>>The cube presents HPE discover 2022 brought to you by HPE. >>Welcome back to HPE. Discover 2022. You're watching the cubes, uh, coverage where day two here at Dave ante with John furrier, HaCo Myers here. He's the executive vice president and chief sales officer, newly minted, relatively newly minted chief sales officer at HPE at HPE and Paul Hunter. Who's the senior vice president and managing director of north America for Hewlett Packard enterprise gentlemen. Welcome to the cube. >>Thank you. Thanks having us. >>Hi coach. This is the first time back in Vegas in a while three years. I think it's been. And your first as the chief sales officer. Yep. What's the vibe like how how's, how's >>It feel? I can tell you. It's so cool. Is it you, you walk down the hallway, everybody's smiling and you see people from, you have seen three years ago or in this format on your screen the last three years, I think, uh, what is amazing. We had exactly three years ago, we had this event and Antonio mentioned, Hey, and by end of 20, 22, you will see everything being available as a service. Yeah. And nobody thought about that. We will not meet in person until 2022 at that point in time. Yeah, indeed. And that's what happened that I can tell you, what's the best decision to make an in person event here in vigor with so many people, uh, because it's about, Hey, the change in the market, the demand, the transition. And, uh, so I think it, I, couldn't be more happy to see the last two days and looking for, for the, to the rest of the event, >>Paul, you have a, a, a background in the, the channel, um, and now you're heading north America. What are you seeing in the ecosystem? Is it, is there a difference as HaCo was saying from 2019, is there a different, you know, feeling different conversations? What are you seeing? Yeah. >>Well, the good thing is like, because we haven't been here for three years, you've got a really marked moment of comparison. So you cast your mind back. What were the conversations like? I think three years ago we were talking about cloud services and partners were nodding their heads and thinking, yeah, but the world is gonna continue as normal and we fast forward three years and, uh, the partners are really talking about, uh, proactively how do they build up that cloud services? And, uh, they're also talking about customer experiences as well. We've landed and won new customers. So, uh, that's really sort of thrilling to hear that they're really excited about the journey on with us. >>You know, I'd like to get your perspective on the, what happened during the pandemic, because we saw, um, first of all, you know, zoom and video com saved the internet, uh, had meetings, but the partner, the partners delivered a lot of value. Um, customers had to pivot, or if they had a tailwind, they had, they took advantage of it. Some had headwinds with the pandemic everyone's working at home. So a lot of disruptions for all the companies, but a lot of the partners had success during the pandemic. And because they have that solution. What was the, uh, uh, the learnings that you guys saw during the pandemic, because now with cloud cloud scale hybrid, mainstream, and now steady state people lived it and partners delivered a lot of solutions in hybrid mode. Yeah. In virtual mode. What was the learnings for you guys out, coming out of that with customers and partners? >>I think first of all, we, we all learned during the pandemic that, uh, you can business, uh, do business in a different way, but as well, you learned, uh, how to pivot faster in the digital transformation. This makes a difference. And this creates value. And I think together with our partner ecosystem, we were able to develop faster solutions there while we developed everything as a service and came up with more and more cloud services. The good thing is it resonates. And our history with the partners is I donors, as long as I can, uh, think back in my career. And you only can do that together with the channel partners. And I think they appreciate that. We learn from each other. We do the same enablement from my guys, like from the partner guys and this close relation, I think made a difference, >>You know, in 2019 GreenLake, as a service was really a financial vehicle right now that's, that's evolved. And now, you know, two years on three years on it's actually a cloud service. Absolutely. And so what's the resonance been with customers because I mean, every everybody says they want that cloud experience. They may not all want OPEX. Yeah. But so what have you hearing from customers? So >>First of all, what I hear is, um, not the, if, so the strategy is clear, the customer they'll love it. They like it. They have, they want to have the cloud-like experience and guess what? We have 70 cloud services now. Yeah. And we have announced a lot of new one the last couple of days, but it's not so much that if they should do this, it's more the question, how can we help me to scale faster? Yeah. And, uh, that's the, the, the, the feedback I got the last couple of days, and for us, it's a motivation. We are on the right track. There is, this is a moment where you have a demand from the market and a strategy that fits, and this is so strong and you can do this with the partner through the partners and you see the, the customers, they love it. I have never seen an event where I got so many requests the last two days where I say, I thought that, can you help me to get there faster? It's perfect. >>Yeah. I think, I think it was also a landmark moment when we presented the cloud platform as part of the Antonio's keynote, I've had a lot of partners say this was sort of really marked the moment where we felt there was there's real substance to the offering now. And, uh, I had one of the sales guys relate to me a story where they have a, a, a client in the audience. And, uh, they're thinking about how they might, um, have a relationship with us and through seeing the kind of significance of it for us, we're able to close deals. So that's also, you know, a really exciting thing. We're actually know we're closing deals and, and winning new >>Customers, Hey, being agile and closing deals fast is a good thing. Right? I mean, that's what you guys like. Yeah. >>I mean, that's >>What it, so I, so I love the channel conversation partners because one of the things that I've observed and, and, and, and, and knowing the HP channels so strong, they're obviously they want make money. Gross margin is all about the profit, the profit motive, but the enablement that you guys have, how is that translated into this, this, this shift everyone's aligned behind GreenLake and as a service, cuz this seems to be a good fit for partner. Cause they're gonna go to the customer, the ultimate end customer and bolt on services. >>Yeah. >>How is that going? Cuz this is, to me, seems like a dream scenario for services, which we all know is high gross margin. >>Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a journey. What's a journey for our sales organization. Like it is for the partners, but it's a journey worth to do that. And um, so what, what is our, our strategy to have this together with our channel partners in mind, uh, to, to combine their strengths and they can, we, we have a kind of modular approach so that they can plug in their strengths, their IP, or as well, their services, which makes them sticky and, uh, relevant to the customer. And it drives profitability. And I think that's the, the, the secret behind the model, working with the channel, not, uh, separate to the channel. And I think this resonates this story, it's, it's a journey. And, uh, we learned a lot the last three years how to sell it. We, in the past we were selling, uh, transactional hardware. Yeah. Now we are selling services, cloud services, like you mentioned different game and this is an enablement. And we, we, um, we offer the same trainings we are doing with our folks to our channel partners because we are together in this journey. >>Yeah. It, you, you described it really well. And uh, so did, Hico essentially, this is, it requires a lot of persistence because you, you're not gonna get it right the first time. And so we now seen partners try and fail several times, but now try fail and succeed. So that's exciting. Um, and also I think what we're also seeing is partners is doing quite a good job of building services that integrate into the cloud services. So they're right into the APIs. I was, I was with a meeting with a partner called CBTS and they talked about the whole of their services portfolio now is embedded in, in GreenLake. So that certainly was not the case three years ago. >>Yeah. And the other, the big tailwind too, as you got the open source software movement, you're seeing, you know, the ability for partners and ultimately the channel being software enabled they're adding services, not just professional services, but cloud services where they have the domain expertise. Yeah. They're close to the customer. Yeah. And they could really be, um, customizing solutions. Um, and that's gonna always be great for the customer. The question I have for you guys is do you see that domain specialism with machine learning and with software, do you see partners start to get vertically focused and like, and start, get more targeted towards save verticals? >>Yeah. >>You go, no, go first. Yeah. >>Well, again, I was, uh, it's funny, your questions are completely resonating with the conversations we've been having all day. Like I was with our partner called connection and they're talking about how do they build practices in four areas? And they're, I'm quite closely allowed to aligned to our areas of edge cloud and data. Um, they have another one which is also workplace transformation. So, and they're thinking, how do we add expertise? How do we hire, recruit and retain the best talent? And, uh, that again, that wasn't a conversation we were having two, three years ago. So where partners really add value to us is through their services and their expertise and progressive partners are hiring and doing that. >>Yeah. And this transformation I mentioned earlier, it's selling outcomes, business outcomes for the end customer. And, uh, I think selling outcomes means you need to be specialized in something, be it on a domain area or be on a vertical. And I think, uh, when you focus on that, uh, that's the best way you can add value to a customer. This creates this trust, this trust relationship. Yeah. >>So edge cloud and data, obviously, I, I think edge, you guys, you got sending stuff and outta space, that's the ultimate edge. So you got some proof points there. Deep edge, I think. Deep edge. Yeah. >><laugh> I is very good. >>I think cloud, you showed the console Alma. It was very, had a very clear and strong platform message say, okay, now go build the data piece to me is the least mature when I walk around. Although I did see Starburst. Yeah, yeah. Out there. I think Starbursts a very advanced leading edge thinker. So that was a good sign. What do you see as having to happen to really build out that data ecosystem now? >>So I think what is important, this, this is all connected to each other edge cloud and data. And at the end, it's about, uh, how we can create insights out of the data, uh, and uh, where they, they live, where they come up, the data, how we structure them, how we get insights out of the data. So I think this is an area we see much more. It's not only about AI, but it's about having a data strategy as a customer. This is one of those areas. We have customer advisory bots that tell us, Hey, help us. We want to create our data strategy. And this is something where I think we can play together with our partners to really create value, get these insights out of the data. >>Are you hearing conversations where cus customers or partners are saying, okay, I wanna get insights out of the data, but I actually want to build a data business. I wanna build data products on, on, on GreenLake. Are you hearing that yet? >>Yeah, we are. Um, particularly the sort of, we, we think of them as sort of information, um, modern companies, um, they're building out new service lines. I mean, you, you, we see it in a lot of industries. Now you can see like how car manufacturers are increasingly thinking about how do they monetize their data, they're getting from it. And, uh, so there are new businesses being established, like in lots of different verticals. Pharmaceuticals will be another one where, um, traditional players are really being challenged and there are big businesses growing very rapidly based off data. So we're seeing it quite extensively. And, and we have to think about how do we access those new customers? How do we intersect them? And it's not just the people that we've been dealing with for 10, 20 years. They're very new companies, >>Which, which announcement's got the most buzz in your conversations with customers, partners. >><laugh>, it's funny. So I, I had, uh, when, when, when I started my conversation at a couple of, uh, meetings now, the last two days always started and said, what, what resonates? Yeah. And first of all, the funny thing is everybody told me the clarity of the message, the strategy second, uh, the consistency that we do, what we promise to do. Um, a couple of them, I know that down ISS, private cloud enterprise, uh, it's a great solution here. And, uh, then, uh, what, what I hear as well with our clarity and the strategy we are leapfrogging the competition. That's what I get out of these meetings. And I think that's the best compliment we can get for the two days. Yeah. >>Yeah. And I think the platform and the conversations around machine learning, AI, we even had an HP executive talk about quantum. Yeah. So you guys are already starting to think about what's around the corner. And I think if the platform works, the test will be, and the results will be enablement ecosystem will be flourishing, and we're gonna watch that. So I wanna get your, your take on the early, um, shift. Cause I think this year with GreenLake and the platform it's, it's maturing enough to the right. No doubt about it. We see the momentum, but there's still a lot more to do than go. So how do you guys envision the ecosystem developing? Because that'll be the true test, the flourishing, cuz if you enable people will get value out of it and it's gotta be a step function, not incremental value. >>Yeah. I think we, we, we, we always talk about, Hey, we landed and then we expand from there. That's the beauty of the model. And the good thing is there's no window looking for the customer. So they are free. That's a modular system. And what we see it's uh, really first of all, to understand the customer digital journey, where are the journey and they're all in a different place. And we have this digital, uh, uh, next advisor workshops when we have this anchor point mm-hmm, <affirmative>, you start there, you really can grow. And then you add workloads based on where the customer sits, what are the partnerships we have to bring to that? So it's really a model which starts and is, uh, designed for the future. >>The field must love it. The folks in the field, we love it. Yeah. You guys love that. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Give it the customer plan future and >>I can tell you the partners love it the, well, yeah, >>Got it. When I talk to CIOs, I, I, and I ask them, you know, what's changed, you know, with Ukraine and supply chain and inflation and rising interest rate, what's changed in terms of your assumption from the beginning of the year, you know, let's say, you know, in, in terms of it spend and they're saying, well, not a lot, actually we're gonna continue to spend, we are reprioritizing. You know, we got, we're taking Robb a little bit from over here to put it into security. Yeah. Okay. But generally speaking, it's, it's the same as we expected, let's call it six, 7% growth, which is pretty good on top of last year. Um, and, and maybe there's some dry powder there, depending on how business goes. It also seems like there's, there's a lot of headwinds at the macro and B to C you know, some of the consumer companies, but B2B is booming. >>So I think >>That what do you guys are seeing? >>Absolutely. I, I completely agree that the demand will continue. Mm-hmm <affirmative> for different reasons. It could be a little bit shift within the demand as you described, but, uh, they know exactly they're on a journey in the digital transformation. If they stop now, they have a competitive disadvantage. So they are wisely in investing. So I think that the, the demand will stay here. Yes. Everybody talks about macroeconomics recession. Uh, we are confident we will see in our B2B >>Part continued demand and they're well capitalized as are a lot of the ecosystem partners. >>Yeah. And it's not a nice to have. It's a must have, I mean, I dunno of any customers that are deinvest in technology, deinvest in the life blood of their business >>Business. Exactly. Guys, thanks so much for coming on the cube. Great. Great to see you. Yeah. Congratulations on being here and, and, and best of luck with all the follow up from the show. I'm sure that lot we're gonna update next year. You see how it turned out? Yeah. >><laugh> numbers >><laugh> thanks for having us. Thank you for watching this segment. This is Dave ante for John furrier, the cubes coverage of HPE discover 22 from Las Vegas. We'll be right back.