>> From around the globe it's theCUBE with digital coverage of IBM Think 2021 brought to you by IBM. >> Welcome to the theCUBE's coverage of IBM think 2021, the digital experience. I'm Lisa Martin. I've got two guests here with me next. We're going to be talking about IBM and Cisco. Please welcome Candace Tripp, a partner at Global Security Services Alliances at IBM. Kandyce, it's great to have you on theCUBE. >> Thank you. It's great to be here, Lisa. >> And Erin Jensen joins us as well. Global Partner Executive for IBM at Cisco. Erin, welcome to you as well. >> Yeah, thanks for having me. >> I love it, three women, power women on a tech panel. >> I know, I love it. >> Isn't that nice? It's rare. >> It is. >> Exciting. >> Praise God. All right, let's go ahead, Erin and we're going to start with you. Let's talk about Cisco's strategy and security and how that aligns with IBM. >> Absolutely. Thanks Lisa. So Cisco in the last seven years have made considerable amount of investment in our portfolio. And in fact, it's one reason why I joined Cisco. I've been hearing about customer problems across many security threat vectors and issues. And customers are really looking for a product portfolio that helps them across all their security needs. IBM has taken a similar approach, right? We're not just one product or one service. IBM also has a service portfolio that helps customers through the long haul and their security journey. We're both working to solve problems like Zero Trust, SAS, Cloud security, and helping all of our customers with digital transformation and moving to the cloud. And so both of us have really taken a similar long-term approach to our customer vision and security. >> We've heard a lot about security challenges and the expansion of threat vectors and surfaces and data in the last year or so. So that double-down focus from both IBM and Cisco on security is absolutely critical for customers. Kandyce, let's get your perspective now. Talk to me about IBM security services and the value that it delivers with Cisco's security portfolio, those two powerhouses together. >> Yeah. Great question. I really appreciate it. One of the things I want to point out is just that IBM security services is one of the largest MSPs in the industry. And I think it's a really exciting time and I'm very thrilled to be a part of that. And the answer to your question, we simplify security solutions, we reduce risk, we provide architectural consulting and systems integration. And we do that in support of our partnerships, just like with Cisco, with Cisco, excuse me. So I think it's a really exciting partnership and there's a lot of value provided. >> And then Kandyce also, you recently launched IBM security services Alliance program. What can you tell us about that? >> Yeah, absolutely. So I'm very excited about it. We launched it on March 1st of this year. And it is a very targeted program that's designed to promote support and reward us like set of partners. And Cisco is one of those partners that has been invited to participate. And these are the partners that are committed to doing a couple of different things. One of which is supporting the development of our offerings. It's also partners that are integrating into our technology platform and they also train and enable our engineers, our consultants as well as our sellers. So they bring a lot of value to the table. And like I said before, Cisco is one of the partners that have been invited to participate. And we're very excited. >> Yeah. >> Go ahead Erin. >> And just to add on that as Candace is saying like Cisco is really excited to participate in this program. It's really, truly about delivering an outcome to our customers. And so the program gives us tools to make investments integrations, et cetera. And the part about partnership it's an evolution of things, right? We want to work together. The landscape of the threats are changing, our world's changing, we're in a pandemic, we've got to be able to pivot and really help customers solve these problems together. And the Alliance program gives us a formal way a really kind of put in the wood behind the arrow. So we're really excited to participate. >> Thanks Erin, excited to have you. >> Great. So Kandyce, I'm curious, as Erin was saying that the threat vector, things are expanding, we've seen so much flux. They're saying we're in a dynamic market, situation is a pretty big understatement. What was the impetus of this Alliance? Was it, this Alliance program, did it have anything to do with the flux that we've been through in the last year? >> Well, I think anytime you launch a program or create a strategy, you're obviously solving a problem. And we all know that security is complex and we need to simplify it. And in today's market, there's a shortage of professionals in the industry. There's a lot of siloed processes and a lot of tools. And anytime that you can bring a strategy to the table that solves some of these challenges, it's definitely worthwhile. And our goal is to bring together advisors and integrated leading technologies vendors such as Cisco. And our goal is to help our clients obviously. And optimally, what we want to do is we want to align their security strategy. We want to make sure that we protect their digital users, their data, their assets. We also want to modernize our technology with these advisors. And ultimately, we found a partnership in Cisco in regards to this program, where we can solve some of our customer's challenges and we can leverage this partnership to the fullest. >> Can you talk to me a little bit about the difference between a technology alliances program and a security service Alliance partner at IBM security program? >> Kandyce: Absolutely. Well, I think it's to call out that Cisco is both actually. We do have a Technology Alliance partners as you mentioned, and Security Service Alliance partners and our Technology Alliance partners are purpose built integrations with IBM security products. On the opposite side, you have Security Service Alliance partners where there's kind of two aspects to it. It could be, it's an either situation where they're integrated into our security service offering or we build an offering around the partners technology. And in the case of Cisco there's many product integrations. I'll name two as examples, one being QRadar and the other being Resilient. But I think what makes the partnership so interesting is there's an extensive portfolio to choose from. And I think that makes it very exciting for our clients to kind of look at what we bring to the table jointly and create leverage out of that. Erin, do you have anything to add? >> A couple of things. So the questions we get a lot from customers is, is there overlap in some of these software solutions? And the fact is there really isn't. We are more complimentary than competitive. And one of the things that we want to do to enhance the customer experience is really give a customer the confidence, but also a full service solution. The way Cisco views IBM and security space is like the glue, right? We provide all the automation a lot of the visibility, our tools, for instance QRadar, pump all of the log information and help with instant response to how customers look at threats. And we really want them to, customers would feel confident by being together and really let's face it, IBM and Cisco are the biggest players in the market. But to Kandyce's point they're also looking for innovation from us and we giving them the roadmaps to go to the next level. So our partnership really provides that. And in fact, it's really important to note that IBM is actually a big Cisco client and has invested in some of our technologies around Umbrella, Next-Gen firewall and our IPS and AnyConnect Solution. So truly our use case is between our companies too not just for our customers. So it's part of our loyalty and commitment to each other but also to all the folks who are making investments working with IBM and Cisco. >> So there's a long history deep collaboration between IBM and Cisco here. I'm wondering if either of you and Kandyce we'll start with you, can you talk about anything that you saw in the last year. I'm thinking, from a security perspective we saw governments and schools and hospitals and healthcare organizations being attacked because they were, there was so much focus on those organizations. I'm curious if there's any industries that you guys saw in the last year or so in particular that really have benefited from your Security Services Alliance program? >> Well, I think we just launched the program in March. So we are currently in the process of rolling it out but will say, as a organization we spend a lot of time making sure that we're relevant to the community, that we're solving some of the deepest problems in the industry. And I think it's an exciting time and I know that IBM Security Services brings a lot of solutions to its clients and we'll continue to do so. >> And then Erin, tell me from Cisco's perspective and yes, Kandyce you mentioned that this is a brand new program. What are some of the things that you're looking forward to being able to help clients in industries that I mentioned and really any industry pivot as we're still in such a globally challenging situation? >> Yes. So I won't necessarily talk about verticals but let's talk about the pandemic. So many of our customers in all different kinds of verticals have had to take their business home. Securing all the remote workers, doing what we call Zero Trust and edge security making sure they are who they say they are when they're connecting to the mothership. And so we've really put a lot of effort at Cisco around addressing these problems in a fast and efficient way. And then IBM helps us manage that for customers. So if they don't have the bandwidth, once solutions go in and we turn the key on they don't have the bandwidth to manage this themselves, IBM really picks that ball up and runs with it. So that's another big value out of our partnership. But let's face it, gosh, a year and a half ago all of this changed on the dime. So we had to pivot really quickly. And because we have teams in place are already working together on how we service these solutions through IBM, this was not necessarily a very hard shift. We were able to do this quickly and provide information and kind of stay ahead of the curve while we saw our customers go through this transition. >> And I can only imagine how critical IBM and Cisco were together as you mentioned, Erin, that pivot to work from home happened so quickly for millions and millions, hundreds of millions of not more of people, and there's a good amount of us that are still in that situation that are reliant on technologies. But like IBM and Cisco are delivering, for collaboration, for communication, even to connect families I'm sure what you guys have done helping those customers pivot is just the tip of the iceberg in helping them not just survive this time but be able to thrive, maybe even focus resources on identifying new products on new services, new ways to delight their customers. >> Yeah, I think that's the other thing that's happening between our firms kind of within security and also more broadly is a lot of our customers are moving to the Cloud and they really need help with this kind of full service look and strategy and ongoing managing and the long haul from a partner. So one of the things that's also been really valuable in our partnership is we have teams of people on account level that really understand our customers and can make these recommendations based on what we're putting together behind the scenes and helping them through the journey. So security is clearly a big part of, kind of what's on everyone's mind, but as far as, can a regular IT operations and networking, it's all part of one journey. And so this layered approach is I think what differentiates our partnership absolutely in the marketplace. >> I agree with you, Erin. I think there's a lot to be excited about that. >> We'll good. Ladies, thank you for joining me today. Talking to me about this new security strategy Alliances Program, what it's offering, the power that IBM and Cisco are bringing jointly to your customers. We look forward to seeing what happens in the next year. Thanks for your time. >> Thank you, Lisa. >> Thank you. >> Well, Kandyce Tripp and Erin Jensen. I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE's coverage of IBM Think, the digital experience. (soft upbeat music)

(piano music) >> Presenter: From around the globe it's theCUBE with digital coverage of IBM Think 2021 brought to you by IBM. >> Welcome to the theCUBE's coverage of IBM think 2021, the digital experience. I'm Lisa Martin. I've got two guests here with me next. We're going to be talking about IBM and Cisco. Please welcome Candace Tripp, a partner at Global Security Services Alliances at IBM. Kandyce, it's great to have you on theCUBE. >> Thank you. It's great to be here, Lisa. >> And Erin Jensen joins us as well. Global Partner Executive for IBM at Cisco. Erin, welcome to you as well. >> Yeah, thanks for having me. >> I love it, three women, power women on a tech panel. >> I know, I love it. >> Isn't that nice? It's rare. >> It is. >> Exciting. >> Praise God. All right, let's go ahead, Erin and we're going to start with you. Let's talk about Cisco's strategy and security and how that aligns with IBM. >> Absolutely. Thanks Lisa. So Cisco in the last seven years have made considerable amount of investment in our portfolio. And in fact, it's one reason why I joined Cisco. I've been hearing about customer problems across many security threat vectors and issues. And customers are really looking for a product portfolio that helps them across all their security needs. IBM has taken a similar approach, right? We're not just one product or one service. IBM also has a service portfolio that helps customers through the long haul and their security journey. We're both working to solve problems like Zero Trust, SAS, Cloud security, and helping all of our customers with digital transformation and moving to the cloud. And so both of us have really taken a similar long-term approach to our customer vision and security. >> We've heard a lot about security challenges and the expansion of threat vectors and surfaces and data in the last year or so. So that double-down focus from both IBM and Cisco on security is absolutely critical for customers. Kandyce, let's get your perspective now. Talk to me about IBM security services and the value that it delivers with Cisco's security portfolio, those two powerhouses together. >> Yeah. Great question. I really appreciate it. One of the things I want to point out is just that IBM security services is one of the largest MSPs in the industry. And I think it's a really exciting time and I'm very thrilled to be a part of that. And the answer to your question, we simplify security solutions, we reduce risk, we provide architectural consulting and systems integration. And we do that in support of our partnerships, just like with Cisco, with Cisco, excuse me. So I think it's a really exciting partnership and there's a lot of value provided. >> And then Kandyce also, you recently launched IBM security services Alliance program. What can you tell us about that? >> Yeah, absolutely. So I'm very excited about it. We launched it on March 1st of this year. And it is a very targeted program that's designed to promote support and reward us like set of partners. And Cisco is one of those partners that has been invited to participate. And these are the partners that are committed to doing a couple of different things. One of which is supporting the development of our offerings. It's also partners that are integrating into our technology platform and they also train and enable our engineers, our consultants as well as our sellers. So they bring a lot of value to the table. And like I said before, Cisco is one of the partners that have been invited to participate. And we're very excited. >> Yeah. >> Go ahead Erin. >> And just to add on that as Candace is saying like Cisco is really excited to participate in this program. It's really, truly about delivering an outcome to our customers. And so the program gives us tools to make investments integrations, et cetera. And the part about partnership it's an evolution of things, right? We want to work together. The landscape of the threats are changing, our world's changing, we're in a pandemic, we've got to be able to pivot and really help customers solve these problems together. And the Alliance program gives us a formal way a really kind of put in the wood behind the arrow. So we're really excited to participate. >> Thanks Erin, excited to have you. >> Great. So Kandyce, I'm curious, as Erin was saying that the threat vector, things are expanding, we've seen so much flux. They're saying we're in a dynamic market, situation is a pretty big understatement. What was the impetus of this Alliance? Was it, this Alliance program, did it have anything to do with the flux that we've been through in the last year? >> Well, I think anytime you launch a program or create a strategy, you're obviously solving a problem. And we all know that security is complex and we need to simplify it. And in today's market, there's a shortage of professionals in the industry. There's a lot of siloed processes and a lot of tools. And anytime that you can bring a strategy to the table that solves some of these challenges, it's definitely worthwhile. And our goal is to bring together advisors and integrated leading technologies vendors such as Cisco. And our goal is to help our clients obviously. And optimally, what we want to do is we want to align their security strategy. We want to make sure that we protect their digital users, their data, their assets. We also want to modernize our technology with these advisors. And ultimately, we found a partnership in Cisco in regards to this program, where we can solve some of our customer's challenges and we can leverage this partnership to the fullest. >> Can you talk to me a little bit about the difference between a technology alliances program and a security service Alliance partner at IBM security program? >> Kandyce: Absolutely. Well, I think it's to call out that Cisco is both actually. We do have a Technology Alliance partners as you mentioned, and Security Service Alliance partners and our Technology Alliance partners are purpose built integrations with IBM security products. On the opposite side, you have Security Service Alliance partners where there's kind of two aspects to it. It could be, it's an either situation where they're integrated into our security service offering or we build an offering around the partners technology. And in the case of Cisco there's many product integrations. I'll name two as examples, one being QRadar and the other being Resilient. But I think what makes the partnership so interesting is there's an extensive portfolio to choose from. And I think that makes it very exciting for our clients to kind of look at what we bring to the table jointly and create leverage out of that. Erin, do you have anything to add? >> A couple of things. So the questions we get a lot from customers is, is there overlap in some of these software solutions? And the fact is there really isn't. We are more complimentary than competitive. And one of the things that we want to do to enhance the customer experience is really give a customer the confidence, but also a full service solution. The way Cisco views IBM and security space is like the glue, right? We provide all the automation a lot of the visibility, our tools, for instance QRadar, pump all of the log information and help with instant response to how customers look at threats. And we really want them to, customers would feel confident by being together and really let's face it, IBM and Cisco are the biggest players in the market. But to Kandyce's point they're also looking for innovation from us and we giving them the roadmaps to go to the next level. So our partnership really provides that. And in fact, it's really important to note that IBM is actually a big Cisco client and has invested in some of our technologies around Umbrella, Next-Gen firewall and our IPS and AnyConnect Solution. So truly our use case is between our companies too not just for our customers. So it's part of our loyalty and commitment to each other but also to all the folks who are making investments working with IBM and Cisco. >> So there's a long history deep collaboration between IBM and Cisco here. I'm wondering if either of you and Kandyce we'll start with you, can you talk about anything that you saw in the last year. I'm thinking, from a security perspective we saw governments and schools and hospitals and healthcare organizations being attacked because they were, there was so much focus on those organizations. I'm curious if there's any industries that you guys saw in the last year or so in particular that really have benefited from your Security Services Alliance program? >> Well, I think we just launched the program in March. So we are currently in the process of rolling it out but will say, as a organization we spend a lot of time making sure that we're relevant to the community, that we're solving some of the deepest problems in the industry. And I think it's an exciting time and I know that IBM Security Services brings a lot of solutions to its clients and we'll continue to do so. >> And then Erin, tell me from Cisco's perspective and yes, Kandyce you mentioned that this is a brand new program. What are some of the things that you're looking forward to being able to help clients in industries that I mentioned and really any industry pivot as we're still in such a globally challenging situation? >> Yes. So I won't necessarily talk about verticals but let's talk about the pandemic. So many of our customers in all different kinds of verticals have had to take their business home. Securing all the remote workers, doing what we call Zero Trust and edge security making sure they are who they say they are when they're connecting to the mothership. And so we've really put a lot of effort at Cisco around addressing these problems in a fast and efficient way. And then IBM helps us manage that for customers. So if they don't have the bandwidth, once solutions go in and we turn the key on they don't have the bandwidth to manage this themselves, IBM really picks that ball up and runs with it. So that's another big value out of our partnership. But let's face it, gosh, a year and a half ago all of this changed on the dime. So we had to pivot really quickly. And because we have teams in place are already working together on how we service these solutions through IBM, this was not necessarily a very hard shift. We were able to do this quickly and provide information and kind of stay ahead of the curve while we saw our customers go through this transition. >> And I can only imagine how critical IBM and Cisco were together as you mentioned, Erin, that pivot to work from home happened so quickly for millions and millions, hundreds of millions of not more of people, and there's a good amount of us that are still in that situation that are reliant on technologies. But like IBM and Cisco are delivering, for collaboration, for communication, even to connect families I'm sure what you guys have done helping those customers pivot is just the tip of the iceberg in helping them not just survive this time but be able to thrive, maybe even focus resources on identifying new products on new services, new ways to delight their customers. >> Yeah, I think that's the other thing that's happening between our firms kind of within security and also more broadly is a lot of our customers are moving to the Cloud and they really need help with this kind of full service look and strategy and ongoing managing and the long haul from a partner. So one of the things that's also been really valuable in our partnership is we have teams of people on account level that really understand our customers and can make these recommendations based on what we're putting together behind the scenes and helping them through the journey. So security is clearly a big part of, kind of what's on everyone's mind, but as far as, can a regular IT operations and networking, it's all part of one journey. And so this layered approach is I think what differentiates our partnership absolutely in the marketplace. >> I agree with you, Erin. I think there's a lot to be excited about that. >> We'll good. Ladies, thank you for joining me today. Talking to me about this new security strategy Alliances Program, what it's offering, the power that IBM and Cisco are bringing jointly to your customers. We look forward to seeing what happens in the next year. Thanks for your time. >> Thank you, Lisa. >> Thank you. >> Well, Kandyce Tripp and Erin Jensen. I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE's coverage of IBM Think, the digital experience. (soft upbeat music)

>>live from San Francisco. It's the queue covering our essay conference 2020 San Francisco Brought to you by Silicon Angle Media >>Hey, welcome back here. Ready? Jeff Frick here with the Cube. We're in our 2020 the biggest security conference in the country, if not the world. I guess there's got to be 50,000 people. We'll get the official word tomorrow. It's our sixth year here and we're excited to be back. I'm not sure why. It's 2020. We're supposed to know everything at this point in time with the benefit on inside. We got two people that do. You know a lot. We're excited to have him. My left is Chris Bets is the SVP and chief security officer for Centurylink. Chris, Great to see you. And to his left is Chris Smith, VP Global security Services for Centurylink. Welcome. >>Thank you for having me. >>Absolutely. You guys just flew into town >>just for the conference's great To be here is always a really exciting space with just a ton of new technology coming out. >>So let's just jump into it. What I think is the most interesting and challenging part of this particular show we go to a lot of shows you 100 shows a year. I don't know that there's one that's got kind of the breadth and depth of vendors from the really, really big the really, really small that you have here. And, you know, with the expansion of Moscone, either even packing more women underneath Howard Street, what advice do you give to people who are coming here for the first time? Especially on more than the buyer side as to how do you navigate this place >>when I when I come here and see So I'm always looking at what the new technologies are. But honestly, having a new technology is not good enough. Attackers are coming up with new attacks all the time. The big trick for me is understanding how they integrate into my other solutions. So I'm not so I'm not just focused on the technology. I'm focused on how they all fit together. And so the vendors that have solutions that fit together that really makes a difference in my book. So I'm looking for for products that are designed to work with each other, not just separate >>from a practice standpoint. The theme of IRA say this year is the human element, and for us, if you look at this floor, it's overwhelming. And if you're a CSO of an average enterprise, it's hard to figure out what you need to buy and how to build a practice with all of the emerging tools. So for us core to our practice, I think any mature, 30 security practices having a pro services capability and consulting capability that can be solved this all together, that helps you understand what to buy, what things to piece together and how to make it all work >>right. And it's funny, the human element that is the kind of the global theme. And what's funny is for all the technology it sounds like. Still, the easiest way in is through the person, whether it's a phishing attack or there's a myriad of ways that people are getting him to the human. So that's kind of a special challenge or trying to use technology to help people do a better job. At the end of the day, sometimes you're squishy ISS or easier access point is not a piece of technology, but it's actually a person. It's >>often because We asked people to do the wrong things. We're having them. Focus on security steps. Use email. Security is an easy to grasp example way all go through training every year to teach folks how to make sure that they avoid clicking on the wrong emails for us more often than a year. So the downside of that is arresting people to take a step away from their job and try to figure out how to protect themselves. And is this a bad emails that are really focusing on the job? So that's why it's so important to me to make sure that we've got solutions that help make the human better and frankly, even worse in security. We don't have the staff that we need. And so how do we help Make sure that the right tools are there, that they work together. They automate because asking everybody to take those steps, it's just it's a recipe for disaster because people are going to make mistakes >>right? Let's go a little deeper into the email thing. A friend of mines and commercial real estate, and he was describing an email that he got from his banker describing a wire transfer from one of his suppliers that he has a regular, ongoing making relationship with. You know, it's not the bad pronunciation and bad grammar and kind of the things that used to jump out is an obvious. But he said it was super good to the point where thankfully, you know, it was just this time. But, you know, he called the banker like, did you just send me this thing? So you know where this as the sophistication of the bad guys goes up specifically targeting people, how do you try to keep up with how do you give them the tools to know Woe versus being efficient? I'm trying to get my job done. >>Yeah, for me, it starts with technology. That takes a look. We've only got so many security practitioners in the company. Actually. Defend your email example. We've got to defend every user from those kinds of problems. And so how do I find technology solutions that help take the load off security practitioners so they can focus on the niche examples that really, really well crafted emails and help take that load off user? Because users just not gonna be able to handle that right? It's not fair to ask them. And like you said, it was just poorly time that helped attack. So how do we help? Make sure that we're taking that technology load off, identify the threats in advance and protect them. And so I think one of the biggest things that Chris and I talk a lot about is how to our solutions help make it easier for people to secure themselves instead of just providing only technology technology advantage, >>our strategy for the portfolio and it sort of tied to the complexity. CN This floor is simplicity. So from our perspective, our goal is a network service provider is to deliver threat free traffic to our customers even before it gets to the human being. And we've got an announcement that we launched just a week ago in advance of the show called Rapid Threat Defense. And the idea is to take our mature threat Intel practice that Chris has a team of folks focused on that. We branded black Lotus labs and Way built a machine learning practice that takes all the bad things that we see out in the network and protects customers before it gets to their people. >>So that's an interesting take. You have the benefit of seeing a lot of network traffic from a lot of customers and not just the stuff that's coming into my building. So you get a much more aggregated approach, so tell us a little bit more about that. And what is the Black Lotus Labs doing? And I'm also curious from an industry point of view, you know, it's just a collaboration with the industry cause you guys are doing a lot of traffic. There's other big network providers carrying a lot of traffic. How well do you kind of work together when you identify some nasty new things that you're doing the horizon? And where do you draw the line between better together versus still independent environment? >>When we're talking about making the Internet safer, it's not really to me a lot about competitive environment. It's really about better together. That's one of things I love about the security community. I'm sure you see it every year when you're here. You're talking security practitioners how across every industry security folks work together to accomplish something that's meaningful. So as the largest world's largest global I P we get to see a ton of traffic, and it's really, really interesting we'll be able to put together, you know, at any given point in time. We're watching many tens of thousands of probable malware networks. We're protecting our customers from that. But we're also able to ourselves take down nearly 65 now where networks every month just knock them off the Internet. So identify the command and control, and we take it off the Internet. We work with our partners. We go talk to hosting providers, maybe competitors of ours. And we say, Hey, here's a bad, bad actors bad server that's being used to control now where? Going shut it down. And so the result of that is not only protecting our customers, but more importantly, protecting tens of thousands of customers every month. By removing now where networks that were attacking, that really makes a difference. To me, that's the biggest impact we bring. And so it really is a better together. It's a collaboration story and, of course, for said, we get the benefit of that information as we're developing it as we're building it, we can protect our customers right away while we're building the confidence necessary to take something as dramatic and action as shutting down on our network. Right. Unilaterally, >>Citrix. I was gonna ask you kind of the impact of I o t. Right in this in this crazy expansion of the tax services, when you hear about all the time with my favorite example, somebody told the story of attacking a casino through the connected thermometer in the fish tank in the lobby, which may or may not be true, is still a great story. Great story. But I'm curious, you know, looking at the network, feeding versus the devices connecting that's really in an interesting way to attack this proliferation of attack services. You're getting it before it necessarily gets to all these new points of presence doing it based on the source. For >>us, that's the only way to make it scalable. It is true that automation blocking it before it gets to the azure to a device. It is what will create simplicity and value for our customers. >>Right on the other piece of the automation. Of course, that we hear about all the time is there just aren't enough security professionals, period. So if you don't have the automation. You don't have the machine learning, as you said, to filter low hanging fruit and the focus your resource. If they need to be, you're not going to do it. The bad news is the bad guys, similar tools. So as you look at kind of the increase in speed of automation, the increase in automated connectivity between these devices making decisions amongst each other, how do you see that kind of evolving? But you're kind of role and making sure you stay a step ahead of the bad guys. For >>me, it's not about just automation. It's about allowing smart people to put their brains against hard problems, hard impactful problems and so on. So simply automating is not enough. It's making sure that automation is reducing the the load on people so that they're able to focus on those hard, unique problems really solve all those solutions and, yes, Attackers, Attackers build automation as well. And so if we're not building faster and better than we're falling behind, so like every other part of this race, it's about getting better, faster and why it's so important that technology work together because we're constantly throwing out more tools and if they don't work better together, even if we got incremental automation, these place way still miss overall because it's end to end that we need to defend ourselves and our customers >>layered on what he said. For the foreseeable future, you're gonna need smart security people that help protect your practice. Our goal in automation is take the road tasks out of out of the gate. They live so they can focus on the things that provide the most value protecting their enterprise. >>Right when you're looking, you talked about making sure things work together, for you talked about making sure things work together. How do you decide what's kind of on the top of the top of the stack, where everybody wants to own the single pane of glass? Everybody wants to be the control plane. Everybody wants to be that thing that's on your computer all the time, which is how you work your day to day. How do you kind of dictate what are the top level tools while still going out? And, he said, exploring some of these really cutting edge things out around the fringe, which don't necessarily have a full stack solution that you're going to rely on but might have some cool kind of point solutions if you will, or point products to help you plug some new and emerging holes. Yeah, >>yeah. So for us, yeah, we take security capabilities and we build them into the other things that we sell. So it's not a bolt on. So when you buy things from us, whether whether it's bandwidth or whether its SD wan and security comes baked in, so it's not something you have to worry about integrating later. It's an ingredient of the things that we sell in all of the automation that we build is built into our practice, So it's simple for our customers to understand, like, simple and then layered. On top of that, we've got a couple different ways that we bring pro services and consulting to our practice. So we've got a smart group of folks that could lean into staff, augment and sit on site, do just about anything to help customers build a practice from day zero to something more mature. But now we're toying with taking those folks in building them into products and services that we sell for 10 or 20 hours a month as an ingredient. So you get that consulting wrapper on top of the portfolio that we sell as a service provider. >>Get your take on kind of budgets and how people should think about their budgets. And when I think of security, I can't help but think of like insurance because you can't spend all your money on security. But you want to spend the right amount on security. But at the end of the day, you can't be 100% secure, right? So it's kind of kind of working the margins game, and you have to make trade offs in marketing, wants their money and product development, wants their money and sales, wants their money. So what people are trying to assess kind of the risk in their investment trade offs. What are some of the things they should be thinking about to determine what is the proper investment on security? Because it can't just be, you know, locker being 100% it's not realistic, and then all the money they help people frame that. >>Usually when companies come to us in, Centurylink plays in every different segment, all the way down to, you know, five people company all the way to the biggest multinationals on the planet. So that question is, in the budget is a little bit different, depending on the type of customer, the maturity and the lens are looking at it. So, typically, way have a group of folks that we call security account managers those our consultants and we bring them in either in a dedicated or a shared way. Help companies that's us, wear their practices today in what tool sets for use again things that they need to purchase and integrate to get to where they need to be >>really kind of a needs analysis based on gaps as much as anything else. >>That's part of the reason why we try to build prisons earlier, so many of the technologies into our solution so that so that you buy, you know, SD wan from us, and you get a security story is part of it is that that allows you to use the customer to save money and really have one seamless solution that provides that secure experience. We've been building firewalls and doing network based security for going on two decades now, in different places. So at this point, that is a good place that way, understand? Well, we can apply automation against it. We can dump, tail it into existing services and then allow focused on other areas of security. So it helps. From a financial standpoint, it also helps customers understand from where they put their talent. Because, as you talked about, it's all about talents even more so than money. Yes, we need to watch our budgets. But if you buy these tools, how do you know about the talent to deploy them? And easier You could make it to do that simpler. I think the better off right >>typical way had the most success selling security practices when somebody is either under attacker compromised right, then the budget opens right up, and it's not a problem anymore. So we thought about how to solve that commercially, and I'll just use Vitas is an example. We have a big D dos global DDOS practice that's designed to protect customers that have applications out on the Internet that are business critical, and if they go down, whether it's an e commerce or a trading site losing millions of dollars a day, and some companies have the money to buy that up front and just have it as a service. And some companies don't purchase it from us until they're under attack. And the legacy telco way of deploying that service was an order and a quote. You know, some days later, we turned it up. So we've invested with Christine the whole orchestration layer to turn it up in minutes and that months so you can go to our portal. You can enter a few simple commercial terms and turn it on when you need it. >>That's interesting. I was gonna ask you kind of how has cloud kind of changed the whole go to market and the way people think about it. And even then you hear people have stuff that's secure in the cloud, but they mis configured a switch left something open. But you're saying, too it enables you to deploy in a very, very different matter based on you know, kind of business conditions and not have that old, you know, get a requisite get a p o requisition order, install config. Take on another kind of crazy stuff. Okay, so before I let you go, last question. What are your kind of priorities for this show for Centurylink when it's top of mind, Obviously, you have the report and the Black Lotus. What do you guys really prioritizing for this next week? Here for Cisco. >>We're here to help customers. We have a number of customers, a lot of learning about our solutions, and that's always my priority. And I mentioned earlier we just put out a press release for rapid threat defense. So we're here to talk about that, and I think the industry and what we're doing this little bit differently. >>I get to work with Chris Motions Week with customers, which is kind of fun. The other part that I'm really excited about, things we spent a bunch of time with partners and potential partners. We're always looking at how we bring more, better together. So one of the things that we're both focused on is making sure that we're able to provide more solutions. So the trick is finding the right partners who are ready to do a P I level integration. The other things that Chris was talking about that really make this a seamless and experience, and I think we've got a set of them that are really, really interested in that. And so those conversations this week will be exceptionally well, I think that's gonna help build better technology for our customers even six months. >>Alright, great. Well, thanks for kicking off your week with the Cube and have a terrific week. Alright. He's Chris. He's Chris. I'm Jeff. You're watching the Cube. Where? The RSA Conference in downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching. See you next time. >>Yeah, yeah.