live from San Francisco California it's the queue at vmworld 2014 brought to you by vmware cisco EMC HP and nutanix now here are your hosts John furrier and Stu minimum okay welcome back around here live in San Francisco for VMware 2014 this is our fifth year with the cube extracting the city from the noise at vmworld always a pleasure and we have the chief marketing officer Robin Matlock here inside the queue of my Coast stupid minute for this segment Robin welcome back to the cube thank you great keynote this morning you opened it up in front of a packed house for Pat Gelsinger and delivered an amazing keynote before we get some icky knows what some of the stats with the show here obviously vmworld it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger every year well you know it's amazing the energy is fantastic here this year we're going strong we have well over twenty two thousand attendees the solutions exchange is packed there's about 250 companies that are they're exhibiting we have all kinds of breakout sessions and content I mean if you just walk around here the energy is just really thrive and the theme is no limit so I got to get some a back story on the theme I'll see no limits breaking through this is the transformation market the sign is just break it was a quick taste of wow how this all came together yeah what's the meaning behind the pictures are they're all on the hall you know it's really fun the themes that every year actually put just tremendous effort into them they can really be stressful but at the end when you land or right when it feels so good this whole notion of concrete you know in breaking through and that there's something on the other side that is truly infinite for us that just really spoke to our business it spoke to what our customers are going through and it truly spoke to the potential of this incredible you know this incredible industry you know i was when i think of the No Limits I think about the space jump the Red Bull I think about some of the things with it within the cloud that developers are doing you know Pat mentioned uber they have no asses of mass evaluation of hurts and to cumbies combined this is the kind of dream that entrepreneurs think about is like this is this inflection point stuff right so is that was that some of the vibe you guys were thinking absolutely and I think when we look at where we are in our journey relative to cloud relative to a software-defined world we're really passionate that you know the customers and the attendees of this conference are very well positioned to truly break through some of the silos that have been holding us back for a long time and we are at Crossroads um you know we believe vehemently that the data center is destined to be software-defined and that many of these attendees are well positioned to take us on that journey so I got to ask you because I see you're involved in the brain trust and all the formulation of the strategy the company and out of how to communicate it's always a challenge when it's like a moving train of innovation but you have some new things going on this year first of all nothing new on strategy it's the same marching orders with with Pats cadence hybrid cloud you know March to that cadence ops ii server defined data center but now AirWatch comes on over the top how did that affect things for you or did it it's just more of more the same so actually they bring in there some of that security and the apps piece of the business did that change some of the thinking and all I know it's an interesting question but I think at the end of the day the three strategic priorities for VMware have been very consistent now for multiple years you know largely under Pat's leadership it's about a software-defined world that's the software-defined data center it's about extending that to the hybrid cloud and it's always been about end-user computing I think the air watch acquisition just took it up a couple notches really the world of mobility we're big advocates and believers that the mobile workforce is exploding but there's a really strong connective value between what's happening at the infrastructure layer and what we can do to enable that mobile workforce so I think it was very consistent with the strategy but I do think the air guac acquisition is changing the game it's certainly producing Pat was giving us a little taste on the cube talk about the steams of the show today we had Pat had bill father's Carl up sure do a little Q&A a little little cube action almost on stage with Bill and what's what's tomorrow did you guys bring it up by thieves share with the folks out here Shey lay the land here what's the what's the contracts for tomorrow so today what we try to do is really telex the expanse of entire story what's going on holistically and you know the Karl part of it was a lot about getting our customers to really talk about what's working for them I think that's really important because we laid out a vision for VMware um you know a couple years ago and it's important to make that tangible and real and I hope the customers were able to bring that to life for people tomorrow is all about the technical under the hood let's get you know inside and really understand how the technologies are delivering against that vision and we're going to go through the whole thing it's going to cover the infrastructure it's going to talk about the hybrid cloud and we're going to talk a lot about mobility well the geeks want under the hood I mean it gets a gig show the end of the day it's very content rich at vmworld as we know it super busy a lot of parties going off as Deb going on certainly the business transactions are happening but it's still a geek show you guys have preserved that here right you know if we ask ourselves every year you know how how and should or shouldn't we evolve vmworld and i tell you we're really resolved at the end of the day this is largely a practitioner show they come for technological information education certifications and we have no desire to take a square pose and put in a round hole I mean it works so well for this audience let's just give this crowd what they need and I want to do more of it year after year yeah and we can always tell how good the conferences are in terms of content based upon how much Twitter activity there is in terms of like if people are just talking a lot on Twitter and not say anything that means it's kind of a boring show when there's not a lot of Twitter activity mostly it's text sessions people have too busy running around between between the events I mean are you guys seeing the sessions packet but we haven't had a chance to go out there what's happening yeah well to be really honest I haven't at a moment to scan too much but from what I'm hearing they are overflowing and frankly they were booked you know even before we showed up today because we do give people the schedule builder and a chance to book their sessions so I know that they are all full we're doing repeats we're trying to get you know more breakouts so people can deal with Wednesday and Thursday as things settle down but all the reports I'm getting so far is that we are pretty much over sold and oversubscribed yeah so buds do you Robin I was just gonna say you know is my fifth year now coming to vmworld it's all we impressive just the passion of the people in the virtualization community it's such a good community everybody gives back I really like what you guys did with the charity event that's going I mean what's a destination give by 25,000 with 250 oh not twenty five thousand two hundred and hundred and fifty thousand dollars that that's fantastic you know I got to talk to the hands-on lab guys today and things were running so smooth and so many people do it because as John said the geeks really love to geek out here I noticed it looked like on the badge it had you know the show spread out beyond just the north south and the West you brought the analysts kind of off to off to a hotel because they don't need to be in the center of all the geeks and everything the show floor is cranking as usual so you know it sounds like you still have the core and just pieces add on to it yeah i mean the core of the program if you were to look at breakout sessions keynotes labs that's going to stay right here in moscone but the reality is we're bursting out of the scenes and we love San Francisco we loved the venue but we have to take advantage of all the hotel space around so we got things at the w we got things at the westin we got things at the marriott we got things at the Intercontinental I mean we're or everywhere frankly but you're right we are having to kind of spread out a little bit so I got to ask you about the 10-year anniversary because that was a pretty epic event and you mentioned you made a comment on stage where'd that world go and i love the Golden Gate Bridge metaphor you put together what's changed for you over the past year it seems to be like it seems like seven years ago internet years it seems like a decade ago almost from last year yeah a lots changed and you share your perspective yeah I think a lot has changed I think on though um to be almost all for the good in my view I think you know VMware had built such a business on kind of one core platform which was compute virtualization and over the last several years we've really broadened our wings right and we are now dealing with networking and storage and security and automation and cloud and mobility and I think the diversity that that brings um from a customer perspective from an ecosystem perspective from our routes to market perspective I mean certainly it is definitely a charge because there's just so much tremendous diversity it also means we got a lot of things to cover so you know I think with that comes a responsibility to make sure our customers can understand all these different diverse you know offerings what's your objective for the show what's your preferred outcomes you can look back and just fast forward to thursday evening friday morning you know you're in a hot tub relaxing maybe it's saturday or monday morning what do you want to have happen what's your ideal outcome for vmworld beyond the fact that i like my feet attached to my body because right now i'm afraid they might fall off but let's say personal attributes aside you know i really hope that these attendees you know 22,000 plus people get on those airplanes fly home and feel like they had one of the most invigorating educational inspirational experiences professionally that they're going to have all year I hope that they got to the content that was relevant for them that they were able to navigate and you know really spend time in the areas of focus for them and I hope that people met dozens and dozens of new people that will only help them broaden their career so I have this little prop I brought because I was attended the VIP event you guys had an amazing event mark injuries since the NBC was broadcasting there Joe Tucci was there and then you know opening up your new facility which could have been around for a while so we've got some new new areas got these hot pens there so I'm going to ask you about the culture and the brand future brand for vmware I mean it's an amazing campus eco-friendly beautiful design high quality is this the brand of VMware that you seeing vision for me and you what's your vision for the brand I mean it's evolving in in real time for the company it is evolving but at the same time I think our brand and what we stand for as a company is also very stable it's great that you came to that event and saw the final unveiling of the last building as we finished it up and certainly it's a beautiful campus and it's green you know it's very you know natural woods and doing all kinds of things to protect the environment I think at the core of VMware there's you know five key values and those values are sustaining the test of time you know it's about innovation it's about community it's about people it's about integrity and it's about our customers and I think really no matter what products and services and solutions we wrap around our company I think we still stand for the same core values and I hope that never changes so I got to ask you out the community I think it's one of those things and you know something to pat about how doctor is implemented community aspect of the open source of their product and made them success you guys have had great community over the years really part of the backbone of vmware versus other companies some don't even have a heartbeat to a community you guys have a great thriving ecosystem how do you maintain that as we get more connected with the crowdsourcing with the Twitter expansion and all the people talking and it's not just forums anymore it's and more it's it's it's a virtual event every day it's like vmworld every day out there how do you handle that what's your vision and how you going to get your arms around that going forward well it's yeah I think it's really critical first of all just like anything whether you're talking about technologies you're talking about engaging with customers you have to evolve you can't use the same techniques that you use last year really to propel you next year so I think it's all about making sure you understand how our customers choosing to engage and then embrace that for us our social channels are really important our communities are really important and we're all about enabling facilitation and engagement and I think we're really that's kind of philosophically how we go about our whole social strategy it's all about enablement so that's a personal question for you to you always loved your eye for you know detail remember the first VMware we did you had pointed out the vmware stickers which ended up being perfect camera location ibly I like her I like this Robin woman she's awesome but what are you excited about now I mean what are you personally motivated upon right now what gets you really excited about the tech industry about what you what you're involved in what's the what's the one thing that get you so excited you know frankly I'm extremely proud to be the CMO of VMware I think there was a great company and I think we're part of something truly meaningful I think there was a time when maybe we weren't going to be as relevant we and by we I don't mean to see him or I mean this this whole thing that maybe we weren't going to be as relevant in the next decade but we collectively as a mystery are making bold moves we're doubling down on software we're pushing the boundaries of the data center we're getting out beyond compute we're going to storage or going to networking we're looking at security we're layering in automation and I think we are really securing our future as an industry that we are relevant and we need a seat at the table a strategic seat at the table and I'm thrilled to be a part and you certainly the global footprint the virtualization has been a great part of enabling that that mindset great to have you on the cube any other tidbits about the show you'd like to share the folks you know I think the main thing is just get involved and try some things that are different push your own personal boundaries explore there's so much content there's so many networking opportunities there's breakouts and I think definitely sampling a little bit of everything and making sure that you go home exhausted and then I'll be happy but certainly is exhausting show but Pat brought up the whole brave concept that's really about bold moves writing that's about that's kind of the whole theme here right yeah I think you know the notion of bravery is in the sense that given that things are changing so rapidly and the world is so dynamic and fluid as a business climate it's going to take some calculated risk you're going to have to really decide where are you partnering where are you betting what kind of steps are you going to take and I think action is key and the one thing it probably isn't going to work is status quo Robin Matlock the chief marketing officer for VMware keynote speech this morning set the table for Pat Gelsinger great jobs at the big picture laid out everything out the holistic vision of VMware continues to thrive thanks for coming down the cube always great to have you it's the Cubist retin from the noise we'll be right back with our next guest after the short break great thanks John you