 Greetings from San Francisco. The Cube is live. This is our second day of wall-to-wall coverage of VMware Explorer 2022. Lisa Martin and Dave Nicholson here. We're going to be talking with some ladies from Rackspace next. Please welcome Adriana Bustamante, VP of Strategic Alliances, and Hannah Deuce, Director of Strategic Alliances from Rackspace. It's great to have you on the program. Thank you so much for having us. Good afternoon. Good morning. Is it lunchtime already? Almost. Almost. Yes. And it's great to be back in person. We were just talking about the keynote yesterday that we were in, and it was standing room only. People are ready to be back. They're ready to be hearing from VMware, its ecosystem, its partners, its community. Yes. Talk to us, Adriana, about what Rackspace is doing with Dell and VMware, particularly in the healthcare space. Sure. No, so for us, partnerships are a big foundation to how we operate as a company. And I have the privilege of doing it for over 16 years. So we've been looking after the Dell and VMware partnership ourselves personally for the last three years, but they've been longstanding partners for us. And how do we go and drive more meaningful joint solutions together? So Rackspace, you know, been around since 98. We've seen such an evolution of becoming more of this multi-cloud transformation agile global partner. And we have a lot of customers that fall in lots of different verticals from retail to public sector and to healthcare. What we started noticing, and what we're trying to drive as a company, is how do we drive more specialized solutions? And because of the pandemic and because of post-pandemic, and everyone really trying to figure out what the new normal is addressing different clients, we saw that need increasing, and we wanted to rally together with our most strategic alliances to do more. Hannah, talk about, obviously the pandemic created such problems for every industry, but healthcare being front and center still is. Talk about some of the challenges that healthcare organizations are coming to Rackspace going, help. Yeah. The common theme that we've heard from some of our large providers, healthcare providers has been, help me do more with less, which we're all trying to do as we navigate the new normal. But in that space, we found the opportunity to really leverage some of our expertise, long-term expertise, and that the talent and the resource pool that we had to really help in some of the challenges that are being faced are resource shortage, talent shortage, and so Rackspace is able to leverage what we've done for many, many years and really tailor it to the outcomes that healthcare providers are needing nowadays. That more with less mantra runs across the gamut, but a lot of it's been, help me modernize, help me get to that next phase. I can't, I don't have the resources to DIY it myself anymore. I need to figure out a more robust business continuity program. And so helping with business continuity, DR, third copies of just all this data that's growing. So it's not just COVID pandemic driven, but it's, that's definitely driving the need and the requirement to modernize so much quicker. It's interesting that you mentioned Rackspace's history and expertise in doing things and moving that forward and leveraging that, pivoting, focusing on specific environments to create something net new. We've seen a lot of that here. If you go back 10 years, I don't know if that's the perfect date to go back to, but if you go back 10 years ago, you think about VMware, where would we have expected VMware to be in this era of cloud? We may have thought of things very, very differently. Rackspace, a pioneer in creating off-premises, hey, we will do this for you. Didn't even really call it cloud at the time, right? But it was cloud. And so the ability for entities like Rackspace, like VMware, we had a net app talking to us about stuff they're doing in the cloud 10 years ago. If you, I would say, no, they'd be dead. They'll be gone, they'll be gone. So it's really, really cool to see Rackspace making this transition and being aware of everything that's going on and focusing on the best value proposition moving forward. I mean, am I, do I sound like somebody who would fit into the Rackspace culture right now or do I not get it? Yes, you sound like a Racker. We'll make you an honorary Racker. That's what we call Rackspace employees. Yes, you know what we've noticed too and is budgets are moving. Those decision makers are moving. So again, 10 years ago, just like you said, you would be talking to sometimes a completely different persona than we do today. And we've seen a shift more towards that business value. We have a really unique ability to bring business and technical conversations together. I did a lot of work in the past of working with a lot of CMO and digital transformation companies and so helping bring IT and business. Seeing the same in healthcare because budgets are living in different places and then even across the board with Rackspace, people are trying to drive more business outcomes, business driven solutions. So the technical becomes the backend and really the ingredients to make all of that, all of that happen. And that's what we're helping to solve. And it's a lot, it's very fast paced. Everyone wants to be agile now. And so they're leaning on us more and more to drive more services. So if you've seen Rackspace evolve, we're driving more of that advisement and those transformation service type discussions where our original history was, DNA was very much always embedded in driving a great experience. Now they're just wanting more from us, more services, help us figure out the how. Adriana, comment on the outcomes that you're helping healthcare organizations achieve as we, it's such a relatable, tangible topic. Healthcare is right. Everybody's got somebody who's sick or you've been sick or whatnot. What are some of those outcomes that customers can expect to achieve with Rackspace and VMware? No, great question. So very much I can't have mentioned earlier, it's how do I modernize? How do I optimize? How do I take the biggest advantage of the budgets and the landscape that we have? I want to get to the cloud. We need it to help our patients and get access to that data. Is this ready to go into the cloud? Is this not ready to go into the cloud? How do we help make sure we're taking care of our patients, we're keeping things secure and accessible? You know, what else do you think's coming up? Yeah, one specific one, sequencing, genetic sequencing. So we've had this come up from a few different types of providers, whether it's medical devices that they may provide to their end clients and the outcome that they're looking for is how do we leverage, here's our IP, here's what we do, but now we have so many more people we need to give this access to. We need them to be able to have access to the sequencing that all of these different entities are doing and the outcome that they're trying to get to is more collaboration. So that way we can speed up in the face of a pandemic, we can speed up those resolutions, we could speed up to whether it's a vaccine needed or something that's going to address the next thing that might be coming. So that's the specific one, I've heard that from a handful of different clients that we work with and so trying to give them a consolidated, not trying to, we are able to deliver them a consolidated place that their application and tooling can run in and then all of these other entities can safely and securely access this data to do what they're going to do in their own spaces and then hopefully it helps the betterment of us globally, like as humans in the healthcare space, we all benefit from this. So leveraging the technology to really drive a valuable outcome helps us all, so. So by the way, I like trying to because it conveys the proper level of humility that we all need to bring to this because it's complicated and anybody who looks you in the eye pretends like they know exactly how to do it. You need to run from those people. That's fair. It is and look, that's where our partners become so significant. We know we're best in class for specific things but we rely on our partnerships with Dell and VMware to bring their expertise, to bring their tried and true technology to help us all together collectively deliver something good. Technology for good. Technology for good. It is inherently good and it's nice when it's used for good as well. It's nice when it's used for good. Talk about security for a second. You know, we've seen that the threat landscape changed dramatically. Obviously nobody wants to be the next for each ransomware becoming a household term. It's now a matter of when we get ahead, not if. Where has security gone in terms of conversations with customers going, help us ensure that what we're doing is delivering data access to the right folks that need it at the right time in real time in a secure fashion? No, that's another good question in hot and burning. So, you know, I think if we think about past conversations, it was that nice insurance offering that seemed like it came at a high cost. Do you really need it? I've never been breached before. I'll get it when I need it. But exactly to your point, it's the when and not the if. So, what we're finding and also working with a nice ecosystem of partners as well from anywhere from Akamai to Cloudflare to BT, it's how do we help ensure that there is the security? As Hannah mentioned, that we're delivering the right data access to the right people and permissions. You know, we're able to help meet the multitude of compliance and regulations. Obviously healthcare and other regulated space as well. We look to make sure that from our side of the house from the infrastructure that we have the right building blocks to help them reach those compliance needs. Obviously it's a mutual partnership in maintaining that compliance and that we're able to provide guidance and best practices on to make sure that the data is living in a secure place, that the people that need access to it get it when they need it and monitor those permissions. And back to your complexity, Comet. So, more and more complex as we are a global provider. So, when you start to talk to our teams in the UK and our clients there, specializing kind of that sovereign cloud mentality of hey, we need to have a cloud that is built for the specific needs that reside within healthcare by region. So, not just even, I mean, we're homegrown out of San Antonio, Texas. So, we know the US and have spent time here, but we've been global for many years. So, we just get down into the nitty gritty to customize what's needed within each region. Well, Hannah, is that part of the rack space value proposition at large moving forward? Because frankly, look, if I want something generic, I can swipe credit card and fire up some services. Moving forward, this is something that is going to more characterize the rack space experience. And I understand that the hesitancy to say, hey, it's complicated. It's like, I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that it's easy. It's like, well, okay, we'll make it easy for you, but it's still complicated. Is that okay? That's the honest answer. That's why you need help, right? That's why you need help. Talk about that. Because people have a legitimate question, why rack space? And I don't want to put you on the spot, but why rack space? You've talked a little bit about it already, but kind of encapsulate it. Oh gosh. So good question. Why rack space? It's because we can help you. Go ahead and stand up while you stand up. Yeah. I know. Well, you can do it. There's many different options out there. And if I had a PowerPoint slide, I'd show you this like lovely web of options of directions that you could go. And what is rack space value? It's that we come in and simplify it. Because we've had experience with this, this same use case, whatever somebody is bringing forward to us, is typically something we've dealt with numerous times. And so we're repeating and speeding up the ability to simplify the complex and to deliver something more simplified. While it may be complex within us and we're like working to get it done, the outcome that we're delivering is faster, it's less expensive than dedicating all the resources yourself to do it and go invest in all of that that we've already built up and then we're able to deliver it in a more simplified manner. It's like the duck analogy, the feet below the water. Yeah, exactly. And a lot of expertise as well. Yes. Talk a little bit about the solution that Dell VMware Rackspace are delivering to customers. Sure. So when we think about healthcare clouds or cloud specific to the healthcare industry, there's some major players within that space so you think epic. We'll just use them as an example. This can play out with others, but we are building on a custom or we have a custom clouds able to host Epic and then provide services up through the Epic application through partnership. So that is broadening the market for us in the sense that we can tailor with that healthcare provider needs. Do they have the expertise to manage the application? Okay, you do that. And then we will build out a custom fit cloud for that application. Oh, and you need all the adjacent things that come with it too. So then we have reference architecture built out already to tailor to whatever all those other 40, 80, 90, hundreds of applications that need to come with that. And then you start to think about imaging platforms. So we have imaging platforms available for those specific needs, whether it's MRIs and things like that. And then the long-term retention that's needed with that. So all of these pieces that build out a healthcare ecosystem and those needs, we've built those out and provide those to our clients. Yesterday VMware was talking about cloud chaos. And it's true, you talk about the complexity and Dave talks about it too, like acknowledging, yes, this is a very complex thing to do. There's just so many moving parts, so many dynamics, so many people involved or lack there of people. They then talked about kind of the goal of getting customers from cloud chaos to cloud smart. How does that message resonate with Rackspace? And how are you helping customers get from simplifying the chaos to eventually get to that cloud smart goal? So a lot of it, I believe, is with the power of our alliances. And I was talking about this earlier. We really believe in creating those powerful ecosystems. And Jay McBain, former forester analyst, talks about the people are going to come ahead, really serve as that orchestration layer of bringing everybody together. So if you look at all of that cloud chaos and all of the different logos and the webs and which decisions to make, the ones that can help simplify that, bring it all together like we're going to need a little bit of this, like a baking a cake in some ways, we're going to need a little bit of sugar. We'll need this technology, this technology and whoever's able to put it together in a clean and seamless way. And as Hannah said, we have specific use cases in different verticals, healthcare specifically and talking from the imaging and the epic, helping them get hospitals and different smaller clinics get to the edge. So we have all of the building blocks to get them what they need. And we can't do that without partners, but we help simplify those outcomes for those customers. So there's where they're cloud smart. So then they're like, I want to be agile. I want to work on my cost. I want to be able to leverage a multi-cloud fashion because some things may inherently need to be on Azure. Some things may inherently need to be on VMware. How do we make them feel like they still have that modernized platform and technology, but still give the secure and access that they need? Right, yeah. We like to think of it as, are you multi-cloud by accident or multi-cloud by design? And help you get to that multi-cloud by design and leveraging the right tools, the right places. And Dell was talking about that, just that, at Dell Technologies World just a couple of months ago that most organizations are multi-cloud by default, not design. Are you seeing any customers that are able or how are you able to help customers go from that? We're here by default for whatever reason, acquisition, growth, shadow IT, line of business, and go from that default to a more strategic multi-cloud approach. Yes, it takes planning and commitment. You know, you really need the business leaders and the technical leaders bought in and saying, this is what I'm going to do, because it is a journey. Because exactly where I M&A is like inherited four different tools. You have databases that kind of look similar, but they're a little bit different, but they serve four different things. So at Rackspace, we're able to help assess and we sit down with their teams. We have very amazing Rockstar expertise that will come in and sit with the customers and say, what are we trying to drive for? Let's get a good assessment of the landscape and let's figure out what are you trying to get towards in your journey and looking at what's the best fit for that application from where it is now to where it is where it wants to be. Because we saw a lot of customers move to the cloud very quickly. You know, they went cloud native very fast. Some of it made sense. Retailers who had the spikiness that completely made sense. We had some customers though that we've seen move certain workloads. They've been in the public cloud now for a couple of years, but it was a static website. It doesn't make as much sense anymore for certain things. So we're able to help navigate all of those choices for them. So it's interesting, you just said something sort of offhand about having experts and having them come in. So if I am a customer and I have some outcome I want to achieve, the people that I'm going to be talking to from Rackspace are from Rackspace. And the people from Rackspace who are going to be working with the actual people who are deploying infrastructure are also Rackspace people. So the interesting contrast there between other circumstances, oftentimes, is you may have a global systems integrator with smart people, representing what a cloud provider is doing. The perception, they try to make people perceive that okay, everybody is working in lockstep, but often there are disconnects between what the real capabilities are and what's being advertised. So is that, I mean, it's like a leading question. It's like, try that, softball. Get your bats out, it costs me softball. But I mean, isn't that an advantage? You've got a single, the saying used to be one throat to choke. Now it's one back to pack. Because it's kind of, kind of in general. We'll go first into hug. Yeah, but talk about that. I mean, is that a real advantage? It does. It really helps us because, again, this is our expertise. This is where we live. We're really close to the infrastructure. We're great at the advisement on it. We can help with those ongoing and day two management and operations of what it feels like to grow and scale. So we lay this out cleanly and clearly as possible this is where we're really good. We can help you in these areas. But we do work with system integrators as well and part of our partner community because they're working on sometimes the bigger overall transformations. And then we're staying, look, we understand this multi-comp. But it helps us because in the end, we're doing that end to end for them. Customer knows this is racked space and on hand. And we really strive to be very transparent in what it is that we want to drive in outcomes. So sometimes at the time where it's like, we're going to talk about a certain new technology, Dell might bring some of their architects at the table. We will say, here is Dell with us. We're doing that actively in the healthcare space today. And it's all coming together. But you know at the end of the day, this is what racked space is going to drive and deliver from an end to end. And we tap those people we needed. So you don't have to worry about picking up the phone to call Dell or VMware. So if I had worded the hard-hitting journalist question the right way, it would have elicited the same response instead. Yes, yes, yes. It drives accountability at the end of the day. Because what we advised on what we said, now we got to go deliver. And it's all the same, the same organization driving accountability for that. So from a customer perspective, they're engaging racked space who will then bring in Dell and VMware as needed to find the solution. Exactly. We have all of the certification. I mean, the team is great on getting all of the certs. Because we're used to handling all of the level one, level two, level three business. They know who to call. They have their dedicated account teams. They have engagement managers that help them drive what those bigger conversations are. And they don't have to worry about the experts because we either have it on hand or we'll pull them in as needed. If it's the bat phone, we need to call. Yeah. Awesome, ladies. Thank you so much for joining Dave and me today, talking about what racked space is up to in the partner ecosystem space and specifically what you're doing to help healthcare organizations transform and modernize. We appreciate your insights and your thoughts. Yeah. Thank you for having us. Take care. Our pleasure. Bye. For our guests and Dave Nicholson, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE Live from VMware Explorer 2022. We'll be back after a short break.