>> from Austin, Texas. It's Theo Cube, covering pure storage. Accelerate 2019. Brought to you by pure storage. >> Welcome back to Austin. I'm Lisa Martin. With Day Volante were a pure accelerate 2019 the fourth annual event. Getting bigger and bigger and more customers on the Cube. Very excited to welcome the C I. O of Kensington Swan. Nigel Stevenson. Nigel. Welcome to the Cube. >> Thank you. Thanks. >> Thanks for coming all the way up here or down here, Up here from New Zealand. Give us our audience. A little bit of an overview of Kensington Swan and specifically about your role is CEO. >> Sure again, Just once a top tier law firm in New Zealand. We've got a bit of an announcement from last month Were about to combine with sentence, which you might know more familiar from a brain kind of perspective. Slightly larger than what we are at the moment. We're, ah, a few 100 staffs, but between the officers and opened and Wellington with the focus spawn corporate commercial legal practice is so top tier or high in law expertise. >> So you've been there about three years. Give us a little bit of a picture of Kensington's I T department applications workloads. What's going on? There >> must be a pretty similar Thio emotional films or proficient service. Is firms actually a similar with the coming firms to smell the the most common tools we use around the PR, the practice management systems that we have on in production of documents for the work that we provide to our clients, maintaining those keeping them, searching for them, Actually, in all the emails and everything else that goes along every single matter that we do from a compliance perspective, we need to keep all of that and make sure it's safe and sound and easily searchable. >> So big drivers you got, you got the clients, you got the lawyers, you got the paralegals. It's this machine running you got, you know, to say confidentiality compliance. What are the big drivers in the business that are affecting I t. Strategy? I >> think, especially in the provision service is sick. Just continue to modernize. We've hit systems, and after the last decision, things tighten up a bit for a while, and then we fed a large push over the last few years to really bring things up. Today, bring it Bring it, Making more current on relevant to what's out there. With that, we can then bring on other applications. And I and other tools that would really help us Thio drive the business and different directions >> is the first time your accelerator Yeah, let's talk infrastructure. So it s so paint a picture. What's, uh what's it look like? You know you're here. Obviously you're pure customer, right? So what's the storage infrastructure look like? And >> we've had to guess what you would be a pretty typical infrastructure for many, many years with the two data center model. VM were storage observers and sewn on, then replicated across from a d R perspective to the other data center. They know we've gone through a big decision around. Where do we go with it? Do we take that out to the cloud? Do we keep it on Prem? Do we keep the $2 centers one way? We've ended up deciding this to go with the single Production Data center based in Auckland were we've got some d our capability. They want an office, but then plane to scale up to the cloud. So we've got enough compute to keep us going. The systems that we've got a cz we grow, we'll move. >> So you had to replicated data centers. Essentially. Is that right? You know, expensive. And then you've essentially now got a main data center. You've got some a little bit of lightweight infrastructure for D R purposes. Is that right? Way? >> Previously since he had two of everything. Well, more than two of everything but everything we head of the production, we head of the second read absent a lot of set there a semi idle for quite a lot of time. And as you say, that's quite expensive to have Ah, lot of equipment sitting there not really been used. So moving Maur to single data Seena Mol replicating some of the infrastructure, but not not the full sit. It's moving. >> So the decision to stay on Prem versus Go all in the cloud talk to us about some of the business drivers that led you to say we're going to stay on from and within that what elevated cure storage to the obvious choice >> sure is a little bit if it's old cloud model and I think that's really helped you guess influence were the on prim had we has gone as well, and we'll get that. Get that sick and weird things like the scalability off the simplicity, not having to have very experience experienced stories technicians on and so on. I think back to my days fishing nightie and putting together other brains of storage unit was a multi month process. Certifications after certifications just to be out a plug it together and then configure and coat. The story's all right. You know what the cloud and what we found with pure is. It's just become really simple. Within a couple of hours of the array arriving that was wrecked, it was turned on. It was cut into the pool and presented through TV anyway, so I'm just really, really simple. >> All the bit twiddling of the past really didn't do much for your business, obviously, but then you it shows you chose toe stay on Prem. Many law firms d'oh! Just because of the privacy and confidentiality And yeah, they had some color to that. This is a couple >> of ingles thio. If there's one being performance, wait. I need to make sure that the lawyers get the performance that they need they charging six minute increments like like most. If they can't work, then the building they're not working up providing to the clients and the clients. Also that work done at a at a good speed and returned to them as quickly as possible. And as the world has moved more to that client centric approach, you know, delivering to the client's becomes ultimate impairment to what we do. So performance was definitely key economic self. When we looked at cloud in on a price per gig per month with pure, it worked out very competitive. It wasn't quite there. Toe move into the cloud. New Zealand. We don't have the AWS or is your database data centers based on his own. They're all in Australia, So there's Ah Leighton see aspect of going many thousands of miles across the under the undersea cables to get to that data on payments. Right there, it's fast, is connected waken different, >> so you have essentially replaced your you're spinning disc with flash. Is that correct? >> Yes, that was on the other parts of it. No, you wanted to get something that was definitely modern and set us for the future. For quite a number of years Way didn't look a spinning disc. It'll weigh. Just win. Looked at what flesh rays were available. Way have head spinning this, but I definitely wanted to get your flesh. >> How >> important was the Evergreen model to you? Is it is it how much of it is marketing and how much is it? Is it Is it big business impact for you? >> Quite a few other places of work We've hit that three year or five year support moral challenge where all of a sudden the support can hockey stick up on become really, really expensive to carry on the arrays. So one of the other drivers was from an environmental environmental perspective of if you're gonna throw their equipment out after five years, but it's still working fine. Yeah, that's not really great on the environment. So with the fresh perspective as well as you have a green be able to maintain and keep their equipment running and going for longer than five years without a shop up left on the cost was really, really important. >> Sustainability was important to you guys. So you before we might live, you mentioned that you guys have been pure customers since about December of 2018. So about 10 months or so. So those lawyers that are billing every few minutes I have to get access to data because the clients are demanding kit. What's it been? Their reaction? Thio, the performance that you're delivering to them and a new correlation with revenue that business has made because of the decision to stay on from? >> I'll tell you what the best thing about it is. I don't complain that things are slow anymore, you know? So they say, Nighty, if you're not hearing any issues, that you're doing a good job and I would definitely in that camp The system's running significantly faster than what they were previously on. That was on a five year old array that was reasonable. Let's start as well. So the league Ford has been really recognizable from a performance perspective, so >> you don't get the Atta boy, but you just don't get the grief. >> Yeah, yeah, it's not very often that people come and say that you know, with regulations, and that since a nightie, >> but it sounds like it also simplified your management you described it used to take a long time Thio provisioning array before now it's sort of same day or a part of a portion of what have you done with that additional resource? Did you did your rift people? Did you redeploy them? >> You take the same style of if you do move things to the cloud. You know, with any type of outsourcing model messages freeing up time on the staff have got now work on other things. You know, we're slowly moving up the stack on a valu ed perspective of what we deliver, doubling more into automation integration, digital contract processing, the area that I think we should be working in rather than tweaking the nuts and bolts. Well, that that's where I started. So, yeah, it was good career passing the time >> being able to get to that value at is something that we talked with a lot of customers about that absolutely critical about not spending so much time at managing something. I want to get my job done. So a number of announcements came out today. I'm just curious to get your take on, for example, this kind of customer force that Dave and I were talking about with Charlie Giancarlo their CEO. Just a minute ago about this bridge to hybrid club, you mentioned an acquisition or a merger coming with Denton's. How would something like this hybrid bridge that here announced with AWS How might that be a facilitator of the merger? Or maybe even it's the IittIe foundation that you've established with Pierre. That's going to be a great facilitator of that pending merger. >> I think one of the slides and the Maquis know this morning talked about the on Priam in the cloud world being quite separate and we found that it is We've we've looked Whenever we go out to market, we'll look at both options and take your best of breed approach. Thio what, within a cure or subscribed way got into some cloud solutions. I'm not sure if Aladdin mention brains at all, but s so we have got cloudy >> from our standpoint, but your corporate standpoint, >> So we've got a bit of both, but it has been a bit hard to bridge the two, even even from a backup d R perspective on then also from scaling the the on cream applications into the cloud. Some some things just work better in the cloud or a better architect in the clouds. Fishy, some remote excess solutions were. If we've got issues, we want that separate, Will they dear? Yet between what else? Systems and the excess for staff on this kind of space that we've we've built in two for that be Never join those worlds a lot more seamlessly and through the same management consoles and just gonna make life a lot easier will be out of scale back and forward so we can move the data. I remember years and years ago talking to storage vendors and saying, Well, where can we can't replicate? No, Dad are up to a different brand or a different service In this case with the adoption or on sort of cloud, that's still very prevalent. >> Yes, So I mean, I deal. You'd like a common management framework control playing data plane, Back up framework. Is that right? Is that an objective between cloud and on Prem? I mean, it definitely helps, >> but the other things was mentioned in the keynote is around the availability of skilled people you think with my generation and I started often stopped supporting, then work my way through infrastructure and project management, team management and son. The people coming out of university now don't really have that same career path there from a slot in somewhere up the scared, the stick on >> very started python. And we're working on >> them or in the development of spice rather than the infrastructure space. The ability to find staff that have the knowledge off the system is getting hotter and hotter. Eso so the cloud moral, the almost storage is a service on the on prime since you cut through that and it means that you don't need those staff with the commonality of the tools that also helps us. Well, you don't have to serve someone who's years and years training and a new solution to be out of them have the confidence to move into it. >> What do >> you actually installing from frump? Yours? It is a vile storage block storage combination. We've got the X series of race. Okay, they're going for performance, obviously. And, um, because I was thinking in the cloud, you might you might be more interested in object store because of, you know, your document heaviness. But it depends on the merger, I guess. Where you guys go? >> Yeah, the you mentioned before on this some data sovereignty concerns around. We're that Donald stays. And that's why I think a lot of the law firms it probably are keeping some of their infrastructure on from so for sovereignty, we expect in performance. If it is the air, it's it is performing. The cloud can form in different ways, but having a bit of both gives you really good choice, that best of breed model >> with pure storage. You got the foundation as this acquisition, and this merger comes forward that everything's in place. Feel pretty confident about that. Yeah, we've >> got a lot of work to dio over the next few months while we adjust. What? We've got a software perspective to align with the intense global software suite. But I'm pretty confident that it can be delivered really well. >> So what's in the C I ose mind these days? You know, security cloud hybrid strategies, alignment with the business. What do your top three? >> I think like a mission before I'm really trying to kind of lift what we do to deliver value to the business. It's been John what type of business it is, but it can be seen as a cost center way. Really want to be out? Be more involved in in what, in our case, the lawyers are doing. The main project that we've got on the moment is automating legal processes not to replace any people but to augment what they do on to provide them better tools, more efficient tools. Talks that the younger lawyers, when they come in, can follow their way through and learn what their process is. Also overlaying the legal aspects around there as well. So it's not just online form. It's a it's a training guide. It's It's everything for each of those processes that >> you're deploying any machine learning, artificial intelligence, machine intelligence and in that regard yet is that we haven't quite got >> there. It's definitely on the list. Some of the things that would liketo look at those things, like machine readable software to go through documents, pullout snippets. A lot of time lawyers will spend have to read through a lot of material fine key bits of information and extract that to the news within the documents that we produce, even in simple process, is still doing that they loaned from the rial complex 56 page construction contracts. There's a There's a lot that we could potentially help to find that information for them when it comes into things like he discovery for litigation in the old days. Know that wheel in a truckload of >> paper file boxes? Guys must have loved that building at six minute increments >> way. Get your hard drive with terabytes of data. It gonna troll through all of that and that there's some real space that good I toes can help cut through that significantly faster than your standard kind of funnel based such fools. If >> you think you think software robots have a place like robotic process automation are, I think >> way we're going with it is Thea Pair. You can fit in between the human process. We're mapping out more from a business process. Perspective were there's gonna be some educational steps some human steps mopey a steps on eventually get through an outcome of delivering what the lawyers need for the clients. >> So last question is that I have is, you know, what way do all these shows we do like 100 events a year, everybody you know, the vendors tell you how great they are and what we always like to ask the practitioners your experience with pure relative toe other, you know, stories. And you know, the name names. But just is it substantively different? How much? I guess I ask you again. How much is marketing versus substantive business value for you as a practitioner? >> Yeah. So we've only had the array since December. One of things. I did a case study for Pure just recently in one of things that highlighted and there was the support. When you go on to a new vendor or choose any any different path, you're taking that kind of risk in the step into the unknown way did have an issue a few weeks after we put the first Korean on they came in during Christmas break were we were all off in our case at the beach, which is bit different in the Southern Hemisphere. But they came in flawlessly sort of the issue out gotta back working. Yeah, without necessarily having to do anything apart from let them in the building on, and that really gives the confidence and what they do, how they can deliver going forward. >> I think there's a lot of value and sharing that these things don't always go very smoothly. But you need to have established that relationship with that partner that can be rapidly deployed to help. Ultimately, I'm sure those lawyers either want to start building every three minutes. They want to be able to build more every six minutes. So never a dull moment, Nigel. In your world. But we thank you so much for joining David me on the Cuban. Maybe next year we'll be talking about how a I is helping. Hopefully clients achieve better results. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, per day. Volante. I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching the Cube?