>> Live, from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE covering AWS re:Invent 2018. Brought to you by Amazon Web Services, Intel, and their ecosystem partners. >> Hey, welcome back everyone. Live, Cube here in Las Vegas for AWS re:Invent. I'm John Furrier with my co-host, Dave Vellante. Day three of wall to wall coverage, holding our voices together, excited for our next guest, Shayn Hawthorne, general manager at AWS, for the exciting project around the Ground Station, partnership with Lockheed Martin. Really kind of outside the box, announced on Tuesday, not at the keynote, but this is a forward thinking real project which satellites can be provisioned like cloud computing resources. Totally innovative, and will change the nature of edge computing, feeding connectivity to anything. So, thanks for joining us. >> Thank you guys for having me. You're right, my voice is going out this week too. We've been doing a lot of talking. (John laughs) >> Great service. This is really compelling, 'cause it changes the nature of the network. You can feed connectivity, 'cause power and connectivity drive everything. Power, you got battery. Connectivity, you got satellite. Totally obvious, now that you look at it, but, not before this. Where did it come from? How did it all start? >> You know, it came from listening to our customers. Our customers have been talking with us and they had a number of challenges in getting the data off of their satellites and down to the ground. So, we listened to these customers and we listened to the challenges they were experiencing in getting their data to the ground, having access to ground stations, having the ability at the network level, to move the data around the world quickly to where they wanted to process it. And then also, having complex business process logic and other things that were required to help them run their satellite downlinks and uplinks. And then finally, the ability to actually have AWS services right there where the data came down into the cloud, so that you could do great things with that data within milliseconds of it hitting the ground. >> So it's a essentially satellite as a service with a back end data capability, data ingestion, analytics, and management capability. That, how'd that idea come about? I mean, it just underscores the scale of AWS. And I'm thinking about other things that you might be able to, where'd the idea come from? How was it germinated? >> Well and actually, let me just say one thing, we actually would call it Ground Station as the service. It's the Ground Station on the surface of the earth that communicates with the satellite. It allows us to get the data off the satellite or send commands up to it. And so, like I was saying, we came up the idea by talking to our customers, and so we went into, I think this is an incredible part of working at Amazon, because we actually follow through with our leadership principals. We worked backwards from the customer. We actually put together a press release and a frequently asked questions document, a PR/FAQ, in a traditional six page format. And we started working it through our leadership and it got all the way to the point that Andy and the senior leadership team within AWS made the decision that they were going to support our idea and the concept and the architecture that we had come up with to meet these customers' requirements, we actually were able to get to that by about March of 2018. By the end of March, Andy had even had us go in and talk with Jeff. He gave us the thumbs up as well, and after six months, we've already procured 24 antennas. We've already built two Ground Stations in the United States and we've downlinked over hundreds of contacts with satellites, bringing Earth imagery down and other test data to prove that this system works. Get it ready for preview. >> It's unbelievable, because you're basically taking the principals of AWS, which is eliminating the heavy lifting, applying that to building Ground Stations, presumably, right, so, the infrastructure that you're building out, do you have partners that you're working with, are there critical players there, that are enabling this? >> Yeah, it's really neat. We've actually had some really great partnerships, both with helping us build AWS Ground Station, as well as partners that helped us learn what the customers need. Let me tell you, first off, about the partnership that we've had with Lockheed Martin to develop a new innovative antenna system that will collaboratively come together with the parabolic reflectors that AWS Ground Station uses. They've been working on this really neat idea that gives them ability to downlink data all over the entire United States in a very resilient way, which means if some of their Ground Stations antennas in Verge don't work, due to man made reasons or due to natural occurrences, then we're actually able to use the rest of the network to still continue to downlink data. And then, we complimentary bring in AWS Astra for certain types of downlinks and then also to provide uplink commanding to other satellites. The other customer partnership that we've worked with was working with the actual customers who are going to use AWS Ground Station, like DigitalGlobe, Black Sky, Capella SAR, HawkEye 360, who all provided valuable inputs to us about exactly what do they need in a Ground Station. They need the ability to rapidly downlink data, they need the ability to pay by the minute so that there are actually able to use variable expense to pay for satellite downlinks instead of capital expenses to go out and build it. And then by doing that, we're able to offer them a product that's 80% cheaper than if they'd had to go out and build a complete network similar to what we built. And, they're able to, like I said before, access great AWS services like Rekognition, or SageMaker, so that they can make sense of the data that they bring down to the Earth. >> It's a big idea and I'm just sort of curious as to, how and if you, sort of, validated it. How'd ya increase the probability that it was actually going to, you know, deliver a business return? Can you talk about that process? >> Well, we were really focused on validating that we could meet customer challenges and really give them the data securely and reliably with great redundancy. So we validated, first off by, we built our antennas and the Ground Stations in the previous software. We finished over a month and a half ago, and we've been rigorously testing it with our customer partners and then letting them validate that the information we've provided back to them was 100% as good as what they would've received on their own network, and we tested it out, and we've actually got a number of pictures and images downloaded over at our kiosk that were all brought in on AWS Ground Station, and its a superb products over there. >> So Shayn, how does it work? You write this press release, this working backwards document, describe that process. Was that process new to you? Had you done it at other companies? How did you find it? Was it a useful process, obviously it was, 'cause you got the outcome you're looking for, but, talk a little bit more about that approach. >> Yeah, it's actually very cool, I've only been at AWS for a year and a half. And so, I would say that my experience at AWS so far completely validates working backwards from customers. We were turned on to the idea by talking to our customers and the challenges they said. I started doing analysis after the job was assigned to me by Dave Nolton, my boss, and I started putting together the first draft of our PR/FAQ, started engaging with customers immediately. Believe it or not, we went through 28 iterations of the PR/FAQ before we even got to Andy. Everybody in our organization took part in helping to make it better, add in, ask hard questions, ensure that we were really thinking this idea through and that we were obsessing on the customer. And then after we got to Andy, and we got through approving that, it probably went through another 28 iterations before we got to Jeff. And then we went through talking with him. He asked additional hard questions to make sure that we were doing the right for the customer and that we were putting together the right kind of product. And finally we've been iterating it on it ever since until we launched it couple of days ago. >> Sounds like you were iterating, raising the bar, and it resonated with customers. >> Totally. And even as part of getting out of it-- >> That's Amazon's language of love. >> And then your engineering resource, you know, if people are asking you hard questions, you obviously need engineering folks to validate that it's doable. At what point do you get that engineering resource, how does that all work? >> Well, it's neat. In my division, Region Services Division, we actually were supporting it completely from within the division, all the way until we got approval from Andy. And then we actually went in and started hiring very good skills. To show you what kind of incredible people we have at Amazon, we only had to hire about 10% space expertise from outside of the company. We were actually able to bring together 80-90% of the needed skills to build AWS Ground Station from people who've been working at Amazon.com and AWS. And we came together, we really learned quickly, we iterated, failed fast, put things together, changed it. And we were able to deliver the product in time. The whole cloth made from our own expertise. >> So just to summarize, from idea to actual, we're going to do this, how long did that take? >> I'd say that took about three months. From idea to making a decision, three months. From decision to have a preview product that we could launch at re:Invent, six months. >> That's unbelievable. >> It is. >> If you think about something of this scope. >> And it was a joy, I mean it was an incredible to be a part of something like this. It was the best work I've ever done in my life. >> Yeah, space is fun. >> It is. >> Shayn, thanks for coming on theCUBE, sharing your story and insight, we love this. We're going to keep following it. And we're going see you guys at the Public Sector Summits, and all the events you guys are at, so, looking forward to seeing and provisioning some satellite. >> I'm looking forward to showing you what we do next. So thank you for having me. >> Great. We'll get a sneak peak. >> Congratulations. >> This is theCUBE here in Las Vegas, we'll be back with more coverage after this short break. (futuristic music)

>> Intro Man: From the Computer History Museum in the heart of Silicon Valley, it's theCUBE, covering Food IT: Fork to Farm, brought to you by Western Digital. >> Hey, welcome back to theCUBE. I'm Lisa Martin here at the FOOD IT: Fork to Farm event at the Computer History Museum talking with amazing guests, from farmers to technologists, helping to increase the sustainability and the food chain. Next, we are joined by Michiel Bakker, the Director of Google Food. Michiel, welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you. It's great to be here. >> Well, so we're in Google's backyard here at the Computer History Museum, and I've always heard of Google Food as fantastic. You're going to hear it here first, Michiel did invite me, I have his card. I've never been able to eat at one of the restaurants, but now I have it on film. >> Michiel: Check! (Lisa Laughs) >> So, but tell me about ... You come from a hospitality background. Google Food, what was your segue into hospitality to being the Director of Food for Google? >> So, I worked for many many great years for Starwood Hotels and Resorts. For fifteen years over in the U.S. and my last two years with them, I was responsible for Food and Beverage operation in Europe, Middle East and Africa. So ... amazing times in Europe. At the time we were building out our hotel portfolio in the Middle East, and while I was there I got this call from that company out of Mountain View, Google, and said, "Would you be interested in having a conversation "with us about our food program?" That peaked my interest. I had never heard of their food program and how they were thinking and running food, so that led to a very fascinating interview journey, and, a year after the initial call, I started over here March of 2012, and I have loved every minute of it since. >> Well, your passion I was telling you I've seen some videos of you online, and your passion for it is really clear. What was it that Google was looking for you to help facilitate five years ago? >> So, prior to my arrival, we had three great regional teams that were responsible for everything that they were doing with food in their respective regions. My bosses at the time were very aware of how we would continue to grow, and they were aware of both the challenges and the opportunities of growing our program with the same rate of the growth of Google. So they were looking for an individual who could bring structure as well as capability options for our program. So, my role was, in the beginning, to really think through "How can you get Google Food ready "for ongoing growth for a great number of years?" >> So, one of the things that's interesting about this event, and I kept thinking I was misreading the title "Fork to Farm," and we're so used to, in the trend of Farm to Table and Fork to Farm, the consumer, the tech-savvy consumer, being very influential, organic, cage-free, hormone-free. Of course, you're now at the hub of technology. Everyone in the world knows Google. Everyone's got a million devices. Talk to us about how you're using technology at Google to improve the relationships with suppliers, the type of supply of food that you get. >> Yeah. So, it starts really with the user. So, we believe that our role is to enable individuals to make personal, informed food choices. So, personalization truly has to do with how we live and work these days. It's about me. I want it now. I want it whenever I want it and whatever I want, and I think that technology can play a great role in that. So, we've developed, internally, an app that will help, actually, users to find whatever they are looking for. So that will be one. But, if you then go further back into the food chain, then you get the question, "Is there data, "technology or platforms out there that might help us "with what do we call that food transparency "or food insight." Where we can really think through: "How might we help a consumer "to determine where food is coming from?" "What is in my food?" "What are the nutrients?" and I think, just as importantly, we don't speak about this much: "Where does my food waste go to?," because we're very focused on what I get but less interested today where it is actually going to. So we're thinking through: "What can we develop internally?" "What is already available "in the broader Google or Alphabet portfolio?" If you think about Google Search, if you think about Youtube, there are a lot of platforms or tools out there that can help individuals to make those informed food choices. And then, I think, what is harder, if you go further up the food chain, in really determining how can you trace a product from the farm or from the boat all the way back up to the consumer, and I think that is a journey that many partners, many stakeholders in the food system continue to work on. >> That's a big challenge because there's a tremendous amount of money that can be lost. I was reading that California supplies 90% of the world's almonds, and in the last three years there's been over 35 truckloads of almonds that have disappeared. >> Michiel: Yeah. >> And the trace-ability being a massive challenge, and that's tantamount to 10 million dollars. But you touched on something really interesting, and that's the personalization. We want it with everything, right? We are so tech-enabled and tech-savvy and ... we want it. You mentioned transparency. That's essential. So, talk to us about what is it that you're learning from, so I presume it's an app that Googlers have access to. How are you using that big data and analytics to influence the next generation of Google Food? >> So we'll think to the beginning of that. So, with the Eat app, that's the app we have internally, you have a profile as well, and you can set up your profile in such a way about the foods you like and the foods you like to avoid. So, you can apply the filters. So, what we now get the more people within our organization that would use the app the better insight we're going to get off. What ultimately, what percentage, is vegetarian, or what percentage is actually vegan or flexitarian? So, we get a better insight of where do you have what percentage of your population sit, so you can ultimately develop offerings that resonate with your population. >> And, so, you also talked about food waste. I was reading a McKinsey & Company report that reports that about one third of all food produced in the world is lost or wasted, which accounts for about 940 billion dollars world wide. And we kind of think, oh, we get a little, me, overzealous at the grocery store. We have these plans. So, how are you using the data that you're gathering from your Eat app to reduce food waste across Google? >> We don't really use that app for that yet, but we're working with the great company called LeanPath. So, LeanPath is a technology platform company that enables you to track food waste in a kitchen environment. So, every time when a chef throws something out, we wait, we take a picture of it, and we tag it, and as a result of having done that now for a couple of years, we have a very large global database with these food waste moments, and then what you can do in an individual kitchen you can analyze of actually what is driving food waste in your kitchen. And I think what we've learned, Two things happened: so the first one is, because you're paying attention to food waste, you get the Hawthorne Effect. People pay more attention to it, and, as a result of that, you will reduce food waste with that, but, secondly, you have ultimately learned of what is driving food waste in a specific kitchen. And then, I think, with that we've learned, as well, that it becomes complex. For example, we really would like our users, the rest of the world, to eat more vegetables and more fruit. So, we've learned that in our kitchens a big part of our food waste is driven by vegetables. So, now you get these two interesting conflicts, because you can say that on the one hand, if I want to reduce food waste, I should actually be scrappier with the vegetables, but, at the same time, we would like our users to eat more vegetables, so, ultimately, what is more important? And I think with that we've learned it's about the value of the product and then to think through we're probably better off focusing on reducing the waste of meat, versus ultimately reducing the waste of a carrot. The environmental impact of meat is significantly larger and, therefore, you need to, ultimately, focus your efforts on where can you make the biggest impact within the available capacity that you have. >> Now, have you, this is so interesting. Have you gone on, like, the speaking circuit to educate other, not just tech companies or businesses that want to scale, but there could be so much from the learning that you've done with big data and analytics to educate other businesses, even down to the farms. Is that something that's part of your ... >> So, our team and I would actually attend, will attend, various conferences around the world, but I think we're very focused on learning more and making a bigger impact and then sharing at the right opportune moment, because you can spend your whole life chatting about what you have done or are thinking of doing. Ultimately, we're an organization that is feeding a lot of individuals on a daily basis in a very responsible way, and we're going to learn more. We're only at the beginning of figuring out where we can make a bigger impact. >> And ... How have you been able to facilitate this scale? You were mentioning, before we went live, when you started, five years ago, the number of people you fed then that you feed now. How has cloud computing, big data, analytics, machine learning helped drive that scale that Google wanted to see? >> So, I think we are very focused on collaboration. So, it's actually finding partners who are either just as excited about the opportunities, are better at what you do, and are willing to do stuff together. Because, I think, by working more with others, you increased your overall reach, you'll learn more together, and, therefore, you become better at what you do. So, I think an interesting opportunity for us is we're feeding a wide variety of teams at Google and Alphabet on a daily basis, and they are engaged with food. So, sometimes you find a team or an individual that might not necessarily be as focused on food, but they're looking actually in an real world challenge that they can use for their emerging technologies. So, you can find different starting points to ultimately bring people together to address a common challenge. Food waste is an interesting one. So, we now have the database, and now the question is; how might you deploy machine learning to learn stuff you've never thought about? We're at the beginning of that, so, we have a long way to go. >> Beside food waste, what's, maybe, kind of the next thing on your horizon for the rest of 2017 to influence? >> How can you move your population to move to more balanced, planned, forward diet but do it in such a way where people actually are willingly and excitingly joining you on the journey, versus it getting stuck in the conversation as you're telling me what I cannot do, or you're taking something away from me. So, it really becomes: how can you make the alternative, which might be a cuisine type, or a concept where meat is not necessarily the center of the plate, just as exciting, or if not more exciting, than what we're doing as of today. >> Wow, so interesting. Well, I'm looking forward to my lunch with you at one of the Google restaurants. Michiel, thank you so much for joining us here and sharing what you're doing at Google. >> It's been a pleasure. >> And we want to thank you for watching as well. Again, Lisa Martin live at the FOOD IT: Fork to Farm event in Silicon Valley. Stick around. We'll be right back. [futuristic music]

>> Hey, welcome back, everybody, Jeff Frick here with the CUBE. We're at Zuora Subscribe 2017 in downtown San Francisco. 2000 people, it's all about the subscription economy, and really what the subscription economy does in terms of the relationship between a client and a customer. And that's I think what's the important story besides the mechanics and the accounting and all the other stuff that's going on. We're excited to have our next guest, Barry Holmes. He is the chief revenue officer of Surf Air. Barry welcome. >> Thanks Jeff, glad to be here. >> Absolutely, so for people that aren't familiar with Surf Air, give them a quick background on the company. >> Sure, so Surf Air has been around for four years. It's a membership-based club where you save two hours every time you fly. You're flying out of executive airports on smaller, executive planes. You get the private experience, except it's on a schedule. Everything's on your app, et cetera, so we're really addressing that pain point that your business traveler has in wasting time at big airports to fly short haul trips. So currently, we're only in California and Las Vegas. We have big, aggressive growth plans in Texas, Europe, and the rest of the world, because for short haul city pairs, like San Francisco-L.A, L.A-Vegas, et cetera, they exist all over the world. Those big population centers are getting wealthier, busier, more time-pressed, yet the infrastructure and the commercial world hasn't kept up. >> Right, right. You mentioned the big airports, but you fly into the Bay area. I know you fly into San Carlos, right? >> Right, so that's how we solved the problem is when you're still going to the market that you want to go to from the market that you're coming from, but you're flying out of San Carlos in the Bay area to Burbank or Hawthorne in LA, or you're flying into an FBO attached to Burbank airport. So that's how you save so much time. You show up 15 minutes ahead of your flight. You book everything on your app. We basically give our members back two hours every time they fly, or a whole day if they fly weekly. So every month, you're getting a day back, and so our members are high-powered. They know how to use their time, and when they do that, they're able to create a life out of the time we give them. >> And yet, unlike, say, some of the net jets or some of those things, you're actually getting the, it's not a schedule. So you guys have added the schedule component to it, and you've enabled that using a mobile app. >> Yeah, so the schedule basically gives you the frequency that you need, and it mitigates the cost associated with typical charter travel. >> Jeff: Right, right. >> So you're getting a private experience, but you're not chartering the flight, paying for dead legs. You know, to charter a flight by yourself to San Francisco from LA is going to be $8,000 to $10,000, whereas you fly with us weekly, it's going to be an average of $650 a flight. >> Interesting, okay. We're here at Zuora Subscribe. So, subscription, why did you choose to go with a subscription model as the way to interact with your customers? >> So I've been in the membership business or subscription business in several businesses now, and I think there's a distinct difference between the relationship a company has with its members, and the relationship a company has with customers. So there's obviously- >> Funny, you don't even use the customer phrase, you say members. >> I don't use customers, they're members of ours. >> Okay. >> So when you're a member of the club, you're going to get treated differently, and in all honesty, sometimes we get scathing feedback, but it's good. We learn from that and improve the business based on how the members use it, and how they interact with us, because they're part of the family. A customer, if they don't like it, they often leave. You have to come up with surveys and things like that to find out what's going on, but with us, we can see how often a member engages with us, which flights they take, which flights they enjoy, and we have member care people or member management resources that deal with these members every day. >> Right. >> The feedback loop, it really improves the value of the membership and it also improves the business. And it clearly, a recurring revenue model is good, if you put the member first and handle their needs, that's ultimately going to drive your revenue. >> Right, because you got to keep delivering value over and over and over and over per time period. >> Right. >> You can't just rely on that first big pop and maybe a maintenance fee or whatever. >> No, exactly, we look at it as we don't want to get into the discount game. We want to charge a fair price for what we deliver, but we want to make the experience worth it. And we found that our members really don't blink at the price as long as the experience is there, because they realize it's a much lower price versus say charter, but if we keep innovating and give them the options they want, the times they want, the service level that they want, then it builds value for us and we put value back in it for the member. That's the symbiotic relationship. >> Okay, and how important was the subscription model to the business of Surf Air in terms of the founding. I don't know if you were there at the beginning. Is it really an integral part of it? Or is it kind of a nice to have that you guys added on after the fact? >> No, I was not there for the founding, but I do believe it was an integral part, because they realized that in order to create a different business model, they saw the value of a subscription business. Anytime you look at business models, knowing that when you wake up on June 1 or July 1, you've got recurring revenue there, that's going to be more appealing. >> Jeff: Right. >> How you treat those members to grow it is obviously the question. >> Right. Certainly not an inexpensive business to run, a small airline, so- >> No, and that's- >> It's nice to have that recurring revenue. >> It's a heavy asset business, so you have to get the value right. You have to get the pricing and the usage right, and those are the lessons that we've learned over time. Now we know how often people fly, what they expect, and what kind of price makes sense for both us and them. >> Right, right, I'm going to give you the last word before you have to go. What's kind of your sense of what's going on here at Zuora Subscribe? Water cooler chat, what are you hearing? Any surprises, what's kind of the feel as this subscription thing really starts to go. >> Yeah, I mean, I think, to think that you've got a conference built around a business model is unheard of, and so I think it's extremely valuable, because when you're talking to people in completely different businesses, yet they serve their members or their subscribers in the way that makes sense for their business. You can actually take a lot back into what makes sense for your business. So feeding the model, knowing that you've got a base of people that you have to serve the right way, you can really learn a lot from all sorts of businesses. That's what's cool about this. >> Very good. All right, he's Barry Holmes. I'm Jeff Frick. You're watching the Cube from Zuora Subscribe. Thanks for stopping by. >> Thank you. >> All right, thanks for watching.