 Hey everyone, welcome back to New York City. Lisa Martin and John Furrier here with theCUBE, covering AWS Summit NYC. This is a series of summits this year. There's about 15 of them globally. We are excited to be here with a couple of guests. We have an alumni back with us. Couple of guests from Calent, Steven Gardner joins us, the executive chairman, and Valerie Henderson, Chief Revenue Officer. Guys, welcome to the program. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Great to have you, welcome back. Appreciate it. I should say. 2016. It's been a minute. Well, that was before Calent. Talk to us about Calent. What do you guys do? What do you deliver? How are you affiliated with AWS? Sure. So, we were founded in 2015. Initially, it's a container management product. So our roots are very deeply centered around cloud native. We've since evolved and become a cloud native consultancy. We're all in with AWS. We were actually just awarded AWS Premier Partner a couple of weeks ago. So we're pretty pumped about that. But we're about 250 people now across North and South America. Our goal is really to work with customers that are looking to innovate and evolve and use AWS as a catalyst to build new products for their business. As a catalyst, I like that. Valerie, talk about the customer. Obviously, so much tumult in the last couple of years. Still going through it. Yeah, of course. How have customer conversations evolved and changed in the last couple of years from your perspective? Yeah, I think from my perspective it is such a unique time. And it's a time that is constantly changing. And I think change breeds opportunity. And I feel like customers see that and they're leaning in. They want the opportunity to create new revenue streams, do more, more efficiently. And I think that's the key. And the questions are really asking how can we take our data and turn it into something that we can monetize? How can we be smarter with what we have? And I think it's an incredible time to be in the space that we're in. Every conversation I have is really forward thinking and about the business. And I've been in this space for a while and that was not always the case. And I think now people are shifting that IT shop to IP shop. And that's so key from my perspective. Interesting, interesting shift there. Every company has to be a data company these days. To be competitive. You know, the last couple of years it was how do we survive? Pivot, pivot, pivot, pivot. But to be a data company means you have to be able to extract value and insights from that data and act on it to your point, develop new products, new revenue streams, new opportunities. How do you enable companies? And maybe this is a question that you can both answer. It's truly become data companies. The whole model from a services perspective is not a do for model. It is a do with model. And anytime we go into a customer it's like where are they on the curve? From monolith application to microservices where do they sit today? And I think when you dig in, you assess, you deeply understand where they are. You can get them to where they want to be and build a plan. And the way our model works is we're doing it with them. And what that means is we're enabling them, documentation, we're supporting them that if we're not there they're going to be able to carry it forward and continue to do more. So that's so, so important. I love Stephen's take on it. Yeah, I think the other trend that we're seeing in data more recently is that customers need to share their information with other partners, collaborate. And AWS is just the perfect kind of platform to be able to do that, enable that sharing. And you're seeing even businesses like Snowflake build a data cloud on top of AWS. So I think that's a new angle that we're seeing which is really bringing together way more innovation. How about that data clean room trend that's going on? Snowflake's doing a lot of that. But some of them have a little lock-in spec there versus being open, security, privacy, governance. What's the balance between open sharing and kind of the requirements you need to be secure and compliant? Yeah, I mean, I think very simplistically, the information that you're using to deliver your product and service to customers generally safer, kind of more public and available. The information that's confidential to your business behind the scenes, obviously you use the right protocols to lock it out. But it is a very hot topic in today's world, especially with web three and people kind of seeking to get their information back. So you mentioned to you guys around since 2015, if you go back in time, it seems like yesterday, but in cloud time, it's like two generations ago. Why is data now more relevant? Is it because the technology's gotten better and easier or more maturation of the client's understanding or being full with data, having a data problem and hence an opportunity? Or is it open source has evolved? Yep. Or all three, what's your reaction to that? Why are we, why is it exploding now when it's kind of been around for a while? It keeps exponentially growing, right? The more and more data, there was a stat four or five years ago about, hey, we're taking more photographs in a single year now than of all of mankind, leading up to that date. But I think just the sheer quantities and the way people are managing it now and being able to actually capture information points of everything across their entire business just presents a much bigger opportunity to be able to take informed decisions off the back of that. Do you see the customers having more data full problems that they're having more data? So that's, and they now understand the consequences of the not leveraging it? Yeah, is what to do. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think you think about when you wake up in the morning, if you ask Alexa what the weather is, I'm like, you're creating data in every engagement with the world. So I think it's this explosion of it, but then it exists and what do you do in having a strategy? I still think one of the biggest gaps is people and talent and expertise to do the work, frankly, which is the hypothesis of Kailin existing. Yeah. Data concept and the application. Yeah. Because what's the weather to Alexa is an application of what's the weather, it's a request, but it's actually, the data is built into the app. It's built in. So data as code is kind of a new trend. Yes, yeah, yeah. And I think it's funny to answer the question, there's more data points surrounding how to leverage your data. And I'm like, it's crazy. I think you're really seeing that sort. It's like we have an old data warehouse. We can't get the weather data, although it's there somewhere. Exactly. Getting the data in the applications, this is not, wasn't around 10 years ago. No one was talking like that. Now it's more standard. That sounds like DevOps to me, a DevOps problem. Yeah, moving from the monolithic to the microservice as well, and just the way that people are building applications today, the users, their customers are demanding more from the service and AWS is able to deliver that. What are some of your customers doing with you guys? What are some, can you give some examples and scope the scale of your relationship with the customers, Visa, V, AWS, and the cloud? How are they using you guys and the cloud? Yeah, yeah, for sure. A customer of ours, Allergan, which is an incredible organization, really had a large effort to modernize. And they actually have a data lab within their company called Allergan Data Labs, and they leveraged us to truly just modernize this containerization effort, how they can do more with less and that serverless experience. So I think from my perspective, what we're seeing is also a need to be thoughtful about DevOps retooling and tooling because talent wants to work with the best tool set, the hottest stuff on the street, and again, to keep talent is key in any organization's success. How does Kailin help with that from a talent perspective? Obviously there's talent shortage, we're also still in the great resignation. How do you help organizations kind of bridge the gap so that they can glean insights from data and be competitive and win? Yeah, we actually just published a case study with Novus, which was bought by SCI, which is a huge financial firm, where they said, listen, it's human nature to say, I have a gap and I need to fill it, I'm going to hire somebody. That's human nature to say, okay, this is what we're going to do. But the reality is, I think companies are starting to see the advantage of using a partner and say, okay, I could hire one person or I could bring in a partner who's going to have a team of five, works incrementally for a period of time, does with, helps coach my team up, document all of that. And I think that they're seeing value from that. And ultimately it's not that we don't want them to eventually hire, when they do hire, we want that person to come in and have the best experience. And sometimes the people aren't even available. Correct, yeah. So you have a combination of managed services now, a plethora of managed services, that are also involved with the customer. So it's that integration, scale, and partnering and sharing. You mentioned sharing data earlier. How do you guys view that integration piece? Because if you have a modern architecture, you got to have that decomposed, decoupled, but integrated approach. Yeah, we really believe that the whole world of project services and managed services is kind of coming together as one. So we have a single delivery model, which we're really passionate about. And we look at it as kind of an embedded team within our customers, embedded DevOps to support them, basically on anything that could be from modernizing a new application through to addressing kind of a more traditional cloud architecture framework that's in place. But yeah, the trick to it is, as Val said earlier, is the do with approach, not just do for, right? I think customers need to learn about the cloud. They need to understand the technology that they're using. They want to have that understanding. And we found a way of fitting in our services to help them sort of accelerate that path. Valerie, I got to ask you the question. So, you know, in sports, they talk about the modern era of baseball or whatever. We're in the modern era of cloud, kind of going next generation. We call it super cloud. The concept that Dave and I put out at re-invent. If someone asks you, what does the modern era look like? As you're looking at your customer base and the data you guys have, how would you describe this modern era? What is it made up of? Is it outcomes versus solutions? Is it technology that's decentralized? How do you talk about it? Like, what is the modern era, if you were? I, not to oversimplify it, but I'm going to. The idea that somebody could come into work and all they have to think about is business outcomes and the data points that they need to achieve said business outcomes. I'm the biggest fan of measure what matters. I think it is an incredibly powerful methodology. And I think anybody who thinks about running business, they know that it's a scale. The amount of companies that are in that place is very small right now. So I think modern era is really that running an IT company to an IP company. So, Steven, if you unpack that, what's under the covers to make that happen? Automation, what's your assessment of that outcome? Which, by the way, was well said. Beautiful, beautiful comment. It makes that happen. I think it is around automation. It is around kind of do once and then apply many times. That is key. Obviously, it's a fundamental principle of the cloud is that consistency and that repeatability. So, when you can simplify services down to a point, click, deploy, I think you're in a much better position to be able to move quickly and then not have to worry about anything under the hood and just focus, like Val said, on the business outcomes. I understand it's more creative. They're focusing on the problem. Exactly. To not do the rock fetches and the heavy lifting that's not differentiated. I find that what gives people energy generates opportunity. And I think when people hit those roadblocks of these things don't work together, there's all these interdependencies that's really challenging. So, I love what's happening. I think there's never been a better time to be in this business. Not a dull moment. That's for the venture. Not a dull moment. Val, we talk about outcomes. You mentioned a couple of customers that you're working with, some case studies. It is all about outcomes these days. That's the conversations that we have with the entire ecosystem. It's all about business outcomes. What are some of those key transformative business outcomes that Kalin is helping customers to achieve? Yeah, to me, one thing that is key is anytime I'm meeting with a customer, I want to understand who their customers are. I'm like, who is your customer and how can we create a better experience for that customer? Whether it's their end users or their external customers. And I think that is a huge element. What we're seeing is that sassification of how do I make it easier for my customers to procure and engage with my platform? And a lot of what we're doing right now is helping clients with that. And it's not a flip of a switch. It's not a click of a button. It's complicated, but that is what we are here to help. Help simplify, help create that understanding of what's possible. How do you guys talk to your customers? Take a minute to give a plug for the company. What are you looking for? What's the stats? How many employees are you guys hiring? And what's the pitch to customers? Yeah, so I think every organization is on their journey to the cloud now. It's gotten to that point where if you're not working with a public cloud provider, you're part of a very, very small group. We like to say that we'll meet customers where they are and help evolve them as a business, evolve their teams. And that's what we mean when we say do with. So it's a pretty broad spectrum. We're big in healthcare. We're big in fintech. We've worked with a lot of startup customers. We have about 250 customers today, 250 employees, and we're scaling rapidly. We've grown that from about 50 employees a year ago, so. Yes. Oh, wow. Yes, when I started, we were just around 60 people and we're at 260 today. And why are people working with you? What are you guys solving a problem? Are you enabling them? What's the pitch? Without a doubt, I love that. Being in sales my whole career, somebody asking me for a pitch is my favorite. Okay, let's go. The true value prop of what we do is all of the above. We enable, we help customers do more faster. But again, we do not want customers to walk away from an engagement with us saying, oh no, we don't know what to do. We want them to feel empowered. I still think the biggest gap from everything being in that IP business outcome is people. And for us, we're so passionate about that and building a company that really truly believes that. And that's part of who we are as a company and our value system. And the digital transformation, ultimately what they're going through. You get them there faster. They get the outcomes and they're operational. Absolutely. And also to be clear, when a customer has a great experience working with you, they want to tell other people about the experience. And for us, the referrals that we get, the partnership with Amazon is so key. What are some reactions after you go through an engagement? We've been riffing on this concept of super cloud where you're starting to see people build on top of not the AWS, but their partners that work with them. And so the customers are getting their own cloud experience at scale. What are some of the comments you hear from your successful customers? What are some anecdotal feedback? Yeah, yeah. I'm so glad we did this because now I'm selling more, I'm doing this. What are some of the things that they're doing? Yeah, yeah. No, I think ultimately the consistent theme that we get is I'm so glad that I didn't let fear hold me back from engaging a partner because a lack of control scares a lot of customers. It does. And I think customers that are willing to say, okay, I'm going to have a little faith, trust in the process. They thank us. They do. And we've seen that across the board. I think that crossing that chasm is not to be underestimated without a doubt. Great story. Congratulations. There's nothing more powerful and potent than the voice of the customer. Without a doubt. And really, you have to listen. Yes, yes, definitely. Steven, Valerie, thank you so much for joining me on the program today, talking about, Katelyn, what you guys are doing for customers with AWS and powering enabling collaboration. Love it, thank you. Yeah, thank you both. All right, our pleasure. For John Furrier, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE live in New York City. We are at AWS 7 NYC. John and I will be right back with our next guest.