>>The cube presents HPE discover 2022 brought to you by HPE. >>Hi buddy. We're back. This is the Cube's coverage of H P's discover a big discover event this year, 2022 in Las Vegas. We're at the, what used to be called the sands convention center. Now the Venetian Dave Lotte for John furrier per deep Kumar is here. He is the senior vice president and general manager of HPE E's point next services where the rubber meets the road services is where it's at. That's that's where the value is. <laugh> right. >>It's absolutely >>Great to see you again, man. Thanks for coming on. Okay. >>Welcome John. Hopefully y'all are having a good time. >>Yeah, it's very nice to be. It was always great to be face to face. Right? It's nothing like it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, we, we slog through two years of virtual and >>It was packed in keynote. Antonio's keynote was jam packed overflow rooms. Yeah. Um, and it was a big room. It wasn't a small room. It was huge. So that's a sign. Yeah. >>People are here good times. Yeah. People love to be here. Yeah. So >>What's the update with, with point next >>It's, uh, lot's happening. Lot's happening, right? Uh, the transformation is underpinned by point next doing the right thing and just, uh, transforming and helping customers to transform themselves as well with the pandemic it just caught on. Right. Everybody wants to do things faster, digitize things faster. And uh, we really bring the technology and the expertise. I think that's this pretty crucial, >>You know, what, what are the, how do you think about success rates with transformations on the one hand? It, it kept the industry going all industries going on the other hand, I feel like a lot of the transformations were rushed. I call it the forced March to digital. Yeah. Yeah. What failures did you see in that? Forced March and, and how are companies course correcting? Yeah, >>Really good question. <laugh> Dave, um, more than half of the transformations fail, right? So there was a BCG study done over 3000 customers over three years around the world. And, um, 57% of the transformations failed. Right. In the sense when somebody start to transform, they, they set it out a set of goals, scope it. This is what it is. They either didn't meet the goal or they spent more money than they should have, or they overshot the timing. Right. Or all of this about, so it's a staggering number, uh, a large piece of them fail. Yeah. Right. So, um, to answer your second question, Dave, so what are we finding out? Why are they failing and what are they, how are they course-correcting I think there's sort of, you know, we speak to customers all the time. So we get an idea of, you know, what's working and what's not working and there's sort of three things that keep on coming up. >>Right. One is, uh, senior management, CEO, CIO, commitment to the north star. Yeah. Right. Hey, are we tied in, are we doing this? The second thing is the, um, the alignment between it and the business and the functions. Right. If you don't agree on the goal set, if you don't agree on the timeline, uh, then it just, you know, don't work. <laugh> the third is expertise. The people underestimate the expertise. You need the discipline, you need to get stuff done. Right. And so these are the three and none of them are technology related. Yeah. I mean, you're heard they're all people related stuff. >>Right. But di I want to get your thoughts on this is a really important point. I love that commentary because what we're seeing as well is that with COVID now we're kind of third year post COVID, if you will. Yeah. I was just getting out of COVID. It caught a lot of people flatfooted. So people who were on a digital transformation either got stuck and fell down or failed, or they had a tailwind going into it and had momentum. They had alignment and they were filling gaps. They kind of crossed over at the right point and could succeed during the pandemic. But many people failed. Yeah. Because they didn't prepare, they didn't have the technology. They had too many gaps. They had antiquated old stuff. What have you learned? Because this is now ignited the services business because no one wants to have that happen again. Yeah. Can you share your experiences with that? With the customers that are going through that learning pain? What are their core issues? Some projects got doubled down on some got killed. Hey, we don't need that anymore. So what, what are the learnings? Well, tell, share us your perspective, cuz this is important. >>Yeah. So people want to do transformation, right? Absolutely. Because it's a must with COVID faster, quickly you want to get, but they also have to run the business because otherwise you don't have the EPS to support the transformation. Right. So it's, it's transform and perform. So we call it within HP perform while you transform and people who got that balance right. Created that flywheel, John >>Don't run outta gas in other words, translation. >><laugh> exactly. So second thing is, so you have a set of people, you have expertise and COVID you started losing people. Great resignation. You heard everything. Then you are trying to balance your people between, do you put them on transformation or do you put them on operating this stuff? This is where companies then now are realizing, Hey, if I put my best guys on transformation, I need to make sure this operations work well. So people are coming to us and saying, Hey, could you operate this one? Well, right. I mean, today we had somebody on stage, in low medical. Right. They, um, they got a ransomware hit and they had been using us, um, to do all the operations. And when hit hit, we were like switched on. They're like, I mean, on stage they're like you guys were golden, took care of the situation. So if you didn't have any extra help of some expertise, then you are really suffering. Right? >>Yeah. We heard this too. From partners we heard during the pandemic, a lot of the partners stepped up the channel and ISV partners. Yeah. Because they could. Yeah. And that was another key point. Yeah. It all comes together. I love to perform and transform Dave, cuz this is about running the business. Cuz you have cyber security as a serious problem right now. Yeah. That's also part of the transformation. Yeah. Where's the overlap. What are the areas that you're seeing, where you gotta operate and transform? Where's the hot zone. So to speak with customers, is it cyber? Is it, is it, uh, data, data? >>I would say clearly data is number one, right? In anything. Now data, data modernization is the key. Otherwise you are not changing your company the way you do things. So we just announced four real big stuff, addressing, uh, data migration. Right. Um, one of the problems so people have is quality of data. Quality of data is not good. They exist in silos. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, it's not in a platform form where you can really take the data, get the insights and use it for your future. Right. I mean that's a key problem, right? Yeah. So you, you hire a few data scientists. They come in, they're doing, they're spending the time on housekeeping data rather than actually doing data science, >>Data engineering, not just wrangling, it's a lot of engineering going on. >>Absolutely. Okay. >>Absolutely. So that's a well known problem. Uh, but as you said before that it's not really a technology problem. I think it's an organizational issue and part of the problem. And I wonder if you're seeing this within your customer base, is this idea that we're gonna try to put everything into some kind of central repository. Yeah. And then we're gonna create a hyper specialized team. That is the goal between the data that you need <laugh> and the insights, right? Yeah. To get the insights. And we're seeing this dispersion of the expertise, which put, putting more responsibility into the line of business, a new data architecture, new organizational thinking. Are you seeing that? Are there particular industries where that's happening more, more quickly where the context which LA is lacking in the centralized team is actually going out to the lines of business where the data quality will be inherently improved. >>Yeah. I think it's like implementing ERP systems. I mean, people who try to create massive data lakes, I don't think it's going to work. Right. Because it's like, nobody has the time to wait for three years until you have structured data in a particular way. The other thing is some of the data companies were take people like that who came in are no more because things are changing at a rapid pace. So anything if you're doing, that's taking too long to get your act together, the market has moved on. You may not be even in that business. So what people are doing Dave is sort of microservices, they're cutting it into pieces and saying, let me get the best, vast, quick, and make it work. And then creating the fly wheel of changing other things that are priority for their. >>So they're getting tactical with their absolutely >>Getting >>Quick wins. Absolutely >>Inviting >>Off smaller. >>Well that's the data. The data thing is, is a cyber problem too. Cuz data is helping cyber, but machine learning feeds off data. Yes. So if you have gaps or blind spots, machine learning isn't as good. So machine learning is only as good in the eye is only as good as the data. Yeah. It can see. Yeah. >>Yeah. >>So that's means it's gotta be fast available, not siloed. So, but you, so this is a balance. What do I silo and protect for compliance. Yeah. And what can I address quickly? Low latency. >>Yeah. If I may add John, the other thing is because there's so many passwords used in the industry. Right. Um, and AIML is one of those, right? So everybody then businesses pick up an area for AI and ML. They do a little pilot, they do a POC and it works well and they're extremely happy <laugh> and then they try to scale it across the whole enterprise. Yeah. And it's a complete failure because most of the time it doesn't work. Right. >>But your data lake comment actually translates over your point there because you can spend, I had a quote on the last event I went to, the quote was we spend all of our time trying to figure out what the latest open source machine learning is. That's a full-time job. So the data lake is heavy lift. Just understand what's going on there. Tracking machine learning yeah. Is a full time job even and changes. >>Absolutely. So >>The change, what does that mean to the customer? That managed services are gonna be part of it? How do the customers tame that moving train that's happening around these really important areas? >>Yeah. So, um, I think, um, customers do need help. So I think they need to be open to ideas of, okay, what is the expertise we need for where we want to get to? And some may be available inside some, they need to go for help outside. I mean, that's a reality, right? So you need to open your eyes and say, I've got, let me put my best people, maybe on transformation. Let me take the people with some expertise, knowledge on different things, right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and shortsighted companies. What they do is John, they just automate what's their current. And that's not a transformation in the end, you look back and say, >>That's incremental. >>You didn't achieve anything. Right. Because you haven't transformed your processes. You haven't chained the theme, you just automated what the garbage and garbage out. It's the, the same crap that comes out. So >>How much of the work that point next does is, um, I'll, I'll say, you know, consultative in terms of be being that change agent. Right? Cause again, we back think about data. Yeah. A lot of it is, is thinking about the organization. Yeah. Decentralizing, you know, making that decision, uh, thinking in different terms, around data products, um, having the lines of business, maybe take more responsibility for, and, and those are internal decisions. Yeah. And they have customers have, certainly have a lot of expertise around, but they sometimes need a change agent. Do you play that role? Is that a, a GSI that plays that role? >>Yeah. So, uh, it's a mixed bag. Uh, we play the role in some places and then, uh, some SIS would also play, play that role. Okay. Um, more of the point next is if, if you take a customer engagement advisory, professional services, then actually maintaining their landscape and then manage services, which again, sort of you monitor, but you also provide some info on how to manage it. Right. In those three pieces, Dave, the top piece and the bottom piece are the big pieces. Customers want expertise on the middle piece is getting automated because systems are getting smarter. They are self-healing. And in the middle piece, what people want is knowledge. So say for example, you have an enterprise it's not working well. They want it knowledge up front, tell me where it's broken or what do we need to do? And that's it. Right. Um, and they want to fix it themselves. It's just like consumer. Right. So, um, that's the way it's working. >>So the reason I ask that is we we're having a data discussion here. Yeah. And, and I think that a big role that you can play in the data transformation is to provide self-service infrastructure. Yes. Uh, right where the, the technical pieces or an operational detail. Absolutely. Okay. And then the, the second is that you just touched on it is, is, is automated, automated governance and security. So that when I share data, I know that it's going to the right place. That individual has the proper access to it. So those are two sort of white spaces I think. And a lot of organizations where they need help big >>Wide spaces >>Actually. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And that, that middle please is a complete cloud experience. Mm-hmm <affirmative> right. Everything is going to be digitalized. Everything's going to be automated. And um, so you know, people can use it any way they want, >>Do you see hybrid as a steady state? I mean, know, we gotta wrap up. We don't a lot of time left. Yeah. The real quick hybrid we've been saying here in the cube, it's it's gonna be a steady state for a long, long >>Time. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it would be, you know, OnPrem off Preem multi-cloud but it's going to be hybrid world >><laugh> all right. Hybrid world. >>Thank you so much. Hybrid >>Cube cube hybrid cube >>Was great to have you on you're so articulate and, and it's just wonderful to see you. Thanks. Thanks. >>Thank you. Thanks Dave. >>Thank you, John. And thank you for watching John furry, Dave Valante, we'll be back with the cubes coverage of HPE. Discover 2022 in Las Vegas. Right after this short break we're live.

>>from around the globe. It's the Cube covering HP Discover Virtual experience Brought to you by HP >>Hey, welcome back to the Cube's coverage of HP Discover. 2020. The virtual experience Pradeep Kumar is here. He's the senior vice president and general manager of Point Next services for our things in Houston. Welcome. >>Very good. It's a Z usual. It's warm and sunny, so I'm good. Thank you. Thanks for having me. >>You're very welcome. So now let's set this up. So when HP split into two companies formed H, P E and HP, it did a spin merge with E DS. It's large services business, and one of the things that came out of that was the point. Next services brand and group within HP, and this was very important. I want to share this with our audience because it really streamlined H H PS services Messaging is offering. It opened up new partnering opportunities and produced. This is really the business that you run. So maybe add any color to my little narrative upfront and talk about your role there. >>No, absolutely. I think what HP wanted to make sure is they have ah white portfolio of services. So also, we we have advisory and professional services as well as operational services in the back end. So we just streamline everything for the customer from a services point of view. And that's what the next stands for. You described it pretty validated >>now as you as you know, because you can imagine a lot of these virtual events that we've been doing. The pandemic, of course, has been a topic of discussion. But really, the discussion thus far has been on. Okay, how are you handling it? What kinds of things are you doing to support clients? And I want to understand that from you. But now we're at a point. We're really talking about the post isolation economy and what that all means. So what are you seeing for deep in your client base? >>Yeah, the point you made is a very critical one, right? During the pandemic, everybody Waas Hey, can I business continuity plans, right? Can I manage my business in that? In that scenario day? Really? Preparation was everything right? Things that we take it for granted, like remote working capabilities, parts having parts at the right places. Right now we have more pastors to describe. It's more. What is the new normal? What is business going to look like in the future? And how can technology help you to achieve that, right, If I give an example off, you know how many people were working from offices, including HB substantial portion off the team Members of the workforce was working from an office. Now probably about 1/3 will be working from the office, and about one toe probably will work from home. And there's another one who will come to the office in a infrequent basis for collaboration. So the whole landscape off the new normal has changed forever. >>So what I'd like to do for Deep is if we could bring up some data that we have and to really just set the context and drill in a little bit in terms of what you guys are seeing you again, point next is critical. Not only was it a business that Antonio Neri kind of ran the services business, so he understands it well, but it really is the touch point to customers. Now, when you talk to CIOs, this is data from our data partner CTR. In a survey of 700 CIOs and I t pros is that what they see is the shape of the recovery. And you can see here 44% expect a U shaped recovery. Now you've got in the 16%. There's a tailwind, businesses, their health supplies, video conferencing. You work from home or remote workers. What you were talking about, these companies actually saw a tailwind of their business. And then, of course, you've got essential businesses, and you've got, you know, businesses are just now coming back, and then you've got businesses that are really struggling Airlines, hospitality restaurants, mall. So it's really a very much fragmented recovery. So I'm wondering what you guys are specifically seeing because you are so close to so many of these customers. >>Yeah, so we see that mix bag right? So I feel like whether it's a UI or where they it's a U shaped recovery, it's sort of a more point, right, because it's not going to be the same as before. The right things have changed. Even if you are, um, in a particular business, let me take just It's the worship right house of worship, right? So it could be a temple, a synagogue, church, a mosque. It doesn't matter, right? They had a particular constituency that we had before. Who used to come? Let's take a church, for example, Who used to come to mass on A on a Sunday, Right. And in my case, my family would get out and go out there to the Mass at the last minute, right? I have 22 teenage boys, and, you know, my wife wants to go on time to mass, but we will never make it. You know, we'll be last minute worshippers going in there. And then, um, you know, find appeal, dissident. Right now, if we look at it, how it has changed for these worshippers, it's very different now, right? A set of worshippers >>who, uh, >>who watch it live stream that comes from the church will never go back or very go back, very seldom. And then there's a set of worshippers who want to go back. But now they got to sign up a week early, which particular mass they're going to and, um, and identify a pew to sit on. So the whole thing has changed for for a company for its customers the way people would consume in the future. And people who are ready for this and have managed and be prepared make use of that opportunity. And for my church, for example, in this case, I think to survival is the constituents donations on a weekly basis, right? So have they're being very digital, you know, My church, unfortunately, was very digital 100% digital. Therefore, they didn't see a huge deep on their collections, which was survival for them. So if you equate that Dave into different businesses, right, it's changed in many different ways. And as you pointed out in that shot, it's different from industry to industry business to business on how you cope up with it, how you prepare for it. Um, how you use technology for your advantage would be the winners and loses, >>you know, And that's a great first of all. That's a great example of houses of worship. And there are many. You're seeing sports now Major League baseball struggling to figure out what to do. It seems like basketball figured out. A lot of people have invested in Palestinians, and so, you know, you know, maybe yoga is not as good in the studio, but it's pretty good. You know, A lot of people bought R V, so there's gonna be some permanent changes, you know, to your to your point. And I wanted to show, you know, we've been thinking about Okay, what's the framework for understanding that fragmentation in the recovery? It's, you know, what is the feasibility of physical distancing? How digital are these these businesses? How essential are these businesses? I mean, there are It's a complicated situation to figure out. So again, the key is point Next has to be really close to its customers. You guys have to be digital in doing that. But are you seeing any specific patterns? Emerge? >>Yeah, I think what we're seeing is, um, you know, people working out what the new normal is right? And then saying, How do I get to that new normal? How do I take the advantage? How do I make use of that opportunity to get better? This is where I think point next services is important to talk about what is. We have got 23,000 experts around the world, right, and there's a substantial portion off advisory faults, right? Who will come and work out with you. What? That new normal A's? And what is the answer? What is the strategy that you want? What is the North Star you want to achieve? And how do you transform your whole company, your environment, into that new normal right? And how do we take you on that journey? Be there for you to taking you through that journey into the new normal to to capitalize on those opportunities? A couple of things I would point out here. Dave, I think, definitely. I think building a platform that's a child and resilient for the future, for any disruption is white, right? I think what the pandemic products is If you have a very agile platform and very resilient for any kind of disruption, you're going to be on a winner. So once you've identified what that new normal for you, I think HP point next really can help you be your trusted partner to get there. In the end, >>you know, pretty kind of BC before covert, when the Cube is doing a lot of live events. Everybody's talking about digital transformation, and of course, there are a couple of means floating around the Internet. One is the big wrecking ball going into the building, where the executives saying, You know, not in my lifetime and then you got Cove in 19 and the wrecking ball coming, and there's another one that I want to share with our audience. You guys have bring this up. It's the It's the It's the survey of who's leading the digital transformation of your company. Is that the CEO? Is that the CTO? Well, actually, no, it's it's covert 19. So this is kind of tongue in cheek. It's sort of a sad, stark reality here, but the truth is that if you're not digital now, you're going to really be in big trouble. And so there's a number of fact factors that we've seen are facets that we've seen in the marketplace clearly work from home security. You know, it's not just, ah, video conferencing, it's it's SD win on and certainly cloud so again, what are you seeing? Maybe really. Start with Cloud. What are you seeing in terms of cloud adoption and acceleration? >>Yeah, So we, uh what we're seeing really is Dave the the same priorities for a company exists, right? To get to a very efficient model, too. More than what it is, a cloud or not, I think what people are looking for is an as a service model, very about cost model for their workloads. So people are really pushing for a hybrid environment because the same, um, things exist. Some workloads are well, you know, suited for a public cloud. Some workloads are suited for an on Prem environment where you have Laden's issues, compliance issues, security issues, right. But what they want is when they have that on Prem environment, it should be as a service, a cloud like environment that you can pay for what you use. So people are really using warning to get into that hybrid environment. What Corbyn has really triggered is to do go on that transformation journey much quicker pace than what they had gone in the past, so the same logic exist. But people want to go through that journey quickly, so you are at the right place, ready for any future disruptions. I think that's what really happened in the marketplace. So we're working with lots of companies are taking them through the journey, identifying which workloads should go there and giving a hybrid environment that satisfies of their future needs. >>So I want to ask you about disruptions because I think it's I think it's a safe bet that while technology has always been a catalyst for disruption, it would appear pretty obvious that that other external factors are gonna gonna create more disruptions in this decade than perhaps technology, not the technology will still be disruptive, but things like pandemics, natural disasters. We've seen social uprising over the over the past couple of weeks. These external factors are really driving other agendas within organizations. And so where does technology fit? What are people who have data centers telling you guys in terms of their priorities and how technology and some of these external factors or maybe blending together? >>Yeah, so sometimes I think during destruction, whether it's a pandemic or, you know, I'm based in Houston way, we're so used to having, you know, floods, right hurricanes. And I think sometimes what people forget is being prepared for a pandemic or the hockey game. Simply pay. Have your candles ready, have your water bottles ready. So when the floods arrive, you at least have something to to rely on and cos continuously worn a preparedness business continue to plan state. Right, That is the number one priority to make sure that you have a business continuity plan that does not affect your business, then secondarily. Okay, um, I want to preserve my cash, and I want to make sure I am prepared and getting ready for the future where the future technology is different to what I had before. And I may not have the experts and the skills for that future technology. This is where the HP point next really helps either give people that expertise, skill set or augment with your teams to get you into that future technology. The third thing I would say is clearly, I think once you got on to that technology, our platform, how do you maintain that, right. How do you continuously optimize that? And you might need training or your people? It's ah, it's a continuous management of HCI, and your next again is available to you either toe optimal continuously optimize your new platform or, you know, educate your people on how to manage their platform. So I think you need to look at it as a continuum you have a business continue to plan? Did you try ons transform into the new environment you wanted to the 13 years Are you continuously optimizing and be ready for the next disruption around the corner? >>You know, I think the point you were making about business continuance of very important and I wonder if you could comment on a lot of CEOs have told us flat out just honestly, our business continuity plans were way to d are focused. And so now we're going to retool those. We are re tooling those It's work from home, which has this, this permanence to it, and it's being able to kind of anticipate some of these changes. The network changes are pretty significant. I have no doubt you guys are seeing that are participating in that sort of, you know, re revised or revitalized business continuity. >>Yeah, and you have to reimagine right? Askew pointed out correctly that it was all disaster. Recovery is all what you had you didn't think about. Hey, you know, maybe 50% off your workforce is not going to come back. And you need a way to collaborate among that workforce, right? Plus, as you pointed out. Connectivity is an issue, and but you got to think it's not just connectivity. You need to be able to enable your works force to be able to collaborate amongst each other, be positive and fanatical about your customers. That's crucial. People who are coming back. Think about it. Right? Um, you know, um, Kayla's access is important. Do we measure The temperature is important. How the team members are, you know, going around in your facility. You have contact Tracy. All that becomes widely important, right? And they they sound very basic, but they become might be important because a >>lot of learnings jammed into the last quarter. Yeah, a lot of a lot of learnings jammed into the last 90 days. Let me ask you if you could summarize for our audience the point next advantage. I mean, why HP point? Next? What do you guys bring? That that's unique and differential from all the other companies out there? >>Yeah, the breadth of point next is is very important. Point next, have got 23,000 employees really dedicated and fanatical about customers and customers. Well, being customers experience. So we are very outcome based on the people >>who who >>are here, who are different in a sense to find out what makes best sense for you and then take you through that transformation and there will be bumps on the road. Dave, Um, you know when you're working with a partner, is the partner really trusted? That will stay with you when there are bumps on the road and and make sure that your end goal is achieved. I think that's crucial. We are not like any other company. We're very, very motivated. Workforce. Very passionate workforce. Who wants to make sure you know customers in goals are achieved, right? So we are not we We look at it in a holistic way. They've compared to anybody else. And we have an extremely trusted partner who's there always with you. >>Last question for people watching this segment. Of course, we have the Discover virtual experience going on any any areas where they should focus on the when they hit the site. Where should they go? Any. Any sessions that you would recommend >>there are because it's work you're there are so many sessions, plenty of sessions, plenty of availability in many, many different areas, definitely if you're interested in what is the new normal connectivity for your employees bringing back employees? You want to look at those areas? There's there's ah ah lot of availability off decisions in the point next side of things that talks about how to cope up with the new normal. I would strongly recommend you look at those things because that gives you allows you to build in a very agile platform, that Brazilian for the next disruption that's going to come in. >>But pretty pretty. Kumar, Thanks so much for coming on the Cube and, uh, and have a great discover. Stay safe. Be well. >>Thank you, Dave. >>Alright, Keep it right there. Everybody. We'll be back with our next guest. The Cube's continuous coverage of HP Discover 2020. The virtual experience right back. Right after this short break. >>Yeah, yeah,