 This is Dave Vellante, I'm with wikibon.org. And this is theCUBE, we're here at HP Discover. This is day one, HP Discover Barcelona, HP's big European conference, just over 10,000 attendees here. Very similar in cosmetics to the US show, but clearly a different crowd, different flavor, all the HP execs, a big, you know, of course a MIA audience. Hearing about all the innovations, we're going to hear keynotes later on this afternoon. Meg Whitman's coming on and going to address the audiences here, and of course theCUBE will be covering wall to wall for these three days. Victor Laurel is here, he's the director of strategic architecture at a company called Arcutech. They're a service provider based out of London. Victor, welcome to theCUBE. Hi, thank you, David. So, why don't we start off with a little bit about architect, you've got the American accent, so obviously you get to bring both perspectives. We were talking off camera, you've been here for four years, so you really understand what's going on in the European marketplace, but tell us about Arcutech, you're changing the name to Arcutech, right, that's a new name. So tell us a little bit about the company. Okay, basically what we've been is, we've been a service integrator over the past couple of years, and we go into companies that have their own solutions and their solutions aren't working. Whether it's been a big enterprise solution that hasn't been able to grow as quickly or they've had too many people with problems to be able to expand it, it's always been a problem with either the size or the mobility of that solution. So when we come on in, we take a look at everything they've got, we look at their storage, their goals, their solutions and their services, and we usually find a great solution for them and change it up, write it up, and put it out the door for them. But over the past couple of years, what we've done is we've seen the same trends, it's always the same patterns. It's gotten too big, they can't manage it, so we try to set that up for them. The transition to a service provider was actually quite natural. After seeing the same problems over and over again, we wanted to provide our own solution and become a service provider and write it back to them, some kind of infrastructure as a service, if you will. So we've taken all the lessons learned that we've had from our customers and provided the solution to sell back to them in the form of a cloud service. Okay, so you're transitioning from a service provider that would actually do sort of high touch to a cloud service provider, focused on infrastructure as a service. Okay, now where are you in that transition? Can you just sort of describe that journey? Okay, basically the transition has been, we've built up the solution platform. And over the past couple of years, we've done our research on different kinds of technologies. And there's always the same three parts, there's always network, servers, and storage. And about 16 months ago, we started saying, how do we want to build a cloud? And in building the cloud, we looked at all of those individual pieces. And the biggest one we found was storage. Storage is the largest part of your enterprise infrastructure. And the storage is also the largest cost. So storage has a number of factors in it, but you always want it to be fast, highly mobile, easy to expand, and easy to maintain, quite honestly, is one of the big ones. Traditional enterprise architectures basically involve large storage chassis, large disks, fiber channel or ice guzzies raised, and then just bring it on in. But we found that those were too bloated. So what we had to do is we had to go, if we have a virtual server infrastructure, how do we keep a very flexible and fast virtual server infrastructure? How do we keep a storage that can keep up with that? And after lots of research and going down the product trees and everything like that, we came to the simple solution of, you have to virtualize your storage as well. So, excuse me, let's take it from the customer on in. What are you seeing customers asking you for? What are some of the challenges that they're facing? Quite honestly, customers want to be able to rapidly provision their services. Everybody knows how to run a server. Everybody knows how to run a service on a collection of services. But what they don't know how to do is when they deploy that server service, they don't know how to do it in less than a week, involving less than 10 or 12 people. Talking to a storage guy, network guy, server guy. So what we had to solve was, how do you make this solution so that you can provision a server as rapidly as possible while keeping it cheaper and faster? So, a lot of the talk in the industry is around hyperscale and we hear about bringing hyperscale into the enterprise. When you think about hyperscale guys, the big internet giants, they initially started building on commodity infrastructure and they would layer software on top of that. Now VMware is sort of popularizing this term of software-defined everything. Trying to do for networking and storage what they've done for compute. What do you make of the software-defined trend and specifically what does it mean for storage and how has that affected your infrastructure? Well, software-defined simply means is you start at the software layer to roll out any kind of service or modify it. In the past, quite honestly, you'd have to go through a hardware tool or set something like that, lay that foundation down and then try to find a way to bridge that gap. Now what it is is that you leave your hardware there, you set it up once and then you put software on top of it and do all the controls through the software. That's the easiest way to put it. And through the fewer software changes, sorry, through the fewer hardware changes you have to make, those software changes are implemented much faster. So of course customers would love to see just go into control panel, hit a couple buttons and then boom, there's a new server that comes on out and that's what a cloud product does for them. Now Victor, historically the trade-off there, software's easier but it's slower, right? What's changed such that that's not the trade-off anymore? Well honestly, hardware, there's so many different hardware choices. Choosing hardware has always been kind of a problem. So when you introduce a hypervisor to a set of servers, what you've done is you've, and I don't mean to sound like this, but you don't really care what that server is because it's that hypervisor layer that gives you that server performance on top of it. So when you get away from the hardware so to speak, as long as that hardware is compatible or meets a compatibility list for that software product, you basically can leverage the benefits and performance of targeting that hardware for that software product. Okay so your role is to develop the architecture that your company's building this cloud service on top of. Can you describe that architecture a little bit? Yeah, yeah, of course. So basically the idea behind our solution was you needed to make sure that every piece of hardware fit to work that cloud product. The cloud product actually seemed to be the hinge point. We're providing cloud service that can handle any bit of software that you put on it. So through several choices and through several lookups, you know, other cloud products, we basically went with the VMware vCloud suite. It had all the functionality built in and it had all the products ticking the boxes on terms of being able to allow a customer to provision their own services, plus in a kind of interesting way, it allowed us to help them leverage the benefits of our hardware solution. So after choosing that cloud product, it simply went to going down to VMware, looking at the compatibility list and finding all the hardware that ticked all the boxes and compatibility list, making sure that that hardware wasn't specialized enough that it prevented you from using features in the cloud stack. So going down the list, trying out different products, quite honestly what we came to is HP had, not only did they have the most compatibility with the VMware products and the products that we wanted, but they had every single component, network, server, storage, all in that compatibility list in the form of a blade system. So we went with a blade system, which also gives us, as a provider, capacity, scalability, and very, very ease of management. Now how about the networking piece? Okay, the networking piece, we basically went with virtual connects. Virtual connect, dropping virtual everywhere. Virtual connect basically allowed us to set up a massive, massive, highly available gigabit infrastructure between chassis. So the chassis basically were expandable through this network connection to act as one large aggregate resource. So connecting them through the virtual connect, putting in Gen 8 blades, running it through, of course, the management system, we had to find a way to get enterprise storage to those server blades and into that network as fast as possible. And instead of doing a traditional fiber channel approach, we basically went with a direct attach storage approach. So a lot of companies that are transitioning into infrastructures as service are coming from, let's say, traditional hosting. And so they've got like one of everything. You guys, it sounds like, had the advantage of almost in a way having a green field approach. Sort of blank sheet of paper that you could start fresh from. So you didn't have a lot of legacy baggage. So I want you to talk about why, because I always ask people, if you had to do it over again, and you didn't have all that legacy baggage, what would you design? Is this essentially what you're doing? You're exactly right, that's exactly what we did. We not only had the benefits of being exposed to other people's solutions in the environment, but we knew their technologies that we're using too. And in truth, it's kind of like what you touched on on the hardware bit. The hardware, usually you find serves one or two goals. We outperform everybody in this, or we outperform everybody in that. But the problem with the cloud solution is you have to accommodate everybody's solution. So in doing a green field approach, what you basically wanted to do was you wanted to provide a solution that was very, very fast at performance. It was very, very rapid to provision. And also it had to be cheap. So in other words, you want your usual pick two out of three, better, cheaper, faster. We were able to get all three. And in doing that, we had to choose virtualized network through a Flex 10 virtual connect technology. We had to use a virtualized server product through a G8 server blade, because they had dense RAM, a lot of performance in the processor arena. And plus you could just plug one in when you needed it and take it down when you didn't. And then on top of that, to get that enterprise storage in there, as much as I love large enterprise storage arrays and the capacities that they give, we needed something that got closer to the processor to leverage that performance. So direct attached storage was the way to go with the store virtual products. Now, what about, I wonder if we could talk a little bit about security. You got the public cloud. It's obviously taken the US by storm. You could see it coming into this region a little bit more strongly. Yet most customers still are telling us they want to stay hybrid. They want to do private clouds. Talk about security and talk about how you fit into that whole cloud spectrum. Okay, no, that's a great point because when you do look at your three components, your networking, your security, your networking, your CPU, your server and your storage, you basically always have to think about security. Security has to be around all of that. You've got to protect your management portals. You've got to protect your data. You've got to protect your network in and out. Our approach was we wanted to give everybody a private cloud, okay? Clouds are designed to be public. There's front ends. They're creating links over that. Quite honestly, what we did was we created a private cloud infrastructure so that all of our customers have to essentially connect through a security gateway, either whether it be a VPN or a direct connect through like a point to point network or maybe just an internal network on their own solution. And where our cloud solution is a little different is we've partnered up with a large data center and that data center already has established customers. And so what these established customers have is established networks within the data center. So our cloud basically direct connects to those customers. But on top of that, we did have to have a solution for security. What if these customers want to use web facing services? I mean, that's 70% of what people host the cloud for. So we've partnered up with a third party security provider which actually as part of our solution, we consult with the customer to see what they need in terms of security. Sometimes they need inbound protection for their point to point site to site networks. Sometimes they just need security for their applications to make sure they're not attacked or basically infiltrated. So we have a tailor fit security solution for every customer that they basically say what they want. So everybody gets a private cloud. Everybody gets private cloud. And obviously you're multi-tenant but that private cloud is not a shared resource. Or is it? We do have three options there. You could choose a basically a private cloud with a non-reserved architecture which basically means they'll share the load across other, we call them modules. Modules that are shared by other customers. That of course gives them a cheap entry level service. We recommend this just as the development environments kind of like basically testing UAT type environments for their own products. And then we have a private tier service. And then the private tier service is basically dedicated hardware to that customer on a reservation model. So we don't do the bit where they say okay you're using 12 now, 12 gigs of whatever now and that if you need to expand it later you can add this and it may or may not be available there. We say you get 12 gigs now, you have all this space you can build as much as you want into it. And the idea behind that is that each customer has their own dedicated hardware, their own reserved allocation. And then just month to month we reassess it. So Victor as an architect it sounds like you're in a infrastructure as a service you're trying to get to as standardized in infrastructure as possible. Yes. I learned recently a couple of weeks ago we were at Amazon re-invent and they're actually moving toward more of a customized approach which was news to me. What do you make of that as an architect and how does someone like you wants to buy off the shelf components? You're not going to start hiring engineers and designing your own hardware I presume. Right. But if I'm wrong. Love to. Yeah, that's a playground. Yes, that's not your company's business model. How do you see that shaking out? Are you going to look to companies like HP to provide that level of customization or is that just sort of a trend for the mega super scale guys? What do you make of that as an architect? That is a great problem to have so to speak. With every solution you kind of go in with a list of requirements and you always assume that that list of requirements won't change but then halfway through building it you find that the requirements do change. So the question is how do you build a cloud that can anticipate anybody's needs, any future needs, anything like that? And the answer is you can't really. What you can do is you can just leverage what the cloud possibilities contain. And when you look at it again, the simple components, you look at network, you have to choose a network that's flexible. Okay, so most public solutions are basically, here's a website that you go to, you can connect to your cloud from there. All right. Can I get a VPN into it? Well, maybe not. Can I do this? No. Okay, so we had to take a different approach. Networking has to allow point to point that's at this. So again, we did a set of requirements. Do the same with servers, capacity expanding, disks, capacity expanding. So the best thing you can do in a cloud solution is make sure that you meet the requirements of a cloud. Expandability, flexibility, rapid deployment. What you need to do is make sure that the customers, once they get in your cloud, they can do everything that they need to in terms of have all the operating systems they need, have the capacity on demand when they need it, and also understand that in going the private route, which is the best way that we've done it, that those resources are dedicated to them. So they don't have noisy neighbor problems. They don't lose anything over the course of time in terms of performance or anything that's guaranteed to them. So the best thing you can do for that flexibility is try to be as flexible as possible, but you're limited by your base solution. And in the terms of our base solution being a cloud, we're limited by the fact that we have to make sure that we're flexible, expandable, and fast. And as long as we can do that, we can keep every customer happy. Now your solution is pan-European, is it? It is pan-European, and as a matter of fact, our data center partner, who I can't name right now actually, our data center partner will basically be, have multiple continent locations. So basically we're starting off in London now with our solution, it's available in London. And as we expand, it will be available in all the locations that the data center partner has. So your current data centers are in the UK, is that correct? Okay, and then obviously you have to expand out of that if you want to do business in places like Germany. Exactly right, yeah, and America as well, yeah. And so okay, so the strategy is to go global. Yeah, oh yeah, we're going to take over the world with the cloud. Awesome, what do you see as some of the, I mean, having come from the United States, what do you see as some of the differences if they exist between Europe and the US? Quite honestly, the differences between young, sorry, excuse me, the differences between London and America I see, is America seems to be very, very technology oriented. Everything seems to be solved by a new product. And as a result of which, working on solutions in America, every time you get a solution out the door or you get 90% of the way through that solution, they want to change it. They've seen a new product, it's great, let's add this to the solution. And you don't realize that from step one, you have to take all the parts that are on that table alone and use those parts to come up with a solution. And it changes to that, kind of change all the solution. In London, what I've been seeing a lot of, and I don't mean this to sound like a negative, actually I find it in a lot of ways a positive, is that they're very rigid and don't grow as fast. They don't react as fast to newer technologies or emerging things. It's kind of a, if it works, don't fix it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, as we say back home. So the approach in London is that they have very stable systems, but they're very long in the tooth. They're very near the end of their life. And the fear that I'm seeing in London is not the capability of the system to meet the needs that I don't know that I have. The fear in European markets is, the system's so old that if it dies, I don't know if I can get replacement parts for it or how to keep it going and running afoot. So this is where going to a consumer or a utility-based model works out better because nobody wants to do that capital expense anymore. Because every time you start up a new foundation service, we're already talking millions. And now's not a good time to spend those millions. Well, it sounds like you got your network infrastructure covered because you got your data center partner. And it sounds like you're essentially relying on the latest and greatest x86 system. And you layer software on top of that so you can keep up with performance. And as long as you're making a bet, obviously you're making a bet on HP that the software stays functional, then you got that covered. That legacy outdated infrastructure is never going to be a problem for you, at least in theory. And that's another thing too. What's interesting is you said, okay, greenfield approach. You do have to take some certain considerations in the greenfield approach. Going through that compatibility list, making sure that every part and product in our line-up, our hardware line-up, ticked all the boxes for being able to provide the functionality of that cloud service. We knew that buying these parts would give us this amount of capability, meeting all our requirements. But the other invisible requirement is what happens when one of those parts isn't sold anymore. You can't buy it or you need to expand it. Like that server model's gone or that networking card is no longer made. I mean, with other vendors, every time you buy a networking card, the next week it could be a different one. So the great thing about the software defined, having a virtualized network product, having a virtualized storage product, like the store virtual products, and having a virtualized server product like VMware to tie all this up, is as long as you keep the VMware on top, all of the parts underneath, you can use, if you have to, which we don't because we were green-filled, you could use different products, mix and match them as you see fit. And then the customer doesn't see that. They don't have to see those growing pains. As a matter of fact, they may not be painful at all. What may end up happening is faster processors, faster networking, and that just gives you more capacity. Well, but essentially you have a technology portfolio on a compatibility matrix that you manage. How often do you see refreshing that portfolio? Well, that was another reason that we went with HP, and I know it sounds a little bit like a commercial, but quite honestly, I didn't want to get into a product where three months from now I couldn't order that same card number. So we were guaranteed, through most of our products, that we would have a 12 month to 16 month window. So those G8s, that particular G8 model I bought for the servers would be here 18 months from now. So those were the considerations when starting the screen field that we could have that same product stock. But the other great thing is, is the renew line will continue to provide that same heart number even after the new product catalog has changed. Awesome. All right, Victor, well listen, thanks very much for coming on theCUBE. Really appreciate your insights, and good luck with the rollout. We'll be watching. All right, thank you, Dave. All right, take care. Okay, keep it right there, everybody. We'll be right back. We're live, this is theCUBE from HP Discover. I'm Dave Vellante. John Furrier and I will be back with our next guest. Keep it right there.