>> Narrator: From the Computer Museum in Mountain View, California, it's theCUBE. Covering AGC Silicon Valley GROW! Awards. Brought to you by ACG Silicon Valley. >> Hey, welcome back, everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. The program is just about to begin here at the ACGSV GROW! Awards, 14th Annual. We're excited to be here for our third year. 300 people are going to be giving out some hardware here shortly. But, before we do that we're excited to have Alex Wolf, all the way up from Santa Cruz. He's the dean of the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz. Welcome, Alex. >> Thank you very much, it's great to be here. >> Absolutely. So, what do you think of this organization? How did you get involved? >> Well, it's been great for us. We've been drawn in by some great alumni who have been involved with the organization, and they're interested in helping Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz School of Engineering, and partnering with ACG is just a perfect way to do it. >> Excellent. So, I was doing a little homework, obviously, before you came on. I was looking through the curriculum of the school, the engineering school, and you've got CS and E, and all the normal stuff, but two things jumped out to me, biomolecular engineering and computational media. >> That's right. >> What are those disciplines? >> Well, let's start with biomolecular engineering. That's where we are doing a lot of work in health and life. Santa Cruz is famous for one particular thing that happened a number of years ago, which was the sequencing of the human genome. Now, Santa Cruz played a huge role in that. This was the place where we were able to assemble the human genome for the first time, and publish it on the web. >> What year was that? >> That was 2003. >> And back then it took massive amount of computer, massive amount of time. >> Lots of time, millions and millions of dollars. This was a project that was run by the government. Many partners and Santa Cruz researchers in School of Engineering were able to crack that nut and get this genome sequenced. >> And now we can do it-- Now, it's getting cheaper and cheaper, we've got researchers who've been working on that, we've spun out a bunch of companies that have worked on less and less expensive, faster and faster sequencing techniques. >> Really, with the goal to get to individualized medicine, right, to get to individualized treatment. >> That's right, personalized medicine, precision medicine, that's the goal. It's amazing what you can do if you know the genome history, if you can apply that to the drug treatments, it's fantastic. >> I think medical science is so interesting, because from whatever point you are, you look back 10 years and it looks like bloodletting. No matter what we do today, in 10 years from now, we're going to look back >> It's true at cancer treatment, like we give people poison until they almost die, >> That's right. >> that's the way we treat 'em? >> That's right, and the genome will tell you so much about that cancer treatment. We're doing other things too, in stem cell and nanopore technology, so there's just a wonderful set of technologies that people are inventing in the school. >> Great, now what about computational media? >> Computational media is a rather different thing. That is a concept where we're looking at how media can be generated through algorithms, and this has very interesting applications in the game industry, in journalism, in many parts of our interaction with humans. It's great to be able to have a computer that really understands how to generate meaningful, realistic text. >> What is the main benefit in some of the early research that you see, because we've seen some really simple versions of this out there, straight little app that kids play sports, you know, you finish the game, you hit the game over, and it generates a nice little article for you. >> Absolutely. You know, you mentioned personalization before. It's the same thing with computational media. You can get a game to be much more personalized to the player. It can understand that experience, understand the interests of the game player, and then tailor itself to that player. >> So, how much do you work with the psychology department in this world, because it's so much human factors, right? >> Absolutely. We have a great collaboration with psychology. That's really, really important. You know, the computational media department is actually going to be growing into Silicon Valley. You see Santa Cruz has recently opened a campus in Silicon Valley. >> Where? >> It's in Santa Clara, and we're right now hiring faculty into that campus. >> So, is it open then, or when will it be open? >> The facility is open. We held an ACG event there in January. We're going to be holding more of them there. It's a great location. >> Excellent. All right, well, maybe we'll have to come by and do a field trip >> Please do. when you get it all outfitted. >> Absolutely, absolutely. >> All right, well, unfortunately, we have to leave it there. They're going to pull everybody into the keynotes, but thanks taking a few minutes. >> I'm looking forward to it. Thank you very much. >> All right, he's Alex, I'm Jeff. You're watching theCUBE from ACGSV, Mountain View, California. Thanks for watching. (techy music)

(upbeat music) >> Hello everyone. Welcome to theCube's presentation of the "AWS Startup Showcase." The topic this episode is AI and machine learning, top startups building foundational model infrastructure. This is season three, episode one of the ongoing series covering exciting startups from the AWS ecosystem. And this time we're talking about AI and machine learning. I'm your host, John Furrier. I'm excited I'm joined today by Robert Nishihara, who's the co-founder and CEO of a hot startup called Anyscale. He's here to talk about Ray, the open source project, Anyscale's infrastructure for foundation as well. Robert, thank you for joining us today. >> Yeah, thanks so much as well. >> I've been following your company since the founding pre pandemic and you guys really had a great vision scaled up and in a perfect position for this big wave that we all see with ChatGPT and OpenAI that's gone mainstream. Finally, AI has broken out through the ropes and now gone mainstream, so I think you guys are really well positioned. I'm looking forward to to talking with you today. But before we get into it, introduce the core mission for Anyscale. Why do you guys exist? What is the North Star for Anyscale? >> Yeah, like you mentioned, there's a tremendous amount of excitement about AI right now. You know, I think a lot of us believe that AI can transform just every different industry. So one of the things that was clear to us when we started this company was that the amount of compute needed to do AI was just exploding. Like to actually succeed with AI, companies like OpenAI or Google or you know, these companies getting a lot of value from AI, were not just running these machine learning models on their laptops or on a single machine. They were scaling these applications across hundreds or thousands or more machines and GPUs and other resources in the Cloud. And so to actually succeed with AI, and this has been one of the biggest trends in computing, maybe the biggest trend in computing in, you know, in recent history, the amount of compute has been exploding. And so to actually succeed with that AI, to actually build these scalable applications and scale the AI applications, there's a tremendous software engineering lift to build the infrastructure to actually run these scalable applications. And that's very hard to do. So one of the reasons many AI projects and initiatives fail is that, or don't make it to production, is the need for this scale, the infrastructure lift, to actually make it happen. So our goal here with Anyscale and Ray, is to make that easy, is to make scalable computing easy. So that as a developer or as a business, if you want to do AI, if you want to get value out of AI, all you need to know is how to program on your laptop. Like, all you need to know is how to program in Python. And if you can do that, then you're good to go. Then you can do what companies like OpenAI or Google do and get value out of machine learning. >> That programming example of how easy it is with Python reminds me of the early days of Cloud, when infrastructure as code was talked about was, it was just code the infrastructure programmable. That's super important. That's what AI people wanted, first program AI. That's the new trend. And I want to understand, if you don't mind explaining, the relationship that Anyscale has to these foundational models and particular the large language models, also called LLMs, was seen with like OpenAI and ChatGPT. Before you get into the relationship that you have with them, can you explain why the hype around foundational models? Why are people going crazy over foundational models? What is it and why is it so important? >> Yeah, so foundational models and foundation models are incredibly important because they enable businesses and developers to get value out of machine learning, to use machine learning off the shelf with these large models that have been trained on tons of data and that are useful out of the box. And then, of course, you know, as a business or as a developer, you can take those foundational models and repurpose them or fine tune them or adapt them to your specific use case and what you want to achieve. But it's much easier to do that than to train them from scratch. And I think there are three, for people to actually use foundation models, there are three main types of workloads or problems that need to be solved. One is training these foundation models in the first place, like actually creating them. The second is fine tuning them and adapting them to your use case. And the third is serving them and actually deploying them. Okay, so Ray and Anyscale are used for all of these three different workloads. Companies like OpenAI or Cohere that train large language models. Or open source versions like GPTJ are done on top of Ray. There are many startups and other businesses that fine tune, that, you know, don't want to train the large underlying foundation models, but that do want to fine tune them, do want to adapt them to their purposes, and build products around them and serve them, those are also using Ray and Anyscale for that fine tuning and that serving. And so the reason that Ray and Anyscale are important here is that, you know, building and using foundation models requires a huge scale. It requires a lot of data. It requires a lot of compute, GPUs, TPUs, other resources. And to actually take advantage of that and actually build these scalable applications, there's a lot of infrastructure that needs to happen under the hood. And so you can either use Ray and Anyscale to take care of that and manage the infrastructure and solve those infrastructure problems. Or you can build the infrastructure and manage the infrastructure yourself, which you can do, but it's going to slow your team down. It's going to, you know, many of the businesses we work with simply don't want to be in the business of managing infrastructure and building infrastructure. They want to focus on product development and move faster. >> I know you got a keynote presentation we're going to go to in a second, but I think you hit on something I think is the real tipping point, doing it yourself, hard to do. These are things where opportunities are and the Cloud did that with data centers. Turned a data center and made it an API. The heavy lifting went away and went to the Cloud so people could be more creative and build their product. In this case, build their creativity. Is that kind of what's the big deal? Is that kind of a big deal happening that you guys are taking the learnings and making that available so people don't have to do that? >> That's exactly right. So today, if you want to succeed with AI, if you want to use AI in your business, infrastructure work is on the critical path for doing that. To do AI, you have to build infrastructure. You have to figure out how to scale your applications. That's going to change. We're going to get to the point, and you know, with Ray and Anyscale, we're going to remove the infrastructure from the critical path so that as a developer or as a business, all you need to focus on is your application logic, what you want the the program to do, what you want your application to do, how you want the AI to actually interface with the rest of your product. Now the way that will happen is that Ray and Anyscale will still, the infrastructure work will still happen. It'll just be under the hood and taken care of by Ray in Anyscale. And so I think something like this is really necessary for AI to reach its potential, for AI to have the impact and the reach that we think it will, you have to make it easier to do. >> And just for clarification to point out, if you don't mind explaining the relationship of Ray and Anyscale real quick just before we get into the presentation. >> So Ray is an open source project. We created it. We were at Berkeley doing machine learning. We started Ray so that, in order to provide an easy, a simple open source tool for building and running scalable applications. And Anyscale is the managed version of Ray, basically we will run Ray for you in the Cloud, provide a lot of tools around the developer experience and managing the infrastructure and providing more performance and superior infrastructure. >> Awesome. I know you got a presentation on Ray and Anyscale and you guys are positioning as the infrastructure for foundational models. So I'll let you take it away and then when you're done presenting, we'll come back, I'll probably grill you with a few questions and then we'll close it out so take it away. >> Robert: Sounds great. So I'll say a little bit about how companies are using Ray and Anyscale for foundation models. The first thing I want to mention is just why we're doing this in the first place. And the underlying observation, the underlying trend here, and this is a plot from OpenAI, is that the amount of compute needed to do machine learning has been exploding. It's been growing at something like 35 times every 18 months. This is absolutely enormous. And other people have written papers measuring this trend and you get different numbers. But the point is, no matter how you slice and dice it, it' a astronomical rate. Now if you compare that to something we're all familiar with, like Moore's Law, which says that, you know, the processor performance doubles every roughly 18 months, you can see that there's just a tremendous gap between the needs, the compute needs of machine learning applications, and what you can do with a single chip, right. So even if Moore's Law were continuing strong and you know, doing what it used to be doing, even if that were the case, there would still be a tremendous gap between what you can do with the chip and what you need in order to do machine learning. And so given this graph, what we've seen, and what has been clear to us since we started this company, is that doing AI requires scaling. There's no way around it. It's not a nice to have, it's really a requirement. And so that led us to start Ray, which is the open source project that we started to make it easy to build these scalable Python applications and scalable machine learning applications. And since we started the project, it's been adopted by a tremendous number of companies. Companies like OpenAI, which use Ray to train their large models like ChatGPT, companies like Uber, which run all of their deep learning and classical machine learning on top of Ray, companies like Shopify or Spotify or Instacart or Lyft or Netflix, ByteDance, which use Ray for their machine learning infrastructure. Companies like Ant Group, which makes Alipay, you know, they use Ray across the board for fraud detection, for online learning, for detecting money laundering, you know, for graph processing, stream processing. Companies like Amazon, you know, run Ray at a tremendous scale and just petabytes of data every single day. And so the project has seen just enormous adoption since, over the past few years. And one of the most exciting use cases is really providing the infrastructure for building training, fine tuning, and serving foundation models. So I'll say a little bit about, you know, here are some examples of companies using Ray for foundation models. Cohere trains large language models. OpenAI also trains large language models. You can think about the workloads required there are things like supervised pre-training, also reinforcement learning from human feedback. So this is not only the regular supervised learning, but actually more complex reinforcement learning workloads that take human input about what response to a particular question, you know is better than a certain other response. And incorporating that into the learning. There's open source versions as well, like GPTJ also built on top of Ray as well as projects like Alpa coming out of UC Berkeley. So these are some of the examples of exciting projects in organizations, training and creating these large language models and serving them using Ray. Okay, so what actually is Ray? Well, there are two layers to Ray. At the lowest level, there's the core Ray system. This is essentially low level primitives for building scalable Python applications. Things like taking a Python function or a Python class and executing them in the cluster setting. So Ray core is extremely flexible and you can build arbitrary scalable applications on top of Ray. So on top of Ray, on top of the core system, what really gives Ray a lot of its power is this ecosystem of scalable libraries. So on top of the core system you have libraries, scalable libraries for ingesting and pre-processing data, for training your models, for fine tuning those models, for hyper parameter tuning, for doing batch processing and batch inference, for doing model serving and deployment, right. And a lot of the Ray users, the reason they like Ray is that they want to run multiple workloads. They want to train and serve their models, right. They want to load their data and feed that into training. And Ray provides common infrastructure for all of these different workloads. So this is a little overview of what Ray, the different components of Ray. So why do people choose to go with Ray? I think there are three main reasons. The first is the unified nature. The fact that it is common infrastructure for scaling arbitrary workloads, from data ingest to pre-processing to training to inference and serving, right. This also includes the fact that it's future proof. AI is incredibly fast moving. And so many people, many companies that have built their own machine learning infrastructure and standardized on particular workflows for doing machine learning have found that their workflows are too rigid to enable new capabilities. If they want to do reinforcement learning, if they want to use graph neural networks, they don't have a way of doing that with their standard tooling. And so Ray, being future proof and being flexible and general gives them that ability. Another reason people choose Ray in Anyscale is the scalability. This is really our bread and butter. This is the reason, the whole point of Ray, you know, making it easy to go from your laptop to running on thousands of GPUs, making it easy to scale your development workloads and run them in production, making it easy to scale, you know, training to scale data ingest, pre-processing and so on. So scalability and performance, you know, are critical for doing machine learning and that is something that Ray provides out of the box. And lastly, Ray is an open ecosystem. You can run it anywhere. You can run it on any Cloud provider. Google, you know, Google Cloud, AWS, Asure. You can run it on your Kubernetes cluster. You can run it on your laptop. It's extremely portable. And not only that, it's framework agnostic. You can use Ray to scale arbitrary Python workloads. You can use it to scale and it integrates with libraries like TensorFlow or PyTorch or JAX or XG Boost or Hugging Face or PyTorch Lightning, right, or Scikit-learn or just your own arbitrary Python code. It's open source. And in addition to integrating with the rest of the machine learning ecosystem and these machine learning frameworks, you can use Ray along with all of the other tooling in the machine learning ecosystem. That's things like weights and biases or ML flow, right. Or you know, different data platforms like Databricks, you know, Delta Lake or Snowflake or tools for model monitoring for feature stores, all of these integrate with Ray. And that's, you know, Ray provides that kind of flexibility so that you can integrate it into the rest of your workflow. And then Anyscale is the scalable compute platform that's built on top, you know, that provides Ray. So Anyscale is a managed Ray service that runs in the Cloud. And what Anyscale does is it offers the best way to run Ray. And if you think about what you get with Anyscale, there are fundamentally two things. One is about moving faster, accelerating the time to market. And you get that by having the managed service so that as a developer you don't have to worry about managing infrastructure, you don't have to worry about configuring infrastructure. You also, it provides, you know, optimized developer workflows. Things like easily moving from development to production, things like having the observability tooling, the debug ability to actually easily diagnose what's going wrong in a distributed application. So things like the dashboards and the other other kinds of tooling for collaboration, for monitoring and so on. And then on top of that, so that's the first bucket, developer productivity, moving faster, faster experimentation and iteration. The second reason that people choose Anyscale is superior infrastructure. So this is things like, you know, cost deficiency, being able to easily take advantage of spot instances, being able to get higher GPU utilization, things like faster cluster startup times and auto scaling. Things like just overall better performance and faster scheduling. And so these are the kinds of things that Anyscale provides on top of Ray. It's the managed infrastructure. It's fast, it's like the developer productivity and velocity as well as performance. So this is what I wanted to share about Ray in Anyscale. >> John: Awesome. >> Provide that context. But John, I'm curious what you think. >> I love it. I love the, so first of all, it's a platform because that's the platform architecture right there. So just to clarify, this is an Anyscale platform, not- >> That's right. >> Tools. So you got tools in the platform. Okay, that's key. Love that managed service. Just curious, you mentioned Python multiple times, is that because of PyTorch and TensorFlow or Python's the most friendly with machine learning or it's because it's very common amongst all developers? >> That's a great question. Python is the language that people are using to do machine learning. So it's the natural starting point. Now, of course, Ray is actually designed in a language agnostic way and there are companies out there that use Ray to build scalable Java applications. But for the most part right now we're focused on Python and being the best way to build these scalable Python and machine learning applications. But, of course, down the road there always is that potential. >> So if you're slinging Python code out there and you're watching that, you're watching this video, get on Anyscale bus quickly. Also, I just, while you were giving the presentation, I couldn't help, since you mentioned OpenAI, which by the way, congratulations 'cause they've had great scale, I've noticed in their rapid growth 'cause they were the fastest company to the number of users than anyone in the history of the computer industry, so major successor, OpenAI and ChatGPT, huge fan. I'm not a skeptic at all. I think it's just the beginning, so congratulations. But I actually typed into ChatGPT, what are the top three benefits of Anyscale and came up with scalability, flexibility, and ease of use. Obviously, scalability is what you guys are called. >> That's pretty good. >> So that's what they came up with. So they nailed it. Did you have an inside prompt training, buy it there? Only kidding. (Robert laughs) >> Yeah, we hard coded that one. >> But that's the kind of thing that came up really, really quickly if I asked it to write a sales document, it probably will, but this is the future interface. This is why people are getting excited about the foundational models and the large language models because it's allowing the interface with the user, the consumer, to be more human, more natural. And this is clearly will be in every application in the future. >> Absolutely. This is how people are going to interface with software, how they're going to interface with products in the future. It's not just something, you know, not just a chat bot that you talk to. This is going to be how you get things done, right. How you use your web browser or how you use, you know, how you use Photoshop or how you use other products. Like you're not going to spend hours learning all the APIs and how to use them. You're going to talk to it and tell it what you want it to do. And of course, you know, if it doesn't understand it, it's going to ask clarifying questions. You're going to have a conversation and then it'll figure it out. >> This is going to be one of those things, we're going to look back at this time Robert and saying, "Yeah, from that company, that was the beginning of that wave." And just like AWS and Cloud Computing, the folks who got in early really were in position when say the pandemic came. So getting in early is a good thing and that's what everyone's talking about is getting in early and playing around, maybe replatforming or even picking one or few apps to refactor with some staff and managed services. So people are definitely jumping in. So I have to ask you the ROI cost question. You mentioned some of those, Moore's Law versus what's going on in the industry. When you look at that kind of scale, the first thing that jumps out at people is, "Okay, I love it. Let's go play around." But what's it going to cost me? Am I going to be tied to certain GPUs? What's the landscape look like from an operational standpoint, from the customer? Are they locked in and the benefit was flexibility, are you flexible to handle any Cloud? What is the customers, what are they looking at? Basically, that's my question. What's the customer looking at? >> Cost is super important here and many of the companies, I mean, companies are spending a huge amount on their Cloud computing, on AWS, and on doing AI, right. And I think a lot of the advantage of Anyscale, what we can provide here is not only better performance, but cost efficiency. Because if we can run something faster and more efficiently, it can also use less resources and you can lower your Cloud spending, right. We've seen companies go from, you know, 20% GPU utilization with their current setup and the current tools they're using to running on Anyscale and getting more like 95, you know, 100% GPU utilization. That's something like a five x improvement right there. So depending on the kind of application you're running, you know, it's a significant cost savings. We've seen companies that have, you know, processing petabytes of data every single day with Ray going from, you know, getting order of magnitude cost savings by switching from what they were previously doing to running their application on Ray. And when you have applications that are spending, you know, potentially $100 million a year and getting a 10 X cost savings is just absolutely enormous. So these are some of the kinds of- >> Data infrastructure is super important. Again, if the customer, if you're a prospect to this and thinking about going in here, just like the Cloud, you got infrastructure, you got the platform, you got SaaS, same kind of thing's going to go on in AI. So I want to get into that, you know, ROI discussion and some of the impact with your customers that are leveraging the platform. But first I hear you got a demo. >> Robert: Yeah, so let me show you, let me give you a quick run through here. So what I have open here is the Anyscale UI. I've started a little Anyscale Workspace. So Workspaces are the Anyscale concept for interactive developments, right. So here, imagine I'm just, you want to have a familiar experience like you're developing on your laptop. And here I have a terminal. It's not on my laptop. It's actually in the cloud running on Anyscale. And I'm just going to kick this off. This is going to train a large language model, so OPT. And it's doing this on 32 GPUs. We've got a cluster here with a bunch of CPU cores, bunch of memory. And as that's running, and by the way, if I wanted to run this on instead of 32 GPUs, 64, 128, this is just a one line change when I launch the Workspace. And what I can do is I can pull up VS code, right. Remember this is the interactive development experience. I can look at the actual code. Here it's using Ray train to train the torch model. We've got the training loop and we're saying that each worker gets access to one GPU and four CPU cores. And, of course, as I make the model larger, this is using deep speed, as I make the model larger, I could increase the number of GPUs that each worker gets access to, right. And how that is distributed across the cluster. And if I wanted to run on CPUs instead of GPUs or a different, you know, accelerator type, again, this is just a one line change. And here we're using Ray train to train the models, just taking my vanilla PyTorch model using Hugging Face and then scaling that across a bunch of GPUs. And, of course, if I want to look at the dashboard, I can go to the Ray dashboard. There are a bunch of different visualizations I can look at. I can look at the GPU utilization. I can look at, you know, the CPU utilization here where I think we're currently loading the model and running that actual application to start the training. And some of the things that are really convenient here about Anyscale, both I can get that interactive development experience with VS code. You know, I can look at the dashboards. I can monitor what's going on. It feels, I have a terminal, it feels like my laptop, but it's actually running on a large cluster. And I can, with however many GPUs or other resources that I want. And so it's really trying to combine the best of having the familiar experience of programming on your laptop, but with the benefits, you know, being able to take advantage of all the resources in the Cloud to scale. And it's like when, you know, you're talking about cost efficiency. One of the biggest reasons that people waste money, one of the silly reasons for wasting money is just forgetting to turn off your GPUs. And what you can do here is, of course, things will auto terminate if they're idle. But imagine you go to sleep, I have this big cluster. You can turn it off, shut off the cluster, come back tomorrow, restart the Workspace, and you know, your big cluster is back up and all of your code changes are still there. All of your local file edits. It's like you just closed your laptop and came back and opened it up again. And so this is the kind of experience we want to provide for our users. So that's what I wanted to share with you. >> Well, I think that whole, couple of things, lines of code change, single line of code change, that's game changing. And then the cost thing, I mean human error is a big deal. People pass out at their computer. They've been coding all night or they just forget about it. I mean, and then it's just like leaving the lights on or your water running in your house. It's just, at the scale that it is, the numbers will add up. That's a huge deal. So I think, you know, compute back in the old days, there's no compute. Okay, it's just compute sitting there idle. But you know, data cranking the models is doing, that's a big point. >> Another thing I want to add there about cost efficiency is that we make it really easy to use, if you're running on Anyscale, to use spot instances and these preemptable instances that can just be significantly cheaper than the on-demand instances. And so when we see our customers go from what they're doing before to using Anyscale and they go from not using these spot instances 'cause they don't have the infrastructure around it, the fault tolerance to handle the preemption and things like that, to being able to just check a box and use spot instances and save a bunch of money. >> You know, this was my whole, my feature article at Reinvent last year when I met with Adam Selipsky, this next gen Cloud is here. I mean, it's not auto scale, it's infrastructure scale. It's agility. It's flexibility. I think this is where the world needs to go. Almost what DevOps did for Cloud and what you were showing me that demo had this whole SRE vibe. And remember Google had site reliability engines to manage all those servers. This is kind of like an SRE vibe for data at scale. I mean, a similar kind of order of magnitude. I mean, I might be a little bit off base there, but how would you explain it? >> It's a nice analogy. I mean, what we are trying to do here is get to the point where developers don't think about infrastructure. Where developers only think about their application logic. And where businesses can do AI, can succeed with AI, and build these scalable applications, but they don't have to build, you know, an infrastructure team. They don't have to develop that expertise. They don't have to invest years in building their internal machine learning infrastructure. They can just focus on the Python code, on their application logic, and run the stuff out of the box. >> Awesome. Well, I appreciate the time. Before we wrap up here, give a plug for the company. I know you got a couple websites. Again, go, Ray's got its own website. You got Anyscale. You got an event coming up. Give a plug for the company looking to hire. Put a plug in for the company. >> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So first of all, you know, we think AI is really going to transform every industry and the opportunity is there, right. We can be the infrastructure that enables all of that to happen, that makes it easy for companies to succeed with AI, and get value out of AI. Now we have, if you're interested in learning more about Ray, Ray has been emerging as the standard way to build scalable applications. Our adoption has been exploding. I mentioned companies like OpenAI using Ray to train their models. But really across the board companies like Netflix and Cruise and Instacart and Lyft and Uber, you know, just among tech companies. It's across every industry. You know, gaming companies, agriculture, you know, farming, robotics, drug discovery, you know, FinTech, we see it across the board. And all of these companies can get value out of AI, can really use AI to improve their businesses. So if you're interested in learning more about Ray and Anyscale, we have our Ray Summit coming up in September. This is going to highlight a lot of the most impressive use cases and stories across the industry. And if your business, if you want to use LLMs, you want to train these LLMs, these large language models, you want to fine tune them with your data, you want to deploy them, serve them, and build applications and products around them, give us a call, talk to us. You know, we can really take the infrastructure piece, you know, off the critical path and make that easy for you. So that's what I would say. And, you know, like you mentioned, we're hiring across the board, you know, engineering, product, go-to-market, and it's an exciting time. >> Robert Nishihara, co-founder and CEO of Anyscale, congratulations on a great company you've built and continuing to iterate on and you got growth ahead of you, you got a tailwind. I mean, the AI wave is here. I think OpenAI and ChatGPT, a customer of yours, have really opened up the mainstream visibility into this new generation of applications, user interface, roll of data, large scale, how to make that programmable so we're going to need that infrastructure. So thanks for coming on this season three, episode one of the ongoing series of the hot startups. In this case, this episode is the top startups building foundational model infrastructure for AI and ML. I'm John Furrier, your host. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

(upbeat music) >> Hello and welcome to theCube's coverage of International Women's Day. I'm John Furrier, your host of "theCUBE." We've got great two remote guests coming into our Palo Alto Studios, some tech athletes, as we say, people that've been in the trenches, years of experience, Lena Smart, CISO at MongoDB, Cube alumni, and Tara Hernandez, VP of Developer Productivity at MongoDB as well. Thanks for coming in to this program and supporting our efforts today. Thanks so much. >> Thanks for having us. >> Yeah, everyone talk about the journey in tech, where it all started. Before we get there, talk about what you guys are doing at MongoDB specifically. MongoDB is kind of gone the next level as a platform. You have your own ecosystem, lot of developers, very technical crowd, but it's changing the business transformation. What do you guys do at Mongo? We'll start with you, Lena. >> So I'm the CISO, so all security goes through me. I like to say, well, I don't like to say, I'm described as the ones throat to choke. So anything to do with security basically starts and ends with me. We do have a fantastic Cloud engineering security team and a product security team, and they don't report directly to me, but obviously we have very close relationships. I like to keep that kind of church and state separate and I know I've spoken about that before. And we just recently set up a physical security team with an amazing gentleman who left the FBI and he came to join us after 26 years for the agency. So, really starting to look at the physical aspects of what we offer as well. >> I interviewed a CISO the other day and she said, "Every day is day zero for me." Kind of goofing on the Amazon Day one thing, but Tara, go ahead. Tara, go ahead. What's your role there, developer productivity? What are you focusing on? >> Sure. Developer productivity is kind of the latest description for things that we've described over the years as, you know, DevOps oriented engineering or platform engineering or build and release engineering development infrastructure. It's all part and parcel, which is how do we actually get our code from developer to customer, you know, and all the mechanics that go into that. It's been something I discovered from my first job way back in the early '90s at Borland. And the art has just evolved enormously ever since, so. >> Yeah, this is a very great conversation both of you guys, right in the middle of all the action and data infrastructures changing, exploding, and involving big time AI and data tsunami and security never stops. Well, let's get into, we'll talk about that later, but let's get into what motivated you guys to pursue a career in tech and what were some of the challenges that you faced along the way? >> I'll go first. The fact of the matter was I intended to be a double major in history and literature when I went off to university, but I was informed that I had to do a math or a science degree or else the university would not be paid for. At the time, UC Santa Cruz had a policy that called Open Access Computing. This is, you know, the late '80s, early '90s. And anybody at the university could get an email account and that was unusual at the time if you were, those of us who remember, you used to have to pay for that CompuServe or AOL or, there's another one, I forget what it was called, but if a student at Santa Cruz could have an email account. And because of that email account, I met people who were computer science majors and I'm like, "Okay, I'll try that." That seems good. And it was a little bit of a struggle for me, a lot I won't lie, but I can't complain with how it ended up. And certainly once I found my niche, which was development infrastructure, I found my true love and I've been doing it for almost 30 years now. >> Awesome. Great story. Can't wait to ask a few questions on that. We'll go back to that late '80s, early '90s. Lena, your journey, how you got into it. >> So slightly different start. I did not go to university. I had to leave school when I was 16, got a job, had to help support my family. Worked a bunch of various jobs till I was about 21 and then computers became more, I think, I wouldn't say they were ubiquitous, but they were certainly out there. And I'd also been saving up every penny I could earn to buy my own computer and bought an Amstrad 1640, 20 meg hard drive. It rocked. And kind of took that apart, put it back together again, and thought that could be money in this. And so basically just teaching myself about computers any job that I got. 'Cause most of my jobs were like clerical work and secretary at that point. But any job that had a computer in front of that, I would make it my business to go find the guy who did computing 'cause it was always a guy. And I would say, you know, I want to learn how these work. Let, you know, show me. And, you know, I would take my lunch hour and after work and anytime I could with these people and they were very kind with their time and I just kept learning, so yep. >> Yeah, those early days remind me of the inflection point we're going through now. This major C change coming. Back then, if you had a computer, you had to kind of be your own internal engineer to fix things. Remember back on the systems revolution, late '80s, Tara, when, you know, your career started, those were major inflection points. Now we're seeing a similar wave right now, security, infrastructure. It feels like it's going to a whole nother level. At Mongo, you guys certainly see this as well, with this AI surge coming in. A lot more action is coming in. And so there's a lot of parallels between these inflection points. How do you guys see this next wave of change? Obviously, the AI stuff's blowing everyone away. Oh, new user interface. It's been called the browser moment, the mobile iPhone moment, kind of for this generation. There's a lot of people out there who are watching that are young in their careers, what's your take on this? How would you talk to those folks around how important this wave is? >> It, you know, it's funny, I've been having this conversation quite a bit recently in part because, you know, to me AI in a lot of ways is very similar to, you know, back in the '90s when we were talking about bringing in the worldwide web to the forefront of the world, right. And we tended to think in terms of all the optimistic benefits that would come of it. You know, free passing of information, availability to anyone, anywhere. You just needed an internet connection, which back then of course meant a modem. >> John: Not everyone had though. >> Exactly. But what we found in the subsequent years is that human beings are what they are and we bring ourselves to whatever platforms that are there, right. And so, you know, as much as it was amazing to have this freely available HTML based internet experience, it also meant that the negatives came to the forefront quite quickly. And there were ramifications of that. And so to me, when I look at AI, we're already seeing the ramifications to that. Yes, are there these amazing, optimistic, wonderful things that can be done? Yes. >> Yeah. >> But we're also human and the bad stuff's going to come out too. And how do we- >> Yeah. >> How do we as an industry, as a community, you know, understand and mitigate those ramifications so that we can benefit more from the positive than the negative. So it is interesting that it comes kind of full circle in really interesting ways. >> Yeah. The underbelly takes place first, gets it in the early adopter mode. Normally industries with, you know, money involved arbitrage, no standards. But we've seen this movie before. Is there hope, Lena, that we can have a more secure environment? >> I would hope so. (Lena laughs) Although depressingly, we've been in this well for 30 years now and we're, at the end of the day, still telling people not to click links on emails. So yeah, that kind of still keeps me awake at night a wee bit. The whole thing about AI, I mean, it's, obviously I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination in AI. I did read (indistinct) book recently about AI and that was kind of interesting. And I'm just trying to teach myself as much as I can about it to the extent of even buying the "Dummies Guide to AI." Just because, it's actually not a dummies guide. It's actually fairly interesting, but I'm always thinking about it from a security standpoint. So it's kind of my worst nightmare and the best thing that could ever happen in the same dream. You know, you've got this technology where I can ask it a question and you know, it spits out generally a reasonable answer. And my team are working on with Mark Porter our CTO and his team on almost like an incubation of AI link. What would it look like from MongoDB? What's the legal ramifications? 'Cause there will be legal ramifications even though it's the wild, wild west just now, I think. Regulation's going to catch up to us pretty quickly, I would think. >> John: Yeah, yeah. >> And so I think, you know, as long as companies have a seat at the table and governments perhaps don't become too dictatorial over this, then hopefully we'll be in a good place. But we'll see. I think it's a really interest, there's that curse, we're living in interesting times. I think that's where we are. >> It's interesting just to stay on this tech trend for a minute. The standards bodies are different now. Back in the old days there were, you know, IEEE standards, ITF standards. >> Tara: TPC. >> The developers are the new standard. I mean, now you're seeing open source completely different where it was in the '90s to here beginning, that was gen one, some say gen two, but I say gen one, now we're exploding with open source. You have kind of developers setting the standards. If developers like it in droves, it becomes defacto, which then kind of rolls into implementation. >> Yeah, I mean I think if you don't have developer input, and this is why I love working with Tara and her team so much is 'cause they get it. If we don't have input from developers, it's not going to get used. There's going to be ways of of working around it, especially when it comes to security. If they don't, you know, if you're a developer and you're sat at your screen and you don't want to do that particular thing, you're going to find a way around it. You're a smart person. >> Yeah. >> So. >> Developers on the front lines now versus, even back in the '90s, they're like, "Okay, consider the dev's, got a QA team." Everything was Waterfall, now it's Cloud, and developers are on the front lines of everything. Tara, I mean, this is where the standards are being met. What's your reaction to that? >> Well, I think it's outstanding. I mean, you know, like I was at Netscape and part of the crowd that released the browser as open source and we founded mozilla.org, right. And that was, you know, in many ways kind of the birth of the modern open source movement beyond what we used to have, what was basically free software foundation was sort of the only game in town. And I think it is so incredibly valuable. I want to emphasize, you know, and pile onto what Lena was saying, it's not just that the developers are having input on a sort of company by company basis. Open source to me is like a checks and balance, where it allows us as a broader community to be able to agree on and enforce certain standards in order to try and keep the technology platforms as accessible as possible. I think Kubernetes is a great example of that, right. If we didn't have Kubernetes, that would've really changed the nature of how we think about container orchestration. But even before that, Linux, right. Linux allowed us as an industry to end the Unix Wars and as someone who was on the front lines of that as well and having to support 42 different operating systems with our product, you know, that was a huge win. And it allowed us to stop arguing about operating systems and start arguing about software or not arguing, but developing it in positive ways. So with, you know, with Kubernetes, with container orchestration, we all agree, okay, that's just how we're going to orchestrate. Now we can build up this huge ecosystem, everybody gets taken along, right. And now it changes the game for what we're defining as business differentials, right. And so when we talk about crypto, that's a little bit harder, but certainly with AI, right, you know, what are the checks and balances that as an industry and as the developers around this, that we can in, you know, enforce to make sure that no one company or no one body is able to overly control how these things are managed, how it's defined. And I think that is only for the benefit in the industry as a whole, particularly when we think about the only other option is it gets regulated in ways that do not involve the people who actually know the details of what they're talking about. >> Regulated and or thrown away or bankrupt or- >> Driven underground. >> Yeah. >> Which would be even worse actually. >> Yeah, that's a really interesting, the checks and balances. I love that call out. And I was just talking with another interview part of the series around women being represented in the 51% ratio. Software is for everybody. So that we believe that open source movement around the collective intelligence of the participants in the industry and independent of gender, this is going to be the next wave. You're starting to see these videos really have impact because there are a lot more leaders now at the table in companies developing software systems and with AI, the aperture increases for applications. And this is the new dynamic. What's your guys view on this dynamic? How does this go forward in a positive way? Is there a certain trajectory you see? For women in the industry? >> I mean, I think some of the states are trying to, again, from the government angle, some of the states are trying to force women into the boardroom, for example, California, which can be no bad thing, but I don't know, sometimes I feel a bit iffy about all this kind of forced- >> John: Yeah. >> You know, making, I don't even know how to say it properly so you can cut this part of the interview. (John laughs) >> Tara: Well, and I think that they're >> I'll say it's not organic. >> No, and I think they're already pulling it out, right. It's already been challenged so they're in the process- >> Well, this is the open source angle, Tara, you are getting at it. The change agent is open, right? So to me, the history of the proven model is openness drives transparency drives progress. >> No, it's- >> If you believe that to be true, this could have another impact. >> Yeah, it's so interesting, right. Because if you look at McKinsey Consulting or Boston Consulting or some of the other, I'm blocking on all of the names. There has been a decade or more of research that shows that a non homogeneous employee base, be it gender or ethnicity or whatever, generates more revenue, right? There's dollar signs that can be attached to this, but it's not enough for all companies to want to invest in that way. And it's not enough for all, you know, venture firms or investment firms to grant that seed money or do those seed rounds. I think it's getting better very slowly, but socialization is a much harder thing to overcome over time. Particularly, when you're not just talking about one country like the United States in our case, but around the world. You know, tech centers now exist all over the world, including places that even 10 years ago we might not have expected like Nairobi, right. Which I think is amazing, but you have to factor in the cultural implications of that as well, right. So yes, the openness is important and we have, it's important that we have those voices, but I don't think it's a panacea solution, right. It's just one more piece. I think honestly that one of the most important opportunities has been with Cloud computing and Cloud's been around for a while. So why would I say that? It's because if you think about like everybody holds up the Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, back in the '70s, or Sergey and Larry for Google, you know, you had to have access to enough credit card limit to go to Fry's and buy your servers and then access to somebody like Susan Wojcicki to borrow the garage or whatever. But there was still a certain amount of upfrontness that you had to be able to commit to, whereas now, and we've, I think, seen a really good evidence of this being able to lease server resources by the second and have development platforms that you can do on your phone. I mean, for a while I think Africa, that the majority of development happened on mobile devices because there wasn't a sufficient supply chain of laptops yet. And that's no longer true now as far as I know. But like the power that that enables for people who would otherwise be underrepresented in our industry instantly opens it up, right? And so to me that's I think probably the biggest opportunity that we've seen from an industry on how to make more availability in underrepresented representation for entrepreneurship. >> Yeah. >> Something like AI, I think that's actually going to take us backwards if we're not careful. >> Yeah. >> Because of we're reinforcing that socialization. >> Well, also the bias. A lot of people commenting on the biases of the large language inherently built in are also problem. Lena, I want you to weigh on this too, because I think the skills question comes up here and I've been advocating that you don't need the pedigree, college pedigree, to get into a certain jobs, you mentioned Cloud computing. I mean, it's been around for you think a long time, but not really, really think about it. The ability to level up, okay, if you're going to join something new and half the jobs in cybersecurity are created in the past year, right? So, you have this what used to be a barrier, your degree, your pedigree, your certification would take years, would be a blocker. Now that's gone. >> Lena: Yeah, it's the opposite. >> That's, in fact, psychology. >> I think so, but the people who I, by and large, who I interview for jobs, they have, I think security people and also I work with our compliance folks and I can't forget them, but let's talk about security just now. I've always found a particular kind of mindset with security folks. We're very curious, not very good at following rules a lot of the time, and we'd love to teach others. I mean, that's one of the big things stem from the start of my career. People were always interested in teaching and I was interested in learning. So it was perfect. And I think also having, you know, strong women leaders at MongoDB allows other underrepresented groups to actually apply to the company 'cause they see that we're kind of talking the talk. And that's been important. I think it's really important. You know, you've got Tara and I on here today. There's obviously other senior women at MongoDB that you can talk to as well. There's a bunch of us. There's not a whole ton of us, but there's a bunch of us. And it's good. It's definitely growing. I've been there for four years now and I've seen a growth in women in senior leadership positions. And I think having that kind of track record of getting really good quality underrepresented candidates to not just interview, but come and join us, it's seen. And it's seen in the industry and people take notice and they're like, "Oh, okay, well if that person's working, you know, if Tara Hernandez is working there, I'm going to apply for that." And that in itself I think can really, you know, reap the rewards. But it's getting started. It's like how do you get your first strong female into that position or your first strong underrepresented person into that position? It's hard. I get it. If it was easy, we would've sold already. >> It's like anything. I want to see people like me, my friends in there. Am I going to be alone? Am I going to be of a group? It's a group psychology. Why wouldn't? So getting it out there is key. Is there skills that you think that people should pay attention to? One's come up as curiosity, learning. What are some of the best practices for folks trying to get into the tech field or that's in the tech field and advancing through? What advice are you guys- >> I mean, yeah, definitely, what I say to my team is within my budget, we try and give every at least one training course a year. And there's so much free stuff out there as well. But, you know, keep learning. And even if it's not right in your wheelhouse, don't pick about it. Don't, you know, take a look at what else could be out there that could interest you and then go for it. You know, what does it take you few minutes each night to read a book on something that might change your entire career? You know, be enthusiastic about the opportunities out there. And there's so many opportunities in security. Just so many. >> Tara, what's your advice for folks out there? Tons of stuff to taste, taste test, try things. >> Absolutely. I mean, I always say, you know, my primary qualifications for people, I'm looking for them to be smart and motivated, right. Because the industry changes so quickly. What we're doing now versus what we did even last year versus five years ago, you know, is completely different though themes are certainly the same. You know, we still have to code and we still have to compile that code or package the code and ship the code so, you know, how well can we adapt to these new things instead of creating floppy disks, which was my first job. Five and a quarters, even. The big ones. >> That's old school, OG. There it is. Well done. >> And now it's, you know, containers, you know, (indistinct) image containers. And so, you know, I've gotten a lot of really great success hiring boot campers, you know, career transitioners. Because they bring a lot experience in addition to the technical skills. I think the most important thing is to experiment and figuring out what do you like, because, you know, maybe you are really into security or maybe you're really into like deep level coding and you want to go back, you know, try to go to school to get a degree where you would actually want that level of learning. Or maybe you're a front end engineer, you want to be full stacked. Like there's so many different things, data science, right. Maybe you want to go learn R right. You know, I think it's like figure out what you like because once you find that, that in turn is going to energize you 'cause you're going to feel motivated. I think the worst thing you could do is try to force yourself to learn something that you really could not care less about. That's just the worst. You're going in handicapped. >> Yeah and there's choices now versus when we were breaking into the business. It was like, okay, you software engineer. They call it software engineering, that's all it was. You were that or you were in sales. Like, you know, some sort of systems engineer or sales and now it's,- >> I had never heard of my job when I was in school, right. I didn't even know it was a possibility. But there's so many different types of technical roles, you know, absolutely. >> It's so exciting. I wish I was young again. >> One of the- >> Me too. (Lena laughs) >> I don't. I like the age I am. So one of the things that I did to kind of harness that curiosity is we've set up a security champions programs. About 120, I guess, volunteers globally. And these are people from all different backgrounds and all genders, diversity groups, underrepresented groups, we feel are now represented within this champions program. And people basically give up about an hour or two of their time each week, with their supervisors permission, and we basically teach them different things about security. And we've now had seven full-time people move from different areas within MongoDB into my team as a result of that program. So, you know, monetarily and time, yeah, saved us both. But also we're showing people that there is a path, you know, if you start off in Tara's team, for example, doing X, you join the champions program, you're like, "You know, I'd really like to get into red teaming. That would be so cool." If it fits, then we make that happen. And that has been really important for me, especially to give, you know, the women in the underrepresented groups within MongoDB just that window into something they might never have seen otherwise. >> That's a great common fit is fit matters. Also that getting access to what you fit is also access to either mentoring or sponsorship or some sort of, at least some navigation. Like what's out there and not being afraid to like, you know, just ask. >> Yeah, we just actually kicked off our big mentor program last week, so I'm the executive sponsor of that. I know Tara is part of it, which is fantastic. >> We'll put a plug in for it. Go ahead. >> Yeah, no, it's amazing. There's, gosh, I don't even know the numbers anymore, but there's a lot of people involved in this and so much so that we've had to set up mentoring groups rather than one-on-one. And I think it was 45% of the mentors are actually male, which is quite incredible for a program called Mentor Her. And then what we want to do in the future is actually create a program called Mentor Them so that it's not, you know, not just on the female and so that we can live other groups represented and, you know, kind of break down those groups a wee bit more and have some more granularity in the offering. >> Tara, talk about mentoring and sponsorship. Open source has been there for a long time. People help each other. It's community-oriented. What's your view of how to work with mentors and sponsors if someone's moving through ranks? >> You know, one of the things that was really interesting, unfortunately, in some of the earliest open source communities is there was a lot of pervasive misogyny to be perfectly honest. >> Yeah. >> And one of the important adaptations that we made as an open source community was the idea, an introduction of code of conducts. And so when I'm talking to women who are thinking about expanding their skills, I encourage them to join open source communities to have opportunity, even if they're not getting paid for it, you know, to develop their skills to work with people to get those code reviews, right. I'm like, "Whatever you join, make sure they have a code of conduct and a good leadership team. It's very important." And there are plenty, right. And then that idea has come into, you know, conferences now. So now conferences have codes of contact, if there are any good, and maybe not all of them, but most of them, right. And the ideas of expanding that idea of intentional healthy culture. >> John: Yeah. >> As a business goal and business differentiator. I mean, I won't lie, when I was recruited to come to MongoDB, the culture that I was able to discern through talking to people, in addition to seeing that there was actually women in senior leadership roles like Lena, like Kayla Nelson, that was a huge win. And so it just builds on momentum. And so now, you know, those of us who are in that are now representing. And so that kind of reinforces, but it's all ties together, right. As the open source world goes, particularly for a company like MongoDB, which has an open source product, you know, and our community builds. You know, it's a good thing to be mindful of for us, how we interact with the community and you know, because that could also become an opportunity for recruiting. >> John: Yeah. >> Right. So we, in addition to people who might become advocates on Mongo's behalf in their own company as a solution for themselves, so. >> You guys had great successful company and great leadership there. I mean, I can't tell you how many times someone's told me "MongoDB doesn't scale. It's going to be dead next year." I mean, I was going back 10 years. It's like, just keeps getting better and better. You guys do a great job. So it's so fun to see the success of developers. Really appreciate you guys coming on the program. Final question, what are you guys excited about to end the segment? We'll give you guys the last word. Lena will start with you and Tara, you can wrap us up. What are you excited about? >> I'm excited to see what this year brings. I think with ChatGPT and its copycats, I think it'll be a very interesting year when it comes to AI and always in the lookout for the authentic deep fakes that we see coming out. So just trying to make people aware that this is a real thing. It's not just pretend. And then of course, our old friend ransomware, let's see where that's going to go. >> John: Yeah. >> And let's see where we get to and just genuine hygiene and housekeeping when it comes to security. >> Excellent. Tara. >> Ah, well for us, you know, we're always constantly trying to up our game from a security perspective in the software development life cycle. But also, you know, what can we do? You know, one interesting application of AI that maybe Google doesn't like to talk about is it is really cool as an addendum to search and you know, how we might incorporate that as far as our learning environment and developer productivity, and how can we enable our developers to be more efficient, productive in their day-to-day work. So, I don't know, there's all kinds of opportunities that we're looking at for how we might improve that process here at MongoDB and then maybe be able to share it with the world. One of the things I love about working at MongoDB is we get to use our own products, right. And so being able to have this interesting document database in order to put information and then maybe apply some sort of AI to get it out again, is something that we may well be looking at, if not this year, then certainly in the coming year. >> Awesome. Lena Smart, the chief information security officer. Tara Hernandez, vice president developer of productivity from MongoDB. Thank you so much for sharing here on International Women's Day. We're going to do this quarterly every year. We're going to do it and then we're going to do quarterly updates. Thank you so much for being part of this program. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for having us. >> Okay, this is theCube's coverage of International Women's Day. I'm John Furrier, your host. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

(bright music) >> Hey, welcome to this "CUBE Conversation." I'm your host, Lisa Martin. I've got two guests from NETSCOUT here with me today. Eileen Haggerty joins us, the AVP of Product and Solutions Marketing and Jason Chaffee, Senior Product Manager. We're going to be talking about the importance of quality end user experience with UC&C, Unified Communications and Collaborations services for something that will be near and dear to all of our hearts, employee productivity. Eileen, let's go ahead and start with you and the impact of COVID on UC&C, what has it been? >> Oh, Lisa, great question, because we really have seen an evolution in the importance and reliance on UCC. COVID would not have allowed us to go to work, do business continuity, any of those things had it not been for strong communications platforms to help us do that. And in fact, really the hero of all of this has been what's called Unified Communications as a Service or UCaaS. Enterprise businesses really depended entirely on the communications between the home office and the employees remotely. This is also known to be the way we all went to work. It was no longer a car. We picked up the phone basically or the computer. So Zoom, WebEx, Teams, Google Meets, they've all become household names really over the last two years. That's kind of exciting for them. And businesses during that period of time expanded their tools to keep business running and employees in communication using these very platforms, and we'll refer to this a couple of times during this conversation too, Lisa. We did a survey at the end of 2021, IT leaders, about their use of UCaaS and UCC during this period of time. We found that almost of them had used collaboration tools, and in fact, added to their arsenal of tools during this period of time to such an extent that they're now ranging, the majority of them, between three and nine different platforms that their corporate employees use. This became unwieldy, of course, during that time, and so their strategy going forward is going to be to reduce some of that number, but pretty interesting details. >> Yeah, between three and nine is a lot, and certainly, UC&C became a lifeline for all of us, professionally and personally. Even my mom learned how to use Zoom during this time. I was pretty proud of helping her with that. But, Jason, talk to us about all these new communication services. We're completely dependent on them, but overall what have you found out in terms of how they worked out? >> Well, to be honest with you, I think from the IT organization, it's been a challenge. It's been difficult. I think every IT organization is really motivated to ensure the quality of the services throughout the whole company, but as you can imagine, the increase of these communications Eileen just talked about during the pandemic is just significantly increasing the number of IT help desk tickets that have come through. And in that survey that Eileen just talked about, in fact, a third of those that responded said that 50 to 75% of their help desk tickets right now are related to UC&C or UCaaS services, and in fact, they say that over half of them have said that they get those tickets at least once a day, if not multiple times a day. And I think another big aspect of this that's been a challenge is everybody working from home now and the whole hybrid environment, and IT teams are really trying to understand and make sure that they get the same delivery of services if they were in the corporate headquarters, and I think they felt a loss of control and visibility in the services that are being delivered. I think the other thing that came out of this survey was about 25% of those said that they could get these issues if and when they happen, resolved in just a matter of minutes, but most said that it can take hours or even days to get through those, and that's obviously a really bad look for the company and really hinders productivity. So overall, I'd say it's been a challenge. I think as this onslaught of services that have come through and hampered and that everyone's trying to manage and get through, along with the lack of visibility when everybody's working from home. Of course, it's been fantastic for those of us that are working from home and made everything easier, but I think it's just made it that much more difficult for the IT teams that are trying to manage this new environment. >> Right, definitely difficulty behind the scenes there. You talked about the 25% of IT organizations being able to resolve quickly, but that leaves 75% of organizations where it takes more than a few minutes, and I can imagine individually, that might not be a big impact, but, Eileen, overall if it's taking more than a few minutes to resolve UC&C IT help desk issues, what's the overall impact to a business? >> It can be significant, and we hear a lot of little stories sadly sometimes on Lester Holt's evening news, but really what you are looking at here are longer periods of time where employees can't talk to each other. We've got email. We can probably compensate a different manner, but when it happens to be your customers not being able to talk to customer service reps in the contact center, couple of hours, that can be a big issue. Partners and suppliers who might be trying to get you important information very quickly. Maybe it's a supply chain issue item that they want to alert you to that you need to act on. That's a long period of time. And I think it's kind of important here to call out one special group, and that would be corporate executives. I think we've all heard about these big town hall meetings that corporate executives may be holding with employees or investors and all of a sudden their UCaaS support freezes, or it doesn't connect the voice in the video, and all of a sudden, you've got a very embarrassing situation. It really gets the attention of the public. Losing communication for a couple of hours, bottom line, it is going to impact productivity, customer service, and it could impact reputation, especially with those social media influencers that we all both favor and fear. So, when we were talking about our survey results, that is actually a top concern of IT executives, that productivity will get hit if communications problems do exist. So I think really ultimately for all of us in the business, disruptions and communication, it's going to be bad for business, any length. >> It is bad for business at any length, and that's a huge risk for businesses in any industry. I've been on those executive town halls where video wouldn't connect, and you just think, as much as we wanted that human connection during this time, and you couldn't get it, it made the the interaction not as ideal and obviously a risk for the organization. So, Jason, how can IT then jump in and resolve these disruptions faster, because time is of the essence here? >> Well, yeah, exactly. As we've discussed and Eileen just talked about, I think resolving issues quickly is really the key. I think we all know issues are going to happen, they just will, but it's really the IT team that can solve those the fastest is the team that's going to win, and so I think that's really the key to all of that. And one of the things that comes out of that is, again, from this survey is that only about 54% of the respondents said that they felt confident that they could understand root cause and be able to get to those issues quickly, which leaves about 43%, almost as many, that said they were less than confident or somewhat confident in finding that root cause, and so I think that's really the key there is really having the confidence to be able to find that, and to get that confidence, you need to be able to understand root cause quickly. And in order to get that, I think you need a combination of two things, which is passive, packet-based monitoring as well as continuous active testing or monitoring of those solutions. So, what I mean by that is being able to automatically and continuously test these services, even if nobody's on the system and nobody's on trying to make a phone call. So you have somebody who's trying to host, an active agent that's trying to host a meeting and others that are trying to join the meeting and sending an audio and sending and receiving video and looking at the measurements and trying to take all of that data in to really proactively understand what's going on and doing this every 15 minutes or every once an hour to really, again, get ahead of things before they become a problem. But I think beyond that, it's really about being able to take that data and the packets from those transactions that you were just testing and be able to trend that data and define problems and diagnose issues proactively. Again, as Eileen just said, before the CEO gets on there and tries to make his town hall call, so that that's really important to be able to solve those things more quickly. I think it's really a combination of a passive, scalable monitoring solution along with scheduled automatic testing of those, and along with the packets that go with that, that's really a combination of both. It's kind of a best of both worlds in order to get those things solved quickly. >> To get them solved quickly, I want to go back to something that Eileen said. You mentioned the word 'confidence,' and that I think it's important to point out that you're not saying that trivially, that IT needs to have the confidence that it has the right solutions in place to discover these faster. Eileen, from your perspective, talk to me about what that confidence means to IT and how it can shift up the stack to the C-suite. >> You know, honestly, processes and policies in these organizations are critical. They need to be able to notice when the trouble ticket comes in, and there's a lot of 'em, let's face it, and they're coming from all kinds of locations. Now, it's some of the remote offices. Some of 'em are still people at home. You've got to be able to know where to turn, what screen to use, what tool to adjust, what workflow to process, and that does come with practice, but it also comes with a solid set of tools and visibility strategies, and then you follow that process through, you work together. Maybe the voice, people in the network, people have to work together, maybe the cloud people, 'cause it's a contract with UCaaS, work together, gather the evidence and pinpoint the solution that's going to fix the problem with those locations. And it is, it becomes then a confidence builder, proof points. >> Right, proof points are critical. So, the solution that you both talked about, Jason, you elaborated on this, I'd love to get some real world examples. Tell me how you've seen this in practice. Jason, we'll start with you and then, Eileen, we'll go to you. >> Okay, yeah, great, I was just thinking of one that we had that really was one of the largest insurance companies in the country, if not the world, and when the pandemic hit, they suddenly had to send everybody home, and this is the lifeblood of their company, the contact centers that are answering these calls and the ones that were processing these claims. And as everybody went home, their strategy really was to actually go buy new laptops for everyone and implement VPNs that had a little bit of, but not fully and then implement SD-WAN, and so they had all of this traffic going over VPNs and through SD-WANs and new UCaaS solutions and all of this and what they quickly learned and found out was they just didn't have the visibility to be able to fuel, again, that word confidence that they were serving their their customers very well. So, they actually implemented one of our solutions and put these agents out at all their different desktops and started watching and doing these proactive calls and making going through the meeting life cycle and actually testing the bandwidths of their SD-WAN and ensuring all of those services. And what they found was they were able to solve some of the solutions that are even harder to solve normally, because it was affecting some users, but not all of them, and that's often harder to try and get their arms around. And so as they continued to do this, and just got their arms more around it and got more visibility, they really feel like everything's under control. And as of now, they're actually planning on leaving all those users working from home now, because they can actually ensure the same type of experience for both the users and for their customers as if those people were working from their corporate headquarters. >> Jason, that sort of sounds like a bit of a COVID silver lining. >> (laughs) Yeah, I think so. I think a lot of us actually started working from home and so there was kind of the silver lining of flexibility for the employee, but for the customer and the company itself, they learned this new visibility and this new way to ensure that across everywhere, wherever they may be, and I don't know that that would've come out without the COVID silver lining, as you just said. So I think it was something that really came out of it that might've been a good thing. >> And there are a few of those, which is nice. Eileen, talk to me about some of the experiences that you've had. What have you seen out in the field? >> Yeah, we have one really terrific energy company that was talking with us the other day, and their employees use Microsoft Office 365 which has the teams collaboration and communications system with it. And, what they've been doing for those at-home employees was configuring tests on their works stations, much like Jason explained, but it mimics exactly how an employee might be making their call and joining the sessions from video to audio, to going through login and log out. What's interesting is, and this is a compelling differentiator, a lot of tools may just watch traffic as it's happening, and certainly that's a value, but these tests even run when our agents are asleep. And what that does is these are all 24 hour a day businesses, and so maybe they have followed-the-sun contact centers or whatnot and something's happening in one part of the world, but then it's rolling to others, and we have all heard those disaster stories online when we wake up and we're hearing it on the morning news. So, if an organization can find the problem and detect it early enough and then get it when it's a few people that are involved, they can actually resolve it with our tools, find the root cause, implement a corrective action before the majority of their agents are even logging in in the morning. Nobody even knew that there was a problem overnight, because they were able to get to it and resolve it faster, and when you can do that, you're being proactive. And this, again, builds on the confidence that you get doing this kind of activity over and over and over again. But at the same time, it's also enormously beneficial from a business productivity perspective for the employees and certainly reputationally in revenue-based customer service, making sure that things are available whenever they're necessary. So, making sure they can perform their jobs, I know it sounds trite, but it's really the most critical thing we can help 'em with. >> Absolutely, 'cause I think, Eileen, one of the things that I've always thought for years is that employee productivity and employee satisfaction is directly tied to customer satisfaction, customer delight, and as you talked about, there's plenty of social media influencers who are happy to share news, good or bad, so that employee productivity is a direct relation on the customer satisfaction, the brand reputation. Jason, what are your thoughts there? >> Well, I think that's exactly right. I think it's, again, being able to continuously have your arms around that and make sure, because if you can't make phone calls or customers can't call in or things aren't working then it is, it's really a revenue impact, but it's also reputation impact, and you're going to remember that company that just didn't have their act together if you will, so I think it's important to, again, invest in this and make sure that no matter what, wherever your end users are or wherever your employees are, you're providing that experience just as if they were in the corporate office, and even when they're in the corporate office, being able to, as Eileen talked about, know ahead of time and proactively when issues happen in these very complex UCaaS and UC&C solutions that are out there now. >> And last question, Eileen for you, I imagine that these solutions are horizontal across every industry, every type of business, every size of business? >> Yeah, it's one of those phenomenon that's really critical is the ability to be ubiquitous in any environment, not being vendor-specific or dependent because now look at it, we shot that stat, three to nine different platforms in one company. If you had to buy three or nine different platforms to resolve problems, that reduces your ability to build workflows, consistent ones and know what you're doing every single time. You'd have to learn nine different platforms. That's not productive and that's certainly not realistic. So yeah, I think that this is really key. You have to be able to look at all of the traffic and be able to resolve the problems, regardless of what they happen to be running on. >> And the great thing is hearing the tools and the capabilities and solutions that NETSCOUT has to help businesses in any industry, at any size be able to identify these issues, resolve them faster and then create some silver linings. Guys, thank you so much for joining me today. Always a pleasure talking to you. This was really interesting to talk about the importance of quality end user experience with communication services for the employee productivity and of course, ultimately consumer customer satisfaction. We appreciate your insights. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> For Eileen Haggerty and Jason Chaffee, I'm Lisa Martin, you're watching a "CUBE Conversation." (bright music)

(upbeat music) >> The cloud is evolving. You know, it's no longer a set of remote services somewhere off in the cloud, in the distance. It's expanding. It's moving to on-prem. On-prem workloads are connecting to the cloud. They're spanning clouds in a way that hides the plumbing and simplifies deployment, management, security, and governance. So hybrid multicloud is the next big thing in infrastructure, and at the recent Nutanix .NEXT conference, we got a major dose of that theme, and with me to talk about what we heard at that event, what we learned, why it matters, and what it means to customers are Monica Kumar, who's the senior vice president of marketing and cloud go-to-market at Nutanix, and Tarkan Maner, who's the chief commercial officer at Nutanix. Guys, great to see you again. Welcome to the theCUBE. >> Great to be back here. >> Great to see you, Dave. >> Okay, so you just completed another .NEXT. As an analyst, I like to evaluate the messaging at an event like this, drill into the technical details to try to understand if you're actually investing in the things that you're promoting in your keynotes, and then talk to customers to see how real it is. So with that as a warning, you guys are all in on hybrid multicloud, and I have my takeaways that I'd be happy to share, but, Tarkan, what were your impressions, coming out of the event? >> Look, you had a great entry. Our goal, as Monica is going to outline, too, cloud is not a destination. It's an operating model. Our customers are basically using cloud as a business model, as an operating model. It's not just a bunch of techno mumbo-jumbo, as, kind of, you outlined. We want to make sure we make cloud invisible to the customer so they can focus on what they need to focus on as a business. So as part of that, we want to make sure the workloads, the apps, they can run anywhere the way the customer wants. So in that context, you know, our entire story was bringing customer workloads, use-cases, partner ecosystem with ISVs and cloud providers and service providers and ISPs we're working with like Citrix on end user computing, like Red Hat on cloud native, and also bringing the right products, both in terms of infrastructure capability and management capability for both operators and application developers. So bringing all these pieces together and make it simple for the customer to use the cloud as an operating model. That was the biggest goal here. >> Great, thank you. Monica, anything you'd add in terms of your takeaways? >> Well, I think Tarkan said it right. We are here to make cloud complexity invisible. This was our big event to get thousands of our customers, partners, our supporters together and unveil our product portfolio, which is much more simplified, now. It's a cloud platform. And really have a chance to show them how we are building an ecosystem around it, and really bringing to life the whole notion of hybrid multicloud computing. >> So, Monica, could you just, for our audience, just summarize the big news that came out of .NEXT? >> Yeah, we actually made four different announcements, and most of them were focused around, obviously, our product portfolio. So the first one was around enhancements to our cloud platform to help customers build modern, software-defined data centers to speed their hybrid multicloud deployments while supporting their business-critical applications, and that was really about the next version of our flagship, AOS six, availability. We announced the general availability of that, and key features really included things like built-in virtual networking, disaster recovery enhancements, security enhancements that otherwise would need a lot of specialized hardware, software, and skills are now built into our platform. And, most importantly, all of this functionality being managed through a single interface, right? Which significantly decreases the operational overhead. So that was one announcement. The second announcement was focused around data services and really making it easy for customers to simplify data management, also optimize big data and database workloads. We announced capability that now improves performances of database workloads by 2x, big data workloads by 3x, so lots of great stuff there. We also announced a new service called Nutanix Data Lens, which is a new unstructured data governance service. So, again, I don't want to go into a lot of details here. Maybe we can do it later. That was our second big announcement. The third announcement, which is really around partnerships, and we'll talk more about that, is with Microsoft. We announced the preview of Nutanix Clusters and Azure, and that's really taking our entire flagship Nutanix platform and running it on Azure. And so, now, we are in preview on that one, and we're super excited about that. And then, last but not least, and I know Tarkan is going to go into a lot more detail, is we announced a strategic partnership with Citrix around the whole future of hybrid work. So lots of big news coming out of it. I just gave you a quick summary. There's a lot more around this, as well. >> Okay. Now, I'd like to give you my honest take, if you guys don't mind, and, Tarkan, I'll steal one of your lines. Don't hate me, okay? So the first thing I'm going to say is I think, Nutanix, you have the absolute right vision. There's no question in my mind. But what you're doing is not trivial, and I think it's going to play out. It's going to take a number of years. To actually build an abstraction layer, which is where you're going, as I take it, as a platform that can exploit all the respective cloud native primitives and run virtually any workload in any cloud. And then what you're doing, as I see it, is abstracting that underlying technology complexity and bringing that same experience on-prem, across clouds, and as I say, that's hard. I will say this: the deep dives that I got at the analyst event, it convinced me that you're committed to this vision. You're spending real dollars on focused research and development on this effort, and, very importantly, you're sticking to your true heritage of making this simple. Now, you're not alone. All the non-hyperscalers are going after the multicloud opportunity, which, again, is really challenging, but my assessment is you're ahead of the game. You're certainly focused on your markets, but, from what I've seen, I believe it's one of the best examples of a true hybrid multicloud-- you're on that journey-- that I've seen to date. So I would give you high marks there. And I like the ecosystem-building piece of it. So, Tarkan, you could course-correct anything that I've said, and I'd love for you to pick up on your comments. It takes a village, you know, you're sort of invoking Hillary Clinton, to bring the right solution to customers. So maybe you could talk about some of that, as well. >> Look, actually, you hit all the right points, and I don't hate you for that. I love you for that, as you know. Look, at the end of the day, we started this journey about 10 years ago. The last two years with Monica, with the great executive team, and overall team as a whole, big push to what you just suggested. We're not necessarily, you know, passionate about cloud. Again, it's a business model. We're passionate about customer outcomes, and some of those outcomes sometimes are going to also be on-prem. That's why we focus on this terminology, hybrid multicloud. It is not multicloud, it's not just private cloud or on-prem and non-cloud. We want to make sure customers have the right outcomes. So based on that, whether those are cloud partners or platform partners like HPE, Dell, Supermicro. We just announced a partnership with Supermicro, now, we're selling our software. HPE, we run on GreenLake. Lenovo, we run on TruScale. Big support for Lenovo. Dell's still a great partner to us. On cloud partnerships, as Monica mentioned, obviously Azure. We had a big session with AWS. Lots of new work going on with Red Hat as an ISV partner. Tying that also to IBM Cloud, as we move forward, as Red Hat and IBM Cloud go hand in hand, and also tons of workarounds, as Monica mentioned. So it takes a village. We want to make sure customer outcomes deliver value. So anywhere, for any app, on any infrastructure, any cloud, regardless standards or protocols, we want to make sure we have an open system coverage, not only for operators, but also for application developers, develop those applications securely and for operators, run and manage those applications securely anywhere. So from that perspective, tons of interest, obviously, on the Citrix or the UC side, as Monica mentioned earlier, we also just announced the Red Hat partnership for cloud services. Right before that, next we highlighted that, and we are super excited about those two partnerships. >> Yeah, so, when I talked to some of your product folks and got into the technology a little bit, it's clear to me you're not wrapping your stack in containers and shoving it into the cloud and hosting it like some do. You're actually going much deeper. And, again, that's why it's hard. You could take advantage of those things, but-- So, Monica, you were on the stage at .NEXT with Eric Lockhart of Microsoft. Maybe you can share some details around the focus on Azure and what it means for customers. >> Absolutely. First of all, I'm so grateful that Eric actually flew out to the Bay Area to be live on stage with us. So very super grateful for Eric and Azure partnership there. As I said earlier, we announced the preview of Nutanix Clusters and Azure. It's a big deal. We've been working on it for a while. What this means is that a select few organizations will have an opportunity to get early access and also help shape the roadmap of our offering. And, obviously, we're looking forward to then announcing general availability soon after that. So that's number one. We're already seeing tremendous interest. We have a large number of customers who want to get their hands on early access. We are already working with them to get them set up. The second piece that Eric and I talked about really was, you know, the reason why the work that we're doing together is so important is because we do know that hybrid cloud is the preferred IT model. You know, we've heard that in spades from all different industries' research, by talking to customers, by talking to people like yourselves. However, when customers actually start deploying it, there's lots of issues that come up. There's limited skill sets, resources, and, most importantly, there's a disparity between the on-premises networking security management and the cloud networking security management. And that's what we are focused on, together as partners, is removing that barrier, the friction between on-prem and Azure cloud. So our customers can easily migrate their workloads in Azure cloud, do cloud disaster recovery, create a burst into cloud for elasticity if they need to, or even use Azure as an on-ramp to modernize applications by using the Azure cloud services. So that's one big piece. The second piece is our partnership around Kubernetes and cloud native, and that's something we've already provided to the market. It's GA with Azure and Nutanix cloud platform working together to build Kubernetes-based applications, container-based applications, and run them and manage them. So there's a lot more information on nutanix.com/azure. And I would say, for those of our listeners who want to give it a try and who want their hands on it, we also have a test drive available. You can actually experience the product by going to nutanix.com/azure and taking the test drive. >> Excellent. Now, Tarkan, we saw recently that you announced services. You've got HPE GreenLake, Lenovo, their Azure service, which is called TruScale. We saw you with Keith White at HPE Discover. I was just with Keith White this week, by the way, face to face. Awesome guy. So that's exciting. You got some investments going on there. What can you tell us about those partnerships? >> So, look, as we talked through this a little bit, the HPE relationship is a very critical relationship. One of our fastest growing partnerships. You know, our customers now can run a Nutanix software on any HPE platform. We call it DX, is the platform. But beyond that, now, if the customers want to use HPE service as-a-service, now, Nutanix software, the entire stack, it's not only hybrid multicloud platform, the database capability, EUC capability, storage capability, can run on HPE's service, GreenLake service. Same thing, by the way, same way available on Lenovo. Again, we're doing similar work with Dell and Supermicro, again, giving our customers choice. If they want to go to a public club partner like Azure, AWS, they have that choice. And also, as you know, I know Monica, you're going to talk about this, with our GSI partnerships and new service provider program, we're giving options to customers because, in some other regions, HPE might not be their choice or Azure not be choice, and a local telco might the choice in some country like Japan or India. So we give options and capability to the customers to run Nutanix software anywhere they like. >> I think that's a really important point you're making because, as I see all these infrastructure providers, who are traditionally on-prem players, introduce as-a-service, one of the things I'm looking for is, sure, they've got to have their own services, their own products available, but what other ecosystem partners are they offering? Are they truly giving the customers choice? Because that's, really, that's the hallmark of a cloud provider. You know, if we think about Amazon, you don't always have to use the Amazon product. You can use actually a competitive product, and that's the way it is. They let the customers choose. Of course, they want to sell their own, but, if you innovate fast enough, which, of course, Nutanix is all about innovation, a lot of customers are going to choose you. So that's key to these as-a-service models. So, Monica, Tarkan mentioned the GSIs. What can you tell us about the big partners there? >> Yeah, definitely. Actually, before I talk about GSIs, I do want to make sure our listeners understand we already support AWS in a public cloud, right? So Nutanix totally is available in general, generally available on AWS to use and build a hybrid cloud offering. And the reason I say that is because our philosophy from day one, even on the infrastructure side, has been freedom of choice for our customers and supporting as large a number of platforms and substrates as we can. And that's the notion that we are continuing, here, forward with. So to talk about GSIs a bit more, obviously, when you say one platform, any app, any cloud, any cloud includes on-prem, it includes hyperscalers, it includes the regional service providers, as well. So as an example, TCS is a really great partner of ours. We have a long history of working together with TCS, in global 2000 accounts across many different industries, retail, financial services, energy, and we are really focused, for example, with them, on expanding our joint business around mission critical applications deployment in our customer accounts, and specifically our databases with Nutanix Era, for example. Another great partner for us is HCL. In fact, HCL's solution SKALE DB, we showcased at .NEXT just yesterday. And SKALE DB is a fully managed database service that HCL offers which includes a Nutanix platform, including Nutanix Era, which is our database service, along with HCL services, as well as the hardware/software that customers need to actually run their business applications on it. And then, moving on to service providers, you know, we have great partnerships like with Cyxtera, who, in fact, was the service provider partner of the year. That's the award they just got. And many other service providers, including working with, you know, all of the edge cloud, Equinix. So, I can go on. We have a long list of partnerships, but what I want to say is that these are very important partnerships to us. All the way from, as Tarkan said, OEMs, hyperscalers, ISVs, you know, like Red Hat, Citrix, and, of course, our service provider, GSI partnerships. And then, last but not least, I think, Tarkan, I'd love for you to maybe comment on our channel partnerships as well, right? That's a very important part of our ecosystem. >> No, absolutely. You're absolutely right. Monica. As you suggested, our GSI program is one of the best programs in the industry in number of GSIs we support, new SP program, enterprise solution providers, service provider program, covering telcos and regional service providers, like you suggested, OVH in France, NTT in Japan, Yotta group in India, Cyxtera in the US. We have over 50 new service providers signed up in the last few months since the announcement, but tying all these things, obviously, to our overall channel ecosystem with our distributors and resellers, which is moving very nicely. We have Christian Alvarez, who is running our channel programs globally. And one last piece, Dave, I think this was important point that Monica brought up. Again, give choice to our customers. It's not about cloud by itself. It's outcomes, but cloud is an enabler to get there, especially in a hybrid multicloud fashion. And last point I would add to this is help customers regardless of the stage they're in in their cloud migration. From rehosting to replatforming, repurchasing or refactoring, rearchitecting applications or retaining applications or retiring applications, they will have different needs. And what we're trying to do, with Monica's help, with the entire team: choice. Choice in stage, choice in maturity to migrate to cloud, and choice on platform. >> So I want to close. First of all, I want to give some of my impressions. So we've been watching Nutanix since the early days. I remember vividly standing around the conference call with my colleague at the time, Stu Miniman. The state-of-the-art was converged infrastructure, at the time, bolting together storage, networking, and compute, very hardware centric. And the founding team at Nutanix told us, "We're going to have a software-led version of that." And you popularized, you kind of created the hyperconverged infrastructure market. You created what we called at the time true private cloud, scaled up as a company, and now you're really going after that multicloud, hybrid cloud opportunity. Jerry Chen and Greylock, they just wrote a piece called Castles on the Cloud, and the whole concept was, and I say this all the time, the hyperscalers, last year, just spent a hundred billion dollars on CapEx. That's a gift to companies that can add value on top of that. And that's exactly the strategy that you're taking, so I like it. You've got to move fast, and you are. So, guys, thanks for coming on, but I want you to both-- maybe, Tarkan, you can start, and Monica, you can bring us home. Give us your wrap up, your summary, and any final thoughts. >> All right, look, I'm going to go back to where I started this. Again, I know I go back. This is like a broken record, but it's so important we hear from the customers. Again, cloud is not a destination. It's a business model. We are here to support those outcomes, regardless of platform, regardless of hypervisor, cloud type or app, making sure from legacy apps to cloud native apps, we are there for the customers regardless of their stage in their migration. >> Dave: Right, thank you. Monica? >> Yeah. And I, again, you know, just the whole conversation we've been having is around this but I'll remind everybody that why we started out. Our journey was to make infrastructure invisible. We are now very well poised to helping our customers, making the cloud complexity invisible. So our customers can focus on business outcomes and innovation. And, as you can see, coming out of .NEXT, we've been firing on all cylinders to deliver this differentiated, unified hybrid multicloud platform so our customers can really run any app, anywhere, on any cloud. And with the simplicity that we are known for because, you know, our customers love us. NPS 90 plus seven years in a row. But, again, the guiding principle is simplicity, portability, choice. And, really, our compass is our customers. So that's what we are focused on. >> Well, I love not having to get on planes every Sunday and coming back every Friday, but I do miss going to events like .NEXT, where I meet a lot of those customers. And I, again, we've been following you guys since the early days. I can attest to the customer delight. I've spent a lot of time with them, driven in taxis, hung out at parties, on buses. And so, guys, listen, good luck in the next chapter of Nutanix. We'll be there reporting and really appreciate your time. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much, Dave. >> All right, and thank you for watching, everybody. This is Dave Vellante for theCUBE, and, as always, we'll see you next time. (light music)

(gentle music) >> We all know that virtually every organization is using the cloud in some way, shape or form. But those same organizations are building or maybe buying abstraction layers that attempt to hide the underlying complexity of these clouds. Which are now connected to on-prem workloads, they're in hybrid models, spanning across multiple clouds, and bleeding out to the edge. Now, while such an approach is extensively simplifies technology, provisioning and management, it brings challenges. And these challenges are fundamentally data problems. For example, with the sprawling clouds, how do you track sensitive data and know where it lives? How do you ensure compliance and privacy protections in a world of ever-changing regulations? How can you securely share data in an increasingly decentralized environment? How can you identify gaps in security policies and how can organizations identify and stop exfiltration in this complex environment? And, oh, by the way, very importantly, how can this all be automated? Because the number one challenges that CSOs face is a lack of talent. Hello everyone, this is Dave Vellante, and welcome to this CUBE conversation where we profile emerging technologies, innovative startups and disruptive trends in enterprise tech. And today we're pleased to welcome two guests from a really interesting firm trying to solve many of these problems. With us are Dr. Noah Johnson, who was the co-founder and CTO. And April Mitchell, head of engineering, both from Dasera. Folks, welcome April. Great to see you again. >> It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks, Dave. >> Okay Noah, let me start with you. I got to ask you, is security in your mind a do-over? >> Hey Dave. Thanks for having us. Great to be here. So yeah, you hear the adage a lot today, security is broken. And certainly if you look at the number of data breaches and misuses of data in the last few years, clearly something isn't working, right? Now, our view actually is that data security needs to be rethought, and kind of designed from the ground up for the modern way that the data is used. And that's exactly what we're doing. So we don't say, do over, so much as data security re-imagined, especially for the cloud. >> Yeah, you can't just rip and replace, but it's a little tongue in cheek there. But tell me more about the background of the company. Why did you and your co-founders start the firm? Are those challenges that I laid out upfront, the ones that you're directly attacking? >> Yeah, we're attacking all of them. So the background of the company, our technology originally came from PhD work that I did while I was studying at UC Berkeley. So I've spent most of the last decade or so looking at different cybersecurity problems. And my dissertation specifically focused on, how do you secure sensitive data while still allowing people to access it in a flexible way? As part of that work, I was able to collaborate with a big tech company, Fortune 500 company, who were facing very similar problems internally. They needed to get a handle on their data. And so through that kind of research collaboration, we built a platform that was able to track data and monitor how the data was used to better protect it while still allowing the company to be data-driven. They ended up deploying the system at scale. And so this was really strong, at least initial validation. The approach that we're using at Dasera actually is quite effective and sound. So since then, we've talked to hundreds of other CSOs and security teams, and really sort of gotten a deeper appreciation for the magnitude of the problem today. No person that we've spoken to has high confidence in their data security. And we can dig into the reasons for that. It's not for lack of effort, it's that this is a very hard problem, especially with the moving to the cloud. >> Yeah, I mean, trust is popping up on the NPS surveys. It's like the number one factor today. April, let's bring you into the discussion. You and I met early last decade and we've followed your career since then. What attracted you to Dasera? >> Yeah, that's a great question, Dave. I've spent my career at Fortune 10 companies with 15,000 plus employees. What made me take this step to go to all the magnitude, a smaller company and team? And I would say it was an easy choice and I was driven by a bold vision, the right team and an innovators heart. When I had a conversation with Ani, the CEO and Noah's co-founder, Ani and I crossed paths back at HP, and he had the opportunity to work with myself and one of my collaborators. And I'd say at the time we were the two co-founders running our own little two-person startup within HP labs, delivering consumer web services. And Ani and I connected then. And we knew we wanted to have that chance to work together in the future. And I was blessed with the opportunity to go from analytics, to programmability at HP at Cisco. And when Ani called me up just a little over two months ago, and he told me about Dasera, immediately I was interested. Data security is a wonderful hot space with so many challenges, and that innovation and the challenge from a real research perspective is what drew me to Dasera. And I had the conversation with Noah. And we went deep into differential privacy and the cracks of his PhD research. And I understood there, this company is built on very strong bonds. And really, to be successful, it's about the team. You have to have a diverse team with great experience. And when I talked to every single one of the team members, they shared a vision and they shared a passion. And you know me, I love being a part of a strong team and I love building strong teams. And that's exactly what we're doing here at Dasera. >> Thank you for that April. So Noah, give us the north star. Like early on, you guys got to focus in on where you're headed. What is that north star? >> Our goal is to really solve data security. You know, we touched on earlier, clearly current solutions aren't working. We think we have a very innovative solution that is designed specifically for where data lives today, which is the cloud. We see ourselves as being the kind of gold standard for tracking and managing and securing data in the cloud across the entire life cycle. You know, from the point the data is created to all of the different ways that data is used, to when the data is deleted, we want to build a system that lets companies for the first time, get that visibility, create that feedback loop between the data users, the different security stakeholders, the legal teams. Help them make better, more informed security decisions by providing that visibility. >> So April, I use this chart sometimes when I do segments on security. I think it's from Optiv and it's this, it shows all the different segments and this is a very fragmented market space. So I'm wondering, like for first of all, like who's the enemy, I mean, who you're trying to attack? But it's so fragmented, maybe there isn't one. But from an engineering standpoint, part two of the question is, what are the really gnarly problems that you're focusing on? But talk about part A first, if you would. Who are you targeting here? >> Absolutely. I would say the best defense is a really good offense. And how are we approaching this problem differently? And there are many data security tools out there. Many processes, from access control to DLP, but we still had 4,000 events, 4,000 breaches in the last year alone. So we can't continue to expect different outcomes by using these same approaches. So that's where we are changing the story. And we have a bold purpose. We don't want to be a typical existing cybersecurity company. We want to take the approach of treating data security as sacred, we want to make the world a safer place, and we want to do that by securing data across its life cycle. Creation to deletion. You asked about the gnarly challenges that are out there. To do that right, you have to do it at speed. You've got to do it in real time and you have to do it at scale. And those are definitely the challenges that we're running into right now from an engineering perspective. >> So Noah, when you looked at the landscape, you saw, as April said, it was just so many different tools out there. How do you describe your difference in the marketplace? And April, please chime in as well. >> Sure. Yeah. So everyone has a slightly different approach. April touched on this earlier. We want to fix data security. So in some sense, we're all on the same team. We have different views of the most effective way of solving this problem, but ultimately everyone wants to solve the same problem. I would say, we're the only ones that give a comprehensive look at the entire data life cycle. So if you look at other similar security offerings, a lot of players are focused on just access control, right? Or data loss prevention, or specific features like encryption. And these are all really important technologies, but they're not sufficient, right? These are technologies that have been in use for the last decade and yet we still see data breaches on a daily basis. And the reason for that is, even if you have those systems in place, there's a lot that can go wrong between when someone is granted access to all of the different ways they consume and share the data. And so where we're unique is we give this holistic picture of the data end to end. And we don't necessarily replace those other solutions. Actually, we compliment them. Our system can tell you, if you have an encryption solution in place, are you encrypting the right data, right? Are you using it the right way? So you get more value out of those tools. Or if you have access control, our platform can be a set of guard rails or kind of a backstop that can let you know, are those access control rules properly configured, are certain users over privileged, and so forth. So really providing that context, like I said earlier, to make better security decisions. That's where we're differentiated. That's kind of our unique view of how to solve the problem. >> April, anything you'd add to that? It sounds like you're a platform for all these tools. I feel like I need that for my apps. But what's the secret sauce there? >> Yeah. I think the secret sauce is that we've learned from the challenges that our customers are facing. We have an approach where we want to rapidly innovate and rapidly validate. And our team is doing that. Noah mentioned a couple of the key features. I'm going to add a few more, because really when you're making a choice, what should I use, you've got to start with, what do you want to protect? Your data and your people? How can we help you protect that? Well, we can help you manage data sprawl. You'd be surprised by how many customers on the cloud are really interested, or use our product for the first time and go, "Oh my gosh, I did not know that that was there. When did that get there? How did it get copied there? Why is it there?" You know, and they're asking these questions. So we want to help you track that sprawl of your data. We want to monitor the data when it's in use. How are people growing it? How are your employees accessing it? How are they using it? Are they using it in the right way? Are they using it in the right way today? Are they using it on the right way tomorrow based the permissions? And we can give you that risk analysis and that perspective. We also want to let you know that when the data's sprawls, when there's a new copy that's stored in the new data store, is it configured the right way? Are you protecting it the right way? We can analyze that for you as well. So really the completeness of the features from the end to end solution, you can't protect across the entire data life cycle from creation to deletion, unless you're truly connecting and understanding how the data is being used. >> Great. Thank you. Noah, what's the ideal customer look like? Big, small, different industries? Will you give us the ICP? >> So as far as industries, our view is, a data breaches is a data breach. So any company that collects data and needs to protect it would benefit from our solution. I will say specifically, organizations that are cloud first and data-driven. Meaning they collect a lot of data and need to use that data, especially if that data is sensitive. So think B to C companies, retail, e-commerce, social media, finance, any company that collects consumer data, there are legal obligations, security obligations, kind of a higher standard of care that's required for that data. And that's where we can really help. So we're seeing traction actually from all of these industries. As far as the ideal user profile, we are targeting data security professionals. But we are a platform. We are a collaboration platform. Our system is designed to let different stakeholders within the organization, work together. From the security team, to the legal team, to the different data custodians, they can all collaborate seamlessly within the platform using that context that we're stitching together about the data flow. >> That last point is important because it used to be, it was the SecOps team. It was their problem. And now it's IT, it's security, it's legal, it's the line of business. And then the first point you made about cloud first and data-driven, that's good news for your term. Because if you're not cloud first and data-driven, you're probably not going to be in business by the end of the decade. So, how about the business case? You know, your startup, the ideal startup situation is you're 10X the value at 1/10 the price. Now, maybe in your case it's a little different 'cause you're taking that holistic view as opposed to one narrow view. But what's the justification? Lay out the ROI. >> Yeah. So we've designed the platform actually to be very quick time to value and easy to deploy. The platform is fully automated, has built in policies and machine learning. So you spin it up and it will automatically discover the data stores, it will go and crawl the data to automatically classify it. And so now you've already solved the problem of just data sprawl, knowing what data is out there. And then we can show customers, here's how the databases are configured, is the data sufficiently protected, here's how employees are interacting with the data. And then finally optionally to write policies and workflows to make sure that there's a process in place to protect the data across its entire life cycle. So there's sort of an evolution of different features. So there's kind of a maturity evolution from just, number one, identifying the data, or like we say, you can't protect what you don't know exists, to protecting it and identifying whether there are any security risks and compliance gaps. And then finally automatic proactive protection and remediation by security policies. >> So where are you guys in terms of the maturity? Obviously it's early days, but where are you in terms of product market fit? Have you nailed that? Still trying to figure that out? I know you've raised around 9 million, you're out of stealth. You give us a sense of the maturity curve. >> I can jump in on that one and speak a bit about our first customers. And then Noah can add more detail as well. But we're seeing these cloud first organizations, the CSOs, the chief security or privacy officers coming to us because they know that traditional approaches aren't working. We are here, we are ready to engage. We aren't just grabbing, what's coming, we're talking about what we have now. And we will sit arm to arm with you and made sure that we are solving the challenges that your team is facing right now. And that's where we're getting early feedback. That's where we've really been able to showcase some new innovations and to validate and move from there. But I would say, if you're interested in talking to us, please call, please visit the website and make that connection. Because we're not stealth, we're not hiding. We're engaging and definitely have a offering that is ready to be used. >> So okay, so you're in market with that offering. What do I buy from you? Is it a SAS, is it a subscription, is it a service? >> Yeah, so we have a few different product offerings and deployment models, depending on where the data's stored and the environment that the company wants to run the software. So we support on-prem, we also have a SAS offering as well. >> Okay, and that runs in the cloud, obviously, the SAS offering, or you can sort of put it as in a require on appliance? How do I deploy it on on-prem? >> No appliance runs. Runs purely in the cloud. And within an hour to onboard, to connect to the environment and to get a scan up and running. >> And it's status of the company, am I right, I think you've raised like $9 million. Head count, anything you can share in that regard? Are you hiring? I'm sure you are. >> We're growing very quickly. There's been tremendous traction as April mentioned earlier, and we're super excited about the opportunity ahead of us. It's clear we've tackled the very big problem that is still unsolved. So we have big plans and we fortunately have been able to raise some capital to help us build out the team, to add the capabilities that we need to fully solve this problem end to end. So we're well on our way, but it's a journey. This is an unsolved problem for a reason, right? It's quite complex. And we've got a great headstart, we've got a great approach, we've got some great early customers, but there's a way to go still. >> And I'll use that opportunity to say, yes, we are hiring. And if you're interested in this space, if you want to learn from a team of experts, but also grow your skills and take on some new challenges, then please go to the website and check out the current positions that we have. Dropped me ping through any of the social media networks, 'cause we'd love to hear from you. >> Great. Website is Dasera, D-A-S-E-R-A. All right. So check it out. Guys. great to have you on. Thanks so much. Best of luck. We'll be tracking you, and really congratulations on getting to this point. And I know you have a lot more work to do, but really exciting times, I'm sure, for you. >> Thanks Dave. >> It's a pleasure to see you this way and hopefully in person soon. >> Hopefully. Yeah, absolutely. Hopefully in '21. We'll see. We'll see. Thank you for watching everybody. This is Dave Vellante for the CUBE, we'll see you next time. (gentle music)

>>Individuals create developers, translate ideas to code, to create great applications and great applications. Touch everyone. A Docker. We know that collaboration is key to your innovation sharing ideas, working together. Launching the most secure applications. Docker is with you wherever your team innovates, whether it be robots or autonomous cars, we're doing research to save lives during a pandemic, revolutionizing, how to buy and sell goods online, or even going into the unknown frontiers of space. Docker is launching innovation everywhere. Join us on the journey to build, share, run the future. >>Hello and welcome to Docker con 2021. We're incredibly excited to have more than 80,000 of you join us today from all over the world. As it was last year, this year at DockerCon is 100% virtual and 100% free. So as to enable as many community members as possible to join us now, 100%. Virtual is also an acknowledgement of the continuing global pandemic in particular, the ongoing tragedies in India and Brazil, the Docker community is a global one. And on behalf of all Dr. Khan attendees, we are donating $10,000 to UNICEF support efforts to fight the virus in those countries. Now, even in those regions of the world where the pandemic is being brought under control, virtual first is the new normal. It's been a challenging transition. This includes our team here at Docker. And we know from talking with many of you that you and your developer teams are challenged by this as well. So to help application development teams better collaborate and ship faster, we've been working on some powerful new features and we thought it would be fun to start off with a demo of those. How about it? Want to have a look? All right. Then no further delay. I'd like to introduce Youi Cal and Ben, gosh, over to you and Ben >>Morning, Ben, thanks for jumping on real quick. >>Have you seen the email from Scott? The one about updates and the docs landing page Smith, the doc combat and more prominence. >>Yeah. I've got something working on my local machine. I haven't committed anything yet. I was thinking we could try, um, that new Docker dev environments feature. >>Yeah, that's cool. So if you hit the share button, what I should do is it will take all of your code and the dependencies and the image you're basing it on and wrap that up as one image for me. And I can then just monitor all my machines that have been one click, like, and then have it side by side, along with the changes I've been looking at as well, because I was also having a bit of a look and then I can really see how it differs to what I'm doing. Maybe I can combine it to do the best of both worlds. >>Sounds good. Uh, let me get that over to you, >>Wilson. Yeah. If you pay with the image name, I'll get that started up. >>All right. Sen send it over >>Cheesy. Okay, great. Let's have a quick look at what you he was doing then. So I've been messing around similar to do with the batter. I've got movie at the top here and I think it looks pretty cool. Let's just grab that image from you. Pick out that started on a dev environment. What this is doing. It's just going to grab the image down, which you can take all of the code, the dependencies only get brunches working on and I'll get that opened up in my idea. Ready to use. It's a here close. We can see our environment as my Molly image, just coming down there and I've got my new idea. >>We'll load this up and it'll just connect to my dev environment. There we go. It's connected to the container. So we're working all in the container here and now give it a moment. What we'll do is we'll see what changes you've been making as well on the code. So it's like she's been working on a landing page as well, and it looks like she's been changing the banner as well. So let's get this running. Let's see what she's actually doing and how it looks. We'll set up our checklist and then we'll see how that works. >>Great. So that's now rolling. So let's just have a look at what you use doing what changes she had made. Compare those to mine just jumped back into my dev container UI, see that I've got both of those running side by side with my changes and news changes. Okay. So she's put Molly up there rather than mobi or somebody had the same idea. So I think in a way I can make us both happy. So if we just jumped back into what we'll do, just add Molly and Moby and here I'll save that. And what we can see is, cause I'm just working within the container rather than having to do sort of rebuild of everything or serve, or just reload my content. No, that's straight the page. So what I can then do is I can come up with my browser here. Once that's all refreshed, refresh the page once hopefully, maybe twice, we should then be able to see your refresh it or should be able to see that we get Malia mobi come up. So there we go, got Molly mobi. So what we'll do now is we'll describe that state. It sends us our image and then we'll just create one of those to share with URI or share. And we'll get a link for that. I guess we'll send that back over to you. >>So I've had a look at what you were doing and I'm actually going to change. I think that might work for both of us. I wondered if you could take a look at it. If I send it over. >>Sounds good. Let me grab the link. >>Yeah, it's a dev environment link again. So if you just open that back in the doc dashboard, it should be able to open up the code that I've changed and then just run it in the same way you normally do. And that shouldn't interrupt what you're already working on because there'll be able to run side by side with your other brunch. You already got, >>Got it. Got it. Loading here. Well, that's great. It's Molly and movie together. I love it. I think we should ship it. >>Awesome. I guess it's chip it and get on with the rest of.com. Wasn't that cool. Thank you Joey. Thanks Ben. Everyone we'll have more of this later in the keynote. So stay tuned. Let's say earlier, we've all been challenged by this past year, whether the COVID pandemic, the complete evaporation of customer demand in many industries, unemployment or business bankruptcies, we all been touched in some way. And yet, even to miss these tragedies last year, we saw multiple sources of hope and inspiration. For example, in response to COVID we saw global communities, including the tech community rapidly innovate solutions for analyzing the spread of the virus, sequencing its genes and visualizing infection rates. In fact, if all in teams collaborating on solutions for COVID have created more than 1,400 publicly shareable images on Docker hub. As another example, we all witnessed the historic landing and exploration of Mars by the perseverance Rover and its ingenuity drone. >>Now what's common in these examples, these innovative and ambitious accomplishments were made possible not by any single individual, but by teams of individuals collaborating together. The power of teams is why we've made development teams central to Docker's mission to build tools and content development teams love to help them get their ideas from code to cloud as quickly as possible. One of the frictions we've seen that can slow down to them in teams is that the path from code to cloud can be a confusing one, riddle with multiple point products, tools, and images that need to be integrated and maintained an automated pipeline in order for teams to be productive. That's why a year and a half ago we refocused Docker on helping development teams make sense of all this specifically, our goal is to provide development teams with the trusted content, the sharing capabilities and the pipeline integrations with best of breed third-party tools to help teams ship faster in short, to provide a collaborative application development platform. >>Everything a team needs to build. Sharon run create applications. Now, as I noted earlier, it's been a challenging year for everyone on our planet and has been similar for us here at Docker. Our team had to adapt to working from home local lockdowns caused by the pandemic and other challenges. And despite all this together with our community and ecosystem partners, we accomplished many exciting milestones. For example, in open source together with the community and our partners, we open sourced or made major contributions to many projects, including OCI distribution and the composed plugins building on these open source projects. We had powerful new capabilities to the Docker product, both free and subscription. For example, support for WSL two and apple, Silicon and Docker, desktop and vulnerability scanning audit logs and image management and Docker hub. >>And finally delivering an easy to use well-integrated development experience with best of breed tools and content is only possible through close collaboration with our ecosystem partners. For example, this last year we had over 100 commercialized fees, join our Docker verified publisher program and over 200 open source projects, join our Docker sponsored open source program. As a result of these efforts, we've seen some exciting growth in the Docker community in the 12 months since last year's Docker con for example, the number of registered developers grew 80% to over 8 million. These developers created many new images increasing the total by 56% to almost 11 million. And the images in all these repositories were pulled by more than 13 million monthly active IP addresses totaling 13 billion pulls a month. Now while the growth is exciting by Docker, we're even more excited about the stories we hear from you and your development teams about how you're using Docker and its impact on your businesses. For example, cancer researchers and their bioinformatics development team at the Washington university school of medicine needed a way to quickly analyze their clinical trial results and then share the models, the data and the analysis with other researchers they use Docker because it gives them the ease of use choice of pipeline tools and speed of sharing so critical to their research. And most importantly to the lives of their patients stay tuned for another powerful customer story later in the keynote from Matt fall, VP of engineering at Oracle insights. >>So with this last year behind us, what's next for Docker, but challenge you this last year of force changes in how development teams work, but we felt for years to come. And what we've learned in our discussions with you will have long lasting impact on our product roadmap. One of the biggest takeaways from those discussions that you and your development team want to be quicker to adapt, to changes in your environment so you can ship faster. So what is DACA doing to help with this first trusted content to own the teams that can focus their energies on what is unique to their businesses and spend as little time as possible on undifferentiated work are able to adapt more quickly and ship faster in order to do so. They need to be able to trust other components that make up their app together with our partners. >>Docker is doubling down and providing development teams with trusted content and the tools they need to use it in their applications. Second, remote collaboration on a development team, asking a coworker to take a look at your code used to be as easy as swiveling their chair around, but given what's happened in the last year, that's no longer the case. So as you even been hinted in the demo at the beginning, you'll see us deliver more capabilities for remote collaboration within a development team. And we're enabling development team to quickly adapt to any team configuration all on prem hybrid, all work from home, helping them remain productive and focused on shipping third ecosystem integrations, those development teams that can quickly take advantage of innovations throughout the ecosystem. Instead of getting locked into a single monolithic pipeline, there'll be the ones able to deliver amps, which impact their businesses faster. >>So together with our ecosystem partners, we are investing in more integrations with best of breed tools, right? Integrated automated app pipelines. Furthermore, we'll be writing more public API APIs and SDKs to enable ecosystem partners and development teams to roll their own integrations. We'll be sharing more details about remote collaboration and ecosystem integrations. Later in the keynote, I'd like to take a moment to share with Docker and our partners are doing for trusted content, providing development teams, access to content. They can trust, allows them to focus their coding efforts on what's unique and differentiated to that end Docker and our partners are bringing more and more trusted content to Docker hub Docker official images are 160 images of popular upstream open source projects that serve as foundational building blocks for any application. These include operating systems, programming, languages, databases, and more. Furthermore, these are updated patch scan and certified frequently. So I said, no image is older than 30 days. >>Docker verified publisher images are published by more than 100 commercialized feeds. The image Rebos are explicitly designated verify. So the developers searching for components for their app know that the ISV is actively maintaining the image. Docker sponsored open source projects announced late last year features images for more than 200 open source communities. Docker sponsors these communities through providing free storage and networking resources and offering their community members unrestricted access repos for businesses allow businesses to update and share their apps privately within their organizations using role-based access control and user authentication. No, and finally, public repos for communities enable community projects to be freely shared with anonymous and authenticated users alike. >>And for all these different types of content, we provide services for both development teams and ISP, for example, vulnerability scanning and digital signing for enhanced security search and filtering for discoverability packaging and updating services and analytics about how these products are being used. All this trusted content, we make available to develop teams for them directly to discover poll and integrate into their applications. Our goal is to meet development teams where they live. So for those organizations that prefer to manage their internal distribution of trusted content, we've collaborated with leading container registry partners. We announced our partnership with J frog late last year. And today we're very pleased to announce our partnerships with Amazon and Miranda's for providing an integrated seamless experience for joint for our joint customers. Lastly, the container images themselves and this end to end flow are built on open industry standards, which provided all the teams with flexibility and choice trusted content enables development teams to rapidly build. >>As I let them focus on their unique differentiated features and use trusted building blocks for the rest. We'll be talking more about trusted content as well as remote collaboration and ecosystem integrations later in the keynote. Now ecosystem partners are not only integral to the Docker experience for development teams. They're also integral to a great DockerCon experience, but please join me in thanking our Dr. Kent on sponsors and checking out their talks throughout the day. I also want to thank some others first up Docker team. Like all of you this last year has been extremely challenging for us, but the Docker team rose to the challenge and worked together to continue shipping great product, the Docker community of captains, community leaders, and contributors with your welcoming newcomers, enthusiasm for Docker and open exchanges of best practices and ideas talker, wouldn't be Docker without you. And finally, our development team customers. >>You trust us to help you build apps. Your businesses rely on. We don't take that trust for granted. Thank you. In closing, we often hear about the tenant's developer capable of great individual feeds that can transform project. But I wonder if we, as an industry have perhaps gotten this wrong by putting so much emphasis on weight, on the individual as discussed at the beginning, great accomplishments like innovative responses to COVID-19 like landing on Mars are more often the results of individuals collaborating together as a team, which is why our mission here at Docker is delivered tools and content developers love to help their team succeed and become 10 X teams. Thanks again for joining us, we look forward to having a great DockerCon with you today, as well as a great year ahead of us. Thanks and be well. >>Hi, I'm Dana Lawson, VP of engineering here at get hub. And my job is to enable this rich interconnected community of builders and makers to build even more and hopefully have a great time doing it in order to enable the best platform for developers, which I know is something we are all passionate about. We need to partner across the ecosystem to ensure that developers can have a great experience across get hub and all the tools that they want to use. No matter what they are. My team works to build the tools and relationships to make that possible. I am so excited to join Scott on this virtual stage to talk about increasing developer velocity. So let's dive in now, I know this may be hard for some of you to believe, but as a former CIS admin, some 21 years ago, working on sense spark workstations, we've come such a long way for random scripts and desperate systems that we've stitched together to this whole inclusive developer workflow experience being a CIS admin. >>Then you were just one piece of the siloed experience, but I didn't want to just push code to production. So I created scripts that did it for me. I taught myself how to code. I was the model lazy CIS admin that got dangerous and having pushed a little too far. I realized that working in production and building features is really a team sport that we had the opportunity, all of us to be customer obsessed today. As developers, we can go beyond the traditional dev ops mindset. We can really focus on adding value to the customer experience by ensuring that we have work that contributes to increasing uptime via and SLS all while being agile and productive. We get there. When we move from a pass the Baton system to now having an interconnected developer workflow that increases velocity in every part of the cycle, we get to work better and smarter. >>And honestly, in a way that is so much more enjoyable because we automate away all the mundane and manual and boring tasks. So we get to focus on what really matters shipping, the things that humans get to use and love. Docker has been a big part of enabling this transformation. 10, 20 years ago, we had Tomcat containers, which are not Docker containers. And for y'all hearing this the first time go Google it. But that was the way we built our applications. We had to segment them on the server and give them resources. Today. We have Docker containers, these little mini Oasys and Docker images. You can do it multiple times in an orchestrated manner with the power of actions enabled and Docker. It's just so incredible what you can do. And by the way, I'm showing you actions in Docker, which I hope you use because both are great and free for open source. >>But the key takeaway is really the workflow and the automation, which you certainly can do with other tools. Okay, I'm going to show you just how easy this is, because believe me, if this is something I can learn and do anybody out there can, and in this demo, I'll show you about the basic components needed to create and use a package, Docker container actions. And like I said, you won't believe how awesome the combination of Docker and actions is because you can enable your workflow to do no matter what you're trying to do in this super baby example. We're so small. You could take like 10 seconds. Like I am here creating an action due to a simple task, like pushing a message to your logs. And the cool thing is you can use it on any the bit on this one. Like I said, we're going to use push. >>You can do, uh, even to order a pizza every time you roll into production, if you wanted, but at get hub, that'd be a lot of pizzas. And the funny thing is somebody out there is actually tried this and written that action. If you haven't used Docker and actions together, check out the docs on either get hub or Docker to get you started. And a huge shout out to all those doc writers out there. I built this demo today using those instructions. And if I can do it, I know you can too, but enough yapping let's get started to save some time. And since a lot of us are Docker and get hub nerds, I've already created a repo with a Docker file. So we're going to skip that step. Next. I'm going to create an action's Yammel file. And if you don't Yammer, you know, actions, the metadata defines my important log stuff to capture and the input and my time out per parameter to pass and puts to the Docker container, get up a build image from your Docker file and run the commands in a new container. >>Using the Sigma image. The cool thing is, is you can use any Docker image in any language for your actions. It doesn't matter if it's go or whatever in today's I'm going to use a shell script and an input variable to print my important log stuff to file. And like I said, you know me, I love me some. So let's see this action in a workflow. When an action is in a private repo, like the one I demonstrating today, the action can only be used in workflows in the same repository, but public actions can be used by workflows in any repository. So unfortunately you won't get access to the super awesome action, but don't worry in the Guild marketplace, there are over 8,000 actions available, especially the most important one, that pizza action. So go try it out. Now you can do this in a couple of ways, whether you're doing it in your preferred ID or for today's demo, I'm just going to use the gooey. I'm going to navigate to my actions tab as I've done here. And I'm going to in my workflow, select new work, hello, probably load some workflows to Claire to get you started, but I'm using the one I've copied. Like I said, the lazy developer I am in. I'm going to replace it with my action. >>That's it. So now we're going to go and we're going to start our commitment new file. Now, if we go over to our actions tab, we can see the workflow in progress in my repository. I just click the actions tab. And because they wrote the actions on push, we can watch the visualization under jobs and click the job to see the important stuff we're logging in the input stamp in the printed log. And we'll just wait for this to run. Hello, Mona and boom. Just like that. It runs automatically within our action. We told it to go run as soon as the files updated because we're doing it on push merge. That's right. Folks in just a few minutes, I built an action that writes an entry to a log file every time I push. So I don't have to do it manually. In essence, with automation, you can be kind to your future self and save time and effort to focus on what really matters. >>Imagine what I could do with even a little more time, probably order all y'all pieces. That is the power of the interconnected workflow. And it's amazing. And I hope you all go try it out, but why do we care about all of that? Just like in the demo, I took a manual task with both tape, which both takes time and it's easy to forget and automated it. So I don't have to think about it. And it's executed every time consistently. That means less time for me to worry about my human errors and mistakes, and more time to focus on actually building the cool stuff that people want. Obviously, automation, developer productivity, but what is even more important to me is the developer happiness tools like BS, code actions, Docker, Heroku, and many others reduce manual work, which allows us to focus on building things that are awesome. >>And to get into that wonderful state that we call flow. According to research by UC Irvine in Humboldt university in Germany, it takes an average of 23 minutes to enter optimal creative state. What we call the flow or to reenter it after distraction like your dog on your office store. So staying in flow is so critical to developer productivity and as a developer, it just feels good to be cranking away at something with deep focus. I certainly know that I love that feeling intuitive collaboration and automation features we built in to get hub help developer, Sam flow, allowing you and your team to do so much more, to bring the benefits of automation into perspective in our annual October's report by Dr. Nicole, Forsgren. One of my buddies here at get hub, took a look at the developer productivity in the stork year. You know what we found? >>We found that public GitHub repositories that use the Automational pull requests, merge those pull requests. 1.2 times faster. And the number of pooled merged pull requests increased by 1.3 times, that is 34% more poor requests merged. And other words, automation can con can dramatically increase, but the speed and quantity of work completed in any role, just like an open source development, you'll work more efficiently with greater impact when you invest the bulk of your time in the work that adds the most value and eliminate or outsource the rest because you don't need to do it, make the machines by elaborate by leveraging automation in their workflows teams, minimize manual work and reclaim that time for innovation and maintain that state of flow with development and collaboration. More importantly, their work is more enjoyable because they're not wasting the time doing the things that the machines or robots can do for them. >>And I remember what I said at the beginning. Many of us want to be efficient, heck even lazy. So why would I spend my time doing something I can automate? Now you can read more about this research behind the art behind this at October set, get hub.com, which also includes a lot of other cool info about the open source ecosystem and how it's evolving. Speaking of the open source ecosystem we at get hub are so honored to be the home of more than 65 million developers who build software together for everywhere across the globe. Today, we're seeing software development taking shape as the world's largest team sport, where development teams collaborate, build and ship products. It's no longer a solo effort like it was for me. You don't have to take my word for it. Check out this globe. This globe shows real data. Every speck of light you see here represents a contribution to an open source project, somewhere on earth. >>These arts reach across continents, cultures, and other divides. It's distributed collaboration at its finest. 20 years ago, we had no concept of dev ops, SecOps and lots, or the new ops that are going to be happening. But today's development and ops teams are connected like ever before. This is only going to continue to evolve at a rapid pace, especially as we continue to empower the next hundred million developers, automation helps us focus on what's important and to greatly accelerate innovation. Just this past year, we saw some of the most groundbreaking technological advancements and achievements I'll say ever, including critical COVID-19 vaccine trials, as well as the first power flight on Mars. This past month, these breakthroughs were only possible because of the interconnected collaborative open source communities on get hub and the amazing tools and workflows that empower us all to create and innovate. Let's continue building, integrating, and automating. So we collectively can give developers the experience. They deserve all of the automation and beautiful eye UIs that we can muster so they can continue to build the things that truly do change the world. Thank you again for having me today, Dr. Khan, it has been a pleasure to be here with all you nerds. >>Hello. I'm Justin. Komack lovely to see you here. Talking to developers, their world is getting much more complex. Developers are being asked to do everything security ops on goal data analysis, all being put on the rockers. Software's eating the world. Of course, and this all make sense in that view, but they need help. One team. I told you it's shifted all our.net apps to run on Linux from windows, but their developers found the complexity of Docker files based on the Linux shell scripts really difficult has helped make these things easier for your teams. Your ones collaborate more in a virtual world, but you've asked us to make this simpler and more lightweight. You, the developers have asked for a paved road experience. You want things to just work with a simple options to be there, but it's not just the paved road. You also want to be able to go off-road and do interesting and different things. >>Use different components, experiments, innovate as well. We'll always offer you both those choices at different times. Different developers want different things. It may shift for ones the other paved road or off road. Sometimes you want reliability, dependability in the zone for day to day work, but sometimes you have to do something new, incorporate new things in your pipeline, build applications for new places. Then you knew those off-road abilities too. So you can really get under the hood and go and build something weird and wonderful and amazing. That gives you new options. Talk as an independent choice. We don't own the roads. We're not pushing you into any technology choices because we own them. We're really supporting and driving open standards, such as ISEI working opensource with the CNCF. We want to help you get your applications from your laptops, the clouds, and beyond, even into space. >>Let's talk about the key focus areas, that frame, what DACA is doing going forward. These are simplicity, sharing, flexibility, trusted content and care supply chain compared to building where the underlying kernel primitives like namespaces and Seagraves the original Docker CLI was just amazing Docker engine. It's a magical experience for everyone. It really brought those innovations and put them in a world where anyone would use that, but that's not enough. We need to continue to innovate. And it was trying to get more done faster all the time. And there's a lot more we can do. We're here to take complexity away from deeply complicated underlying things and give developers tools that are just amazing and magical. One of the area we haven't done enough and make things magical enough that we're really planning around now is that, you know, Docker images, uh, they're the key parts of your application, but you know, how do I do something with an image? How do I, where do I attach volumes with this image? What's the API. Whereas the SDK for this image, how do I find an example or docs in an API driven world? Every bit of software should have an API and an API description. And our vision is that every container should have this API description and the ability for you to understand how to use it. And it's all a seamless thing from, you know, from your code to the cloud local and remote, you can, you can use containers in this amazing and exciting way. >>One thing I really noticed in the last year is that companies that started off remote fast have constant collaboration. They have zoom calls, apron all day terminals, shattering that always working together. Other teams are really trying to learn how to do this style because they didn't start like that. We used to walk around to other people's desks or share services on the local office network. And it's very difficult to do that anymore. You want sharing to be really simple, lightweight, and informal. Let me try your container or just maybe let's collaborate on this together. Um, you know, fast collaboration on the analysts, fast iteration, fast working together, and he wants to share more. You want to share how to develop environments, not just an image. And we all work by seeing something someone else in our team is doing saying, how can I do that too? I can, I want to make that sharing really, really easy. Ben's going to talk about this more in the interest of one minute. >>We know how you're excited by apple. Silicon and gravis are not excited because there's a new architecture, but excited because it's faster, cooler, cheaper, better, and offers new possibilities. The M one support was the most asked for thing on our public roadmap, EFA, and we listened and share that we see really exciting possibilities, usership arm applications, all the way from desktop to production. We know that you all use different clouds and different bases have deployed to, um, you know, we work with AWS and Azure and Google and more, um, and we want to help you ship on prime as well. And we know that you use huge number of languages and the containers help build applications that use different languages for different parts of the application or for different applications, right? You can choose the best tool. You have JavaScript hat or everywhere go. And re-ask Python for data and ML, perhaps getting excited about WebAssembly after hearing about a cube con, you know, there's all sorts of things. >>So we need to make that as easier. We've been running the whole month of Python on the blog, and we're doing a month of JavaScript because we had one specific support about how do I best put this language into production of that language into production. That detail is important for you. GPS have been difficult to use. We've added GPS suppose in desktop for windows, but we know there's a lot more to do to make the, how multi architecture, multi hardware, multi accelerator world work better and also securely. Um, so there's a lot more work to do to support you in all these things you want to do. >>How do we start building a tenor has applications, but it turns out we're using existing images as components. I couldn't assist survey earlier this year, almost half of container image usage was public images rather than private images. And this is growing rapidly. Almost all software has open source components and maybe 85% of the average application is open source code. And what you're doing is taking whole container images as modules in your application. And this was always the model with Docker compose. And it's a model that you're already et cetera, writing you trust Docker, official images. We know that they might go to 25% of poles on Docker hub and Docker hub provides you the widest choice and the best support that trusted content. We're talking to people about how to make this more helpful. We know, for example, that winter 69 four is just showing us as support, but the image doesn't yet tell you that we're working with canonical to improve messaging from specific images about left lifecycle and support. >>We know that you need more images, regularly updated free of vulnerabilities, easy to use and discover, and Donnie and Marie neuro, going to talk about that more this last year, the solar winds attack has been in the, in the news. A lot, the software you're using and trusting could be compromised and might be all over your organization. We need to reduce the risk of using vital open-source components. We're seeing more software supply chain attacks being targeted as the supply chain, because it's often an easier place to attack and production software. We need to be able to use this external code safely. We need to, everyone needs to start from trusted sources like photography images. They need to scan for known vulnerabilities using Docker scan that we built in partnership with sneak and lost DockerCon last year, we need just keep updating base images and dependencies, and we'll, we're going to help you have the control and understanding about your images that you need to do this. >>And there's more, we're also working on the nursery V2 project in the CNCF to revamp container signings, or you can tell way or software comes from we're working on tooling to make updates easier, and to help you understand and manage all the principals carrier you're using security is a growing concern for all of us. It's really important. And we're going to help you work with security. We can't achieve all our dreams, whether that's space travel or amazing developer products ever see without deep partnerships with our community to cloud is RA and the cloud providers aware most of you ship your occasion production and simple routes that take your work and deploy it easily. Reliably and securely are really important. Just get into production simply and easily and securely. And we've done a bunch of work on that. And, um, but we know there's more to do. >>The CNCF on the open source cloud native community are an amazing ecosystem of creators and lovely people creating an amazing strong community and supporting a huge amount of innovation has its roots in the container ecosystem and his dreams beyond that much of the innovation is focused around operate experience so far, but developer experience is really a growing concern in that community as well. And we're really excited to work on that. We also uses appraiser tool. Then we know you do, and we know that you want it to be easier to use in your environment. We just shifted Docker hub to work on, um, Kubernetes fully. And, um, we're also using many of the other projects are Argo from atheists. We're spending a lot of time working with Microsoft, Amazon right now on getting natural UV to ready to ship in the next few. That's a really detailed piece of collaboration we've been working on for a long term. Long time is really important for our community as the scarcity of the container containers and, um, getting content for you, working together makes us stronger. Our community is made up of all of you have. Um, it's always amazing to be reminded of that as a huge open source community that we already proud to work with. It's an amazing amount of innovation that you're all creating and where perhaps it, what with you and share with you as well. Thank you very much. And thank you for being here. >>Really excited to talk to you today and share more about what Docker is doing to help make you faster, make your team faster and turn your application delivery into something that makes you a 10 X team. What we're hearing from you, the developers using Docker everyday fits across three common themes that we hear consistently over and over. We hear that your time is super important. It's critical, and you want to move faster. You want your tools to get out of your way, and instead to enable you to accelerate and focus on the things you want to be doing. And part of that is that finding great content, great application components that you can incorporate into your apps to move faster is really hard. It's hard to discover. It's hard to find high quality content that you can trust that, you know, passes your test and your configuration needs. >>And it's hard to create good content as well. And you're looking for more safety, more guardrails to help guide you along that way so that you can focus on creating value for your company. Secondly, you're telling us that it's a really far to collaborate effectively with your team and you want to do more, to work more effectively together to help your tools become more and more seamless to help you stay in sync, both with yourself across all of your development environments, as well as with your teammates so that you can more effectively collaborate together. Review each other's work, maintain things and keep them in sync. And finally, you want your applications to run consistently in every single environment, whether that's your local development environment, a cloud-based development environment, your CGI pipeline, or the cloud for production, and you want that micro service to provide that consistent experience everywhere you go so that you have similar tools, similar environments, and you don't need to worry about things getting in your way, but instead things make it easy for you to focus on what you wanna do and what Docker is doing to help solve all of these problems for you and your colleagues is creating a collaborative app dev platform. >>And this collaborative application development platform consists of multiple different pieces. I'm not going to walk through all of them today, but the overall view is that we're providing all the tooling you need from the development environment, to the container images, to the collaboration services, to the pipelines and integrations that enable you to focus on making your applications amazing and changing the world. If we start zooming on a one of those aspects, collaboration we hear from developers regularly is that they're challenged in synchronizing their own setups across environments. They want to be able to duplicate the setup of their teammates. Look, then they can easily get up and running with the same applications, the same tooling, the same version of the same libraries, the same frameworks. And they want to know if their applications are good before they're ready to share them in an official space. >>They want to collaborate on things before they're done, rather than feeling like they have to officially published something before they can effectively share it with others to work on it, to solve this. We're thrilled today to announce Docker, dev environments, Docker, dev environments, transform how your team collaborates. They make creating, sharing standardized development environments. As simple as a Docker poll, they make it easy to review your colleagues work without affecting your own work. And they increase the reproducibility of your own work and decreased production issues in doing so because you've got consistent environments all the way through. Now, I'm going to pass it off to our principal product manager, Ben Gotch to walk you through more detail on Docker dev environments. >>Hi, I'm Ben. I work as a principal program manager at DACA. One of the areas that doc has been looking at to see what's hard today for developers is sharing changes that you make from the inner loop where the inner loop is a better development, where you write code, test it, build it, run it, and ultimately get feedback on those changes before you merge them and try and actually ship them out to production. Most amount of us build this flow and get there still leaves a lot of challenges. People need to jump between branches to look at each other's work. Independence. Dependencies can be different when you're doing that and doing this in this new hybrid wall of work. Isn't any easier either the ability to just save someone, Hey, come and check this out. It's become much harder. People can't come and sit down at your desk or take your laptop away for 10 minutes to just grab and look at what you're doing. >>A lot of the reason that development is hard when you're remote, is that looking at changes and what's going on requires more than just code requires all the dependencies and everything you've got set up and that complete context of your development environment, to understand what you're doing and solving this in a remote first world is hard. We wanted to look at how we could make this better. Let's do that in a way that let you keep working the way you do today. Didn't want you to have to use a browser. We didn't want you to have to use a new idea. And we wanted to do this in a way that was application centric. We wanted to let you work with all the rest of the application already using C for all the services and all those dependencies you need as part of that. And with that, we're excited to talk more about docket developer environments, dev environments are new part of the Docker experience that makes it easier you to get started with your whole inner leap, working inside a container, then able to share and collaborate more than just the code. >>We want it to enable you to share your whole modern development environment, your whole setup from DACA, with your team on any operating system, we'll be launching a limited beta of dev environments in the coming month. And a GA dev environments will be ID agnostic and supporting composts. This means you'll be able to use an extend your existing composed files to create your own development environment in whatever idea, working in dev environments designed to be local. First, they work with Docker desktop and say your existing ID, and let you share that whole inner loop, that whole development context, all of your teammates in just one collect. This means if you want to get feedback on the working progress change or the PR it's as simple as opening another idea instance, and looking at what your team is working on because we're using compose. You can just extend your existing oppose file when you're already working with, to actually create this whole application and have it all working in the context of the rest of the services. >>So it's actually the whole environment you're working with module one service that doesn't really understand what it's doing alone. And with that, let's jump into a quick demo. So you can see here, two dev environments up and running. First one here is the same container dev environment. So if I want to go into that, let's see what's going on in the various code button here. If that one open, I can get straight into my application to start making changes inside that dev container. And I've got all my dependencies in here, so I can just run that straight in that second application I have here is one that's opened up in compose, and I can see that I've also got my backend, my front end and my database. So I've got all my services running here. So if I want, I can open one or more of these in a dev environment, meaning that that container has the context that dev environment has the context of the whole application. >>So I can get back into and connect to all the other services that I need to test this application properly, all of them, one unit. And then when I've made my changes and I'm ready to share, I can hit my share button type in the refund them on to share that too. And then give that image to someone to get going, pick that up and just start working with that code and all my dependencies, simple as putting an image, looking ahead, we're going to be expanding development environments, more of your dependencies for the whole developer worst space. We want to look at backing up and letting you share your volumes to make data science and database setups more repeatable and going. I'm still all of this under a single workspace for your team containing images, your dev environments, your volumes, and more we've really want to allow you to create a fully portable Linux development environment. >>So everyone you're working with on any operating system, as I said, our MVP we're coming next month. And that was for vs code using their dev container primitive and more support for other ideas. We'll follow to find out more about what's happening and what's coming up next in the future of this. And to actually get a bit of a deeper dive in the experience. Can we check out the talk I'm doing with Georgie and girl later on today? Thank you, Ben, amazing story about how Docker is helping to make developer teams more collaborative. Now I'd like to talk more about applications while the dev environment is like the workbench around what you're building. The application itself has all the different components, libraries, and frameworks, and other code that make up the application itself. And we hear developers saying all the time things like, how do they know if their images are good? >>How do they know if they're secure? How do they know if they're minimal? How do they make great images and great Docker files and how do they keep their images secure? And up-to-date on every one of those ties into how do I create more trust? How do I know that I'm building high quality applications to enable you to do this even more effectively than today? We are pleased to announce the DACA verified polisher program. This broadens trusted content by extending beyond Docker official images, to give you more and more trusted building blocks that you can incorporate into your applications. It gives you confidence that you're getting what you expect because Docker verifies every single one of these publishers to make sure they are who they say they are. This improves our secure supply chain story. And finally it simplifies your discovery of the best building blocks by making it easy for you to find things that you know, you can trust so that you can incorporate them into your applications and move on and on the right. You can see some examples of the publishers that are involved in Docker, official images and our Docker verified publisher program. Now I'm pleased to introduce you to marina. Kubicki our senior product manager who will walk you through more about what we're doing to create a better experience for you around trust. >>Thank you, Dani, >>Mario Andretti, who is a famous Italian sports car driver. One said that if everything feels under control, you're just not driving. You're not driving fast enough. Maya Andretti is not a software developer and a software developers. We know that no matter how fast we need to go in order to drive the innovation that we're working on, we can never allow our applications to spin out of control and a Docker. As we continue talking to our, to the developers, what we're realizing is that in order to reach that speed, the developers are the, the, the development community is looking for the building blocks and the tools that will, they will enable them to drive at the speed that they need to go and have the trust in those building blocks. And in those tools that they will be able to maintain control over their applications. So as we think about some of the things that we can do to, to address those concerns, uh, we're realizing that we can pursue them in a number of different venues, including creating reliable content, including creating partnerships that expands the options for the reliable content. >>Um, in order to, in a we're looking at creating integrations, no link security tools, talk about the reliable content. The first thing that comes to mind are the Docker official images, which is a program that we launched several years ago. And this is a set of curated, actively maintained, open source images that, uh, include, uh, operating systems and databases and programming languages. And it would become immensely popular for, for, for creating the base layers of, of the images of, of the different images, images, and applications. And would we realizing that, uh, many developers are, instead of creating something from scratch, basically start with one of the official images for their basis, and then build on top of that. And this program has become so popular that it now makes up a quarter of all of the, uh, Docker poles, which essentially ends up being several billion pulse every single month. >>As we look beyond what we can do for the open source. Uh, we're very ability on the open source, uh, spectrum. We are very excited to announce that we're launching the Docker verified publishers program, which is continuing providing the trust around the content, but now working with, uh, some of the industry leaders, uh, in multiple, in multiple verticals across the entire technology technical spec, it costs entire, uh, high tech in order to provide you with more options of the images that you can use for building your applications. And it still comes back to trust that when you are searching for content in Docker hub, and you see the verified publisher badge, you know, that this is, this is the content that, that is part of the, that comes from one of our partners. And you're not running the risk of pulling the malicious image from an employee master source. >>As we look beyond what we can do for, for providing the reliable content, we're also looking at some of the tools and the infrastructure that we can do, uh, to create a security around the content that you're creating. So last year at the last ad, the last year's DockerCon, we announced partnership with sneak. And later on last year, we launched our DACA, desktop and Docker hub vulnerability scans that allow you the options of writing scans in them along multiple points in your dev cycle. And in addition to providing you with information on the vulnerability on, on the vulnerabilities, in, in your code, uh, it also provides you with a guidance on how to re remediate those vulnerabilities. But as we look beyond the vulnerability scans, we're also looking at some of the other things that we can do, you know, to, to, to, uh, further ensure that the integrity and the security around your images, your images, and with that, uh, later on this year, we're looking to, uh, launch the scope, personal access tokens, and instead of talking about them, I will simply show you what they look like. >>So if you can see here, this is my page in Docker hub, where I've created a four, uh, tokens, uh, read-write delete, read, write, read only in public read in public creeper read only. So, uh, earlier today I went in and I, I logged in, uh, with my read only token. And when you see, when I'm going to pull an image, it's going to allow me to pull an image, not a problem success. And then when I do the next step, I'm going to ask to push an image into the same repo. Uh, would you see is that it's going to give me an error message saying that they access is denied, uh, because there is an additional authentication required. So these are the things that we're looking to add to our roadmap. As we continue thinking about the things that we can do to provide, um, to provide additional building blocks, content, building blocks, uh, and, and, and tools to build the trust so that our DACA developer and skinned code faster than Mario Andretti could ever imagine. Uh, thank you to >>Thank you, marina. It's amazing what you can do to improve the trusted content so that you can accelerate your development more and move more quickly, move more collaboratively and build upon the great work of others. Finally, we hear over and over as that developers are working on their applications that they're looking for, environments that are consistent, that are the same as production, and that they want their applications to really run anywhere, any environment, any architecture, any cloud one great example is the recent announcement of apple Silicon. We heard from developers on uproar that they needed Docker to be available for that architecture before they could add those to it and be successful. And we listened. And based on that, we are pleased to share with you Docker, desktop on apple Silicon. This enables you to run your apps consistently anywhere, whether that's developing on your team's latest dev hardware, deploying an ARM-based cloud environments and having a consistent architecture across your development and production or using multi-year architecture support, which enables your whole team to collaborate on its application, using private repositories on Docker hub, and thrilled to introduce you to Hughie cower, senior director for product management, who will walk you through more of what we're doing to create a great developer experience. >>Senior director of product management at Docker. And I'd like to jump straight into a demo. This is the Mac mini with the apple Silicon processor. And I want to show you how you can now do an end-to-end arm workflow from my M one Mac mini to raspberry PI. As you can see, we have vs code and Docker desktop installed on a, my, the Mac mini. I have a small example here, and I have a raspberry PI three with an led strip, and I want to turn those LEDs into a moving rainbow. This Dockerfile here, builds the application. We build the image with the Docker, build X command to make the image compatible for all raspberry pies with the arm. 64. Part of this build is built with the native power of the M one chip. I also add the push option to easily share the image with my team so they can give it a try to now Dr. >>Creates the local image with the application and uploads it to Docker hub after we've built and pushed the image. We can go to Docker hub and see the new image on Docker hub. You can also explore a variety of images that are compatible with arm processors. Now let's go to the raspberry PI. I have Docker already installed and it's running Ubuntu 64 bit with the Docker run command. I can run the application and let's see what will happen from there. You can see Docker is downloading the image automatically from Docker hub and when it's running, if it's works right, there are some nice colors. And with that, if we have an end-to-end workflow for arm, where continuing to invest into providing you a great developer experience, that's easy to install. Easy to get started with. As you saw in the demo, if you're interested in the new Mac, mini are interested in developing for our platforms in general, we've got you covered with the same experience you've come to expect from Docker with over 95,000 arm images on hub, including many Docker official images. >>We think you'll find what you're looking for. Thank you again to the community that helped us to test the tech previews. We're so delighted to hear when folks say that the new Docker desktop for apple Silicon, it just works for them, but that's not all we've been working on. As Dani mentioned, consistency of developer experience across environments is so important. We're introducing composed V2 that makes compose a first-class citizen in the Docker CLI you no longer need to install a separate composed biter in order to use composed, deploying to production is simpler than ever with the new compose integration that enables you to deploy directly to Amazon ECS or Azure ACI with the same methods you use to run your application locally. If you're interested in running slightly different services, when you're debugging versus testing or, um, just general development, you can manage that all in one place with the new composed service to hear more about what's new and Docker desktop, please join me in the three 15 breakout session this afternoon. >>And now I'd love to tell you a bit more about bill decks and convince you to try it. If you haven't already it's our next gen build command, and it's no longer experimental as shown in the demo with built X, you'll be able to do multi architecture builds, share those builds with your team and the community on Docker hub. With build X, you can speed up your build processes with remote caches or build all the targets in your composed file in parallel with build X bake. And there's so much more if you're using Docker, desktop or Docker, CE you can use build X checkout tonus is talk this afternoon at three 45 to learn more about build X. And with that, I hope everyone has a great Dr. Khan and back over to you, Donnie. >>Thank you UA. It's amazing to hear about what we're doing to create a better developer experience and make sure that Docker works everywhere you need to work. Finally, I'd like to wrap up by showing you everything that we've announced today and everything that we've done recently to make your lives better and give you more and more for the single price of your Docker subscription. We've announced the Docker verified publisher program we've announced scoped personal access tokens to make it easier for you to have a secure CCI pipeline. We've announced Docker dev environments to improve your collaboration with your team. Uh, we shared with you Docker, desktop and apple Silicon, to make sure that, you know, Docker runs everywhere. You need it to run. And we've announced Docker compose version two, finally making it a first-class citizen amongst all the other great Docker tools. And we've done so much more recently as well from audit logs to advanced image management, to compose service profiles, to improve where you can run Docker more easily. >>Finally, as we look forward, where we're headed in the upcoming year is continuing to invest in these themes of helping you build, share, and run modern apps more effectively. We're going to be doing more to help you create a secure supply chain with which only grows more and more important as time goes on. We're going to be optimizing your update experience to make sure that you can easily understand the current state of your application, all its components and keep them all current without worrying about breaking everything as you're doing. So we're going to make it easier for you to synchronize your work. Using cloud sync features. We're going to improve collaboration through dev environments and beyond, and we're going to do make it easy for you to run your microservice in your environments without worrying about things like architecture or differences between those environments. Thank you so much. I'm thrilled about what we're able to do to help make your lives better. And now you're going to be hearing from one of our customers about what they're doing to launch their business with Docker >>I'm Matt Falk, I'm the head of engineering and orbital insight. And today I want to talk to you a little bit about data from space. So who am I like many of you, I'm a software developer and a software developer about seven companies so far, and now I'm a head of engineering. So I spend most of my time doing meetings, but occasionally I'll still spend time doing design discussions, doing code reviews. And in my free time, I still like to dabble on things like project oiler. So who's Oberlin site. What do we do? Portal insight is a large data supplier and analytics provider where we take data geospatial data anywhere on the planet, any overhead sensor, and translate that into insights for the end customer. So specifically we have a suite of high performance, artificial intelligence and machine learning analytics that run on this geospatial data. >>And we build them to specifically determine natural and human service level activity anywhere on the planet. What that really means is we take any type of data associated with a latitude and longitude and we identify patterns so that we can, so we can detect anomalies. And that's everything that we do is all about identifying those patterns to detect anomalies. So more specifically, what type of problems do we solve? So supply chain intelligence, this is one of the use cases that we we'd like to talk about a lot. It's one of our main primary verticals that we go after right now. And as Scott mentioned earlier, this had a huge impact last year when COVID hit. So specifically supply chain intelligence is all about identifying movement patterns to and from operating facilities to identify changes in those supply chains. How do we do this? So for us, we can do things where we track the movement of trucks. >>So identifying trucks, moving from one location to another in aggregate, same thing we can do with foot traffic. We can do the same thing for looking at aggregate groups of people moving from one location to another and analyzing their patterns of life. We can look at two different locations to determine how people are moving from one location to another, or going back and forth. All of this is extremely valuable for detecting how a supply chain operates and then identifying the changes to that supply chain. As I said last year with COVID, everything changed in particular supply chains changed incredibly, and it was hugely important for customers to know where their goods or their products are coming from and where they were going, where there were disruptions in their supply chain and how that's affecting their overall supply and demand. So to use our platform, our suite of tools, you can start to gain a much better picture of where your suppliers or your distributors are going from coming from or going to. >>So what's our team look like? So my team is currently about 50 engineers. Um, we're spread into four different teams and the teams are structured like this. So the first team that we have is infrastructure engineering and this team largely deals with deploying our Dockers using Kubernetes. So this team is all about taking Dockers, built by other teams, sometimes building the Dockers themselves and putting them into our production system, our platform engineering team, they produce these microservices. So they produce microservice, Docker images. They develop and test with them locally. Their entire environments are dockerized. They produce these doctors, hand them over to him for infrastructure engineering to be deployed. Similarly, our product engineering team does the same thing. They develop and test with Dr. Locally. They also produce a suite of Docker images that the infrastructure team can then deploy. And lastly, we have our R and D team, and this team specifically produces machine learning algorithms using Nvidia Docker collectively, we've actually built 381 Docker repositories and 14 million. >>We've had 14 million Docker pools over the lifetime of the company, just a few stats about us. Um, but what I'm really getting to here is you can see actually doctors becoming almost a form of communication between these teams. So one of the paradigms in software engineering that you're probably familiar with encapsulation, it's really helpful for a lot of software engineering problems to break the problem down, isolate the different pieces of it and start building interfaces between the code. This allows you to scale different pieces of the platform or different pieces of your code in different ways that allows you to scale up certain pieces and keep others at a smaller level so that you can meet customer demands. And for us, one of the things that we can largely do now is use Dockers as that interface. So instead of having an entire platform where all teams are talking to each other, and everything's kind of, mishmashed in a monolithic application, we can now say this team is only able to talk to this team by passing over a particular Docker image that defines the interface of what needs to be built before it passes to the team and really allows us to scalp our development and be much more efficient. >>Also, I'd like to say we are hiring. Um, so we have a number of open roles. We have about 30 open roles in our engineering team that we're looking to fill by the end of this year. So if any of this sounds really interesting to you, please reach out after the presentation. >>So what does our platform do? Really? Our platform allows you to answer any geospatial question, and we do this at three different inputs. So first off, where do you want to look? So we did this as what we call an AOI or an area of interest larger. You can think of this as a polygon drawn on the map. So we have a curated data set of almost 4 million AOIs, which you can go and you can search and use for your analysis, but you're also free to build your own. Second question is what you want to look for. We do this with the more interesting part of our platform of our machine learning and AI capabilities. So we have a suite of algorithms that automatically allow you to identify trucks, buildings, hundreds of different types of aircraft, different types of land use, how many people are moving from one location to another different locations that people in a particular area are moving to or coming from all of these different analyses or all these different analytics are available at the click of a button, and then determine what you want to look for. >>Lastly, you determine when you want to find what you're looking for. So that's just, uh, you know, do you want to look for the next three hours? Do you want to look for the last week? Do you want to look every month for the past two, whatever the time cadence is, you decide that you hit go and out pops a time series, and that time series tells you specifically where you want it to look what you want it to look for and how many, or what percentage of the thing you're looking for appears in that area. Again, we do all of this to work towards patterns. So we use all this data to produce a time series from there. We can look at it, determine the patterns, and then specifically identify the anomalies. As I mentioned with supply chain, this is extremely valuable to identify where things change. So we can answer these questions, looking at a particular operating facility, looking at particular, what is happening with the level of activity is at that operating facility where people are coming from, where they're going to, after visiting that particular facility and identify when and where that changes here, you can just see it's a picture of our platform. It's actually showing all the devices in Manhattan, um, over a period of time. And it's more of a heat map view. So you can actually see the hotspots in the area. >>So really the, and this is the heart of the talk, but what happened in 2020? So for men, you know, like many of you, 2020 was a difficult year COVID hit. And that changed a lot of what we're doing, not from an engineering perspective, but also from an entire company perspective for us, the motivation really became to make sure that we were lowering our costs and increasing innovation simultaneously. Now those two things often compete with each other. A lot of times you want to increase innovation, that's going to increase your costs, but the challenge last year was how to do both simultaneously. So here's a few stats for you from our team. In Q1 of last year, we were spending almost $600,000 per month on compute costs prior to COVID happening. That wasn't hugely a concern for us. It was a lot of money, but it wasn't as critical as it was last year when we really needed to be much more efficient. >>Second one is flexibility for us. We were deployed on a single cloud environment while we were cloud thought ready, and that was great. We want it to be more flexible. We want it to be on more cloud environments so that we could reach more customers. And also eventually get onto class side networks, extending the base of our customers as well from a custom analytics perspective. This is where we get into our traction. So last year, over the entire year, we computed 54,000 custom analytics for different users. We wanted to make sure that this number was steadily increasing despite us trying to lower our costs. So we didn't want the lowering cost to come as the sacrifice of our user base. Lastly, of particular percentage here that I'll say definitely needs to be improved is 75% of our projects never fail. So this is where we start to get into a bit of stability of our platform. >>Now I'm not saying that 25% of our projects fail the way we measure this is if you have a particular project or computation that runs every day and any one of those runs sale account, that is a failure because from an end-user perspective, that's an issue. So this is something that we know we needed to improve on and we needed to grow and make our platform more stable. I'm going to something that we really focused on last year. So where are we now? So now coming out of the COVID valley, we are starting to soar again. Um, we had, uh, back in April of last year, we had the entire engineering team. We actually paused all development for about four weeks. You had everyone focused on reducing our compute costs in the cloud. We got it down to 200 K over the period of a few months. >>And for the next 12 months, we hit that number every month. This is huge for us. This is extremely important. Like I said, in the COVID time period where costs and operating efficiency was everything. So for us to do that, that was a huge accomplishment last year and something we'll keep going forward. One thing I would actually like to really highlight here, two is what allowed us to do that. So first off, being in the cloud, being able to migrate things like that, that was one thing. And we were able to use there's different cloud services in a more particular, in a more efficient way. We had a very detailed tracking of how we were spending things. We increased our data retention policies. We optimized our processing. However, one additional piece was switching to new technologies on, in particular, we migrated to get lab CICB. >>Um, and this is something that the costs we use Docker was extremely, extremely easy. We didn't have to go build new new code containers or repositories or change our code in order to do this. We were simply able to migrate the containers over and start using a new CIC so much. In fact, that we were able to do that migration with three engineers in just two weeks from a cloud environment and flexibility standpoint, we're now operating in two different clouds. We were able to last night, I've over the last nine months to operate in the second cloud environment. And again, this is something that Docker helped with incredibly. Um, we didn't have to go and build all new interfaces to all new, different services or all different tools in the next cloud provider. All we had to do was build a base cloud infrastructure that ups agnostic the way, all the different details of the cloud provider. >>And then our doctors just worked. We can move them to another environment up and running, and our platform was ready to go from a traction perspective. We're about a third of the way through the year. At this point, we've already exceeded the amount of customer analytics we produce last year. And this is thanks to a ton more albums, that whole suite of new analytics that we've been able to build over the past 12 months and we'll continue to build going forward. So this is really, really great outcome for us because we were able to show that our costs are staying down, but our analytics and our customer traction, honestly, from a stability perspective, we improved from 75% to 86%, not quite yet 99 or three nines or four nines, but we are getting there. Um, and this is actually thanks to really containerizing and modularizing different pieces of our platform so that we could scale up in different areas. This allowed us to increase that stability. This piece of the code works over here, toxin an interface to the rest of the system. We can scale this piece up separately from the rest of the system, and that allows us much more easily identify issues in the system, fix those and then correct the system overall. So basically this is a summary of where we were last year, where we are now and how much more successful we are now because of the issues that we went through last year and largely brought on by COVID. >>But that this is just a screenshot of the, our, our solution actually working on supply chain. So this is in particular, it is showing traceability of a distribution warehouse in salt lake city. It's right in the center of the screen here. You can see the nice kind of orange red center. That's a distribution warehouse and all the lines outside of that, all the dots outside of that are showing where people are, where trucks are moving from that location. So this is really helpful for supply chain companies because they can start to identify where their suppliers are, are coming from or where their distributors are going to. So with that, I want to say, thanks again for following along and enjoy the rest of DockerCon.

>>From around the globe. It's the cube with digital coverage of AWS reinvent executive summit 2020, sponsored by Accenture and AWS. >>Hi, everyone. Welcome to the cube virtual coverage of the executive summit at AWS reinvent 2020 virtual. This is the cube virtual. We can't be there in person like we are every year we have to be remote. This executive summit is with special programming supported by Accenture where the cube virtual I'm your host John for a year. We had a great panel here called on cloud first digital transformation from some experts, Stuart driver, the director of it and infrastructure and operates at lion Australia, Douglas Regan, managing director, client account lead at lion for Accenture as a deep Islam associate director application development lead for Accenture gentlemen. Thanks for coming on the cube virtual. >>That's a mouthful, >>All that digital, but the bottom line it's cloud transformation. This is a journey that you guys have been on together for over 10 years to be really a digital company. Now, some things have happened in the past year that kind of brings all this together. This is about the next generation organization. So I want to ask a Stuart, you first, if you can talk about this transformation at lion has undertaken some of the challenges and opportunities and how this year in particular has brought it together because you know, COVID has been the accelerant of digital transformation. Well, if you're 10 years in, I'm sure you're there. You're in the, uh, on that wave right now. Take a minute to explain this transformation journey. >>Yeah, sure. So number of years back, we, we looked at kind of our infrastructure and our landscape. I'm trying to figure out where we wanted to go next. And we were very analog based, um, and stuck in the old it Grove of Capitol reef rash, um, struggling to transform, struggling to get to a digital platform and we needed to change it up so that we could, uh, become very different business to the one that we were back then. Um, obviously cloud is an accelerant to that and we had a number of initiatives that needed a platform to build on. And a cloud infrastructure was the way that we started today. That side, we went through a number of transformation programs that we didn't want to do that in the old world. We wanted to do it in the new world. So, um, for us, it was palming up with, uh, you know, dried organizations that can take you on the journey and, uh, you know, start to deliver a bit by bit incremental progress, uh, to get to the, uh, I guess the promise land. >>Um, we're not, uh, not all the way there, but to where we were a long way along. And then when you get to some of the challenges like we've had this year, um, it makes all of the hard work worthwhile because you can actually change pretty quickly, um, provide capacity and, uh, and increase your environments and, you know, do the things that you need to do in a much more dynamic way than we would have been able to previously where we might've been waiting for the hardware vendors, et cetera, to deliver, um, capacity for us this year. It's been a pretty strong year from an it perspective and delivering for the business needs before we hit the Douglas. I want to >>Just really quick redirect to you and say, you know, if all the people who said, Oh yeah, you got to jump on cloud, get in early, you know, a lot of naysayers like, well, wait till to mature a little bit. Really, if you got in early and you, you know, paying your dues, if you will taking that medicine with the cloud, you're really kind of peaking at the right time. Is that true? Is that one of the benefits that comes out of this getting in there? >>Well, I mean, John, this has been an unprecedented year, right? And, um, you know, Australia, we had to live through bushfires and then we had covert and, and then we actually had to deliver a, um, a project on very large transformational product project, completely remote. And then we also had had some, some cyber challenges, which is public as well. And I don't think if we weren't moved into and enabled through the cloud, we would have been able to achieve that this year. It would have been much different. It would have been very difficult to do the fact that we're able to work and partner with Amazon through this year, which has been unprecedented and actually come out the other end and we've delivered a brand new digital capability across the entire business. Um, it really wouldn't have been impossible if we could, I guess, stayed in the old world. The fact that we were moved into the new Naval by the Navy allowed us to work in this unprecedented year. >>Just quick. What's your personal view on this? Because I've been saying on the Cuban reporting, necessity's the mother of all invention and the word agility has been kicked around as kind of a cliche, Oh, be agile. You know, we're going to get to Sydney. You can a minute on specifically, but from your perspective, uh, Douglas, what does that mean to you? Because there is benefits there for being agile. And >>I mean, I think as Stuart mentioned, right, in a lot of these things we try to do and, you know, typically, you know, hardware capabilities, uh, the last to be told and, and, and always the only critical path to be done, you know, we really didn't have that in this case, what we were doing with our projects in our deployments, right. We were able to move quickly able to make decisions in line with the business and really get things going, right. So a lot of times in a traditional world, you have these inhibitors, you have these critical path, it takes weeks and months to get things done as opposed to hours and days, and, and truly allowed us to, we had to, you know, BJ things, move things. And, you know, we were able to do that in this environment with AWS to support and the fact that we can kind of turn things off and on as quickly as we needed. Yeah. >>Cloud-scale is great for speed. So DECA, Gardez get your thoughts on this cloud first mission, you know, it, you know, the dev ops world, they saw this early, that jumping in there, they saw the, the, the agility. Now the theme this year is modern applications with the COVID pandemic pressure, there's real business pressure to make that happen. How did you guys learn to get there fast? And what specifically did you guys do at Accenture and how did it all come together? Can you take us inside kind of how it played out? >>No ma'am. So we started off with us and we worked with lions experts and, uh, the lost knowledge that I had, um, we then applied >>Our journey to cloud strategy and basically revolves around the seminars and, and, uh, you know, the deep repeating steps from our perspective was, uh, assessing the current environment, setting up the new cloud environment. And as we go modernizing and migrating these applications to the cloud now, you know, one of the key things that, uh, you know, we did not along this journey was that, you know, you can have the best plans, but the environment that we were dealing with, we, we often than not have to make changes. Uh, what opened a lot of agility and also work with a lot of collaboration with the, uh, Lyon team, as well as, uh, uh, AWS. I think the key thing for me was being able to really bring it all together. It's not just, uh, you know, essentially mobilize all of us working together to make this happen. >>What were some of the learnings real quick here for your journey there? >>So I think so from our perspective, the key learnings that, you know, uh, you know, when, when we look back at, uh, the, the infrastructure that was that we were trying to migrate over to the cloud, a lot of the documentation, et cetera, was not, uh, available. We were having to, uh, figure out a lot of things on the fly. Now that really required us to have, uh, uh, people with deep expertise who could go into those environments and, and work out, uh, you know, the best ways to, to migrate the workloads to the cloud. Uh, I think, you know, the biggest thing for me was making Jovi had on that real SMEs across the board globally, that we could leverage across the various technologies, uh, uh, and, and, and, you know, that would really work in our collaborative and agile. A lot of it would lie. >>Let's do what I got to ask you. How did you address your approach to the cloud and what was your experience? >>Yeah, for me, it's around getting the foundations right. To start with and then building on them. Um, so, you know, you've gotta have your, your, your process and you've got to have your, your kind of your infrastructure there and your blueprints ready. Um, AWS do a great job of that, right. Getting the foundations right. And then building upon it, and then, you know, partnering with Accenture allows you to do that very successfully. Um, I think, um, you know, the one thing that was probably surprising to us when we started down this journey and kind of after we got a long way down the track and looking backwards is actually how much you can just turn off. Right? So a lot of stuff that you, uh, you get left with a legacy in your environment, and when you start to work through it with the types of people that civic just mentioned, you know, the technical expertise working with the business, um, you can really rationalize environment and, uh, um, you know, cloud is a good opportunity to do that, to drive that legacy out. >>Um, so you know, a few things there, the other thing is, um, you've got to try and figure out the benefits that you're going to get out of moving here. So there's no point just taking something that is not delivering a huge amount of value in the traditional world, moving it into the cloud, and guess what is going to deliver the same limited amount of value. So you've got to transform it, and you've got to make sure that you build it for the future and understand exactly what you're trying to gain out of it. So again, you need a strong collaboration, you need, uh, um, you know, good partners to work with, and you need good engagement from the business as well, because the kind of, uh, you know, digital transformation, cloud transformation, isn't really an it project, I guess, fundamentally it is at the core, but it's a business project that you've got to get the whole business aligned on. You've got to make sure that your investment streams are appropriate and that's, uh, you're able to understand the benefits and the value that say, you're going to draw it back towards the business. >>Let's do it. If you don't mind me asking, what was some of the obstacles you encountered or learnings, um, that might've differed from the expectations we all been there, Hey, you know, we're going to change the world. Here's the sales pitch, here's the outcome. And then obviously things happen, you know, you learn legacy, okay. Let's put some containerization around that cloud native, um, all that rational. You're talking about what are you going to have obstacles? That's how you learn. That's how perfection is developed. How, what obstacles did you come up with and how are they different from your expectations going in? Yeah, >>They're probably no different from other people that have gone down the same journey. If I'm totally honest, the, you know, 70 or 80% of what you do is relatively easy because of the known quantity, it's relatively modern architectures and infrastructures, and you can, you know, upgrade, migrate, move them into the cloud, whatever it is, rehost, replatform, you know, rearchitect, whatever it is you want to do, it's the other stuff, right? It's the stuff that always gets left behind. And that's the challenge. It's, it's getting that last bit over the line and making sure that you haven't invested in the future while still carrying all of your legacy costs and complexity within your environment. So, um, to be quite honest, that's probably taken longer and has been more of a challenge than we thought it would be. Um, the other piece I touched on earlier on in terms of what was surprising was actually how much of, uh, your environment is actually not needed anymore. >>When you start to put a critical eye across it and understand, um, uh, ask the tough questions and start to understand exactly what, what it is you're trying to achieve. So if you ask a part of the business, do they still need this application or this service a hundred percent of the time, they'll say yes, until you start to lay out to them, okay. Now going to cost you this to migrate it or this, to run it in the future. And, you know, here's your ongoing costs and, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And then, uh, for a significant amount of those answers, you get a different response when you start to layer on the true value of it. So you start to flush out those hidden costs within the, and you start to make some critical decisions as a company based on that, based on that. So that was a little tougher than we first thought and probably broader than we thought there was more of that than we anticipated, uh, which actually resulted in a much cleaner environment, post post migration, >>You know, the old expression, if it moves automated, you know, it's kind of a joke on government, how they want to tax everything, you know, you want to automate, that's a key thing in cloud, and you've got to discover those opportunities to create value, uh, Stuart and Siddique. Mainly if you can weigh in on this love to know the percentage of total cloud that you have now, versus when you started, because as you start to uncover whether it's by design for purpose, or you discover opportunity to innovate like you guys have, I'm sure it kind of, you took on some territory inside Lyon, what percentage of cloud now versus stark? >>Yeah. I just thought it was minimal, right. You know, close to zero rise, single and single digits. Right. It was mainly SAS environments that we had, uh, sitting in cloud when we, uh, when we started, um, Don mentioned that air on a really significant transformation project, um, that we've on the Turk and recently gone live on a multi-year one. Um, you know, that's all stood up on AWS and there's a, a significant portion of our environment, um, in terms of what we can move to cloud. Uh, we're probably at about 80 or 90% now. And the balanced bit is, um, legacy infrastructure that is just gonna retire as we go through the cycle rather than migrate to the cloud. Um, so we are significantly cloud biased and, uh, you know, we're reaping the benefits of it in a year, like 2020, and makes you glad that you did all of the hard yards in the previous years when you start business challenges starting out as, yeah. >>So I think any common reaction. Yeah. Still the cloud percentage penetration. Okay. >>So I do, I do guys, all I was going to say was, I think it's like the 80 20 rule, right? We, we, we worked really hard in the, you know, I think 2018, 19 to get any person off the application onto the cloud. And over the last year is the 20% that we have been migrating to extend. Right. Uh, not, I think that is also, that's going to be good diet. And I think our next big step is going to be obviously, you know, the icing on the cake, which is to decommission all of these apps as well. Right. So, you know, to get the real benefits out of, uh, the whole conservation program from a, uh, from a reduction of cap ex >>Douglas and Stuart, can you guys talk about the decision around the cloud because you guys have had success with AWS, why AWS how's that decision made? Can you guys give some insight into some of those thoughts? >>I can, I can stop, start off. I think back when the decision was made and it was, it was a while back, um, you know, there's some clear advantages of moving relay, Ws, a lot of alignment with some of the significant projects and the trend, that particular one big transformation project that we've alluded to as well. Um, you know, we needed some, um, um, some very robust and, um, just future proof and, um, proven technology. And AWS gave that to us. We needed a lot of those blueprints to help us move down the path. We didn't want to reinvent everything. So, um, you know, having a lot of that legwork done for us and AWS gives you that, right. And particularly when you partner up with, uh, with a company like Accenture as well, you get a combination of the technology and the, and the skills and the knowledge to, to move you forward in that direction. >>So, um, you know, for us, it was a, uh, uh, it was a decision based on, you know, best of breed, um, you know, looking forward and, and trying to predict the future needs and, and, and kind of the environmental that we might need. Um, and, you know, partnering up with organizations that can take you on the journey. Yeah. And just to build on that. So obviously, you know, lions like an NWS, but, you know, we knew it was a very good choice given the, um, uh, the skills and the capability that we had, as well as the assets and tools we had to get the most out of, um, out of the AWS. And obviously our CEO globally has just made an announcement about a huge investment that we're making in cloud. Um, but you know, we've, we've worked very well with AWS. We've done some joint workshops and joint investments, um, some joint POC. So yeah, w we have a very good working relationship, AWS, and I think, um, one incident to reflect upon the cyber is, and again, where we actually jointly, you know, dove in with, um, with Amazon and some of their security experts and our experts, and we're able to actually work through that with wine success, quite them. So, um, you know, really good behaviors as an organization, but also really good capabilities. >>Yeah. As you guys, you're essential cloud outcomes, research shown, it's the cycle of innovation with the cloud. That's creating a lot of benefits knowing what you guys know now, looking back certainly COVID has impacted a lot of people kind of going through the same process, uh, knowing what you guys know now, would you advocate people to jump on this transformation journey? If so, how and what tweaks they make what's, uh, changes, what would you advise? >>I might take that one to start with. Um, I hate to think where we would have been when, uh, COVID kicked off here in Australia and, you know, we were all sent home, literally were at work on the Friday, and then over the weekend. And then Monday, we were told not to come back into the office and all of a sudden, um, our capacity in terms of remote access quadrupled, or more four, five X, uh, what we had on the Friday we needed on the Monday. And we were able to stand that up during the day Monday night into Tuesday, because we were cloud-based and, uh, you know, we just spun up your instances and, uh, you know, sort of our licensing, et cetera. And, and we had all of our people working remotely, um, within, uh, you know, effectively one business day. Um, I know peers of mine in other organizations and industries that are relying on kind of a traditional wise and getting hardware, et cetera, that were weeks and before they could get the right hardware to be able to deliver to their user base. >>So, um, you know, one example where you're able to scale and, uh, um, get, uh, get value out of this platform beyond probably what was anticipated at the time you talked about, um, you know, less this, the, in all of these kinds of things. And you can also think of a few scenarios, but real world ones where you're getting your business back up and running in that period of time is, is just phenomenal. There's other stuff, right? There's these programs that we've rolled out, you do your sizing, um, and in the traditional world, you would just go out and buy more servers than you need. And, you know, probably never realize the full value of those, you know, the capability of those servers over the life cycle of them. Whereas, you know, in a cloud world, you're putting what you think is right. And if it's not right, you bump it up a little bit when, when all of your metrics and so on, I'm tell you that you need to bump it up. And conversely, you Scarlet down at a, at the same rate. So for us with the types of challenges and programs and, uh, uh, and just business need, that's come at as this year, uh, we wouldn't have been able to do it without a strong cloud base, uh, to, uh, to move forward with >>Yeah, Douglas, one of the things I talked to, a lot of people on the right side of history who have been on the right wave with cloud, with the pandemic, and they're happy, they're like, and they're humble. Like, well, we're just lucky, you know, luck is preparation meets opportunity. And this is really about you guys getting in early and being prepared and readiness. This is kind of important as people realize that you gotta be ready. I mean, it's not just, you don't get lucky by being in the right place, the right time. And there were a lot of companies were on the wrong side of history here who might get washed away. This is a super important one >>Yeah. To echo and kind of build on what Stewart said. I think that the reason that we've had success and, and I guess the momentum is we, we didn't just do it in isolation within it and technology. It was actually linked to broader business changes, you know, creating basically a digital platform for the entire business, moving the business, where are they going to be able to come back stronger after COVID, when they're actually set up for growth, um, and actually allows, you know, uh, line to achievements growth objectives, and also its ambitions as far as what it wants to do, uh, with growth and whatever they may do with acquiring other companies and moving into different markets and launching new products. So we've actually done it in a way that is, you know, real and direct business benefit. Uh, it actually enables learning to grow. >>Jim. I really appreciate you coming. I have one final question. If you can wrap up here, uh, Stuart and Douglas, you don't mind weighing in what's the priorities for the future. What's next for lion and essential >>Christmas holidays, I'll start Christmas holidays and it's been a big year and then a, and then a reset, obviously, right? So, um, you know, it's, it's figuring out, uh, transform what we've already transformed, if that makes sense. So God, a huge proportion of our services sitting in the cloud. Um, but we know we're not done even with the stuff that is in there. We need to take those steps. We need more and more automation and orchestration. Uh, we need to, um, uh, our environment is more future growth. We need to be able to work with the business and understand what's coming at them so that we can know, build that into our environment. So again, it's really transformation on top of transformation. It's the way that I'll describe it. And it's really an open book, right? Once you get it in and you've got the capabilities and the evolving tool sets that, uh, AWS continue to bring to the market, um, you know, working with the partners to, to figure out how we unlock that value, um, you know, drive our costs down our efficiency up, uh, all of those kind of, you know, standard metrics. >>Um, but you know, we're looking for the next things to transform and showed value back out to our customer base, um, that, uh, that we continue to, you know, sell our products to and work with and understand how we can better make their names. Yeah, I think just to echo that, I think it's really leveraging this end to end digital capability they have and getting the most out of that investment. And then I think it's also moving to, uh, in a dumping more new ways of working as far as, you know, the state of the business. Um, it's getting up the speed of the market is changing. So being able to launch and do things quickly and also, um, be competitive with it, you know, inefficient operating costs, uh, now that they're in the cloud, right. So I think it's really leveraging the most out of a platform and then, you know, being efficient in launching things. So putting it with the business, >>Sadiq, any word from you on your priorities by UC this year in folding. >>Yeah. So, uh, there's got to say like e-learning squares, right? For me around this journey, this is a journey to the cloud, right. And, uh, you know, as well dug the students at it's getting all, you know, different parts of the organization along the journey business to ID to your, uh, Warnock Legos, et cetera. Right. And it takes time. It is tough, but, uh, uh, you know, you got to get started on it and, you know, once we, once we finish off, uh, it's the realization of the benefits now that, you know, looking forward, I think for, from Alliance perspective is, is, uh, you know, once we migrate all the workloads to the cloud, it is leveraging, uh, our stack drive. And as I think Stewart said, uh, earlier, uh, with, uh, you know, the latest and greatest stuff that non-compete WLC, it's basically working to see how we can really, uh, achieve more better operational excellence, uh, from a, uh, from a cloud perspective. >>Well, Stewart, thanks for coming on with a century, sharing your environment and what's going on and your journey you're on the right wave. Did the work you're in the, it's all coming together with faster, congratulations for your success and, uh, really appreciate Douglas and Steve for coming on as well from Accenture. Thank you for coming on. Thanks, John. Okay. Just the cubes coverage of executive summit at AWS reinvent. This is where all the thought leaders share their best practices, their journeys, and of course, special programming with Accenture and the cube. I'm Sean ferry, your host. Thanks for watching.

>>From around the globe. It's the cube with digital coverage of AWS reinvent executive summit 2020, sponsored by Accenture and AWS. >>Welcome to cube three 60 fives coverage of the Accenture executive summit. Part of AWS reinvent. I'm your host Rebecca Knight. Today we are joined by a cube alum, Karthik, Lorraine. He is Accenture senior managing director and lead Accenture cloud. First, welcome back to the show Karthik. >>Thank you. Thanks for having me here. >>Always a pleasure. So I want to talk to you. You are an industry veteran, you've been in Silicon Valley for decades. Um, I want to hear from your perspective what the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been, what are you hearing from clients? What are they struggling with? What are their challenges that they're facing day to day? >>I think, um, COVID-19 is being a eye-opener from, you know, various facets, you know, um, first and foremost, it's a, it's a hell, um, situation that everybody's facing, which is not just, uh, highest economic bearings to it. It has enterprise, um, an organization with bedding to it. And most importantly, it's very personal to people, um, because they themselves and their friends, family near and dear ones are going through this challenge, uh, from various different dimension. But putting that aside, when you come to it from an organization enterprise standpoint, it has changed everything well, the behavior of organizations coming together, working in their campuses, working with each other as friends, family, and, uh, um, near and dear colleagues, all of them are operating differently. So that's what big change to get things done in a completely different way, from how they used to get things done. >>Number two, a lot of things that were planned for normal scenarios, like their global supply chain, how they interact with their client customers, how they go innovate with their partners on how that employees contribute to the success of an organization at all changed. And there are no data models that give them a hint of something like this for them to be prepared for this. So we are seeing organizations, um, that have adapted to this reasonably okay, and are, you know, launching to innovate faster in this. And there are organizations that have started with struggling, but are continuing to struggle. And the gap between the leaders and legs are widening. So this is creating opportunities in a different way for the leaders, um, with a lot of pivot their business, but it's also creating significant challenge for the lag guides, uh, as we defined in our future systems research that we did a year ago, uh, and those organizations are struggling further. So the gap is actually widening. >>So you just talked about the widening gap. I've talked about the tremendous uncertainty that so many companies, even the ones who have adapted reasonably well, uh, in this, in this time, talk a little bit about Accenture cloud first and why, why now? >>I think it's a great question. Um, we believe that for many of our clients COVID-19 has turned, uh, cloud from an experimentation aspiration to an origin mandate. What I mean by that is everybody has been doing something on the other end cloud. There's no company that says we don't believe in cloud are, we don't want to do cloud. It was how much they did in cloud. And they were experimenting. They were doing the new things in cloud, but they were operating a lot of their core business outside the cloud or not in the cloud. Those organizations have struggled to operate in this new normal, in a remote fashion, as well as, uh, their ability to pivot to all the changes the pandemic has brought to them. But on the other hand, the organizations that had a solid foundation in cloud were able to collect faster and not actually gone into the stage of innovating faster and driving a new behavior in the market, new behavior within their organization. >>So we are seeing that spend to make is actually fast-forwarded something that we always believed was going to happen. This, uh, uh, moving to cloud over the next decade is fast forward it to happen in the next three to five years. And it's created this moment where it's a once in an era, really replatforming of businesses in the cloud that we are going to see. And we see this moment as a cloud first moment where organizations will use cloud as the, the, the canvas and the foundation with which they're going to reimagine their business after they were born in the cloud. Uh, and this requires a whole new strategy. Uh, and as Accenture, we are getting a lot in cloud, but we thought that this is the moment where we bring all of that, gave him a piece together because we need a strategy for addressing, moving to cloud are embracing cloud in a holistic fashion. And that's what Accenture cloud first brings together a holistic strategy, a team that's 70,000 plus people that's coming together with rich cloud skills, but investing to tie in all the various capabilities of cloud to Delaware, that holistic strategy to our clients. So I want you to >>Delve into a little bit more about what this strategy actually entails. I mean, it's clearly about embracing change and being willing to experiment and having capabilities to innovate. Can you tell us a little bit more about what this strategy entails? >>Yeah. The reason why we say that as a need for strategy is like I said, cloud is not new. There's almost every customer client is doing something with the cloud, but all of them have taken different approaches to cloud and different boundaries to cloud. Some organizations say, I just need to consolidate my multiple data centers to a small data center footprint and move the nest to cloud. Certain other organizations say that well, I'm going to move certain workloads to cloud. Certain other organizations said, well, I'm going to build this Greenfield application or workload in cloud. Certain other said, um, I'm going to use the power of AI ML in the cloud to analyze my data and drive insights. But a cloud first strategy is all of this tied with the corporate strategy of the organization with an industry specific cloud journey to say, if in this current industry, if I were to be reborn in the cloud, would I do it in the exact same passion that I did in the past, which means that the products and services that they offer need to be the matching, how they interact with that customers and partners need to be revisited, how they bird and operate their IP systems need to be the, imagine how they unearthed the data from all of the systems under which they attract need to be liberated so that you could drive insights of cloud. >>First strategy hands is a corporate wide strategy, and it's a C-suite responsibility. It doesn't take the ownership away from the CIO or CIO, but the CIO is, and CDI was felt that it was just their problem and they were to solve it. And everyone as being a customer, now, the center of gravity is elevated to it becoming a C-suite agenda on everybody's agenda, where probably the CDI is the instrument to execute that that's a holistic cloud-first strategy >>And it, and it's a strategy, but the way you're describing it, it sounds like it's also a mindset and an approach, as you were saying, this idea of being reborn in the cloud. So now how do I think about things? How do I communicate? How do I collaborate? How do I get done? What I need to get done. Talk a little bit about how this has changed, the way you support your clients and how Accenture cloud first is changing your approach to cloud services. >>Wonderful. Um, you know, I did not color one very important aspect in my previous question, but that's exactly what you just asked me now, which is to do all of this. I talked about all of the variables, uh, an organization or an enterprise is going to go through, but the good part is they have one constant. And what is that? That is their employees, uh, because you do, the employees are able to embrace this change. If they are able to, uh, change them, says, pivot them says retool and train themselves to be able to operate in this new cloud. First one, the ability to reimagine every function of the business would be happening at speed. And cloud first approach is to do all of this at speed, because innovation is deadly proposed there, do the rate of probability on experimentation. You need to experiment a lot for any kind of experimentation. >>There's a probability of success. Organizations need to have an ability and a mechanism for them to be able to innovate faster for which they need to experiment a lot, the more the experiment and the lower cost at which they experiment is going to help them experiment a lot. And they experiment demic speed, fail fast, succeed more. And hence, they're going to be able to operate this at speed. So the cloud-first mindset is all about speed. I'm helping the clients fast track that innovation journey, and this is going to happen. Like I said, across the enterprise and every function across every department, I'm the agent of this change is going to be the employees or weapon, race, this change through new skills and new grueling and new mindset that they need to adapt to. >>So Karthik what you're describing it, it sounds so exciting. And yet for a pandemic wary workforce, that's been working remotely that may be dealing with uncertainty if for their kid's school and for so many other aspects of their life, it sounds hard. So how are you helping your clients, employees get onboard with this? And because the change management is, is often the hardest part. >>Yeah, I think it's, again, a great question. A bottle has only so much capacity. Something got to come off for something else to go in. That's what you're saying is absolutely right. And that is again, the power of cloud. The reason why cloud is such a fundamental breakthrough technology and capability for us to succeed in this era, because it helps in various forms. What we talked so far is the power of innovation that can create, but cloud can also simplify the life of the employees in an enterprise. There are several activities and tasks that people do in managing that complex infrastructure, complex ID landscape. They used to do certain jobs and activities in a very difficult underground about with cloud has simplified. And democratised a lot of these activities. So that things which had to be done in the past, like managing the complexity of the infrastructure, keeping them up all the time, managing the, um, the obsolescence of the capabilities and technologies and infrastructure, all of that could be offloaded to the cloud. >>So that the time that is available for all of these employees can be used to further innovate. Every organization is going to spend almost the same amount of money, but rather than spending activities, by looking at the rear view mirror on keeping the lights on, they're going to spend more money, more time, more energy, and spend their skills on things that are going to add value to their organization. Because you, every innovation that an enterprise can give to their end customer need not come from that enterprise. The word of platform economy is about democratising innovation. And the power of cloud is to get all of these capabilities from outside the four walls of the enterprise, >>It will add value to the organization, but I would imagine also add value to that employee's life because that employee, the employee will be more engaged in his or her job and therefore bring more excitement and energy into her, his or her day-to-day activities too. >>Absolutely. Absolutely. And this is, this is a normal evolution we would have seen everybody would have seen in their lives, that they keep moving up the value chain of what activities that, uh, gets performed buying by those individuals. And this is, um, you know, no more true than how the United States, uh, as an economy has operated where, um, this is the power of a powerhouse of innovation, where the work that's done inside the country keeps moving up to value chain. And, um, us leverage is the global economy for a lot of things that is required to power the United States and that global economic, uh, phenomenon is very proof for an enterprise as well. There are things that an enterprise needs to do them soon. There are things an employee needs to do themselves. Um, but there are things that they could leverage from the external innovation and the power of innovation that is coming from technologies like cloud. >>So at Accenture, you have long, long, deep Stan, sorry, you have deep and long-standing relationships with many cloud service providers, including AWS. How does the Accenture cloud first strategy, how does it affect your relationships with those providers? >>Yeah, we have great relationships with cloud providers like AWS. And in fact, in the cloud world, it was one of the first, um, capability that we started about years ago, uh, when we started developing these capabilities. But five years ago, we hit a very important milestone where the two organizations came together and said that we are forging a pharma partnership with joint investments to build this partnership. And we named that as a Accenture, AWS business group ABG, uh, where we co-invest and brought skills together and develop solutions. And we will continue to do that. And through that investment, we've also made several acquisitions that you would have seen in the recent times, like, uh, an invoice and gecko that we made acquisitions in in Europe. But now we're taking this to the next level. What we are saying is two cloud first and the $3 billion investment that we are bringing in, uh, through cloud-first. >>We are going to make specific investment to create unique joint solution and landing zones foundation, um, cloud packs with which clients can accelerate their innovation or their journey to cloud first. And one great example is what we are doing with Takeda, uh, billable, pharmaceutical giant, um, between we've signed a five-year partnership. And it was out in the media just a month ago or so, where we are, the two organizations are coming together. We have created a partnership as a power of three partnership, where the three organizations are jointly hoarding hats and taking responsibility for the innovation and the leadership position that Takeda wants to get to with this. We are going to simplify their operating model and organization by providing and flexibility. We're going to provide a lot more insights. Tequila has a 230 year old organization. Imagine the amount of trapped data and intelligence that is there. >>How about bringing all of that together with the power of AWS and Accenture and Takeda to drive more customer insights, um, come up with breakthrough R and D uh, accelerate clinical trials and improve the patient experience using AI ML and edge technologies. So all of these things that we will do through this partnership with joined investment from Accenture cloud first, as well as partner like AWS, so that Takeda can realize their gain. And, uh, their senior actually made a statement that five years from now, every ticket an employee will have an AI assistant. That's going to make that beginner employee move up the value chain on how they contribute and add value to the future of tequila with the AI assistant, making them even more equipped and smarter than what they could be otherwise. >>So, one last question to close this out here. What is your future vision for, for Accenture cloud first? What are we going to be talking about at next year's Accenture executive summit? Yeah, the future >>Is going to be, um, evolving, but the part that is exciting to me, and this is, uh, uh, a fundamental belief that we are entering a new era of industrial revolution from industry first, second, and third industry. The third happened probably 20 years ago with the advent of Silicon and computers and all of that stuff that happened here in the Silicon Valley. I think the fourth industrial revolution is going to be in the cross section of, uh, physical, digital and biological boundaries. And there's a great article, um, in one economic forum that people, uh, your audience can Google and read about it. Uh, but the reason why this is very, very important is we are seeing a disturbing phenomenon that over the last 10 years are seeing a Blackwing of the, um, labor productivity and innovation, which has dropped to about 2.1%. When you see that kind of phenomenon over that longer period of time, there has to be breakthrough innovation that needs to happen to come out of this barrier and get to the next, you know, base camp, as I would call it to further this productivity, um, lack that we are seeing, and that is going to happen in the intersection of the physical, digital and biological boundaries. >>And I think cloud is going to be the connective tissue between all of these three, to be able to provide that where it's the edge, especially is good to come closer to the human lives. It's going to come from cloud. Yeah. Pick totally in your mind, you can think about cloud as central, either in a private cloud, in a data center or in a public cloud, you know, everywhere. But when you think about edge, it's going to be far reaching and coming close to where we live and maybe work and very, um, get entertained and so on and so forth. And there's good to be, uh, intervention in a positive way in the field of medicine, in the field of entertainment, in the field of, um, manufacturing in the field of, um, you know, mobility. When I say mobility, human mobility, people, transportation, and so on and so forth with all of this stuff, cloud is going to be the connective tissue and the vision of cloud first is going to be, uh, you know, blowing through this big change that is going to happen. And the evolution that is going to happen where, you know, the human grace of mankind, um, our person kind of being very gender neutral in today's world. Um, go first needs to be that beacon of, uh, creating the next generation vision for enterprises to take advantage of that kind of an exciting future. And that's why it, Accenture, are we saying that there'll be change as our, as our purpose? >>I genuinely believe that cloud first is going to be the forefront of that change agenda, both for Accenture as well as for the rest of the work. >>Excellent. Let there be changed. Indeed. Thank you so much for joining us Karthik. A pleasure I'm Rebecca Knight stay tuned for more of Q3 60 fives coverage of the Accenture executive summit >>From around the globe. It's the cube with digital coverage of AWS reinvent executive summit 2020, sponsored by Accenture and AWS. >>Welcome everyone to the cube virtual and our coverage of the Accenture executive summit. Part of AWS reinvent 2020. I'm your host Rebecca Knight. Today, we are talking about the power of three. And what happens when you bring together the scientific, how of a global bias biopharmaceutical powerhouse in Takeda, a leading cloud services provider in AWS, and Accenture's ability to innovate, execute, and deliver innovation. Joining me to talk about these things. We have Aaron, sorry. Arjan Beatty. He is the senior managing director and chairman of Accenture's diamonds leadership council. Welcome Arjun. Thank you, Karl hick. He is the chief digital and information officer at Takeda. >>What is your bigger, thank you, Rebecca >>And Brian Beau Han global director and head of the Accenture AWS business group at Amazon web services. Thanks so much for coming on. Thank you. So, as I said, we're talking today about this relationship between, uh, your three organizations. Carl, I want to talk with you. I know you're at the beginning of your cloud journey. What was the compelling reason? Why w why, why move to the cloud and why now? >>Yeah, no, thank you for the question. So, you know, as a biopharmaceutical leader, we're committed to bringing better health and a brighter future to our patients. We're doing that by translating science into some really innovative and life transporting therapies, but throughout, you know, we believe that there's a responsible use of technology, of data and of innovation. And those three ingredients are really key to helping us deliver on that promise. And so, you know, while I think a I'll call it, this cloud journey is already always been a part of our strategy. Um, and we've made some pretty steady progress over the last years with a number of I'll call it diverse approaches to the digital and AI. We just weren't seeing the impact at scale that we wanted to see. Um, and I think that, you know, there's a, there's a need ultimately to, you know, accelerate and broaden that shift. >>And, you know, we were commenting on this earlier, but there's, you know, it's been highlighted by a number of factors. One of those has been certainly a number of the acquisitions we've made Shire, uh, being the most pressing example, uh, but also the global pandemic, both of those highlight the need for us to move faster, um, at the speed of cloud, ultimately. Uh, and so we started thinking outside of the box because it was taking us too long and we decided to leverage the strategic partner model. Uh, and it's giving us a chance to think about our challenges very differently. We call this the power of three, uh, and ultimately our focus is singularly on our patients. I mean, they're waiting for us. We need to get there faster. It can take years. And so I think that there is a focus on innovation at a rapid speed, so we can move ultimately from treating conditions to keeping people healthy. >>So as you are embarking on this journey, what are some of the insights you want to share about, about what you're seeing so far? >>Yeah, no, it's a great question. So, I mean, look, maybe right before I highlight some of the key insights, uh, I would say that, you know, with cloud now as the, as a launchpad for innovation, you know, our vision all along has been that in less than 10 years, we want every single to kid, uh, the associate or employee to be empowered by an AI assistant. And I think that, you know, that's going to help us make faster, better decisions. That'll help us, uh, fundamentally deliver transformative therapies and better experiences to, to that ecosystem, to our patients, to physicians, to payers, et cetera, much faster than we previously thought possible. Um, and I think that technologies like cloud and edge computing together with a very powerful I'll call it data fabric is going to help us to create this, this real-time, uh, I'll call it the digital ecosystem. >>The data has to flow ultimately seamlessly between our patients and providers or partners or researchers, et cetera. Uh, and so we've been thinking about this, uh, I'll call it weekly, call up sort of this pyramid, um, that helps us describe our vision. Uh, and a lot of it has to do with ultimately modernizing the foundation, modernizing and rearchitecting, the platforms that drive the company, uh, heightening our focus on data, which means that there's an accelerated shift towards, uh, enterprise data platforms and digital products. And then ultimately, uh, uh, uh, you know, really an engine for innovation sitting at the very top. Um, and so I think with that, you know, there's a few different, I'll call it insights that, you know, are quickly kind of come zooming into focus. I would say one is this need to collaborate very differently. Um, you know, not only internally, but you know, how do we define ultimately, and build a connected digital ecosystem with the right partners and technologies externally? >>I think the second component that maybe people don't think as much about, but, you know, I find critically important is for us to find ways of really transforming our culture. We have to unlock talent and shift the culture certainly as a large biopharmaceutical very differently. And then lastly, you've touched on it already, which is, you know, innovation at the speed of cloud. How do we re-imagine that? You know, how do ideas go from getting tested in months to kind of getting tested in days? You know, how do we collaborate very differently? Uh, and so I think those are three, uh, perhaps of the larger I'll call it, uh, insights that, you know, the three of us are spending a lot of time thinking about right now. >>So Arjun, I want to bring you into this conversation a little bit. Let's, let's delve into those a bit. Talk first about the collaboration, uh, that Carl was referencing there. How, how have you seen that? It is enabling, uh, colleagues and teams to communicate differently and interact in new and different ways? Uh, both internally and externally, as Carl said, >>No, thank you for that. And, um, I've got to give call a lot of credit because as we started to think about this journey, it was clear. It was a bold ambition was, uh, something that, you know, we had all to do differently. And so the concept of the power of three that Carl has constructed has become a label for us as a way to think about what are we going to do to collectively drive this journey forward. And to me, the unique ways of collaboration means three things. The first one is that, um, what is expected is that the three parties are going to come together and it's more than just the sum of our resources. And by that, I mean that we have to bring all of ourselves, all of our collective capabilities, as an example, Amazon has amazing supply chain capabilities. They're one of the best at supply chain. >>So in addition to resources, when we have supply chain innovations, uh, that's something that they're bringing in addition to just, uh, talent and assets, similarly for Accenture, right? We do a lot, uh, in the talent space. So how do we bring our thinking as to how we apply best practices for talent to this partnership? So, um, as we think about this, so that's, that's the first one, the second one is about shared success very early on in this partnership, we started to build some foundations and actually develop seven principles that all of us would look at as the basis for this success shared success model. And we continue to hold that sort of in the forefront, as we think about this collaboration. And maybe the third thing I would say is this one team mindset. So whether it's the three of our CEOs that get together every couple of months to think about, uh, this partnership, or it is the governance model that Carl has put together, which has all three parties in the governance and every level of leadership, we always think about this as a collective group so that we can keep that front and center. >>And what I think ultimately has enabled us to do is it's allowed us to move at speed, be more flexible. And ultimately all we're looking at the target the same way, the North side, the same way, >>Brian, about you, what have you observed and what are you thinking about in terms of how this is helping teams collaborate differently? Yeah, >>Absolutely. And RJ made some, some great points there. And I think if you really think about what he's talking about, it's that, that diversity of talent, diversity of skill and viewpoint and even culture, right? And so we see that in the power of three. And then I think if we drill down into what we see at Takeda and frankly Takeda was, was really, I think, pretty visionary and on their way here, right. And taking this kind of cross-functional approach and applying it to how they operate day to day. So moving from a more functional view of the world to more of a product oriented view of the world, right? So when you think about we're going to be organized around a product or a service or a capability that we're going to provide to our customers or our patients or donors in this case, it implies a different structure all to altogether and a different way of thinking, right? >>Because now you've got technical people and business experts and marketing experts all working together in this is sort of cross collaboration. And what's great about that is it's really the only way to succeed with cloud, right? Because the old ways of thinking where you've got application people and infrastructure, people in business, people is suboptimal, right? Because we can all access this tool as these capabilities and the best way to do that. Isn't across kind of a cross collaborative way. And so this is product oriented mindset. It's a keto was already on. I think it's allowed us to move faster. >>Carl, I want to go back to this idea of unlocking talent and culture. And this is something that both Brian and Arjun have talked about too. People are an essential part of their, at the heart of your organization. How will their experience of work change and how are you helping re-imagine and reinforce a strong organizational culture, particularly at this time when so many people are working remotely. >>Yeah. It's a great question. And it's something that, you know, I think we all have to think a lot about, I mean, I think, um, you know, driving this, this color, this, this digital and data kind of capability building, uh, it takes a lot of, a lot of thinking. So, I mean, there's a few different elements in terms of how we're tackling this one is we're recognizing, and it's not just for the technology organization or for those actors that, that we're innovating with, but it's really across all of the Qaeda where we're working through ways of raising what I'll call the overall digital leaders literacy of the organization, you know, what are the, you know, what are the skills that are needed almost at a baseline level, even for a global bio-pharmaceutical company and how do we deploy, I'll call it those learning resources very broadly. >>And then secondly, I think that, you know, we're, we're very clear that there's a number of areas where there are very specialized skills that are needed. Uh, my organization is one of those. And so, you know, we're fostering ways in which, you know, we're very kind of quickly kind of creating, uh, avenues excitement for, for associates in that space. So one example specifically, as we use, you know, during these, uh, very much sort of remote, uh, sort of days, we, we use what we call global it meet days, and we set a day aside every single month and this last Friday, um, you know, we, we create during that time, it's time for personal development. Um, and we provide active seminars and training on things like, you know, robotic process automation, data analytics cloud, uh, in this last month we've been doing this for months and months now, but in his last month, more than 50% of my organization participated, and there's this huge positive shift, both in terms of access and excitement about really harnessing those new skills and being able to apply them. >>Uh, and so I think that that's, you know, one, one element that can be considered. And then thirdly, um, of course every organization has to work on how do you prioritize talent, acquisition and management and competencies that you can't rescale? I mean, there are just some new capabilities that we don't have. And so there's a large focus that I have with our executive team and our CEO and thinking through those critical roles that we need to activate in order to kind of, to, to build on this, uh, this business led cloud transformation. And lastly, probably the hardest one, but the one that I'm most jazzed about is really this focus on changing the mindsets and behaviors. Um, and I think there, you know, this is where the power of three is, is really, uh, kind of coming together nicely. I mean, we're working on things like, you know, how do we create this patient obsessed curiosity, um, and really kind of unlock innovation with a real, kind of a growth mindset. >>Uh, and the level of curiosity that's needed, not to just continue to do the same things, but to really challenge the status quo. So that's one big area of focus we're having the agility to act just faster. I mean, to worry less, I guess I would say about kind of the standard chain of command, but how do you make more speedy, more courageous decisions? And this is places where we can emulate the way that a partner like AWS works, or how do we collaborate across the number of boundaries, you know, and I think, uh, Arjun spoke eloquently to a number of partnerships that we can build. So we can break down some of these barriers and use these networks, um, whether it's within our own internal ecosystem or externally to help, to create value faster. So a lot of energy around ways of working and we'll have to check back in, but I mean, we're early in on this mindset and behavioral shift, um, but a lot of good early momentum. >>Carl you've given me a good segue to talk to Brian about innovation, because you said a lot of the things that I was the customer obsession and this idea of innovating much more quickly. Obviously now the world has its eyes on drug development, and we've all learned a lot about it, uh, in the past few months and accelerating drug development is all, uh, is of great interest to all of us. Brian, how does a transformation like this help a company's ability to become more agile and more innovative and at a quicker speed to, >>Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think some of the things that Carl talked about just now are critical to that, right? I think where sometimes folks fall short is they think, you know, we're going to roll out the technology and the is going to be the silver bullet where in fact it is the culture, it is, is the talent. And it's the focus on that. That's going to be, you know, the determinant of success. And I will say, you know, in this power of three arrangement and Carl talked a little bit about the pyramid, um, talent and culture and that change, and that kind of thinking about that has been a first-class citizen since the very beginning, right. That absolutely is critical for, for being there. Um, and so that's been, that's been key. And so we think about innovation at Amazon and AWS and Chrome mentioned some of the things that, you know, a partner like AWS brings to the table is we talk a lot about builders, right? >>So we're kind of obsessive about builders. Um, and, and we meet what we mean by that is we, we, at Amazon, we hire for builders, we cultivate builders and we like to talk to our customers about it as well. And it also implies a different mindset, right? When you're a builder, you have that, that curiosity, you have that ownership, you have that stake and whatever I'm creating, I'm going to be a co-owner of this product or this service, right. Getting back to that kind of product oriented mindset. And it's not just the technical people or the it people who are builders. It is also the business people as, as Carl talked about. Right. So when we start thinking about, um, innovation again, where we see folks kind of get into a little bit of, uh, innovation, pilot paralysis, is that you can focus on the technology, but if you're not focusing on the talent and the culture and the processes and the mechanisms, you're going to be putting out technology, but you're not going to have an organization that's ready to take it and scale it and accelerate it. >>Right. And so that's, that's been absolutely critical. So just a couple of things we've been doing with, with the Qaeda and Decatur has really been leading the way is, think about a mechanism and a process. And it's really been working backward from the customer, right? In this case, again, the patient and the donor. And that was an easy one because the key value of Decatur is to be a patient focused bio-pharmaceutical right. So that was embedded in their DNA. So that working back from that, that patient, that donor was a key part of that process. And that's really deep in our DNA as well and Accentures. And so we were able to bring that together. The other one is, is, is getting used to experimenting and even perhaps failing, right. And being able to iterate and fail fast and experiment and understanding that, you know, some decisions, what we call it at Amazon are two two-way doors, meaning you can go through that door, not like what you see and turn around and go back. And cloud really helps there because the costs of experimenting and the cost of failure is so much lower than it's ever been. You can do it much faster and the implications are so much less. So just a couple of things that we've been really driving, uh, with Decatur around innovation, that's been really critical. >>Carl, where are you already seeing signs of success? Yeah, no, it's a great question. And so we chose, you know, uh, with our focus on, on innovation to try to unleash maybe the power of data digital in, uh, in focusing on what I call sort of a nave. And so we chose our, our, our plasma derived therapy business, um, and you know, the plasma-derived therapy business unit, it develops critical life-saving therapies for patients with rare and complex diseases. Um, but what we're doing is by bringing kind of our energy together, we're focusing on creating, I'll call it state of the art digitally connected donation centers. And we're really modernizing, you know, the, the, the donor experience right now, we're trying to, uh, improve also I'll call it the overall plasma collection process. And so we've, uh, selected a number of alcohol at a very high-speed pilots that we're working through right now, specifically in this, in this area. And we're seeing really great results already. Um, and so that's, that's one specific area of focus >>Arjun. I want you to close this out here. Any ideas, any best practices advice you would have for other pharmaceutical companies that are, that are at the early stage of their cloud journey for me? Yes. >>Yeah, no, I was breaking up a bit. No, I think they, um, the key is what's sort of been great for me to see is that when people think about cloud, you know, you always think about infrastructure technology. The reality is that the cloud is really the true enabler for innovation and innovating at scale. And, and if you think about that, right, in all the components that you need, that ultimately that's where the value is for the company, right? Because yes, you're going to get some cost synergies and that's great, but the true value is in how do we transform the organization in the case of the Qaeda and the life sciences clients, right. We're trying to take a 14 year process of research and development that takes billions of dollars and compress that, right. Tremendous amounts of innovation opportunity. You think about the commercial aspect, lots of innovation can come there. The plasma derived therapy is a great example of how we're going to really innovate to change the trajectory of that business. So I think innovation is at the heart of what most organizations need to do. And the formula, the cocktail that the Qaeda has constructed with this Fuji program really has all the ingredients, um, that are required for that success. >>Great. Well, thank you so much. Arjun, Brian and Carl was really an enlightening conversation. >>Yeah, it's been fun. Thanks Rebecca. >>Thank you for tuning into the cube virtuals coverage of the Accenture executive summit from around the globe. It's the cube with digital coverage of AWS reinvent executive summit 2020, sponsored by Accenture and AWS. Welcome everyone to the cubes of Accenture >>Executive summit here at AWS reinvent. I'm your host Rebecca Knight for this segment? We have two guests. First. We have Helen Davis. She is the senior director of cloud platform services, assistant director for it and digital for the West Midlands police. Thanks so much for coming on the show, Helen, And we also have Matthew lb. He is Accenture health and public service associate director and West Midlands police account lead. Thanks so much for coming on the show. Matthew, thank you for having us. So we are going to be talking about delivering data-driven insights to the West Midlands police force. Helen, I want to start with you. Can you tell us a little bit about the West Midlands police force? How big is the force and also what were some of the challenges that you were grappling with prior to this initiative? >>Yes, certainly. So Westerners police is the second largest police force in the UK, outside of the metropolitan police in London. Um, we have an excessive, um, 11,000 people work at Westminster police serving communities, um, through, across the Midlands region. So geographically, we're quite a big area as well, as well as, um, being population, um, density, having that as a, at a high level. Um, so the reason we sort of embarked on the data-driven insights platform and it, which was a huge change for us was for a number of reasons. Um, namely we had a lot of disparate data, um, which was spread across a range of legacy systems that were many, many years old, um, with some duplication of, um, what was being captured and no single view for offices or, um, support staff. Um, some of the access was limited. You have to be in a, in an actual police building on a desktop computer to access it. Um, other information could only reach officers on the frontline through a telephone call back to one of our enabling services where they would do a manual checkup, um, look at the information, then call the offices back, um, and tell them what they needed to know. So it was a very long laborious process and not very efficient. Um, and we certainly weren't exploiting the data that we had in a very productive way. >>So it sounds like as you're describing and an old clunky system that needed a technological, uh, reimagination, so what was the main motivation for, for doing, for making this shift? >>It was really, um, about making us more efficient and more effective in how we do how we do business. So, um, you know, certainly as a, as an it leader and sort of my operational colleagues, we recognize the benefits, um, that data analytics could bring in, uh, in a policing environment, not something that was, um, really done in the UK at time. You know, we have a lot of data, so we're very data rich and the information that we have, but we needed to turn it into information that was actionable. So that's where we started looking for, um, technology partners and, um, suppliers to help us and sort of help us really with what's the art of the possible, you know, this hasn't been done before. So what could we do in this space that's appropriate for policing >>Helen? I love that idea. What is the art of the possible, can you tell us a little bit about why you chose AWS? >>I think really, you know, as with all things and when we're procuring a partner in the public sector that, you know, there are many rules and regulations quite rightly as you would expect that to be because we're spending public money. So we have to be very, very careful and, um, it's, it's a long process and we have to be open to public scrutiny. So, um, we sort of look to everything, everything that was available as part of that process, but we recognize the benefits that tide would provide in this space because, you know, without moving to a cloud environment, we would literally be replacing something that was legacy with something that was a bit more modern. Um, that's not what we wanted to do. Our ambition was far greater than that. So I think, um, in terms of AWS, really, it was around scalability, interoperability, you know, disaster things like the disaster recovery service, the fact that we can scale up and down quickly, we call it dialing up and dialing back. Um, you know, it's it's page go. So it just sort of ticked all the boxes for us. And then we went through the full procurement process, fortunately, um, it came out on top for us. So we were, we were able to move forward, but it just sort of had everything that we were looking for in that space. >>Matthew, I want to bring you into the conversation a little bit here. How are you working with the wet with the West Midlands police, sorry, and helping them implement this cloud first journey? >>Yeah, so I guess, um, by January the West Midlands police started, um, pay for five years ago now. So, um, we set up a partnership with the force I, and you to operate operation the way that was very different to a traditional supplier relationship. Um, secretary that the data difference insights program is, is one of many that we've been working with less neutral on, um, over the last five years. Um, as having said already, um, cloud gave a number of, uh, advantages certainly from a big data perspective and the things that that enabled us today, um, I'm from an Accenture perspective that allowed us to bring in a number of the different themes that we have say cloud themes, security teams, um, interacted from a design perspective, as well as more traditional services that people would associate with the country. >>So much of this is about embracing comprehensive change to experiment, innovate, and try different things. Matthew, how, how do you help an entity like West Midlands police think differently when they are, there are these ways of doing things that people are used to, how do you help them think about what is the art of the possible, as Helen said, >>There's a few things for that, you know, what's being critical is trying to co-create solutions together. Yeah. There's no point just turning up with, um, what we think is the right answer, try and say, um, collectively work through, um, the issues that the forest are seeing the outcomes they're looking to achieve rather than simply focusing on the long list of requirements I think was critical and then being really open to working together to create the right solution. Um, rather than just, you know, trying to pick something off the shelf that maybe doesn't fit the forces requirements in the way that it should to, right. It's not always a one size fits all. Obviously, you know, today what we thought was critical is making sure that we're creating something that met the forces needs, um, in terms of the outcomes they're looking to achieve the financial envelopes that were available, um, and how we can deliver those in a, uh, iterative agile way, um, rather than spending years and years, um, working towards an outcome, um, that is going to outdate before you even get that. >>How, how are things different? What kinds of business functions and processes have been re-imagined in, in light of this change and this shift >>It's, it's actually unrecognizable now, um, in certain areas of the business as it was before. So to give you a little bit of context, when we, um, started working with essentially century AWS on the data driven insights program, it was very much around providing, um, what was called locally, a wizzy tool for our intelligence analysts to interrogate data, look at data, you know, decide whether they could do anything predictive with it. And it was very much sort of a back office function to sort of tidy things up for us and make us a bit better in that, in that area or a lot better in that area. And it was rolled out to a number of offices, a small number on the front line. Um, I'm really, it was, um, in line with a mobility strategy that we, hardware officers were getting new smartphones for the first time, um, to do sort of a lot of things on, on, um, policing apps and things like that to again, to avoid them, having to keep driving back to police stations, et cetera. >>And the pilot was so successful. Every officer now has access to this data, um, on their mobile devices. So it literally went from a handful of people in an office somewhere using it to do sort of clever whizzbang things to, um, every officer in the force, being able to access that level of data at their fingertips literally. So what they would touch we've done before is if they needed to check and address or check, uh, details of an individual, um, just as one example, they would either have to, in many cases, go back to a police station to look it up themselves on a desktop computer. Well, they would have to make a call back to, um, a centralized function and speak to an operator, relay the questions either, wait for the answer or wait for a call back with the answer when those people are doing the data interrogation manually. >>So the biggest change for us is the self-service nature of the data we now have available. So officers can do it themselves on their phone, wherever they might be. So the efficiency savings, um, from that point of view are immense. And I think just parallel to that is the quality of our data because we had a lot of data, but just because you've got a lot of data and a lot of information doesn't mean it's big data and it's valuable necessarily. Um, so again, it was having the single source of truth as we, as we call it. So you know, that when you are completing those safe searches and getting the responses back, that it is the most accurate information we hold. And also you're getting it back within minutes as opposed to, you know, half an hour, an hour or a drive back to the station. So it's making officers more efficient and it's also making them safer. The more efficient they are, the more time they have to spend, um, out with the public doing what they, you know, we all should be doing. >>And have you seen that kind of return on investment because what you were just describing with all the steps that we'd needed to be taken in prior to this to verify and address say, and those are precious seconds when someone's life is on the line in, in sort of in the course of everyday police work. >>Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. It's difficult to put a price on it. It's difficult to quantify. Um, but all the, you know, the minutes here and that certainly add up to a significant amount of efficiency savings, and we've certainly been able to demonstrate the officers are spending less time up police stations as a result and more time out on the front line. Also they're safer because they can get information about what may or may not be and address what may or may not have occurred in an area before very, very quickly without having to wait. >>Matthew, I want to hear your observations of working so closely with this West Midlands police. Have you noticed anything about changes in its culture and its operating model in how police officers interact with one another? Have you seen any changes since this technology change, >>Um, unique about the West new misplaces, the buy-in from the top, it depend on the chief and his exact team. And Helen is the leader from an IOT perspective. Um, the entire force is bought in. So what is a significant change program? Uh, uh, not trickles three. Um, everyone in the organization, um, change is difficult. Um, and there's a lot of time effort. That's been put into bake, the technical delivery and the business change and adoption aspects around each of the projects. Um, but you can see the step change that it's making in each aspect to the organization, uh, and where that's putting West Midlands police as a leader in, um, technology I'm policing in the UK. And I think globally, >>And this is a question for both of you because Matthew, as you said, change is difficult and there is always a certain intransigence in workplaces about this is just the way we've always done things and we're used to this and don't try to get us, don't try to get us to do anything new here. It works. How do you get the buy-in that you need to, to do this kind of digital transformation? >>I think it, it would be wrong to say it was easy. Um, um, we also have to bear in mind that this was one program in a five year program. So there was a lot of change going on, um, both internally for some of our back office functions, as well as front tie, uh, frontline offices. So with DDI in particular, I think the stat change occurred when people could see what it could do for them. You know, we had lots of workshops and seminars where we all talk about, you know, big data and it's going to be great and it's data analytics and it's transformational, you know, and quite rightly people that are very busy doing a day job that not necessarily technologists in the main and, you know, are particularly interested quite rightly so in what we are not dealing with the cloud, you know? >>And it was like, yeah, okay. It's one more thing. And then when they started to see on that, on their phones and what teams could do, that's when it started to sell itself. And I think that's when we started to see, you know, to see the stack change, you know, and, and if we, if we have any issues now it's literally, you know, our help desks in meltdown. Cause everyone's like, well, we call it manage without this anymore. And I think that speaks for itself. So it doesn't happen overnight. It's sort of incremental changes and then that's a step change in attitude. And when they see it working and they see the benefits, they want to use it more. And that's how it's become fundamental to our policing by itself, really without much selling >>Matthew, Helen just made a compelling case for how to get buy in. Have you discovered any other best practices when you are trying to get everyone on board for this kind of thing? >>So we've, um, we've used a lot of the traditional techniques, things around comms and engagement. We've also used things like, um, the 30 day challenge and nudge theory around how can we gradually encourage people to use things? Um, I think there's a point where all of this around, how do we just keep it simple and keep it user centric from an end user perspective? I think DDI is a great example of where the, the technology is incredibly complex. The solution itself is, um, you know, extremely large and, um, has been very difficult to, um, get delivered. But at the heart of it is a very simple front end for the user to encourage it and take that complexity away from them. Uh, I think that's been critical through the whole piece of video. >>One final word from Helen. I want to hear, where do you go from here? What is the longterm vision? I know that this made productivity, >>Um, productivity savings equivalent to 154 full-time officers. Uh, what's next, I think really it's around, um, exploiting what we've got. Um, I use the phrase quite a lot, dialing it up, which drives my technical architects crazy, but because it's apparently not that simple, but, um, you know, we've, we've been through significant change in the last five years and we are still continuing to batch all of those changes into everyday, um, operational policing. But what we need to see now is we need to exploit and build on the investments that we've made, um, in terms of data and claims specifically, the next step really is about expanding our pool of data and our functions. Um, so that, you know, we keep getting better and better, um, at this, um, the more we do, the more data we have, the more refined we can be, the more precise we are with all of our actions. >>Um, you know, we're always being expected to, again, look after the public purse and do more for less. And I think this is certainly an and our cloud journey and cloud first by design, which is where we are now, um, is helping us to be future-proofed. So for us, it's very much an investment. And I see now that we have good at embedded in operational policing for me, this is the start of our journey, not the end. So it's really exciting to see where we can go from here. Exciting times. Indeed. Thank you so much. And Matthew for joining us, I really appreciate it. And you are watching the cube stay tuned for more of the cubes coverage of the AWS reinvent Accenture executive summit. I'm Rebecca Knight from around the globe with digital coverage, >>AWS reinvent executive summit, 2020, sponsored by Accenture and AWS. Everyone. Welcome to the cube virtual coverage of the executive summit at AWS reinvent 2020 virtual. This is the cube virtual. We can't be there in person like we are every year we have to be remote. This executive summit is with special programming supported by Accenture where the cube virtual I'm your host John for a year, we had a great panel here called uncloud first digital transformation from some experts, Stuart driver, the director of it and infrastructure and operates at lion Australia, Douglas Regan, managing director, client account lead at lion for Accenture as a deep Islam associate director application development lead for Accenture gentlemen, thanks for coming on the cube virtual that's a mouthful, all that digital, but the bottom line it's cloud transformation. This is a journey that you guys have been on together for over 10 years to be really a digital company. Now, some things have happened in the past year that kind of brings all this together. This is about the next generation organization. So I want to ask Stuart you first, if you can talk about this transformation at lion has undertaken some of the challenges and opportunities and how this year in particular has brought it together because you, you know, COVID has been the accelerant of digital transformation. Well, if you're 10 years in, I'm sure you're there. You're in the, uh, uh, on that wave right now. Take a minute to explain this transformation journey. >>Yeah, sure. So number of years back, we, we looked at kind of our infrastructure and our landscape. I'm trying to figure out where we wanted to go next. And we were very analog based, um, and stuck in the old it groove of, you know, capital refresh, um, struggling to transform, struggling to get to a digital platform and we needed to change it up so that we could, uh, become very different business to the one that we were back then. Um, obviously cloud is an accelerant to that and we had a number of initiatives that needed a platform to build on. And a cloud infrastructure was the way that we started to do that. So we went through a number of transformation programs that we didn't want to do that in the old world. We wanted to do it in a new world. So for us, it was partnering up with a, you know, great organizations that can take you on the journey and, uh, you know, start to deliver a bit by bit incremental progress, uh, to get to the, uh, I guess the promise land. >>Um, we're not, uh, not all the way there, but to where we're a long way along. And then when you get to some of the challenges like we've had this year, um, it makes all of the hard work worthwhile because you can actually change pretty quickly, um, provide capacity and, uh, and increase your environments and, you know, do the things that you need to do in a much more dynamic way than we would have been able to previously where we might've been waiting for the hardware vendors, et cetera, to deliver capacity for us this year, it's been a pretty strong year from an it perspective and delivering for the business needs, >>Forget the Douglas. I want to just real quick and redirect to you and say, you know, for all the people who said, Oh yeah, you got to jump on cloud, get in early, you know, a lot of naysayers like, well, wait till to mature a little bit. Really, if you got in early and you paying your dues, if you will taking that medicine with the cloud, you're really kind of peaking at the right time. Is that true? Is that one of the benefits that comes out of this getting in the cloud, >>John, this has been an unprecedented year, right. And, um, you know, Australia, we had to live through Bush fires and then we had covert and, and then we actually had to deliver a, um, a project I'm very know transformational product project, completely remote. And then we also had had some, some cyber challenges, which is public as well. And I don't think if we weren't moved into and enabled through the cloud would have been able to achieve that this year. It would have been much different. It would have been very difficult to do the fact that we were able to work and partner with Amazon through this year, which is unprecedented and actually come out the other end and we've delivered a brand new digital capability across the entire business. Um, it wouldn't >>Have been impossible if we could, I guess, stayed in the old world. The fact that we moved into the new Naval by the Navy allowed us to work in this unprecedented gear >>Just quick. What's your personal view on this? Because I've been saying on the Cuban reporting, necessity's the mother of all invention and the word agility has been kicked around as kind of a cliche, Oh, it'd be agile. You know, we're gonna get to Sydney. You get a minute on specifically, but from your perspective, uh, Douglas, what does that mean to you? Because there is benefits there for being agile. And >>I mean, I think as Stuart mentioned writing, and a lot of these things we try to do and, you know, typically, you know, hardware capabilities of the last to be told and, and always the only critical path to be done. You know, we really didn't have that in this case, what we were doing with our projects in our deployments, right. We were able to move quickly able to make decisions in line with the business and really get things going, right. So you, a lot of times in a traditional world, you have these inhibitors, you have these critical path, it takes weeks and months to get things done as opposed to hours and days. And it truly allowed us to, we had to VJ things, move things. And, you know, we were able to do that in this environment with AWS to support and the fact that we can kind of turn things off and on as quickly as we need it. Yeah. >>Cloud-scale is great for speed. So DECA got, Gardez get your thoughts on this cloud first mission, you know, it, you know, the dev ops worlds, they saw this early, that jumping in there, they saw the, the, the agility. Now the theme this year is modern applications with the COVID pandemic pressure, there's real business pressure to make that happen. How did you guys learn to get there fast? And what specifically did you guys do at Accenture and how did it all come together? Can you take us inside kind of how it played out? >>All right. So we started off with us and we work with lions experts and, uh, the lost knowledge that allowed reconstructive being had. Um, we then applied our journey group cloud strategy basically revolves around the seven Oz and, and, uh, you know, the deep peaking steps from our perspective, uh, assessing the current bottom, setting up the new cloud in modern. And as we go modernizing and, and migrating these applications to the cloud now, you know, one of the things that, uh, no we did not along this journey was that, you know, you can have the best plans, but bottom of that, we were dealing with, we often than not have to make changes. Uh, what a lot of agility and also work with a lot of collaboration with the, uh, Lyon team, as well as, uh, uh, AWS. I think the key thing for me was being able to really bring it all together. It's not just, uh, you know, essentially mobilize all of us. >>What were some of the learnings real quick, your journey there? >>So I think perspective the key learnings around that, you know, uh, you know, what, when we look back at, uh, the, the infrastructure that was that we were trying to migrate over to the cloud, a lot of the documentation, et cetera, was not, uh, available. We were having to, uh, figure out a lot of things on the fly. Now that really required us to have, uh, uh, people with deep expertise who could go into those environments and, and work out, uh, you know, the best ways to, to migrate the workloads to the cloud. Uh, I think, you know, the, the biggest thing for me was making Jovi had on that real SMEs across the board globally, that we could leverage across various technologies, uh, uh, and, and, and, you know, that would really work in our collaborative and agile environment would line >>Just do what I got to ask you. How did you address your approach to the cloud and what was your experience? >>Yeah, for me, it's around getting the foundations right. To start with and then building on them. Um, so, you know, you've got to have your, your process and you're going to have your, your kind of your infrastructure there and your blueprints ready. Um, AWS do a great job of that, right. Getting the foundations right. And then building upon it, and then, you know, partnering with Accenture allows you to do that very successfully. Um, I think, um, you know, the one thing that was probably surprising to us when we started down this journey and kind of, after we got a long way down, the track of looking backwards is actually how much you can just turn off. Right? So a lot of stuff that you, uh, you get left with a legacy in your environment, and when you start to work through it with the types of people that civic just mentioned, you know, the technical expertise working with the business, um, you can really rationalize your environment and, uh, um, you know, cloud is a good opportunity to do that, to drive that legacy out. >>Um, so you know, a few things there, the other thing is, um, you've got to try and figure out the benefits that you're going to get out of moving here. So there's no point just taking something that is not delivering a huge amount of value in the traditional world, moving it into the cloud, and guess what it's going to deliver the same limited amount of value. So you've got to transform it, and you've got to make sure that you build it for the future and understand exactly what you're trying to gain out of it. So again, you need a strong collaboration. You need a good partners to work with, and you need good engagement from the business as well, because the kind of, uh, you know, digital transformation, cloud transformation, isn't really an it project, I guess, fundamentally it is at the core, but it's a business project that you've got to get the whole business aligned on. You've got to make sure that your investment streams are appropriate and that you're able to understand the benefits and the value that you're going to drive back towards the business. >>Let's do it. If you don't mind me asking what was some of the obstacles encountered or learnings, um, that might've differed from the expectation we all been there, Hey, you know, we're going to change the world. Here's the sales pitch, here's the outcome. And then obviously things happen, you know, you learn legacy, okay. Let's put some containerization around that cloud native, um, all that rational. You're talking about what are, and you're going to have obstacles. That's how you learn. That's how perfection has developed. How, what obstacles did you come up with and how are they different from your expectations going in? >>Yeah, they're probably no different from other people that have gone down the same journey. If I'm totally honest, the, you know, 70 or 80% of what you do is relative music, because they're a known quantity, it's relatively modern architectures and infrastructures, and you can, you know, upgrade, migrate, move them into the cloud, whatever it is, rehost, replatform, rearchitect, whatever it is you want to do, it's the other stuff, right? It's the stuff that always gets left behind. And that's the challenge. It's, it's getting that last bit over the line and making sure that you haven't invested in the future while still carrying all of your legacy costs and complexity within your environment. So, um, to be quite honest, that's probably taken longer and, and has been more of a challenge than we thought it would be. Um, the other piece I touched on earlier on in terms of what was surprising was actually how much of your environment is actually not needed anymore. >>When you start to put a critical eye across it and understand, um, uh, ask the tough questions and start to understand exactly what, what it is you're trying to achieve. So if you ask a part of a business, do they still need this application or this service a hundred percent of the time, they'll say yes, until you start to lay out to them, okay, now I'm going to cost you this to migrate it or this, to run it in the future. And, you know, here's your ongoing costs and, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And then, uh, for a significant amount of those answers, you get a different response when you start to layer on the true value of it. So you start to flush out those hidden costs within the business, and you start to make some critical decisions as a company based on, uh, based on that. So that was a little tougher than we first thought and probably broader than we thought there was more of that than we anticipated, which actually resulted in a much cleaner environment post and post migration. Yeah. >>Well, expression, if it moves automated, you know, it's kind of a joke on government, how they want to tax everything, you know, you want to automate, that's a key thing in cloud, and you've got to discover those opportunities to create value, uh, Stuart and Siddique. Mainly if you can weigh in on this love to know the percentage of total cloud that you have now, versus when you started, because as you start to uncover whether it's by design for purpose, or you discover opportunities to innovate, like you guys have, I'm sure it kind of, you took on some territory inside Lyon, what percentage of cloud now versus >>Yeah. At the start, it was minimal, right. You know, close to zero, right. Single and single digits. Right. It was mainly SAS environments that we had, uh, sitting in cloud when we, uh, when we started, um, Doug mentioned earlier a really significant transformation project that we've undertaken recently gone live on a multi-year one. Um, you know, that's all stood up on AWS and is a significant portion of our environment, um, in terms of what we can move to cloud. Uh, we're probably at about 80 or 90% now. And the balanced bit is, um, legacy infrastructure that is just gonna retire as we go through the cycle rather than migrate to the cloud. Um, so we are significantly cloud-based and, uh, you know, we're reaping the benefits of it in a year, like 2020, and makes you glad that you did all of the hard yards in the previous years when you start business challenges, trying out as, >>So do you get any common reaction to the cloud percentage penetration? >>Sorry, I didn't, I didn't catch that, but I, all I was going to say was, I think it's like the typical 80 20 rule, right? We, we, we worked really hard in the, you know, I think 2018, 19 to get 80% off the, uh, application onto the cloud. And over the last year is the 20% that we have been migrating. And Stuart said, right. A lot of it is also, that's going to be your diet. And I think our next big step is going to be obviously, you know, the icing on the cake, which is to decommission all of these apps as well. Right. So, you know, to get the real benefits out of, uh, out of the whole conservation program from a, uh, from a reduction of CapEx, OPEX perspective, >>Douglas and Stuart, can you guys talk about the decision around the clouds because you guys have had success with AWS? Why AWS how's that decision made? Can you guys give some insight into some of those things? >>I can, I can start, start off. I think back when the decision was made and it was, it was a while back, um, you know, there was some clear advantages of moving relay, Ws, a lot of alignment with some of the significant projects and, uh, the trend, that particular one big transformation project that we've alluded to as well. Um, you know, we needed some, um, some very robust and, um, just future proof and, and proven technology. And AWS gave that to us. We needed a lot of those blueprints to help us move down the path. We didn't want to reinvent everything. So, um, you know, having a lot of that legwork done for us and AWS gives you that, right. And particularly when you partner up with, uh, with a company like Accenture as well, you get combinations of technology and the, the skills and the knowledge to, to move you forward in that direction side. Um, you know, for us, it was a, uh, uh, it was a decision based on, you know, best of breed, um, you know, looking forward and, and trying to predict the future needs and, and, and kind of the environmental that we might need. Um, and, you know, partnering up with organizations that can then take you on the journey >>Just to build on that. So obviously, you know, lines like an antivirus, but, you know, we knew it was a very good choice given the, um, >>Uh, skills and the capability that we had, as well as the assets and tools we had to get the most out of an AWS. And obviously our CEO globally just made an announcement about a huge investment that we're making in cloud. Um, but you know, we've, we've worked very well with AWS. We've done some joint workshops and joint investments, um, some joint POC. So yeah, w we have a very good working relationship, AWS, and I think, um, one incident to reflect upon whether it's cyber it's and again, where we actually jointly, you know, dove in with, um, with Amazon and some of their security experts and our experts. And we're able to actually work through that with mine quite successful. So, um, you know, really good behaviors as an organization, but also really good capabilities. >>Yeah. As you guys, your essential cloud outcomes, research shown, it's the cycle of innovation with the cloud, that's creating a lot of benefits, knowing what you guys know now, looking back certainly COVID has impacted a lot of people kind of going through the same process, knowing what you guys know now, would you advocate people to jump on this transformation journey? If so, how, and what tweaks they make, which changes, what would you advise? >>I might take that one to start with. Um, I hate to think where we would have been when, uh, COVID kicked off here in Australia and, you know, we were all sent home, literally were at work on the Friday, and then over the weekend. And then Monday, we were told not to come back into the office and all of a sudden, um, our capacity in terms of remote access and I quadrupled, or more four, five X, what we had on the Friday we needed on the Monday. And we were able to stand that up during the day Monday into Tuesday, because we were cloud-based and, uh, you know, we just spun up your instances and, uh, you know, sort of our licensing, et cetera. And, and we had all of our people working remotely, um, within, uh, you know, effectively one business day. Um, I know peers of mine in other organizations and industries that are relying on kind of a traditional wise and getting hardware, et cetera, that were weeks and months before they could get the right hardware to be able to deliver to their user base. >>So, um, you know, one example where you're able to scale and, uh, uh, get, uh, get value out of this platform beyond probably what was anticipated at the time you talk about, um, you know, less this, the, and all of these kinds of things. And you can also think of a few scenarios, but real world ones where you're getting your business back up and running in that period of time is, is just phenomenal. There's other stuff, right? There's these programs that we've rolled out, you do your sizing, um, and in the traditional world, you would just go out and buy more servers than you need. And, you know, probably never realize the full value of those, you know, the capability of those servers over the life cycle of them. Whereas, you know, in a cloud world, you put in what you think is right. And if it's not right, you pump it up a little bit when, when all of your metrics and so on telling you that you need to bump it up and conversely Scarlett down at the same rate. So for us with the types of challenges and programs and, uh, uh, and just business need, that's come at as this year, uh, we wouldn't have been able to do it without a strong cloud base, uh, to, uh, to move forward with >>Yeah, Douglas, one of the things that I talked to, a lot of people on the right side of history who have been on the right wave with cloud, with the pandemic, and they're happy, they're like, and they're humble. Like, well, we're just lucky, you know, luck is preparation meets opportunity. And this is really about you guys getting in early and being prepared and readiness. This is kind of important as people realize, then you gotta be ready. I mean, it's not just, you don't get lucky by being in the right place, the right time. And there were a lot of companies were on the wrong side of history here who might get washed away. This is a second >>I think, to echo and kind of build on what Stewart said. I think that the reason that we've had success and I guess the momentum is we, we didn't just do it in isolation within it and technology. It was actually linked to broader business changes, you know, creating basically a digital platform for the entire business, moving the business, where are they going to be able to come back stronger after COVID, when they're actually set up for growth, um, and actually allows, you know, a line new achievements, growth objectives, and also its ambitions as far as what he wants to do, uh, with growth in whatever they may do as acquiring other companies and moving into different markets and launching new product. So we've actually done it in a way that there's, you know, real and direct business benefit, uh, that actually enables line to grow >>General. I really appreciate you coming. I have one final question. If you can wrap up here, uh, Stuart and Douglas, you don't mind waiting, and what's the priorities for the future. What's next for lion and a century >>Christmas holidays, I'll start Christmas holidays. And I spent a third year and then a, and then a reset, obviously, right? So, um, you know, it's, it's figuring out, uh, transform what we've already transformed, if that makes sense. So God, a huge proportion of our services sitting in the cloud. Um, but we know we're not done even with the stuff that is in there. We need to take those next steps. We need more and more automation and orchestration. We need to, um, our environment, there's more future growth. We need to be able to work with the business and understand what's coming at them so that we can, um, you know, build that into, into our environment. So again, it's really transformation on top of transformation is the way that I'll describe it. And it's really an open book, right? Once you get it in and you've got the capabilities and the evolving tool sets that AWS continue to bring to the market base, um, you know, working with the partners to, to figure out how we unlock that value, um, you know, drive our costs down our efficiency, uh, all of those kind of, you know, standard metrics. >>Um, but you know, we're looking for the next things to transform and show value back out to our customer base, um, that, uh, that we continue to, you know, sell our products to and work with and understand how we can better meet their needs. Yeah, I think just to echo that, I think it's really leveraging this and then digital capability they have and getting the most out of that investment. And then I think it's also moving to, >>Uh, and adopting more new ways of working as far as, you know, the state of the business. Um, it's getting up the speed of the market is changing. So being able to launch and do things quickly and also, um, competitive and efficient operating costs, uh, now that they're in the cloud, right. So I think it's really leveraging the most out of a platform and then, you know, being efficient in launching things. So putting the, with the business, >>Cedric, any word from you on your priorities by UC this year and folding. >>Yeah. So, uh, just going to say like e-learning squares, right for me were around, you know, just journey. This is a journey to the cloud, right. And, uh, you know, as well dug into sort of Saturday, it's getting all, you know, different parts of the organization along the journey business to ID to your, uh, product windows, et cetera. Right. And it takes time with this stuff, but, uh, uh, you know, you gotta get started on it and, you know, once we, once we finish off, uh, it's the realization of the benefits now that, you know, I'm looking forward? I think for, from Alliance perspective, it's, it is, uh, you know, once we migrate all the workloads to the cloud, it is leveraging, uh, all stack drive. And as I think Stewart said earlier, uh, with, uh, you know, the latest and greatest stuff that AWS it's basically working to see how we can really, uh, achieve more better operational excellence, uh, from a, uh, from a cloud perspective. >>Well, Stewart, thanks for coming on with a century and sharing your environment and what's going on and your journey you're on the right wave. Did the work you were in that it's all coming together with faster, congratulations for your success, and really appreciate Douglas with Steve for coming on as well from Accenture. Thank you for coming on. Thanks, John. Okay. Just the cubes coverage of executive summit at AWS reinvent. This is where all the thought leaders share their best practices, their journeys, and of course, special programming with the center and the cube. I'm Sean ferry, your host, thanks for watching From around the globe. It's the cube with digital coverage of AWS reinvent executive summit 2020, sponsored by Accenture and AWS. >>Welcome everyone to the cube virtuals coverage of the Accenture executive summit. Part of AWS reinvent 2020. I'm your host Rebecca Knight. We are talking today about reinventing the energy data platform. We have two guests joining us. First. We have Johan Krebbers. He is the GM digital emerging technologies and VP of it. Innovation at shell. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Johan you're welcome. And next we have Liz Dennett. She is the lead solution architect for O S D U on AWS. Thank you so much, Liz. You'll be. So I want to start our conversation by talking about OSD. You like so many great innovations. It started with a problem Johan. What was the problem you were trying to solve at shell? >>Yeah, the ethical back a couple of years, we started summer 2017, where we had a meeting with the deg, the gas exploration in shell, and the main problem they had. Of course, they got lots of lots of data, but are unable to find the right data. They need to work from once the day, this was scattered in is scattered my boss kind of Emirates all over the place and turned them into real, probably tried to solve is how that person working exploration could find their proper date, not just a day of loss of date. You really needed that we did probably talked about is summer 2017. We said, okay. The only way ABC is moving forward is to start pulling that data into a single data platform. And that, that was at the time that we called it as the, you, the subsurface data universe in there was about the shell name was so in, in January, 2018, we started a project with Amazon to start grating a freaking that building, that Stu environment that the, that universe, so that single data level to put all your exploration and Wells data into that single environment that was intent and every cent, um, already in March of that same year, we said, well, from Michele point of view, we will be far better off if we could make this an industry solution and not just a shelf solution, because Shelby, Shelby, if you can make this industry solution, but people are developing applications for it. >>It also is far better than for shell to say we haven't shell special solution because we don't make money out of how we start a day that we can make money out of, if you have access to the data, we can explore the data. So storing the data we should do as efficiently possibly can. So in March, we reached out to about eight or nine other large, uh, I gas operators, like the economics, like the totals, like the chefs of this world and say, Hey, we inshallah doing this. Do you want to join this effort? And to our surprise, they all said, yes. And then in September, 2018, we had our kickoff meeting with your open group where we said, we said, okay, if you want to work together, lots of other companies, we also need to look at, okay, how, how we organize that, or is that if you started working with lots of large companies, you need to have some legal framework around some framework around it. So that's why we went to the open group and said, okay, let's, let's form the ODU forum as we call it the time. So it's September, 2080, where I did a Galleria in Houston, but the kick off meeting for the OT four with about 10 members at the time. So there's just over two years ago, we started an exercise for me called ODU, kicked it off. Uh, and so that's really then we'll be coming from and how we got there. Also >>The origin story. Um, well, so what digging a little deeper there? What were some of the things you were trying to achieve with the OSD? >>Well, a couple of things we've tried to achieve with OSU, um, first is really separating data from applications. And what is the, what is the biggest problem we have in the subsurface space that the data and applications are all interlinked or tied together. And if you have them and a new company coming along and say, I have this new application and has access to the data that is not possible because the data often interlinked with the application. So the first thing we did is really breaking the link between the application, the data as those levels, the first thing we did, secondly, put all the data to a single data platform, take the silos out what was happening in the subsurface space. And they got all the data in what we call silos in small little islands out there. So we're trying to do is first break the link to great, great. >>They put the data in a single data bathroom, and a third part who does standard layer. On top of that, it's an API layer on top of the, a platform. So we could create an ecosystem out of companies to start developing soft applications on top of dev data platform across you might have a data platform, but you're only successful. If you have a rich ecosystem of people start developing applications on top of that. And then you can explore today, like small companies, last company, university, you name it, we're getting after create an ecosystem out here. So the three things, whereas was first break the link between application data, just break it and put data at the center and also make sure that data, this data structure would not be managed by one company. It would only be met. It will be managed the data structures by the OT forum. Secondly, then the data of single data platform certainly has an API layer on top and then create an ecosystem. Really go for people, say, please start developing applications because now you have access to the data. I've got the data no longer linked to somebody whose application was all freely available for an API layer. That was, that was all September, 2018, more or less. >>And to bring you in here a little bit, can you talk a little bit about some of the imperatives from the AWS standpoint in terms of what you were trying to achieve with this? Yeah, absolutely. And this whole thing is Johan said started with a challenge that was really brought out at shell. The challenges that geo-scientists spend up to 70% of their time looking for data, I'm a geologist I've spent more than 70% of my time trying to find data in these silos. And from there, instead of just figuring out how we could address that one problem, we worked together to really understand the root cause of these challenges and working backwards from that use case OSU and OSU on AWS has really enabled customers to create solutions that span, not just this in particular problem, but can really scale to be inclusive of the entire energy chain and deliver value from these use cases to the energy industry and beyond. Thank you, Lee, uh, Johann. So talk a little bit about Accenture's cloud first approach and how it has, uh, helped shell work faster and better with speed. >>Well, of course, access a cloud first approach only works together in an Amazon environment, AWS environment. So we really look at, at, at, at Accenture and others altogether helping shell in this space. Now the combination of the two is what we're really looking at, uh, where access of course can be, this is not a student who that environment operates, support knowledge to an environment. And of course, Amazon would be doing that to today's environment that underpinning, uh, services, et cetera. So, uh, we would expect a combination, a lot of goods when we started rolling out and put in production, the old you are three and bubble because we are anus. Then when the release feed comes to the market in Q1 next year of ODU, when he started going to Audi production inside shell, but as the first release, which is ready for prime time production across an enterprise will be released one just before Christmas, last year when he's still in may of this year. But release three is the first release we want to use for full scale production deployment inside shell, and also all the operators around the world. And there is what Amazon, sorry. Um, extensive can play a role in the ongoing, in the, in deployment building up, but also support environment. >>So one of the other things that we talk a lot about here on the cube is sustainability. And this is a big imperative at so many organizations around the world in particular energy companies. How does this move to OSD you, uh, help organizations become, how is this a greener solution for companies? >>Well, firstly make it, it's a great solution because you start making a much more efficient use of your resources, which is, which is already an important one. The second thing they're doing is also, we started with ODU in the oil and gas space with the expert development space. We've grown, uh OTU but in our strategy of growth, OSU now also do an alternative energy sociology. We'll all start supporting next year. Things like solar farms, wind farms, uh, the, the dermatomal environment hydration. So it becomes an and, and an open energy data platform, not just for the, for the, I want to get into steam that's for new industry, any type of energy industry. So our focus is to create, bring that data of all those various energy data sources together into a single data platform. You're going to use AI and other technology on top of that to exploit the data, to meet again in a single data platform. >>Liz, I want to ask you about security because security is, is, is such a big concern when it comes to how secure is the data on OSD you, um, actually, can I talk, can I do a follow up on the sustainability talking? Oh, absolutely. By all means. I mean, I want to interject though security is absolutely our top priority. I don't mean to move away from that, but with sustainability, in addition to the benefits of the OSU data platform, when a company moves from on-prem to the cloud, they're also able to leverage the benefits of scale. Now, AWS is committed to running our business in the most environmentally friendly way possible. And our scale allows us to achieve higher resource utilization and energy efficiency than a typical on-prem data center. Now, a recent study by four 51 research found that AWS is infrastructure is 3.6 times more energy efficient than the median of surveyed enterprise data centers. Two thirds of that advantage is due to higher server utilization and a more energy efficient server population. But when you factor in the carbon intensity of consumed electricity and renewable energy purchases, four 51 found that AWS performs the same task with an 88% lower carbon footprint. Now that's just another way that AWS and OSU are working to support our customers is they seek to better understand their workflows and make their legacy businesses less carbon intensive. >>That's that's those are those statistics are incredible. Do you want to talk a little bit now about security? Absolutely. And security will always be AWS is top priority. In fact, AWS has been architected to be the most flexible and secure cloud computing environment available today. Our core infrastructure is built to satisfy. There are the security requirements for the military global banks and other high sensitivity organizations. And in fact, AWS uses the same secure hardware and software to build and operate each of our regions. So that customers benefit from the only commercial cloud that's had hits service offerings and associated supply chain vetted and deemed secure enough for top secret workloads. That's backed by a deep set of cloud security tools with more than 200 security compliance and governmental service and key features as well as an ecosystem of partners like Accenture, that can really help our customers to make sure that their environments for their data meet and or exceed their security requirements. Johann, I want you to talk a little bit about how OSD you can be used today. Does it only handle subsurface data >>And today it's hundreds of servers or Wells data. We got to add to that production around the middle of next year. That means that the whole upstate business. So we've got, if you look at MC, obviously this goes from exploration all the way to production. You've been at the into to a single data platform. So production will be added the round Q3 of next year. Then it principal, we have a difficult, the elder data that single environment, and we want to extended them to other data sources or energy sources like solar farms, wheat farms, uh, hydrogen hydro at San Francisco. We want to add a whore or a list of other day. >>And he saw a student and B all the data together into a single data club. So we move from an fallen guest, a data platform to an energy data platform. That's really what our objective is because the whole industry we've looked at, I've looked at our company companies all moving in that same direction of quantity, of course are very strong at all, I guess, but also increase the, got into all the other energy sources like, like solar, like wind, like, like the hydrogen, et cetera. So we, we move exactly the same method that, that, that the whole OSU can really support at home. And as a spectrum of energy sources, of course, >>And Liz and Johan. I want you to close us out here by just giving us a look into your crystal balls and talking about the five and 10 year plan for OSD. You we'll start with you, Liz. What do you, what do you see as the future holding for this platform? Um, honestly, the incredibly cool thing about working at AWS is you never know where the innovation and the journey is going to take you. I personally am looking forward to work with our customers, wherever their OSU journeys, take them, whether it's enabling new energy solutions or continuing to expand, to support use cases throughout the energy value chain and beyond, but really looking forward to continuing to partner as we innovate to slay tomorrow's challenges. >>Yeah. First, nobody can look that far ahead, any more nowadays, especially 10 years mean now, who knows what happens in 10 years, but if you look what our whole objective is that really in the next five years owes you will become the key backbone for energy companies for storing your data. You are efficient intelligence and optimize the whole supply energy supply chain in this world out there. >>Rubbers Liz Dennett. Thank you so much for coming on the cube virtual, >>Thank you, >>Rebecca nights, stay tuned for more of our coverage of the Accenture executive summit >>Around the globe. It's the cube with digital coverage of AWS reinvent executive summit 2020, sponsored by Accenture and AWS. >>Welcome everyone to the cubes coverage of the Accenture executive summit. Part of AWS reinvent. I'm your host Rebecca Knight today we're welcoming back to Kubila. We have Kishor Dirk. He is the Accenture senior managing director cloud first global services lead. Welcome back to the show >>Kishore. Thank you very much. >>Nice to meet again. And, uh, Tristin moral horse set. He is the managing director, Accenture cloud first North American growth. Welcome back to YouTube. >>Great to be back in. Great to see you again, Rebecca. >>Exactly. Even in this virtual format, it is good to see your faces. Um, today we're going to be talking about my nav and green cloud advisor >>Capability. Kishor I want to start with you. So my NAB is a platform that is really celebrating its first year in existence. Uh, November, 2019 is when Accenture introduced it. Uh, but it's, it has new relevance in light of this global pandemic that we are all enduring and suffering through. Tell us a little bit about the miner platform, what it is. >>Sure, Rebecca, you know, we lost it and now 2019 and, uh, you know, it is a cloud platform to help our clients navigate the complexity of cloud and cloud decisions and to make it faster and obviously innovate in the cloud, uh, you know, with the increased relevance and all the, especially over the last few months with the impact of COVID crisis and exhibition of digital transformation, you know, we are seeing the transformation of the acceleration to cloud much faster. This platform that you're talking about has enabled hundred and 40 clients globally across different industries. You identify the right cloud solution, navigate the complexity, provide a cloud specific solution simulate for our clients to meet the strategy business needs and the clients are loving it. >>I want to go to you now trust and tell us a little bit about how my nav works and how it helps companies make good cloud choices. >>Yeah. So Rebecca we've talked about cloud is, is more than just infrastructure and that's what mine app tries to solve for. It really looks at a variety of variables, including infrastructure operating model and fundamentally what clients business outcomes, um, uh, our clients are, are looking for and, and identify as the optimal solution for what they need. And we design this to accelerate and we mentioned the pandemic. One of the big focus now is to accelerate. And so we worked through a three-step process. The first is scanning and assessing our client's infrastructure, their data landscape, their application. Second, we use our automated artificial intelligence engine to interact with. We have a wide variety and library of, uh, collective plot expertise. And we look to recommend what is the enterprise architecture and solution. And then third, before we aligned with our clients, we look to simulate and test this scaled up model. And the simulation gives our clients a wait to see what cloud is going to look like, feel like and how it's going to transform their business before they go there. >>Tell us a little bit about that in real life. Now as a company, so many of people are working remotely having to collaborate, uh, not in real life. How is that helping them right now? >>So, um, the, the pandemic has put a tremendous strain on systems, uh, because of the demand on those systems. And so we talk about resiliency. We also now need to collaborate across data across people. Um, I think all of us are calling from a variety of different places where our last year we were all at the cube itself. Um, and, and cloud technologies such as teams, zoom that we're we're leveraging now has fundamentally accelerated and clients are looking to onboard this for their capabilities. They're trying to accelerate their journey. They realize that now the cloud is what is going to become important for them to differentiate. Once we come out of the pandemic and the ability to collaborate with their employees, their partners, and their clients through these systems is becoming a true business differentiator for our clients. >>Sure. I want to talk with you now about my NABS multiple capabilities, um, and helping clients design and navigate their cloud journeys. Tell us a little bit about the green cloud advisor capability and its significance, particularly as so many companies are thinking more deeply and thoughtfully about sustainability. >>Yes. So since the launch of my NAB, we continue to enhance capabilities for our clients. One of the significant, uh, capabilities that we have enabled is the brain trust advisor today. You know, Rebecca, a lot of the businesses are more environmentally aware and are expanding efforts to decrease power consumption, uh, and obviously carbon emissions and, uh, and run a sustainable operations across every aspect of the enterprise. Uh, as a result, you're seeing an increasing trend in adoption of energy, efficient infrastructure in the global market. And one of the things that we did, a lot of research we found out is that there's an ability to influence our client's carbon footprint through a better cloud solution. And that's what we entered by brings to us, uh, in, in terms of a lot of the client connotation that you're seeing in Europe, North America and others, lot of our clients are accelerating to a green cloud strategy to unlock beta financial, societal and environmental benefit, uh, through obviously cloud-based circular, operational and sustainable products and services. That is something that, uh, we are enhancing my now and we are having active client discussions at this point of time. >>So Tristan, tell us a little bit about how this capability helps clients make greener. >>Yeah. Um, well, let's start about the investments from the cloud providers in renewable and sustainable energy. Um, they have most of the hyperscalers today, um, have been investing significantly on data centers that are run or renewable energy, some incredibly creative constructs on the how to do that. And sustainability is therefore a key, um, key item of importance for the hyperscalers and also for our clients who now are looking for sustainable energy. And it turns out this marriage is now possible. I can, we marry the, the green capabilities of the cloud providers with a sustainability agenda of our clients. And so what we look into way the mine EF works is it looks at industry benchmarks and evaluates our current clients, um, capabilities and carpet footprint leveraging their existing data centers. We then look to model from an end-to-end perspective, how the, their journey to the cloud leveraging sustainable and, um, and data centers with renewable energy. We look at how their solution will look like and, and quantify carbon tax credits, um, improve a green index score and provide quantifiable, um, green cloud capabilities and measurable outcomes to our clients, shareholders, stakeholders, clients, and customers, um, and our green plot advisors, sustainability solutions already been implemented at three clients. And in many cases in two cases has helped them reduce the carbon footprint by up to 400% through migration from their existing data center to green club. Very, very important. Yeah, >>That is remarkable. Now tell us a little bit about the kinds of clients. Is this, is this more interesting to clients in Europe? Would you say that it's catching on in the United States where we're at? What is the breakdown that you're seeing right now? >>Sustainability is becoming such a global agenda and we're seeing our clients, um, uh, tie this and put this at board level, um, uh, agenda and requirements across the globe. Um, Europe has specific constraints around data sovereignty, right, where they need their data in country, but from a green, a sustainability agenda, we see clients across all our markets, North America, Europe, and our growth markets adopt this. And we have seen case studies in all three markets >>Kisha. I want to bring you back into the conversation. Talk a little bit about how mine up ties into Accenture's cloud first strategy, your Accenture's CEO, Julie Sweet has talked about post COVID leadership requiring every business to become a cloud first business. Tell us a little bit about how this ethos is in Accenture and how you're sort of looking outward with it too. >>So Rebecca mine is the launch pad, uh, to a cloud first transformation for our clients. Uh, Accenture, see you, uh, Julie Sweet, uh, shared the Accenture cloud first and our substantial investment demonstrate our commitment and is delivering data value for our clients when they need it the most. And with the district transformation requiring cloud at scale, you know, we're seeing that in the post COVID leadership, it requires that every business should become a cloud business. And my nap helps them get there by evaluating the cloud landscape, navigating the complexity, modeling architecting and simulating an optimal cloud solution for our clients. And as Justin was sharing a greener cloud, Tristan, talk a little >>Bit more about some of the real life use cases in terms of what are we, what are clients seeing? What are the results? >>Yes, thank you, Rebecca. I would say two key things right around my now the first is the iterative process. Clients don't want to wait, um, until they get started, they want to get started and see what their journey is going to look like. And the second is fundamental acceleration, dependent make, as we talked about, has accelerated the need to move to cloud very quickly. And my nav is there to do that. So how do we do that? First is generating the business cases. Clients need to know in many cases that they have a business case by business case, we talk about the financial benefits, as well as the business outcomes, the green green cloud impact sustainability impacts with minus we can build initial recommendations using a basic understanding of their environment and benchmarks in weeks versus months with indicative value savings in the millions of dollars arranges. >>So for example, very recently, we worked with a global oil and gas company, and in only two weeks, we're able to provide an indicative savings for $27 million over five years. This enabled the client to get started, knowing that there is a business case benefit and then iterate on it. And this iteration is, I would say the second point that is particularly important with my nav that we've seen in bank, the clients, which is, um, any journey starts with an understanding of what is the application landscape and what are we trying to do with those, these initial assessments that used to take six to eight weeks are now taking anywhere from two to four weeks. So we're seeing a 40 to 50% reduction in the initial assessment, which gets clients started in their journey. And then finally we've had discussions with all of the hyperscalers to help partner with Accenture and leverage mine after prepared their detailed business case module as they're going to clients. And as they're accelerating the client's journey, so real results, real acceleration. And is there a journey? Do I have a business case and furthermore accelerating the journey once we are by giving the ability to work in an iterative approach, >>It sounds as though that the company that clients and and employees are sort of saying, this is an amazing time savings look at what I can do here in, in so much in a condensed amount of time, but in terms of getting everyone on board, one of the things we talked about last time we met, uh, Tristin was just how much, uh, how one of the obstacles is getting people to sign on and the new technologies and new platforms. Those are often the obstacles and struggles that companies face. Have you found that at all? Or what is sort of the feedback that you're getting from? >>Yeah. Sorry. Yes. We clearly, there are always obstacles to a con journey. If there weren't obstacles, all our clients would be already fully in the cloud. What man I gives the ability is to navigate through those, to start quickly. And then as we identify obstacles, we can simulate what things are going to look like. We can continue with certain parts of the journey while we deal with that obstacle. And it's a fundamental accelerator. Whereas in the past one, obstacle would prevent a class from starting. We can now start to address the obstacles one at a time while continuing and accelerating the contrary. That is the fundamental difference. Kishor I want to give you the final word here. Tell us a little bit about what is next for Accenture might have and what we'll be discussing next year at the Accenture executive summit >>Sort of echo, we are continuously evolving with our client needs and reinventing, reinventing for the future. For my advisor, our plan is to help our clients reduce carbon footprint and again, migrate to a green cloud. Uh, and additionally, we're looking at, you know, two capabilities, uh, which include sovereign cloud advisor, uh, with clients, especially in, in Europe and others are under pressure to meet stringent data norms that Kristen was talking about. And the sovereign cloud advisor health organization to create an architecture cloud architecture that complies with the green. Uh, I would say the data sound-bitey norms that is out there. The other element is around data to cloud. We are seeing massive migration, uh, for, uh, for a lot of the data to cloud. And there's a lot of migration hurdles that come within that. Uh, we have expanded mine app to support assessment capabilities, uh, for, uh, assessing applications, infrastructure, but also covering the entire state, including data and the code level to determine the right cloud solution. So we are, we are pushing the boundaries on what might have can do with mine. And we have created the ability to take the guesswork out of cloud, navigate the complexity. We are rolling risks costs, and we are achieving clients strategy, business objectives, while building a sustainable lots with being cloud, >>Any platform that can take some of the guesswork out of the future. I'm I'm on board with. Thank you so much, Kristin and Kishore. This has been a great conversation. Thank you, Rebecca. Thank you, Rebecca. Stay tuned for more of the cubes coverage of the Accenture executive summit. I'm Rebecca Knight. >>Yeah, Yeah.

(radio calls) >> Announcer: From around the globe, its theCUBE covering Space & Cybersecurity Symposium 2020, hosted by Cal poly. Hello, welcome back to theCUBE virtual coverage with Cal Poly for the Space and Cybersecurity Symposium, a day four and the wrap up session, keynote session with the Lieutenant Governor of California, Eleni Kounalakis. She's here to deliver her keynote speech on the topic of California's role in supporting America's Cybersecurity future. Eleni, take it away. >> Thank you, John, for the introduction. I am Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis. It is an honor to be part of Cal Poly Space and Cybersecurity Symposium. As I speak kind of Pierre with the governor's office of business and economic development is available on the chat, too ready to answer any questions you might have. California and indeed the world are facing significant challenges right now. Every day we are faced with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the economic downturn that is ensued. We have flattened the curve in California and are moving in the right direction but it is clear that we're not out of the woods yet. It is also impossible right now to escape the reality of climate change from the fire sparked by exceptionally rare, dry lightening events to extreme heat waves threatening public health and putting a strain on our electricity grid. We see that climate change is here now. And of course we've been recently confronted with a series of brutal examples of institutionalized racism that have created an awakening among people of all walks of life and compelled us into the streets to march and protest. In the context of all this, we cannot forget that we continue to be faced with other less visible but still very serious challenges. Cybersecurity threats are one of these. We have seen cities, companies and individuals paralyzed by attacks costing time and money and creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and insecurity. Our state agencies, local governments, police departments, utilities, news outlets and private companies from all industries are target. The threats around cybersecurity are serious but not unlike all the challenges we face in California. We have the tools and fortitude to address them. That is why this symposium is so important. Thank you, Cal Poly and all the participants for being here and for the important contributions you bring to this conference. I'd like to also say a few words about California's role in America's future in space. California has been at the forefront of the aerospace industry for more than a century through all the major innovations in aerospace from wooden aircraft, to World War II Bombers, to rockets and Mars rovers. California has played a pivotal role. Today, California is the number one state in total defense spending, defense contract spending and total number of personnel. It is estimated the Aerospace and Defense Industry, provides $168 billion in economic impact to our state. And America's best trained and most experienced aerospace and technology workforce lives here in California. The fact that the aerospace and defense sector, has had a strong history in California is no accident. California has always had strong innovation ecosystem and robust infrastructure that puts many sectors in a position to thrive. Of course, a big part of that infrastructure is a skilled workforce. And at the foundation of a skilled workforce is education. California has the strongest system of public higher education in the world. We're home to 10 university of California campuses, 23 California State university campuses and 116 California Community Colleges. All told nearly 3 million students are enrolled in public higher education. We also have world renowned private universities including the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University numbers one and three in the country for aerospace engineering. California also has four national laboratories and several NASA facilities. California possesses a strong spirit of innovation, risk taking and entrepreneurship. Half of all venture capital funding in the United States, goes to companies here in California. Lastly, but certainly no less critical to our success, California is a diverse state. 27% of all Californians are foreign born, 27% more than one in four of our population of 40 million people are immigrants from another country, Europe central and South America, India, Asia, everywhere. Our rich cultural diversity is our strength and helps drive our economy. As I look to the future of industries like cybersecurity and the growing commercial space industry, I know our state will need to work with those industries to make sure we continue to train our workforce for the demands of an evolving industry. The office of the lieutenant governor has a unique perspective on higher education and workforce development. I'm on the UC Board of Regents, the CSU Board of Trustees. And as of about two weeks ago, the Community Colleges Board of Governors. The office of the lieutenant governor is now the only office that is a member of every governing board, overseeing our public higher education system. Earlier in the symposium, we heard a rich discussion with Undersecretary Stewart Knox from the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency about what the state is doing to meet the needs of space and cybersecurity industries. As he mentioned, there are over 37,000 job vacancies in cybersecurity in our state. We need to address that gap. To do so, I see an important role for public private partnerships. We need input from industry and curriculum development. Some companies like Lockheed Martin, have very productive partnerships with universities and community colleges that train students with skills they need to enter aerospace and cyber industries. That type of collaboration will be key. We also need help from the industry to make sure students know that fields like cybersecurity even exist. People's early career interests are so often shaped by the jobs that members of their family have or what they see in popular culture. With such a young and evolving field like cybersecurity, many students are unaware of the job opportunities. I know for my visits to university campuses that students are hungry for STEM career paths where they see opportunities for good paying jobs. When I spoke with students at UC Merced, many of them were first generation college students who went through community college system before enrolling in a UC and they gravitated to STEM majors. With so many job opportunities available to STEM students, cybersecurity ought to be one that they are aware of and consider. Since this symposium is being hosted by Cal Poly, I wanted to highlight the tremendous work they're doing as leaders in the space and cybersecurity industry. Cal Poly California Cybersecurity Institute, does incredible work bringing together academia, industry and government training the next generation of cyber experts and researching emerging cybersecurity issues. As we heard from the President of Cal Poly, Jeff Armstrong the university is in the perfect location to contribute to a thriving space industry. It's close to Vandenberg Air Force Base and UC Santa Barbara and could be home to the future permanent headquarters of US Space Command. The state is also committed to supporting this space industry in the Central Coast. In July, the State of California, Cal poly US-based force and the others signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a commercial space port at Vandenberg Air Force Base and to develop a master plan to grow the commercial space industry in the region. Governor Newsom has made a commitment to lift up all regions of the state. And this strategy will position the Central Coast to be a global leader in the future of the space industry. I'd like to leave you with a few final thoughts, with everything we're facing. Fires, climate change, pandemic. It is easy to feel overwhelmed but I remain optimistic because I know that the people of the State of California are resilient, persistent, and determined to address our challenges and show a path toward a better future for ourselves and our families. The growth of the space industry and the economic development potential of projects like the Spaceport at Vandenberg Air Force Base, our great example of what we can look forward to. The potential for the commercial space industry to become a $3 trillion industry by mid century, as many experts predict is another. There are so many opportunities, new companies are going to emerge doing things we never could have dreamed of today. As Lieutenant General John Thompson said in the first session, the next few years of space and cyber innovation are not going to be a pony ride at the state fair, they're going to be a rodeo. We should all saddle up. Thank you. >> Okay, thank you very much, Eleni. I really appreciate it. Thank you for your participation and all your support to you and your staff. You guys doing a lot of work, a lot going on in California but cybersecurity and space as it comes together, California's playing a pivotal role in leading the world and the community. Thank you very much for your time. >> Okay, this session is going to continue with Bill Britton. Who's the vice president of technology and CIO at Cal Poly but more importantly, he's the director of the cyber institute located at Cal Poly. It's a global organization looking at the intersection of space and cybersecurity. Bill, let's wrap this up. Eleni had a great talk, talking about the future of cybersecurity in America and its future. The role California is playing, Cal Poly is right in the Central Coast. You're in the epicenter of it. We've had a great lineup here. Thanks for coming on. Let's put a capstone on this event. >> Thank you, John. But most importantly, thanks for being a great partner helping us get this to move forward and really changing the dynamic of this conversation. What an amazing time we're at, we had quite an unusual group but it's really kind of the focus and we've moved a lot of space around ourselves. And we've gone from Lieutenant General Thompson and the discussion of the opposition and space force and what things are going on in the future, the importance of cyber in space. And then we went on and moved on to the operations. And we had a private company who builds, we had the DOD, Department Of Defense and their context and NASA and theirs. And then we talked about public private partnerships from President Armstrong, Mr. Bhangu Mahad from the DOD and Mr. Steve Jacques from the National Security Space Association. It's been an amazing conference for one thing, I've heard repeatedly over and over and over, the reference to digital, the reference to cloud, the reference to the need for cybersecurity to be involved and really how important that is to start earlier than just at the employment level. To really go down into the system, the K through 12 and start there. And what an amazing time to be able to start there because we're returning to space in a larger capacity and it's now all around us. And the lieutenant governor really highlighted for us that California is intimately involved and we have to find a way to get our students involved at that same level. >> I want to ask you about this inflection point that was a big theme of this conference and symposium. It was throughout the interviews and throughout the conversations, both on the chat and also kind of on Twitter as well in the social web. Is that this new generation, it wasn't just space and government DOD, all the normal stuff you see, you saw JPL, the Hewlett Foundation, the Defense Innovation Unit, Amazon Web Services, NASA. Then you saw entrepreneurs come in, who were doing some stuff. And so you had this confluence of community. Of course, Cal Poly had participated in space. You guys does some great job, but it's not just the physical face-to-face show up, gets to hear some academic papers. This was a virtual event. We had over 300 organizations attend, different organizations around the world. Being a virtual event you had more range to get more people. This isn't digital. This symposium isn't about Central California anymore. It's global. >> No, it really has gone. >> What really happened to that? >> It's really kind of interesting because at first all of this was word of mouth for this symposium to take place. And it just started growing and growing and the more that we talk to organizations for support, the more we found how interconnected they were on an international scale. So much so that we've decided to take our cyber competition next year and take it globally as well. So if in fact as Major General Shaw said, this is about a multinational support force. Maybe it's time our students started interacting on that level to start with and not have to grow into it as they get older, but do it now and around space and around cybersecurity and around that digital environment and really kind of reduce the digital dividing space. >> Yeah, General Thompson mentioned this, 80 countries with programs. This is like the Olympics for space and we want to have these competitions. So I got great vision and I love that vision, but I know you have the number... Not number, the scores and from the competition this year that happened earlier in the week. Could you share the results of that challenge? >> Yeah, absolutely. We had 83 teams participate this year in the California Cyber Innovation Challenge. And again, it was based around a spacecraft scenario where a spacecraft, a commercial spacecraft was hacked and returned to earth. And the students had to do the forensics on the payload. And then they had to do downstream network analysis, using things like Wireshark and autopsy and other systems. It was a really tough competition. The students had to work hard and we had middle school and high school students participate. We had an intermediate league, new schools who had never done it before or even some who didn't even have STEM programs but were just signing up to really get involved in the experience. And we had our ultimate division which was those who had competed in several times before. And the winner of that competition was North Hollywood. They've been the winning team for four years in a row. Now it's a phenomenal program, they have their hats off to them for competing and winning again. Now what's really cool is not only did they have to show their technical prowess in the game but they also have to then brief and out-brief what they've learned to a panel of judges. And these are not pushovers. These are experts in the field of cybersecurity in space. We even had a couple of goons participating from DefCon and the teams present their findings. So not only are we talking technical, we're talking about presentation skills. The ability to speak and understand. And let me tell you, after reading all of their texts to each other over the weekend adds a whole new language they're using to interact with each other. It's amazing. And they are so more advanced and ready to understand space problems and virtual problems than we are. We have to challenge them even more. >> Well, it sounds like North Hollywood got the franchise. It's likethe Patriots, the Lakers, they've got a dynasty developing down there in North Hollywood. >> Well, what happens when there's a dynasty you have to look for other talent. So next year we're going global and we're going to have multiple states involved in the challenge and we're going to go international. So if North Hollywood pulls it off again next year, it's going to be because they've met the best in the world than defeated >> Okay, the gauntlet has been thrown down, got to take down North Hollywood from winning again next year. We'll be following that. Bill, great to get those results on the cyber challenge we'll keep track and we'll put a plug for it on our site. So we got to get some press on that. My question to you is now as we're going digital, other theme was that they want to hire digital natives into the space force. Okay, the DOD is looking at new skills. This was a big theme throughout the conference not just the commercial partnerships with government which I believe they had kind of put more research and personally, that's my personal opinion. They should be putting in way more research into academic and these environments to get more creative. But the skill sets was a big theme. What's your thoughts on how you saw some of the highlight moments there around skill sets? >> John, it's really interesting 'cause what we've noticed is in the past, everybody thinks skill sets for the engineering students. And it's way beyond that. It's all the students, it's all of them understanding what we call cyber cognizance. Understanding how cybersecurity works whatever career field they choose to be in. Space, there is no facet of supporting space that doesn't need that cyber cognizance. If you're in the back room doing the operations, you're doing the billing, you're doing the contracting. Those are still avenues by which cybersecurity attacks can be successful and disrupt your space mission. The fact that it's international, the connectivities, all of those things means that everyone in that system digitally has to be aware of what's going on around them. That's a whole new thought process. It's a whole new way of addressing a problem and dealing with space. And again it's virtual to everyone. >> That's awesome. Bill, great to have you on. Thank you for including theCUBE virtual, our CUBE event software platform that we're rolling out. We've been using it for the event and thank you for your partnership in this co-creation opening up your community, your symposium to the world, and we're so glad to be part of it. I want to thank you and Dustin and the team and the President of Cal Poly for including us. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, John. It's been an amazing partnership. We look forward to it in the future. >> Okay, that's it. That concludes the Space and Cybersecurity Symposium 2020. I'm John Furrier with theCUBE, your host with Cal Poly, who put on an amazing virtual presentation, brought all the guests together. And again, shout out to Bill Britton and Dustin DeBrum who did a great job as well as the President of Cal poly who endorsed and let them do it all. Great event. See you soon. (flash light sound)

>>from around the globe. It's the Cube covering >>space and cybersecurity. Symposium 2020 hosted by Cal Poly >>Over On Welcome to this Special virtual conference. The Space and Cybersecurity Symposium 2020 put on by Cal Poly with support from the Cube. I'm John for your host and master of ceremonies. Got a great topic today in this session. Really? The intersection of space and cybersecurity. This topic and this conversation is the cybersecurity workforce development through public and private partnerships. And we've got a great lineup. We have Jeff Armstrong's the president of California Polytechnic State University, also known as Cal Poly Jeffrey. Thanks for jumping on and Bang. Go ahead. The second director of C four s R Division. And he's joining us from the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for the acquisition Sustainment Department of Defense, D O D. And, of course, Steve Jake's executive director, founder, National Security Space Association and managing partner at Bello's. Gentlemen, thank you for joining me for this session. We got an hour conversation. Thanks for coming on. >>Thank you. >>So we got a virtual event here. We've got an hour, have a great conversation and love for you guys do? In opening statement on how you see the development through public and private partnerships around cybersecurity in space, Jeff will start with you. >>Well, thanks very much, John. It's great to be on with all of you. Uh, on behalf Cal Poly Welcome, everyone. Educating the workforce of tomorrow is our mission to Cal Poly. Whether that means traditional undergraduates, master students are increasingly mid career professionals looking toe up, skill or re skill. Our signature pedagogy is learn by doing, which means that our graduates arrive at employers ready Day one with practical skills and experience. We have long thought of ourselves is lucky to be on California's beautiful central Coast. But in recent years, as we have developed closer relationships with Vandenberg Air Force Base, hopefully the future permanent headquarters of the United States Space Command with Vandenberg and other regional partners, we have discovered that our location is even more advantages than we thought. We're just 50 miles away from Vandenberg, a little closer than u C. Santa Barbara, and the base represents the southern border of what we have come to think of as the central coast region. Cal Poly and Vandenberg Air force base have partner to support regional economic development to encourage the development of a commercial spaceport toe advocate for the space Command headquarters coming to Vandenberg and other ventures. These partnerships have been possible because because both parties stand to benefit Vandenberg by securing new streams of revenue, workforce and local supply chain and Cal Poly by helping to grow local jobs for graduates, internship opportunities for students, and research and entrepreneurship opportunities for faculty and staff. Crucially, what's good for Vandenberg Air Force Base and for Cal Poly is also good for the Central Coast and the US, creating new head of household jobs, infrastructure and opportunity. Our goal is that these new jobs bring more diversity and sustainability for the region. This regional economic development has taken on a life of its own, spawning a new nonprofit called Reach, which coordinates development efforts from Vandenberg Air Force Base in the South to camp to Camp Roberts in the North. Another factor that is facilitated our relationship with Vandenberg Air Force Base is that we have some of the same friends. For example, Northrop Grumman has has long been an important defense contractor, an important partner to Cal poly funding scholarships and facilities that have allowed us to stay current with technology in it to attract highly qualified students for whom Cal Poly's costs would otherwise be prohibitive. For almost 20 years north of grimness funded scholarships for Cal Poly students this year, their funding 64 scholarships, some directly in our College of Engineering and most through our Cal Poly Scholars program, Cal Poly Scholars, a support both incoming freshman is transfer students. These air especially important because it allows us to provide additional support and opportunities to a group of students who are mostly first generation, low income and underrepresented and who otherwise might not choose to attend Cal Poly. They also allow us to recruit from partner high schools with large populations of underrepresented minority students, including the Fortune High School in Elk Grove, which we developed a deep and lasting connection. We know that the best work is done by balanced teams that include multiple and diverse perspectives. These scholarships help us achieve that goal, and I'm sure you know Northrop Grumman was recently awarded a very large contract to modernized the U. S. I. C B M Armory with some of the work being done at Vandenberg Air Force Base, thus supporting the local economy and protecting protecting our efforts in space requires partnerships in the digital realm. How Polly is partnered with many private companies, such as AWS. Our partnerships with Amazon Web services has enabled us to train our students with next generation cloud engineering skills, in part through our jointly created digital transformation hub. Another partnership example is among Cal Poly's California Cybersecurity Institute, College of Engineering and the California National Guard. This partnership is focused on preparing a cyber ready workforce by providing faculty and students with a hands on research and learning environment, side by side with military, law enforcement professionals and cyber experts. We also have a long standing partnership with PG and E, most recently focused on workforce development and redevelopment. Many of our graduates do indeed go on to careers in aerospace and defense industry as a rough approximation. More than 4500 Cal Poly graduates list aerospace and defense as their employment sector on linked in, and it's not just our engineers and computer sciences. When I was speaking to our fellow Panelists not too long ago, >>are >>speaking to bang, we learned that Rachel sins, one of our liberal arts arts majors, is working in his office. So shout out to you, Rachel. And then finally, of course, some of our graduates sword extraordinary heights such as Commander Victor Glover, who will be heading to the International space station later this year as I close. All of which is to say that we're deeply committed the workforce, development and redevelopment that we understand the value of public private partnerships and that were eager to find new ways in which to benefit everyone from this further cooperation. So we're committed to the region, the state in the nation and our past efforts in space, cybersecurity and links to our partners at as I indicated, aerospace industry and governmental partners provides a unique position for us to move forward in the interface of space and cybersecurity. Thank you so much, John. >>President, I'm sure thank you very much for the comments and congratulations to Cal Poly for being on the forefront of innovation and really taking a unique progressive. You and wanna tip your hat to you guys over there. Thank you very much for those comments. Appreciate it. Bahng. Department of Defense. Exciting you gotta defend the nation spaces Global. Your opening statement. >>Yes, sir. Thanks, John. Appreciate that day. Thank you, everybody. I'm honored to be this panel along with President Armstrong, Cal Poly in my long longtime friend and colleague Steve Jakes of the National Security Space Association, to discuss a very important topic of cybersecurity workforce development, as President Armstrong alluded to, I'll tell you both of these organizations, Cal Poly and the N S. A have done and continue to do an exceptional job at finding talent, recruiting them in training current and future leaders and technical professionals that we vitally need for our nation's growing space programs. A swell Asare collective National security Earlier today, during Session three high, along with my colleague Chris Hansen discussed space, cyber Security and how the space domain is changing the landscape of future conflicts. I discussed the rapid emergence of commercial space with the proliferations of hundreds, if not thousands, of satellites providing a variety of services, including communications allowing for global Internet connectivity. S one example within the O. D. We continue to look at how we can leverage this opportunity. I'll tell you one of the enabling technologies eyes the use of small satellites, which are inherently cheaper and perhaps more flexible than the traditional bigger systems that we have historically used unemployed for the U. D. Certainly not lost on Me is the fact that Cal Poly Pioneer Cube SATs 2020 some years ago, and they set the standard for the use of these systems today. So they saw the valiant benefit gained way ahead of everybody else, it seems, and Cal Poly's focus on training and education is commendable. I especially impressed by the efforts of another of Steve's I colleague, current CEO Mr Bill Britain, with his high energy push to attract the next generation of innovators. Uh, earlier this year, I had planned on participating in this year's Cyber Innovation Challenge. In June works Cal Poly host California Mill and high school students and challenge them with situations to test their cyber knowledge. I tell you, I wish I had that kind of opportunity when I was a kid. Unfortunately, the pandemic change the plan. Why I truly look forward. Thio feature events such as these Thio participating. Now I want to recognize my good friend Steve Jakes, whom I've known for perhaps too long of a time here over two decades or so, who was in acknowledge space expert and personally, I truly applaud him for having the foresight of years back to form the National Security Space Association to help the entire space enterprise navigate through not only technology but Polly policy issues and challenges and paved the way for operational izing space. Space is our newest horrifying domain. That's not a secret anymore. Uh, and while it is a unique area, it shares a lot of common traits with the other domains such as land, air and sea, obviously all of strategically important to the defense of the United States. In conflict they will need to be. They will all be contested and therefore they all need to be defended. One domain alone will not win future conflicts in a joint operation. We must succeed. All to defending space is critical as critical is defending our other operational domains. Funny space is no longer the sanctuary available only to the government. Increasingly, as I discussed in the previous session, commercial space is taking the lead a lot of different areas, including R and D, A so called new space, so cyber security threat is even more demanding and even more challenging. Three US considers and federal access to and freedom to operate in space vital to advancing security, economic prosperity, prosperity and scientific knowledge of the country. That's making cyberspace an inseparable component. America's financial, social government and political life. We stood up US Space force ah, year ago or so as the newest military service is like the other services. Its mission is to organize, train and equip space forces in order to protect us and allied interest in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force. Imagine combining that US space force with the U. S. Cyber Command to unify the direction of space and cyberspace operation strengthened U D capabilities and integrate and bolster d o d cyber experience. Now, of course, to enable all of this requires had trained and professional cadre of cyber security experts, combining a good mix of policy as well as high technical skill set much like we're seeing in stem, we need to attract more people to this growing field. Now the D. O. D. Is recognized the importance of the cybersecurity workforce, and we have implemented policies to encourage his growth Back in 2013 the deputy secretary of defense signed the D. O d cyberspace workforce strategy to create a comprehensive, well equipped cyber security team to respond to national security concerns. Now this strategy also created a program that encourages collaboration between the D. O. D and private sector employees. We call this the Cyber Information Technology Exchange program or site up. It's an exchange programs, which is very interesting, in which a private sector employees can naturally work for the D. O. D. In a cyber security position that spans across multiple mission critical areas are important to the d. O. D. A key responsibility of cybersecurity community is military leaders on the related threats and cyber security actions we need to have to defeat these threats. We talk about rapid that position, agile business processes and practices to speed up innovation. Likewise, cybersecurity must keep up with this challenge to cyber security. Needs to be right there with the challenges and changes, and this requires exceptional personnel. We need to attract talent investing the people now to grow a robust cybersecurity, workforce, streets, future. I look forward to the panel discussion, John. Thank you. >>Thank you so much bomb for those comments and you know, new challenges and new opportunities and new possibilities and free freedom Operating space. Critical. Thank you for those comments. Looking forward. Toa chatting further. Steve Jakes, executive director of N. S. S. A Europe opening statement. >>Thank you, John. And echoing bangs thanks to Cal Poly for pulling these this important event together and frankly, for allowing the National Security Space Association be a part of it. Likewise, we on behalf the association delighted and honored Thio be on this panel with President Armstrong along with my friend and colleague Bonneau Glue Mahad Something for you all to know about Bomb. He spent the 1st 20 years of his career in the Air Force doing space programs. He then went into industry for several years and then came back into government to serve. Very few people do that. So bang on behalf of the space community, we thank you for your long life long devotion to service to our nation. We really appreciate that and I also echo a bang shot out to that guy Bill Britain, who has been a long time co conspirator of ours for a long time and you're doing great work there in the cyber program at Cal Poly Bill, keep it up. But professor arms trying to keep a close eye on him. Uh, I would like to offer a little extra context to the great comments made by by President Armstrong and bahng. Uh, in our view, the timing of this conference really could not be any better. Um, we all recently reflected again on that tragic 9 11 surprise attack on our homeland. And it's an appropriate time, we think, to take pause while the percentage of you in the audience here weren't even born or babies then For the most of us, it still feels like yesterday. And moreover, a tragedy like 9 11 has taught us a lot to include to be more vigilant, always keep our collective eyes and ears open to include those quote eyes and ears from space, making sure nothing like this ever happens again. So this conference is a key aspect. Protecting our nation requires we work in a cybersecurity environment at all times. But, you know, the fascinating thing about space systems is we can't see him. No, sir, We see Space launches man there's nothing more invigorating than that. But after launch, they become invisible. So what are they really doing up there? What are they doing to enable our quality of life in the United States and in the world? Well, to illustrate, I'd like to paraphrase elements of an article in Forbes magazine by Bonds and my good friend Chuck Beans. Chuck. It's a space guy, actually had Bonds job a fuse in the Pentagon. He is now chairman and chief strategy officer at York Space Systems, and in his spare time he's chairman of the small satellites. Chuck speaks in words that everyone can understand. So I'd like to give you some of his words out of his article. Uh, they're afraid somewhat. So these are Chuck's words. Let's talk about average Joe and playing Jane. Before heading to the airport for a business trip to New York City, Joe checks the weather forecast informed by Noah's weather satellites to see what pack for the trip. He then calls an uber that space app. Everybody uses it matches riders with drivers via GPS to take into the airport, So Joe has lunch of the airport. Unbeknownst to him, his organic lunch is made with the help of precision farming made possible through optimized irrigation and fertilization, with remote spectral sensing coming from space and GPS on the plane, the pilot navigates around weather, aided by GPS and nose weather satellites. And Joe makes his meeting on time to join his New York colleagues in a video call with a key customer in Singapore made possible by telecommunication satellites. Around to his next meeting, Joe receives notice changing the location of the meeting to another to the other side of town. So he calmly tells Syria to adjust the destination, and his satellite guided Google maps redirects him to the new location. That evening, Joe watches the news broadcast via satellite. The report details a meeting among world leaders discussing the developing crisis in Syria. As it turns out, various forms of quote remotely sensed. Information collected from satellites indicate that yet another band, chemical weapon, may have been used on its own people. Before going to bed, Joe decides to call his parents and congratulate them for their wedding anniversary as they cruise across the Atlantic, made possible again by communications satellites and Joe's parents can enjoy the call without even wondering how it happened the next morning. Back home, Joe's wife, Jane, is involved in a car accident. Her vehicle skids off the road. She's knocked unconscious, but because of her satellite equipped on star system, the crash is detected immediately and first responders show up on the scene. In time, Joe receives the news books. An early trip home sends flowers to his wife as he orders another uber to the airport. Over that 24 hours, Joe and Jane used space system applications for nearly every part of their day. Imagine the consequences if at any point they were somehow denied these services, whether they be by natural causes or a foreign hostility. And each of these satellite applications used in this case were initially developed for military purposes and continue to be, but also have remarkable application on our way of life. Just many people just don't know that. So, ladies and gentlemen, now you know, thanks to chuck beans, well, the United States has a proud heritage being the world's leading space faring nation, dating back to the Eisenhower and Kennedy years. Today we have mature and robust systems operating from space, providing overhead reconnaissance to quote, wash and listen, provide missile warning, communications, positioning, navigation and timing from our GPS system. Much of what you heard in Lieutenant General J. T. Thompson earlier speech. These systems are not only integral to our national security, but also our also to our quality of life is Chuck told us. We simply no longer could live without these systems as a nation and for that matter, as a world. But over the years, adversary like adversaries like China, Russia and other countries have come to realize the value of space systems and are aggressively playing ketchup while also pursuing capabilities that will challenge our systems. As many of you know, in 2000 and seven, China demonstrated it's a set system by actually shooting down is one of its own satellites and has been aggressively developing counter space systems to disrupt hours. So in a heavily congested space environment, our systems are now being contested like never before and will continue to bay well as Bond mentioned, the United States has responded to these changing threats. In addition to adding ways to protect our system, the administration and in Congress recently created the United States Space Force and the operational you United States Space Command, the latter of which you heard President Armstrong and other Californians hope is going to be located. Vandenberg Air Force Base Combined with our intelligence community today, we have focused military and civilian leadership now in space. And that's a very, very good thing. Commence, really. On the industry side, we did create the National Security Space Association devoted solely to supporting the national security Space Enterprise. We're based here in the D C area, but we have arms and legs across the country, and we are loaded with extraordinary talent. In scores of Forman, former government executives, So S s a is joined at the hip with our government customers to serve and to support. We're busy with a multitude of activities underway ranging from a number of thought provoking policy. Papers are recurring space time Webcast supporting Congress's Space Power Caucus and other main serious efforts. Check us out at NSS. A space dot org's One of our strategic priorities in central to today's events is to actively promote and nurture the workforce development. Just like cow calling. We will work with our U. S. Government customers, industry leaders and academia to attract and recruit students to join the space world, whether in government or industry and two assistant mentoring and training as their careers. Progress on that point, we're delighted. Be delighted to be working with Cal Poly as we hopefully will undertake a new pilot program with him very soon. So students stay tuned something I can tell you Space is really cool. While our nation's satellite systems are technical and complex, our nation's government and industry work force is highly diverse, with a combination of engineers, physicists, method and mathematicians, but also with a large non technical expertise as well. Think about how government gets things thes systems designed, manufactured, launching into orbit and operating. They do this via contracts with our aerospace industry, requiring talents across the board from cost estimating cost analysis, budgeting, procurement, legal and many other support. Tasker Integral to the mission. Many thousands of people work in the space workforce tens of billions of dollars every year. This is really cool stuff, no matter what your education background, a great career to be part of. When summary as bang had mentioned Aziz, well, there is a great deal of exciting challenges ahead we will see a new renaissance in space in the years ahead, and in some cases it's already begun. Billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Sir Richard Richard Branson are in the game, stimulating new ideas in business models, other private investors and start up companies. Space companies are now coming in from all angles. The exponential advancement of technology and microelectronics now allows the potential for a plethora of small SAT systems to possibly replace older satellites the size of a Greyhound bus. It's getting better by the day and central to this conference, cybersecurity is paramount to our nation's critical infrastructure in space. So once again, thanks very much, and I look forward to the further conversation. >>Steve, thank you very much. Space is cool. It's relevant. But it's important, as you pointed out, and you're awesome story about how it impacts our life every day. So I really appreciate that great story. I'm glad you took the time Thio share that you forgot the part about the drone coming over in the crime scene and, you know, mapping it out for you. But that would add that to the story later. Great stuff. My first question is let's get into the conversations because I think this is super important. President Armstrong like you to talk about some of the points that was teased out by Bang and Steve. One in particular is the comment around how military research was important in developing all these capabilities, which is impacting all of our lives. Through that story. It was the military research that has enabled a generation and generation of value for consumers. This is kind of this workforce conversation. There are opportunities now with with research and grants, and this is, ah, funding of innovation that it's highly accelerate. It's happening very quickly. Can you comment on how research and the partnerships to get that funding into the universities is critical? >>Yeah, I really appreciate that And appreciate the comments of my colleagues on it really boils down to me to partnerships, public private partnerships. You mentioned Northrop Grumman, but we have partnerships with Lockie Martin, Boeing, Raytheon Space six JPL, also member of organization called Business Higher Education Forum, which brings together university presidents and CEOs of companies. There's been focused on cybersecurity and data science, and I hope that we can spill into cybersecurity in space but those partnerships in the past have really brought a lot forward at Cal Poly Aziz mentioned we've been involved with Cube set. Uh, we've have some secure work and we want to plan to do more of that in the future. Uh, those partnerships are essential not only for getting the r and d done, but also the students, the faculty, whether masters or undergraduate, can be involved with that work. Uh, they get that real life experience, whether it's on campus or virtually now during Covic or at the location with the partner, whether it may be governmental or our industry. Uh, and then they're even better equipped, uh, to hit the ground running. And of course, we'd love to see even more of our students graduate with clearance so that they could do some of that a secure work as well. So these partnerships are absolutely critical, and it's also in the context of trying to bring the best and the brightest and all demographics of California and the US into this field, uh, to really be successful. So these partnerships are essential, and our goal is to grow them just like I know other colleagues and C. S u and the U C are planning to dio, >>you know, just as my age I've seen I grew up in the eighties, in college and during that systems generation and that the generation before me, they really kind of pioneered the space that spawned the computer revolution. I mean, you look at these key inflection points in our lives. They were really funded through these kinds of real deep research. Bond talk about that because, you know, we're living in an age of cloud. And Bezos was mentioned. Elon Musk. Sir Richard Branson. You got new ideas coming in from the outside. You have an accelerated clock now on terms of the innovation cycles, and so you got to react differently. You guys have programs to go outside >>of >>the Defense Department. How important is this? Because the workforce that air in schools and our folks re skilling are out there and you've been on both sides of the table. So share your thoughts. >>No, thanks, John. Thanks for the opportunity responded. And that's what you hit on the notes back in the eighties, R and D in space especially, was dominated by my government funding. Uh, contracts and so on. But things have changed. As Steve pointed out, A lot of these commercial entities funded by billionaires are coming out of the woodwork funding R and D. So they're taking the lead. So what we can do within the deal, the in government is truly take advantage of the work they've done on. Uh, since they're they're, you know, paving the way to new new approaches and new way of doing things. And I think we can We could certainly learn from that. And leverage off of that saves us money from an R and D standpoint while benefiting from from the product that they deliver, you know, within the O D Talking about workforce development Way have prioritized we have policies now to attract and retain talent. We need I I had the folks do some research and and looks like from a cybersecurity workforce standpoint. A recent study done, I think, last year in 2019 found that the cybersecurity workforce gap in the U. S. Is nearing half a million people, even though it is a growing industry. So the pipeline needs to be strengthened off getting people through, you know, starting young and through college, like assess a professor Armstrong indicated, because we're gonna need them to be in place. Uh, you know, in a period of about maybe a decade or so, Uh, on top of that, of course, is the continuing issue we have with the gap with with stamps students, we can't afford not to have expertise in place to support all the things we're doing within the with the not only deal with the but the commercial side as well. Thank you. >>How's the gap? Get? Get filled. I mean, this is the this is again. You got cybersecurity. I mean, with space. It's a whole another kind of surface area, if you will, in early surface area. But it is. It is an I o t. Device if you think about it. But it does have the same challenges. That's kind of current and and progressive with cybersecurity. Where's the gap Get filled, Steve Or President Armstrong? I mean, how do you solve the problem and address this gap in the workforce? What is some solutions and what approaches do we need to put in place? >>Steve, go ahead. I'll follow up. >>Okay. Thanks. I'll let you correct. May, uh, it's a really good question, and it's the way I would. The way I would approach it is to focus on it holistically and to acknowledge it up front. And it comes with our teaching, etcetera across the board and from from an industry perspective, I mean, we see it. We've gotta have secure systems with everything we do and promoting this and getting students at early ages and mentoring them and throwing internships at them. Eyes is so paramount to the whole the whole cycle, and and that's kind of and it really takes focused attention. And we continue to use the word focus from an NSS, a perspective. We know the challenges that are out there. There are such talented people in the workforce on the government side, but not nearly enough of them. And likewise on industry side. We could use Maura's well, but when you get down to it, you know we can connect dots. You know that the the aspect That's a Professor Armstrong talked about earlier toe where you continue to work partnerships as much as you possibly can. We hope to be a part of that. That network at that ecosystem the will of taking common objectives and working together to kind of make these things happen and to bring the power not just of one or two companies, but our our entire membership to help out >>President >>Trump. Yeah, I would. I would also add it again. It's back to partnerships that I talked about earlier. One of our partners is high schools and schools fortune Margaret Fortune, who worked in a couple of, uh, administrations in California across party lines and education. Their fifth graders all visit Cal Poly and visit our learned by doing lab and you, you've got to get students interested in stem at a early age. We also need the partnerships, the scholarships, the financial aid so the students can graduate with minimal to no debt to really hit the ground running. And that's exacerbated and really stress. Now, with this covert induced recession, California supports higher education at a higher rate than most states in the nation. But that is that has dropped this year or reasons. We all understand, uh, due to Kobe, and so our partnerships, our creativity on making sure that we help those that need the most help financially uh, that's really key, because the gaps air huge eyes. My colleagues indicated, you know, half of half a million jobs and you need to look at the the students that are in the pipeline. We've got to enhance that. Uh, it's the in the placement rates are amazing. Once the students get to a place like Cal Poly or some of our other amazing CSU and UC campuses, uh, placement rates are like 94%. >>Many of our >>engineers, they have jobs lined up a year before they graduate. So it's just gonna take key partnerships working together. Uh, and that continued partnership with government, local, of course, our state of CSU on partners like we have here today, both Stephen Bang So partnerships the thing >>e could add, you know, the collaboration with universities one that we, uh, put a lot of emphasis, and it may not be well known fact, but as an example of national security agencies, uh, National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber, the Fast works with over 270 colleges and universities across the United States to educate its 45 future cyber first responders as an example, so that Zatz vibrant and healthy and something that we ought Teoh Teik, banjo >>off. Well, I got the brain trust here on this topic. I want to get your thoughts on this one point. I'd like to define what is a public private partnership because the theme that's coming out of the symposium is the script has been flipped. It's a modern error. Things air accelerated get you got security. So you get all these things kind of happen is a modern approach and you're seeing a digital transformation play out all over the world in business. Andi in the public sector. So >>what is what >>is a modern public private partnership? What does it look like today? Because people are learning differently, Covert has pointed out, which was that we're seeing right now. How people the progressions of knowledge and learning truth. It's all changing. How do you guys view the modern version of public private partnership and some some examples and improve points? Can you can you guys share that? We'll start with the Professor Armstrong. >>Yeah. A zai indicated earlier. We've had on guy could give other examples, but Northup Grumman, uh, they helped us with cyber lab. Many years ago. That is maintained, uh, directly the software, the connection outside its its own unit so that students can learn the hack, they can learn to penetrate defenses, and I know that that has already had some considerations of space. But that's a benefit to both parties. So a good public private partnership has benefits to both entities. Uh, in the common factor for universities with a lot of these partnerships is the is the talent, the talent that is, that is needed, what we've been working on for years of the, you know, that undergraduate or master's or PhD programs. But now it's also spilling into Skilling and re Skilling. As you know, Jobs. Uh, you know, folks were in jobs today that didn't exist two years, three years, five years ago. But it also spills into other aspects that can expand even mawr. We're very fortunate. We have land, there's opportunities. We have one tech part project. We're expanding our tech park. I think we'll see opportunities for that, and it'll it'll be adjusted thio, due to the virtual world that we're all learning more and more about it, which we were in before Cove it. But I also think that that person to person is going to be important. Um, I wanna make sure that I'm driving across the bridge. Or or that that satellites being launched by the engineer that's had at least some in person training, uh, to do that and that experience, especially as a first time freshman coming on a campus, getting that experience expanding and as adult. And we're gonna need those public private partnerships in order to continue to fund those at a level that is at the excellence we need for these stem and engineering fields. >>It's interesting People in technology can work together in these partnerships in a new way. Bank Steve Reaction Thio the modern version of what a public, successful private partnership looks like. >>If I could jump in John, I think, you know, historically, Dodi's has have had, ah, high bar thio, uh, to overcome, if you will, in terms of getting rapid pulling in your company. This is the fault, if you will and not rely heavily in are the usual suspects of vendors and like and I think the deal is done a good job over the last couple of years off trying to reduce the burden on working with us. You know, the Air Force. I think they're pioneering this idea around pitch days where companies come in, do a two hour pitch and immediately notified of a wooden award without having to wait a long time. Thio get feedback on on the quality of the product and so on. So I think we're trying to do our best. Thio strengthen that partnership with companies outside the main group of people that we typically use. >>Steve, any reaction? Comment to add? >>Yeah, I would add a couple of these air. Very excellent thoughts. Uh, it zits about taking a little gamble by coming out of your comfort zone. You know, the world that Bond and Bond lives in and I used to live in in the past has been quite structured. It's really about we know what the threat is. We need to go fix it, will design it says we go make it happen, we'll fly it. Um, life is so much more complicated than that. And so it's it's really to me. I mean, you take you take an example of the pitch days of bond talks about I think I think taking a gamble by attempting to just do a lot of pilot programs, uh, work the trust factor between government folks and the industry folks in academia. Because we are all in this together in a lot of ways, for example. I mean, we just sent the paper to the White House of their requests about, you know, what would we do from a workforce development perspective? And we hope Thio embellish on this over time once the the initiative matures. But we have a piece of it, for example, is the thing we call clear for success getting back Thio Uh, President Armstrong's comments at the collegiate level. You know, high, high, high quality folks are in high demand. So why don't we put together a program they grabbed kids in their their underclass years identifies folks that are interested in doing something like this. Get them scholarships. Um, um, I have a job waiting for them that their contract ID for before they graduate, and when they graduate, they walk with S C I clearance. We believe that could be done so, and that's an example of ways in which the public private partnerships can happen to where you now have a talented kid ready to go on Day one. We think those kind of things can happen. It just gets back down to being focused on specific initiatives, give them giving them a chance and run as many pilot programs as you can like these days. >>That's a great point, E. President. >>I just want to jump in and echo both the bank and Steve's comments. But Steve, that you know your point of, you know, our graduates. We consider them ready Day one. Well, they need to be ready Day one and ready to go secure. We totally support that and and love to follow up offline with you on that. That's that's exciting, uh, and needed very much needed mawr of it. Some of it's happening, but way certainly have been thinking a lot about that and making some plans, >>and that's a great example of good Segway. My next question. This kind of reimagining sees work flows, eyes kind of breaking down the old the old way and bringing in kind of a new way accelerated all kind of new things. There are creative ways to address this workforce issue, and this is the next topic. How can we employ new creative solutions? Because, let's face it, you know, it's not the days of get your engineering degree and and go interview for a job and then get slotted in and get the intern. You know the programs you get you particularly through the system. This is this is multiple disciplines. Cybersecurity points at that. You could be smart and math and have, ah, degree in anthropology and even the best cyber talents on the planet. So this is a new new world. What are some creative approaches that >>you know, we're >>in the workforce >>is quite good, John. One of the things I think that za challenge to us is you know, we got somehow we got me working for with the government, sexy, right? The part of the challenge we have is attracting the right right level of skill sets and personnel. But, you know, we're competing oftentimes with the commercial side, the gaming industry as examples of a big deal. And those are the same talents. We need to support a lot of programs we have in the U. D. So somehow we have to do a better job to Steve's point off, making the work within the U. D within the government something that they would be interested early on. So I tracked him early. I kind of talked about Cal Poly's, uh, challenge program that they were gonna have in June inviting high school kid. We're excited about the whole idea of space and cyber security, and so on those air something. So I think we have to do it. Continue to do what were the course the next several years. >>Awesome. Any other creative approaches that you guys see working or might be on idea, or just a kind of stoked the ideation out their internship. So obviously internships are known, but like there's gotta be new ways. >>I think you can take what Steve was talking about earlier getting students in high school, uh, and aligning them sometimes. Uh, that intern first internship, not just between the freshman sophomore year, but before they inter cal poly per se. And they're they're involved s So I think that's, uh, absolutely key. Getting them involved many other ways. Um, we have an example of of up Skilling a redeveloped work redevelopment here in the Central Coast. PG and e Diablo nuclear plant as going to decommission in around 2020 24. And so we have a ongoing partnership toe work on reposition those employees for for the future. So that's, you know, engineering and beyond. Uh, but think about that just in the manner that you were talking about. So the up skilling and re Skilling uh, on I think that's where you know, we were talking about that Purdue University. Other California universities have been dealing with online programs before cove it and now with co vid uh, so many more faculty or were pushed into that area. There's going to be much more going and talk about workforce development and up Skilling and Re Skilling The amount of training and education of our faculty across the country, uh, in in virtual, uh, and delivery has been huge. So there's always a silver linings in the cloud. >>I want to get your guys thoughts on one final question as we in the in the segment. And we've seen on the commercial side with cloud computing on these highly accelerated environments where you know, SAS business model subscription. That's on the business side. But >>one of The >>things that's clear in this trend is technology, and people work together and technology augments the people components. So I'd love to get your thoughts as we look at the world now we're living in co vid um, Cal Poly. You guys have remote learning Right now. It's a infancy. It's a whole new disruption, if you will, but also an opportunity to enable new ways to collaborate, Right? So if you look at people and technology, can you guys share your view and vision on how communities can be developed? How these digital technologies and people can work together faster to get to the truth or make a discovery higher to build the workforce? These air opportunities? How do you guys view this new digital transformation? >>Well, I think there's there's a huge opportunities and just what we're doing with this symposium. We're filming this on one day, and it's going to stream live, and then the three of us, the four of us, can participate and chat with participants while it's going on. That's amazing. And I appreciate you, John, you bringing that to this this symposium, I think there's more and more that we can do from a Cal poly perspective with our pedagogy. So you know, linked to learn by doing in person will always be important to us. But we see virtual. We see partnerships like this can expand and enhance our ability and minimize the in person time, decrease the time to degree enhanced graduation rate, eliminate opportunity gaps or students that don't have the same advantages. S so I think the technological aspect of this is tremendous. Then on the up Skilling and Re Skilling, where employees air all over, they can be reached virtually then maybe they come to a location or really advanced technology allows them to get hands on virtually, or they come to that location and get it in a hybrid format. Eso I'm I'm very excited about the future and what we can do, and it's gonna be different with every university with every partnership. It's one. Size does not fit all. >>It's so many possibilities. Bond. I could almost imagine a social network that has a verified, you know, secure clearance. I can jump in, have a little cloak of secrecy and collaborate with the d o. D. Possibly in the future. But >>these are the >>kind of kind of crazy ideas that are needed. Are your thoughts on this whole digital transformation cross policy? >>I think technology is gonna be revolutionary here, John. You know, we're focusing lately on what we call digital engineering to quicken the pace off, delivering capability to warfighter. As an example, I think a I machine language all that's gonna have a major play and how we operate in the future. We're embracing five G technologies writing ability Thio zero latency or I o t More automation off the supply chain. That sort of thing, I think, uh, the future ahead of us is is very encouraging. Thing is gonna do a lot for for national defense on certainly the security of the country. >>Steve, your final thoughts. Space systems are systems, and they're connected to other systems that are connected to people. Your thoughts on this digital transformation opportunity >>Such a great question in such a fun, great challenge ahead of us. Um echoing are my colleague's sentiments. I would add to it. You know, a lot of this has I think we should do some focusing on campaigning so that people can feel comfortable to include the Congress to do things a little bit differently. Um, you know, we're not attuned to doing things fast. Uh, but the dramatic You know, the way technology is just going like crazy right now. I think it ties back Thio hoping Thio, convince some of our senior leaders on what I call both sides of the Potomac River that it's worth taking these gamble. We do need to take some of these things very way. And I'm very confident, confident and excited and comfortable. They're just gonna be a great time ahead and all for the better. >>You know, e talk about D. C. Because I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not a political person, but I always say less lawyers, more techies in Congress and Senate. So I was getting job when I say that. Sorry. Presidential. Go ahead. >>Yeah, I know. Just one other point. Uh, and and Steve's alluded to this in bonded as well. I mean, we've got to be less risk averse in these partnerships. That doesn't mean reckless, but we have to be less risk averse. And I would also I have a zoo. You talk about technology. I have to reflect on something that happened in, uh, you both talked a bit about Bill Britton and his impact on Cal Poly and what we're doing. But we were faced a few years ago of replacing a traditional data a data warehouse, data storage data center, and we partner with a W S. And thank goodness we had that in progress on it enhanced our bandwidth on our campus before Cove. It hit on with this partnership with the digital transformation hub. So there is a great example where, uh, we we had that going. That's not something we could have started. Oh, covitz hit. Let's flip that switch. And so we have to be proactive on. We also have thio not be risk averse and do some things differently. Eyes that that is really salvage the experience for for students. Right now, as things are flowing, well, we only have about 12% of our courses in person. Uh, those essential courses, uh, and just grateful for those partnerships that have talked about today. >>Yeah, and it's a shining example of how being agile, continuous operations, these air themes that expand into space and the next workforce needs to be built. Gentlemen, thank you. very much for sharing your insights. I know. Bang, You're gonna go into the defense side of space and your other sessions. Thank you, gentlemen, for your time for great session. Appreciate it. >>Thank you. Thank you. >>Thank you. >>Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. >>I'm John Furry with the Cube here in Palo Alto, California Covering and hosting with Cal Poly The Space and Cybersecurity Symposium 2020. Thanks for watching.

>> Announcer: From around the globe, it's The Cube, covering Space and Cybersecurity Symposium 2020, hosted by Cal Poly. >> Everyone, welcome to this special virtual conference, the Space and Cybersecurity Symposium 2020 put on by Cal Poly with support from The Cube. I'm John Furey, your host and master of ceremony's got a great topic today, and this session is really the intersection of space and cybersecurity. This topic, and this conversation is a cybersecurity workforce development through public and private partnerships. And we've got a great lineup, we've Jeff Armstrong is the president of California Polytechnic State University, also known as Cal Poly. Jeffrey, thanks for jumping on and Bong Gumahad. The second, Director of C4ISR Division, and he's joining us from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for the acquisition and sustainment of Department of Defense, DOD, and of course Steve Jacques is Executive Director, founder National Security Space Association, and managing partner at Velos. Gentlemen, thank you for joining me for this session, we've got an hour of conversation, thanks for coming on. >> Thank you. >> So we've got a virtual event here, we've got an hour to have a great conversation, I'd love for you guys to do an opening statement on how you see the development through public and private partnerships around cybersecurity and space, Jeff, we'll start with you. >> Well, thanks very much, John, it's great to be on with all of you. On behalf of Cal Poly, welcome everyone. Educating the workforce of tomorrow is our mission at Cal Poly, whether that means traditional undergraduates, masters students, or increasingly, mid-career professionals looking to upskill or re-skill. Our signature pedagogy is learn by doing, which means that our graduates arrive at employers, ready day one with practical skills and experience. We have long thought of ourselves as lucky to be on California's beautiful central coast, but in recent years, as we've developed closer relationships with Vandenberg Air Force Base, hopefully the future permanent headquarters of the United States Space Command with Vandenberg and other regional partners, We have discovered that our location is even more advantageous than we thought. We're just 50 miles away from Vandenberg, a little closer than UC Santa Barbara and the base represents the Southern border of what we have come to think of as the central coast region. Cal Poly and Vandenberg Air Force Base have partnered to support regional economic development, to encourage the development of a commercial space port, to advocate for the space command headquarters coming to Vandenberg and other ventures. These partnerships have been possible because both parties stand to benefit. Vandenberg, by securing new streams of revenue, workforce, and local supply chain and Cal Poly by helping to grow local jobs for graduates, internship opportunities for students and research and entrepreneurship opportunities for faculty and staff. Crucially, what's good for Vandenberg Air Force Base and for Cal Poly is also good for the central coast and the U.S., creating new head of household jobs, infrastructure, and opportunity. Our goal is that these new jobs bring more diversity and sustainability for the region. This regional economic development has taken on a life of its own, spawning a new nonprofit called REACH which coordinates development efforts from Vandenberg Air Force Base in the South to Camp Roberts in the North. Another factor that has facilitated our relationship with Vandenberg Air Force Base is that we have some of the same friends. For example, Northrop Grumman has as long been an important defense contractor and an important partner to Cal Poly, funding scholarships in facilities that have allowed us to stay current with technology in it to attract highly qualified students for whom Cal Poly's costs would otherwise be prohibitive. For almost 20 years, Northrop Grumman has funded scholarships for Cal Poly students. This year, they're funding 64 scholarships, some directly in our College of Engineering and most through our Cal Poly Scholars Program. Cal Poly scholars support both incoming freshmen and transfer students. These are especially important, 'cause it allows us to provide additional support and opportunities to a group of students who are mostly first generation, low income and underrepresented, and who otherwise might not choose to attend Cal Poly. They also allow us to recruit from partner high schools with large populations of underrepresented minority students, including the Fortune High School in Elk Grove, which we developed a deep and lasting connection. We know that the best work is done by balanced teams that include multiple and diverse perspectives. These scholarships help us achieve that goal and I'm sure you know Northrop Grumman was recently awarded a very large contract to modernize the U.S. ICBM armory with some of the work being done at Vandenberg Air Force Base, thus supporting the local economy and protecting... Protecting our efforts in space requires partnerships in the digital realm. Cal Poly has partnered with many private companies such as AWS. Our partnerships with Amazon Web Services has enabled us to train our students with next generation cloud engineering skills, in part, through our jointly created digital transformation hub. Another partnership example is among Cal Poly's California Cyber Security Institute College of Engineering and the California National Guard. This partnership is focused on preparing a cyber-ready workforce, by providing faculty and students with a hands on research and learning environment side by side with military law enforcement professionals and cyber experts. We also have a long standing partnership with PG&E most recently focused on workforce development and redevelopment. Many of our graduates do indeed go on to careers in aerospace and defense industry. As a rough approximation, more than 4,500 Cal Poly graduates list aerospace or defense as their employment sector on LinkedIn. And it's not just our engineers in computer sciences. When I was speaking to our fellow panelists not too long ago, speaking to Bong, we learned that Rachel Sims, one of our liberal arts majors is working in his office, so shout out to you, Rachel. And then finally, of course, some of our graduates soar to extraordinary heights, such as Commander Victor Glover, who will be heading to the International Space Station later this year. As I close, all of which is to say that we're deeply committed to workforce development and redevelopment, that we understand the value of public-private partnerships, and that we're eager to find new ways in which to benefit everyone from this further cooperation. So we're committed to the region, the state and the nation, in our past efforts in space, cyber security and links to our partners at, as I indicated, aerospace industry and governmental partners provides a unique position for us to move forward in the interface of space and cyber security. Thank you so much, John. >> President Armstrong, thank you very much for the comments and congratulations to Cal Poly for being on the forefront of innovation and really taking a unique, progressive view and want to tip a hat to you guys over there, thank you very much for those comments, appreciate it. Bong, Department of Defense. Exciting, you've got to defend the nation, space is global, your opening statement. >> Yes, sir, thanks John, appreciate that. Thank you everybody, I'm honored to be in this panel along with Preston Armstrong of Cal Poly and my longtime friend and colleague Steve Jacques of the National Security Space Association to discuss a very important topic of a cybersecurity workforce development as President Armstrong alluded to. I'll tell you, both of these organizations, Cal Poly and the NSSA have done and continue to do an exceptional job at finding talent, recruiting them and training current and future leaders and technical professionals that we vitally need for our nation's growing space programs, as well as our collective national security. Earlier today, during session three, I, along with my colleague, Chris Samson discussed space cyber security and how the space domain is changing the landscape of future conflicts. I discussed the rapid emergence of commercial space with the proliferation of hundreds, if not thousands of satellites, providing a variety of services including communications, allowing for global internet connectivity, as one example. Within DOD, we continued to look at how we can leverage this opportunity. I'll tell you, one of the enabling technologies, is the use of small satellites, which are inherently cheaper and perhaps more flexible than the traditional bigger systems that we have historically used and employed for DOD. Certainly not lost on me is the fact that Cal Poly pioneered CubeSats 28, 27 years ago, and they set a standard for the use of these systems today. So they saw the value and benefit gained way ahead of everybody else it seems. And Cal Poly's focus on training and education is commendable. I'm especially impressed by the efforts of another of Steven's colleague, the current CIO, Mr. Bill Britton, with his high energy push to attract the next generation of innovators. Earlier this year, I had planned on participating in this year's cyber innovation challenge in June, Oops, Cal Poly hosts California middle, and high school students, and challenge them with situations to test their cyber knowledge. I tell you, I wish I had that kind of opportunity when I was a kid, unfortunately, the pandemic changed the plan, but I truly look forward to future events such as these, to participate in. Now, I want to recognize my good friend, Steve Jacques, whom I've known for perhaps too long of a time here, over two decades or so, who was an acknowledged space expert and personally I've truly applaud him for having the foresight a few years back to form the National Security Space Association to help the entire space enterprise navigate through not only technology, but policy issues and challenges and paved the way for operationalizing space. Space, it certainly was fortifying domain, it's not a secret anymore, and while it is a unique area, it shares a lot of common traits with the other domains, such as land, air, and sea, obviously all are strategically important to the defense of the United States. In conflict, they will all be contested and therefore they all need to be defended. One domain alone will not win future conflicts, and in a joint operation, we must succeed in all. So defending space is critical, as critical as to defending our other operational domains. Funny, space is the only sanctuary available only to the government. Increasingly as I discussed in a previous session, commercial space is taking the lead in a lot of different areas, including R&D, the so-called new space. So cybersecurity threat is even more demanding and even more challenging. The U.S. considers and futhered access to and freedom to operate in space, vital to advancing security, economic prosperity and scientific knowledge of the country, thus making cyberspace an inseparable component of America's financial, social government and political life. We stood up US Space Force a year ago or so as the newest military service. Like the other services, its mission is to organize, train and equip space forces in order to protect U.S. and allied interest in space and to provide spacecape builders who joined force. Imagine combining that U.S. Space Force with the U.S. Cyber Command to unify the direction of the space and cyberspace operation, strengthen DOD capabilities and integrate and bolster a DOD cyber experience. Now, of course, to enable all of this requires a trained and professional cadre of cyber security experts, combining a good mix of policy, as well as a high technical skill set. Much like we're seeing in STEM, we need to attract more people to this growing field. Now, the DOD has recognized the importance to the cybersecurity workforce, and we have implemented policies to encourage its growth. Back in 2013, the Deputy Secretary of Defense signed a DOD Cyberspace Workforce Strategy, to create a comprehensive, well-equipped cyber security team to respond to national security concerns. Now, this strategy also created a program that encourages collaboration between the DOD and private sector employees. We call this the Cyber Information Technology Exchange program, or CITE that it's an exchange program, which is very interesting in which a private sector employee can naturally work for the DOD in a cyber security position that spans across multiple mission critical areas, important to the DOD. A key responsibility of the cyber security community is military leaders, unrelated threats, and the cyber security actions we need to have to defeat these threats. We talked about rapid acquisition, agile business processes and practices to speed up innovation, likewise, cyber security must keep up with this challenge. So cyber security needs to be right there with the challenges and changes, and this requires exceptional personnel. We need to attract talent, invest in the people now to grow a robust cybersecurity workforce for the future. I look forward to the panel discussion, John, thank you. >> Thank you so much, Bob for those comments and, you know, new challenges or new opportunities and new possibilities and freedom to operate in space is critical, thank you for those comments, looking forward to chatting further. Steve Jacques, Executive Director of NSSA, you're up, opening statement. >> Thank you, John and echoing Bongs, thanks to Cal Poly for pulling this important event together and frankly, for allowing the National Security Space Association be a part of it. Likewise, on behalf of the association, I'm delighted and honored to be on this panel of President Armstrong, along with my friend and colleague, Bong Gumahad. Something for you all to know about Bong, he spent the first 20 years of his career in the Air Force doing space programs. He then went into industry for several years and then came back into government to serve, very few people do that. So Bong, on behalf of the space community, we thank you for your lifelong devotion to service to our nation, we really appreciate that. And I also echo a Bong shout out to that guy, Bill Britton. who's been a long time co-conspirator of ours for a long time, and you're doing great work there in the cyber program at Cal Poly, Bill, keep it up. But Professor Armstrong, keep a close eye on him. (laughter) I would like to offer a little extra context to the great comments made by President Armstrong and Bong. And in our view, the timing of this conference really could not be any better. We all recently reflected again on that tragic 9/11 surprise attack on our homeland and it's an appropriate time we think to take pause. While a percentage of you in the audience here weren't even born or were babies then, for the most of us, it still feels like yesterday. And moreover, a tragedy like 9/11 has taught us a lot to include, to be more vigilant, always keep our collective eyes and ears open, to include those "eyes and ears from space," making sure nothing like this ever happens again. So this conference is a key aspect, protecting our nation requires we work in a cyber secure environment at all times. But you know, the fascinating thing about space systems is we can't see 'em. Now sure, we see space launches, man, there's nothing more invigorating than that. But after launch they become invisible, so what are they really doing up there? What are they doing to enable our quality of life in the United States and in the world? Well to illustrate, I'd like to paraphrase elements of an article in Forbes magazine, by Bongs and my good friend, Chuck Beames, Chuck is a space guy, actually had Bongs job a few years in the Pentagon. He's now Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer at York Space Systems and in his spare time, he's Chairman of the Small Satellites. Chuck speaks in words that everyone can understand, so I'd like to give you some of his words out of his article, paraphrase somewhat, so these are Chuck's words. "Let's talk about average Joe and plain Jane. "Before heading to the airport for a business trip "to New York city, Joe checks the weather forecast, "informed by NOAA's weather satellites, "to see what to pack for the trip. "He then calls an Uber, that space app everybody uses, "it matches riders with drivers via GPS, "to take him to the airport. "So Joe has launched in the airport, "unbeknownst to him, his organic lunch is made "with the help of precision farming "made possible to optimize the irrigation and fertilization "with remote spectral sensing coming from space and GPS. "On the plane, the pilot navigates around weather, "aided by GPS and NOAA's weather satellites "and Joe makes his meeting on time "to join his New York colleagues in a video call "with a key customer in Singapore, "made possible by telecommunication satellites. "En route to his next meeting, "Joe receives notice changing the location of the meeting "to the other side of town. "So he calmly tells Siri to adjust the destination "and his satellite-guided Google maps redirect him "to the new location. "That evening, Joe watches the news broadcast via satellite, "report details of meeting among world leaders, "discussing the developing crisis in Syria. "As it turns out various forms of "'remotely sensed information' collected from satellites "indicate that yet another banned chemical weapon "may have been used on its own people. "Before going to bed, Joe decides to call his parents "and congratulate them for their wedding anniversary "as they cruise across the Atlantic, "made possible again by communication satellites "and Joe's parents can enjoy the call "without even wondering how it happened. "The next morning back home, "Joe's wife, Jane is involved in a car accident. "Her vehicle skids off the road, she's knocked unconscious, "but because of her satellite equipped OnStar system, "the crash is detected immediately, "and first responders show up on the scene in time. "Joe receives the news, books an early trip home, "sends flowers to his wife "as he orders another Uber to the airport. "Over that 24 hours, "Joe and Jane used space system applications "for nearly every part of their day. "Imagine the consequences if at any point "they were somehow denied these services, "whether they be by natural causes or a foreign hostility. "In each of these satellite applications used in this case, "were initially developed for military purposes "and continued to be, but also have remarkable application "on our way of life, just many people just don't know that." So ladies and gentlemen, now you know, thanks to Chuck Beames. Well, the United States has a proud heritage of being the world's leading space-faring nation. Dating back to the Eisenhower and Kennedy years, today, we have mature and robust systems operating from space, providing overhead reconnaissance to "watch and listen," provide missile warning, communications, positioning, navigation, and timing from our GPS system, much of which you heard in Lieutenant General JT Thomson's earlier speech. These systems are not only integral to our national security, but also to our quality of life. As Chuck told us, we simply no longer can live without these systems as a nation and for that matter, as a world. But over the years, adversaries like China, Russia and other countries have come to realize the value of space systems and are aggressively playing catch up while also pursuing capabilities that will challenge our systems. As many of you know, in 2007, China demonstrated its ASAT system by actually shooting down one of its own satellites and has been aggressively developing counterspace systems to disrupt ours. So in a heavily congested space environment, our systems are now being contested like never before and will continue to be. Well, as a Bong mentioned, the United States have responded to these changing threats. In addition to adding ways to protect our system, the administration and the Congress recently created the United States Space Force and the operational United States Space Command, the latter of which you heard President Armstrong and other Californians hope is going to be located at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Combined with our intelligence community, today we have focused military and civilian leadership now in space, and that's a very, very good thing. Commensurately on the industry side, we did create the National Security Space Association, devoted solely to supporting the National Security Space Enterprise. We're based here in the DC area, but we have arms and legs across the country and we are loaded with extraordinary talent in scores of former government executives. So NSSA is joined at the hip with our government customers to serve and to support. We're busy with a multitude of activities underway, ranging from a number of thought-provoking policy papers, our recurring spacetime webcasts, supporting Congress's space power caucus, and other main serious efforts. Check us out at nssaspace.org. One of our strategic priorities and central to today's events is to actively promote and nurture the workforce development, just like Cal-Poly. We will work with our U.S. government customers, industry leaders, and academia to attract and recruit students to join the space world, whether in government or industry, and to assist in mentoring and training as their careers progress. On that point, we're delighted to be working with Cal Poly as we hopefully will undertake a new pilot program with them very soon. So students stay tuned, something I can tell you, space is really cool. While our nation's satellite systems are technical and complex, our nation's government and industry workforce is highly diverse, with a combination of engineers, physicists and mathematicians, but also with a large non-technical expertise as well. Think about how government gets these systems designed, manufactured, launching into orbit and operating. They do this via contracts with our aerospace industry, requiring talents across the board, from cost estimating, cost analysis, budgeting, procurement, legal, and many other support tasks that are integral to the mission. Many thousands of people work in the space workforce, tens of billions of dollars every year. This is really cool stuff and no matter what your education background, a great career to be part of. In summary, as Bong had mentioned as well, there's a great deal of exciting challenges ahead. We will see a new renaissance in space in the years ahead and in some cases it's already begun. Billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Sir Richard Branson, are in the game, stimulating new ideas and business models. Other private investors and startup companies, space companies are now coming in from all angles. The exponential advancement of technology and micro electronics now allows a potential for a plethora of small sat systems to possibly replace older satellites, the size of a Greyhound bus. It's getting better by the day and central to this conference, cybersecurity is paramount to our nation's critical infrastructure in space. So once again, thanks very much and I look forward to the further conversation. >> Steve, thank you very much. Space is cool, it's relevant, but it's important as you pointed out in your awesome story about how it impacts our life every day so I really appreciate that great story I'm glad you took the time to share that. You forgot the part about the drone coming over in the crime scene and, you know, mapping it out for you, but we'll add that to the story later, great stuff. My first question is, let's get into the conversations, because I think this is super important. President Armstrong, I'd like you to talk about some of the points that was teased out by Bong and Steve. One in particular is the comment around how military research was important in developing all these capabilities, which is impacting all of our lives through that story. It was the military research that has enabled a generation and generation of value for consumers. This is kind of this workforce conversation, there are opportunities now with research and grants, and this is a funding of innovation that is highly accelerated, it's happening very quickly. Can you comment on how research and the partnerships to get that funding into the universities is critical? >> Yeah, I really appreciate that and appreciate the comments of my colleagues. And it really boils down to me to partnerships, public-private partnerships, you have mentioned Northrop Grumman, but we have partnerships with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Space X, JPL, also member of an organization called Business Higher Education Forum, which brings together university presidents and CEOs of companies. There's been focused on cybersecurity and data science and I hope that we can spill into cybersecurity and space. But those partnerships in the past have really brought a lot forward. At Cal Poly, as mentioned, we've been involved with CubeSat, we've have some secure work, and we want to plan to do more of that in the future. Those partnerships are essential, not only for getting the R&D done, but also the students, the faculty, whether they're master's or undergraduate can be involved with that work, they get that real life experience, whether it's on campus or virtually now during COVID or at the location with the partner, whether it may be governmental or industry, and then they're even better equipped to hit the ground running. And of course we'd love to see more of our students graduate with clearance so that they could do some of that secure work as well. So these partnerships are absolutely critical and it's also in the context of trying to bring the best and the brightest in all demographics of California and the U.S. into this field, to really be successful. So these partnerships are essential and our goal is to grow them just like I know our other colleagues in the CSU and the UC are planning to do. >> You know, just as my age I've seen, I grew up in the eighties and in college and they're in that system's generation and the generation before me, they really kind of pioneered the space that spawned the computer revolution. I mean, you look at these key inflection points in our lives, they were really funded through these kinds of real deep research. Bong, talk about that because, you know, we're living in an age of cloud and Bezos was mentioned, Elon Musk, Sir Richard Branson, you got new ideas coming in from the outside, you have an accelerated clock now in terms of the innovation cycles and so you got to react differently, you guys have programs to go outside of the defense department, how important is this because the workforce that are in schools and/or folks re-skilling are out there and you've been on both sides of the table, so share your thoughts. >> No, thanks Johnny, thanks for the opportunity to respond to, and that's what, you know, you hit on the nose back in the 80's, R&D and space especially was dominated by government funding, contracts and so on, but things have changed as Steve pointed out, allow these commercial entities funded by billionaires are coming out of the woodwork, funding R&D so they're taking the lead, so what we can do within the DOD in government is truly take advantage of the work they've done. And since they're, you know, paving the way to new approaches and new way of doing things and I think we can certainly learn from that and leverage off of that, saves us money from an R&D standpoint, while benefiting from the product that they deliver. You know, within DOD, talking about workforce development, you know, we have prioritized and we have policies now to attract and retain the talent we need. I had the folks do some research and it looks like from a cybersecurity or workforce standpoint, a recent study done, I think last year in 2019, found that the cyber security workforce gap in U.S. is nearing half a million people, even though it is a growing industry. So the pipeline needs to be strengthened, getting people through, you know, starting young and through college, like Professor Armstrong indicated because we're going to need them to be in place, you know, in a period of about maybe a decade or so. On top of that, of course, is the continuing issue we have with the gap with STEM students. We can't afford not have expertise in place to support all the things we're doing within DoD, not only DoD but the commercial side as well, thank you. >> How's the gap get filled, I mean, this is, again, you've got cybersecurity, I mean, with space it's a whole other kind of surface area if you will, it's not really surface area, but it is an IOT device if you think about it, but it does have the same challenges, that's kind of current and progressive with cybersecurity. Where's the gap get filled, Steve or President Armstrong, I mean, how do you solve the problem and address this gap in the workforce? What are some solutions and what approaches do we need to put in place? >> Steve, go ahead., I'll follow up. >> Okay, thanks, I'll let you correct me. (laughter) It's a really good question, and the way I would approach it is to focus on it holistically and to acknowledge it upfront and it comes with our teaching, et cetera, across the board. And from an industry perspective, I mean, we see it, we've got to have secure systems in everything we do, and promoting this and getting students at early ages and mentoring them and throwing internships at them is so paramount to the whole cycle. And that's kind of, it really takes a focused attention and we continue to use the word focus from an NSSA perspective. We know the challenges that are out there. There are such talented people in the workforce, on the government side, but not nearly enough of them and likewise on the industry side, we could use more as well, but when you get down to it, you know, we can connect dots, you know, the aspects that Professor Armstrong talked about earlier to where you continue to work partnerships as much as you possibly can. We hope to be a part of that network, that ecosystem if you will, of taking common objectives and working together to kind of make these things happen and to bring the power, not just of one or two companies, but of our entire membership thereabout. >> President Armstrong-- >> Yeah, I would also add it again, it's back to the partnerships that I talked about earlier, one of our partners is high schools and schools Fortune, Margaret Fortune, who worked in a couple of administrations in California across party lines and education, their fifth graders all visit Cal Poly, and visit our learned-by-doing lab. And you've got to get students interested in STEM at an early age. We also need the partnerships, the scholarships, the financial aid, so the students can graduate with minimal to no debt to really hit the ground running and that's exacerbated and really stress now with this COVID induced recession. California supports higher education at a higher rate than most states in the nation, but that has brought this year for reasons all understand due to COVID. And so our partnerships, our creativity, and making sure that we help those that need the most help financially, that's really key because the gaps are huge. As my colleagues indicated, you know, half a million jobs and I need you to look at the students that are in the pipeline, we've got to enhance that. And the placement rates are amazing once the students get to a place like Cal Poly or some of our other amazing CSU and UC campuses, placement rates are like 94%. Many of our engineers, they have jobs lined up a year before they graduate. So it's just going to take a key partnerships working together and that continued partnership with government local, of course, our state, the CSU, and partners like we have here today, both Steve and Bong so partnerships is the thing. >> You know, that's a great point-- >> I could add, >> Okay go ahead. >> All right, you know, the collaboration with universities is one that we put on lot of emphasis here, and it may not be well known fact, but just an example of national security, the AUC is a national centers of academic excellence in cyber defense works with over 270 colleges and universities across the United States to educate and certify future cyber first responders as an example. So that's vibrant and healthy and something that we ought to take advantage of. >> Well, I got the brain trust here on this topic. I want to get your thoughts on this one point, 'cause I'd like to define, you know, what is a public-private partnership because the theme that's coming out of the symposium is the script has been flipped, it's a modern era, things are accelerated, you've got security, so you've got all of these things kind of happenning it's a modern approach and you're seeing a digital transformation play out all over the world in business and in the public sector. So what is a modern public-private partnership and what does it look like today because people are learning differently. COVID has pointed out, which is that we're seeing right now, how people, the progressions of knowledge and learning, truth, it's all changing. How do you guys view the modern version of public-private partnership and some examples and some proof points, can you guys share that? We'll start with you, Professor Armstrong. >> Yeah, as I indicated earlier, we've had, and I could give other examples, but Northrop Grumman, they helped us with a cyber lab many years ago that is maintained directly, the software, the connection outside it's its own unit so the students can learn to hack, they can learn to penetrate defenses and I know that that has already had some considerations of space, but that's a benefit to both parties. So a good public-private partnership has benefits to both entities and the common factor for universities with a lot of these partnerships is the talent. The talent that is needed, what we've been working on for years of, you know, the undergraduate or master's or PhD programs, but now it's also spilling into upskilling and reskilling, as jobs, you know, folks who are in jobs today that didn't exist two years, three years, five years ago, but it also spills into other aspects that can expand even more. We're very fortunate we have land, there's opportunities, we have ONE Tech project. We are expanding our tech park, I think we'll see opportunities for that and it'll be adjusted due to the virtual world that we're all learning more and more about it, which we were in before COVID. But I also think that that person to person is going to be important, I want to make sure that I'm driving across a bridge or that satellite's being launched by the engineer that's had at least some in person training to do that in that experience, especially as a first time freshman coming on campus, getting that experience, expanding it as an adult, and we're going to need those public-private partnerships in order to continue to fund those at a level that is at the excellence we need for these STEM and engineering fields. >> It's interesting people and technology can work together and these partnerships are the new way. Bongs too with reaction to the modern version of what a public successful private partnership looks like. >> If I could jump in John, I think, you know, historically DOD's had a high bar to overcome if you will, in terms of getting rapid... pulling in new companies, miss the fall if you will, and not rely heavily on the usual suspects, of vendors and the like, and I think the DOD has done a good job over the last couple of years of trying to reduce that burden and working with us, you know, the Air Force, I think they're pioneering this idea around pitch days, where companies come in, do a two-hour pitch and immediately notified of, you know, of an a award, without having to wait a long time to get feedback on the quality of the product and so on. So I think we're trying to do our best to strengthen that partnership with companies outside of the main group of people that we typically use. >> Steve, any reaction, any comment to add? >> Yeah, I would add a couple and these are very excellent thoughts. It's about taking a little gamble by coming out of your comfort zone, you know, the world that Bong and I, Bong lives in and I used to live in the past, has been quite structured. It's really about, we know what the threat is, we need to go fix it, we'll design as if as we go make it happen, we'll fly it. Life is so much more complicated than that and so it's really, to me, I mean, you take an example of the pitch days of Bong talks about, I think taking a gamble by attempting to just do a lot of pilot programs, work the trust factor between government folks and the industry folks and academia, because we are all in this together in a lot of ways. For example, I mean, we just sent a paper to the white house at their request about, you know, what would we do from a workforce development perspective and we hope to embellish on this over time once the initiative matures, but we have a piece of it for example, is a thing we call "clear for success," getting back to president Armstrong's comments so at a collegiate level, you know, high, high, high quality folks are in high demand. So why don't we put together a program that grabs kids in their underclass years, identifies folks that are interested in doing something like this, get them scholarships, have a job waiting for them that they're contracted for before they graduate, and when they graduate, they walk with an SCI clearance. We believe that can be done, so that's an example of ways in which public-private partnerships can happen to where you now have a talented kid ready to go on day one. We think those kinds of things can happen, it just gets back down to being focused on specific initiatives, giving them a chance and run as many pilot programs as you can, like pitch days. >> That's a great point, it's a good segue. Go ahead, President Armstrong. >> I just want to jump in and echo both the Bong and Steve's comments, but Steve that, you know, your point of, you know our graduates, we consider them ready day one, well they need to be ready day one and ready to go secure. We totally support that and love to follow up offline with you on that. That's exciting and needed, very much needed more of it, some of it's happening, but we certainly have been thinking a lot about that and making some plans. >> And that's a great example, a good segue. My next question is kind of re-imagining these workflows is kind of breaking down the old way and bringing in kind of the new way, accelerate all kinds of new things. There are creative ways to address this workforce issue and this is the next topic, how can we employ new creative solutions because let's face it, you know, it's not the days of get your engineering degree and go interview for a job and then get slotted in and get the intern, you know, the programs and you'd matriculate through the system. This is multiple disciplines, cybersecurity points at that. You could be smart in math and have a degree in anthropology and be one of the best cyber talents on the planet. So this is a new, new world, what are some creative approaches that's going to work for you? >> Alright, good job, one of the things, I think that's a challenge to us is, you know, somehow we got me working for, with the government, sexy right? You know, part of the challenge we have is attracting the right level of skill sets and personnel but, you know, we're competing, oftentimes, with the commercial side, the gaming industry as examples is a big deal. And those are the same talents we need to support a lot of the programs that we have in DOD. So somehow we have do a better job to Steve's point about making the work within DOD, within the government, something that they would be interested early on. So attract them early, you know, I could not talk about Cal Poly's challenge program that they were going to have in June inviting high school kids really excited about the whole idea of space and cyber security and so on. Those are some of the things that I think we have to do and continue to do over the course of the next several years. >> Awesome, any other creative approaches that you guys see working or might be an idea, or just to kind of stoke the ideation out there? Internships, obviously internships are known, but like, there's got to be new ways. >> Alright, I think you can take what Steve was talking about earlier, getting students in high school and aligning them sometimes at first internship, not just between the freshman and sophomore year, but before they enter Cal Poly per se and they're involved. So I think that's absolutely key, getting them involved in many other ways. We have an example of upskilling or work redevelopment here in the central coast, PG&E Diablo nuclear plant that is going to decommission in around 2024. And so we have a ongoing partnership to work and reposition those employees for the future. So that's, you know, engineering and beyond but think about that just in the manner that you were talking about. So the upskilling and reskilling, and I think that's where, you know, we were talking about that Purdue University, other California universities have been dealing with online programs before COVID, and now with COVID so many more Faculty were pushed into that area, there's going to be a much more going and talk about workforce development in upskilling and reskilling, the amount of training and education of our faculty across the country in virtual and delivery has been huge. So there's always a silver linings in the cloud. >> I want to get your guys' thoughts on one final question as we end the segment, and we've seen on the commercial side with cloud computing on these highly accelerated environments where, you know, SAS business model subscription, and that's on the business side, but one of the things that's clear in this trend is technology and people work together and technology augments the people components. So I'd love to get your thoughts as we look at a world now, we're living in COVID, and Cal Poly, you guys have remote learning right now, it's at the infancy, it's a whole new disruption, if you will, but also an opportunity enable new ways to encollaborate, So if you look at people and technology, can you guys share your view and vision on how communities can be developed, how these digital technologies and people can work together faster to get to the truth or make a discovery, hire, develop the workforce, these are opportunities, how do you guys view this new digital transformation? >> Well, I think there's huge opportunities and just what we're doing with this symposium, we're filming this on Monday and it's going to stream live and then the three of us, the four of us can participate and chat with participants while it's going on. That's amazing and I appreciate you, John, you bringing that to this symposium. I think there's more and more that we can do. From a Cal Poly perspective, with our pedagogy so, you know, linked to learn by doing in-person will always be important to us, but we see virtual, we see partnerships like this, can expand and enhance our ability and minimize the in-person time, decrease the time to degree, enhance graduation rate, eliminate opportunity gaps for students that don't have the same advantages. So I think the technological aspect of this is tremendous. Then on the upskilling and reskilling, where employees are all over, they can re be reached virtually, and then maybe they come to a location or really advanced technology allows them to get hands on virtually, or they come to that location and get it in a hybrid format. So I'm very excited about the future and what we can do, and it's going to be different with every university, with every partnership. It's one size does not fit all, There's so many possibilities, Bong, I can almost imagine that social network that has a verified, you know, secure clearance. I can jump in, and have a little cloak of secrecy and collaborate with the DOD possibly in the future. But these are the kind of crazy ideas that are needed, your thoughts on this whole digital transformation cross-pollination. >> I think technology is going to be revolutionary here, John, you know, we're focusing lately on what we call visual engineering to quicken the pace of the delivery capability to warfighter as an example, I think AI, Machine Language, all that's going to have a major play in how we operate in the future. We're embracing 5G technologies, and the ability for zero latency, more IOT, more automation of the supply chain, that sort of thing, I think the future ahead of us is very encouraging, I think it's going to do a lot for national defense, and certainly the security of the country. >> Steve, your final thoughts, space systems are systems, and they're connected to other systems that are connected to people, your thoughts on this digital transformation opportunity. >> Such a great question and such a fun, great challenge ahead of us. Echoing my colleagues sentiments, I would add to it, you know, a lot of this has, I think we should do some focusing on campaigning so that people can feel comfortable to include the Congress to do things a little bit differently. You know, we're not attuned to doing things fast, but the dramatic, you know, the way technology is just going like crazy right now, I think it ties back to, hoping to convince some of our senior leaders and what I call both sides of the Potomac river, that it's worth taking this gamble, we do need to take some of these things you know, in a very proactive way. And I'm very confident and excited and comfortable that this is going to be a great time ahead and all for the better. >> You know, I always think of myself when I talk about DC 'cause I'm not a lawyer and I'm not a political person, but I always say less lawyers, more techies than in Congress and Senate, so (laughter)I always get in trouble when I say that. Sorry, President Armstrong, go ahead. >> Yeah, no, just one other point and Steve's alluded to this and Bong did as well, I mean, we've got to be less risk averse in these partnerships, that doesn't mean reckless, but we have to be less risk averse. And also, as you talk about technology, I have to reflect on something that happened and you both talked a bit about Bill Britton and his impact on Cal Poly and what we're doing. But we were faced a few years ago of replacing traditional data, a data warehouse, data storage, data center and we partnered with AWS and thank goodness, we had that in progress and it enhanced our bandwidth on our campus before COVID hit, and with this partnership with the digital transformation hub, so there's a great example where we had that going. That's not something we could have started, "Oh COVID hit, let's flip that switch." And so we have to be proactive and we also have to not be risk-averse and do some things differently. That has really salvaged the experience for our students right now, as things are flowing well. We only have about 12% of our courses in person, those essential courses and I'm just grateful for those partnerships that I have talked about today. >> And it's a shining example of how being agile, continuous operations, these are themes that expand the space and the next workforce needs to be built. Gentlemen, thank you very much for sharing your insights, I know Bong, you're going to go into the defense side of space in your other sessions. Thank you gentlemen, for your time, for a great session, I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you gentlemen. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, thank you all. I'm John Furey with The Cube here in Palo Alto, California covering and hosting with Cal Poly, the Space and Cybersecurity Symposium 2020, thanks for watching. (bright atmospheric music)

(upbeat music) >> From New York, it's the Cube covering escape nineteen. (upbeat music) >> Hello, welcome back to the cube coverage here in New York city for the first inaugural multi-cloud conference called escape 2019, I'm John Furrier host of the Cube, we're here with Natalie Gholmieh who's the data manager of data and integration services at the university of California, San Diego campus, office, >> sprawling data center, >> Yes (laughing) >> tons of IT, a lot of challenges. Welcome. >> Yeah, thank you for having me. >> So, thanks for taking the time out, you're a practitioner, you're here. Why are you at this conference, what are you hoping to gain from here? What interests you here at the multi-cloud escape conference. >> This conference is very much within the spirit of what we're trying to do. Uh- we- our CIO has directives which is, to avoid locking and to do multi-vendor orchestration um, an, uh, to go with containers first and open source wherever possible. So- and, I, this conference pretty much speaks to all of that. >> So, this is a really interesting data point because it seems the common thread is data and cloud is an integration thing so people are trying to find that integration point so they can have multiple vendors, multiple clouds. It seems like the multi-vendor were all back in the old days where you had multiple vendors, had a regimeous environment, data seems to be the lynch pin in all this. That's what you do- >> Right. >> How do you think about this because it used to be the big database ran the world, now you have lots of databases. You have applications, >> Right. >> they're everywhere now. >> Yeah, data is born in multiple systems but the data is also an asset right now, to all of the organizations including the university so, um, what we want to try to accomplish is to, uh, get all of this data possibly in one place or in multiple places and to be able to, to do analytics on top of this and this is what the value added processing over the data. >> What's exciting to you these days in the university? You guys try to change the business, what, what- it could be technology. What are the cool things that you like that you're working with right now or that you envision emerging? >> Yeah, so my team is currently building a platform to do an integrat- um, all of the data integration and we are planning to offer, this platform as a service to Developers to streamline and standardize, application development as well as integration development within the central IT of university. So this is pretty much the most exciting thing that we're doing is putting together this platform that is quite complex It is a journey that we're taking Together with the people who are already operating existing systems, and so we are putting this new thing that we're operating in parallel and we will be migrating to that new platform over time. >> I'm sure containers are involved >> Troupernetties >> Yes >> To be part of it >> Mhm, Mhm, yeah so the platform has two parts There is the application, publishing with Gooddoctrine troupernetties And we have also the streaming side of it Where to build the data pipeline with open source tools like ApacheNinefive and Apache kafka. So um yes So this is going to be wiring the data pipelines from source to target and moving the data in real time In order to- >> And you see that as a nice way to keep uh an option to move from cloud to cloud >> Potentially since the platforms role is to decouple the infrastructure from devolepment that way you could spin a portion of the platform on any cloud pretty much and run your workload. Anywhere you want. >> So classic Dev ops, Separate infrustracture as code provide a codified layer >> Yeah, Yeah >> So let me ask you a question, How did you get into all this data business? I mean what attracted you to the data field? What's your story? Tell us your story. >> Ah, so the data, you know, I personally started I mean I was I had more of a networking background and then I became a sys Admin and then I got into the business of logging and log aggregation for machine data And then I was you know using that Data to create Dashboards of system health and you know data correlation and this is what exposed me, personally, first to the data world. And then I saw the value in, in doing all of this With data and the value is even more impactful to the business, when you're working with actual business data. And then Right so I'm very excited about that. >> So you were swimming in the first data lake before data lakes were data lakes. >> Yeah, right, for machine data >> And once you're in there you see value Data exhaust comes in as we used to say back in the day. During the Hedupe days. Data exhaust. So now that you're doing the business value is the conversations the same, or are they different conversations? Or is it still the same kind of data conversation? What's, or is the, job the same? Because you still have machine data applications are throwing off data. >> Right >> You have infrastructure data being thrown off You have new abstrac-New software layers >> Yes >> Is it the same or is it different? Describe the current situation. >> Eh, you know, maybe the concepts are the same Uh, but I think the, the logging machine data has more value to IT to give incites on how to improve your, uh SLA's and your you know within the scope of IT. But the business data really will impact the business, the whole entire University for us. So, One of the things we're doing on the business side with the business data is to provide some analytics on students um, the student data in order to um, increase their chances for success so getting all of that data. Doing some reports and pattern analytics. And then yeah, and then coaching students. >> Not a bad place to live in San Diego. >> Oh It's excellent >> Isn't it, the weather's always perfect >> Oh yeah. >> The marine layers not as bad L.A. you know, or is it? >> Yeah we do have a good. University- >> The marine layer. >> University is right on the coast. So yeah, sometimes its gloomy the whole entire day. = [John] Yeah, I love it there I wish I could have gone to school at the university of San Diego >> It is great, It's a great place to be >> Love to go see my friends at Lajolla Del mar. >> Yeah >> Beautiful areas, >> Yup >> Great country. Well thank you for coming on, and sharing your insights into multi-cloudism and that thinking. It seems you're very foundational right now. In this whole thinking there's no master plan yet. People are really having good conversations around how to set it all up. >> Yup >> The architecture, >> Right >> The role, >> Yup >> You see the same thing? >> Yes architecture is actually a very essential piece of it because you need to plan before you go if you go without planning I think your bill is going be Up the roof, so it yeah >> So you'll sink in the quicksand of the data lake And get sucked into the data swamp >> Yeah, Right, yeah so, architecture is a big piece of it Design, and then build and then continuous improvement That's a huge thing at UC of San Diego >> You know what I get excited about, Is I get excited about real time, how real time, time series data is becoming a big part of the application development and understanding the context between good data and bad data, is always a hard problem a hard tech problem6. >> Yeah that is true, yeah their are a lot of processes that, uh should be set around the data to make sure that data is clean, and it's, a good data set and all that >> If data's an asset then does it have a value? Does it have a balance sheet? Should we value the data? Is some data more valuable then others? That's a good question, huh >> That is a good question, but I don't know the answer to that. >> No one knows it's like we always ask the question I think that's going to, I think that's a future state where at some point data can be recognized but right now it's hard to tell what's valuable or not. >> I think the value is in the return services And the value added services, that you As an organization, can bring to your customer base. This is where the value is and if you want to put a dollar amount on that, eheh, I don't know It's not my job >> And of course multiden here, Multi-clouds All have it and of course thank you so much for coming on Special time conversation. Keep conversation here theCube coverage. Of the first inaugural multi-cloud conference call to escape nineteen. Where the industry best are coming together practitioners, entrepenures, founders, executives and thought leaders, talking about what multi-cloud really can be and foundationally what it needs to be in place and this is what happens here at these conferences Tons of hallway conversations Natalie thank you for spending the time. Cube coverage. I'm John Furrier, thanks for watching. (simple upbeat music)

[Announcer] - From New York, it's theCUBE! Covering ESCAPE/19. >> Hello, welcome back to theCUBE coverage here in New York City for the first inaugural Multi-Cloud Conference called ESCAPE/2019. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE. We're here with Natalie Gholmieh who is the Manager of Data and Integration Services at the University of California San Diego campus/office- sprawling data center, tons of IT, a lot of challenges, welcome. >> Yeah, thank you for having me. >> So, thanks for taking the time out. You're a practitioner, you're here. Why are you at this conference? What are you hoping to gain from here? What interests you here at the Multi-Cloud Escape Conference? >> So, this conference is very much within the spirit of what we're trying to do. Our CIO has directives which is to avoid lock-in, to do multi-vendor orchestration, to go with containers first, and open-source wherever possible. So, this conference pretty much speaks to all of that. >> So, this is a really interesting data point, because it seems the common thread is data. >> Mhmm. >> The cloud is an integration of things, so people are trying to find that integration point so they can have multiple vendors, multiple clouds. It seems like the multi-vendor world back in the old days, where you had multiple vendors, heterogeneous environment, data seems to be the linchpin in all this. >> Right, yes. >> That's what you do. >> Right. >> How do you think about this? Because it used to be that the big database ran the world, now you have lots of databases, you have applications. >> Right, yeah. >> Databases are everywhere now. >> Data is born in multiple systems, but the data is also an asset right now to all of the organizations, including the university. So, what we want to try to accomplish is to get all of this data possibly in one place, or in multiple places, and be able to do analytics on top of this, and this is what the value-added processing over the data. >> What's exciting to you these days in the University? You guys try to change the business, could be technology? What are the cool things that you like, that you're working with right now, or that you envision emerging? >> Yeah. So, my team is currently building a platform to do all of the data integration and we are planning to offer this platform as a service to developers to streamline and standardize application development, as well as integration development, within the central IT at the University. So this is pretty much the most exciting thing that we're doing, is putting together this platform that is quite complex, it is a journey that we're taking together with the people who already operate the existing systems. So we're putting up this new thing that we're operating in parallel and then we will be migrating to that new platform. >> I'm sure containers are involved, >> Yes. >> Kubernetes is a key part of it. >> Yes, mhmm. So, the platform has two parts. There is the application publishing with Docker and Kubernetes, and we also have the streaming side of it, to build the data pipeline with open-source tools like Apache NiFi and Apache Kafka. So this is going to be wiring the data pipelines from source to target and moving the data in real time in order to- >> And you see that as a nice way to keep an option to move from cloud to cloud? >> Potentially, since the platform's role is to decouple the infrastructure from development. That way, you could spin a portion of the platform on any cloud, pretty much, and run your workload anywhere you want. >> So classic DevOps. >> Yeah. >> Separate infrastructure as code, provide a codified layer. >> Yeah. >> So, let me ask you a question. How did you get into all this data business? I mean, what attracted you to the data field? What's your story? Tell us your story. >> So, the data, you know, I personally started, I mean, I had more of a networking background. Then I became Sys Admin, then I got into the business of logging and log aggregation for machine data, and then I was, you know, using that data to create dashboards of system health and, you know, data correlation, and this is what exposed me, personally, first to the data world, and then I saw the value in doing all of this with data, and the value is even more impactful to the business when you're working with actual business data. So I'm very excited about that. >> So you were swimming in the first data lake before data lakes were data lakes. >> Yes, yeah, right, for machine data. >> Once you're in there, you see value, the data exhaust comes in, as we used to say back in the day, data exhaust! >> Yeah. >> So, now that you're dealing with the business value, is the conversation the same? Or are they different conversations? Or is it still the same, kind of, data conversation? Or is the job the same? Because you still have machine data, applications are throwing off data, you have infrastructure data being thrown off, you have new software layers. >> Yes, yeah. >> Is it the same, or is it different? Describe your current situation. >> You know, maybe the concepts are the same, but I think the logging machine data has more value to IT to give insights on how to improve your SLAs, within the scope of IT, but the business data really will impact the business, the whole entire university for us. So, one of the things that we're doing on the business side with the business data is to provide some analytics on the student data in order to increase their chances for success. So, getting all of that data, doing some reports and pattern analytics, and then coaching the students. >> Not a bad place to live, in San Diego, is it? >> Oh, it's excellent. >> Weather's always perfect? >> Oh, yeah. >> Marine layer's not as bad as L.A., but, you know. >> Yeah. >> Or is it? >> No, we do have- The university is right on the coast, so yeah. Sometimes it's gloomy the whole entire day. >> I love it there. I wish I could've gone to school at the University of San Diego. >> It is great. It's a great place to be. >> Love to go down, see my friends in La Jolla, Del Mar, beautiful areas. Great country. >> Yeah. >> Well, thank you for coming on and sharing your insights into multi-cloud and some of the thinking. It seems to be very foundational right now in its whole thinking. >> Mhmm. >> There's no master plan yet. People are really having good conversations around how to set it all up. >> Yeah. >> The architecture. >> Right. >> The role. >> Yeah, yeah. >> Do you see the same thing? >> Yes, architecture is actually a very essential piece of it because you need to plan before you go. If you go without planning, I think your bill is going to be off the roof. >> Huge bill. >> Yeah. >> And you'll sink in the quicksand and the data lake and you can be sucked into the data swamp. >> Yeah. Right. Yeah. So, architecture is a big piece of it, design, then build, and then continuous improvement, that's a huge thing at UC San Diego. >> You know what I get excited about? I get excited about real time, and how real time, time series data is becoming a big part of the application development, and understanding the context between good data and bad data. >> Mhmm. >> It's always a hard problem. It's a hard tech problem. >> Yeah, that is true, yeah. There are a lot of processes that should be set around the data to make sure the data's clean and it's a good data set and all of that. >> If data's an asset, then has it got a value? Is it on the balance sheet? Shouldn't we value the data? Some data's more valuable than others? It's a good question, huh? >> It is a good question, but I don't know the answer to that. >> No one knows. We always ask the question. I think that's a future state where at some point, data can be recognized, but right now it's hard to tell what's valuable or not. >> I think the value is in the returned services and the value-added services that you, as an organization, can bring to your customer base. This is where the value is, and if you want to put a dollar amount on that, I don't know, it's not my job. >> Thank you so much for coming on, special time of conversation. >> Thank you. >> CUBE Conversation here, the CUBE Coverage of the first inaugural Multi-Cloud Conference called ESCAPE/19, where the industry best are coming together. Practitioners, entrepreneurs, founders, executives, and finally, just talking about what multi-cloud really can be, foundationally what needs to be in place. And this is what happens here at these conferences, tons of hallway conversations. Natalie, thank you for spending the time with us. CUBE Coverage, I'm John Furrier. Thanks for watching.

>> Announcer: Live from San Diego, California it's the Cube covering Cisco Live US 2019. Brought to you by Cisco and it's ecosystem partners. >> Welcome back to the Cube, Lisa Martin with Stu Miniman rounding out day one of our coverage of Cisco live! in San Diego. We're pleased to welcome Tera Sumner, the senior manager of Global Product Management at CenturyLink. Tera welcome to the Cube. >> Thank you, thank you both for having me. >> So we've had a number of folks from CenturyLink on the Cube over the years, I know that you guys are a big US communications provider. >> Tera: We are. >> You've got customers in over 60 countries but this is no longer your grandfather's CenturyLink. >> That's right. >> Lisa: Tell us more about it. >> So we are focused in the next roll out of the next phase of CenturyLink. We're moving from a telecommunications company to a technology company and the division that I work in for UC&C the unified communications that's where it's at. That's where it's all going to take place and having a partnership with Cisco is key for us to get from that telecoms base to the technologies base for sure. >> So bring us inside a little bit, Unified communication and collaboration, you know, Cisco obviously a strong presence in that space. Lot's of people have used Webex and understand the various, you know, VOIP phones and everything that they do there. What particularly brings Cisco and CenturyLink together? Is it engineering work, field, go to market, you know where are the pieces? >> Sure and it's all of those, right. It's all of those, what's been very nice is that Cisco has embraced the idea of being a platform and not a siloed individual product line. And so for a service provider like CenturyLink, for us to be able to embrace that same philosophy of the platform of services, what that means is that our engineering and field ops folks, our operations teams do all the hard work on the back end to make sure that we have established all of the right security, the right network, the reliability, the global scaleability of our specific platform of services and being that leader in telecommunications. And then we're able to lay that Cisco platform on top of it and what happens then from a product management level is once you've established that foundation, it's really plug and play. The customer calls and says "I need calling, I need meetings, I need" you know whatever it is they need and we build that solution and very quickly can put those components into play and get them to use the service right away. >> So we were all at Enterprise Connect. We were all just talking about that, Stu and I hosted the Cube there just, what a couple of months ago I guess. And it's such an interesting, it was an interesting event because everything is centered around communication. You can't have a great customer experience without having a phenomenal and very connected communications platform within an organization. >> Correct. >> You can't have great satisfied employees if they don't have the connectivity that they need so really looking at enterprise communication and collaboration tools as table stakes, >> Tera: Absolutely. >> For any organization because without it you're, in any industry, there's a competitor right on your coattails ready to swoop in if you're going to be making any mistakes. >> Tera: Absolutely. >> And now as we look at the waves of change with respect to connectivity, the explosion and expansion of 5G, the proliferation of the amount of mobile data that's going to be video traversing that works, massive demand placed on any organization to be able to deliver communications extremely quickly and extremely securely. Talk to us about some of the waves that you're going to be riding in helping customers to mitigate with respect to these new demands for high density, high performance connectivity. >> Sure, so if we talk to customers, as you know, today one of the biggest things is, it's all about security. We have a massive and really super intelligent security department at CenturyLink and it's kind of cool watching all of the various projects that they get into because they're so passionate. And not only are they passionate about it, they're adamant that we make as much of a connection secure, meetings, any kind of information secure that we possibly can and we've mitigated any risk possible. And then you take that and you have to communicate that information but you have to also be able to showcase the various solutions that you have, all of the Cisco platforms that you have. So what we have also done is we've taken that platform of services from Cisco and we've put it in the hands of our operations folks, our sales folks, our field techs, our executives, our middle management group and every one of them knows then how to quickly use the teams application from their desktop, they all have it on their, and I don't have my phone with me, they'll have it on their mobile device. So it's very familiar, it's very quick and it's always on, right so they're connected all the time, which I know we all say "I hate that, I hate that." the minute you don't have it, it drives people crazy. So it's a very valuable tool for us from a product management perspective to put these tools in the hands of our internal users who are the voice to that customer, so when the customer calls and goes "Oh my gosh, I don't know what's going on", "Ah, I've been there before, let me help you out and let me do that very quickly." >> So want you to help us understand, how are you helping customers keep up with just the rapid pace of change that's going on here. As Lisa mentioned Enterprise Connect, the themes I was hearing, very similar to what we're hearing here at the show. You know cloud drastically changing architectures, AI and ML infusing itself into all the environments there. It feels like from a customer standpoint every time they go do a role, it's like "Oh wait, hold on, didn't you hear about the new thing and the new thing and the new thing." And, >> And don't use that, use this. >> That tendency to, like oh wait, I thought I was down the path yet I constantly need hear about yet another thing. >> Absolutely, so yes, you're right it's a constant game of catch up if you will. Have you tried the new app, do you have the latest version of X, Y and Z? What we're trying to do is also bridge that gap because we have tremendously intelligent and savvy customers where it used to be if you build it, they will come and now it's no, no, no, don't even build it. Let them tell you what your market needs to drive, the customers have the most unique uses for the technology these days and we have to keep up with that. So we let those customers help drive where we go from a product standpoint but at the same time I've got traditional customers who are saying "Okay, somebody told me I need to get to the cloud." "Okay, I can help you with that." We have a very unique perspective on how we bring customers onboard, on how we get customers to adopt the technology and truly, the way that we do that is with the human touch right. We concentrate completely on our customer experience from end to end, so if you give us a call and you say "Here's a problem I need to solve and here are the components I have sitting in there today." We design the solution that you need for your business needs and then we walk you through that step by step and when we're all implemented and ready to go we're still going to answer that phone. We're still going to answer your emails and take your calls and say "What else can I do for you? How can I help? How do we want to expand?" So it's really that customer service on top of the focus of customer experience that makes CenturyLink I think still very unique in the industry because we care that what we are putting in your hands as a customer is something that not only you will use but you'll talk about in a very positive light. >> So given that everything you talked about, you know connectivity, and when we don't have connectivity you feel like you've lost a limb or you've lost sight or hearing. It's that disconnect that is just, these days it feels so strange but customers need to have definitely, and that was a theme I think that we hear at every event. We also heard it at Enterprise Connect, it's not just AI it's humans and AI but speed is essential for any industry especially those that are undergoing any sort of transformation because they've got to stay ahead of their competition. So how do you balance that, how does CenturyLink balance that need for speed and also deliver a customer experience that's unique as you say, that has that personalized element that it sounds like I'm hearing. How are you leveraging tools like automation and AI machine learning to help CenturyLink deliver that customer experience but quickly? >> Well, we're doing lots of things, some of the things that we're doing is that automation from the first time they click on the website to say "What's going on at CenturyLink? Oh, they've got UC&C." You click a button and you read a little bit about what the products are and you can order it right then and there and then you get it turned around very quickly to put it in your hands. And oh by the way, if you need some help we've got the training videos, we've got you know, a phone number for you to call if you really need some human explanation of "Okay, I just can't figure this out, I can't get that." So the automation is key for sure. When you're talking about speed, as you know if anyone has teenagers around and they're using gaming systems or you're watching Netflix or whatever it is that you're doing all day, you are eating a ton of bandwidth. And so what's nice about working for CenturyLink is that well, we're the provider of the bandwidth, so we get to see the trending of what products are consuming the most of that bandwidth and we very quickly can prioritize and say "this content delivery network needs more" or "Holy Cow, what is U&C doing in Latin America or APAC or EMEA? They're consuming a ton of bandwidth, we need to allocate more and put a priority on that." And so that's different than other competitors who aren't also service providers because then they have to go back and negotiate. "No, no, no, my services really do need more bandwidth and I really do need some priority and be nice to me and I'll take care of it." Right, so we have that ability at CenturyLink to do that very quickly. >> So Tera, CenturyLink's had a long partnership with Cisco, a very deep relationship, Cisco's been talking a lot about their transformation. Remember a year ago, it was when you think about, you know Cisco 2030, it's not as a networking company it's a software company. Give us your assessment as a partner, what you've been seeing in Cisco and also bring us in a little as to how CenturyLink is, as we said at the beginning, a different CenturyLink that we might have thought of in a previous generation? >> Sure and it's a good question, it's for me I've been at CenturyLink for, you know as I mentioned, about 15 years and I've got to witness and be a part of the initial relationship with Cisco that we had, up unto today when I help manage that relationship and it really has transformed from a relationship to a partnership. And it's no longer just they give you something and you go and implement it, now it's truly the give and take. Right, you have these conversations, but we also have the relationships with several of the employees of Cisco to say "Okay, I understand you're putting this into the network, tell me a little bit more about that, how is that unique to a service provider versus an enterprise? How can I make that a better value proposition for my customer base because of CenturyLink?" And we get the reciprocal communication back and forth, whereas years ago it was "Here you go, here's what we're giving you, go ahead and put that into the network." So it's really been exciting for us at CenturyLink and certainly, I think, for our Cisco folks because it's easy now, we know each other very well, we know so many of the employees at both companies that when I pick up the phone its "Hey, how's it going?" Instead of "Oh, I need to speak to the Vice President of X, Y, Z." Right, so it's truly been a great transformation in a partnership from that relationship to that true partnership where there's give and take. And if we have a question or we think "You know I've got this amazing customer who has this bizarrely intelligent ask." I want to help them with that. I have no hesitation to pick up the phone to call my partner and say "You're going to love this. Help me figure out how to get us there." And it's really been working quite well over the last few years. I'm kind of excited to see how far it goes in the next few. >> So it sounds like it's evolved into a much more strategic partnership. >> Tera: Absolutely. >> Is that an accelerator or facilitator of CenturyLink's transformation to a technology company? >> It's both of those things, it's a complete accelerator but it just makes sense when you have partners who have that very similar vision that you do from a strategic company, you look at that and think "Okay, you know what, this is going to fit very nicely into my strategy, my mission statement" and it's going to be a much easier transition for all of my colleagues as a result because then they can see "Oh, that's exactly what we need to do." We need to take these steps to move into that technology mode and now you're showing me how to do that with your strategic partnership with Cisco. It's very fun. >> Fun is good, Tera thank you so much for joining Stu and me on the Cube this afternoon. >> Absolutely. - We're going to keep our eye on CenturyLink, we appreciate your time. >> Absolutely, come and visit us any chance you get. >> All right, for Stu Miniman, I'm Lisa Martin, you're watching the Cube, day one of our coverage of Cisco Live has just come to an end. We want to thank you so much for watching and catch us starting tomorrow morning, day two from San Diego. Thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) >> Live from Orlando, Florida. It's theCUBE, covering Enterprise Connect 2019. Brought to you by Five9. >> Welcome back to Orlando, Florida. I'm Lisa Martin with theCUBE. Stu Miniman is here with me, and we are on day three of our coverage of Enterprise Connect 2019. This is a show that talks all about enterprise communication and collaboration. We're with Five9, who's been our gracious host this whole week talking about the intelligent contact center. We're all consumers at one point or another. We all buy a lot of things, and we're excited to bring to theCUBE for the first time, a gentleman from CARFAX, I'm sure you know, David Muttiah, the Salesforce Manager. David, welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you very much, it's great to be here. >> The only thing you didn't bring is your CARFAX fox. >> I did, that's exactly right, we did not bring the car fox, but next time, I'll make sure to bring the fox along. >> If I give you my address, can I get one? You certainly can. >> Awesome. Alright, so David, this is your first time here. You are a longtime customer of Five9, which we talk about. >> That's right. >> But I know you and Stu had a chance to chat earlier. >> Sure. >> Talk to us and our audience about CARFAX. What is-- People know it as I'm going to go there, I'm going to get the value of my car. >> Right. I want to be able to use this in my purchases and transactions. >> Right. >> The role of digital transformation and data to CARFAX's business. >> Sure. Right. And I think at the core, CARFAX is a data company, that's what we're known for, and most consumers know us for what we do, which is in the CARFAX history or the CARFAX reports, so, most people probably interact with us when they get ready to purchase a car, or they're about to sell one of their cars, so, they typically will want a CARFAX report, and so, that's been the experience, and that's what we're known for, and that's what we're recognized for, but over the last few years, we've also kind of moved into some other spaces. One area is the search capability on looking for a used car, so, today you can go online and search for used cars through various channels, but if you come to CARFAX.com, you can search for a car, the traditional method, which is you would typically go look for a car by the criteria, the color, the make, model, and a distance from your geographic area, but then also we now start layering CARFAX data on top of that. So, now you can search the cars based on I'm looking for a car with no accidents, I'm looking for a car with one owner, or I want a car that's got a lot of good history on it based on service and maintenance, So, you can do your searches based on those criterias at CARFAX.com, so, that's something now we're starting to grow and do more of. The other is talking about the value of your car. So, most people really want to know how much is my car worth, especially when you go to trade in, or you're trying to sell it, and so, you want to get a better sense of what that is. So, what we have started to do is based on the history of the car, based on what's in our database, and what's in our data, you can now, we start valuing the car, we start putting a value for the car and what it's worth, so that you as a consumer, when you get ready to trade in or sell, you have some confidence around the value of what your car is. This is also why you want to maintain your car and take good care of it, because the maintenance aspect really goes into what the car is valued at. >> Yeah, David, I love this. First of all, thank you, I've used CARFAX in the past. It helped me when I bought a used car for my wife, and it helped me in my negotiation quite a bit, and we love this trend is data. Actually, putting it in the hand of the consumer. >> Right. >> It's no longer this, I need to go in, and I don't have all the information, and >> Right, exactly. >> The traditional car salesman has the upper hand. Here, come on, I'm a good consumer. I know how to research this stuff and with your tools I've got the upper hand again. >> Exactly. >> I can go on in and negotiate, so. >> Right, and our goal, really, is to empower consumers to make better decisions and have confidence in the decisions they make around buying and selling their car. And so, we want to be able to help them in that process, but we also help dealers, automobile dealers, throughout the United States. They use us in the same way, as to run and manage their business. So, we help them to do that, in providing the data that we have to empower them to be able to do their business. >> Yeah, when we look at some of the big themes we've seen this show. >> Sure >> First of all, customer experience CX is at the center of what everyone is talking about. And when I talk about, in the contact center even, is that shifting role between inbound and outbound, >> Sure. >> Is how do I leverage my resources? Maybe bring us inside a little bit what it's like inside a CARFAX. >> Sure. >> Those items. >> Yeah, and I think you know CARFAX, when you look at it from a contact center standpoint, you know we've got two sides of the business. One is the traditional call center type of environment, where we are assisting our customers. They can call in and we're available to them to answer any questions that they have. And so, we have Agents available that are on call, to answer any questions around the data that CARFAX provides to our customers. The other side is on the Sales side, you know, we're still going out and talking about our business, trying to let people know what we do. Not just on the CARFAX Report, but on the CARFAX search capabilities, as well as, on the evaluation of the car. So, we're trying to get people more informed about how we're doing that. So, we have a Sales Team that really goes out and is empowered to do that. And so, we're using the contact center in that space as well, to be able to reach customers, to kind of really talk to the value of what CARFAX brings. >> So on the Sales side, on the contact center side, three, four years ago you guys said, We have some significant opportunities here. You've been one of the greatest examples, I think, I've heard all week about the power that the consumer has with all this data. When you said, "Alright, we need to dial this up a level. "There's a lot more opportunity to grow the business." When you came to Five9, what were some of the key challenges that you looked to them to help you resolve? >> You know, I think at the time we had on-prem solution that was working well for us. And think what we had done was internally, we had switched to Salesforce.com, which as a CRM, that was a cloud based solution. So, we had moved into the cloud. We were quit happy with what we were getting from a cloud solution, from a CRM standpoint. So, we said let's step back now that we want to migrate, our really, contact center into that area. Let's take a look at who's the players in this space. And we kind of did our due diligence and evaluation. And we ended up and landed on Five9 as kind of our go-to solution. And since then, we have really integrated Five9 into our sales force instance. And that's been the goal, is to be able to integrate the two systems and it's worked out really well for us. And I think one of the things that we look at from-- at CARFAX is we want, our employees, the interaction to kind of be a user friendly interaction. So, Salesforce is our primary CRM. And so, we want anything that our employees do to be primarily focused on Salesforce. And so, the contact center solution needs to be integrated in and we don't necessarily want a contact center that's kind of a stand alone. So, we have it integrated so, the experience for the agent or the employee is really seamless between a CRM and a contact center. They're kind of one and the same for us. >> Yeah, that's great. We just had Zisan of the analyst talking about how anyone that has a CRM, Five9 is something that can help them. What if you can go in that your sales people that are using it. There's a lot of other options besides Contact Center. Look here some of the UC solutions out there. And Salesforce has lots of modules they'd be happy to upgrade you, >> Exactly. Yep. too, for those environments. So, what was it about the Five9 that you said, hey, it works in our contact center, let's start moving it to some of our other people? >> Sure. I think, you know, one of the things is >> if we look at how we work, we really want a lot of the information that we're gathering from our sales rep's to be really input into Salesforce. And so, we wanted a contact center that integrated in a way that we could capture everything that we're doing with our customers and the interactions that we're having to be solely in Salesforce. And so, that's one of the big pieces, is we didn't necessarily want a contact center that captured information outside and then tried to marry the two. We really want it, the experience, to be one and the same, so that the-- For us as we start interacting with our customers we're able to input everything into our CRM. As well as, from a contact center standpoint, if we have customers that are reaching out to us, we're able to serve up information within our CRM, for the agent, so they can interact in a more meaningful way, and provide our customers information in a much more quicker, and easier manner than we have in the past. >> We talk about CX a lot, an agent experience. One of the things I'm curious to learn is adoption. That's a theme that's come up, as well. It's great to hold all the technologies, but if at the end of the day, as consumers, we want things simple, well so do employees, right? >> Sure. >> Talk to us about the adoption that you've been able to drive, since you've brought in the Five9 contact center, integrating it with your CRM, the impact on the contact center folks, as well as the sales folks. >> Right, I think one of the keys to any kind of adoption efforts is really having stake hold or buy in. And so, if we look at our leadership at CARFAX, they were truly bought in on Salesforce and a solution like Five9. So, they were behind us from a technology standpoint to say look we want these tools integrated. We want our employees to have a seamless experience. So, we were able to get our sales leadership, our contact center leadership, truly bought in on the experience. They had a lot of say and a voice and make selection. So, when we went and do the due diligence, they were part of the process of selecting Five9. They, too, looked at them as a solution. And they were able to give us feedback on what they're needs were. So, we really took into consideration a lot of the things that they looked for. And so, when we launched the two and integrated it, and we went live. We had a lot of buy-in. They had already gone out to their teams, talked about what they were going to get. So, the agents and sales reps, themselves, were familiar with what was coming, what was to be expected. So, in some sense there was a little bit of excitement within the company of what's to come. So, we had users already approaching us saying, hey, when are we going to get this, cause we're ready to kind of transform and move over to this new solution? So, that was, it was a good experience. And I think that's key to any kind of adoption, is really having your leadership kind of have buy-in and backing, cause they're the ones that kind of empower the employees to kind of truly adopt and use these tools. >> Yeah, David, one of the things we've been trying to parse this week in that buzzword of omnichannel and the ebb and resurgence of voice has been something that's been a theme of this conference, used to be called VoiceCon. >> Right. >> So, from your perspective, your different groups, what are the channels, what are you seeing, and maybe for yourself and any of your peers that your hearing? What are some of those big trends? >> I think one of the things we're seeing, is obviously, omnichannel is kind of a buzzword that's talked about in the industry. We're still primarily phone based and it's partly because of the nature of our business. We're serving customers that are calling in with highly technical question. And we do have chat as an avenue. And we can obviously talk to our customers, through chat, as a means, but we're also finding is that sometimes when you get into these high level technical questions, chat is not necessarily the place to have that. Chat has a place in our business. But I think it's also, you have to be mindful about the amount of time your going to take to be able to respond to these things. And so, what we're starting to offer chat as an option, but in most cases what we're doing is flipping from chat over to the phone and continuing that conversation with our customers, cause that seems to be a a more seamless and better interaction. And then in most cases we can answer these questions via phone quicker than through chat. And for the customer themselves it's a better user experience to do that. And so, we have kind of tended to be self-voice, primarily. We're are certainly looking of kind of omnichannels, of where that industry is evolving. That's something we'll continue to look at, and see if we can bring in, and so more with that, but we're still very much phone-based. And that's what our customers want. And we're want to kind of continue to serve them through those channels. >> So, your really following the journey of your specific customers, >> Exactly. to determine where should we be meeting them that going to best and fastest serve their needs. >> Exactly, right, and I think the industry changes, and if our customers start saying to us, hey, I want more ways to reach you that are alternative to voice, and we'll certainly look at that and provide that as a solution. >> Alright, so, David, as you work with Five9 and your other vendors, if you had a magic wand, what could they be doing to make you job easier, help your customer experience anymore? >> Sure, I think, as a whole, they're doing a today. I think one of the things we are talking to Five9 and other folks in the spaces. We have today, as a company, we're using Five9 for the contact center folks that are integrated with our CRM, but we also have folks at our corporate office that are non-contact center folks. Maybe they interact with our CRM more, but they're not necessarily making outbound calls or taking inbound calls, but each of them has a phone at their desk. And so, we want to combine and bridge the two systems. So, that's something we're looking at and talking to, to see what we can do to be able to bring some of our corporate office folks, and have them seamlessly integrate with our contact center folk, so that conversations can be passed back and forth between the two systems and make it a little bit more easier than what we have today. >> For other businesses that are the precipice of where CARFAX was a few years ago, what are your lessons learned and recommendations for successfully navigating this process? >> I think one of the things is to always take a step back and look at your kind of processes and say this is what we've done up to this point, Is that what you want to continue to do? And then look at ways you can continue to improve. You certainly want to reach out to your employees and your agents, cause they're kind of the true source of knowledge for this. They can give you some valuable insight into how their day-to-day interactions are, and how we can improve and make some changes there. So, you really want to take a step back and take a look at how you can improve those things. Of course, the other aspect is, looking at tools that truly work in the environments that you are in. So, for us, it was Salesforce. And we really wanted a partner that truly integrated with Salesforce. And we wanted to make sure the integration was seamless, 'cause the last thing you really want is a system that is kind of-- A CRM is one aspect and the contact center is separate, and having it work seamlessly was our number one criteria. So, come up with some things that you cannot do without. And so, come up with some things that you can, you say, look, these are core to our business needs and we're not going to divert from that, and we want to be able to find a solution that works in those parameters. >> Great advice, David. Thank you so much for sharing what CARFAX is doing with Five9 and what's next for you guys. We appreciate your time. >> Thank you very much. It was great to be here. >> For Stu Miniman, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCube. (upbeat music)