>> Good afternoon, fellow cloud nerds and welcome back to AWS Reinvent 2022. We are live here from fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. My name is Savannah Peterson, joined by Lisa Martin. So excited to be here Lisa, it's my first reinvent. >> Is it really? >> Yeah. >> I think it's only like my fourth or fifth. >> Only your fourth or fifth. >> Only. >> You're such a pro here. >> There's some serious veterans here in attendance that have been to all 11. >> I love that. >> Yeah. Wow, go them. I know, maybe we'll be at that level sooner. >> One day we will. >> Are you enjoying the show so far? >> Absolutely, it is. I cannot believe how many people are here. We've had 70,000 and we're only seeing what's at the foundation Expo Hall, not at the other hotel. So, I can only imagine. >> I mean, there's a world outside of this. >> Yes, and there's sunlight. There's actual sunlight outside of this room. >> Nobel idea. Well, Lisa, I'm very excited to be sitting here next to you and to welcome our fabulous guests, from TEKsystems, we have Brandon and Srini. Thank you so much for being here. How is the show going for you gentlemen so far? >> It's great. Lot of new insights and the customers are going to love what AWS is releasing in this reinvent. >> There is such a community here, and I love that vibe. It's similar to what we had at Cloud Native con in Detroit. So much collaboration going on. I assume most folks know a lot about TEKsystems who are watching, but just in case they don't, Brandon, give us the pitch. >> You bet. So full stack IT solutions firm, been in business for over 40 years, 80,000 global employees, really specializing in digital transformation, enterprise modernization services. We have partners in One Strategy, which is an an acquisition we made, but a well known premier partner in the Amazon partner ecosystem, as well as One North Interactive, who is our boutique brand, creative and digital strategy firm. So together, we really feel like we can bring full end-to-end solutions for digital and modernization initiatives. >> So, I saw some notes where TEKsystems are saying organizations need experienced AWS partners that are not afraid doing the dirty work of digital transformation, who really can advise and execute. Brandon, talk to us about how TEKsystems and AWS are working together to help customers on that journey which is nebulous of digital transformation. >> So, our real hallmark is the ability to scale. We partner with AWS in a lot of different ways. In fact, we just signed our strategic collaboration agreement. So, we're in the one percenter group in the whole partner network. >> Savanna: That's a pretty casual flex there. >> Not bad. >> I love that, top 1%, that no wonder you're wearing that partner pin so proud today. (speaking indistinctly) >> But we're working all the way on the advisory and working with their pro serve organization and then transforming that into large scale mass migration services, a lot of data modernization that Srini is an absolute expert in. I'm sure he can add some context too, but it's been a great partnership for many years now. >> In the keynote, Adam spent almost 52 minutes on data, right? So, it emphasizes how organizations are ready to take data to cloud and actually make meaningful insights and help their own customers come out of it by making meaningful decisions. So, we are glad to be part of this entire ecosystem. >> I love that you quantified how many minutes. >> I know. >> Talked about it, that was impressive. There's a little bit of data driven thinking going on here. >> I think so. >> Yeah. >> Well, we can't be at an event like this without talking about data for copious amounts of time, 52 minutes, has just used this morning. >> Right, absolutely. >> But every company these days has to be a data company. There's no choice to be successful, to thrive, to survive. I mean, even to thrive and grow, if it's a grocery store or your local gas station or what? You name it, that company has to be a data company. But the challenge of the data volume, the explosion in data is huge for organizations to really try to figure out and sift through what they have, where is all of it? How do we make sense of it? How do we act on it and get insights? That's a big challenge. How is TEKsystems helping customers tackle that challenge? >> Yeah, that's a great question because that's the whole fun of handling data. You need to ensure its meaning is first understood. So, we are not just dumping data into a storage place, but rather assign a meaningful context. In today's announcement, again, the data zone was unveiled to give meaning to data. And I think those are key concrete steps that we take to our customers as well with some good blueprints, methodical ways of approaching data and ultimately gaining business insights. >> And maybe I'll add just something real quick to that. The theme we're seeing and hearing a lot about is data monetization. So, technology companies have figured it out and used techniques to personalize things and get you ads, probably that you don't want half the time. But now all industries are really looking to do that. Looking at ways to open new revenue channels, looking at ways to drive a better customer experience, a better employee experience. We've got a ton of examples of that, Big Oil and Gas leveraging like well and machine data, coming in to be more efficient when they're pumping and moving commodities around. We work a lot in the medium entertainment space and so obviously, getting targeted ads to consumers during the right periods of TV or movies or et cetera. Especially with the advert on Netflix and all your streaming videos. So, it's been really interesting but we really see the future in leveraging data as one of your biggest corporate assets. >> Brilliant. >> So, I'm just curious on the ad thing, just real quick and I'll let you go, Lisa. So, do you still fall victim to falling for the advertising even though you know it's been strategically put there for you to consume in that moment? >> Most of the time. >> I mean, I think we all do. We're all, (indistinct), you're behind the curtain so to speak. >> The Amazon Truck shows up every day at my house, which is great, right? >> Hello again >> Same. >> But I think the power of it is you are giving the customer what they're looking for. >> That's it. >> And you know... >> Exactly. We have that expectation, we want it. >> 100%. >> We know that. >> Agree. >> We don't need to buy it. But technology has made it so easy to transact. That's like when developers started going to the cloud years ago, it was just, it was a swipe. It was so simple. Brandon, talk about the changes in cloud and cloud migration that TEKsystems has seen, particularly in the last couple of years as every company was rushing to go digital because they had to. >> So several years ago, we kind of pushed away that cloud first mentality to the side and we use more of a cloud smart kind of fashion, right? Does everything need to go to the cloud? No. Do applications, data, need to go to the cloud in a way that's modern and takes advantages of what the cloud can provide and all the new services that are being released this week and ongoing. So, the other thing we're seeing is initiatives that have traditionally been in the CTO, CIO organization aren't necessarily all that successful because we're seeing a complete misalignment between business goals and IT achievements, outcomes, et cetera. You can automate things, you can move it to the cloud, but if you didn't solve a core business problem or challenge, what'd you really do? >> Yeah, just to add on that, it's all about putting data and people together. And then how we can actually ensure the workforce is equally brought up to speed on these new technologies. That has been something that we have seen tremendous improvement in the last 24 months where customers are ready to take up new challenges and the end users are ready to learn something new and not just stick onto that status quo mindset. >> Where do you guys factor in to bringing in AWS in the customer's cloud journeys? What is that partnership like? >> We always first look for where the customer is in their cloud journey path and make sure we advise them with the right next steps. And AWS having its services across the spectrum makes it even easier for us to look at what business problem they're solving and then align it according to the process and technology so that at the end of the day, we want end user adoption. We don't want to build a fancy new gadget that no one uses. >> Just because you built it doesn't mean they'll come. And I think that's the classic engineering marketing dilemma as well as balance to healthy tension. I would say between both. You mentioned Srini, you mentioned workforce just a second ago. What sort of trends are you seeing in workforce development? >> Generally speaking, there are a lot of services now that can quantify your code for errors and then make sure that the code that you're pushing into production is well tested. So what we are trying to make sure is a healthy mix of trying to solve a business problem and asking the right questions. Like today, even in the keynote, it was all about how QuickSight, for example, has additional features now that tells why something happened. And that's the kind of mindset we want our end users to adopt. Not just restricting themselves to a reactive analytics, but rather ask the question why, why did it happen? Why did my sales go down? And I think those technologies and mindset shift is happening across the workforce. >> From a workforce development standpoint, we're seeing there's not enough workforce and the core skills of data, DevOps, standard cloud type work. So, we're actually an ATP advanced training partner, one of the few within the AWS network. So, we've developed programs like our Rising Talent Program that are allowing us to bring the workforce up to the skills that are necessary in this new world. So, it's a more build versus buy strategy because we're on talents real, though it may start to wane a little bit as we change the macroeconomic outlook in 2023, but it's still there. And we still believe that building those workforce and investing in your people is the right thing to do. >> It is, and I think there's a strong alignment there with AWS and their focus on that as well. I wanted to ask you, Brandon. >> Brandon: Absolutely. >> One of the things, so our boss, John Furrier, the co CEO of theCUBE, talked with Adam Selipsky just a week or maybe 10 days ago. He always gets an exclusive interview with the CEO of AWS before reinvent, and one of the things that Adam shared with him is that customers, CEOs and CIOs are not coming to Adam, to this head of AWS to talk about technology, they want to talk about transformation. He's talking about... >> The topic this year. >> Moving away from amorphous topic of digital transformation to business transformation. Are you seeing the same thing in your customer? >> 100%, and if you're not starting at the business level, these initiatives are going to fail. We see it all the time. Again, it's about that misalignment and there's no good answer to that. But digital, I think is amorphous to some degree. We play a lot with the One North partnership that I mentioned earlier, really focusing on that strategy element because consumer dollars are shrinking via inflation, via what we're heading into, and we have to create the best experience possible. We have to create an omnichannel experience to get our products or services to market. And if we're not looking at those as our core goals and we're looking at them as IT or technology challenges, we're not looking in the right place. >> Well, and businesses aren't going to be successful if they're looking at it in those siloed organizations. Data has to be democratizing and we've spent same data democratization for so long, but really, we're seeing that it has to be moving out into the lines of business because another thing Adam shared with John Furrier is that he sees and I'm curious what your thoughts are on this, the title of data analysts going away because everybody in different functions and different lines of business within an organization are going to have to be data analysts to some degree, to use data whether it's marketing, ops, sales, finance, are you seeing the same? >> That is true. I mean, at this point, we are all in the connected world, right? Every data point is connected in some form or shape to another data point. >> Savanna: There are many data points, just sitting here, yeah. >> Absolutely, so I think if you are strategizing, data needs to be right in the center of it. And then your business problems need to be addressed with reliable data. >> No, I mean, advertising, supply chain, marketing, they're all interconnected now, and we're looking at ways to bring a lot of that siloed data into one place so we can make use to it. It goes back to that monetization element of our data. >> That's a lot about context and situational awareness. We want what we want, when we want it, even before we knew we needed it then. I think I said that right. But you know, it's always more faster, quicker and then scaling things up. You see a lot of different customers across verticals, you have an absolutely massive team. Give us a sneak peek into 2023. What does the future hold? >> 2023 is again, to today's keynote, I'm bringing it back because it was a keynote filled with vision and limitless possibilities. And that's what we see. Right now, our customers, they are no longer scared to go and take the plunge into the cloud. And as Brandon said, it's all about being smart about those decisions. So, we are very excited that together with the partnership that we recently acquired and the services and the depth, along with the horizontal domain expertise, we can actually help customers make meaningful message out of their data points. And that keeps us really excited for next year. >> Love that, Brandon, what about you? >> I think the obvious one is DevOps and a focus on optimization, financially, security, et cetera, just for the changing times. The other one is, I still think that digital is going to continue to be a big push in 2023, namely making sure that experience is at its best, whether that's employee and combating the war on talent, keeping your people or opening new revenue streams, enhancing existing revenue streams. You got to keep working on that. >> We got to keep the people happy with the machines and the systems that we are building as we all know. But it's very nice, it's been a lot of human-centric focus and a lot of customer obsession here at the show. We know it's a big thing for you all, for Amazon, for pretty much everyone who sat here. Hopefully it is in general. Hopefully there's nobody who doesn't care about their community, we're not talking to them, if that's the case, we have a new challenge on theCUBE for the show, this year as we kind of prepped you for and can call it a bumper sticker, you can call it a 30 second sizzle reel. But this is sort of your Instagram moment, your TikTok, your thought of leadership highlight. What's the most important story coming out of the show? Srini, you've been quoting the keynotes very well, so, I'm going to you first on this one. >> I think overall, it's all about owning the change. In our TEKsystems culture, it's all about striving for excellence through serving others and owning the change. And so it makes me very excited that when we get that kind of keynote resonating the same message that we invite culturally, that's a big win-win for all the companies. >> It's all about the shared vision. A lot of people with similar vision in this room right now, in this room, like it's a room, it's a massive expo center, just to be clear, I'm sure everyone can see in the background. Brandon >> I would say partnership, continuing to enhance our strategic partnership with AWS, continuing to be our customers' partners in transformation. And bringing those two things together here has been a predominance of my time this week. And we'll continue throughout the week, but we're in it together with our customers and with AWS and looking forward to the future. >> Yeah, that's a beautiful note to end on there. Brandon, Srini, thank you both so much for being here with us. Fantastic to learn from your insights and to continue to emphasize on this theme of collaboration. We look forward to the next conversation with you. Thank all of you for tuning in wherever you happen to be hanging out and watching this fabulous live stream or the replay. We are here at AWS Reinvent 2022 in wonderful sunny Las Vegas, Nevada with Lisa Martin. My name is Savannah Peterson, we are theCUBE, the leading source for high tech coverage.

>> 10, nine, eight, (clears throat) four, three. >> Good afternoon, fellow cloud nerds and welcome back to AWS Reinvent 2022. We are live here from fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. My name is Savannah Peterson, joined by Lisa Martin. So excited to be here Lisa, it's my first reinvent. >> Is it really? >> Yeah. >> I think it's only like my fourth or fifth. >> Only your fourth or fifth. >> Only. >> You're such a pro here. >> There's some serious veterans here in attendance that have been to all 11. >> I love that. >> Yeah. Wow, go them. I know, maybe we'll be at that level sooner. >> One day we will. >> Are you enjoying the show so far? >> Absolutely, it is. I cannot believe how many people are here. We've had 70,000 and we're only seeing what's at the foundation Expo Hall, not at the other hotel. So, I can only imagine. >> I mean, there's a world outside of this. >> Yes, and there's sunlight. There's actual sunlight outside of this room. >> Nobel idea. Well, Lisa, I'm very excited to be sitting here next to you and to welcome our fabulous guests, from TEKsystems, we have Brandon and Srini. Thank you so much for being here. How is the show going for you gentlemen so far? >> It's great. Lot of new insights and the customers are going to love what AWS is releasing in this reinvent. >> There is such a community here, and I love that vibe. It's similar to what we had at Cloud Native con in Detroit. So much collaboration going on. I assume most folks know a lot about TEKsystems who are watching, but just in case they don't, Brandon, give us the pitch. >> You bet. So full stack IT solutions firm, been in business for over 40 years, 80,000 global employees, really specializing in digital transformation, enterprise modernization services. We have partners in One Strategy, which is an an acquisition we made, but a well known premier partner in the Amazon partner ecosystem, as well as One North Interactive, who is our boutique brand, creative and digital strategy firm. So together, we really feel like we can bring full end-to-end solutions for digital and modernization initiatives. >> So, I saw some notes where TEKsystems are saying organizations need experienced AWS partners that are not afraid doing the dirty work of digital transformation, who really can advise and execute. Brandon, talk to us about how TEKsystems and AWS are working together to help customers on that journey which is nebulous of digital transformation. >> So, our real hallmark is the ability to scale. We partner with AWS in a lot of different ways. In fact, we just signed our strategic collaboration agreement. So, we're in the one percenter group in the whole partner network. >> Savanna: That's a pretty casual flex there. >> Not bad. >> I love that, top 1%, that no wonder you're wearing that partner pin so proud today. (speaking indistinctly) >> But we're working all the way on the advisory and working with their pro serve organization and then transforming that into large scale mass migration services, a lot of data modernization that Srini is an absolute expert in. I'm sure he can add some context too, but it's been a great partnership for many years now. >> In the keynote, Adam spent almost 52 minutes on data, right? So, it emphasizes how organizations are ready to take data to cloud and actually make meaningful insights and help their own customers come out of it by making meaningful decisions. So, we are glad to be part of this entire ecosystem. >> I love that you quantified how many minutes. >> I know. >> Talked about it, that was impressive. There's a little bit of data driven thinking going on here. >> I think so. >> Yeah. >> Well, we can't be at an event like this without talking about data for copious amounts of time, 52 minutes, has just used this morning. >> Right, absolutely. >> But every company these days has to be a data company. There's no choice to be successful, to thrive, to survive. I mean, even to thrive and grow, if it's a grocery store or your local gas station or what? You name it, that company has to be a data company. But the challenge of the data volume, the explosion in data is huge for organizations to really try to figure out and sift through what they have, where is all of it? How do we make sense of it? How do we act on it and get insights? That's a big challenge. How is TEKsystems helping customers tackle that challenge? >> Yeah, that's a great question because that's the whole fun of handling data. You need to ensure its meaning is first understood. So, we are not just dumping data into a storage place, but rather assign a meaningful context. In today's announcement, again, the data zone was unveiled to give meaning to data. And I think those are key concrete steps that we take to our customers as well with some good blueprints, methodical ways of approaching data and ultimately gaining business insights. >> And maybe I'll add just something real quick to that. The theme we're seeing and hearing a lot about is data monetization. So, technology companies have figured it out and used techniques to personalize things and get you ads, probably that you don't want half the time. But now all industries are really looking to do that. Looking at ways to open new revenue channels, looking at ways to drive a better customer experience, a better employee experience. We've got a ton of examples of that, Big Oil and Gas leveraging like well and machine data, coming in to be more efficient when they're pumping and moving commodities around. We work a lot in the medium entertainment space and so obviously, getting targeted ads to consumers during the right periods of TV or movies or et cetera. Especially with the advert on Netflix and all your streaming videos. So, it's been really interesting but we really see the future in leveraging data as one of your biggest corporate assets. >> Brilliant. >> So, I'm just curious on the ad thing, just real quick and I'll let you go, Lisa. So, do you still fall victim to falling for the advertising even though you know it's been strategically put there for you to consume in that moment? >> Most of the time. >> I mean, I think we all do. We're all, (indistinct), you're behind the curtain so to speak. >> The Amazon Truck shows up every day at my house, which is great, right? >> Hello again >> Same. >> But I think the power of it is you are giving the customer what they're looking for. >> That's it. >> And you know... >> Exactly. We have that expectation, we want it. >> 100%. >> We know that. >> Agree. >> We don't need to buy it. But technology has made it so easy to transact. That's like when developers started going to the cloud years ago, it was just, it was a swipe. It was so simple. Brandon, talk about the changes in cloud and cloud migration that TEKsystems has seen, particularly in the last couple of years as every company was rushing to go digital because they had to. >> So several years ago, we kind of pushed away that cloud first mentality to the side and we use more of a cloud smart kind of fashion, right? Does everything need to go to the cloud? No. Do applications, data, need to go to the cloud in a way that's modern and takes advantages of what the cloud can provide and all the new services that are being released this week and ongoing. So, the other thing we're seeing is initiatives that have traditionally been in the CTO, CIO organization aren't necessarily all that successful because we're seeing a complete misalignment between business goals and IT achievements, outcomes, et cetera. You can automate things, you can move it to the cloud, but if you didn't solve a core business problem or challenge, what'd you really do? >> Yeah, just to add on that, it's all about putting data and people together. And then how we can actually ensure the workforce is equally brought up to speed on these new technologies. That has been something that we have seen tremendous improvement in the last 24 months where customers are ready to take up new challenges and the end users are ready to learn something new and not just stick onto that status quo mindset. >> Where do you guys factor in to bringing in AWS in the customer's cloud journeys? What is that partnership like? >> We always first look for where the customer is in their cloud journey path and make sure we advise them with the right next steps. And AWS having its services across the spectrum makes it even easier for us to look at what business problem they're solving and then align it according to the process and technology so that at the end of the day, we want end user adoption. We don't want to build a fancy new gadget that no one uses. >> Just because you built it doesn't mean they'll come. And I think that's the classic engineering marketing dilemma as well as balance to healthy tension. I would say between both. You mentioned Srini, you mentioned workforce just a second ago. What sort of trends are you seeing in workforce development? >> Generally speaking, there are a lot of services now that can quantify your code for errors and then make sure that the code that you're pushing into production is well tested. So what we are trying to make sure is a healthy mix of trying to solve a business problem and asking the right questions. Like today, even in the keynote, it was all about how QuickSight, for example, has additional features now that tells why something happened. And that's the kind of mindset we want our end users to adopt. Not just restricting themselves to a reactive analytics, but rather ask the question why, why did it happen? Why did my sales go down? And I think those technologies and mindset shift is happening across the workforce. >> From a workforce development standpoint, we're seeing there's not enough workforce and the core skills of data, DevOps, standard cloud type work. So, we're actually an ATP advanced training partner, one of the few within the AWS network. So, we've developed programs like our Rising Talent Program that are allowing us to bring the workforce up to the skills that are necessary in this new world. So, it's a more build versus buy strategy because we're on talents real, though it may start to wane a little bit as we change the macroeconomic outlook in 2023, but it's still there. And we still believe that building those workforce and investing in your people is the right thing to do. >> It is, and I think there's a strong alignment there with AWS and their focus on that as well. I wanted to ask you, Brandon. >> Brandon: Absolutely. >> One of the things, so our boss, John Furrier, the co CEO of theCUBE, talked with Adam Selipsky just a week or maybe 10 days ago. He always gets an exclusive interview with the CEO of AWS before reinvent, and one of the things that Adam shared with him is that customers, CEOs and CIOs are not coming to Adam, to this head of AWS to talk about technology, they want to talk about transformation. He's talking about... >> The topic this year. >> Moving away from amorphous topic of digital transformation to business transformation. Are you seeing the same thing in your customer? >> 100%, and if you're not starting at the business level, these initiatives are going to fail. We see it all the time. Again, it's about that misalignment and there's no good answer to that. But digital, I think is amorphous to some degree. We play a lot with the One North partnership that I mentioned earlier, really focusing on that strategy element because consumer dollars are shrinking via inflation, via what we're heading into, and we have to create the best experience possible. We have to create an omnichannel experience to get our products or services to market. And if we're not looking at those as our core goals and we're looking at them as IT or technology challenges, we're not looking in the right place. >> Well, and businesses aren't going to be successful if they're looking at it in those siloed organizations. Data has to be democratizing and we've spent same data democratization for so long, but really, we're seeing that it has to be moving out into the lines of business because another thing Adam shared with John Furrier is that he sees and I'm curious what your thoughts are on this, the title of data analysts going away because everybody in different functions and different lines of business within an organization are going to have to be data analysts to some degree, to use data whether it's marketing, ops, sales, finance, are you seeing the same? >> That is true. I mean, at this point, we are all in the connected world, right? Every data point is connected in some form or shape to another data point. >> Savanna: There are many data points, just sitting here, yeah. >> Absolutely, so I think if you are strategizing, data needs to be right in the center of it. And then your business problems need to be addressed with reliable data. >> No, I mean, advertising, supply chain, marketing, they're all interconnected now, and we're looking at ways to bring a lot of that siloed data into one place so we can make use to it. It goes back to that monetization element of our data. >> That's a lot about context and situational awareness. We want what we want, when we want it, even before we knew we needed it then. I think I said that right. But you know, it's always more faster, quicker and then scaling things up. You see a lot of different customers across verticals, you have an absolutely massive team. Give us a sneak peek into 2023. What does the future hold? >> 2023 is again, to today's keynote, I'm bringing it back because it was a keynote filled with vision and limitless possibilities. And that's what we see. Right now, our customers, they are no longer scared to go and take the plunge into the cloud. And as Brandon said, it's all about being smart about those decisions. So, we are very excited that together with the partnership that we recently acquired and the services and the depth, along with the horizontal domain expertise, we can actually help customers make meaningful message out of their data points. And that keeps us really excited for next year. >> Love that, Brandon, what about you? >> I think the obvious one is DevOps and a focus on optimization, financially, security, et cetera, just for the changing times. The other one is, I still think that digital is going to continue to be a big push in 2023, namely making sure that experience is at its best, whether that's employee and combating the war on talent, keeping your people or opening new revenue streams, enhancing existing revenue streams. You got to keep working on that. >> We got to keep the people happy with the machines and the systems that we are building as we all know. But it's very nice, it's been a lot of human-centric focus and a lot of customer obsession here at the show. We know it's a big thing for you all, for Amazon, for pretty much everyone who sat here. Hopefully it is in general. Hopefully there's nobody who doesn't care about their community, we're not talking to them, if that's the case, we have a new challenge on theCUBE for the show, this year as we kind of prepped you for and can call it a bumper sticker, you can call it a 30 second sizzle reel. But this is sort of your Instagram moment, your TikTok, your thought of leadership highlight. What's the most important story coming out of the show? Srini, you've been quoting the keynotes very well, so, I'm going to you first on this one. >> I think overall, it's all about owning the change. In our TEKsystems culture, it's all about striving for excellence through serving others and owning the change. And so it makes me very excited that when we get that kind of keynote resonating the same message that we invite culturally, that's a big win-win for all the companies. >> It's all about the shared vision. A lot of people with similar vision in this room right now, in this room, like it's a room, it's a massive expo center, just to be clear, I'm sure everyone can see in the background. Brandon >> I would say partnership, continuing to enhance our strategic partnership with AWS, continuing to be our customers' partners in transformation. And bringing those two things together here has been a predominance of my time this week. And we'll continue throughout the week, but we're in it together with our customers and with AWS and looking forward to the future. >> Yeah, that's a beautiful note to end on there. Brandon, Srini, thank you both so much for being here with us. Fantastic to learn from your insights and to continue to emphasize on this theme of collaboration. We look forward to the next conversation with you. Thank all of you for tuning in wherever you happen to be hanging out and watching this fabulous live stream or the replay. We are here at AWS Reinvent 2022 in wonderful sunny Las Vegas, Nevada with Lisa Martin. My name is Savannah Peterson, we are theCUBE, the leading source for high tech coverage.

(bright upbeat music) >> Welcome to theCUBE's, continuous coverage of AWS re:Invent 2021. We're here live running one of the most important and largest technology events of the year. It's all about AWS and AWS's ecosystem partners. We are joined by Jay Mozo, Director of Transformation Services, TEKsystems Global Services, alumni of AWS, >> Yep. >> David: I got that, right? >> Yep. >> David: And Ted Swinyar, you're Director of Solutions 1Strategy. Who's going to tell me what the relationship is between 1Strategy and TEKsystems? Like I don't already know what it is since you came and essentially announced the magic, here on our stage in 2019. Ted, you want to start off with a little background since you were acquired. >> Ted: Yeah, I'll jump in. >> How did that go? >> So 1Strategy is a TEKsystems Global Services Company, and we're an AWS premier partner. We've got competencies and DevOps, migration, data and analytics, machine learning. And we're really excited this year to be focusing also on the security competency as well. >> So you've been laser focused on AWS forever? >> Ted: Day one. >> Day one. >> Ted: You know that's been our core focus, and together with TEKsystems Global Services, we're able to bring that dedicated and specialized focus on cloud transformation now at scale. And that's really exciting. >> So TEKsystems, you do it all? >> Yep. >> AWS laser-focused, sounds like a great combination. >> Ted And Jay: Yeah. >> And our focus is you know, how we bring that deep AWS specialized expertise together with proven methodologies, the proprietary deployment strategies to take the customer to the next step on their cloud journey. Whether they're just getting started, whether they're in a migration or whether they're already a veteran at AWS looking to take the next step. >> So Jay talk about the last two years. >> Jay: Yeah. >> You've been in this two years obviously very interesting times we've been living through. How has the combination gone? >> Oh it's been great again that expertise, that deep AWS expertise, that's what our customers (indistinct), they would expect from us, right? And we truly are passionate about accelerating business transformation for our customers, right? And our goal is really simple, we bring in real-world expertise, just like an AWS expertise that 1Strategy brought and we solve complex problems whether they're business, technology, or even just people talent, right? The whole talent around this whole ecosystem, we heard Adam talk about it even earlier today, right? Talent is a challenge. So we're very obsessed with technology, right? But we're even more than that we're obsessed with our customers, right? We're at 80% of the fortune 500, more than 6,000 customers, and that obviously grew with our 1Strategy partners here. And we really consider ourselves with 1Strategy as all in one kind of full stack integration partner, right? Well we meet our customers where they are and we work side by side with them to transform their business, again very passionate about that. >> So what do these engagements look like? Are you approaching the customer from an AWS perspective in partnership with AWS? So AWS services, AWS technology, bridging that divide specifically, or are you coming in from sort of a TEKsystems overall perspective and then identifying the areas where AWS is a fit and bringing in 1Strategy? Or is it a mixture of both? What does that look like? >> It's a mixture of both for sure. We do a lot of partnering with AWS, right? Especially with 1Strategy. And we come to the table a lot with AWS together and we have that kind of joint feeling with AWS. And when AWS isn't at the table in the beginning, if it makes sense to go on the AWS platform, we bring them to the table. But it's really around focusing on what you're bringing up, it's focusing on the customer and what they need. And again, we have our kind of business modernization framework that we lean on, that really drives that conversation, so we can figure out very quickly, you know, how to help them and which platform is going to help them. And obviously, you know, AWS more and more, right? They're coming out with all these services, even a higher level services. And the conversations with our customers are really along those lines, right? How do we kind of help them leverage these services, right? So they can really achieve the agility that they need. >> So in the last two years, aside from the pandemic, global economy, what are some of the things in cloud that maybe you didn't anticipate? Now you're coming in from a specialist perspective, Laser focused on AWS, more the generalist, let's take care of anything the customer might need. Are there areas where you are surprised by the pace or a lack of pace in terms of movement to cloud? What have the last two years looked like from that perspective? >> Well I'll say one of the big things has been the change in data. The data is a lifeblood of every organization and what looks like normal data today, would be alien for some businesses going back two years ago. And as the entire world has gone through a business transformation, there's been just more and more data coming at customers faster and faster, the acceleration there has been just tremendous. And one of the things we see, customers are just drowning in data, you know how they're able to leverage AWS from a technology standpoint to build a data strategy, has to be married with that data-driven culture. And we're seeing more and more customers really getting that. I thought Adam made an incredible point this morning, he called out 85% of the workers surveyed, in the past couple of years are saying, I need to understand technology more. And that's absolutely something we're seeing in the marketplace. That investment in your team, enablement training as well as having the solid foundation and an ability to move toward an agile approach is becoming more and more critical for our customers. >> So you mentioned Adam's keynote, one of the things that was called out, was the idea that there are 475 different kinds of instances available from AWS. So let's get tactical for a minute, pretend like I'm a CEO at a customer site. I know that I want to be in the cloud, I know I want to leverage what the cloud has to offer. How do you guys figure out which ones of these 475 instances I'm going to be leveraging? Do you have like multisided dungeons and dragons dice that you throw, (murmuring) or is there some science behind it? >> Oh man that and the dart board definitely the way to go. No, the idea for every engagement is always focused on what the outcome for the customer is at the end of the day and work backwards from that. So depending on whether they're focused on an ML workload, or whether they're focused on a more, business line application, working backwards to understand what is the outcome they're trying to drive and then building the right technology stack, working backwards to support that. Whether it's taking advantage of any number of the instance types, taking advantage of serverless or any of the really incredible container options that are available in the marketplace today. >> So we're obviously here at AWS re:Invent, 1Strategy is an AWS specialist, TEKsystems multicloud? >> Jay: Yep. >> Fair to say? >> Jay: Yep. >> The world is a multicloud place, I think it's okay to acknowledge that. So if I'm looking to engage with TEKsystems, I can count on AWS being brought in and AWS expertise being brought in when it's appropriate, because it's not the only thing you do? >> Jay: Right, that's right. >> How do you manage that? Who decides whether a workload is better suited for AWS and the 1Strategy folks versus say GCP or Azure? >> Yeah, definitely again, (indistinct) right on it, right? We start with what the customer needs and their outcomes, right. We take an approach around really helping them understand their value stream, right? So if we get our customers to understand their value stream, that really serves as a context, as I mentioned before for business and delivery agility, right? And when we focus there and work backwards from there, we can really figure out all the different pieces. And like you said, it's a multicloud world now, right? For with many of our customers demand their value streams and some of their value stream components or systems or processes, they might live on different things. But, we don't jump to those right out of the gate, right? We jump to understanding where they are in their journey, where they're at with their value stream. We do a lot of dive deep and aligned to really understand where they're at. And then we craft those things actually in partnership with our customer, right? Because they might have things going on in their organization that might lean towards, GCP for some things and AWS for some other things. So we take all of that in as we start to figure out, which platform really is best for them. But again, like Ted mentioned, we with that working backwards mentality. >> So how do you see the change that's happened over time, in I would call it the AWS posture or attitude towards the concept of hybrid cloud technology? I think there was a time when AWS would have said, you know what everything that matters, everything that's born now will be born in the cloud, all net new things will be in the cloud. All the legacy stuff, we'll just sort of let it wither on the vine. It was mentioned in the keynote today that maybe five to 15% of I.T spend is in the cloud today, that's 85% or so leftover. Do you find yourself working in more of an increasingly hybrid environment these days? What's your perspective on hybridity? I think I may have just made that word up. (chuckles) >> Yeah it's absolutely the reality, and it reflects where every customer is in their cloud journey. You know you've got some customers that are just born in the cloud startups, getting you know everything Greenfield, brand new in the cloud. Whereas you've got others, one of our customers just celebrated recently their hundredth birthday. Obviously they have a significant legacy domain and we always need to focus on meeting a customers where they're at. There's no exact match between customer and customer, it's all about understanding where they are, how we can help them get to the next step, whether that's taking advantage of something like outpost, you know the really cool 5G, the private 5G that was announced this morning. Really exciting. >> David: Very interesting. >> Ted And Jay: Yeah. >> We were talking about that beforehand, how that might support industry 4.0 and some of the really interesting opportunities in that regard. Wavelength, another great example, the reality is AWS has gone into the data center now with things like outposts. It's even gone into space with things like ground station, so it's everywhere that our customers are. >> You mentioned 5G from a TEKsystems perspective, what do you do? Do you spin up a 5G practice? Do you scour universities for 5G graduates? How do you keep up with the pace of developments that are coming from AWS let alone the rest of the tech sector? >> Yeah, and again that 5G is a good example, right? And we're going to kind of follow again where our customer are and where the trends going. But we instantly see with these higher level services, where some of these used cases, some of these solutions are going to go, right? We were even talking again that conversation about, the things we can do from an industry perspective, right? And really align all of these technologies to again be very innovative, right? Adam talked about pathfinders and again, we're going to seek out those pathfinders. And now with all of these services coming out of AWS, we're going to be able to do some incredible things in the future with them. >> Yeah it's amazing to see the things that have been unlocked and unshackled by advances in technology. Were there any things that surprised you Ted, coming out of the keynote today, announcements, some of these things are sort of telegraphed in advance. But hardware advances, we talked about 5G, anything that kind of took you off guard a bit or... >> I was really excited by all the move to serverless analytics, Redshift server lists, EMR with serverless MSK serverless, democratization of data. Again coming back to the pathfinders theme, going all the way back to the very beginning, how we can bring that data forward and lowering those bars. Whether you're focused on ML with the SageMaker announcements, and SageMaker canvas, being able to bring all these people together and empower them with data. I see that as again, a lifeblood of every organization and the more that you can bring that out and make it available, the more powerful and the more flexible every company is going to be. >> When you're an AWS services partner, it's a bit like being at a buffet, an endless buffet where new treats are piled on the table each year. I thought it was amazing that one of the important points had to do with the development of Silicon. There are a lot of folks who would say that the underlying hardware no longer matters, nobody cares. AWS realizes that as a foundation it is really important, it's up to folks like you to translate that technical value into business value obviously. If this whole tech thing doesn't work out for us, what if we opened a nightclub here in Vegas and we called it hybridity? >> (Jay laughing) I like >> Love it. >> I like the sound of it, I'm going to look it up and see if it's actually a word. >> Lets patent it. (murmuring) >> We got it all three of us. So anytime organizations come together, there are cultural issues. So you've got AWS specialist, more of a generalist organization and you're going out and you're engaging customers that are having their own cultural issues. What are some of the bigger obstacles that are in the way of leveraging technology? 'Cause you've mentioned it's all about the customer perspective it's not just the technology. What are the things that are still getting in the way now that might surprise people who think that everyone's already in cloud? >> Yeah, I can go first, Ted you can jump in. Yeah culture is, again, it's a big thing, that's why it's built into our business modernization program, culture, continuous learning and Adam mentioned that too. We see challenges obviously from a learning perspective. We really, really need to key in on, not just the technologies they have to learn, but also modern practices, right? And that's going to be a big part of all these things. And definitely these higher level services are going to abstract a lot of those issues for our customers which is great. But it's still not going to displace just the constant you brought up, the constant change and all these services that come out. So I think we focus on a culture and really understanding how to move an organization to the right mindsets and the right practices, right? And that's really the key in terms of their overall business transformation. >> So I think the headline for this segment is going to be awesome two years for TEKsystems and 1Strategy. Jay and Ted, thank you so much for being here on theCUBE with us. I hope you have a great rest of the week here in Las Vegas, it's amazing to be here in person, fantastic. They've done a really good job of keeping us all safe with the protocols in place. Hope to see you again, I guess we'll be shooting for a 2022 update to see how you guys are doing. With that I'd like to thank all of you for joining us on theCUBE here at AWS re:Invent 2021. I'm Dave Nicholson and again thanks for joining us on theCUBE. We are the leader in hybrid technology event coverage. (bright music)