 Hi, this is Swapil Bhatia and we are here at Dock and Con in San Francisco and today we have with us Wendy from VMware Before we kind of start talking about all the technology stuff. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? What do you do at VMware? Sure, so I run product marketing for our cloud native apps and essentially I work with customers I work with partners and Really take their input and incorporate their feedback into our product portfolio So you get feedback from the customers and then it shows you kind of work as a bridge between Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, really understanding what their challenges are and you know taking that back into our product teams and Making sure that they understand what the customers are facing and making sure that you know They have the feedback they need in order to design better products to serve our customers Because if you look at VMware, you know, you are the guy who brought the whole you know virtual machine kind of you know Movement of revolution, whatever way you call it and now we are living in the age of container realizations and Kubernetes is everybody's talking about Kubernetes. So and I think VMware has a product as well as project around Kubernetes and Containerization as well, which is called PKS. I guess. Yes. Yes, people to container service. Yeah PKS So so I wrote about it earlier, but anything new that is happening these days in terms of PKS Yeah, lots of things. So we announced PKS last year at VMworld and it's a jointly developed product between Pivotal of VMware in collaboration with Google and You know since we announced the product last year, we've gotten a lot of really good feedback a good traction with customers and You know the challenges that they're facing with deploying Kubernetes putting it into production and operationalizing at 24 by 7 and Through that feedback process You know, we really focused on how to address those types of challenges with PKS really Focusing on how to make Kubernetes easy right for our customers to deploy and operationalize So, you know, we introduced this concept of constant compatibility Which is essentially a way for our customers to receive the latest innovations from the Kubernetes community So we are committed to delivering the latest Release that is on GKE. That's runs on GKE. And so we call that constant compatibility and when we released PKS is supported 1.9 right out the gate and You know, we're really excited about the fact that we could bring that latest, you know innovation to our customers and that's fully supported by VMware and Pivotal as well Other feedback we heard from customers are very similar to some of the user surveys that we saw from CNCF, which is You know securing containers, logging, monitoring, networking, storage We heard very similar challenges from our customers as well and what they're looking for is really a product that packages all these You know capabilities in one package for them to easily install and deploy in their environment So that's essentially what PKS Deliver to our customers, which is a set of functionalities with networking through NSXT that's embedded into the product Includes a container registry, which you know addresses some of their concerns around security with formability scanning and You know, we add a Kubernetes and Bosch to address some of the lifecycle management high availability customer management needs that they have and We just started shipping PKS in February and we have some tech preview period late last year and You know, it's it's been a great Journey for us in terms of taking this product to our customers getting the feedback and You know really looking at how to address some of these pain points head-on yeah when we talk about Kubernetes Cloud Foundry is one of the Jumps that came out of you know pivotal or VMware. I mean, it's the big, you know giant, you know kind of you know So it's CFCR which used to be Kubo where we know you brought with Kubernetes and Bosch together Does that also play a new role in in PKS? Absolutely. Yeah, so PKS consists of Kubernetes on Bosch and that used to be You know Kubo in the Cloud Foundry Community and it was recently renamed to CFCR exactly container runtime. So CFCR is a core component of PKS and That's included as part of the product that we offer and it's been, you know, really Instrumental in helping our customers address Some of the lifecycle management issues for for Kubernetes. So through Bosch for example, our customers are able to You know, essentially address some of the HA capabilities. It has, you know, health-checking mechanisms built in and It will automatically bring up VMs when the Kubernetes cluster is needed and you know, it just has a lot of Automated capabilities built in that, you know customers don't really have to worry about right You said that the PKS was announced a lot at the VMware VMware So when is the next, you know, what is the cadence of PKS and what should we expect from the next because Kubernetes moves at a very fast pace Very fast pace. Yeah, exactly. So we The plan to release PKS when new versions of Kubernetes come out. So You know, we're definitely looking forward to keeping up with delivering that Latest release with constant compatibility to our customers. So the next version will have the latest version of Kubernetes and we're also Adding more enhancements around security for our customers really enhancing some of the networking capabilities as well and adding more flexible topology support and You know also looking at integrating more VMware tools so that our customers can better manage Their Kubernetes clusters. So a couple of examples include Wayfront and what we did was work with a Wayfront team and Be able to really make a seamless for customers to be able to use Wayfront To monitor Kubernetes clusters and the applications that they're running in their clusters with real-time Statistics for them to actually, you know, see what's going on and get a lot of analytics around that so they could use Wayfront to do that and We also work with a be realized team. They have a product called be realized login site and it has tremendous amount of you know, really powerful logging capabilities where customers can Use tagging and aggregation to collect that log information and be able to present it to Operators who are managing the clusters to give them really deep dive Analysis what's going on in that cluster. So there will be more integration With VMware products So that customers can use Those tools in their environment for Kubernetes as well. When is the release coming out? You know, the next release coming out is pks 1.1 Mm-hmm, and it will have support for the latest Kubernetes version, which is Kubernetes 1.10 So again delivering to that constant compatibility promise to our customers and enabling our customers to leverage the latest innovation from the Kubernetes community We're also incorporating more VMware support around monitoring and and logging so Two of the things that we're adding is way front integration where it's a really a seamless experience for our customers to use Wayfront and Click on the pks tile essentially and have a fully automated experience that they could Instantly manage the Kubernetes clusters and the applications running In those clusters and be able to get real-time statistics on You know, what's going on in those clusters? The second tool that we're into incorporating is be realized log insight and that essentially allows our customers to use aggregation tagging to get some really deep dive kind of Analysis through be realized log insight into their Kubernetes clusters as well. Yeah, so As you integrate these components, is it based on the customer feedback? Or is it based on VMware's own requirement to move to the new market? What is the driving force number one? The second is that what are the pain points that you see from the customer? No, you can separate these two questions or if it makes sense we can Yeah, so it's definitely based on customer feedback You know and this these feedback are essentially, you know, things around container security Better connectivity You know addressing the operational needs of how do I monitor this? How do I keep it running 24 by 7? many customers have developer teams all across the world and They definitely want to make sure that it's running around the clock So they have a team of people who are Dedicated to ensuring that their developers have the best productivity experience so that they ensure that These Kubernetes clusters are up and running, you know for them at all times so it's definitely based on a lot of customer input and Pain point is usually around the actual experience of deploying Kubernetes and making it easy for them And you know frequently what we see is that in the enterprise there are multiple teams that are responsible for different parts of that the infrastructure and you know, not only the VMware aspect of it, but also the you know that development and you know the DevOps aspect of it and the operations and sometimes it's a whole different team as well So it's really important to make sure that each team's needs are being met and that they have different pain points around security compliance governance Monitoring logging all these are different pain points that each different group faces So we're definitely very you know well in touch with all the different groups that need to be successful and Really listening to what they need not only today, but what they are Looking for in the future as well, you know six months, you know later They're already projecting, you know, I'm gonna need this I'm gonna increase the number of pods I run from this number to this bigger number. So therefore, I'm gonna need that You know, we're gonna run microservices. So can you help us with a roll map to enable microservices? They're already bringing up requirements such as STL for example for service mesh So, you know all those requirements are coming into VMware and you know, we're really working closely with pivotal as well to look at how to address The pain points today as well as what they need for the future and Incorporating that into a road map and jointly developing towards that road map so that customers Essentially will have what they need, you know, not only today, but also, you know in the future as well And it's really about intersecting their needs with our development roadmap Yeah, and things are changing so fast that six months looks like, you know, it's eternity. Yeah, exactly And since you're talking about future and new things these days, you know a new Buzzwords keep popping up on weekly basis. So serverless, you know, is one of the new buzzwords So when you do talk about, you know, future proofing as well as customer feedback I recall that six months ago. We were debating what is serverless and now there are use cases that people are using in production So from VMware's perspective, what is your, you know, strategy a plan for serverless computing? So we're doing a lot in various open-source communities today And you know, it's a great way for us to engage with the community You know, not only from a user perspective, but also from different vendors perspective and where People see, you know, in terms of what are the use cases and what are some of the higher priority Pain points that the community should focus on So through projects like this patch, which is an open-source serverless project that VMware Introduced and through open fast, which is also something that, you know, VMware's open-source office is driving we're engaging with the community to, you know, kind of listen to the feedback and the use cases and For customers who are already running serverless in production We're getting a better understanding of what are those pain points and are these use cases something that other enterprises can leverage as well It's something that, you know, many enterprises out there can leverage for perhaps, you know, different types of business, right? So we're definitely engaged from that level and we are also having some Conversations with customers who are, you know, more advanced and, you know, they've already formulated their thinking around serverless To look at how serverless can be deployed on PKS, for example. So We're definitely, you know, working through multiple Communities that way. So our customer community, the open-source community as well as working with Pivotal jointly and Simulating that serverless architecture That, you know, we could deliver to the market. And since we are talking about buzzwords in the future Machine learning and the Kubernetes, you know, Kubeflow is there. So What's going on in that space? Yeah, we hear a lot about machine learning as Definitely some companies are further ahead than other companies So we see a variety of customers who are asking us about machine learning and the questions range from what is machine learning to You know, how would I, how would I use machine learning in my business and what can I do for my business? To customers who have already played with some form of machine learning already or attended talks by other companies And they're very inspired by the potential of serverless and the potential of machine learning and they're very excited by it So we have a very broad range of conversations with our customers today, and I think that The, I mean on VMWare's part, we're still evaluating How could we enable the mass market with machine learning and make it easy for our customers? So, but you know, we're definitely engaged on a machine learning Conversation, you know, with our customers with different communities as well And like you said, these buzzwords are popping up everywhere I think there's a lot of curiosity for enterprises to learn about it And also to think about how they can incorporate it into their environment and drive business outcome from it And since you also work in the customer feedback kind of area Personally, what are the areas that you interest you and you're like, oh, this is the area which you know, is kind of, you know A lot of things are happening in this space, you know, a lot of, you know, communities active Yeah, I'm interested in areas that help our customers drive higher productivity So that includes a lot of different things that, you know, we just kind of touched on as well But it's really about for me, you know, also helping our customers adopt those technologies While these technologies are all very exciting. I think bringing it into an enterprise is a whole different challenge that requires You know, training, it requires Operational modeling, you know, it requires workflows. So I think there are a lot of Organizational issues as well that I think, you know, we put a lot of thought into in terms of, you know We have this great technology that's happening in various open source communities But how do we enable our customers to actually leverage those technology in a production environment With their staff trained and be able to run and support it, you know, 24 by 7 So I think that's another angle of the challenge that I'm personally very interested in. I love the technologies And there's a lot of new exciting things coming and I, you know I try to tune into all of them, but it's really then about, okay Then how do we take all this and then make it real for the enterprise and deliver business outcomes for them? And that's a whole set of challenge that I'm looking into and following and Understanding better in terms of, you know, how to really, you know, enable these open source innovations in a production capacity Yeah, because technology itself is of no use unless and till it's helping somebody in one way or the other So you have to be able to production. Yeah, you have to be able to run it in production So we talked about, we talked about communities, we talked about pks, we talked about containers and everything Let's talk about you for a while So when you are not doing all this tech stuff, what do you do in your free time? What's your hobbies? I love to run. I play tennis. I love to hike and I volunteer with Different organizations when I have time and I love to read. I think I'm normal average You know person just like anybody else. So what kind of organizations do you volunteer for? I volunteer with Stanford and they have a Program called SEED and it's essentially a program that helps emerging countries From, you know, offering pro bono consulting around business models to You know marketing to how to reach the audience You know, helping them create business plans to be successful how to leverage technologies So there's a huge need for People who, you know, understand the business and the technology aspects to help You know smaller businesses in emerging countries to be successful So I volunteer with that organization and have worked with businesses in Africa for example, which is where they tend to focus on and You know, it's just really fascinating for me to understand you know the The innovation and the creativity that's happening in those countries and people beginning to you know really leverage technologies to You know run their business as well and they have a whole different set of challenges from the infrastructure to You know, just the the literacy levels in some countries So it's a very fascinating way for me to engage with a whole different world of people who you know, I think could definitely use You know, a lot of the talent and expertise that that we have in Silicon Valley Mm-hmm and help them, you know change the way they run business and change their lives You know at the end of the day, so it's it's fun for me So do you like travel there and meet the no, it's all virtual. Yeah, it's all virtual. Yeah, okay and have you had any experience, you know that oh there is This company or this individual is doing you know, this is exciting thing but they are restricted by the technology or Have you came across any exciting use, you know cases we're like yeah, I worked with one school in Ghana and They are trying to figure out how to keep kids in school because what happens in Ghana is that The utility is not very well regulated So the electricity for example that the cost of electricity could spike in any given month Okay, and it's it's really unpredictable. So when the electricity prices spike The the families tend to take their kids out of school and the school can't afford to run their school because it gets very expensive. So They launched a program through Stanford to find out more about How they could essentially better manage the situation and How they could reach out to more parents and keep their kids in school and how to address the problems of You know unpredictable cost in running the infrastructure for the school So I worked with that school and you know, we came up with a lot of different ideas You know in terms of how to you know that one of the things that mentioned is that most people we have mobile phone So we talked about how to you know reach their audience through mobile advertising promotion social media And what are some of the messages to messages that they could potentially leverage to keep their keep the families and keep their kids in school We also talked about fundraising. Mm-hmm. So I gave them a variety of different ways that they could potentially use You know crowd sourcing to do some fundraising So there were a lot of ideas that were exchanged and you know, I think You know, they they were very enthusiastic about some of the ideas and we worked together on implementing some of them So you know so far, you know, we're seeing some good results. So yeah, it's pretty average Do you bring some of this to to VMware to say let's start an innovation center at VMware to help these VMware has a huge foundation already Yeah, and and just thousands of employees volunteer through different charities, okay And it's a it's a quite robust foundation. It's very very active VMware Foundation, okay, and employees volunteer, you know, we just did a volunteer event in my office not too long ago Where you know, we we packaged, you know, things for for different charity as and You know, it's two three hours But it was you know a lot of fun for the team to come come together and do something that you know It's it's goodwill and it's for charity. So we do quite a bit of that actually at VMware as well. So It's really a culture of giving back and a lot of employees participate in it So, you know, it's something that you know, I think everyone should Do and be a part of the community either here locally or abroad, you know Because there are just so much need out there and we could all do some good with you know Just a few hours of hard time. So when I did not even know about these engagements, so it's always nice to talk, right? It's always nice to talk. I think we're all talking about work and technology most of the time at these conferences So this is really unusual to talk about personal interest. Yeah, and I because I'm a I'm a I'm also a fiction writer So I do I do like to to talk about, you know, you know, because we are humans first, you know Yeah, even with the technologies you're building is for people So if there's no people what is the point of technology itself? So it's I always love to hear these stories, you know, because we are Each of you are doing so many incredible things in a person life, but we never get to hear those stories So I like to talk about that. So thanks. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Yes. Thank you I'll see you again at the next open source conference. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you