foreign welcome back to re invent 2022 we're wrapping up four days well one evening and three solid days wall-to-wall of cube coverage I'm Dave vellante John furrier's birthday is today he's on a plane to London to go see his nephew get married his his great Sister Janet awesome family the furriers uh spanning the globe and uh and John I know you wanted to be here you're watching in Newark or you were waiting to uh to get in the plane so all the best to you happy birthday one year the Amazon PR people brought a cake out to celebrate John's birthday because he's always here at AWS re invented his birthday so I'm really pleased to have two really special guests uh former Cube host Cube Alum great wikibon contributor Stu miniman now with red hat still good to see you again great to be here Dave yeah I was here for that cake uh the twitterverse uh was uh really helping to celebrate John's birthday today and uh you know always great to be here with you and then with this you know Awesome event this week and friend of the cube of many time Cube often Cube contributor as here's a cube analyst this week as his own consultancy sarbj johal great to see you thanks for coming on good to see you Dave uh great to see you stu I'm always happy to participate in these discussions and um I enjoy the discussion every time so this is kind of cool because you know usually the last day is a getaway day and this is a getaway day but this place is still packed I mean it's I mean yeah it's definitely lighter you can at least walk and not get slammed but I subjit I'm going to start with you I I wanted to have you as the the tail end here because cause you participated in the analyst sessions you've been watching this event from from the first moment and now you've got four days of the Kool-Aid injection but you're also talking to customers developers Partners the ecosystem where do you want to go what's your big takeaways I think big takeaways that Amazon sort of innovation machine is chugging along they are I was listening to some of the accessions and when I was back to my room at nine so they're filling the holes in some areas but in some areas they're moving forward there's a lot to fix still it doesn't seem like that it seems like we are done with the cloud or The Innovation is done now we are building at the millisecond level so where do you go next there's a lot of room to grow on the storage side on the network side uh the improvements we need and and also making sure that the software which is you know which fits the hardware like there's a specialized software um sorry specialized hardware for certain software you know so there was a lot of talk around that and I attended some of those sessions where I asked the questions around like we have a specialized database for each kind of workload specialized processes processors for each kind of workload yeah the graviton section and actually the the one interesting before I forget that the arbitration was I asked that like why there are so many so many databases and IRS for the egress costs and all that stuff can you are you guys thinking about reducing that you know um the answer was no egress cost is not a big big sort of uh um show stopper for many of the customers but but the from all that sort of little discussion with with the folks sitting who build these products over there was that the plethora of choice is given to the customers to to make them feel that there's no vendor lock-in so if you are using some open source you know um soft software it can be on the you know platform side or can be database side you have database site you have that option at AWS so this is a lot there because I always thought that that AWS is the mother of all lock-ins but it's got an ecosystem and we're going to talk about exactly we'll talk about Stu what's working within AWS when you talk to customers and where are the challenges yeah I I got a comment on open source Dave of course there because I mean look we criticized to Amazon for years about their lack of contribution they've gotten better they're doing more in open source but is Amazon the mother of all lock-ins many times absolutely there's certain people inside Amazon I'm saying you know many of us talk Cloud native they're like well let's do Amazon native which means you're like full stack is things from Amazon and do things the way that we want to do things and you know I talk to a lot of customers they use more than one Cloud Dave and therefore certain things absolutely I want to Leverage The Innovation that Amazon has brought I do think we're past building all the main building blocks in many ways we are like in day two yes Amazon is fanatically customer focused and will always stay that way but you know there wasn't anything that jumped out at me last year or this year that was like Wow new category whole new way of thinking about something we're in a vocals last year Dave said you know we have over 200 services and if we listen to you the customer we'd have over two thousand his session this week actually got some great buzz from my friends in the serverless ecosystem they love some of the things tying together we're using data the next flywheel that we're going to see for the next 10 years Amazon's at the center of the cloud ecosystem in the IT world so you know there's a lot of good things here and to your point Dave the ecosystem one of the things I always look at is you know was there a booth that they're all going to be crying in their beer after Amazon made an announcement there was not a tech vendor that I saw this week that was like oh gosh there was an announcement and all of a sudden our business is gone where I did hear some rumbling is Amazon might be the next GSI to really move forward and we've seen all the gsis pushing really deep into supporting Cloud bringing workloads to the cloud and there's a little bit of rumbling as to that balance between what Amazon will do and their uh their go to market so a couple things so I think I think we all agree that a lot of the the announcements here today were taping seams right I call it and as it relates to the mother of all lock-in the reason why I say that it's it's obviously very much a pejorative compare Oracle company you know really well with Amazon's lock-in for Amazon's lock-in is about bringing this ecosystem together so that you actually have Choice Within the the house so you don't have to leave you know there's a there's a lot to eat at the table yeah you look at oracle's ecosystem it's like yeah you know oracle is oracle's ecosystem so so that is how I think they do lock in customers by incenting them not to leave because there's so much Choice Dave I agree with you a thousand I mean I'm here I'm a I'm a good partner of AWS and all of the partners here want to be successful with Amazon and Amazon is open to that it's not our way or get out which Oracle tries how much do you extract from the overall I.T budget you know are you a YouTube where you give the people that help you create a large sum of the money YouTube hasn't been all that profitable Amazon I think is doing a good balance of the ecosystem makes money you know we used to talk Dave about you know how much dollars does VMware make versus there um I think you know Amazon is a much bigger you know VMware 2.0 we used to think talk about all the time that VMware for every dollar spent on VMware licenses 15 or or 12 or 20 were spent in the ecosystem I would think the ratio is even higher here sarbji and an Oracle I would say it's I don't know yeah actually 1 to 0.5 maybe I don't know but I want to pick on your discussion about the the ecosystem the the partner ecosystem is so it's it's robust strong because it's wider I was I was not saying that there's no lock-in with with Amazon right AWS there's lock-in there's lock-in with everything there's lock-in with open source as well but but the point is that they're they're the the circle is so big you don't feel like locked in but they're playing smart as well they're bringing in the software the the platforms from the open source they're picking up those packages and saying we'll bring it in and cater that to you through AWS make it better perform better and also throw in their custom chips on top of that hey this MySQL runs better here so like what do you do I said oh Oracle because it's oracle's product if you will right so they are I think think they're filing or not slenders from their go to market strategy from their engineering and they listen to they're listening to customers like very closely and that has sort of side effects as well listening to customers creates a sprawl of services they have so many services and I criticized them last year for calling everything a new service I said don't call it a new service it's a feature of a existing service sure a lot of features a lot of features this is egress our egress costs a real problem or is it just the the on-prem guys picking at the the scab I mean what do you hear from customers so I mean Dave you know I I look at what Corey Quinn talks about all the time and Amazon charges on that are more expensive than any other Cloud the cloud providers and partly because Amazon is you know probably not a word they'd use they are dominant when it comes to the infrastructure space and therefore they do want to make it a little bit harder to do that they can get away with it um because um yeah you know we've seen some of the cloud providers have special Partnerships where you can actually you know leave and you're not going to be charged and Amazon they've been a little bit more flexible but absolutely I've heard customers say that they wish some good tunning and tongue-in-cheek stuff what else you got we lay it on us so do our players okay this year I think the focus was on the upside it's shifting gradually this was more focused on offside there were less talk of of developers from the main stage from from all sort of quadrants if you will from all Keynotes right so even Werner this morning he had a little bit for he was talking about he he was talking he he's job is to Rally up the builders right yeah so he talks about the go build right AWS pipes I thought was kind of cool then I said like I'm making glue easier I thought that was good you know I know some folks don't use that I I couldn't attend the whole session but but I heard in between right so it is really adopt or die you know I am Cloud Pro for last you know 10 years and I think it's the best model for a technology consumption right um because of economies of scale but more importantly because of division of labor because of specialization because you can't afford to hire the best security people the best you know the arm chip designers uh you can't you know there's one actually I came up with a bumper sticker you guys talked about bumper sticker I came up with that like last couple of weeks The Innovation favorite scale they have scale they have Innovation so that's where the Innovation is and it's it's not there again they actually say the market sets the price Market you as a customer don't set the price the vendor doesn't set the price Market sets the price so if somebody's complaining about their margins or egress and all that I think that's BS um yeah I I have a few more notes on the the partner if you you concur yeah Dave you know with just coming back to some of this commentary about like can Amazon actually enable something we used to call like Community clouds uh your companies like you know Goldman and NASDAQ and the like where Industries will actually be able to share data uh and you know expand the usage and you know Amazon's going to help drive that API economy forward some so it's good to see those things because you know we all know you know all of us are smarter than just any uh single company together so again some of that's open source but some of that is you know I think Amazon is is you know allowing Innovation to thrive I think the word you're looking for is super cloud there well yeah I mean it it's uh Dave if you want to go there with the super cloud because you know there's a metaphor for exactly what you described NASDAQ Goldman Sachs we you know and and you know a number of other companies that are few weeks at the Berkeley Sky Computing paper yeah you know that's a former supercloud Dave Linthicum calls it metacloud I'm not really careful I mean you know I go back to the the challenge we've been you know working at for a decade is the distributed architecture you know if you talk about AI architectures you know what lives in the cloud what lives at the edge where do we train things where do we do inferences um locations should matter a lot less Amazon you know I I didn't hear a lot about it this show but when they came out with like local zones and oh my gosh out you know all the things that Amazon is building to push out to the edge and also enabling that technology and software and the partner ecosystem helps expand that and Pull It in it's no longer you know Dave it was Hotel California all of the data eventually is going to end up in the public cloud and lock it in it's like I don't think that's going to be the case we know that there will be so much data out at the edge Amazon absolutely is super important um there some of those examples we're giving it's not necessarily multi-cloud but there's collaboration happening like in the healthcare world you know universities and hospitals can all share what they're doing uh regardless of you know where they live well Stephen Armstrong in the analyst session did say that you know we're going to talk about multi-cloud we're not going to lead with it necessarily but we are going to actually talk about it and that's different to your points too than in the fullness of time all the data will be in the cloud that's a new narrative but go ahead yeah actually Amazon is a leader in the cloud so if they push the cloud even if they don't say AWS or Amazon with it they benefit from it right and and the narrative is that way there's the proof is there right so again Innovation favorite scale there are chips which are being made for high scale their software being tweaked for high scale you as a Bank of America or for the Chrysler as a typical Enterprise you cannot afford to do those things in-house what cloud providers can I'm not saying just AWS Google cloud is there Azure guys are there and few others who are behind them and and you guys are there as well so IBM has IBM by the way congratulations to your red hat I know but IBM won the award um right you know very good partner and yeah but yeah people are dragging their feet people usually do on the change and they are in denial denial they they drag their feet and they came in IBM director feed the cave Den Dell drag their feed the cave in yeah you mean by Dragon vs cloud deniers cloud deniers right so server Huggers I call them but they they actually are sitting in Amazon Cloud Marketplace everybody is buying stuff from there the marketplace is the new model OKAY Amazon created the marketplace for b2c they are leading the marketplace of B2B as well on the technology side and other people are copying it so there are multiple marketplaces now so now actually it's like if you're in in a mobile app development there are two main platforms Android and Apple you first write the application for Apple right then for Android hex same here as a technology provider as and I I and and I actually you put your stuff to AWS first then you go anywhere else yeah they are later yeah the Enterprise app store is what we've wanted for a long time the question is is Amazon alone the Enterprise app store or are they partner of a of a larger portfolio because there's a lot of SAS companies out there uh that that play into yeah what we need well and this is what you're talking about the future but I just want to make a point about the past you talking about dragging their feet because the Cube's been following this and Stu you remember this in 2013 IBM actually you know got in a big fight with with Amazon over the CIA deal you know and it all became public judge wheeler eviscerated you know IBM and it ended up IBM ended up buying you know soft layer and then we know what happened there and it Joe Tucci thought the cloud was Mosey right so it's just amazing to see we have booksellers you know VMware called them books I wasn't not all of them are like talking about how great Partnerships they are it's amazing like you said sub GC and IBM uh with the the GSI you know Partnership of the year but what you guys were just talking about was the future and that's what I wanted to get to is because you know Amazon's been leading the way I I was listening to Werner this morning and that just reminded me of back in the days when we used to listen to IBM educate us give us a master class on system design and decoupled systems and and IO and everything else now Amazon is you know the master educator and it got me thinking how long will that last you know will they go the way of you know the other you know incumbents will they be disrupted or will they you know keep innovating maybe it's going to take 10 or 20 years I don't know yeah I mean Dave you actually you did some research I believe it was a year or so ago yeah but what will stop Amazon and the one thing that worries me a little bit um is the two Pizza teams when you have over 202 Pizza teams the amount of things that each one of those groups needs to take care of was more than any human could take care of people burn out they run out of people how many amazonians only last two or three years and then leave because it is tough I bumped into plenty of friends of mine that have been you know six ten years at Amazon and love it but it is a tough culture and they are driving werner's keynote I thought did look to from a product standpoint you could say tape over some of the seams some of those solutions to bring Beyond just a single product and bring them together and leverage data so there are some signs that they might be able to get past some of those limitations but I still worry structurally culturally there could be some challenges for Amazon to keep the momentum going especially with the global economic impact that we are likely to see in the next year bring us home I think the future side like we could talk about the vendors all day right to serve the community out there I think we should talk about how what's the future of technology consumption from the consumer side so from the supplier side just a quick note I think the only danger AWS has has that that you know Fred's going after them you know too big you know like we will break you up and that can cause some disruption there other than that I think they they have some more steam to go for a few more years at least before we start thinking about like oh this thing is falling apart or anything like that so they have a lot more they have momentum and it's continuing so okay from the I think game is on retail by the way is going to get disrupted before AWS yeah go ahead from the buyer's side I think um the the future of the sort of Technology consumption is based on the paper uh use and they actually are turning all their services to uh they are sort of becoming serverless behind the scenes right all analytics service they had one service left they they did that this year so every service is serverless so that means you pay exactly for the amount you use the compute the iops the the storage so all these three layers of course Network we talked about the egress stuff and that's a problem there because of the network design mainly because Google has a flatter design and they have lower cost so so they are actually squeezing the their their designing this their services in a way that you don't waste any resources as a buyer so for example very simple example when early earlier In This Cloud you will get a VM right in Cloud that's how we started so and you can get 20 use 20 percent of the VM 80 is getting wasted that's not happening now that that has been reduced to the most extent so now your VM grows as you grow the usage and if you go higher than the tier you picked they will charge you otherwise they will not charge you extra so that's why there's still a lot of instances like many different types you have to pick one I think the future is that those instances will go away the the instance will be formed for you on the fly so that is the future serverless all right give us bumper sticker Stu and then Serb G I'll give you my quick one and then we'll wrap yeah so just Dave to play off of sharp G and to wrap it up you actually wrote about it on your preview post for here uh serverless we're talking about how developers think about things um and you know Amazon in many ways you know is the new default server uh you know for the cloud um and containerization fits into the whole serverless Paradigm uh it's the space that I live in uh you know every day here and you know I was happy to see the last few years serverless and containers there's a blurring a line and you know subject we're still going to see VMS for a long time yeah yeah we will see that so give us give us your book Instagram my number six is innovation favorite scale that's my bumper sticker and and Amazon has that but also I I want everybody else to like the viewers to take a look at the the Google Cloud as well as well as IBM with others like maybe you have a better price to Performance there for certain workloads and by the way one vendor cannot do it alone we know that for sure the market is so big there's a lot of room for uh Red Hats of the world and and and Microsoft's the world to innovate so keep an eye on them they we need the competition actually and that's why competition Will Keep Us to a place where Market sets the price one vendor doesn't so the only only danger is if if AWS is a monopoly then I will be worried I think ecosystems are the Hallmark of a great Cloud company and Amazon's got the the biggest and baddest ecosystem and I think the other thing to watch for is Industries building on top of the cloud you mentioned the Goldman Sachs NASDAQ Capital One and Warner media these all these industries are building their own clouds and that's where the real money is going to be made in the latter half of the 2020s all right we're a wrap this is Dave Valente I want to first of all thank thanks to our great sponsors AWS for for having us here this is our 10th year at the cube AMD you know sponsoring as well the the the cube here Accenture sponsor to third set upstairs upstairs on the fifth floor all the ecosystem partners that came on the cube this week and supported our mission for free content our content is always free we try to give more to the community and we we take back so go to thecube.net and you'll see all these videos go to siliconangle com for all the news wikibon.com I publish weekly a breaking analysis series I want to thank our amazing crew here you guys we have probably 30 35 people unbelievable our awesome last session John Walls uh Paul Gillen Lisa Martin Savannah Peterson John Furrier who's on a plane we appreciate Andrew and Leonard in our ear and all of our our crew Palo Alto Boston and across the country thank you so much really appreciate it all right we are a wrap AWS re invent 2022 we'll see you in two weeks we'll see you two weeks at Palo Alto ignite back here in Vegas thanks for watching thecube the leader in Enterprise and emerging Tech coverage [Music]

>> Host: Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE, covering Dell Technologies World 2018, brought to you by Dell EMC and its ecosystem partners. >> Welcome back to theCUBE. We are live, day three of Dell Technologies World. I'm Lisa Martin, back hosting with Dave Velante and we're very excited to welcome back to theCUBE Karen Quintos, Chief Customer Officer at Dell EMC. Hey, welcome back. >> Thank you, thank you. It's great to be here with you both. >> Dave: Good to see you again. >> So, we saw you on stage on Monday, recognizing innovators and trailblazers. I always love, as a marketer, when customers are recognized for their achievements because the voice of the customer is the best brand validation that you can get. Talk to us about the customer awards program and highlight a few of the winners that were on stage. >> Well, first of all, I agree with you, Lisa, that the best way to talk about your products and your solutions is to do it through the eyes of the customer, so being able to honor eight of our super most inspiring customers on stage was great. We had hundreds of submissions from our sales teams working with our customers. We really wanted to bring the transformation stories to life. The stories that we were able to tell and the evolution that these customers have done in their industry and their business, was remarkable, so, you think about Ford and the autonomous car. You think about J and J and the work they're doing around securing their customer data. You think about Volvo and Zenuity, and the opportunities that they have had with technology and then some of my favorite, Arrowfarms, >> Love that. >> Teleconnected farm, and they're using technology in Newark, New Jersey, to transform the way that farming is done, conserving our natural resources, using 95% less water, and being able to do it, and, this, the IOT of farming, they're just all super rich and really really great stories. >> And then, you got, I have to ask you to say it, to pronounce, I loved your pronunciation of, Unidad, come on, help me. >> I know it was the first one, right? >> Dave: Unidad de Conocimiento. (laughing) >> Yes, yeah, you got it right, you got it right. >> Okay. >> They're a great story, too, right, I mean, here's an organization in Colombia that is a consolidation of different industries that are providing these services across Colombia and Latin America. They've absolutely figured out how to take a country like Columbia out of the perils of what has happened there with the drug cartel, really thrive on economic prosperity and they're absolutely kicking butt when it comes to the services that they're providing to all of their, their customers, so it's... >> And the state bank of India, was that the other one? >> State bank of India. >> They really had a global representation, it's awesome. >> Well, we looked hard for that. We looked hard for the global representation. We also looked really really hard and gave extra points to companies that had a purpose and a soul, so what they were doing, either with the technology or with the services that they're providing to their end customers, what's that, that purpose side? And, you know, you saw that in a number of these really awesome organizations. >> I'm going to ask you, so I'm going to ask a leadership question. When we first met, I think it was at Dell World. It might have been 2012, I think you were CMO of Dell at the time, so you, like a lot of leaders, you chair hop, that's kind of what you do. So you've now, playing it up. >> But 18 years at Dell, so, you know. >> Right, but, right, so, you take your best leaders and you say, alright, go fix this problem, go fix this problem, go, go inspire some people to do that, so, you've been, and also it's the, is it the chief customer office that you started? >> I did. Well, actually, Michael started it. >> A year and a half ago? >> Right. >> Well, what's that all about? How's the progress going? Give us the update there. >> Well, you know, I have to tell you, I give a ton of credit to Michael because he saw an opportunity in something that was quite new and quite novel, and now you look a year and a half later at what some of our competitors and others are doing. You know, Microsoft just named somebody that sits at their executive leadership team meeting, recognizing that customer relationships are the ultimate prize. Our ability to deliver a great customer experience is going to be the, is the next battleground, and, we've been leading in that area now for a year and a half, so, I'm the first chief customer officer ever at Dell Technologies, and our mission is really to make sure that we continue to push the needle, and drive an even better end to end customer experience. We're doing a lot around taking our top, most important customers, and there's a couple of thousand of them at Dell. I'm not talking about five or six, I'm talking about like thousands of customers that have consistently honored us with their business over the years so how do we put high touch, high loyalty kind of programs in place? The customer awards were a great way to recognize some of those top customers and put them on the stage and tell their story, and the piece that gets me even more excited is what we're doing around our customer data, so, how do we unleash the power of our customer data? How do we integrate it? How do we automate it? How do we put real time predictive analytics? By looking at a customer end to end and being able to figure out if that account is going to go red, because they've had a combination of things, go figure out what are the sources of value for them and unleash those, so, we're living in this AI big data world and living it realtime with, under the remit of the chief customer office. >> And if I heard you correctly, at the leadership team, you're kind of the voice of the customer? >> I am, I am. There's a lot of voices for the customer. >> Well, yeah, because the head, the head of sales are going to be doing that and. >> But they all come with their own bias, right? Or their own lens, right, so, we're actually, my team is a very very strong partner to our heads of sales, because sometimes heads of sales, I mean, they see these things clearly the same way that we do, but sometimes the voice around, well, this isn't working, we need to get better at this, our customers want us to go faster here, tends to get lost in, you know, business performance and close rates and all of that, and we have this unique ability to look at this end to end, and help to really advocate on behalf of customers and really do the right thing for them at the end of the day. >> Independent of the transaction metrics, is what you're saying. >> Yes. >> And it's different perspective, right? We talked about the voice of the customer being an objective brand validation, and you come from a different perspective. One of the things that, we had your CIO on earlier today, Bask, and he said, "We drink our own champagne." And then we had Ravi Pentaconti and he says, we eat our own dog food, we're right next to the therapy dogs. So I like that, but from what you're saying, you're using customer data to help make Dell Technologies differentiated, be able to revolutionize the customer experience, listening to those customers is key. Can you tell us a little bit more about how some of that data is being applied to revolutionize that experience? >> Sure, so, some of it's basic, some of it can be pretty transformational, so, and by the way Baz Guyer has been a significant partner with me on this journey, because he understands it. Listen, Dell's the only technology company out there today that has the rich, direct data that we have, combined with rich channel partner data. So, we have all of it, right? And some of our competitors do everything through the channel, a few of them do everything all direct, we do both. So, we have a huge advantage when it comes to that. We can look at the amalgamation of all of the listening posts that we have for our customers. We have a booth here, where we've brought in hundreds, thousands of customers, and we've asked them a series of questions. We have voice of the field surveys that we do with our sales team, we do NPS surveys, this survey, all of that. We can bring all of that together using big data and insights and we can prioritize the big things that matter. So one of the things that I see a lot of my peers at other companies get caught up in, is they're chasing 15 or 20 things. You know, at any given moment, we're chasing 3 to 5. And we want to move the needle on those 3 to 5 and then we want to get, capture and address the next ones. So that's what I would call kind of the basic, fundamental pieces. What I think is exciting, is, we can now take a view of a customer, a complete view of that customer, we know what they bought, we know who they bought it from, we know the number of escalations they've had, we know what their delivery performance has been, we know how many times they've changed the AE on the account we know what their corporate responsibility priorities are, and we can look at that in totality, and we can put an outreach kind of program in place for them, or, we can look at it and go, this one is about to go south, and we need to put our best people to go call on the account and help the account executive, who in a lot of ways sees this also, and help to figure out how to turn it around. >> So, and you can do that across the integrated company today? >> We have piloted across the integrated set of companies, and in the Q3 period of time, working closely with Baz, we're going to automate this and turn it into like an Amber Alert, early warning type of system, so that we can help the AE and our customers before things happen. And the other piece that we can do, is we know, we know the ten levers of customer value. And, you know, for the most part we do those generally well. But in some cases, some of the reasons that our customers come back to us is because we've discovered things at their account that they didn't even know was happening. So we're, we've got this power of big data sitting right in front of us with Chief Customer Office that can really, really light it up. >> Well the other thing you said is the account teams know when there's a problem, but the executive teams, they have limited resources. So you don't know where to prioritize. >> Right, and some of our AE's have more than one account. >> Dave: Yeah, right. >> So, you know, some of them are handling 20 accounts. So where this thing becomes really interesting is as you think about scaling it, down through the organization, not just at the top ones. The top accounts, they're one to, one-to-one kind of engagement, and those types of things. It gets really interesting when you start to get below that and you start to really use it in a more scaleable way. >> Plus, as you go more channel, right, and you go more to edge, you get all these complexities beyond just product portfolio. You're dealing with that stuff, but then the channel complexities, and then the new markets that are emerging, particularly in edge, and the channels that that's going to precipitate. >> Right, right. >> To me, this is even more important. >> So 18 months into this new role that Michael Dell created, lots of accomplishments, it sounds like you're really leveraging it to partner with customers to help, not just them, but also your internal teams, be able to identify where there needs to be escalations. What are some of the things that you're opening up with respect to diversity and inclusion, because that's also under your purview? >> That's right, that's right Lisa. What I think is really interesting is how much our sales teams now is coming to my team, to use some of these other platforms to open doors and have conversations with CIOS that they could not get before. So I'll give you a perfect case in point. The sales leader in the U.K. came to me and said, "I have a particular account in London, "I haven't really been able to make any progress, "the CIO is a woman, their head of infrastructure is a woman "you're going to be there in London, would you send her a note "and let's have a conversation around some of the things "that we have some mutual interest in." Technology being one, as well as getting more women involved in to technology. So we had this conversation, an hour in, she said, you know, if Dell would host a session with other female CIOs in the U.K area, I will open up my Rolodex and we will get other women to come. Two months later, we did it, in London in January. I was there, Michael was there, our heads of sales were there, we had about 15 or 20 of these super impressive women in the public sector, the private sector, higher education universities, big brands, we just did a similar one here at Dell Technologies World. We just hosted, as a matter of fact yesterday, 20 women, we actually had a couple of men that were there, too, all just coming together talking about areas that we deeply care about. How do we get more women and minorities interested in these technology fields. >> And here we are in 2018, this is still such an issue, and it's something that's still surprising when we get to see females on stage in keynotes, like yourself, like Allison Doo who was just chatting with you, Dave, and Stu. It's still, we're actually kind of going, hey, we're starting from a deficit whereas 20 30 years ago we were kind of going up. What are some of the things that you hear from your male peers in terms of the importance of showing multiple generations of girls and women you do belong here, if this is something that you're interested in, do not be afraid. >> Yeah, what I find remarkable in these conversations is there's clearly a number of key themes that are emerging. One of the biggest ones is, this is an economic imperative. You think about, there's going to be 1.1 million jobs in the computer science technology field over the next ten years. 45% of those jobs are going to be filled by U.S. college grads. It's a gap 55%. Women that are graduating in the area of computer science and technology is down, significantly, from like 30% down to like 18% right now. You are simply not going to have enough of what has been the traditional workforce in order to fill these jobs. So, that's one, and that's one that we at Dell care about a lot. Second piece that we care about, is, we just know that when you bring together a diverse group of individuals, always get to a better answer for your customers, you do. Research has proven it, we can prove it, we can see it, all of that. And then the third piece is, I just think women bring unique skills in a collaborative global context that can really bust through some of the big, complex, thorny opportunities that corporations are working through. >> So, ladies, let me jump in here, if I may. So there's two sides to this coin is, one is yes, we've got to get young women excited, but the other is you've got to promote women to leadership positions. Obviously Dell does a good job of that, clearly IBM gets high marks for that, I mean one of the sad things about seeing Meg Whitman go was that you had a dynamic woman leader. Maybe not the greatest speaker in the world, but one-on-one, super strong, and I think an inspiration to a lot of young women. And I think our industry clearly, Silicon Valley, Boston, just not doing enough. Particularly in smaller companies, larger companies I think do a better job, so your thoughts on that? >> My thought on that is it's a hard problem, but at its very basic, it's actually quite simple. And these are the things that we're doing at Dell, it takes commitment from the top, and at all levels of the company to make change, drive the accountability, set goals. To your point, go place some bets on the younger generation up-and-coming diverse talent, put them in roles, and then surround them with a support system that they need to be successful. And, we've done that, you know, Michael has done that, he did it with me. When, six or seven years ago, he called me and said how'd ya like to be Dell's next Chief Marketing Officer? And then you know, called me 18 months ago and said, how'd ya like to be Dell's first Chief Customer Officer. You need people that see things in that talent and you need that commitment. You need a culture that supports that. You need more role models. You need to get rid of and totally eliminate the harassment and the bullying and the old boys kind of club. You've got to create places where women and minorities feel like they can be themselves. Culture plays a huge, huge, huge role. And then, you know, communities play a huge role. So we have a very, very growing and thriving employee resource group set of networks. We have 14 of them across Dell and Dell EMC. And they're just a safe haven for where people of color, women, LGBT, veterans, disabilities can come and just be themselves, and be with others that they feel safe with. So, some level, it's not that hard. It really does take the commitment and the wherewithal and the sense of urgency that says we've got to fix it, and we have to fix it now. >> I feel like 2017 was a milestone year, I'd love to know what your thoughts are. You had that incident in the tech industry, with that poor misguided soul from Google who decided to write this Jerry Maguire memo and just brought a lot of attention to the issue, and then the #MeToo movement, so I feel like 2018 is a more optimistic year, but still, a lot of that stuff that you were talking about goes on, and it needs to be exposed. Again, I think the #MeToo movement brings that out and a lot of people are thinking uh-oh, wow. This really has to stop. Your thoughts, do you agree with that, or do you just think, no Dave, we're still way too far away. >> I think what #MeToo has done is opened a lot of eyes around how pervasive all of this is. I know, in the case of Dell, we have a zero tolerance zero tolerance policy when it comes to all of that. What was so shocking to us is how pervasive it still was in either other companies or other industries. To me, what is encouraging now, is the conversation is going beyond harassment, to aggression and bullying and culture and some of the things that have happened over the years, and by the way, it happens across all genders. There's articles that are being written now about women that are bullying and have bullied, so. This is something that all corporations need to be setting the tone around what are the right behaviors and those types of things, and we've been doing that now, for years. The other piece that I feel very strongly about, is, if men retreat from this conversation, that is a huge problem, a huge problem. Leaders like you have to be part of it. They have to be part of, this has to change. I want to be part of the solution. I have daughters, or wives, or nieces or whatever it is that I know that they have just as much capability as boys and men do, and my job is to help them. So I love it, I love the way that men and women are both coming together and engaging in this conversation. And we are seeing progress. I think everybody wants it to be faster, but we are seeing progress. Hey, yesterday at this CIO round table that we have, one of my favorite quotes, we got into this whole conversation around, well what is the next generation feeling? And one of the women that was there said, "hey, my daughter told me three weeks ago, "you know mom, she goes, I really think, "to me it's really simple. "I want to be a mom and I want to be a CEO." It's that simple. >> Wow, I love that. So in the last few seconds or so, Karen, you've made a tremendous amount of progress impact as the Chief Customer Officer in 18 months. What are you looking forward to accomplishing the rest of 2018? >> Well I think the thing that gets me really energized, too is how we're applying our technology in the area of corporate responsibility and innovation. So, you know, you saw our plastic bottle demo that we had here, that fish moves from one event to another, we got really serious around how do we play a really key role in stopping the plastics from entering the ocean? So there's 86 million metric tons of plastic that is in the ocean today. By the year 2050, there will be more pieces of plastic in the ocean than there are fish. You have to stop the plastic from entering the ocean, which is a pilot project that we did about a year ago, and we recently announced an expansion of that called next wave, where we have our customers that are partnering with us to figure out how do we scale that? So, General Motors, Herman Miller, are just a couple of examples. And then, at CES this year, we announced an effort that we're doing around how do you extract gold out of motherboards, and using that, and recycling that back into our motherboards and using it in jewelry manufacturing. So we partnered with a jewelry manufacturer out of the West Coast, Nikki Reed. She is creating this jewelry, these rings, through recycled gold, and it's 99% more environmentally friendly. So, I love the fact that we can use our technology to innovate, change the world, use, reuse the stuff that we're putting into the economy. So, scaling these is a big, big priority for me in 2018. >> Dave: Awesome. >> Wow, momentum is the only word I can think of to describe what you've achieved, what you're doing so far. Karen, thank you so much for stopping by and chatting with Dave and me, and congratulations on what you've accomplished, and we look forward to talking to you next year. >> Thanks, thank you. >> We want to thank you for watching theCUBE we are live, finishing up day three at Dell Technologies World in Las Vegas, I am Lisa Martin for Dave Vellante, thanks for watching.

>> 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)

>> Announcer: Live from San Juan, Puerto Rico, it's theCUBE. Covering Blockchain Unbound, brought to you by Blockchain Industries. (upbeat samba music) >> Hey, everyone. Welcome back to our exclusive coverage in Puerto Rico for Blockchain Unbound Global Conference, where everyone from around the world is coming here. And the Blockchain cryptocurrency, a decentralized application market, changing the game, the future of work, future of government, the future of the world happening. The biggest wave in the tech generation we've seen in centuries. And I'm here in Puerto Rico at the Vanderbilt Hotel. Our next guest, Anthony Delgado, the CEO of Disrupt. We're got some real innovative projects around bringing his work and his vision to Puerto Rico. Anthony, thanks for spending the time. >> Thank you for having me. >> So, talk about your project. Tell me a bit about your project. For instance, you learn how to code. What's goin' on with that? You're doing it in New Jersey, in Newark schools there. Just take me in to explain what you're working on. >> Absolutely. So, back in January, I met a gentleman. His name was David, and he's from Puerto Rico, and he's lived in Puerto Rico for the last eight years, and he runs a tourism company. And when the hurricane happened, his for-profit company transformed into a non-profit. And the same trucks that he used to do tours, he start doing humanitarian work. And I met him at an app release party for a client of mine, and he looked me in my face and says, "Anthony, I'm doing to best work of my life." And I was like, "oh my God! "I'm not doing the best work of my life!" And so, we go to a diner, and I had the worst tuna fish sandwich that I've ever had in my life, but the best conversation. And we start brainstorming about how can we transform and help the people of Puerto Rico? So, the first problem is energy. Close to 50 percent of the island still does not have energy. In the capital, in the beautiful place we are now, power has been restored, but there are many cities that are still forgotten. So, me as the tech guy, I'm like, hey, we can do solar panels. Like, there's tons of sunshine in Puerto Rico, right? So, solar energy. And then the next thing he brought to my attention was that the entire economy is actually based on tourism. So, now, with the hurricane and all those things that are in the media, not only did people lose their jobs, ah, not only did people lose their homes, but they lost their job as well. So, we start brainstorming. We're like, okay, well, let's create a coding school to teach the digital skills that are needed, to the people in Puerto Rico. So, we're goin' back and forth, and he said, "Okay, that's a great idea, "but how are these kids going to pay for this school?" So, the concept that we've come up with is to combine education with vacation, and basically encourage people who are paying to go to school in New York City and encourage them to come to Puerto Rico, experience this beautiful island, learn how to code in the a.m. and have an amazing vacation in the p.m. And that's what we're building. So, we're building the Caribbean Institute of Technology, where we combine education with a vacation. >> So, Institute of Technology. We were talking before we came on camera that you were at the Institute of Technology, a school my two brothers went to. Great engineering school, renowned for it's program. You're doing work there there as well, so you're taking your mission of what you're doing there in New Jersey and bringing it to Puerto Rico. Sounds like you were really impacted by that conversation. As you're here in Puerto Rico, what's your assessment? Good call? Are you happy, and what's on your to-do list as you're down here? So, it's beautiful. I mean, I was here two weeks ago, and now I'm back for this global currency conference. I really feel like there's an unlimited amount of opportunity here in the island. It's the strongest internet, there's huge tax incentives if you start a new business here, and it's really a blank canvas. You know, the hurricane was a horrible atrocity that happened, but now we have this blank canvas to create a vision for Puerto Rico. So, we created a foundation. It's called Vision for PR. And the question that we're asking ourselves is: What would we do if we were creating a new city in America today? What would it look like? It would have solar energy. The power lines would be below ground instead of above ground, right? You know, the economy would be based on the digital economy and not tourism, right? So, we look at countries like Bali, we look at countries like India. We look at countries where they have this huge influx of currency that's getting generated from overseas. So, we really want to be part of the driving force that has Puerto Rico being the Hong Kong of the Caribbean. >> And it really is a clean sheet of paper, because certainly the hurricane puts a real awakening to the needs here. And now that you look at the infrastructure and how it needs to be revamped, this is an opportunity to lay down some fat pipes, high-speed internet, loop Blockchain, the Blockchain.edu chain project that they've got goin' on, http://educhain.io is interesting. The young people, they want more. I mean, that's my vibe here, I'd sense. Yet the old guard, they're scared. They want to preserve their culture, yet there's this huge incentive to move beyond tourism. This is an opportunity for Puerto Rico to be sovereign nation at a level that could go significantly higher-level than they are now. So, that's all great. What do you do? I mean, it seems like Brock Pierce is laying down his vision: come here, bring your cash, bring your community, do good. How is the playbook evolving? Because that's a question people want to know How do I come to Puerto Rico, do it right, not offend the culture, enable them, come together? What's your experience with the playbook? >> Absolutely. So, you know, technology and access to the internet, it democratizes the world. You know, now you're on a level playing field. If you have four G connectivity, and you're on an island, you can compete globally and be a part of the global economy. So, really the opportunity here - [Interviewer] Are you going to start a company here? >> Yeah, so we are starting the Caribbean Institute here in Puerto Rico. And um, yes, so we had this-- >> As a separate corporation? >> Separate corporation. So, we have a non-profit that runs in New Jersey called Newark Kids Code, where we teach kids to code, and we really want to take that model and teach people to code here in Puerto Rico as well. So we started a corporation, it's the Caribbean Institute of Technology-- [Interviewer] Is it going to be a virtual school? Is it going to put up a facility? >> No, no, it's in person. It's in person, so, we have the architect right now working on the renderings. I'd love to share those with you as well. >> Well, certainly, we'll publish them on our blog. But so you're going to put an actual location here. So this is your notion of having people take a vacation and work here. >> Yeah, so that's all well and good, but, like you mentioned, how does that help the people from Puerto Rico? So, what we've created is a scholarship program. So, for every single person from the United States or overseas that comes here to take our coding school, we sponsor someone from the island. >> It's like a fellowship. >> Yes. (Interviewer laughs) >> Alright, so what else are you working on? I see Disrupt is your company. Tell us a bit about you and what you do, and what's goin' on with Disrupt. >> Absolutely! So, Disrupt is a media agency based in New York City. And we focus on creating innovative products that change the world. So, we work with clients who have innovative products that are making a big impact. One of the products that we're working on is called True Connect. It's AI for sales people. And basically it syncs with your Google calendar and it gives you recommendations on ways to connect with your clients. So, it gives you a news feed of news stories, but it's not stories that you're personally interested in, it's stories that your clients would be interested in, so you have topics of conversation. >> It's kind of like a reversed Linked In. >> Yes. (Interviewer laughs) A reversed Linked In, absolutely. >> You also do some really important projects that matter to peoples' lives. Talk about the project that you're working on for the autism kids, that's really interesting. Take a moment to explain that. >> Absolutely. So, another one of our clients is Debbie Stone. She has a non-profit called Pop Earth. And it's basically a free school for kids with autism. So, based on that she's starting a IOT company called the Popu Lace. It's an IOT device, it's about the size of a quarter, and it has GPS, 4G connectivity, and it hooks into a student's shoelaces. There's a huge problem with kids with autism, if they wander off from school, they can get hit by a car, and they don't have the communication skills to get found again. So this device puts a geofence around their school-- >> Alzheimer's, there's a zillion use cases. So, geofencing a location, like Snapchat ads they do, but this is for a good reason, safety and impact to people's lives. >> Absolutely. >> Caregivers, too, they matter. >> Yeah, caregivers, people who go mountain climbing, hiking, all of these other use cases. Primarily focusing on children during the beginning, but yes, Alzeimer's, and hikers, and tons of uses for this. >> Great stuff. Congratulations, Anthony, great to have this conversation with you, really inspired. Good luck with the Puerto Rico opportunity, the Caribbean Institute of Technologies. Will it be on the Caribbean, Bahamas? We were just there for Poly Con. Other islands, start at Puerto Rico... >> Absolutely. So, we're actually open-sourcing the floor plan for the building that we're building. So, the building that we're building has solar energy. It's a green building. And we're open-sourcing that floor plan so that anyone in the Caribbeans, South America, anywhere in the world can adopt this model. >> It's the wee work for paying it forward. >> Absolutely. >> Well done, Anthony. Anthony Delgado, CEO of Disrupt, doing amazing work here, paying it forward, contributing here with the Caribbean Institute of Technology. I'm John Ferrier, in Puerto Rico for our on-the ground coverage of Blockchain Unbound. Be back with more. Thanks for watching. >> Thank you for having me.

>> Hey welcome back, everybody. Jeff Frick here with the CUBE. We're at the Accenture Technology Vision 2018, actually, the preview event, 'about 200 people. The actual report comes out in a couple of days. A lot of interesting conversations about what are the big trends in 2018 in Accenture. Surveyed Paul Daugherty and team and really excited. Just was a panel discussion to get into a little bit of the not exactly a technology, but really the trust and ethics conversations. We're joined by Dr. Shannon Vallor. She's a professor at Santa Clara University. Dr. Vallor, great to see you. >> Great to be here, thank you! >> So you were just on the panel, and of course there was a car guy on the panel. So everybody loves this talk about cars and autonomous vehicles. You didn't get enough time. (chuckles) So we've got a little more time, which is great. >> Great! >> But one of the things that you brought up that I think was pretty interesting is really, kind of a higher-level view of what role technology plays in our life before. And you said before it was ancillary, it was a toy, it was a gimmick. It was a cool new car, a status symbol, or whatever. But now technology is really defining who we are, what we do, how we interact, not only with the technology of other people. It's really taken such a much more fundamental role with a bunch more new challenges. >> Yeah, and fundamentally that means that these new technologies are helping to determine how our lives go, not just whether we have the latest gadget or status symbol. Previously, as I said, we tended to take on technologies as ornaments to our life, as luxuries to enrich our life. Increasingly, they are the medium through which we live our lives, right? They're the ways that we find the people we want to marry. They're the ways that we access resources, capital, healthcare, knowledge. They're the ways that we participate as citizens in a democracy. They are entering our bodies. They're entering our homes. And the level of trust that's required to really welcome technology in this way without ambivalence or fear, it's a kind of trust that many technology companies weren't prepared to earn. >> Jeff: Right, Right. >> Because it goes much deeper than simply having to behave in a lawful manner, or satisfy your shareholders, right? It means actually having to think about whether your technologies are helping people live better lives, and whether you're earning the trust that your marketing department, your engineers, your salespeople are out there trying to get from your customers. >> Right. And it's this really interesting. When you talked about a refrigerator, I just love that example 'cause most people would never let their next door neighbor look into their refrigerator. >> Shannon: Or their medicine cabinet, right? >> Or their medicine cabinet, right. And now you want to open that up to automatic replenishment. And it's interesting 'cause I don't think a lot of companies that came into the business with the idea that they were going to have this intimate relationship with their customers to a degree, and a personal responsibility to that data. They just want to sell them some good stuff and move on >> Sure. >> to the next customer. >> Yes. >> So it's a very different mindset. Are they adjusting? How are the legacy folks dealing with this? >> Well, the good news is, is that there are a lot more conversations happening about technology and ethics within industry circles. And you even see large organizations coming together to try to lead in an effort to develop more ethical approaches to technology design and development. So, for example, the big five leaders in AI have come together to form the partnership for AI and social good. And this is a really groundbreaking movement that could potentially lead other industry participants to say, "Hey we need to get on board with this, "and we have to start thinking >> Right. >> "about what ethical leadership looks like for us," as opposed to just a sort of PR kind of thing. Yeah, we throw the word "ethics" on a few websites or slides and then we're good, right? >> Right. >> It has to go much deeper than that. And that's going to be a challenge. But it has to be at a level where rank and file workers and project managers have procedures that they know how to go through that involve ethical analysis, prediction, and preparing ethical responses to failures or conflicts that might arise. >> Right, there's just so many layers to this that we could go on for a long time. >> Sure. >> But the autonomous band has kicked up. >> Yes, yes! >> But one of the things is when you're collecting the data for a specific purpose, and you put all the efficacy in as to why and how, and what you're going to treat, what you don't know is how that data might be used by someone else next week, >> Yes. >> next year, >> Yes. >> ten years from now. >> Absolutely. >> And you can't really know because there's maybe things that you aren't aware of. So a very difficult challenge. >> And I think we have to just start thinking in terms of different kinds of metaphors. So data up until now has been seen as something that had value and very little risk associated with it. Now our attitudes are starting to shift, and we're starting to understand that data carries not just value, not just the ability to monetized, but immense power. And that power can be both constructive or destructive. Data is like jet fuel, right? It can do great things. >> Right. >> But you've got to store it carefully. You have to make sure that the people handling it are properly trained. That they know what can go wrong. >> Right. >> Right? That they've got safety regimes in place. No one who handles jet fuel treats it the way that some companies treat data today. But today, data can cause disasters on a scale similar to a chemical explosion. People can die, lives can be ruined, and people can lose their life savings over a breach or a misuse of data that causes someone to be unjustly accused of fraud or a crime. So we have to start thinking about data as something much more powerful than we have in the past. >> Jeff: Right. >> And you have the responsibility to handle it appropriately. >> Right, but we're still so far away, right? We're still sending money to the Nigerian prince who needs help getting out of the airport at Newark Airport. I mean, even just the social, >> Yes. >> the social factors still haven't caught up. And then you've got this kind of whole API economy where so many apps are connected to so many apps. >> Right. >> So even, where is the data? >> Yeah. >> And that's before you even get into a plane flying over international borders while you send an email, I mean. >> Right, yes. >> The complexity is crazy! >> Yep, and we're never going to get a handle on all of it. So one of the things I like to tell people is, it's important not to let the perfect become the enemy of the good, right? >> Jeff: Right. >> So the idea is, yes, the problem is massive. Yes, it's incredibly complex. Can we address every possible risk? Can we forestall every possible disaster? No. Can we do much better than we're doing now? Absolutely. So, I think, the important thing is not to focus on how massive the problem or the complexities are, but think about how can we move forward from here to get ourselves in a better and more responsible position. And there's lots of ways to do that. Lots of companies are already leading the way in that direction. So I think that there's so much progress to be made that we don't have to worry too much about the progress that we might never get around to making. >> Right, right. But then there's this other interesting thing that's going on that we've seen with kind of the whole "fake news," right? Which is algorithms are determining what we see. >> Shannon: Yes. >> And if you look at the ad tech model as kind of where the market has taken over the way that that operates, >> Shannon: Yep. >> there's no people involved. So then you have things happen like what happened with YouTube, where advertisers' stuff is getting put into places where they don't want it. >> Yeah. >> But there's really no people, there's no monitoring. >> Yes. >> So how do you see that kind of evolving? 'Cause on one hand, you want more social responsibility and keeping track of things. On the other hand, so much is moving to software, automation, and giving people more of what they want, not necessarily what they need. >> Well, and that means that we have to do a much better job of investing in human intelligence. We have to, for every new form of artificial intelligence, we need an even more powerful provision of human intelligence to guide it, to provide oversight. So what I like to say is, AI is not ready for solo flight, right? And a lot of people would like that to be the case because, of course, you can save money if you can put an automated adjudication system in there and take the people out. But we've seen over and over again that that leads again and again to disaster and to huge reputational losses to companies, often huge legal liabilities, right? So we have to be able to get companies to understand that they are really protecting themselves and their long-term health if they invest in human expertise and human intelligence to support AI, to support data, to support all of the technologies that are giving these companies greater competitive advantage and profitability. >> But does the delta in the machine scale versus human scale just become unbearable? Or can we use the machine scale to filter out the relatively small number of things that need a person to get involved. I mean. >> Yeah, and the-- >> How do you see some kind of some best practices? >> Yeah, so the answer depends on the industry, depends upon the application. So there's no one size fits all solution. But what we can often do is recognize that typically human and AI function best together, right? So we can figure out the ways in which the AI can amplify the human expertise and wisdom, and the human expertise can fill in some of the gaps that still exist in artificial intelligence. Some of the things that AIs just don't see, just don't recognize, just aren't able to value or predict. And so when we figure out the ways that human and artificial intelligence can compliment each other in a particular stetting, then we can get the most reliable results, and often the fairest and safest results. They might not always be the most efficient from the narrow standpoint of speed and profit, right? >> Jeff: Right, right. >> So they have able to step back and say at the end of the day, quality matters, trust matters. And just as if we put together a shoddy project on the cheap and put it out there, it's going to come back to bite us. If we put shoddy AI in place of important human decisions that affect human lives, it's going to come back to bite us. So we need to invest in the human expertise and the human wisdom, which has that ethical insight to round out what AI still lacks. >> So do you think the execution of that trust building becomes the next great competitive advance? I mean, >> Yeah. >> nobody talks about that right? Data's the new oil, >> Sure! And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And software defined, AI driven automation, but that's not necessarily only to the goal in road, right? There's issues. >> Right. >> So is trust, you think? >> Absolutely. >> The next great competitive differentiator? >> Absolutely. I think in the long run it will be. If you look at, for example, the way that companies like Facebook and Equifax have really damaged, in pretty profound ways, the public perception of them as trustworthy actors in, not just the corporate space, right? But in the political space for Facebook, in the economic space for Equifax. And we have to be able to recognize that those associations of a major company with that level of failure are really lasting, right? Those things don't get forgotten in one news cycle. So I think we have to recognize that today people don't know who to trust, right? It used to be that you could trust the big names, the big Fortune 500 companies. >> The blue chips, right. >> The blue chips, right. >> Right. >> And then it was the little fly by night companies that you didn't really know whether you could trust, and maybe you'd be more cautious in dealing with them. Now the public has no way of understanding which companies will genuinely fulfill the trust in the relationship >> Right. >> that the customer gives them. And so there's a huge opportunity from a competitive standpoint for companies to step up and actually earn that trust and say, in a way that can be backed up by action and results, "Your data's safe with us," right? "Your property's safe with us. "Your bank account is safe with us. "Your personal privacy is safe with us. "Your votes are safe with us. "Your news is safe with us." >> Right. >> Right? And that's the next step. >> But everyone is so cynical that, unfortunately Walter Cronkite is dead, right? >> Sure. >> We don't trust politicians anymore. We don't trust news anymore. We don't trust, now more and more, the companies. So it's a really kind of rough world in the trust space. >> Yeah! >> So do you see any kind of (chuckles) silver lining? I mean, how do we execute in this kind of crazy world where you just don't know? >> Well, what I like to say is that you have to be cautiously optimistic about this because society simply doesn't keep going without some level of trust, right? Markets depend on trust. Democracy depends on trust. Neighborhoods depend on trust, right? >> Jeff: Right. >> So either trust comes back into our lives at some deep level or everything falls apart. Frankly, those are the only choices. So if nature abhors a vacuum, and right now we have a vacuum of trust, then there's a huge opportunity for people to start stepping into that space and filling that void. So I'd like to focus on the positive potential here rather than the worst case scenario, right? The worst case scenario is, we keep going as things have been going and trust in our most important institutions continues to crumble. Well, that just ends in societal collapse >> Right, right. >> one way or the other. If we don't want to do that, and I presume that if there's anything we can all agree on, it's that that's not where we want to go. >> Right. >> Then now is the time for companies, if need be, to come together and say, "We have to step into this space "and create new trusted institutions and practices "that will help stabilize society and drive progress "in ways that aren't just reflected in GDP "but are reflected in human wellbeing, "happiness, a sense of security, a sense of hope. "A sense that technology actually does gives us a future "that we want to to be happy about moving into." >> Right, right. >> Right? >> So I'll give you the last word. >> Sure. >> We'll end on a positive note. What are some examples of companies or practices that you see out there as kind of shining lights that other people should be either aware of, emulate. Let's talk about the positive before we >> Sure. cut you lose. >> Well, one thing that I mentioned already is the AI partnership that has come together with companies that are really leading the conversation along with a lot of other organizations like AI Now, which is an organization on the East Coast that's doing a lot of fantastic work. There are a lot of companies supporting research into ethical development, design, and implementation of new technologies. That's something we haven't seen before, right? This is something that's only happened in the last two or three years. It's an incredibly positive development. Now we just have to make sure that the recommendations that are developed by these groups are actually taken onboard and implemented. And it'll be up to many of the industry leaders to set an example of how that can be done because they have the resources >> Right. >> and the ability to lead in that way. I think one of the other things that we can look at is that people are starting to become less naive about technology. Perhaps the silver lining of the loss of trust is the ability of consumers to be a little wiser, a little more appropriately critical and skeptical, and to figure out ways that they can, in fact, protect their interests. That they can actually seek out and determine who earns their trust. >> Right. >> Where their data is safest. And so I'm optimistic that there will be a sort of meeting, if you will, of the public interest and the interests of technology developers who really need the public to be on board, right? >> Jeff: Right. >> You can't make a better world if society doesn't want to come along with you. >> Jeff: Right, right. >> So my hope is, and I'm cautiously optimistic about that, that these forces will come together and create a future for us that we actually want to move into. >> All right, good. I don't want to leave on a sad note! >> Great, yes. >> Dr. Shannon Vallor, she's positive about the future. It's all about trust. Thanks for taking a few minutes. >> Thank you. >> I'm Jeff Frick, she's Dr. Shannon. Thanks for watching. We'll catch you next time. (upbeat techno music)