 Hi, welcome to theCUBE's coverage of Splunk.conf 21. I'm Lisa Martin. Brian Byrne joins me next. Director at Accenture, leading the EMEA Splunk partnership. Brian, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. Talk to me a little bit about the Splunk Accenture partnership. This goes back about five years, I believe. Yeah, let me provide a bit of a history. We have been starting with Splunk very intensively more than five years ago. We have been working very closely together to create something like an incubator approach to really serve the markets as best as possible. It was really successful. So exponential grows far beyond the markets for the last five years. So I'm really proud to be part of that journey. And the partnership is kind of anchored around three core components. The first component is what we typically call matching up our deep Accenture industry expertise with Cloud Splunk technology. So it really gives a unique differentiator in the market combining that unique industry understanding and the Splunk technology which is really capable to have an end-to-end platform for our clients. I'll give you an example. A couple of years ago, we have been starting to work in Germany with Deutsche Bank Cargo, which is one of the leading European freight companies where we really put the Splunk platform to the stretch and are using even IoT data like wagon shock sensors or locomotive data to create very fancy, you know, the use cases. So that's just an example how the deep industry expertise of Accenture and the Splunk technology expertise can work together. The second part maybe just to mention that is that Accenture in the partnership is developing industrialized solutions. And that is leading to Accenture IP which very rapidly can serve our customers in creating value and transforming our clients on their journey. A great example is our supply chain offering. We have developed the supply chain control tower which these days, obviously with the pandemic situation and the supply chain issues impacting our economic return and recovery is a very specific and very strong case. You can really use Splunk as a real-time supply chain and that's kind of the industrialized vertical solutions which we also build in our partnership. At last, let me comment on that one, the kind of third pillar is really around cloud. So we are focusing heavily on the cloud business as we see Splunk also an enabler of the cloud journey for our clients. And both Splunk and Accenture on their own digital transformation Splunk going to subscription only back in 2019 Accenture beginning it's a cloud transformation in 2015. Talk to me about the cloud first initiative. You launched this about a year ago. So during a very challenging time, talk to me about the objectives of the cloud first initiative, how you're working together with Splunk and what some of the value is in it for the customers. So Accenture really things cloud first. You see that we did a very aggressive transformation shift. We even changed our organizational structure how we serve our customers within our cloud first approach. So we combine our expertise from our strategy and consulting experts with implementation and delivery expertise to have the full end-to-end perspective on what we need to transform and to transition our clients into the cloud journey. And we are heavily investing into the cloud markets. We are doing kind of research in the market to understand also the client needs and the market developments. For example, we recently launched a European study called Cloud Continuum where we interviewed more than 4,000 executives around the globe on what are the key priorities along the cloud journey. What is it really that makes it unique and differentiated? And we see what are the driving facts in the cloud market in Europe. It's a bit special compared to the US. The key priority driver of our clients moving into the cloud is cost competitiveness. So they are really moving into the cloud to save cost as a cost play. Only the second kind of answer was like 38% of respondents has been elaborating around increasing customer value. And here you see already the difference between Europe and US. It's much, much lagging behind in terms of understanding the data in your cloud to create new business opportunities and new business value for your customers, which is typically an opportunity, but also a challenge. One of the challenges that organizations often face regardless of where they are in the world is looking at cloud from a price point perspective rather than a transformational journey perspective. And it sounds like you've actually seen the opposite with this survey that you mentioned. Yeah, I mean, that's a fair point. So as said, as in Europe, we are having many clients and customers focusing on the cost competitiveness. But that typically is just one key challenge. Another challenge, especially in Europe, is around complexity of our data regulation of trust and compliance so that very often leads to again silos in the cloud architecture. So typically something you would want to overcome with the cloud journey and again in a kind of siloed infrastructure. So we are having, we have seen that more than 60% of our customers have still parts of their data in on-prem data stores. They have kind of hybrid cloud environments. We have more than 48% of our customers in kind of multi-cloud environments. So you more and more see that the cloud journey again is a very complex task, a complex journey and you are ending up very often in new silos and here Splunk comes into play because Splunk can enable you to have the end-to-end perspective across your full stack, including multi- and hybrid cloud environment. And that's why the reason why we are looking for a strong interlock of our Splunk business into our cloud-first approach to really bring that value into our cloud journey of our customers. So the complexity has been increasing. You mentioned a very high percentage of customers in that hybrid multi-cloud environment. How do you extend your in Splunk? How does this cloud-first initiative help address the complexities that a multi-cloud environment brings and unlock the opportunities in all of this data? Yeah, I mean, there's different ways to see that in my perspective, a cloud transformation and the cloud journey always requires a smart data cloud strategy as a core to, I call it the core to win because without the cloud data strategy, you are losing really the benefit of the cloud journey in terms of the full value potential of your data. I do see like an evolutionary pass of the cloud transformation. First of all, it's bringing and transitioning our clients into the cloud and here Splunk would be at the first milestone, the end-to-end perspective of having the cloud observability and cloud monitoring capability. So it's combining the end-to-end picture in multi-cloud, hybrid cloud environment in a single pane of glass, which is really unique from a technology perspective. But in a second step, you could even go further and talking about machine learning technologies about AI and bringing that to the next level on that evolutionary pass. That's what we typically call AI ops and that again makes a difference in terms of automation in terms of efficiencies, in terms of prediction capabilities, which is a huge advantage and value potential for our clients. And the third step is coming back a bit to your point in terms of leaving the data value in the cloud. So if you are getting more and more advanced, you have so much data in your cloud that you could even use it for new business models for new customer service use cases. And that's kind of the third evolutionary pass, what I call the data to everything cloud, which is very similar to where Splunk is positioning in using all that data end-to-end for really bringing value and additional value add to your customers. There's a tremendous amount of value in that data if it can be analyzed value unlocked and analyzed and acted on in real time so that organizations can make business decisions on products and services. And obviously from a competitive differentiation perspective, there's a tremendous amount of value in unlocking that data. What have you seen in the last year since there's been so much acceleration? Where do customers, are they coming to you saying, Accenture, Splunk, help us figure out how to migrate to the cloud. We've got to go quickly. We've got these competitive pressures. We've got a very dynamic world market. What's that pathway like? Yeah, it's a very interesting time. So typically you see this cloud transformation journey as a journey of several years. And in the pandemic situation, you have seen that in a couple of months for some of our clients because it's really important to survive in this very disruptive economic situations. So obviously you start first with getting the basics done with kind of getting the migration done, getting the migration to the cloud and uplifting our clients technology to the next to the new kind of cloud paradigm. But as said, the kind of next evolutionary path would be increased automation, would be increased usage of all the cloud data for additional value add and additional business models or client use cases. There's kind of the starting discussion always is how to bring it to the cloud and how to create that flexibility, that also that gross flexibility in terms of being more resilient, being more agile as a customer. But Splunk can do much, much more. And that's the story we want to explain to the market that the basic steps are the right ones and Splunk is getting you there, especially in multi-hybrid cloud environments. But the very next step is really untapping the value. A lot of organizations have been challenged culturally in the last year and a half with suddenly this distribution of the workforce. And now here we are still in a distributed environment maybe getting towards a hybrid model but cultural change is challenging for organizations in any industry. Where is cultural change as a part of the pathway that Accenture and Splunk help customers to create? Absolutely spot on, thanks Lisa for the question. And going back to the research I was talking earlier on, we have also seen that 46% of our clients are really challenged by the complexity of the transition. It's the complexity of their business, of their business processes, but also the complexity of the operational change. And that really is a major pitfall and the major challenge for us. It's not only a technological challenge, but also it's a change and transition management where we also have specialized consultants for our TNO practice, our talent and change practice which are supporting our clients along that transition journey from a cultural perspective. Because I mean, you can change your IT infrastructure, you can create a new architecture in the cloud but it's really about getting the business into the next level of understanding these complex data situations and processes and leveraging the value of the cloud. So that's a huge business change as well. It is a huge business change which is challenging for a lot of folks again given the distributed nature in which we are still working. Talk to me about an example of a successful customer that Accenture and Splunk have worked with in the last year who's really embraced the cloud-first initiative and is transforming their organization to not only survive these challenging times but to thrive as well. Yeah, one of my favorite examples is a leading hotel chain. Obviously the hotel industry has been heavily impacted by COVID. So there was a need to change, a need to get more resilient, more agile, more flexible, using the cloud transformation story also again as a cost transformation play but also changing the way the business is working. So we started with a typical cloud transformation journey. We evolved it towards what we call the AI-obsess scenario in terms of really using machine learning technologies and AI to get more prediction, more automation, more efficiencies. So we could even reduce the operational costs by more than 5%, which is a huge baseline and leading global companies, which frees up a lot of money which you can then reinvest for kind of new, smarter business use cases in addressing your clients and understanding your clients and ultimately generating new value for your clients. So that's a very nice example of how you could start with an IT transformation journey changing into a cloud architecture using AI-obs to freeing up resources for new addressing for kind of new addressable customer use cases and business benefits. What's the go to market? Like where can customers go to learn more and get started? Are they starting with Accenture? Are they starting with Splunk? Can they do both? We have a very collaborative partnership with Splunk. We have a strong partnership team. As we speak, we have more than 4,000 people working on Splunk projects globally. So it's a very strong capability. You can reach out to Accenture and you can reach out to Splunk. It's kind of a collaborative strategic go to market approach. And I think that's also a bit the advantage of the Splunk Accenture partnership that we are very closely, very collaboratively going to the market. Yes, Accenture is bringing IP and assets and the industrialized delivery methodology. We are able to really scale up globally across the market. And Splunk is bringing their technology and their expertise. I think it's a winning combination. A winning combination and that collaboration is certainly critical to enable that. Brian, last question for you. As we approach the end of calendar year 2021, what are some of the things on the horizon for the Cloud First initiative that you're excited about as we enter 2022? I think it's really getting traction now. We have seen a lot of our clients going into the Cloud. But as said, from my perspective, it's just the start of the journey. So once you get there, the kind of interesting milestones start, you can create the automation efficiencies. You can create the data value and use the data value for new scenarios, new use cases. And that's where it really gets interesting and fun and innovative in getting all these data across your company and understanding and being creative how you can use it to benefit your customer and to bring that customer experience to the next level. And that's what I'm looking really forward to coming from the IT transformation, the Cloud transformation journey to the customer experience and to improving the customer perspective. Improving the customer perspective is key as is the customer experience. We're all customers in our daily lives and our personal lives and our business lives. And we have this expectation that any organization we're dealing with is going to be able to give us a stellar experience. Brian, thank you for joining me on theCUBE today, sharing what the latest and greatest in the Splunk Accenture partnership, the value that you're delivering for customers and some of the things that you're excited about as we go forward. We appreciate your time. Thanks, Kizla, thanks for having me. My pleasure. For Brian Berg, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE's coverage of splunk.conf 21.