>> From Tavern on the Green in Central Park, New York, it's the CUBE, covering Veritas Vision Solution Day. Brought to you by Veritas. >> We're back at the beautiful Tavern on the Green in the heart of New York City in Central Park. I'm Dave Vellante, and you're watching the CUBE, the leader in live tech coverage. We go out to the events, we extract the signal from the noise. We're here covering the Veritas Solution Day with Veritas Vision, and Anteneh Miticu is here. He's the enterprise backup and data protection team leader at Teradyne, very experienced practitioner We love Anteneh talking to the customers. So thanks very much for coming on the CUBE. >> Thank you. Thank you for having me. >> You're very welcome. So talk about your role as the data protection team leader. What does that entail? >> Yeah, so basically Teradyne has data close to 1.5 terabytes that we protect on a day to day basis and weekly basis and we have 14 different sites that we protect data. So, we just, you know, do backups, and recovery, and restoration, and all that stuff. >> So what are the drivers of your business that affect the data protection strategy? >> So, basically data changes from day to day basis and data grows and we have a lot of threats around us that we have to protect the data. So, we have to make sure that we are on top of protecting it on a day to day basis and archiving it so. >> Okay, so one of the challenges obviously is that you're data's not just in one box. >> That's right. >> You mentioned 14 sites a terabyte and a half and... >> Not terabyte. Petabyte, sorry. >> That's right Petabyte. >> Petabyte, that's right. >> I got a terabyte in my backpack. So, and that presumably occurred over time, sprawled over time. So, what kind of challenges did that create in terms of your ability to protect your data and keep up with the backup Windows the RPO's and the RTO's requirement. >> Yeah, yeah, so basically the way the backup has been evolving is that, originally, we had tape backup where the capacity of each tape is very small and the data is big and using libraries and tape drives take a long time to boot backup and also you need people in each location to be able to manage libraries and tapes and there are so many factors that affect the day to day backup. So in combination all that when you put all that together it's very challenging to protect the data. And then, slowly, to mitigate those kinds of problems then we apply disk-based backup and then cloud-based backup which makes it easier and easier. >> So you still use tape? >> Yes. >> Just not for backup, right? >> Yes, we still use tapes in some locations, but slowly we are growing towards cloud backup and disk-based backup. So, because of still using tape, still using libraries, still using managing multiple locations using people who are in that location to help us out while the team is managing it from remote side. All that is challenging and complex. >> So here at this Veritas Solution Day, CEO is here earlier when you sit down with the Veritas executives, you're a big customer, what do you tell them? What do you tell them you need? What do you tell them you want? What do you tell them in terms of the direction you want Veritas to go? >> Yeah, so basically what we want is simplicity on our tape backup on our backup structure strategy. And also, it shouldn't be too expensive to protect data. So, now the cost of storage is getting cheaper and slowly it's getting cheaper to put data on the cloud but we want to see simplicity, number one. We want to see user friendly software and applications to be able to help us manage the data and visibility to the data that we're managing so that we understand what's dark data and what's live data. And we want to be able to see all our environment from a single platform instead of multiple platforms. So the conference today is showing us that kind of road map, that things are getting integrated and the visibility is coming and the cost is coming down much, much better. So, down the road we can see that we're going to be able to manage much better than how we've been managing so far. >> So Anteneh, you're one of Veritas' 50,000 customers. As you well know there's a lot of startups in this business. There's a lot of competition, it's a big market. A lot of money pouring in. So you must be, the vendors must be knocking down your door to try to win your business. So how do you evaluate that? You come to a session like this you hear some road map items. We were talking to a customer earlier and he was saying, you know, they don't really want to migrate if they don't have to. You have an affinity with Veritas. What kinds of things do you evaluate? Are you thinking about changing your backup approach or even your backup vendor? How do you evaluate those decisions? >> Yeah, I mean, obviously we always have to check and see where we should go in terms of protecting our data. And we have to evaluate our strategy. So, so far Veritas has been one of the great companies we've been working with and we don't see any plan of moving away from Veritas, but, there are so many other companies that are coming that are simpler and that provide much better flexibility. So, if those companies work out, we'll see how it goes, but as of today, Veritas has been very good for us. We've been working with Veritas for a long time at least as long as I've been working with Teradyne. So, but, we'll see how it goes. >> So there's the promise of 8.1.2 is to deliver to you the simplicity that you're demanding. Where are you today in terms of releasing? >> Yeah, so, right now we're on 8.1.1 so what I have heard on 8.1.2 is incredible. Basically, it's going to give us a lot of capabilities that we are doing outside of 8.1.1 which is manual like upgrading our clients and being able to see all our clients and mass of service from one location. All that integration is coming. So, I'm very excited about 8.1.2 and I can't wait to go back and start using it. >> When you have to go from 8.1.1 to 8.1.2 can you describe what that's like? What the planning is like, what you have to do to get there. How much is involved? >> Yeah, so, you're going to have to go and deploy 8.1.2 on the master server and that is going to give you the capability to be able to push it to other servers as well. But before, 8.1.1 then we have to go to each master server and push it which was very time consuming. And also, we have over 400 clients that we have to use something else outside of net backup to be able to upgrade. Now, we can use 8.1.2 to be able to upgrade all those clients from 8.1.2. >> And you referenced earlier Cloud, you use multiple clouds I presume, like most companies, and SAS is in there as well? >> Yeah, so we just started using Cloud. We still are using the old-fashioned way which is tape and disk on most of our locations, but right now just deployed Azure Cloud using backup catalyst server and that's working out very well. It's working out very well and it's making our life much simpler and much better. So we see ourselves moving toward that direction. >> You like the cloud, okay. So, we joke, do you get your weekends back? >> Yeah, actually people who supported from the field offices, now they get their weekend back. Because they are the ones who helped us out while we are supporting it from Boston. >> So you're using Azure, you said. Are you a Microsoft shop predominantly? >> No, this is just the beginning, but we're open on NWES and other cloud providers as well. >> Okay, so it's not, Azure wasn't selected because you had a big Microsoft install base. It was more for the capabilites of the infrastructure that you went there. >> Yes, yes, but we are very flexible and we are open to see other providers as well. And that backup provides users the capability to use other providers as well. >> So, traditionally, the backup admin was somebody to whom pretty much anybody had to go the application guys had to go, the database people, the lines of business, if they wanted to protect their data. That sort of group, or that individual would really be the gatekeeper, if you will. With the Cloud, there's a move towards self-service. Now, what do you think about that and how does that fit with your strategy? Is that something that you're aggressively promoting? How do you protect the corporation from anomalous behavior or non-compliance and things like that? Talk about the trend towards self-service and how that role of the backup admin is evolving. >> Yeah, so the role of the backup admin is very complex, even before. But now, because of self-serving, self-service is available, then the database admins or the virtual team can be able to manage their own backups from their side. But still, backup admins have to be able to manage it in a way that fits according to the strategy that we want the organization to run their backups. So the role of the backup admins is now more complex, and it's not only in one place doing one thing, but working with multiple team allowing other people to have visibility and control while the backup admins manage it from behind. >> You've been with Teradyne almost two decades. You remember the days when backup was just always an afterthought, and still is in a lot of applications, by the way. But increasingly with things like Dev Ops, applications are getting more involved in essentially making infrastructure programmable and building in security, building in data protection. Have you seen that trend at your company and where do you see that going? >> Yeah, so say that again? Sorry. >> So, specifically with regard to building data protection in from the beginning as opposed to bolting it on at the end. Is that something that you guys are able to do with your developers and your Dev Ops teams? >> Yeah, so right now, protecting the data is very strategic and the approach is not just taking the data and putting it somewhere and forgetting about it, but with a plan and purpose, you know? >> So anything here today that you saw that was exciting? What did you think of the event? >> The event was great, and I was glad to be here. And the last couple of years, I was in Vegas with the Veritas Conference as well. And it was very good to be able to talk to other peers and good to get the road map from Veritas as to where they are heading going forward, and so we can be able to align our road map with their road map as well. It's good to get the big picture, and it's good to have conversations and discussions. Just now we came out of so many detailed technical discussions. I'm excited to be here. >> So you saw Richard Branson last year. That was pretty cool, wasn't it? >> That's right. Yeah, he's a great guy and I'm his admirer, and seeing him up close and explaining his experiences and all that stuff was great. >> It's always good to see billionaires giving back and he does sincerely. >> That's right. >> Thanks very much for coming on the CUBE and sharing your experience and your knowledge. I really appreciate it. >> Thanks for having me. >> You're very welcome. Alright. Keep it right there everybody. We'll be back with our next guest. We're going to take this short break. You're watching the CUBE, from Veritas Solutions Days at Central Park Tavern on the Green. We'll be right back. (digital music)

(upbeat music) >> From Tavern on the Green, in Central Park New York, it's theCUBE; covering Veritas Vision Solution Day. Brought to you by Veritas. >> Welcome to the heart of New York City. We're here in Central Park the Tavern on the Green. You're watching theCUBE, the leader in live tech coverage. And we're covering the Veritas Solution Day; hashtag Vtasday. So, Scott Genereux is here as executivee president of world wide field ops for Veritas. Scott, good to see you again. Thanks for coming on. >> Thank you good to see you. Thank you. >> So, I love the location. A lot of our crew, they've never been here before; I said wait until you see Tavern on the Green, it's sweet. Customers love it. So, why this location? What are you guys doing with the Solutions Days different than the big tent event? You guys have gone to a more intimate format, explain that. >> Yeah, so last year we did the big event. We also did regional events, and it was interesting. And when we looked at the regional events; the input from our customers was; they loved the idea of doing something local, a little bigger, so they didn't have to travel. You know it's just difficult to get somebody to come out fly across the country to spend a week. And so, we decided to do 20 of these around the world. We also found out last year that the number of people who were coming to the regional events; was very very large. I mean some of our events we had four, 500 people coming. So it just made a lot more sense to us is; how do we get close to our customers, make sure they didn't have to travel; and be able to touch 'em so. >> So, collectively you're probably hitting as many if not more people. >> A lot more. >> Probably a different type of audience too when you go. So, you're doing a bunch in the US and a bunch in overseas right? >> Correct, yeah, so we've got New York, Chicago, San Francisco, we got one in Washington D.C. focus on the Fed, and we have one up in Toronto in North America. And then we've got 'em in Latin America. >> So you've been a kind of customer success executive all your life; you spend a lot of time in New York City. A lot of customers down here. A lot of the more advanced and sophisticated customers here. So, what are you hearing as you see digital transformation, big data, cloud, multi cloud; people are changing the way in which they think about data, and protecting data and getting more value out of data. What are they telling you here; the challenges that they're facing and where do they want to go with Veritas? >> You know the exciting is that look, we're still the market leader, right? Well, people say what's going on with Veritas? We're the market leader, we have been for the last 15 plus years. And, the people we're doing data protection for today, are the largest of the largest. You know, 95% of the Fortune 100 use our technology. 85% of the Fortune 500 use our technology. So, we get a lot of information knowledge experience from what you would argue and I would too. The customers here; which are the toughest of the tough too, right? I mean, they're not always nice, they tell you what they think. And they're thinking you know, two three years out of what we have to go do to support those environments. So it's interesting; you know the big thing going into this year, there was a lot of conversation around compliance. You know, GDPR in Europe was huge. And really, I kind of narrow it down to P.I.I. Regardless if you're banking, healthcare, whoever. The whole question around how do you protect data? Where is my data located? Who's touching my data? Has just become a bigger and bigger issue. And then you throw in the word cloud and as you said multi clouds, no one's using one cloud. All of a sudden your data is spread out all over the place. So, how you focus on that, how do you have visibility on that, becomes more and more important. And obviously that makes data protection, center of what's going on with customers now. >> So there are a couple of vectors now there that I'd like to explore. One is the idea that we're now looking at data protection to get more value out of it. You talked about GDPR, privacy, things of that nature. So, I want to talk about that. But also, the last thing customers want that I talked to; they don't want yet another stove pipe of data protection. And as you go, every cloud has it's own back up approach. So, I'm curious what you guys are doing. Let's start there. Are you putting in some sort of a extraction layer to be able to service all of those different multi clouds. Which cloud companies are you working with? >> Yeah, so first of all we serve all major cloud providers. For us, we're very agnostic in the sense of we don't care where your data is located; it can be behind your Firewall, it can be in Amazon, it can be Microsoft, it can be in Google, it can be in a pseudo what we would call more of a regional, you know, a sass type cloud that you support based on something uniquely in your environment. So we don't really care on where it's located. And that's actually one of our big positives. But you're right, one of the big issues customers have today is okay they start out and they might use Amazon for test development. Amazon has their own way of moving data into the cloud. And what do you do and how do you protect it? And then you go all of a sudden Office 365 because that's the you know, the Microsoft way of getting into the cloud. And so now you've got two clouds. Oracle's pushing you to do clouds. So you've got an Oracle cloud probably right? And we can go down that whole list. So everyone is driving a cloud strategy. But the problem customers have today is; they don't want to have six or seven different ways of on boarding data applications into the cloud, and they also do not want to have different ways of moving data or protecting data. And I think, so for us what we do that's very different is that, we have software that allows you to move data and applications into any one of those clouds the exact same way. I mean, if you think about it today. When you think about data replication, or protecting data; a lot of customers use hardware replication to move data. Well, the problem you run into today, when you think about it, is that the traditional cloud vendors, we just listed who they were, they don't use traditional hardware. No one's using EMCSRDF in the Amazon cloud. No one's using Hitachi's products. So, you need a software based replication tool and a data mover I'll call it, to be able to do that. And that's an area we've invested a lot of time and money on to be able to do it. And more importantly, even though I don't hear this a lot from customers any more, there was a fear for a while of cloud lock in; I don't want to be too into one cloud. We could move data between clouds also. So, you know, you don't have to bring it back and bring it back forward. So, that also makes customers at ease of how do you manage it. But it just creates a whole different environment of what to do and how to do it. >> So you're not in a technical role at the company but when you're in this business and you talk to a lot of technology people, you have to be conversant in technology. So I'm curious, so you've mentioned the high speed data mover that's something that's always been fundamental to the Veritas architecture. But you've done some other things. I've got briefed and seen some of the videos of what you guys done on 8.1.2. There's components of that are really different. I mean, modern software, micro services based architecture. >> Yep. >> That have allowed you to actually create this multi cloud sort of affinity. Maybe talk about what's the conversation like with customers with regard to modernizing your platform. >> Right. I think two things; you know it's interesting, the two things that customers always have asked us for is a new U.I. interface. You know now it's interesting like anything, customers have used us for 10 years. There's customers who love the old interface right? >> Right. >> But today, when you think about cloud or think about particular work loads, which is probably more important. You know, it's no longer the back up administrator who might have to do everything. When it used to be just the back up person, you know, having the way we used to do it, made a lot of sense. But now, you're basically grabbing someone who could be the virtual machine administrator. It could be the cloud person administrator. It could be security. And those people don't have a background in data protection. So the question is, how do you give them an interface that makes it easy for them to understand and use to be able to administrate that. So now the back up administrator can actually create groups inside of net back up. And allow those organizations to be able to look at their environments and be able to manage it very differently. So, and it's the same thing with work loads. When you think about it today, most of the data growth that we're seeing, it's traditionally not, it's not the Oracle work load, SAP work loads. 60 70 plus percent of our largest customers are creating new data based applications on non sequel stuff. It's Mongo, it's Casandra. So the new 8.1.2, supports all those environments. We didn't do that before. So that's a great interface for us. Because those data bases don't natively do back up well. The Hadoop, data analytics; huge amount of data being created there. It used to be that it used to be a sandbox; a playground. But those applications have gotten to become you know important in these customers. And so it used to be you just used to take a snap shot of this stuff and you would have about 20 copies of peta bites of data. Now you can do point in time back ups using those types of products. So 8.1.2 has that type of support in it too. And we've done a lot of stuff around VM ware specifically, focused around new innovative things that we needed to do to modernize the products. >> So those emerging work loads like not only sequel but you know, Mongo, Hadoop, etc cetera. That's now native to your stack, correct? >> Completely, yup. >> Okay, that's different. Because you've hardened that. A lot of companies in your business; maybe the some of the newer guys have to go to a partner to find those capabilities. >> Right. >> So, that's I think, big. The other thing I heard was, cloud like I think I heard self-service essentially for some of the liza business folks. Or whomever that you don't want to send them necessarily back to the back up admin. Do it on your own. Here's some policies they'll make it kindergarten proof. >> Right. >> Okay, so that's a trend you're seeing as well. >> Yes, yes, completely. >> Okay. I want to come back to something you said before, this other vector, which is other uses for back up or the back up data then just insurance. Because people don't want to pay for insurance. >> Right. >> So, you've mentioned a compliance, GDPR. I would imagine as well; when you get things like ransom ware, there's also analytics. I know you guys are applying a lot of A.I. >> Correct. >> You've got the corpus of data, just so happens that the back up data contains the data of the company. >> Correct. >> So presuming we do other things with it. So what are some of the things the customers are doing? How are they getting additional value out of the investment that they are making at Veritas? >> I think, you know, it's a couple of areas. Before we leave compliance, let me focus on one thing that's been really important is the whole question about where my data is located. This whole visual-ness of data; who's touched it last, all of that has become a really really important thing for customers because even in the natural cloud, sometimes you don't know that maybe one of the cloud providers moved your second copy of data in to a data center that is a problem for you, right? >> Physically it's in a place it shouldn't be. >> Right, yeah. It shouldn't be in a data center. It moved out of a country boundary for compliance reasons right? So, you know, we've spent a lot of time and energy creating a software technology that gives you that visibility. And not just with net back up. We also plug in all the cloud providers; we also plug in Oracle, we also plug in box.net. You know I mean, so a lot of these other companies are also plugged in. So, back to your point, we've created this huge data repository of information that now allows us when you look at our future, and we talked about a little on this session earlier; data analytics, some capabilities that we should be able to go do because we have meta data to be able to give customers that visual capability. The other thing that's interesting is that visualization software, is it also tells, it finally gives customers a proof point of what we've always known. That probably roughly about 50% of their data. And I'm being kind when I say 50. Probably hasn't been touched in three, five, four, 10 plus years, right? And we've always known that. But now we actually show a customer. Hey, using this visualization software, that you're using for compliance has also now told you where the data is located and who's touched it last, and by the way it hasn't been touched forever. It allows the customer to have two conversations; one, do they need to save it? And if they do, do they move it into a glacier type environment? Or three, do they move it to a software defying storage on the customer's floor? We can help the customer migrate it after we showed them who hasn't touched it. But we also have a software defying storage solution. That Gardener just came out and said that we're number one in this space, right? So, it's one of our fastest growing pieces of our business. Because customers all the time say to me, Scott our data protection cost is going up. And the reality is, it isn't. The reality is data is growing dramatically. Storage is going up, and oh by the way I got to back up my data that sits on the storage, right? So it all kind of combines together. >> So data protection is the percentage on the spend is not necessarily increasing but everything is growing. >> Everything is growing, yes. >> So the other thing, just a couple of points that you made me think of, the other cloud that you support is on prime. >> Yes, yeah, it's still big by the way. >> So that's another piece of it. Because you got the three laws of the cloud right? It's the law of physics. You can't necessarily put everything into the public eye. Then you got the law of economics, and you got the law of the land, in which you were talking about before, >> Right. >> If you're not supposed to leave Germany, >> Correct. >> You can't leave Germany, okay. And then, so you're using analytics to help customers to determine this. And the other thing, some of the general counselors out there don't want to keep data forever. >> Correct. >> I hear a lot from vendors, oh you could now keep it forever and GC says no, we don't want to keep it forever. >> Exactly, right. >> Okay, so you're using analytics to sort of sift through that data and surface these clues. >> Yes. >> And actions to customers. >> Yes and the new thing also at 8.1.2 is we've come out with a smart meter type technology which will let customers know how much data they're using, where they're using the data? Any hot spots in the data. And it's very file based, you know, data focused. It obviously helps customers really understand who's using what where, you know. And to be fair, they can use that to help go drive costs, figure out you know maybe someone's using something they shouldn't, maybe people are storing stuff that they don't want to store. It's not just a benefit to figure what they're doing but it's also could help and drive cost out. >> Big customer base obviously, probably the largest in the business. >> Yup, over 50,000. >> 50,000 customers? >> Yup. >> You've modernized the software. Just rap it up, the competitive customer differentiation, a lot of noise in the market place. >> Yup. >> Where do you stand? What's your position relative to the competition? Why Veritas? >> Yeah, well, so for us, when we walk in to a large customer, as you can appreciate, they don't want three or four different products; back to the cloud conversation, they don't want three or four ways of moving data in to cloud, right? They really want one. And the other issue they all ran into is this compliance conversation. You, know not everybody does everything the same. And they don't all talk together. Having a single platform, to be able to give customers the capability of backing up everything from traditional work loads of Oracle, and SAP to Mongo DB, to Casandra, to Hadoop, to containers, to open source; we're the only company out there that can do all those work loads. There are start ups. And they may do one or two things really really well, or so they say they do, we don't think they do, but they say they do, and that's what they focus in on. That's not what a large enterprise customer wants. They want capabilities to be able to scale high performance, ease of use, and 8.1.2 gives that to them. And we do more work loads than any body else in the industry. >> Excellent, well Scott thanks for coming on. We are here in the heart of New York City, at Tavern on the Green. A lot of customers, I've been talking to some of those customers today, those customers, they're as tough as Yankee fans I could tell ya. (laughing) So Scott thanks agan, good to see you. >> Alright, thank you. >> Alright, keep it right there everybody. We'll be back with our next guest right after this short break. Thank you for watching theCUBE from Veritas Solutions Days in New York, right back. (upbeat music)