 Live from Las Vegas, Nevada, it's theCube at IBM Interconnect 2015. Brought to you by headline sponsor IBM. Okay, welcome back everyone. We are live in Las Vegas for InterconnectGo.com, IBM's Interconnect show, InterconnectGo.com, a special social experience, a digital experience for your watching, go check out the site, VIP influencers, the video feeds are there from the main tent sessions, theCube developer, TV, of course, all the trending stories, trending hashtags, crowd chats, all powered by the crowd. This is theCube SiliconANGLE's flagship program. We go out to the events and extract the signal from the noise. I'm John Furrier, my co-host Dave Vellante, our next guest is Cynthia Grossman, the VP of SDG. Welcome to theCube. Thank you, glad to be here. Big data systems. Absolutely. All together. Infrastructure matters. Infrastructure matters. So where's it all fit? So we've been piecing the puzzles here. As Jeff Jonas would say, puzzle pieces, Jeff, we're using your puzzle pieces all day today. Puzzle pieces, the reorg, flattening, you got the analytics group, systems, storage. Where's storage fit in this and where's, I see a big data angle. Big data angle. You know what's interesting, because I love Jeff Jonas and his puzzle pieces because as the puzzle gets smaller and smaller, the pieces become more and more clear, right? And the infrastructure is one of the pieces that I think that people don't recognize is such a key element of that puzzle. Because it's going to be the thing that is going to make it perform. It's going to make it run fast. The storage matters, the platform matters that you're on. Where are you going to take, where does the data reside? You want to bring analytics to the data? You want to bring, you know, move the data? No. Well, the three core concepts that have been out here, we've been talking all week, systems of record, systems of engagement, now systems of insight. Systems of insight. Oh, it has to be stored somewhere, that's the data. It is. At storage. It is storage. And that storage matters. And what you don't want to have to do is have 50,000 copies of that data. So unstructured, structured, we're seeing particularly in the unstructured space, if you do this typical Hadoop with Intel, you're going to have like four copies of the data. You put it into a mainframe environment, you put it into a power environment, you put it into a traditional storage environment. You're not, you're going to use RAID, you're not going to have to worry about having multiple copies of that information. And we'll manage it, we'll secure it, we'll protect it. Those are all important things. And one of the things that's very interesting as it relates to the information around analytics, it's becoming much more mission critical to our businesses. It's no longer the copy that we're going to make and we're going to analyze. It is the copy that is going to make the difference in terms of how that business runs, what decisions they're going to make and what insights they're going to get. So tell us, the theme of the show is here at Interconnect is the compilation of three shows jammed together, more action, more people, 21,000 people, is the new way. So the question is, what is the new way for storage? Obviously a new way of data, but what is the new way for storage? It is about taking the information. The data layer around analytics, there's so much information that has to be stored. That data layer is absolutely critical to being able to get that systems of insight. That's what people are really ultimately wanting is that systems of insight. And the data layer is a very, very critical element. So you think about flash, that is all about speed of access to data. And you think about software defined. That is going to be how you scale, how you manage it. All of those elements are things that we're building out at IBM and that are going to increase the capability that clients have to manage and to get this systems of record, systems of engagement, systems of insight. So another thing with IBM is there's a new way to execute, right? So you've got a new organization. Ginny has flattened the organization. And you first met when you were in storage and you had an analytics role. Now you've got an analytics role specific to infrastructure. So it's interesting to see, so there's an analytics business group under Bob Pitchiano, but you're under Tom Rossimilio's organization, an STG, correct? So it's interesting to see, there's analytics everywhere. Big data is everywhere. So talk about that role that you play within that organization. The role I play and a lot of clients are saying, where's my data? What platform am I running on? And so the role I play is, it's agnostic to the platform. It's what is the element that you need to have in terms of being able to manage that information in the most economical, the most scalable way. And to be able to get that systems of record, connecting these things together. So the software layer is a very critical layer in analytics. And I look at analytics as one of the things that, while we took the infrastructure piece and it's underneath Tom Rossimilio, it has to be a key element of the analytics unit. The platform that you run on matters for clients and it's gotta be scalable. It has to perform. If you need instant access, if you need how the actual analytics applications run, all of that piece matters. And that infrastructure that we're doing, that connection transcends everything. And it's critical. In your specific role in that organization, working with customers, are you- Oh yeah, it's working with, it's strategy. It's working with customers. It's making sure that no matter where the data resides, that we are building out the infrastructure that is going to enable a client to get the analytics where they want, when they want, how they want it. So infrastructure agnostic, as long as there's some IBM infrastructure in there, now it could be somebody else's hardware. It could be. That's where the software-defined strategy spectrum we see is open to, as the SVC has always been. Yeah, but generally you're obviously want to promote IBM solutions. So we had Tom on at the January Z announcement in 2013. Let's see, we had just recently Jamie on here. We had Doug Balog on here as well. So we're touching all the bases. Who are we missing in that organization? You see- Well, Ross Morey for Mainframe. You know, Mainframe's interesting because Mainframe- We had Ross on. Okay, Mainframe's about bringing analytics to the data. Right, okay. So that was the big theme of the January announcement. So when you say infrastructure agnostic, what you're saying is you want to make sure that the client's matching the right infrastructure with the right workload. Exactly. And the bullets in your gun, if you will, maybe it's too small of an analogy, but you've got Z, you've got power, you've got storage portfolio, right? Well, storage is going to transcend everything, of course, right? So where does the information reside? And I'll tell you, one of our big plays is if you look at these non-structured, unstructured information, what clients a lot of times say is, Intel's good enough. Well, our view is not necessarily because when you do the Intel, you're going to have three, four, or five copies of your data, and do you want that? That's expensive. Do you want to scale your storage and your server together, or do you want to be able to, this is data grows, you want to be able to scale that storage separate from the server? You've mentioned that now a couple of times, the copy, copy creep production. Yes, exactly. So one way you're attacking that is just horsepower, right? So you've got the highest, higher performance, greater efficiency, et cetera. Are there other software components that you're objecting to? And software defined helps you manage it, platform computing helps you scale. The RAID technology is the thing that has the security level, because security is very important in this environment. This information is becoming mission critical to clients. It wasn't necessarily in the beginning, but it is becoming more mission critical than it ever was before. So how would you summarize this strategy within this group, as it specifically pertains to going after these new big data workloads? We look at things in a couple of layers. You have the data layer. The data layer is where the information resides. Systems of record, systems of engagement. Systems of a record is more your traditional databases, your structured information. Systems of engagement is the unstructured information that's coming in multiple places, the Hadoop environments, where we're building out infrastructures that help you manage that, and the software layer that helps you cleanse it, that helps you look at the insights, connects it. And both of these need to connect to the applications that allow you to do predictive, reporting, cognitive. Watson becomes a key element in this, and you've seen a lot of our announcements around healthcare in particular is one of our biggest deals, right? What we're doing in cancer research and that kind of thing. So there's the data layer. There's the application layer. The other layer that becomes very important is also the industry layer. So when you look at fraud in a financial institution, that's different than fraud in like, say, healthcare. Retail is all about how do I get closest to my client? How do I predict what is their next thing that they're going to want to do, and that being able to market to a single person, to you or to I, versus to a combination of whatever our generation is. So there's all those layers, and the infrastructure is an important element. So you guys, infrastructure matters is a big theme that's sort of been the last, I don't know, a month or so, and we've heard a lot about that. You've got some discussions going on at Interconnect about that. You got a keynote. Maybe talk about the activities at Interconnect, what the customer revive is like. Customer revive, you know, it's very interesting. The customer revive is all about moving to talking to the line of business and what are they wanting to accomplish. And what I tell clients is, don't think about just today, but where do you want to be? Where do you want to be? You don't have to go five years out, but where do you want to be next year and the next year? And so when you're looking at the solution, and I talk about a solution because all of the elements is solution. It's not about, some clients will take what they have and they repurpose it. Is that going to accomplish what you need to do in two years? You need to think about the future. And where do you want to go? What do you want to accomplish by doing analytics? And what is the solution infrastructure? Not just the hardware, but the software as well. What does that whole solution infrastructure need to look like as you're doing that? So do you spend most of your time with the analytics people, even though you're in the SDG group? I spend time with both. I spend time with both. It's an interesting challenge because when you work with the software, sometimes our history is software needs to run on anything, hardware needs to run with any software. Be agnostic. What we're trying to do is make sure we tune our hardware and our software together to be able to provide the best solution. So like DB2 Blue on Power is a very good example. The things that we've done with our mainframe and being able to have transactional information run with analytics on the same processor without having an impact to the transactional, that's another example of how we've tuned things, hardware and software, to work better together to be able to solve our client's needs. So what's next? What do you want to accomplish in the next, say, six, nine, 12 months? What do you want to see within the division? Like I say, newer. I think one of the biggest spaces that we have to continue to go after is this unstructured space. We're very good on the structured. We've got some applications that can help with the reporting. Watson also, by the way, Watson, I think has got some outstanding capabilities in terms of where it can go. It's like when I listen to what we talk about in terms of the spaces we're going to go into, it's endless in terms of what you can think about what you can do. But that unstructured information is the piece that clients, today I will tell you, they're not there yet in terms of analyzing that information. They really aren't. We're in our infancy. Is Watson a lift for the storage group? We saw a blue mix going out there, getting a little bit of a ramp, some adopts, we don't know how much that was from early adopters, tire kickers, but they inject Watson and then, boom, they go really high growth. Well, software as a service is a big deal, right? Clients, depending on the industry, some will feel comfortable with a private cloud. The public cloud, there's differences in terms of whether they feel comfortable with it, but I think blue mix allows clients to get to where they want to be quicker. The adoption of being able to go and get your applications running in an environment, blue mix is going to be a very key critical element to that. So there's a lot that we have to do. It's a very, very fun environment. So what's next now for you guys? Now, I've got to get the products out there. What's the update on the product front? Products are key in the storage business. It is. Let me see, competition like EMC, always announcing stuff, products, products, products. I mean, they're only in storage, but like, come on, dude. Yeah, so I think our server platforms are in pretty good shape. I think storage flash, the ability to get access to the information quicker, the ability to leverage it, to get faster insights, that's a critical element. I think software defined. Those are two elements in our storage portfolio that we have built out capabilities that I think are going to be differentiating and that are going to really enable us to grow in this particular space. We're all excited for the following you guys, watching the transformation of the storage group within IBM. It seems like from the outside looking in, if you're not watching the storage inside the ropes of IBM, it seems like there's some new energy you got. Products hitting, just a few years ago when we started doing the cubes at edges, at the edge events, it's like, okay, get some stuff there. Big data was coming around the corner. Everyone saw that coming. But also in the past couple of years, there's been this like morphing of storage. And what's the key now, software defined? Software defined is going to be a very key element to it. Scalability, manageability of this information is critical for clients. Security of the information is also very critical. So really building out those software defined to give clients an option, right? Because that's what they want. They want options. And I think that element that we're building in there is going to be a critical element. And I see, I'm a long time storage person before I ever took this job. And I'll tell you, I see new energy there. And it's exciting, very exciting. Awesome. Well, thanks for coming on theCUBE. I'll ask you the last final question. What's the vibe of the show here? We've been asking everybody. Well, hold on, two questions. We've got to get this other question to say. Data lake or data ocean? Which metaphor do you like better for the data drowning problem? People are drowning in dates. One of the main conversations here at the show, data drowning for clients, the consumption of the cloud on-prem, and then ecosystem of the top three. Kind of, we framed that out on day one. But data lake is like a batch. It reminds me of like, I mean, big batches, big lakes. But data ocean is more dynamic, streaming currents. Exactly. Which one do you like better? I like data ocean better because I think it's more reality. Clients are taking information in on the fly, wanting to analyze it and be able to have instantaneous insight into that information. And whether forecasting becomes critical on the ocean too, because that's predictive analytics. Oh, it is, yeah. Back to the data, right? Where are the big waves coming? Where are the currents? You don't want to get sucked out into a riptide. You know, whales are in the ocean too. You've got to protect the whales, yeah. All those customers. You've got to protect the whales, yeah. And the vibe of the show. What's your take of the show here? I mean, I'll see three shows in one. What's your take of the vibe here? Oh, it's very exciting. I mean, this environment that we're in today is so dynamic. And I've been in this industry a long time and the amount of change that is existing right now, it's exciting. We're having to all react faster and quicker to the things that are going on. So it's a lot of fun. I enjoy it a lot. And you got the show coming up, Edge. Yes, Edge will be coming up. That's in Vegas, right? Venetian, is it? I think so, yes. Yes, it's Venetian. You guys moved up a little bit this year. It's in May this year, not June, right? You know, we reorganized everything this year. Right. So we're trying to combine a couple of things together to be able to meet with clients and have more oriented discussions. So you got Impact, Edge, and Insight. Those are probably three of the most important conferences that we have in the year, so. So Edge is, is Edge going to be more of an STG show or is it more, so it's not. It still will be. Okay, so it's, it used to have a storage flavor, it always had a storage flavor. Yeah, it'll still have a storage flavor. Yeah, okay. Absolutely. Because it kind of started as a storage conference, right? It did, and it's kind of morphed to be a little bit more inclusive. Because of converged infrastructure and other things going on. So I'm going to find Data Center. Absolutely. I mean, it's a hot trend. Yes. Storage, it's a big linchpin. And you got server, storage, collapsing, gather, flash. All of it has to work together. In memory, processor, a lot of silicon advancements happening. Yep. Anything you can share about what's coming around the corner, hot focus areas, obviously all flash is one. You mentioned that. You know, we're taking each one of our platforms and we're trying to make sure that we've got the right orientation. The Z13 announce was a huge announcement for us. Yeah. And, you know, we've been talking about what we call CAMS, right? Cloud, Analytics, Mobile, Social and Security. And linking all these things together. And so the main frame is a place where, you know, there's a lot more. Big iron meets big data. Yeah, and there's a lot more. There's a lot more mobile than you would actually realize. Think about, you know, I'm going on my smartphone and I'm doing my transfers and my money and that kind of stuff. So the mobile piece of that's very critical. I got to tweet that out. Big iron meets big data. Just talk to my head. That's what the Z announcement was all about, right? It is. Like Sidney's saying, bringing analytics into the transaction workloads. It absolutely is. It's the system can handle it. Now, it's going to be interesting to see what customers actually do because they've got a lot of their analytics in a sort of separate stovepipe. So they're not just going to blink and bring it in but you've got tools to be able to help them to do that. What's interesting in this environment is everything that you and I do as consumers, we really are not thinking about it. I wonder what platform that's running on. The people who are providing the capabilities, they need to care. They need to care about the security. They need to care about the availability. They need to care about the performance because in a mobile world, if you don't have instantaneous access, we're going to go someplace else, right? That experience that you have is important. And so having the platforms that enable you to do that is absolutely critical. But yet, we as consumers, we don't want to think about it. Most people don't want to think about it. Somebody has to care. Well, Cindy, thanks for coming on theCUBE. We'll see you at Edge. We're looking forward to it. A lot of great stuff coming around the corner. A lot of exciting changes in the organization. It's the speed to market, customer speed, value. Are you seeing cloud driving that? Storage, same pace. Yes, absolutely. On-prem hybrid in the cloud, so great. Okay, thanks for watching theCUBE on this stage. We'll be right back after this short break. I'm John Furrier, Dave Vellante. We'll be right back.