 From around the globe, it's theCUBE with digital coverage of VMworld 2020, brought to you by VMware and its ecosystem partners. Welcome back, I'm Stu Miniman. This is theCUBE's 11th year of VMworld. Here we are in 2020, of course, rather than being together at the Moscone or at the Sands. We're coming to you in your place of work or home when you're watching video. Happy to welcome back. We have two of our long time guests on the program. First, we have Travis V. Hill. He is the senior vice president of product management with Dell Technologies. And joining him is Lee Caswell, who's the vice president of products, storage and availability business unit at VMware. Lee and Travis, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you, Stu. It's good to see you again. All right, so we love kind of the maturation of what's happened. You know, I mentioned 11 years. I get to usually, you know, sit down and talk with both of you. We talk about strategy. We talk about how customers, and at the end of the day, we know things are changing. Heck, 2020, things are changing more every day. But one of the big transitions here is talking about that, how applications are changing. And the old days, it was, hey, I have an application. Let me just stick it in a VM and it's gonna be good there forever. We know that today, I need to react fast. I need to move things forward. And that impacts what VMware and Dell are doing together. So, Lee, if maybe we come with you, give the VMware perspective on that application changing and what that means to there. And Travis, feel free to chime in when Lee's done. Sure. Yeah, thanks so much, Stu. And great to have, to be back here on theCUBE. And VMworld is always a great opportunity to talk about how the industry is changing. What's really happening here? And so, one of the things that we're all finding is that the pace of application change is speeding up. When you think about infrastructure, we want to think about how you can organize around the fastest changing element. This is one of the things we kicked off with Project Pacific and our Tanzu portfolio a year ago. And you're starting to see all the products come roaring through right now as we're integrating Kubernetes. So that container-based applications can be managed, secured, protected, just the same way with all the same tools that we have with our traditional VM applications. Yeah, you know, Lee, it's an excellent point. I mean, we are seeing the adoption of the modern applications in VMware environments just accelerate beyond belief. And we're getting increasing requests from our customers to protect, to manage production workloads in Kubernetes environments. And with our PowerProtect Data Manager, we're actually announcing that we have full support for the Tanzu portfolio. So that includes TKG, TKGI, Kubernetes clusters, Kubernetes clusters in vSphere. So we're really excited to be able to offer this capability to our joint customers. And I think one thing that we're seeing is that the roles in IT are oftentimes blending together. So one of the things we're excited about with our solution is that with our direct data protection integration in vSphere environments, it's actually the vAdmin that can provision, monitor, manage and protect the Kubernetes workloads, give a unified experience and provide that peace of mind in this next generation world. Yeah, Travis, I'm glad you brought up some of those changing roles. I mean, that was such a big theme for so many years is the virtualization admin taking on more responsibility. Letit up the changing applications. You've got other roles coming together. You've got the application development team, which oftentimes is disconnected from the infrastructure team. So from either of you, just, what are you seeing from your customers? How are they sorting through that? I need to move agile, I need to move faster. And that's not traditionally how the infrastructure team has worked. Yeah, it's a good point. One of the things that we've been working on, for example, is how we've integrated SRM with VVOLs and PowerMax. And when you think about that, and we've talked for years right about VVOLs, for example, what we're responding to now is that customers are coming back and saying, listen, I have HCI, but I also have storage system and I need your help to go and be able to manage these with a consistent operating model and the same team. And that career path for the virtualization administrator just continues to grow. They're adding now a lot of native applications, Kubernetes orchestrated applications and being able to manage those across traditional storage and newer HCI systems. This is a really interesting blend of where the companies are working together to make sure that customer responses are being addressed really quickly. Yeah, it's a great example, Lee. I mean, if you think about three tier architectures and PowerMax being the flagship of the heart of a lot of data centers that have been in operation for decades, the fact that we're seen from our customers, hey, can you take SRM and VVOLs? Can you integrate it with PowerMax and SRDF and be able to provide me a step along the way on my modernization journey, such that I can utilize what I've built up my IT operations around over the last couple of decades, along with the newer deployment models like hyper-converged infrastructure. And we're seeing that kind of, that step forward and a blurring of the lines in terms of roles all over the place. I think another good example, Lee, is cloud native app depth, right? And customers looking for object storage capability to provide a simple DevOps friendly way of developing applications and hybrid cloud environments. And that's why we're really happy that we're able to provide early access for what we refer to as object scale, which works in conjunction with VSAN data persistence platform to allow our customers to deliver modern applications, but at the same time use infrastructure that the IT organization is deploying for other standard applications. I think that's another good example. It's a good point. We had blocks through VSAN, of course, right? And added files, what was missing? Well, objects. So exactly, when partnering together with this persistence storage platform, we've got a way to go and basically supply an object scale storage that can be used for cloud native development. And I think this is a good example, right? This isn't just one hand clapping, right? This is both companies working together to make sure that customers have a seamless experience. And that's really important. It doesn't come for granted, right? I mean, it really takes co-engineering, joint testing, and developing and go to market together between our companies. I've never seen it working better. Well, yeah. Go ahead, Stu. Yeah, Travis, I was just saying, we saw how fast VMware went from announcing Project Pacific to the GA of the base solution where you needed the cloud foundation to update one already, allowing everything to move open. That's going to be a little bit challenging to keep up with that pace of innovation. We've been talking for years on theCUBE, but we went from the 18 month release cycle to now most things are like a six week release cycle. So give us through any other pieces of the portfolio we need to understand fitting in with Tanzu. And yeah, how do you move things along and where are the customers with their adoption? Are they sitting there waiting for it? Or is this something that is going to be more traditional enterprise, you know, slow roll? No, I think you hit it spot on, Stu. The adoption and the deployments of these new architectures are coming very, very quickly, right? Traditional IT is, you know, trying to to, and in many cases, successfully moving to a more cloud like delivery CICD approach to how they run their shops and the, you know, the speed of innovation and the speed and the dynamics of new technologies within the data centers are just, you know, accelerating, you know, at a really fast pace. And in order to, you know, continue to keep up with these changes, it's, you know, I'll reflect back on a little bit on what Lee was talking about. It's understanding where customers are going and jointly working together to target those pain points. And I'll give, you know, a very specific example. And then I think maybe Lee, we should start to talk a little bit about Monterey as well. But, you know, I'll say a very specific example on joint innovation is, you know, as customers have deployed VMWare more broadly and they put more mission critical large applications on VM, there's been sort of this persistent issue that some of those VMs just were so large or required such high availability that they were, you know, what some IT professionals would refer to as unproductive, unprotectable. And so we were actually demonstrating with VMWare innovation that allows those VMs, those large mission critical VMs that can take zero downtime or even a pause in availability or performance, the ability to take backups without impacting the performance on those VMs. So that's a very specific thing we're doing, a very specific pain point. But I think it's an example of us working together to target customer needs. And then I think more broadly, there's a big trend in composability that Pat talked a little bit about this morning, project Monterey, I'll let Lee kick it off and then kind of talk a little bit about what we're doing to partner with VMWare on this initiative. Yeah, well, great. I definitely want to hear Monterey. Obviously edge computing has everybody excited. You know, Travis, we've been hearing from the Dell team the last couple of years is that strategy is maturing some of the investment pieces that Dell's doing. So Lee, you know, we hear edge computing. What does that mean? VMWare's got a strong telco play that we've watched for many years. So just as you said, project Pacific rolled out pretty fast. Help us understand a bit more of this Monterey and how fast will this turn into that cascade of products that you talked about for that we saw the last year. Yeah, thanks. And it's exciting at VMWare, right? We're willing to go and share projects and you know, over time projects become products the way it works. And so the project is really a directional vision that says if you think about what we did with project Pacific a year ago and Pacific being like going broad, the idea was applications are changing. We needed to go and basically make Kubernetes integrated with vSphere with our full VMWare Cloud Foundation and then basically simplified for customer consumption. And we did that together with the Tanzu brand. Now project Monterey, if you think of the Monterey Canyon is now going deep. And what it says is that not only the software architecture has to change but also hardware, new hardware capabilities particularly through the use of smart mix are a new way for us to think about re-architecting how compute is basically optimized within a server and then across clusters and even across the hybrid cloud. And so Monterey will be a new way to look at how we go and efficiently offload CPUs and use these new smart Nick offload engines as a way to think about where hypervisors run, where smart, you know, let's call it software defined whether it's storage or compute and most importantly probably is security. Because one of the things we're finding that applications new applications are demanding is encryption for example, or distributed firewalls thinking about like how do we do that secure boot or how do we think about air gapping applications from the infrastructure? And so we're really thinking about how to re-architect the world of security. So the security is integrally distributed throughout an architecture. And so you'll be seeing with project Monterey our ability to go and drive new products out of that. And we're working very closely on an engineering to engineering level with Dell technologies to make sure this new technology becomes available for customers and fully integrated in the VMware cloud foundation. So we have a easy way for customers to digest it which I think that's the thing to do right now is there's a lot of new technologies coming so fast. Really the partnership means that we're able to consume those more quickly. Wonderful, yeah Monterey. So we're going to go deeper than the Grand Canyon is deep but I guess we need to all breathe underwater too. So Travis, as I mentioned, you know, Dell's had for a couple of years some of these analyst sessions that I've had the opportunity to go through. Been watching out that growth of the edge strategy. Obviously, you know, Dell has everything from some of the hardened pieces on the consumer side through tying into, you know, broad ecosystem. So software obviously is going to be huge component of what edge is. We saw on the keynote stage in Vidya, you know, a big partnership there, obviously a huge important partner for both Dell and VMware. So Travis, from the Dell side, what does this vision of Monterey mean? It's, you know, it's extremely important, you know, I'd say transformational potentially for IT going forward and Lee did a really good job of describing the trends, whether that be cloud native, telco, 5G, you know, machine learning and data-centric applications, multi-cloud and hybrid cloud and that security concern that Lee was talking about. Those are real trends. And if we can offer infrastructure that is more composable into these disaggregated resources, you know, across the edge, across the cloud, across the core, all software defined and seamlessly managed, I mean, that's a powerful, powerful vision. And we're just really excited to be partnering with VMware, jointly engineering this future, focusing first on those smart nicks that Lee was talking about because you need that higher compute, you need that increased bandwidth, you need easier manageability of a distributed infrastructure and you need that ability to provide easier and more distributed security. So lots more to come. We will be incorporating these technologies, specifically in the form of smart nicks into our HCI and our server portfolio. But this, like Lee said, this is a trend that will move from initiative to project to products very quickly. Wonderful, well, boy, we covered that breadth and that depth as you said, Lee, want to give you both just final takeaways, what you want people to take from being, well, 2020. Lee, we'll start with you and then Travis, you get the final word. Yeah, we're really looking at a changing world in terms of applications. And so for customers around the globe, look for the partnerships that will bring those new capabilities and make it easy to go and deploy as fast as possible. We started off making sure that people weren't looking down at the infrastructure and started looking up at the apps. We're continuing that process with what we're doing around Tanzu, around our Kubernetes portfolio. And stay tuned, there'll be more to come, much more, as we work together on Project Monterey, lots of exciting news. And I'm glad that you were here for VMworld to go and see it all come to light. Yeah, I think, you know, I obviously agree with everything that Lee just said. You know, I think for me, this VMworld is just, you know, another step forward in a great partnership across Dell Technologies and VMware. And, you know, I mentioned several things, you know, all of the things that we're doing together, you know, I forgot to mention actually that we're the first company to be, to offer a certified solution to protect VMware cloud foundations, which I use that specific example again, you know, expect more first, expect more joint engineering and integrations. And, you know, I think the power of these two organizations coming together is what's going to be needed to help drive forward into this next generation of modern applications and dynamic workloads and disaggregated resources. And so we're just really excited about the innovation, the ability to address customer issues and the, you know, and the strong partnership that we have across Dell Technologies and VMware. Well, one of the measurements six that we have today is how fast everyone can respond and move fast. Congratulations on all the progress you've both made in your teams in the last year. And absolutely look forward to hearing more about Project Monterey as that matures. Travis and Lee, thanks for joining us. Thank you, Stu. Thanks, Stu. All right, and stay tuned for more coverage of VMworld 2020. I'm Stu Miniman, as always. Thank you for watching theCUBE.