(upbeat techno music) >> Okay, welcome back to SiliconANGLE's Cube special two-day coverage of Mobile World Congress 2017. The hashtag is #MWC17. My next guess is Emily Mui who is with SAP Cloud, formerly SAP HANA Cloud. Great to see you. Thanks for coming in. >> Good seeing you again, John. It's been a ... Over a year. >> Since Sapphire, since the big news of ... >> That's right. >> The cloud team kind of really showing its stuff. >> Yes. >> That was called the the HANA Cloud. >> Yes. >> Now it's called SAP Cloud. The name changed. Give us a little bit more deeper ... Meaning behind the name, why the name changed, 'cause, you know, everyone knows what HANA is. >> Yes. >> HANA's got a great brand name. >> Right. >> Why drop HANA? What's the deal? >> Well, very good question. I like to talk about ... I've been with this product for over two years now, and I've really seen the evolution of the product. We have so many more capabilities than we did about three years ago, and a lot of it is customer-driven and demand-driven and market-driven. So what we realized is that yes, we have a lot of customers that wanted to do real-time decision, but then we also had a lot of customers that wanted to talk about IOT, use IOT. They want to talk about machine learning, they want to talk about analytics, so it's not just about HANA. So the name change really helps reflect the product and the evolution of this platform as a service that is now known as SAP Cloud Platform. >> So mainly what I hear you saying is that it's gone broader than that. So it's not ... HANA was like a Ferrari, something really good and was great at what it did ... >> [Emily] Yes. >> And that's all great, but the Cloud is more, right? >> Exactly. >> [ John] And what specifically more would you mean? Non-HANA solutions, or ... Greenfield opportunities? >> We have so many customers that do different things, and they're the ones that are helping us understand what is needed to be in the product. So there are many, and what we've learned is that there's a lot of business value that they're seeing from it, and they're the ones telling us that they're trying to be more agile, they're trying to optimize their business processes, and what's interesting is they want to become digital, and I'm not talking about the Ubers of the world, or the Airbnb. I'm talking about those traditional brick-and-mortar companies, manufacturers that are trying to figure out, how do I stay competitive? How do I get one step ahead of the game, and how do I use technology to do that? >> One of the things I love about Mobile World Congress is that it's like CES but in a different way. CES is hardcore early adopters. Yeah, Mobile World Congress is a lot of people who love the device news, yeah, so-and-so's got a new phone, 5G's going to be amazing, it's going to power autonomous vehicles. So, there's some glam and sex appeal inside with some of the tech, but it's almost like a meat and potatoes kind of show in the sense that it's mostly, it's a very business deal-oriented show. A lot of telecos trying to figure out their future, a lot of enterprises trying to figure out how things like network function virtualization works with mobile apps, so you're seeing kind of what I call the early adopter market be more of a CES, and Mobile World Congress be more of a ... Okay, how do you make it real? So this seems to be the topic that we're seeing across the hundreds of events that we go to at theCUBE a year, which is you have the Ubers and Airbnbs, the pioneers, the Facebooks. Then you have the settlers who come in and say, okay, I get it now. I understand what digital transformation means. Now I want to operationalize it. And Amazon Web Services has been so much success with their cloud, in the enterprise, of all places, now. So that's a tell sign that ... Real businesses ... >> [Emily] Yes. >> Not the unicorns, want to use the technology. >> [Emily] Right. >> Do you see the same thing, and can you give some anecdotal or specific examples of how a normal business gets SASSified, and what path does it take? >> So, a really good point and really good question. So one of the customers that is actually going to be at Mobile World Congress is Mapal, and they are a mid-size German precision tool manufacturer. And you think, how are they going to use the cloud and cloud technology to help them improve their business, and it's quite interesting, because they're trying to become digital. They are, you know, and this is ... Their way of doing business is not different from how anyone else is doing. They're trying to connect their suppliers, their customers together, and then be able to track what's happening with the tools that they're manufacturing. The whole life cycle of that tool, from the minute they actually start manufacturing to the point of selling it. But they're using technology to do that, right? And so they're using that SAP Cloud platformm creating the application, and then being able to track what's happening and then providing visibility to their customers, to everyone on the plant floor, to their suppliers, so they're connecting everyone together. >> You know, Emily, I was just talking with Jeff Frick, who runs theCUBE. We had our Silicon Valley Friday show last week, and we were talking about some of the conversations that we hear in cloud from some of the normal businesses out there, and things like microservices ... It's a geeky term, but microservices, containers, a lot of application conversations happening, so you hear that, and also you hear about integration. So these are the two hottest areas that we see, because basically, the SAP has been in the process business. We value chains and manufacturing, customer support, and CRM, ZRP, all that good stuff that goes on, but now, those are being completely shattered and reconfigured with cloud. So integration is top of mind, whether it's an IOT, internet of things or a new application. How does this all get threaded together? Can you share some insight into the SAP Cloud strategy, and what things do you offer to those customers, because that seems to be the critical decision point for most CXOs on the cloud SASSification. >> That's another good point, because we see a lot of customers trying to connect. They're trying to figure out how to get to the cloud, and no one is immediately jumping to it, so they've got different applications that they're trying to build out, but in order to do that, they have to connect their backend, right? And not all of it is cloud application. Most of it is on-premises, and so you've got legacy systems, you've got some SAP applications, you've got some other ... I shouldn't mention venture applications, and then they're trying to figure out how do you extend and create new applications? So how do you bring it all together? So integration is one of the key services that we provide. APIs, integration ... We've also invested in microservices technology. SAP's heavily looking into that and seeing how we can help those companies out there who want to leverage that type of technology. How do they bring all that together? Build small applications, connect everything together, and then build out an application that will help support their business. New opportunities for their customers to make their customer experience better, for their employees, and trying to track talent. So there are a lot of different use cases where ... >> What are the top three use cases that you're seeing there right now from your customer base, as they look at the HANA Cloud ... Well, it's not HANA Cloud. The SAP Cloud. >> Yes. >> New name. When they look at it, what do they gravitate to? What does the ... I mean, it's not all the same, but I mean, some low-hanging fruit. >> Right. >> Most people say, oh, test/dev, but probably in SAP. What is that low-hanging fruit for you guys, and where do you see more of these ... >> Integration. I mean, a lot of times, they start with integration, because they need to bring that together, but integration's kind of a means to an end. So, an example I can think of is we have a customer named Owens-Illinois. They're a glass manufacturer, another real business, right? It doesn't always sound so sexy, but the reality ... >> They're billion ... These are billion-dollar businesses out there ... >> Yes, exactly. >> That aren't called Uber, and no one's ever heard of them, but they're businesses, doing their thing. >> Exactly. And they need to be able to integrate their backend. They had this one specific requirement where they had to quickly meet the requirements of the Peruvian government, because they needed to create e-invoicing, and if they weren't able to bring together their backend systems, build out this application to do e-invoicing, their plant in Peru was going to get shut down. So, really good example ... >> [John] A critical path item. >> Exactly. Integration, and then being able to extend that. So those are really key examples of what our customers are doing, and then of course innovation, just coming up with something completely brand new. You know, there's so many examples of of those types of ... >> You know, you mention some of these traditional businesses, whether they're a glass company or a tooling company or whatever. This is really highlighting the big trend, internet of things, or IOT. AI kind of gets bolted into that 'cause it's got machine learning and using data and things. Is the digitization of business ... It's not just like IT and getting your email and things of that nature. Seeing the industrial, analog side of the business being digitized, so, with sensors ... You can't look any further than some of the more obvious consumer examples, the Tesla car, self-driving cars, drones, all have data. And so that's kind of a mental model for most folks, but it could be plant and machinery, it could be airplanes, flown off data ... This is the industrialization of this new era. >> Right. >> [John] Of data. >> Yep. >> That's connected to the internet. Therefore, it is an internet-connected device that needs to be managed. So this is a new use case that points to some of these businesses that are now digitizing. Is that a big part of the new IOT service, and how do you guys talk to that market, because some of it's not an IT market, they're like a normal business market, that might have SAP accounting software, or manufacturing software... >> Well, I mean, I think, like most companies and most people out there, everyone's a consumer, right? We talk about companies, but within those companies, we're talking about employees, people, and everyone has a phone, a smartphone of some sort, if not an iPhone, an Android device. There's so much data that's being generated. I could give an example of my teenage ... Just turned teenage boy, and I don't want him to carry cash around. He wants to go to Starbucks, so I make sure that he has an account set up. So it's easy. All that ... Just think about the way he's transacting. He walks into Starbucks, and he can pay. I can see how much he's paying, what he's buying, right? So there's so much data, and businesses are transacting in such a way that they've never had to do before. >> [John] Do you track his location? >> That too. I know when he's going in the wrong direction. He's on the wrong bus, right? So, there's so much data, and businesses have to figure out what's the best way to monetize that, to create opportunities from it, right? And to provide that experience for their customers and then come up with new solutions and new products and new services. >> That's a great parent story. I feel the same. My wife and I have the surveillance tracker, and that's part and parcel to us paying for the phone, so. >> [Emily] Right. >> Quid pro quo. If they want to pay for their own phone, they can be anonymous. But that brings us back to the customer. I want to get back to the customer impact, because the challenges are also opportunities, so what are some of the key challenges that your top customers face in the cloud. Because I think right now, it's pretty obvious that Mobile World Congress is kind of proving it's no branch of the cloud. It's really the business model behind it. Okay, I need to have my business model align with the value preposition for what we sell to customers, and how do we execute that operationally? >> [Emily] Right. >> So, take us through how you guys help customers through those challenges and turn them into opportunities. >> Well, first, John, we listen to what those challenges are. We've heard it over and over again. How do I ... How does the company become agile? How can they stay competitive? And you're always trying to stay one step ahead of your competition, and how else do you do it? So agility is really important, and when we talk about agility, we're not just talking about being able to create an opportunity quickly. It's how can you become flexible? How can you integrate your backend quickly? How do you support your new business requirements? If you're IT, how do you support your business partner very quickly? So it's about agility, and we provide the software that will help them do that. The cloud platform allows them to quickly integrate and extend those applications, and then of course, optimizing business processes. Who doesn't want to be efficient? I don't know how many businesses out there who wants to do things this old-fashioned, slow way. They're always trying to do it better and quicker. >> They got to preserve the old, but kind of bring in the new at the same time, it's a ... >> Right. So how do we help them optimize that? So they're asking us that all the time, and we're SAP, right? Our bread and butter, ERP, CRM, applications. We know business processes, so we understand what it takes to help them optimize those business processes. >> I didn't get a chance to ask Dan Lahl, who I interviewed earlier, about ... Who's Vice President of Product Marketing at SAP Cloud, your colleague. I didn't get to ask him this question, but this is important. Customers want to know ... That their partner, in this case, SAP Cloud, has a healthy ecosystem around it. Why is an ecosystem important, a healthy ecosystem important for customers, and then what does SAP Cloud doing to foster more innovation and openness and relevance in that ecosystem? >> Another really good question, because SAP has a history of building out an ecosystem for partners, and with SAP Cloud platform, what's great about it is it's technology that our partners are, today, leveraging and creating applications. So for those integrators, systems integrators who work really closely with our customers or their customers, they understand their businesses. They're very intimate and close with them. So they're developing applications that will help support their needs, and there are actually a lot of these partners. We have over a thousand applications that have been built by partners today. We have 600 partners that are building applications with SAP Cloud platform, and that's quite remarkable, considering the product has been around ... for just three, four years. Four years. So, it's really good news. Our partners are really invested in this technology. >> Can you comment on some of the big news that's happening at Mobile World Congress, specifically around this concept of an integrated solution set? So we see 5G was a big announcement by Intel. You're seeing autonomous vehicles as a showcase. You saw them at CES by the way, too ... It was an auto show there, too, but it allows people to really get a sense that it's not a stovepipe or a silo anymore of software stack solutions in that, you know, you need some bandwidth, you need some glue software, you need some third-party solution. You need to have things componentized or Lego-blocked kind of designed in, so this is kind of this new fabric. Could be IOT from machine manufacturing equipment, to wearable computers, all kind of coming in. That's kind of the new solution set. What's the vision for you guys on that? >> You know, at Mobile World Congress, we actually have a couple really cool demos. I should probably say they're not just demos, but they're actually exhibits. We've got a connected vehicle. We talk about the connected stadium, and when we talk about the connected stadium, we're talking about the whole experience of someone coming to an event and then being able to use their iPhone or their Android device and be able to buy their food, be able to understand what's happening and know what, you know, be able to go to their seats, and things like that. Help them through the whole experience with a connected vehicle. Be able to rent a car, and then be able to create an expense report, all on their phone. All of that needs integration. >> [John] It's a mashup of all kinds of stuff. >> Exactly. >> An accounting system is now part of feature of a stadium. >> [Emily] Right. >> A cool sports venue. >> Think about all those business processes that have to be integrated, and not just on the IT side, but all those business processes. So, like you said. >> The speed is critical. You have to have low latency ... >> Yes. >> And great software to make that work. >> A repository, right? To be able to collect all that data, streaming data, bring all that together, and then be able to analyze and then make decisions and then trigger actions immediately, so. >> All right, so, let's go through some of the cool highlights real quick. I know we have limited time. I want to get to it. In terms of the demos, you mentioned the stadium thing. What else do you have? Explain some of the demos, and kind of give a little bit of a quick synopsis of each demo, and the coolness of it. >> Yeah, so, definitely, like I mentioned, the connected stadium's going to be a cool factor. The connected vehicle. We're going to have a car there, so that's going to be fun to watch, so, the fact that it's all connected. It's all IOT. It's through your phone. It's rental. >> [John] What's going to be in the car demo? >> Lots. (both laugh) Through the iPad, you can see certain things. I don't want to give it all away. >> So go to the demo. If you're in Barcelona, we're here in Palo Alto. >> [Emily] We'll have examples of what exactly the ... >> But what is in the car, because, if you think about it, obviously, over the years, I've seen tons of demos on stage, certainly at Sapphire and the big events. And there's a lot of real-time dashboarding stuff. Is that some of the ... The glam and flair going on at the demos? >> That's some aspect, yep. Yes. So, I can't give anything away yet. We want people to watch when we're there, but yeah. So there's going to be some cool demos there. And then we're actually going to be showcasing ... Intel, who's also a sponsor, for this particular show. This time around. Yeah, so we're going to be showing a prototype of a really simple IOT example, where we're going to connect it with Google Home and Amazon Echo, and we're able to control this little prototype building, send elevators up and down, all through bot technology. >> So SAP as a company's moving from a back office powering 80% of the world's businesses to a much more front-end, agile solution provider with technology ... >> [Emily] Exactly. >> Using the cloud and big data. >> And digital. >> [John] And digital. >> Yeah. And all of that is because our customers are demanding it. They see it, they know that ... They trust that we can help them along the way, on the backend as well as on the integration front, and help them become digital. >> But this is the transformation you guys have been at HANA. The system of record, that's the database and software. System of engagement, that's free-flowing data, and now you have AI ... >> [Emily] Yes. >> Kind of automating a lot of that real-world examples, so that seems to be the same. Nothing changes on the SAP vision on that front. >> No, it's an evolution. So I think all the technology components are in place. So AI, predictive, machine learning, that's been around forever. It seems like it's the holy grail for marketers, for people in risk management, you name it. Everyone wants to be able to use analytics. >> It's all integrated. >> Yeah, and now you've got the database, you've got the in-memory database, you've got the streaming capabilities, you've got ... There's so many different components that are now ready and in place to make it actually a reality. So it's exciting. >> Emily Mui with SAP Cloud Group. Final words, somewhere that you'd like folks to walk away with from a customer standpoint and impact here, Mobile World Congress this week. What's the big story from your perspective? >> Big story is that we've got a great cloud platform solution that people are just learning more about, and they should learn more about it, because we've got all the components, all the services available to help them become a much more agile business, help them optimize all the business processes they have in place today and the ones they're looking to create, and then of course becoming digital. It's become a benefit for them. It's an actual benefit to become digital. >> The IOT really highlights your value proposition as a company in general, and the cloud opportunity is just right ... Right lockstep with that. Congratulations. Thanks for coming out. >> Thank you. >> Emily Mui, here inside theCUBE in Palo Alto breaking down and talking about Mobile World Congress. Special two days of coverage here at Palo Alto. I'm John Furrier, thanks for watching. (upbeat techno music) (bright instrumental music)