>>Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Cube's day one coverage of VMware Explorer, 2022 live from San Francisco. I'm Lisa Martin, and I'm basically sitting with the cloud. I got a power panel here with me. You are not gonna wanna miss the segment, please. Welcome, nor Barage I probably did. I do. Okay on that. Great, thank you. VP and GM of cloud solutions at VMware. Thanks for joining us. Field brother tune is back our alumni VP solutions and alliances at NetApp bill. Great to see you in person. Thank you. And Steve Jones, GM SAP, and VMware cloud at Amazon. Welcome guys. Thank you. Pleasure. So we got VMware, NetApp and Amazon. I was telling Phil before we went live, I was snooping around on the NetApp website the other day. And I saw a tagline that said two is the company three is a cloud, but I get to sit with the cloud. This is fantastic. Nora, talk to us about the big news that came out just about 24 hours ago. These three powerhouse, we >>Were super excited. We are celebrating five years of VMware cloud this week. And with three powerhouses here, we're announcing the general availability of VMware cloud and AWS with NetApp on tap. We have AWS FSX. And so this solution is now generally available across all global regions. We are super excited with all our joint customers and partners to bring this to the market. >>So Steve, give us your perspective as AWS as the biggest hyperscaler. Talk about the importance of the partnership and the longstanding partnerships that you've had with both NetApp and VMware. >>Yeah, you bet. So first all, maybe I'll start with Ryan and VMware. So we've had a very long standing partnership with VMware for over five years now. One thing that we've heard consistently from customers is they, they want help in reducing the heavy lifting or the, the friction that typically comes with cloud adoption. And VMware's been right in the trenches with us and helping with that over the years with the VMware cloud on AWS offering. And, and now that we've got NetApp, right, the FSX on tap solution, a managed storage solution that is, is been known and trusted in the on-premises world. Now available since September on AWS, but now available for use with VMware cloud is just amazing for customers who are looking for that agility, >>Right? Phil talk about NetApp has done a phenomenal job in its own digital transformation journey. Talk about that as an enabler for what you announced yesterday and the, and the capabilities that NetApp is able to bring to its customers with VMware and with AWS. >>Yeah. You know, it started, it's interesting because we NetApp's always been a company that works very closely with our partners. VMware has been a huge partner of ours since gosh, 2005 probably, or sometime like that. I started working with Amazon back in about 20 13, 20 14, when we first took on tap and brought it to the Amazon platform in the marketplace ahead of what's. Now FSX ends like a dream to bring a fully managed ONAP onto the world's biggest cloud. So that work you you're really looking at about. I mean, it depends how you look at it, 15 years of work. And then as Ryan was saying that VMware was working in parallel with us on being a first party service on Amazon, we came together and, or Ryan and I came together and VMware and NetApp came together about probably about two years ago now with this vision of what we're announcing today and to have so to have GA of this combination for meaning global availability, anybody can try it today. It's just an amazing day. It's really a great day. >>Yeah. It's unbelievable how we have sort of partnered together and hard engineering problems to create a very simple outcome for customers and partners. One of the things, you know, VMware cloud is a very successful service offering with a lot of great consumption and different verticals. Things like cloud migration, you know, transforming your entire, you know, data center and moving to the cloud. Things like, you know, modernizing our apps, disaster recovery now ransomware this week. So really, really exciting uptake and innovation in that whole service. One thing customers always told us that they want more options for storage decouple from compute. And so that really helped customers to lower their total cost of ownership and get to, you know, get even more workloads into VMware cloud. And this partnership really creates that opportunity for us to provide customers with those options. >>Let me give you an example, just I was walking over here just before I walked over here. We were with a customer talking about exactly what Orion's talking about. We were modeling using a TCO calculator that we all put together as well on what we call data intensive workloads, which is in this case, it was a 500 gigabytes per VM. So not a huge amount of data per VM. The, the case study modeled out of 38% cost savings or reduction in total cost, which in the case was like 1.2 million per year of total cost down to 700 million. And just, you could do the, just depends on how many VMs you have and how big odes you have, but that's the kind of cost savings we're talking about. So the, this is a really easy value to talk about. You save a lot of money in it's exactly as nor Ryan said, because we can separate the compute and the storage. Yep. >>Yep. I was just gonna say the reason for that is it used to be with VMware cloud on AWS. If you wanted more storage for your workload, you would have to add another node. So with another node, you would get another compute node. You would get the compute, you'd get the memory and the storage, but now we've actually decoupled the ability to expand the storage footprint from the compute, allowing customers to really expand as their needs grow. And so it's, it's just a lot more flexibility. Yep. That customers had. Yeah. >>Flexibility is key. Every customer needs that they need to be agile. There's always a competitor waiting in the rear view mirror behind any business, waiting to take over. If, if they can't innovate fast enough, if they can't partner with the best of the best to deliver the infrastructure that's needed to enable those business outcomes, I wanna get your perspective, Steve, what are some of the outcomes that when you're talking to customers, you talked about fill the TCO. Those are huge numbers, very compelling. What are some of the other outcomes that customers can expect to achieve from this solution? >>That's a great question. I think customers want the flexibility. We talked about customers absolutely wanna be able to move fast. They're also very demanding customers who have had an experience with solutions like NetApp on tap on premises, right? So they've come to expect enterprise features like thin provisioning, snapshoting cloning, rapid cloning, right? And even replication of data given that customers now can leverage this type of functionality as well through the NetApp solution with VMC, they're getting all those enterprise class features from, from the storage in combination with what they already had with vs a and, and VMC. >>Steve earlier mentioned the word we used, we kind of took it from VMware or from Amazon was friction is so many workloads run in VMware VMs today to be able to just simply pick them up as is move them to Amazon makes cloud adoption. Just, I mean, frictionless is an extreme word, but it's really lowers the friction to cloud adoption. And as Steve said, then you've get all these enterprise features wherever you need to run. >>Just brings speed. >>I was just about to say, it's gotta be the speed. It has to be a huge factor here. Yep, >>Yep. Yeah. >>Sure. One of the things that we've seen with VMware cloud is operational consistency as, as a customer value because when customers are thinking about, you know, complex enterprise apps, moving that to the cloud, they need that operational consistency, which drives down their costs. They don't have to relearn new skills. They're used to VMware, they're used to NetApp. And so this partnership really fosters that operational consistency as a big customer value, and they can reuse those skills and really reapply them in this cloud model. The other thing is the cloud model here is super completely managed. If you think about that, right, customers have to do less VMware, AWS and NetApp is doing more for them. That's true in this model. >>So you're able to really deliver a lot of workforce efficiency, workforce productivity across the stack. >>Absolutely. >>And that's definitely true that it just, as it gets more complex, how do you manage it? Just continue, hear everybody talking about this, right. So when a completely managed service by VMware and Amazon is such a savings in com in management complexity, which then gets back to speed. How do I grow my plant faster? >>I mean, and really at the end of the day, customers are actually able to focus on what differentiate differentiates them, obviously versus the management of the underlying infrastructure and storage and all those, those things that are still critical, but exactly, but >>For, for the customer to be able to have to abstract the underlying underlying technology layer and focus on what differentiates them from the competition. That's like I said, right back here, right. That's especially if there's anything we've learned in the last couple of years, it's that it, that is critical for businesses across every industry, no industry exempt from this. >>None. One other thing, just an example of what you're talking about is we all work a lot on modernization techniques like using Kubernetes and container technologies. So with this, if you think about this, you, this solution, you can move an app as is modernize on the cloud. You can modernize, you can modernize and then move. You can, the flexibility that this enables like. So it's sort of like move to the cloud at your rate is a really big benefit. >>And we've seen so many customer examples of migrating modernize is how we like to summarize it, where customers are, you know, migrating, modernizing at their own pace. Yep. And the good, good thing about the platform and the service is that it is the home for all applications, virtual machines containers with Kubernetes backed by local storage, external storage options. The level of flexibility for all applications is really immense. And that drives down your TCO even more. >>What, from a target customer perspective, Noran, talk about that. Who, who is the target? Obviously I imagine VMware customers, it's NetApp customers, it's AWS, but is there, are there any targets kind of within that, that are really prime candidates for this solution? >>Yeah. A great question. First of all, the, the easy sort of overlap between all of us is our shared customer pool. And so VMware and NetApp have been partners for what, 20 years, something like that. And we have thousands of customers using our joint solutions in the data center. And so that's a very clear target for this solution, as they're considering use cases such as, you know, cloud migration, disaster recovery, virtual desktops, application modernization. So that's a very clear target and we see this day in and day out, obviously there are many other customers that would be interested in this solution, as well as they're considering, you know, AWS and we provide a whole range of consumption options for them. Right. And I think that's one of the, sort of the, the good things about our partnership, including with AWS, where customers can purchase this from VMware can purchase this from AWS and all of these different options, including from our partners really makes it very, very compelling. >>Talk a little bit about from each of your perspectives about the what's in it. For me as a partner of these companies, Steve, we'll start with you. >>I mean, what's in it for me is that it's what my customers have been asking for. And we, we have a long history, I think of providing managed services again, to remove that heavy lifting that customers often just don't want to have to do. Having seen the, the adoption of managed storage offerings, including the, the NetApp solution here and now being able to bring that into the VMware space where they're already using it in an on-premises world, and now they're moving those, those workloads being able to satisfy that need that a customer's asking for is awesome. >>We, every time we're at an AWS event, we are always talking about it's absolute customer obsession, and I know NetApp and VMware well, and know that that is a shared obsession across the three companies. >>Hey, Lisa, let me add one more thing. It's interesting, not everybody sees this, but it's really obvious that the NetApp on-prem installed base with VMware, which is tens of thousands of customers. This is an awesome solution. Not quite as obvious is that every on-prem VMware customer gets that TCO benefit. I mentioned that's not limited to the NetApp on-prem installed base. So we're really excited to be able to expose all the market that hasn't used our products on-prem to this cloud solution. And, and it's really clear customers are adopting the cloud, right? So we're, that's one of the reasons we're so excited about this is it opens up a huge new opportunity to work with new customers for us. Talk >>About those customer conversations, Phil, how, where are they happening at? What level are you talking with customers about migration to cloud? Has it changed in the last couple >>Of years? Oh yeah. You know, I've been working on this for years and a lot of the on-prem conversation, it's been a little bifurcated that on-prem is on-prem and cloud developers or cloud developers. And Amazon's done a huge amount to break that down. VMware getting in the game, a lot of it's networking complexities, those have gone down. A lot of people are cross connected and set up today, which that wasn't so true five years ago. So now it's a lot of conversations about, I hear carbon footprint reduction. I hear data all in around data center reduction. The cloud guys are super efficient operators of data center infrastructure. We were talking about different use cases like disaster recovery. It's it's everybody though. It's small companies, it's big companies. They're all sort of moving into this, it call it at least hybrid world. And that's why when I say we're get really excited about this, because it does get rid of a lot of friction for moving loads in those directions, at the rate, the customer wants to do it. >>And that one last really quick thing is I was using NetApp as an example, we have about 300 enterprise workloads. We wanna move to the cloud two, right? And so they're all running VMware, like most, most of the world. And so this solution is, looks really good to us and we're gonna do the exact, I was just out with our CIO. We're going, looking at those 300, which do we just lift and move? Which do we refactor? And how do we do that? In fact, that Ryan was out to dinner with us last night, talking about >>This it's more and more it's being driven top down. So in the early days, and I've been with Amazon for 10 years now. Yep. Early days, it was kind of developer oriented, often initiated projects. Now it's top level CIOs. Exactly. I >>Are two mandates today talking to customers. >>I think of reinvent as an it conference. Now in the way, some of these top down mandates are driven, but listen, I mean, we got great customer interest. We have been in preview for three to six months now, and we've seen a lot of customers were not able to drag their entire data center workloads because of different reasons of PCO data, intensive workloads, et cetera. And we've seen tremendous amounts of interest from them. And we're also seeing a lot of new customers in the pipeline that want to consider VMware cloud now that we have these great storage options. >>So there's a pretty healthy Tam I'm hearing. >>Absolutely. >>I think so. Yeah. It's interesting. Another, just both like WWT and Presidio, channel partners, big, huge channel partners. It takes no selling to explain. We, we just say, Hey, we're doing this. And they start building services. Presidio is here with us talking about a customer win that they got. So this is it. It's easy for people to see why this is a cool, a cool solution. >>The value prop is there >>Definitely >>There's no having appeal the onion to >>Find it. No, the money savings. It's just in what or Ryan said, a lot of people have seen the, the seen an obstacle of cost. Yeah. So the TCO benefit, I mentioned removes that obstacle. And then that opens the door to all the features Steve was talking about of the advanced storage features and things on the platform. >>So is there a customer that's been in beta on this solution that you can talk about in, in terms of what they were looking for, the challenges that you helped them erase and the outcomes they're achieving? >>Yeah, sure. I can. I can provide one example. A large financial customer was looking at this during the preview phase and you know, for, for, for reasons before that were already a customer, but they were not able to attract a lot of their other workloads from other business units. And with this solution, now the service is a much better candidate for those workloads and those business units that had not considered VMware cloud. So we're really excited to see new workloads coming from that particular customer, given this particular solution and the whole TCO math for them was very, very straightforward and simple. And this became a more attractive option for that particular customer. >>Is there a shadow it elimination factor here in this technology and who you're selling to? >>Not real, I, don't not intent. Wouldn't intentionally. I wouldn't say yeah, not intentionally. I, it was funny with the customers I was thinking is yes. The question, the customers that are in the preview are seeing the benefits that we're talking about. The, one of the reasons we started the project on our side a number of years ago was this very large cement company was looking for carbon CO2 reduction. Part of that was moving disaster recovery to the cloud. There was a lot of friction in the solution prior to this, the, the customers have done some of the things we're talking about, but there's a, it takes a lot of skill. And we were looking at working with that customer going, how could we simplify this? And that was from our point of NetApp's point of view, it, it drove us to VMware and to AWS saying, can't we pull some of the friction of this out. And I think that that's what we've seen in the, in the previews. And it's, that's what I meant. It's so exciting to go from having say, I know we have about 20 previews right now, going to the globe today is the, is the exciting news today. >>And is the solution here in booze that it can be demoed and folks can kind of get their hands on it. >>Yeah. Yeah. They can go to the VMware cloud booth at the expo and they can get their hands on their demo and they can take it for a test drive. >>Excellent. >>You can run TCO calculators and do your own math and see what you're gonna all this, the all that's integrated today. We >>Also have pilots where we can help walk customers through a scenario of their own. >>Yep. Excellent. Is there, is there a, a joint website that you guys have, we should drive folks to? >>Yeah, it's >>Actually talk about the press release. It's >>It's yours. So >>It's it's prominently on our website. Okay. VMware cloud. It is onc.vmware.com where we also have the other, you know, our corporate marketing websites that have this vmware.com is a great starting point. Yeah. And we feature the solution. Prominently customers can get started today and they can even participate in the hands on labs here and take the solution for a test drive. >>All right. Last question, nor Ryan, we'll start with you on this. Here we are. I love the theme of this event, the center of the multicloud universe. Does it not sound like a Marvel movie? I feel like there should be some, is there any superheroes running around? Cause I really feel like there should be, how is this solution an enabler of allowing customers to really extract the most of value from their multi-cloud world that they're living in? >>Yeah. I mean, look, I mean, our mission is to build, run, managed, secure applications in any cloud, right. And regu has been talking about this with the keynote this morning as well. You know, at least with NetApp, we share a very good joint vision of enabling customers to, you know, place applications with really good TCO across clouds. And so it's really good story I feel. And I think this is a really good step in that direction where customers have choice and flexibility in terms of where they put their applications in the TCO value that they get. >>Awesome. Guys, you gotta come back next with a customer would love to dig. Maybe at reinvent sounds, we can dig into more and to see a great story of how a customer came together and is really leveraging that the power that is sitting next to me here. Thank you all so much for joining me and having this great conversation. Congratulations on the announcement and it being GA. >>Thank you. Awesome. >>Thank you. Thanks Lisa. All right. Fun conversation. I told you power panel for my guests. I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching the cube, keep it right here for more live coverage of VMware Explorer, 2022 from downtown San Francisco. We'll be right back with our next guest.

>>live from San Francisco. It's the queue covering our essay conference 2020 San Francisco Brought to you by Silicon Angle Media >>Hey, welcome back here. Ready? Jeff Frick here with the Cube. We're in our 2020 the biggest security conference in the country, if not the world. I guess there's got to be 50,000 people. We'll get the official word tomorrow. It's our sixth year here and we're excited to be back. I'm not sure why. It's 2020. We're supposed to know everything at this point in time with the benefit on inside. We got two people that do. You know a lot. We're excited to have him. My left is Chris Bets is the SVP and chief security officer for Centurylink. Chris, Great to see you. And to his left is Chris Smith, VP Global security Services for Centurylink. Welcome. >>Thank you for having me. >>Absolutely. You guys just flew into town >>just for the conference's great To be here is always a really exciting space with just a ton of new technology coming out. >>So let's just jump into it. What I think is the most interesting and challenging part of this particular show we go to a lot of shows you 100 shows a year. I don't know that there's one that's got kind of the breadth and depth of vendors from the really, really big the really, really small that you have here. And, you know, with the expansion of Moscone, either even packing more women underneath Howard Street, what advice do you give to people who are coming here for the first time? Especially on more than the buyer side as to how do you navigate this place >>when I when I come here and see So I'm always looking at what the new technologies are. But honestly, having a new technology is not good enough. Attackers are coming up with new attacks all the time. The big trick for me is understanding how they integrate into my other solutions. So I'm not so I'm not just focused on the technology. I'm focused on how they all fit together. And so the vendors that have solutions that fit together that really makes a difference in my book. So I'm looking for for products that are designed to work with each other, not just separate >>from a practice standpoint. The theme of IRA say this year is the human element, and for us, if you look at this floor, it's overwhelming. And if you're a CSO of an average enterprise, it's hard to figure out what you need to buy and how to build a practice with all of the emerging tools. So for us core to our practice, I think any mature, 30 security practices having a pro services capability and consulting capability that can be solved this all together, that helps you understand what to buy, what things to piece together and how to make it all work >>right. And it's funny, the human element that is the kind of the global theme. And what's funny is for all the technology it sounds like. Still, the easiest way in is through the person, whether it's a phishing attack or there's a myriad of ways that people are getting him to the human. So that's kind of a special challenge or trying to use technology to help people do a better job. At the end of the day, sometimes you're squishy ISS or easier access point is not a piece of technology, but it's actually a person. It's >>often because We asked people to do the wrong things. We're having them. Focus on security steps. Use email. Security is an easy to grasp example way all go through training every year to teach folks how to make sure that they avoid clicking on the wrong emails for us more often than a year. So the downside of that is arresting people to take a step away from their job and try to figure out how to protect themselves. And is this a bad emails that are really focusing on the job? So that's why it's so important to me to make sure that we've got solutions that help make the human better and frankly, even worse in security. We don't have the staff that we need. And so how do we help Make sure that the right tools are there, that they work together. They automate because asking everybody to take those steps, it's just it's a recipe for disaster because people are going to make mistakes >>right? Let's go a little deeper into the email thing. A friend of mines and commercial real estate, and he was describing an email that he got from his banker describing a wire transfer from one of his suppliers that he has a regular, ongoing making relationship with. You know, it's not the bad pronunciation and bad grammar and kind of the things that used to jump out is an obvious. But he said it was super good to the point where thankfully, you know, it was just this time. But, you know, he called the banker like, did you just send me this thing? So you know where this as the sophistication of the bad guys goes up specifically targeting people, how do you try to keep up with how do you give them the tools to know Woe versus being efficient? I'm trying to get my job done. >>Yeah, for me, it starts with technology. That takes a look. We've only got so many security practitioners in the company. Actually. Defend your email example. We've got to defend every user from those kinds of problems. And so how do I find technology solutions that help take the load off security practitioners so they can focus on the niche examples that really, really well crafted emails and help take that load off user? Because users just not gonna be able to handle that right? It's not fair to ask them. And like you said, it was just poorly time that helped attack. So how do we help? Make sure that we're taking that technology load off, identify the threats in advance and protect them. And so I think one of the biggest things that Chris and I talk a lot about is how to our solutions help make it easier for people to secure themselves instead of just providing only technology technology advantage, >>our strategy for the portfolio and it sort of tied to the complexity. CN This floor is simplicity. So from our perspective, our goal is a network service provider is to deliver threat free traffic to our customers even before it gets to the human being. And we've got an announcement that we launched just a week ago in advance of the show called Rapid Threat Defense. And the idea is to take our mature threat Intel practice that Chris has a team of folks focused on that. We branded black Lotus labs and Way built a machine learning practice that takes all the bad things that we see out in the network and protects customers before it gets to their people. >>So that's an interesting take. You have the benefit of seeing a lot of network traffic from a lot of customers and not just the stuff that's coming into my building. So you get a much more aggregated approach, so tell us a little bit more about that. And what is the Black Lotus Labs doing? And I'm also curious from an industry point of view, you know, it's just a collaboration with the industry cause you guys are doing a lot of traffic. There's other big network providers carrying a lot of traffic. How well do you kind of work together when you identify some nasty new things that you're doing the horizon? And where do you draw the line between better together versus still independent environment? >>When we're talking about making the Internet safer, it's not really to me a lot about competitive environment. It's really about better together. That's one of things I love about the security community. I'm sure you see it every year when you're here. You're talking security practitioners how across every industry security folks work together to accomplish something that's meaningful. So as the largest world's largest global I P we get to see a ton of traffic, and it's really, really interesting we'll be able to put together, you know, at any given point in time. We're watching many tens of thousands of probable malware networks. We're protecting our customers from that. But we're also able to ourselves take down nearly 65 now where networks every month just knock them off the Internet. So identify the command and control, and we take it off the Internet. We work with our partners. We go talk to hosting providers, maybe competitors of ours. And we say, Hey, here's a bad, bad actors bad server that's being used to control now where? Going shut it down. And so the result of that is not only protecting our customers, but more importantly, protecting tens of thousands of customers every month. By removing now where networks that were attacking, that really makes a difference. To me, that's the biggest impact we bring. And so it really is a better together. It's a collaboration story and, of course, for said, we get the benefit of that information as we're developing it as we're building it, we can protect our customers right away while we're building the confidence necessary to take something as dramatic and action as shutting down on our network. Right. Unilaterally, >>Citrix. I was gonna ask you kind of the impact of I o t. Right in this in this crazy expansion of the tax services, when you hear about all the time with my favorite example, somebody told the story of attacking a casino through the connected thermometer in the fish tank in the lobby, which may or may not be true, is still a great story. Great story. But I'm curious, you know, looking at the network, feeding versus the devices connecting that's really in an interesting way to attack this proliferation of attack services. You're getting it before it necessarily gets to all these new points of presence doing it based on the source. For >>us, that's the only way to make it scalable. It is true that automation blocking it before it gets to the azure to a device. It is what will create simplicity and value for our customers. >>Right on the other piece of the automation. Of course, that we hear about all the time is there just aren't enough security professionals, period. So if you don't have the automation. You don't have the machine learning, as you said, to filter low hanging fruit and the focus your resource. If they need to be, you're not going to do it. The bad news is the bad guys, similar tools. So as you look at kind of the increase in speed of automation, the increase in automated connectivity between these devices making decisions amongst each other, how do you see that kind of evolving? But you're kind of role and making sure you stay a step ahead of the bad guys. For >>me, it's not about just automation. It's about allowing smart people to put their brains against hard problems, hard impactful problems and so on. So simply automating is not enough. It's making sure that automation is reducing the the load on people so that they're able to focus on those hard, unique problems really solve all those solutions and, yes, Attackers, Attackers build automation as well. And so if we're not building faster and better than we're falling behind, so like every other part of this race, it's about getting better, faster and why it's so important that technology work together because we're constantly throwing out more tools and if they don't work better together, even if we got incremental automation, these place way still miss overall because it's end to end that we need to defend ourselves and our customers >>layered on what he said. For the foreseeable future, you're gonna need smart security people that help protect your practice. Our goal in automation is take the road tasks out of out of the gate. They live so they can focus on the things that provide the most value protecting their enterprise. >>Right when you're looking, you talked about making sure things work together, for you talked about making sure things work together. How do you decide what's kind of on the top of the top of the stack, where everybody wants to own the single pane of glass? Everybody wants to be the control plane. Everybody wants to be that thing that's on your computer all the time, which is how you work your day to day. How do you kind of dictate what are the top level tools while still going out? And, he said, exploring some of these really cutting edge things out around the fringe, which don't necessarily have a full stack solution that you're going to rely on but might have some cool kind of point solutions if you will, or point products to help you plug some new and emerging holes. Yeah, >>yeah. So for us, yeah, we take security capabilities and we build them into the other things that we sell. So it's not a bolt on. So when you buy things from us, whether whether it's bandwidth or whether its SD wan and security comes baked in, so it's not something you have to worry about integrating later. It's an ingredient of the things that we sell in all of the automation that we build is built into our practice, So it's simple for our customers to understand, like, simple and then layered. On top of that, we've got a couple different ways that we bring pro services and consulting to our practice. So we've got a smart group of folks that could lean into staff, augment and sit on site, do just about anything to help customers build a practice from day zero to something more mature. But now we're toying with taking those folks in building them into products and services that we sell for 10 or 20 hours a month as an ingredient. So you get that consulting wrapper on top of the portfolio that we sell as a service provider. >>Get your take on kind of budgets and how people should think about their budgets. And when I think of security, I can't help but think of like insurance because you can't spend all your money on security. But you want to spend the right amount on security. But at the end of the day, you can't be 100% secure, right? So it's kind of kind of working the margins game, and you have to make trade offs in marketing, wants their money and product development, wants their money and sales, wants their money. So what people are trying to assess kind of the risk in their investment trade offs. What are some of the things they should be thinking about to determine what is the proper investment on security? Because it can't just be, you know, locker being 100% it's not realistic, and then all the money they help people frame that. >>Usually when companies come to us in, Centurylink plays in every different segment, all the way down to, you know, five people company all the way to the biggest multinationals on the planet. So that question is, in the budget is a little bit different, depending on the type of customer, the maturity and the lens are looking at it. So, typically, way have a group of folks that we call security account managers those our consultants and we bring them in either in a dedicated or a shared way. Help companies that's us, wear their practices today in what tool sets for use again things that they need to purchase and integrate to get to where they need to be >>really kind of a needs analysis based on gaps as much as anything else. >>That's part of the reason why we try to build prisons earlier, so many of the technologies into our solution so that so that you buy, you know, SD wan from us, and you get a security story is part of it is that that allows you to use the customer to save money and really have one seamless solution that provides that secure experience. We've been building firewalls and doing network based security for going on two decades now, in different places. So at this point, that is a good place that way, understand? Well, we can apply automation against it. We can dump, tail it into existing services and then allow focused on other areas of security. So it helps. From a financial standpoint, it also helps customers understand from where they put their talent. Because, as you talked about, it's all about talents even more so than money. Yes, we need to watch our budgets. But if you buy these tools, how do you know about the talent to deploy them? And easier You could make it to do that simpler. I think the better off right >>typical way had the most success selling security practices when somebody is either under attacker compromised right, then the budget opens right up, and it's not a problem anymore. So we thought about how to solve that commercially, and I'll just use Vitas is an example. We have a big D dos global DDOS practice that's designed to protect customers that have applications out on the Internet that are business critical, and if they go down, whether it's an e commerce or a trading site losing millions of dollars a day, and some companies have the money to buy that up front and just have it as a service. And some companies don't purchase it from us until they're under attack. And the legacy telco way of deploying that service was an order and a quote. You know, some days later, we turned it up. So we've invested with Christine the whole orchestration layer to turn it up in minutes and that months so you can go to our portal. You can enter a few simple commercial terms and turn it on when you need it. >>That's interesting. I was gonna ask you kind of how has cloud kind of changed the whole go to market and the way people think about it. And even then you hear people have stuff that's secure in the cloud, but they mis configured a switch left something open. But you're saying, too it enables you to deploy in a very, very different matter based on you know, kind of business conditions and not have that old, you know, get a requisite get a p o requisition order, install config. Take on another kind of crazy stuff. Okay, so before I let you go, last question. What are your kind of priorities for this show for Centurylink when it's top of mind, Obviously, you have the report and the Black Lotus. What do you guys really prioritizing for this next week? Here for Cisco. >>We're here to help customers. We have a number of customers, a lot of learning about our solutions, and that's always my priority. And I mentioned earlier we just put out a press release for rapid threat defense. So we're here to talk about that, and I think the industry and what we're doing this little bit differently. >>I get to work with Chris Motions Week with customers, which is kind of fun. The other part that I'm really excited about, things we spent a bunch of time with partners and potential partners. We're always looking at how we bring more, better together. So one of the things that we're both focused on is making sure that we're able to provide more solutions. So the trick is finding the right partners who are ready to do a P I level integration. The other things that Chris was talking about that really make this a seamless and experience, and I think we've got a set of them that are really, really interested in that. And so those conversations this week will be exceptionally well, I think that's gonna help build better technology for our customers even six months. >>Alright, great. Well, thanks for kicking off your week with the Cube and have a terrific week. Alright. He's Chris. He's Chris. I'm Jeff. You're watching the Cube. Where? The RSA Conference in downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching. See you next time. >>Yeah, yeah.

>> Narrator: Live, from San Francisco, celebrating 10 years of high-tech coverage, It's theCUBE! Covering VMworld 2019. Brought to you by VMware, and its ecosystem partners. >> And, welcome back here on theCUBE, we're at the Moscone Center here at downtown San Francisco. Gorgeous day outside, by the way. Picture perfect day. Chamber of Commerce weather, but a lot of big news happening inside here for VMworld 2019, along with John Troyer. I'm John Walls, we're joined by Pierluca Chiodelli, who's the Vice President of Product Management at Dell EMC. And, Pierluca, good to see you, Sir. >> Thank you, it's awesome to be here. >> Great, thanks for being here. And Muneyb Minhazuddin, whose the VP of solutions product marketing at VMware. And Muneyb, I know you're right just hot off the presentation stage. >> Yes I am. >> Catch your breath, it's all going to be fine. How was your audience? I'm sure standing remotely. >> Yeah, it was thirteen hundred plus >> Excellent, yeah. Been a big week, already. >> Of course it has, yeah. >> For you and your team. So, first off, let me just, let's step back, talk about the vibe of the show, the theme of the show we saw Pat on the stage. >> Muneyb: Perfect. >> About an hour and a half this morning, just your thoughts about day one and the big announcements that VMware's been making. >> It's been a great week, and it's actually been a great approaching week. As you know, on Thursday we announced intent and acquire both Pivotal and Carbon Black for close to about $5,000,000,000. So, that's, kind of a big announcement by itself, and then how do you kind of bring in and keep day one where you're not too focused on those two, but get the narrative of VMworld across. And really, you know, where we have, you know, CUBE has been with us on this journey for a long time. >> Right. >> We've seen that data center shift into kind of two tangents. One is, you know, workloads into data center break out into public clouds. Second, rerouting into cloud native applications. And, if you've seen our strategy wall when that was kind of the key messages. Hey, we're embracing both the modern app development, the focus on Kubernetes and Tanzoo announcement, was all about to say, "VMware platforms ready "for the breakout of both tangents." First, Cloud Native, we've got Kubernetes, we're bringing it right into vSphere, so that everybody in the audience can support it. Second, the breadth of our cloud everywhere, right, so, we've gone from Amazon to IBM to Google to Ajour. So, it'll give you the infrastructure for your workloads to be your choice. Modernize or migrate. (chuckles) That was a key message for us to kind of land today. For a lot of our audience who are kind of stuck in that same piece of, "What am I doing with my workloads? "What is that platform I got to build on?" And, you know, the key foundational platform being VMware Cloud Foundation. Right, that was our strategy, and I think last year we called out VMware Cloud Foundation in Pat's keynote, because I wrote it 44 times. (laughs) (group laughter) We didn't do it that many times, this time. We only said that's the platform that lands in Amazon, GCP, Ajour, IBM, and 4,200, you know, cloud provider partners. That gives you really that public cloud extension. The second part being modern apps, Kubernetes is a new, kind of, modern app development platform, vSphere is embedded into that project pacific and the whole Tanzoo announcement, right? So, really, a powerful message, what do you think? Was that successfully landed? >> I think so. John, do you feel good about what you heard today? >> Yeah, absolutely, I think VCF is super interesting. I'm also kind of, so there was an announcement today also about the Dell Technologies Cloud Validated Designs for using VCF. So, VCF the layer, which is kind of the VMware stack with some extra magic in it, that can be in, can make a private hybrid cloud, you know, everywhere. So, talk to us a little bit about Dell Technologies Cloud. As I call it, "DTC." The, it's a lot, there's a lot of stuff in that as well, so, but we have two very complicated solutions stacks that are, we're talking about now, so. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Can you talk a little bit about the validated design and what came out of that? >> Absolutely, so before we go into the validated design, I think it's very important as Muneyb said. When we think about the Dell Technology Cloud, really, it's a component of the best (murmurs) technology from our storage, networking, and also compute, but we did the VMware VCS on top. So, we work very closely with VMware, and today we are announcing today the Cloud Validated Design. As we announce at the Dell Technology World in May, we said Dell Technology Cloud is this, now we want to tell to the people, how you can easily deploy this. What is make this tangible? So, what we are doing today is rapid time to value. We did design and pretested configuration, that we put in Dell Technologies Cloud Validated Design, as we said. The other important things as Muneyb said, right? It's... And, I heard this also from theCUBE. There was a debate with Stu and other people about, what is the Cloud? How I deploy the Cloud? When we think about Dell Technologies we speak with different peoples, and two set of peoples. One is the app, right? The Cloud app, all the app people that, they want to build have all the automation, DevOps operation and all these things. But, behind those people, there's still an infrastructure. So, we are speaking on both things. So, it's very important this paradigm is there, where you can have people that they can consume the technology, and understand how to build the infrastructure to be automated, and build that automation for the Cloud. So, that's what is the Dell Technologies Font Validation Design. Right. So, one of the biggest things here that we announced, is not only the Cloud Validation Design. It's the first one but also the ability to have compute, storage and network together, and also use it primary storage as a primary citizen of the VCF. So, we should talk about that later but that's-- >> Absolutely, and I think to catch onto that, you know, talking about the applications et cetera, you know, again, in the evolution of Cloud, and we've been on the journey for 10 years is, we've had, the first few years of the Cloud journey was, felt a little like a one way street, which was, kind of meant where people were shutting down data centers and going to all these public cloud providers, was always a one-way street. Now, VMware, and if you followed us closely, we had a service call VMware, you know VCHS, which is VMware Hybrid Cloud Service before the vCloud Air and then we came out with this solution, right? The idea was, we thought there's going to be movement back-and-forth but it wasn't the case. People were seriously shutting down and going one way. As we made all these partnerships of you know, Amazon, IBM, we started seeing, and you heard stories of IHS, Freddie Mac on stage where they take six weeks to move 100 applications one way into the Cloud, customers started asking us some questions, say, 'If it's so easy to go that way, is it also that easy to bring it back?' >> Come back! >> Right? And, that kind of lead to the whole kind of Dell partnership, Dell announcement within the Dell Cloud Foundation, you know, VMware Cloud Foundation, Dell Technologies Cloud Platform to say that, "Hey, it's actually..." There's a notion of not going from hardware-specific, you know, just high-tuned for workloads to commodity hardware in the Public Cloud. There's now a need for having common hardware platform on both on-PRAM, off-PRAM because there is a need for customers to take EC2 workloads or, you know, Ajour workloads and bring it on PRAM again. That was just a notion of how fast it is. I add that point because it is so critical to know that your hardware is performing in tuned, to perform for a high business critical applications. People forgot about them the first few phases of going to the Cloud, and now as they think about a hybrid, true hybrid Cloud nature, they want optimal performance in the software layer, in the hardware layer. You know, hence our announcement of Dell Technologies Cloud, Cloud Foundation, Validated Design. It's really supporting that customer notion. >> So, it's like this optimal, or maximized flexibility is what you're trying to give people. I mean, is that-- >> Pierluca: With the Cloud simplicity, that's really the key. >> But what drives that? I know that you have, you've, you know, whether you're on-PRAM or you're off-PRAM, you're going to decide what workload's going to go on what space on, so forth, but is some of that kind of hedging bets for future workloads because you can't predict where they're going to be done or where you want them done? Or is it just providing flexibility today, and let's not worry about tomorrow? You know, it just seems like there's a lot of runway here, if you will. >> Yeah, and I think there's no right or wrong answer. One of the big workshops I do with our customers is really kind of say have you figured out what's your three to five-year application strategy? Because again, in that first phase of that fast migration to the Public Cloud, people were just like CIOs I know, it's like, I have a cloud for strategy, what does that mean? I'm shutting down all data centers, I'm going to the Cloud. Right or wrong, and that's my Cloud First strategy. Now, what they've come to realize is not all workloads work effectively in the Cloud, right? So, they kind of like, hey, put an application strategy to say what are the most optimal applications that will get the benefit of Cloud? These are like, e-commerce retail. They have to have, you know, Black Friday, expanding elasticity. If you got no slow, mundane, you know backend processes doing batch processes of massive storage of in a bank ledger in the back end, they're not going to get that elasticity. I know what it is, I know how many, you know, batch processes I got to run. So, people are getting smarter about which ones get the benefit of, you know, modern app development, or Cloud elasticity, which ones don't really need to have that. So, we've seen best practice customers actually have a very good app strategy, three to five years, and then decide how much of my app strategy is gone to the right, you know, or gone to the left, right? It's pretty much to say, "I don't have to change." 60, 70% of my Eastern European customers, their banking ledgers are still on mainframes. They're not in a hurry to go to the Cloud, whereas, you know Fintech on the East Coast is going, "I'm going to the, I'm going to the Cloud", right? So, it's really that strategy that's, they should take the app strategy and decide what the infrastructure strategy is on the top shelf. >> I think from the storage business, we see that really clear, right? The app is definitely what is moving the things, right? It's not, people they're not thinking anymore because the transformation is in the way that you consume the infrastructure. They not thinking anymore about what I put there, but is about what app I need to run, how I build my app. So, it's the environment. And, I don't think personally I meet a lot of customer. There is not one right way or wrong way, it's an end, right? As you can see also in VCF we have Vsend, VxRail and primary storage. If you look at two years ago, we will be sitting here and say, you know, "It's only this, not the other things." When we, I been in governor conference, three years ago was like, it's all Cloud. It's reality is the world, the information technology world is always the same, where is a natural genius things. Because people, they need to have the trust, right? You cannot run your entire things on something that you don't know or you didn't prove. So, what we give here today with our technology is the flexibility. You can have a Cloud approach, but use the trusted PowerMax, for example, in conjunction with Vsend, in conjunction with the Unity. So, not all these is the proof that you can preserve your investment. But, is the proof that you can start to build those up. And, if you've seen what paths say today, then those app can live everywhere. So, you can go, you can move, it's much easier to move, and you can just trust what you're doing. >> And, you hit an important point on the move part, right? And, people are so easy, like, "Hey I moved a thousand applications in six weeks "to VMC and AWS." The fundamental notion where that was not possible before, was compute, network, storage. Like, we've been doing vSphere for a long time, you know that. And, it wasn't that easy because what used to happen is people thought, "Hey, a virtualized computer, I can move it." But, what did not happen as you moved that, was your databases, you know, your storage, rules didn't follow you into the Cloud. Your networking QOS and, you know, policies, and you know, priorities didn't follow you into the Cloud. So, that was kind of like, you know, you know, I'm an Australian, so it was a half-assed solution, right? (group laughing) So bear with my language, right. It was a half-assed solution, but really what needs to happen is your compute, your network, your storage has to all work together. And, that's where Cloud Foundation was powerful. And, what we're lighting with this Validated Designs is also that capability that your computer, or storage is one unit from a app. Once you package it and make it available in all the platforms, then that migration becomes six weeks, two weeks to move that. Because once you break it apart, it's a nightmare. There's not a lot of folks who have survived database migrations. (laughs) >> I mean maybe Pierluca, you can kind of sum us up here. This conversation's been a lot around evolution, right? And, there's also been an evolution of data center design and what to expect with that, you know, just buying things off the shelf and getting a Var and, you know, the VMAX, and we've been through this whole, and now, we've talked about VxRail, which can be part of this solution. But, can you talk, just, maybe, take us in, take us out with the, or into the future with the Dell Technologies Cloud as the idea of the Validated Design, the idea of this stack from Dell Technologies in storage et cetera, what can we expect in the near future? And, how much guidance will folks get? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, without breaking any NDA things, but this is only the first step. So, the Cloud Validated Design is just the first step where we said, 'Okay, we are tasked in this, "we putting this together." We are working very closely to also solve the entire things that VCF allow you to do first day deployment, allow you to expand the infrastructure, and allow you also to do life cycle management. For example, with the VxRail we already have the life cycle management part. We are working in way to do that also for our storage and other things. So, if you think about that then it becomes as you said, all the policy we put, like with Vworld, will be strategically in that sense, the policies can be carried over. So, then you can go to VMC, you can go to another place where the software and infrastructure can move back. So, because people can do this on PRAM, a replicate exactly but not only replicate the application, but replicate the (murmurs). What do you do on the QOS, all these key things that makes people running enterprise application, right? So that's, I think, it's very exciting moment. I think it's just the starting of this dream. >> Absolutely. >> Gentlemen, thanks for the time. >> Thank you. >> And you're all, you paint a pretty exciting future, don't ya? >> I hope so. >> So, I can't wait to look forward to even VMworld 2020? >> Wait 'til Barcelona, come on? (laughs) >> All right, well I'm not making that road trip, so unfortunately-- >> We going to more out there. >> But, Barcelona's going to be good. >> Yes, thank you for having us. >> No, I'm not the best guy, so, all right good. Hey, gentlemen, thank you for the time. >> Thank you >> Thank you. >> I appreciate it very much, great discussion. >> Thank you very much. >> Thanks for having us. >> Back with more from San Francisco right after this. (techno music)

>> live from San Francisco, celebrating 10 years of high tech coverage. It's the Cube covering Veum World 2019. Brought to you by VM Wear and its ecosystem partners. >> We're back live >> here on the Cube Of'em world 2019 that Mosconi Center, Downtown San Francisco along with stew Minimum. I'm John Walton. Thanks for joining us here Day one of our three days of coverage here via World 2019. We're now joined by the CEO of equity. Ex Charles Myers is with us and a cube rookie. We >> love that. Nice to have you on the ship here. Pleasure. Thanks for >> being here with us. Let's let's talk about first big picture here from the higher level, the whole multi cloud hybrid cloud movement. What's going on now with the Enterprise? Your perspective on kind of where we are in that shift, if you will, or that transformation and what's what's driving it? What what's what's creating all the. >> But you get that question a lot, right? People ask me what inning O'Ryan question. Um, you know, it's a regular >> is so what way? Well, >> you know, said I would say a couple of years ago, you know, people said, I don't think that I think the national anthem is still being played kind of thing, you know? And, uh, I think the game has probably started to know, but But I still think we're very early innings. Um and, uh, you know, I think I'd actually bring it up to even a higher level and talk about what's happening in terms of how companies were thinking about digital transformation and what I what I think is happening is it's becoming a board level priority for cos they can't afford to ignore it. Um, you know, digital is changing the U no basis for competitive advantage in most industries around the globe. Um and so they're investing in digital transformation. And I think they're gonna do that, frankly, independent of whatever macro economic climate we operated, Um, and so Ah, and I think you know the big driving force. Probably, you know, individual transformation today. So the cloud on DSO and what we're seeing is there is that, you know, is a particular architecture of choice that's emerging for customers. >> So, Charles, give us a little >> bit of a scope of your world because, you know, there was a move many years ago. We used to say in the I t industry, you know, friends don't let friends build data center because there's only a handful of companies in the world that are good at it. I believe your company's one of s O and not only, you know, even, you know, you talk about the megastar providers like, you know, Google and Amazon. They actually don't build many of their own data centers. They partner with certain companies and and you're one of the first companies that I talked to that was, You know, when you talk about how we position multi cloud today, well, you know, let me put some gear in an equinox environment, you know, have that direct fiber you know, into AWS or Azure in the lake s O. That was early, and we've been talking for a while, so it gives a little bit that that that broad look, you know, because from the big public cloud, you know, they're spending tens of billions of dollars a year to build that out. So, you know, and often your real estates a big piece of your world's >> absolutely and well, we certainly like to think we're pretty damn good to build an operating data centers. But >> there actually are a lot of >> people to build, not break data centers and and, of course, the clouds Dubai from third parties. But they, uh, you know, they build some of their own, and they do buy from third parties as well. We think we occupy a pretty special place in the overall data center landscape because, candidly, people, you know can buy credible data center capacity from a number of players what they can't but they really want, though, is not so much a data center as they want to connect to somebody specifically, Um, and that's where Equinox is really different. You know, with 10,000 you know, customers inside of our digital ecosystems, you know, And we operate in 200 data centers across 52 markets around the world. And, you know, we represent something very special. And it's that interconnection piece there really differentiates at clinics. From the rest. >> You've had some, I guess expansion news in terms of partnerships with the, um, where that you announced talk about that a little bit if you would, but how you've grown that relationship. And what do you think that'll take you? >> Sure. And it bridges a little bit back to suit earlier question to which is, you know, kind of What what role do we play and how is it, you know, frame in the overall cloud landscape? What was announced today was a preferred partnership with between ourselves and and, uh, and now Veum wear and and also Del to deliver the VMC on Del um you know, offering which is really aimed at the sort of hybrid cloud requirements for enterprises, customers who have workload, a set of workloads, some of which may be very well suited to public cloud. And they may go either native on AWS or with of'em CNW s type solution. But a >> lot of >> times they, for a variety of reasons, are looking for a hybrid cloud solution on, and they want to implement that on private infrastructure. But they would like to get the benefits of clout they would get, like to get the simplicity, that flexibility as a service convenience. But they need the control, the compliance, the predictability and the performance that private infrastructure allows. And so where that's what that's what the solution is all about. And were there were the preferred global cola partner for that solution. >> And do companies have a pretty good idea when they come to you about what they want to do and where they want to do it? Or do you have to shepherd them through that a little bit? Because there are a number of factors that would think that go into that consideration? >> Absolutely. And >> I would say it's more typically the ladder. There are certainly >> some who come with a well developed, you know, sort of view on >> things, but it that often >> changes to some degree, and and we we like to think of ourselves. As you know, it's probably an overused term in I T. But it's as a trusted advisor in terms of helping a customer think through. It's >> really one of the great things that I think >> both of'em where and Equinox are positioned, as which is somebody who doesn't bring, say, here's the answer. Instead, they come and say, Look, the answer probably depends on a lot of factors, and so you may want a private cloud solution. You may want a public cloud solution. You probably want a hybrid cloud solution and a hybrid multi cloud solution. So let's talk through what you're trying to accomplish and how we can get you there. >> Yeah, Charles, you know, we know that things were going to change, and the advice we always give to practitioners is whatever you deploy, you need to be able to have the agility and have options. So that a decision you make today is not going to freeze you from doing something in there. Absolutely. A lot gets talked about in the multi cloud world. What is portable and what things were moving. And, you know, we know KUBERNETES is not magic. Right? Um, your your company must have actually really good view of things going from the public cloud to my own racks, too. Moving sideways because many times moving between clouds is just moving between Rose and your data centers, right? Or over some connection gives a little insight what you're seeing. Yeah. What's the trend along >> that line? You bring up a really great point and one, Frankly, I think our you know, our sales teams and are are, you know, solution. Architects are constantly talking to our customers about which is fruit future proofing your architecture because you don't know kind of what your needs are going to be tomorrow, Um, and so being able to deploy infrastructure in a way that has greater agility and flexibility is really critically important. And that's why putting private infrastructure immediately proximate to the cloud, being able to get to the performance benefits the economic benefits of that is really key. So that's that's definitely something we're seeing, you know, as a critical part of the conversation with our customers. >> How about EJ computing? That's something that touched on a little bit this morning. But, you know, I'm sure you've got some strong feelings about where we are >> today. You know, it's funny because I always I always telling everybody inside my company around. I said, Be careful about the word edge because one person's edge in another person's court, right, you know? And so, um, you know, we actually talk about eh? Quinyx as really the best manifestation of the digital edge today, and perhaps that sounds somewhat self serving. But I would say that when you look at people who want to place infrastructure geo geographically distributed way and they want to interconnected with clouds with networks with other members of their sort of supply chain. Equinox is really best solution for that in many, many cases. And so we really talk about EJ oriented solutions with our customers inside of our are, you know, sort of population of 200 data centers across 52 markets today. Now, when I when typically I think when you're hearing edge today people are talking about an even more geographically distributed footprint that is out, You know, closer I ot sensors or closer to, you know, customer endpoints and those kind of things, Um >> and I I think that will happen over time. And I >> think people talk about compute storage moving closer to that edge. But >> I think that's gonna, you know, >> take place over a long period of time. I think five g once it's fully dense, ified and deployed. I think we'll start to drive some of those applications. But we're seeing today is the current digital edge at a quinyx works very well for most of these edge related applications. >> So what would you call it then, if it's not edge? Because you said one >> man's, we do call it yet. Yeah, right. We call it a vigil. Some people might operate out there as a >> core business right into them. That's the core you raise. An interesting point Depends on your perspective and how you see it. So we called the digital and you think from the telco side of that slate mobile applications, mobile devices. You know, we all know about the usage trends. What you see in the last 10 15 years, that's good. Just explode. So how are you preparing for that on slot? Because, you know, five G's coming >> it is. Well, we're actively >> involved. In fact, we haven't We've had real success in a number of I would call him EJ sensitive Reg related ecosystems, digital payments, you know, connected car these things and people love to talk about autonomous driving. The reality is that most autonomous driving, Um, you know, interactions are done on boards. You you don't even have time to go out and making a request to the cloud. Right? You know, But other connected car value propositions that do interact, you know, with, you know, with of farther edge are things that we've actually been working really closely with equipment providers and service providers on, and they're having great success in implementing those things. Using at clinics is part of the architecture. All right, >> Charles, how about security? You know, when you live in this multi cloud world, you know I need security that can living across the environment. How does a clinic make sure that it's a trusted partner in that? That whole security store? >> There's a variety of sort of layers to it, you know, you are the biggest response to be we have specifically is physical security because people are trusting their infrastructure to reside in one of our facilities, and it needs to be physically secure. So there's five layers of security between the front door. I know you've toured one of our facilities and have gotten the full experience of all the biometrics and all the checks and balances that occur in terms of being able to someone to being able to gain access to the facility. So there's the >> physical side. Then there's >> really, you know, sort of virtual or, you know, ah, digital security. And you know what we're doing there is really cultivating the ecosystem of providers. We have a number of really sophisticated customers who are delivering cloud based security solutions. VM. Where is one example of that? But you know, there's a variety of other customers that have a sort of, you know, security oriented value proposition companies like C Scale and other people that are really doing that well for customers. So I think that, you know, we're really more about cultivating that full ecosystem so that customers have access to the full portfolio of security tools that they need. >> Charles, Thanks for the time. We appreciate that. And I do want to congratulate you on having probably the strongest team showing >> of the Cube so far. Take, they have Charles do today. Everybody All right, That's the equities culture, all right? Trust me, they're clapping. I expected a little more of around next time we'll work on it. A good deal. Thanks for being with us side your baby. Thank you very much for big connects. Back >> with more where we're alive. Here in San Francisco at Veum World 2019

(cheerful orchestral music) >> Hi, I'm Peter Burris and welcome once again to the CUBE Conversation from our studio in Palo Alto, California. With all CUBE Conversations, we pick a topic and we get down to the meat of it and we're going to do that today as well. The topic today is the role that data's playing in an organization, but even more importantly, the changes that the organization has to make to take advantage of data assets. And to have that conversation, we've got Harry Glaser, who's the CEO and Co-Founder of Periscope Data, with us today. Harry, welcome to theCUBE. >> Hey, it's great to be here, thank you Peter. >> So introduce yourself. Who are you? >> Yeah, I'm Harry, I'm the Co-Founder and CEO of Periscope Data. So, we started this company gosh, six years ago in my CTO's second bedroom. And we've scaled it to about 1,000 customers, about 150 employees, all in downtown San Francisco. >> And Periscope Data does? >> Yeah, we make a platform for data teams. So data teams play this increasingly important and powerful role in organizations where they drive the way the company makes decisions with data. And we make their system of record, their source of truth, the platform that they use to do all their work within those organizations at places like HBO, and Uber, and Harvard. >> Okay, so let's talk about data teams. >> Sure. >> 'Cause it starts there. A lot of organizations are trying to adopt practices >> Yup >> Associated with better utilization of data and are failing partly because it's catch-as-catch-can. >> Sure >> It's everybody's responsibility to figure out what data is, where it came from, what the value is, and how their going to use it. >> That's right. >> That sounds to me like, the notion of a data team says, No, we have to bring some degree of >> Yup >> At least centralization in thinking >> Yup. To make sure that we're exploiting data properly. Have I got that right? >> Yeah, that's exactly right Peter. So, often an organization will start working with data 'cause someone somewhere in the organization wants to. Maybe it's marketing. They hire a business analyst into marketing, then sales decides to do it, then they hire someone into sales. But to your point, it's catch-as-catch-can. So, marketing is looking at one view of data from the marketing world. Sales is looking at another view of data from the sales world. They get into big fights about what the truth is. There's no-one to arbit. It goes all the way up to the CEO, who has no fucking idea what's going on with this fight. Right? And that ultimately gets solved when you hire a centralized data team, ideally reporting to a Chief Data Officer, who can form a source of truth and form best practices in the organization for how they work with and make decisions with data. >> And presumably, take some responsibility for diffusing those practices >> Yeah >> And diffusing the data about the data to the rest of the organization. So you get more common utilization. >> That's right. So if you fast-forward a few years, now all the data is centralized and the data team is centralized, and they have formed a source of truth. Maybe they got into a fight about how many leads marketing delivered to sales. Marketing analyst says 10, sales analyst says we only got five. Now you have one source of truth, one piece of data that tells you how many leads. Analysts farmed out to the rest of the organization but farmed out from that central team where they have best practices and sources of truth. >> Okay so, presumably, there is some degree of maturity or questions of maturity >> Yeah >> Associated with these teams. Let's start with day one, I'm going to do this. What's the difference between that and someone who's a little bit further along? >> Yeah >> What's the first thing that a corporation needs to do day one? >> Yeah, day one is, if you're doing it right, day one people do all kinds of things that turn out to be wrong. But day one, if you do it right, you hire that Head of Data first and you empower them first to build that organization and to build that sort of center of excellence. A big mistake that you'll see is either hiring data people to fuse the organization or hiring a data team but stuffing it somewhere like Finance or IT. Those are service organizations. They are not driving their own, sort of, source of truth and business practice through the organization. You want your data person reporting to a COO or a CEO, and you want them to be empowered throughout the organization. >> So the way I've always thought about chief, and you tell me if this corresponds. >> Sure >> A chief is an individual who's in a business, who has responsibility for generating a return on the assets under their control. So the Chief Financial Officer is responsible for generating returns on assets. >> Yeah >> Returns and capital. You know, the COO is returns on people and the operations of the firm. Chief Data Officer, presumably then, would be responsible for generating a differential >> Yeah >> Return on data assets. >> Absolutely. So the CDO will take control of all the data being generated by all the various systems in the firm. Right? And then they'll be, like to your point, they'll be responsible for generating a return. Which is the returns from the improved decision making at the company. If we spend all this time hiring this data department and spend all this time logging and storing this data and we don't actually make better decisions at the company. What is the point? The whole point is that everyone else at the company now has an ability to make much better decisions. And that, those decisions lead to profits which are the return on the data. >> So, I'm the CEO Board, I don't have this today, my first job is to hire a CDO >> Yes. >> And give them responsibility for increasing the returns on the data assets within my business. >> So you'll, yes. >> So lets talk about, one year later >> Yeah. >> We've hired a bunch of people. How is a more mature data team operating? >> Yeah, so there's a number of things and they all happen in lockstep. You will have data people, who are much more mature and advanced in their careers and their skill sets. People are advancing in their maturity. Your first analyst might be really good with Excel pivot tables. Few years later, you're going to have people under the Chief Data Officer who are data scientists who work with machine learning and AI capabilities, miles beyond your Excel pivot tables. So that's one thing. The other thing is how are decisions made throughout the company? So on day zero, your chief revenue officer maybe comes into a meeting and goes, you know we're going to sell this way, because this is how we sold this way at my last company, and I know it's the right way to sell based on my years of experience. Fast forward five years and they're going to go, the data shows me that we need to sell in a different way. That we've been selling in a couple of different ways and this is the most profitable way, and I can see that in the data. And so the CEO should expect as a return on hiring this data organization, the people who are coming to him or her with their decisions are backing it up with data, as a result of this CDO and their organizations work. >> Yeah, and that doesn't diminish the value of that Chief Revenue Officer's experience. >> Of course not >> But it just gives them an opportunity to test a proposition, see if it worked, test a proposition, and improve things over time, right? >> A good test is, the CDO and their people should be the most popular people in the organization. Everyone loves them, because they bring free value all the time. The CRO has probably almost certainly comped on the revenue they generate for the company. So if they've got data scientists helping them generate more revenue, that's awesome, that's money for the CRO. That's great, so they should be very popular. If you have a CDO who's getting in everyone's way and causing friction, you probably don't have a good one, or something is wrong. >> Okay so the CDO is now installed, their power and their influence and their authority is accepted >> Yep >> By the organization. >> Yep >> Practices are changing. >> Yep >> Now, the next level of maturity, what are they focusing on? >> Yep >> Let me give you a little bit of a background as I think about this because I look back at history and you see over and over and over functions that have processes. >> Yep >> Some that come from the outside, some might be developed inside, and they try to instantiate, they try to manifest those processes in software. >> Yeah >> Because it helps improve the productivity of their people, the certainty of the operation, the certainty of execution. >> Yep >> So I'm into this process, but it's taken me some time. What do I do to accelerate my maturity? >> Yeah so I think there's a number of things that it's driven from the people. But if you start, you know, day zero, maybe you can't even get the data that you want or you don't know that you want the data. The CDO helps you, gets the data and helps show you what it is, and you at least understand the data and you can start making some decisions. Then they start joining the data together. So maybe I was like, okay, now I can see what I'm spending on marketing and what the return is, whereas I couldn't before. But you still can't say, okay what's my total spend to acquire a customer? Until you merge the marketing and the sales data. So now you merge into a single source of truth, you resolve all the conflicts and differences between the organizations, that's good. Then you start predicting the future. And this is where the CDO kind of takes control of the discussion. Because previously we were going, maybe we started from a place of sales and marketing, we wanted a thing and can't have it. Then, the CDO staffs up, builds the technology and answers the questions, and this is where they get popular. But then they start driving the discussion. Well, hang on, I can hire some data scientists and I can build some machine learning, and I can actually predict based on all the inputs, run all the scenarios for the future of the business, and go, this scenario is best. So let's actually invest this way. And so now they're proactively bringing differentiated value based on technology that the company, and the capabilities of the company, did not even know about until they started hiring this team. And so you know, in a very mature organization the data team is actually driving the business towards what decisions they should be making, and is kind of in a much more powerful position, even than some of the other chiefs. >> But I want to talk a little bit about that notion of the future. >> Yeah sure. >> Because as someone who has been something of a student of the way that business uses data historically, it's interesting that a lot of the OLTP generation was recording what happened. >> Yes >> So it's really using technology to better understand the past. >> Yep. >> And then personal productivity in many respects, was how do I build a consensus amongst different thinkers about what's going to happen a little bit further in the future. >> Sure. >> So the Excel pivot table, often is used to forecast two, three years out. >> Yeah. >> Get people to agree that that's where we want to go. >> Yep. >> But you're talking about a more immediate notion of a future. The future that's relevant to the Chief Revenue Officer. >> Yeah. >> Like in the next quarter, or the next couple of quarters, have I got that right? >> It's both. I would say yes the Excel pivot table is used to forecast the future, typically in a relatively straight line fashion from what's happened in the past, and that's great. But when you really have a mature data team and you really have a strong source of truth, you might say actually, you know, the thing that drives revenue more than anything is not the historical revenue trend, but it's the number of active users of your product. Let's say, for example. Or does the viewership of your video get past the halfway mark? Those are your best customers and if we can drive more of those customers we get a sort of differentiated value. And so that requires a more sophisticated technical approach than the simple Excel pivot table. >> Right but still, at the end of the day what you're doing is you're allowing data to drive your next action. >> Yes, that's right. >> And that's different from a historical process orientation. >> That's right. >> Where you let the process drive your next action. >> That's exactly right. And to your point you end up requiring a more agile organization, because you're going to be getting more and more insights over time, and changing direction based on those insights. As oppose to saying, here's my process, let's just run the process. >> Okay so, you've mentioned a couple of times the notion of a system of record for the CDO. >> Yeah >> And you know, ERP was kind of the CFO's software platform for running the finance of the business. What role does Periscope Data play in the world of the CDO? >> Yeah I mean I think your analogy is exactly right. So all of these chiefs, all of these departments will have their systems of record. ERP for the finance team, CRM for the sales team, marketing automation system for the marketing team etc. And we provide that system of record and that source of truth for the data team. And that looks like a lot of different things. Tooling around, integrating the data so that you can build a single source of truth with data. Storage options, in fact, multiple storage options for the data itself, so that you can run the analyses. The actual system that runs the analyses, so you might be writing SQL code or Python code in the product to perform the analyses, integrations with machine learning systems so that you can predict the future. And all the different ways that you want to share and publish the data out in the organization, all that happens together in Periscope Data, Chief Data Officer is managing all of those workflows so they can manage the whole flow of data through the organization within the product. >> So as a CEO, you know, pretend CEO right now. >> Sure. >> I hire my CDO, I empower them to generate a return on data. >> Yep. >> I give them the authority to do so. >> Yep. >> And at some point in time I have a team that's being diffused into the organization, but all this can be accelerated if I get the software that will help my people be more successful. >> Yes, in fact I would say you probably can't get past a certain level of maturity without differentiated software like Periscope Data, because it simply breaks. The volume of data you want to be working with in that top end of the maturity curve is so large, and the sophistication is so large, that you really do need differentiated tooling at that point. >> Okay so how is this going to change industries? >> (laughs) Yeah. >> So I've got all this stuff organized, because I have a thought I want to run by you. >> Sure. >> But from your perspective, how is this going to change the notion of industry? >> Yeah so I think that in every industry you at this point have sort of digital disruptors and you have the old guard. And the old guard is not necessarily dead, and I think you can see, we were talking moments ago about Walmart and the transformation they've made to digital and how that's become a real focus of the company. Great example of a company from the old guard that is by no means dead. But you do have to embrace the idea that the way you made decisions 10 years ago is not the way you're going to make decisions now. And by hiring this organization and empowering them with differentiated tooling, what you can do is have a much more data driven culture as a result. So you will watch them, as they get more mature with data, transform the way your company makes decisions. And it is a cultural change, right? The company becomes much more nimble and agile, probably has less management hierarchy and fewer layers, all of that kind of stuff. And it enables you to survive and thrive in a world where you are constantly being challenged by new digital disruptors. >> Yeah and I'll tell you, here's my observation on the whole concept of industry. Industry is a general way of describing how assets are organized. >> Makes sense. >> So a financial services forum has certain classes of asset, so your airplane manufacturer, >> Yep. >> Certain classes of assets, or a bottling company. And you can look at each of these different industries and say, oh, they have this common approach to thinking about what is valuable and how the assets get work, perform work. >> Yep. >> Data reduces asset specificity. >> Yep. >> Asset specificity is the degree to which an asset can be applied to a limited number of purposes. >> Yep. >> Data reduces that, makes assets more programmable, gives us a better job of monitoring. >> Yep. >> If we think about that so that the industry is a function of assets, therefore asset specificity, as more people do more data it reduces the barriers. It takes certain respects, it limits the impact of industry, and you end up with new types of competitors. >> Yep. >> New types of disruptors, that you didn't know about. What do you think about that? >> I think that makes sense, I mean we were talking also moments ago about the return on these assets right? And so, the CFO of a major public company will be primarily responsible for investing the company's financial assets across the globe, in a way that maximizes the return on those financial assets or minimizes the loss of those financial assets. And similarly with data, you will start to think about data as an asset, it will be the CDO's primary asset and the return on that investment in that asset will be the profits from the better decisions across the company that you wouldn't have had, if you hadn't had a CDO to steward those assets. >> And the options that are created. >> Absolutely. >> So it's a profit now, but also the additional options that are created. >> Yep, yep. >> And that's where the industry notion starts to get very fuzzy. >> And like all assets, the return on those assets will compound over time. We'll get the increased optionality, we'll make better decisions. You know, because of the increased optionality and the better decisions, there's now even more optionality, we make a good decision again, right? Then it starts to build on itself, and you end up in a much better position relatively quickly. >> Okay so Harry, one last thought, one last question. What's 2019 hold for Periscope Data? >> (laughs) A lot of growth first of all, so it's nice to be a high growth technology startup, lots of good things happen. But it is a little sort of mind boggling, how much the company changes and how much the team changes, the software changes every sort of six months. And so we will almost certainly double or more our business again, we will move into, I mean, I've mentioned some of our customers, Uber and HBO and Harvard. That is indicative of a trend where we are starting to work with larger and larger customers, and real true enterprise customers for the first time. So I expect that trend to accelerate. And I will say the conversations for us are getting easier, when we started six years ago and we were talking about platform for data teams, people were like, data teams? You know? And now I think everybody understands that there's a big wave happening, and that's been sort of propelling the company forwards. So that's been a lot of fun. >> Alright, Harry Glaser, CEO and co-founder of Periscope Data, thanks very much for being on theCUBE. >> Thank you Peter, I appreciate it. >> You bet. And once again, I'm Peter Burris, and this has been another CUBE conversation. Until next time. (cheerful orchestral music)

>> From the Salesforce tower in downtown San Francisco, it's theCUBE, covering Accenture Tech Vision 2019 brought to you by Silicon Angle Media. (upbeat music) >> Hey welcome back, everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We are in an exciting new location. Last year we covered the Accenture technology vision release 2018. It was at Minna Gallery, cool event. But this year the venue is off the hook and 33 stories high and we're really excited to be in the brand-new Accenture Innovation Hub and joining me here our first guest, John Del Santo, he is the senior managing director for the West region for Accenture and he is responsible for this beautiful five-story. So John, first off congratulations to you and the team. >> Thanks, it's been a big project opening up this place over the last year, but it's come together great. >> Yeah and this morning they had a nice ribbon cutting, all kinds of dignitaries so, you know, what does this mean in terms of kind of, you've been with the center a long time. Your presence in the Bay Area specifically, but also as part of more of this global innovation effort. >> Well I think it's this, this is bringing together all the best of Accenture that we already had in the Bay Area. We're putting it all under one roof. We're relocating everybody and we're expanding the team. So we announced 500 new technology jobs here in this location over the next year and expanding our apprentice program. But basically, it's all about bringing more talent to this location in San Francisco to do more projects with clients in this space. >> Right. So we'll get into it with some of the other folks that we have scheduled, but it's both a coworking space for the Accenture people in town and three solid floors of all kinds of labs and innovation, kind of hands-on spaces, if you will, to do this work with your clients. >> Absolutely, that co-creation, we think, is what is really differentiating us from our competitors and it's really allowing our clients to work with us and our experts, our technology experts, and the ecosystem partners that we do a ton of work with, real time to solve a problem. Brainstorm a problem, prototype it, solve it over a very short period of time. >> Yeah, I think it's a pretty unique approach that you guys have, which is imagine the future and then create the future. >> Yeah >> As opposed to just reacting to the future. And you made an interesting comment this morning about, you know, be the disrupter, not the disruptee. And my question is really, as you see the leadership at these traditional companies that are afraid of being disrupted, how are they kind of changing the way that they do things, knowing that the digital natives and the threats that they don't even see coming from a completely different direction are now bearing down, and they have to get with the program. >> Well they do have to. And then it's really our job, our purpose, you know, the talent that we have in this company's purpose is to make our clients succeed and be disrupters. Because if they're not, they will be disrupted. And so it's in our best interest to make sure we're bringin' in the best talent, pushing their thinking on ideas, and actually getting to a solution that can actually allow them to differentiate and serve their customers better. >> Right. >> So that's what we're all about, is making sure our clients are successful. >> And draggin' 'em kicking and screaming? Or are they, are they seeing-- >> Absolutely not. >> Are they seeing it in their competition? I mean, in terms of kind of that board-level discussion, where, you know, it's passe that everybody's a technology company, and everybody's doing digital disruption, but you're down in the weeds helping these people actually execute the detail. >> Yeah, well it's funny, you say everyone's a digital company, that was our big theme a few years ago at this exact event. >> Right, right. >> Absolutely, not kicking and screaming. Most executive teams, most business teams that we work with understand that they need to change. The pace of change at their business is rapid, it's faster and faster, and every year it gets faster, and so they need to actually be a lot more agile in that >> Right. >> And move quickly. >> So one of the big things in like the singularity and accelerating pace of change. And some of these big kind of macro trends that we're experiencing is that there's no single person that sees all the innovation change across this broad front, by industry, by role, etc. You guys are in a pretty unique position 'cause you actually get to see the technology innovation and the disruption and the digitization across a number of industries as well as a number of roles. So you can kind of see this big huge glacier that's moving down the valley. >> That's one of the really cool things about this particular geography and location is that literally steps from our door here on Mission Street in San Francisco, we've got clients from ten, fifteen different industries that we serve, and we can bring talent from ten or fifteen plus different industries plus the technology skills to make sure they're looking at the problem from all angles. So if it's a retailer, are they really thinking about financial services, 'cause we've got both skills here. If it's a retailer, are they thinking about platform-based selling? Do they have an omnichannel strategy? We've got the skills in this location cross-industry to help serve banks, retailers, products companies, software platform companies, etc. And I don't think you can find that anywhere else, at least in the Continental United States, given kind of where we are in our geography. >> Right. So you had a couple of special guests this morning at the ribbon cutting. You had a customer, which is great, but you also had a representative from City of San Francisco and I just want to shift gears and talk about, you know, what it is to be kind of an active member of the community. You know, the responsibility of companies we're seeing, with kind of this backlash, if you will, against some of the mega-companies out there. It's more than just taking care of your customers. It's more than just taking care of your employees and even your stockholders. But now companies are being asked to be more kind of responsible and active participants in their local community. That's always been sort of part of our ethos. It's always been part of our vision to help our clients succeed, but also to change the way the world works and lives. And therefore, we have to be really active in our communities. We're being a little bit more explicit about it lately. But it's our view that we need to be able to improve where we're working and living, 'cause our people are active and it's important that we help serve 'em. We have a very strong public service business. We serve the State of California, we serve the City and County of San Francisco as well as well as other entities in California. And it's critical for us to help improve California as we improve the businesses in California. And so it's clearly part of our mission. >> Right. The other thing I think it's interesting is kind of companies' roles with higher education. We've seen a lot of work that Accenture's doing with community colleges and, you know, it's more than just helping so that you get good talent to feed your own system, >> Right. >> But it's really, as the pace of change just continues to accelerate, you know, historical institutions aren't necessarily best-equipped to move that fast. So again, you guys are taking a much more active, you probably done it before, but more active vocal role in the local academic institutions as well. >> Absolutely, I mean, our university relationships are really, really strong, always have been. But it's always been a little selfish on our end. We're always trying to get the best talent out of the universities locally here and there's obviously great schools in the Bay Area. We want to be more engaged with those universities on projects together as well. We want more of a 360-degree relationship. We've got great examples of where we've done research with some of the universities here locally, where we've co-innovated with some of them and we want to do more of that so that there's more of a solid relationship. It's not just about us, you know, helping them find the best students to work here, >> Right. >> Which we want, (laughs) and we do every year, but making sure that we're actually involvin' them from a research perspective and any other kind of, you know, philanthropic idea that we might have together. >> Right. So big event tonight, big event this morning, >> Yeah. >> So before I let you go, it's a brand-new space, I wonder if you could share a couple fun facts for the people who haven't come to visit yet, but hopefully will come as part of a project and a co-creation about some of the cool unique features that you guys have-- >> Well some >> Built in this thing. >> Unique features in the building. First of all, there's unique features with the talent. So we have researchers here, labbers, we call 'em, from our labs, that have, you know, Accenture has thousands of patents. More than 10% of them have been actually invented here. So our inventors are a secret that we've had in Northern California for a long time and they're all based here now. We've got some really cool spaces. We've got an augmented reality room, which is basically a 360-degree room where you can, rather than having to wear virtual-reality goggles, you can actually go inside of a computer, go inside of a lab, go inside of a hospital, and get an experience that's much more hands-on and a lot more immersive, if you will, than you could any other way. We've got a maker lab where we actually are makin' stuff. So we've got a design business here where we've helped physically make not only software, we make a lot of software, everyone knows that, but we've actually made products that have embedded software in them and so there's that fabrication capability we actually have in this building as well, which is pretty unique for a high-rise. (laughs) so >> Right. No, we saw all the machines back there, >> Yup. >> Had a good tour earlier today so-- >> Oh lots of robots and toys and all that good stuff, too. >> Yeah, that's right, it's all the robot room. All right, well, John, thanks for taking a few minutes of your time. Really exciting day for you and the team, >> Yeah. >> And nothing but congratulations. >> Thank you so much. >> All right. >> Thank you, thanks for coming. >> He's John, I'm Jeff, you're watching theCUBE. We're at the brand-new Accenture Innovation Hub in downtown San Francisco in the Salesforce tower. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

>> From San Francisco, it's theCube, covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference, brought to you by Girls in Tech.. >> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Rick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Francisco at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference 2018. About 700 mainly women, a few men, and they just brought in a busload of kids to come in and hear inspirational stories, really of women in technical leadership positions for the last two days. It's a really great event. We're excited to be back for a second time, and our next guest who's been travelin' just as much as theCube team, all the way back from Cisco Live, which we were at yesterday. Shubha Govil, she's the director of product management from Cisco. Welcome. >> Thank you. >> So how was Cisco Live? >> Cisco Live was awesome. Yes, we had very different audience there. Percentage of women, as you can imagine, sometimes in the networking industry, is not as much as we would like to see, but that's why we are here. >> That's why you're here. >> And we are really trying to bring in lot more women in our product teams within Cisco. Again, it comes down to having the 50/50 voice, so this is a great place to be to meet other like-minded women, in industry, and trying to get some talent. >> Well, good for you for making the trip, 'cause I'm sure you guys are wiped out. When it's your own show you work harder than any other show, but it really begs a question. How long has Cisco been involved in Girls in Tech, and, again, what is it that this gives you that's so different than a big conference? >> Correct, so Cisco has been involved for last few years for Girls in Tech, and just like we have been involved with several other organizations in the industry, really it comes down to being out there and spotting the talent. Big part of that is being at the events, and networking with the talent, and understanding their needs. This comes down to really finding the right perspective, as well as the cultural fit for people that we bring in. The best part about the Girls in Tech events is that they're a lot more hands-on training that they are doing, in terms of as part of Cisco's DevNet environment. So I'm part of Cisco's DevNet team, and we are driving Cisco's developer program, to build more on top of Cisco's APIs, and in that role, always looking for people who are ready to go hands on, and build cool solutions on top of Cisco API, so this is a great place to have been doing a lot of coding camps, and other formal boot camps where girls can come in, and be part of this ecosystem, be ready for the next opportunity that comes. >> It's interesting because you can't just do what you could do in the past, which is just go do the campus recruiting, and kind of the things that we think of as everyday HR pipeline, because you need more, and you need more diverse. So to be active in all these various organizations that have very strong focuses in diversity, whether it be women or unrepresented populations, et cetera. So, pretty interesting investment that you guys are making there, with time, money, and people. >> Absolutely, absolutely. It is key. It is totally the key for Cisco, and for every single technology company out there to be out there and finding the diverse opinion. It really comes down to technologies not made just for men, and 50% of female population, there's not a lot of thinking that goes in in designing the technology as to how different people will use it, and big part of it is bringing the people who can think from that perspective, and that's kind of where we are out there, making sure that we can bring in that opinion. >> And the culture's such a bit thing, and you guys had such a big culture change with the new CEO shift, because there's such strong personalities, and now you guys have moved onto a new CEO. We keep hearing about culture over and over again, and how important it is to bring that up. So how important is it from the cultural aspect to be involved, and get these diversity of opinion? >> It is huge. So really, Chuck Robbins has been bringing a very humble culture, people really trying to be there for everyone, each other. And as a committee, you are really building the talent, not just for doing the right jobs, and bringing the right perspective, but also culturally bringing those opinions, as well as bringing the thinking that's going to change the culture moving forward. The technology disruption that's around us has to do a lot with how, culturally, things are changing. There is amalgamation of people coming from all over the world, and in that mode, when you're designing a technology, or when you are from networking perspective, as we think about Cisco's networking culture, network engineers are evolving too, and they are becoming more part of programmable network, and that culture shift goes along with it, which is to bring in the right people culture, and part of it is being out at the events, and meeting people coming from different places, and bringing those opinions. >> It's interesting we're at Bespoke, because I think it was last year we were here with the Cisco DevNet Team, and really a different kind of point of view coming out of Cisco, led by Susie Wee and the team, in terms of reaching out for developers, not a closed system, really trying to engage with the developer community. >> And that's part of it. Cisco's DevNet Committee is, we recently crossed a milestone of 500,000 developers. >> Oh, so I heard that was the big celebration at the party, right? Half a million, very good. >> Big celebration at Cisco Live. >> Congratulations. >> And DevNet Create was an attempt in that direction as well, to really bring the application developer, and that thinking about network engineers who have been changing the way each application works, how the internet of things is going to further drive the growth of internet, in that world, we also need a lot of application developers coming in, and that was the attempt for DevNet Create Conference, and that's where Girls in Tech and other such events are very important. >> Right, and only going to be more crazy when 5G comes online in a couple years. The demand for networking is, and the bandwidth is not slowing down anytime soon. >> It's not. (laughs) >> All right, Shubha, well thank you for spending a few times, I'm sure you are tired after the long event, so hopefully you get through this and you can take it easy this weekend. >> Thanks, Jeff. It was good to talk to you. >> All right, thanks for stopping by. I'm Jeff, and you're watching theCUBE from Girls in Tech Conference 2018. Thanks for watching. (laid-back electronic music)

(music) >> From San Francisco, it's theCUBE. Covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference brought to you by Girls in Tech. >> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Francisco at the Girls in Tech Catalyst event. Really great event, about 700 people, couple days. It's just a single track, a lot of presentations, about 20-minute presentations, by a bunch of female leaders telling their story, how did they get where they got. What advice could they give. And there's men, women here. They just brought in, I think, a busload of students. So it's a really great event. We're excited to be here and we're psyched for our next guest. She's Rashmi Kumar, the SVP Supply Chain and Procurement from McKesson, welcome. >> Hi, thank you Jeff. >> Absolutely, so you said you hadn't been to this event before. You keep trying to come, but things don't, keep getting in the way. So, what do you think, now that you're here? >> Absolutely, I'm so glad to be here. I'm so thankful to McKesson for being the lead sponsor of the event. I'm really excited to see the energy here. >> Yeah, so how did McKesson become the lead sponsor cause that's a really nice statement on the company to really get involved in something like Girls in Tech. >> Yeah, so McKesson is a company which is sitting at the intersection of healthcare. Guess what, it's something on which our lives depend on. But this is the industry which is most behind in technology. So we want to do everything to grow technology talent across the country in this space to enable better health care for our patients. >> Right. It's interesting, we talked before we turned the cameras on that there's still a huge talent gap. It's funny cause we go to a lot of shows and they talk about the machines are taking all the jobs and there's not going to be jobs for people. But, in fact, there's still a ton of jobs, there's still a ton of opportunity in tech. We still don't have enough people so we have to bring in women, we have to bring in other folks to help fill all these great opportunities. >> Yeah, absolutely. When we talk about machine and AI, we are not talking about pure AI taking away the job. It will be enabling human being to do better job and will improve our quality of life. Who will build those machines, though? You need technologists, we need technologists who will build that machine and we are here to grow ourselves and grow our people. Sitting where I am at SVP of Supply Chain role, all the commerce is moving from store front to e-commerce. That is run by programs and technologies and there are jobs in warehouses for people to enable the e-commerce but how do we build those platforms that will enable our patients to get their medication at their doorsteps and not have to go run from pharmacy to pharmacy to find it. We need technologists for it. >> It's interesting because supply chain's been automized for a long time and early days of tech innovation where is was ERP and SAP. So what lessons can you tell from procurement that now we see in more customer-facing and direct-to-consumer tech involvement? Because you still have people, you still there's a lot of automation in procurement, but you still have a lot of things for people to do. >> Yeah, so as the supply chain was more business-to-business we were focused on the customer experience of for, say, pharmacists or the experience of a person who was working on the warehouse floor. And we didn't worry about it, the gray screens, green screens, whatever we put. Now you think about an autonomous car or you think about a drone delivering medicine... You need to give the interaction to every person which enables them to consume those services. This whole field of human computer interaction is new. >> [Jeff} Yeah. >> Machines will run the cars and we don't have to drive it. How I interact with it, somebody needs to define it and then tweak it and grow it. That's also another point about all technology and digital product. You can pivot and change and bring in new functionality, satisfy human consumerization of technologies, changing human needs to interact with technology as well. And we need all kinds of people, from all backgrounds because diversity brings in diverse thinking, which brings in better products. >> Yeah, it does. It's not only the right thing to do, but it actually delivers much better results and bottom line. So you're here, you're running a workshop today. So tell us a little bit about the workshop that you're running. >> Yeah, so the workshop, my topic is make your pitch perfect, which is around the whole topic of elevator pitch. But because it's Girls in Tech Conference, we women want to be 200% sure that we are good to do a job and we don't branch out to highlight the work that we are doing already. Which could get us in that next position. So, how as a professional we should interact with not only our managers and peers, but other leaders within the company. Maybe other leaders across my industry as well as in technology and impress them with what I can do so that we leave a lasting impression on the peson's mind and when he or she is looking for a role, for a person for a role, they think of the girls who are here >> Right. >> Training these two days. This is just kind of the icing on the cake. >> So what are some of the tips and tricks for the people that didn't make the conference that you help them with? Are there some common errors that people make over and over and over that you're trying to tell them not to do? Are there a couple little guideposts that you can help them to get their pitch down? Is it the timing? Is it the focus? Is it the way it's structured? What are some of the things you share with them? >> Absolutely. So HBR did an article on elevator pitch for elevator pitch. (Jeff laughing) >> I've got to see that one. >> That means that that we leave lot of interactions on the table because when we are riding in elevator, riding in train or just sitting at a bar we don't take the opportunity to open up that conversation so we'll be focusing on that a little bit. And then also talking about, as you define your individual pitch think about your own passion, your own skill and where does it fit with some companies' or some projects' need? At that intersection lies the sweet spot for that person and how they hone and how they really practice it and have it handy and available to say it when the time comes, right? So that's the main kind of gist of the workshop. >> Well, and it's an interesting concept, too, because we go to a lot of conferences and one of the great values of conferences if you're exhibiting is you get to practice your pitch with a whole bunch of people over a really short period of time and hone it so it's an interesting concept to take advantage of those opportunities maybe if they're not even great ones but just to get the reps in, just to see what resonates, what do people listen to, what do they grab? >> Right, so they will do a practice. >> Right, right. >> Think about what their skill, what they're passion about, what does the place where they want to go need and see the intersection. And maybe the places they're thinking of might not fit their passion and skill but they're just enamored with that place so it also kind of gives them some toolbox to think ahead of time around how to plan their careers. >> All right, well, important work and again, thank you for your sponsorship of the conference. It's really important and it's a great, great statement on McKesson. >> Thank you. >> All right. She's Rashmi. I'm Jeff. We are at Girls in Tech Catalyst 2018, downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching. >> Thank you. (music)

>> From San Francisco, it's theCUBE covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. Brought to you by Girls in Tech. >> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Francisco at the Girls in Tech Catalyst event. About 700 people listening to two days of short presentations by senior leaders, mainly women senior leaders, and it's a really good event. We were here a couple years ago. Girls in Tech's a great organization, and so we're excited to have a board member with us right now. She's Mayumi Hiramatsu. She's a senior vice president, Cloud Ops, Engineering and Security for Infor. Great to see you. >> Great to see you, too. Thanks for inviting me. >> Absolutely. So let's just jump in. So you've spoken in prior years, you're not speaking this year, but from a corporate perspective as well as a personal perspective, what does this event mean to you? >> From a corporate perspective, from Girls in Tech's perspective, it's just amazing. Every year year it gets better. I did speak the last two years, and I'm humbled by the speakers this year. So I'm actually really enjoying it. (laughing) It's quite a caliber of-- It's kind of fun when you can just sit and relax and watch everybody else speak, right? >> Exactly. And quite a caliber the team's put together. So as a board member, I can't be prouder than what the team's pulled together. And it's so much buzz. Everybody's inspired, I see people taking notes. Folks are really taking this to heart in terms of takeaways, practical tips, and getting energized. So I think it's great. From a personal perspective, a little bit about myself: So I'm from originally Japan, I came here at 17. I didn't speak any English. I wasn't planning on getting in engineering, I have an economics degree. So you can imagine, I got into engineering and built my career here. It was not easy. For a foreigner, a female, Asian, a non-speaking English person. >> You checked all the wrong boxes, right? >> Yeah. I don't know why I choose to do something harder than it needs to be, and I don't even have an engineering degree. I have an economics degree. But I love technology. I've been doing this for 20 plus years, and I think it's a wonderful place for any woman like me to be able to give it a chance and actually have a wonderful career. I also love the fact that it sort of gives, it evens out everybody's potential. So with an economics degree, or from another country, I've been at Silicon Valley and have done great. So if I can do it, I know anybody else can do it. So for me, giving back to the community and making sure the next generation can successfully come through the technology ranks, or have their own company, is really exciting. So it's great to be on the board of Girls in Tech, and I can channel my energy through that way, and I think Girls in Tech is one of the largest, if not the largest world non-profit organization to help women with very practical, and great tips, as well as, not only these Catalyst conferences, but, my goodness, we do hackathons, we do pitch nights and give entrepreneurs a chance to actually shine, global classrooms where we can actually give a lot of teaching opportunities, and learning opportunities. So, super excited to be here. >> Then what about from the Infor perspective? Did you spearhead the Infor participation? Did Girls in Tech, Adriana come seek you out? How did you get directly involved, how did you sell it, and why does it matter to Infor? >> Yeah, so I've been a board member for year and a half, and not so coincidentally you can see Cisco's also there. I used to be a Cisco. Once I introduced Cisco and Infor to Girls in Tech, everybody was really excited. There's just so much win-win. So for Infor, it's great on a couple of things. You may know that Infor is a pretty large company. We're the third or fourth largest ERP. And we have really important business solutions software. For example, focus on verticals; for example, health care, manufacturing, retail, and as a company we're doing really well, but the other thing that really attracted me to Infor is our diversity programs. So we have two of them. One is WIN, Women Infor Network, and it's about essentially women network to help each other out and continue to grow our career, which is important. But the other program is EAP, which is Education Alliance Program. And I love the fact that we actually have a program, we have 80 plus universities that we tie in with, to bring in a diverse workforce, and teach them in the universities and bring them into the workforce, whether it's Infor or not, candidly. So it's STEM programs that gives diversity, whether it's gender, or background, or international location, or even age, right? Because we're bringing in college grads. I just love the programs that Infor has. >> So what is that? How does the relationship go between Infor and the universities? What's kind of the formal structure? >> Yeah, so there's a program called Education Alliance Program, EAP, very, very successful as I mentioned. 80+ universities that we work with already. And what we do is we essentially give these students in the university training program that teaches our software, and there are actually a couple of great things that come out of it. Of course, it's promoting STEM, and making sure that these kids have, young adults, have great technology STEM education coming out of college. It's also great for Infor because we also have people graduating with our technology skillset. So not only directly impacts us as they join our company, but also even if they don't join our company, we've given them a chance to get into technology and it's very, very successful. I'm very proud of it. So Infor is big on diversity in technology as you can see. And, of course, we're proud to be here this year as one of the sponsors. >> So I'll give you the last word as a board member to the audience. How can they get involved with Girls in Tech? How should they get involved? What are some of the ways that you would suggest for them to get their toe in the water if they're not familiar with the organization? >> Yeah, girlsintech.org is a great place to start. We have a wonderful website, of course, and we have various types of programs involved so depending on what it is. If you want to learn you can actually join some of the hackathons or global classrooms to get some practical skills. If you're a founder and you actually want to pitch your idea and get some funding, you can actually go to Pitch Night. There are different programs that we can leverage and I highly encourage everybody to join. >> Alright, well Mayumi thanks for taking a few minutes. Congrats on the sponsorship and all your good work on the board. >> Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. She's Mayumi, I'm Jeff. You're watching theCUBE. We're at Girls in Tech Catalyst 2018 in downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching.

>> From San Francisco, it's the Cube, covering Girls In Tech Catalyst Conference. Brought to you by Girls in Tech. >> Hey welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with the Cube. We're at the Girls In Tech Catalyst event in downtown San Francisco about 700 people coming together, mainly women, two day single track event, where people are getting up and giving like 15-, 20-minute overviews of their story. Really sharing insights and how they got to where they were. Most of them had no idea that they were going to end up where they are now. So there's really a lot of great stories. And we're excited to be back for our second time. And our next guest we're excited to have is Lawdan Shojaee and she is the CEO of Axosoft, Lawdan welcome. >> Thank you, thanks for having me. >> So, what is Axosoft for people who aren't familiar? >> Axosoft builds tools for developers, mainly product management tool, a gate goi, a issue tracker. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And then, how long have you have you been involved with Girls In Tech? >> With Girls In Tech, about five years. We were the top sponsor and brought the Catalyst Conference to Phoenix when the first year they had it and this was back in I think five years ago. That's when I got involved with the board and loved the mission and couldn't stop. >> Awesome. >> I wanted to be involved in every way I could. >> Yeah, so we were there is Phoenix in 2016, I guess so a couple years ago. >> Okay, okay. >> So that's great. So it's such an important organization. What do you see some of the benefits, how are you guys really participating and helping take the advantages beyond the participation events? >> So I'll go just for today, right. And some of the things that I've listened to just this morning, just talking and re-familiarizing yourself with how important culture is. If you don't create a space for females in your corporation, they don't belong. So by creating spaces where they belong, then you automatically help them have voice. And the sessions today have all talked around that and I really am excited that I brought one of my employees with me here too. So she's definitely learning that and together we're going to take it back to the company, so. >> No I'm just curious how old is she in terms of... is she kind of young-- >> I think she's 27. >> and getting started in her career or (mumbles)? >> No, no she's 27 and she's a director of her departments. She the marketing director. >> That's great. Yeah, it's so important to have role models. And that's the other thing that keeps coming up over and over and over again. You know, they need to have the young girls. Young women need to have, >> Yeah. >> like looking people, women, >> Right. >> in women in senior executive positions, so they can envision themselves going there. >> Yes. >> So I know one of your passions is basically, obviously, your business is built around development and coding. >> It is. But having people have the knowledge, girls specifically, get some basic overview-- >> Yes. >> of what is coding, what is software development. So it's not this mysterious, this mysterious thing that's out there in the ether. >> Right. >> I know that's something that you've been putting a lot of time in. >> So here's how I view our education program right now. What we do with our kids is we put them in there, and we say go. And we educate them on how to become industrial workers. In the future, is everything software. All companies, if they're going to stick around, somehow are going to be software. From the person you get your sandwich from at a fast food place to everywhere else. So we're sending these kids to school. They're going and learning how to become industrial workers. We never introduce them to programming at all until they hit college. And then we say, pick a career path. How do they even know that they want to go into programming if during high school, or lower years, they haven't touched it. >> Right. >> And as we heard it, one of the other speakers yesterday say, she wanted to be an actor and singer and on a whim she took a computer science class, fell in love with it and she's the VP of Engineering at Birchbox now. So, on a whim. >> Even though she had lots of examples to look at on the music and entertainment side. >> Yeah she went into the other side. You know she just tried one class and from there, >> Right. >> you know, she fell in love. If you don't know what it is, if you're intimidated by it, then you don't try it and I think that waiting until college when it's career time, it's too late. You got to introduce kids to it earlier. >> So there's a lot of things are trying to help, that obviously, changing the public school system is not easy and we were talking offline about what Brenda Darden Wilkerson has done in Chicago with part of the school district there, getting basic CS, >> Yup. >> into the program. But it's really not easy. >> It's not. It's very grassroots, so my company's based out of Scottsdale, Arizona and our state is not doing very much as far as putting computer science into the schools. And, which means in 10 years, when I'm trying to look for developers, I'm not going to have enough. Not only am I not going to have enough developers period, I'm not going to have enough diverse developers, right, because, we're not even introducing it to girls at all. So a few years ago, actually in combination with Girls In Tech, I put a campaign together called, "It Was Never A Dress." With "It Was Never A Dress", we started a program where we took 15 to 16 year olds, sometimes 18 and we taught them programming. And we turned them into Ambassadors of anything STEAM. And we took 50, put 'em back into the public schools and they're now actually now creating their own clubs with sponsors in their own schools and we taught them skills like how to fundraise with, ya know, Go Fund Me-- >> Right, right. >> to come up with this and there's actually working. I mean it was very grassroots, it was very small. >> And how old were they, when you grabbed 'em? >> So our youngest was probably 12. >> Okay. And the way we found them was we went to the schools and we said, who's your smartest, ambitious, who do you think is motivated, who wants to do something different, send them to our conference. And we took 'em for two days. We taught 'em programming, basic programming. We taught 'em, wearable technology and we made sure that they were in different districts, sent them back into the school system. (Jeff laughs) >> That's great. >> Grassroots right? >> That's the way to see it. >> A little guerrilla-style. >> Right, right, right. Well, ya know, we see that more and more. Like I know LinkedIn does-- >> Yeah. >> weekend Hackathons all the time. So there is kind of the grassroot corporate effort from people who that are paying attention. >> Yup. >> And do the investment, but as you said the schools are lagging way behind on the CS (mumbles). >> They are, they are, but ya know, I feel like if each company took a small amount of time and created little grassroots movements, we could make a pretty large impact. We're not organized right, because you know, someone's doing it in San Francisco, someone's doing it in Arizona. If we kind of got together as just major corporations and said, let's do this, let's just... Because tomorrow we have to hire these people and if there's enough then we can't have the equality we want if we're not teaching girls early enough, then maybe we can make a difference. >> So I'd just love to get your perspective since you've been involved in Girls In Tech so long is trying to be one of the catalysts for that type of, you know, activity cross. >> Yup. >> Not only cross-state, but cross-country and around the world about the growth of this organization and how Adriana has taken it from... >> Yeah. >> I mean how big was it when you joined five years ago to where it is today? >> I mean the growth in numbers, I can't tell you what those are. But I can tell you the impact is huge. Every year I'm part of the Girls In Tech events and corporate boards. Seeing the impact and the feelings that it leaves for these woman is amazing. You now can talk internationally to woman and they know what Girls In Tech is, and they're familiar. And they're taking the Hackathons, they're taking the programs that this organization offers and they're learning and their getting jobs. And now I've been in it long enough where someone I met a couple years ago, who was just at a conference, kind of dabbling, took a course from Girls In Tech and is now in the career field, and they're kind of introducing Girls In Tech to others. So it's amazing. It's no longer grassroots. This is actually making a difference. >> Right, that's great. Well Lawdan, thanks for taking a few minutes. >> Thank you. >> And thanks for your longterm support of the organization, clearly you're not the only sponsor anymore and there's a lot of people-- >> Yes. >> that have jumped onto the bandwagon and that's all a good thing. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> You have a great day. >> You too. (laughs) Alright, she's Lawdan and I'm Jeff. You're watching the Cube. We're Girls In Tech Catalyst 2018 in downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

>> From San Francisco, it's The Cube. Covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. Brought to you by Girls in Tech. >> Hey welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with The Cube. We're in downtown San Francisco at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference 2018. It's a great event, we've been here before. About 700 attendees really listening in. It's a single track conference for a couple days of women leaders telling their stories. How they got to where they are. Some of the challenges they had to overcome. There's a ton of women, some men, I think they just brought in a busload of students, so it's a really good event, and we're excited to be here again. 'cause Arianna just does a terrific job with Girls in Tech. And we're excited, our next guest, she's Laura Messerschmitt, VP Global Customer Experience for GoDaddy, Laura, good to see you. >> Nice to meet you. >> So we've had a ton of GoDaddy guests on, at Grace Hopper, so we're very familiar with the company. So it's great to meet you but it's funny. When we first met with August at Grace Hopper, I'm like August, what are you doing here? You guys have like the most sexist print ad at least back in the day of anybody. They are going to run you out of the building. But you guys changed the culture and you're a big part of that, and that was your presentation. >> Yeah, I started with GoDaddy through an acquisition. And when I came in, the only thing I knew was those Superbowl commercials. And I was, I came in very skeptical, like what is this place? Is this the right place for me? It doesn't stand for my values. But what I found was this amazing company that actually did promote women in tech, and that had this big presence. And so we went to go and change it and try to make it even better for women in tech, and change the brand. And so that's what we've been doing over the last five years is working on making that change to be a premier leader for women in tech. >> So how hard is that when literally your forward facing brand to the outside world are these super racy commercials that you can't even see the end of it, you have to jump onto the internet to finish them. So how did that get started? How does it get implemented? What are some of the lessons learned in going through that process? And I assume it's still an ongoing exercise. >> It is, I think at the beginning, the hard part was that we new we wanted to make a change, and we new that 60% of our customer base was women. And so we had to make a change. It was a business imperative. But we didn't know where we were going at first. And so we sort of circled for a little while, where we were trying to think how do we make this happen. What do we do? And we started to set the vision, that we were actually going to change not just our own selves, but the industry, to make it better for women. That then set us on a course for where we would go, and then things moved pretty quickly. For example, we moved our hiring of tech women from 14% one year, to 40% the next year. >> In one year. >> In one year, yeah. >> So what did you do to do that? That is not a statement, that's a lot of steps and processes. So what are some of the things that you guys did? >> So what we found is that the small things really do matter. And so we changed all of our job descriptions. So we got rid of words like code ninja, that women wouldn't relate to and made them gender neutral. And that brought in more women. And then what we did is we required each hiring manager to have at least one diverse candidate when they interviewed. And what we found is that when the hiring managers would go out to find diverse candidates, they would go searching and they'd find not one, but they'd find five. And so suddenly you'd have this huge pipeline of incoming women. And we also did things like go to the Grace Hopper conference to find more woman that could come in and recruit. And that actually what made that major change from the 14% to the 40 in one year. >> Wow, and again, kind of that top down vision. I'm curious, who woke up one day and said wait, 60% of our customers are women, maybe we should do something a little bit different. >> I think it was a lot of people. The one I would mention in particular is Blake Irving. He was our CEO that came in right around when we were making this change. And he had a personal story with his sister, where she had unfortunately passed away, but prior to her passing, she had promoted women and he had promised her that he would also promote women in the industry that he ended up in. And so once he became CEO, he was bound and determined that we were not only going to change GoDaddy, but we were also going to make an impact in the industry. Because he'd made that promise. >> That's great. You know on the hiring manager story, we can't help it. Everybody has a bias whether they know it or not, or admit to it. And we're also like birds of a feather, right. It's comfortable to be around and be with people that look like us and sound like us, and that's kind of the natural state. So unless you force someone to look beyond that they're just not going to do it, as a natural course. It's interesting that you said, once they, once you forced them to look, not only did they find, but they found a whole bunch of great opportunity. >> Another piece of in was not putting a quota on it. So it wasn't a quota on the hiring, it was just a quota on you have to have at least one in your interview pool. And so that, that meant that people were okay with it. People did feel like they had to pick, they wanted to pick the best candidate, and so we were just making sure that the best candidates we actually showing up. And when they did show up, a lot of times, the women were the ones getting hired because they were the best candidate. >> So I'm curious in terms of the cultural change. How did it affect in a more general level as you were successful in making this transformation which was a top down prerogative from the CEO? >> Well for me, being a woman, that seeing a lot more people like me in the company, and sort of at all aspects of the company. So previous to this change, a lot of the technical people were all men, and sort of marketing and other functions were women. And I started to see women being hired into these other functions, and it opened up sort of, a world of possibility. And I also think the company's better off because of it. Our financial results have been great, and I think that's partially due to this huge change that we've made. And I think it does impact the finances because we had more diversity in our thinking and they way we made decisions. >> Well, I think it's been proven time and time again, that diversity's only the right thing to do, but it does lead to better outcomes, which goes right to the bottom line, so it's certainly a huge contributor, because you just get different points of view that you wouldn't have ever thought of. A little bit about Girls in Tech here. Why you here? What is this event and this organization about for you personally as well as GoDaddy? >> So I would say, GoDaddy has been working with Women in Tech, oh sorry, Girls in Tech for about five years now. And I think we believe in there mission, right because their mission aligns very much with ours, which is to help women in tech. But over the past five years, we've seen them transition, and they've started focusing also on women founders. And given that our customers are small businesses, we care a lot about that, and so it's been very lock step for the last five years. And just being here at the conference is great to get to talk to other women that are trying to do similar things in their companies, and to share notes. >> Right, so I guess we'll see you at pitch night, later this year. All right Laura, well thanks for taking a few minutes and sharing your story. It's funny, when we were at Grace Hopper, you know most of the girls there, are just fresh out of school, didn't know the old GoDaddy. So, we don't necessarily want to talk about it, but it's actually a really great story to be able to make that transition at such an extreme from one side to the other. So the best to you guys. >> Thank, work to do, but we're keep going. >> Well thanks again for stopping by. >> Thank you so much. >> She's Laura, I'm Jeff, you're watching The Cube. We're Girls in Tech Catalyst 2018 in downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching. (techno music)

>> From San Francisco, it's theCUBE, covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. Brought to you by Girls in Tech. (upbeat music) >> Hey, welcome back, everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in Downtown San Francisco at Bespoke. It's in the Westfield Shopping Mall, kind of a cool event space up on the fourth floor, and we're at Girls in Tech Catalyst. We were last here a couple years ago in Phoenix, and we're excited to be back. 700 people, really great event, and the program's pretty simple. You've got great women leaders telling their story, and the stories are varied and really cool, and we just got out of Christina's story. She's Christina Kosmowski, global head of customer success at Slack. >> That's right. >> Christina, really good job up there. >> Thank you. >> There was a couple of things I wanted to really kind of jump on that I thought were so important. In the first one you talk about early in your career and raising your hand. When opportunities come up, don't be afraid, raise your hand, go for it. >> Yeah, absolutely. I was always saying, yes to everything. And now I work on saying no to some things. (laughs) >> That's a whole other conversation-- >> I think it's really important that you know there's all those cliches around the fact that you know you've got to go through the window sometimes or you know opportunities are masked and they really are and so just saying yes to everything and really being open to trying new things and learning new experiences will give you opportunities you didn't even realize you had. And so, I always raised my hand, you know, in college to start the soccer team. I raised my hand in my first job to go to Europe and start the London office. I raised my hand to come to Salesforce, at every single point, Salesforce had something new, I said, oh I want to do it and so I was kind of known as the person who always liked to start and build things from scratch. And so, I always wanted to be that yes person and experience these new opportunities. >> And that was huge, I think you said when you started Salesforce, revenue was like 20 million and when you left it was-- >> Almost 10 million, yeah, it's crazy. It was quite a ride, quite a ride. >> But great, cause then you get those opportunities. >> Yeah. >> Another story you were telling which I thought was pretty impactful was, your college soccer experience, you're a soccer player and you know, the difference between putting in your own work and time to achieve something and, you know, nobody ever sees the work that happens when they're not there, but more importantly, bringing along the team. >> Yeah. >> And getting everybody else to buy into your work ethic to raise the performance of the team. I wonder if you can expand on that a little bit. Cause then you said you've used that throughout your career over and over again. >> I have, it was an important lesson. I think, for those that didn't see that speech, I talked about the fact that my freshman year in soccer, it was the first year of the varsity program. We won three games and I was very angry about that and so I spent the next year kind of working my butt off. And so I got to this level but my rest of the team didn't get to the level and so I was able to challenge them to match my level and we were ultimately able to get, you know, into the top six team in the country at the end of my career and that was the first time that I realized it's not just about me. And I've seen that in every step in the way is, I can get there, I can get my idea there, I can work as hard as I can but if I can't empower the team and I can't bring all the cross-functional leaders along with me, we aren't going to achieve what we need to achieve. And at Slack, I've even seen that to be even more of the case, because I've come into a function that's brand new, it started very much as a product-based company versus Salesforce was a little more sales focused. And so it's really important that people understand what our mission is, why it's important, how we can bring these other organizations with us. >> Right, so a great kind of business theme that touched both on Salesforce and at Slack, it's kind of the subscription economy. >> Yes. >> And we've done this conference and we all switched over to our paid Adobe subscription versus trying to find a friend who'll get you a license for a deal at the end of the year. (laughs) But I think the really important thing that you touched on, when you go to subscription economy it really changes the dynamic between you and your customer. And you run customer success. >> I do. >> Because it's not just take the check and send 'em the 15% maintenance bill anymore, now you've got to build a relationship, you've got to deliver value each and every month cause they're paying you each and every month. And so you've translated that into actually building an organization that supports this very different relationship. >> That's right. >> So why don't you tell us, you know, how did that transform? How hard of a sell was that and what's the ultimate outcome with your relationship with the customers? >> I think it's so important to realize that technology is really important, but if we can't apply that into the business setting and to specific outcomes and use cases, it doesn't become valuable over time. And so, we've built an organization that really focuses on customer maturity and value. And so we take it in steps. And so we look at what are those things we can do to give value and outcomes and affect people the way they're working today? And then what does that look like tomorrow, how do we build upon that, and then what does it look like to, they can get to this fully transformed state, and we've done that through a combination of working with product to build features and in-app education, we work with all of our customers to understand what are their needs, we bring people to the table, we bring one to many programs, we've really created this champion network where we are able to allow these peer to peer relationships, and really have this network effect with our customers, and so there's lots of different methods and vehicles that we're doing to really ensure that our customers are getting that outcome. >> Yeah, it's interesting, we cover a lot of the AWS shows and, you know, Jeff Bezos will talk about them just being maniacally customer focused, and lots of companies like to talk about being maniacally customer focused, but most of them are not, they're product focused or they're competitor focused or they're kind of opportunity focused, they're not customer focused. So, how do you build that culture, can you switch if it's not there or does it got to be from the top down at the beginning? >> You can, you can, I think, you know, at Slack, we've been really fortunate it also has that extreme customer focus, but our organization started about 15 months ago, so we brought even more rigor to that, and so there's lots of programs you can do to affect the culture. So, one of the programs we have is a red account program, and one of the things there is really about bringing all the company together to swarm around issues or risks that our customers might have seen, and that's one way that we can start to talk about customer importance. >> What do you call it? >> We call it the customer red account program. >> Red account, so red like treble, because, so you basically-- >> We swarm. >> Swarm, swarm, what a great, swarm meaning a lot of people from a lot of different places. >> Lot of different places, and there's full accountability on all parts of the organization to solve it, because my organization can't solve everything, we're really just the advocates and the facilitators back into, back into Slack, and so that's important that we have that accountability, and we're swarming all around the customer. We have product feedback sessions where we're able to bring that advocacy back, we have a lot of surveys and that promoter score, things where we're measuring and looking for accountability about how we're doing with out customers, and so there's lots of different programs that you can help bring this to light, even in just tactical ways that help ultimately build this culture of customer success. >> See, so like I said, you've got a lot of sniffers in the system to see when you need to call a code red. So, I'm just curious, when you get everyone together, are people surprised where the problems are, is it like, oh, I thought we were doing a great job, and this group's like, no, no, no, you know, you're the problem? >> Sometimes, sometimes, but I think it is really around it being a team effort and really understanding that when issues or challenges expose themselves, there's multiple root causes and you can really understand, okay, part of it could be a product, part of it could be how we supported them, part of it could be in some of our marketing and messaging. And how do we all solve that in a more universal experience? >> All right, last question before I let you go. Just your impressions of the Catalyst today, you said it's your first time here. >> This is my first time here, I am blown away by the energy and excitement and really the quality of speakers and conversations that are happening, I've been hanging around all morning, and just really powerful conversations, and I think I said this in my speech, but we are in a really fortunate time right now, and I think our time is now, and it's so great to see all these women come together, and we, you know, we're the ones that can do this. >> Excellent, we'll see you Amplify later this year. >> Absolutely. >> All right, Christina, well, thanks for stopping by and sharing your story. >> All right, thanks. >> All right, she's Christina, I'm Jeff, you're watching theCUBE, we're at Girls in Tech Catalyst in downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

>> From San Francisco, it's theCUBE. Covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. Brought to you by Girls in Tech. (upbeat music) >> Hey welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Francisco at the Girls in Tech Catalyst event. About 700 professionals, mainly women, a few men a busload of some kids came in to watch as well. And we're really excited to have the founder and CEO of Girls in Tech, Adriana Gascoigne. Adriana, first off congratulations on another great event. >> Thank you! Thanks so much, it's been awesome. All the energy, all the vibrancy in the room everyone's here to learn and grow and listen to these amazingly accomplished speakers from astronauts to venture capitalists to serial entrepreneurs, it's really exciting. >> They're great stories, I mean it's a really cool program just a single track program, single room. And they can have, how many sessions all together probably 30, like 15 a day? >> Lots. >> (chuckling) Lots. More than you can count. >> I think it's about 20 per day and then we also have some breakout sessions like workshops so it's a little more hands-on. We had a cocktail party last night, a lot of networking, a lot of connecting. So a lot of really productive ways of helping careers develop and also finding out about new and interesting opportunities and really connecting with other women in tech. Both in the high-tech sector as well as the start-up sector so it's really cool. >> Just some really simple advice, right? Like raise your hand, take advantage of new opportunities. Go into areas that you don't have expertise in. >> Be authentic, yeah. >> Ask questions. Be authentic, be curious. And that's what I really like. It's good, actionable, simple, straightforward things that you can do to advance your career. >> Exactly, exactly. >> You are everywhere. This organization has grown, (Adriana laughs) I keep an eye out on you on twitter and stuff obviously and you are all over the world so give us kind of an update as to where Girls in Tech is in terms of members and locations and kind of how it's grown over 11 years you've been at it. >> Yeah, over 11 years and our international or global footprint is something we're extremely proud of. We're in 60 chapters, so 60 cities around the world, in 36 countries and in six continents. And now we have over a hundred thousand active members. By the end of 2020, we're increasing that to 200,000 active members, approximately. And we're growing into 45 different cities and hopefully, knock on wood, in 100 chapters. So that's a pretty massive growth spurt that we're experiencing and there's just huge demand. Right now we have a list of over 160 people who want to start chapters in their city which is really telling about what people think about Girls in Tech, how our programs are impacting these tech communities, how we're empowering women to have a voice and really creating change within societies. So for us it's a pride thing but it's also the impact that we're making and really encouraging women to excel in their careers in tech. Whether it's become a manager at a start-up, or a high-tech executive, or start their own company. Everyone has a different path. We want people to find their passion and purpose in life and achieve that. Because if you do what you love and, you know, a lot of us do what we love, some of us don't. But if you do what you love you can be way more productive and happier. And at the end of the day, isn't that our goal? >> Exactly, and so much of the corporate participation has just skyrocketed too, since I think we first saw you a couple years ago in Phoenix. The number of corporate logos on the banner is fantastic. And really, the messages from the people we've talked to today is they not only see the value but want to get more involved and do more events with you guys. 'Cause they see, and it's altruistic a little bit, but it's also real basic business ROI. They need more good people and this is an avenue to get more good people. >> Exactly. I think diversity, inclusion is no longer a buzzword. They're really seeing the ROI in creating diverse workforces. It helps with building revenue. Right, so if you have a more diverse and innovative workforce, then you're able to create products and services that are more diverse, more comprehensive. You have more opportunities to problem solve in a creative way, so really there is a lot of different elements in addition to creating a company culture that's more conducive to creating safety and comfortable work environments for all employees. Minority groups, people of different genders, et cetera. So I think that it's something that is not just like I said, not just a buzzword. It's really important that they incorporate it into their strategy, overall business strategy. Recruiters are now flagging it as something that's extremely important 'cause they are seeing how it really impacts the company and their business. >> Right, really interesting story on the GoDaddy side. We've interviewed GoDaddy a ton of times at Grace Hopper. And I remember like GoDaddy, what are you doing at Grace Hopper? You guys were like the not as Grace Hopper of all. But they changed their culture and the interesting part of the story is it's a lot of little small steps can actually have a really, really big impact. And they've completely turned it and oh by the way, their financials are looking pretty good as well. So it definitely pays. >> Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, GoDaddy was actually my very first sponsor. >> Really? >> Yeah. And so it's really exciting to see that. And people actually asked me, I mean they're so controversial, or they were in their Superbowl ads. Like, why would you go out on a limb and work with them? And I said, well I talked to their whole executive team. They hired this amazing CTO, happens to be a woman. We had multiple discussions about them changing their brand around and you know, everyone deserves a second chance, I believe. And so they ended up supporting not only the organization, but me as their leader, and I owe them a lot for that because we were able to produce the first Catalyst Conference as a result and many other programs. And more importantly start hiring a staff, have money to invest in operations, different resources for our chapters around the world, deploy more programs like our coding boot camps, our amplify business pitch competition, our global classroom which is our e-learning platform, our hacking for humanity series, so GoDaddy is is really, has been really a strong partner to us and we owe them a lot for our success. >> Right, well it's funny too, 'cause she said that they did the analysis and like 60% of their customers were women operating small businesses and it's like, hello, maybe there's a good thing there. >> Yeah, that is the entrepreneurial sector. That is the target, yeah. >> Well I know you're super, super busy. Give you the last word before I let you go, and again, thanks for having us. We're super excited to be back here again. And really, you put on such a great program. >> Thanks so much. Yeah, we always love working with theCUBE and we love you guys having a presence here and capturing the amazing soundbites and stories from our very accomplished speakers who happen to be amazingly passionate and amazingly altruistic. >> Yes, there's no shortage of energy in the room even though they're all a little tired, been a long week. (both laughing) All right well thanks again. >> Thank you. >> She's Adriana, I'm Jeff Frick, you're watching theCUBE from Girls in Tech Catalyst 2018. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

>> From San Francisco, it's theCUBE. Covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. Brought to you by Girls in Tech. (upbeat music) >> Hey welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Francisco at the Girls in Tech Catalyst event. About 700 professionals, mainly women, a few men a busload of some kids came in to watch as well. And we're really excited to have the founder and CEO of Girls in Tech, Adriana Gascoigne. Adriana, first off congratulations on another great event. >> Thank you! Thanks so much, it's been awesome. All the energy, all the vibrancy in the room everyone's here to learn and grow and listen to these amazingly accomplished speakers from astronauts to venture capitalists to serial entrepreneurs, it's really exciting. >> They're great stories, I mean it's a really cool program just a single track program, single room. And they can have, how many sessions all together probably 30, like 15 a day? >> Lots. >> (chuckling) Lots. More than you can count. >> I think it's about 20 per day and then we also have some breakout sessions like workshops so it's a little more hands-on. We had a cocktail party last night, a lot of networking, a lot of connecting. So a lot of really productive ways of helping careers develop and also finding out about new and interesting opportunities and really connecting with other women in tech. Both in the high-tech sector as well as the start-up sector so it's really cool. >> Just some really simple advice, right? Like raise your hand, take advantage of new opportunities. Go into areas that you don't have expertise in. >> Be authentic, yeah. >> Ask questions. Be authentic, be curious. And that's what I really like. It's good, actionable, simple, straightforward things that you can do to advance your career. >> Exactly, exactly. >> You are everywhere. This organization has grown, (Adriana laughs) I keep an eye out on you on twitter and stuff obviously and you are all over the world so give us kind of an update as to where Girls in Tech is in terms of members and locations and kind of how it's grown over 11 years you've been at it. >> Yeah, over 11 years and our international or global footprint is something we're extremely proud of. We're in 60 chapters, so 60 cities around the world, in 36 countries and in six continents. And now we have over a hundred thousand active members. By the end of 2020, we're increasing that to 200,000 active members, approximately. And we're growing into 45 different cities and hopefully, knock on wood, in 100 chapters. So that's a pretty massive growth spurt that we're experiencing and there's just huge demand. Right now we have a list of over 160 people who want to start chapters in their city which is really telling about what people think about Girls in Tech, how our programs are impacting these tech communities, how we're empowering women to have a voice and really creating change within societies. So for us it's a pride thing but it's also the impact that we're making and really encouraging women to excel in their careers in tech. Whether it's become a manager at a start-up, or a high-tech executive, or start their own company. Everyone has a different path. We want people to find their passion and purpose in life and achieve that. Because if you do what you love and, you know, a lot of us do what we love, some of us don't. But if you do what you love you can be way more productive and happier. And at the end of the day, isn't that our goal? >> Exactly, and so much of the corporate participation has just skyrocketed too, since I think we first saw you a couple years ago in Phoenix. The number of corporate logos on the banner is fantastic. And really, the messages from the people we've talked to today is they not only see the value but want to get more involved and do more events with you guys. 'Cause they see, and it's altruistic a little bit, but it's also real basic business ROI. They need more good people and this is an avenue to get more good people. >> Exactly. I think diversity, inclusion is no longer a buzzword. They're really seeing the ROI in creating diverse workforces. It helps with building revenue. Right, so if you have a more diverse and innovative workforce, then you're able to create products and services that are more diverse, more comprehensive. You have more opportunities to problem solve in a creative way, so really there is a lot of different elements in addition to creating a company culture that's more conducive to creating safety and comfortable work environments for all employees. Minority groups, people of different genders, et cetera. So I think that it's something that is not just like I said, not just a buzzword. It's really important that they incorporate it into their strategy, overall business strategy. Recruiters are now flagging it as something that's extremely important 'cause they are seeing how it really impacts the company and their business. >> Right, really interesting story on the GoDaddy side. We've interviewed GoDaddy a ton of times at Grace Hopper. And I remember like GoDaddy, what are you doing at Grace Hopper? You guys were like the not as Grace Hopper of all. But they changed their culture and the interesting part of the story is it's a lot of little small steps can actually have a really, really big impact. And they've completely turned it and oh by the way, their financials are looking pretty good as well. So it definitely pays. >> Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, GoDaddy was actually my very first sponsor. >> Really? >> Yeah. And so it's really exciting to see that. And people actually asked me, I mean they're so controversial, or they were in their Superbowl ads. Like, why would you go out on a limb and work with them? And I said, well I talked to their whole executive team. They hired this amazing CTO, happens to be a woman. We had multiple discussions about them changing their brand around and you know, everyone deserves a second chance, I believe. And so they ended up supporting not only the organization, but me as their leader, and I owe them a lot for that because we were able to produce the first Catalyst Conference as a result and many other programs. And more importantly start hiring a staff, have money to invest in operations, different resources for our chapters around the world, deploy more programs like our coding boot camps, our amplify business pitch competition, our global classroom which is our e-learning platform, our hacking for humanity series, so GoDaddy is is really, has been really a strong partner to us and we owe them a lot for our success. >> Right, well it's funny too, 'cause she said that they did the analysis and like 60% of their customers were women operating small businesses and it's like, hello, maybe there's a good thing there. >> Yeah, that is the entrepreneurial sector. That is the target, yeah. >> Well I know you're super, super busy. Give you the last word before I let you go, and again, thanks for having us. We're super excited to be back here again. And really, you put on such a great program. >> Thanks so much. Yeah, we always love working with theCUBE and we love you guys having a presence here and capturing the amazing soundbites and stories from our very accomplished speakers who happen to be amazingly passionate and amazingly altruistic. >> Yes, there's no shortage of energy in the room even though they're all a little tired, been a long week. (both laughing) All right well thanks again. >> Thank you. >> She's Adriana, I'm Jeff Frick, you're watching theCUBE from Girls in Tech Catalyst 2018. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

>> From San Francisco, it's theCube, covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference, brought to you by Girls in Tech.. >> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Rick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Francisco at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference 2018. About 700 mainly women, a few men, and they just brought in a busload of kids to come in and hear inspirational stories, really of women in technical leadership positions for the last two days. It's a really great event. We're excited to be back for a second time, and our next guest who's been travelin' just as much as theCube team, all the way back from Cisco Live, which we were at yesterday. Shubha Govil, she's the director of product management from Cisco. Welcome. >> Thank you. >> So how was Cisco Live? >> Cisco Live was awesome. Yes, we had very different audience there. Percentage of women, as you can imagine, sometimes in the networking industry, is not as much as we would like to see, but that's why we are here. >> That's why you're here. >> And we are really trying to bring in lot more women in our product teams within Cisco. Again, it comes down to having the 50/50 voice, so this is a great place to be to meet other like-minded women, in industry, and trying to get some talent. >> Well, good for you for making the trip, 'cause I'm sure you guys are wiped out. When it's your own show you work harder than any other show, but it really begs a question. How long has Cisco been involved in Girls in Tech, and, again, what is it that this gives you that's so different than a big conference? >> Correct, so Cisco has been involved for last few years for Girls in Tech, and just like we have been involved with several other organizations in the industry, really it comes down to being out there and spotting the talent. Big part of that is being at the events, and networking with the talent, and understanding their needs. This comes down to really finding the right perspective, as well as the cultural fit for people that we bring in. The best part about the Girls in Tech events is that they're a lot more hands-on training that they are doing, in terms of as part of Cisco's DevNet environment. So I'm part of Cisco's DevNet team, and we are driving Cisco's developer program, to build more on top of Cisco's APIs, and in that role, always looking for people who are ready to go hands on, and build cool solutions on top of Cisco API, so this is a great place to have been doing a lot of coding camps, and other formal boot camps where girls can come in, and be part of this ecosystem, be ready for the next opportunity that comes. >> It's interesting because you can't just do what you could do in the past, which is just go do the campus recruiting, and kind of the things that we think of as everyday HR pipeline, because you need more, and you need more diverse. So to be active in all these various organizations that have very strong focuses in diversity, whether it be women or unrepresented populations, et cetera. So, pretty interesting investment that you guys are making there, with time, money, and people. >> Absolutely, absolutely. It is key. It is totally the key for Cisco, and for every single technology company out there to be out there and finding the diverse opinion. It really comes down to technologies not made just for men, and 50% of female population, there's not a lot of thinking that goes in in designing the technology as to how different people will use it, and big part of it is bringing the people who can think from that perspective, and that's kind of where we are out there, making sure that we can bring in that opinion. >> And the culture's such a bit thing, and you guys had such a big culture change with the new CEO shift, because there's such strong personalities, and now you guys have moved onto a new CEO. We keep hearing about culture over and over again, and how important it is to bring that up. So how important is it from the cultural aspect to be involved, and get these diversity of opinion? >> It is huge. So really, Chuck Robbins has been bringing a very humble culture, people really trying to be there for everyone, each other. And as a committee, you are really building the talent, not just for doing the right jobs, and bringing the right perspective, but also culturally bringing those opinions, as well as bringing the thinking that's going to change the culture moving forward. The technology disruption that's around us has to do a lot with how, culturally, things are changing. There is amalgamation of people coming from all over the world, and in that mode, when you're designing a technology, or when you are from networking perspective, as we think about Cisco's networking culture, network engineers are evolving too, and they are becoming more part of programmable network, and that culture shift goes along with it, which is to bring in the right people culture, and part of it is being out at the events, and meeting people coming from different places, and bringing those opinions. >> It's interesting we're at Bespoke, because I think it was last year we were here with the Cisco DevNet Team, and really a different kind of point of view coming out of Cisco, led by Susie Wee and the team, in terms of reaching out for developers, not a closed system, really trying to engage with the developer community. >> And that's part of it. Cisco's DevNet Committee is, we recently crossed a milestone of 500,000 developers. >> Oh, so I heard that was the big celebration at the party, right? Half a million, very good. >> Big celebration at Cisco Live. >> Congratulations. >> And DevNet Create was an attempt in that direction as well, to really bring the application developer, and that thinking about network engineers who have been changing the way each application works, how the internet of things is going to further drive the growth of internet, in that world, we also need a lot of application developers coming in, and that was the attempt for DevNet Create Conference, and that's where Girls in Tech and other such events are very important. >> Right, and only going to be more crazy when 5G comes online in a couple years. The demand for networking is, and the bandwidth is not slowing down anytime soon. >> It's not. (laughs) >> All right, Shubha, well thank you for spending a few times, I'm sure you are tired after the long event, so hopefully you get through this and you can take it easy this weekend. >> Thanks, Jeff. It was good to talk to you. >> All right, thanks for stopping by. I'm Jeff, and you're watching theCUBE from Girls in Tech Conference 2018. Thanks for watching. (laid-back electronic music)

>> From San Francisco, it's the Cube, covering Girls In Tech Catalyst Conference. Brought to you by Girls in Tech. >> Hey welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with the Cube. We're at the Girls In Tech Catalyst event in downtown San Francisco about 700 people coming together, mainly women, two day single track event, where people are getting up and giving like 15-, 20-minute overviews of their story. Really sharing insights and how they got to where they were. Most of them had no idea that they were going to end up where they are now. So there's really a lot of great stories. And we're excited to be back for our second time. And our next guest we're excited to have is Lawdan Shojaee and she is the CEO of Axosoft, Lawdan welcome. >> Thank you, thanks for having me. >> So, what is Axosoft for people who aren't familiar? >> Axosoft builds tools for developers, mainly product management tool, a gate goi, a issue tracker. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And then, how long have you have you been involved with Girls In Tech? >> With Girls In Tech, about five years. We were the top sponsor and brought the Catalyst Conference to Phoenix when the first year they had it and this was back in I think five years ago. That's when I got involved with the board and loved the mission and couldn't stop. >> Awesome. >> I wanted to be involved in every way I could. >> Yeah, so we were there is Phoenix in 2016, I guess so a couple years ago. >> Okay, okay. >> So that's great. So it's such an important organization. What do you see some of the benefits, how are you guys really participating and helping take the advantages beyond the participation events? >> So I'll go just for today, right. And some of the things that I've listened to just this morning, just talking and re-familiarizing yourself with how important culture is. If you don't create a space for females in your corporation, they don't belong. So by creating spaces where they belong, then you automatically help them have voice. And the sessions today have all talked around that and I really am excited that I brought one of my employees with me here too. So she's definitely learning that and together we're going to take it back to the company, so. >> No I'm just curious how old is she in terms of... is she kind of young-- >> I think she's 27. >> and getting started in her career or (mumbles)? >> No, no she's 27 and she's a director of her departments. She the marketing director. >> That's great. Yeah, it's so important to have role models. And that's the other thing that keeps coming up over and over and over again. You know, they need to have the young girls. Young women need to have, >> Yeah. >> like looking people, women, >> Right. >> in women in senior executive positions, so they can envision themselves going there. >> Yes. >> So I know one of your passions is basically, obviously, your business is built around development and coding. >> It is. But having people have the knowledge, girls specifically, get some basic overview-- >> Yes. >> of what is coding, what is software development. So it's not this mysterious, this mysterious thing that's out there in the ether. >> Right. >> I know that's something that you've been putting a lot of time in. >> So here's how I view our education program right now. What we do with our kids is we put them in there, and we say go. And we educate them on how to become industrial workers. In the future, is everything software. All companies, if they're going to stick around, somehow are going to be software. From the person you get your sandwich from at a fast food place to everywhere else. So we're sending these kids to school. They're going and learning how to become industrial workers. We never introduce them to programming at all until they hit college. And then we say, pick a career path. How do they even know that they want to go into programming if during high school, or lower years, they haven't touched it. >> Right. >> And as we heard it, one of the other speakers yesterday say, she wanted to be an actor and singer and on a whim she took a computer science class, fell in love with it and she's the VP of Engineering at Birchbox now. So, on a whim. >> Even though she had lots of examples to look at on the music and entertainment side. >> Yeah she went into the other side. You know she just tried one class and from there, >> Right. >> you know, she fell in love. If you don't know what it is, if you're intimidated by it, then you don't try it and I think that waiting until college when it's career time, it's too late. You got to introduce kids to it earlier. >> So there's a lot of things are trying to help, that obviously, changing the public school system is not easy and we were talking offline about what Brenda Darden Wilkerson has done in Chicago with part of the school district there, getting basic CS, >> Yup. >> into the program. But it's really not easy. >> It's not. It's very grassroots, so my company's based out of Scottsdale, Arizona and our state is not doing very much as far as putting computer science into the schools. And, which means in 10 years, when I'm trying to look for developers, I'm not going to have enough. Not only am I not going to have enough developers period, I'm not going to have enough diverse developers, right, because, we're not even introducing it to girls at all. So a few years ago, actually in combination with Girls In Tech, I put a campaign together called, "It Was Never A Dress." With "It Was Never A Dress", we started a program where we took 15 to 16 year olds, sometimes 18 and we taught them programming. And we turned them into Ambassadors of anything STEAM. And we took 50, put 'em back into the public schools and they're now actually now creating their own clubs with sponsors in their own schools and we taught them skills like how to fundraise with, ya know, Go Fund Me-- >> Right, right. >> to come up with this and there's actually working. I mean it was very grassroots, it was very small. >> And how old were they, when you grabbed 'em? >> So our youngest was probably 12. >> Okay. And the way we found them was we went to the schools and we said, who's your smartest, ambitious, who do you think is motivated, who wants to do something different, send them to our conference. And we took 'em for two days. We taught 'em programming, basic programming. We taught 'em, wearable technology and we made sure that they were in different districts, sent them back into the school system. (Jeff laughs) >> That's great. >> Grassroots right? >> That's the way to see it. >> A little guerrilla-style. >> Right, right, right. Well, ya know, we see that more and more. Like I know LinkedIn does-- >> Yeah. >> weekend Hackathons all the time. So there is kind of the grassroot corporate effort from people who that are paying attention. >> Yup. >> And do the investment, but as you said the schools are lagging way behind on the CS (mumbles). >> They are, they are, but ya know, I feel like if each company took a small amount of time and created little grassroots movements, we could make a pretty large impact. We're not organized right, because you know, someone's doing it in San Francisco, someone's doing it in Arizona. If we kind of got together as just major corporations and said, let's do this, let's just... Because tomorrow we have to hire these people and if there's enough then we can't have the equality we want if we're not teaching girls early enough, then maybe we can make a difference. >> So I'd just love to get your perspective since you've been involved in Girls In Tech so long is trying to be one of the catalysts for that type of, you know, activity cross. >> Yup. >> Not only cross-state, but cross-country and around the world about the growth of this organization and how Adriana has taken it from... >> Yeah. >> I mean how big was it when you joined five years ago to where it is today? >> I mean the growth in numbers, I can't tell you what those are. But I can tell you the impact is huge. Every year I'm part of the Girls In Tech events and corporate boards. Seeing the impact and the feelings that it leaves for these woman is amazing. You now can talk internationally to woman and they know what Girls In Tech is, and they're familiar. And they're taking the Hackathons, they're taking the programs that this organization offers and they're learning and their getting jobs. And now I've been in it long enough where someone I met a couple years ago, who was just at a conference, kind of dabbling, took a course from Girls In Tech and is now in the career field, and they're kind of introducing Girls In Tech to others. So it's amazing. It's no longer grassroots. This is actually making a difference. >> Right, that's great. Well Lawdan, thanks for taking a few minutes. >> Thank you. >> And thanks for your longterm support of the organization, clearly you're not the only sponsor anymore and there's a lot of people-- >> Yes. >> that have jumped onto the bandwagon and that's all a good thing. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> You have a great day. >> You too. (laughs) Alright, she's Lawdan and I'm Jeff. You're watching the Cube. We're Girls In Tech Catalyst 2018 in downtown San Francisco. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)