>> Announcer: Live from Madrid, Spain it's theCUBE. Covering HPE Discover Madrid 2017. Brought to you by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. >> We're back in Madrid everybody. This is theCUBE, the leader in live tech coverage. My name is Dave Vallante and I'm here with my co-host Peter Burris. This is day one of HPE Discover Madrid. Parvesh Sethi is here, he's the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the global client services at HPE Point Next. Parvesh thanks for very much for coming back on theCUBE. >> Good to be here. >> Dave: Last time we saw you, you were 30 days into the job. >> That's right. >> Maybe 45 days. So how's the first six, seven months been? >> It's been busy. It's actually been very good. I administered the transformation change that's taking place within the company. It's actually been really good to also working with the clients on the hybrid IT journey side of the house. And since last we spoke, we also did the CTP acquisition, which has been very well received as well. >> Well I love it, when you guys go and talk about transformations to customers. We're experts. >> Parvesh: Yes. >> We live this. >> Parvesh: Live this everyday. >> Does that enter into the discussions with your customers? It must right? >> Yeah I think it gives us a lot of credibility. Especially when you take a look at the journey they're on. And we talk a lot about hybrid IT today, making it simple. And one of the things we always talk to them about is that hybrid IT is not just infrastructure cloud. You really have to take a look at the full spectrum of the services that had to be delivered. It could be as a service providers, could be subscribing to a platform, and hosting it on-prem, off-prem, private dedicated infrastructure, or public cloud. Just a mix of those and being able to decide as to what are the characteristics that you should look at, and what will decide as to what goes into public cloud, private cloud, or where should those services come from. >> What do you tell the skeptics? You know the, why should I do hybrid cloud? Why don't I just put everything in the cloud? Do you get those questions, or is it more customers saying hey, help me with my hybrid problem? What's the-- >> Almost every single client meeting that I've been in. Everyone acknowledges the world is hybrid IT. And I have not met a single client yet who says all of their workloads are going into public cloud. I think a lot of it depends on what they want to achieve. If they want a lot of elasticity and if they need SLAs, or if they want to bring the workload back in, security compliance or organizational cultural governance processes, performance characteristics. A lot of those factors come into play as to deciding what goes where. And I think almost everyone says that it's never going to be 100% this or that just based on the characteristics that would really dictate where the workload or the application says. >> And that's the characteristics of the data. Is that fair? 'Cause it used to be, oh security. And you know public cloud, gives you fine security. Maybe not exactly the way you want it done, but is it more the realization about, you just can't move all the data into the cloud? Or you can't force your business into the cloud? What are customers saying there? >> I think part of it also comes into, for example, governance as well. If there's HIPAA compliance workloads as an example, that may dictate your decision in a certain way. But you're right though, I mean security used to be one of the big concerns, but it's more about now a person has decided they want to move a certain workload over, it's really more about how do you get them comfortable, how do you de-risk that move? And this is where thinking through the journey roadmap really becomes critical. But just because of that one aspect, it's not necessarily stopping people from moving, but it's really baking that into the design criteria as to how you move it. >> Well while we're on security, I mean, in the last five years it's obviously become a board level topic. People have I think come to the recognition. Maybe the recognition, maybe the spending hasn't shifted, but the mindset's shifted that we can't just create a moat, you know, they're gonna get in. Once they get in we have to respond. We need analytics and response mechanisms and so. How are they coming to you for help? What are they asking you for, and how are you helping? >> So I think it certainly comes into more into place can not be an afterthought. It's really more about security in and the governance has to be kind of baked in from the front end of it. So everything that we do, whether it's any solution that we're doing from IoT perspective all the way to the hybrid IT, from an architecture blueprint perspective we have made sure the security's front and center of everyone of those designs as well as the discussion criteria with the client. And so when you start looking at it's not about security partial assessment. It's also kind of looking at designing security from a, you know, architecture blueprint perspective. And making sure that if somebody's talking about hybrid IT architecture or an IoT use case, that security's front and center of the design criteria. >> If you think about the challenges that your sales, well let's step back. If you think about the challenges that everybody has at conceiving of how best to associate data, workload, and cloud implementation. Hybrid, on-premise, off-premise, wherever it is. There are, you have to have a common framework, what used to be called a computing model. A way of thinking of how you address the problem. That your sales people has to have, your support people have to have, you have to have, your customer has to have. Are there like two or three things that you're telling your people to look forward, or look for and working with their customers to help provide those clues. So crucial to getting everybody on the same page early as to where workloads are gonna end up. Where data is gonna end up. >> That's a great question, and one of the things that we're making sure that our folks are not just talking about the hardware piece of it. It's really more about before the hardware discussion takes place, making sure that we completely align on the workload strategy. As part of the workload strategy, you know we will do workshops, and we'll make sure that we totally understand in terms of what is it they're trying to accomplish in terms of the workload migrations. And before we even get to the migration topic, we really go through this criteria in terms of assessing the workloads. Which workloads are more suited to go into cloud environment. And in areas which we may need to re-architect the application or re-write it. We also kind of put those into a specific category and take a look at making sure that is the performance criteria more, is it security is it more about the TCO, and more and more you're starting to see it's not really a brokerage discussion. It's really more of strategic sourcing discussion because you're more and more are starting to talk about what is the best source to get the service from. Because there's no shortage of choices that they have today where they can provide these services from. So it's really more of about understanding what they're trying to achieve. And then understanding the sourcing policy. Understanding the alignment between the IT and the governance piece of it, the whole business side of it, and the IT side of it. And then it's really more about the supply chain management. You heard about One'Sphere today. But it's really more about how do you take this complexity out of the hybrid IT environment, and making sure that you can provide the automation and that capability to provide it as easy of environment for them to have a single plane of glass. So those are the key pieces of the framework that we try to make sure everyone is on same page. >> You mentioned cloud technology partners. We heard about One'Sphere today, that's obviously the CTP is part of that announcement. Small company, but very high quality customer base. It's very specialized. Take us through the rationale for the acquisition, kind of what the value is to your customers, and where it's headed. >> I think last time when we spoke we talked about our overall strategy. One of the key pillars is really around making hybrid IT simple. And we know when we talk about hybrid IT it cannot be just the on-prem part of the storyboard. You have to talk about the public cloud side of it as well. And this is where the CTP acquisition comes into play to really plug a hole. I mean we had some capability in house, but not to the extent of what CTP brings to the table. I mean they are premiere partner to AWS, premiere partner to Google, silver partner to Microsoft Azure. And so having that kind of credibility and the recognition in the US and North America, certainly gives us more credibility with our customers talking about the hybrid IT story. And then taking that skillset, assets, and the IP, we want to take that and leverage of our channel community, as well as our install base, as well as of our capabilities in Europe as well Asia, and help scale that globally is really a way how we're gonna leverage this skillset and asset set. >> So we're in beautiful Madrid, Spain at the EMEA Discover. Cloud is a global phenomenon, but it's not uniform. From your perspective of providing services to customers that have global needs as well as local needs, take us through how Europe is different. Start from the observation that we've got North American cloud players, public cloud players, we've got Asian cloud players, we have not an obvious European cloud player. How is it different on a global basis, and what is HP doing to mass those differences, HPE doing, to mass those differences from your global and local customers. >> So I think one of the things you are finding here the need, and we talked about this earlier today, the need for as a consumption models. And you're seeing that the trend globally. And more and more people, more and more customers are talking about not wanting to necessarily own, but how do they pay for what they use. And so one of the things we do is from a framework perspective we've really deployed a very consistent framework, uniformed transformational framework, UTF. And we did apply for a patent for it as well. But the idea there is to leverage a common methodology, common framework to take a client through in terms of how to go about this cloud journey. Everyone is on a different place in terms of the cloud adoption, their digital transformation journey. But through the experiences that we have, I mean we do well over 10,000 engagements a year. Leveraging that IP, we have really built like full interconnected journey roadmaps. And so a client, you can take any client, whether a service provider or enterprise, they're somewhere on that journey roadmap. And they may be in a different place, but being able to talk to them, leveraging that common IP and say look, this is where you're at today, here's the roadmap that you can take to get to your desired end state. And that has really resonated with the clients. And if they truly don't want to own the infrastructure, and they just want to pay as you go, this is where the whole HPE, GreenLake announcements have really come into play. So I think those teams when you take a look at the performance characteristics, organization governance issues. Because one of the things that we find is 70% plus of the clients that we talk to, they have not been able to really maximize the full potential of what hybrid IT gives them. And one of the major hurdles we see, and doesn't matter whether you talk to a client in North America or EMEA or APJ. It's really the lack of focus on management of change. It's the organizational, the cultural barriers that get in the way. It's the competencies, the organizational processes that get in the way. So those are the pieces we want to make sure as part of the UTF framework, IT is just one of the principles. And of the other domains, management of change is one of the key elements that we see, which is common across all the client base that we talk to. >> When you go back to the early part of this decade, and you observe sort of the big, remember the big data meme it sort of exploded in 2010, 2011, 2012. It ended up being a very, complex of course, but also very services led, engagements because it was so complex. IoT is somewhat similar, it's very data oriented, it's very complex. So talk about services and the relationship with IoT, the opportunity for you and how you're helping add value to customers. >> Now that's a great question also Dave. I think when you take a look at the IoT. I think we're starting to get past that half cycle. And a lot players will talk about they got hundred plus proof of concepts going in their lab, but they just have not been able to bring it into the mainstream. And so one of the things we're talking to clients about is starting to move away from the terms like proof of concept. Focus on proof of value. Because at the end of the day, if you cannot help your line of business accelerate time to value, no matter how great of a concept you have, it's never going to see the day of light. So this is where the point next services really come into play with the whole advisory led motion because it's still very much a services led motion today. Working with the clients around how they can really help shorten the time to value. Accelerate time to value. And if we can take even one or two use cases they have in their labs today. And show them how they can get to 50, 60 million dollars of savings like one of the oil and gas customers we were just talking to. Same thing we see in the retail manufacturing. Is just taking some of the spoof points, and say this is how you can actually bring them into the mainstream, and make sure they also start to have the business alignment. That's one of the common things we hear from the CXOs here this week is the business alignment between the IT and the OT side if they're talking to the IoT use cases. Because without the business alignment, believe me you're not gonna be able to get the management of change that you're seeking to derive. >> So do you expect or are you seeing yet new business models. You were talking about the cost savings, but what about sort of the new business models emerging from those discussions and opportunities. >> Definitely I mean if you take a look at whether it's the hospitality suite, you know Kathy talked about main stage about even the retail experience that we're just starting to be very different. So when you look at the new value that's being created, you know a lot of us who travel to get here, when we check into the hotel, a number of places now, you can check in digitally, 24 hours in advanced. You never have to stand in line for a queue. Don't have to flash up your credit card because the hotel's have really now started to leverage the digital transformation where 24 hours in advanced you can check in online. They'll give you a digital key so on your phone when you walk into the hotel, as soon as you're within a threshold you get onto your wifi network and you see a personalized message. And it has also the directions to your room. And when you get to your room, you use the digital key to get in. Think about the possibilities it creates to launch new services for not just the hotel, but it's also affiliates, the partners for pushing specific targeted advertising offers while you're in Madrid here or some other place. So you're starting to see these new value creations even though behind the scenes you still have them integrate a lot of their digital critical business systems whether it's CRM, reservation systems, or smart buildings. You have to still make sure the security's in play. And so it is really you checking in, not someone else. As well as making sure the room is available. But it's really more focused on the business outcome. And this is one of the things that you're seeing even in a portfolio shift, it's no longer talking about some implementation services, integration services. When we sit down with a client it's really more focused around what outcome are we delivering. It's not talking about, look we can sell you x numbers of servers, or we can sell you devices. More about here's the business outcome that we'll deliver for you. And this is what you're gonna be able to do with that additional value creation. >> Do you mean I might be able to not have to wait in line a half hour when I check into a Las Vegas hotel in the future? >> Parvesh: Absolutely. >> Peter: No that will never happen. (laughing) >> No definitely, I mean you see improvements every single year. And hopefully, whether you walk into a retail shop, be able to experience differently walking from home into a branch store and what that experience will look like, it'll be very very different than what some of the people experience today. >> Lots of changes coming. All sort of based on the data, Parvesh thanks very much for coming on theCUBE, it was great to see you. >> Absolutely it's great to be here, thank you so much. >> You're welcome alright keep it right there everybody we'll be back with our next guest Dave Vallante for Peter Burris. This is theCUBE, we're live from HPE Discover Madrid 2017. (electronic music)

>> Narrator: Live from Las Vegas, it's the CUBE covering HPE Discover 2017. Brought to you by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. >> Okay, welcome back everyone. We are live here in Las Vegas for SiliconANGLE Media's theCUBE's three-day exclusive coverage of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HPE Discover 2017. I'm John Furrier with my co-host, Dave Vellante. Our seven-years covering HPE, and we have our next guest whose been on the job for seven weeks, Parvesh Sethi, Senior Vice-President of HPE Pointnext Consulting. Industry veteran of cloud. You understand what's going on. Appreciate you coming in and sharing-- >> Thank you for having me. >> Your talking points with seven weeks on the job, but you're new to HPE, welcome to theCUBE. So fresh in to HPE, got a fresh eye. You've been around the industry for a while. What is the hybrid journey for HP? Because you were just in the Q&A with Meg and Antonio with the press and the analysts, and still people are trying to put it together. Like, with no cloud, how do you guys fit in this? So, hybrid cloud, simplifying hybrid IT. They're not saying simplifying hybrid cloud, simplifying hybrid IT, which implies cloud. >> Exactly, I think the approach that I would take is if you look at the role of the IT, it's really changing. I mean, you can consider IT to be the strategic sourcer now. It's no longer we built it, we own it, we run it, because now they're really managing a supply chain. So, you're looking at the private cloud, public cloud, and people having the highly-automated infrastructure, or software-defined infrastructure, and legacy b-spoke systems. The job of the IT is really getting very complex. When you heard Meg talked about making hybrid IT simple, so for Pointnext Consulting standpoint, it's really working with the clients about making that journey much more simpler, and making sure it's not just simple, but the speed is there. Also we'll ask that we are focused on the workloads to really moving the workload securely. Because, at the end of the day, the whole journey is really centered around the workload-side of the house. >> And your role is, am I correct, is tip-of-the-spear consultant? Is that right, and strategy consulting? >> That's correct. It includes the consulting and the professional service portfolio. >> So, help us understand, because when EDS went to CSE with the spin-merge, all of the sudden you're seeing Accenture, Deloitte, and others come out of the woodworks. And this is their wheelhouse, in strategic consulting, so where do you pick up, and how do you relate to those guys? >> Yeah, no, it's a great question. In fact, it's with the spinoffs, it's also given us a great opportunity to really work with number of the SIs, and so we're have a close work relationship with number of them, and the way I look at the strategic consulting, where we add value is really more around the technology consulting piece of it. And because that's where we feel that we can really add differentiation. And partnering with some of our SIs, that's where they can help us from the verticalization piece of it, the business process side of it, because that's not really our core strength. Our core strength is really around the technology consulting, and also being around, and dealing with, and doing 11,0000 plus engagements every year. From Pointnext perspective, that's lot of experience that we bring to the table partnering with the ecosystem, we truly bring some of these outcome-based solutions that we keep referring to. >> Dave's team at Wikibon has put out some pretty seminal research. I think it's very unique. I don't think any other research firm has actually documented this, even captured the numbers. But, they just did a report called The True Private Cloud Report, go to wikibon.com for the folks watching, but really what it illustrates is that IT is not declining, it's only increasing in its capabilities. So, yes, server shipments might be declining, but, at the end of the day, IT is changing and growing with cloud. But one of the points in that survey is the TAM is 260 billion plus in true private cloud. And that doesn't include hybrid. But, the other statistic besides the TAM is the fact that the labor costs are undifferentiated, and being automated away with cloud, which is a good opportunity. And then the shifting of those resources to differentiated apps or services is the focus. That's business transformation. That's what you guys are doing. Share with us your thoughts, and how you guys look at that. Obviously, you're only seven weeks in from an HP perspective but you been in the industry. How are you guys going to attack that trend, and ride that wave of shifting that to differentiated capabilities? >> Yeah, I think so one of the things you always hear about from a technology standpoint, lot of folks focus on just the technology piece of it. What we're finding is when we engage with the clients, it's really taking a look at, even before the technology, it's what is the strategic framework. Why do so many digital transformation projects stall, or fail? Because there's no interned alignment in terms of business, IT, and OT side of the house, so what you're seeing is from the consulting side of the house is kind of making sure that we bring these things together. And we have a methodology called Unified Transformational Framework, UTF, which has seven key domains, and one of the first things we do when we engage with the client, we bring them together, business side of it, the IT side of it, and we assess where they're at today in each one of those domains, and assess the gaps. We actually put together a strategic framework with them in terms of what is the desired state where they want to be, where they're at today, and how do we map out that cloud journey together with them. And, more importantly, what are the key outcomes they are really seeking. And so if they are looking at focusing on achieving certain cost-efficiency, or launching new services faster, or securing information network, or from an IOT perspective, what are the specific use cases, like for oil and gas, you may have heard some of the examples here with Tech Smart on refinery of the future. What are some of the outcomes they're looking for, and then kind of working backwards to make sure that we can take them on that journey roadmap, and accelerate that whole journey. It's the time to value equation. >> So it would seem like the hybrid IT message that you guys provide is the foundational infrastructure for a digital transformation. Okay, sounds good, now, let's peel that back a little bit. Because, if I'm an executive in a board, I'm saying, "Okay, great, how do we get started, "how do we pay for it?" You come in with your maturity model, here's where you guys are at. How much of that conversation is around the data? And data, data value, how to monetize data, how it contributes to whatever objective, raise revenue, cut costs, et cetera. How much of the conversation do you anticipate is going to be around that data? >> No, it actually is quite a bit of floor discussion on the data as well. So, I'll take it in steps of there's two main types that come up. One is really around the workloads as to enterprises have hundreds, thousands of applications running but not every application, not every workload needs to move to a public cloud or private cloud. Some of them may be more suited towards just a dedicated infrastructure that they already have. One of the first things we focusing on through the tool, we do an inventory, as well as through the interviews. Because one path doesn't give you all the information that you seek. Synthesizing the two really gives you the full picture. And, then on top of it, more and more data is getting generated at the edge, and so in terms of what do you do with the data, how can you help them drive a real-time action, and then what can you do to monetize on that data, just like the example with the M1GD team that's been showcased here, that's not just change the fan experience, it's also helping them taking the look at the data, the loyalty, and everything else, and then increasing opportunities to drive top-end growth from the revenues in the concession stand, or promotional material, your absolutely right, the focus is more about not just guarding the data, the data production, data consumption, it's how do you monetize on that piece of it. >> And does HPE focus more on the IT transformation, and your partners like the big SIs on the business transformation, or no, is it not that simple, it's not that clear? >> Yeah, I mean, it's hardly just kind of say, okay, those are in their silos because there's that intersection point that really drives additional transformation. That's one thing that I think we are uniquely positioned, because number of these solutions you see on the demo floor here who are jointly partnered up with our ecosystem, and that really drives that value up from the business outcome standpoint, it's not just what the technology is able to do, it's not just, yeah, if we're able to have a faster server, this then that, it's really more about what will that enable. In turn, what is the business outcome that's enabling. >> But I would imagine your partners are deep experts in some healthcare business process that HPE doesn't possess, then you guys, from a technology standpoint, can go much deeper than they can. My question is how much of the conversation from your partners has been, or do you expect it to be, "Hey, you know what, if you could do this, you know, "with the technology, you know, we can really "help this company, and win a large deal," for example, which is a semi-custom, you know, and it requires a deep technological expertise to marry with that business process. >> No, absolutely, in fact, I was with a partner earlier, and actually what you just called out was very similar discussion with him. From a healthcare perspective, one of the things we can do, and we have done, where the picture in archiving communication system, we can package what one of the other providers does along with computing and for storage, package that up, and where the configuration provisioning time is reduced dramatically when they show up on site, everything is preconfigured. But, then jointly with a partner who has more knowledge about the patient experience. Marrying the two, you can actually see not just how the healthcare provider and the patient are going to interact, but how also the information that's generated there, how can that be analyzed at a remote location through a specialist. So it's that whole value chain that you can do with a partner that you're just not able to do yourself. >> Am I correct that you run a PNL, right, this is not a free-beat. >> That's correct, no. >> Okay. >> Yes, so from that standpoint we do work with the ecosystem where there is some investment made on the solution of it, but then, obviously, you take a look at does the solution make sense, is there a market for it, can you do the repeatability aspect of it, and, if the answer is yes, then certainly both starts get much more happily engaged. >> Parvesh, talk about the dynamic in digital transformation, specifically, around as companies really transform from being analog to digital. That basically makes them cloud service providers. >> Right. >> So if you have a sass-ification, that's kind of a shift, this is the shift in IT we're talking about, yeah, keeping the lights on, running servers in the data center, old way, classic enterprise. Portions of their operations now have to be shifted to this new way of doing IT to be a service provider, yet they're not service providers, but they're becoming one, or the end-user customer might buy from a partner that's becoming a service provider, either building their own cloud. Is that how you guys see it at Pointnext, and how are you nurturing this, or working with this mega-trend that's the cloud is enabling? >> Couple of things happens. I was with a client very recently, and they've been actually doing number of use cases, fifty plus use cases in the labs, and on the whole use cases around digital transformation. Each use case theoretically can generate millions of savings for them. By the same token, they haven't been able to take it out of the lab and mainstream it, so this goes back into the alignment piece of it, and then also the cultural and the organizational aspect always gets overlooked. Because if the focus is just on the solution piece of it, or digitalization of the workflow, and you have not the trends from the workforce in terms of how they should evolve, how the skillsets should evolve, and if certain roles are getting combined, how should they be dealing with that piece of it. We are talk about DevOps or OpsDev. It's really the whole notion around how they should be working differently than before. If that aspect of it hasn't been put a lot of focus on, most of these transformations literally stall or fail. >> You mean on the cultural piece of it. >> On the cultural piece of it, absolutely. This is another area that we put lot of focus on, and, in fact, one of the offers we rolled out, the management of change, is actually getting lot of traction just because of that reason. >> You know, one of the challenges that the companies that I talk to have is actually funding the digital transformation. The incentive to do it is well, if we don't do it, we're going to get uber-ized, okay. So people get that, but, at the same, then the CFO's are, "Okay, that's fine, "but how are we going to make money at this, "how are we going to actually pay for this?" And, really, for organizations that can show that type of path to profitability, if I may, it seems like it gets more traction, and has staying power. I wonder if you could comment on that. >> Well said. In fact, a number of the engagements we start off with, that discussion always comes up that we don't have any extra funds to go do this thing, but we have to do this thing in order to stay relevant. >> John: What do we do. >> Yeah, so one of the things we focus on is safe-to-invest initiatives. For example, you heard the example of ALDO Group, one of the large global retailers. The federate structure, and then moving towards where it can be had they can move towards a centralized as well as a global centers architecture that can help them drive more speed, cut down the provisioning time, cut down on the operating cost. When you have initiatives like that, the enterprises can then take those savings and then show the CFO that this is how we can apply those savings into these key initiatives that can continue to make us more relevant, and also transform the end-user experience, or their end-customer experience. So, I think as you do this on prioritized use cases, that gives you more credibility in the organization to go do lot more and much faster. >> So, final question for you. Observations, new to HPE, now, Pointnext, New to HPE Discover here, as an employee, what's your observation about HPE Discover, their position in the marketplace, vis-a-vis, the industry scope and trends that are out there? >> First of all, I think coming out here, this is my first Discover so I see a lot of excitement here, and I think up to the point that you made earlier, Dave, with the spun-offs, I think that has really opened up a lot of the doors where a lot of the partners say, "Look, this is something we can do more together of." So, every meeting that I've been with a customer since we're partners, they see us kind of where we're the top stack, who are not biased towards that, right, because this is not where we play, but we play more for roll out the solution aggregation, plus also bring lot that experience to really guide them on their journey. One of the things I constantly hear is if you can help us accelerate time to value, and you can help us drive the acceleration, because a lot of these initiatives stalling, help us on that journey, there's tremendous opportunity for both sides. So that's what we see lot of excitement here. Parvesh Sethi, Senior Vice-President, Pointnext, welcome to theCUBE, thanks for your commentary and insight. >> Thank you for having me. >> Appreciate it, good luck with your journey. This theCUBE bringing you all the digital transformation and conversations here at HPE Discover 2017. I'm John Furrier with Dave Vellante. We'll be right back. (upbeat music)