 It's theCUBE, covering VMworld 2015. Brought to you by VMware and its ecosystem sponsors. And now your host, Dave Vellante. We're back, welcome to San Francisco. We're at Moscone Center in Moscone North. This is theCUBE. theCUBE goes out to the events. We extract the signal from the noise. This is our sixth year at VMworld. Jay Chitness is here. He's the director of mobility and end user solutions at EMCJ. Welcome to theCUBE. Hey, good to have you. So end user computing? I thought you guys were all about big iron. Let's go. Well, that's a great point. So I think one of the biggest things that we've been worrying about is really how do we address end users and some of the common problems that, you know, IT shops have had around deploying virtual desktops. So what we've done, as you probably noticed in the announcement that we made yesterday, we've taken a federation view of attacking the problem and end-to-end view, which really comprises of, as you can imagine, you know, really from the storage stack all the way through infrastructure and then all the way through to the application delivery monitoring. And then what we did is we really wrapped it around with services, with professional services, and then also with single-call support. So it's a really comprehensive solution. It's been validated across our infrastructure and we've just received some really positive feedback on it. So, like what? I mean, talk a little bit more about the announcement, the feedback that you're getting. You know, we saw Sanjay Poonan today. Of course. You know, up in the stage of Microsoft, which was kind of cool. What's been the reaction to the announcement? So it's been great. I mean, I think that, you know, if you just take a step back and you start thinking about just end user computing and when you start to think about what's really been plaguing IT, right, is there's a couple of things. One is, how do I deploy consistently an image or a set of desktops? How do I start small and grow, right? How do I monitor the entire end user experience from being able to say, hey, you're having some problems. You're having some issues because you might be on a network where the bandwidth is just terrible. And so it has really nothing to do with the ability of that actual virtual desktop, right? The other part is really being able to have a set of applications, being able to deliver those in a consistent manner. IT shops really get burned and burdened by a lot of time being spent on generating those images, making sure that there's interoperability, and then making sure that those get delivered extensively back into end users. So what is the, is there an end user computing stack? You know, we love to talk about stacks because it helps us create a mental model of the components. What's the stack look like for users? So I'll give you a great, just give you a quick overview of what our stack looks like. So today, our stack really consists of, like I said, on the infrastructure side. On the storage side, what we've done is we've optimized the solution around a couple key areas. One is performance is obviously a big thing, right? Especially when you look at VDI deployments, typically storage has been a bottleneck. Well, with our ExtremeIO product line, what we've done is we've taken that and we've implemented that as part of the OS images and so forth. So that helps significantly around performance. And then what we've also done is not really, you know, what we've done is we've really taken a holistic view of this. And so what I mean by that is, typically end user data, right? Is a big thing for us. So if you've got a desktop and all you've got is an image and it's a pain for you to be able to get to your end user data, you're probably not gonna use that virtual desktop. So what we've done is we've got VNX and Isilon as part of that storage mix for the end user file share data. And then what we've done on top of that is really built out a level of choice. And so what I mean by that is on the infrastructure side, obviously there's a converged infrastructure with VBlock but if you choose to do it on your own, we can help support that too. And if you choose to deploy that with an underlying enterprise hybrid cloud infrastructure, then the value just becomes a lot more. Now you don't have to. So sometimes customers have said to us, you know that environment, we've already got a cloud environment of our own that we really want to integrate this into. That's fine. So what we really wanted to do was once again, choice. When you go up the stack, there's the ability to do things like deliver applications consistently, be able to monitor that end user experience. So with the VMware stack, what we've done is we've taken the horizon enterprise suite and added that on top of that infrastructure that I just mentioned. And then when you power that together, right? When you bundle, when you look at how do I combine all that, there's a set of installation services that goes with it. And then also single call support for your EUC environment. Okay, so let me just make sure I understood that. Sure. So I got my choice of infrastructure. I got a mix of flash, VNX, I got the file level stuff, the scale out file, global file system of Isilon. If I want to go compute converged infrastructure, I can do that with a V block. Absolutely. And then you've got management layer, so the sort of application monitoring piece. Exactly. And then sets of services. And then that comprises the solution. Right, and then there's a catalog that end users can go to, right? With some of the V realized suite that end users can go to and be able to deploy a desktop on their own. The other thing that we did, right, which was really interesting because, you know, our level of expectation today, just based on where we're at, our level of expectation is really being able to get something in a self-service manner. I, you know, on the iTunes or an app store or whatever. So what we've done is through that catalog, I can go in and request a desktop for myself. I can go and add in my own custom apps into there. And then those things follow me based on wherever I am. So talk more about that catalog. I mean, how does that get constructed? What are my options there? What's in it? So what we did is we created, so this is part of the V realized suite, right? And so what we did is we really looked at what are some of the most common tasks associated with building out virtual desktops, tearing them down, do we recycle them? How do I reallocate some of those? How do I create that unique experience for that user who then has a much more positive experience and says, yeah, I get it. This is exactly what I want. I want something that I can have an experience where I've got access to my data. I've got access to across devices. And then I've got the ability to be able to access all the sort of content that I really need, right? So it's a management stack. It's a proactive monitoring capabilities in there. And what we've done is there's 13 workflows for IT, which is what I just kind of described to you, right? So what we've done is taken some of those 13 workflows and we've just really hit home made it really simple for IT to start small, grow. So I'm going to ask, how hard is it to build that kind of end to end solution? Maybe take us through the before and after. Absolutely, so I'll put it in two lenses, right? One is the first lens is really from an end user perspective. Typically, an end user would experience days, sometimes weeks. Now this is coming down and I can go literally go to a catalog, click, click, click, and I've got a virtual desktop deployed. And then I can customize that to whatever I need, right? So we don't necessarily presume that you and I have the same set of applications. So you might want to add some of your own. That's great. From an IT standpoint, what we've done is we've really automated and streamlined that entire process of being able to define the desktop, define the image, define the applications, and then be able to deliver those consistently. I mean, if you think about patches and patch management, that's such a huge issue. We've really streamlined a lot of that. Now, let me understand the organizational nuances associated with who do you even sell to? Is it the desktop people, the end user computing people, the networking people, the storage people? How does that all shake out? And how are organizations changing? Let's start with the first question. I think that's, you're hitting on something, right? I mean, these things are morphing and they're blending so much that we don't see a classic buyer being a storage buyer. Especially as we start to talk about, as is a federation solution, what ends up happening is we tend to have a discussion more around, what does your app story look like? What does the internal apps look like? I heard you say earlier, some of these custom apps have been sitting around in these environments for years, 10, 15, 20 years. We take a holistic view of that. And then what we tend to do is, this is not a, hey, let me tell you about all the speeds and feeds associated with my storage infrastructure. This is a truly transformation sort of approach where what we've really tried to do is optimize the experience, both on the IT side and then also on the end user side. So it's not really something where I'm going to sell to only the infrastructure person, right? We're really looking at this more of a, what you tend to see is much more of a CTO mobility sort of a story that customers are gravitating towards. Okay, and so the business proposition to that individual is, look, you've got this challenge. You've got this vision of what you want to deliver the business value for your organization. We've got an infrastructure component that we can deliver to support that business objective. Exactly. Okay, and so how do you go to market? Is it a direct sales model? Is it sort of partners both? So it is both. Obviously, extensively partnering with VMware and as part of the Federation, we're going to market that together. But we also see a significant opportunity where we jointly go after customers who really have the pain point of being able to say, I think I see an opportunity where, typically there's a desktop silo. And then those customers then tend to think about, how do I then, if I'm going to build out that infrastructure, are there other sets of applications or other workloads that I can put on top of that infrastructure? And so what they're doing is we're starting to see more desktop and applications, those groups, becoming much more closer together. I'll give you an example of eHealth. I know eHealth is a great example of a customer. eHealth is just a kind of level set. eHealth is a, they provide managed services and they provide IT infrastructure for some of the hospitals in Saskatchewan and Canada. And what they've done is they've realized and when they started looking at end user computing at the Federation AUC offering, they said, hey look, we really see an opportunity here to consolidate our infrastructure, bring those apps much more closely together so that those end users that are, whether they be doctors, nurses, whomever, when they're logging into their desktops, they get a much more seamless experience because they're not just looking at the desktop, they're also looking at other applications. So, you know, the challenge with sort of the old VDI was the experience wasn't ever the same, right? But so we're through that now. I think so. But the key, you're talking about that's interesting to me is the self-service component of it. That consumer experience. And I'm hearing you've achieved that. Yeah, absolutely. So, that's the really exciting thing about this, right? And that's what customers are telling us is really innovative because what we're really solving for are two key audiences. Like I said, IT and end users. And as you know, if an end user doesn't realize, when in that POC, when we see typically a small POC, a couple hundred users, right? If you don't put your best foot forward there, it's never going to scale. It's never going to catch on to the broader community. So, we wanted to make sure that we optimize that experience and then give the IT staff an ability to start small and then grow quickly to thousands of users. So, examples, you know, you mentioned eHealth, sort of types of companies that are doing this. Maybe, you know, give us some examples of successes, you know, the metrics that you've seen. Sure. So, types of companies that we're seeing really vary across the board. There's not necessarily a specific vertical. We have seen a lot of interest from healthcare, from financial services companies, but it's not necessarily intended to be a vertically oriented solution. It really does solve a much more horizontal set of offerings. But the regulated industries are going to gravitate to it more, right? I think that's exactly right. You know, what that level of control. In terms of the solution, what was the sort of history of it? I mean, when did you actually have this thing baked that you could go to market? How long did it take to kind of put together and maybe talk about it? Sure, sure. This has been, one of the things that we really wanted to do, as I kind of mentioned, was we really wanted to make sure that this was based on choice, right? And so, if there was some semblance of, if customers really wanted to be able to have the flexibility in deploying in their own cloud environment, that's great. If they wanted to be able to deploy it with a federation, EHE, great. This has taken months to develop. What we've seen and what we've done is we've incorporated customer feedback into the process as we were building the solution, as we were validating it. And frankly, it's just been awesome. It's been great. And we're seeing a lot of really positive reactions from customers. So, in terms of what a solution is inside EMC, I know you guys have a solutions group. It used to be the old kind of, you know, white paper was the solutions group, right? They really stepped it up. But I wonder if you could talk about, so the solution is one of those words that's really overused in our industry. So, talk about what a solution is to you guys. Sure, so in this context, it's really, it's a culmination of hardware, software, services. So, installation services all wrapped around with support. What that really means is it's an ability, which in this case, it's a validated architecture. We've validated that entire stack. And what we've done is we've created some building block approach, right? So, if you wanted to start with a 200 user implementation, great, you can do that. You can quickly scale that out. And by the way, not every desktop looks the same, right? So, there's a small, medium, and large sort of variant on that. How do we accommodate for that? How do we accommodate for the various applications stack? So, that's really, so what we really wanted to do was make something that was modular, you know, got the choice, but then it's validated and it's delivered and supported by AMC and the Federation. Okay, so I'm sitting down on my AMC sales rep and, you know, we're doing our account review, whatever, annual review, and tells me about this solution. I said, this looks really interesting. Let me get back to you. I go talk to my folks and my organization. Hey, let's do this. We do some, you know, tire kicking. We fly out to the, you know, EBC. Okay, we like what we hear. Hey, let's do a deal. Great. We sign a deal. What happens next? How does it all sort of get adopted, installed, adopted, absorbed into my organization, training, et cetera? So, it's a joint effort. It's a joint effort and it's typically services-led. And so, what we do is there's an assessment. There's an assessment in terms of what's actually in the environment. What do you want to change? What is the application catalog? And what did the application mix look like today? So, it might start there with a little POC. It would definitely start with a POC. So, that's a, is that a lost leader? Is it maybe a small four-pay engagement? How does that work? Depends, I guess, right? It just, it obviously depends, right, exactly. And what we've seen is, you know, really enterprise customers who are really taking, who have really taken to this, right? Let me go back to my example with eHealth. They were looking at deploying some additional hospitals. And so, one of the things that they really wanted to do was be able to scale from 6,000 users all the way to 12 to 18,000 users. And they didn't, obviously didn't want to do that in one shot, so that was over 12 to 18 months. And then they needed that ability to start that POC, understand it, understand what are some of the things that they need to do in their environment, and then, and then roll that out. Okay, and then so, services led, essentially the infrastructure gets installed, and great, now I've got this capability, and I presume you've got some training and knowledge transfer that occurs. And typically, I mean, I know this, no one answer, but what should I expect if I'm a, let's say I'm a medium to large company, in terms of, let's say you get small, medium-large, let's say I've got a medium, how long before I'm actually able to get up and running? Obviously, Dave, that's going to vary. And so what we've noticed is, some instances it varies by as much as, a lot of the pre-planning, the more planning that you do upfront really helps to accelerate that timeline. So, it could be weeks, it could be months. It could be months, it could be years if I don't do the right pre-planning. I don't think it'll be years. The customer's not ready, the customer's not ready, I guess that's my point. Assuming the customer's ready, they've done that pre-planning, they figure out their application portfolio, they got their processes down, they're ready to go, they're chomping at the bit. Are we talking days, weeks, months? Weeks. Weeks to get this in. It's great. It's absolutely, yeah. And then once it's in, now I'm adding new capabilities. Well, you're adding new capabilities, you're adding new functionality back into, you're adding additional applications, you're looking at that entire experience for that end user, and then you're able to diagnose and say, hey, you know, sometimes some of these users are having an issue. Let me go and figure out how to proactively go and figure that out. Or add new users instantaneously. Add new users, exactly. Deliver apps instantaneously, deliver application updates instantaneously. Our last question, so give us the bumper sticker on VMworld 2015 from your perspective. How would you summarize the event? That's been great. We've seen, as you can imagine, we've seen a lot of traction in terms of interest in the solution. We've got quite a few sessions. We've got some customers who are speaking on our behalf. We really think of this as a great opportunity, and frankly, it's a great opportunity that really demonstrates the portfolio of Federation solutions. So we're really excited about it, and can't wait to share it with the rest of the world. Federation alive and well, bringing strategic advantage to EMC and to customers. Jay Chitnis, thanks very much for coming to theCUBE. It's great to see you. Good to see you. Keep right there, everybody. We'll be back with our next guest. This is theCUBE. We're live from Moscone. Right back.