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Asvin Ramesh, HashiCorp | Palo Alto Networks Ignite22


 

(upbeat music) >> Announcer: TheCUBE presents Ignite '22 brought to you by Palo Alto Networks. >> Welcome back to Las Vegas guys and girls. Lisa Martin here with Dave Vellante. This is day one of the cube's two day coverage of Palo Alto Networks Ignite at the MGM Grand. Dave, we've been having some great conversations today, we have a great two day lineup execs from Palo Alto, it's partner network, customers, et cetera. Going to be talking about infrastructure as code. We talk about that a lot, how Palo is partnering with its partner ecosystem to really help customers deliver security across the organization. >> We do a predictions post every year. Hopefully you can hear me. So we do this predictions post every year. I've done it for a number of years, and I want to say it was either 2018 or 2019, we predicted that HashiCorp was one of these companies to watch. And then last August, on August 9th, we had supercloud event in Palo Alto. We had David McJannet in, who is the CEO of HashiCorp. And we really see Hashi as a key player in terms of affecting multicloud consistency. Sometimes we call it supercloud, you building on top of the hyperscale cloud. So super excited to have HashiCorp on. >> Really an important conversation. We've got an alumni back with us. Asvin Ramesh is here the senior director of Alliances at HashiCorp. Welcome back. >> Yeah, thank you. Good to be back. >> Great to have you. Talk to us a little bit about what's going on at HashiCorp, your relationship with Palo Alto Networks, and what's in it for customers. >> Yeah, no, no, great question. So, Palo Alto has been a fantastic partner of ours for many years now. We started way back in 2018, 2019 focusing on the basics, putting integrations in place that customers can be using together. And so it's been a great journey. Both are very synergistic. Palo Alto is focused on multicloud, so are we, we focus on cloud infrastructure automation, and ensuring that customers are able to bring in agility, reliability, security, and be able to deliver to their business. And then Palo Alto brings in great security components to that multicloud story. So it's a great story altogether. >> Some of the challenges that organizations have been facing. Palo Alto just released a survey, I think this morning if I can find it here what's next in cyber organizations facing massive headwinds ransomware becoming a household word, business email compromise being a challenge. But also in the last couple of years the massive shift to multi-club or organizations are living an operating need to do so securely. It's no longer nice to have anymore. It's absolutely table stakes for survival, and being able to thrive and grow for any business. >> Yeah, no, I think it's almost a sort of rethinking of how you would build your infrastructure up. So the more times you do it right the better you are built to scale. That's been one of the bedrocks of how we've been working with Palo Alto, which is rethinking how should IT be building their infrastructure in a multicloud world. And I think the market timing is right for both of us in terms of the progress that we've been able to make. >> So, I mean Terraform has really become sort of a key ingredient to the cloud operating model, especially across clouds. Kind of describe how partners, and customers are are implementing that cross-cloud capability. What's that journey look like? What's the level of maturity today? >> Yeah, great question, Dave. So we sort of see customers in three buckets. The first bucket is when customers are in the initial phases of their cloud journey. So they have disparate teams in their business units try out clouds themselves. Typically there is some event that occurs either some sort of a security scare or a a cloud cost event that triggers a rethinking of how they should be thinking about this in a scalable way. So that leads to where the cloud operating model which is a framework that HashiCorp has. And we use that successfully with customers to talk them through how they should be thinking about their process, about how they should be standardizing how people operate, and then the products they should be including, but then you come to that stage, and you start to think about a centralized platform team that is putting in golden workflows, that is putting in as a service mindset for their business units thinking through policies at a corporate level. And then that is a second stage. And then, but this is also in some customers more around public clouds. But then the third stage that we see is when they start embracing their private cloud or the on-prem data center, and have the same principles address across both public clouds, and the on-prem data center, and then Terraform scale for any infrastructure. So, once you start to put these practices in place not just from a technology standpoint, but from a process, and product standpoint, you're easily able to scale with that central platform organization. >> So, it's all about that consistency across your estate irrespective of whether it's on-prem in AWS, Azure, Google, the Edge, maybe. I mean, that's starting, right? >> Asvin: Yes. >> And so when you talk about the... Break it down a little bit process and product, where do you and Palo Alto sort of partner and add value? What's that experience like? >> Yeah, so, I think as I mentioned earlier the bedrock is having ways in which customers are able to use our products together, right? And then being able to evangelize the usage of that product. So one example I'll give you is with Prisma Cloud, and Terraform Cloud to your point about Terraform earlier. So customers can be using Prisma Cloud with Terraform Cloud in a way that you can get security context telemetry during an infrastructure run, and then use policies that you have in Prisma Cloud to be able to get or run or to implement or run or make sure essentially it is adhering to your security policy or any other audits that you want to create or any other cost that you want to be able to control. >> Where are your customer conversations these days? We know that security is a board level conversation. Interestingly, in that same survey that Palo Alto released this morning that I mentioned they found that there's a big lack of alignment between the board and the C-suite staff, the executive suite in terms of security. Where are your conversations, and how are you maybe facilitating that alignment that needs to be there? Because security it's not a nice to have. >> Yeah, I think in our experience, the alignment is there. I think especially with the macro environment it's more about where where do you allocate those resources. I think those are conversations that we're just starting to see happen, but I think it's the natural progression of how the environment is moving, and maybe another quarter or two, I think we'll see greater alignment there. >> So, and I saw some data that said I guess it was a study you guys did 90% of customer say multicloud is working for them. That surprised me 'cause you hear all this negativity around multicloud, I've been kind of negative about multicloud to be honest. Like that's a symptom of MNA, and a or multi-vendor. But how do you interpret that? When they say multicloud is working? How so? >> Yeah, I think the maturity of customers are varied as I mentioned through the stages, right? So, there are customers who even in the initial phases of their journey where they have different business units using different clouds, and from a C standpoint that might still look like multicloud, right? Though the way we think about it is you should be really in stage two, and stage three to real leverage the real power of multicloud. But I think it's that initial hump that you need to go through, and being able to get oriented towards it, have the right set of skillsets, the thought process, the product, the process in place. And once you have that then you'll start reaping the benefits over a period of time, especially when some other environments events happen, and you're able to easily adjust to that because you're leveraging this multicloud environment, and you have a clear policy of where you'll use which cloud. >> So I interpreted that data as, okay, multicloud is working from the standpoint of we are multicloud, okay? So, and our business is working, but when I talk to customers, they want more to your point, they want that consistent experience. And so it's been by, to use somebody else's term, by default. Chuck Whitten I think came up with that term versus by design. And now I think they have an objective of, okay, let's make multicloud work even better. Maybe I can say that. And so what does that experience look like? That means a common experience all the way through my stack, my infrastructure stack, which is that's going to be interesting to see how that goes down 'cause you got three separate clouds, and are doing their own APIs. But certainly from a security standpoint, the PaaS layer, even as I go up the stack, how do you see that outcome, and say the next two to five years? >> Yeah, so, we go back to our customers, and they're very successful ones who've used the cloud operating model. And for us the cloud operating model for us includes four layers. So on the infrastructure layer, we have Terraform and Packer, on the security layer we have Vault and Boundary, on the networking layer we have Consul, and then on applications we have Nomad and Waypoint. But then you really look at, from a people process, and product standpoint, for people it's how do you standardize the workflows that they're able to use, right? So if you have a central platform team in place that is looking at common use cases that multiple business units are using. and then creates a golden workflow, for example, right? For these various business units to be able to use or creates what we call a system of record for cloud adoption it helps multiple business units then latch onto this work that this central platform team is doing. And they need to have a product mindset, right? So not like a project that you just start and end with. You have this continuous improvement mindset within that platform team. And they build these processes, they build these golden workflows, they build these policies in place, and then they offer that as a service to the business units to be able to use. So that increases the adoption of multicloud. And also more importantly, you can then allow that multicloud usage to be governed in the way that aligns with your overall corporate objectives. And obviously in self-interest, you'd use Terraform or Vault because you can then use it across multiple clouds. >> Well, let's say I buy into that. Okay, great. So I want that common experience 'cause so when you talk about infrastructure, take us through an example. So when I hear infrastructure, I say, okay if I'm using an S3 bucket over here an Azure blob over there, they got different APIs, they got different primitives. I want you to abstract that away. Is that what you do? >> Yeah, so I think we've seen different use cases being used across different clouds too. So I don't think it's sort of as simple as, hey, should I use this or that? It is ensuring that the common tool that you use to be able to leverage safer provisioning, right? Is Terraform. So the central team is then trained in not only just usage of Terraform open source, but their Terraform cloud, which is our managed service, and Terraform enterprise which is the self-managed, but on-prem product, it's them being qualified to be able to build these consistent workflows using whatever tool that they have or whatever skew that they have from Terraform. And then applying business logic on top of that to your point about, hey, we'd like to use AWS for these kind of workloads. We'd like to use GCP, for example, on data or use Microsoft Azure for some other type of- >> Collaboration >> Right? But the common tooling, right? Remains around the usage of Terraform, and they've trained their teams there's a standard workflow, there's standard process around it. >> Asvin, I was looking at that survey the HashiCorp state of cloud strategy survey, and it talked about skill shortages as being the number one barrier to multicloud. We talk about the cyber skills gap all the time. It's huge. It's obviously a huge issue. I saw some numbers just the other day that there's 26 million developers but there's less than 3 million cybersecurity professionals. How does HashiCorp and Palo Alto Networks, how do you help customers address that skills gap so that they that they can leverage multicloud as a driver of the business? >> Yeah, another great question. So I think I'd say in two or three different ways. One is be able to provide greater documentation for our customers to be able to self use the product so that with the existing people, for example, you build out a known example, right? You're trying to achieve this goal here is how you use our products together. And so they'll be able to self-service, right? So that's one. Second is obviously both of us have great services partners, so we are always working with these services partners to get their teams trained and scaled up around these skill gaps. And I think I'd say the third which is where we see a lot of adoption is around usage of the managed services that we have. If you take Palo Alto's example in this Palo Alto will speak better to it, but they have SOC services, right? That you can consume. So, they're performing that service for you. Similarly, on our side we have a HashiCorp Cloud Platform, HCP, where you can consume Vault as a service, you can consume Consul as a service. Terraform cloud is a managed service, so you don't need as many people to be able to run that service. And we abstract all the complexity associated with that by ourselves, right? So I'd say these are the three ways that we address it. >> So Zero Trust across big buzzword. We heard this in this morning keynotes, AWS is always saying, well, we'll talk about it too, but, okay, customers are starting to talk about Zero Trust. You talk to CISOs, they're like, yes, we're adopting this mentality of unless you're trusted, we don't trust you. So, okay, cool. So you think about the cloud you've got the shared responsibility model, and then you've got the application developers are being asked to do more, secure the code. You got the CISO now has to deal with not only the shared responsibility model, but shared responsibility models across clouds, and got to bring his or her security ethos to the app dev team, and then you got to audit kind of making sure they're like the last line of defense. So my question is when you think about code security and Zero Trust in that new environment the problem with a lot of the clouds is they don't make the CISOs life any easier. So I got to believe that your objective with Palo Alto is to actually make the organization's lives easier. So, how do you deal with all that complexity in specifically in a Zero Trust multicloud environment? >> Yeah, so I'll give you a specific example. So, on code to cloud security which is one of Palo Alto's sort of key focus area is that Prisma Cloud and Terraform Cloud example that I gave, right? Where you'd be able to use what we call run tasks essentially, web hook integrations to be able to get a run or provide some telemetry back to Prisma Cloud for customers to be able to make a decision. On the Zero Trust side, we partner both on the Prisma Cloud side, and the Cortex XSOAR side around our products of Vault and and Consul. So what Vault does is it allows you to control secrets, it allows you to store secrets. So a Prisma Cloud or a Cortex customer can be using secrets from Vault familiarly for that particular transaction or workflow itself, right? Rather than, and so it's based on identity, and not on the basis of just the secret sort of lying around. Same thing with console helps you with discovery, and management of services. So, Cortex and you can automate, a lot of this work can get automated using the product that I talked about from Zero Trust. I think the key thing for Zero Trust in our view is it is a end destination, right? So it'll take certain time, depends on the enterprise, depends on where things are. It's a question of specifically focusing on value that Palo Alto and HashiCorp's products bring to solve specific use cases within that Zero Trust bucket, and solve one problem at a time rather than try to say that, hey, only Palo Alto, and only HashiCorp or whatever will solve everything in Zero Trust, right? Because that is not going to be- >> And to your point, it's never going to end, right? I mean you're talk about Cortex bringing a lot of automation. You guys bring a lot of automation now Palo Alto just bought Cider Security. Now we're getting into supply chain. I mean it going to hit it at the edge and IoT, the people don't want another IoT stove pipe. >> Lisa: No. >> Right? They want that to be part of the whole picture. So, you're never done. >> Yeah, no, but it is this continuous journey, right? And again, different companies are different parts of that journey, and then you go and rinse and repeat, you maybe acquire another company, and then they have a different maturity, so you get them on board on this. And so we see this as a multi-generational shift as Dave like to call it. And we're happy to be in the middle of it with Palo Alto Networks. >> It's definitely a multi-generational shift. Asvin, it's been great having you back on theCUBE. Thank you for giving us the update on what Hashi and Palo Alto are doing, the value in it for customers, the cloud operating model. And we should mention that HashiCorp yesterday just won a Technology Partner of the Year award. Congratulations. Yes. >> We're very, very thrilled with the recognition from Palo Alto Networks for the Technology Partner of the Year. >> Congrats. >> Thank you Keep up the great partnership. Thank you so much. We appreciate your insights. >> Thank you so much. >> For our guest, and for Dave Vellante, I'm Lisa Martin, live in Las Vegas. You watching theCUBE, the leader in live enterprise and emerging tech coverage. (upbeat music)

Published Date : Dec 14 2022

SUMMARY :

brought to you by Palo Alto Networks. This is day one of the So super excited to have HashiCorp on. the senior director of Good to be back. Great to have you. and be able to deliver to their business. the massive shift to multi-club So the more times you do it right sort of a key ingredient to So that leads to where So, it's all about that And so when you talk about the... and Terraform Cloud to your that needs to be there? of how the environment is moving, So, and I saw some data that said that you need to go through, and say the next two to five years? So that increases the Is that what you do? It is ensuring that the common tool But the common tooling, right? as a driver of the business? for our customers to be and got to bring his or her security ethos and not on the basis of just the secret And to your point, it's be part of the whole picture. and then you go and rinse and repeat, Partner of the Year award. for the Technology Partner of the Year. Thank you so much. the leader in live enterprise

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Sarbjeet Johal | Supercloud22


 

(upbeat music) >> Welcome back, everyone to CUBE Supercloud 22. I'm John Furrier, your host. Got a great influencer, Cloud Cloud RRT segment with Sarbjeet Johal, Cloud influencer, Cloud economist, Cloud consultant, Cloud advisor. Sarbjeet, welcome back, CUBE alumni. Good to see you. >> Thanks John and nice to be here. >> Now, what's your title? Cloud consultant? Analyst? >> Consultant, actually. Yeah, I'm launching my own business right now formally, soon. It's in stealth mode right now, we'll be (inaudible) >> Well, I'll just call you a Cloud guru, Cloud influencer. You've been great, friend of theCUBE. Really powerful on social. You share a lot of content. You're digging into all the trends. Supercloud is a thing, it's getting a lot of traction. We introduced that concept last reinvent. We were riffing before that. As we kind of were seeing the structural change that is now Supercloud, it really is kind of the destination or outcome of what we're seeing with hybrid cloud as a steady state into the what's now, they call multicloud, which is kind of awkward. It feels like it's default. Like multicloud, multi-vendor, but Supercloud has much more of a comprehensive abstraction around it. What's your thoughts? >> As you said, as Dave says that too, the Supercloud has that abstraction built into it. It's built on top of cloud, right? So it's being built on top of the CapEx which is being spent by likes of AWS and Azure and Google Cloud, and many others, right? So it's leveraging that infrastructure and building software stack on top of that, which is a platform. I see that as a platform being built on top of infrastructure as code. It's another platform which is not native to the cloud providers. So it's like a kind of cross-Cloud platform. That's what I said. >> Yeah, VMware calls it that cloud-cross cloud. I'm not a big fan of the name but I get what you're saying. We had a segment on earlier with Adrian Cockcroft, Laurie McVety and Chris Wolf, all part of the Cloud RRT like ourselves, and you've involved in Cloud from day one. Remember the OpenStack days Early Cloud, AWS, when they started we saw the trajectory and we saw the change. And I think the OpenStack in those early days were tell signs because you saw the movement of API first but Amazon just grew so fast. And then Azure now is catching up, their CapEx is so large that companies like Snowflake's like, "Why should I build my own? "I just sit on top of AWS, "move fast on one native cloud, then figure it out." Seems to be one of the playbooks of the Supercloud. >> Yeah, that is true. And there are reasons behind that. And I think number one reason is the skills gravity. What I call it, the developers and/or operators are trained on one set of APIs. And I've said that many times, to out compete your competition you have to out educate the market. And we know which cloud has done that. We know what traditional vendor has done that, in '90s it was Microsoft, they had VBS number one language and they were winning. So in the cloud era, it's AWS, their marketing efforts, their go-to market strategy, the micro nature of the releasing the micro sort of features, if you will, almost every week there's a new feature. So they have got it. And other two are trying to mimic that and they're having low trouble light. >> Yeah and I think GCP has been struggling compared to the three and native cloud on native as you're right, completely successful. As you're caught up and you see the Microsoft, I think is a a great selling point around multiple clouds. And the question that's on the table here is do you stay with the native cloud or you jump right to multicloud? Now multicloud by default is kind of what I see happening. We've been debating this, I'd love to get your thoughts because, Microsoft has a huge install base. They've converted to Office 365. They even throw SQL databases in there to kind of give it a little extra bump on the earnings but I've been super critical on their numbers. I think their shares are, there's clearly overstating their share, in my opinion, compared to AWS is a need of cloud, Azure though is catching up. So you have customers that are happy with Microsoft, that are going to run their apps on Azure. So if a customer has Azure and Microsoft that's technically multiple clouds. >> Yeah, true. >> And it's not a strategy, it's just an outcome. >> Yeah, I see Microsoft cloud as friendly to the internal developers. Internal developers of enterprises. but AWS is a lot more ISV friendly which is the software shops friendly. So that's what they do. They just build software and give it to somebody else. But if you're in-house developer and you have been a Microsoft shop for a long time, which enterprise haven't been that, right? So Microsoft is well entrenched into the enterprise. We know that, right? >> Yeah. >> For a long time. >> Yeah and the old joke was developers love code and just go with a lock in and then ops people don't want lock in because they want choice. So you have the DevOps movement that's been successful and they get DevSecOps. The real focus to me, I think, is the operating teams because the ops side is really with the pressure vis-a-vis. I want to get your reaction because we're seeing kind of the script flip. DevOps worked, infrastructure's code has worked. We don't yet see security as code yet. And you have things like cloud native services which is all developer, goodness. So I think the developers are doing fine. Give 'em a thumbs up and open source's booming. So they're shifting left, CI/CD pipeline. You have some issues around repo, monolithic repos, but devs are doing fine. It's the ops that are now have to level up because that seems to be a hotspot. What's your take? What's your reaction to that? Do you agree? And if you say you agree, why? >> Yeah, I think devs are doing fine because some of the devs are going into ops. Like the whole movement behind DevOps culture is that devs and ops is one team. The people who are building that application they're also operating that as well. But that's very foreign and few in enterprise space. We know that, right? Big companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter, those guys can do that. They're very tech savvy shops. But when it comes to, if you go down from there to the second tier of enterprises, they are having hard time with that. Once you create software, I've said that, I sound like a broken record here. So once you create piece of software, you want to operate it. You're not always creating it. Especially when it's inhouse software development. It's not your core sort of competency to. You're not giving that software to somebody else or they're not multiple tenants of that software. You are the only user of that software as a company, or maybe maximum to your employees and partners. But that's where it stops. So there are those differences and when it comes to ops, we have to still differentiate the ops of the big companies, which are tech companies, pure tech companies and ops of the traditional enterprise. And you are right, the ops of the traditional enterprise are having tough time to cope up with the changing nature of things. And because they have to run the old traditional stacks whatever they happen to have, SAP, Oracle, financial, whatnot, right? Thousands of applications, they have to run that. And they have to learn on top of that, new scripting languages to operate the new stack, if you will. >> So for ops teams do they have to spin up operating teams for every cloud specialized tooling, there's consequences to that. >> Yeah. There's economics involved, the process, if you are learning three cloud APIs and most probably you will end up spending a lot more time and money on that. Number one, number two, there are a lot more problems which can arise from that, because of the differences in how the APIs work. The rule says if you pick one primary cloud and then you're focused on that, and most of your workloads are there, and then you go to the secondary cloud number two or three on as need basis. I think that's the right approach. >> Well, I want to get your take on something that I'm observing. And again, maybe it's because I'm old school, been around the IT block for a while. I'm observing the multi-vendors kind of as Dave calls the calisthenics, they're out in the market, trying to push their wears and convincing everyone to run their workloads on their infrastructure. multicloud to me sounds like multi-vendor. And I think there might not be a problem yet today so I want to get your reaction to my thoughts. I see the vendors pushing hard on multicloud because they don't have a native cloud. I mean, IBM ultimately will probably end up being a SaaS application on top of one of the CapEx hyperscale, some say, but I think the playbook today for customers is to stay on one native cloud, run cloud native hybrid go in on OneCloud and go fast. Then get success and then go multiple clouds. versus having a multicloud set of services out of the gate. Because if you're VMware you'd love to have cross cloud abstraction layer but that's lock in too. So what's your lock in? Success in the marketplace or vendor access? >> It's tricky actually. I've said that many times, that you don't wake up in the morning and say like, we're going to do multicloud. Nobody does that by choice. So it falls into your lab because of mostly because of what MNA is. And sometimes because of the price to performance ratio is better somewhere else for certain kind of workloads. That's like foreign few, to be honest with you. That's part of my read is, that being a developer an operator of many sort of systems, if you will. And the third tier which we talked about during the VMworld, I think 2019 that you want vendor diversity, just in case one vendor goes down or it's broken up by feds or something, and you want another vendor, maybe for price negotiation tactics, or- >> That's an op mentality. >> Yeah, yeah. >> And that's true, they want choice. They want to get locked in. >> You want choice because, and also like things can go wrong with the provider. We know that, we focus on top three cloud providers and we sort of assume that they'll be there for next 10 years or so at least. >> And what's also true is not everyone can do everything. >> Yeah, exactly. So you have to pick the provider based on all these sort of three sets of high level criteria, if you will. And I think the multicloud should be your last choice. Like you should not be gearing up for that by default but it should be by design, as Chuck said. >> Okay, so I need to ask you what does Supercloud in my opinion, look like five, 10 years out? What's the outcome of a good Supercloud structure? What's it look like? Where did it come from? How did it get there? What's your take? >> I think Supercloud is getting born in the absence of having standards around cloud. That's what it is. Because we don't have standards, we long, or we want the services at different cloud providers, Which have same APIs and there's less learning curve or almost zero learning curve for our developers and operators to learn that stuff. Snowflake is one example and VMware Stack is available at different cloud providers. That's sort of infrastructure as a service example if you will. And snowflake is a sort of data warehouse example and they're going down the stack. Well, they're trying to expand. So there are many examples like that. What was the question again? >> Is Supercloud 10 years out? What does it look like? What's the components? >> Yeah, I think the Supercloud 10 years out will expand because we will expand the software stack faster than the hardware stack and hardware stack will be expanding of course, with the custom chips and all that. There was the huge event yesterday was happening from AWS. >> Yeah, the Silicon. >> Silicon Day. And that's an eyeopening sort of movement and the whole technology consumption, if you will. >> And yeah, the differentiation with the chips with supply chain kind of herding right now, we think it's going to be a forcing function for more cloud adoption. Because if you can't buy networking gear you going to go to the cloud. >> Yeah, so Supercloud to me in 10 years, it will be bigger, better in the likes of HashiCorp. Actually, I think we need likes of HashiCorp on the infrastructure as a service side. I think they will be part of the Supercloud. They are kind of sitting on the side right now kind of a good vendor lost in transition kind of thing. That sort of thing. >> It's like Kubernetes, we'll just close out here. We'll make a statement. Is Kubernetes a developer thing or an infrastructure thing? It's an ops thing. I mean, people are coming out and saying Kubernetes is not a developer issue. >> It's ops thing. >> It's an ops thing. It's in operation, it's under the hood. So you, again, this infrastructure's a service integrating this super pass layer as Dave Vellante and Wikibon call it. >> Yeah, it's ops thing, actually, which enables developers to get that the Azure service, like you can deploy your software in sort of different format containers, and then you don't care like what VMs are those? And, but Serverless is the sort of arising as well. It was hard for a while now it's like the lull state, but I think Serverless will be better in next three to five years on. >> Well, certainly the hyperscale is like AWS and Azure and others have had great CapEx and investments. They need to stay ahead, in your opinion, final question, how do they stay ahead? 'Cause, AWS is not going to stand still nor will Azure, they're pedaling as fast as they can. Google's trying to figure out where they fit in. Are they going to be a real cloud or a software stack? Same with Oracle. To me, it's really, the big race is now with AWS and Azure's nipping at their heels. Hyperscale, what do they need to do to differentiate going forward? >> I think they are in a limbo. They, on one side, they don't want to compete with their customers who are sitting on top of them, likes of Snowflake and others, right? And VMware as well. But at the same time, they have to keep expanding and keep innovating. And they're debating within their themselves. Like, should we compete with these guys? Should we launch similar sort of features and functionality? Or should we keep it open? And what I have heard as of now that internally at AWS, especially, they're thinking about keeping it open and letting people sort of (inaudible)- >> And you see them buying some the Cerner with Oracle that bought Cerner, Amazon bought a healthcare company. I think the likes of MongoDB, Snowflake, Databricks, are perfect examples of what we'll see I think on the AWS side. Azure, I'm not so sure, they like to have a little bit more control at the top of the stack with the SaaS, but I think Databricks has been so successful open source, Snowflake, a little bit more proprietary and closed than Databricks. They're doing well is on top of data, and MongoDB has got great success. All of these things compete with AWS higher level services. So, that advantage of those companies not having the CapEx investment and then going multiple clouds on other ecosystems that's a path of customers. Stay one, go fast, get traction, then go. >> That's huge. Actually the last sort comment I want to make is that, Also, that you guys include this in the definition of Supercloud, the likes of Capital One and Soner sort of vendors, right? So they are verticals, Capital One is in this financial vertical, and then Soner which Oracle bar they are in this healthcare vertical. And remember in the beginning of the cloud and when the cloud was just getting born. We used to say that we will have the community clouds which will be serving different verticals. >> Specialty clouds. >> Specialty clouds, community clouds. And actually that is happening now at very sort of small level. But I think it will start happening at a bigger level. The Goldman Sachs and others are trying to build these services on the financial front risk management and whatnot. I think that will be- >> Well, what's interesting, which you're bringing up a great discussion. We were having discussions around these vertical clouds like Goldman Sachs Capital One, Liberty Mutual. They're going all in on one native cloud then going into multiple clouds after, but then there's also the specialty clouds around functionality, app identity, data security. So you have multiple 3D dimensional clouds here. You can have a specialty cloud just on identity. I mean, identity on Amazon is different than Azure. Huge issue. >> Yeah, I think at some point we have to distinguish these things, which are being built on top of these infrastructure as a service, in past with a platform, a service, which is very close to infrastructure service, like the lines are blurred, we have to distinguish these two things from these Superclouds. Actually, what we are calling Supercloud maybe there'll be better term, better name, but we are all industry path actually, including myself and you or everybody else. Like we tend to mix these things up. I think we have to separate these things a little bit to make things (inaudible) >> Yeah, I think that's what the super path thing's about because you think about the next generation SaaS has to be solved by innovations of the infrastructure services, to your point about HashiCorp and others. So it's not as clear as infrastructure platform, SaaS. There's going to be a lot of interplay between this levels of services. >> Yeah, we are in this flasker situation a lot of developers are lost. A lot of operators are lost in this transition and it's just like our economies right now. Like I was reading at CNBC today, and here's sort of headline that people are having hard time understanding what state the economy is in. And so same is true with our technology economy. Like we don't know what state we are in. It's kind of it's in the transition phase right now. >> Well we're definitely in a bad economy relative to the consumer market. I've said on theCUBE publicly, Dave has as well, not as aggressive. I think the tech is still in a boom. I don't think there's tech bubble at all that's bursting, I think, the digital transformation from post COVID is going to continue. And this is the first recession downturn where the hyperscalers have been in market, delivering the economic value, almost like they're pumping on all cylinders and going to the next level. Go back to 2008, Amazon web services, where were they? They were just emerging out. So the cloud economic impact has not been factored into the global GDP relationship. I think all the firms that are looking at GDP growth and tech spend as a correlation, are completely missing the boat on the fact that cloud economics and digital transformation is a big part of the new economics. So refactoring business models this is continuing and it's just the early days. >> Yeah, I have said that many times that cloud works good in the bad economy and cloud works great in the good economy. Do you know why? Because there are different type of workloads in the good economy. A lot of experimentation, innovative solutions go into the cloud. You can do experimentation that you have extra money now, but in the bad economy you don't want to spend the CapEx because don't have money. Money is expensive at that point. And then you want to keep working and you don't need (inaudible) >> I think inflation's a big factor too right now. Well, Sarbjeet, great to see you. Thanks for coming into our studio for our stage performance for Supercloud 22, this is a pilot episode that we're going to get a consortium of experts Cloud RRT like yourselves, in the conversation to discuss what the architecture is. What is a taxonomy? What are the key building blocks and what things need to be in place for Supercloud capability? Because it's clear that if without standards, without defacto standards, we're at this tipping point where if it all comes together, not all one company can do everything. Customers want choice, but they also want to go fast too. So DevOps is working. It's going the next level. We see this as Supercloud. So thank you so much for your participation. >> Thanks for having me. And I'm looking forward to listen to the other sessions (inaudible) >> We're going to take it on A stickers. We'll take it on the internet. I'm John Furrier, stay tuned for more Supercloud 22 coverage, here at the Palo Alto studios in one minute. (bright music)

Published Date : Aug 11 2022

SUMMARY :

Good to see you. It's in stealth mode right as a steady state into the what's now, the Supercloud has that I'm not a big fan of the name So in the cloud era, it's AWS, And the question that's on the table here And it's not a strategy, and you have been a Microsoft It's the ops that are now have to level up and ops of the traditional enterprise. have to spin up operating teams the process, if you are kind of as Dave calls the calisthenics, And the third tier And that's true, they want choice. and we sort of assume And what's also true is not And I think the multicloud in the absence of having faster than the hardware stack and the whole technology Because if you can't buy networking gear in the likes of HashiCorp. and saying Kubernetes is It's in operation, it's under the hood. get that the Azure service, Well, certainly the But at the same time, they at the top of the stack with the SaaS, And remember in the beginning of the cloud on the financial front risk So you have multiple 3D like the lines are blurred, by innovations of the It's kind of it's in the So the cloud economic but in the bad economy you in the conversation to discuss And I'm looking forward to listen We'll take it on the internet.

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Brian Galligan, Brookfield Properties | CUBE Conversation


 

>>Okay, welcome everyone to the cube conversation here in Palo Alto, California. I'm John furrier, host of the cube. Got a great guest, Brian Gallagin manager of security and operations at Brookfield properties in the middle of all the sites, CSO action, a lot of security, a lot of operations to secure his environ. Brian, great to come on with you. Appreciate it. >>Thanks John. >>So talk about Brookfield properties. What's your environment look like you're in the middle of the security operations piece of it. You've got a great implementation. You got Armas doing some device management work. We've talked about that in the segment there, but broader speaking, what's your environment look like? What are some of the challenges? What's the scope and scale of the security that you're trying to manage? >>Yeah. Brookfield properties owns it's an asset management company and it owns real estate of all kinds. And we're current, we're constantly buying and selling assets. So the biggest challenge is finding out when we acquire company, what is actually in that environment and how quickly can we actually spin up our policies and protection capabilities in, in those areas? So I think uniquely from our perspective, it's a, a lot about finding what, what has been installed over the last decade, what what's secure, what's not secure, what follows our policies. And then what do we do to actually lock those down? Do, can we use the existing hardware that's in place? So we don't have to buy something new and we can use Armas policies to dictate that, or is it something that needs to be potentially removed? Because it is that critical vulnerability. There's something out there being used in the wild that we might actually have to purge that from our >>Environment, you know, facilities and companies you guys bought, and you're buying companies, you're buying assets, you're buying a lot of internet of things. You've got it, environments, you know, all kinds of challenges from, you know, identity, access management to, you know, what's connecting to your wifi networks all over the place. You got a diverse set of things. And one of the challenges in cyber right now is if you're just behind a little bit, you're gonna be vulnerable. I'm not talking about antiquated old, outdated. It we're talking about like getting it up to speed. If you're just a little bit behind you're behind the hackers and the bad guys. So the, the, the constant, you know, bar raising required is a huge challenge. What's your reaction to that? Can you scope the, the scale of this opportunity and challenge? >>Yeah, so you're, you're absolutely right. It's not only are the vulnerabilities changing, but again, our landscapes constantly changing. So being able to try to keep up with that velocity is, is a challenge with our current tool set. So when we actually onboarded with Armas about a year and a half ago, that's one of those things that we were con we were instantly given the ability to increase our visibility past our normal areas, which typically was, was our firewalls. Now we're able to see beyond the firewalls, to the switch level on, on the access points themselves a lot, a lot of guest traffic. I think we talked about in the previous segment, there's a lot of guest traffic on there trying to figure out who's doing what, and are they following the policies that are there. It also gives us the ability to double check our configurations that we have out there. We assume that we're, we're correct. And we do, you know, our annual pen test that we do, but that's something that's not necessarily enough. We, we, one at one once a year, checkin is not enough to be able to prove that the configurations we have is keeping us secure in the way that we think that, that, that we are. >>Yeah. I love the fact that you got the engineering and your title because engineering, the solutions is almost on a, a constant cadence. You have to have the re-engineering and the refactoring of the, of the, of the technology to match in as the changing landscape comes in, whether it's just physical access or more, more devices coming on the network, do you worry about like ransomware and inheriting previous environments, and, and you mentioned earlier locking things down. That's one step, what's your, what's your posture on all this? >>That that's a hundred percent. The biggest, the biggest problem is, is making sure, especially with ransomware we've, we've seen it before, making sure that when we buy an asset, that they have the capabilities to detect deter and potentially clean up in, in, in those circumstances of, of a, like a ransomware malware attack and that kind of stuff. So it's, it's definitely a, a huge concern of ours. So what we, what we're able to do now with Armas is once we buy that company, before we integrate their services with everything else that we have, we're able to actually have that kind of grace period, where they still are functioning a little bit more autonomously and not hooked into our network. We can do that due diligence that maybe we couldn't do prepurchase to see what's actually out there what's vulnerable. What needs to get changed day one, what needs to get changed six months from now, and what can maybe wait a whole sales cycle of two to three years to actually change >>Out? Yeah, Brian, you hit a really hot topic. That's not talked about much in the press or in the media. And that is, is that a lot of MNA, mergers and acquisitions happen, and there's actually ransomware waiting in the wings to actually lock that down pre post acquisition, then ransom on that asset. And so there's not a lot of due diligence or options to say, Hey, you know, make sure you make sure that they're ransomware free prior to the acquisition, not get stuck with an asset and saying that code's gone, or we are, you know, being held hostage. And this is a huge issue. >>It it's, it's all about trust by verify. You know, also like, you know, we're, we're doing surveys with these guys. We're, we're sitting down with the it teams that end up being our partners. And it it's about figuring out what, what have they done and what, what can you actually transition to? Like, maybe there's some gaps here. Maybe there's some improvements we can do. The, the other, the other key piece is making sure that our, our security tools are out there. So we, if we have an expectation that our security tools are on there before we grant them access to the greater Brookfield network, we're able to do compliance checks on things like that. Obviously vulnerability is another one that we actually haven't gotten too far into, but it's another one of those things where we can actually do compliance checks on here's the CVEs that are out there that we wanna make sure that you meet a minimum bar that you have defense against that. Or if you have devices out there that are banned per, per our policy, we're able to do those checks prior to granting greater visibility to the rest of the network. >>Yeah. You know, there's a lot of industry hype around certain things. We have a con congested market of people trying to sell you stuff right. And gonna really empathize with you there. And, you know, there's a big discussion endpoint protection. And then, you know, you mentioned trust and verify earlier, you know, there's kind of this confluence of zero trust, which kind of comes from me like no perimeter. So we gotta have a word that says zero trust. I get that. And then we look at like security supply chain in software, say open source, the word trust is coming out more and more. So, you know, what is it? Is it more trust or zero trust, trust and verified. So you're starting to see this confluence of, of posture. What's your reaction to this, this, these conversations, because I can see where you want to have trust, cuz you're moving across multiple access systems. I can see zero trust cuz trust and verify. What's your take on that? >>Yeah, I'm I, I think as a security professional, I think most of us I wanna say are in that trust, but verify boat definitely closer to the zero trust where we wanna make sure that we, we have a whole list of good policies out there. But if there's nothing to back it up, there's nothing to double check it. There's nothing to verify that you're, you're basically just hoping that it was done correctly. So that's, that's one of those things that is, is definitely huge. I think on our side is we, we trust our, our friends in it to do the right thing. We trust our customers on the business side to do the right thing. That's, that's huge for us, but having the tools to be able to say, are we actually good again without having an incident or having our pen test or pen test friends find it. That's one of those things where we don't have a lot of tools to do that. And like you said, people are always trying to sell you those tools. So being able to transition to something like ouris where we've actually seen the value right off the bat in being able to have that confidence raised that the risks that we've identified are the risks that are out there is, is huge for us. >>You know, as, as physical assets change, you, you acquire more territory, more companies, topologies change, software changes in the cloud with more iteration. I mean, you could have an always on pen test model, right? You gotta have pen test. You gotta have the slack reports. This is a challenge to move across environments. I wanna get your thoughts on the identity and access management. And the big cloud players are doing the same thing you got Amazon's Amazon, it's different from Azure and you got on-premises. So, you know, inter access. Management's great if you have an environment, but interoperability is a conversation that's happening a lot. What's your view on this because everything is changing, but you wanna lock it down and not restrict the growth and the evolution of change. What's your, what's your reaction to that? >>Yeah. With our, with our main identity management platform, that's actually freed us up to be able to give cross access access to employees that we have that maybe do work in multiple systems, or there's an application that's purchased by one group that is not purchased by another group instead of creating a whole new contract for that, we were, we're actually able to utilize that one system to be able to grant access to things that you otherwise wouldn't have. So I, I think having that in our business model where we are very segmented from an it perspective, we have multiple infrastructure teams. We have multiple development teams, multiple infrastructure or multiple networking teams. Being able to have that collaboration where you can share information a little bit better. It has been huge for us. And then from a security perspective, privilege access management, making sure that we can lock down special access, special permissions applications that shouldn't be used at certain times of the day, certain locations, whatever it might be is, is huge for us. And, and we definitely partner with, with all of our, our vendors for that very closely, for the reason that that's where a lot of these breaches happen, where one account gets hit and that that account has more privileges than it should. That's something that keeps us up at night. And again, our, our vendors that we use for identity management, our, our key partners of ours for that >>All great, great insight there, Brian, I really appreciate that final question for you. You know, as a makeup for people who are insecurity, it's kinda like sports, you know, you want to have an athlete that knows the game, you're playing football. You better know the game, you're playing baseball. You gotta know the game you're in. And cyber's one of those games it's got, got a lot going on. What is the, what is the ideal candidate coming outta school or profile? I mean, if you got a quarterback, they gotta throw the ball. They gotta have agility. If you're running back, you gotta have skills. What does the, the tech athlete look like? If you look at a person you're looking at hiring, what does that person look like? What's the makeup of their skillset. Can you share cuz there's not a lot of degrees out there for cyber. You gotta kind of learn it. It's evolving and it's a huge opportunity. What's your take. >>Yeah. And, and I would even say, you know, beyond somebody coming outta the school, somebody transitioning into the field too practical experience is key. And obviously you can't get your foot in the door before you actually have the opportunity to do that. So what are some things that you can do on your own? There are plenty of resources out there that actually give you tutorials on how to do, hacking how to do directory traversal, how to, how to do some of those small things that you can set up a lab, or maybe even there's a virtual lab that's hosted via. There's a, there's a free platforms out there that you can actually do this where you're doing virtual capture the flags. And you're able to post that. I've seen that on a couple resumes. I haven't seen it on a whole lot, but that shows that like not only do you know, you, you know, your fundamentals of it, but now you also understand the mindset of what a hacker is and whether you're gonna be blue team red team or purple team, being able to understand what a hacker can do is huge. >>So my CSO and I have had plenty of conversations where if we see any sort of practical experience, any hacking experience, any technical experience, that's gonna Trump, a lot of the other certifications that you can get. Yeah. Resumes these days. It's, it's a lot of cert chasers. And from our perspective, like that's, that's not as important. It's great to see the, the effort and, and the desire to up your game via certifications, but being able to show practical experience even on these free websites and being able to kind of link your profile to, to that is, is huge. And it's one of those things that's, you're not necessarily gonna get from a, a, you know, cybersecurity 1 0 1 class. You may actually have to go out and find some of those materials. >>Yeah. And then get, you know, you gotta get in, in the flow, so to speak and, and again, thinking like you gotta think like the enemy to beat the enemy. >>Exactly. >>Right. Brian Galligan, thanks for coming on the cube. Really appreciate your insight manager of security and operations engineering at Brookfield properties, man, you're in the center. We got a lot of things going on. You guys doing a great job. Thanks for sharing your, your insights here in the cube. I really appreciate it. >>Thanks, John. >>Okay. This is a cube conversation. I'm Jennifer with the cube. Thanks for watching.

Published Date : Jun 10 2022

SUMMARY :

of all the sites, CSO action, a lot of security, a lot of operations to secure We've talked about that in the segment there, but broader speaking, what's your environment look like? So we don't have to buy something new all kinds of challenges from, you know, identity, access management to, you know, what's connecting to your wifi networks And we do, you know, our annual pen test that we do, but that's You have to have the re-engineering and the refactoring of Armas is once we buy that company, before we integrate their services with everything else that options to say, Hey, you know, make sure you make sure that they're ransomware free prior You know, also like, you know, we're, we're doing surveys with these guys. And then, you know, you mentioned trust and verify earlier, And like you said, people are always trying to sell you those tools. And the big cloud players are doing the same thing you got Amazon's that one system to be able to grant access to things that you otherwise wouldn't have. are insecurity, it's kinda like sports, you know, you want to have an athlete that knows the game, you're playing football. So what are some things that you can do on your own? and the desire to up your game via certifications, but being able to show practical experience beat the enemy. We got a lot of things going on. I'm Jennifer with the cube.

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Kyle Rogers, Clearsulting | Coupa Insp!re 2022


 

(bright music) >> Hey everyone. Welcome back to the cubes coverage of Coupa Inspire 2022. This is day two. We've been on the ground in Las Vegas at the cosmopolitan, Lisa Martin here with Kyle Rogers. Great to be talking with Coupa customers, partners all the good stuff. Kyle, you are the partner finance effectiveness at Clearsulting. - Yes. >> Welcome to the program. >> Thank you. Thank you. I'm super happy to be here. And we're really excited to be a partner with Coupa. >> Talk to me a little bit about Clearsulting, so the audience gets an understanding of what you guys are doing. >> Perfect. So I'll introduce myself first. I'm Kyle Rogers, as you mentioned, I'm a partner at the firm. A leader finds affecting this practice and we focus on a few things. So first is like general finds and accounting operating model work. The second is a lot of global based services, shared services work. So helping clients think about where their talent should sit and how those global workflows should work. And then what's really important to this week is, we've got a deep capability and procure to pay. And at a Clearsulting, we work with our clients to drive thoughtful and complex solutions for procurement and finance executives using digital as a key enabler in that. And we've got a number of practices. So we focus on finds effectiveness, which I lead. We've got enterprise performance management, risk advisory record report, and treasury. >> One of the things that is the spirit of Coupa is collaboration, the community. How does clear salty, how do you collaborate with your clients? >> Yeah, it's a great question because we think collaboration is so core to being successful in driving good outcomes. So the ways we collaborate with our clients are first, we bring deep expertise around, procure to pay functional subject matter of experts. And we compliment that with our innovation center which is a team that's focused on really staying on the forefront of digital and technical solutions and making sure we bring them together to give robust and powerful outcomes for our clients. And then lastly, and really importantly, we meet our clients where they are. They're all at different stages in their I maturity. They've got different goals and objectives. Some might be trying to have a focused really niche outcome whereas others might be transformational in nature. So we make sure that we right size our solutions to really get them where they're trying to go. >> When you're talking with customers that are maybe in the infancy of digitizing procure to pay for example, what are some of the concerns that they have? I mean, I guess these days if you're not digital, you're not very competitive. >> Right. Digital is so important to what they do. Not only to reduce costs and take in efficiencies out of the business but also when you think about, the importance of decision support, right? So tightening the cycle time between business activity and making sense of it using technology as core and fundamental to being successful. >> What are some of the trends that you're seeing in procurement especially anything top of mind the last two years? >> Yeah, so what we love about Clearsulting is we've got a broad base of clients. And when we meet and work with each of them they all have their different needs and goals. And we've been able to see some through lines across each that have started to emerge. And we've really seen three trends emerge. So the first is, there's a a big focus on operational efficiency. So moving towards a touchless world, taking cost out of the business and really moving towards exception based, system driven processes and more towards insight generation decisions important alike. And then the second is there's a real increased focus on getting total visibility into your spend management, right? So understanding who your suppliers are, what you're buying from them, how much you're spending and really understanding are they giving you the value that you thought you were going to get when you onboarded them. And that's really come to the floor through a lot of the supply chain volatility, a lot of the volatility around pricing, especially when you think look at things like commodities and just getting real your arms around what, what you're spending on. And then lastly, there's a new and diverse set of talent in the workforce today, right? And the last 10 to 20 years we've seen digitally native talent graduate into the workforce. And what their hopes and desires and needs are in the workplace are very different than the generation before them. So just giving them tools and digital technologies that will attract them but also retain them when they're here. - Right. - Yeah. And then also when you think about some of the shifts towards a more remote, remote, or hybrid model, having tools and capabilities that allow you to do that and Coupa is a great example. >> Right. Well, you talked about, different generations and the younger generations. I think there's four or five generations that are in the workforce today. >> Wow. - And so when you think of, you talked about the remoteness hybrid environment that we're still living in how everything has changed so dramatically in the last couple of years. - Yeah. >> That being touchless, contactless, paperless really became essential for so many businesses. How do you guys, what do you define as touchless? How is it different than say paperless? Is it just another the way of saying or does it actually mean something different? >> It's a little, it's different and it's not truly touchless because you still need to have, the human as part of the process, right? But when we say touchless, it's identifying those points of where is it rules based? Where can we use business logic to drive some system based decision and taking the robot out of the human as some say, and really having the humans spend their time on how can I use this information to support the business, get insights out of it and focus my time on work that's meaningful and powerful. >> Well work that's meaningful and powerful to them that will make them want to stay at their jobs but also work that allows them to be able to focus on more strategic projects for the business let the other stuff be touchless and automated where it can be. >> Right. - So that their focus is on more business critical activities or initiatives. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. So when you think about things like supporting sourcing on making sure that they've got their strategic suppliers set up and their spending with the right suppliers. That is so much more valuable obvious to your time than reconciling invoice to goods receipt, right? >> You mentioned insights and visibility and visibility. I was just talking with a Coupa customer that had uncovered two billion dollars in indirect spend that they couldn't see before Coupa. And I just can't help, but think how many businesses in every industry are out there with billions in indirect spend that they literally can't see. If you can't see it, you can't be able to make the right decisions on it. Talk to me about enabling that visibility as a key outcome for your clients. >> Right, and I think that to your point it's not just that what we also see is there's not great duplicate detection. So a lot of times our customers or clients are paying their suppliers more than once for the same inventory. So getting their view on exactly what they're spending, what's paid, what's not paid, how is it impacting our supply chain? How is that balancing up against our revenue forecast? To make sure that we've got inventory moving through our supply chain at the right time. The visibility there is fundamental to being successful in the current day marketplace. >> Talk to me about now, some of your experiences working directly with Coupa clients. What are some of the things that you've been able to enable? Any stories stick out in your mind is this really articulates the value that we bring with to Coupa. >> Absolutely. So we worked with, we just wrapped up a project and the client was using some legacy ERPs. They had gone through a period of pretty significant MNA. So they have a pretty technology landscape and they wanted to find a procure to pay solution that met all of their requirements. And Coupa was the perfect fit. We helped walk them through the process and move towards a point where every single invoice had to get manually entered. Every single invoice had to get manually matched. >> Oh, wow. - Yeah. Two, to leveraging a lot of capabilities Coupa has around EDI and DCR and the supplier portal to automate a lot of that and then streamline a lot of the matching. And on the back end, just getting visibility into who you're spending your money with. As you mentioned you said two billion dollars of an indirect spend that they had no idea where that was going. That is very common >> Common? - Common. - Is it? I mean, not that amount, but the fact that you don't have, pure visible end to end spend is very common. >> Are you seeing any trends towards that, maybe changing, considering what we've all been through in the last two years when suddenly everybody went home and you couldn't get to those paper invoices or those paper POs, do you see more businesses going," help us out, we've got to digitize. We don't have a choice." >> Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So it's moving suppliers onto more digital invoice submission methods whether it be the portal whether it be digital PDF sending in through common inboxes. And then moving it away from invoices not going to the manufacturing plants anymore. We've got that going to a central location. If it needs to be physical, you've got one place that houses it versus many desperate ones. >> Well, and Coupa talked a lot about that, the last couple days about essentially getting rid of the silos. - Yes. I was talking with Rob earlier today. Raja Hammoud was here as well. And talking about, there's still a lot of silos out there, that our organizations are operating under which limits their visibility and limits their potential, I think, to be competitive. >> Right. And I think what we find is procurement is historically, has been a very siloed organization. Because that's been the back of what a lot of businesses grow on as either R and D or procurement buyers. And they don't want to have a lot of control in their space. So making sure that they can have the flexibility to buy real time, maybe use a lot of institutional knowledge to overcome some process or system gaps. So there can be some challenges moving them into centralized model, but when you think about the broader business case on rationalizing your supplier base and making sure that you're getting most favorable terms with your suppliers. And then also having control over when cash goes out the door, who goes out the door too, far outweighs some of the other benefits associated with having it decentralized. >> These days, businesses in any industry don't have time to wait for tribal knowledge to be able to help determine the next direction. We are also used to everything on demand that the real time access to the data, the insights where are where's the money going? Who are we contracting with? That real time is no longer a nice thing to have for organizations. It's a requirement. >> Right. And, I think one big shift we've seen is, a lot of companies used to be organized functionally. So meaning you had finance operating a silo procurement operate in silo, IT operating a silo but that's really been flipped on its head. And then that now they're organized around end in processes. So when you look at procure to pay, you're touching a diverse set of stakeholders from sourcing, procurement, IT, treasury, legal, finance, and so on. So tribal knowledge doesn't work anymore. You have to have tight handoffs, you have to have tight orchestration and you need to have stakeholders aligned. >> How do you help customers navigate that? Because one of the things that can be challenging is, especially for maybe more historied organizations that are used to and very comfortable in their swim lanes and their silos. How do you help them from a change management perspective, be able to connect all those pieces together so that ultimately everybody's job is, able to deliver more value to the business? >> Right. So one of the things that we at Clearsulting are really good at is we understand the language of each of those stakeholder groups. So we can talk to finance, we can talk to procurement, we can talk to sourcing and IT and we understand what makes them tick, and what their objectives are and how they think. So when we work with our clients, we really make sure that we have that through line around. What's the common story here, the common message that's going to resonate with everyone because it's really important to have your stakeholders engaged and on board to have successful outcomes with Coupa or any sort of p to p transformation. >> I want to talk about talent for a second. You mentioned that a minute ago and we're all living through the great resignation. >> Yes. - I'm sure you have friends. I do too. That decided to make changes during the last couple of years. The opportunities are there, but it's important for companies to be able to retain talent. But, and part of that to your point earlier was especially for the younger generations you need to be able to have the technology and the capabilities to enable that generation to want to stay and grow within an organization. >> Right. And I think Coupa has really driven value to our client's talent strategies in a couple ways, chiefly, it's moving the robot out of a human, which I mentioned a little bit about earlier. So a lot of the activities that are repetitive, rule based, that historically we've thrown people out, to try and get it done. Now, the system can handle that. As long as you've got your processes designed accordingly, it can accommodate a lot of those exceptions. And the work that people are supporting after that is more meaningful, right? It's understanding, okay, what's valuable to the business? How can I help support decisions to do that? And what can we do around continuous improvement to continue to maximize what we're doing? And then secondly, around the great resignation, the remote or hybrid model is a key recruit recruitment mechanism. - Yes. And using Coupa, which is a SaaS solution. And one that can be orchestrated and designed globally, allows for more flexible models both from remote to in person but also allows for global flexibility, right? And global workflows. >> Global flexibility, global workflows, but also that global collaboration that I think we've we all need to have. And that's really what Coupa thrives on that community. That's really, I always say it's very symbiotic. >> Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And Coupa being an integrated solution that as we mentioned, is end to end source to pay, allows for seamless intergration across each of your communities and each parts of your business, because then you can look at things globally as opposed to some of the siloed and more regional views that they had before. >> Right. What are some of the, the last question for you. What are some of the things that are exciting to you about what you've heard at the event the last couple of days, some of the future direction of Clearsulting. What's on your plate? >> The session yesterday morning around collaboration was really powerful to us. Because we find the collaboration with our clients is a big change agent to driving value. And then thinking about your supplier network as an ecosystem to collaborate on, is a big takeaway from us this weekend. And it's been really powerful to see everyone working together and finding creative solutions that meet everyone's needs in a global workforce. >> Yep. I agree. Kyle, thank you for joining me on the program this afternoon talking about Clearsulting, your partnership with Coupa and how you're helping those customers go touch us. We appreciate your insights. >> Thank you, Lisa, it's a pleasure to be here. >> All right. Well, Kyle Rogers, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching the Cube's coverage of Coupa inspire day two, coming at you from Las Vegas. (gentle music)

Published Date : Apr 6 2022

SUMMARY :

We've been on the ground in to be a partner with Coupa. so the audience gets an understanding and procure to pay. One of the things that is the spirit So the ways we collaborate that are maybe in the infancy out of the business but And the last 10 to 20 years we've seen that are in the workforce today. in the last couple of years. Is it just another the way of saying and really having the them to be able to focus - So that their So when you think about things Talk to me about enabling that visibility Right, and I think that to your point What are some of the things and the client was using some legacy ERPs. And on the back end, the fact that you don't have, in the last two years when If it needs to be physical, I think, to be competitive. and making sure that you're that the real time access and you need to have stakeholders aligned. Because one of the things So one of the things the great resignation. and the capabilities to So a lot of the activities And that's really what Coupa as opposed to some of the siloed to you about what you've is a big change agent to driving value. on the program this afternoon a pleasure to be here. coming at you from Las Vegas.

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Tanuja Randery, AWS | AWS re:Invent 2021


 

>>Hey, welcome back everyone to the cubes coverage of eaters reinvent 2021. So our third day wall-to-wall coverage. I'm my coach, Dave Alonzo. He we're getting all the action two sets in person. It's also a virtual hybrid events with a lot of great content online, bringing you all the fresh voices, all the knowledge, all the news and all the action and got great guests here today. As your renderer, managing director of AWS is Europe, middle east, and Africa also known as EMIA. Welcome to the cube. Welcome, >>Welcome. Thanks for coming on. Lovely to be here. >>So Europe is really hot. Middle east Africa. Great growth. The VC culture in Europe specifically has been booming this year. A lot of great action. We've done many cube gigs out there talking to folks, uh, entrepreneurship, cloud, native growth, and then for us it's global. It's awesome. So first question got to ask you is, is you're new to AWS? What brought you here? >>Yeah, no, John, thank you so much. I've been here about three and a half months now, actually. Um, so what brought me here? Um, I have been in and around the tech world since I was a baby. Um, my father was an entrepreneur. I sold fax machines and microfilm equipment in my early days. And then my career has spanned technology in some form or the other. I was at EMC when we bought VMware. Uh, I was a Colt when we did a FinTech startup joined Schneider in my background, which is industrial tech. So I guess I'm a bit of a tech nerd, although I'm not an engineer, that's for sure. The other thing is I've spent a huge part of my career advising clients. And so while I was at McKinsey on business transformation and cloud keeps coming up, especially post pandemic, huge, huge, huge enabler, right of transformation. So when I got the call from AWS, I thought here's my opportunity to finally take what companies are wrestling with, bring together a pioneer in cloud with our enterprise and start-up and SMB clients connect those dots between business and technology and make things happen. So it real magic. So that's what brought me here. And I guess the only other thing to say is I'd heard a lot of other culture, customer mash, obsession, and leadership principles. >>That's why I'm here. It's been a great success. I got to ask you too, now that your new ostium McKinsey, even seeing the front lines, all the transformation, the pandemic has really forced everybody globally to move faster. Uh, things like connect were popular in EMEA. How, how is that going out? There's at the same kind of global pressure on the digital transformation with cloud? What are you seeing out there? >>I've been traveling since I joined, uh, around 10 of the countries already. So Ben planes, trains, automobiles, and what you definitely see is massive acceleration. And I think it's around reinvention of the business. So people are adopting cloud because it's obviously there's cost reasons. There's MNA reasons. There's really increasingly more about innovating. How do I innovate my business? How do I reinvent my business? So you see that constantly. Um, and whether you're a enterprise company or you're a startup, they're all adopting cloud in different, different ways. Um, I mean, I want to tell a core to stack because it's really interesting. And Adam mentioned this in his keynote five to 15% only of workloads have moved to the cloud. So there's a tremendous runway ahead of us. Um, and the three big things on people's minds helped me become a tech company. So it doesn't matter who you are, you're retail, whether you're life sciences or healthcare. You've probably heard about the Roche, uh, work that we're doing with Roche around accelerating R and D with data, or if you're a shoes Addie desk, how do you accelerate again, your personalized experiences? So it doesn't matter who you have helped me become a tech company, give me skills, digital skills, and then help me become a more sustainable company. Those are the three big things I'm thinking of. >>So a couple of things to unpack there. So think about it. Transformation. We still have a long way to go to your point, whatever 10, 15%, depending on which numbers you look at. We've been talking a lot in the cube about the next decade around business transformation, deeper business integration, and the four smarts to digital. And the woke us up to that, accelerated that as you say, so as you travel around to customers in AMEA, what are you hearing with regard to that? I mean, many customers maybe didn't have time to plan. Now they can sit back and take what they've learned. What are you hearing? >>Yeah. And it's, it's a little bit different in different places, right? So, I mean, if you start, if you look at, uh, you know, our businesses, for example, in France, if you look at our businesses in Iberia or Italy, a lot of them are now starting they're on the, at least on the enterprise front, they are now starting to adopt cloud. So they stepping back and thinking about their overall strategy, right? And then the way that they're doing it is actually they're using data as the first trigger point. And I think that makes it easier to migrate because if you, if you look at large enterprises and if you think of the big processes that they've got and all the mainframes and everything that they need to do, if you S if you look at it as one big block, it's too difficult. But when you think about data, you can actually start to aggregate all of your data into one area and then start to analyze and unpack that. >>So I think what I'm seeing for sure is in those countries, data is the first trigger. If you go out to Israel, well that you've got all, it's really start up nation as you know, right. And then we've got more of the digital natives and they want to, you know, absorb all of the innovation that we're throwing at them. And you've heard a lot here at reinvent on some of the things, whether it's digital twins or robotics, or frankly, even using 5g private network, we've just announcement. They are adopting innovation and really taking that in. So it really does differ, but I think the one big message I would leave you with is bringing industry solutions to business is critical. So rather than just talking it and technology, we've got to be able to bring some of what we've done. So for example, the Goldman Sachs financial cloud, bring that to the rest of financial services companies and the media, or if you take the work we're doing on industrials and IOT. So it's really about connecting what industry use cases with. >>What's interesting about the Goldman Dave and I were commenting. I think we coined the term, the story we wrote on Thursday last week, and then PIP was Sunday superclouds because you look at the rise of snowflake and Databricks and Goldman Sachs. You're going to start to see people building on AWS and building these super clouds because they are taking unique platform features of AWS and then sacrificing it for their needs, and then offering that as a service. So there's kind of a whole nother tier developing in the natural evolution of clouds. So the partners are on fire right now because the creativity, the market opportunities are there to be captured. So you're seeing this opportunity recognition, opportunity, capture vibe going on. And it's interesting. I'd love to get your thoughts on how you see that, because certainly the VCs are here in force. I did when I saw all the top Silicon valley VCs here, um, and some European VCs are all here. They're all seeing this. >>So pick up on two things you mentioned that I think absolutely spot on. We're absolutely seeing with our partners, this integration on our platform is so important. So we talk about the power of three, which is you bring a JSI partner, you bring an ISV partner, you bring AWS, you create that power of three and you take it to our customers. And it doesn't matter which industry we are. Our partner ecosystem is so rich. The Adam mentioned, we have a hundred thousand partners around the world, and then you integrate that with marketplace. Um, and the AWS marketplace just opens the world. We have about 325,000 active customers on marketplace. So sassiphy cation integration with our platform, bringing in the GSI and the NSIs. I think that's the real power to, to, to coming back to your point on transformation on the second one, the unicorns, you know, it's interesting. >>So UK France, um, Israel, Mia, I spent a lot of time, uh, recently in Dubai and you can see it happening there. Uh, Africa, Nigeria, South Africa, I mean all across those countries, you're saying huge amount of VC funding going in towards developers, towards startups to at scale-ups more and more of a, um, our startup clients, by the way, uh, are actually going IPO. You know, initially it used to be a lot of M and a and strategic acquisitions, but they have actually bigger aspirations and they're going IPO and we've seen them through from when they were seed or pre-seed all the way to now that they are unicorns. Right? So that there's just a tremendous amount happening in EMEA. Um, and we're fueling that, you know, you know, I mean, born in the cloud is easy, right? In terms of what AWS brings to the table. >>Well, I've been sacred for years. I always talked to Andy Jassy about this. Cause he's a big sports nut. When you bring like these stadiums to certain cities that rejuvenates and Amazon regions are bringing local rejuvenation around the digital economies. And what you see with the startup culture is the ecosystems around it. And Silicon valley thrives because you have all the service providers, you have all the fear of failure goes away. There's support systems. You start to see now with AWS as ecosystem, that same ecosystem support the robustness of it. So, you know, it's classic, rising tide floats all boats kind of vibe. So, I mean, we don't really have our narrative get down on this, but we're seeing this ecosystem kind of play going on. Yeah. >>And actually it's a real virtuous circle, or we call flywheel right within AWS because a startup wants to connect to an enterprise. An enterprise wants to connect to a startup, right? A lot of our ISV partners, by the way, were startups. Now they've graduated and they're like very large. So what we are, I see our role. And by the way, this is one of the other reasons I came here is I see our role to be able to be real facilitators of these ecosystems. Right. And, you know, we've got something that we kicked off in EMEA, which I'm really proud of called our EMEA startup loft accelerator. And we launched that a web summit. And the idea is to bring startups into our space virtually and physically and help them build and help them make those connections. So I think really, I really do think, and I enterprise clients are asking us all the time, right? Who do I need to involve if I'm thinking IOT, who do I need to involve if I want to do something with data. And that's what we do. Super connectors, >>John, you mentioned the, the Goldman deal. And I think it was Adam in his keynote was talking about our customers are asking us to teach them how to essentially build a Supercloud. I mean, our words. But so with your McKinsey background, I would imagine there's real opportunities there, especially as you, I hear you talk about IMIA going around to see customers. There must be a lot of, sort of non-digital businesses that are now transforming to digital. A lot of capital needs there, but maybe you could talk about sort of how you see that playing out over the next several years in your role and AWS's role in affecting that transfer. >>Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, you're right actually. And I, you know, maybe I will, from my past experience pick up on something, you know, I was in the world of industry, uh, with Schneider as an example. And, you know, we did business through the channel. Um, and a lot of our channel was not digitized. You know, you had point of sale, electrical distributors, wholesalers, et cetera. I think all of those businesses during the pandemic realized that they had to go digital and online. Right. And so they started from having one fax machine in a store. Real literally I'm not kidding nothing else to actually having to go online and be able to do click and collect and various other things. And we were able with AWS, you can spin up in minutes, right. That sort of service, right. I love the fact that you have a credit card you can get onto our cloud. >>Right. That's the whole thing. And it's about instances. John Adam talked about instances, which I think is great. How do businesses transform? And again, I think it's about unpacking the problem, right? So what we do a lot is we sit down with our customers and we actually map a migration journey with them, right? We look across their core infrastructure. We look at their SAP systems. For example, we look at what's happening in the various businesses, their e-commerce systems, that customer life cycle value management systems. I think you've got to go business by business by business use case by use case, by use case, and then help our technology enable that use case to actually digitize. And whether it's front office or back office. I think the advantages are pretty clear. It's more, I think the difficulty is not technology anymore. The difficulty is mindset, leadership, commitment, the operating model, the organizational model and skills. And so what we have to do is AWS is bringing not only our technology, but our culture of innovation and our digital innovation teams to help our clients on that journey >>Technology. Well, we really appreciate you taking the time coming on the cube. We have a couple more minutes. I do want to get into what's your agenda. Now that you're got you're in charge, got the landscape and the 20 mile stare in front of you. Cloud's booming. You got some personal passion projects. Tell us what your plans are. >>So, um, three or four things, right? Three or four, really big takeaways for me is one. I, I came here to help make sure our customers could leverage the power of the cloud. So I will not feel like my job's been done if I haven't been able to do that. So, you know, that five to 15% we talked about, we've got to go 50, 60, 70%. That that's, that's the goal, right? And why not a hundred percent at some point, right? So I think over the next few years, that's the acceleration we need to help bring in AMEA Americas already started to get there as you know, much more, and we need to drive that into me. And then eventually our APJ colleagues are going to do the same. So that's one thing. The other is we talked about partners. I really want to accelerate and expand our partner ecosystem. >>Um, we have actually a huge growth by the way, in the number of partners signing up the number of certifications they're taking, I really, really want to double down on our partners and actually do what they ask us for, which is join. Co-sell joined marketing globalization. So that's two, I think the third big thing is when you mentioned industry industry industry, we've got to bring real use cases and solutions to our customers and not only talk technology got to connect those two dots. And we have lots of examples to bring by the way. Um, and then for hire and develop the best, you know, we've got a new LP as you know, to strive to be at its best employer. I want to do that in a Mia. I want to make sure we can actually do that. We attract, we retain and we grow and we develop that. >>And the diversity has been a huge theme of this event. It's front and center in virtually every company. >>I am. I'm usually passionate about diversity. I'm proud actually that when I was back at Schneider, I launched something called the power women network. We're a network of a hundred senior women and we meet every month. I've also got a podcast out there. So if anyone's listening, it's called power. Women's speak. It is, I've done 16 over the pandemic with CEOs of women podcast, our women speak >>Or women speak oh, >>And Spotify and >>Everything else. >>And, um, you know, what I love about what we're doing is AWS on diversity and you heard Adam onstage, uh, talk to this. We've got our restock program where we really help under employed and unemployed to get a 12 week intensive course and get trained up on thought skills. And the other thing is, get it helping young girls, 12 to 15, get into stem. So lots of different things on the whole, but we need to do a lot more of course, on diversity. And I look forward to helping our clients through that as well. >>Well, we had, we had the training VP on yesterday. It's all free trainings free. >>We've got such a digital skills issue that I love that we've said 29 million people around the world, free cloud training. >>Literally the th the, the gap there between earnings with cloud certification, you can be making six figures like with cloud training. So, I mean, it's really easy. It's free. It's like, it's such a great thing. >>Have you seen the YouTube video on Charlotte Wilkins? Donald's fast food. She changed her mind. She wanted to take Korea. She now has a tech career as a result of being part of restock. Awesome. >>Oh, really appreciate. You got a lot of energy and love, love the podcast. I'm subscribing. I'm going to listen. We love doing the podcast as well. So thanks for coming on the >>Queue. Thank you so much for having me >>Good luck on anemia and your plans. Thank you. Okay. Cube. You're watching the cube, the leader in global tech coverage. We go to the events and extract the signal from the noise. I'm John furrier with Dave, a lot to here at re-invent physical event in person hybrid event as well. Thanks for watching.

Published Date : Dec 2 2021

SUMMARY :

It's also a virtual hybrid events with a lot of great content online, bringing you all the fresh voices, Lovely to be here. So first question got to ask you is, is you're new to AWS? And I guess the only other thing to say is I'd heard a lot of other culture, I got to ask you too, now that your new ostium McKinsey, even seeing the front So Ben planes, trains, automobiles, and what you definitely see is massive And the woke us up to that, accelerated that as you say, so as you travel around to customers in AMEA, and all the mainframes and everything that they need to do, if you S if you look at it as one big block, it's too difficult. So for example, the Goldman Sachs financial cloud, bring that to the rest of because the creativity, the market opportunities are there to be captured. second one, the unicorns, you know, it's interesting. and we're fueling that, you know, you know, I mean, born in the cloud is easy, right? all the service providers, you have all the fear of failure goes away. And the idea is to bring A lot of capital needs there, but maybe you could talk about sort of how you see that playing I love the fact that you have a credit card you can get onto our cloud. So what we do a lot is we sit down with our customers and we actually map Well, we really appreciate you taking the time coming on the cube. in AMEA Americas already started to get there as you know, much more, and we need to drive that into So that's two, I think the third big thing is when you mentioned industry industry And the diversity has been a huge theme of this event. back at Schneider, I launched something called the power women network. And I look forward to helping our clients through that as well. Well, we had, we had the training VP on yesterday. around the world, free cloud training. Literally the th the, the gap there between earnings with cloud certification, Have you seen the YouTube video on Charlotte Wilkins? So thanks for coming on the Thank you so much for having me We go to the events and extract the signal from the noise.

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David Anderson, Liberty Mutual | CUBE Conversation, May 2020


 

>> From theCUBE studios in Palo Alto in Boston, connecting with thought leaders all around the world, this is theCUBE conversation. >> Hi, I'm Stu Miniman, and welcome to a CUBE conversation. Always love when we can dig into practitioner discussions, and one of the editorial themes I've been really looking into in 2020 has been discussion of server lists. So really excited to welcome to the program, Dave Anderson, he is director of technology at Liberty Mutual, coming to me from Ireland. Dave, thanks so much for joining us. >> Thank you Stu, delighted to be here. >> All right, so I think most of our audience is probably familiar with Liberty Mutual. You work in the software group, Liberty IT, as part of Liberty Mutual. If you could just start us off, give us a little bit about your background, and your group's role inside the organization. >> Sure, Liberty IT started 20 years ago as really sort of an internal software host. Part of the Liberty Mutual group, we're part of Liberty Mutual Technologies. So we kind of work across all the markets in Liberty Mutual and all the kind of global locations. My role as director of technology is really think about what's the technical direction of Liberty IT? I can lead the architects with my group and really thinking about global architecture of Liberty Mutual and how can we provide business value in the mission going forward. >> Excellent, so Dave I guess what is the just kind of overall business and IT relationship? When I think of companies like yours, usually MNA comes in their growth expansions and digital transformation's been one of those buzzword discussions. But absolutely you need to be close to your customers there's lots of services that you need to provide online. How are some of those overall dynamic impacting how IT is supporting the business? >> That's a great question Stu. I mean technology has always been a key differentiator in Liberty Mutual. Even as my group was setup, like I said 20 years ago. It was always seen as a differentiator as something that we can be very good at. We've always been quite close to be in the cutting edge of technology. Many companies would say, "We're not an insurance company, we're a technology company that sells insurance." We are an insurance company, that's very important but we also need to understand that using the latest technology i.e. the cloud providers, really helps us deliver value to our business partners and customers. It is critical that we have a very tight partnership with our business partner. >> Excellent so yeah 20 years, a lot has changed in that time. Give us a little bit if you can, share a snapshot of where you are kind of in the cloud discussion. And what are the relationships between kind of the infrastructure side of the team and the development side of the team? And excepting that'll lead us forward to the server discussion. >> Sure I mean I joined Liberty about 12 years ago, 13 years ago and I actually started in one of the digital channels, that existence of digital channels. And probably almost 10 years ago our CEO James McGlannan quite a visionary, started kind of pressing the public cloud agenda and we started discussing public cloud as a potential future. It was a really exciting time. Cause I think the infrastructure development we all are in, gosh what's the possibilities of public cloud. And as you know the cloud itself it probably changes every year, it's redefined, there's new capabilities. I'm not sure we could envisage where we are today back when we started that conversation. Like every large enterprise, the initial conversation's around how do we enable this? How do we make this safe? How do we protect our data? All the usual kind of questions you would have. But in a way we kind of really joined together the very different departments. We thought, well how do we move the enterprise forward? And as well I mean we want to get a global capability for cloud was very important. And bringing up the velocity that we can deliver value quickly to our business partners. We didn't do it for technology's sake we did it to contribute real value for the business. And one of the really interesting things that we talked about is we shied away from counting how many virtual machines do we have in the cloud. That wasn't really a good metric for us. How are we delivering value to your business partners? That was kind of the metric that we chased and continue to chase. >> Well that's excellent how you kind of laid that out. I'm wondering if you could help extend that and bring us into where serverless fit into that discussion. I loved how you say it's not about number of VM's or the new shiny thing. So, what was it that led to your first use of serverless? And bring us a little bit along that journey that you've been going through. >> Sure, well one of the things that I've always found critical working in technology is that curiosity. But in a search for what's next. So, within micro IOS charts my people will say, "Where do we need to get to? What is 3 to 5 years out?" And we've a lot of really fantastic peers right across Liberty Mutual. Bright, open minded, they can think ahead. So one of my team was at I think it was re:Invent in I think it was 2013, where the launched Lambda for 2014. And each my crew were excited. They can build their first small application. It was actually a document generation. I think they were using some propriety systems. So they built a document generation solution. I couldn't believe the amount of ROM cost that was saved. It probably knocked something like 97% off the cost. Couldn't believe it. And we started saying, "Wow this is potential." But back then, again 5 or 6 years ago the stack was very immature. There was a lot of things you needed to figure out. Like the observability, the developer environment. There's a whole bunch of stuff that wasn't quite right. So it's something that we shared to our peers across the organization. We talked about it. We really started to kind of think, "Well this is interesting, this idea of serverless or manage servers." It started to really change how we thought and it really started to make the concept of a cloud native application very real. Cause we started to think of cloud native architecture loaded into application architecture. And that started to really flip how we thought. So it's just been a real journey these past couple of years. And a big thing for me is we started with engineers thinking of cloud as a mindset not necessarily as a platform. That opened the door to a lot of possibilities. >> Yeah, that's really interesting that you said that. Often times we say cloud is an operational model not a physical location. Are you using multiple clouds today? >> Yes, we probably tend to have a multi cloud strategy. And really to be very clear, serverless for us it's not just functions of service. Its not saying, "We're just using kind of something like Lambda." It's really about that idea using managed service. Thinking about evolution of architecture. How can we kind of try and cut out anything that is actually not differentiating? There's a great term which I always like is the stack policy is sometimes a technology companies we get obsessed by the stack. We think that the piece near the customer is quite easy. But think from the technology perspective we need to think about, we can deliver the most value by making the customer experience kind of best. And it can be even ramp the stack from whoever we need. >> Yeah, no, its a fascinating discussion. I've seen even today. You say serverless functions as a service. A lot of it is I don't want the developer to have to think about those underlying layer. Which reminds me of the discussion we've been having about platform as a service for more than a decade but PaaS was supposed to be platform independent. So I could have my code where ever it goes. Serverless today, right now we've talked about Lambda, Amazon there's certain things that I could only do on Amazon. There are discussions and working groups and the cloud data computing foundation. Working on how we can do serverless functions as a service that could expand between multiple clouds or use the same sort of code. So how do you look at that space? You talk about cloud native. How do you make sure that you're leveraging the technologies of the specific cloud but I guess I'll throw out not being locked into any one provider? >> I think about it for me it starts with the empowerment of the engineering team. We talk about a serverless first strategy that means that we've got the capability to build anything you need to. But to rent where you can. We had a fascinating story one of our best stories is a company called Workgrid. Workgrid Software is one of the companies that we spun out of Liberty Mutual. That was a project that we had an internal digital assistant that we built with some of our teams, it'd be back 4, 5 years ago. And our CEO James McGlannan decided to fund that as a kind of a startup. They broke off around 3 years ago and that initial team had 4 people in that engineering team. So they kind of decided that they would be serverless first in their approach. They didn't have time to think about operability or rights for portability. They had to realize business value really quickly. So they took a evolutionary architectural approach which meant they kept incrementing and iterating delivering value where possible. What's the next best thing that they can build to deliver value to the customer? So when you think in that regard, if you ever come to an Amazon of a grid, no one way doors, keep the two way doors. Don't lock yourself into anything. Make decisions that you can always build upon. So with that kind of constant iterative work our teams and that's serverless first strategy. It means that when you do rent the service if you need to change to another service it's just a matter of if you've your boundaries set up practically, it's very easy to get out of that. You dig yourself in deep to something, that's the difference. So I think there's an engineering mindset and culture that we certainly have proudness in our teams. But they kind of go fast, focus on business value and try and be sort cloud native in their outlook. >> Excellent, yeah, I just heard Andy Jassy in the AWS Summit online talking about those one way door. So sounds like from your standpoint, serverless is a two-way door for architecting in your mindset? >> Absolutely, I mean I think really for me it brings architecture back into the team. It's one of the really nice things is if your team use managed services that focus is on business value. If our infrastructure is set up to support that type of team then you have minimal hand offs within the team. Through the single team, its their job to create value, engineer the solution, make sure the security is good enough, build the operation, the visibility it's all contained within one team. We get a huge responsibility from that one team. As an engineer that is super powerful, super huge autonomy. So we can talk with the serverless engineer and for me it's been absolutely fascinating to see teams come into this environment and once they understand that event driven way of creating their systems. And I use the words systems rather than applications to create event driven systems they're constantly building upon. It's just fascinating to see where they go. You start to see the creativity and innovation of the engineers. So its truly unbelievable to watch. They're really very cool. >> Dave, I'm curious when you look at the application portfolio that your team manages, how do you decide what goes serverless? Is it new development all goes serverless? Has there been a migration? How do you look at the overall application portfolio that you have? >> It kind of depends I suppose on, I'm not going to sit here and say that we're going to refactor everything to serverless. I think when you do a migration there's usually six or seven paths you can go down and you do what's best for the business. But for new development, it's definitely interesting we haven't found many used cases that are really a bad fit. It's a spectrum we may decide what different servers to use. We built a system last year which was absolutely fascinating to see. It's like a a financial aggregation system where we do a lot of our accounting. So it was kind of serverless ETL, we're trying to do like an end of month batch system to detect a lot accounts from different countries and kind of pipe them into a kind of general ledger. Not something I would've thought about for serverless, to be honest. But then when you think about it and some of our engineering leads they have put this together. They can design this fantastic system using serverless workflows. Cause you're taking lots of various different types of data orchestrated in a single destination. And we put live in that this year and I think one of the monthly ends that they recently ran I think they ran something like 100 million transactions. Relatively low cost and of course being a month end system the rest of the months there's zero cost. You don't pay for idle. We only actually pay for wireless roaming in that month end process for maybe like FDRs or something. >> Dave, you talked about the early days 2014 when Lambda was announced, re:Invent, when you first started using it in the first year or so. There's the maturity of that ecosystem solutions set. Where do you see things now? What's working well? What's on your wishlist? Kind of mature or increase overall functionality to help? >> I think that the developer environment and developer experience is a big part. One of the key messages in trying to kind of get into our culture is code is a liability. It's not an asset. If you have a bunch of engineers writing lots of code that in fact is a liability. There's no business asset in that. The asset is in the system that you create. Trying to get engineers into the mindset to write less code and they actually engineer systems. So one of the things we've been trying to do is maybe using patterns as building blocks. People became kind of like a Lego building block way of creating their systems. Piecing somethings like CDK code development kit patterns. Using the world architect process to make sure that teams are looking after their cost, their security, their performance, their liability, and their kind of optimizations. Some of those things are really important in that whole ownership of an operational view of their systems. And also even things like observability. When you create a system with a lot of events laying around it starts getting complex. But then if you do it correctly you can start to layer on well, what better insights can we build on top of the system? So it's really opening up teams a different way of working. And then of course there's lots of operational challenges when you get into more complex environment. So as we often say, it's not easier, different, built difficulty building systems, but it's different, that's what's definitely easier but better. >> All right, how about anything that you're looking out towards the future? You talked about the early days when you look at these and while you're not necessarily throwing the latest shiny thing into production, there's that curiosity. So what's exciting you now? Anything else kind of looking forward that you prepare? >> I think one of the fantastic success stories we've had is with a project we call Virtual Assistant. And really to answer your question, its about how teams can properly work at MVP. So, one of the things that we really find fascinating is when you put a good engineering team. And I mean a team who you're really solid engineers you then layer on the cloud and security best practices and verification. We then put them in a coded serverless environment with real business problem. They then create a MVP. You're virtual assistant in, raises an MVP. So if you call into a call center and you have a fairly straightforward request, like if you have an auto claim you might say, "Well when can I pick up my ramp bill?" If you already done your claim. We have an NLP a natural language assistant that can help you with that conversation. So when you start with an MVP system like that you can start them off at a fairly small traffic, until you actually tune that until it's kind of perfect. And then you gradually scale up and add on other data driven potential AI services, integrations to that. So I think when you start to take the MVP approach, and have a very, very novel solution see what that's like in the wild and then start to scale out. We scale that system for taking maybe 30 calls maybe taking about a quarter on your calls. It's fantastic how you can start to scale these system up. Well I think what I'm really looking for is more kind of support to see how we can you know, it's the art of the possible. How can we use this skillset and this serverless mindset to create really fascinating business applications. Because when you get under that kind of creative conversation with business partners, I mean they don't want to hear about Lambda or events or observability. They want to say, "Well, what can I do with AI? What can I do with Voice, what can I do with Vision?" So we start to open up really fantastic conversations like that. So I'd like to see more of that, but in a creative product development. >> Excellent, well yeah Dave, so important that you brought back as to how IT in the business. Working together, it's not about the technical widget or knobs or anything. But the services and the value that ultimately you can provide for the business and the impact that has on your ultimate end customer. All right, Dave, thanks so much. Real pleasure having a chat with you. >> Thanks Stu really appreciate it, thank you. >> All right, be sure to check out theCUBE.net. Lots of backgrounds, if you go hit the search, you can actually type serverless, find out more about what we've been covering as well as what events we will be at in the future. I'm Stu Miniman and thank you for watching theCube. (gentle music)

Published Date : May 19 2020

SUMMARY :

leaders all around the world, and one of the editorial themes If you could just start us off, Part of the Liberty Mutual group, how IT is supporting the business? It is critical that we have between kind of the And one of the really interesting things I loved how you say it's And that started to really interesting that you said that. And it can be even ramp the the developer to have to think It means that when you do rent the service in the AWS Summit online talking of the engineers. I think when you do a migration when you first started using system that you create. forward that you prepare? So I think when you start that ultimately you can Thanks Stu really you can actually type serverless,

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Day 1 Keynote Analysis | UiPath FORWARD III 2019


 

>>Live from Las Vegas. It's the cube covering UI path forward Americas 2019 brought to you by UI path. >>Hello everyone and welcome to the cubes live coverage of UI path forward here at the Bellagio. I'm your host hosting alongside of Dave Volante. David's so great to be here with you. I'm so excited to get into this. See Rebecca, so we were, we would use came from the keynote. A lot of high profile UI path executives and important customers were on there too, but then this is the message is it's time to reboot work. It's time to reboot your business, transformed the customer experience, transform the employee experience. I'm wondering as someone who spent a lot of time at these kinds of conferences, and here's a lot of this, these, this kind of messaging, especially in this age of digital transformation, how compelling do you find this value proposition, this, this idea that RPA, robotics, processing automation can do these things? >>The first thing I would mention, Rebecca, is to me it's all about the customers. And you know, it's rare that you see a tech show start with the customers to actually do in the intro. I've seen it before. Nutanix actually does it at his shows, but it's, but it's quite rare because you know, the vendors want to put their message out, they want to control everything, and so they're very, very cautious about that. But, so we had three customers up on stage today doing the intro, which I thought was kind of cool. Tech shows, you know, a lot of smoke, a lot of mirrors and so forth. So you have to try to squint through that. I would say this, it's very clear that the age of automation is here. You know, people have been always concerned about automation for good reason. They're afraid that automation is gonna take away their jobs. >>Having said that, machines have always replace humans. We've talked about this a lot on the cube, but this is the first time in history that machines are replacing humans with cognitive tasks. So that's got to be scaring people a little bit. But when you come back and answer your question, when you talk to customers, they're really happy about software robots because they're doing, they're automating mundane tasks that these folks don't want to do on a day to day basis and they want to do other things. They want to get their weekends back. They don't want to just manually enter data from spreadsheets into applications and back and forth. And so from that standpoint, I think it is real and it is unique. You know, the big question is how much of this is transformational and is it really a path to AI something that UI path and others are really pointing towards and we're going to explore that, >>right? I mean in what you were just saying too is that that that the company's pitch is that we are freeing people. We are liberating them from the mundane, from the drudgery, from the data entry. And as you, as you pointed out, rightfully, a lot of the customers are saying, Oh no, it's giving our time. It's giving our employees time back to focus on the higher level tasks, the more creative aspects of their job. But, but I wonder if it is in fact a w what it really is doing. Two jobs. I mean I think that there was a really telling line in that Forbes profile of uh, Daniel Dina's who is the, the CEO of this company is founder of this company. The first ever bought billionaire exactly. Um, where it was an MIT professor quoted saying, you know, we always say to the companies that we say, give, give us your data and we'll tell you if it is in fact, uh, having this job killing effect. And he said, the companies don't want to give, give that up. >>Right? So now just look at the why is Daniel didn't as a billionaire, it will here, here, here's why. >>Yeah, walk, walk us through this. >>So UI path is up to 3,400 employees. 34 50 is the actual number. Now back in 2017, two years ago, this company did $25 million in annual recurring revenue. Now, ARR is a metric that's very important because you know, even though you book, let's say you book a $12,000 deal, you recognize that $1,000 a month over the 12 month period. So ARR is a very really important metric. So 25 million in 2017 my sources indicate that they'll do over 300 million this year in ARR. So we're talking about a 12 X plus increase in a two year period. They've raised $1 billion. One of their key competitors, automation anywhere has raised similar amounts of money. So they're talking about a couple of billion dollars raised just in the last couple of years. UI past valuation in March was $7 billion. So at that kind of back of napkin, and we're talking about a $10 billion valuation, Daniel obviously owns a lot of that. >>So 20% yeah. So it's, it's pretty substantial in terms of the market impact. Now valuations, as you all know, it's a fleeting metric, right? It comes in, it goes, but so the, but the landscape is very strong right now. It's really interesting to see how much customers are glomming onto this automation tailwind. The other comment I would make is let's lay out the sort of competitive landscape. UI path has gone from kind of a clear third in the marketplace to clear number one. I mean they're kind of separating from the pack, but there are others automation anywhere, blue prism and there are a number of legacy customers as well >>that that's what I wanted to ask you too, is that we have seen a few Microsoft and Google of course are, are, are partnered in their, in their customers, but they also are moving into this area themselves. So I mean will you will let UI path be able to maintain its competitive position as these very established and frankly very smart companies move into this area. Safety's >>another one. SAP bought an RPA company. It's a good question, but, so if you look at, let me start with this sort of underlying trend. If you look at the spending data, so we have access to the enterprise technology, research spending data and it shows the entire space is gaining share relative to other technology initiatives. So when you look at the data for UI path automation, anywhere blue prism, even legacy process automation companies like Pega systems, they're all actually from a spending standpoint attracting a lot of attention. So it's this rising tide lifts all ships. It's still somewhat early in terms of this next generation RPA if you will, you I-PASS advantage is simplicity. They are totally focused on this. You see this all the time. Do we go best of breed or do we go with a suite? So if Oracle comes up with an RPA solution, they throw it in for free, you know, does a customer take that? >>I think it comes down to what the business value is and that's something we're going to explore. It's not uncommon in detect industry that there's a first mover advantage or maybe it's a second mover advantage. You know, Facebook wasn't really first mover, but the one who really gets it right is kind of a winner take most. And so that's where a UI path is going like crazy right now. Trying to scale the company, raise a bunch of money. We saw this week a bunch of bankers sort of sniffing around. All the bankers are here cause they want their business. So I would expect there's some kind of IPO on the horizon, which I think they need to do to be, to your point to be able to compete with the big guys. So bottom line is they have to do it on a better product, more openness, moving faster and getting to scale. And I think they'll be able to reach escape velocity. I don't know if there's enough room for the big three. I would expect that given the spending climate is very good for everybody right now. I would expect within the next two to three years, some consolidation in this space. >>Well. So one of the things that you had just talked about with this next generation RPA, and that is exactly where we're going because these bots have got to become more durable, more smarter and more capable of handling complex tasks. We saw a number of new product announcements today. Oh, I might to get your thoughts and what you think about them and just whether or not they will have this transformational effect. Um, so, so yes, we have some new product announcements, some, some that democratize automation building that all you have to do is know how to run an Excel spreadsheet and you too can build an automation in your company. >>Yeah. It'll take a little bit of training though. >>I know. I think a better idea for those those demos is they should just pluck someone out of the audience and say, okay, you're going to do this. >>No, they would fail. I mean, let's say said, I remember the first time you learned Excel, I'm old enough to remember slash file, retrieve, paste, copy, whatever. You had to go through some training and we went through classes back in the eighties I think it's a similar here. I mean it's not overly complex. It's gonna have a low code theme, but you're right, UI path announced the number of new products. You know, we looked at this a couple of years ago, we went, we went out and we took the big three from the Forrester wave blue prism automation anywhere in UI path and we said, Hey, let's download them and start building some, some, some automations. While the only software we could get ahold of was UI path. Because as they say, they had kind of a simpler or more open model. The other guys were like, well, talk to a reseller is spend some money. >>And we were like, no, we just want to try it before we buy it. And we weren't able to get the other guy software. Now I think automation anywhere has made some strides in that regard in terms of simplification. You know, it's a copycat industry like the NFL. But so let's remember here we're talking about automating mundane tasks. Relatively simple automations. The customers are asking for things like more complex automations. How do we prioritize the automations? How do we figure out where, what's the best bang for the buck? How do we actually have attended bots because many of these are unintended. They'd like to have the human injected into the equation and that's pretty interesting because it brings forth this augmentation scenario that's everybody's talking about in AI and that starts to move us from sort of this tactical, I'm going to save some time on a use case specific or a technology specific automation to something that's more strategic that I can scale across my organization but right now people are saving money on this as a super hot space. As I say, all the bankers are trying to get in because they know some other ideas are coming down the road and the VCs I'm sure are gonna want the air exits. >>I want to talk to you about the leadership of this company. This is Daniel Dienes and you have interviewed him many times. Do minimun has as well. He he, he seems like a different kind of CEO. I mean, first of all, he is, he's a Romanian. Uh, he grew up, uh, behind the iron curtain. Uh, he was a professional bridge player for awhile, at least play competitive bridge player play competitive bridge and now he is a company headquartered in New York city. He still spends a lot of time in Bucharest but I'm curious to hear your thoughts about his leadership style and the kind of culture he's created at UI path and whether or not, because he's made some key hires from AWS, from Google, some, some of the more established tech players, whether or not he is, whether or not he'll be able to keep that startup culture, that startup mindset as the company becomes so much bigger. Well >>I think it's a concern and something that we want to ask about when you ask Daniel about, you know, how have you been able to do this? He'll talk about the mistakes that they made, how they sort of, they had a build it and you and they shall come mentality, which is kind of kind of old thinking these days and they sort of lucked into this RPA space. He also emphasize, emphasize as humble, and he's a very humble guy. I mean, you'll, you'll, you'll meet him I think last year he came on and you know, he's a developer. He had a tee shirt on. He's a coder right now. He's a billionaire coder. So maybe, maybe he'll, he'll dress up a little bit, but you know, maybe a fancy tee shirt, I don't know. Or maybe a collared shirt that says UI path on it. We'll see. >>But so they end, they want to move fast. They believe in openness there. They believe in transparency. I think those things worked in today's marketplace. People love the guy. I mean the customers love them. The employees love them. As you said, they're pulling people in from the hottest companies. Google, AWS. We, I got a on the shoulder today from, from a gentleman and I know from Google, he was in sales at Google. It's not me. There's no, Oh, I'm day three. And so people want to be part of this, this rocket ship. And I think it's gonna move very, very fast. Like I say, I think you're going to see some moves in the marketplace. I think you're going to see some exits and consolidations. We saw some M and a today UI path announced the acquisition of company called process gold that actually competes with a partner of UI path. So it's again, people are going to be on collision courses and they recently made another acquisition of a company called step shots and we're seeing some M and a, you know, relatively small MNA, but it's all about how can they transform from this little startup to this major player. To your point that can compete with the Microsofts and the SAP and the big whales of the world. >>And what do you think is his bigger selling point? Is it that it is transforming the employee experience, which as we know that that should not be discounted because an employee who is doing less mundane tasks able to focus on the more creative interesting parts of his or her job is a happier employee, happier your employees, more productive employee. A more productive employee means a healthier bottom line. So that's now funding to discount. Also the customer experience, as you said, which is clearly a huge top priority for this company. But, but I think the question is, is this technology now is a transformative enough? >>You know, as you asked that question, it kind of reminds me in a different way of a company that we've followed for years service now. When service now first came out, it was kind of doing what people saw as help desk, improving help desk, and they disrupted an industry and they made it better, which is kind of boring. It's kind of mundane, but actually having good it where you're not constantly down and you're not complaining and stuff's not falling through the cracks actually can be somewhat transformative. Kind of boring, but really important. And I see a similar sort of pattern here now the vision is, you know, a robot for every worker and the path to AI and we'll see. But right now the trans, the transformation is we're going to take away all this crap that you hate doing all these crap locations or mundane tasks and we're going to make your life better. >>And people workers want that and it's going to be in theory, a productivity boost as a result of that. That in and of itself, I think Rebecca can be transformative because it'll, it'll help with morale, it'll help with culture, it'll allow people to shift their emphasis on more strategic work and drive more value for the companies. And so, and I think companies that invest in RPA are, are seeing returns in terms of quality, just in terms of employee morale. You'll hear that from the customers that we talked to today. So I think in that sense it can be transformative like service now was now can it take the next step or is this really just paving the cow path? Is it just taking mundane known processes, automating them as opposed to really rethinking what process automation should look like. And that's some of the criticism of RPA and the RPA hype. And you know, we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk to customers about that. We've got analysts from HFS coming on, Kathy from Gartner's coming on. So excited to hear their perspectives as well. >>Exactly. And I, I want to reiterate that point that you're absolutely right. Their question is should we actually think about redesigning the process itself rather than automating the, the the flawed process? >>Yeah, and I mean I guess part of me says yes strategically we should be doing that, but another part of me says, look, I don't have to change anything. And I think that's the big advantage of UI path and these other players is you can basically automate what you have today. You don't have to redesign the process because process redesign is a heavy lift. So if I don't have to do a heavy lift, if I can improve what I'm doing today and it works, yeah, it's the old, if it ain't broke, why fix it, but just improve it. I think that's a very powerful, I think the big question I have is, is that like a big hit of a step function or is it really transformative? I feel like today's tech is a step function, which is important. You're going to get that step function, but I think you're going to absorb that benefit fast and then people are going to say, okay, now what? >>Another good example is virtualization. When I first saw virtualization and the ability to spin up a server, my jaw dropped and went, Oh my God, I could spin up a server in five minutes and it used to take weeks, months to spin up a server. That's game changing. Nobody talks about virtualization anymore. It was a, you know, a five year absorption of productivity for it and now it's like, yeah, I've been there, done that. That's yesterday's news. I think the same thing is going to happen with today's RPA and the big question is can they cross that strategic chasm into what the gentleman from Pepsi, the executive from Pepsi was saying, this automation fabric across the enterprise as a, as a platform for automation and artificial intelligence. That's a big leap. These guys get big plans. Daniel Dienes is a big thinker, go big or go home. So I don't, I don't have the crystal ball on that, I think, but I think there's a decent opportunity given that there's enough attention on this business right now that it, that it could be transformed. >>All right, well, hopefully we'll know more at the end of these two days. Dave, I've, I'm looking forward to getting into with you. I'm Rebecca Knight for Dave Volante. Stay tuned for more. You're watching the cube.

Published Date : Oct 15 2019

SUMMARY :

forward Americas 2019 brought to you by UI path. the message is it's time to reboot work. And you know, it's rare that you see So that's got to be scaring I mean in what you were just saying too is that that that the company's pitch is that we are freeing people. So now just look at the why is Daniel didn't as a billionaire, ARR is a metric that's very important because you know, even though you book, So it's, it's pretty substantial in terms of the market So I mean will you will let UI path be able to maintain its competitive position as So when you look at the data for UI path automation, anywhere blue prism, even legacy And I think they'll be able to reach escape velocity. building that all you have to do is know how to run an Excel spreadsheet and you too can build an automation I think a better idea for those those demos is they should just pluck someone out of the audience and say, I mean, let's say said, I remember the first time you learned Excel, As I say, all the bankers are trying to get in because they know some other ideas are coming down the road I want to talk to you about the leadership of this company. I think it's a concern and something that we want to ask about when you ask Daniel about, you know, how have you been able to do this? made another acquisition of a company called step shots and we're seeing some M and a, you know, Also the customer experience, as you said, And I see a similar sort of pattern here now the vision is, And you know, we're going to talk about that. the the flawed process? And I think that's the big advantage of UI path and these other players is you can basically I think the same thing is going to happen Dave, I've, I'm looking forward to getting into with you.

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Rajiv Ahuja, Deloitte | Boomi World 2019


 

>>Live from Washington DC. It's the cube covering Boomi world 19 how to bide bullying. >>Welcome to the cue of the leader in live tech coverage. Lisa Martin with John furrier live at Boomi world 2019 in DC. John and I are pleased to welcome one of our next guests, Rajiv Ahuja managing director, Deloitte consulting. Rajiv welcome to theCUBE. Thank you Lisa. So just saw the news yesterday, a partner summit, Deloitte named the 2019 innovation partner of the year. Congratulations to Deloitte on that. >>Thank you very much. We are very proud and honored to be an innovation partner with Boomi Uh, it's been a great journey with boomi. >>You are worldwide partner of the year last year. Talk to us about the Deloitte Boomi partnership, the Alliance, all the good stuff that's going on there. >>imooBSo we've been a boomi partner for a number of years now and our partnership has grown leaps and bounds over this time. Uh, we picked up Boomi as a, as an Alliance partner as years back because of the strength of their product. Phenomenal innovative product, great I-PASS platform. Uh, we love booming because of not just the features of its platform and product, but also because of the fact that it's easy to implement for our clients. Uh, it, it, it's easy to implement, uh, from a business perspective. Um, beauty of the product is that it has a lot of prebuilt integrations that it provides to our, our partners. Uh, and, and, and as a, as an Alliance partner with them. Uh, it provides by this all that we need from, in terms of training, in terms of, uh, you know, sales opportunities that we worked together with them on. >>As a management consultant and a global system integrator. You guys are, you work with a lot of big customers with big problems, big projects, broken down into smaller projects. What's the landscape look like from a customer? Digital transformation has been talked about for many, many years. People process technology. Why is Boomi doing so well? What's the, what's their secret sauce and what are the customers liking about booming? >>Excellent question. Um, so when we think about our clients right now, our clients are dealing with really business problems. They're talking about digital transformation. They're talking about, uh, cloud. They're talking about IoT, they're talking about, about, uh, how do we, how do they use AI? So those are the big problems that our clients are dealing with. Those are the big challenges and opportunities that declines have in front of them. And when our clients think of these, these opportunities and challenges are, there are three things that they need to deal with. They, they need to make sure that when they undertake these large transformations, they're able to easily integrate data that currently resides in a lot of their on-prim applications. In many of these transformation, the long pole in the tent happens to be the integration layer. That's what kind of holds back a lot of these transformation efforts. >>And Boomi is an excellent product to help them with that. A second area where clients kind of have to deal with Israeli, the speed of innovation. That's a big challenge that our clients have to deal with today. Uh, and, and, and, uh, you know, go another day is when you could bring out a new release of your product every three months, every six months. Our clients, customers, they need to see some new features every few weeks. And, and a large part about making change happen quickly is around being able to bring in the relevant data from your enterprise pretty quickly as well. And again, Boomi with its simplicity, uh, and providing an ability to simply integrate, uh, uh, products quickly. And you know, that helps with that agility as well as the speed of innovation or the number of projects increasing in companies. Because, you know, with data and agile application development, there's more projects happening. >>Do you see the numbers increasing? Can you share some insight into what that looked like? Is it a lot, is there order of magnitude? Is it changed? Is it the same game is 10, 15 years ago, but just broken down into smaller projects? One big project comes in. What's the, what's the, what's the project landscape like? >> So for us, uh, it's been, uh, a tremendous growth journey over the last 10 years. Okay. The number of projects, again driven by digital transformation efforts, cloud efforts, the number of projects, the kind of projects, the flavor of projects that is coming up. And the sheer volume of projects is around clients thinking about moving to SAS based application models, thinking about their digital transformation and then taking up more mobile as well as digital projects at this stage. Thinking about their, their uh, you know, big M and a deals at this stage. Uh, all these kind of changes within their environment and within their demands that their customers and the mining of them. That has really spiked up the level of number of projects that we see at the state. >>Are you seeing that in terms of the spike in projects similar between like an established business that might have all these silos of, of applications that don't connect versus like a, say a younger startup that might have a ton of data and they're trying to move so quickly? Are there the types of integration projects that they're needing to implement to transform? Pretty similar, >>so, so, eh, similar, but there are some unique characteristics for each of these. Uh, two uh, sort of buckets of clients I would say, or bucket of companies in a more traditional companies today. Really the need is around. Um, and I'll give you a few examples, right. Um, there is a big need among larger companies to, to move to cloud. A number of our clients have mandated that moving to cloud and taking their, their applications to the cloud is their priority number one. For a typical large sized company, their application landscape could be anywhere from about five to 600 applications in the ID portfolio to close to four to 5,000 applications. So if you look at that application landscape, the reality is that the push to the cloud at this moment of time across most of our clients, they have 15 20% of their applications in the cloud. They're using certain sass applications, they have their own custom applications that have been put on a cloud platform and then they still have a large proportion of their applications on prem as well. So that's the reality of application landscape. For our last scale clients and with this reality, the ability to integrate cloud to cloud applications, cloud two on-prem applications and on-prem to application on prem applications. That's, that's the key need for integration for our large scale clients. >>Reggie, I want to get your personal opinion on something. You've been in the industry for long time now. You seen many waves, maybe computer, client server, local area networking, inter networking, internet, web, web two. Dot. Oh, cloud cloud one. Dot. Oh, cloud 2.0 which we're in now. What is the big story in your mind, what's the most important story that in tech today in your mind and what's the most important story that isn't being told or isn't being shared? Talked enough about >>the, the big story that has been talked about and I mentioned earlier, right? Is, is multicloud that's the big story that kind of is on the surface. The big story is that ultimately everything has to be business driven. It's the customer that is demanding change from our clients. The customer is saying that they are, they want to just deal with mobile. The younger customer, which will be the customer for of tomorrow, they want to be mobile. Right? And our clients, whether it's financial services clients or retail clients or any clients, uh, in most of the industry, you know, that's where their mind is. They want to be mobile first. They want to be cloud first. So that's the big story that's being told. And every client across flawless, all all industries that we support, that's the same story that we hear at every line. Right? The second big story at our clients is, is that that, that the computational power as has gone has, has improved so much that IOT connections with IOT, that's reality now that is coming reality, that's becoming reality. The third big story at our clients is that the traditional on prem applications that run the core guts of our clients, they haven't gone away. They're here to stay for some time. Most of our clients want to transform their core applications, but, but they haven't yet spend the money to, to transform them, >>you know, and great perspective. Thank you for sharing that insight. Uh, one of the interesting things about cloud 2.0 I'm calling it cloud 2.0 cause we were kind of in cloud 2.0 world cloud one. Dot. O was compute storage scale up Amazon born in the cloud API APIs, agile grade cloud, cheap windows enterprise is hard. Multicloud hybrid cloud Coobernetti's containers, legacy infrastructure sins you mentioned. But one thing that's interesting and I'd like to get your thoughts on is that network management used to be a small white space. Then that turned into observability companies going public great solutions. So observability is now a big category. Automation is taking configuration management and turning that into a whole category around automation. Automation is a really big hot trend right now that's ultimately a data driven business driven opportunity. So observability automation, these are tell signs for cloud 2.0 what is your view on this? Someone who's been in the industry for while talking to customers as they start to think about standing up IOT or scaling up mobile automation's important. Data's important. What's your >>no, absolutely. At the end of the day it's all about data. At the end of the day, uh, when we talk about automation, right, and we're talking about end devices, we're talking about connectivity with the end devices, we're talking about our IOT and those connectivity. But at the end of the day, the heart of it is integration and bringing data that is residing either on prem, in core systems that you have all on the cloud in the courses from that you have, how do you bring that data at the forefront of your edge? A second key aspect around around cloud to auto is it's an ecosystem. Basically. It's an ecosystem place based basically not just in terms of sharing data within your walls and sharing data with your own ecosystem partners, but it's an ecosystem based play in cloud to Datto in terms of also utilizing what your ecosystem provides. So today there is really no need for a lot of our partners to kind of do a lot of lot of their compute inside. You know, when you think about AI, a lot of gold is available in the market today that you can leverage with your ecosystem players. So ecosystem players. Also another interesting aspect about cloud dude auto that often gets old. >>You talked a minute ago about you know, the, the need to have cloud to on prem integration on prem to on-prem, et cetera. And one of the things that I was reading about Boomi is, well, iPads used to be all about 10 years ago connecting on prem, sorry, the cloud to on-prem. Now it's any data source anywhere, any integration edge. You talked about that we have this as consumers, we have this demand to have everything mobile, right? Whenever, whatever it is that we want to call an Uber or maybe a CFO needs to procure some software. What, how does that influence Dillard's go to market strategy with Boomi knowing that booby is integrating on prem cloud edge? All of it? >>So great question. Uh, there are, there are really freaky, um, kind of opportunities that we see when we implement with our clients. Uh, the first big opportunity that we see is when our clients are, are taking a journey to the cloud. Uh, let's say many of our clients want to implement core SAS solution. They're implementing a net net suite solution, they're thinking of SAP S four HANA implementation on the cloud. They're thinking of both the implementation on the cloud, right? With any large SAS platform implementation, there is always need for connectivity to on-prem applications, other SAS applications at times two end devices, right? That's the point where we see a lot of our projects. That's the point where we see a lot of opportunity to help our clients using Boomi as an integration platform. Right? A second big area where we see, uh, our clients needing help is when in their life cycle there is a big event, for example, a big MNA deal, a big divestiture that that might be planning product launch or something significant, something significant. >>And at that point of time, for example, a typical divestiture deal, typically the company that is being so love at times as a part of the deal, the expectation from the buyer is that the core ID infrastructure that they're buying from the company would also be transformed as a part of the deal. And when that's the case and we have a number of examples of those where where you know as a part of the deal itself, the seller tries to modernize it infrastructure and the first thing they do is they go for a plethora of SAS applications to replace their core legacy applications and they want to integrate them very quickly. And that's another situation where we've seen a product like Boomi being very successful in helping us implement. So those are the two big use cases. And the third one is as obviously as you talked about around digital transformation, so driven by digital transformation, whether it's mobile alone or mobile along with transformations along with gain of some edge computational transformation. That's a situation where again, you know they're there, they're leading a large transformation within their organization. And a part of that is answer is making sure that from an integration perspective they standardize and that's where Boomi comes into a lot, a lot of picture as well. >>Well where do you have tons of opportunity? Tons of momentum. Thank you for joining John and me on the QB day, sharing what Deloitte and Boomi are doing together. And again, congratulations to Deloitte on the partner of innovation partner of the year. Thank you so much. Pleasure to talk with you for Regina and John furrier. I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching the cube from Boomi world 19 thanks for watching. Thank you very much.

Published Date : Oct 2 2019

SUMMARY :

It's the cube covering So just saw the news yesterday, a partner summit, Deloitte named the 2019 Thank you very much. partnership, the Alliance, all the good stuff that's going on there. a lot of prebuilt integrations that it provides to our, our partners. What's the landscape look the long pole in the tent happens to be the integration layer. And Boomi is an excellent product to help them with that. Is it the same game is 10, the level of number of projects that we see at the state. the reality is that the push to the cloud at this moment of time across most of our What is the big is multicloud that's the big story that kind of is on the surface. Uh, one of the interesting things about cloud 2.0 a lot of gold is available in the market today that you can leverage with your ecosystem players. sorry, the cloud to on-prem. Uh, the first big opportunity that we see And the third one is as obviously as you talked about around digital transformation, Pleasure to talk with you for

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Frank Gens, IDC | Actifio Data Driven 2019


 

>> From Boston, Massachusets, it's The Cube. Covering Actifio 2019: Data Driven, Brought to you by Actifio. >> Welcome back to Boston, everybody. We're here at the Intercontinental Hotel at Actifio's Data Driven conference, day one. You're watching The Cube. The leader in on-the-ground tech coverage. My name is is Dave Valante, Stu Minamin is here, so is John Ferrer, my friend Frank Gens is here, he's the Senior Vice President and Chief Analyst at IDC and Head Dot Connector. Frank, welcome to The Cube. >> Well thank you Dave. >> First time. >> First time. >> Newbie. >> Yep. >> You're going to crush it, I know. >> Be gentle. >> You know, you're awesome, I've watched you over the many years, of course, you know, you seem to get competitive, and it's like who gets the best rating? Frank always had the best ratings at the Directions conference. He's blushing but I could- >> I don't know if that's true but I'll accept it. >> I could never beat him, no matter how hard I tried. But you are a phenomenal speaker, you gave a great conversation this morning. I'm sure you drew a lot from your Directions talk, but every year you lay down this, you know, sort of, mini manifesto. You describe it as, you connect the dots, IDC, thousands of analysts. And it's your job to say okay, what does this all mean? Not in the micro, let's up-level a little bit. So, what's happening? You talked today, You know you gave your version of the wave slides. So, where are we in the waves? We are exiting the experimentation phase, and coming in to a new phase that multiplied innovation. I saw AI on there, block-chain, some other technologies. Where are we today? >> Yeah, well I think having mental models of the6 industry or any complex system is pretty important. I mean I've made a career dumbing-down a complex industry into something simple enough that I can understand, so we've done it again now with what we call the third platform. So, ten years ago seeing the whole raft of new technologies at the time were coming in that would become the foundation for the next thirty years of tech, so, that's an old story now. Cloud, mobile, social, big data, obviously IOT technologies coming in, block-chain, and so forth. So we call this general era the third platform, but we noticed a few years ago, well, we're at the threshold of kind of a major scale-up of innovation in this third platform that's very different from the last ten or twelve years, which we called the experimentation stage. Where people were using this stuff, using the cloud, using mobile, big data, to create cool things, but they were doing it in kind of a isolated way. Kind of the traditional, well I'm going to invent something and I may have a few friends help me, whereas, the promise of the cloud has been , well, if you have a lot of developers out on the cloud, that form a community, an ecosystem, think of GitHub, you know, any of the big code repositories, or the ability to have shared service as often Amazon, Cloud, or IBM, or Google, or Microsoft, the promise is there to actually bring to life what Bill Joy said, you know, in the nineties. Which was no matter how smart you are, most of the smart people in the world work for someone else. So the questions always been, well, how do I tap into all those other smart people who don't work for me? So we can feel that where we are in the industry right now is the business model of multiplied innovation or if you prefer, a network of collaborative innovation, being able to build something interesting quickly, using a lot of innovation from other people, and then adding your special sauce. But that's going to take the scale of innovation just up a couple of orders of magnitude. And the pace, of course, that goes with that, is people are innovating much more rapid clip now. So really, the full promise of a cloud-native innovation model, so we kind of feel like we're right here, which means there's lots of big changes around the technologies, around kind of the world of developers and apps, AI is changing, and of course, the industry structure itself. You know the power positions, you know, a lot of vendors have spent a lot of energy trying to protect the power positions of the last thirty years. >> Yeah so we're getting into some of that. So, but you know, everybody talks about digital transformation, and they kind of roll their eyes, like it's a big buzzword, but it's real. It's dataware at a data-driven conference. And data, you know, being at the heart of businesses means that you're seeing businesses transition industries, or traverse industries, you know, Amazon getting into groceries, Apple getting into content, Amazon as well, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, so, my question is, what's a tech company? I mean, you know, Bennyhoff says that, you know, every company's a sass company, and you're certainly seeing that, and it's got to be great for your business. >> Yeah, yeah absolutely >> Quantifying all those markets, but I mean, the market that you quantify is just it's every company now. Banks, insurance companies, grocers, you know? Everybody is a tech company. >> I think, yeah, that's a hundred percent right. It is that this is the biggest revolution in the economy, you know, for many many decades. Or you might say centuries even. Is yeah, whoever put it, was it Mark Andreson or whoever used to talk about software leading the world, we're in the middle of that. Only, software now is being delivered in the form of digital or cloud services so, you know, every company is a tech company. And of course it really raises the question, well what are tech companies? You know, they need to kind of think back about where does our value add? But it is great. It's when we look at the world of clouds, one of the first things we observed in 2007, 2008 was, well, clouds wasn't just about S3 storage clouds, or salesforce.com's softwares and service. It's a model that can be applied to any industry, any company, any offering. And of course we've seen all these startups whether it's Uber or Netflix or whoever it is, basically digital innovation in every single industry, transforming that industry. So, to me that's the exciting part is if that model of transforming industries through the use of software, through digital technology. In that kind of experimentation stage it was mainly a startup story. All those unicorns. To me the multiplied innovation chapter, it's about- (audio cuts out) finally, you know, the cities, the Procter & Gambles, the Walmarts, the John Deere's, they're finally saying hey, this cloud platform and digital innovation, if we can do that in our industry. >> Yeah, so intrapreneurship is actually, you know, starting to- >> Yeah. >> So you and I have seen a lot of psychos, we watched the you know, the mainframe wave get crushed by the micro-processor based revolution, IDC at the time spent a lot of time looking at that. >> Vacuum tubes. >> Water coolant is back. So but the industry has marched to the cadence of Moore's Law forever. Even Thomas Friedman when he talks about, you know, his stuff and he throws in Moore's Law. But no longer Moore's Law the sort of engine of innovation. There's other factors. So what's the innovation cocktail looking forward over the next ten years? You've talked about cloud, you know, we've talked about AI, what's that, you know, sandwich, the innovation sandwich look like? >> Yeah so to me I think it is the harnessing of all this flood of technologies, again, that are mainly coming off the cloud, and that parade is not stopping. Quantum, you know, lots of other technologies are coming down the pipe. But to me, you know, it is the mixture of number one the cloud, public cloud stacks being able to travel anywhere in the world. So take the cloud on the road. So it's even, I would say, not even just scale, I think of, that's almost like a mount of compute power. Which could happen inside multiple hyperscale data centers. I'm also thinking about scale in terms of the horizontal. >> Bringing that model anywhere. >> Take me out to the edge. >> Wherever your data lives. >> Take me to a Carnival cruise ship, you know, take me to, you know, an apple-powered autonomous car, or take me to a hospital or a retail store. So the public cloud stacks where all the innovation is basically happening in the industry. Jail-breaking that out so it can come, you know it's through Amazon, AWS Outpost, or Ajerstack, or Google Anthos, this movement of the cloud guys, to say we'll take public cloud innovation wherever you need it. That to me is a big part of the cocktail because that's you know, basically the public clouds have been the epicenter of most tech innovation the last three or four years, so, that's very important. I think, you know just quickly, the other piece of the puzzle is the revolution that's happening in the modularity of apps. So the micro services revolution. So, the building of new apps and the refactoring of old apps using containers, using servos technologies, you know, API lifecycle management technologies, and of course, agile development methods. Kind of getting to this kind of iterative sped up deployment model, where people might've deployed new code four times a year, they're now deploying it four times a minute. >> Yeah right. >> So to me that's- and kind of aligned with that is what I was mentioning before, that if you can apply that, kind of, rapid scale, massive volume innovation model and bring others into the party, so now you're part of a cloud-connected community of innovators. And again, that could be around a Github, or could be around a Google or Amazon, or it could be around, you know, Walmart. In a retail world. Or an Amazon in retail. Or it could be around a Proctor & Gamble, or around a Disney, digital entertainment, you know, where they're creating ecosystems of innovators, and so to me, bringing people, you know, so it's not just these technologies that enable rapid, high-volume modular innovation, but it's saying okay now plugging lots of people's brains together is just going to, I think that, here's the- >> And all the data that throws off obviously. >> Throws a ton of data, but, to me the number we use it kind of is the punchline for, well where does multiplied innovation lead? A distributed cloud, this revolution in distributing modular massive scale development, that we think the next five years, we'll see as many new apps developed and deploye6d as we saw developed and deployed in the last forty years. So five years, the next five years, versus the last forty years, and so to me that's, that is the revolution. Because, you know, when that happens that means we're going to start seeing that long tail of used cases that people could never get to, you know, all the highly verticalized used cases are going to be filled, you know we're going to finally a lot of white space has been white for decades, is going to start getting a lot of cool colors and a lot of solutions delivered to them. >> Let's talk about some of the macro stuff, I don't know the exact numbers, but it's probably three trillion, maybe it's four trillion now, big market. You talked today about the market's going two x GDP. >> Yeah. >> For the tech market, that is. Why is it that the tech market is able to grow at a rate faster than GDP? And is there a relationship between GDP and tech growth? >> Yeah, well, I think, we are still, while, you know, we've been in tech, talk about those apps developed the last forty years, we've both been there, so- >> And that includes the iPhone apps, too, so that's actually a pretty impressive number when you think about the last ten years being included in that number. >> Absolutely, but if you think about it, we are still kind of teenagers when you think about that Andreson idea of software eating the world. You know, we're just kind of on the early appetizer, you know, the sorbet is coming to clear our palates before we go to the next course. But we're not even close to the main course. And so I think when you look at the kind of, the percentage of companies and industry process that is digital, that has been highly digitized. We're still early days, so to me, I think that's why. That the kind of the steady state of how much of an industry is kind of process and data flow is based on software. I'll just make up a number, you know, we may be a third of the way to whatever the steady state is. We've got two-thirds of the way to go. So to me, that supports growth of IT investment rising at double the rate of overall. Because it's sucking in and absorbing and transforming big pieces of the existing economy, >> So given the size of the market, given that all companies are tech companies. What are your thoughts on the narrative right now? You're hearing a lot of pressure from, you know, public policy to break up big tech. And we saw, you know you and I were there when Microsoft, and I would argue, they were, you know, breaking the law. Okay, the Department of Justice did the right thing, and they put handcuffs on them. >> Yeah. >> But they never really, you know, went after the whole breakup scenario, and you hear a lot of that, a lot of the vitriol. Do you think that makes sense? To break up big tech and what would the result be? >> You don't think I'm going to step on those land mines, do you? >> Okay well I've got an opinion. >> Alright I'll give you mine then. Alright, since- >> I mean, I'll lay it out there, I just think if you break up big tech the little techs are going to get bigger. It's going to be like AT&T all over again. The other thing I would add is if you want to go after China for, you know, IP theft, okay fine, but why would you attack the AI leaders? Now, if they're breaking the law, that should not be allowed. I'm not for you know, monopolistic, you know, illegal behavior. What are your thoughts? >> Alright, you've convinced me to answer this question. >> We're having a conversation- >> Nothing like a little competitive juice going. You're totally wrong. >> Lay it out for me. >> No, I think, but this has been a recurring pattern, as you were saying, it even goes back further to you know, AT&T and people wanting to connect other people to the chiraphone, and it goes IBM mainframes, opening up to peripherals. Right, it goes back to it. Exactly. It goes back to the wheel. But it's yeah, to me it's a valid question to ask. And I think, you know, part of the story I was telling, that multiplied innovation story, and Bill Joy, Joy's Law is really about platform. Right? And so when you get aggregated portfolio of technical capabilities that allow innovation to happen. Right, so the great thing is, you know, you typically see concentration, consolidation around those platforms. But of course they give life to a lot of competition and growth on top of them. So that to me is the, that's the conundrum, because if you attack the platform, you may send us back into this kind of disaggregated, less creative- so that's the art, is to take the scalpel and figure out well, where are the appropriate boundaries for, you know, putting those walls, where if you're in this part of the industry, you can't be in this. So, to me I think one, at least reasonable way to think about it is, so for example, if you are a major cloud platform player, right, you're providing all of the AI services, the cloud services, the compute services, the block-chain services, that a lot of the sass world is using. That, somebody could argue, well, if you get too strong in the sass world, you then could be in a position to give yourself favorable position from the platform. Because everyone in the sass world is depending on the platform. So somebody might say you can't be in. You know, if you're in the sass position you'll have to separate that from the platform business. But I think to me, so that's a logical way to do it, but I think you also have to ask, well, are people actually abusing? Right, so I- >> I think it's a really good question. >> I don't think it's fair to just say well, theoretically it could be abused. If the abuse is not happening, I don't think you, it's appropriate to prophylactically, it's like go after a crime before it's committed. So I think, the other thing that is happening is, often these monopolies or power positions have been about economic power, pricing power, I think there's another dynamic happening because consumer date, people's data, the Facebook phenomenon, the Twitter and the rest, there's a lot of stuff that's not necessarily about pricing, but that's about kind of social norms and privacy that I think are at work and that we haven't really seen as big a factor, I mean obviously we've had privacy regulation is Europe with GDPR and the rest, obviously in check, but part of that's because of the social platforms, so that's another vector that is coming in. >> Well, you would like to see the government actually say okay, this is the framework, or this is what we think the law should be. I mean, part of it is okay, Facebook they have incentive to appropriate our data and they get, okay, and maybe they're not taking enough responsibility for. But I to date have not seen the evidence as we did with, you know, Microsoft wiping out, you know, Lotus, and Novel, and Word Perfect through bundling and what it did to Netscape with bundling the browser and the price practices that- I don't see that, today, maybe I'm just missing it, but- >> Yeah I think that's going to be all around, you know, online advertising, and all that, to me that's kind of the market- >> Yeah, so Google, some of the Google stuff, that's probably legit, and that's fine, they should stop that. >> But to me the bigger issue is more around privacy.6 You know, it's a social norm, it's societal, it's not an economic factor I think around Facebook and the social platforms, and I think, I don't know what the right answer is, but I think certainly government it's legitimate for those questions to be asked. >> Well maybe GDPR becomes that framework, so, they're trying to give us the hook but, I'm having too much fun. So we're going to- I don't know how closely you follow Facebook, I mean they're obviously big tech, so Facebook has this whole crypto-play, seems like they're using it for driving an ecosystem and making money. As opposed to dealing with the privacy issue. I'd like to see more on the latter than the former, perhaps, but, any thoughts on Facebook and what's going on there with their crypto-play? >> Yeah I don't study them all that much so, I am fascinated when Mark Zuckerberg was saying well now our key business now is about privacy, which I find interesting. It doesn't feel that way necessarily, as a consumer and an observer, but- >> Well you're on Facebook, I'm on Facebook, >> Yeah yeah. >> Okay so how about big IPOs, we're in the tenth year now of this huge, you know, tail-wind for tech. Obviously you have guys like Uber, Lyft going IPO,6 losing tons of money. Stocks actually haven't done that well which is kind of interesting. You saw Zoom, you know, go public, doing very well. Slack is about to go public. So there's really a rush to IPO. Your thoughts on that? Is this sustainable? Or are we kind of coming to the end here? >> Yeah so, I think in part, you know, predicting the stock market waves is a very tough thing to do, but I think one kind of secular trend is going to be relevant for these tech IPOs is what I was mentioning earlier, is that we've now had a ten, twelve year run of basically startups coming in and reinventing industries while the incumbents in the industries are basically sitting on their hands, or sleeping. So to me the next ten years, those startups are going to, not that, I mean we've seen that large companies waking up doesn't necessarily always lead to success but it feels to me like it's going to be a more competitive environment for all those startups Because the incumbents, not all of them, and maybe not even most of them, but some decent portion of them are going to wind up becoming digital giants in their own industry. So to me I think that's a different world the next ten years than the last ten. I do think one important thing, and I think around acquisitions MNA, and we saw it just the last few weeks with Google Looker and we saw Tab Low with Salesforce, is if that, the mega-cloud world of Microsoft, Ajer, and Amazon, Google. That world is clearly consolidating. There's room for three or four global players and that game is almost over. But there's another power position on top of that, which is around where did all the app, business app guys, all the suite guys, SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, Adobe, Microsoft, you name it. Where did they go? And so we see, we think- >> Service Now, now kind of getting big. >> Absolutely, so we're entering a intensive period, and I think again, the Tab Low and Looker is just an example where those companies are all stepping on the gas to become better platforms. So apps as platforms, or app portfolio as platforms, so, much more of a data play, analytics play, buying other pieces of the app portfolio, that they may not have. And basically scaling up to become the business process platforms and ecosystems there. So I think we are just at the beginning of that, so look for a lot of sass companies. >> And I wonder if Amazon could become a platform for developers to actually disrupt those traditional sass guys. It's not obvious to me how those guys get disrupted, and I'm thinking, everybody says oh is Amazon going to get into the app space? Maybe some day if they happen to do a cam expans6ion, But it seems to me that they become a platform fo6r new apps you know, your apps explosion.6 At the edge, obviously, you know, local. >> Well there's no question. I think those appcentric apps is what I'd call that competition up there and versus kind of a mega cloud. There's no question the mega cloud guys. They've already started launching like call center, contact center software, they're creeping up into that world of business apps so I don't think they're going to stop and so I think that that is a reasonable place to look is will they just start trying to create and effect suites and platforms around sass of their own. >> Startups, ecosystems like you were saying. Alright, I got to give you some rapid fire questions here, so, when do you think, or do you think, no, I'm going to say when you think, that owning and driving your own car will become the exception, rather than the norm? Buy into the autonomous vehicles hype? Or- >> I think, to me, that's a ten-year type of horizon. >> Okay, ten plus, alright. When will machines be able to make better diagnosis than than doctors? >> Well, you could argue that in some fields we're almost there, or we're there. So it's all about the scope of issue, right? So if it's reading a radiology, you know, film or image, to look for something right there, we're almost there. But for complex cancers or whatever that's going to take- >> One more dot connecting question. >> Yeah yeah. >> So do you think large retail stores will essentially disappear? >> Oh boy that's a- they certainly won't disappear, but I think they can so witness Apple and Amazon even trying to come in, so it feels that the mix is certainly shifting, right? So it feels to me that the model of retail presence, I think that will still be important. Touch, feel, look, socialize. But it feels like the days of, you know, ten thousand or five thousand store chains, it feels like that's declining in a big way. >> How about big banks? You think they'll lose control of the payment systems? >> I think they're already starting to, yeah, so, I would say that is, and they're trying to get in to compete, so I think that is on its way, no question. I think that horse is out of the barn. >> So cloud, AI, new apps, new innovation cocktails, software eating the world, everybody is a tech company. Frank Gens, great to have you. >> Dave, always great to see you. >> Alright, keep it right there buddy. You're watching The Cube, from Actifio: Data Driven nineteen. We'll be right back right after this short break. (bouncy electronic music)

Published Date : Jun 18 2019

SUMMARY :

Brought to you by Actifio. We're here at the Intercontinental Hotel at many years, of course, you know, You know you gave your version of the wave slides. an ecosystem, think of GitHub, you know, I mean, you know, Bennyhoff says that, you know, that you quantify is just it's every company now. digital or cloud services so, you know, we watched the you know, the mainframe wave get crushed we've talked about AI, what's that, you know, sandwich, you know, it is the mixture of number one the cocktail because that's you know, and so to me, bringing people, you know, are going to be filled, you know we're going to I don't know the exact numbers, but it's probably Why is it that the tech market is able to grow And that includes the iPhone apps, too, And so I think when you look at the and I would argue, they were, you know, breaking the law. But they never really, you know, Alright I'll give you mine then. the little techs are going to get bigger. Nothing like a little competitive juice going. so that's the art, is to take the scalpel I don't think it's fair to just say well, as we did with, you know, Microsoft wiping out, you know, Yeah, so Google, some of the Google stuff, and the social platforms, and I think, I don't know I don't know how closely you follow Facebook, I am fascinated when Mark Zuckerberg was saying of this huge, you know, tail-wind for tech. Yeah so, I think in part, you know, predicting the buying other pieces of the app portfolio, At the edge, obviously, you know, local. and so I think that that is a reasonable place to look Alright, I got to give you some rapid fire questions here, diagnosis than than doctors? So if it's reading a radiology, you know, film or image, But it feels like the days of, you know, I think that horse is out of the barn. software eating the world, everybody is a tech company. We'll be right back right after this short break.

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Sébastien Morissette, Intact Financial Group | Cisco Live US 2019


 

>> Narrator: Live from San Diego California it's theCUBE covering Cisco Live, US, 2019 brought to you by Cisco and its ecosystem partners. >> Welcome back we're here at the San Diego convention center for Cisco Live 2019 and you're watching theCUBE the worldwide leader in enterprise tech coverage helping extract the signal from the noise. I'm Stu Miniman we've had three days wall to wall coverage my co-host Dave Vellante and Lisa Martin are all in the house and I'm really excited to actually sit down one on one with one of the users at this user conference the 30th anniversary conference actually for Cisco with their users and partners over 28,000 so speaking for all of them right? We have Sebastien Morissette who's an IT architect specialist at Intact Financial Corporation come to us from beautiful Montreal Canada. >> Exactly. >> All right thank you so much for joining us so Sebastien first of all how many Cisco Lives have you been too? >> Honestly this is my first. >> Oh absolutely exciting for that, my first one I came too was actually 10 years ago I joked at the 20th anniversary they went back 20 years to have some 80's bands they had The Bangles and Devo on and now on the 30 year they moved 10 years forwards they have two great bands from the 90's Wheezer and Foo Fighters so your first time at Cisco Live give us your general impressions of the show. >> Well actually it's been very great I've had a lot of appearances I had to do as well so I got some sessions in I did some work as well so it's amazing to see how these events unfold right? Like the sheer size of this thing and how many people are involved, how many booths how many technical sessions you can have so, I was very pleased I'm here with a lot of people from my team as well from Intact so you know we get the chance to do stuff outside of the work area as well so it's interesting right? It's giving us this opportunity to really deep dive into what we love which is technology but at the same time spend some time together outside of work. >> That's awesome, we've had gorgeous weather here in San Diego hope you definitely get to see the sights before we geek out on some of the technology just give our audience a little bit about Intact and the insurance business but give us a little bit about the history of the company and core focus. >> Okay well Intact is a company that was, they grew as acquisitions with acquisitions we've typically, we were ING Canada back in, before 2010 and afterwards we were publicly traded now so we're Intact Financial Corp. Typically we're the number one PNC insurer in Canada and we've been working with different partners to build our data center 2.0 initiative which is kind of a new offering of you know modern IT services within Intact. >> Okay great and just to, your purview in the company and just the comment about the company is you know when you talk about those transformations you know MNA is something we see a lot in your industry and put some extra special challenges in place when you're doing that but tell us a little bit about what's under your role and scope as to kind of locations, people however you measure you know what, boxes or ports or whatever. >> Okay well you know typically my role is lead architect within the infrastructure and security group for North America Intact through acquisition we actually bought OneBeacon Insurance last year, so typically we now have a US presence as well in specialty insurance, specialty lines so typically whenever we're looking at different technologies we look at the skills sets that we have, we look to see what can be the better half for us to you know accelerate and be more agile in how we actually consume technology so in some cases whatever we're looking at building up these new features like I was talking for data center 2.0 it happens that some of the technologies and the skill sets we have were with Cisco which is why we are here today with the team. >> All right so Sebastien you talk about data center 2.0 and transformation there at the organizational level is it branded data center transformation does the word digital transformation come up in your discussions? >> Yeah data center 2.0 is actually kind of the project name that we've been giving this initiative for the past two years but it really is at the essence a digital transformation, what we're doing is we're typically taking training wheels to the Cloud so we're building an on-prem private Cloud offering with multi-sites so we have three sites in the scope right now and the goal is really to actually allow our business to expand into the Cloud while being in a secure on-prem environment when we get to that maturity level where we feel we're ready to actually really go into public Cloud our software engineering teams our development teams will have experienced it on-prem safely and will have a confidence level to bringing them there so it has been transformational also because we decided to push DevOps culture as far as we can from an infrastructure team so we were trying to get all the adoption from our software engineering folks to actually structure themselves, bring on DevOps team and that we can share with them so they can actually be more agile and get a lot more done without having to depend on us and spend a lot of time waiting for VM's or stuff so trying to accelerate that. >> Awesome I love that 'cause sometimes you hear okay we're going to 2.0 it's basically a fancy refresh but we're going to keep things mostly the same when I hear DevOps I know that culture and organization is something that is a key piece of that, I have to ask you without getting down into the pedantics of this, when you say a private Cloud that's in your data center we understand some of the covenants and reasons what you have but how do you determine whether, what was your guiding line as to how is this a Cloud versus just some new virtualized environment? >> I've had the chance to have great executive sponsorship from my senior vice president typically we were looking at how can we access the Cloud? The way I approached it was overhauling what we do was not the route to go what I asked him to do is say you know trust me I'll start with a clean slate and we will build a brand new landing area for Cloud native applications and new methodologies for modern IT services so typically in the end we didn't overhaul anything that we had we built a brand new sandbox for Intact to be able to work with so we went from disaster recovery to business continuity in that move we've built a three site approach because when I was looking at kind of my capex expenditure if I was building two sites to be fully resilient and be business continuity I would be spending 200% of my capital to actually build up that capacity when you go to three sites it seems awkward but you just need 50% on each site of your capacity to ensure 100% of coverage of your requirements, so in the end you're actually spending 150% of your capacity, or your capex to buy the compute, so there's an incentive there as well. So to answer your question more precisely it's very easy for us to see how it's a Cloud because we're not operating it the same way we're operating our other environment and since we started from scratch every process has been revised we haven't kept everything we had before so we had the chance to build something brand new for that specific offering that our software engineering groups were asking us to do. >> All right that's exciting stuff there when you look at these multi-site deployments I think back in my career and I worked on some of these environments, management, security and networking are absolutely critical, I hear oh okay I've got 50% in each oh my God what if a site gets isolated and I can't talk to those other two so luckily I'm guessing Cisco has something to do with your rollout, we're obviously here at Cisco Live so give us a little bit inside the architecture and especially you know what kind of Cisco pieces are you using? >> All right well you know typically the way that our story started was kind of weird the first thing we've done is we've actually went to Cisco to redesign a DMZ and we got out from Cisco Montreal team with an idea to not just change and buy ACI switches for the DMZ but actually rebuild our whole design to you know integrate ACI into the fabric and then when you start talking about firewalls or switches they tell you well with ACI you have contracts so it really started that way so we built an ACI fabric with the Cisco HyperFlex hyper-converged infrastructure as our compute layer so typically think of it as Intact is building our new version of a software defined data center. So with building that we have all the components so we have the virtualization like you spoke of earlier which is running like you know VMware on site, on top of the HyperFlex and then we have the ACI since we had three sites we topped it off with the multi-site orchestrator to be able to manage consistent policies around all of our three sites and in the end we needed to have an orchestrator to be able to deploy the content onto that and when we were looking at it early on it was Clicker when Cisco purchased Clicker we were looking at finding a Cloud management platform, so we ended up using CloudCenter which is now CloudCenter Suite and in the way we were using it, which was a little atypical from the typical way clients are using CloudCenter today we're taking it into the data center and out to the Cloud whereas when I was talking with Kip Compton earlier this week he was saying you know what sometimes our clients buy it more for the Cloud first and I was like well we have like the inverse story of exactly how we did the opposite but it works as well, so typically where we stand today I have the three sites we're able to deploy with CloudCenter we've got multi-site on top of that and the idea it really is that, I spoke about training wheels earlier well we're taking them off right? In the next couple of weeks we're starting to look into negotiations with public Cloud providers trying to move towards the public Cloud and you know there's exciting news that came out from Cisco this week while I was here about the fact that now you know they're forecasting a lot more collaboration with Microsoft and AWS and now they have all the three major Cloud providers covered with ACI Anywhere so that means all of our security that you were talking about earlier will now have a consistent policy model applied all, everywhere so to be honest I'm not too concerned about if we did a good choice a couple of years back I think we're in our sweet spot right now. >> Yeah and you're right it's a different story than we've generally heard from Cisco and some customers which is I have all of these public Cloud's and I have my data center and I'm looking for some piece to help tie it together and that the CloudCenter Suite is there so you feel you're confident with the platform that you chose and that's going to give you the flexibility as to whichever public Cloud or public Cloud you choose are you at the point there that do you know which public Cloud you're going to be on or maybe it's a little too early? >> Well to be honest you know we're keeping our options open you know we have different providers that are offered, you know the major public one there's Amazon there's Google Cloud we're not closing any options it's really a question of us to do the same secure approach that we've done right now with this offering to really go one at a time make sure that we're able to nail it down, make it secure that we get all the information back so I'm not at a possibility right now to disclose which ones we're dealing with because we're still negotiating but in the end we're not limiting ourselves we just want to be able to scale. >> Right you're confident that the Cisco solution that you choose will give you the flexibility no matter which one you use or if you use multiples or need to make switches along the way? >> Yeah. >> Question I have for you on that is when you look at multi-Cloud one of the things that are challenging for companies is how do I make sure I've got the skillsets because workloads might be portable, networks might be connected but understanding how I manage each of those environments so do you feel CloudCenter Suite's going to help you through that? You know what do you see as you look out over your roadmap as to what that's going to mean for you know your DevOps team and the people managing this environment as it spreads out to the public Cloud? >> Actually I'm feeling really confident because you know especially after seeing a couple of sessions of what Roland Acra and Kip have announced for the data center and for the Cloud piece we're seeing more and more normalization being done by Cisco to actually allow us to be confident in the fact that on prem we're doing ACI and that our policies are going to be mapped to the constructs of the different Cloud providers. So for me what it means is I don't necessarily need to become specialized in how we're going to be operating inside of a Cloud we need to make sure that we get the proper policies built into the different products you know Cisco's branding it the Anywhere right? They have the HX Anywhere the ACI Anywhere and typically that's what we like about it is I can have one consistent set of skillsets and allow the people to use it one thing I found interesting about this week and it's not necessarily to do like more promotion for Cisco is like the Cloud First ACI right? So being able to be starting with ACI in the Cloud I found that was kind of interesting because when you know how the multi-site orchestrator works means apps you build out in the Cloud you're going to be able to to pull back in through the MSO and push it back on prem or anywhere in other Clouds afterwards so I found that was very intuitive of them to go to that route of allowing us to you know transparently migrate apps between sites. >> All right so Sebastien you're using a lot of the latest and greatest from Cisco you talk about the HX the ACI the CloudCenter Suite what advice do you give to your peers out there and they say you know I've used Cisco products for a long time Cisco makes great products but you know simplicity and management across the product lines was something that you know needed some work what does the Cisco of today look like you know what's working well? What still would you like to see them progress on? >> Well you know for us one of the things that was nice like I mentioned earlier is we're typically going greenfield so I didn't have a lot of the issues that other companies might be facing if they're trying to take their brownfield and actually make it into what we've built so my first advice would be if you're able to get the executive sponsorship to build a greenfield environment there's nothing in Cloud native applications that is you know symmetric with the traditional environment of a data center, it's completely different ways of working we have one week sprints we patch everything as it comes out if an application goes into the environment it needs to be functional with that patching cycle of almost every time we're at n or n-1 so, my thing is think about applications as being the center of what you actually need and not the infrastructure, let the infrastructure be what it is because you're going to be anywhere right? So that's one of the things I would say, from what you said about Cisco and the integration you were right, we have lived a couple of items like that in the last two years and a half, however I've noticed that these new software components like CloudShare and everything not necessarily the hardware part Cisco nails hardware like it works they've been doing it for years the thing is with these software teams they're very customer driven we have access to the engineers now I mean we've had meetings with the Canadian execs Roland Acra's team we were able to get access to the developers and the teams here in the US so, every company has challenges I would be lying if I told you that even at Intact we don't have silos and we don't have issues sometimes with different teams managing together but I feel as if at least for the technologies that we're using they've done good work for us to actually help us get through that. >> Well it's interesting Sebastian you bring that up because I look at you say okay, you've got a greenfield environment awesome, we can go do some new tech, well let's throw in there the DevOps and let's change all the other pieces you're like completely overhauling your environment how much of that were there some new team members that came in as part of that or you know I look people, process and technology sounded like you were taking it all on at once, did that work well? Would you have if you looked back would you have changed some of the ordering and maybe you know gotten one piece before the other or did it help to kind of you know start brand new start fresh and get everything going? >> Well I wouldn't redo the part of starting fresh however, it helped us get really good pace and work you know it's our first agile project as an infrastructure group so all of that was great learning experience the only thing I would say is you need to make sure your organization is ready for that level of change because it's one thing to have one VP sponsorship to actually build out this type of approach but where we struggled a little bit was afterwards getting the rest of our IT organization to kind of want to get onboard. because we are building something new, the traditional environment is not disappearing and we're telling our software engineering groups here's a new area where you can play in but you know typically I'd say that it's been well received we have not had the need to build new skillsets because we're doing infrastructure as code so typically a lot of the stuff we're building we're making sure it's automated so that way it's very nice and lean and when we build a new site we have a lot of automation already built in so we can properly just deploy so lessons learned like you've asked me I'd say that typically I'd probably do much of what I did the same way, but I would work a little bit more on the people area just to make sure that the message is clearly understood that what we're building is for the future of Intact and make sure that we spend a little bit more time managing that aspect because for the technology it's fine for the time it took and everything it's fine, it's really people the change is significant to most of them and when you've been doing something for a long time and someone comes up and disrupts it's like if we were disrupting our own company right? So typically I'd say, that would be something that I would say to people manage that properly or you will have a lot more work to do inside of that initiative to actually gain everybody's momentum and get them to be behind you. >> Well Sebastien I really appreciate you walking us through all of your transformation I want to just give you the final word sounds like you've got great access to Cisco really hope you're happy with what you've done final word is to you know your expectations coming into a show like this and you know what your take aways will be from Cisco Live 2019 in San Diego? >> Well outside from the amazing weather you mean or yeah? so you know typically I like the event I've been to other events before, like I said this is my first time at Cisco but what I've seen is that Cisco's really into getting their customers to understand their technology so they're really present so I really liked how you know we were given the opportunity to do hands on labs and actually learn new technologies so typically great experience coming here and great opportunities and thanks so much for having us. >> Well Sebastien Morissette congratulations to your team at Intact and thank you so much for sharing this story. >> Thank you so much. >> All right we've got a little bit more left here of three days wall to wall coverage Cisco Live 2019 in San Diego for Dave Vellante, Lisa Martin I'm Stu Miniman and thanks as always for watching theCUBE. (electronic jingle)

Published Date : Jun 13 2019

SUMMARY :

brought to you by Cisco and its ecosystem partners. and Lisa Martin are all in the house I joked at the 20th anniversary as well from Intact so you know we get the chance and the insurance business but give us a little bit of you know modern IT services within Intact. you know MNA is something we see a lot in your industry the better half for us to you know accelerate All right so Sebastien you talk bring on DevOps team and that we can share with them some of the covenants and reasons what you have what I asked him to do is say you know trust me about the fact that now you know they're forecasting Well to be honest you know we're keeping to go to that route of allowing us to you know and the integration you were right, and work you know it's our first agile project so I really liked how you know to your team at Intact and thank you so much Lisa Martin I'm Stu Miniman and thanks as always

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Bruce Chizen, Informatica | Informatica World 2019


 

(funky music) >> Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE, covering Informatica World 2019. Brought to you by Informatica. >> Hey, welcome back everyone, this is theCUBE's live coverage here in Las Vegas for Informatica World 2019. I'm John Furrier, your host, with Rebecca Knight who's on the floor getting some data, getting some reports. She's my co-host here this week. Next guest is Bruce Chizen, board member of Informatica, OG, original gangster of the tech scene. Been there, done that. Welcome back to theCUBE, great to see you. >> Yeah, great to see you, John. >> Big alumni. I love having you on because you're kind of, you're a historian through experience, still active in the industry, obviously, Informatica. Four years private. >> Historian, that's scary. >> You've been around the block. You've seen more waves than I have, and that's a lot. But, you know, you've done a lot of things and you've seen the waves. You've run companies, you've been on boards. You've been on Informatica board. Four years private, a lot of great things can go on. Michael Dell proved that. He took Dell Computer, which is now Dell Technologies, he took it private, and I asked him. He wanted to retool and didn't want to do the shot clock of being a public company. Filing, and sour beans and all those regulations, 'cause he knew what was coming, the wave was coming. Informatica did the same thing, so I'm expecting an IPO, or MNA big deal happening. But four years, with great product people, you're on the board. Data, our original conversation four years ago on theCUBE, hasn't changed. >> No. It's the same wave, and now everyone's jumping on the wave. >> The good thing for Informatica is, as a private company, we got to do things that we could not have done as a public company. The level of investment we made in R&D, the transition from perpetual, or on-premise, to subscription. The investment in the sales organization. Couldn't have done that as a public company 'cause the shareholders tend to be too short term focused. >> And also I will add, just to get your reaction to, is that, my observation, looking at these situations when you have smart people, the board, like yourself, and the product team. Which I've been complimentary of Informatica's, as you know. Some other critical analysis, but that's different. But, great product engineering people. When you don't have the pressure of time, you could watch things gestate and when you're early, you have an advantage. Talk about that, because that's a strategic thing, most people aren't talking about, but you an early lead on data. You've had product engineering leadership, and you had time. >> It's not as easy as you make it sound. Keep in mind, Informatica is owned by financial sponsors. Private equity. >> Yeah, there's some pressure. >> CPP. And it's up to people like myself on the board, the other independent board member, the management team, to continue to remind the investors that if we make early investments and they pay off the company will be worth more and they'll ultimately make more money and their partners will make more money. >> I made it sound like you're on the beach drinking wine. >> A great example is what Informatica did with the data catalog. That was an early investment. No one really knew whether it would pan out. Sounded good, but it required a significant investment, that came out of the pockets of our investors and we were able to convince them to do that. Another great example is CLAIRE. You know, AI is hot. Well had we not invested in CLAIRE, three, three and a half years ago, CLAIRE would not be in existence today. Couldn't have done that as a public company. >> And it gives you a little bit of a lead, again, there's just no shot clock on public. But yeah, the private executives, they're not going to let you sit around and hit the beach and clip coupons. You got to work hard. But I got to ask >> The other thing you've seen the company has gone from a great point product company, great products, to really developing a platform, and architecting a platform. Which requires a significant amount of engineering. >> I was going to ask you about that, I'm glad you jumped the gun on that. Platform is the key. Speaking of platforms, I was just at Adobe, a company you're very familiar with, they're rolling out a new platform. Platforms are now back in vogue but it's not the old way. The old way was build a platform, have a competitive advantage, lock in your nested solution in imitability. Now it's platform open, different twist. How is that different? 'Cause you've seen the platform where you got to own it, barest entry, proprietary technology, to platform that's open extensible. >> Yeah, customers have gotten smart. No customer wants to be held hostage to one individual platform. SAP being a great example. Microsoft Windows being another example. They want to make sure that if they choose one platform, they could easily migrate to another. It's one of the reasons why Informatica is in such a sweet spot, because we allow our customers to choose which Cloud infrastructure providers they want to put their workloads on. And they can use multiple Cloud infrastructure. >> I got to ask about the competition now. Not competition but co-opetition, just marketplace in general. Everybody's jumping on the same wave that you guys have been on. You go to YouTube.com/Siliconangle look up Informatica videos I've done here with the team and you four years ago. Look up some of the things we were talking about, not a lot of many people talk about data driven, hardcore analytics, next-gen. These are the kind of topics that in AI machine learning, now everyone's talking about them. What's different about Informatica as the noise level increases around some of these things? Certainly, it's pretty obvious AI is going to be hot. Multi-generational Cloud, multi-generational things can happen. Operations, AI automation. >> Yeah. >> But what's different about Informatica? What should people know about Informatica that might be unique that you can lend some insight into? >> So when I think about the competition, or the co-opetition, I put those competitors in two buckets. There's a whole slew of smaller players that have some really good point products. Fortunately for Informatica, they don't have the scale to compete. And when I say scale to compete, not just on the go to market side, but they can't afford to invest two hundred million dollars a year in research and development building a complete platform. So, even though they're kind of ankle biters and occasionally I feel like the company has to slap them around, and they're annoyances, I don't think they're a big threat. The Cloud infrastructure players, the platform guys, Google, AWS, Azure, will continue to provide data tools that are developed for their stack. They will do some things that will be good enough. The good news is Informatica does great as it relates to enterprise Cloud management. So, if an enterprise really cares about their data, and they really care about having choice in the future, and they don't want to be held hostage to any one platform, Informatica is the only game in town. >> You're one of the best at doing theCUBE. This is our tenth year, and I remember telling some NetApp people because they invested in Cloud early, too, they don't get the credit. This is another example of Informatica invested early on in Cloud. I talked to Emmett and Anil years ago, they were well down that Cloud path. So Johnny-come-lately's going to jump on the Cloud 'cause there's an advantage so props to Informatica. >> And plus it's not Cloud only. Most of the large enterprises are hybrid, they will be hybrid for many years to come. In fact, if you look at workloads today, they majority of the workloads are still on-premise. >> Scales come up a lot. You know my commentary and theCUBE, everyone who watches me knows I like to rap about I was the first to call Amazon the trillion dollar opportunity because of the scale. Scale is the new competitive advantage, I've said that. I've said open is the new lock in. Value is the new lock in is what I said. So now you've got scales. The question is how does a startup compete if scale is table stakes? Is it race for funding? Snowflakes got to three billion dollar evaluation. Are they worth three billion? We're going to analyze that in theCUBE later. But they raise almost a billion dollars in cash. Do you scale up with cash and grow? >> Great technology. It starts out with really great technology. An organization like Snowflake, great technology. Look at Databricks, great technology. So, I look at the great new startups, what makes them great is that they have an innovative technological solution that's hard to replicate. Then they get the funding, and they're able to scale. That's what it takes to be a startup. >> And that's almost the OG, original gangster, Vectra Capital model. >> That's correct. >> Agile, iterate your way to success. No craft, no scale. Just speed. Is the world going back to the old formula? >> It's going back to innovation. To technical innovation. Especially given that you have so many scale players. You can no longer just come in there as a startup. Money alone is not going to enable you to be successful. >> All right I want you to pay it forward for all the young people graduating. I just was at my daughter's Cal, Berkeley graduation yesterday. Although she wasn't in this class. Cal just graduated their inaugural first-generation class of data science. Databricks was involved in that, they donated a lot of software. They're very Cal oriented. People who graduate high school, elementary school, this is a new field. Not enough jobs. Berkeley, a leading institution, first class ever in data science. What skill gaps are out there that need to be filled that people could learn now to get ahead and get an advantage in the workforce? >> My view, John, it starts in middle school with math. If we could help our kids who are in middle school to get through algebra, studies have shown they will move on to undergrad and then many of them will move to graduate work. We've got to start early. Yeah, there's some simple fixes. Help people become coders, help people do other things. But the reality is >> If you can't get the algebra done you're not going to code. >> We have to solve the longer term problems. So when I think about jobs of the future, we've got to create people who are creative, but at the same time understand the basics. >> Math, stats, great stuff. Final question. Are you going to run a company again soon? >> So I get that question quite often. First of all, I love doing what I do today, which is kind of a lot of little stuff. I do miss running a company. But, as I've told a whole bunch of people, I have no desire to ever report to a board again. So unless I own 51% of that company, I will not be running a company. >> Well now you know the deal terms, anyone who's watching for an investment from Bruce partnering with them. Great stuff. What's missing? What's around the corner? What are people missing in the news these days in the trends? What's coming that's exciting that nobody's talking about? >> I think what's happening, and this happens each wave, there's been so much excitement about the movement from On-Premises to Cloud, about AI and machine learning, I don't think people really appreciate how early it is. That we're this much in to it and we've got a long ways to go. And the old workflows that are on-premise, the amount of advancement in artificial intelligence and machine learning has so far to go, that people need to be patient and continue to invest aggressively in what's going to transpire ten years from now, not six months from now. And then you add things like 5G, faster speed WiFi, that also is going to have this huge impact. >> Great insight, Bruce. Thanks for sharing that insight. Get the kids learning math in middle school, gateway to coding, gateway to graduate work. Next ten waves, lot of waves coming. Bruce, thanks for sharing the insight. Good to see you again. >> Thanks, John. It's a pleasure. >> CUBE coverage here in Informatica World 2019. I'm John Furrier with theCUBE. Thanks for watching. We'll be back with more after this short break. (funky music)

Published Date : May 21 2019

SUMMARY :

Brought to you by Informatica. Welcome back to theCUBE, great to see you. I love having you on because you're kind of, You've been around the block. 'cause the shareholders tend to be too short term focused. and the product team. It's not as easy as you make it sound. the company will be worth more that came out of the pockets of our investors they're not going to let you sit around to really developing a platform, but it's not the old way. they could easily migrate to another. I got to ask about the competition now. not just on the go to market side, I talked to Emmett and Anil years ago, Most of the large enterprises are hybrid, Value is the new lock in is what I said. Then they get the funding, and they're able to scale. And that's almost the OG, original gangster, Is the world going back to the old formula? Money alone is not going to enable you to be successful. and get an advantage in the workforce? We've got to start early. If you can't get the algebra done We have to solve the longer term problems. Are you going to run a company again soon? I have no desire to ever report to a board again. What are people missing in the news these days and machine learning has so far to go, Good to see you again. It's a pleasure. I'm John Furrier with theCUBE.

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Joe Baguley, VMware | WMware Radio 2019


 

>> Announcer: From San Francisco, it's theCUBE. Covering VMware Radio 2019. Brought to you by VMware. >> Hi, welcome to theCUBE's exclusive coverage of VMware Radio 2019. Lisa Martin with John Furrier, in San Francisco. This is an internal R&D innovation off site that VMware does, lots of innovation going on here from engineers from all over the globe. We're pleased to welcome Joe Baguley, the CTO from EMEA, from VMware. Joe, welcome to theCUBE. >> Hi. >> So we've been having some great conversations this morning about this tremendous amount of innovation, I mean the potential is massive. Not just from Radio, but from all the other innovation programs that VMware has, really speaks very strongly to the culture of innovation that VMware has had. But of course all this innovation has to be able to be harnessed to deliver what customers need. Talk to us about that, you're in the field, field CTO. What is that connection with the innovation that happens within VMware? How do customers help influence that and vice versa? >> Yeah, I think we're very unique in the structure that we've put around that to drive that innovation over the years. So my job as field CTO is, I call it sort of 50, 50. So 50% is Chief Technology Officer, which is this kind of stuff for Radio and 50% is Chief Talking Officer, which is out with our customers and presenting at conferences, et cetera. But the general remit is connecting R&D in the field. And so for eight years now I've been connecting R&D in the field at VMware, I actually did at my previous company as well. And what we've done is, we've built a series of programs over the years to do that, and one of the biggest ones is the CTO Ambassadors. And so that was, you know, you get to a point, you get to a growth size, I've been here eight years, and suddenly you need someone else to help you because I can't be everywhere. And the original role was, back in the day I was hired to scale Steve Herrod, because Steve Herrod couldn't be in Europe all the time, I was like mini Steve Herrod that could be there when needed. But then eventually I can't be in every European country and our major regions as we get bigger and bigger, and we've grown dramatically. So the CTO Ambassadors is to support that. And that's really, we've got 140 of our top customer facing techies from around the globe in this program called the Ambassadors. And they have to be customer facing, and they have to be individual contributors, so like a pre-sales manager or something doesn't count. They're a massively active community, there's a whole bunch of them here at Radio as well. And their job is really that conduit, that source of information, and also a sounding board, a much shorter range sounding board for R&D. So if R&D want to get a feel of what's going on, they don't have to ask everyone they can bounce off the Ambassadors, which is part of what we do, and that makes it easier. >> So like a filter too, they're also also filtering input from the field, packaging it up for R&D. >> Totally. Yeah, and when you're at an organization of our scale, filtering is really important. Because obviously, you can't have every customer directly talking to every engineer, it's never going to work. (laughs) >> I mean another radio project stay right there, a machine learning based champion CTO to go through all the feedback. >> Yeah, so I started my career, with my previous company doing that, I was the filter. So I'd get a hundred questions a day from various people in the field, and 99 of those I'd bounce right back because I knew the answer. But there was the one that I was like, uh. Then I'd turn around to R&D and ask them. But the great thing was that R&D knew that if I was asking then it was a real question, it wasn't the 99. So the CTO Ambassadors, and what we do in Octo Global field is really a method of scaling that. >> I want to ask you about that because that's a great example of here reputation comes in. Because your reputation is on the line if you go back and pull the fire alarm, if you will, send too many lame requests back, you're going to be lame. So you've got to kind of check, balance there. So that begs the question, how do you do the filtering for the champions that work for you? Is there a high bar? Is there a certain line? Like being a kid, you've got to be this tall to ride the roller coaster. Is there criteria? Is there certification? Take us through the filtering there. >> The Ambassador program is a rotating nomination system. So essentially there's a two year tenure. So what happens is, if you're in the field and you want to be an ambassador, which is a really prestigious thing, then you nominate yourself or get nominated and then people vote on you and you put forward your case, et cetera. Essentially it's a democratic process based on your peers and other people in the company. And then after you're allowed a maximum of two years. Sorry, two tenures so you get four years, if that makes sense, I'm not confusing you. >> John: So term limits? >> Yeah there's term limits, right, we have term limits. And after two terms you have to go out for a year to give someone else a chance because otherwise it will just glub- >> It'll turn into the US government. (laughs) >> But no, it's important to maintain freshness, maintain diversity and all those kind of things. And so it comes back to that filter piece we were talking about before. The reputation is massive, of the CTO Ambassadors. I mean when we started this six years ago as a program, most of R&D were like, who are these Ambassador guys? What value are they going to add? Now, if you're in R&D, one of the best things you can say, if you want to get something done, is what the CTO Ambassador said. I mean, literally it is, you can go and we have- >> John: The routine approach to that. Talk about how you guys add in a new category. So, for instance kubernetes, we saw this years ago when KubeCon was started, theCUBE was there present at the creation of that trend we kind of got it right away. Now Gelsinger and the team sees this as a massive traction layer. So that would be an example, where we need an Ambassador. So do you like just create one or how does that work? >> They create themselves, that's the best thing. So we have an annual conference which is in February, held in Paolo Alto where we all get together along with all the chief technologists, which is the level below me. And the principles, which the most senior field people. So literally the best of the best get together. It's about 200 plus get together for a week. And we are an hour and a half on on one with Pat for example, so Pat's there with all of us in a room. But one of the sessions we do is the shark tank, and there's two of them. One of them is, come up with your really cool, crazy, wacky ideas, and the other one is the acquisition shark tank. So there we get the MNA team, include our E-staff sit in, and the Ambassadors, as teams, will come in and present. We think we should acquire, uh because that's making a big difference. The great thing is, not nine times out of 10 but probably seven times out of 10, the E-staff are going, yeah we know about that, when actually we can't really tell you what's going on but yeah we know about them. But there's the two or three times out of 10 that people are like, oh yeah, so tell me more about them. And it might be a company that's just coming up, it might be 2013 and there's this company called Docker that no one's heard of, but the Ambassadors are shouting about Docker, and saying it's a big, you know. So there's that- >> So white space is too emerging you can see it's a telemetry, literally feedback from the field to direct management on business strategy. >> And our customers are pushing our field in directions faster than maybe R&D get pushed if you know what I mean. >> You guys deserve a lot of credit because Pat Gelsinger was just on this morning with Lisa and me, and we were talking about that. He just came back from the Sales President's club cruise, and one of the comments he said was the sales executive said, hey, who does strategy? Because everything's fitting together beautifully. Which kind of highlights how radiance this all progresses, not like magic, there's a process here, and this kind of points to your job is to fit that pieces in, is that correct? >> Yeah. People always say, as a CTO do you all sit down once a week and talk about strategy? And that's not what you do. There's a hive mind, there's a continual interaction, there's conference calls, there's phone calls, there's meetings, there's get togethers of various different types, groups, and levels. And what happens is there's themes that emerge over that. And so my role specifically, as the EMEA CTO is to represent Europe, Middle East, and Africa's voice in those conversations. And maybe the nuances that we might have around particular product requirements or whatever, to remind people that maybe sit in a bubble in Silicon Valley. >> John: I'm sure you raised your hand on privacy and GDPR? (laughs) >> Just a couple of times, yeah. Yeah, now and again. >> The canary in the coal mine is a really big point that helps companies, if they're not listening to the signals coming in. >> Well you do, and you see a lot. There's a lot of the tech companies that I see, it's often defined as the three bubbles, or your Massimo Re Ferrè, who's now at Amazon. When he was here, did this fantastic blog post talking about the first bubble is Silicon Valley, and the second bubble is North America, and the third bubble is everywhere else. And so you kind of watch these things emerge. And my job is to jump over that pop into the Silicon Valley bubble before something happens and say, no you should be thinking about X, you should think about Y. At an event like Radio I've got a force multiplier because I've got 40 plus Ambassadors with me all popping up at all these little booths you see behind you, and the shows, and the talks. >> And the goal here is not to be a bubble, but to be completely one hive mind. >> And the diversity at VMware just blows my mind, it really does. I think a lot of people comment on it quite often, and in fact I've been asked to be a non-exec director of other companies, to help them advise on their culture. Which is not in tech, in culture, which is quite interesting. And so the diversity that we have here is really infusing people to innovate in a way that they've not done before. It's that diverse set of opinions really helps. >> Well it does. And this, from what we've heard, Radio is a very, there's a lot of internal competition, it's like a badge of honor to be able to respond to the call for papers, let alone get selected. Touch on the synergies, the symbiosis that I feel like I'm hearing between the things that are presented here, the CTO Ambassadors and the customers. Like maybe a favorite example of a product or service that came from, maybe a CTO Ambassador, to Radio, to market. >> Yeah, I'm just trying to think of any one specific one. There are always bits and pieces, and things here and there. I think I should have thought of that before I came on really. I think what you're looking at here is, it's much more about an informed conversation and so it's those ideas around the fact. And also, quite often someone will have a cool idea, and they'll go to the Ambassadors, can you find me five customers that want to try this? Bang, we've got it. So if you're out there on a customer, and someone comes to you as an ambassador and says, I've got a really cool thing I'd like you to try. It might be before, we have a thing called Fling, so it might even be before it's made a fling. You probably heard from Morney how that process goes. Then engage fast, because you're probably getting that conduit direct into the core of R&D. So a lot of the features that people see and functions and products et cetera, that people see. A lot of the work you see, we're doing with the next version if you realized our management platform, a lot of that has been driven by work that's been done by Ambassadors in the field, and what we're doing there. All the stuff you'll see, I've got my jacket over there with NANO EDGE written on it. A lot of the EDGE stuff that you see, a lot of the stuff around ESXi on Arm, a lot of the stuff around that is driven specifically around a particular product range. So a really good example is, a few years ago, probably around four, myself and Ray sat down and had a meeting in VMware Barcelona, with a retail customer, and the retail customer was talking about could we get them an STDC, but small enough to fit in every store. They didn't say that at the time, but that's how we kind of got to it. So that started off a whole process in our minds, and then I went back and we, the easiest actual way for me to do it was to then get a bunch of the Ambassadors to present that as one of their innovation ideas, which became NANO EDGE. I originally called it VX Nook, because we were going to do it on intel Nooks. (laughs) Unfortunately the naming committee wouldn't allow VX Nook, so it became NANO EDGE. And that drove a whole change within the company, I think within R&D. So if you think up until that point, four years ago, most of what we were doing was, how do we run things bigger and faster? It was all like Monster VM, remember that? All those kinds of things, right? How do we get these SAP HANA 12 terabyte VMs running? And really NANO EDGE was not necessarily a product, per se but it was more of a movement driven by a particular individual, Simon Richardson, who had got promoted to Principle as a result, through the Ambassador program. That was driven through our R&D to get them to think small as well as big, you know. So next time you're building that thing, how small can you run your SX, how small can we get an SX? >> John: Small, at scale. Which is EDGE, right? >> And, you know, so get small, at scale, which was EDGE. And so suddenly everyone starts talking about EDGE, and I'm like, hang on I've been talking about this for a while now, but we just didn't really call it that. And then along comes technology like Kubernetes, which is how do you manage thousands of small things. And it's kind of, these things come together. But yes, totally, you can almost say our EDGE strategy, and a lot of the early EDGE work was done and driven out of stuff that was done from CTO Ambassadors. It's just one of the examples. >> What are some of the Kubernetes service mesh? Because one of the things we heard from Pat, and we've heard this before, but most recently at Dell Technologies World, in the last couple of weeks, was don't look down, look up. Which basically means we're automating the infrastructure. I get that, I've covered ad nauseam. But looking up the stack means you're talking about kubernetes app developers, you've got cloud native, you've got services meshes, microservices, new kinds of challenges around instrumentation. How are you guys inside Radio looking at that trend? Because there's some commercial impact, You've got Heptio, you've got Craig and the team, some of the original guys. >> Yeah, yeah. >> As well as you have a future state coming out, with state, pun intended, data, stateless. (laughs) These are new dynamics. >> Yeah, yeah. >> What's the R&D take on this? >> So there's two ways that I really talk to people about this. The first one is, I've got a concept that I talk about called application chromatography. Which sounds mental, but you remember from high school probably, chromatography was where you had that really special paper and you put the dot of liquid on and it spread it to all it's constituent parts. That's actually what's happening with our applications right now. So, we've gone through a history of re-platform. You know, mainframe, blah blah blah blah blah. So then when we got to x86, everything's on x86, along comes cloud, and as you know John, for the last 10 years it's been everything's going to cloud because we think that's the next platform. It's not, but then everything's not going to SAS, it's not all going to paths, it's not all going to Functions, it's not all going to containers. What you're seeing is those applications are coming off that one big server, and they're spreading themselves out to the right places. So I talk to customers now and they say, okay, well actually I need a management plan, and a strategy and an architecture for infrastructure as a service, containers as a service, functions as a service platform as a service and SAS, and I need a structure for that on premises and off premises. So that's truly driving R&D thinking is not how do we help our customers get from one of those to the other? They're going to all of them. >> It sounds like a green screen for media. >> It is, and then the other side of that is I've just had a conversation with some of the best, you know, what these events are like? Some of the best conversations in the water cooler, in the- >> In the hallway, yup exactly. >> I've just had a fascinating conversation with one of our guys has been talking about, oh it's really cool if we got kubernetes cause I could use it right down at the edge. I could use it to manage thousands as a tiny EDGE things. And as I'm talking to him and sort of saying, you know what he's doing, I suddenly went, hang on a second, how does a developer talk to that? He's like, well I've not really thought about that. I said, well that's your problem. We need to stop thinking about things from how can that framework help me? But how can I extend that framework? And so a lot of that- >> Moving beyond just standing up kubernetes, for what purpose? Or is that what you know, the why, what? >> So if the developers there, it shouldn't be all. I'm going to use this new framework to solve my problem or the EDGE if an R&D person would, but people like myself are there to drive them to think of the bigger picture. So ultimately at some point a developer in the future is going to want to sit there and through an API, push out software SQL server, a bit of Mongo over here, some stuff on AWS, go and use the service on our Azure at the same time pushing stuff into their own data center and maybe push a container to every store if they're a retailer and they want to do that through one place. That's what we're building. And you know, driving that, all these bits and pieces you see behind you pulling those all together into this sort of consistent operations model. As I'm sure you've heard many of- >> And it's dynamics not static, so it's not like provisioning the old way. You got to track what's being turned on and off because how do you log off? What goes turns on? What services get turned on? Turned off, turned on. >> If you don't get a theme of really, I suppose not only Radio, but our industry of the last few years, people have always said if that cliche change is constant, right? Oh, change is constant. Yet still architects build systems that are static, right? You guys that just, I'm designing an architect in this new system for the next three years. I'm like, that's stupid. What you need to do is design a system that you know is going to change before you've even finished starting it. More or less started going half way through it. So actually, as I see, I was in a fantastic session yesterday with the Architects around ESXi and VCenter, which might be boring to most, but where we architecting that for scale at a huge way. >> Well, I think that's the key thing I mean this is, first of all, we'd love this conversation because, if you can make it programmable with API and have data available, that's the architecture because it's programmable, it's not static. So you let it morph into however the application, because I think I mentioned green screen, you know chroma keys as we have those concepts here, but that's what you're saying. The apps are going to have this notion of, I need an app right now and then it goes away. Services are going to be provisioning and turning on and off. >> There is a transience, there's a transience to infrastructure, there's a transience to applications, there's a transience to components that traditional mechanisms aren't built to do. So if you look at actually, what are we building here? And what's that sort of hive mind message? It's how do we provide that platform going forward that supports transience? that allows customers to come, I mean people used to use the term agile, but it's been over years and it's not right. It's the fact that literally it's a situation of constant change. And what your deploying onto, it's constantly changing and what you're deploying is constantly changing. So we're trying to work out how do we put that piece in the middle, that is also changing but allows you some kind of constancy in what you're doing, right? So we can plug new things in the bottom, a new cloud here, a new piece of software there, a new piece of hardware there or whatever. And at the same time, there's new ways of doing architecture coming on top. That's the challenge of this, the software defined data centers, almost like an operating system for clouds or the future operating system for all apps on all clouds and all of- >> It's a systems thinking for sure, absolutely. >> Let's put your Chief Talking Officer hat on for a second as we look- >> I thought I've been doing that for the last fifteen minutes. (laughs) >> At VMWorld 2019, which is just around the corner. Any cool ANEA customers that are going to be on stage that we should be excited to hear about it? >> Actually, I was having a meeting yesterday morning about that, so I can't really say, but there's some exciting stuff we're lining up right now. We're obviously now is the time we start thinking about the keynotes, now at the time you start thinking about who's on stage. Myself and a few others are responsible for what those demos are, you know the cool demos you see on stage every year. So we literally had the meeting yesterday morning at Radio to discuss what's going to be the wow at VMWorld this year. So I'm not going to give anything away to you. I'll just say make sure you're there to watch it because it's going to be good. And we're also making sure there's a big difference between what we're doing in Moscone now and what we're going to be doing it in Barcelona when we- >> And when expand theCUBE outside of the United States certainly, we'd love to have you guys plug in and localize some of these unique challenges. Like you said, I agree bubble now the west of the world has different challenges content different. >> Definitely, I think to that end, multicloud is probably more of a thing in Europe than it was necessarily in, in North America for a longer time because those privacy laws you talked about before, people have always been looking at the fact that maybe they had to use a local cloud for some things. You know, a German cloud run by German people in a German data center and they could use another cloud like Amazon for other things. And you know, we have UK cloud who provide a specific government based cloud, et cetera. Whereas in America there was, you could use an American cloud and that was fine. So I think actually in Europe we've already been at the forefront of that multicloud thinking for a while. So it's worth watching. >> It is worth watching, I wish we had more time to, so you're just going to have to come back. >> Definitely, anytime tell me when. >> We look forward to seeing you at VMWorld. We thank you for sharing some insights with John and me on theCUBE today. >> Cool, thank you. >> For John Ferrier, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE's exclusive coverage of VMware Radio 2019, thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

Published Date : May 16 2019

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Brought to you by VMware. the CTO from EMEA, from VMware. But of course all this innovation has to be able So the CTO Ambassadors is to support that. So like a filter too, Because obviously, you can't have every customer to go through all the feedback. So the CTO Ambassadors, and what we do in Octo Global field So that begs the question, how do you do the filtering and you put forward your case, et cetera. And after two terms you have to go out for a year (laughs) And so it comes back to that filter piece Now Gelsinger and the team sees this So literally the best of the best get together. literally feedback from the field if you know what I mean. and one of the comments he said was And maybe the nuances that we might have around particular Just a couple of times, yeah. The canary in the coal mine is a really big point There's a lot of the tech companies that I see, And the goal here is not to be a bubble, And so the diversity that we have here it's like a badge of honor to be able to respond to the call A lot of the EDGE stuff that you see, Which is EDGE, right? and a lot of the early EDGE work was done and driven Because one of the things we heard from Pat, As well as you have a future state coming out, that really special paper and you put And as I'm talking to him and sort of saying, So if the developers there, it shouldn't be all. so it's not like provisioning the old way. that you know is going to change So you let it morph into however the application, And at the same time, there's new ways for the last fifteen minutes. Any cool ANEA customers that are going to be on stage about the keynotes, now at the time you start thinking Like you said, I agree bubble now the west of the world And you know, we have UK cloud who provide so you're just going to have to come back. We look forward to seeing you at VMWorld. of VMware Radio 2019, thanks for watching.

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Suresh Manchella, Hillenbrand | Open Systems, The Future is Crystal Clear with SD-WAN & Security


 

>> From Las Vegas, it's theCUBE, covering Open Systems, the future is crystal clear with security and SD-WAN. Brought to you by Open Systems. >> Welcome back to Las Vegas everybody. My name is Dave Vellante and you're watching theCUBE. The leader in live tech coverage. We're here at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in the Chandelier Bar. At the Open Systems networking event, two gardener events this week in Las Vegas. On the heels of last week's AWS reinvent. Suresh Manchella is here. Is the Director of Global Infrastructure at Hillenbrand. Suresh, welcome to theCUBE. Thanks for coming on. >> Thank you. >> So, tell me about Hillenbrand. What you guys do, and what your role is. >> So, Hillenbrand owns two different companies. One is the Batesville Casket Company, which has been around about 150 years or so. And then the other side of the business is Process Equipment Group, where we do industrial pumps, separations, and heavy machinery, and things in that nature. >> Okay and your role as Global and Infrastructure, so it touches on all infrastructure presumably secure. Why don't you describe the scope of a little bit. >> So, my role is I'm the Global Director of Infrastructure from a corporate stand point. I oversee everything, you know network storage systems, compute cloud initiatives, and what not. Including some of the outside security operations as well. For Hillenbrand Corporate across all the companies that we own. >> So you guys manufacture industrial equipment, which presumably supports a time's critical infrastructure, so security is vital. What are some of the big factors that are driving your business and how do they affect your technology strategy? >> From a business standpoint, Hillenbrand, I'm in that space a lot. We try to acquire a lot of companies within that space and as a result we have many companies that are coming in and out our portfolio. With any other manufacturing companies, we have the same challenges where how do we integrate them faster? How do we integrate them in a secure and safer way? But at the same time, also enabling our businesses to take on the next step and evolve from a traditional manufacturing company to doing the digital transformation and taking advantage of technology to have the competitive advantage in the market. >> So I got to ask you, so we do a lot of these events everyone talks about digital transformation. It's become kind of a buzzword, but when I talk to practitioners like yourself, there's actually substance there and it relates to, it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but what's behind your digital transformation? Is it instrumentation, is it better collection of data? Is it using that for competitive advantage? All of the above? How would you describe it? >> You said it. It's all of the above. We have a lot of data that we're collecting over the years. About our customers. How they use our products. And what are some of the maintenance cycles that are going through our larger equipment, things of that nature. We have all of that information. I think we need to start looking at that information, and say how can we enable the business to provide the intelligence it needs to be proactive to reach out to the customers and say these machinery might need maintenance very soon, or things of that nature. So we want to provide that value to the business. >> So as part of that, Suresh, the instrumenting that machinery? Or is the machinery already instrumented? Is it translating analog to digital and providing connectivity, what's behind that? >> Some of our machinery that have been out there have been there for, you know, many many decades and many, many years. It's not they're not already there when it comes to IoT and things to that nature. But we're trying to look at some of those opportunities out there and see how we can better support our products. >> So that's a largely road map stuff. Right now, you're tryna focus on making sure that the business is working. You're getting products to market fast and winning the competitive game. Let's talk about security a little bit. Obviously Open Systems is a security company, manage security infrastructure. What's happening in security? What are the big trends, the mega trends that you see, and how are they affecting the way in which you approach technology and applying that to business advantage? >> So as a customer and as a manufacturing company traditionally we used to look at a company as you have your four walls: data center, all of your key elements are inside it and as we're going through what's the cloud transformation and everybody's talking about that cloud buzzword. Those boundaries are getting shattered. Information is everywhere. It's no longer within those four boundaries. So we have to start thinking security a different way. We used to think that, put some firewalls, put some controls around these things and things could be saved. But it's no longer the case. Everything is in the cloud. As a software as a service or platform as a service, infrastructure as a service. And they're all over the place. For the most part, you don't have access to those backing systems. So how do you protect them? We need to fundamentally change how we look at security and how do we protect it. Rather than focusing on the central systems, we have to focus on the endpoints at this point. >> So, different mindset for sure. Different sort of technology approach? Or similar practices with just different methodologies? How do you describe that? >> It's certainly a different methodology. The focus is certainly shifting. It's no longer centralized. It's decentralized. It's information everywhere. Information overload. It could be on your phones. It could be on your desktops. It could be on your laptops. It could be on servers in the cloud. Cloud service providers, there are a lot of things that come into play, when you're talking about the security the data that's scattered all over the place. >> So you're a customer of Open Systems, is that right? >> Yes we are. >> Maybe you could describe what you do with them and what your relationship has been with them? How do you apply their technique? >> Hillenbrand owns a company based out of Germany. And they've been a long standing customer of Open Systems for many, many years. So as a part of the acquisition, we got to know Open Systems and the value that their adding to in the SD-WAN spaces, and security space. Which is quite phenomenal. >> Okay, so you're part of the role as it relates to Open Systems is through that other division of the company, so how you apply their tech? What are you doin' with it? >> We utilize Open Systems as our SD-WAN provider outside the U.S. Primarily that division that we had was outside the U.S. for the most part. As we are getting to know more and more about Open Systems, over the years, it's a no brainer for us. They can provide a very reliable service that's scalable, very quick turnarounds. And that's certainly fitting in well with our MNA strategy where we acquire a company and try to integrate these things we cannot wait several months for and ambulance provider to drop a circuit and get them in, and things to that nature so with Open Systems, the SD-WAN concept, you only need an internet connection and they do all the magic behind the scenes and put it all together. >> So it's cloud like in the sense that it's sort of a managed service. But it's not necessarily remote cloud services, it could be on prim. >> Yes, it can be anywhere. >> Eventually at the edge. >> Yeah. >> So it fits into the roadmap. What's the biggest security challenge that you face as a practitioner today? >> The biggest security challenge that we have is protecting the data that's everywhere. The biggest challenge is knowing where the data is today. If anybody can solve that problem, I'd like to know. The first one to know that. It's quite a challenge for everybody lately. >> It's an arm's race, isn't it? >> It Is. >> Good. Well, Suresh, thanks very much for coming to theCUBE. It's a pleasure meeting you. >> Thank you. >> Keep it right there everybody, we'll be back. From Las Vegas at the Open Systems networking event. You're watching theCUBE. (upbeat music)

Published Date : Dec 5 2018

SUMMARY :

the future is crystal clear Hotel in the Chandelier Bar. and what your role is. One is the Batesville Casket the scope of a little bit. Including some of the outside What are some of the big on the next step and All of the above? It's all of the above. things to that nature. that the business is working. For the most part, you don't have access How do you describe that? It could be on servers in the cloud. So as a part of the acquisition, for the most part. So it's cloud like in the sense So it fits into the roadmap. is protecting the data that's everywhere. much for coming to theCUBE. From Las Vegas at the Open

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Anthony Daloyu, Capgemini | Nutanix .NEXT EU 2018


 

>> Live from London, England, it's The Cube, covering .NEXT Conference Europe 2018. Brought to you by Nutanix. >> The Cube at Nutanix .NEXT 2018 in London. It might be a little cold, blistery, and rainy outside, but it's nice and dry and warm in here. Digging into all the technology in the ecosystem, I'm Stu Miniman, co-host is Joep. Happy to welcome to the program, first-time guest Anthony Daloyau, who is the head of Alliance for SEU for Capgemini. Anthony, thank you so much for joining us. >> Thank you very much. >> Alright, so we're quite familiar with Capgemini. Many partners, definitely doing a lot in the Cloud for many years now. About two years ago, my understanding, is when you started working with Nutanix. Tell us what brought that to have you add that into the offerings. >> At Capgemini, we are continuously, carefully curate a global ecosystem of technology and business player, and also startup to provide our clients with access to the latest thinking technology, and experiences across all activity sector. And went on to realize value from this ecosystem. For each client, we adopt independent posture to identify on a case-by-case basis those partners that prefer the best of great internal solution and to be sure we can response to each challenge from our questioner. When it comes to Capgemini cloud infrastructure offering as part of the development of the hybrid cloud services we made some years ago, we need a partner with the widest possible openness in terms of the (mumbles) solution, (mumbles) support and although on the spot servers. Two years ago, as you know, the technology were not as developed as today but Nutanix had already some wider branch of functionalities, more than it's competition. It's why we made this show two years ago was clearly the main difference between Nutanix and the other one. >> So looking at Nutanix, they're a big company now, they have a lot of products. So can you tell us a little bit about the use cases that you use at Nutanix for your customers. >> The first case where we use ourself, the Nutanix solution to the customer is obviously the private cloud. As part of the (mumbles) strategy we made. The second one is the VDI project. We have a lot of references or successes on the VDI with Nutanix transistors and most simply, we tripled the Nutanix solution to replace the traditional intra-server storage and it allows us to add more agility, more simplicity in the software, define at a central model. >> So you're talking about data center, you're talking about VDI, that's traditional on-prem workloads. So maybe to to add a little bit about the transition from on-prem into the public cloud and how do you define which applications go where, which do you leave on-prem, which go to the cloud. Does Capgemini have a solution for that, how does that work? >> We developed a few years ago tools named EAPM, the acronym is economical application portfolio management. EAPM is part of the global approach to merge the information system and to define and to build a trajectory to the public cloud, to the private cloud but also the digital transformation globally to the (mumbles) cloud. We took the information from the CMDB but also from the data sensitivity, the different floors, the dynamics of the application and we define in three decision model how we can go to the different platform. Of course the public cloud is a target, but we can define to go to Yas Pas, private, public, on-site, on-prem and the last project we made, we're using the APM. We discover that there is not yet 100% to the direction of the public cloud. Some application (mumbles) need still to have something in private mode and of course we use Nutanix to (mumbles) which is a (mumbles). >> So Nutanix is not been sitting still. The last few years, they've really expanded their offering. I believe I heard it was like two years ago, they basically had two products. Today they have over 14, they've done MNA, they laid out a road map of innovation. What is exciting your team, what do you expect to take with that and work with your customers over the next couple of quarters? >> Nutanix is one of the software details. We understand how and why it adds value to work with a system integrator like Capgemini. So the first thing we expect is to continue to develop our offer based on the Nutanix technology and we hope they will maybe, this year, next year, develop a dedicated program for (mumbles) like Cap because two days I have programmed for the classic, traditional reseller from big player, not yet for the adversarial. I think it's the first point. The second point, I expect they continue to support us on develop offer, on top of their products and the last one is, we saw a lot of new, or a lot of new functionalities that we expect they continue to develop on the orchestration or segmentation on network and so on and so on. For us, globally, the best and important part now, because the global platform able to understand it, able to standardize it and for us, it's very, very important. >> Alright, so Anthony, what are the questions people have all the time is how do I keep up and one of the answers I have today is look, you have to have partners that you could turn to. Both the technology partners and very importantly, the system integrator partners are one of the real ways. How does Capgemini differentiate, how are you helping customers with this journey to keeping up into the cloud and beyond. The main point is we start from the application. A lot of time we think our competitor is nothing. The question about the cloud, which is a requisitory, public, private, now the real question is, how can I move my application, where can I put the application. So I think the main differentiator from Capgemini about the competition, we take an advantage of EAPM, or own tool to define with the application where we want to go, where we can go. >> Alright, well Anthony, really appreciate the updates. Congratulation for the progress, we look forward to keeping an eye on where things go. Alright, be sure to stay with us. Full day of coverage here Nutanix .NEXT 2018 in London. Thank you for watching The Cube. (light electronic music)

Published Date : Nov 29 2018

SUMMARY :

Brought to you by Nutanix. Digging into all the technology in the ecosystem, in the Cloud for many years now. of the hybrid cloud services we made some years ago, So can you tell us a little bit about the use cases the Nutanix solution to the customer about the transition from on-prem into the public cloud on-site, on-prem and the last project we made, over the next couple of quarters? So the first thing we expect about the competition, we take an advantage of EAPM, Congratulation for the progress,

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Keynote Analysis | Nutanix .NEXT EU 2018


 

>> Live from London, England, it's the Cube, Covering .Next Conference Europe 2018. Brought to you by Nutanix. >> Hi, and welcome to the Excel Center in London, England, where 3500 customers, partners, and employees of Nutanix have gathered for the annual European show of Nutanix .Next 2018. I'm Stu Miniman, my cohost for two days of wall to wall exclusive coverage from the Cube is Joep Piscaer, our first European co-host. Joep, I first met you two years ago at the Nutanix show in Vienna. Last year was in Nice. We're now in London, and now you're not just a guest, but a host. Thanks so much for joinin' us. >> Thank you. So, it was awesome three years ago I was a customer, then I transitioned into a tech champion as well, for getting to know the technology and the people behind Nutanix, and now I'm here as a co-host, looking at Nutanix as a company. >> Well, we really appreciate you joining us. Give us, first of all, some more credibility in the European space, and also we always love to get the practitioner viewpoint. So, you have been a customer, you're part of I believe the NTC Program that Nutanix has, so you understand the technology. We're going to get to talk to some of the customers, some of those executives, and the like, so lookin' forward to havin' ya' sit with me, and dig into it, including, a first on the Cube, you're going to do one interview in your native tongue of Dutch. >> Yes, oh yeah. It's going to be completely in Nederlands, so completely Dutch, and I'm looking forward to that. >> Alright, so Dheeraj Pandey was on stage this morning, and Dheeraj, masterful, gives quite a good keynote, talking about how Nutanix is now nine years old, and so therefore he says still very young when you look at most of the technology companies out there, but they've come a long way. I've watched Nutanix since the very early days, and still kind of blows my mind. Some of the companies I've watched in their ascendancy, I remember VMware back when they were about 100 people. Nutanix, I met when they were about 30 people. Pernixdata that Nutanix bought, Soft Jamb that we're going to have on later today, introduced me to the company when it was three people and a dog, and Nutanix now, over I think 3000, 3500 people, announced last night their Q 1 2019 earnings, and some of the quick speeds would be 313 million dollars of revenue. That is up 14% year over year for the quarter, up 3% quarter over quarter from the previous quarter. Strong growth in a lot of the financials, really moving strongly along their path to be software, which is 51% of billings were from the software, and expect to read somewhere between 70 and 75% in the next four to six quarters, so aggressively meeting that, and publicly traded company, you kind of look at it and say "Wow, this Nutanix has a seven billion dollar market cap before the market opened today. We'll see what the market thinks of their earnings." What's just it that at a high level, you've been watching Nutanix for a while, so what's your take on the company? >> So, you know, I met em' a couple years ago as well. I think they were 100 people big back then. I learned from them from a technology perspective, so I just got to know the technology, got to know why they were building the startup, building this technology, and this was back in the day when it was basically a VDI product, and it was hardware. It was a thin layer of software, and they kept building that out, and building it out. At some point I became a customer of them, when their appliances were becoming so mature, that I actually saw the advantages that they were touting. Ease of management, one click for everything, and that made such a difference in the world back then, that it's just so good to see them growing and growing from the VDI product it was at some point, all to where it is now. This is not a startup anymore, this is a big company, with a portfolio that's becoming very broad, very deep as well. So seeing them grow this quickly, it's been pretty much amazing to see. I haven't seen a company go that fast in a long time. >> Yeah, well it's one of the things that really, if you look at where we are in technology today, things move fast. So the rest of the team for the Cube is at Amazon re:Invent, and the amount of announcements coming out of them is just staggering, but we're going to talk here about Nutanix. Actually the amount of announcements that Nutanix had, considering as you said they started out, really you think of that thin layer, to really simplify IT. Deeraj in the keynote talked about, "We want to achieve invisible together." was the line that he used, and simplifying things are really tough. That's really what characterized the wave of hyperconverged infrastructure in my mind. When I talk to users, why the bought it, it was simplifying it. It was not, when you think back to VMware, VMware was real easy. It was "Oh, I'm going to consolidate. I'm going to get high utilization.", and there was a clear cost savings. Well today, this hyperconverge is, if you look at building it one way, versus buying it this other way, the actual raw dollars was not that immediately compelling. It is the operational simplicity, and therefore I can allow, in many ways they say IT can now say yes to the business, and focus on things that add value to the business. Move up the stack. a line that I've used at a few of these Nutanix shows is "First, I want to modernize my platform, and then I can do things like modernize my application, modernize all my operations around that." It's catalyst to help customers along their journey for digital transformation. Is that what you've seen? >> Oh yeah, absolutely. So looking at my own experience, I've seen it so clearly that simplifying that infrastructure later, five, six years ago, that was the driver for us to move there. It's become so much more than just a simplification. It's become a story of freeing up time from the IT ops personnel to do other stuff. Just like you said, saying yes to the business, because infrastructure used to be hard. It used to be difficult. You'd need to spend a lot of time on it, and now it's really so easy, it's become a commodity. You either get it from the cloud, you get it from Nutanix or VM or whoever, and that frees up time for the IT ops personnel to do value add stuff on top of it, and I kind of see Nutanix going along that same route. They focused on the infrastructure part. They're still an infrastructure company I think, but they're expanding into that whole journey the customer's going through as well. I think we're going to here a lot more about the hybrid strategy, about cloud, about hybrid cloud, about how to manage that, instead of just the infrastructure stuff. >> Yeah, you bring a good point, that customer journey is definitely one that they talked about, and let's talk about the way you look at the Nutanix portfolio now. The way that Nutanix has framed it, is they gave, it was the customer journey of crawl, walk, run. So first, we have Core, which really is the primary product we've been thinking about, it's what the vast majority of Nutanix customers use, it's HCI, it's Prism, it's those pieces to manage that Core piece. Then, we add on top of that is Essentials, which really looked at some of the expansion areas. Files is one that they launched as an announcement about two years ago I believe it was, that they have Blocks now, which is now a highly scalable object model there, and the Prism Pro, so a bunch of pieces to add on and go beyond the Core, and then they have Enterprise, which is is ICloud's kind of the branding that they have along these, but Leap is DR as a service. They've got Frame, which is desktop as a service. They've got Era, and they've got a whole lot of other software solutions out there that make up this whole portfolio. I wouldn't say it was simple. It took me two or three times of hearing it before it started to crystallize, but if you look out from that customer lens, the customer doesn't need to worry about where these buckets have, it's the, you know, "I'm buying Core stuff, I'm probably growing to Essentials, and then there's areas where Enterprise will make sense.", and it's likely going to be a different go to market and different buying motion. Take something like Frame, who we're going to have on the program today. Frame today is not attached to the Nutanix appliance itself, it was born in the cloud, and many of the enterprise solutions are born in the cloud, multi-cloud. So what's your take on how they're splitting up and discussing the portfolio? >> Just like you said, it took me awhile to figure out what that whole portfolio was, you know, the Core, Essentials, Enterprise stuff, but I do think looking at it from a customer perspective, it does make sense. So they started out simplifying the Core infrastructure. Now they're simplifying the Essentials in the data center as well, like files, like micro-segmentation, like monitoring. Those are topics that customers still spend a lot of time on, but they don't necessarily want to. They want to have something that is readily off the shelf, it's easy to use, easy to expand upon, so I do see Essentials as a good expansion of that messaging that they have been giving for quite a number of years already. Simplifying what is already in the data center already, and then the stretch into the cloud, into the hyper-cloud, delivering services that are still so difficult to do yourself, like take VDI for example. That's still difficult. Sending up an entire environment, managing it, you have to have really specialized people to do that for you, to do the do the design, and being able to get that directly from the cloud makes that so much easier. So I do agree with the de-segmentation into three big buckets, and I do think customers are going to respond positively to it. >> Alright, so, you brought up a term hyper-cloud, that I really didn't feel that we heard a lot about in the keynote this morning. It's an area I want to poke and understand a little bit more when I hear from Nutanix. I was talkin' to one customer in prep for this, and he said a year ago, and the last couple of times, but hearin' a lot about Google. Diane Greene on the stage, I believe it was the D.C show, I didn't see Google here. I know there is updates as to where the Google relationships are going. They did mention Kubernetes. The Kubernetes offer that Nutanix has is called Karbon. I actually expect to see not only what we will have Nutanix on the program here to talk about it, but at the Kubernetes show Kubcon in Seattle in two weeks. Nutanix is one of the sponsors that we'll have on the program there. Other than Kubernetes and how that fits into the cloud native discussion, I haven't heard a good cohesive message as to Nutanix's hybrid, they talk about how Nutanix lives in a lot of environments, and many of their products live in multi-cloud, and there's some nuance there. I think VMware has a nice clear message on hybrid. Microsoft of course, and of course VMware is the partnership with Amazon is really the core of what they're doing there. They're doing more cloud native and Kubernetes. They bought Heptio. There are things going on there. Amazon is talking a lot more about hybrid. We'll see if they actually use the term hybrid when they talk about it. Nutanix's messaging, we're going to have Deeraj on today, he says "Azure Stack gets a lot of press, but there's not a lot of people using it. VMware on AWS gets a lot of press, once again, not a lot of companies using it yet". And while I agree, customers actually feel comforted by the message that they understand how do I get from where I am today, to where I need to go? And of course I'm not saying that everybody goes 100% public cloud. The hybrid multi cloud world kind of looks like where we'll be for the next five or 10 years at least, and Edge puts a whole 'nother spin on things. What do you want to hear from Nutanix? What is hybrid, customers might not care about hybrid, but the message about where they're going with cloud is I think what they want clarity on. >> Yeah, I agree. So I think Nutanix doesn't call it hybrid, they're calling it hyperconverged cloud, which makes sense from their historical background. I do think Nutanix has ways to go in developing their own hybrid. Cloud story, making a management layer on top of it, like VMware's done, like Microsoft's doing. So I do think Nutanix is only on the beginning of this journey for themselves, but you're only seeing the small acquisitions they're doing, or the small steps they're taking. Acquiring Frame is one of those unexpected things for me. I would never have thought Nutanix would go that direction, So I do think Nutanix is taking small steps in the right direction. But like you said, they're story isn't complete yet. Its not a story that customers can buy into fully just now, so they do still need a little bit of time for that. >> Yeah, well Joep, really appreciate you helpin' us break down this. We've got two days of full coverage. So much your goin' is that, right, MNA in the space, it's a software world, picking up pieces are easy, heck, one of the under riding rumors I've heard for the last couple of years is "will someone take Nutanix off the table?" Not something I expect them to specifically direct, but at a seven billion dollar market, that would be a large acquisition, but we have seen a few of those in the last couple a' years. so for Joep Piscaer, I'm Stu Miniman, stay with us for two days. Wall to wall coverage. Thecube.net is of course where to see all of the live and on demand content. Thanks so much for watchin' the Cube. (contemplative music)

Published Date : Nov 28 2018

SUMMARY :

Live from London, England, it's the Cube, for the annual European show of Nutanix and the people behind Nutanix, and dig into it, including, a first on the Cube, so completely Dutch, and I'm looking forward to that. in the next four to six quarters, and that made such a difference in the world back then, and the amount of announcements from the IT ops personnel to do other stuff. and let's talk about the way you look and being able to get that directly from the cloud Nutanix on the program here to talk about it, is taking small steps in the right direction. all of the live and on demand content.

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Caitlin Halferty & Sonia Mezzetta, IBM | IBM CDO Fall Summit 2018


 

>> Live from Boston, it's the CUBE. Covering IBM Chief Data Officer Summit. Brought to you by IBM. >> Welcome to the CUBE's live coverage of IBM Chief Data Officer Summit here in Boston, Massachusetts. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight along with my co host, Paul Gillin. We're starting our coverage today. This is the very first day of the summit. We have two guests, Caitlin Halferty, she is the AI accelerator lead at IBM, and Sonia Mezzetta, the data governance technical product leader. Thank you both so much for coming on the CUBE >> Thanks for having us. >> So this is the ninth summit. Which really seems hard to belief. But we're talking about the growth of the event and just the kinds of people who come here. Just set the scene for our viewers a little bit, Caitlin. >> Sure, so when we started this event back in 2014, we really were focused on building the role of the chief data officer, and at that time, we know that there were just a handful across industries. Few in finance banking, few in health care, few in retail, that was about it. And now, you know, Gartner and Forrester, some industry analysts say there are thousands across industries. So it's not so much about demonstrating the value or the importance, now, it's about how are our Chief Data Officers going to have the most impact. The most business impact. And we're finding that they're really the decision-makers responsible for investment decisions, bringing cognition, AI to their organizations. And the role has grown and evolved. When we started the first event, we had about 20, 30 attendees. And now, we get 140, that join us in the Spring in San Francisco and 140 here today in Boston. So we've really been excited to see the growth of the community over the last four years now. >> How does that affect the relationship, IBM's relationship with the customer? Traditionally, your constituent has been the CIO perhaps the COO, but you've got this new C level executive. Now, what role do they play in the buying decision? >> There was really a lot of, I think back to, I co-authored a paper with some colleagues in 2014 on the rise of Chief Data Officer. And at that time, we interviewed 22 individuals and it was qualitative because there just weren't many to interview, I couldn't do a quantitative study. You know, I didn't have sample size. And so, it's been really exciting to see that grow and then it's not just the numbers grow, it's the impact they're having. So to you questions of what role are they playing, we are seeing that more and more their scope is increasing, their armed and equipped with teams that lead data science, machine learning, deep learning capabilities so they're differentiated from a technology perspective. And then they're really armed with the investment and budget decisions. How should we invest in technology. Use data as a strategic corporate asset to drive our progress forward in transformation. And so we've really seen a significant scope increase in terms of roles and responsibilities. And I will say though, there's still that blocking and tackling around data strategy, what makes a compelling data strategy. Is is the latest, greatest? Is it going to have an impact? So we're still working through those key items as well. >> So speaking of what makes this compelling strategy, I want to bring you into the conversation Sonia, because I now you're on the automated metadata generation initiative, which is a big push for IBM. Can you talk a little bit about what you're doing at IBM? >> Sure. So I am in charge of the data governance products internally within the company and specifically, we are talking today about the automated metadata generation tool. What we've tried to do with that particular product is to try to basically leverage automation and artificial intelligence to address metadata issues or challenges that we're facing as part of any traditional process that takes place today and trying to do curation for metadata. So specifically, what I would like to also point out is the fact that the metadata curation process in the traditional sense is something that's extremely time-consuming, very manual and actually tedious. So, one of the things that we wanted to do is to address those challenges with this solution. And to really focus in and hone in on leveraging the power of AI. And so one of the things that we did there was to basically take our traditional process, understand what were the major challenges and then focusing on how AI can address those challenges. And today at 4 p.m. I'll be giving a demo on that, so hopefully, everybody can understand the power of leveraging that. >> This may sound like a simple question, but I imagine for a lot of people outside of the CIO of the IT organization, their eyes glaze over when they hear terms like data governance. But it's really important. >> It is. >> So can you describe why it's important? >> Absolutely. >> And why metadata is important too. >> Absolutely. Well, I mean, metadata in itself is extremely critical for any data monetization position strategy, right. The other importance is in order to derive critical business insights that can lead to monetary value within a company. And the other aspect to that is data quality which Interpol talked about, right? So, in order for you to have the right data governance, you need to have right metadata in order for you to have high level of data quality can, if you don't and you're spending a lot of time cleaning dirty data and dealing with inefficiencies or perhaps making wrong business decisions based on bad data quality, it's all connected back to having the right level of data governance. >> So, I mean, I'm going to also go back to something you were talking about earlier and that's just the sheer number of CDOs that we have. We have statistic here, 90% of large global companies will have the CDO by 2019. That's really astonishing. Can you talk a little bit about what you see as sort of the top threats and opportunities that CDOs as grappling with right now. >> And let me make this tangible. I'll just describe my last two weeks, for example. I was with the CDO in person in Denver of a beer company, organization, and they were looking at some MNA opportunities and figuring out what their strategy was. I was at a bank in Chicago with the head of enterprise data government there, looking at it from a regular (mumbles) perspective. And then I was with a large multinational retail organization with their CDO and team figuring out how did they work at a sort of global scale and what did they centralize at enterprise data level. And what did they let markets and teams customize out in the field, out in the GOs. And so, that's just an example of, regardless of industry, regardless of these challenges, I'm seeing these individuals are increasingly responsible for those strategic decisions. And oftentimes, we start with the data strategy and have a good discussion about what is that organization's monetization strategy. What's the corporate business case? How are they going to make money in the future and how can we architect the data strategy that will accelerate their progress there? And again, regardless of product we're selling or retail, excuse me, our industry, those are the same types of challenges and opportunities we're grappling with. >> In the early days there was a lot of questions about the definition of the role and those CDOs set in different departments and reported to different people, are you seeing some commonality emerge now about how this role, where it sits in the organization, and what its responsibilities are? >> It's a great question, I get that all the time. And especially for organizations that recognize the need for enterprise data management. They want to invest in a senior level decision-maker. And then it's a question of where should they sit organizationally? For us internally, within IBM, we report to our Chief Financial Officer. And so, we find that to be quite a compelling fit in terms of budget. And visibility into some of those spend decisions. And we're on par in peers with our CIO, so I see that quite a bit where a Chief Data Officer is now on par and appear to the CIO. We tend to find that when it's potentially buried in the CIO's organization, you lose a little of that autonomy in terms of decision-making, so if you're able to position as partners and drive that transformation for your organization forward together, that can often work quite well. >> So that partnership, is it, I mean ideally, it is collaborative and collegial, but is it ever, are there ever tensions there and how do you recommend the companies get over, overcome those obstacles? >> Absolutely, in the fight for resources that we all have, especially talent and retaining some of our top talent, should that individual or those teams sit within a CIO's organization or a CDO's organization? How do we figure that out? I think there's always going to be the challenge of who owns what. We joke, sometimes, it feels like you own everything when you're in the data space, because you own all of the data that flows through, all your business processes, both CDO-owned and corporate HR's supply chain finance. Sometimes it feels you don't own anything. And so we joke that it's, you have to really carve that out. I think the important part is to really articulate what the data strategy is, what the CDO or enterprise data management office owns from a data perspective and then building up that platform and do it in partnership with your CIO team. And then you really start to be able to build and deploy those AI applications off that platform. That's what we've been able to see, so. >> I want to go back to something Sonia said this morning during the keynote, you talked about IBM's master metadata list catalog unifying your organization around a certain set of terms. There's 6,000 terms in that catalog. Now, how did you arrive at 6,000? And what are some rules for an organization trying to do something like that? How defined, how small should that sub-terms be? >> Sure. Well, we started off with a traditional approach which is probably something that most companies are familiar with these days. The traditional process was really just based on basically reaching out to a large number of subject matter experts across the enterprise that represent in many different data domains such as customer, offering, financial, etc. And essentially having them label this data, specifically with the business metadata that's used internally across a company. Now, another example to that is that there are different organizations across the company. We are a worldwide company. And so, what one business might call a particular piece of data, which is customer, another might call it client. Which really ended up being this very large list of 6,000 business terms which is what we're using internally. But one thing that we're trying to do to be able to kind to basically connect the different business terms is leverage knowledge management and specifically ontological relationships to be able to link the data together and make it more reasonable and provide better quality with that. >> What are the things that you were talking about, Interpol was talking about on the main stage too during the keynote, was making sure that the data is telling a story because getting by in is one of the biggest challenges. How do you recommend companies think about this and approach this very big daunting task? >> I'll start and then I'm sure you have a perspective as well. One of the things that we've seen internally and I work with my client on, is every project we initiate, we really want strong sponsorship from the business in terms of funding, making sure that the right decision-makers are involved. We've identified some projects for example, that we've been able to deploy around supply chains. So identifying the risk on our supply chain processes. Some of the risks in sites, we're going to demo a little bit later today. The AMG work that Sonia's leading. And all of those efforts are underway in partnership with the business. One of my favorite ones is around enabling our sellers to better understand information about, and data, about the customers. So like most organizations, customer data is housed in silo systems that don't necessarily talk well with each other, and so it's an effort to really pull that data together in partnership with our digital sellers and enable them to then pull up user interface, user-friendly, an app where they can identify and drill down to the types of information they need about their customers. And so our thought and recommendation based on our experience and then what I'm seeing is really having that strong partnership with the business. And the contribution funding, stakeholder involvement, engagement, and then you start to prioritize where you'll have the most impact. >> You did a program called the AI accelerator. What is that? >> We did, so when we stood up our first chief data office, it was three years ago now, we wanted to be quite transparent about the journey of driving cognition through our enterprise. And we were really targeting those CDO and processes around client master product data and then all of our enterprise processes. So that first six months was about writing the data strategy and implementing that, next we spent a year on all of our processes, really mapping out, we call it journey mapping, I think a lot of folks do that, by process. So HR, supply chain, identifying ways. How it's done today, how it will be done in a cognitive AI like future state. And then also, as we're driving out those efficiencies in automation, those reinvestment opportunities to free up that money for future initiatives. And so that was the first year, year and a half. And now, we're at the point where we've evolved far enough along that we think we're learned some lessons on the way and there's been some hurdles and stumbling blocks and obstacles. And so a year ago, we really start a cognitive enterprise blueprint and that was really intended to reflect all of our experiences, driving that transformation. A lot of customer engagements, lot of industry analysts feedback as well. And now we formalized that initiative. So now I have a really fantastic team of folks working with me. Subject matter domain expertise, really deep in different processes, solutions, folks, architects. And what we can do is pull together the right breadth and depth of IBM resources. Deploy it, customize it to customer need and really, hopefully, accelerate and apply a lot of what we've learned, lot of what the clients have learned, to accelerate their own AI transformation journey. >> But AI, IBM is the guinea pig and it showcase. And so you're learning as you go and helping customers do that too. >> Exactly and we've now built our platform, deployed that, as we mentioned, we've got about 30,000 active users, active users, using our platform. Plan to grow to 100,000. We're seeing about 600 million in business benefit internally from the work we've done. And so we want to really share that and do some good, best practice sharing and accelerate some of that process. >> IBM used the term cognitive rather than AI. What is the difference or is there one? >> I think we're starting actually to shift from cognitive to AI because of that exact perspective. AI, I think is better understood in the industry, in the market and that's what's resonating more so with clients and I think it's more reflective of what we're doing. And our particular approach is human in the loop. So we've always said rather than the black box sort of AI algorithms running behind the scenes, we want to make sure that we do that with trust and transparency, so there's a real transparency aspect to what we're doing. And the other thing I would notice, we talk about sort of your data is your data. Insights derive from that data is your insights. So we've worked quite closely with our legal teams to really articulate how your data is used. If you engage and partner with us to drive AI in your enterprise, making sure we have that trust and transparency (mumbles) clearly articulated is another important aspect for us. >> Getting right back to data governance. >> Right, right, exactly. Which is our we've come full circle. >> Well Caitlin and Sonia, thank you so much for coming on the CUBE, it was great. Great to kick off this summit together. >> Great to see you again, as always. >> I'm Rebecca Knight for Paul Gillin, stay tuned for more of the CUBE's live coverage of IBM CDO Summit here in Boston. (techno music)

Published Date : Nov 15 2018

SUMMARY :

Live from Boston, it's the CUBE. and Sonia Mezzetta, the data governance and just the kinds of people who come here. And the role has grown and evolved. How does that affect the relationship, And at that time, we interviewed 22 individuals I want to bring you into the conversation Sonia, And so one of the things that we did there but I imagine for a lot of people outside of the CIO And the other aspect to that is data quality the sheer number of CDOs that we have. And oftentimes, we start with the data strategy And especially for organizations that recognize the need And so we joke that it's, you have to really carve that out. during the keynote, you talked about IBM's master metadata the data together and make it more reasonable What are the things that you were talking about, And the contribution funding, stakeholder involvement, You did a program called the AI accelerator. And so that was the first year, year and a half. But AI, IBM is the guinea pig and it showcase. And so we want to really share that and do some good, What is the difference or is there one? And our particular approach is human in the loop. Which is our for coming on the CUBE, it was great. for more of the CUBE's live coverage

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Bob Grewal, Conga & Sharmon Moss, ATG | Conga Connect West at Dreamforce 2018


 

>> From San Francisco, it's theCUBE. Covering Conga Connect West 2018. Brought to you by Conga. >> Hey, welcome back. Get ready, Jeff Frick with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Francisco. It's Salesforce, Dreamforce. They're telling me it's 170,000 people which I find hard to believe but I'm not out there walking around in the traffic or stuck in an Uber. Hopefully you aren't either. We're excited, we're at the Conga Connect West of it. Here at the Thirsty Bear, they're giving out free drinks, free entertainment, free food. Stop on by, just a couple steps over from Moscone South and they'll be here for all three days. So we're excited to be here, too. First Salesforce, we've got some great guests lined up for you today. Talk about the whole life cycle of this cash-to-quote, or quote-to-cash, excuse me. To Sharmon Moss first, she is the Practice Lead at ATG for CLM. Sharmon, great to see you. >> It's great to be with you, Jeff. >> Absolutely, and with her is Bob Grewal. He is VP of Enterprise Contract Sales for Conga. Bob, great to see you. >> You as well. Glad that we are here. >> So, what an event. Just before we jump into it, you guys said you did this last year, you had such a great turnout, you had kind of up the investment. >> Yeah, so last year, we did a phenomenal amount of events, we wanted to provide our customers opportunity to come in and have a place where they can meet with us, socialize, meet our technical folks but at the same time, enjoy themselves and find a place to relax and work. We do a disco party, a silent disco party last year, that was phenomenal and over-subscribed so this year we ended up having to put a tent in the back and maybe even a bigger investment so our people and partners can come in here and have a great place work, meet and greet, and learn. >> Great. So Sharmon here, she is a Practice Lead out in the field with all the customers. >> It's true. >> So we talk a lot, we go to a lot of tech events at theCUBE and we always talk about people processing tech. And more often than not, the tech is the easiest part. >> It's true. >> To really make this stuff work, so give us kind of what you see in the field, kind of the state of the market in contract management. >> So what we're seeing at ATG, we are a technology management consulting firm and what we've seen recently is, you know, we had the whole optimization of CPQ over the last four or five years and right now, we're really seeing the digitalization of contract management really take a front place in what companies are trying to automate. And that's why we're so excited to work with the team at Conga because our synergies and the way we work together and our cultures are so similar that we're really able to provide just a great compliment to our customers. >> So when you say automating contract management, the first thing the probably goes into most people's heads, at least the first time I heard it, was no way, there's so much nuance, there's so much you know, legalese and maybe negotiated terms and settlements in a contract. How do you possibly automate that beyond, which is state-of-the-art ten years ago, where is it and when is it due? So what are some of the things that people, you know, what can you do today, what does the future hold, what is the state-of-the-art in contract management? >> Well, I think you nailed it on both points. So it's not just about the technology and us as the technology provider would probably argue it's not the easiest part of the solution. But I think it's the combination and the reason why ATG partnership with Conga makes so much sense for us, is that, to capture the digital transformation, or the contract automation value, we really got to do two things. One, you got to get the right technology which Conga provides today. And then you got to have the partner to work with you where we've partnered with ATG to really look at your business processes and as you do that, this is a great opportunity to review how you're doing it today, optimize that, because it's not just about going digital with it, it's really about making sure that we have the right approval process. And then you say, what's possible today? Well, today, CLM has been around for a long time, right, and we think that it's hit a tipping point where it's not just about creating workflows and approval processes. In fact, in many cases, those are table stakes. We seem to do it better, we've designed it so it's easier to use, easier to manage, but the piece that we're seeing as really a focus on the datasite. How do we make that data that lives in those contracts valuable to the organization? So when you're engaging with your customers, now you have a better engagement strategy based on real data, what's changes, what being utilized in your contract. So for us, a big part of it is that we can do the workloads, we can do the approval processes, but where we're really going to differentiate ourselves is that data and making sure that we can make that work, to optimize revenue, to mitigate risk but most importantly, to be able to understand what's happening in the contract world, what you're negotiating so we can make your engagements in the future easier and faster. >> Right, right. So just curious, Sharmon, because you negotiate the contract, you go through all the pain, you know, and you finally get it signed but then generally it would just go in a drawer, or somebody's hard drive on a laptop and let's just hope they're working for us in a year from now, we didn't give them the laptop. But how does that get baked A, into making sure, there was an example earlier, that the right payment terms get into the ERP system and then also, going forward, how does that not just become a stale document that's just sitting in a repository but how do we extract the value to your point to get more benefit from that tough negotiated piece of paper that we worked so hard on. >> Right, and I think that's where we're seeing the change now. Because, historically, it was our legal teams that wanted to automate things, to make their lives simpler, and now we're seeing we need not just to support the legal teams with this information, we need to support reporting, we need to support renewals, we need to support amendments and we need those data elements that are associated. So like you said, the payment terms or the length of the term of a specific service, we needed to datatize that, put that in a system where people can search for it, discover it. So many cases, even like companies with MNA, do due diligence based on this content, right? It can't just be a piece of paper in a box somewhere anymore. It needs to be out there and that's what the future of contract management offers. We are, at this point, in the emergence of this technology where customers are starting to realize the value in that digitalization. >> Go ahead. >> If that helps. >> I was just going to say that the other thing is happening too, is the nature of business relationships is changing so much with new revenue models, right. Subscription models, you know, and kind of prorated and how do you work in your discount structure. It's so much more complicated and so much variety in the ways people are engaging with their customers. I would imagine most of the time that just kind of happens in that contract is still in that guy's laptop that we don't know where it is and we just kind of execute those things. So how is that getting surfaced and kind of bait back so that it's more of a closed loop process? >> Yeah, so a couple of things and we can talk about the processes as Sharmon walking us through kind of hey, we can automate this, we can do this. There's a couple of things in the technology side that Conga's really done and when we think about that, one is a True-up. So when we built this on the Salesforce platform, one of the things that we really did was how do we take what's been in that contract, so simple thing like the terms for payment change from 30 days to 45. Well today or traditionally, people would go and have to update that manually. Well we created a technology called True-up where you're able identify all those key factors, these key data points, and automatically have that update within your Salesforce instance. A challenge for one of our customers is renewals, right? Often we have standard policies of we're going to have to notice customers 60 days in advance of their renewal. Well sometimes we have to negotiate that and sometimes it's 90 days or six months. We've made that really easy when those terms change, we have the ability to true those up and that actually will be reflected in Salesforce automatically. So without any human intervention, outside of approving the term that you've accepted it, it automatically uploads into Salesforce. >> So Truing-up, just to repeat what you said to make sure I understand, so it's basically taking a negotiated terms and the contract and making sure it's getting into the system of records, system of engagement. >> Exactly. >> So it's implemented. >> Yup. >> It's true and another factor within the integration of the Salesforce, is that you can make some of that negotiation happen upfront. So, if you're using CPQ solution for instance, you may negotiate the quote before it even gets to the contract and that can limit the amount of Truing-up we even have to do at the end. >> Right, right. >> And that's the other piece is that one of the things we've done is when it comes to just a cash to quote, we've built a product specifically designed for the cash-to-quote. We call it Conga Contracts Negotiator Edition. And what that really is designed of is, for those customers that have quotes that are going out, that are getting quantities in negotiated, maybe a price propose change, maybe a different terms that are already listed on that quote, we've provided a technology that basically can support that so when the customer comes back with those changes, it also can be Trued-up with Salesforce without having to go in and go back and rework the quote and redo all those quantities. We've made that sync in that True-up capability available even for that quote thing. So very complimentary to the CPQ practice that ATG has today. >> Right. Just curious, Sharmon, from some of your experience with customers. What is the hardest thing that people think is going to be easy and then what's the low-hanging fruit that people go "oh my goodness, this is phenomenal," that maybe is not that hard but the value delivery is consistently over the top for people that are kind of in this journey? >> The thing that I think companies often struggle to do implement into their vision here, is that when you are buying a piece of technology to solve a problem, is that, that piece of technology on its own is not going to solve your problem. You have to take a look at the processes that you use and figure out how to optimize those along with the tools, these awesome tools, that you get with the technology and not pave your cart path. So don't keep doing the same things you've been doing for 20 years and just make them automated. Take advantage of this tool that you have. I think what people underestimate how easy it is, is all the things that they have available to them with this automation. The approval process that can be automated. I don't have to email four people and get their responses back to say "yeah, those changes are OK". That I can build that approval process, that I can build in the acceptance of changes to clauses. My legal department can say "I'll accept this as governing law or that as governing law" and give my salespeople the opportunity to do that without involving legal. And people often don't understand how easy that can be. >> Right. Fewer emails? That's got to be an easy case. >> Yeah, I wish it was just that simple but absolutely right, we're eliminating everything that lives outside of it and getting control. I mean, I couldn't agree more. Customers sometimes think the technology is going to solve the problem and it's really not just the technology when it comes to CLM. It's about the technology and the process and I think with the processes we've done and the practices we've developed, that's really helping customers get greater at adoption, greater rate of ROI, really optimize that so that they're getting a higher value. And time to evaluate what the process we use when they're looking at CLM. >> It's almost a waste of money if you don't go the extra mile for the people in the process, to really take advantage of the investment. Well Bob, Sharmon, thanks for taking a few minutes of your day and Bob, specifically, congrats on this great event and thank you for having us. >> Yeah, thank you for joining us as well and thank you for the time. >> Thank you. >> All right, he's Bob, she's Sharmon, I'm Jeff. You're watching theCUBE. We're at Conga Connect West at the Thirsty Bear at Dreamforce, San Francisco. Thanks for watching.

Published Date : Sep 25 2018

SUMMARY :

Brought to you by Conga. Here at the Thirsty Bear, they're giving out free drinks, Bob, great to see you. Glad that we are here. Just before we jump into it, you guys said you did socialize, meet our technical folks but at the out in the field with all the customers. And more often than not, the tech is the easiest part. what you see in the field, kind of the state of the at Conga because our synergies and the way we work So what are some of the things that people, you know, or the contract automation value, we really got to do that the right payment terms get into the ERP system of the term of a specific service, we needed that we don't know where it is and we just kind of one of the things that we really did was So Truing-up, just to repeat what you said to of the Salesforce, is that you can support that so when the customer comes back with that maybe is not that hard but the value delivery that I can build in the acceptance of changes to clauses. That's got to be an easy case. It's about the technology and the process and the extra mile for the people in the process, Yeah, thank you for joining us as well and We're at Conga Connect West at the Thirsty Bear

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theCUBE Insights from VMworld 2018


 

(upbeat techno music) >> Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE covering VMworld2018 brought to by VMware and it's ecosystem partners. >> Welcome back to theCUBE, I am Lisa Martin with Dave Vellante, John Furrier, Stu Miniman at the end of day two of our continuing coverage, guys, of VMworld 2018, huge event, 25+ thousand people here, 100,000+ expected to be engaging with the on demand and the live experiences. Our biggest show, right? 94 interviews over the next three days, two of them down. Let's go, John, to you, some of the takeaways from today from the guests we've had on both sets, what are some of the things that stick out in your mind? Really interesting? >> Well we had Michael Dell on so that's always a great interview, he comes on every year and he's very candid and this year he added a little bit more color commentary. That was great, it was one of my highlights. I thought the keynote that Sanjay Poonen did, he had an amazing guest, Nobel Peace Prize winner, the youngest ever and her story was so inspirational and I think that sets a tone for VMware putting a cultural stake in the ground around tech for good. We've done a lot of AI for good with Intel and there's always been these initiatives but I think there's now a cultural validation that people generally want to work for and buy from companies that are mission driven and mission driven is now part of it and people can be judged on that front so it's good to see VMware get some leadership there and put the stake in the ground. I thought that was the big news today, at least from my standpoint. The rest were like point product announcements. Sanjay Poonen went into great detail on that. Pat Gelsinger also came on, another great highlight and again we didn't have a lot of time, he was running a bit late, he had a tight schedule but it shows how smart he is, he's really super technical and he actually understands at a root level what's going on so he's actually a great CEO right now, the financial performance is there and he's also very technical, and I think it encapsulates all of it that Dell Technologies, under Michael Dell, he's making so much more money, he's going to be richer and richer. (laughing) He took an entrepreneurial bet, it wasn't hurting at the time but Dell was kind of boring, Dave. I wouldn't call it like an innovative company at the time when they were public using the 90 day shot clock. They had some things going on but they were a hardware company, a supplier to IT footprints-- >> Whoa, whoa, they were 60 billion dollars in revenue and a 20 billion dollar market gap, so something was broken. >> Well I mean it was working numbers wise but he seemed-- >> No that's opposite, a 20 billion dollar value on a 60 billion of revenue, is you're sort of a failure, so anyway, at the time. >> Market conditions aside, right, at the time, he seemed like he wanted to do something entrepreneurial and the takeaway from my interview with him, our interview with him, was he took an entrepreneurial bet put his own cash on the table and it's paying off, that horse is coming in. He's going to make more money on this transaction and takes EMC out of the game, folds it into the operations, it really is going to be, I think, a financial success story if market conditions continue to be the way they are. Michael Dell will go down as a great financial maneuver and he'll be in the top epsilon of deals. >> The story people might forget is that Carl Icahn tried to take the company away from him. Michael Dell beat the great Carl Icahn, which doesn't happen often. Why did Carl Icahn want to take Dell private? Because he knew he could make a boatload of money off of it and Michael Dell said, "No way you're taking my company. "I'm going to do my thing and change the industry." >> He's going to have 90% voting control with Silver Lake Partners when the deal is all said and done and taking a company private and the executing the financial engineering plus execution is really hard to do, look at Elon Musk in the news today. He's trying to take Tesla private, he got his butt handed to him. Now he's saying, "No, we're going to stay public." (laughing) >> Wait, guys, are you saying Michael, after he gets all this money from VMware that it will help them go public, he's not going to sell off VMware or get rid of that, right? >> Well that's a joke that he would sell VMware, I mean-- >> Unless the cash is going to be good? >> No, he won't do it. >> I don't think it'll happen. I mean, maybe some day he sells some of the portion of it but you're not going to give up control of it, why would he? It's throwing off so much cash. He's got Silver Lake as a private equity company, they understand this inside and out. I mean this transaction goes down in history as one of the greatest trades ever. >> Yeah. >> Let me ask you guys a question, because I think is one we brought up in the interview because at that time, the pundits, we were actually right on this deal. We were very bullish on it, and we actually analyzed it. You guys did a good job at Wikibon and we on theCUBE pretty much laid out what happened. He executed it, we put the risks out there, but at the time people were saying, "This is a bad deal, EMC." The current state of IT at that time looked like it was dismal but the market forces that changed were cloud, and so what were those sideways impact points that no one understood, that really helped him lift this up? What's your thoughts, Dave, on that? >> First of all the desktop business did way better than anybody thought it would, which is amazing and actually EMC did pretty poorly for a while and so that was kind of a head fake. And then as we knew, VMware crushed it and crushed it even more than anybody expected so that threw off so much cash they were able to deliver, they did Pivotal, they did a Pivotal IPO, sold some software assets. I mean basically Michael Dell and his team did everything they said they said they were going to do and it's worked out, as he said today, even better than they possibly thought. >> Well and the commentary I'd give here is when the acquisition of EMC by Dell happened, the big turn we had is the impact of cloud and we said, "Well, okay they've got VMware over there "and they've got Pivotal but Dell's "just going to be a boring infrastructure company "with server, network and storage." The message that we heard at Dell World and maturing even more here is that this portfolio of families. Yes, VMware's a big piece of it, NSX and the networking, but Pivotal with PKS, all of those tie in to what's Dell's selling. Every time they're selling VxRail, you know that has a big VMware piece. They do the networking piece that extends across multi clouds, so Dell has a much better multi cloud story than I expected them to have when they bought EMC. >> But now, VMware hides a lot of warts. >> Yeah. >> Right? >> Absolutely. >> Let's be honest about that. >> What are they? >> Okay. I still think the client business is exposed. I mean as great as it is, you got to gain share in that business if you want to keep winning, number one. Number two is, the big question I have is can the core of Dell EMC continue to innovate or will it just make incremental improvements, have to do acquisitions to do innovation, inorganic acquisitions, and end up with more stovepipes? That's always been, Stu used to work there, that was always EMC's biggest challenge. Jeff Clark came in and said, "Okay, we're going to rationalize the portfolio." That has backlash as customer's say, "Well wait a minute, does that mean "you're not going to support my products?" No, no, we're going to support your products. So they've got to continue to innovate. As I say, VMware, because of how much cash it throws off, it's 50% of the company's profits, hides a lot of those exposures. >> And if VMware takes a turn, if market conditions change, the debt looming is exposed so again, the game's not over for Dell. He can see the finish line, but. (laughing) >> Buy low, sell high, guess who's selling right now? >> So a lot of financial impact, continued innovation but at the end of the day, guys, this is all about impacting customer's businesses. Not just from we've got to enable them to be successful in this multi cloud era, that's the norm today. They need to facilitate successful digital transformations, business outcomes, but they also have VMware, Dell EMC, Dell Technologies, great power to help customer's transform their cultures. I'd love to get perspective from you guys because I love the voice to the customer, what are some of your favorite Dell EMC, VMware, partner, customer stories that you've heard the last couple days that really articulate the value of this financial successful company that they're achieving? >> Well the first thing I'll say before we get to the customer stories is on your point about what VMware's doing, is they're a technology, Robin Matlock, the CMO was on theCUBE talking about they're a technology company, they have the hands on labs, they're a very geeky audience, which we love. But they have to get leadership on the product side, they got to maintain the R and D, they got to have best in class technical products that actually are relevant. You look at companies like Tintri that went bankrupt, great technology, cul-de-sac market. There's no market there, the world's going cloud. So to me VMware has to start pumping out really strong products and technologies that the customer's are going to buy, right? (laughing) >> In conjunction with the customer to help co-develop what the customer's need. >> So I was talking to a customer and he said, "Look, I'm 10 years behind where the cloud guys are "with Amazon so all I want is VMware "to make my life easier, continue to cut my costs. "I like the way I'm operating, "I just get constant pressure to cut cost, "so if they keep doing that, I'm going to stay with them "for a long, long time." Pete Townsend said it best, companies like VMware, Dell EMC, they move at the speed of the CIO and as long as they can move at the speed of the CIO, I've said this a million times, the rich get richer and it's why competent management that led by founders like Larry Ellison, like Michael Dell, continue to do well in this industry. >> And Andy Jassy technically, I would say, a found of AWS because he started it. >> Absolutely. >> A key, the other thing I would also say from a customer, we hear a lot of customer, I won't name names because a lot of our data's in hallway conversations and at night when we go out and get the real stories. On theCUBE it's mostly, oh we've been very successful at VM, we use virtualization, blah, blah, blah and it's an IT story, but the customers in the hallways that are off the record are saying essentially this, I'm paraphrasing, look it, we have an operation to run. I love this cloud stuff and I'd love to just blink my fingers and be in the cloud and just get rid of all this and operate at a level of cloud native, I just can't. I can't get there. They see Amazon's relationship with VMware as a bridge to the future and takes away a lot of cognitive dissonance around the feelings around VMware's lack of cloud, if you will. In this case, now that's satisfied with the AWS deal and they're focused on operations on premises and how to get their app more closed, like modernize so a lot of the blocking and tackling of the customer is I got virtualization and that's great but I don't want to miss out on the next lever of innovation. Okay, I'm looking at it going slow but no one's instantly migrating to the cloud. >> No way, no way. >> They're either born in the cloud or you're on migration schedules now, really evaluating the financial impact, economic impact, headcount impact of cloud. That's the reality of the cloud. >> You got to throw a flag on some of that messaging of how easy it is to migrate. I mean it's just not that easy. I've talked to customers that said, "Well we started it and we just kind of gave up. "There was no point in it. "The new stuff we're going to do in the cloud, "but we're not going to migrate all of our apps to the cloud, "it just makes no sense, there's no business case for it." >> This is where NSX and containers and Kubernetes bet is big, I think, I think if NSX can connect the clouds with some sort of interoperable layer for whatever workloads are going to move on either Amazon or the clouds, that's good. If they want to get the developers off virtualization, into a new drug, if you will, it's going to be services, micro services, Kubernetes because you can throw containers around those old workloads, modernize with the new stuff without killing the old and Stu and I heard this clear at the CNCF and the Lennox Foundation, that this has changed the mindset because you don't have to kill the old to bring in the new. You can bring in the new, containerize the old and manage on your speed of the CIO. >> And that's Amazon's bet isn't it? I mean, look, even Sanjay even said, if you go back five, six years, the original reinvent that was sweep the floor, bring it all into the cloud? I think that's in Amazon's DNA. I mean ultimately that's their vision. That's what they want to have happen and the way they get there is how you just described it, John. >> That's where this partnership between Amazon and VMware is so important because, right, Amazon has a lot of the developers but needs to be able to get deeper into the enterprise and VMware, starting to make some progress with the developers, they've got a code initiative, they've got all of these cool projects that they announced with everything from server less and Kubernetes and many others, Edge going to be a key use case there but you know, VMware is not, this is not the developer show. Most of the conversations that I had with customers, we're talking IT things, I mean customers doing some cool things but it's about simplifying in my environment, it's about helping operations. Most of the conversations are not about this cool new micro services building these things out. >> Cisco really is the only legacy, traditional enterprise company that's crushing developers. You give IBM some chops, too, but I wouldn't say they're crushing it. We saw that at Cisco Live, Cisco is doing a phenomenal job with developers. >> Well the thing about the cloud, one thing I've been pointing out, observation that I have is if you look at the future of the cloud and you can look for metaphors and/or real examples, I think Amazon Web Services, obviously we know them well but Google Cloud to me is a picture of the future. Not in the sense of what they have for the customer's today it's the way they've run their business from day one. They have developers and they have SREs, Site Reliability Engineers. This VMworld community is going down two paths. Developers are going to be rapidly iterating on real apps and operators who are going to be running systems. That's network storage, all integrated. That's like an SRE at Google. Google's running massive scale and they perfected it, hence Kubernetes, hence some of the tools coming in to services like Istio and things that we're seeing in the Lennox Foundation. To me that's the future model, it's an operator and set of developers. Whoever can make that easy, completely seamless, is the winner of it all. >> And the linchpin, a linchpin, maybe not the linchpin, but a linchpin is still the database, right? We've seen that with Oracle. Why is Amazon going so hard after the database? I mean it's blatantly obvious what their strategy is. >> Database is the hill that everyone is trying to take down. Capture the hill, you get the high ground with the database. >> Come on Dave, when you used to do the financial models of how much money is spent by the enterprise, that database was a big chunk. We've seen the erosion of lots of licensing out there. When I talked to Microsoft, they're like, pushing a lot of open source, they're going to cloud. Microsoft licensing isn't as much. VMware licensing is something that customers would like to shrink over time but database is even bigger. >> It's a strategic fulcrum, obviously Oracle has it. Microsoft clearly has it with Sequel Server. IBM, a big part of IBM's success to this day, is DB2 running on mainframe. (laughing) So Amazon wants a piece of that action, they understand to be a major player in this business you have to have database infrastructure. >> I mean costs are going down, it's going to come down to economics. End of the day the operating models as I said, some things about DB2 on mainframe, the bottom line's going to come down to when the cost numbers to run at the value and cost expense involved in running the tech that's going to be the ultimate way that things are either going to be cleared out or replaced or expanded so the bottom line is it's going to be a cost equation at that level and then the upside's going to be revenue. >> And just a great thing for VMware, since they don't own the application, when they do things like RDS in their environment they are freeing up dollars that customers are then going to be more likely to want to spend with VMware. >> Great point. I want to make real quick, three things we've been watching this week. Is the Amazon VMware deal a one way trip to the cloud? I think it's clear not in the near term, anyway. And the second is what about the edge? The edge to me is all about data, it's like the wild, wild west. It's very unclear that there's a winner there but there's a new type of cloud emerging. And three is the Dell structure. We asked Pat, we asked VMware Ray O'Farrell, we asked Michael, if that 11 billion dollar special dividend was going to impact VMware's ability to fund it's future? Consistent answer there, no. You know, we'll see, we'll see. >> I mean what are they going to say? Yeah, that really limits my ability to buy companies, on theCUBE? No, that's the messaging so of course, 11 billion dollars gone means they can't do MNA with the cash, that means, yeah it's going to be R and D, what does that mean? Investment, so I think the answer is yes it does limit them a little bit. >> Has to. >> It's cash going out the door. >> But VMware just spent, it is rumored, around 500 million dollars for CloudHealth Technologies, Dave, Boston based company, with about 200 people You know, hey, have a billion-- >> They're going to put back a dividend anyway and do stock buybacks but I'm not sure 11 out of the 13 billion is what they would choose to do that for, so going forward, we'll see how it all plays out, obviously. I think, Floyer wrote about this, more has to go toward VMware, less toward-- >> I think it's the other way around. >> Well I think it's really good that we have one more day tomorrow. >> I think it's a one way trip to the cloud in a lot of instances, I think a lot of VMware customers are going to go off virtualization, not hypervisor and end up being in the cloud most of the business. It's going to be interesting, I think the size of customers that Amazon has now, versus VMware is what? Does VMware have more customers than Amazon right now? >> It's pretty close, right? VMware's 500,000? >> 500,000 for VMware. >> And Amazon's-- >> Over a million. >> Are they over a million, really? >> Yeah. >> A lot of smaller customers, but still. >> Yeah. >> Customer's a customer. >> But VMware might have bigger customers, see that's-- >> No question the ASP is higher, but-- >> It's not conflict, I'm just thinking like cloud is natural, right? Why wouldn't you want to use the cloud, right? I mean. >> So guys-- >> So the debate continues. >> Exactly. Good news is we have more time tomorrow to talk more about all this innovation as well as see more real world examples of how VMware is going to be enabling tech for good. Guys, thanks so much for your commentary and letting me be a part of the wrap. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Lisa. >> Looking forward to day three tomorrow. For Dave, Stu and John, I'm Lisa Martin. You've been watching our coverage of day two VMworld 2018. We look forward to you joining us tomorrow, for day three. (upbeat techno music)

Published Date : Aug 29 2018

SUMMARY :

brought to by VMware and and the live experiences. and put the stake in the ground. and a 20 billion dollar market so anyway, at the time. and he'll be in the top epsilon of deals. and change the industry." Elon Musk in the news today. sells some of the portion of it but at the time people were saying, First of all the desktop business Well and the commentary I'd give here it's 50% of the company's profits, He can see the finish that really articulate the value that the customer's are going the customer's need. "I like the way I'm operating, I would say, a found of AWS and be in the cloud in the cloud or you're on all of our apps to the cloud, the old to bring in the new. and the way they get there is how you Amazon has a lot of the developers Cisco really is the only legacy, Not in the sense of what they a linchpin, maybe not the linchpin, Database is the hill that We've seen the erosion of success to this day, the bottom line's going to come down to are then going to be more And the second is what about the edge? No, that's the messaging so of course, out of the 13 billion is that we have one more day tomorrow. cloud most of the business. to use the cloud, right? and letting me be a part of the wrap. We look forward to you joining

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Jaspreet Singh & Dave Packer, Druva | VMworld 2018


 

>> Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE. Covering VMworld 2018. Brought to you by VMware and its ecosystem partners. >> Welcome back. We're in Las Vegas at VMworld 2018. You're watching theCUBE and one of the key themes of the show we've been talking about is multi-cloud. At Wikibon, in our research, when we talk about multi-cloud, really at the center of it, you're talking about data. We're going to have a center we're going to talk about here. I'm Stu Miniman, my cohost for the segment and the next couple ones is Justin Warren. Happy to welcome back to the program two gentlemen from Druva, Jaspreet Singh, to my right. He is the founder and CEO, and Dave Packer is the President of Product and Alliance Marketing. Gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us. >> Thanks a lot and good to see you again. >> Yeah, absolutely. First of all, I have to say, you guys had a fun thing going on this week. The mountain. The world's strongest man. (all laughing) >> He's my cousin, by the way. (all laughing) >> That's amazing. He got the height, you got something else. I'm not filing a complaint but I do have video proof of him putting his hands around my neck. Luckily, he didn't squeeze too much. Some fun stuff. We like to have some fun in the community here. Jaspreet, let's start. Your presence at the show, the importance of data, the importance of virtualization as it comes to Druva. >> Absolutely. I think, that, I'm going to give a cliche, data is the new oil. It's center of everything, the whole digital transformation. We think about that the data being transforming the world and we think about how very old school legacy industrialists still transforming themselves. Data is the core of it. Talk about energy sector, talk about commodity trading, talk about consumer electronics, or any of those core transformations. At the center of this whole transformationist data, and Druva's all about passion, about how do we manage it holistically in this new world for multi-cloud. >> I've seen way too many debates. We try to come up with simple analogies and I think what we're, in general, all agree is we're understating how important data is. But maybe, you can touch on, when big data came out, it was the three Vs of what we were doing. When you talk about multi-cloud, there's a lot of aspects, what's changed with data? Druva's been around for a number of years now and helped customers get their arms around leveraging and managing and dealing with data. What, recently, is so important about data, and some of the options there? >> That's a great question. I'll talk about two key trends which are shaping the way how people think about data. One is the change in the in the data itself. If you think about last two years, the 80% of data being created is not machine-generated. It's about human text messages, the new kind of data is born. Second, there's a whole generation of data analysis. Color cognitive systems, search analysis, data enablement systems being born between, and they're all growing at a massively fast rate. A combination of these two, enterprises are trying to understand how they manage more disperse and diverse information in a very meaningful manner without having to learn any new platform from the start. This is where Druva comes in. Druva's promise is data management as a service, which means you have data everywhere and we will give you a simple SLA-based, always on, on-demand service to manage it wherever it resides. Be it in private cloud like vSAN or vSphere or (mumbles) or it be public cloud like VMC or AWS. We have built organic systems, acquired companies to sort of give the whole breadth of management solutions built from a same console or platform offered to enterprises. >> Dave, want to pull you into the discussion here. >> Yeah. >> Years ago, it used to be every company, let's vertically integrate everything. Oracle will become your one-stop shop. IBM, example there. Now, we know it takes a village to interact with your data ecosystem and community. Big discussion points here. Maybe talk about how important that is to Druva. Who you work with, and the like. >> The way we look at it is foundational to what we do is really about how you get at the data. Regardless of its source, be it endpoints, be it servers, physical or virtual, be it cloud workloads, which is kind of the new operating environment for a lot of businesses. When you think about building out the ecosystem, you have to figure out, you've got this rich set of data you've brought together. You've got the meta data, you've got all the information about where it is, who has it, who's doing what with it. Then the ecosystem that builds out there is then much more use case basis, like security oriented. If you can think of one element around how do I know when there's something happening in my environment that's actually going to impact my business ahead of time, or at a point? You can use some solutions to solve that today, but when you have that bigger picture, you have a better understanding of what's going on and what's not going on. I think where we've gotten to as an organization is being able to provide this framework, to have this kind of unified view and access to all these different data sources. To manage them for the foundational elements of resiliency and DR, etc. But also, we find that in our large enterprise customers have big use cases around data governance, compliance, GDPR. All the buzzwords we've heard of in the last year. Fundamentally, how do you help companies better align to those particular use cases? We can do some of that, but we don't do all of it and I think that's fundamentally where you get into the ecosystem of building out. >> Druva's cloud-native, as well. >> Yes. >> What is it about the cloud, multi-cloud and cloud, cloud all the things is, clearly, one of the reasons why we're here at this show. What is it about Druva's cloud native abilities that provides the value to customers, as distinct from some other solutions? >> When you really think about what's the difference, what is cloud-native, it's basically treating the cloud like an operating system. You're building using the native databases, storage architectures, all the different elements of what the service provides. For a customer's point of view, what it really means is agility of access to services. On-demand, if I've got to scale up, I just acquired a company and I want to add in a petabyte of data, how do I do that if I've got a traditional on-premises environment. It's very hard to do. It's very hard to protect. How do I figure out the DR around it, everything else? With native cloud, it's just basically you turn it on and you go. I think people today, it's a nuance that not everybody's really intimate with, understanding the native environment versus maybe running an instance in the cloud and trying to scale out multiple instances of a service. In our world, you get the agility, you bring in cost efficiency. Because we're using micro-services, we're using the data storage layer smartly, intelligently, instead of just dumping the data into it. That gives the customer the ability to have a better understanding and really move over to a consumption model of purchasing services. Month to month, I know what I'm doing. I have predictability into it. I understand where my pricing is and what I'm actually paying for rather than paying for it all up front and then growing into it over time. >> I'll give you one example. Same difference between VMware traditional and the VMware cloud. The whole notion of consuming something as you go, on-demand, burst capacity. SLA-driven to a customer at a price point anywhere it'll go in the world. An example of that with Druva is we promised a customer, we're testing with a customer would you care if we dropped the price of backup by 30% if you do off-peak hours backup? That's the power of size, the power of as a service. They don't have to orchestrate a service-building software, cloud hardware, and put it all together. A simple service delivered to a customer at the price point they need. >> Yeah that's data as a utility, really. >> Right. >> Exactly. >> As Jaspreet said, data is the new oil. One advantage of the cloud is that you now will be able to turn that oil into other products. Plastics, Vaseline, all of these different by-products. Because now you can use the various services of the cloud, whether they be AWS or multi-cloud, and connect them into a service level architecture. To be able to do data analytics, to get better intelligence out of your data, and use it for more than just the traditional data protection services. Really use it as a data management platform. >> One of the conversations I've had with a lot of users at this show, in previous years at VMworld is multi-cloud, hybrid cloud, it's where they're going, but there's a spectrum of where they are. A lot of them are still a little bit trepidatious as to how they get there, how do they start making some steps. You guys are architected like this is where you need to go. How do you help them along those journeys? What are some pros and cons? How do you help a typical VMware customer move along those journey? >> That's a great question. If I'm a data admin, if I'm an admin worried about either the business continuity or the legal aspect of data, to adhere to cloud and learn a new platform, a new paradigm. The Druva really comes handy there. Now you can get the cloudiness, all the goodness of cloud without having to learn a new platform. Druva attaches a service with your vSphere. Some momentum to spin up a bunch of VMs. They're already protected, without provisioning more hardware and software. That's number one. Number two is we have a customer journey map that says Mr. Customer, the number one thing you should worry about, which you already worry about is business continuity. We've got it covered. A simple SLA applied to your VMware, whatever it is, on-premise or on the cloud. As you get through your business continuity needs covered, you have data governance need, compliance need. Where Druva can now get the value extracted from the data you're protecting to give you compliance and governance needs out of the data you already have with us. Then comes the intelligence piece, the automation, the higher value security operations, which are now working with the customer, building with them, to solve those high-value use cases, and completely abstracting out. That they don't have to learn a new platform. They don't have to know Kinesis or Redshift. We know it all to give them a single use case they pay the money for. >> It does make it easy for customers to then just say, look, if I were to, for example, buy another company as you mentioned before, then, well, it's already covered. I can use the same system I've already got, that will work really nicely. For the same reason, something went around MNA that people often don't talk about is the divestiture part. If I wanted to split off a business unit and I have to somehow unwrap it from my existing backup system, being able to just say, well, I can just turn off that little portion or. Can you explain how would that actually be handled in Druva? Can you just split out a service and say well, that piece is now being handled by a different company? >> That's a great question. Actually, one of our customers, Allergan actually, one of their (mumbles) use cases around MNA. They've acquired, in the last two or three years, about 10 or 12 companies. Bringing them in, but they've also had to deal with divestitures as well. One of the advantages of the service we provide is they can just quickly deploy the agents and start pulling in the data. They don't have to integrate the data centers and figure that part out. >> Yeah. >> Then divestitures, just basically doing the opposite. Dropping off the agents and then purging that data from the system as needed. One of the beauties of the cloud is that, having kind of that master catalog across all those different spots of your data allows you to go in and say I want to remove this particular data set, which is also really beneficial for things like GDPR, where you might want to find a piece of data and purge it out of the system. We'll remove it from the source as well as all the backup set shots, which is something that's kind of unique, but something that we can provide because of the way we actually handle it. >> Before we let you go, we're talking about MNA. CloudRanger was a recent acquisition. How's that fit into the overall story? >> We had a vision to build what we call a (mumbles) to manage native clouds in Amazon, Redshift, RDS, EC2. The data management aspects of them. We saw a great team, a great founder, a great vision, and they already had some great traction on the common DNA-driver has. Building out a service business model to address these pain points around data management. Off-native or clouds. We acquired them and we kept the team and the BU intact. Druva's also building its platform to a cloud platform where we have a single search across all data sources. We have single reporting, alerting, even consumptions. Customers can consume what they like and get billed for the total usage which is having the provision software and hardware. CloudRanger cleanly fits into that. Now, they can protect with Druva endpoints, data center, cloud-native or (mumbles), VMware cloud and all the SaaS services. You got the entire umbrella covered very well. >> Jaspreet and Dave, really appreciate the updates. Congrats on the acquisition and thanks, we had some fun here at the show, too. For Justin Warren, I'm Stu Miniman, back with lots more coverage here at VMworld 2018. Thank you for watching theCUBE. (electronic tones)

Published Date : Aug 29 2018

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Brought to you by VMware and its ecosystem partners. of the show we've been talking about is multi-cloud. First of all, I have to say, you guys had a fun thing He's my cousin, by the way. He got the height, you got something else. It's center of everything, the whole digital transformation. and some of the options there? One is the change in the in the data itself. Maybe talk about how important that is to Druva. and I think that's fundamentally where you get into What is it about the cloud, multi-cloud and cloud, That gives the customer the ability to have and the VMware cloud. One advantage of the cloud is that you now will be able One of the conversations I've had with a lot of users needs out of the data you already have with us. that people often don't talk about is the divestiture part. One of the advantages of the service we provide One of the beauties of the cloud is that, How's that fit into the overall story? and get billed for the total usage which is Jaspreet and Dave, really appreciate the updates.

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David Wigglesworth, OVH & Geoff Waters, VMware | VMworld 2018


 

>> Live from Las Vegas. It's theCUBE. Covering VMworld 2018. Brought to you by VMware and its ecosystem partners. >> Welcome to theCUBE. We are live at VMworld 2018. Day one, VMware's 20th anniversary. I am Lisa Martin, very excited to be joined by Dave Vellante. Hey, Dave! >> Hey, Lisa, good to see you again. >> Good to see you, too. We are welcoming back to theCUBE, an alumni, Geoff Waters, the VP of Global Cloud Sales for Vmware, hi, Geoff. >> Hi, great to be here, guys. Last year, we talked about the buzz, VMware getting the buzz back. Boy, this is a sonic boom this year. >> Yeah, it's a lot of buzz. >> Superpower infused. And we've also got David Wigglesworth, the Chief Revenue Officer for OVH. David, welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you very much, both of you, Dave and Lisa. >> So, I have to ask first, do you have the VMware tattoo that Pat Gelsinger sported this morning? >> I don't have VMware, but I do have OVHcloud. Okay, so, speaking of OVH, David give our viewers an overview of what you guys are doing and what momentum you have created with VMware. >> Yeah, you know, it's an exciting time for us, especially to be here, as a Global Diamond sponsor, right? This is our second year, as OVHcloud, to be here. Last year, when we came, it was right after the vCloud Air acquisition of the asset from Vmware. Which is where our partnership just continued to grow more and more. And, so, for the last year, what we've been doing is we've really been focusing on deploying our data centers here, as well as getting our products ready to go to market. I always joke that OVHcloud is, probably, the best-kept secret in the US because that, when we acquired vCloud Air's assets, is when we kind of launched in the US. But, as Geoff can tell you in a few minutes, we've been a partner with VMware for years, right? And it's been really exciting. >> Yeah, I wonder if you could talk about that, Geoff, a little bit, I mean, the signal on vCloud Air early on, you guys kept having to tune the radio station, so to speak. >> Yep. >> Yep. >> And then, boom, finally it hit the OVH acquisition and then AWS deal, of course, IBM and other cloud service providers. Talk about how that all came about, and the track that you're on now. >> Yes, so, I mean, we've been partnering with OVH for actually nine years, I went back and I researched it. >> Did you? >> Yeah, back in Europe. So, they've actually been a seven-time Service Provider of the Year award winner. So, our relationship with OVH is nothing new. And we've been working with them for years. The other thing is the breadth of the portfolio adoption, the full SDDC stack, so not just vSphere, NSX, vSAN, the entire stack. So, you know, OVH is right in the forefront of our overall cloud strategy, and it has been for years. >> Yeah, and as a global infrastructure provider, we have almost a million 500 thousand customers, in 138 different countries. We have 28 data centers, three here in North America. We've got the breadth to go to the market in a big way. So, it's exciting to be here. >> So, lay out the options that you have for OVH customers. What services can they get from you? What are the platforms? >> No, it's a great question. So, obviously, have a very purpose-felt solution built on VMware, right, with our Hybrid Private Cloud. It's all built on the SDDC stack. So vSphere, vSAN, NSX, everything that Geoff mentioned. We also offer a bare metal solution. And then we also have a public cloud offering that's built on our relationship that we have with OpenStack. So, we give our customers three different choices on what they want to go to the market with. >> So, what do you make of, what's the AWS-VMware partnership mean for OVH? How do you guys take advantage of that? >> Well, I mean, you know, look. I think Pat, in his keynote this morning, talked about that eight out of every 10 customers is using cloud today, multi-cloud strategy. The average large customer is using, what did he say, eight clouds? >> Yep. >> He said that they're forecasting that there would be 10 clouds by the end of 2019. I'd like to take one of those two spots, if you don't mind. So, no, we think there's huge opportunity. I mean, Amazon's built a business on, and has created kind of the standard. We think there's plenty of room to play in a very large market. >> Well, the services market has always been highly fragmented. >> Yep. >> And it's always been local in nature. Maybe not as to the degree and scale, but, so, you've got, what did you say, a million and a half customers? >> Globally. >> So what are they telling you about their cloud strategy? >> Well, what our customers are asking for is they're asking for agility. They're looking for low cost. You know, we announced a partner program earlier this morning, where we're launching that. And our partners are coming to us saying, David, give us choice, give us flexibility, and help us save a little bit of money. I mean, all of our partners are dealing with margin erosion, as well as everybody else in the industry. So, if we can come to market and actually help them go acquire a customer, and help them do that in a way that's cost-effective, they're very excited about that. >> So, what's the conversation that you're having with customers? You know, we were, a lot of press, a lot of news came out this morning. A lot of great announcements made by Pat and team on stage. Customers talking about migrating from on-prem to the cloud, from public back to on-premises, for security compliance reasons. What are some of the things that you guys are hearing from customers, when you're having those business-level discussions about being able to execute a successful cloud strategy? >> You want to hit that first, and I'll come over. >> Go ahead. Well, I can. So, what our customers are talking about is simplicity. One of the things that we're excited to work about, to work with VMware on, is that our customers, when they move their solution on-prem to our hybrid cloud, they use the exact same resources that they use on-prem today. They don't have to go hire new people. It's all of the exact same economics that they've built to an on-prem solution, is in their off-prem solution with OVHcloud. That's what makes this so unique, right? I mean, look, part of the vCloud Air acquisition, what are we doing? We're migrating VMware customers, right, that are using VMware technology, that we're setting on vCloud Air into OVH data centers, using VMware technology to do it. And, so, it's. >> Just to add to that, the beauty is reducing day two complexity onto the operations, day two operations. So, instead of customers having to build out all themselves and integrating it, OVH is doing that already. Right out of the gate, in a hosted managed environment. >> That's because it is a like to like homogeneous, and you guys have laid that vision out years ago. >> Yep, yep. >> We sure did. >> When Maritz was running the company. But how does that actually manifest itself? So, a customer says, look, I'm sick of the heavy lifting, I want to get to the cloud. Alright, so they come to you guys, what are the steps that they take to get there? >> Well, there's, you know, the first thing you'll do is you'll sit down with the client. And some clients know exactly what they want to do and how they want to do it. And some customers say, hey, I think I need to be in the cloud, please help me. So we'll have that conversation, right, first of all. Yeah, exactly, it's from A to Z, soup to nuts, whatever you want to say. So, you know, a lot times we'll sit down and we'll walk them through that journey to the cloud. And then, once we determine what applications or workloads we want to move, then we'll back into, okay, well here's the best way to move that, right, and whatever technologies we then decide to do. And if it's vSphere based, it makes it real simple, right? >> And you hit the nail on the head. It starts with the application. It's always about the application. What is the end goal? Right, once you identify that, you start looking at the use cases, a lot of it's app migration, a lot of data center evacuation. A lot of these data centers, as the different leases are coming up, they want to get out of there. Right, and that's the opportunity to then have the discussion. There's also tools that we got. HDX, which allows for bulk migration of workloads and it reduces, you know, the complexity of going to another cloud and another hypervisor from, like, years down to months and weeks. We've had some customers that have done that, migrated hundreds of VMs over a weekend. >> Oh sure. And we're in the process of that right now. >> So, go ahead, please. >> Oh, thank you, I was going to say, could you give us an example of a customer, whether they're in Europe, where you guys have really had a lot success, or here in the Americas, that have really demonstrated substantial business outcomes, revenue, et cetera, leveraging the joint service? >> Well, sure, I mean, you know, we've got customers both in the U.S. and in EMEA, but, you know, I'm thinking about a customer in particular that's based in the U.K.. That, they're a MNA company, right? And, at one time, they had 97 data centers that they were trying to manage. The complexity of that. And, so, they originally went to vCloud Air because they were like, help us with this complexity, we're built on VMware, but we've got to close these data centers, right, we need to go to more of an asset-like model, and we need to be able to manage it effectively with the staff that I have that's already overworked. So that's how we won them as a client with vCloud Air. What's exciting is, is when we come in and we start talking about what we're doing with OVH, and some of the new technology that we're building, on the VMware stack, right, plus the fact that we own our own network. I don't charge ingress and egress charges, right. A lot of the things that we do, We've got 33 points of presence, you know, globally. Then we start having a conversation and they're like, listen I already had a great solution in vCloud Air on VMware, now I've got that on steroids. I've got the benefit of both companies coming together for a solution for my client. >> So how do you get the data from point A to point B? Do you back up the Chevy truck and load it on? >> You can do it that way. >> You talked about your network. What's the kind of best practice? >> Yeah, so the best practice is to come in and understand the actual environment we're working with. What is the tolerance to take that workload up or down? But, if we use technology like HDX, I don't have to take that workload down at all. I'm able to basically, essentially, and don't let me get over my skis, VMware guy, but I am going to essentially do a Vmotion over my network, right, no cost to the customer, into my data center, and the customer can continue to use the app while that's happening. >> And the time that takes is a function of, obviously, the volume of the data, >> Sure, of course. The bandwidth. >> The number of VMs, the complexity of that. >> So you'll schedule that out over a period of, what, days, weeks, months? >> Exactly Years, even, I mean, maybe not years but, maybe I have a multi-year strategy, right? So that's how you're seeing people do it? It's sort of a planned approach. >> Weeks and months is sort of. >> I would say, typically. >> It's project based, yeah. >> So, within months, I can get an entire data center from my on-premises into your platform. Is that a fair statement? >> And if you ever wanted to bring it back, we can do that real easy too. >> You see that happening? >> We see customers moving workloads back and forth, it depends on seasonality. I mean, you take the retail industry, right? There's a lot of times where, during the retail industry, they'll send things to us, they'll flip it around, and, after the holidays are over, they'll bring there on-prem or what have you. >> And, more importantly, I think having network access back into the on-prem data center, with HDX, allows you to have a network connection. So it does need a talk back. The whole workload may not move back, but you need to have communications back into the network. And that's what HDX, their technology, allows. >> Right. >> So it allows me to leave whatever component of my workload I want to keep there. >> Yep, that's right. >> When I'm talking to each other. >> That's right. >> Okay, so for years at VMware, we heard this theme, any app, any workload, really anywhere in the world. >> Exactly. >> Now, you guys, right, you guys have an open source based public cloud. Vmware, obviously, like, hey, some of these cloud native apps, we'd like a piece of that action. You hear Pat talking about Kubernetes and containers. So what's that conversation like, between you guys, I mean you want some of that, right? Are you talking about Edge? Is that more integration? You guys got some work to do there to really compete in the that space? >> Well, I mean, it's your solution. But I'll start off of on the Edge. So, the announcement on Edge today, I don't know if you guys have heard it yet, but really exciting. We've actually announced a lot of different solutions around automation of the data center. I mean, this whole cloud operations is becoming sort of a major problem, as we have eight to 10 global service providers in most enterprises. So, reducing the complexity of that down is incredibly important. All the pieces that we're announcing, a VMware as a service, we're going to roll to our service providers in a managed service environment. So all these new technologies that we just announced, right, David and OVH are going to get access to that and have the same capability. >> That's right. >> I'll let you guys speak, specifically on your OpenStack. >> Well, I mean, listen, the beautiful thing about OpenStack is it's open, right, so, I mean, it doesn't really matter what cloud's out there, we can interface with it, right? So, that's the beauty of it, right? And it doesn't change at all the way that we go to market. It's just, really, we're giving the customers choice. What do you want? And it depends on the app, right? That's what's beautiful about it, is when we've sit down and meet with customers or partners, it's, like, what do you want to do, what workload would you want to move? And we've got choice for you. >> Yeah, I remember when we talked to Pat about this, years ago, when OpenStack was kind of the hot new toy, and he said, OpenStack, we like OpenStack, that's cool, we'll embrace it, no problem, and we're like, really? Yeah, I mean, that's kind of exactly what's happened. I mean, you're seeing the same thing with Kubernetes, and containers, and the like. But, again, you guys still got some work to do to really earn their business for those types of workloads, and I presume you're hard at work. >> We are. I don't know if you wanted to hit on some of the announcements that you. >> Yeah, I'd love to. >> Yeah, let's do that. >> So, the real thing I'm excited about is this morning we announced the announcement of our partner program at OVHcloud. It's an exciting day for us on that because, if you'll remember a few minutes ago, I was talking about all of the things we've been doing for the last year, right, getting our data centers ready, and, also, building out our product stack to be able to go to market, and migrating our customers. Well, the fourth thing we were doing, for the last nine to 12 months, is we've been meeting with partners. And I'm fortunate, from my years at EMC-Vmware, and my team, we have a lot of relationships out there. And so we were able to go meet with these partners and say, listen, here's what we're thinking, what do you guys think, what are you looking for, right? We've got all these big players out there, obviously we know all the names, but what differentiation could we bring to your business to help you go grow revenue? And, you know, they came back to us and they said, Wiggs, what we really want to be able to do is we want to be able to come in slowly, expand that as much as we can, make big commitments, make small commitments, we want the ability to be agile, we want to be able to, help us figure out a way that we can save money and worry about that. Help us resolve that issue of that margin erosion. That's a big thing that a lot of the channel's dealing with today. And, so, that's what we did. We came up with a program of four different levels, right? You can dip your toe in, and with a very minimum commitment, the higher commitment you make, not only do you get a better price, but you also get a ton of support on the backend. So, I actually come in and work with you on your messaging. I have sales teams that can actually go out and help them sell the solution, with us as the infrastructure layer in the underpinning, right, and, so far, it's been really good. >> So these are, don't hate me for saying this, these are sort of traditional box sellers, now trying to transform their business, right, and add more value, or their value added supply. Maybe they're SAP. >> Well, you've got manage service providers. You've got manage service providers. >> Okay, so hosting. >> You've got the SI's and the OS's, right? So, you know, some of these guys they either want a private label, right? Or white label your solution? Some guys just want to go to mark up their solution and they just need an asset like model, right? They're just exhausted with, you know, investing in infrastructure, right? So, they're like, "Listen >> And bodies. >> And body, you take that over and let us worry about that. >> You see, from VMware's perspective, that's exactly what we're seeing. We've got an ecosystem of 42 hundred global service providers. They build their own data centers, have a VMwares based hosted solution of some type. A lot of different flavors. They want to get out of the hardware space and out of the data center management space. This is why it's a great solution for OVH, they want to focus on, and, again, we call this asset light, they want to focus on high margin trusted value. Things that they're good at, where they can make a lot of money. >> Which is what? Like, I always see there's a consulting piece up front, security. >> It could be security specialist. >> Yep, security security services. >> Patching monitor, you know, automation, migration services, I mean, the exact discussion we just talked about, right? Customers need that journey. So OVH abstracts a way, the need to do hardware, and that allows them to go focus on the rich or higher margin services that they offer. >> And how are they making it sticky? Because, obviously, they want that, right? So what do you see there and how are you helping them? >> I think anytime you're adding a value added service, if you add that value it is sticky, right? >> Yeah. >> I mean, for an example, to help our relationship with Vmware, and just how strong it is, you know, FusionStormers was one of the partners that we had announced today, right? And they had a quote in there. And I was just sitting in Pat's keynote, next to our customer. You know, and I'm like, so, you know, I get this, it makes sense, you're looking for this, you know, infrastructure as a service play. He's like, David, what we're trying to do is help our customers that love the VMware stack, we're trying to help them to get to the Cloud, right? They don't care about the infrastructure, all they want is great service, right, and great support. And he said, that's my secret sauce, that I am able to offer that. And he goes, you guys handle the infrastructure. He said, it's perfect. >> Last question, David, for you. What are people going to be able to see and feel and touch at the OVH booth here at VMWorld? >> Oh, that's a great question. So, you're going to be able to go over, and you're going to be able to learn about some of our other announcements, with VMwares. Specifically, around what we're doing on the whole SCDC as a stack, right? In the VMware Cloud foundation, and the announcement we had on that this morning. Or, actually, I think that was Friday. You're actually going to be able to go over and they'll pull up and they'll show you some demos, and be able to see the technology live. I think they have a show every hour, and you go over there. And if you go over, you might win a Yeti mug. I think they're giving a Yeti mug to whoever pays the most attention. (Lisa and Dave ooh) So, go over there and learn about that. >> Can always use another Yeti, yeah, I love the Yeti. >> Yeah >> You can't have too many Yeti's. >> Does it come with caffeine? Because that, I'm all over it. >> No, well, we'll leave it clean, yes, maybe caffeine. >> Okay, awesome. David, Geoff, thanks so much for joining Dave and me this morning. >> Thank you so much, we really enjoyed it. >> You're watching theCUBE, live from VMWorld 2018. Day one, Lisa Martin for Dave Vellante, stick around, we'll be right back. (electronic music)

Published Date : Aug 27 2018

SUMMARY :

Brought to you by VMware Welcome to theCUBE. the VP of Global Cloud VMware getting the buzz back. the Chief Revenue Officer for OVH. Thank you very much, of what you guys are doing acquisition of the asset from Vmware. the radio station, so to speak. and the track that you're on now. been partnering with OVH Service Provider of the Year award winner. We've got the breadth to go the options that you that we have with OpenStack. Well, I mean, you know, look. and has created kind of the standard. Well, the services Maybe not as to the degree and scale, And our partners are coming to us saying, that you guys are hearing and I'll come over. It's all of the exact same economics Right out of the gate, in a and you guys have laid Alright, so they come to you guys, that journey to the cloud. Right, and that's the opportunity of that right now. A lot of the things that we do, What's the kind of best practice? What is the tolerance to take Sure, of course. the complexity of that. So that's how you're seeing people do it? Is that a fair statement? And if you ever I mean, you take the back into the on-prem So it allows me to really anywhere in the world. you guys have an open and have the same capability. I'll let you guys speak, So, that's the beauty of it, right? and containers, and the like. of the announcements that you. for the last nine to 12 months, and add more value, or You've got manage service providers. And body, you take that over and out of the data Which is what? the need to do hardware, that I am able to offer that. What are people going to and the announcement we Can always use another Yeti, Does it come with caffeine? No, well, we'll leave it for joining Dave and me this morning. Thank you so much, stick around, we'll be right back.

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Pablo Gonzalez, Genesis Blockchain Technologies | Blockchain Futurist Conference 2018


 

(electronic music) >> Live from Toronto, Canada it's The Cube covering Blockchain Futurist Conference 2018. Brought to you by The Cube. >> Hello everyone, welcome back to The Cube live coverage here in Toronto, Canada Ontario for Untraceable presents Blockchain Futurist Conference. Two days we've been here. We're on day two, amazing event here, great community, I'm John Furrier your host. Dave Vellante went back east so he was here yesterday. Our next guest Pablo Gonzales is the Founder and CEO of Genesis Blockchain Technologies, welcome to The Cube thanks for joining me. >> Thank you for having me. >> So I'm glad to have you on. First of all when Bradley Rodder says oh watch out for that guy, you must be smart because we trust Bradley so but you're doing something really cool. The future of trading and exchanges has been a topic that everyone's been talking about but not a lot of people have been actually moving the needle on. You've got some movement here, people doing here but no one's actually had the full package and they're running as fast as they can to do it. You guys have done it. >> We have. >> How? Take a minute, what have you guys done? What is the product? How did you guys do it and what can people use today? >> Thank you. So it's no longer hot air, as you said. A lot of people are saying what they're going to do. We're here to say what we have done which is very different. Yesterday up at the main stage we launched the world's first decentralized exchange on a mobile platform. We're fully licensed by the Costa Rican Commodities Exchange, we have brokerage license, a currency exchange license and a money remittance license. We already possess the licenses, we're not in pursuit of the licenses we have them. What we did obviously we pursued an MNA strategy, we acquired companies that were over a decade in the business and we just transformed them and cryptomized them, as I use the term and launched the exchange with those licenses and platforms. We listed the exchange with over 40 coins. Over four billion dollars of shared market cap and over half a million dollars of daily trading and liquidity. >> So this is right now going on in Costa Rica, mainly if stable. Is it stable? How's the stability there? >> So Costa Rica is extremely stable, they haven't had an army for over 50 years, it's considered a world-class country for banking, for international businesses so much so. Amazon, HP, Intel, all these humongous companies have large operations in the country. >> And their posture to crypto is they've come out formally. >> Yes. >> To state well what's the posture from Costa Rica? >> So they consider cryptocurrencies a commodity and not a security and that's why went on to pursue a commodities exchange license. >> So that opens up doors for you to do this. >> Of course it opens up the doors, think about it. So you can now trade Bitcoin with gold. In our exchange, not as of today we're going to launch that in January, so now you can trade cryptocurrencies with commodities and cryptocurrencies with fiat currencies. >> So I'm just kind of speculating here in terms of my mind where I'm going with this. Almost imagine the shakeup that's coming. It's like a blender, we trading gold and Bitcoin it's just like who would have thought that was possible a year ago? >> That's correct. >> They've been compared, people compare Bitcoin to new digital gold but actually comparing them this is going to shakeup like a blender. >> That's correct. >> Blend up the commodities market. >> Disrupt it. >> What's your vision? What do you see happening? >> I just think that a lot of people are focusing on they say on one of the interviews earlier today, one of the interviewers was asking me is that Bitcoin to the moon? I'm like guys we need to stop. If we want this industry to really grow and develop stop using those analogies. We need to create a community that's larger, we need mass adoption and I think by including the commodities into the equation you're catering to the traditional investors that are a little bit uncomfortable with cryptocurrencies because they don't know about them but they know about gold and then all of a sudden now you compare gold with Bitcoin. >> It brings retail into it. >> Yes. >> It brings a real retail market. >> That's correct. >> You know I just want to say something. I agree with you 100%. These news outlets out there, these other people they tend to focus on the price of Bitcoin and it's almost like okay can we get over that? Yes it's going to go up and down, if you're in the long game it should be 20,000. Okay we can buy that but let's talk about what people are doing. Who's building something? >> Yes. >> That's the focus. So if I ask you now that question, hey Pablo what have you built and what you you going to continue to build if this is a foundational product, what are you guys going to do on top of it? What's the build plan? >> Thank you. So yesterday we launched the decentralized exchange with 40 coins. We're going to add probably between now and December another 110 different tokens. We're doing 20 for now and in January we're launching a centralized exchange so that's where we're going to add the fiat currencies and the commodities. >> What date again? >> End of January. >> Okay got it. >> Then we're going to make an announcement in November at one of the conferences in Malta and so we're reserving the date and everything else for that but in May of next year we're launching over the counter trading desk with full KYC AML you know counter terrorism financing, all of the world class policies and by this time next year we're going to be launching our institutional platform. So we want to be a one stop shop via the currency exchange that we own. We already have the ability from the Central Bank of Costa Rica which is amazing to issue Visa cards. So now our users, besides trading, they can take their crypto with them from their mobile phone, convert it to fiat and pay, you know, for gasoline, buy groceries. >> So I'm an entrepreneur, I got my own cube coin coming out, cube token, security token or utility, what's in it for me? If I asked you Pablo what's in it for me? What do I get out of it as a business? Are people going to start trading my coins? Am I instantly going to have an over the counter so as a business what do I have to worry about? What's the benefit? What matters to me? What's the impact? >> So if you were to be a coin to list on our exchange you mean? Well first of all we all know exchanges now to list on them you know they're changing, some of them I'm not going to say the name. >> They're charging a lot of money. >> Yeah 400 BTC and crazy amounts like this. We are going to charge. It's a business at the end of the day but what we're looking for with the coins that we're going to list is partnerships and seeing what ways we can do more entrepreneurial projects to change the landscape of the industry together as an exchange and a coin because potentially what a coin is is a company. You know what's behind the coin is what's important to us and not the coin itself. As the company develops and progresses so will the coin's price appreciated value or depreciated value and so yes, besides facilitating trading fees and lowering that, up listing and so forth what we're bringing to the table wants to be much more dynamic. >> You got to balance you know business that you got to do with infrastructure build out. It's like the old telecom days you got to build some cell towers before you roll out mobile. You got to build this entire retail global fabric. >> Yes. How does community play in for it? Obviously community is very important. I agree with you that's big time. How are you guys building your community? Tapping into anything else? Obviously Untraceable has got a great community. How are you going to grow your community. >> So as an exchange there could be a conflict of interest we have to be really careful how we get involved in the community but what we want to do is by selected partnerships with projects and coins. The coins are already doing their work. They are appealing to a community. They are raising the money from that community what we want to do is we want to partner up with those coins, the coins that are worth partnering up with and that way our reach automatically will multiply. On top of that of course we want to work with government and banks and institutions. We believe, it may not be popular what I'm about to say, you know the good old honor kids that came to the hardcore crypto, forget about central banks and centralization, I don't think that that's ever going to happen. I think the more we cooperate with government, that the more we work with them, we together can shape the industry and the landscape for good. I do believe in that. It's a collaboration and cooperation with governments and banks to us is pivotal. >> I mean you can be a coach to the regulatory. >> Absolutely. >> You can be an advocate and partner. >> We are being. >> And not an enemy. >> In Costa Rica, so before they considered and they took a position on whether is was a commodity or not you know they approached us and we were teaching them so much so that a congressman that was going to be at the conference and couldn't make it, he's the founder of the Libertarian movement in Costa Rica he created a think tank of crypto because of us that now has Latin America reach. Think about it, there are 1.3 billion people in Latin America. >> They have mobile phones. >> Exactly. That can now learn about crypto and so we're going to capitalize on this. >> It's a real democratization, what you do is change a society. If you continue to get this right this is really key. Congratulations. Now I want to ask you personal questions so I love the hat, you look great. >> Thank you. >> How did you get here? Were you scratching an itch that was around this? Was it, how did you get to the point where you said hey I'm going to go out and build the first exchange. I'm going to roll up the companies, wire them together, cryptotize them and go nuts and build an exchange. I mean how did you get here? What's the story? >> Thank you well, it's a story. I began entrepreneurial projects over 10 years ago, been in the private sector, because Costa Rica is a services company we put together a call center. Took it from like four people to 4000 people in four years. I went on to like building my own sports brand in over 10 countries but then about two years ago a few companies from Canada they called me from here, they called me to help them go public in the Canadian Securities Exchange. I took two companies public last year and after that I was saying to myself and the crew guys what do we do next? How can we really disrupt the industry? And one of the things we were talking about was man, we're in a decentralized community that brags about decentralization, trading and centralized exchanges. How ironic is that? >> Yeah it's got to change. >> So we said you know what let's be the pioneers, let's head out on a quest to build the world's first mobile decentralized exchange and we achieved that. It's unbelievable. Now you hear all the big guys, the whales talking about we're going to come up with a decentralized exchange because that's what people want at the end of the day and we were able to be the first ones ever to give that. >> And stability is critical. I mean I was just at a bank starting up a new account for a new startup that we're doing and they're like is this a blockchain company? I'm like no, no God no, no, no we're a media business. >> Those are bad guys. >> So you can't even open a bank account some places. So this has really got to get fixed and I got liquid, I got fiat currency, I got to make movements around. The retail market, whether it's trading, investing, it's got to be converted over to the new world. >> Yes, yes. >> I mean it's almost like a full changeover. >> That's correct. Obviously I think that it'll be a transition process. It'll take some time. There are some banks that already getting more involved into the process. What's interesting in our case is we even got the Costa Rican Central Bank to be our bank. Think about it, we're not banking with any private bank or public bank but the Costa Rican Central Bank and I think that more and more banks will follow suit as they see good use cases. The ICO craze of last year, I don't think that it did any good to the greater good of the community. If anything it brought a lot of prejudice. >> It's a black eye. They'll be a hangover on that but that's like the dotcom bubble. All those things on the dotcom bubble actually happened so I think you're going to just see get that jested out of the system. >> Inevitable. >> And focus on quality. That's what happening now. >> Inevitable. >> Pablo thanks for coming on. Pablo Gonzales who is the Founder and CEO of Genesis Blockchain Technologies. First ever exchange bringing all new magic to the marketplace. This is The Cube bringing you the content magic here in Toronto, Canada. I'll be right back with more. Stay with us. Live coverage after this short break. (electronic music)

Published Date : Aug 20 2018

SUMMARY :

Brought to you by The Cube. Gonzales is the Founder So I'm glad to have you on. and launched the exchange with How's the stability there? have large operations in the country. And their posture to crypto to pursue a commodities exchange license. doors for you to do this. So you can now trade Bitcoin with gold. Almost imagine the shakeup that's coming. this is going to shakeup like a blender. to the moon? I agree with you 100%. what are you guys going and the commodities. and pay, you know, for to list on our exchange you mean? and not the coin itself. You got to balance you know I agree with you that's big time. that the more we work with them, I mean you can be a to be at the conference and so we're going to capitalize on this. so I love the hat, you look great. the point where you said and the crew guys what do we do next? So we said you know and they're like is this So this has really got to get fixed I mean it's almost to the greater good of the community. but that's like the dotcom bubble. That's what happening now. to the marketplace.

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Mark Mader, Smartsheet | CUBEConversation, August 2018


 

>> Hey, welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with theCube. We're in our Palo Alto studios having a Cube Conversation. We're getting ready for this crazy tidal wave of conferences to hit Fall 2018. We'll be at a lot of them, but there's a new one this year we want to highlight. It's called Smartsheet ENGAGE. It's going to be in Bellevue, Washington first week of October. We're excited as part of the prep for that to have the CEO and president of Smartsheet come down. He's Mark Mader, and Mark, thanks for taking a few minutes and coming down from Seattle. >> Thank you. >> So for folks that aren't familiar with Smartsheet, give us kind of the Smartsheet 101. >> It's instantly deployable software that people can use straightaway with their teams or businesses to improve how they work. Now the power word there is work, what do we mean by that, and it's about how you capture information, how you organize, share it, automate it, and report out on it. Now the key difference here is that we let everyday business people succeed on the platform and improve. It doesn't require technical know-how, it doesn't require coordinating with IT at every turn, it's really business user enabled but also with an enterprise backbone. It does conform to all those things that the IT group does care about. >> Right, so you said getting work done, there's a lot of conversations about the new way to work and getting work done, there's a ton of workflow process tools out there. There's Jira and Slack and we hear new ones all the time. How are you guys different? I was trying to put you in those buckets and then I look at your website and you actually partner and integrate with Slack. You partner and integrate with Jira. How does your solution fit in with some of those ones that maybe people are more familiar with? >> It's really easy to think about it almost as Lego blocks, in the sense that you have a messaging Lego block, you have a storage Lego block, you have an authoring block, and then you have an automate, manage, and report Lego block. Those are all different, so how we communicate on things in Slack or Hangouts Chat or Workplace by Facebook, we're talking about things, we're messaging. Somewhat ephemeral, right, we have a conversation and it comes and goes. That thing that persists, whether it's a plan or a process or a customer list or a piece of feedback, that doesn't get marked as done and goes by the wayside; that stays. That persistent work sits alongside authoring, writing, creative, totally unstructured, and messaging. That's where we fit into that model. >> A lot of exciting stuff going on. You guys IPO'ed earlier this year, congratulations. >> Thank you. >> And the other thing that just kind of jumped out at me doing some homework for this was you have 74,000 customers, was the number, so you guys have been quietly, maybe not so quietly, been at this for awhile. I saw that the last company that you worked at, you were there for 20 years, ended up going through an acquisition. You're in it for the long haul. You don't really jump around too much, so you saw a real opportunity here in Smartsheet. >> I think in Seattle especially Jeff, we have companies that reach great success, most of them not overnight. It's this immediate success ten years in the making. I think what's changed from two decades ago is that the person who wins a category isn't necessarily the kid who shouts the loudest. You earn those 74,000 customers and you earn the right to serve some of the largest companies in the world. Today, business users are casting a very strong vote. If you resonate with them and you deliver value and you deliver that at a price point in a manner that's secure, you're going to land and you're going to grow. >> Right well, one of the focuses you guys have brought up time and time again is this concept of teams and people working in teams, because that is how work gets done, is generally relatively small teams and communications within those teams. That's kind of the roots of the company. That said, an increasing enterprise focus as you go forward. How are you kind of bringing those two things together, where do they overlap, and what are some of the unique challenges as you move, I don't want to say upmarket but kind of upmarket as these bigger deals in the enterprise opportunities. >> Yeah, teams really exist at all sized companies. What changes in bigger companies is that sometimes the scale. I'll give you an example. If you and I work for a small organization that's renovating one hotel. It's pretty fixed. We're going to get that project done. We're going to share with eight people on our outside team and we're good. Let's say we're renovating 500 hotels and we have a model and we need to conform to that model. We're changing that model constantly. How do you manage that across 500 things working in parallel? That's a scale thing that has nothing to do with can you support your 75,000th customer. Can you support those mega caps who have very advanced needs in terms of keeping work consistent and secure. Again, very often what you see is you have team solutions and market that serve small teams beautifully. Then when they start to get to a divisional level or enterprise, they have to tap out. >> A big part of that as you said is really kind of this low code, no code kind of environment where the business user is enabled to actually implement change, create new business processes without having to go in under the covers and get the c-prompt out. >> When you think about the majority of the workforce, the majority of the workforce isn't a coder. The majority of the workforce isn't a citizen developer. How can you unlock the capacity of the majority of your workforce? It's not about just serving them with technology, creating the form and serving them up the form, creating the process and enabling them to participate in it. How do you let them drive the definition and implementation of it. If you can pull that off, it is a very large market because many people have needs. >> The other thing I found pretty interesting was the way you guys bucketize your solution. Obviously you have a platform, you've talked about platform a number of times here, but nobody ever buys a platform, right, they buy an application for a specific problem that they're trying to solve at the time. Hopefully for you, the platform grows like a mushroom in a dark wet place. Really focusing on the roles of individuals, so some of the ones you highlight, whether it's a sales product, manager, obviously if they're working something like a Microsoft Project, but marketing, software development, HR, IT, and Ops. You guys have really taken a role-based approach to the way you build, I presume, pre-configured workflows, pre-configured bundles, pre-configured things, based on best practices, that you've learned across those 74,000 customers. >> Correct, and when we think about how the solution is brought to market, we do have a platform that is configurable, so if you want to come in and build something, you may do that. We have many people, as you said, who come in with no needs. Whether it's on ITPMO, MNA, client-onboarding, retail store openings, these are all workloads that we have solved for in a solution base. The first thing when we have a need, most people don't say, I'm going to go out and build something for three months. They go, I need to fix my issue. That's why the solution orientation is so important to us. When you have as many customers as we have, you have tremendous customer signals. When we build a solution, we have very good intel on whether there's a need for it in the market. >> Right, and again, you guys are a SAS-based solution, everything is in the cloud. >> It is. >> Okay, excellent. Let's talk a little bit about the big event ENGAGE. I think it's the second year. >> It is. >> Before we turned on the cameras, 1200 people last year, expecting to double that number. Still any registration open or is it- >> Yeah, but for the people who waited last year to the end, don't be disappointed, I would go out and register. >> What should people expect, what are some of the highlights, what are you excited about ENGAGE this year? >> I often talk about take-home value, so if I'm going to take myself out of rotation and go to an event, there better be significant take-home value, similar to maybe, the take-home value from the best 10 books I last read. When I think about having a really high compression across two days where you are inundated with understanding what is possible with the platform, I still think that is the biggest takeaway for people. They come in with a known need, they bought our product, they delivered it, they're very satisfied, and then they say, holy smokes, I can deploy this now for three other things. Those are the types of things that we were able to get done last year, and it's not about just sitting in a presentation and listening to Smartsheeters. It's about working with the fellow companies, but also working with experts side-by-side. You come in with your machine, with your need. We will work with you. That is a very interactive model. >> We got so many conferences Mark, we do over 100 a year. We do the big ones with a couple 100 people to the giant ones with a couple hundred thousand. There's nothing quite like those first couple years of a new conference, because everyone is so vested, everyone is so much into sharing information, kind of the vendor overlay and it becomes too much overlay. Doesn't really happen for those first several years because everyone is so into the sharing, to the learning, and seeing kind of best practices from their peers. Such a valuable piece of a conference like ENGAGE. >> It is, and one big thing last year that we did was we made it 100% employee-driven. When you went to register at the front desk, an employee checked you in. When you went for instructions on where to go, an employee guided you. When you went to give feedback, it was an employee who took that. We outsourced nothing other than some of the audio-visual. It's incredible when a customer shows up and they're meeting Smartsheeters at every turn. You get a sense for what makes the company tick and whether you support that company and its mission. When you leave, hopefully you leave energized, believing and trusting our organization. That's very hard to replicate online. >> The closing note, I've read some of the stuff that you've published in terms of culture and talking about culture and hiring practices. There's a lot of that stuff that's out there now as we try to learn from some best practices. You have a very strong opinion about some of the cultural norms and the way that you hire, retain, and keep people. I would imagine for the Smartsheeters that all of them be sitting and interacting with real clients, not just numbers on a page or names on a page, but faces who are asking them questions that have a voice, it's got be a super powerful part of their direct engagement. They're really feeling that they're not just making software. >> Yeah, and the feeling you have, I'm looking forward to a few people who I know are coming back this year, who participated in feedback last year. So the highlight for me this year will be sitting with a number of people who gave us feedback on our new design that we're launching at ENGAGE this year, and showing them, that is your fingerprint in our new product. When you close the loop for someone like that, that is extraordinarily powerful. If you're an engineer for us or a designer, that reaction that you see in that person's face when you hit the mark, it's a lot more than a paycheck. >> Right, that's great, and it builds that engagement, it builds that relationship. I think that's one of the least understood aspects of a SAS business is that it forces you to be engaged with your customer every single month, because they're paying you every single month. You're not taking the check (crosstalk) >> Every day of the year. >> 15% maintenance fee, you got to be engaged. They help you grow and evolve the company, the product, it's a great set-up. All right Mark, well, thanks for taking a few minutes. We're looking forward to the event, our first time. It's October one through four in Bellevue, Washington. We'll be there. >> Thanks very much. >> Thanks for stopping by. All right, he's Mark, I'm Jeff, you're watching theCube. It's Cube Conversation in our Palo Alto studio. Thanks for watching, we'll see you next time, take care.

Published Date : Aug 16 2018

SUMMARY :

We're excited as part of the prep for that So for folks that aren't familiar with Smartsheet, and it's about how you capture information, and you actually partner and integrate with Slack. almost as Lego blocks, in the sense that you have You guys IPO'ed earlier this year, congratulations. I saw that the last company that you worked at, and you deliver that at a price point and what are some of the unique challenges as you move, is you have team solutions and market A big part of that as you said When you think about the majority of the workforce, so some of the ones you highlight, that is configurable, so if you want to come in and Right, and again, you guys are a SAS-based solution, Let's talk a little bit about the big event ENGAGE. expecting to double that number. Yeah, but for the people who waited last year across two days where you are inundated with because everyone is so into the sharing, to the learning, and whether you support that company and its mission. and the way that you hire, retain, and keep people. Yeah, and the feeling you have, of a SAS business is that it forces you They help you grow and evolve the company, Thanks for watching, we'll see you next time, take care.

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Darren Kimura & Brooks Borcherding, LiveAction | Cisco Live US 2018


 

>> Live from Orlando, Florida, it's The Cube, covering Cisco Live 2018 brought to you by Cisco, NetApp and The Cube's ecosystem partners. >> Hey, welcome back everyone, we're here live at Cisco 2018, Cisco Live 2018. It's The Cube live coverage here in Orlando, Florida. I'm John Furrier with Stu Miniman my co-host for the next three days of live coverage. Our next guest is Brooks Borcherding, president and CEO of LiveAction and Darren Kimura, chief strategist and vice chair from LiveAction, fresh off the heels of a great acquisition. Next generation monitoring, networking. Welcome to The Cube. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for joining us. It's good to see you again. >> Thank you, we're so glad to be here. >> So, love the action going on, literally, LiveAction with MNA activity. You guys got some good news happening around the company but also Cisco's event here really is perfectly poised for what you guys are doing. The CEO on stage literally saying to his army of customers, "This old way is now old. This is the new modern era." And really talking about what is multicloud, basically. So his entire army of customers are moving to next generation. So it intersects with what you guys are doing, so take a minute to talk about LiveAction and the news. >> Okay, so I think first of all, LiveAction, you know, we've always been known to be a leader in network management. We've worked very, very closely with Cisco for a dozen years and what we help companies do is take the complexity out of the management of their large networks. So that's been the core, fundamental, you know, value proposition that we've always delivered is how we simplified the network in these increasingly complex environments, right? So what's interesting now with this period of time is networks continue to become more and more complex. You have things like digital transformation, you have things like cloud and multicloud and hybrid cloud. You have things like software-defined networks. Each of them in their own right just makes the wide area that much more complex. >> And more endpoints every day. I think he threw a stat out, another couple hundred million endpoints are coming now. >> Right. >> So it's not ending. >> That's true and in that market transition it gives us a great opportunity because our core value proposition has always been simplifying the networks. Now that's even more essential than ever before. >> One of the critical problems that come out of that, obviously, is the tsunami of endpoints is one, we heard the security threats with encryption is another one. So, the need to instrument seems obvious but also it's almost overbearing, like, what do you do? How do you guys see the core problems that you're attacking? >> Why don't you take that? >> Well I think the big, what we're trying to do at Live Action is simplify the network. That's really at the core of everything we trying to do. And when we talk to our customers we understand from them that most times they might have four or ten different tools. So the first thing we're trying to do is figure out what are the biggest use cases and combine them all into one singular tool. And that's what we're producing at LiveAction, is the ability for you to see your entire network from end to end. East-west and north-south. So, as we take a look at things like the cloud environment, you know, what exactly is that, right? You know, is it north-south, is it east-west? It's all of the above. And what we're trying to do at LiveAction is have a Full Stack application that can basically provide visibility and analytics so you can understand all of it in one place. >> So any vector, no matter what it is. I mean, surely that makes sense with the perimeter gone. >> Yes. >> Security certainly has to have that baseline. >> Right. >> We'll give you a good example of that, is now with the whole software-defined network in what we're doing with SD Access, for example, but now we're going back into the data center and there's these complex terms around the overlay network and underlay network and logical and physical and it's becoming incredibly complex. We give the ability to actually see the flows, like, through those complex fabrics and that's an essential toolkit now because you need to be able to find out when there's an issue, where's that coming from, right? That is the, what is the source of that issue? How quickly can you identify that and how quickly can you then remediate it? >> Before you get there I want to follow up on that because one of the focus was here in DevOps side, is automation. If you can't see it, how do you know to automate it? >> Right. >> Does that come into the dialogue or is that? >> That is the dialogue for us here, so, we provide situational awareness. We hope for our end users to understand what's happening across their networks realtime. And then, you know, we work with Cisco, for example, hand in hand on the intent based network. So, being able to provide insights for, you know, the next generation of the products to be able to actually take action. >> Yeah, one of the things we've been watching in the networking space for many years is the use of analytics. And you recently made an acquisition that really ties into that space. Why don't you give us, what led to the acquisition? >> We did, so we had news on Friday and to be fair, I mean, Darren's been leading this charge for us for quite some time because we've been a NetFlow based solution for a long period of time, meaning that we can provide visualization for the devices that we have integrations with, essentially. There's a lot of devices that don't have NetFlow. So we couldn't actually capture them into our visualization engine. So what we did on Friday is we announced the acquisition of Savius, and Savvius is a packet capture and inspection technology company. Been around a long time, some very famous products with Omnipeek and Omnipliance, for example, that are consumed by thousands of customers. And now we're able to, with that appliance, actually tap into all sorts of devices, and suddenly propagate all of that into our visualization engine. So it opens up a dramatically larger and restful opportunity for us and we're kind of defining this to be the next generation of networks and ports management because no one else is doing this visualization across that scope of devices like we are. >> Your observation space is massive now. >> It is. >> Yeah, Darren, I wonder if you'd follow up that 'cause one of the big questions I had coming in to this is, if I'm a networking person, what about all that networking that I don't control anymore that I'm on the hook for it. So, you know, we actually, the network here went down even for a few minutes and we're like, we're here at Cisco Live with, you know, probably the largest single concentration of network people and wireless experts and the like, so, yeah. >> Yeah, so one of the things that we're trying to do now is we're trying to capture all data from basically all endpoints. Whether it be a client to a server, a VM container, doesn't matter what it is. We wanna see it all, we wanna get it from the granular, most granular packet level all the way up, but take all of that data and make it simple for people to understand. You put it on a simple UI, understand a very simple workflow so that they can automatically associate problem or good network behaviors right there on screen without having to, you know, go through the 5,000 page Cisco manual and really understand what exactly is going on. >> Okay. >> I think what's important about that is how quickly can you identify the source of the issue? That's really where we come into play. We talk a lot, even these days, about MTTR, meantime to resolution, that continues to be an essential, kind of, metric that people measure. But what's more important to that even is the initial diagnostic. So, is it the network? Is it, you know, something at the edge of the network? Is it the service provider? You know, where in the network does this happen? And by being able to provide that essential information to the first point of contact it really does help extradite and accelerate the entire process. >> Huge acceleration. Darren, I wanna ask you a point about, sorry Stu, to interrupt but on the acquisition, help the customers that you had on one side understand the benefits of the NetFlow integrations and the NetFlow customers understand the new benefits. What is the customer's orientation? What should they do, I mean, how should they understand the new Live Action? >> Yeah, so what we've added on is the ability to diagnose at a significantly deeper level. So, one of the things LiveAction has always been really good at is voice and video, but we do it at a NetFlow level. So, the problem is, when we try to get down to the very granular level, you know, what exactly is going on? Where is it happening? We were blind to that, frankly. Now, with the packet capture technology we can actually go all the way down and capture down to the millisecond and be able to look back over time and understand exactly where the problem occurred. And that allows our users to actually go in and fix it once and for all. >> And what are they solving with that problem? More point problems, solution resolution? Routing, policy, where does the value live? >> It's all of it, it's all of it. Understand where the packets are dropped. Understand we get down to deep packet inspection, so understanding applications and users and who really is having the problem and why. >> Fake news, maybe? Gonna help us identify fake news out there? >> (laughs) Um, I hadn't thought about that yet. >> And the Russian packet. (laughs) (laughing) >> We've been talking in the network the surface area has continued to grow as we push out to the edge, we push out to SAS, push out to public clouds. How's that impacting you and your customers? >> It's, so, we're definitely trying to stay ahead of that with a few things that we've done recently. So, one of them is, for example, we now have an agent that we can deploy onto servers and workstations in mass quantities so you can now get those, kind of, those elements to be fed into your visualization network as well. We also have the ability to deploy that type of concept into the cloud and into SAS applications so we can then get a pulse coming from them. And so we're starting to correlate all of that together into the same type of workflow. >> Yep. >> Guys, take a minute to talk about your relationship with Cisco. Obviously we're here at Cisco Live, their show, they've got their priorities pretty laid out, they've got a lot of work to do and we heard the CEO talk about some of the pressure they're under with the security alone. I mean, they're running huge networks, networks are changing, what are you guys doing next now that you've got your acquisition papered up and you gotta do some, you know, quick integrations and roll out the integrations. How are you taking that to the next level with Cisco? What are some of the things on your radar, on your horizon, that you can share? >> Well, I think we work so closely with Cisco and the Cisco Enterprise networking team that we're often, you know, looking ahead of the curb as far as where we want to develop and invest in next. For example, you see that with the way we're prototyping the SD Access and Cat9k management. So, we did that in Barcelona, actually, about six months ago. So we were the first out with that. We're doing the exact same thing now with DNA Center and with integration with DNA Center. So, they're able to, like, talk about how LiveAction as a third party is integrating into their framework and extending that framework out for a lot of new innovation. >> Your strategy is to go deep with Cisco. You go down as deep as you can, get everyone geared out on the engineering side. You're nodding your head, yeah. >> Absolutely, that's been our strategy since day one. It's been an awesome partnership for us. I think we've been able to bring, you know, a different point of view and also provide validation, you know, a third party perspective for the end user to understand and have confidence on what exactly the network is doing. >> You know, I get this all the time, entrepreneurs in Silicone Valley always ask me about Cisco and Cisco's had a sustained track record of letting partners take big white spaces. To them it's a white space, to a company it's a, you know, it's an IPO potential, so this is a Cisco thing, talk about that dynamic, 'cause you guys seem to be really solving a big problem and they're happy with it. >> Oh, I think what we've, to your point about white space, I think what LiveAction has been able to really effectively do is be a strong partner to complement the solution that Cisco is already putting out there. So as Brooks had mentioned, you know, in our past we worked very closely with the Cisco Prime team and we brought in things like visualization, for example, quality of service configuration, and as the infrastructure began to, I guess, change over time, you know, through ILAN and now into Viptela, you know, we bring the same kind of ideas. We bring the same posture to the party, if you will, meaning that we try to make it, we try to understand what Cisco Product Management is doing and bring what we do best, the situation awareness, visibility, action ability to that. >> Alright, one of my final questions is, bumper sticker the bottom line for your customers. With the acquisition on Friday, with what you guys going on at Cisco, what's the bottom line for your customers? What are they gonna see? What's the immediate headline for the customer? >> So we've, you know, we've adopted this tagline of defining the next generation of network management, and we think we have a very unique position in defining where that market is going now with the acquisition of Savvius and what we're doing with the ability to visualize all of these different elements. There really isn't anybody out there that's doing anything close to that as far as how we're making it easy to manage increasingly complex networks. It's as simple as that, you know, we've had great conversations here already with many of some of the largest companies in the world and what they're looking for is, I need help, you know, I need help to simplify, right? >> And run at a high level. >> That's right, to kind of deliver the service levels that I'm expected to hold to my, you know, to my Fortune 500 type of enterprise, I need better tools to help me cope with this increasing complexity. >> Alright, Brooks and Darren, I'll put you on the spot with the last question. We're at day one of Cisco Live, what's they big story you see emerging? I know it's day one, we've got two more days, but you can almost see the smoke screen going, the signal's there, what is the top story coming out of Cisco Live 2018, in your opinion? >> I still see software-defined WAN as being massive. I think that, I think I stole his answer. (laughs) But, you know, it's been a topic for such a long time but now we're seeing the implementations happen and it's so exciting because, you know, it's actually bringing real change to networking, something we haven't seen in 10 plus years. >> What's different about SD WAN than the promises were, say, five years ago? That's happening now? >> Well I think now people are actually monetizing them. So now it's enterprise ready, I think Cisco led the whole industry a step forward with the acquisition of Viptela and increased, kind of, the pace of that, of the maturity of those offerings. And now that it's six months in they're being adopted at scale, you have a lot of reference cases now that people are using it, they're getting, deriving the monetary benefit from it, you know, they're taking a step into software-defined and we're kind of in that mainstream adoption phase, is what I would say right now. >> Thanks so much for sharing, great commentary. Congratulations on the success, the new acquisition and the continued integration deep with Cisco. >> Thank you. >> You know, good stuff pays off. Of course, we're here with all the live action coverage. Both LiveAction company and also the live Cube action here at Cisco Live 2018 here. Stay with us, three days of wall-to-wall coverage. I'm John Furrier with Stu Miniman. We'll be right back after this short break. >> Thank you, gentlemen.

Published Date : Jun 11 2018

SUMMARY :

brought to you by Cisco, NetApp for the next three days of live coverage. It's good to see you again. about LiveAction and the news. is take the complexity I think he threw a stat out, has always been simplifying the networks. So, the need to instrument seems obvious is the ability for you to see I mean, surely that makes to have that baseline. We give the ability to because one of the focus was here That is the dialogue for us here, is the use of analytics. for the devices that we have and the like, so, yeah. Yeah, so one of the things So, is it the network? and the NetFlow customers is the ability to diagnose at the problem and why. (laughs) Um, I hadn't And the Russian packet. the surface area has continued to grow We also have the ability to the next level with Cisco? and the Cisco Enterprise networking team on the engineering side. to bring, you know, to a company it's a, you know, and as the infrastructure with what you guys going on at Cisco, and what we're doing with the ability that I'm expected to hold to my, you know, the signal's there, what is the top story and it's so exciting because, you know, and increased, kind of, the pace of that, and the continued all the live action coverage.

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Bruce Shaw, NetApp | VeeamOn 2018


 

>> Announcer: Live from Chicago, Illinois, it's theCUBE. Covering VeeamOn 2018 brought to you by Veeam. >> We're back at VeeamOn 2018, you're watching theCUBE, the leader in live tech coverage. I'm Dave Vellante with my cohost Stu Miniman. Stu, always great working with you. Bruce Shaw is here, he's the Senior Director of Global Alliances and Industry Solutions at NetApp. Great to see you, thanks for coming on theCUBE. >> Thanks for having me. >> So, I got to start out with NetApp, I mean, we've followed NetApp for decades, ya know, from the very beginning back when I was at IDC, Stu, you were probably still in your mother's womb. (laughing) But you guys are back in a big way, I mean, for a while there it looked vulnerable. You took advantage of the Dell EMC merger. You're gaining share again, you're growing, stock price is up, there's a spring in your step, what's going on? >> Well, a lot of things are going on. I think we've had a lot of leadership additions to the company, Henri Richard joined and took over as the CSO with the company. We've got a new CMO in Jean English. But more importantly, a lot of the areas that we were late to the market, and candidly we've admitted we were late. We didn't have a good Flash story a couple years ago. We've been very aggressive with Flash over the last 24 to 18 months. We're now the fastest growing Flash storage provider out in the market, and we think we'll exit this year as number one. In fact, we think that's the current course and trajectory. We're very happy with where that's going. The FlexPod partnership with Cisco was great this past year. We had a record year in Converged infrastructure, which was a down market, we picked up about 13 points a share according to IDC, so a lot of the cylinders are starting to fire, but the one that is probably the biggest and the most shocking for folks is three, four years ago, the belief was that cloud was going to kill on-prem storage for companies like NetApp. I think the one thing that they did right ahead of the curve was they embraced the cloud. They've got great partnerships with Google, Amazon, the hyperscalers, and cloud strategy and the business that drives the company there is the fastest part of the company, and Anthony Lye runs that team, and it's doing an amazing job. >> Explain how, and you're absolutely right, many, most, frankly myself at times, felt that way. Explain how cloud is a tailwind and not just a one-way street into the roach motel. >> Oh well, there isn't an enterprise today that isn't thinking about cloud in some way, shape, or form, right? Now, ya have prognosticators on either side saying it's all going to the cloud or something less than that, but the truth is when you look at a strategy like ONTAP and the ability to move your data, whether it's on-prem or to the cloud and manage it through our data fabric story, that's where NetApp really starts coming into their own. I think, again, that's where we've been able to take advantage, and it's not just having it one way or the other or being good just with the hyperscalers or good with the guys that want to be secure because most companies do a hybrid story, and they want to bit of both. >> Well, I think the one thing that I would observe about NetApp, having followed the company for many, many years, which I think gives you an advantage, is NetApp really has always had storage services in software that were largely decoupled from the hardware, and that allowed you to get into cloud early, don't ya think, Stu? >> Yeah, absolutely, and Bruce, we're here at VeeamOn, and their message sounds a lot like that to me, so maybe help explain, we were just talking to Veeam's CMO, when you hear some of the descriptions of storage services, software, multicloud, and everything, NetApp and Veeam sound alike. How are they complementary in, ya know, maybe where do they bump up against each other, yeah? >> Yeah, well, we both compete in the same market, which is storage, so of course, there's areas where we're going to compete with each other, but we are very complementary in terms of the story and the markets that we serve, right? NetApp is incredible strong in the enterprise. Veeam has great commercial channel presence, so from a route to market there's a lot of complementary stuff we do with each other. Price point, in terms of where we hit the market and the things that we go after, we have a lot of opportunity where there's not overlap to help each out to the point they're now, the relationship's evolved over the last four years where we're actually doing OEM of each other's products. We've got our E-Series we just announced yesterday that we're OEMing with these guys, which again is targeted at exactly those markets. The story between the two that we're both at our core not hardware companies, not storage companies, but data management companies really is where this starts to come together and play well. The fact that they're mutually supportive of each other makes for a really strong value proposition for the customer and the channel, especially the guys like the service providers or ya know, hybrid cloud providers, it's a big time story for them. >> So you're growing with, the partnership with Veeam is growing. >> Right. >> Ya got a combination of trends that become tailwinds, but then you've got execution. Can you explain what are those tailwinds, and what's the execution ethos with the partnership? >> We are a channel-only company for all intents and purposes. >> Dave: Oh yeah, I don't know what the number is now, but you've always been very, very high performing. >> Yeah, I know, so we look at businesses that we drive, and channel is at the core of what we do, so when you have a tailwind like, ya know, where we are with Flash and the growth there, the channel partners are making more money, the programs that are coming for them, we're not taking business that they're doing today and pushing it towards the cloud. Again, we're talking about the story that's transitory between the two, so for a lot of the channel providers that are out there getting in the market, that's a very powerful story for them. That it's not a competitive business, we're not going to try to create our own cloud service to take away from them. We want to help them as they migrate between the two. >> All right, Bruce, one of the other areas we're hearing a lot about at this show that I think lines up with NetApp is the analytics and AI, can you maybe talk about how that ties into the products? >> Yeah, I mean, you look at a lot of these markets like AI, like analytics in terms of what companies are doing, it sheds off a tremendous amount of data, right? And that data is at the heart of what they want to analyze and go through, and when they bring those things to market, the goal is how I quickly move it from where I'm capturing it to where I need it, and ONTAP does a really good job of doing that in terms of being able to take the data to where they need it, whether it's at the edge or whether it's back at the core of the company, so that you can actually do the real work with it and gain the insights that drive the business. >> Bruce, what's the resale agreement that you have with Veeam, can you explain that? >> We have Veeam on our price list. Our sales reps can sell Veeam, can be compensated for it, vice versa, they can absolutely hook in and drive away with NetApp, and now that we're getting products like E-Series where their product is embedded in ours, that only strengthens that kind of motion. So for a NetApp sales rep today, if they have an opportunity where Veeam is needed on it as part of the offering, it's absolutely in their wheelhouse to go sell it, and they get the sale level of love and attention from quote and comp standpoint that they would if it was NetApp only products. >> So this is kind of interesting innovation that Veeam, I think, has been out in front of, they, and I dunno how they do it, Stu, but I think Veeam understands the lifetime value of a customer and is willing to make, put sweat equity into a deal as part of a partnership to make it transparent to a partner sales force. >> Yeah absolutely. >> That's innovation in business model. >> Absolutely, we're very proud of our sales force and the work that they're able to do. We view ourselves as kind of the last big enterprise standalone storage company that's out there doing this, and I run strategic alliances, and some partners integrate really well with our sales guys. Others, it's more of a, ya know, it requires more work. To your point, Veeam has done a superb job at identifying how and where they play with our folks and getting together where we go to market together. >> It's interesting, we used to, ya know, several years ago now, ask the question can NetApp remain independent. We've seen all these independent storage companies kind of go away. Used to have this conversation with David Scott at 3PAR all the time, EMC itself wasn't able to maintain it, and then NetApp got to the point where it was almost too big for an acquisition, and although stock price was down, everybody, NetApp was the rumor of MNA more than any company I can think of in the storage business, but now you're seeing sort of antithetical to what most people expected, it's kind of like the cloud we were talking about before, storage companies emerged. Pure was the first one over a billion since NetApp. What are your thoughts, and what's that, I wonder what, you guys must talk in the hallways about that whole, the dynamics of the industry. It seems like it's still a viable business model to be best of breed. >> It's very viable, so I took over running the strategic alliances at the beginning of January, and my dance card's full. I can't believe the number of folks that are calling up wanting to partner. I think we've gotten much more mature in terms of how we view the market and our ability to get strategically with other companies to be successful, and there absolutely is always going to be a place out there for a best of breed story. Customers want the best technology that they can get to handle their business needs, and if we partner with great partners, whether it's Veeam or others to provide that for them, I think the viability of NetApp only gets stronger not weaker. >> It's interesting because now ya got NetApp, Pure, Nutanix, soon to be Veeam, as billion dollar independent pure play companies in the storage business. Isilon couldn't get there, Data Domain couldn't get there, Compellent couldn't get there, 3PAR couldn't get there, Lefthand couldn't get, EqualLogic, I can go down the list. They were never able to reach that escape velocity, and maybe it is cloud, maybe cloud is that weird tailwind for people who can figure out how to take advantage of cloud and hybrid cloud, your thoughts? >> Yeah, I think it is, number one. I think also the companies that you mentioned at various times, and I'm a hardware industry dinosaur, I've been around forever. A lot of those companies you talk about the difficult moment from them was hey, we're a storage company, now we want to add compute or now we want to go into this part of the market that put them at odds with the guys they were partnering with. George, our CEO, has been absolutely maniacal with his vision of our path forward is managing data, period. Whatever that form takes, we don't need to be a compute company, we don't need to be a networking company, we want to be a data company. I think how that then drives the decisions, whether it's partnering with cloud, whether it's going into new markets with HCI, even if it's things about transforming the legacy data center from traditional data center and how it's managed on-prem to something that's all Flash driven and much more efficient and much more programmable than it was in the past, so it's easier to administer, those are the areas that we can go innovate, and as long as we're partnering with the right partners out in the industry, that makes us a very good viable destination for the customer without worrying about well, do we have a compute node, are we in the server business now, are we suddenly in the switch business? Those are things that are not even on our radar. >> Yeah, I mean, you guys are in a unique position from that standpoint. You're very large now, you're the largest independent storage company, so everybody wants to work with you. You don't bump up into these adjacencies, and you can make bets, you can place your chips in areas whereas some of the startups, there's tons of innovation, but it's really hard to hit that escape. The amount of resources that you need, the money you need for promotion, the talent war that's going on out there, the go-to-market challenges, the partner challenges, so you guys are in a pretty good position right now. >> We really are, and I think we've actually done a lot of the restructuring internally to continue that and capitalize on it. Probably the biggest change, which outside the company, most folks wouldn't notice immediately, is that we moved at the beginning of this year to a three distinct business unit structure where we're focusing on three parts of the business to go forward. We've got our cloud business unit, which is driving into, as I said, the hyperscalers under Anthony Lye. We've got cloud data center, which is more of the new technologies like HCI and Converge and object storage technology like StorageGRID, and that's, right now that's an incredibly fast growing business for us. Then, of course, we've got our traditional storage software infrastructure business where we have products like E-Series and modernizing the data center, which is primarily driven with this transition to Flash. You've got three BUs now that are maniacally focused on the different areas of the market where we see here's an immediate opportunity in Flash. Here's a slightly longer opportunity in things like hybrid cloud and HCI and Converge infrastructure and a much longer term bet was how does the cloud really become a piece where we're managing between all of those. It lets us be a lot nimble between it. It's almost like three subbusinesses where we're going to market. >> Yeah, Dave, and actually that aligns perfectly with the research we've been doing for over five years from server stand and true private cloud, you've got the hyperscale, you've got the transformation locally in spanning those two, and then you've got that transition from the traditional. >> Oh, I think it's a sound strategy, and it'll serve us well in the years to come. >> There's obviously a lot of noise about artificial intelligence in the marketplace. You've got some companies trying to position to be the platform for machine intelligence or artificial intelligence, what's NetApp's point of view on that? >> Well certainly, we share some of that, but again, I think at the end of the day for us, it's much more important about fine, wherever I'm capturing that artificial intelligence is not likely the place where I'm going to do a lot of the analytics and work on it, so it really does come down to, ya know, am I moving it up to the cloud to do that work, where am I making my big insights, where am I mining through it, and then how am I relating that back, whether it's at the edge or whether it's at the core data center, and again, we think with ONTAP, with the partners that we're going to market with for AI, for ML, IoT, that's the difference maker for us at the end of the day. It's not that we're just another storage company storing the telemetry data off of a car for AI, we're putting it into a format and a form that's usable quickly, efficiently, real time, where Tesla can go make a decision on the car right now, not days, weeks, months from now. >> All right, Bruce, well hey, thanks for coming on theCUBE. Really appreciate your time and good luck. >> Enjoyed having me, thank you. >> All right, great. >> Good to see you guys. >> All right, keep it right there everybody. We'll be back with our next guest. You're watching VeeamOn 2018, this is theCUBE.

Published Date : May 15 2018

SUMMARY :

brought to you by Veeam. he's the Senior Director from the very beginning of the areas that we were late a one-way street into the roach motel. and the ability to move your data, a lot like that to me, and the things that we go after, the partnership with Veeam is growing. and what's the execution We are a channel-only company but you've always been and channel is at the core of what we do, and gain the insights is needed on it as part of the offering, the lifetime value and the work that they're able to do. it's kind of like the and if we partner with great partners, companies in the storage business. and how it's managed on-prem to something of the startups, there's of the business to go forward. and then you've got that in the years to come. in the marketplace. is not likely the place where I'm going to All right, Bruce, well hey, We'll be back with our next guest.

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Peter McKay, Veeam | Nutanix .NEXT 2018


 

(upbeat music) >> Narrator: Live from New Orleans, Louisiana, it's theCUBE! Covering .NEXT conference, 2018. Brought to you by Nutanix. >> We're here in the big easy in New Orleans, and last year, right at this time, it was VeeamON. Happy to have theCUBE there and, right now we're at the Nutanix .NEXT conference, but back with us, the week before his conference, VeeamON, Peter McKay, President and co-CEO of Veeam. Peter, great to see you again. Thanks for joining us. >> Great to be here Stu. It's always great to be in front. >> Alright, a little bit less bright green, than your show, but, your second time at this show. Give us compare and contrast, you know between the Nutanix show and yours. >> It's great to see the ecosystem, that is definitely expanding. It's great for us because a lot of our, the relationships we've had with Nutanix has really evolved over the past year, and so part of that is the Nutanix ecosystem that we get together with and have a lot of great discussions over the two and a half days. So it's been much more impactful, this year than last, but a lot of it comes from a lot tighter in the partnership with Nutanix as well. >> Sure, and that's something Keith and I heard from the user base, it's, their ask is, you know, broaden and grow and mature that ecosystem. It was last year at the show that you made the announcement of AHV coming, and now it's their yeah, bring us inside your customers, what are you hearing from them? Why are they using it? And why Veeam, you got a nice mention on the keynote stage this morning. >> No it was, it's good. I mean, the most important was the customers were asking for tighter integration between Veeam and Nutanix. And then, you know, this started probably two years ago, and (mumbles) came to me and said, "Well we got to make a big bet together", and so, you know I remember, we were in dinner, in New York City, he said, "You got to make a big bet on us, and I'll make big bet on you", and that kind of sparked the partnership that we had and now, AHV was another one, and we got two or three more coming, down the road, that is pretty exciting as well as we expand, but AHV is obviously an important component that the Nutanix and Veeam customers have been asking for. >> Yeah, any feedback from the customers as to why they're sliding that over to AHV, most of them, you know, VM Ware customers, most customers we talked to still have a mix, but what are some of those drivers that are pushing them in that direction? >> You know I think it's a lot of the workloads, are kind of different, that's kind of conducive, I think a lot of people have tried AHV early on, a year ago or so, when it was still you know, not as mature as it is. I've had a number of customers that came up and have used it for another, for a year, year and a half, or so, and now it's starting to expand, so I think they're getting more comfortable leveraging AHV and that's what's driving a lot of those customers to say, "Okay, I want to leverage Veeam to do that, to work together with that". So it's definitely had much more broad adoption than it's had a year ago. >> So Peter, let's see if we can tease out some of these future innovations between you and Nutanix, a little bit. Taking a broader look, back-up, super mature market, but there's a awful lot of excitement, there's rumors from MNA, there's plenty of investment money going around, and not what I would call back-up, not even what I would call data protection, but I'm labeling this metadata infrastructure. Why is this market segment so important and so critical to customers in this day of digital transformation? >> Keith that's a great question, and a lot of it has to do with just the massive expansion of data, right? I mean data is just becoming more critical, it's growing at an exponential rate, it is sprawling to all end points, the edge in IOT, it's becoming a major issue. So just the sheer volume, the growth and criticality of data is changing. And then I think it's this, as companies are moving kind of this digital transformation moving more digital, the need for it to be always on has become like a must have. So, before it was like, you know, hey I just need to back it up, and you know, then it was okay now I got to recover fast, now it's about, I can never go down. Or if I do, I got to come back up fast. And so that's changed the dynamic for most of these companies that, I can't go down, the cost of it, and you had on the keynote today when they said, "Look at it, if I go down it's $750,000 a week when it goes down for one minute". So it's a lot of money, it's real dollars, that now companies are looking and saying, "I got to do something about it, I have to be always on", that's what we call availability, now hyper availability. That market is changing, and that's why you see a lot of investment going in. >> So let's talk about that this critical relationship that you're building with the Nutanix folks, how are you guys offering a differentiated experience and value to this new era of data? >> Yeah I think you know, when you look at the success that Nutanix has had, the work, the use cases, a lot of them are similar in that, you know, data is a big part of kind of their future, and part of that is this data, refreshing of the data centers that companies are kind of migrating to new and upgraded data center, I mean a lot of where our businesses come from is that updated, the data center refreshes that all these companies are doing, and a lot of them are moving off of legacy hardware, legacy back-up and protection solutions, that are moving to more kind of current day solutions, which are Nutanix and Veeam. And so, we found that we're going into the same companies, having the same conversations, and we realized that, why aren't we doing more together to do it? And so, what you'll see going forward is a lot more tighter integration between the technologies, and a lot more alignment on the use cases that were going, VDI is you know, back-up as a service, DR as a service, their cloud scenarios, their cloud offering, is also going to be a big part of our future as well. >> So let's talk about cloud in general. What's the importance to your customers in shared experience, we've heard a lot from Nutanix this past week about cloud, whether (mumbles), calm, but their opinionated view of cloud, what's the Veeam Nutanix cloud story? >> I think you know, as theory said in the keynote today, it was this, the hybrid cloud. The multi-cloud story. In every company that we go in you have to go in and talk a multi-cloud story. Especially when you're backing up or DR, you know, the cloud is a great vehicle, it's a great way to kind of get started in the cloud, and so in every conversation we have, whether you're a large company, or medium or small, the cloud is always a component in that discussion. And Nutanix is the, when you hear the story, the Veeam value proposition and the Nutanix value proposition, relative to the cloud, they're similar messages. And so, we believe that companies who want to back-up in the cloud, back-up from the cloud, or back-up between the cloud, is critical for our customers. And, we said, a year, two years ago, that this is going to be a major part of our success going forward, and we've invested a lot in it. >> Yeah, Peter, it's interesting, 'cause on the one hand, there's some similarities between the Nutanix message and the Veeam, multi-cloud world, going to play across them, the other thing, Nutanix is trying to position themselves as one of the platform players. Veeam's got a long partnership with VM Ware, last year you know, real broad as to what you do to Microsoft, how do you grade Nutanix, how they're a good partner but, you know, how are they doing in trying to be a platform a la a VM Ware, Microsoft, or even an Amazon? >> I mean, VM Ware's a phenomenal partner of ours, as you know, we built our business on the backs of VM Ware and, leveraging that ecosystem and, I think, look, Nutanix is doing a great job of driving what customer needs. Focusing on customer success, and expanding that portfolio to the needs and what the customers are asking for. And you know, that's kind of what we've done as well, and so we've aligned to focus on what the customers need to be successful. And, you know, things of simplicity you know, good ROI flexibility, agility, all the things that I think are what customers need, and what we've been positioned, what we've been talking to our customers about for, you know, seven, eight years now. So, I think the message is aligned, but I think they're doing a really good job of kind of laying out that platform, in a way that it's a journey, it's not all here today, but this is where we're going, and here's how you could follow. So, it makes you the easier to partner because you kind of know what's coming and where our roadmaps align. >> So, sounds aligned, there's always the concern, VM Ware started overlapping with the back-up enders a few years ago, but still a strong partnership, there's always that co-oppotition angle, how do you address that? >> I mean, look it, I mean that's kind of the world we live in, right? I mean there's going to be, at times there's different conversations we're having every day, with companies that we, on one hand we compete with, you know, think Dell EMC, right, and companies that you can partner with, which is also Dell and EMC. I mean, HP, Cisco, Nenapp, very strong partners of ours, and sometimes it makes sense for us to work together, and sometimes it doesn't. Or it makes sense for us to work with Nutanix versus you know, Microsoft or someone else so, you know, we try to be the best partner that we can, we've been able to navigate this world that's very, you know, a lot of overlapping technologies. And so, you know, we became, you know, kind of hardware agnostic, cloud agnostic, and that's served us well over the 11 years, and you know, I think it's getting more challenging, I think we're definitely going deeper with fewer, so that'll change over the next year or two. Where we're going to go deeper with a number of companies because, you know, that's what our customers are asking for, you know, yes I get that, but I need to go deeper in these certain technologies. >> Yeah, I'm a technologist, so I'm going to ask the question, what areas of technology are they asking for specifically? I mean back-up is, again, when you look at back-up, can I store it, can I restore it, can I restore it granually, and then we start to get into kind of where we differentiate between the, okay, we need to go look at a Veeam, or a different back-up solution, beyond what vendors give us, where's those deep integrations or deep capabilities that customers have asked for, as you've been at the show this week? >> Yeah, it's, you know every vendor has their kind of differentiation, you know? For us, we've always focused along you know the recovery time, right? That was always kind of the fastest recovery time of anybody, so we always, that's where we kind of built on our business on this availability, up and running all the time. We also have kept it simple. You know, we haven't, we try to make easy to use, easy to run, easy to manage, easy to operate, and so that has been kind of the cornerstone of Veeam since the beginning, and we try to make sure the ROI was you know fast time to value, right? And so, that continues to be our cornerstone. When we look at partnerships with the Nutanix and others, it is, how do we leverage those value prompts when there's every customer is asking for keep it simple, how do you get to value faster, and the more you can integrate with Nutanix, and the easier it is that I can get one solution, bundled together, in my various locations, and so we've been able to do that with Nutanix and others, and it's exactly what the customers have been asking for. >> Peter, give us some of the highlights of the Veeam presence here at the show. You were telling us, the sessions were overflowing, nice big booth here. >> Yeah no we're a platinum sponsor, and you know, as I said, an important partnership. Yeah, we have our event that's here, that's one of the shows that's I think max capacity is 500, it's overflowed, so that's a good sign, but a lot of interest. You know, it's good, 'cause I actually went to the booth and hung out at the, and answered a lot of questions for a couple hours last night and, just the number of customers that, most know Veeam, but they're asking for, okay AHV, I want it, where's it coming? What's next, what's next? And so, there's a lot of interest here. This has been a very good show for us, in not just getting customer feedback, or prospects and interest, but also in the partner ecosystem, on how they want to leverage the Veeam Nutanix relationship. So, as well as Executive meetings that we have, which is always a good. >> Yeah, I can attest to you, I saw you with the customers in the booth here, good to have a little warm up, next week I don't think you're going to have a lot of time to be sitting in the booth so, Peter McKay, always a pleasure to catch up with you, we look forward to seeing you and the team next week in Chicago for VeeamON. >> Same here. >> Make sure to check out thecube.net for of course, all the shows we're at, all the ones we're going to be at, and the thousands of interviews that we've done over the years. For Keith Townsend, I'm Stu Miniman, back with lots more here, thanks for watching theCUBE. (electronic music)

Published Date : May 9 2018

SUMMARY :

Brought to you by Nutanix. Peter, great to see you again. It's always great to be in front. Give us compare and contrast, you know between and so part of that is the Nutanix ecosystem you know, broaden and grow and mature that ecosystem. and that kind of sparked the partnership that we had and now, you know, not as mature as it is. and so critical to customers in and you know, then it was okay now I got to recover fast, Yeah I think you know, when you look at What's the importance to your customers I think you know, as theory said last year you know, real broad as to talking to our customers about for, you know, and you know, I think it's getting more challenging, and the more you can integrate with Nutanix, Veeam presence here at the show. and you know, as I said, an important partnership. we look forward to seeing you and the team and the thousands of interviews

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