a win, lose dynamic. You have software and you get people often need to operate that either code it or run it. So at large scale, this is where HCI kind of fits in Bryce, right? I mean, because now you got the edge, it's more devices. I mean, this is more infrastructure to run. So more, more stuff you've got to operate all this stuff. It's not going to ever go away. You guys react to that. What do you think? >> Sure. Yeah, I think I mean, from a NetApp perspective our customers use all kinds of infrastructure. They use public cloud infrastructure and NetApp has a really great public cloud focused portfolio, around public cloud services. So that's certainly a market that would be playing in our customers use. And it's part of the landscape, as you say, edge, of course also, and you know, with this solution I think it fits right into that because Rancher becomes this kind of container orchestration control plane. That's hosted on an HCI but can span this hybrid multi-cloud and edge environment all from that kind of centralized location. >> I think the simplification of the workloads is a huge deal. Jim, your, your thoughts on this? I see you've got this great program. You have the OEM program and you got an indirect partner, rising tide floats all boats here with, with this market. What's your take? >> Absolutely. And what better way to launch this program with somebody like NetApp? So yeah, you know, Rancher from its inception has been an open source platform agnostic. I think that will help, you know, help us, not just us but NetApp and other OEM partners, depending on operating system, legacy systems, verticals, industries, we're all playing a part in it. On-prem cloud, hybrid cloud, you know, I think Ranchers really well suited, for this advancement strictly by the way that we've continued in our philosophy of building an open source agnostic platform to help organizations, OEMs, ISBs, cloud providers, you name it. I think that Rancher is really well suited for, you know, kind of taking this additional ride, if you will, right. We're seeing we're all seeing it. And as you pointed out, it's less than 30% adoption today. We're all hoping for that to increase exponentially. >> Yeah, when you go mainstream, you get a lot of issues. Bryce, final question on the news analysis here. Why Rancher Labs from a NetApp perspective, what was the what was the deciding factor for you guys? >> Well, they just made a lot of sense for us to partner with. Again, the open source nature of it and the free nature of it made it really low barrier to entry for our customers. We really liked that. We also like they're very open and agnostic approach. So, you know, nothing that we're doing here with Rancher has to be at the expense of any other relationships that we have. And that was really that was really an important consideration. You know, it's, it's a very low risk, low cost, easy to get going solution for our customers. And there's very, there's no fear of lock-in with it. And so it's basically just all potential upsides and no potential downsides. And I think it's a really great solution for both IT and for DevOps, which was really critical. >> Real quick question on the customer expectation. Are you guys going to support Rancher? How does a customer get impacted by this? Obviously NetApp has, has their own supporters or is there a joint support? Is you guys going to handle that? How does the customer deal with that touches? >> Yeah, that's, that's really the crux of the deal. There is NetApp is able to provide frontline support for our customers or NetApp HCI customers, if they've, if they've purchased the Rancher support package through NetApp, they can get support for it through NetApp. And we're able to pass tickets back and forth between the companies as needed. So you don't have to have any guesswork about where where the problem and the stack might lie. You just opened your support ticket with NetApp and we can make sure it gets resolved. So that's been a really great part of the deal. >> Well, gentlemen, thanks for coming on. Appreciate the news insight. I do want to ask one final question, while I got you both here. If you don't mind, as we come in to the end of the year 2020, what a crazy year it's been between the pandemic and just the just the shift and the massive sea change of how virtual virtualization, not, you know, server or storage virtualization, but you know, the virtual world we live in remote everything, pandemic, uncertainty the digital transformation is just full throttle just more and more pressure. As we come out of cloud native CUBE con and AWS reinvent, we had VM all this activity. What do you guys think of the most important stories that customers should pay attention to in cloud native? What's what's the high order bit? What's the one thing or two things that really are notable that people should pay attention to that's important? Bryce, we'll start with you. >> I think it's bringing Kubernetes into the mainstream, right? I mean, that's what we see happening. How do you do that in a way that continues to give DevOps the flexibility they need and empower them and the way that Kubernetes does, but but also brings it into the mainstream. That's what I think what everyone's trying to solve right now >> Jim, your take on the most important story people should pay attention to. >> I think the same, I think Kubernetes adoption and really getting that education and people up to speed to start making that transformation. You know, quicker and getting that adoption rate up. I think we'll see a lot of benefits. Like you said, remote virtual in Kubernetes is kind of that framework that needs to get out there, be prevalent and and all of us take advantage, and start working together. >> All right, we'll leave it there. Guys, congratulations on the deal. NetApp embedding Kubernetes and Rancher support inside their hyper-converged infrastructure HCI. Bryce, Jim, thanks for coming on the CUBE. >> Thank you. >> Okay, I'm John Furrier with CUBE conversation here in Palo Alto. Normally when we do these in person but it's remote with the pandemic, giving you the latest continuing the cube virtual coverage, here in Palo Alto. Thanks for watching. (gentle music)

>>from around the globe. It's the Cube with digital coverage of CONMEBOL. Future ready 2020. Brought to you by combo. >>Hi and welcome back. I'm Stew Minuteman, and we're at the Cube's coverage of Con Volt Future Ready. You've got the power panel to really dig in on the product announcements that happened at the event today. Joining me? We have three guests. First of all, we have Brenda Rajagopalan. He's the vice president of products. Sitting next to him is Don Foster, vice president of Storage Solutions. And in the far piece of the panel Mersereau, vice president of Global Channels and Alliances. All three of them with Conn Volt. Gentlemen, thanks all three of you for joining us. Exactly. All right, so first of all, great job on the launch. You know, these days with a virtual event doing, you know, the announcements, the engagement with the press and analyst, you know, having demos, customer discussions. It's a challenge to put all those together. And it has been, you know, engaging in interesting watch today. So we're going to start with you. You've been quite busy today explaining all the pieces, so just at a very high level if you put this really looks like the culmination of the update with Conn Volt portfolio new team new products compared to kind of a year, year and 1/2 ago. So just if you could start us off with kind of the high points, >>thank you still, yeah, absolutely exciting day for us today. You did comrade multiple reasons for that excitement and go through that we announced an exciting new portfolio today knows to not the culmination. It's a continuation off our journey, a bunch of new products that we launched today Hyper scaler X as a new integrated data protection appliance. We've also announced new offerings in data protection, backup and recovery, disaster recovery and complete data protection and lots of exciting updates for Hedwig and a couple of weeks like we introduced updates for metallic. So, yes, it's been a really exciting pain. Also, today happens to be the data, and we got to know that we are the leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for the ninth consecutive. I am so a lot of goodness today for us. >>Excellent. Lots of areas that we definitely want to dig deep in to the pieces done. You know, we just heard a little bit about Hedvig was an acquisition a year ago that everybody's kind of looking at and saying Okay, you know, will this make them compete against some of their traditional partners? How we get integrated in So, baby, just give us one level deeper on the Hedvig piece on what that means to the portfolio? Yeah, sure, So I >>guess I mean, one of the key things that the random mentioned was the fact that had hyper scale that's is built off the head Day files. So that's a huge milestone for us. As we teased out maybe 10 months ago. Remember, Tomball, Go on the Cube and talking about, you know, kind of what our vision and strategy was of unifying data and storage management. Those hyper hyper scale X applying is a definite milestone improving out that direction. But beyond just the hyper scale ECs, we've also been driving on some of the more primary or modern workloads such as containers and the really interesting stuff we've come out with your recently is the kubernetes native integration that ties in all of the advanced component of the head to distribute storage architecture on the platform itself across multi cloud and on premise environments, making it really easy and policy driven. Um, for Dev, ops users and infrastructure users, the tie ins applications from a group, Friction >>Great and Mercer. There's some updates to the partner program and help us understand how all of these product updates they're gonna affect the kind of the partnerships and alliances beasts that you want. >>Absolutely. So in the time since our last meeting that go in the fall, which is actually right after I had just doing combo, we spent a good portion of the following six months really talking with partners, understanding the understand the impact of the partner program that we introduced last summer, looking at the data and really looking at barriers to evolve the program, which fell around three difference specific. Once you bet one was simplicity of the simplicity of the program, simplicity of understanding, rewards, levers and so forth. The second was paying for value was really helping, helping our partners to be profitable around things like deal registration on other benefits and then third was around co investment. So making sure that we get the right members in place to support our partners and investing in practices. Another training, another enablement around combo and we launched in over these things last week is a part of an evolution of that program. Today is a great follow on because in addition to all of the program evolutions that we we launched last week now we have an opportunity with our partners to have many more opportunities or kind of a thin into the wedge to open up new discussions with our customers now around all of these different use cases and capabilities. So back to that simplification angle, really driving more and more opportunities for those partners toe specific conversations around use cases. >>Okay, for this next question, I think it makes sense for you to start. Maybe maybe Don, you can get some commentary in two. But when he's firstly the announcements, there are some new products in the piece that you discuss but trying to understand, you know, when you position it, you know, do you call the portfolio? Is it a platform? You know, if I'm an existing Conn Volt customer, you know, how do I approach this? If I use something like metallic, how does that interplay with some of the new pieces that were discussed today. >>Sure, I can take the business. I'm sure Don and mostly will have more data to it. The simplest way to think about it is as a port for you. But contrary to how you would think about portfolio as independent products, what we have is a set off data management services granular. We're very aligned to the use case, which can all inter operate with each other. So maybe launched backup and recovery and disaster recovery. These can be handled separately, purchased separately and deployed standalone or for customers who want a combination of those capabilities. We also have a complete data protection are fine storage optimization, data governance E discovery in complaints are data management services that build on top off any of these capabilities now a very differentiating factor in our platform owners. All the services that you're talking about are delivered off the same software to make it simpler to manage to the same year. So it's very easy to start with one service and then just turn on the license and go to other services so I can understand the confusion is coming from but it's all the same. The customer simplicity and flexibility in mind, and it's all delivered off the same platform. So it is a portfolio built on a single Don. Would you like to add more to it? >>Yeah, I think the interesting thing due to add on top of that is where we're going with Hedvig Infrastructure, the head of distributed storage platform, uh, to to run this point, how everything is integrated and feed and work off of one another. That's the same idea that we have. We talked about unifying data and storage manager. So the intricate storage architecture components the way data might be maneuvered, whether it's for kubernetes for virtual machines, database environments, secondary storage, you name it, um, we are. We're quickly working to continue driving that level of of unification and integration between the portfolio and heads storage, distribute storage platforms and also deliver. So what you're seeing today going back to, I think wrong his first point. It's definitely not the culmination. It's just another step in the direction as we continue to innovate and integrate this >>product, and I think for our partners what this really does, it allows them to sell around customer use cases because it'll ask now if I have a d. Our use case. I can go after just PR. If I have a backup use case, I can just go after backup, and I don't have to try to sell more than that. Could be on what the customer is looking for in parallel that we can steal these things in line with the customer use case. So the customer has a lot of remote offices. They want to scale Hedvig across those they want to use the art of the cloud. They can scale these things independently, and it really gives us a lot of optionality that we didn't have before when we had a few monolithic products. >>Excellent. Really reminds me more of how I look at products if I was gonna go buy it from some of the public cloud providers living in a hybrid cloud. World, of course, is what your customers are doing. Help us understand a little bit, you know, Mercer talked about metallic and the azure partnership, but for the rest of the products, the portfolio that we're talking about, you know, does this >>kind >>of work seamlessly across my own data center hosting providers Public Cloud, you know, how does this fit into the cloud environment for your customer? >>Yes, it does. And I can start with this one goes to, um it's our strategy is cloud first, right? And you see it in every aspect of our product portfolio. In fact, I don't know if you got to see a keynote today, but Ron from Johns Hopkins University was remarking that comment has the best cloud native architectures. And that's primarily because of the innovation that we drive into the multi cloud reality. We have very deep partnerships with pretty much all the cloud vendors, and we use that for delivering joint innovation, a few things that when you think of it from a hybrid customers perspective, the most important need for them is to continue working on pram while still leveraging the cloud. And we have a lot of optimization is built into that, and then the next step of the journey is of course, making sure that you can recover to the cloud would be it work load. Typically your data quality and there's a lot of automation that we provide to our solutions and finally, Of course, if you're already in the cloud, whether you're running a science parents or cloud native, our software protects across all those use cases, either true sass with metallic auto downloadable software, backup and recovery so we can cover the interest victims of actual presence. You. We do definitely help customers in every stage of their hybrid cloud acceleration journey. >>And if you take a look at the Hedvig protect if you take a look at the head back to, um, the ability to work in a cloud native fast, it is essentially a part of the DNA of that storage of the storage, right? So whether you're running on Prem, whether you're running it about adjacent, set up inside the cloud head, that can work with any compute environment and any storage environment that you went to essentially then feed, we build this distributed storage, and the reason that becomes important. It's pretty much highlighted with our announcement around the kubernetes and container support is that it makes it really easy to start maneuvering data from on Prem to the cloud, um, from cloud to cloud region to region, sort of that high availability that you know as customers make cloud first a reality and their organizations starts to become a critical requirement or ensuring the application of and some of the things that we've done now with kubernetes in making all of our integration for how we deliver storage for the kubernetes and container environments and being that they're completely kubernetes native and that they can support a Google in AWS and Azure. And of course, any on premises community set up just showcases the value that we can provide in giving them that level of data portability. And it basically provides a common foundation layer, or how any sort of the Dev ops teams will be operating in the way that those state full container state workloads. Donna Oh, sorry. Go >>ahead, mark area >>because you mentioned the metallic and azure partnership announcement and I just want to get on that. And one thing that run dimension, which is we are really excited about the announcement of partnership with Microsoft and all the different news cases that opens up that are SAS platform with Azure with office 3 65 and all of the great application stack it's on. If you're at the same time, to run this point. We are a multi cloud company. And whether that is other of the hyper scale clouds Mess GC, P. Ali at Oracle and IBM, etcetera, or Oliver, Great service writer burners. We continue to believe in customer choice, and we'll continue to drive unique event innovations across all of those platforms. >>All right, Don, I was wondering if we could just dig in a little bit more on some other kubernetes pieces you were talking about. Let me look at just the maturation of storage in general. You know, how do we had state back into containers in kubernetes environments? Help us see, You know what you're hearing from your customers. And you know how you how you're ready to meet their needs toe not only deliver storage, but as you say, Really? You know, full data protection in that environment? >>Certainly it So I mean, there's been a number of enhancements that happened in the kubernetes environment General over the last two years. One of the big ones was the creation of what the visit environment calls a persistent volume. And what that allows you to do is to really present storage to a a communities application. Do it be typically through what's called a CSR container storage interface that allows for state full data to be written, storage and be handled and reattached applications as you leverage them about that kubernetes. Um, as you can probably imagine that with the addition of the additional state full applications, some of the overall management now of stateless and state collapse become very talent. And that's primarily because many customers have been using some of the more traditional storage solutions to try to map that into these new state. Full scenario. And as you start to think about Dev ops organization, most Dev ops organizations want to work in the environment of their choice. Whether that's Google, whether that's AWS, Microsoft, uh, something that might be on Prem or a mix of different on Prem environments. What you typically find, at least in the kubernetes world, is there's seldom ever one single, very large kubernetes infrastructure cluster that's set to run, Dev asked. The way and production all at once. You usually have this spread out across a fairly global configuration, and so that's where some of these traditional mechanisms from traditional storage vendors really start to fall down because you can apply the same level of automation and controls in every single one of those environments. When you don't control the storage, let's say and that's really where interfacing Hedvig and allowing that sort of extension distribute storage platform brings about all of this automation policy control and really storage execution definition for the state. Full statehood workloads so that now managing the stateless and the state full becomes pretty easy and pretty easy to maintain when it comes to developing another Dev branch or simply trying to do disaster recovery or a J for production, >>any family actively do. That's a very interesting response, and the reality is customers are beginning to experiment with business. Very often they only have a virtual environment, and now they're also trying to expand into continuous. So Hedwig's ability to service primary storage for virtualization as well as containers actually gives their degree of flexibility and freedom for customers to try out containers and to start their contingent. Thank you familiar constructs. Everything is mellow where you just need to great with continuous >>Alright, bring a flexibility is something that I heard when you talk about the portfolio and the pricing as to how you put these pieces together. You actually talked about in the presentation this morning? Aggressive pricing. If you talk about, you know, kind of backup and recovery, help us understand, You know, convo 2020 how you're looking at your customers and you know how you put together your products, that to meet what they need at that. As you said, aggressive pricing? >>Absolutely. And you use this phrase a little bit earlier is to blow like flexibility. That's exactly what we're trying to get to the reason why we are reconstructing our portfolio so that we have these very granular use case aligned data management services to provide the cloud like flexibility. Customers don't have the same data management needs all the time. Great. So they can pick and choose the exact solution that need because there are delivered on the same platform that can enable out the solution investment, you know, And that's the reality. We know that many of our customers are going to start with one and keep adding more and more services, because that's what we see as ongoing conversations that gives us the ability to really praise the entry products very aggressively when compared to competition, especially when we go against single product windows. This uses a lot of slammed where we can start with a really aggressively priced product and enable more capabilities as we move forward to give you an idea, we launched disaster recovery today. I would say that compared to the so the established vendors India, we would probably come in at about 25 to 40% of the Priceline because it depends on the environment and what not. But you're going to see that that's the power of bringing to the table. You start small and then depending on what your needs are, you have the flexibility to run on either. More data management capabilities are more workloads, depending on what your needs will be. I think it's been a drag from a partner perspective, less with muscle. If you want a little bit more than that, >>yes, I mean, that goes back to the idea of being ableto simply scale across government use functionality. For example, things like the fact that our disaster recovery offering the Newman doesn't require backup really allows us to have those Taylor conversations around use cases, applications >>a >>zealous platforms. You think about one of the the big demands that we've had coming in from customers and partners, which is help me have a D R scenario or a VR set up in my environment that doesn't require people to go put their hands on boxes and cables, which was one of those things that a year ago we were having. This conversation would not necessarily have been as important as it is now, but that ability to target those specific, urgent use cases without having to go across on sort of sell things that aren't necessarily associated with the immediate pain points really makes those just makes us ineffective. Offer. >>Yeah, you bring up some changing priorities. I think almost everybody will agree that the number one priority we're hearing from customers is around security. So whether I'm adopting more cloud, I'm looking at different solutions out there. Security has to be front and center. Could we just kind of go down the line and give us the update as to how security fits and all the pieces we've been discussing? >>I guess I'm talking about change, right, so I'll start. The security for us is built into everything that we do the same view you're probably going to get from each of us because security is burden. It's not a board on, and you would see it across a lot of different images. If you take our backup and recovery and disaster recovery, for instance, a lot of ransomware protection capabilities built into the solution. For instance, we have anomaly detection that is built into the platform. If we see any kind of spurious activity happening all of a sudden, we know that that might be a potential and be reported so that the customer can take a quick look at air Gap isolation, encryption by default. So many features building. And when you come to disaster recovery, encryption on the wire, a lot of security aspects we've been to every part of the portfolio don't. >>Consequently, with Hedvig, it's probably no surprise that when that this platform was developed and as we've continued development, security has always been at the core of what we're doing is stored. So what? It's for something as simple as encryption on different volume, ensuring the communication between applications and the storage platform itself, and the way the distributors towards platform indicates those are all incredibly secured. Lock down almost such for our own our own protocols for ensuring that, um, you know, only we're able to talk within our own, our own system. Beyond that, though, I mean it comes down to ensure that data in rest data in transit. It's always it's always secure. It's also encrypted based upon the level of control that using any is there one. And then beyond just the fact of keeping the data secure. You have things like immutable snapshots. You have declared of data sovereignty to ensure that you can put essentially virtual fence barriers for where data can be transported in this highly distributed platform. Ah, and then, from a user perspective, there's always level security for providing all seeking roll on what groups organization and consume storage or leverage. Different resource is the storage platform and then, of course, from a service provider's perspective as well, providing that multi tenanted access s so that users can have access to what they want when they want it. It's all about self service, >>and the idea there is that obviously, we're all familiar with the reports of increased bad actors in the current environment to increased ransomware attacks and so forth. And be a part of that is addressed by what wrong and done said in terms of our core technology. Part of that also, though, is addressed by being able to work across platforms and environments because, you know, as we see the acceleration of state tier one applications or entire data center, evacuations into service provider or cloud environments has happened. You know, this could have taken 5 10 years in a in a normal cycle. But we've seen this happen overnight has cut this. Companies have needed to move those I T environments off science into managed environments and our ability to protect the applications, whether they're on premises, whether they're in the cloud or in the most difficult near where they live. In both cases, in both places at once, is something that it's really important to our customers to be able to ensure that in the end, security posture >>great Well, final thing I have for all three of you is you correctly noted that this is not the end, but along the journey that you're going along with your customers. So you know, with all three of you would like to get a little bit. Give us directionally. What should we be looking at? A convo. Take what was announced today and a little bit of look forward towards future. >>Directionally we should be looking at a place where we're delivering even greater simplicity to our customers. And that's gonna be achieved through multiple aspects. 1st 1 it's more technologies coming together. Integrating. We announced three important integration story. We announced the Microsoft partnership a couple of weeks back. You're gonna see us more longer direction. The second piece is technology innovation. We believe in it. That's what Differentiators has a very different company and we'll continue building it along the dimensions off data awareness, data, automation and agility. And the last one continued obsession with data. What more can we do with it? How can we drive more insights for our customers We're going to see is introducing more capabilities along those dimensions? No. >>And I think Rhonda tying directly into what you're highlighting there. I'm gonna go back to what we teased out 10 months ago at calm Bolt. Go there in Colorado in this very on this very program and talk about how, in the unification of ah ah, data and storage management, that vision, we're going to make more and more reality. I think the, uh, the announcements we've made here today let some of the things that we've done in between the lead up to this point is just proof of our execution. And ah, I can happily and excitedly tell you, we're just getting warmed up. It's going to be, ah, gonna be some fun future ahead. >>And I think studio in the running that out with the partner angle. Obviously, we're going to continue to produce great products and solutions that we're going to make our partners relevant. In those conversations with customers, I think we're also going to continue to invest in alternative business models, services, things like migration services, audit services, other things that build on top of this core technology to provide value for customers and additional opportunities for our partners >>to >>build out their their offerings around combo technologies. >>All right, well, thank you. All three of you for joining us. It was great to be able to dig in, understand those pieces. I know you've got lots of resources online for people to learn more. So thank you so much for joining us. Thank you too. Thank you. Alright, and stay with us. So we've got one more interview left for the Cube's coverage of con vault. Future Ready, students. Mannan. Thanks. As always for watching the Cube. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

(upbeat funk jazz music) >> Hello, and welcome to theCUBE Studios in Palo Alto, California for another CUBE Conversation, where we go in depth with thought leaders driving innovation across tech industry. I'm your host, Peter Burris. What does every CIO want to do? They want to support the business as it evolves and transforms, using data as that catalyst for better customer experience, improved operations, and more profitable options. But to do that we have to come up with a way of improving the underlying infrastructure that makes all this possible. We can't have a situation where we introduce more complex applications in response to richer business needs and have that translated into non-scalable underlying technology. CIOs in 2020 and beyond have to increasingly push their suppliers to make things simpler. And that's true in all domains, but perhaps especially storage, where the explosion of data is driving so many of these changes. So what does it mean to say that storage can be made more simple? Well to have that conversation we're going to be speaking with Eric Herzog, CMO and VP of Global Channels at IBM Storage, about, quite frankly, an announcement that IBM's doing to specifically address that question, making storage simpler. Eric, thanks very much for coming back to theCUBE. >> Great, thank you. We love to be here. >> All right, I know you got an announcement to talk about, but give us the update. What's going on with IBM Storage? >> Well, I think the big thing is, clients have told us, storage is too complex. We have a multitude of different platforms, an entry product, a mid-range product, a high-end product, then we have to traverse to the cloud. Why can't we get a simple, easy to use, but very robust feature set? So at IBM Storage with this FlashSystem announcement, we have a family that traverses entry, mid-range, enterprise and automatically can go out to a hybrid multicloud environment, all driven across a common platform, common API, common software, our award-winning Spectrum Virtualize, and innovative technologies around, whether it be cyber-resiliency, performance, incredible performance, ease of use, easier and easier to use. For example, we can do AI-based automated tiering from one flash array to another, or from storage class memory to flash. Innovation, at the same time driving better value out of the storage but not charging a lot of extra money for these features. In fact, our FlashSystems announcement, the platforms, depending on the configuration, can be as much as 50% lower than our previous generation. Now that's delivering value, but at the same time we added enhanced features, for example, the capability of even better container support than we already had in our older platform. Or our new FlashCore Modules that can deliver performance in a cluster of up to 17.2 million IOPS, up from our previous performance of 15. Yet, as I said before, delivering that enterprise value and those enterprise data services, in this case I think you said, depending on the config, up to as much as 50% less expensive than some of our previous generation products. >> So let me unpack that a little bit. So, historically, when you look at, or even today, when you look at how storage product lines are set up, they're typically set up for one footprint for the low end, one or more footprints in the mid-range, and then one or more footprints at the high-end. And those are differentiated by the characteristics of the technologies being employed, the function and services that are being offered, and the prices and financial arrangements that are part of it. Are you talking about, essentially, a common product line that is differentiated only by the configuration needs of the volume and workloads? >> Exactly. The FlashSystem traverses entry, mid-range, enterprise, and can automatically get you out to a hybrid multicloud environment, same APIs, same software, same management infrastructure. Our Storage Insights product, which is a could-based storage manager and predictive analytics, works on the entry product, at no charge, mid-range product at no charge, the enterprise product at no charge, and we've even added, in that solution, support for non-IBM platforms, again. So, delivering more value across a standard platform with a common API, a common software. Remember, today's storage is growing exponentially. Are the enterprise customers getting exponentially more storage admins? No. In fact, many of the big enterprises, after the downturn of '08 and '09 had to cut back on storage resources. They haven't hired back to how many storage resources they had in 2007 or '8. They've gotten back to full IT, but a lot of those guys are DevOps people or other functions, so, the storage admins and the IT infrastructure admins have to manage extra petabytes, extra exabytes depending on the type of company. So one platform that can do that and traverse out to the cloud automatically, gives you that innovation and that value. In fact, two of our competitors, just as example, do the same thing, have four platforms. Two other have three. We can do it with one. Simple platform, common API, common storage management, common interface, incredible performance, cyber-resiliency, but all built in something that's a common data management infrastructure with common data software, yet continuing to innovate as we've done with this release of the FlashSystem family. >> OK, so talk about the things that, common API, common software, also, I presume, common, the core module, that FlashCore Module that you have, common across the family as well? >> Almost all the family. At the very entry space we still do use interstandard SSDs but we can get as low as a street price for all-flash config of $16,000 for an all-flash array. Two, three years ago that would've been unheard of. And, by the way, it had six lines of availability, same software interface and API as a system that could go up to millions of dollars at the way high end, right? And anything in between. So common ease of use, common management, simple to manage, simple to deploy, simple to use, but not simple in the value proposition. Reduce the TCO, reduce the ROI, reduce the operational manpower, they're overtaxed as it is. So by making this across the portfolio with the FlashSystem and go out to the hybrid multicloud but bringing in all this high technology such as our FlashCore Modules and, as I said, at a reduced price to the previous generation. What more could you ask for? >> OK, so you've got some promises that you made in 2019 that you're also actually realizing. One of my favorite ones, something I think is pretty important, is storage class memory. Talk about how some of those 2019 promises are being realized in this announcement. >> So what we did is, when we announced our first FlashSystem family in 2018 using our new NVMe FlashCore Modules, we had an older FlashSystem family for several years that used, you know, the standard SaaS interface. But our first NVMe product was announced in the summer of 2018. At that time we said, all the way back then, that in early '20 we would be start shipping storage class memory. Now, by the way, those FlashSystems NVMe products that we announced back then, actually can still use storage class memory, so, we're protecting the investment of our installed base. Again, innovation with value on the installed base. >> A very IBM thing to do. >> Yes, we want to take care of the installed base, we also want to have new modern technologies, like storage class memory, like improved performance and capacity in our FlashCore Modules where we take off the shelf Flash and create our own modules. Seven year media warranty, up to 17.2 million IOPS, 17 mites of latency, which is 30% better than our next nearest competitor. By the way, we can create a 17 million IOP config in only eight rack U. One of our competitors gets close, 15 million, but it takes them 40 rack U. Again, operational manpower, 40 rack U's harder to manage, simplicity of deployment, it's harder to deploy all that in 40 rack U, we can do it in eight. >> And pricing. >> Yes. And we've even brought out now, a preconfigured rack. So what we call the FlashSystem 9200R built into the rack with a switching infrastructure, with the storage you need, IBM services will deploy it for you, that's part of the deal, and you can create big solutions that can scale dramatically. >> Now R stands for hybrid? >> Rack. >> Rack. Well talk to me about some of the hybrid packaging that you're bringing out for hybrid cloud. >> Sure, so, from a hybrid cloud perspective, our Spectrum Virtualize software, which sits on-prem, entry, mid-range and at the upper end, can traverse to a cloud called Spectrum Virtualize for Cloud. Now, one of the keys things of Spectrum Virtualize, both on-prem and our cloud version, is it supports not only IBM arrays, but through a storage virtualisation technology, over 450 arrays from multi-vendors, and in short our competition. So we can take our arrays, and automatically go out to the cloud. We can do a lot of things. Cloud air gapping, to help with malware and ransonware protection, DR, snapshots and replicas. Not only can the new FlashSystem family do that, to Spectrum Virtualize on-prem and then out, but Spectrum Virtualize coming on our FlashSystem portfolio can actually virtualize non-IBM arrays and give them the same enterprise functionality and in this case, hybrid cloud technology, not only for us, but for our competitors products as well. One user interface. Now talk about simple. Our own products, again one family, entry, mid-range and enterprise traversing the cloud. And by the way, for those of you who are heterogeneous, we can deliver those enterprise class services, including going out to a hybrid multi-cloud configuration, for our competitors products as well. One user interface, one throat to choke, one support infrastructure with our Storage Insights platform, so it's a great way to make things easier, cut the CAPEX and OPEX, but not cut the innovation. We believe in value and innovation, but in an easy deploy methodology, so that you're not overly complex. And that is killing people, the complexity of their solutions. >> All right. So there's a couple of things about cloud, as we move forward, that are going to be especially interesting. One of them is going to be containers. Everybody's talking about, and IBM's been talking about, you've been talking about this, we've talked about this a number of times, about how containers and storage and data are going to come together. How do you see this announcement supporting those emerging and evolving need for container-based applications in the enterprise. >> So, first of all, it's often tied to hybrid multi-cloudness. Many of the hybrid cloud configurations are configured on a container based environment. We support Red Hat OpenShift. We support Kubernetes environments. We can provide on these systems at no charge, persistent storage for those configurations. We also, although it does require a backup package, Spectrum Protect, the capability of backing up that persistent storage in an OpenShift or Kubernetes environment. So really it's critical. Part of our simplicity is this FlashSystem platform with this technology, can support bare metal workloads, virtualised workloads, VMware, HyperV, KVM, OVM, and now container workloads. And we do see, for the next coming years, think about bare metal. Bare metal is as old as I am. That's pretty old. Well we got tons of customers still got bare metal applications, but everyone's also gone virtualized. So it's not, are we going to have one? It's you're going to have all three. So with the FlashSystems family, and what we have with Spectrum Virtualized software, what we have with our container support, we need with bare metal support, incredible performance, whatever you need, VMware integration, HyperV integration, everything you need for a virtualized environment, and for a container environment, we have everything too. And we do think the, especially the mid to big accounts, are going to try run all three, at least for the next couple of years. This gives you a platform that can do that, at the entry point, up to the high end, and then out to a hybrid multi-cloud environment. >> With that common software and APIs across. Now, every year that you and I have talked, you've been especially passionate about the need for turning the crank, and evolving and improving the nature of automation, which is another one of the absolute necessities, as we start thinking about cloud. How is this announcement helping to take that next step, turn the crank in automation? >> So a couple of things. One is our support now for Ansible, so offering that Ansible support, integrates into the container management frameworks. Second thing is, we have a ton of AI-type specific based technology built into the FlashSystem platform. First is our cloud based storage and management predictive analytics package, Storage Insights. The base version comes for free across our whole portfolio, whether it be entry, mid-range or high-end, across the whole FlashSystems family. It gives you predictive analytics. If you really do have a support problem, it eases the support issues. For example, instead of me saying, "Peter send me those log files." Guess what? We can see the log files. And we can do it right there while you're on the phone. You've got a problem? Let's make it easier for you to get it solved. So Storage Insights across AI based, predictive analytics, performance, configuration issues, all predicatively done, so AI based. Secondly, we've integrated AI in to our Spectrum Virtualize product. So as exemplar, easier to your technology, can allow you to tier data from storage class memory to Flash, as an example, and guess what it does? It automatically knows based on usage patterns, where the data should go. Should it be on the storage class memory? Should it be on Flash core modules? And in fact, we can create a configuration, we have Flash core modules and introduce standard SSDs, which are both Flash, but our Flash core modules are substantially faster, much better latency, like I said, 30% better than the next nearest competition, up to 17.2 million IOPS. The next closest is 15. And in fact, it's interesting, one of our competitors has used storage class memory as a read cache. It dramatically helps them. But they go from 250 publicly stated mites of latency, to 125. With this product, the FlashSystem, anything that uses our Flash core modules, our FlashSystems semi 200, our FlashSystem 9200 product, and the 9200-R product. We can do 70 mites of latency, so almost twice as fast, without using storage class memory. So think what that storage class memory will offer. So we can create hybrid configurations, with StorageClass and Flash, you could have our Flash core modules, and introduce standard SSDs if you want, but it's all AI based. So we have AI based in our Storage Insights, predictive analytics, management and support infrastructure. And we have predictive analytics in things like our Easy Tier. So not only do we think storage is a critical foundation for the AI application workload and use case, which it is, but you need to imbue your storage, which we've done across FlashSystems, including what we've done with our cloud edition, because Spectrum Virtualize has a cloud edition, and an on-prem edition, seamless transparency, but AI in across that entire platform, using Spectrum Virtualize. >> All right, so let me summarize. We've got an absolute requirement from enterprise, to make storage simpler, which requires simple product families with more commonality, where that commonality delivers great value, and at the same time the option to innovate, where that innovation's going to create value. We have a lot simpler set of interfaces and technologies, as you said they're common, but they are more focused on the hybrid cloud, the multi-cloud world, that we're working in right now, that brings more automation and more high-quality storage services to bear wherever you are in the enterprise. So I've got to ask you one more question. I'm a storage administrator, or a person who is administering data, inside the infrastructure. I used to think of doing things this way, what is the one or two things that I'm going to do differently as a consequence of this kind of an announcement? >> So I think the first one, it's going to reduce your operational expenses and your operational man power, because you have a common API, a common software platform, a common foundation for data management and data movement, it's not going to be as complex for you to pull your storage configurations. Second thing, you don't have to make as many choices between high-end workloads, mid-range workloads, and entry workloads. Six lines across the board. Enterprise class data services across the board. So when you think simple, don't think simple as simplistic, low-end. This is a simple to use, simple deploy, simple to manage product, with extensive innovation and a price that's- >> So simple to secure? >> And simple to secure. Data rest encryption across the portfolio. And in fact those that use our FlashCore Modules, no performance hit on encryption, and no performance hit on data compression. So it can help you shrink the actual amount you need to buy from us, which sounds sort of crazy, that a storage company would do that, but with our data reduction technologies, compression being one of them, there's no performance hits, you can compress compressable workloads, and now, anything with a FlashCore Module, which by the way, happens to be FIPS 140-2 certified, there's no excuse not to encrypt, because encryption, as you know, has had a performance hit in the past. Now, our 7200, our 5100 FlashSystem, and our FlashSystem 9200 and 9200R, there's no performance on encrypting, so it gives you that extra resiliency, that you need in a storage world, and you don't get a non-compression, which helps you shrink how much you end up buying from IBM. So that's the type of innovation we deliver, in a simple to use, easy to deploy, easy to manage but incredible innovative value, brought into a very innovative solution, across the board, not just let's innovate at the high end or you know what I mean? Trying to make that innovation spread, which, by the way, makes it easier for the storage guy. >> Well, look, in a world, even inside a single enterprise, you're going to have branch offices, you're going to have local this, the edge, you can't let the bad guys in on a lesser platform that then can hit data on a higher end platform. So the days of presuming that there's this great differentiation in the tier are slowly coming to an end as everything becomes increasingly integrated. >> Well as you've pointed out many times, data is the asset. Not the most valuable one. It is the asset of today's digital enterprise and it doesn't matter whether you're a global Fortune 500, or you're a (mumble). Everybody is a digital enterprise these days, big, medium or small. So cyber resiliency is important, cutting costs is important, being able to modernize and optimize your infrastructure, simply and easily. The small guys don't have a storage guy, and a network guy and a server guy, they have the IT guy. And even the big guys, who used to have hundreds of storage admins in some cases, don't have hundreds any more. They've got a lot of IT people, but they cut back so these storage admins and infrastructure admins in these global enterprise, they're managing 10, 20 times the amount of storage they managed even two or three years ago. So, simple, across the board, and of course hyper multicloud is critical to these configurations. >> Eric, it's a great annoucement, congratulations to IBM to actually delivering on what your promises are. Once again, great to have you on theCUBE. >> Great, thank you very much Peter. >> And thanks to you, again, for participating in this CUBE conversation, I'm Peter Burris, see you next time. (upbeat, jazz music)

(funky music) >> Hello and welcome to theCUBE Studios in Palo Alto, California for another CUBE conversation, where we go in-depth with thought leaders driving innovation across the tech industry. I'm your host Peter Burris. Well, as I sit here in our CUBE studios, 2020's fast approaching, and every year as we turn the corner on a new year, we bring in some of our leading thought leaders to ask them what they see the coming year holding in the particular technology domain in which they work. And this one is no different. We've got a great CUBE guest, a frequent CUBE guest, Eric Herzog, the CMO and VP of Global Channels, IBM Storage, and Eric's here to talk about storage in 2020. Eric? >> Peter, thank you. Love being here at theCUBE. Great solutions. You guys do a great job on educating everyone in the marketplace. >> Well, thanks very much. But let's start really quickly, quick update on IBM Storage. >> Well, been a very good year for us. Lots of innovation. We've brought out a new Storwize family in the entry space. Brought out some great solutions for big data and AI solutions with our Elastic Storage System 3000. Support for backup in container environments. We've had persistent storage for containers, but now we can back it up with our award-winning Spectrum Protect and Protect Plus. We've got a great set of solutions for the hybrid multicloud world for big data and AI and the things you need to get cyber resiliency across your enterprise in your storage estate. >> All right, so let's talk about how folks are going to apply those technologies. You've heard me say this a lot. The difference between business and digital business is the role that data plays in a digital business. So let's start with data and work our way down into some of the trends. >> Okay. >> How are, in your conversations with customers, 'cause you talk to a lot of customers, is that notion of data as an asset starting to take hold? >> Most of our clients, whether it be big, medium, or small, and it doesn't matter where they are in the world, realize that data is their most valuable asset. Their customer database, their product databases, what they do for service and support. It doesn't matter what the industry is. Retail, manufacturing. Obviously we support a number of other IT players in the industry that leverage IBM technologies across the board, but they really know that data is the thing that they need to grow, they need to nurture, and they always need to make sure that data's protected or they could be out of business. >> All right, so let's now, starting with that point, in the tech industry, storage has always kind of been the thing you did after you did your server, after you did your network. But there's evidence that as data starts taking more center stage, more enterprises are starting to think more about the data services they need, and that points more directly to storage hardware, storage software. Let's start with that notion of the ascension of storage within the enterprise. >> So with data as their most valuable asset, what that means is storage is the critical foundation. As you know, if the storage makes a mistake, that data's gone. >> Right. >> If you have a malware or ransomware attack, guess what? Storage can help you recover. In fact, we even got some technology in our Spectrum Protect product that can detect anomalous activity and help the backup admin or the storage admins realize they're having a ransomware or malware attack, and then they could take the right corrective action. So storage is that foundation across all their applications, workloads, and use cases that optimizes it, and with data as the end result of those applications, workloads, and use cases, if the storage has a problem, the data has a problem. >> So let's talk about what you see as in that foundation some of the storage services we're going to be talking most about in 2020. >> Eric: So I think one of the big things is-- >> Oh, I'm sorry, data services that we're going to be talking most about in 2020. >> So I think one of the big things is the critical nature of the storage to help protect their data. People when they think of cyber security and resiliency think about keeping the bad guy out, and since it's not an issue of if, it's when, chasing the bad guy down. But I've talked to CIOs and other executives. Sometimes they get the bad guy right away. Other times it takes them weeks. So if you don't have storage with the right cyber resiliency, whether that be data at rest encryption, encrypting data when you send it out transparently to your hybrid multicloud environment, whether malware and ransomware detection, things like air gap, whether it be air gap to tape or air gap to cloud. If you don't think about that as part of your overall security strategy, you're going to leave yourself vulnerable, and that data could be compromised and stolen. So I can almost say that in 2020, we're going to talk more about how the relationship between security and data and storage is going to evolve, almost to the point where we're actually going to start thinking about how security can be, it becomes almost a feature or an attribute of a storage or a data object. Have I got that right? >> Yeah, I mean, think of it as storage infused with cyber resiliency so that when it does happen, the storage helps you be protected until you get the bad guy and track him down. And until you do, you want that storage to resist all attacks. You need that storage to be encrypted so they can't steal it. So that's a thing, when you look at an overarching security strategy, yes, you want to keep the bad guy out. Yes, you want to track the bad guy down. But when they get in, you'd better make sure that what's there is bolted to the wall. You know, it's the jewelry in the floor safe underneath the carpet. They don't even know it's there. So those are the types of things you need to rely on, and your storage can do almost all of that for you once the bad guy's there till you get him. >> So the second thing I want to talk about along this vein is we've talked about the difference between hardware and software, software-defined storage, but still it ends up looking like a silo for most of the players out there. And I've talked to a number of CIOs who say, you know, buying a lot of these software-defined storage systems is just like buying not a piece of hardware, but a piece of software as a separate thing to manage. At what point in time do you think we're going to start talking about a set of technologies that are capable of spanning multiple vendors and delivering a more broad, generalized, but nonetheless high function, highly secure storage infrastructure that brings with it software-defined, cloud-like capabilities. >> So what we see is the capability of A, transparently traversing from on-prem to your hybrid multicloud seamlessly. They can't, it can't be hard to do. It's got to happen very easily. The cloud is a target, and by the way, most mid-size enterprise and up don't use one cloud, they use many, so you've got to be able to traverse those many, move data back and forth transparently. Second thing we see coming this year is taking the overcomplexity of multiple storage platforms coupled with hybrid cloud and merging them across. So you could have an entry system, mid-range system, a high-end system, traversing the cloud with a single API, a single data management platform, performance and price points that vary depending on your application workload and use case. Obviously you use entry storage for certain things, high-end storage for other things. But if you could have one way to manage all that data, and by the way, for certain solutions, we've got this with one of our products called Spectrum Virtualize. We support enterprise-class data service including moving the data out to cloud not only on IBM storage, but over 450 other arrays which are not IBM-logoed. Now, that's taking that seamlessness of entry, mid-range, on-prem enterprise, traversing it to the cloud, doing it not only for IBM storage, but doing it for our competitors, quite honestly. >> Now, once you have that flexibility, now it introduces a lot of conversations about how to match workloads to the right data technologies. How do you see workloads evolving, some of these data-first workloads, AI, ML, and how is that going to drive storage decisions in the next year, year and a half, do you think? >> Well, again, as we talked about already, storage is that critical foundation for all of your data needs. So depending on the data need, you've got multiple price points that we've talked about traversing out to the cloud. The second thing we see is there's different parameters that you can leverage. For example, AI, big data, and analytic workloads are very dependent on bandwidth. So if you can take a scalable infrastructure that scales to exabytes of capacity, can scale to terabytes per second of bandwidth, then that means across a giant global namespace, for example, we've got with our Spectrum Scale solutions and our Elastic Storage System 3000 the capability of racking and stacking two rack U at a time, growing the capacity seamlessly, growing the performance seamlessly, providing that high-performance bandwidth you need for AI, analytic, and big data workloads. And by the way, guess what, you could traverse it out to the cloud when you need to archive it. So looking at AI as a major force in the coming, not just next year, but in the coming years to go, it's here to stay, and the characteristics that IBM sees that we've had in our Spectrum Scale products, we've had for years that have really come out of the supercomputing and the high-performance computing space, those are the similar characteristics to AI workloads, machine workloads, to the big data workloads and analytics. So we've got the right solution. In fact, the two largest supercomputers on this planet have almost an exabyte of IBM storage focused on AI, analytics, and big data. So that's what we see traversing everywhere. And by the way, we also see these AI workloads moving from just the big enterprise guys down into small shops, as well. So that's another trend you're going to see. The easier you make that storage foundation underneath your AI workloads, the more easy it is for the big company, the mid-size company, the small company all to get into AI and get the value. The small companies have to compete with the big guys, so they need something, too, and we can provide that starting with a little simple two rack U unit and scaling up into exabyte-class capabilities. >> So all these new workloads and the simplicity of how you can apply them nonetheless is still driving questions about how the storage hierarchies evolved. Now, this notion of the storage hierarchy's been around for, what, 40, 50 years, or something like that. >> Eric: Right. >> You know, tape and this and, but there's some new entrants here and there are some reasons why some of the old entrants are still going to be around. So I want to talk about two. How do you see tape evolving? Is that, is there still need for that? Let's start there. >> So we see tape as actually very valuable. We've had a real strong uptick the last couple years in tape consumption, and not just in the enterprise accounts. In fact, several of the largest cloud providers use IBM tape solutions. So when you need to provide incredible amounts of data, you need to provide primary, secondary, and I'd say archive workloads, and you're looking at petabytes and petabytes and petabytes and exabytes and exabytes and exabytes and zetabytes and zetabytes, you've got to have a low-cost platform, and tape provides still by far the lowest cost platform. So tape is here to stay as one of those key media choices to help you keep your costs down yet easily go out to the cloud or easily pull data back. >> So tape still is a reasonable, in fact, a necessary entrant in that overall storage hierarchy. One of the new ones that we're starting to hear more about is storage-class memory, the idea of filling in that performance gap between external devices and memory itself so that we can have a persistent store that can service all the new kinds of parallelism that we're introducing into these systems. How do you see storage-class memory playing out in the next couple years? >> Well, we already publicly announced in 2019 that in 2020, in the first half, we'd be shipping storage-class memory. It would not only working some coming systems that we're going to be announcing in the first half of the year, but they would also work on some of our older products such as the FlashSystem 9100 family, the Storwize V7000 gen three will be able to use storage-class memory, as well. So it is a way to also leverage AI-based tiering. So in the old days, flash would tier to disk. You've created a hybrid array. With storage-class memory, it'll be a different type of hybrid array in the future, storage-class memory actually tiering to flash. Now, obviously the storage-class memory is incredibly fast and flash is incredibly fast compared to disk, but it's all relative. In the old days, a hybrid array was faster than an all hard drive array, and that was flash and disk. Now you're going to see hybrid arrays that'll be storage-class memory and with our easy tier function, which is part of our Spectrum Virtualize software, we use AI-based tiering to automatically move the data back and forth when it's hot and when it's cool. Now, obviously flash is still fast, but if flash is that secondary medium in a configuration like that, it's going to be incredibly fast, but it's still going to be lower cost. The other thing in the early years that storage-class memory will be an expensive option from all vendors. It will, of course, over time get cheap, just the way flash did. >> Sure. >> Flash was way more expensive than hard drives. Over time it, you know, now it's basically the same price as what were the old 15,000 RPM hard drives, which have basically gone away. Storage-class over several years will do that, of course, as well, and by the way, it's very traditional in storage, as you, and I've been around so long and I've worked at hard drive companies in the old days. I remember when the fast hard drive was a 5400 RPM drive, then a 7200 RPM drive, then a 10,000 RPM drive. And if you think about it in the hard drive world, there was almost always two to three different spin speeds at different price points. You can do the same thing now with storage-class memory as your fastest tier, and now a still incredibly fast tier with flash. So it'll allow you to do that. And that will grow over time. It's going to be slow to start, but it'll continue to grow. We're there at IBM already publicly announcing. We'll have products in the first half of 2020 that will support storage-class memory. >> All right, so let's hit flash, because there's always been this concern about are we going to have enough flash capacity? You know, is enough going to, enough product going to come online, but also this notion that, you know, since everybody's getting flash from the same place, the flash, there's not going to be a lot of innovation. There's not going to be a lot of differentiation in the flash drives. Now, how do you see that playing out? Is there still room for innovation on the actual drive itself or the actual module itself? >> So when you look at flash, that's what IBM has funded on. We have focused on taking raw flash and creating our own flash modules. Yes, we can use industry standard solid state disks if you want to, but our flash core modules, which have been out since our FlashSystem product line, which is many years old. We just announced a new set in 2018 in the middle of the year that delivered in a four-node cluster up to 15 million IOPS with under 100 microseconds of latency by creating our own custom flash. At the same time when we launched that product, the FlashSystem 9100, we were able to launch it with NVME technology built right in. So we were one of the first players to ship NVME in a storage subsystem. By the way, we're end-to-end, so you can go fiber channel of fabric, InfiniBand over fabric, or ethernet over fabric to NVME all the way on the back side at the media level. But not only do we get that performance and that latency, we've also been able to put up to two petabytes in only two rack U. Two petabytes in two rack U. So incredibly rack density. So those are the things you can do by innovating in a flash environment. So flash can continue to have innovation, and in fact, you should watch for some of the things we're going to be announcing in the first half of 2020 around our flash core modules and our FlashSystem technology. >> Well, I look forward to that conversation. But before you go here, I got one more question for you. >> Sure. >> Look, I've known you for a long time. You spend as much time with customers as anybody in this world. Every CIO I talk to says, "I want to talk to the guy who brings me "or the gal who brings me the great idea." You know, "I want those new ideas." When Eric Herzog walks into their office, what's the good idea that you're bringing them, especially as it pertains to storage for the next year? >> So, actually, it's really a couple things. One, it's all about hybrid and multicloud. You need to seamlessly move data back and forth. It's got to be easy to do. Entry platform, mid-range, high-end, out to the cloud, back and forth, and you don't want to spend a lot of time doing it and you want it to be fully automated. >> So storage doesn't create any barriers. >> Storage is that foundation that goes on and off-prem and it supports multiple cloud vendors. >> Got it. >> Second thing is what we already talked about, which is because data is your most valuable asset, if you don't have cyber-resiliency on the storage side, you are leaving yourself exposed. Clearly big data and AI, and the other thing that's been a hot topic, which is related, by the way, to hybrid multiclouds, is the rise of the container space. For primary, for secondary, how do you integrate with Red Hat? What do you do to support containers in a Kubernetes environment? That's a critical thing. And we see the world in 2020 being trifold. You're still going to have applications that are bare metal, right on the server. You're going to have tons of applications that are virtualized, VMware, Hyper-V, KVM, OVM, all the virtualization layers. But you're going to start seeing the rise of the container admin. Containers are not just going to be the purview of the devops guy. We have customers that talk about doing 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 containers, just like they did when they first started going into the VM worlds, and now that they're going to do that, you're going to see customers that have bare metal, virtual machines, and containers, and guess what? They may start having to have container admins that focus on the administration of containers because when you start doing 30, 40, 50,000, you can't have the devops guy manage that 'cause you're deploying it all over the place. So we see containers. This is the year that containers starts to go really big-time. And we're there already with our Red Hat support, what we do in Kubernetes environments. We provide primary storage support for persistency containers, and we also, by the way, have the capability of backing that up. So we see containers really taking off in how it relates to your storage environment, which, by the way, often ties to how you configure hybrid multicloud configs. >> Excellent. Eric Herzog, CMO and vice president of partner strategies for IBM Storage. Once again, thanks for being on theCUBE. >> Thank you. >> And thanks for joining us for another CUBE conversation. I'm Peter Burris. See you next time. (funky music)

>> Narrator: Live from Denver, CO, it's theCUBE, covering Commvault GO 2019, brought to you by Commvault. >> Hey, welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of Commvault GO '19 from Colorado this year. I'm Lisa Martin with Stu Miniman, and we are excited to welcome a couple of new guests to theCUBE. One of them brand new to Commvault. We have Mercer Rowe, VP of Global Channels and Alliances. Mercer, welcome to Commvault and TheCUBE. >> Thanks so much. >> Lisa: And we've got Carmen Sorice III, pinky out, GTM Chief of Staff for Commvault. You're the veteran here. You've been there for a year. >> A whole year, yes. >> Lisa: Exactly. Guys, so much excitement in the last, you know, nine months since Sanjay Mirchandani took over. Analysts saying, hey Commvault, you've got to upgrade your sales. You've got to upgrade your marketing. You've got to shift gears and expand the market share, and we're seeing a lot of movement in all three of those directions. The channel is really critical for Commvault, Mercer. It's responsible for a significant portion of revenue. You guys have made some strategic changes there with respect to channels and alliances. First of all, before we get into that, you're brand new, brand, brand new to Commvault. What attracted you to this company that's 20 years old that, as Sanjay was telling us, it's like the new Commvault. >> So, if I look back at my career in the last 10 years or so, I've been in IT for about 20 years, for the last 10 years or so, I've been a part of launching cloud businesses for a number of some upcoming and some new vendors, such as VMware, IBM, SoftBank and others. And a lot of that, in that process, what I've been working on is helping existing customers to move their workloads into the Cloud. We know that the market is evolving to a hybrid Cloud type of deployment model. I mean we can see that across the board with the way our customers are behaving, with the way that the Cloud vendors are behaving. But that's been a challenge because of the technology matching, right? Figuring out how to essentially put the same technology stack in the Cloud as you do on-prem to be able to move those apps over. I really started to look for companies that could bridge that gap and it could really operate in a hybrid Cloud scenario. Commvault is absolutely positioned perfectly for that in my mind, and so it's such an opportunity as we shift from our kind of act one as a great data protection company to a true hybrid Cloud data platform or data plane. >> Yeah, Carmen, maybe give us a little bit of your insight as to some of those change in roles as Mercer was just saying. Cloud is having a huge impact. You know, we've watched, you know, for years the shifting role of the traditional VAR or SI or the like, so bring us a little bit of insight as to what, today, is important to your go-to-market. >> Yeah, so what's important to our partners, especially the VARS is continuing to be relevant with our customers, right? Change is the only constant, and it's, the rate of change is just accelerating. So partners are looking for vendor partners like us to help them be relevant, to come out with the solutions that are going to be more relevant, even tomorrow. And, from a Commvault perspective, if you think about everything we've done from a data backup and a data management perspective, we've been the best in the industry, as we've just seen with Gartner and Forrester. All right, so we're proud of that. But what our partners were looking for is, where are we taking this next? Where's the innovation going to come from? So when you weave in things like Metallic that now gives our partners a consumption option. So if they have customers that want to buy software as a service, they now have that option. And then when you add software-defined storage, it takes us in to a completely different area, and you had asked Stewart about the Cloud, when you think of Cloud native applications and you think of containerization, that's changing the way backup data and primary storage data is being managed and the lines are blurring. Now with Hedvig software-defined storage, we have an opportunity to come out with integrated offers to help our partners be even more successful. >> So from a go-to-market perspective, in the last year, there's been a lot transformation, right? Not just in terms of leadership changes, but this big focus on ensuring that, as customers' environments change in this hybrid multicloud world that they are living in whether it's by design or its by acquisition or different types of growth, right? Talk to us a little bit about how Commvault foundationally is set up to really make some big shifts and big bets in new routes to market. >> Yeah, I can take that from where we were a year ago 'til now and then feel free to expand. So when you look at, we've always been a partner business, a partner friendly business. A significant percentage of our revenue, like north of 90% goes through our partners. What our partners were asking for is, hey, you guys are partner friendly, but we need you to be partner driven. So, when you come up with solutions, make sure they're channel ready, make sure they're partner ready, make sure we have our eyes on the market so that we're not just trying to sell software to our partners. We need to better understand their go-to-market models, how can we help them grow their business by offering a different variety, a variety of different services. So I think the evolution you've seen is a year ago the company made significant investments on becoming partner-first. So we've invested in channel leadership, partner leadership, not only at the corporate level but also in the field, and since Sanjay came on board, as you referenced, in February, that change is just continuing. So we're making our next level of investment in channel executives, in executives period, who have context about what channel is. And when you've lived in the channel, you've dealt with channel conflict, you bring that to the table, you bring that experience to the table. So I think you're seeing an evolution of us in our next phase of investments, helping our partners be successful, and becoming partner-first, and we've done a lot of new things with our programs that I can get in to. Financial incentives, rebates, making it easier on our partner portal to interface with us. And we're going to continue to do that, so that's we're not only just the right product choice, we're the right financial choice for our partners going forward. >> And I think, to add to that, if you look at our Metallic launch, obviously the reason we work with partners is in service of our customers. Right, that's the whole reason we partner, it's 'cause we want to great a better value proposition for our customers. And when we launched that product, a little tid bit, the company did a lot of research. Went out and talked to non, not-current Commvault customers, so potentially new greenfield customers and consistently got the feedback that they wanted to buy softwares and service applications that like that through a partner, because they could have a conversation about their entire IT environment. So it's really exciting to be in a spot where we are not only partner-first, partner-led but we're in a position where we know that this is the way our customers want to interact with us. That's number one. Number two is as we start to make some of these transitions into SaaS as we move into adjacencies like we're doing with Hedvig, it's so important to have our partners be the tip of the spear to help our customers through that journey. You know, innovation is great, but innovation also creates complexity. That's where partners help us move our customers through that journey and be successful. >> You know, we were talking to one of your launch partners earlier today and they were very excited about Metallic. On the same hide they did recognize that there is a significant change as to how they have to engage, you know, what part of the organization. You know, it's a good thing they have a Microsoft practice that this plugs into for the O365. So, bring us a little bit as to how you're helping the channel transform. >> Oh, absolutely. So, as you can see, a lot of the partners, you can see a lot of them that are here today, have moved from being pure, say in the solution of outer space, just to use as an example have moved from pure solution providers to also having MSP offerings, or other kind of services offerings, because they realize that customers want the flexibility of consumption economics while also, you know, being able to work with their trusted partner. So whether it's them, whether it's service providers who we want to drive into more of a, as a service model, and obviously we're planning to release all of this technology to our service providers to allow them to offer Commvault-based or Commvault-powered services in the market, or whether it's our great alliance partners. Companies like Nedap and Hitachi, where we have OEM relationships or other kind of very deep, collaborative relationships in the market. Adding some of these features and functions and capabilities as we move, as we help our customers to move into the Cloud, as we help them to give them more options for these multicloud or hybrid deployment models. This opens up additional apertures, additional opportunities for services, for wholistic end-to-end solutions from these partners that actually increase their ability to be relevant with the customers but also the share wallet. >> I want to get your perspective, Mercer, on differentiation, because partners, your partners work with a lot of your competitors. We know that there's a lot of coopetition, right, in technology but what is it about some of the things that Commvault is putting in place or some ideas that you have to really differentiate how you're enabling partners, whether we're talking about a VAR or a Disty or all the way up to a global services systems integrator that can deliver massive enterprise scale. >> Yeah, I can start with that if you're okay. So, it's all about listening to partners, right? Listening to what they need and what they're asking you for. Because many times a vendor becomes vendor-arrogant, right? And you're not listening to the partners. So our partners have been clear. They said we want a predictable financial model with Commvault. What translates to a program that's a full year program that gives them financial incentives so they don't have to guess what we're going to do in any given month or any given quarter with some kind of SPIF. So we've delivered on that. They've asked, number two, they said, they've said to me, and you're going to be hearing this, is you've always had great products, please, that has to continue. That's like a ticket for entry. And we've seen that we continue to lead in that space. And then I mentioned earlier about innovation. They want to know that we're going to take them into the future. So those three things are really critical for our partners. And then the last thing they ask for, which is basically a foundation across that, is field engagement. We need to be more tightly engaged with your sellers, so that we go in on joint sales calls. That we're bringing each other opportunities, and I think with the new sales leadership we have, Riccardo Di Blasio, our new CRO, our boss knows full well how to grow businesses with partners and through partners and it's by engaging in the field. And that's why we're going to have more people in the field, so that we can engage with partners and create opportunities together. So those are kind of the four foundational elements that we see. >> Mercer, I was wondering if I could get your viewpoint just in general about the channel. There was a lot of fear for a number of years about, you know, the Cloud, coming in and that readjustment. How do you think it's going? What's the general, you know, feel of the channel today, and how their interaction is with, you know, that ever-changing interaction with the big public clouds. >> You know, it's a great question, and I remember when we were first launching the cloud business as VMware. I used to go to, I built our channel model but I would introduce myself in the partner meetings with, Hey, I'm from VMware Cloud. We're here to kill your business. (laughter) Because there was a fear. And that fear, I think, in a certain way, has kind of dissipated as the market has realized as partners and mostly from the customers have realized that there is not a one size fits all strategy. The Cloud is not the solution to all IT needs. It is certainly an important part of most customer's strategy, in fact, I don't think that there are many customers that don't have Cloud as a part of their overall IT strategy, however, it's not the entire environment, and it certainly doesn't solve all needs. So, from a general perspective, the savvy partners have embraced the Cloud, they've embraced services, and they've look at it as a wholistic part of how they do business with their end customers. 'Cause as we think about, you know, to the last question, as we think about partner profitability, I think about it in two main vectors. There's margin, field engagement, revenue, and so forth, which is very, you know, this is the financial element of working with a partner like Commvault to make money. And that's obviously a very important part and that's something we will continue to invest in. Programs, and so forth, to support our partners to be profitable working with Commvault. But the other is in the practices, in how they build services, in how they build end-to-end solutions. Which, another tidbit on Metallic that some people picked up on was that we've released the telemetry APIs. Meaning that partners who are working with Metallic can see exactly what their customers are using. How are they growing? Oh, they've all of a sudden backed up a new workload. Hey, maybe they have a new project. Maybe I should call them, so I'm not waiting until renewals. I'm not waiting until the sort of forcing events to have an opportunity to place a call into my customer and say, hey, I noticed you're doing something new. How can I help? >> That insight, and sorry Carmen, we were talking about that a little bit earlier, I think with maybe with Rob Kaloustian. That was really interesting, because it really it changes the word partner, right? It can't. Because if they're actually able to follow along and maybe even make some educated predictions or suggestions to the customer, then the customer feels like, okay, you're not only selling me this, you're actively helping me optimize my deployment, learn from it and plan for what's next. So that definition of partner changes for the better. >> And I think the whole SaaS model is like the next step beyond Cloud. So you were asking me about Cloud. Very briefly, the way I've seen it over the last probably seven to nine years is, I had billion dollar VARS tell me nine years ago, don't ever try to come in here and sell me a multi tenant cloud service, 'cause I'm selling hardware. That moved to, hey, you know what? We see the customers changing. I was with a service provider. Why don't you come help us? And then a couple of years later they said, you know what? We're kind of building our own service now, so we don't need your services anymore. So, in a few, you know, three to five years, they went from stay out, I'm never going to sell a multi tenant service to quickly, well maybe not so quickly, some not as quick as others, realize that they have to get there. I think SaaS is like the next step beyond that. >> Well in this business I think if that teaches anybody anything it's never say never. Right? >> That's right. >> Well guys, thank you so much for joining Stu and me, sharing with us how things are really transforming here, but also what you're doing for global alliances and channel to really catalyze Commvault's business. We appreciate it, and we say best of luck as you enter week three? >> Yes. >> Lisa: Or day three? >> Day three, day three. >> Lisa: Gentleman, thank you for your time. >> Great, thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. >> For Stu Miniman, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watchin' theCUBE from Commvault GO '19. (fast tempo music)

>> Live from Orlando, Florida It's the Cube covering Enterprise Connect twenty nineteen brought to you by five nine. >> Welcome back to Orlando, Florida. Lisa Martin. With the cues to minimum joining me, we are a day three of our coverage of enterprise connect nineteen. Thanks to our gracious hosts in the booth here, five nine, We're pleased to welcome from five nine to the program. Wendell Black, VP of Global Channels and international Business. Wendell, thank you so much for joining us today. >> Well, Lisa, thank you for having me on. >> I know you're a bit of a celebrity because you have now been a crn channel chief honoree three times, most recently last month. Congratulations. >> Well, thank you very much. It's absolutely a tribute to my team and the company's focus on building out our channel business over the last three years. So it's been, you know, a super time for five nights growth in this area on DH. It definitely is a team engage sport >> team that pulled you out of retirement. They're less >> Well, you know, we don't talk about that so much, but it is exciting to be back in the business and, you know, working here toe, you have to build something new for five nine and to help take us into the next Thira Business delivery and especially the expansion we're doing outside of North America. That's, uh, that's the really exciting part. >> So before we talk about the international peace, one of the things that's been really interesting to watch anybody that knows the channel is the cloud has had a dramatic effect on on them. If I walk around the show floor, many of the companies here in the channel that they did, where used to sell in boxes and then all I need to understand software and oh, jeez, this cloud, it's gonna put us out of a business. They'Ll all go direct, but I'm sure you've got a lot of perspectives on this. So maybe help walk us through some of that transformation. >> But it's interesting. I've been an evangelist in the cloud space since the late nineties senses peace. So we didn't call it cloud then it was multi tenant managed service technology. But you know, the really exciting part is, you know, the last four or five years when it really caught on and started to take off, you know, we've had a lot of good trailblazing companies out there that yo have won the minds of people for cloud and the C r m or the Air P and other spaces. Yeah, telecommunications is kind of the lagging, Uh, yeah. Technology area to be adopted, You know, his standards for cloud. But I believe today most buyers are trying to figure out why not cloud, rather than why go to cloud. And that's a game changer. >> Yes. Oh, I'm curious. Just from the channel perspective itself. We understand that customer journey, but the channel people was there. Do they have the skill set that they need to go? Was just some retraining. Was it partnerships like like yours, you know, how did that transition go? >> Yeah, that's a great question. And I really think that the channel has the skills. Yeah, they just have to adapt and re tune a little bit. Things just happen faster when you do the cloud and and we have get a MIDI discussions and experiences with partners where we're sitting around the table planning Ah, roll out. And you're just doing the basic discovery. And, you know, at the end of that, r P s team can say, Well, I've actually built it. Let me show you how it works, you know, rather than you know, the six month or twelve months rollout process that people were accustomed to in the past. So it's pretty exciting to be able to show people actionable results that kind of time frame very, very fun. >> Talk to us about the partnerships and the influence that your partners have had on such a big, successful close to f. Y eighteen. >> You know, the other partners were strong contributors in, you know, our cue for and we certainly value everything they're doing for us and with us out in the market are continuum of partners is get both in the master agent community. So referral oriented relationships where the five nine direct sales team is getting Carrie in the water and working with them to get a deal done, but also in our resale business. Uh, you know, it's great to see those partners doing more and more to build the business and their portfolio on DH delivered joint customers. So it's a very exciting, you know, kind of up lift everything we're doing. All right, >> So So Wendell, uh, one of things when we talked. A lot of companies, it's like, Well, there's North American. There's everything else I was promised by some of your team members. You can actually give us a little bit more granular view of, you know, Europe, Eastern Europe and some of the other global differences that are happening in the market Place would love if you could share some of your wisdom. It's >> your thing. And I believe that I don't want to be disparaging Tio my friends in Europe, but they're a little slower on the adoption rate. Um, it's interesting. In my history and contact center, there were times where Europe led the field with different technologies, and yet other times that they were kind of behind what North America was doing. Uh, this is one of behind times, and I think it is just, you know, an ongoing concern and their minds about you know, how security and management of a cloud based delivery model was going to affect their business and how they were going to be looked at by regulators. But I think we've overcome, uh, those hurdles and the last several years in twenty eighteen, our business in Europe doubled year over year. Uh, and it's inspired us God, ADM. Or sales and other departmental resource is in the region so that we can do that again here and twenty nineteen similar story in Latin America. And now there is, ah lot of growth, a lot of interest. And it's not just in the mid market anymore. We're talking big, big call centers on. They are all jumping on the bandwagon. Uh, for all of the economic reasons that people want to go to the cloud in the first place. You know it's less expensive to get started. You know, it's easier to be nimble and flexible and your staffing and costs, and, you know, they all need those benefits just as much as a mid market or s and be kind of a client. >> Well, dig in a little bit further, Wendell, on how five nine and your partners have helped some of these customers in Europe in Latin America become comfortable with. We need to move to the cloud and also help them understand some of the other implications. Besides costs and things like the opportunity to start taking advantage of a >> okay, Great, yeah, because in particular, one of our partners in the UK has specialized in the travel, vacation Liza kind of industry and yell when they work in those markets. Uh, distributed workforce is very much kind of the norm for them. And so, you know, one of their clients, in particular, has agents in the UK They have agents in Germany. They want to manage him, is a common group and be able Teo manage there, television advertising to be ableto staff and respond based on wherever the load is. You know, whenever things are going on in there, you know, marketing activity, that's that's a key flexibility win for them. And they get the right staff at the right time to be ableto you know, to cover the television advertising, which is pretty costly, but it's a big win for them. Gotta have that flexibility with five nine. >> You know, it's interesting. We actually have only talked a little bit this week about the distributed workforce, and I I'd love to get your perspective. You know, I think back there's, you know, a large apparel company in the Northeast that when they didn't have any of their agents, you know, in their headquarters, and, you know, it was something that got written up. You know when that had happened. So today you know what? What is that? That mix? And, you know, are there some geographic differences that you see in that? >> Yeah, there are some differences just based on the infrastructure that may be available. And, you know, we find that home based workforce is a little bit more challenging in Latin America than it is perhaps in Europe or in the US But then there's also cultural differences. Yeah, there are some countries that have actually regulate that employees have to show up in a physical building or you're violating the law because you might be taking advantage of your employees. So that's different. Different strokes for get up for different locations. We are finding it more and more desirable because of all the reasons that, yeah, I've been around for a long time. You can save on real estate. You can save on the wear and tear of your employees traveling, but probably the biggest one is the benefit of flex staffing that allows you to get the right number of people for a short shift to cover your peaks or your be ready for your valleys that you know if people have to drive to an office they're just not is likely to want to sign up for, But that business modeling is actually becoming more and more compelling. Driving around Orlando. You know, this week it was kind of a challenge. Get on I for and with the rain. And I'm sure there are a lot of people who want to be at home workers here, you know, based on the weather this week. >> Definitely. So this is the end of enterprise Connect Expo Hall anyway, today, three full days this Expo Hall one hundred forty vendors knew new products. New service is sixty five hundred attendees. So much excitement in this hot, hot contact center market. What are some of the things that excite you that you've heard from partners and customers that just think we're on the right track? The momentum, The wind is at our backs >> Well, and you mentioned a I and what do your earlier questions? And that's kind of the buzz. Everybody was to talk about automation and machine learning, and you can bring a I into, you know, interacting in the call center. I'm sure you've heard from other people that have been up here. The focus we see in the near term is on agent augmentation and, you know, enhancing. Yeah. Agent performance through those technologies on, you know, a lot of people would have approached this thinking like Ivy ours in the past. I can replace agents with interactive voice response. Well, we will. We want to make a smarter, better customer serving agent and bring that technology and to play to do it. That's to me. Going be the things I've been seen exciting new technologies that can be applied in real time transcription and Theo providing the ability to read that and data depth and serve things up for for agents to allow them, Tio go to be more on the ball, talking to a client. >> Yeah, that old mental Asian is definitely something that came up quite a bit. We even talked with your CEO, Rohan trollop about that and the importance of empathy and voice that as consumers I would love to know that you went to an augmented agent on the other end. Who knows? Okay, I understand the issue. I see how many times this person has reached out through different channels and they're actually going to use that technology to facilitate a resolution and hopefully drive up. See Elvi. >> I mean, that insight into the customer experience is key for the agent to be able to do Mohr and do it better. You know, we've been talking about that night of insight for years and years. You know, technology has caught up with desire. And so now that we have the technology to do it, you know, we can allow the agent focus more on their conversation with a customer and not have to be working the keyboard in order to retrieve the next thing that they need to take care of. And so better prepared agent, you know, knowing the background of the client, you know, is going to give them a much better experience. And, you know, that's what five nines trying to deliver in the market. >> We've heard that resoundingly throughout the re through your partners customers, and it's been fantastic. Wendell, congrats again on your three time channel, chief. Honoree. A record. And I'm sure there's got to be a fourth one around the corner. I won't jinx that, but I'm just gonna gas. >> Thank you. >> We thank you so much for your time. >> Appreciate it. >> Likewise forced to Mina. Man, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching the Cube?

>> Live from Orlando, Florida, it's theCUBE covering Enterprise Connect 2019, brought to you by Five9. >> Welcome back to Orlando, Florida. I'm Lisa Martin with Stu Minuteman and we are live on day one of Enterprise Connect 2019. You can hear a ton of people behind us at the expo centers it's getting busier and busier throughout the day. We're welcoming to theCube, for the first time, John Bourne, the Senior Vice President of Global Channels and Alliances at Verint. John thanks for joining us on theCube this afternoon. >> Thanks for having me. >> So I know we're in Five9's booth, so graciously hosting us this week. Verint is a partner of Five9, which we'll get into in a second. But give us a little bit about who Verint is, what your main brand is and how you're helping customers. >> Sure, so you know Verint has branded itself as a customer engagement company. We do employee and customer engagement solutions. We sit on top of CaaS like Five9, although Five9 is probably our biggest and most strategic partner in the space. And we provide everything end-to-end including work for software optimization, which was our legacy, but now we also provide digital feedback and outbound surveys and bots and AI and all the other things everyone else is talking about here as well. But the thing that makes us different is we're completely agnostic to the infrastructure that we sit on top of. And we'll mix and match pieces of our portfolio with the vendors pieces as well. And so we have an IVR but we don't use our IVR with CaaS vendors, for example, we use theirs. Just an example. >> What a pivot on the word legacy that you mentioned, because you have been to this event, which has been around for a very long time. Many, many years back when it was VoiceCon, so you've seen a lot of vendors that, probably, weren't even here five or 10 years ago. Tell us a little about the evolution and communication and customer experience as table stakes for a business. >> Let me talk about the industry for bit, because I'm fascinated by this. As an English guy, we don't get excited very often, but let me tell ya, it's really exciting times to be in this industry. I remember when we went from TDM to voiceover IP and that was the biggest thing that ever happened. If you think back to that, what's happening now, it's unreal. There are more vendors, more players, more solutions, more, more good stories that are talking about real customer outcomes today than there ever were before. You have to remember our industry is quite conservative. We're sort of laggers, quite conservative. We build bulletproof systems that work. And the phone always worked and dial tone was always there, but it's a whole new world, as you know. >> John, you bring up some great points here. I think about networking and telecommunications, we used to measure these things, you'd put it out in the decade of change. >> Absolutely. >> We'd go through this and then the standard rolls out and then the customer adoption. But you brought up this excitement here. When I look at my career, you scroll back a couple of decades ago, the importance of data, the importance of intelligence of the systems, we actually talked about some of those terms. It's different now. >> Very different. >> Maybe explain a little bit why it's so much different. Billions of customers out there, but why is it so exciting today. >> So, if you look at our industry, as far as- and even true for us, right? We really didn't even know who the customer was. We only cared about the interaction and we were building systems that would optimize the performance of the agent. Or we'd make sure there were enough agents with the right skills at the right time. It was all about agents and interactions. Now, we're seeing the confluence of customer engagement management, which means we're more integrated with CRM systems, we care about the customer's journey. So our perspective has changed, it's much more than just the agent. But we're not forgetting the agent. So, customer experience is very important, obviously, but so is the employee experience as well. It's both. We cater to both sides of that. >> When you're having customer conversations, I'm curious, where does that come up in terms of pivoting, or maybe over rotating towards improving customer experience? Because we have spent, historically, time ensuring that the agents are properly trained. Are they kind of over rotating back? Because they're so closely related. >> That's a great questions. Let's talk about how the buyer's changed, right? And you'll remember this. In the old days, you were selling to the techies or IT. Especially true with Five9 and many others, we're now selling to the business, we're selling business outcomes. They don't want to know about the technology underneath, they want to know what sort of experience their customer's going to have when they interact with them as a businesses. Providing the seamless journey regardless of the channel they're using. Voice is obviously still big, voice is not going away, no matter what anyone may tell you. Voice conversations are getting more complex but they're so much more self service now, both reactive and proactive. It's fun, but tying it all together, it's hard, it's hard. >> One of the things in this space, these are not push button simple solutions that are rolling out. When I talked to Five9 getting ready for this, they said, look, it's in the cloud and could someone do this on there, sure. But we white glove it, we really engage there. As a key partner of yours, how do you see that? Where does that tie into what Verint's doing? >> What we do with Five9, all of that technology is deployed, collocated with Five9's environment. It's the way we get the tighter integration. It's the way, when we're provisioning new tenets, so that everything gets done at the same time. It's not easier to do it that way. And again, I'll come back to the buyer, the buyer's the business and they're saying this is the outcome I want. And I just want to deal with one vendor and I want to pay per agent, per month for everything. That's the thing that's so different. It's an OpEx budget as well and that's where the world is going. I think perpetual licenses should be gone in the next two or three year, but they're still out there, they're still out there. >> One of the things I'm curious about is, we've been in this multichannel world, we're now in an omnichannel world that all of us as consumers are demanding. We want to be able to not just be able to talk to a contact center and agent on any channel we want, but want to have that conversation integrated so that there is progress from issue identification all the way to resolution. Where are businesses on that maturation of actually delivering an integrated omni channel experience? >> I think that's a really good question and I think that truth of it is it's still fairly early for most businesses. Because one, it's hard to do. If you look around the show, there are all sorts of vendors here who do one point solution, one piece. To make this work in a true integrated journey, the bots and the IVRs need to be communicating with the digital channels and email and chat and the self service channels on the web, as well as the voice. Because ultimately, what really matters to us as a consumer is when we do actually end up talking to an agent. We want them to know everything we've already done, and, quite frankly, we didn't really want to be talking to a live person unless we absolutely have to. Repeating all that is the biggest frustration out there. Getting all that tied together, that's what Verint does with Five9 together. That's really what makes us different and that's hard, it's hard. >> When you look at- these are business buyers, meaning to you, to deliver business outcomes, what are some of the key metrics that customers use? I mean when we think of context, we think of customer lifetime value, net promoter score. What are some of the key indicators that you help them? >> Those are exactly it. It's customer experience, it's however they decide to measure customer experience. It's like you said, some of them like a net promoter score, some of them have far more complex scenarios. It's all this stuff about average handle time, first time resolution, it's not important. It's all about what was the experience the customer had, was it seamless? Are they going to be loyal? But everybody measures it differently. It's not, from what I've seen anyway. >> John, one of the things I love coming to an event like this is you get to talk to some of the users and hear from some of the users. My understanding is Verint has some of your customers talking and sharing their journeys. Maybe give us a little insight into some of the flavor of what customers are going to be talking about here at the show this week. >> We have several customers that are doing sessions here. We've got, one of our customer's talking about what they're doing with speech analytics and the ability to understand the conversations that people are having. It wasn't that long ago you could go to our contact centers, supervisor, or a manager and say, well, what conversations are your agent having? I don't know, I don't care. That's all changed, now people really want to understand what are people talking about. The sentiment analysis is incredibly important, that's where things like speech analytics comes in. We've got other people here that are talking about the digital experiences, how they're marrying together the web interactions that customers have with their contact centers. A couple of years ago that never happened either. Contact centers were always very insular and were always the cost center. People of science realizing, intellectually they've always understood it, but somehow they haven't capitalized on the fact that the contact centers is the one place that is the face of the company for most consumers. And we need to get serious about them. >> Absolutely. Are you seeing this has a horizontal opportunity that lots of industries are taking advantage of? Or are there some early adopters who have really serious need to pivot quickly? >> Another really good questions. It is a very horizontal plane, but I'll tell you, the way the banks moved the big banks, the big insurance companies move, is different from maybe some of the smaller retail players. I think there are, even though the technology's the same, there still are some sweeps you can do. What people have on their desktop, what agents have on their desktops, for example, varies quite a bit. A lot of retail companies have Salesforce on their desktop, or Zendesk, or one of those types of products which, obviously, we all integrate with. The bigger companies are still running Legacy. The banks, the insurance companies, the telecos, they're running mainframes still in the background. There's all sorts of stuff on the agent's desktop. It's different, it's different. They're all active, I wouldn't tell you that there are any laggard industry verticals, but they're all coming at this at a different way. The banks especially need this. The insurance companies need this. Loyalty is so critical to them. And then retail, obviously they want to sell stuff. They want you to keep coming back and buy more stuff and they're competing with people like Amazon. Amazon does it really well. >> It's interesting, the question is, sometimes, if I'm a smaller or younger company that doesn't have all of the legacy, then a lot of times I have an opporutnity to be able to do things a new way. >> And that's the beauty about cloud, right? Now, probably for the first time ever I can be a relatively small contact center and I can get all this functionality and affordable price. I couldn't do that before because it was all premise based, it was big ticket, seven figure items, it's just not possible. Now, huge advantage for them now, huge advantage. >> Well John, thank you so much for joining Stu and me on theCUBE this afternoon and sharing what Verint is doing with Five9, and also the experiences and evolution that you're seeing in enterprise communication. We appreciate your time. >> Thank you very much for having me. >> For Stu Minuteman, I'm Lisa Martin, you're watching theCUBE. (electronic music)

>> Live from San Jose in the heart of Silicon Valley, it's theCUBE, covering DataWorks Summit 2018, brought to you by Hortonworks. >> Welcome back to theCUBE's live coverage of DataWorks here in San Jose, California. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight, along with my co-host, James Kobielus. We have with us Eric Herzog. He is the Chief Marketing Officer and VP of Global Channels at the IBM Storage Division. Thanks so much for coming on theCUBE once again, Eric. >> Well, thank you. We always love to be on theCUBE and talk to all of theCUBE analysts about various topics, data, storage, multi-cloud, all the works. >> And before the cameras were rolling, we were talking about how you might be the biggest CUBE alum in the sense of you've been on theCUBE more times than anyone else. >> I know I'm in the top five, but I may be number one, I have to check with Dave Vellante and crew and see. >> Exactly and often wearing a Hawaiian shirt. >> Yes. >> Yes, I was on theCUBE last week from CISCO Live. I was not wearing a Hawaiian shirt. And Stu and John gave me a hard time about why was not I wearing a Hawaiian shirt? So I make sure I showed up to the DataWorks show- >> Stu, Dave, get a load. >> You're in California with a tan, so it fits, it's good. >> So we were talking a little bit before the cameras were rolling and you were saying one of the points that is sort of central to your professional life is it's not just about the storage, it's about the data. So riff on that a little bit. >> Sure, so at IBM we believe everything is data driven and in fact we would argue that data is more valuable than oil or diamonds or plutonium or platinum or silver to anything else. It is the most viable asset, whether you be a global Fortune 500, whether you be a midsize company or whether you be Herzogs Bar and Grill. So data is what you use with your suppliers, with your customers, with your partners. Literally everything around your company is really built around the data so most effectively managing it and make sure, A, it's always performant because when it's not performant they go away. As you probably know, Google did a survey that one, two, after one, two they go off your website, they click somewhere else so has to be performant. Obviously in today's 365, 7 by 24 company it needs to always be resilient and reliable and it always needs to be available, otherwise if the storage goes down, guess what? Your AI doesn't work, your Cloud doesn't work, whatever workload, if you're more traditional, your Oracle, Sequel, you know SAP, none of those workloads work if you don't have a solid storage foundation underneath your data driven enterprise. >> So with that ethos in mind, talk about the products that you are launching, that you newly launched and also your product roadmap going forward. >> Sure, so for us everything really is that storage is this critical foundation for the data driven, multi Cloud enterprise. And as I've said before on theCube, all of our storage software's now Cloud-ified so if you need to automatically tier out to IBM Cloud or Amazon or Azure, we automatically will move the data placement around from one premise out to a Cloud and for certain customers who may be multi Cloud, in this case using multiple private Cloud providers, which happens due to either legal reasons or procurement reasons or geographic reasons for the larger enterprises, we can handle that as well. That's part of it, second thing is we just announced earlier today an artificial intelligence, an AI reference architecture, that incorporates a full stack from the very bottom, both servers and storage, all the way up through the top layer, then the applications on top, so we just launched that today. >> AI for storage management or AI for run a range of applications? >> Regular AI, artificial intelligence from an application perspective. So we announced that reference architecture today. Basically think of the reference architecture as your recipe, your blueprint, of how to put it all together. Some of the components are from IBM, such as Spectrum Scale and Spectrum Computing from my division, our servers from our Cloud division. Some are opensource, Tensor, Caffe, things like that. Basic gives you what the stack needs to be, and what you need to do in various AI workloads, applications and use cases. >> I believe you have distributed deep learning as an IBM capability, that's part of that stack, is that correct? >> That is part of the stack, it's like in the middle of the stack. >> Is it, correct me if I'm wrong, that's containerization of AI functionality? >> Right. >> For distributed deployment? >> Right. >> In an orchestrated Kubernetes fabric, is that correct? >> Yeah, so when you look at it from an IBM perspective, while we clearly support the virtualized world, the VM wares, the hyper V's, the KVMs and the OVMs, and we will continue to do that, we're also heavily invested in the container environment. For example, one of our other divisions, the IBM Cloud Private division, has announced a solution that's all about private Clouds, you can either get it hosted at IBM or literally buy our stack- >> Rob Thomas in fact demoed it this morning, here. >> Right, exactly. And you could create- >> At DataWorks. >> Private Cloud initiative, and there are companies that, whether it be for security purposes or whether it be for legal reasons or other reasons, don't want to use public Cloud providers, be it IBM, Amazon, Azure, Google or any of the big public Cloud providers, they want a private Cloud and IBM either A, will host it or B, with IBM Cloud Private. All of that infrastructure is built around a containerized environment. We support the older world, the virtualized world, and the newer world, the container world. In fact, our storage, allows you to have persistent storage in a container's environment, Dockers and Kubernetes, and that works on all of our block storage and that's a freebie, by the way, we don't charge for that. >> You've worked in the data storage industry for a long time, can you talk a little bit about how the marketing message has changed and evolved since you first began in this industry and in terms of what customers want to hear and what assuages their fears? >> Sure, so nobody cares about speeds and feeds, okay? Except me, because I've been doing storage for 32 years. >> And him, he might care. (laughs) >> But when you look at it, the decision makers today, the CIOs, in 32 years, including seven start ups, IBM and EMC, I've never, ever, ever, met a CIO who used to be a storage guy, ever. So, they don't care. They know that they need storage and the other infrastructure, including servers and networking, but think about it, when the app is slow, who do they blame? Usually they blame the storage guy first, secondarily they blame the server guy, thirdly they blame the networking guy. They never look to see that their code stack is improperly done. Really what you have to do is talk applications, workloads and use cases which is what the AI reference architecture does. What my team does in non AI workloads, it's all about, again, data driven, multi Cloud infrastructure. They want to know how you're going to make a new workload fast AI. How you're going to make their Cloud resilient whether it's private or hybrid. In fact, IBM storage sells a ton of technology to large public Cloud providers that do not have the initials IBM. We sell gobs of storage to other public Cloud providers, both big, medium and small. It's really all about the applications, workloads and use cases, and that's what gets people excited. You basically need a position, just like I talked about with the AI foundations, storage is the critical foundation. We happen to be, knocking on wood, let's hope there's no earthquake, since I've lived here my whole life, and I've been in earthquakes, I was in the '89 quake. Literally fell down a bunch of stairs in the '89 quake. If there's an earthquake as great as IBM storage is, or any other storage or servers, it's crushed. Boom, you're done! Okay, well you need to make sure that your infrastructure, really your data, is covered by the right infrastructure and that it's always resilient, it's always performing and is always available. And that's what IBM drives is about, that's the message, not about how many gigabytes per second in bandwidth or what's the- Not that we can't spew that stuff when we talk to the right person but in general people don't care about it. What they want to know is, "Oh that SAP workload took 30 hours and now it takes 30 minutes?" We have public references that will say that. "Oh, you mean I can use eight to ten times less storage for the same money?" Yes, and we have public references that will say that. So that's what it's really about, so storage is really more from really a speeds and feeds Nuremberger sort of thing, and now all the Nurembergers are doing AI and Caffe and TensorFlow and all of that, they're all hackers, right? It used to be storage guys who used to do that and to a lesser extent server guys and definitely networking guys. That's all shifted to the software side so you got to talk the languages. What can we do with Hortonworks? By the way we were named in Q1 of 2018 as the Hortonworks infrastructure partner of the year. We work with Hortonworks all time, at all levels, whether it be with our channel partners, whether it be with our direct end users, however the customer wants to consume, we work with Hortonworks very closely and other providers as well in that big data analytics and the AI infrastructure world, that's what we do. >> So the containerizations side of the IBM AI stack, then the containerization capabilities in Hortonworks Data Platform 3.0, can you give us a sense for how you plan to, or do you plan at IBM, to work with Hortonworks to bring these capabilities, your reference architecture, into more, or bring their environment for that matter, into more of an alignment with what you're offering? >> So we haven't an exact decision of how we're going to do it, but we interface with Hortonworks on a continual basis. >> Yeah. >> We're working to figure out what's the right solution, whether that be an integrated solution of some type, whether that be something that we do through an adjunct to our reference architecture or some reference architecture that they have but we always make sure, again, we are their partner of the year for infrastructure named in Q1, and that's because we work very tightly with Hortonworks and make sure that what we do ties out with them, hits the right applications, workloads and use cases, the big data world, the analytic world and the AI world so that we're tied off, you know, together to make sure that we deliver the right solutions to the end user because that's what matters most is what gets the end users fired up, not what gets Hortonworks or IBM fired up, it's what gets the end users fired up. >> When you're trying to get into the head space of the CIO, and get your message out there, I mean what is it, what would you say is it that keeps them up at night? What are their biggest pain points and then how do you come in and solve them? >> I'd say the number one pain point for most CIOs is application delivery, okay? Whether that be to the line of business, put it this way, let's take an old workload, okay? Let's take that SAP example, that CIO was under pressure because they were trying, in this case it was a giant retailer who was shipping stuff every night, all over the world. Well guess what? The green undershirts in the wrong size, went to Paducah, Kentucky and then one of the other stores, in Singapore, which needed those green shirts, they ended up with shoes and the reason is, they couldn't run that SAP workload in a couple hours. Now they run it in 30 minutes. It used to take 30 hours. So since they're shipping every night, you're basically missing a cycle, essentially and you're not delivering the right thing from a retail infrastructure perspective to each of their nodes, if you will, to their retail locations. So they care about what do they need to do to deliver to the business the right applications, workloads and use cases on the right timeframe and they can't go down, people get fired for that at the CIO level, right? If something goes down, the CIO is gone and obviously for certain companies that are more in the modern mode, okay? People who are delivering stuff and their primary transactional vehicle is the internet, not retail, not through partners, not through people like IBM, but their primary transactional vehicle is a website, if that website is not resilient, performant and always reliable, then guess what? They are shut down and they're not selling anything to anybody, which is to true if you're Nordstroms, right? Someone can always go into the store and buy something, right, and figure it out? Almost all old retailers have not only a connection to core but they literally have a server and storage in every retail location so if the core goes down, guess what, they can transact. In the era of the internet, you don't do that anymore. Right? If you're shipping only on the internet, you're shipping on the internet so whether it be a new workload, okay? An old workload if you're doing the whole IOT thing. For example, I know a company that I was working with, it's a giant, private mining company. They have those giant, like three story dump trucks you see on the Discovery Channel. Those things cost them a hundred million dollars, so they have five thousand sensors on every dump truck. It's a fricking dump truck but guess what, they got five thousand sensors on there so they can monitor and make sure they take proactive action because if that goes down, whether these be diamond mines or these be Uranium mines or whatever it is, it costs them hundreds of millions of dollars to have a thing go down. That's, if you will, trying to take it out of the traditional, high tech area, which we all talk about, whether it be Apple or Google, or IBM, okay great, now let's put it to some other workload. In this case, this is the use of IOT, in a big data analytics environment with AI based infrastructure, to manage dump trucks. >> I think you're talking about what's called, "digital twins" in a networked environment for materials management, supply chain management and so forth. Are those requirements growing in terms of industrial IOT requirements of that sort and how does that effect the amount of data that needs to be stored, the sophistication of the AI and the stream competing that needs to be provisioned? Can you talk to that? >> The amount of data is growing exponentially. It's growing at yottabytes and zettabytes a year now, not at just exabytes anymore. In fact, everybody on their iPhone or their laptop, I've got a 10GB phone, okay? My laptop, which happens to be a Power Book, is two terabytes of flash, on a laptop. So just imagine how much data's being generated if you're doing in a giant factory, whether you be in the warehouse space, whether you be in healthcare, whether you be in government, whether you be in the financial sector and now all those additional regulations, such as GDPR in Europe and other regulations across the world about what you have to do with your healthcare data, what you have to do with your finance data, the amount of data being stored. And then on top of it, quite honestly, from an AI big data analytics perspective, the more data you have, the more valuable it is, the more you can mine it or the more oil, it's as if the world was just oil, forget the pollution side, let's assume oil didn't cause pollution. Okay, great, then guess what? You would be using oil everywhere and you wouldn't be using solar, you'd be using oil and by the way you need more and more and more, and how much oil you have and how you control that would be the power. That right now is the power of data and if anything it's getting more and more and more. So again, you always have to be able to be resilient with that data, you always have to interact with things, like we do with Hortonworks or other application workloads. Our AI reference architecture is another perfect example of the things you need to do to provide, you know, at the base infrastructure, the right foundation. If you have the wrong foundation to a building, it falls over. Whether it be your house, a hotel, this convention center, if it had the wrong foundation, it falls over. >> Actually to follow the oil analogy just a little bit further, the more of this data you have, the more PII there is and it usually, and the more the workloads need to scale up, especially for things like data masking. >> Right. >> When you have compliance requirements like GDPR, so you want to process the data but you need to mask it first, therefore you need clusters that conceivably are optimized for high volume, highly scalable masking in real time, to drive the downstream app, to feed the downstream applications and to feed the data scientist, you know, data lakes, whatever, and so forth and so on? >> That's why you need things like Incredible Compute which IBM offers with the Power Platform. And why you need storage that, again, can scale up. >> Yeah. >> Can get as big as you need it to be, for example in our reference architecture, we use both what we call Spectrum Scale, which is a big data analytics workload performance engine, it has multiple threaded, multi tasking. In fact one of the largest banks in the world, if you happen to bank with them, your credit card fraud is being done on our stuff, okay? But at the same time we have what's called IBM Cloud Object Storage which is an object store, you want to take every one of those searches for fraud and when they find out that no one stole my MasterCard or the Visa, you still want to put it in there because then you mine it later and see patterns of how people are trying to steal stuff because it's all being done digitally anyway. You want to be able to do that. So you A, want to handle it very quickly and resiliently but then you want to be able to mine it later, as you said, mining the data. >> Or do high value anomaly detection in the moment to be able to tag the more anomalous data that you can then sift through later or maybe in the moment for realtime litigation. >> Well that's highly compute intensive, it's AI intensive and it's highly storage intensive on a performance side and then what happens is you store it all for, lets say, further analysis so you can tell people, "When you get your Am Ex card, do this and they won't steal it." Well the only way to do that, is you use AI on this ocean of data, where you're analyzing all this fraud that has happened, to look at patterns and then you tell me, as a consumer, what to do. Whether it be in the financial business, in this case the credit card business, healthcare, government, manufacturing. One of our resellers actually developed an AI based tool that can scan boxes and cans for faults on an assembly line and actually have sold it to a beer company and to a soda company that instead of people looking at the cans, like you see on the Food Channel, to pull it off, guess what? It's all automatically done. There's no people pulling the can off, "Oh, that can is damaged" and they're looking at it and by the way, sometimes they slip through. Now, using cameras and this AI based infrastructure from IBM, with our storage underneath the hood, they're able to do this. >> Great. Well Eric thank you so much for coming on theCUBE. It's always been a lot of fun talking to you. >> Great, well thank you very much. We love being on theCUBE and appreciate it and hope everyone enjoys the DataWorks conference. >> We will have more from DataWorks just after this. (techno beat music)

>> Announcer: Live, from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE. Covering Dell EMC World 2017. Brought to you by Dell EMC. (techno music) >> And welcome here on theCUBE to Dell EMC World 2017 live from the Sands Expo, along with Keith Townsend, I'm John Walls, and good to have you with us here on day three of what has been a fantastic show here for Dell EMC, mega show. 13,000 plus attendees, a lot of great announcements, and a lot of great guests we've had here on theCUBE. One of them joining us now, John Byrne who is the president of Dell EMC Global Channels, and a cover boy, I might add. This month's edition of CRN. John, you should have been in pictures, man. You look great on the cover, so congratulations on that big news. >> Thank you very much. >> Good to have you with us here on theCUBE. Tell us about your journey here, in the past couple of months. You watch the partners program, you bring Dell on one hand, you bring EMC on the other, bring it all together, how's it going so far? >> Well, like I said, the reaction has been spectacular. You know, almost extraordinary. When you think of our channel business now. Our channel business is some $35 billion. When you frame that, it's bigger than Facebook, bigger than Starbucks, bigger than Nike, growing faster than the market, the broadest portfolio in everything. You hear us talking about, we want to be number one of everything all in one place, and we have this wonderful partner ecosystem that is primed and ready to take advantage of this opportunity. So we set up a brand new team, and new strategy, new program, and our partners couldn't be more excited. The program is launched, based on three tenets, being simple, predictable, profitable, and you know, we're very, very pleased and very humbled with the momentum we've had. And look here, this has been built for our partner, but actually it's been built with the partner community in mind, and they can feel this and we're on a tremendous journey. Super exciting. >> Yeah, I like the fact, too, that, I mean you made no bones about it, profitable is not a dirty word, right? It's a very good word and a very real word. But back up a minute, you said new strategy. So you've been a channel guy basically your whole professional life. What experiences did you bring from 6that into this endeavor that you think have given it its own stamp, or its own unique distinction? Yeah, look, I remember running my own channel companies as if it was yesterday, and I remember I always had choices. And I wanted to work with people who were going to win, and people who you wanted to work with. So when we traveled the world to find what are partners like about heritage Dell, heritage EMC, what did they not like, more importantly,6 what was the best of breed in the planet? They were very consistent on three things. They wanted the program to be very simple. An annual program, take advantage of EMC's world class training capability. Take cost and friction out of my selling motion, i.e., one portal, one deal registration, automation of rebate, so I can see every week what have I sold, what are my earnings?6 'Cause I remember when I ran my own comp6any, I wanted to continually invest in the skill sets and the certification, but more importantly on the people. So having that consistency was something that came through loud and clear. Predictability of engagement. Ultimately, where do we want our channel partners to play, and how will we protect their investment, knowing that they have choices. And we spend a lot of time on our dealer registration. The third thing is, you're talking to a Scotsman, and profit is important. >> Scotsman? I thought it was a Texas accent. I wasn't sure-- >> Honestly, you sound like my father talking about my accent, John. But you know, we invested significantly in marketing development funds. We invested significantly in the rebate program, and our partners now can make anywhere between 1.5x to eight times what they made historically, based on the right behavior. So bringing my background and knowledge,6 those three things are critical, what we're doing. And of course, like our differentiation is going to be in execution, and the team is making great progress. >> So John, a lot of the angst and excitement, rather, between the merger of Dell EMC was with the channel. What was going to happen with the channel? What was going to happen with the channel? You guys have seemingly executed, seamlessly, rather, but a question around the relationship with the channel. One throat to choke versus the competition. The competition is shrinking, getting smaller, getting less complex, is the marketing term. How is the channel reacted to the new size of Dell EMC versus the competition shrinking? >> Yeah, that's a great question to ask there. That's the biggest endorsement that we could possibly have. Of course it was concern at the very beginning. They didn't know what was going to be the strategy. Both companies had done phenomenally well, and the channel, well the strategies look similar, but actually very different in detail. When you think Dell had many thousands of partners. EMC had hundreds of partners. The criteria on EMC's program from a revenue perspective was significantly more than it was in Dell. So a lot of concern. But the first thing we did, Keith, is l6ook, I pride the salesmen, we pride the sales6 on having big ears, and we travel the world. We travel the world and we listened. And then we came together very quickly. I think we only were born in September '16. Four weeks later, we announced, here's our vision, here's our strategy. Here's the team, here's the program. We're going to be implementing in February and we over-communicated with our partners. And as we were building this, or tweaking this and tweaking this, and it's amazing, you think we came together as one go-to-market motion in February. Within 90 days under our belt, like when I look at the leading indicators, how's the numbers? How's pay plane? How's the training? How's the self-indications? How's our services capability? How's our acquisition? And when I started to see those scoreboards light out green, the partners can see line-of-sight to it. the feedback from the partners is, like, they cannot believe that a 35-billion channel business moving at this speed together and executing the way we are as one team, is taking a lot of the noise out of the system, and they can see line-of-sight to money. >> So wait, I wanted to drill down on that a bit. $35 billion channel business. Next biggest competitor is, I think, a company called HPE. Their market cap is only $30 billion compared to your revenues. What's the significance of that from a customer and channel perspective? >> Look, it's not for me to talk about the competition. You know, I think when I look at the hand that we have, I think taking us private, allowing us to invest significantly in the future has helped us greatly. I think expanding $4.5 million in R and D, which is double the competitor you just mentioned, to allow us to have a product portfolio that dominates Gartner's magic quadrants, to allow us to invest in the business. Look, this is only going to go one way, however, I want to be very clear, we're the dark horse. Don't let $35 billion scare people. Like we only have low double digit share, but with a portfolio, with the partner community, with the program, look this is going to be like a skyrocket and the partners can feel it. >> So on that, yeah, I mean, you bring dark horse, we all know that the conventional definition of dark horse, right? Long shot, no shot, but $35 billion, it's pretty hard to fly under the radar, honestly, right John? >> Yes it is, it is. But I also want to include, that we have big visions. We have big dreams. We want to be the number one channel put in the industry. We want to be the number one, the biggest, and the best. Not the best, not the biggest, not the biggest, not the best. We want to be the biggest and the best. When we're talking to our partners right now, look, we've had them here, would you believe, it's been four and a half thousand partners here this week? We had a Global Partners Summit. It was standing room only, with the four and a half thousand. Actually, we had to go overflow rooms to get our partners coming in here. And those partners are feeding back to us, I'm almost scared to mention the number, how big this could be, but a discussion we're having with partners is not how do we grow up market? Or how do we grown a little bit above market. The discussion with the partners is how do we double? >> So with that said, Michael has talked an awful lot about the small overlap between Dell, Dell EMC, 20%, only 20% overlap, has the channel realized a new opportunity because of that limited overlap? >> Again, the leading indicator is look, we asked the partners for four things, as we build this program, and it's a rich program, and intentionally done so. We asked them for four things, we want you to grow your top line. We want to be aggressive and attack the market, however, I also wanted to make a lot of money. Profit is important. From our company to the partner community to the distributors. The second thing is, we want them to sell much more of our portfolio. You heard I'm sure, the past couple of days the four transformations. Building the modern data center. Our partners have the capability to sell much more lines of business than they are today. The third thing is, we want to be aggressive and acquire new customers, acquire new lines of business, and also attach services. Like if we spend a lot of time talking about hardware, but you're also hearing us talk about our services capability. That is a pot of gold for our partners if they do this, it's going to light up. So does our partner see this opportunity? Are they leaning in at getting more training, more certifications, oh, absolutely. >> So, let's talk about training because that's the critical part. Dell EMC is mind-mindbogglingly huge. So when I'm a channel, if I'm a channel engineer and I look at the portfolio, and I go onto a customer's site, how do I wrap my arms around just the size of it? I'm not in the mothership of Dellenium, see I don't have all of the, well, in theory, I don't have all of the back channels to the solutions. How do keep, how do you keep the channel up to speed? >> Yeah, great question. Actually, I'll give you some data points. Would you believe that at Dell Technologies, we have 40,000 sales makers who are trained and certified to sell our portfolio. That's quite a startling number, right? However, when you look at our partner community, who also do the same training and certification, we have 129,000 people trained in our partner community. That is a sales army of 169,000 people, trained and certified to go on attack, not only today but attack the future transformations. So what we've done, is we basically led a training that our own team does, our partners do it. We've also centralized all of our training. It's all on one portal. Clearly articulating, if you want to go by product, here's a by product, if you want to go by transformation, here's a by transformation. You want to do it by services, here's the services. And look, I think the other thing they're finding is it has real equity to the person doing the training. It's developing their career. You go to the LinkedIn, the explanation, we are Dell EMC certified trainers. That is exciting, to sell the products portfolio on the planet. >> So this is the program you launched early February, right? So, as you said, 90 days in. With any new program, though, you're going to hit speed bumps along the way, right? You're going to find some wrinkles, you're going to find some things you need to, what would that be in your mind? You said, okay, this is something, it's all going well in one respect, and it sounds great, but there is some polish that we still need. Where would that be right now? >> Oh, no question. Are you kidding me, 90 days in? >> All right. >> What the team and the partner community have done in 90 days is extraordinary, I mean, truly, truly extraordinary, however, they recognize we're going at tectonic speeds. But we have to. The channel is nimble, it's agile, it's got a different pulse, it's got a different heartbeat, but we're being very authentic on the journey. So when we brought the four and a half thousand, we talk about, look at some of the wins that are already on the board. And I'm telling you, we could have spent a full 90 minutes just talking about the wins that we found the first 90 days. The program has launched fantastically well, but with the bums in the road. But our partners understand that because we're being very authentic, and you know, they're part of the team, they're part of the family. What will define us is not that we're going to make mistakes, we will make mistakes, in life you make mistakes, in business you make mistakes. What will define us is how we react to those mistakes. Are we always there? Are we being true to our commitment? Are we staying very consistent. And the feedback from the partner community has been, yes. And the progress we're making, and look we are definitely not done. I mean, you think 90 days in, then fast forward, we are now full strength coming into the program. We spoke about consumption models coming in, flex on demand, cloud flex, PCs and service, VDI complete. They also asked us to simplify our MDF gate lanes. Done. So, you know, we're moving at the speed of light, and it is a lot of fun. >> Well, it makes sense. I mean, easier, simple, predictable, profitable, and I think you certainly hit a home run with that mantra, and obviously with the program, as well. So, congratulations on that. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for being with us here on theCUBE. >> My pleasure, John. >> It's always nice to add a different accent, don't you think, Keith? >> Thank you Keith, thank you very much. >> Yes, sir, thank you. >> John Byrne from Global Channels and Dell EMC, and we'll be back with more from Dell EMC World 2017, live in Las Vegas, right after this. (techno music)

>> Voiceover: It's theCUBE, covering SAPPHIRE NOW. Headline sponsored by SAP HANA Cloud, the leader in platform as a service, with support from Console, Inc, the cloud internet company. Now here are your hosts, John Furrier and Peter Burris. >> Okay, we are live back here at SAPPHIRE NOW. This is SiliconANGLE Media's flagship program, theCUBE, where we go out to the events and extract the signal from the noise, and I want to do a shoutout to our sponsors that helped us get here and present the great content, SAP HANA Cloud Platform, Console, Inc, Capgemini, EMC, thank you very much for the sponsoring. I'm John Furrier with Peter Burris. Our next guest is Rodolpho Cardenuto, who is the President of Global Channels company wide for SAP, as well as the general business, which is the SME as they talk about in the industry. Welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you, John, thank you, Peter. Good to be here. >> So one, congratulations. We've had a lot of your folks on theCUBE and this area of the floor is buzzing with action, but real meat on the bone, as we say. It's real, it's a sizzle and the steak is here, so they had beer here yesterday, so German company, so we always like to see the Heineken beer out here. >> Peter: (mumbles) back here. (Rodolpho laughing) >> It was good to have Heineken out there, it's good, some good beer. So give us the update. I mean, you guys have had growth. Share with us and the folks watching, just from where you guys have come from, because SAP has always had a strong ecosystem. You go back to the ERP days back in the late '90s, certainly that revolution is 25 years ago when SAP came out of the woodwork and you got Oracle, all these companies were born. They had an ecosystem, they had people deploying and delivering software. It's changed now, so the dynamics are different. Talk about the dynamics and some of the growth that you guys have. >> I think it's better to position the organization, GB, as you've well said, general business, the SME space. Our ecosystem that we built historically was very focused on the enterprise to support the business suite and to support the enterprises to implement, et cetera, and now we are building in the last 10 years, we started to build a very focused, strong ecosystem, ecosystem for the SME space, that's why we're doing it, and I was just sharing with you, we just kicked off SAPPHIRE NOW last Monday with 2,000 of our partners with us, kicking off the SAPPHIRE, 2,000 of GB partners that serve this segment for us. >> So I said yesterday in the close, and I mentioned this to you, you correct me, I want to get this out there and then can clarify the record, I said that you bolt on the partner summit with the end user conference, which is a huge show, 25,000 plus, whatever the number is, massive, why everyone is here is what makes sense, and I was saying that this is being so important that you should break out your own partner event so people feel like a first-class citizen in that partner world, and you had to correct me. So share the correction that you guys do partner events, (mumbles) the big tent event, so why not have everything here for that? But you guys are doing events. Just clarify that. >> Just to give you an idea, I said we came up from the partner summit last Monday with 2,000 of our partners kicking off the SAPPHIRE NOW, but we do have a partner summit here in North America in the US. We have partner summits in Latin America. By the way, the next one is going to be in Punta Cana, (speaking Spanish) we have partner summits in Europe, APJ, Greater China, we do have a series of partner summits-- >> Do you do those partner summits in native tongue, or can theCUBE come there? >> The native tongue, that cannot, if I speak, yes. (John and Peter laughing) >> We have to get a whole new crew for theCUBE. We're looking for some hires down there, if you're watching, since now you brought that up. Okay, so let's get down and dirty. Channels are great. The leverage of channels, the leverage of the cost per order dollar for SAP, from your perspective, it's phenomenal, and that's great business, indirect sales combined with direct sales, phenomenal approach. What's changing, though? Because at the end of the day, people in the channel have an attitude of, "What's in it for me?" They're running a business. They also serve on the front lines with customers. What's changed in the channel today? Is it the same challenges, training, product? Is it different? Do you see different configurations? >> Well, it's changing a couple of things, and I'll try to summarize here, but the fundamentals are changing from on-prem to cloud, because we were, you very well said, historically an on-prem company, the fundamental of the on-prem are changing now to the fundamentals, the economics are changing from on-prem to the cloud, and the second thing is specialization. We were a company that was built on the ERP, and now we are a company as you saw here from Bill McDermott to Rob Enslin, Bernd Leukert, et cetera. We are (mumbles) HCM, Ariba, or supply manufacturer SRM, or CEC, so we have a lot of specialization. So the economics are changing for the channel as much as they are changing for us, and the specialization. You require a lot of specialization. One of the things that we are hear, listening clearly from our customers, is the specialization with integration. You saw, you'll hear from Bill McDermott and Rob Enslin and Bernd Leukert talking today about this integration, and we are doing a lot of our effort, with our channels also, to specialize, but at the same time to integrate them with SAP core. >> So there's something in application development that's been around for probably 40, 50 years called Conway's law, which suggests that the application that gets built is, or the complexity of the application that gets built is a reflection of the complexity of the organization that built it. When we talk about all enterprises of all sizes wanting simpler, faster, more integrated, more convenient, more natural to use, a lot of your partners are at the vanguard of thinking about how to make it simple because they don't have the institutional and organizational complexity to make it complex. >> Rodolpho: Yeah. >> So, is SAP learning from your partners as opposed to just your partners learning from SAP as we move into this digital world that has such a focus and emphasis on simplification? >> Peter, a great insight. I think that now only learning, we have to listen to them and react to that, because if we react in a complex way to serve our partners, they cannot serve our customers, because in the end, they're serving our customers, and as you said, they don't have the infrastructure or they cannot afford complexity, period. They cannot afford. So they need to be simple by nature, and if we are complex to serve them, they're not going to work with us. They're going to pick another one, the application and everything, so we need to build an organization that is fast and agile and is simple enough to work with our channels. I'm not saying we are there. We're not there yet. But we are in our... For instance, our theme is partners first, run light, and win together. Partners first is all about the partners. Everything that I do in my organization, all programs, products, solutions, is with the partner mentality. Is this good for the partner? Is this good with business models, simple enough for them-- >> John: It's a business partnership. >> And is it partner ready? Because if it's not partner ready, it doesn't fit my model. Run light is about the customer, and win together, it's SAP, the partner, and the customer. The customer should be comfortable enough that we are serving them with this partnership. >> Take us through some meetings internally at SAP, because that's a really great point. You got to meet the channel's requirements on how they do business, because they have a business and you have a partnership. So that means you're the favorite guy in town inside the company. Hey, here's my product. Go sell it through the channel. >> Rodolpho: Yes. (Rodolpho laughs) >> I'm oversimplifying, I'm not saying they said it, but that's the knee jerk reaction. >> That's the historical norm. >> That's a historical norm, "Hey, boom, here's the product. "Go just do some training." >> Keep her. >> But now you have to hold the line. You're the safeguard for the customer. So what are some of those conversations? Because you now have to be a forcing function to the product groups, and we've so much transformation, SAP S/4 HANA, HANA Cloud Platform, all these enabling technologies is a gold rush for the partners. So you have to hold the line. Share some internal color. You won't get in trouble. >> No, no, and I have no problem being in trouble, but I'm going to illustrate that with a simple case you just mention, S/4 HANA. S/4 HANA is the flagship of a product for the large enterprise. You saw Nestle up today with Rob Enslin. Nestle, one of the largest corporations in the world, 350,000 employees, $80 billion worth of, pretty large, pretty large by any metric, pretty large, and they use S/4 HANA. My job, and I have an organization, my organization, we package, we price, we enable, and we support the channel to sell and to support the S/4 HANA for the SME market. We are 60% of the S/4 HANAs for SAP. If you get all the S/4 HANAs, 60% goes through the channel that we manage. So, we package-- >> Peter: Is that the number of installations? >> Yeah, yeah, 60% of the S/4 HANAs today that we sold are sold through the channels that we manage in the SME, in the GB space. So that's the job. It's my job to package, to price-- >> John: You're giving money away. You're handing people money. Here, here's some business. >> It's my job to package, to price, to enable the channel, and to support the channel, to actually make S/4 HANA available for the GB space. So that's what we do. So we do that two folds. Of course, I have an organization to do that and I have it also to educate the other organizations. As you said, "Oh, here's my product. "It's perfect for SME. "Go and sell." Okay, let's have a conversation. Let's package, let's price-- >> Is the channel ready? >> Exactly. >> So run light, that means it's got to be turnkey. >> Yeah, we call it the package, price, enable, and support, because you need a different package, it needs to be much more simpler than the enterprise. You cannot go to a Chinese menu for the GBs, so it has to be templates. Price, very specific price for the GB. It needs to enable the channels. Who's going to enable the channel? Technically, pre-sale, sales, et cetera. And we need to support a channel once they sell or during the process. This is my organization, that's why I educate the other organizations. >> So there is not a company on the planet that has mastered the fine art of reaching-- >> Other than us? >> Other than you. Well, you said you got more work to do. (Rodolpho laughs) There's not a company on the planet, you're getting closer, that has mastered the fine art of reaching the general business population of companies. Increasingly also, as we move more into digital business, your biggest customers want to use software in digital interfaces and technologies to reach their small, medium sized business customers. Are they coming to you and saying, "How can we start bringing your platform, "your go-to business, and coupled with our SAP back end "to facilitate the process of helping to reach..." In other words, are you going to be able to catalyze a global change in the approach to reaching small businesses because of the SAP platform? >> Well, I don't know if we can do that, but I think it's a good vision for us to pursue, Peter. We do have an organization that has inside sales, digital sales, social sales, we use social to reach out to our customers. We use digital to reach out to our customer who have feet on the street, direct sales. We have our 12, today, I think 13,000 partners, ecosystems that reach also to our customers, and they are divided by territory, by industry, by solution, so we can map, get the world and map it by territory, by solution, by industry, the partners that we have, and we use a lot of our new methodologies and our social sales, digital sales, a lot of things. So we are building the infrastructure to support any kind of the products from SAP. We are very well serving them support for you, for the market, from SAP, so we have a lot to digest. >> So one of the things, we talked about, a lot of channel partners, SIs down to the ISVs-- >> Resellers. >> DABs, VARs, as you call, and we hear the following from them. I want to get your take on this and how you're addressing this. "We want a partner that's going to be with us "from cradle to grave, through the life cycle "with our partnerships," the things you said. The other thing that was interesting was, "We want to increase our gross profit," and services is 100% gross profit, so me as the partner, I make money on professional services, whether that's quick fix in the old days or architecting clouds, integration, so that's a big part of their revenue. So they want to make money, that's code word for money. So how will you guys shift in the economics to enable the partners to wrap their own unique services. It certainly makes sense in foreign markets, but across the globe, that's a big challenge. How are you rolling out for them, at the same time, bringing the big accounts to them? So how are you enabling me to wrap my services around them? >> And that's (mumbles) going back to your point or to your first question when I said the economics are changing, so we need to follow up the new economics. The channels, as you said, they make a good part of their business is about implementation. Once you go to the cloud, though, this part of the business reduces by one third, because in the cloud, you have less of a share of this service. So the service share is reduced by one third. So what you need to do is to compensate that with what we call an ARR, annual recurrent revenue, from the cloud. So we are building business model, and I launched that last Monday, our cloud business partner new business model, which is give the partners a ARR, annual recurrent revenue, because service is good because it's recurrent revenue. Once you sign a service SLA, a service contract, you don't have anything, but you have a recurrent revenue with that, but this is going to be reducing in a cloud, so we will compensate that, and that's the idea-- >> So you're shifting the dollars into the same consumption model, the cloud, with some sort of subscription-like or recurring revenue model. >> I'm willing to cut a share of my revenue with my partners, from the cloud. >> Well, you might be able to get it back longer term, but it's that up front. >> Yes, yes. >> Peter: So typically you sell up front, you pay for the sales guy up front, and a lot of these partners say, "I can afford to wait for the--" >> Now it's more of a recurrent revenue battle, so I'm willing to get a share of that to split that with my partner for more business. >> So you're financing their business model transition? >> Rodolpho: That's it, yeah. Transition, that's the word. >> Their fear that this transition, because they're on paper, they're getting cut, so they have to have an immediate pop, change, so you're financing that over the long term for the relationship. >> Well we are willing to have this conversation, and the new business models that we are developing, and we introduce it here, they actually address that in a very, very programmatic way. It's not a one-by-one, it's not opportunistic, and by the way, you said the channels, we are getting channels, we have only 15% of our business from the channel. My business, only 15% is opportunistic, that you come with a transaction, 85% is predictable. 85% is loyal, it's about loyalty. >> Great base. >> Exactly, I want to invest in the channels that are here for the long run. >> Peter: So it will support that business model transition? >> Yes, yes. >> So that's a good loyal base, so they probably give you very candid feedback. >> Yes, please. >> What did they say, no they do, if you have a loyal base, they'll tell you the truth, right? What are they saying? What's the feedback on the new business model? What are some of the examples? >> After I presented on stage and we had the conversation, I had, as you can imagine, a dozen conversations with specific partners that are willing to adopt and sign off. It's just for us to start to roll out, of course, to roll out the new business models you need to think about countries, a lot of the other specifics, but we expect in the next six month to have the whole world covered. >> That's great, and you have the events coming. Thanks for clarifying that. Well, we really appreciate (mumbles), coming on theCUBE and sharing your insights. >> Thank you. >> You're very dynamic, and great guest to come on theCUBE, certainly, we'd love to have you again, and if you need us down in the other summits, let us know. >> Rodolpho: It would be my pleasure, thank you. >> We'd be happy to bring theCUBE. Channel is big, the ecosystem is a competitive advantage, and you guys are looking good as they off the T. This is theCUBE here, live in Orlando. I'm John Furrier with Peter Burris. You're watching theCUBE. We'll be right back. (light techno music) >> Voiceover: There'll be millions of people in the near future that want to be involved in their own personal well being and in wellness. Nobody wants...