(electronic music) >> Narrator: Live from Washington D.C., it's theCUBE covering .NEXT Conference. Brought to you by Nutanix. >> Welcome back to .NEXT, everybody, Nutanix' big customer event. This is theCUBE, the leader in live tech coverage. My name is Dave Vellante, and I'm here with my co-host, Stu Miniman. Virginia Gambale is here. She's the managing partner at Azimuth Partners, LLC. Virginia, thanks for coming on theCUBE. >> Oh, my pleasure. >> So tell us about Azimuth. What do you guys do? >> Well, we focus on helping companies grow, transform, and remain or become relevant. We work at both ends of the spectrum, so we work with early stage private companies that are either trying to raise capital, prepare to go public, or just get to that next level of growth. And then on the large public side, we work with companies who are more legacy-oriented in their traditional products and services, and really help them jumpstart a transformation process. Whether it be through setting up an investment venture arm, or through creating a transformative independent business that begins to create a different model, but at a distance from the original organization. >> You're a former CIO, you're an investor, you're a board member; a board member of our favorite airline, Jet Blue, and a strategic advisor. >> The best. (laughs) >> You're the best. >> Boston Base. >> We love Jet Blue. >> So, you know, a good hub, (mumbles). >> Best app. You know. >> That's right. >> Love you guys. So kind of an interesting and varied background. How did you get to this spot? >> I'm always focused, from the time I was a CIO, on looking at the companies that are going to change the game, and they could be the smallest companies that really have something that will allow us to leapfrog. I really believe in the concept of leapfrogging next chapter, and you want to be there first if you can. So, that's been the thread in my life, whether it be in a financial services business or an airline. It's always trying to double, triple, and multiply the value of the company, and also its relevance with its customers. >> So you believe technology is a sustainable differentiator, presumably, and despite what Nick Carr wrote way back when. >> I was one of those CIOs where the consultants would say, "Don't say what you're saying, because you're saying that technology is the driver for the business model, and we're saying it's an enabler," and I'd say, "No, it's really a driver." So I'm really happy that we've come into that, where it's not only acceptable, but it's the right thing to think about when you're sitting at a board. "How is technology going to drive my business?" And its relevance with my customers. >> Well, there certainly was a period of time where CEOs could call that into question because, as a CIO, you were spending a lot of money on heavy lifting that maybe wasn't adding value to the business, but now every company is a technology company. >> It is. >> There's far more SAS companies outside of tech than there are inside of tech. Everybody talks about the buzz word of digital disruption, but it feels like that's actually happening. Brings us to Nutanix. I mean, that's kind of my view anyway, what they're doing is to try to help us cut out that IT labor cost and shift the resource elsewhere. What's your take? >> Well, many times I talk about capital allocation. When you're sitting at a board level, you really want to be allocating your capital efficiently, and on the right aspects of your business going forward. And Nutanix, I think, offers incredible value proposition. If I can literally take my infrastructure costs down by 60 or more percent, and actually redeploy that capital into game-changing technology, then, to me, it's a no-brainer. >> Yeah. Virginia, I love that. When we came to the first Nutanix conference in Miami two years ago, it was great to hear IT people say, "I got my weekends back," but what's exciting is when we had PXP Solutions on, who's in the financial tech industry today, and he said, "What Nutanix allows me to do is allow my team to work on the fun stuff," which means they're off coding, or they're creating a new app, or, you know, creating more value for the business rather than just, you know, running around keeping the lights on. >> And I see the early adopters of Nutanix actually are the more vision-oriented CIOs who get that. It doesn't mean that we are going to not be able to use the talent that we have on board, but again, we have to use it more efficiently and to the best yield that we possibly can. And so I think the companies that are a little afraid, or they actually delegate that to a group who is concerned that that may mean they will no longer exist, we have to really break down that misconception. >> And Virginia, it often requires either some retraining, or, you know, there might be changes in kind of the makeup of your environment. What are you seeing out there? What are you advising companies as to how they manage their IT staff? >> Well, what's really interesting more and more now is Nutanix is now public and it's continuing on with its future strategy. I really believe they are completely redefining the concept of Cloud in context of the new world, and so the possibilities of starting businesses, transforming businesses in a very quick-start manner, but also deploying fundamentals of other industries where some industries thought they never could, so speed of execution and processing of enormous amounts of data, again, are made possible with a Nutanix type infrastructure. >> So, you're giving a keynote later on. Today, or is it tomorrow? >> Today. Yes. >> Okay. What are you talking about? Can you just set that up for us? >> Well, today I'm on a panel with a few other constituents who represent different aspects of the world today. And tomorrow, I'm going to be focused on a topic that's near and dear to my heart, which is in the executive session, and that is where we're going to talk about the market today as established in Wall Street is really focused on any number that is already public and how they can analyze that to the nth degree. But the question they really should be asking is, "How much are you spending on technology? How are you using your technology dollars? What are you doing with them?" And instead, if you think about the Amazon moment, which I call the "a-ha!" moment. I loved listening to Bloomberg Radio the day that AWS really became known as a business entity within Amazon, which was in the fall a couple of years ago. And the analysts on that call were actually saying, "I'm going to have to rewrite my model," because for so long we were saying Amazon was not profitable, and we would sort of discount that stock because of that. But meanwhile, they were siphoning off, you know, billions of dollars to create a business that is actually going to continue to support the technology revolution that's happening today. >> Well, so, let's unpack that a little bit. So investors today, they clearly want growth. You look at a company like Nutanix, Pure, you know, decent valuations, whereas companies like IBM struggle. You know, whatever, 12 straight quarters or 26 straight quarters of declining revenue. Amazon growing nicely. Throwing off a ton of cash. Not necessarily profitable. Do investors have that wrong in your mind? >> I really do. You know, I think that all the long-term businesses that have existed are standing at the edge of a cliff today, looking down at the abyss. And that is the reality. And so, if they listen to Wall Street, they're just going to perpetuate that getting closer and closer to the end of the cliff before they're going to fall off. Wall Street should actually be facilitating a conversation which allows them some time to actually speak about a transformative process. I would put my money into a company who talks about transforming their business or investing in new technologies as opposed to someone who's standing up there as The Emperor Has No Clothes and saying, "Oh, no, business as usual. In fact, we're cranking out higher margins." To me, that's a warning signal. >> What do you think of the private equity model these days? We've talked on theCUBE a lot about how it's changed quite a bit. You know, it used to be just suck as much cash out of the business as you can and leave the carcass for somebody else, but you're seeing some strategic investors... You see companies like certainly Riverbed, BMC's gone private, Dell obviously appears to be doing quite well. They're not on the 90-day shot clock. IN4's another one that we track. There are many, many more. I'm sorry I'm leaving some out. But is there a new private equity model in your mind where they're trying to invest more, get the valuations up, and maybe go back to the public markets? What are your thoughts on that? >> Certainly I see there are two models that are taking place. There's the private equity model where people are saying, "I need air cover," so I have to take my company private in order to reinvent it. But only still a small percentage of those private equity investors are really investing in the fundamental transformative aspects of those businesses There are still a lot of them who still see the opportunity to really manage the balance sheet, and the pure financials in order to make it look good and put it back out in the market. And there's several examples of that, I think. The other is the activist investor who is standing by, listening to the analyst conversation as I am, and saying, "Well, this is not going to bode well for this stock or for this company, and we want to proactively now start to influence how capital is allocated and how the company starts to make those transformative decisions." >> Well, and oftentimes, they're pushing for for a buyback or a dividend. I mean, that's kind of what happened to EMC. They couldn't weather the storm. Again, is that a good thing or a bad thing? >> Well, some of them, again, are in for the short-term gain, right? But there are increasing numbers of firms that actually believe that that is the way to transform an industry, whether it be media or the airline industry, or consumer goods is by beginning to get in and take seats on the board. Because at the end of the day, the buck starts and stops at the board level no matter what. >> Yeah. Virginia, wondering... You've been a CIO. What's your opinion on the role of the CIO going forward when we have things like the public Cloud, we're making infrastructure invisible, you know, great shift into kind of the roles and responsibility. What's the CIO of the future look like? >> I think this is a pivot point for a CIO. And whereas before the real enablement of the Cloud, CIOs had really A They were either going to become a chief digital officer, or they were going to stay sort of running the day-to-day shop. Because they didn't have the tools to be able to transform their existing day of operations. Today I think actually the CIO has the opportunity to make the choice, "Do I want to be driving the digital business in terms of product and service and move into that area, or do I actually want to begin to drive a transformation of my original cost structure and then begin to have the dialogue where the two are meeting now?" So the chief digital officer and the work the chief digital officer is doing is becoming day-to-day of operations, and the CIO is handling day of operations. So they actually have the ability to meet and transform the company. So I think that is a really important question that CIOs need to be asking themselves today. "Which of these roles do I see myself in?" >> We only got a couple of minutes. I got so many questions for you. So what's rhe I'm going to totally pivot here. The security discussion at the board level. What is that like now? How has it changed? And how should the CIO be communicating to the boards about security? >> Well, I fall in the camp, and I think I was one of the early drivers of making sure that the chief information security officer does not report to the CIO. It's a conflict of interest to me, plain and simple, like any audit principles one would have. But, and I think that will change over time in terms of the security that we are so hypervigilant about will become threads within the fabric of our infrastructure, and it will become day-to-day needs that will be put in by the CIO. Today they have to work very complimentary and very cooperatively, and so one should not feel that a CIO is failing in their job because the CISO is on top of them. Their job as the CISO is to be out in the market, and be understanding what is happening in the world today, and to the degree they can anticipate what will happen. They also need to be talking to the boards and educating the boards. Boards today have become... I would say cyber security is one of the main top three topics on conversation with every board. It should be talked about at every board meeting, at least a readout as to where we are, and what's happening and what are we doing? So it's a very important role. >> Before we go, I just want ask you about women in tech. About, we know, 50% of the population roughly are women. Only 17% of the tech industry comprises women. Thoughts on that? Do you feel like this industry is making progress, is going in any movement, wrong direction, right direction? What can be done? >> I think there are a lot of different philosophies in the world today about helping drive more women into tech. Certainly I've been in this business for, I hate to say, but it's multiple decades, and I was the only woman CIO at the time I was the CIO, or one of the first women board members sitting at a board table of all men. And some of the arguments say that women should be coding from very early ages, and that we have to get women coding. You know, I think women, just like men, fall into the category of broad spectrum talents. Not every woman is suited for a code job, but today, the great thing about technology is, we have visualization components, we have design components, we have strategy components more than ever, and I think when we educate our young girls, and I have one myself, we should understand where their best talents are, where their interests are, and help shape them in the areas that are tech-related, but not hardcore coding at all. There's a lot of organizations about women who code, and I think that's great, but that's not all that women need to do to be in the tech world and be successful in the tech world. >> Love it. Alright, we're out of time. My last question is sort of advice for Nutanix. What do you think Nutanix should be doing? What can you share with us? >> I'm very impressed by the CEO, because I think the first and foremost role of a CEO is to have vision, and I really believe that this CEO has vision. The difficulty now, once you're in the public markets, and you're under the scrutiny of a public market, and yet you as a company are in your infancy in how you grow, they have to walk that line between, "Yes, I hear you, Wall Street, but these are the things that I need to do to be the best, the biggest, and the most enabling company to my customers that I can possibly be." And that is a fundamental that they can never lose sight of. Don't listen to the street too much, and don't err on the side of only one way. >> Great. Virginia, really a pleasure having you on. I hope you come back to theCUBE. >> Yes, thank you, thank you. >> Appreciate it. Alright, keep it right there, everybody. Stu and I will be back in D.C. at the .NEXT Conference right after this short break. (electronic music)