 Hi, Lisa Martin, on the ground with theCUBE at Google for the sixth annual Cloud Now Top Women in Cloud Awards and we're very excited to be joining one of the award winners, Beth Cohen. You are with Verizon. Congratulations on the award, welcome to theCUBE. Thank you, yes. So tell me what you do for Verizon. So what I do for Verizon, I come up with new products that, and we've been focusing over the last few years on software defined networking, which is a brand new cutting edge area that not only Verizon is new to, but also the entire world is new to. So what we're doing is we're taking cloud concepts and applying them to network services. And I'm actually involved in addition to that in a new initiative called Edge Computing. So there's gonna be white paper coming out shortly on that and that all came out of my work at Verizon on the products, the software defined networking products I've been working on. Wow, so you are a pioneer. We'll get to more of that a little bit later, but what are some of the things that excite you about being on the leading edge of software defined networking and edge computing? Well, what's really exciting to me is working with the customers and getting them excited about this new technology and how it's really changing the world. And they're all excited about it because they see, they understand that the future is here and that they need to embrace it. So one of the things that I found was really interesting when I was doing some research on you is you've worked with several technology companies to help them change their product strategy direction, taking advantage of the cloud. So I mentioned the word pioneer earlier, but you're clearly influential. How have you been able to work with companies of presumably diverse cultures to help them change direction? So that's an interesting question. So the company has to be ready for it and some companies are not actually, but the companies, fortunately, I've had the opportunity to work with some companies that were ready for it for either whether they recognized, in one case, their market was disappearing literally as their customers were leaving and they didn't have any new customers and they recognized that they needed to take a new direction to survive. And what they did is they had some really unique, interesting technology around high availability and survivability, which is something that companies really need, but theirs was a hardware-based solution and what I helped them do is to really come up with a new way of looking at it that was a software-based solution that they could apply to cloud services. Wow, so tell me about the influence there. What's that process like to show them, like you were saying, some of them customers are drying up, obviously, this is an impetus for change. What were some of the obstacles that you helped them identify and overcome to identify, this is why we have to shift direction, this is going to be much more beneficial? Well, so they obviously weren't great paying as their balance sheet was drifting down, but they had to realize that their skill sets, that they had some people that had some great skill sets, but they had to really think differently about what they were doing. So one of the things I did is help them understand the new technologies that they were going to be adopting. So I did some training, worked out some training with them and gave them a two-day training session on a cloud technology and what it was about and how it could apply to them. I also had to understand what they were doing and their secret sauce so that I could really extend that and say, okay, your job's not going to go away, but you really need to add some additional skills to be successful in this new direction. What are some of the fears that technology fears that you've heard as not just an influencer helping companies to make the right directional changes, but also even at your current career at Verizon? What are some of the things that people are afraid of regarding technology that you can help them see, ah, it's not so bad? So, you know, Verizon's a telecom and telecom's, what I like to say to people is what we're selling is reliability, right? So every time you make that cell phone call, it goes through, right? And that's Verizon prides itself on that and every time you have that connection, it works every time. Well, there's a lot of technology and a lot of operations and a lot of support services that go on behind the scenes to make that actually happen. And you know, the general public's probably just not aware of that. But the people inside the company are very afraid to get away from, you know, well, we've always done this and we have to continue doing this because we do have that five nines reliability that we have to deliver. And so it's very difficult to say, oh, well, we'll do it differently now. So there has to be a lot of education around and gaining the trust that yes, this new technology can be used and can deliver those five nines reliability statistics and SLAs that you're used to delivering. Do you think it's more of a fear of maybe cultural change than it is actual technology? I'd say it's probably a combination of both. Verizon is a technology company. So obviously we embrace technology and we have a lot of really smart people working for the company who love technology. But we also, we want to service our customers and we don't want to get that angry phone call about the networks down. So there's kind of a combination to make sure that we deliver to our customers what they expect. Exactly. So I mentioned the word pioneer earlier. You have a really interesting career path that I think is very inspirational. In the last couple of minutes that we have here, share with us about how did you get from what you studied in school to being a leader in software to find networking at Verizon? Oh, wow. So I studied architecture as in building architecture. I went to Rhode Island School of Design. This is completely totally opposite. Although I do tell people I learned a whole lot about creativity and critical thinking, which is very valuable skills to apply to being a pioneer. Because when you're in cutting edge, what I spend most of my time doing is connecting the dots and saying, oh, this technology can be applied here or these two technologies can work together. Have you ever thought of that? Oh, wow, never. So that's why I end up spending my career being on the cutting edge of things. I love that. You bring up a great point that is, you know, and a lot of fields, no matter what you studied, there are great lessons to be learned from, for example, applying the creativity and technology. There's a great value there. And so I think that's very inspiring to others who might be interested in different things and know that there's a lot of cross-pollination. Last question. I have one more comment about that. Please go for it. There's no such thing as wasted time. Everything I've done over the years has always ended up being a learning experience for me. I spent two years being a cook at a fancy French restaurant in Philadelphia. And that was a learning experience too. And I love that. And you're absolutely right. All these experiences build one on the other on the other. And I agree with you that, and I hope a lot of people feel the same that there isn't a waste of time. It's not a wrong step. It's something that you can learn from and they'll be a better person, a better worker, a better boss for it. So one more. And a mean cook. Exactly. I got to get some recipes from you. So last question. The cloud now, top women in cloud award really quickly. How did you find out about that and what does this award mean to you? I'm very excited about it. I have to admit it was a big surprise for me. Somebody nominated me and they sent me a note on LinkedIn and I had completely forgotten about it. And then I get this email. And so I was like just stunned. So I'm very excited about it. And it seems, like I said, I've used the word pioneer a number of times and you're very inspiring. And I'm sure that the people that bestowed the award are very thrilled to have you in the class as this sixth year. Yes. Well Beth, thank you so much for joining us on theCUBE and sharing your story. And again, congratulations on the award. Thank you again. I'm Lisa Martin on the ground with theCUBE at Google. Thanks so much for watching. Bye for now.