 Live from the Sands Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, extracting the signal from the noise. It's theCUBE, covering HP Discover 2015. Brought to you by HP. And now your hosts, John Furrier and Dave Vellante. Okay, welcome back everyone. We are here live in Las Vegas for HP Discover 2015. This is theCUBE, our flagship program. We'll go out to the events and extract the signal. Notice I'm John Furrier, my co-host Dave Vellante. We're here with Paul Miller, marketing with the, which group is it that you are? Converged data center infrastructure. Converged data center, and huge announcement. I mean, first of all, converged data center, also called self-defined data center and other buzzwords, is at the center point of the conversation. Great to see you again, welcome to theCUBE. Yeah, great. Great to talk to you guys. We've had a big event here. We've got announcements across what we're trying to do to move the digital enterprise forward with things we're doing today with new products, new partnerships, and then a vision for the future. So a lot of cool things that customers can work today and then also build their foundation for the next generation infrastructure on. So DevOps is hot, right? So DevOps world is about composing apps in real time, for real time, with APIs, notifications, and having an infrastructure support. And that is really the theme of the project. So talk about the announcement that you guys have, and then we'll dig into kind of what does it mean, and how does it fit into the building blocks of HP? Okay, yeah, so we're announcing, we're calling Project Synergy. It's a multi-near initiative to build the next generation infrastructure we're calling Composable. And what Composable infrastructure is all about? It's an evolution of Converged. Where Converged was all about putting pieces together to make them simpler to run. Composable is all about the application layer and enabling fast time to DevOps quick, quick ability to deliver applications. You know, in the traditional world, applications get refreshed in package applications like ERP two or three times a year, right? Customers have very set processes for deploying them. For the new Cloud apps, Cloud David apps and mobile apps, people want to put applications out there, test them, see how the market reacts to them, then go through another cycle. You have to do that to compete. That's iteration. That's the classic iterate till you get the production. And Composable infrastructure is all about building a platform that's not only going to, optimize your traditional apps, but enable this faster time to DevOps, quicker deployment of resources out to the marketplace and giving customers the right resources at the right time for their application. So it's Converged infrastructure with a software layer on top of that that has sort of personalities to different workloads. Yeah, so what we're doing is it's a three tiered structure. We're moving to enabling fluid pools of resources and the ability to aggregate and disaggregate them as the application needs to actually compose the right infrastructure at the right time. In the middle layer is the software intelligence and at the top layer is a Composable API. Our RESTful API is unified across server storage and networking. And one of the big announcements we've made is not only the opening of that API, we call it the Composable API, RESTful infrastructure API, but a partner program around that to enable some of the new partners who are getting the DevOps world and customers are working with to able to compose that infrastructure easily through a single line of code. So partners like Chef, Ansible, Docker, our own HP software team, as well as VMware, writing to this API to enable customers to quickly deploy and stand up infrastructure around that application. So programmatic provisioning, correct. And then a layer of software intelligence that is dynamic, that if something changes, it will, the longterm vision dynamic that it changes and helps you adjust so that if you do a cloud native app, you deploy, it needs more resources. You deploy just the resources they need, whether it be hyper-converged storage, whether it be compute, et cetera. So you're essentially replicating that the facile nature of the public cloud and the elasticity of that public cloud on-premises or in a hybrid situation. Absolutely, so like customers go today, one of the things they like is to go to a simple command line and ask for resources or have their application ask for resources. That's what we want to enable, that's what the vision is all about. And one of the things you'll see us actually do is work with Chef, we stood up a demonstration where Chef recipes can take the application and then through a single line of code ask for the resources they need and simply, and these are all based on one user where we're announcing these APIs through, serves up the resources that Chef needs. So we're enabling customers to stand up a bare metal cloud using a Chef recipe, just getting the resources they need, standing up applications and delivering the payload of a container through Docker, enabling faster DevOps through Ansible and traditional VMware and virtualization deployments. So Paul, I got to ask you about the state of the market. So, I mean, basically it's like, okay, open source has been a big driver of a DevOps, open stack, we talked about that earlier. And then the customers have legacy stuff. So, okay, here's the paranoia for the customer or a challenge and it's opportunity. Man, I love that open source stuff, but I'm really nervous. It's not big, and DevOps is it, will I scare my existing guys? I need to hire more people, but I love it, get better, faster, run harder. But then I got a legacy environment. So, how does this fit into the bridge between the two? And how do they connect together? Right, so the idea of the composable infrastructure is actually to provide that bridge, to provide a set of tools that customers are familiar with, IE HP OneView, and processes that they're familiar with and then bridge into some of the new world applications. So enabling customers to use the API to address the traditional ways they deploy infrastructure and then working with the partners I mentioned, plus that'll integrate up into the orchestration layers that are provided by OpenStack to enable this. So we hope we provide a platform, one platform that enables both, so that customers aren't standing up different platforms, one for cloud native apps and one for their traditional apps. We're starting a very risk-free environment. Exactly. And then bring in and through the API, that's where the puppet chef thing is. Yeah, and we see this as not, customers are going to flip the switch tomorrow, right? It's a transition. So the first phase of the transition actually started with convergence, infrastructure automation, and now this continuous service delivery is the next phase of that transition. So I want to come back and talk about this whole, we heard Meg's keynote, the idea, the economy, we talk about the digital economy all the time. It's real. I like the idea economy. It's different than the digital economy. I tweeted, HP's got a lead, it's not going to follow. I was going to come up with some new terms, but the ideas are sort of the main spring of the digital economy. So you put in this infrastructure, this composable infrastructure, the evolution of Converged, its simplification, it's eliminating some of that heavy lifting that I've had to do. It's enabling organizations then to go up the value chain. Correct. Okay, so are we moving the needle yet? How far are we moving that needle and how far can we move it in the digital economy? So we're just scratching the surface quite frankly. The synergy of the project is a multi-year initiative. Our vision around composables a multi-year, but we're going to, through the launch of the API, enable customers to start that journey and to get true value out of that through these resources we're getting. That's phase one. What does phase one mean? I mean, be specific. What is it? So you're selling a product out there, customers can use it. So phase one is using the current Converged infrastructure, our blade systems, our Converged systems, HP OneView, married with these partners that we're going to market with and exposing the SDK, a solution developer kit, and the API for customers to go actually into program. These partners are already out there, like Chef and Puppet on the configuration management side, containers, Docker, et cetera. I got to ask you about the news around this Arista thing. Yeah, that's true. I mean, it was a Business Insider article. I love the headlines of Business Insider. I got to give props to those guys. Very New York post like, it's like, but you know, it's link bait, but it gets people fired up to get attention to it. Mentioned Cisco, the Cisco haters team up. I mean, obviously HP and Arista. Okay, what does that mean? I really didn't get the article what they were getting at, is there a significant substance? Is it technology deal? So marketing, go to market? Right, when I think about what we're doing, it's all about being open and projecting openness. Customers don't want lock-in. They want solutions and converge systems. The value of standing up infrastructure faster, getting faster time to value, but they want open choice. Arista brings unique technologies in their high bandwidth, low latency architecture that's really great for moving large VDI workloads around like very intense graphics for doing work with big data. So we're enabling customers choice between whether they want to use HP Networking, Cisco, or Arista. So what's that Arista? Arista specific news. So the risk specific news is we're partnering to develop a converged infrastructure solution that's going to be delivered through the channel. So customers will be able to go to the channel partner and get a fully tested, fully integrated, one-stop shop system that has HP Blades, HP 3PAR, and the Arista switch embedded within it. So we're really making it much easier for customers to consume and go after. That's a real testimonial. Arista's got a great platform. I think it's in pretty high-end customers, too. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so it's a really good solution space for us where HP Networking and Arista are really collaborative in that space. So we think we've got a really good solution that customers are going to be able to see faster time to value from this totally integrated system. I wonder if we could come back to Synergy for a second. Okay, yeah. So you talk about multi-year initiative. So that says roadmap and it says to me investment. And I think it implies organizational as well. Can we double click on that a little bit? Okay, so let's start with the organization. So the converged data center infrastructure team was formed about four months ago. And part of that was to drive this initiative. It was to bring together the critical mass of our blade organization, our converged systems organization, HP OneView. So that's the nucleus. Rick Lewis leads that organization. On top of that, we're working with the storage organization to bring in technologies such as hyper-converged as well as being able to take and manage both block, file, and traditional sand all as one. We're working with HP Networking and others around software-defined networking, pulling that into it, as well as HP Labs. And you'll see a lot more of that story being told around HP Labs and our work around the application platform and composable applications that'll sit on top of the composable infrastructure. I got to say the word microservices. Is that what we're talking about? We're talking about microservices? Absolutely, yeah, so that's what it is. It's so alive. Yeah, it lives, microservices lives, that's one of the places of the architecture. So what you'll see is first delivering these APIs, it starts the journey. Next phase is all about really delivering on infrastructure as code. Then you'll start to see us deliver out the rest of the architecture that brings in integration of analytics, integration of an N10 platform, and then that all leads to the machine at the end goal. So we are looking at a multi-year initiative that when you get to the machine, that's when you can truly carve up and get the granularity. The machine being the big HP. The HP and vinging around the machine. And you've got applications that can run on it. That's a key vision that you guys have put forth. Absolutely. It's said, this is the good, this is the really great part. This is the really great part. We actually have applications that run on this. It's not just some signage project. Well, you got some signage. We sort of opened stack. The feedback was all the container rage with Docker is watered down a little bit now because there's just not enough native apps out there in terms of native cloud apps. There are some, but not a lot. There are also legacy apps for repurpose. So containers are kind of waiting in the wings. So break down this whole containerization. And where does that fit in? Because you have an interesting balance here. You can be an arbiter of legacy to new in an excellent, elegant way with containers and orchestration. You get the configuration management with Chef and Puppet down there. But now this whole world's exploding around native apps. That seems to be a wheelhouse for you guys. Yeah, and quite frankly, we're not trying to push people to containers or have that as our only strategy. Whether you want to go to containers or go right to bare metal, it's going to be the application and the application writer's choice. But it does enable you to have the portability that customers are looking for in being able to have, and we're not going there quite yet in the multi broker, but that's... Space one is just get started. Get the API out there. So you laid out the roadmap. Talk about this verified workload-specific reference architecture. What does that mean? I mean, I heard that kicked around. Yeah. So what that really is, is that, and we're doing this with Arista, is they're engineers are engineers testing it, testing the workloads, testing the use cases, making sure that a customer has an issue. There's an engineering team standing behind it that has said, yes, I've tested it and I've worked out through all the issues or if I find another issue, I'm going to help you, Mr. Customer, to resolve any issues. On workloads. On workloads. So, you know, whether it's, you know, let's say it's on Arista, a good example would be a virtualization, a VDI solution or, you know, some of the new link stuff. Heavy, heavy network. There's any issue there, we'll be able to resolve it or understand it or go back and fix it with the application providers as well. So we're committed to 100%, not only just putting a piece of paper out there, but having the engineering fortitude behind it. Do you find it confusing with Project Synergy name, with Citrix, I'm being a partner? I mean, don't they have a show called Synergy? We used to go to, but I mean, why Synergy? Just, I mean, just. So it was really about the synchronization and pulling all the elements together, right? Orchestration and pulling that together. So, yeah, we're hoping we don't have too much. You're not doing the event business, so there's no conflict. No, we're not the event business, so. There's no trade-off infringement on that one. Right, and this was really started as an internal project, because as I mentioned, this just is not within the Converge Data Center infrastructure organization. It spans all of EG, HP software, so we really needed a project and a rallying call so that people see how their pieces of composability fit together. So that was the really big. So I got to ask, how you guys reconciling and rationalizing the partnership and or overlap with the cloud group, because they're at OpenStack, they're doing DevOps, you know, they're talking the same kind of game, they're talking containers. You guys are a little bit different. Obviously, data center-driven. Yeah. But where does that fit in? So the way we think about it is, we're serving up the infrastructure for OpenStack and the cloud guys to orchestrate. So, you know, people think about, well, just deploying a virtualization environment and all that is easy. Yeah, it's easy after somebody spends days, hours, weeks getting all the infrastructure ready. Verifying it for workloads. Verifying it, building it, right. The biggest difference between converged systems, you had somebody actually physically build a converged system. Test it, validate it, verify it. With composable, the software will handle that and serve up the infrastructure for the application at the right time. So we're teamed with Bill Hill's organization on how the cloud system and the OpenStack will pull those resources and give the right resources. So the services must be a big part of it because you're essentially building, I won't say purpose-built or engineered systems. Those words have been kicked around with other people, but like, you are actually tailoring infrastructure, composing infrastructure for essentially the cloud and DevOps, hybrid cloud, right? And private, whatever they want. But, I mean, that's got to be a big services piece. I mean, you know, is the TC guys, Johan and the other folks looking their chops here? I mean, is there some incubation going on? We have some incubation going on. So TS has a relationship with Chef that's tied in through the API and what we're doing. So we're starting there very slowly to start to help customers get on that train, if you will. We see that as a big part of this. We're priming the pump, right? Yeah, priming the pump, critical phase to help customers understand, here's how this stuff works, here's how you can deploy it and get a real use case out there that a customer can, you'll see value from. So the cloud Google launched Cloud System 9, you're talking to Bill about that and you're headed in love with these guys? Yep, yeah, we're totally aligned with that team. Cloud System 9 underconverts systems, integrating with OneView, 100% aligned. All right, so what's your take so far with the announcement? I mean, how do you feel? What's some of the things that surprised you? And what's going on? What's the bottom? I think one of the things that surprised me is all of a sudden, HP is becoming credible and having conversations around DevOps and building a platform of infrastructure that is now conversational with customers. That's on that piece. We started talking about what we're doing in the reference architecture side. Everyone's, wow, HP, all I thought I had was an all HP stack to buy. Now all of a sudden you're opening the doors and you're giving me choice. I can have conversations. We'll always want you to choose HP networking. We think it's our preferred solution, but there are customers who've made choices. Why four clothes at market? As workloads, as well as standards that customers have set and we're going to start to really address those needs. So true or false? Enterprises are re-architecting big time right now with Cloud. True? I would say, or kicking the tires or rolling it out, rolling it out. They are test driving and doing some POCs. Some customers are bleeding edge, but the majority are still trying to figure out what's that right strategy? What's that right balance between infrastructure in-house, hybrid, and how do I not get locked in? The biggest thing I hear from customers is I don't want to put my data and my applications anywhere where I can't get them back out easily. Okay, as a VP of marketing, give us the bumper sticker for the Converge data center with this capability. What should customers know about it? So with Project Synergy, I think the bumper sticker is it's infrastructure is code. You've always wanted the program of infrastructure, now we're enabling it. All right, Paul Miller, VP of marketing of the Converge Systems Group here inside theCUBE, breaking down project synergy, scalable workloads, verified workloads. Again, this is what's under the covers for all the application developers out there. This is the magic of DevOps, the service of DevOps. It's theCUBE, bringing you the signal. Join the conversation, go to hpdiscover.social. We'll be right back after this short break.