>> Announcer: Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE, covering Dell Technologies World 2018, brought to you by Dell EMC and it's ecosystem partners. >> Well, good afternoon. Welcome back. We are live here on theCUBE, Dell Technologies World 2018 in Las Vegas. I'm John Walls with Stu Miniman, and I hope you're hungry, because we have just something to satisfy that tech appetite of yours. We have a couple of guests to talk about plants, about eating, about vegetables. I'm looking forward to this. Marc Oshima, the CMO of AeroFarms. Marc, thank you for being with us. >> Yeah, thank you. We're always excited to share what we're doing and how we're transforming agriculture, how we are feeding communities, nourishing communities by enabling local production, bringing the farm to the cities where people are >> Excellent. Good, and also with us is Kash Saikh, who is the vice president of Cloud & Solutions at Dell EMC. Kash, good to see you too. >> Thank you for having me again. >> You bet. So, Marc, let's talk about AeroFarms. First off, to share your story with the folks at home, in case they're not familiar, when I said I hope you're hungry, there's a reason why, AeroFarms. >> Yeah, so this is one of the exciting things we're doing at AeroFarms. I'm one of the co-founders. We are growing indoors. This is indoor vertical farming. We're growing in converted warehouses without sun or soil. We're really rethinking about agriculture and what we can do when we think about the rising challenges we have, climate change, we think about access to fresh water, loss of arable land, but more importantly, again, how can we take back that control as a way of growing. So, AeroFarms, the Aero in AeroFarms refers to aeroponics. We're misting the roots with nutrients and water, using 95% less water than the field farm, so, we have growing that uses no pesticides, we use a fraction of the fertilizer. So, we're really changing the inputs, something about how we have better outputs, and this is an exciting time for us. >> Well, I do want to say, first off, congratulations to the Dell EMC Workforce Transformation Award Winner, so congratulations on that front. That's a great distinction, I assume quite proud and quite worthy, right? >> Yeah, a number of farms, we have a number of great stories and it's, really, starts with the company, so idea, the culture, the people, is really what makes it special, so for us it's very meaningful. So, we think about these farms being for the community, by the community. Our global headquarters are Newark, New Jersey. It's an exciting time in that city, helping really be part of a revitalization there. But 40% of our team's coming from Newark, 85% live within 15 miles of Newark, so the idea that we can create these year-long jobs, better wages, better benefits, and then really address the fact that it's a food desert as well, increase access to healthier foods, so it's exciting to think about what we can do with business. >> Yeah, okay, Kash, actually, I was trying to remember, was it an Innovation Award, that AeroFarms-- >> It was Innovation Award. >> Maybe for our audience, talk about some of what that means to be an Innovation Award. Obviously, AeroFarms is doing some pretty cool stuff, but bring if from the Dell's standpoint. >> Absolutely. Obviously, we are working very closely, my team and myself have been working very closely with AeroFarms, and they way I describe AeroFarms is they are what I call the digital born companies. They are completely disrupting the vertical data in the line of business they are in from all aspects. The innovation is multi-dimensional, if I can say that. So, if you look at the environment they are in, this is actually a warehouse, so there is no sunlight, there is no soil, and they are reducing the water by 95%. They are using our IOT technologies, alternative think technologies. They have the gateways where they are collecting the logistics of location, they have the multi-spectral camera where they are taking the images of the plants as they are coming in on these trays, in terms of what is the color, what is the texture, how they can make it more tasty, and that's where the machine learning comes in, where we are now looking at automating some of this processes around when they have the images, rather than sorting through these images, how we can automate them and make it even more digital. But, you know, it's impressive in terms of how many aspects of digital born and digital firsts these guys are using, because I don't think there is any customer that I've talked to in this area who's using all aspects of the disruption and disruptive technologies as Marc and AeroFarms is using. So, to me, they really deserve the Innovation Award, from so many perspectives and how they are leveraging the technology and how they are changing things in a very traditional industry. If you look at farming, it's a traditional industry but it's from the ground up, more digital. >> Marc, actually, I want to start there first, before we get into the IOT and the ML and all that wonderful stuff that we definitely want to cover. What do you consider your company? Are you a farming company, are you a technology company? You're one of the co-founders. Bring us back. You know, I'm from the area of New Jersey that you're based, no land, no soil, no area, a lot of time no sunlight, yep, sounds about right for that part of New Jersey. >> Yeah. >> So, the founding, was it a point in time with the technology, the skill set, bring us back, and how do you think of yourselves? >> Yeah, so, at the heart, we're farmers, but we're also a technology company, and there's this symbiotic relationship, and we realize if we want to be good at the farming, we need to be good at the technology. If we want to be good at the technology, we need to be good at the farming as well, so understanding this interaction. So, we think about the biology and the engineering and the environment, and what's exciting now, is we bring in the big data, so we're constantly sensing and looking at what's happening with the plant, so the plants are being monitored 24/7, so we think we are the world experts in understanding how to grow plants. We can grow a wide range of different types of crops, so what's exciting is that we can really change the equation in terms of having a better product. We can think about things like the taste, texture, and nutrition and, ultimately, yield, so we can have the right kind of sustainable business plan. >> I love that you say you're farmers. It's not just, oh, we're a software company, we're a digital company. You're right, farming's at the core. People that have seen the videos or tried your products understand, this is great produce you create there, and that pairing with, a big thing we've seen at the show, is the technology and the people, and bringing those together. So, bring us inside a little bit, your IT world, how you manage that, how you look at data as being a core piece of your business. >> What we love about the theme of the show is, well, make it real. It's so real that it's very tangible, it's food and thinking about how we can have that impact in communities, so everybody in our organization's very much aligned in terms of, again, how can we think about a new way of farming, from seed to package, a new way of growing that has food safety at the highest level. So, how do we do that? The technology, the IT, is helping enable a lot of this. We have an amazing workforce. We also have over 300 standard operating procedures on how to run a farm, but what the technology's allowing us to do is how to replicate that, how to scale the businesses, and how to make sure we can do it consistently all year round. So, the idea that we have eyes and ears and, literally, we think of ourselves as the plant listeners or the plant whisperers of what do the plants need, and the technologies allowing us those windows into, again, how to optimize 'em. >> So, what are you measuring? I assume, soil, moisture, humidity, what all inputs are you getting, and how are you processing them, and then how's that, I guess, Kash, I want to hear from you, how you are enabling them to make sense of all this, the analytic side? >> We actually are growing without soil, so just to make that perfectly clear. >> That's right, I'm sorry. That's right, my mistake. >> We have patents on our growing medium. It's actually cloth, and so it's a reusable medium, but allows us a lot of flexibility in terms of the types of crops we can grow. But, we're looking at the environmental factors, so things like temperature, humidity, we're also thinking about things like the nutrients, we're thinking about lighting. So, we talk about having this expertise, understand how to have more effective photosynthesis. We can look at each plant, each stage of maturation, understand not only what type of spectrum of light, but what intensity, what frequency, so we can actually have more effective photosynthesis indoors and then have that consistently. So, we actually develop these growing algorithms, so this idea, so we have an R&D farm, R&D team is taking this, and really calibrating it, then it gets handed over to our operations team. An idea, though, is every harvest now becomes another learning opportunity, and the fact is we can have up to 30 different harvests a year, so those are 30 learning opportunities. We think about that, exponentially, how much more insight we have, how much more data, and that's what I think makes AeroFarms unique is this holistic view. So, we've been doing this since 2004. We'll be the first to tell you, it's really challenging, how to bring this together, and it's by working with partners like Dell can help us really amplify that work and be able to use the technology to make insights around the data. So, we think of ourselves, not only harvesting the plant, but harvesting those insights as well. >> Kash, bring us inside this. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't sound like something that's off the shelf. What's involved in putting together a solution like this? How does Dell work with customers like AeroFarms? >> There are several aspects. The way we started was we started with an IOT workshop with AeroFarms. We also started with the gateways, which as we discussed, provide the logistics and location and all that good stuff. Then, we started working with Marc and the team on looking at how we can automate some of the things, especially around imaging. As I mentioned, there is a multi-spectral camera that is mounted on the harvesting table, and as you're taking the images, and rather than manually sorting through the images, the ideas can be applied, machine-learning technologies to automate some of that, because this is where we come in, especially from the machine learning and deep learning perspective, when we get involved, the first thing we evaluate is, with the customers, do they have the right set of the data? Do you have the right amount of data? If they have the data that is classified and categorized, and then the next step is, obviously, we can apply automation and machine learning and deep learning to get them faster in size, rather than doing it manually. And, in this case, like I said, they were pretty much already there because they are digital born company, they were using analytics, they have a lot of data, and so for us, it was a matter of making sure we focus on what is that they are trying to achieve. There are several aspects, as Marc said, there is yield, obviously, you want to increase the yield per square foot, and one of the matrix I saw was 390 times better productivity per square foot. So, the end of the day, they are trying to increase the yield and, for us, it's a matter of as we are gathering these images, how we can make the process more automated using machine learning and deep learning, if I can simplify that with the right amount of data. And, to answer your other part of the questions, too, in some cases, it's very customized, because they are different kind of customers. As I said, for me, AeroFarms is an example of digital first, they are already there, they have most of the technologies. In some cases, we work with a customers, they are in mature industries and they are mature customers, but they are now trying to be more digitally transformed. They are using some aspects of the digital transformation and we have them leverage machine learning or deep learning to get the faster in size and intelligence that can help them with a competitive differenciation. What we are trying to do is, as a part of these engagements, as in working with really advanced customers like AeroFarms or some other customers, is figuring out what are the typical challenges these customers run into. If I can summarize it, because there are a variety of customers, there are, obviously, early adapters, they come to us, they have figured out most of the things, but they have a particular problem around, let's say, a framework, TensorFlow, Caffe2, and what have you. Large majority of customers, they have heard about AI, they come to me and they are like, Kash, help us get started on this journey. It's just basic stuff, like how do get, even if I have IOT, how do I get started? So, I've heard about GPU and AI which is a cool thing. At the end of the day, I'm trying to solve my business problem and use it as a competitive differenciation. To me, is my job, especially as a solution lead for Dell EMC, is to bridge that gap, not just give them a building block, give them a solution. So, what we do, we have a lab we put together solutions. So, AI, complicated. You have various kinds of accelerators, you have operating systems, and then you have these frameworks, and then there are vertical softwares, what I call the AI. What we are doing in our labs is, based on learning from some of the customers, we are developing an AI validated start, which can be customized, depending on what the customers are trying to do, but they got a lot of guesswork. They got all their self-learning. Along with that, we provide consulting services, so, for example, these data scientists, they are a premium resource, hard-to-find skill sets. We don't want our customers to have the data scientists setting up these data lakes or figuring out all the stacks on their own. Give them the stack, provide them the services, so the idea is from accelerator, GPU, to solution faster. >> Right. So, Marc, your peers really appreciate that you're chewing some glass and working on some of these early solutions. Most customers I talk to, IOT is still relatively early, same thing with machine learning, so I wonder if you could just take a second and talk to some of the things you've learned, anything now that you look back and say I wish I'd understand this, either from a technology or organizational standpoint, kind of key lessons learned, that we can all learn from what you've done. >> Yeah, sure. I think at the heart of what we've heard is that this is a customized approach, so the idea that there are some key lessons, but we're writing a new playbook. That's what's exciting about this, and I think what was so key, though, what we saw with Dell, is there was a process. There was a collaboration in terms of hearing. These are important lessons because this is foundational work. So, I mentioned about the IOT workshop, really be able to get the stakeholders together, really understanding what are the business, and what are our business needs. But, it's not just that one point in time. It's ongoing, it's a really great collaboration, understanding how we integrated the data, what are the data insights, and then how we, it's a interative process, in terms of, again, how do we continue to evolve and make sense of this? Those are important lessons for any partner and any person starting out in this journey is making sure, understanding what the business's business need, but then being able to articulate that in a way that it'd be turned into action and insights. >> Anything that surprised you or caught you off guard in the process? >> Yeah, these are things that, again, because it's new, so it's making sure that we have an organizational commitment, again, in terms of, again, how we prioritize as scaling business, as an emerging business, with competing objectives at times, but at the heart of this is we really need to see what's the pulse of the business, and this is what's allowing us, so this is really important about making sure, strategically, it's front and center. >> It's a cool concept, no doubt about it, hydroponics, technology, an idea that you could say it's taken root, but that would be a terrible joke, and I wouldn't do that. Marc, thanks for being with us. Kash, a pleasure as well, and continued success. >> Well, I appreciate it. >> AeroFarms, based in Newark, New Jersey. Back with more, you're watching Dell Technologies World 2018, and we are live on theCUBE in Las Vegas, Nevada. (techy music)