>>The cube presents, Dell technologies world brought to you by Dell. >>Hey everyone. Welcome back to the cubes coverage of day. One of Dell technologies world 2022. Live from the Venetian in Las Vegas. They're excited. I dunno if you heard that a group behind me, very excited to be here. Lisa Martin, Dave ante. We're very pleased to welcome Jules Johns SVP of channel from McQuin. Jill, welcome to the program. >>Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. >>And those people back there are very excited. If you heard that big applause >>That >>Went live <laugh> so the, the vibe here is fantastic for the first live Dell technologies world since 2019. A lot of people here, this expo hall is packed a lot of, of momentum here, but there's also a lot of momentum critics. Talk to us about what's going on. >>Well, and you know, so, so many exciting things for Equinex and, you know, in this partnership of Dell, it gives us a chance to, to share that, uh, with partners here throughout the conference. So we are very excited, as you said about, and we just, we named to the fortune 500 this year, 77 quarters of growth consecutively, but underpinning that is having made huge investments in what is the world's largest footprint of global data centers, 240 of them on six continent in 66 markets, but then interconnecting them. So they have the connections that Dell customers need to the clouds. They have the connections that they need to all of the future SaaS providers, so that foresight to put together that interconnection network across our footprint has set us on the path we're on today, which we're very grateful, um, to be at in. And, and really this, the things that are happening with Equinex and Dell together can, couldn't be more of the moment. >>Talk to me about that. The, the last two years, the moments of the last two years have been very challenging. They have for everyone. How has the partnership evolved in that time? >>Well, you know, we at together, Dell and Equinix, what we're doing is really helping, helping our shared interface, customers navigate the complexities of their digital transformation and, and digital transformation is hard and it's not a one and done, and it's not an overnight solution. And so what we are doing is partnering with Dell to think about putting a dedicated Dell it stack in an Equinex data center to give customers that sovereign adjacency so that they can have that security proximate to our, all the clouds and, and, and all, everything else. They need to participate in the ecosystem. And then pairing that with, you know, these interconnected enterprises. So Dell and we are helping customers then be able to have some of their solution on Preem some of their solution in the cloud access, public clouds, and use that collectively to diff fine. We're calling the intelligent edge together. And that intelligent edge means so many different things to customers, but it is really our honor to work together with Dell to help each customer define that for themselves. >>E's amazing company, like you said, it's, it's, you know, I didn't realize it was that many consecutive quarters, but it's a 60 billion plus market cap. If you look at the stock chart, blow your mind, really incredibly successful. And part of the reason it's funny, you know, 10, 15 years ago, people thought, well, oh, 10 years ago, anyway, the cloud is gonna hurt companies like equity. It was exact opposite it. And, and that's because, you know, Charles Phillips used to joke friends. Don't let friends build data centers. Yes. Right. And, and it's not a good use of capital for most companies, unless you're in the data center business. Now, of course you have some of your own as a service offerings. We do. What's the overlap with, with Dell? How do they compliment each other? It, >>It's a good question because, you know, and we get that, are you and Dell in fact competitors, and no, we see them as who complimentary. And in fact, we're working with Dell to bring to market things like something we call power edge, which involves their servers and power store, which involves their storage. And, and then V RIL, which is really the hyperconverged infrastructure. And those are just few first of a series of offerings we expect to bring to market with Dell. And if you think about metal and, and it's Equinex metal that people sometimes think is a competitor, but what metal does for customers is it really allows them to advance, have the equipment placed in our data centers so that they can access that capacity. And according to spikes or needs that they have that equipment in our data centers, that's there for them to avail themselves of that capacity is most often Dell equipment. So we are really doing and executing that bare metal is a service together. >>What are some of the, the things that you're hearing from, from your partner community, in terms of the partnership with Dell, what are partners supposed be excited, the momentum there what's going on in the partner community? >>So, you know, that is that's, that's what near and dear to my heart, since that's what I'm responsible for. Equinex is global partnerships, and they are very excited about what we're doing with Dell. And to be honest with you, all of our top partners are also top partners of Dell. So it makes that we bring it together. So, you know, big categories of partners like the world's largest global network service providers, some of whom are here and who will meet with the at T orange business services. Those folks, in addition to the world's largest global systems integrators, Kendra, Deloitte, Accenture, we pro, uh, all DXC. All of these are partners that Dell and we will meet with together to further our, what we call power three, that together we're better because as much as Dell and Equinex are delivering the customers, most often don't have the experience. They need to execute it without a partner. So they are relying on those partners to take what we are doing and make it their own. And so, so if they're excited about it, it is a, it's a big opportunity for them from a, a revenue services, a and an opportunity for them to step into a next level, trusted advisor status. So partners are excited and, and we're gonna be spending a lot of time with them the next few days. Do you >>See Equinix? You know, these cuz these partnerships are not bespoke partnerships, it's an ecosystem that's organic and evolving and, and growing. Can it be, are you a dot connector in a way, can it be a flywheel effect in your ecosystem? >>Well, I mean our, so our E ecosystems that, um, that we provide wide range of those from high frequency trading to connected cars, um, to the internet things, many and content providers that we are, we do see it as our role to, you know, the 10,000 and growing customers that are in our 240 data centers and six continents that provide those ecosystems. It's, it is our mission to continue to grow that and enrich it because that does differentiate us greatly from another data center provider. And it's the combination of the ecosystem that you find and the people you can connect to at Equinex, and then also the leverage of our fabric in order to be able to access your future needs. >>And it's a lot of technology underneath these, you know, it's that first layer one, I guess, if you will, of the data center, right. And so a lot of your, your customers or your cus your partner's customers, they just don't want to be in that business. As we were saying before, I mean, it's just too expensive. The, the power requirements are going through the roof, so you gotta be really good at managing power. >>You do. In fact, you know, so first of all, you're right, it's extremely difficult for them to also be able to make that kind of commitment, to keep a data center. They would ran, they would manage themselves at the level that Equinex is able to invest. So it's very difficult for people to do it themselves, but even show another, you mentioned actually about the power is near and dear to our hearts because is super committed to sustainability. And so we've made a commitment to holy renewable energy. And it's something that we talk a lot about how we also help partners like Dell meet their initiatives, so, or partners like at T meet their connected climate goals. So we, we are actually using that and coming together with Dell on that story, so that, and, and then helping to amplify that with our partners. And, >>And that's, that's how do you do that? That's putting data centers where you can cool with ambient air. Is it being near the Columbia river? How what's, what's your strategy in that regard, >>Uh, and sustainable. I have to be honest to you. I, uh, I would be out of my depth if I didn't say >>This is the high level. Yeah. >>So, um, we are deploying some of the latest technologies about that, and then experts people who, you know, who all they do is really help us to, um, to reduce the carbon footprint and be able to offset that, be able to use solar, be able to use wind, be able to take advantage of that. And then also to, um, to navigate what's available when you're in 240 locations on six cotton, it's not the same options to reduce your power consumption. And your burden are different in Africa, as you just discovered with our main one acquisition than they are in India, or then they are in, in other parts of the world. So it is for us a journey, and we've been assembling a lot of the talent to do that, but >>You're so large now, even a small percentage improvement can really move the needle. >>And I think because we are the largest, it is incumbent upon us to really set the standard and be committed to it. And, um, and we do see other people following, which is, is a good thing for all of us. Well, >>How important is that in your partnership conversations that partners have that same focus and commitment on ESG that Equinix has >>Partners care a lot about it, but, uh, customers ask us both all the time. I mean, we increasingly see a portion of an RFP or a scope of work asking before I decide to go with Equinex and Dell, tell me how you're going to impact the environment. Tell me about your commitment. And so, um, so we are committed to it, but customers are demanding it to >>Where >>Do you go ahead please? >>Oh, I was just gonna say, it's, it's coming from the, from the voice of a customer, which Equinox is listening to, we know Dell is listening to it as well. >>I'm so >>Sorry. One more time that, that the, the sustainability of the ESG demand is coming from the customers. You were saying, it, >>It both like, I mean, we wanna do the right thing and we've made commitments to it, but our customers are holding us accountable to it. And, you know, sustainability is now a board level priority. It is for us. And it is for companies like Dell and it is for partners and customers. >>It really is. It's it's, I mean, it's up there with security in terms of the board level conversation, where do you want to see the partner ecosystem in the, the, the next let's call it three to five years in your business? You can look out that far. >>Well, you know, I, I think that, um, they, our partners, um, and I, that, I mean, Dells and our mutual partners, you know, are, we've been listening to customers with Dell to deliver a flexible set of options for how customers would consume Equinex and Dell. So our partners are gonna be integrating a variety of those in order to meet the customer where they are in that journey, whether they wanna buy apex as a service, whether they wanna buy Equinex metal, whether they wanna have car some, uh, a partner put together, bespoke, do it yourself, combination with other services. Uh, I, I mean, the customers are going to demand a choice of options. I think partners are gonna embrace multiple versions of that so that they can, you know, to meet the customer where they are and take them >>Well, that's, that's incredibly important these days to meet customer where they are, the customers have a lot of choice. It is, but everything that we're all doing is for the customer, ultimately at the end of the day, <laugh> >>Yes, it, it, it, it is. And, and, you know, the customers are getting Savier, but we are all still early in this journey, as far as the edge, you know, I mean, I think we are all still, um, we're all still grappling at the, at for right now. We like to say that as customers are looking to define that the, the footprint that we offer together with Dell gives them an, an awfully robust set of choices for now. And then we wanna continue to invest and expand to be wherever they need us. >>Well, that's the thing about your business? It's it's optionality. I mean, you can't, I mean, the cloud has a lot of stuff, but you can't get everything you want in the cloud. You can, and you can put anything in your data center. That's, that's, you know, it, >>You can, but you may not know what you need yet. And so that's one of the things we spend a lot of time having our solutions, architects and our sales people together, but they'll talk about future proofing, their strategy. So future proofing, that combination of OnPrem and in an Equinex data center, and maybe some public and future proofing leveraging our fabric so that they might elect different SaaS space services or cloud based services a year to five years from now than the year, even thinking about today. And, and they may expand their edge over time, because they may, they may sort of see that as a, at the customer end point today, most businesses are still sort of using a footprint like ours as their edge, but that could change. And so we wanna be there when it does. >>Yeah. That's a great point because you don't wanna necessarily have to rip it out every cup of years. If you, if you, if you can have a, an architecture that can grow. Yeah, sure. You might want to upgrade it >>Well, and it's one, that's one of the most appealing things about services like metal, where they also, uh, they do sort of prevent that sort of rip and replace, but they also help people navigate the supply chain shortages that are going on right now. So this that's been, this has been a trying two years for supply chain shortages, and being able to take advantage of Dell equipment already staged at an Equinex data center and partners can then bring their customers a quicker immediate response. Have >>You also seen this? You mentioned the supply chain shortages, some of the many challenges that we've experienced in a last few years, how much of a factor has the great resignation been? The labor shortages, the cybersecurity skills gap on, on folks coming, Tolin saying help. We don't have the resources here to do this ourselves. >>We have been fortunate to, to not, to, to be, um, if you're asking about how the reservation has affected us as a company, no, >>Your customers >>Or customers that has oh, okay. Yes. So it is, it is a challenge for them, but it's an opportunity for our partners. So what I see there is it's been challenging for customers to hold onto that talent, but partners are filling that gap and we've access Aon fortunate to hold onto a lot of our best and brightest. And so we put them together with our partner and we try to help customers fill those gaps. >>Well, that's most important thing, filling those gaps. >>You, you ever been one in inside one of these ultra modern data centers? I have not, >>Not yet. >>It's pretty cool. Isn't it? I mean, >>Have you, have you ever had a tour of one? >>I I've never had a tour of an Equinix data center, but I've seen some modern data centers that will blow your mind. Well, >>I mean, they, they come with all the requisite, uh, bio and man traps and all of the bells and, and, and whistles that are actually the first slay of physical security. But then once you get into the data center, then we have sort, we get into the virtual and the digital security that you would expect. So it's, >>Yeah, it's good. And you know, it's not like you drive by the data center, it's a big sign. Here's the data center. It is kind of, you know, they're trying to stay a little hidden and then like, it's get in. It's like getting into fork knots. It's probably harder. And then, but then the it's, it's like this giant clean room, right? It's amazingly clean and just huge. >>There are all >>Your >>Mind. And inside this data centers, all the world's networks come together and peer, and then we have inside their, the, the most direct rom reps to the cloud. So you would expect there, there's a, there's a lot of wires and pipes running very neatly through a very secure, >>Clean systems and power system >>Environment. For sure. >>Amazing engineering. >>It is really >>A >>Tour. You should, you, if they do, you let people tour >>Your, I, I will bring both of you on a tour. Awesome. >>I, my guess >>Would love to. >>Yeah. Great. Sounds fantastic >>On that. So >>Last >>Couple, we'll bring a camera. <laugh> Oh, no, we're not allowed. Not today. >>No phones, no phones sequester. So what, what are some of the things that you're excited about seeing and hearing the next couple of days as this is the first time we've all gotten to be together in so long? >>So, um, well, you know, we are excited about the conversations that we're gonna have power of three that I was talking about. So, you know, we really pride ourselves on sort of having that combination add up to more, to benefit the customer. And so this will be sort of a coming out party of sorts for Equinex and Dell will meet with you almost 20 different global partners that are really important to both of us. So I am most excited about those conversations and about, uh, the education I'm gonna get on the ways they're thinking about integrating it differently, because that is good choice for the market. That is good choice for the customer set. So for the enterprises out there, so that I'm most excited about. Awesome. >>Sounds like tremendous opportunity, lots going on this week, but thank you for coming on, just talking An hour of Equinix and Dell better together, the way that your channel partner program is growing. And of course the momentum of the company will can't wait to see what happens next year. Thank >>You. Thank you. Well, we aim to deliver and thank you again for having us. Thanks, >>Jules. Our pleasure for Dave Volante. I'm Lisa Martin, and you're watching the cubes live coverage day one, Dell technologies world live from Las Vegas, stick around. We'll be right back with our next guest.