>> Voiceover: Live from the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, it's theCUBE covering VMworld 2016, brought to you by VMware and its ecosystem sponsors. Now here's your host, John Furrier. >> Welcome back everyone. We're here live at VMworld 2016 here in Las Vegas. This is the seventh year of coverage for SiliconANGLE Media's theCUBE, it's our flagship program, we go out to the events and extract the signal from the noise. I'm John Furrier. My co-host John Troyer with TechReckoning. Our next guest is CUBE alumn, one of our favorite guests, Sanjay Poonen who runs the end user computing, he's the General Manager, End User Computing Division of VMware, and also Head of Global Marketing now. Congratulations. New job role to oversee all of marketing, to bring that unified view across the company. Good to see you again, welcome back. >> Thank you John, and the John and John Show. I'm happy, I always love being on your show. >> Yeah, we have another John Walls on the other set over there, so it's three Johns hosting here in theCUBE. >> My middle name is John, let me tell you that, so I fit in the community. >> So Sanjay I want to get right into it. So you're giving us a preview here, folks, for tomorrow, the Keynote, you're the main act kicking off the Keynote tomorrow. A lot of big announcements, a couple super secret announcements that you can't share but you've got some new stuff going on in terms of new announcements, in terms of enhancements and new technologies. So can you share a little bit about tomorrow's announcements and what we'd expect at the Keynote. >> Yeah, thank you. So for everybody watching, make sure you dial in at nine o'clock tomorrow. I mean, the reality is, a key part of this client server to mobile cloud transformation is preparing people for a public cloud, digitally transforming the datacenters and preparing for public cloud, that's what you heard today. And the second piece of that, it's almost like two halves of the egg shell, the bottom part being the datacenter, the top part is preparing end users for an increasingly mobile world. And there we have this concept of a digital workspace, Workspace ONE that we introduced, and we're going to announced some new innovations there which really allow you to bring three things together. >> New products or new enhancements? >> In today's day and age when you're going cloud first, we're moving so fast so we don't do things in one big whole. I mean, for example, with AirWatch, we're doing probably like one incremental big feature every five, ten days. So we are doing things a lot more in the pace of cloud type company. So we don't really bundle everything to one big release. But nonetheless, we really focus our efforts around three gears, we're going to hear about tomorrow, one is the entire basis of how people work is driven now by identity management, and access to apps and identity. So you're going to see that tomorrow. And identity management becomes the important piece of the puzzle that's a control point for people's access to apps. Secondly you're going to hear about unified endpoint management and the worlds of desktop and mobile coming together. A good example of that is Windows 10. I'm going to talk about that more tomorrow. And third is a very important area of management and security, and how we think about endpoint management and endpoint security 'coz security is becoming one of the key missing linchpins that we think we can actually bring together in this digital workspace. So Workspace ONE with key focuses on areas like management and security. >> So you've been kind of, we've been interviewing you now three years. Congratulations, now at VMware, came from SAP as an executive there, now three years in. We've been watching your career, the end user computing evolve. The big bold movement down the field was the AirWatch acquisition. We've then seen a variety of different integration points in there. Give us an update on where it's come from and where, now we see where it's going, you just laid that out, but what are some of the specifics on how it's evolving because now with the cloud decision for the company, to say, okay, public cloud is in our equation with that Pat's announcement today, you've been kind of waiting for that engine, you've been kind of like, hurry up and wait for that to happen. So that's now, it's happening. Take us through how AirWatch in this piece evolved. >> Yeah, when we acquired AirWatch, part of it was our fundamental recognition that without a mobile strategy, you could end user computing. That's the name of our group is end user computing. You could end it 'coz we really needed something. So we looked at the space and we wanted something that was cloud first. They were, I would say, a close number, two or three, Mobile Line, I think was technical lead or maybe Good was, but they had a cloud architecture. We liked that about them. And was about a hundred million-dollar business. We disclosed at the end of last year that business was over 370 million in all in bookings. So you could see how rapidly we've taken them, they're almost 4X in two years. And the overall end user computing business was about a half billion when I joined. We announced at the end of last year, was a 1.2 billion all in bookings run rate company. When I joined it was about 30,000 customers. We're now about 65,000 customers. So reality is, we're now one of the top major businesses within the company. There's a lot of momentum. And that's been, I think, one of the better software acquisitions anybody's done the last two or three years. >> And strategically speaking, the digital transformation framework is essentially around this digital workspace area. >> It came out of that mobile space. And the part that we are now starting to see with clearer lenses in the course of the last six to 12 months is that identity management becomes an important piece to add to VDI mobile management. So we've added a third pillar of focus. And we feel like CIOs shouldn't have to buy VDI from one set of vendors, mobile device management, mobile management from a second, and then identity management from a third. These are coalescing into a digital workspace. So a big focus there. And allows us to also expand into new areas, for example, Iot, we can talk about it this time, and areas like endpoint security. >> It seems like, talking about identity management, that to you is right out of your security story. It seems like identity then has to become the fundamental pillar of security of end users in today's enterprise. How does your security story play into-- >> Yeah that's a very good point John. And I would say you're absolutely right. When we are increasingly selling our end user computing solutions, we're finding a key influencing buyer is the CISO. 40% of people have come to our mobile connect conferences are important to the CISO. Identity is a security topic too. So if you pull up for a second, the VMware security story now is very simple. It's in three parts. Number one, we can protect the datacenter. NSX now, one of the key propositions is micro-segmentation. That's a security seller. Number two, we can protect the endpoint with solutions like AirWatch and TrustPoint, we can get to TrustPoint this time. And number three, we can protect the middle, the user. So protect the datacenter, protect the endpoint, and protect the middle, the user. And all of those make us a very strong story appealing to the CISO. And then we take a bevy of partners with us that have even stronger brands and security. For example, one of our lead partners is Palo Alto. We're working very closely with them in NSX. We're working very closely with them in AirWatch. We're working very closely with them in identity. Another example of partners, F5. So we picked the group of partners that have very strong brands and security. And we found things that we do well. We partner with them in things that they do well. It's a really good story to both the CIO and the CISO. >> So much of the cloud story, as well as the end user story, is also about timing. We've been waiting on public cloud. Pundits talk about the death of private cloud but they don't say what year really. And so a lot of the end user story kind of we had to wait on, VDI, we had to wait on the devices. How do you as a leader of this company look at timing and when the market is ready for something? >> Well, I mean John, I think you have to really look at trends. And I had a fundamental premise coming in that the two Cs, and I'll talk about this more on tomorrow's Keynote, that we really needed to attack with venom was cost and complexity in the VDI market. And part of the reason as I talked to customers that many VDI projects failed, were cost and complexity. So we took a chainsaw to cost and complexity. And it turns out with a lot of what we've invented in the software-defined datacenter, software-defined storage that we were among the first to drive, hyper converged infrastructure, NSX for micro-segmentation, the fundamental premise of this sphere and all that you can do in areas like 3D graphics, we could engineer a solution that was 30 to 40% cheaper than the competition from VDI and app promoting. Complexity. We decided that VDI and app promoting needed to be one platform as opposed to sort of a competition that had like a, two separate products for VDI and app promoting. So these all were things that lowered the total cost of ownership and made that easy. Similarly with mobile, the two S's we attack there was simplicity and security. And we've had some core, I would say, these are the type of things, as a leader, you have to keep telling your teams, is your north pole. We're attacking cost and complexity. Another example of cost and complexity is moving stuff to the cloud. Three years ago we were the first to announce desktop as a service. What was one of the messages this morning, IBM, now embracing that desktop as a service in their cloud, working with us both in IBM cloud and IBM GTS. It's come a long way in three years. >> So I got to ask you about the aspect of unification. We're hearing that tomorrow you're announcing a huge shift in how customers buy and that it ultimately will change the equation on their cost side which is eliminating these point solutions out there. This unification endpoint, I don't know what you're calling it, can you share, give a little bit of leg, as Dave Vellante would say, on this morning tomorrow on this announcement, this consolidation or unification. How should we think about this? >> I mean, I think, and hopefully it's not a surprise 'coz we've been building up this momentum as opposed to one big mega announcement. Workspace ONE is really the coming together of three core areas. VDI and everything related to the way in which we manage desktops and apps, mobile management, and identity management. And in each of those spaces, if you don't look at us, there are point vendors doing each of those. And our differentiation is one, it's unified, second, it's a cloud first solution, many cases the folks have not yet moved to the cloud, and then we extend the capabilities of things like Workspace ONE, optimized for our datacenter where it needs to, into new areas like, for example, security. So we think as you lay this out and then build a partnership ecosystem, with not just security vendors but apps vendors, we're going to have a very large apps vendor on stage with me tomorrow, for the first time on stage, so I'm not going to tell you who it is, but come tomorrow you'll hear that. >> Microsoft, SAP, Salesforce? >> You've got some obvious candidates but it's one of those folks. >> It is one of those folks? >> How many big ones left, right? Some of them have been buying everybody. >> We've got some scoop this year on theCUBE. >> But that's an example of where VMware is taking the lead at embracing an apps ecosystem. >> So I got to ask you, you're a student of history and text, so back in the old days, back in the 90s, when dial-up in internet, Office Connections, Radioservers was a buzzword, you'd have to dial up into a facility, and you have to be authenticated. Pretty straightforward back in the day. But now the authentication, if you will, is coming from endpoints that are, like, anything. Uber could be inside the enterprise and app. So this notion of endpoints is interesting. It's also complicated. So there's not only a security surface area, there's also a cost area to deploy these solutions. Is that the kind of what Workspace ONE does? I mean am I getting it right? Am I thinking it right as an access method? >> I think you've got one piece of it right and I think you're exactly right. In the world of mobile, my fingerprint now becomes, police know that that's unique usually-- >> So does Apple. >> Right. And my retina scan becomes it. So you've got very sophisticated phones, it doesn't have to be complicated ones, that can give you either the fingerprint or the retina scan. You'd have to physically cut my thumb off and pluck my eye. I dare you to do both of those to replicate me. So you can move away from a very-- >> That's two-factor authentication right there. >> Yes, multi-factor, right? So you can move away from tokens becoming your only avenue of multi-factor authentication. You can do things smoothly. But it doesn't end there. Endpoints security has to be re-thought to really work at speed and at scale, so that's why we partnered with this hot security company, you're going to see them also on display tomorrow, Tanium. And with them we built a product called TrustPoint. And we use it internally at VMware. In fact one of the things you're going to see in the demos I do tomorrow, there's going to be lots of demos in 25 minutes, of day of the life of how VMware uses technology both in Workspace ONE and endpoint security. Tanium's one of the hottest products that we internally use and we combine some of our IP with theirs, and created a product called TrustPoint in a Google-like interface. I can search to find all endpoints in the enterprise, what potential apps are running on them, what potential malware's on them, quarantine it and maybe even take action on them with some of the technologies we have from AirWatch. So we've combined the best of Tanium and VMware's technology and this is going to be a real hot solution for areas like Windows 10. >> And what's the uptake you're taking on traction given where you're business is going? You've got some good performance now. What's your expectation on uptake on some of these, this Workspace ONE and the end space? >> If you look at our success so far, I told them, when I joined the company, the business was about a half a billion. We announced the end of last year, it's on a 1.2 billion run rate. So we've effectively more than doubled the business, doubled the customer count. And I think that on our path from 1.2 to two billion over multiple number of years, these solutions are going to become very critical to our growth. Horizon in the desktop portfolio, AirWatch in the mobile portfolio, identity management, and TrustPoint. And when I talk to our sales guys, I say, "Listen, there's enough there to feed "a lot of potential customers," and when I look at our customer count, 65,000 customers, we're still about 9, 10% penetrated inside the overall VMware base. If we can double, triple our customer base, there's no reason why this couldn't be a multi-billion dollar business. >> Alright, so for CXOs whether that's CIOs, chief data officers, chief revenue officers, any CXO, chief security officers, CISOs, all that stuff, for they're watching out there and tomorrow's Keynote, how would you summarize if you have to boil out your point of view and your theme for tomorrow, and some of the key takeaways? >> Four words, consumer-simple, enterprise-secure. There's an element of simplicity that gives you all the productivity that you need with Workspace ONE and your end user world. And then there's a message of security that the IT wants. The users benefit from simplicity, IT benefits from security. Users benefit from choice, IT benefits from control. And you'll hear that very, hopefully, fairly clearly tomorrow. >> Sanjay, final question, your team, VMware, you've amassed quite a team, the performance have been great, when you go back to the ranch inside Palo Alto headquarters and throughout the world, what's your marching orders to the team? What's the guiding principle that you put forth with respect to keeping the pace of innovation to match up the cadence of what's expected, not only by potentially your customers, but also your potential partners and competitors? >> First off, I'm a big believer in serve and leadership. So you have to lead by values that replicate, there's no success without successors, so I'm a hound for talent, I'm always looking for ways by which, just like the warriors, we create the best end user computing team bar none, and I think we've been very fortunate to create that team in every area. There's more talent that we should be hiring. I hear about them and we go recruit them. But once we've got a good team, we keep them focused on the mission. I mean obviously we have a revenue growth goal, and at the core of it, beyond just selling things, we want to make the customers successful. So we keep customer as our north pole. Customer satisfaction for VMware has been the highest of any IT vendor. When you look at many of these, Temkin research does a survey of customer satisfaction, we're among the top five, almost consistently the last few years. And then we make sure that in the products that we build, customer first, serve and leadership at the top, customer-focused, and we are building products, I mean we're an engineering-centric company so we want to build the best products that have a leap factor over the competition. >> So the warriors have a style of play-outs. You have Steph Curry who's just, lights up. But they're not afraid to shoot the three. They're good on transition, great speed. What is your differentiation as an organization? What's that x factor? What's the one thing you can point to? >> I mean, I think, listen, we were probably a little bit lethargic in end user computing. John was joking about this before we just had the show. We want to build great factors and we're a little bit edgy. I mean I've been called everything on Twitter from the Nostradamus of EUC to all kinds of, but we're aggressive, but I will tell you that if people watch me in Twitter, it's never, in the words of The Godfather, it's never personal. It's strictly business. So we have fun. We're a little edgy out there. We're in your face, we want to compete, we want to win every deal but it's never personal. I mean it's just like Steph Curry. You're going to compete hard on the court, but after the game, you go and have a drink with Kobe Bryant or Lebron James or whoever-have-you. >> Well final question, I didn't get this 'coz it's such a good product conversation and organization with your group, now you're heading up marketing, as the VMware, a very community-driven, very data-driven company, thoughts on marketing, you have it on social media, do you see social as being a part of marketing? Do you look at that? Do you look at certain ideas that you see that you put forth? >> First off I think Robin Matlock, our CMO has been doing an amazing job, so I told her this as I took over marketing and communications. Oliver Roll, our Chief Communications Officer is also doing great. Listen, I'm just going to throw more wood in the fire. Things are going good. Let's just get them from good to great. This show is one of the most cultistic shows on the planet because of the way in which she and her team have built this thing. It just gets better and better. But there's a few things I think you're going to see us do more. Customer-based marketing, having customers become our spokespeople. I dream of a day where every ad that we have is the biggest companies in the world or the smallest companies using our technology to either make their business more efficient or save lives. And then increasingly over time, we're going to be also doing vertical-based marketing in certain industries. And social media is a great way of getting that work across. >> We'll you've been on theCUBE as an SAP executive, now three years at VMware, certainly this is seven years you've been with CUBE and you guys do it right, so Robin and team and now you. Thanks for your support, appreciate everything. >> Thank you John and John. >> Sanjay Poonen, the General Manager, End Use Computing, and Global Head of Marketing for VMware here inside theCUBE. I'm John Furrier with John Troyer. You're watching theCUBE. (upbeat music)