 Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE covering HPE Discover 2017 brought to you by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Hey, welcome back everyone. We are live here in Las Vegas for SiliconANGLE Meetings theCUBE's three day of exclusive coverage of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HPE Discover 2017. I'm John Furrier with my co-host Dave Vellante, seven years covering HP and we have our next guest who's been on the job for seven weeks, part of that set the senior vice president of HPE Point, next consulting industry veteran of cloud. You understand what's going on. Appreciate you coming in and sharing. Thank you for having me. You're talking points for seven weeks in the job, but you're new to HPE. Welcome to theCUBE. Thank you. So fresh in to HPE, got fresh eyes. You've been around the industry for a while. What is the hybrid journey for HPE? Because we're just in the Q and A with Meg and Antonio with the press and the analysts and still people are trying to put it together. Like no cloud, how do you guys fit in this? So hybrid cloud and simplifying hybrid IT, they're not saying simplifying hybrid cloud, simplifying hybrid IT which implies cloud. No, exactly. I think the approach that I would take is if you look at the role of the IT, it's really changing. I mean, if you, you can consider IT to be the strategic source right now. It's no longer who build it, who own it, who run it. Because now they're really managing a supply chain. So you're looking at the private cloud, public cloud and people having the highly automated infrastructure or software defined infrastructure and legacy bespoke systems. So the job of the IT is really getting very complex. So when you heard Meg talk about making hybrid IT simple, so for point next consulting standpoint, it's really working with the clients about making that journey much more simpler and making sure it's not just simple, but the speed is there as well as that we are focused on the workloads to really moving the workload securely. Because at the end of the day, the whole journey is really centered around the workload side of the house. And your role is, is my correct, it's tip of the spear consulting, is that right? And strategy consulting? That's correct, it includes the consulting and the professional service portfolio. So help us understand because when EDS, we went to CSC with a spin merge, all of a sudden you're seeing Accenture Deloitte and others come out of the woodworks. And that's, this is their wheelhouse and strategic consulting. So where do you pick up and how do you relate to those guys? Yeah, now it's like it's a great question and in fact, it's with the spinoffs, it's also given us a great opportunity to really work with a number of the ESIs and so we'll have a close working relationship with a number of them. And so from the way I look at the strategic consulting, where we add value is really more around the technology consulting piece of it. And because that's where we feel that we can really add differentiation and the partnering with some of our ESIs, that's where they can help us from the verticalization piece of it, the business process side of it, because that's not really our core strength. Our core strength is really around the technology consulting and also being around and dealing with and doing 11,000 plus engagements every year from point next perspective. There's a lot of experience that we bring to the table, partnering with our ecosystem, we truly bring some of these outcome-based solutions that we keep referring to. Dave's team at Wikibon has put out some pretty seminal research. I think it's very unique. I don't think any other research firm has actually documented this, even captured the numbers, but they just did a report called the true private cloud report go to wikibon.com for the folks watching. But really what it illustrates is that IT is not declining, it's only increasing in its capabilities. So yeah, server shipments might be declining, but at the end of the day, IT is changing and growing with cloud. But one of the points in that survey is the TAM is 260 billion plus in true private cloud. That doesn't include hybrid. But the other statistic besides the TAM is the fact that the labor costs are undifferentiated and being automated away with cloud, which is a good opportunity. And then the shifting of those resources to differentiated apps or services is the focus. That's business transformation. That's what you guys are doing. Sherab, what's up? Your thoughts and how you guys look at that. Obviously you're only seven weeks in from an HP perspective, but you've been in the industry. How are you guys going to attack that trend and ride that wave of shifting that to differentiated capabilities? Yeah, I think so one of the things you always hear about from a technology standpoint, a lot of folks focus on just the technology piece of it. And what we're finding is when we engage with the clients, it's really taking a look at, even before the technology, is what is the strategic framework? Why do so many digital transformation projects stall or fail? Because there's no end to an alignment in terms of business, IT and OT side of the house. So what you're seeing is from the consulting side of the house is kind of making sure that we bring these things together. And we have a methodology called Unified Transformational Framework, UTF, and which has seven key domains. And one of the first things we do when we engage with the clients, we bring them together, business side of it, the IT side of it, and we assess where they're at today in each one of those domains and assess the gaps. And then we actually put together a strategic framework with them in terms of what is the desired state where they want to be, where they're at today, and how do we map out that cloud journey to gather with them? And more importantly, what are the key outcomes they're really seeking? So if they are looking at focusing on achieving certain cost efficiency or launching new services faster or securing information network, or from an IoT perspective, what are the specific use cases, like for all in gas, you may have heard some of the examples here with text mark on refinery of the future. What are some of those outcomes they're looking for? And then kind of working backwards to make sure that we can take them on their journey roadmap and accelerate that whole journey. That's the time to value equation. So it seemed like the hybrid IT message that you guys provide is the foundational infrastructure for a digital transformation. Okay, sounds good. Now let's peel that back a little bit because if I'm an executive and a board, I'm saying, okay, great. How do we get started? How do we pay for it? You come in with your maturity model. Here's where you guys are at. How much of that conversation is around the data and data, data value, how to monetize data, how it contributes to whatever objective, raise revenue, cut costs, et cetera. How much of the conversation do you anticipate is going to be around that data? No, actually there's quite a bit of discussion on the data as well. So I'll take it in steps of, there's two main topics that come up. One is really around the workloads as to enterprises have hundreds, thousands of applications running, but not every application, not every workload needs to move to a public cloud or private cloud. Some of them may be more suited towards just the dedicated infrastructure that they already have. So one of the first things we're focusing on through the tool, we do an inventory, as well as through the interviews. Because one path doesn't give you all the information that you see. Synthesizing the two really gives you the full picture. And then on top of it, more and more data is getting generated at the edge. And so in terms of what do you do with the data? How can you help them drive real-time action? And then what can you do to monetize on the data? Just like the example with the M1 GT team that's been showcased here, that's not just change the fan experience. It's also helping them take in the look at the data, the loyalty and everything else, and then increasing opportunities to drive top line growth from the revenues in the concession stand or promotional material. So you're absolutely right. The focus is more about not just gathering the data, the data production, data consumption, it's how do you monetize on that piece of it? And does HPE focus more on the IT transformation and your partners, like the big SIs on the business transformation? Or no, is it not that simple? It's not that clear cut lines? It's hard to just kind of say, okay, those are in their silos because there's that intersection point that really drives the digital transformation. That's one thing that I think we are uniquely positioned because number of these solutions you see on the demo floor here who jointly partnered up with our ecosystem. And that really drives that value up from the business outcome standpoint. So it's not just what the technology is able to do. It's not just who are able to have a faster server just than that. It's really more about what will that enable in terms of what is the business outcome that's enabling? But I would imagine your partners are deep experts in some healthcare business process that HPE doesn't possess. And you guys, from a technology standpoint, it can go much deeper than they can. My question is, how much of the conversation from your partners has been or do you expect it to be, hey, you know what? If you could do this with the technology, we can really help this company and win a large deal, for example. Which is a semi-custom, and it requires a deep technological expertise to marry with that business process. No, absolutely. In fact, I was with a partner earlier and actually what you just called out was very similar discussion with them. We're there, so from a healthcare perspective, one of the things we can do is, and we have done, we're at the picture and archiving communication system, we can package what one of the other providers does along with computer network storage, package that up, and where the configuration provisioning time is reduced dramatically when they show up on site, everything is pre-configured. But then jointly with a partner who has more knowledge about the patient experience, marrying the two, you can actually see not just how the healthcare provider and the patient are going to interact, but also the information that's generated there, how can that be analyzed at a remote location through a specialist. So it's that whole chain, the value chain that you can do with a partner that you're just not able to do yourself. Am I correct? You run a P&L, right? This is not a free... That's correct. No, it isn't. Okay, yes. So yeah, from that standpoint, we do work with the ecosystem where there is some investment made on the solutioning of it, but then obviously you take a look at does the solution make sense? Is there a market for it? Can you do the repeatability aspect of it? And if the answer is yes, then certainly both sides get much more heavily engaged. Arvesh, talk about the dynamic and digital transformation, specifically around as companies really transform from being analog to digital, that basically makes them cloud service providers. So if they have a certification, that's kind of a shift. This is the shift in IT we're talking about. Yeah, keeping the lights on, running servers in the data center, old way, classic enterprise. Portions of their operations now have to be shifted to this new way of doing IT to be a service provider. Yet they're not service providers, but they're becoming ones. Or they'll, the end user customer might buy from a partner that's becoming a service provider, either building their own cloud. Is that how you guys see it at point next? And how are you nurturing this or working with this mega trend that's the cloud is enabling? Right. So I'll give a couple of examples. I was with a client very recently and they've been trying to, they've been actually doing a number of use cases, 50 plus use cases in their labs on the whole use cases on digital transformation. And each use case theoretically can generate millions of savings for them. But at the same token, they haven't been able to take it out of the lab and mainstream it. So this goes back into the alignment piece of it. And then also the cultural and the organizational aspect always gets overlooked. Because if the focus is just on the solution piece of it or digitalization of the workflow, and you have not to transform the workforce in terms of how they should evolve, how the skillset should evolve and if certain roles are getting combined, how should they be dealing with that piece of it? You know, we have talked about DevOps or OpsDef is really the whole notion around how they should be working differently than before. If that aspect of it hasn't been put a lot of focus on most of those transformations literally stall or fail. You mean on the cultural piece of it? On the cultural piece of it, absolutely. So this is another area that we put a lot of focus on and in fact we have actually one of the offers who rolled out the management of change is actually getting a lot of traction just because of the reason. You know, one of the challenges that companies that I talked to you have is actually funding the digital transformation. The incentive to do it as well, if we don't do it, we're going to get uberized. Okay, so people get that, but at the same time the CFOs are like, okay, that's fine, but how are we going to make money at this? How are we going to actually pay for this? And really if they, if for organizations that can show that type of path to profitability, if I may, it seems like it gets more traction and has staying power. I wonder if you could comment on that. Well said. In fact, a number of the engagements we start off with, that discussion always comes up that we don't have any extra funds to go do this thing, but we have to do this thing in order to stay relevant. What do we do? Yeah, so one of the things we focus on is save to invest initiatives. So for example, you heard the example of Auto Group, one of the large global retailers. So the federal structure, and then moving towards where it can be had, they can move towards a centralized as well as a global standards architecture that can help them drive more speed, cut down the provisioning time, cut down on the operating cost. So when you have initiatives like that, the enterprises can then take those savings and then show the CFO that this is how we can apply those savings into these key initiatives that can continue to make us more relevant and also transform the end user experience or their end customer experience. So I think as you do this on prioritized use cases, that gives you more credibility in the organization to go do a lot more and much faster. So final question for you, observations, new to HPE, now point next, new to HPE Discover here as an employee. What's your observation about HPE Discover? Their position in the marketplace, vis-a-vis the industry scope and trends that are out there. No, first of all, I think coming out here, this is my first discovery. So I see a lot of excitement here. And I think to the point that you made earlier, Dave, with the spun-offs, I think that has really opened up a lot of the doors where a lot of the partners are saying, look, this is something we can do more together off. So every meeting that I've been with the customers as we're partners, they see us kind of where the top stack, you know, who are not biased towards that, right? Because this is not where we play, but we play more of a role of the solution aggregation, plus also bring a lot of that experience to really guide them on their journey. So one of the things I constantly hear is if you can help us accelerate time to value and you can help us drive the acceleration because a lot of these initiatives are stalling. Help us on that journey. There's tremendous opportunity for both sides. So that's what, we see a lot of excitement here. Professor Sethi, Senior Vice President Point Next. Welcome to theCUBE. Thanks for your commentary and insight. Appreciate it. Good luck with your journey. This is theCUBE bringing you all the digital transformation and conversations here at HP Discover 2017. I'm John Furrier with Dave Vellante. We'll be right back.