 Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE. Covering Dell Technologies World 2019. Brought to you by Dell Technologies and its ecosystem partners. Welcome back to Las Vegas. Lisa Martin with Stu Miniman. We are on day one of theCUBE's coverage of Dell Technology World 2019. We've got two sets, lots of great guests, lots of great conversations already. We're pleased to welcome to theCUBE for the first time Micah Pigeon, Senior Director of Education Services at Dell Technologies. Micah, welcome to theCUBE. Thank you, thanks for having me. Our pleasure, so here we are talking about digital transformation. We've been talking about it for a long time. I loved how last year's Dell Technologies World was make it real, it being digital transformation, IT, workforce transformation, security. This year it's about real transformation. We talk a lot about the technologies. What are some of the other things though that companies need to be thinking about as enablers of this transformation? Sure, great question. And obviously the technology is a huge part of it, right? But of course, myself being from Dell Technologies Education Services, a big focus on the people. So that is what we see as an additional critical focus because at the end of the day, digital transformation is big, it's really big. And technology alone isn't going to suffice, right? It's not going to be just that. So focus on the people and we hear a time and again from our customers, from research in the market that one of the top three actually barriers from customers and organizations driving adoption and success in digital transformation comes down to having the right skill sets in place. Yeah, so Mike, I'm glad we have you on. We just had your chief customer officer, Karen Kintos on and she was talking a little bit about the skills gap. So we know how many people we're going to need to have and half of the programs we're going to need, it's going to require retraining of my workforce there. So we talked for years with what used to be EMC and now Dell Education Services from storage certifications to convert certifications to cloud certifications. So what's the latest and greatest? What is the kind of go-to skill set that people need? And the ones that people are calling up saying, oh my gosh, if I can learn this, it's going to really catapult my career. Yeah, so the Dell Technologies now, Dell Technologies proven professional programs been in place for years. A lot of industry recognized certifications to your point, a lot focused on storage, data protection, product related and over the past 12 months to 18 months we've actually done a lot of expansion beyond that into more areas of transformation. And those areas where we've expanded beyond just product have been tied back right to that skills gap that we're seeing in customers and what they're challenged with as they drive digital transformation. So some examples being more of a focused on converged infrastructure, hybrid cloud. We have some associate level certifications we recently brought to market there. Multi-cloud, that's a big focus for us. Obviously some of the discussion and announcements this morning focused around multi-cloud and they talked about cloud chaos. So we have some expert level certification in place focused on that. We also have a focus around security and specifically designing infrastructure with that security first mindset. And then finally the other most recent transformational type of certification is a master level. So think of it a career pinnacle level certification that's focused on transformational architecture. Yeah, Mike just a follow up on that. One of the things I hear in multi-cloud is there's certain technologies that might allow us to move but one of the biggest challenges is skill set because if I learn and I understand how to configure it and how to manage it and how to do it here and if I move somewhere else even if it's 70% the same oh my gosh, that's not awesome. Can you just, I wonder if you could step back and give us what you see out there and what works today and where do we need to go as an industry as a whole to try to help users to live in this multi-cloud world that we're already in but struggling with. Yeah, I mean there's a ton of proficiency in the silos. In managing specific infrastructure, server storage network, now also around converged infrastructure as well as cloud deployments. But to your point, in a multi-cloud environment there are different providers, both private and public, different technologies and it gets, it can get complex fairly quick, right? So having the skill sets to kind of take a step back and look at that holistically and understand about workload placement, you know there's knowledge and skill sets that require to make some of those determinations. We obviously have a lot of services capabilities that help provide that but there's a level of obviously proficiency that our customers want in need and house as well. So a lot of it is building that knowledge and understanding the decision points and the criteria for the different providers as well as workload placement and movement across that multi-cloud environment. Very different than skill sets in the past. Sorry about that, very excited. I'm curious about, if we talk about talent and retention with respect to some of the guys and gals who've been around for a while, Michael mentioned on stage this morning that later this week is Dell's 35th anniversary in business. And as we look at all the technology transformations and multi-cloud world that we live in that you mentioned, what are some of the benefits for, I don't want to say an older population, but say the veterans of technology, what are some of the things that Dell Technologies Education Services will deliver to say that more seasoned individual to stay relevant and be able to adapt as quickly as technology so that they're competitive for jobs themselves. Yeah, great, great question. And I mean, it's the pace of changes so fast and it's impacting everyone. Everyone from recent college graduates, right? Getting right into the field that we're in in technology as well as your point season veterans who've been around for a while. And that's where a lot of the difficult transformation is taking place, right? Because it's the roles of the past and today, the skillsets of today, those roles and skills that have gotten us to today are very different than what's needed to get us to tomorrow. And that's where a lot of our technical training, our curricula, as well as our industry certifications come into play in helping build that knowledge, the required and the skills and the certifications to validate those capabilities for the next generation workforce. So it's really for the right out of school and maybe new to the field as well as evolving throughout their career. All right, so Mike, we know that your team's doing things throughout the year, talking to your customers, but you've got 15,000 people here at Dell Tech World. I've seen the hands-on labs. I know there's always certifications. So give us from your team some of the big focus, some of the activities and some of the takeaways you want people to have from your team. You know, the one big thing I would give a plug for is our proven professional center. So right downstairs here in Casanova 501, we have 57 certifications available and we have hundreds and hundreds of customers and partners that will be taking certification exams and achieving certifications this week. All right, so we have a promotional offer. So every attempt at, first attempt at every exam is free just for this week. So I encourage everyone who's here to check it out. In addition to taking those certifications in preparation for that, we have 29 different preparation sessions that we're running. So right downstairs, two rooms next door where we're rotating through on topics that are specific to our latest and greatest product lines, PowerLimp, PowerMax, PowerEdge MX. In addition to that cloud focus, data science, certification prep sessions, multi-cloud expert, there's a whole array of prep sessions that are helping our customers and partners prepare for taking those certifications. AI, machine learning. There are some intersections with that as well, certainly as part of our data science curriculum and certification exams. And where are customers in terms of discussing with you, say maybe at last year's Dell Technologies World, like, hey, these are some of the certifications and the trainings that we really need. Talk about that sort of bi-directional symbiosis where customers are, I'm assuming, helping you, the teams identify, develop, and then deliver the spot on trainings. Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. So actually every year here at Dell Technologies World, we have a customer advisory council. And actually the last two years, it came out loud and clear last year, was more of a focus in some of the areas that they're challenged with from a transformation perspective. Security came in to play in a big way. Different aspects of cloud and multi-cloud, enterprise architecture. A lot of our focus related to Pivotal and some of the offerings there, application development. So all of that feedback and discussion that we have into customers actually feeds into our prioritization and road mapping and it has a big impact on the technical training and the certifications that we bring to market. So we're going to be with our customers throughout today, also tomorrow, and that'll be additional input to where we go in the future. All right, Mike, what other feedback are you hearing from customers? We hear in the keynote some of these broad topics and you talk about AI and IoT and edge computing and how much does that funnel back and are they looking for help on that now or how do they start getting themselves ready for some of these massive waves that are coming? Yeah, that's definitely part of the themes that we hear and the feedback that we get from customers and what's really relevant to them and that ties into their skills transformation as well. As you said, IoT, AI, ML, data engineer, that's a more recent role that we're focusing on and you'll see a bunch coming out from Dell Technologies Ed Services on that in the not too distant future. So a lot of that, those themes are, we hear the exact same, same customer base and those are areas that we're addressing in our roadmap and as we bring new technical training offerings to market. So listening to your customers is key, as Stu mentioned, we were talking to Karen can just a little bit earlier that that's essential pretty much for any role but you're listening, you're taking that into account, you're designing it and delivering for that. A lot of benefits, we can talk about it for the individuals going through the training, right? In terms of upskilling and job retention but from your customer's perspective, you have a favorite example of a customer who's really been able to transform their company because they've made this investment and ensuring that their talent has the latest and greatest education. Yeah, actually, you know what we've seen? We've done a bunch of research and what we see time and again is there's a really, really strong correlation between those organizations that are focusing on and investing in their people and the skills development, correlation between that and the progress and success that they're having with their transformation initiatives, right? And one area that where we've been engaging a lot deeper with customers as of just recent and beginning to do a lot more of is we call it an organizational learning program. So we obviously offer technical training and certifications but this is more of a consultative engagement with our customers more at the organizational level and very consultative and we work closely with them to understand their digital strategy, their plans and as part of that drive a very prescriptive assessment of what's going on in their environment from a people and skills perspective. So really understanding their current state and where they want to go, where they need to be and based upon the findings of that assessment we work closely with them to develop a defined documented strategy and plan. In this case, it's a learning plan. It's a continuous learning plan for that organization over a series of quarters to work against and drive and really capture, gain those skills and knowledge that's required to help move them forward. Yeah, Mike, I love that. Reminds me of the joke in your space is what if we give them new skills and they leave and of course the alternative is what if we don't give them new skills and they stay? Exactly. So last thing I wanted to ask is talk a little bit about internal. There's a lot of change going on. You've been from the EMC to the Dell for quite a few years. I won't say how many just to protect the innocent. But one of the things, I mean I spent 10 years at EMC and the training was something that helped me a lot in my career. Talk a little bit about what's changed and how you help the internal teams and all the different groups stay up on the latest and greatest areas. Absolutely, so in education services to your point we support our employees, technical employees around the globe, our partners and customers. So huge focus on enabling those employees and if you think about it, they're the front lines, they're the folks that are with our customers and they need to be as up to speed if they're more up to speed in these areas of technology. So we have a massive undertaking to enable our services audiences, pre-sale systems engineers, our consultants around the globe to ensure that they are up to speed and quite knowledgeable on the latest and greatest technologies and really how those come to life within our customer environments. Seems like maybe education services is a catalyst for this internal cultural transformation that we're seeing from Dell Technologies. Absolutely is. It's this transformation everywhere. It's internal, it's external and at the end of the day, kind of back to where we started, right? It comes down to the people. It's our customers and us as a company are most important asset. And at the end of the day, you know, the people need the right skills and to be successful and to go digital. Great stuff, Mike. Thank you so much for joining Stu and me on theCUBE this afternoon and sharing all that you're doing to help transform Dell education services for your internal folks and your customers alike. We appreciate your time. Thanks for having me. Our pleasure. First Stu Miniman, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching us live from Las Vegas, day one of theCUBE's coverage of Dell Technology World 2019. Thanks for watching.