 Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome back to AWS ReInvent 2022. We are live here from the show floor in Las Vegas, Nevada. We're theCUBE. My name is Savannah Peterson. Joined by John Furrier. John, are you excited for the next segment? I love the innovation story. This next segment is going to be really interesting. An example of ecosystem innovation in action. Be great. Our next guests are actually award-winning. I am very excited about that. Please welcome Alan and Becky from IBM. Thank you both so much for being here. How's the show going for you? Becky, you got just a platinum smile. I'm going to go to you first. How's the show so far? No, it's going great. There's lots of buzz, lots of excitement this year. Of course, three times the number of people, but it's fantastic. Three times the number of people. After four last year. That is so exciting. So what is that? Do you know what the total is then? I think it's over 55,000. Ooh! I love that. It's a lot. You can tell by the hallways. It's crowded. Yeah, you can tell by just the energy. Honestly, the heat in here right now is pretty good. Alan, how are you feeling on the show floor this year? Awesome, awesome. We're meeting a lot of partners, talking to a lot of clients. We're really kind of showing them what the new IBM AWS relationship is all about. So beautiful time to be here. Well, Alan, why don't you tell us what that partnership is about to start us off? Sure, sure. So the partnership started with the relationship in our consulting services. And Becky's going to talk more about that, right? And it grew, right? This year it grew into the IBM software realm where we signed an agreement with AWS around May timeframe this year. I love it. So like you said, you're just getting started. Just getting started. This is the beginning of something magic. We're just scratching the surface with this, right? Yeah. But it represents a huge move for IBM to meet our clients where they are, right? Meet them where they are with IBM technology, enterprise technology they're used to, but with the look and feel and usage model that they're used to with AWS. Absolutely. And so to build on that, we're really excited to be an AWS premier consulting partner. We've had this relationship for a little over five years with AWS. I'd say it's really gone up a notch over the last year or two. As we've been working more and more closely, doubling down on our investments, doubling down on our certifications. We've got over 15,000 people certified now, almost 16,000 actually. Wow. 14 competencies, 16 service deliveries and counting. We cover a mass of information and services for data analytics, IOT, AI, all the way to modernization, SAP, security services, right? So it's pretty comprehensive relationship, but in addition to the fantastic clients that we both share, we're doing some really great things around joint industry solutions, which I'll talk about in a few minutes. And some of those are being launched to the conference this year. So that's even better. But the most exciting thing to me right now is that we just found out that we won the Global Innovator, a partner of the year award and the LATAM partner of the year award. Wow. Super excited for IBM Consulting to win this. We're honored and it's just a great exciting part of the conference. The news coming out of this event, we know tomorrow's going to be the big keynote for the new head of the ecosystem, Ruba. We're hearing that it's going to be all about the ecosystem, enabling value creation, enabling new kinds of solutions. We heard from the CEO of AWS, this next gen environments upon us, that's very solution oriented, lot of technology. It's not an either or, it's an and equation. This is a huge new shift. I won't say shift, a continuation for AWS. And you guys have been covering, so you've got the and situation going on. Innovation solutions and innovation technology and customers can choose to build a foundation or have it out of the box. What's your reaction to that? Do you think it's going to go well for AWS and IBM? I think it fits well into our partnership, right? The thing you mentioned that I gravitate to the most is the customer gets to choose. And the thing that's been most amazing about the partnership, both of these companies are maniacally focused on the customer, right? And so we've seen that come about as we work on ways the customer to access our technology, consume the technology, right? We've sold software on-prem to customers before, right? Now we're going to be selling SaaS on AWS because we had customers that were on AWS. We're making it so that they can more easily purchase it by being in the marketplace, making it so they can draw down their committed spin with AWS. The customers like that a lot, right? We've even gone further to enable our distributor network and our resellers because a lot of our customers have those relationships, right? So they can buy through them. And recently we've enabled the customer to leverage their EDP, their committed spin with AWS, against IBM's ELA and structure, right? So you kind of get a double commit value from a customer point of view. So the amazing part has just been all about the customer. Well, that's interesting. You got the technology relationship with AWS. You mentioned how they're engaging with the software consumption in marketplace license deals. There's all kinds of new business model innovations on top of the consumption and building. Then you got the consulting piece, which is again, a big part of, Adam calls it business transformation, which is the result of digital transformation. So digital transformation is the process. The outcome is the business transformation. That's kind of where it all kind of connects. Becky, what's your thoughts on the Amazon consulting relationships? Obviously the awards are great, but- What's the next step? Where does it go from here? I think the best way for me to describe it is to give you some rapid-flier client examples. Real customer stories. I think that's where it really, the rubber meets the road, right? So kind of one of the most recent examples are IBM CEO, Arvind Krishna, and his three Q results actually mentioned one of our big clients with AWS, which is the Department of Veterans Affairs in the US, and it's an AI solution that's helped automate claims processing. So the veterans are trying to get their benefits. They submit the claims, snail mail, phone calls, some in person, some over email. Don't give me all the fields here when you talk about this. It's a process that used to take 25 to 30 days, depending on the complexity of the claims. We've gotten it down with AWS, down to within 24 hours, we can get the veterans what they need really quickly. So I mean, that's just huge, and it's an exciting story that includes data, analytics, AI, and automation. So that's just one example. You know, we've got examples around SAP, where we've developed a next-generation SAP for HANA platform for Philips Carbon Black, hosted on AWS, right? For them, it created an integrated, scalable digital business that cut out 100% the capital cost from on-prem solutions. We've got security solutions around architectures for telecommunications advisors, and of course, we have lots of examples of migration and modernization and living workloads using Red Hat to do that. So there's a lot of great client examples. So to me, this is the heart of what we do. Like you said, both companies really focus on clients, Amazon's customer obsessed, and doing what we can for our clients together is where we get the impact. You know, that's one of the things that it sounds kind of cliche, oh, we're going to work back with some of the customer, I know Amazon says that, they do, you guys are also very customer-focused, but the customers are changing. So I'd love to get your reaction, because we're now in that cloud 2.0, I call that 2.0, or you got the Amazon classic, my word, and then next-gen cloud coming, the customers are different, they're transforming because IT's not a department anymore, it's in the DevOps pipeline. The developers are driving a lot of IT, but security and on data ops, it's the structural change happening at the customer. How do you guys see that at IBM? I know we cover a lot of Red Hat and Arvin talks with us all the time, meeting the customer where they are. Where are they? Where are the customers? Can you share the perspective on where they are? It's an astute observation, right? The customer is changing. We have both of those sets of customers, right? We still have the traditional customer, our relationship with central IT, right, and driving governance and all of those things, but the folks that are innovating many times are in the line of business, they're discovering solutions, they're building new things, right? And so we need our offerings to be available to them, we need them to understand how to use them and be convenient for these guys and take them through that process. So that change in the customer is one that we are embracing, right? By making our offerings easy to consume, easy to use, and easy to build into solutions, and then easy to parlay into what central IT needs to do for governance, compliance, and these types of things. It's becoming our new bread and butter. And what's really cool is we're- Is that the easy button? We've been talking about the easy button a lot on the show this week and if you just described it, it's exactly what people want going back in. I was going to say, sorry about that, I was going to say the cool part is that we're co-creating these things with our clients. So we're using things like the Amazon working backward that you just mentioned, we're using the IBM garage methodology to get innovative, to do design working, design thinking workshops, and think about where is that end user? Where is that stakeholder? What are they thinking, feeling, doing, saying? How do we make that easier? How do we get the easy button for them so that they can have the right solutions for their businesses? We work mostly with lines of business in my part of the organization, and they're hungry for that. You know, we had a quote on theCUBE yesterday, Savannah, remember one of our guests said, you know, back in the 1990s or 2000s, if you had four production apps, it was considered complex. Yeah. You got hundreds of workloads, thousands of workloads. So, you know, this end-to-end vision that we heard and it's playing out is getting more complex, but the easy button is where these abstraction layers and technology can come in. So it's getting more complex because it's more stuff, but it's getting easier because you can make it easier. This is a dynamic, share your thoughts on that. It's getting more complex because our clients need to move faster, right? They need to be more agile, right? So not only are there thousands of applications, there are hundreds of thousands of microservices that are composing those applications. So they need capabilities that help them not just build, but govern that structure and put the right compliance over that structure. So this relationship, this relationship we built with AWS is in our key areas. It's a strategic move, not a small thing for us. It covers things like automation and integration where you need to build that way. It covers things like data and AI where you need to do the analytics. Even things like sustainability where we're totally aligned with what AWS is talking about and trying to do, right? So it's really a good match made there. It really sounds awesome. Yeah, it's clear. I want to dig in a little bit. I love the term and I thought it might, it stuck out to me in the notes right away, getting ready for y'all, maniacal, maniacal about the customer, maniacal about the community. I think that's really clear. When we're talking about 24 days to 24 hours, like the veteran example that you gave right there, which I genuinely felt in my heart, these are the types of collaborations that really impact people's lives. Tell me about some of the other trends or maybe a couple other examples you might have because I think sometimes when our heads in the clouds, we talk a lot about the tech and the functionality, but we forget it's touching every single person walking around us probably in a different way right now that you might even be there. One of the things that's been, that our clients have been asking us for is to help coming into this new era, right? So we've come out of a pandemic where a lot of them had to do some really, really big, so quick decisions. Okay, contact center, everyone, I work from home now. Okay, how do we do that? Okay, so we cobbled something together, now we're back, so what did we do? How do we create digital transformation around that so that we're going forward in a really positive way that works for our clients, or for our contact center reps who are maybe used to working from home now versus what our clients need, the response times they need, and AWS has all the technology that we're working with, like Amazon Connect, to be able to pull those things together with some of our software like Watson Assistant. So those types of solutions are coming together out of that need, and now we're moving into the trend where economy's getting tougher, right? More cost cutting potentially is coming, right? Better efficiencies, how do we leverage our solutions and help our clients and customers do that? So I think that's what the customer obsession's about is making sure we really understand where their pain points are and not just solve them, but maybe get rid of them. Yeah, and not developing in a silo. I mean, it's a classic segue problem. You've got to be communicating with your community if you want to continue to serve them, and IBM's been serving their community for a very long time, which is super impressive. Do you think they're ready for the challenge? Let's do it. So we have a new thing on theCUBE. Oh boy. We didn't warn you about this, but here we go. Although you told, Alan, you've mentioned you were feeling very cool with the microphone on, so I feel like I'm going to put you in the hot seat first on this one. Not that I don't think Becky's going to smash it, but I feel like you're channeling the power of the microphone. New challenges, treat it like a 30 second Instagram reel style story, a hot take, your thought leadership, money clip, you know, this is your moment. What is the biggest takeaway, most important thing happening at the show this year? Most important thing happening at the show. Well, I'm glad you mentioned it that way because earlier you said we may have to sing. So this is much better than that. That's actually part of the close. Don't worry, don't worry. I haven't forgotten that. It's your Instagram reel, go. Alan, I have to sing. The original audio happening here on the YouTube. I'm so here for it. So my takeaway and what I would like for the audience to take away out of this conversation especially, but even broadly, the IBM AWS relationship, it's really like a landmark type of relationship. It's one of the biggest that we've established on both sides. It seems huge. I'm sorry, you're two monoliths in the world of companies. It's huge. And it represents a strategic change on both sides. With that customer in the middle. So we're seeing things like AWS is working with us to make sure we're building products the way that AWS client likes to consume them. So that we have the right integration so they get that right look and feel, but they still get the enterprise level capabilities they're used to from IBM. So the big takeaway I'd like for people to take is this is a new IBM. It's a new AWS and IBM relationship, right? And so expect more of that goodness, more of those new things coming out of it. That was great. Well done. You nailed it. And you're going to finish with some a cappella, right? You got the pitch pipe ready. All right, Becky, what about you? Give us your hot take. Well, so for me, the biggest takeaway is just the way this relationship has grown so much. So like you said, it's the new IBM. It's a new AWS. We were here last year. We had some good things. This year we're back at the show where joint solutions have been jointly funded and co-created by AWS and IBM. This is huge. This is a really big opportunity and a really big deal that these two companies have come together, identified joint customer needs, and we're going after them together and we're putting them in the booth. And there are things like smart edge for welding solutions that are out there. Yes. You know, I talked about, and it's, you know, you wouldn't think, okay, well, what's that? There's a lot to that, a lot of saving when you look at how you do welding. And if you apply things like visual AI and auditory AI to make sure a weld is good. I mean, I think these things are cool. Like geek out on these things. Every vertical. I'm geeking out with you right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every vertical. This is expected. They are, and it's so impactful to have AWS just in lockstep with us doing these solutions. It's so different from, you know, you kind of create something that you think your customer's like and then you put it out there. Yeah, versus this moment. The better together. The strategic partnership. It's truly a strategic partnership and we're really bringing that this year to reinvent and so I'm super excited about that. Congratulations. Wow, well congratulations again on your awards on your new partnership. I can't wait to hear. I mean, we're seven months in, eight months into this SAS side of the partnership. Can't wait to see what we're going to be talking about next year when we have you back on the cube and maybe again in between now and then. Alan, Becky, thank you both so much for being here. This was truly a joy. And I'm sure you gave folks a taste of the new IBM. Practicing what you preach. Great momentum. And I'm just, I'm so impressed with the two companies collaborating for those of us OGs in tech. The big companies never collaborated before. Yeah. And you have friction between co-created solutions. Everything else. I mean it's really, co-collaboration is a big theme for us at all the shows we've been doing this year but it's just nice to see it in practice too. It's an entirely different thing. So well done. It's like it's in a bed in the morning. All right, congratulations. Very clearly. Yeah, your energy is contagious and I love it. And yeah, this has been great. Thank all of you at home or at work or on the International Space Station or wherever you might be tuning in from today for joining us here in Las Vegas at AWS Reinvent where we are live from the show floor wall to wall coverage for three days with John Furrier. My name is Savannah Peterson. We're theCUBE, the source for high tech coverage.