>> Announcer: Live from New Orleans, Louisiana, it's the Cube, covering .NEXT Conference 2018. Brought to you by Nutanix. >> Welcome back to the Cube, I'm here with Keith Townsend and I'm Stu Miniman. Happy to have on the program first-time guest Joe Zarb, who's with SAP Labs. He's the Vice President of Global Technology Partners. And welcome back to the Cube, long-time guest, Venugopal Pai, Vice President of Customer Success with Nutanix. Gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us. >> Great to be here, Stu, great to be here, Keith. >> All right, so Venugopal, our audience has seen him a few times. Joe, let's start, your role and inside SAP Labs what your organization does. >> Sure, happy to do that. So Joe Zarb, I head up our global technology partners within our global business development and ecosystems team. Basically helping our customers to respond to their needs and their wants for solutions that span not only SAP, but their whole digital transformation agenda. So we do that with the partners, and we do it with global service providers, we do it with software technology partners, and hardware technology partners. >> And Pai, we talked to Inder earlier today about customer success, but from an application standpoint, tell us why you're here. >> Of course, no thank you, Stu, thank you, Keith. Very good to be here again. So the reason that I'm here with Joe from SAP is we've had a long-standing relationship with SAP. Spanning almost four years. And the reason it's important is as Nutanix becomes the platform that customers start to depend on for the infrastructure, the key elements of what value we provide the customer is to mitigate a lot of the complexity that comes from infrastructure and allow them to focus on the business value of the application. And the predominant application as you start to global enterprises, large customers, SAP tends to be the lifeblood of that company. And the business value of how they drive value. So our partnership with SAP is to really make sure that as we start looking at transforming the data center and moving them to a digital platform that makes it very easy to consume, the ability for transcending the value to an SAP application, making sure that customers have that trust of, if I run SAP on Nutanix, the trust of availability, performance, capability, all the things that they need enterprise vendors to stand up to, we wanted to make sure that our journey with SAP started up early. Our journey with SAP in making sure they understand the concept of hyper-convergence and the impact of what it does for them has been a very fulfilling one and has been a journey that will continue on for a long ways to come. So that's why we're here. >> So, Joe, let's talk about digital transformation and the drivers. You know SAP, rich set of data is, I've heard it called a cash register of the world. So many transactions go through that. With that said, it's also one of those areas that we say, oh thoust dare not touch SAP. It is the system of record. However, it's a rich, rich area for digital transformation. The go fast, break things, part of the IT team, wants access to SAP, they want to get the data from there, they want to update transactions. Talk about that conflicting role that SAP has of, we're steady, rock solid versus go fast and break stuff. >> Right, so that's a great question. And what we're facing at SAP are demands that are coming from our customers around what people term as bimodal IT. They got to run their business, but they also have to innovate. So a big part of our strategy going forward is centered around HANA as you know, which is our real-time database, and it's a translytics database, right? So you could do transactions in it, you could also do analytics with the database within the same data set. So it provides a very powerful platform so that you could do your transactional operations and the analytics in a way where you could innovate. So that bimodal IT, and the relationship with Nutanix and the other hyper-convergent infrastructure players that we work with is really to focus on driving down the total cost of ownership in those operational areas, get to market quicker with those, and free up a technical center of excellence and functional center of excellence resources so that they can help the enterprise innovate. We have an entire platform that's dedicated just to innovation. It's our SAP Leonardo platform with our SAP Cloud platform, with Nutanix, and other hyper-converged players, and our transactional system. So that whole digital transformation really needs to take into account, hey, you got to protect the base, you got to run those core applications, but you can't take your eye off of innovation 'cause digital transformation's all about innovations. Business model reinvention as well as business process reinvention. So I think that's a big part of what we're focused on. >> So talk about Nutanix's role. How do you help customers with that goal of saying, the things that we do before are critically important, you need to keep doin' 'em, we need to do it cheaper, we need to do it faster, and we need to do it more reliably while we look to innovation. >> Absolutely. And I think that's a great story in terms of what Joe talked about in terms of SAP's lead into making sure that the ship is steady as it goes while making sure that the innovation engine is not forgotten, right? Where we start seeing is that the amalgamation between the two saying, I've got the traditional applications running as is, but I got to embrace innovation. And if we look at what Nutanix has done, and continues to do as you saw in some of the announcements at this event, is bringing the innovation in, but making sure that that innovation is brought with the respect of applications running in the data center, and still giving the customer the flexibility of hey, I want to embrace Cloud. I want to embrace the concept of what Cloud means to me, not just taking my data and moving it into the public Cloud, but giving me the way to get the Cloud-like heuristics, the Cloud-like management, Cloud-like flexibility, Cloud-like agility, the consumption of Cloud DevOps capabilities, so the combination of what we delivered in infrastructure layer, become where hardware to software, and tie it to what SAP is doing to drive that innovation from an application level is a very good partnership conversation to have, is hey, how do we now blend this software base in terms of what we're doing in the data center, and tie that to the innovation that SAP's driving at the application level, and together that's when true innovation for customers starts bringing to light. Because they focus the applications, we got the infrastructure, but this partnership then brings the two together. >> So, Pai, let's put some meat on the bone. It takes nine months, 12 months, to deploy SAP infrastructure period. Nutanix rack and stack, I can get a whole cluster up in less than an hour. However, there's still that SAP layer that basis layer that has to be laid out. How are you helping customers get more agile in that so that they wow the business? >> Absolutely. And just to put things in context, our SAP partner who has been around for four years, right? We've been SAP certified for 2 1/2 years, right? Both for SAP NetWeaver running on VMware hypervisors, and then as of a year and a half ago, running on our AHV hypervisor. So we're bringing that hypervisor innovation into the SAP world. Right, so that's one side. When you start looking at our software stack that start disseminating the focus on why things take so long for deploying an application is because the application layer is complex and the infrastructure layer is complex. So what we're doing is with the 40 to 50 customers you already have running on SAP is what we bring is if we can reduce the complexity of the infrastructure layer, the speed to value of deploying an application becomes much, much faster. So that's why customers are gravitating to Nutanix is because the infrastructure complexity has been eliminated as hey, it takes me six months to spin up a infrastructure that's meet variety of where they apply the amount of VM, which server, which storage, and you figure we're networking, and then I spin up the application. When we bring in Nutanix, the ability for us to disaggregate all that layered complexity that comes into play, speeds up the deployment of the application, therefore better time to value for customers saying, hey, I got to spin up the application a few months. I can't wait for nine months because the infrastructure's slowing me down. We start eliminating that complexity. >> Joe, one of the more interesting things to watch in the industry is the change in how customers are purchasing. Especially from software. The days of everything fully shrink-wrapped are long behind us. It's the subscription economy now. Nutanix is going along that journey from buying to software to fully subscription model. Can you touch on what you're seeing in maybe either you or Pai'll connect how that comes together with Nutanix. >> Yeah, I'd be happy to do that. So what we are seeing, and this is implemented in our strategy and our go-to market approach, is really that we live in a hybrid world. And I thought that that was a wonderful quote that I heard here at the conference or driven home in the keynote. So we do. We live in a hybrid world. SAP's strategy recognizes that. That's what our customers want. So we work very closely with Cloud partners like Microsoft Azure and Google, and of course Amazon and others. And of course we have an on-premise suite of solutions. So when we start to look at these business models, it's oftentimes about right-sizing the business model for the workload and the need of that particular customer sometimes for a particular industry. Now where Nutanix comes into play in this hyper-converged infrastructure is, there's some really difficult things that need to get done to make this world a reality. Right if you're going to move workloads and have them run in the Cloud, you might have them run at the edge if it's an IoT solution leveraging our Leonardo platform you might have them running in the core or you might have it running in a branch office. Every time you start adding those layers, you're adding complexity, you're adding cost, and you're adding a requirement for skills. So when we can work with close partners to downgrade the skills, downgrade some of the number of people you might need, create simplicity and create an environment where really it's a Nutanix statement but where our customers have that freedom to move their workload to the right environment to take advantage of it. Those are the partners who we want to work with. >> So SAP Labs, you can't get out of a Labs conversation without talking, well no we can't get out of a SAP Labs conversation without talking mobile and Fiori and all of the great stuff that's happening on just taking advantage of the deep data. Data's the biggest accessor, and mobile and giving that data to mobile, let's talk a little bit about the itch. What's the story between Nutanix, SAP, when it comes to stuff that CIOs care about today and that's Fiori. >> Yeah, so a great question. So if we look at Satyam presented yesterday in terms of our direction around IoT and looking at the edge as a very critical component of the entire operating system, enterprise called operating system model. One of the key things that we are spending a lot of time on is understanding the use cases for verticals and understanding okay when you look at a specific vertical, let's say it's oil and gas, or energy, or manufacturing, right? All of those verticals have a unique perspective on what IoT means to them. So IoT is a good buzzword and a good catchword, but when it comes to use cases and verticals, there's a very specific nomenclature on what they mean by IoT for them, right? So spending a lot of steam and Nutanix making a lot of time in deciphering what IoT means for customers, defining what use cases mean for that vertical and then working with SAP in determining okay, what does Leonardo mean for them because Leonardo is again, is a platform. Within the verticals, we're working with SAP and okay within the Leonardo platform, within the vertical, how do we define what our value prop within the IoT landscape is when it comes to the edge? And so you can see more coming from us, but we truly understand the importance of data like you said, and the creation of data at the edge, and the importance of analyzing the data, maybe in the Cloud. And that transformation of where the edge of data's created and where it needs to be analyzed, that journey is very complex. And if we can make that journey simple, then SAP customers win, SAP application, deployment wins, and we're able to therefore mitigate some of the complexity that comes with making that journey simple. >> You know I might add to that is again, what Pai said is spot on, but if you look at it from a manufacturing point of view, moving to the edge, customers are confronted with the reality of the networking complexity and they're either going to take the processing and move it to the problem or bring the problem to the processing. And so to do that takes hard work. And servers, and so there's a whole new genre of high-performance gateways and hardware that's emerging on the market from players like Fujitsu and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and Dell, what have you. And you end up having a plethora of these devices at every well head, on every AMI, AMR meter-reading infrastructure in the utility system or in every single plant floor. So how do you take that level of innovation that's happening now at the plant floor and make it part, not only of your operational system, but of your IT and your data center so you could manage it with all the ilities that IT people do. And I think Nutanix and SAP are working to solve that problem. And our Leonardo platform is what we have to drive that edge and with Nutanix it's a very manageable environment. >> Great well, Joe and Pai, really appreciate the update on where you are today, where some of the direction are, we're going to the future. Getting towards the end of two days of live coverage here at Nutanix .NEXT 2018. For Keith Townsend, I'm Stu Miniman. Thanks for watching the Cube. >> Thank you. (upbeat music)

(upbeat electronic music) >> Announcer: Live from Las Vegas. It's theCUBE. Covering VMworld 2017. Brought to you by VMware and it's ecosystem partners. >> Welcome back. We're live here in Las Vegas from VMworld 2017, it's theCUBE's coverage three days wall to wall. On our third day, I'm John Furrier and Dave Vellante. Next guest Pai, who's the Vice President of Alliances and Business Development at Nutanix. Welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you very much, happy to be here. >> We cover you user conference, but we're here at VMworld, which is VM ware's conference. >> Yes. >> You guys have a relationship, this is multiple years here. Just give a history, you guys are now a public company, congratulations. >> Thank you very much. >> You're doing well. Almost a year now. >> Tell us about the history with VMware and VMworld. >> Absolutely. I think our company was built on the fact that virtualization is going to be the future of the data center. Right? And if you look at the evolution over the last few years, that's been validated. We've been a partner with VMware since almost the inception of the company when we came out in 2010 2011. And in 2011, and we've now been in, this is our the seventh year. And we continue to see great momentum with our customers, and our partners, for that matter. As the seventh year, we are very much aligned with how the world is going. You know, hybrid cloud, in our multi-cloud world, and if you look at what we've done with our platform be it hyper-converge or the evolution of where that's going on with our role as Enterprise Cloud OS, we see a lot of synergy in terms of how VMware's approach to a software designed data center. And where we see the world going, "Hey everything needs "to be software defined. "And the architecture that's underneath that, needs to be invisible to customers. I think that's aligning very well, so it's happy to be here and our customers are very happy to see us here, and see both of us working closer together. >> And it's certainly been interesting to see the evolution of the partnership with VMware. When you guys first came out, I was like, "Wow "hot new company, come on in, infrastructure company." And then people realized, "Wow, this hyper-converged infrastructure thing, is really hot. "We should be doing that too." We remember we had Dheeraj on, right after there was a VxRack announcement, and he was welcoming it in, validation of course. First of all it's true, and that's what any smart CEO would say. But then it got very interesting when you guys announced Acropolis. And when everyone was pivoting to hyper-converge, you were pivoting to cloud. So what's behind that trend? How is that going? What are customers telling you? >> Sure. It's a great analogy of how we see the world. If you look how Nutanix germinated early in 2009, there where a couple of key trends in the market. When a public cloud was trying to become a very, very strong direction of where our customers wanted to go. Right? And if you look at what that direction meant, it was simplicity, so I can transmit through a single API, I can make infrastructure invisible, so I can therefore focus on the business and the business application that drives my business. And that's been the direction that we've taken. How do you make things simple for customers? And hyper-converge is an element of driving that simplicity. At an infrastructure level, we would drive that simplicity. And we've taken that theme and driven that all the way though, where we believe that, if you look at our fundamental team, as a Company (mumbles) cloud OS. Which is customers like cloud, but at the same time the direction they want to go is, "Take my applications, "Take it off premise in to a public cloud, "but the benefits of what public clouds mean. "I want it in my data center. "I can start small, grow at my space, have everything "simple to deploy." And that's been the direction we have continued to focus on. And that directionally has provided the true north of how we build our operating system stack. >> So on the customers side, I want to get your take on somethings. You guys have been very customer focused. First of all, you've been great technology, had a unique thing that no one saw, by the way. When we first interviewed Dheeraj, we're like, "This is going to be big." And just like my conversation with Andy Jassy at Amazon, the big winners are the ones who are misunderstood at the beginning. And then it becomes clear, "Why didn't we think of that?" Well, he did all the work. But you guys have to be customer focused. >> Absolutely. The success of VMware the success of Amazon, the success of you guys is to be customer focused. So I've got to ask you. "What are the VMware customers asking you, Nutanix, "to do for them?" What are some of the use cases? Where are you winning? And what does it mean for their customers? >> That's a great question. I think for us, the fundamental driver, what we try to do for customers, is, "How do we make things simple for them?" By simplicity, if you look at what we do is, for example, I'll give a simple analogy. One of the ways that we help our customers simplify infrastructure deployment, is make it a simple upgrade. So we have this concept of one-click upgrade. So what does that mean? What that means is, if a customers has an ESX running at say five dot five, and wants to move to six dot zero, the ability for them therefore to do that non destructively, so with a one click upgrade at a 3:00 p.m on a Wednesday afternoon, they can now upgrade the infrastructure. It upgrades the hypervisor, upgrades our software stack, upgrades the flash drives inside the system, and that ability to simplify a deployment of a VMware infrastructure becomes very easy for them. When they're running Vserv, they say we can more enable them at stacks. That ability to therefore make that simpler is a direction we want to make. Make go. So how do you make things simpler when they're running VMware environment? How do you make it simple to deploy in the EC application? Which is why, if a customer is running Horizon View and they want to deploy Nutanix, our deploy hyper-converge, we make it extremely simple to do that. So you can start small and still go from 300 to 3,000 to 30,000 with just a plug and play architecture, and the one click upgrade of the software stack that sits on top of the infrastructure. So that is simplicity we want to bring to our customers. >> So Pai, we had an interesting, Stu and I, John, we were at Dot Next, interesting conversation with Sunil Polepalli. >> Yeah. >> He had said at the time ... go back. You guys were doing really well and you could've exited the market, he said. We chose not to. We said, "Let's roll the dice and really go for it." That puts pressure on you and your colleagues, you in particular, as a business development executive For TAM expansion, of course the CEO as well. Very important that you now, if you're really going to go for the next level, you got to expand your TAM. And that took several forms. There was the Acropolis piece that got you into the cloud and multi-cloud business, that's clear. There were also an increased number of partnerships. Obviously the Dell partnership, Lenovo partnership, IBM with Picciano's group, very strategic relationships. And then of course, other go to market activities. >> Absolutely. >> I wonder if you could talk about that TAM expansion strategy as an individual who is at the heart of that. And take us through that and the process. >> Sure. Nobody can do this alone nowadays. It's a league of nations methodology, you have to leave in a cooperative world. You have to find a way to grow your market in a way that you can't do it alone. And we recognized that early on. And Deeraj, with the way he's built the business, it's about you can't do it alone. We were a small company back in 2010,. Yeah, we have the vision, but how do you execute in a way that we can take that vision, deliver it to thousands and thousands of customers. We have a multi-faceted go to market strategy, if you want to call it that. We depend very heavily on our partners to make us successful. Be that channel partners that have built up business on Nutanix. Be that the Sirius's of the four sides of the world, or companies like that. Be that as a segment, a part of our OEM strategy. When you have a software that simplifies customer's lives, you want to get it to them as quickly as possible. And I think Dell was early on in seeing that vision and saying, "Okay, I want to bring "that value to the customers." And Dell and Lenovo jumped on early on. Dell about four years ago almost, I'm thinking about how long it's been. And Lenovo a couple of years ago. And really, it allows us to reach a larger swath of customers globally much earlier. And give them the technology allowing them to differentiate themselves over the other, who receives as them, so that they're competitors. It gives them that differentiating factor. So it's a marriage of equals from a technology perspective and from a distribution perspective. If you look at what we did in terms of our technology partnership ecosystem, customers recognize that we're not the only game in town. They want us to partner with their strategic vendors and technology partners. So we built a very strong technology ecosystem. I think a couple of months you interviewed Laura Padilla on my team, on what the technology of the ecosystem does for our customers. Every customer conversation is less about, "Gee, "I like Nutanix, and here's what I want you to do more of." Which is obviously what they would love to do, but at the same time they respect what we do with VMware. Well what are we doing with >> It's a multi vendor world. No one company will dominate anymore. >> Correct. Correct. Exactly. >> Tell of the channel how you guys distribute, you rely on partners. >> Absolutely. >> On the sales side, is it direct? Indirect? What's the mix of business? >> So we don't sell direct. We only go through our channel partners. We have a strong channel partner ecosystem. >> So no direct sales. No one takes orders direct. >> No. Our sales guys work very closely with the channel partners, and they work very closely both with OEM's, and our channel partners. And both of them, for all of our OEM partners, they need to work with us when they're engage us in to a customer conversation, so that they can provide the best solution possible. So they don't go in rogue and say, "Here's Nutanix." And that creates conflict with the customer. >> This channel conflict is a disaster. >> Absolutely. So we maintain that >> How about professional services? Do you push that out to the partners as well? >> As much as possible. We have our own. So we have a services arm. Because at the same time, customers say, "Look. If I've got "Nutanix who's the best leader in understanding what "a technology is." We also have a services arm that allows us to lead with our conversation, but we train our channel partners with that same enablement technology. Saying, "You know what? "We can do it on our own, but we want you to lead that charge." As you know, channel partners lead a lot on services to drive their revenue. So it's not just about product and market, more it's about services, revenue; they can drive it at annuity level. We try the balancing act where we can lead the charge in technology for our customers, but at the same time lean on our channel partners to take that burden on, and therefore drive value for them as well. >> So while it's a multi vendor world, we certainly recognize that, again I come back to the decision that you guys made to be a leader. We sort of had a similar conversation with Robin Matlock, if you look at VMware, they want to be a leader. You have a particular opinion and point of view in the marketplace. And you're putting that forth. You really want to be the center point of management for multi clouds, from a data management perspective. >> Yes. >> And you're certainly growing from the point of your core customer base. That's a big ambition. >> It is a big ambition. >> Maybe we can talk about that a little bit. >> Absolutely. Our ambition is, if you look at the public cloud, you know five seven years ago, you just brought it up earlier. The ambition is very aggressive. And similarly, if you look at our ambition, we believe that methodology of making things simple for our customers. That does not stop at the hyper-converged world. It starts bleeding in to all the things that make operational complexity a burden for our customers, so they can focus on the business. When you start beating in to what that means, it means addressing some of the layers that make things complex for customers. So if you take your smart phone, all these hundreds of applications you may load on, those are all individual components that make your life easier. But how you bring that simplicity where you one click and you do things. So that's the germination of our methodology of the public cloud is transacted through a single API, but in the world of enterprise, you have hundreds of different vendors that need to work together to deliver the single API. Some of the new technologies we've learned, some of the new products we've launched, Is to bring that simplicity back into light. Be it on an application level. Be at an orchestration level. Or be it an infrastructure level. All those elements need to work together, through a single API for example, to make that simple. So customer's can't say, "I've got Nutanix, but Nutanix "is not the only infrastructure I have. Nutanix "is not just only ... "VMware is not the only hypervisor, I have." So how do I now bring that bridge together, so back to the multi vendor world, I can transact through Dell but I want to buy VMware, but run it on Nutanix, and use this orchestration layer, and go to the public cloud in a hybrid cloud world. And I've offices on oil rigs that need to be treated the same level as someone sitting in a data center. It's a complex world and you need to bring and have an opinionated design at some level, to bring that simplicity in and then diverge outside from that through an API based approach, to say, "You know what? We're not the only game in town." It needs to make sure that other companies can inter-operate, but make thing simple when you are in an opinionated world. >> And let the customer decide. Bringing your simplicity mantra to that world and say, "We think we're the best, here's why, "try it and see for yourself." >> Exactly. Right. So if you look at the new world, the new inner tagline is (mumbles) one OS, one click. That one click drives a lot of our methodology, making things simple. And one OS drives the ability for us to make that simple across the infrastructure stack, which bleeds from the public cloud approach, of what people are starting to like. >> Well Pai, thanks so much for coming on theCUBE, appreciate the insight. >> Thank you very much. >> Great conversation with the time we got. >> It's great to see you again. Of course Nutanix, there's a lot of coverage on SiliconANGLE dot com, and Wikibon dot com, on YouTube a lot of great content from the next conference. >> Big plug for your show in Nice this fall. >> Yes. >> You guys will have the international conference >> Thank you for bringing that up. DotNext Nice. It's our second year in Europe and our third conference. It's in Nice, November 6th through the 9th, we look forward to having all of our customers there, and learn more about Nutanix and where we're going. >> And Stu will be there to cover it. >> Yes. >> And you guys just a plug on for that. You guys do a good job, great content, and nice digs. You always have it in a great place. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Customer or want to be a customer they have a good deal going on there. We're out of time. Thanks, Pai, for coming on. >> Thank you for being part of that journey, as well. >> That's theCUBE coverage of VMworld 2017. Nutanix, a great pioneer in the space, under the great entrepreneurial leader, Dheeraj Pandey. More CUBE coverage, after this short break. >> Thank you very much. (upbeat electronic music)