 Everyone, this is theCUBE, live in San Francisco, AT&T Park. I'm John Furrier, the founder of SiliconANG. And I'm joined by Jeff Kelly, co-host here, chief analyst at Wikibon for the Big Data Practice. And what a great event because we are having a special broadcast with all the mega stars of tech athletes in the tech business, CIO of the Giants, president of the earthquakes, executives at the Sharks, the Warriors. You name it, they're all here, the Niners. Really amazing. These are tech athletes. In our world, they're tech athletes and we're super excited to have HP sponsor us, Chris Thielen, welcome to theCUBE, our key sponsor and supporter of this. The vision to do this was really incredible on your part to support us because, you know, you're a tech athlete yourself, but this is about leadership. People process change is a big part of it. It's nothing to do with the technology. If you take away the Giants and the sports names and substitute financial services, retail, oil and gas, whatever vertical, the game is still the same, competitive advantage, use your business, use your data. So it's a fun time. Yeah, I can't tell you how many times I use the phrase big data analytics is changing the game. People are saying what's big data ultimately about and what's big data really mean. It really means that being effective in using your data and understanding your customers, your suppliers, your operations, that's what it's all about these days. And so, and I'm pretty involved personally in youth sports and when you talk to kids, you're always like, yes, it's a game, but you learn life lessons from it, right? So, and I think other industries can learn lessons from what's going on in this room. So, we're really excited to be here. We're really excited to sponsor this event. Great, great vision on your part. We're really proud to work with you on this and we're proud to do it in other cities as well. Get some customers here. You got some people networking, doing some business. But at the end of the day, it's about big data. Sports is a fun thing to do. We love it. We talk about mobile first in the industry. Everything's mobile first. The CEO of Microsoft today, we talked about cloud first, but really it's about data first. So, let's talk about data first. Look at the data landscape. We're now at the tipping edge of what people are going to start to do with data. Developers want the data. We heard from the data science. We have the earthquakes. Guy was doing data science. The guy at 49ers is doing data science. Data first. What's your vision on data first? Well, yeah, absolutely. It's data first. I think one of the reasons mobile is so important in this industry, obviously, when you have fans in the stadium, that's the way they interact, right? I mean, go to any game these days and everybody's on their phone, so listen to how their battery dies or so the Wi-Fi gets too crowded, but yeah, no, it's absolutely data first. I mean, it's understanding fan engagement. It's understanding what's going on in the field, in some cases. I mean, there's a lot of cool stuff being done with that kind of data. And it's very analogous to what's going on in all these other industries. So, yeah, absolutely data first. So what about NASCAR? Another sport that has a lot of instrumentation. And that word instrumentation is kicking its way into the world of big data. Obviously you're instrumenting things. Yep, you collect data. And now the word data processing is back and forth. That's an old mainframe term, because people now are processing data. It means data's at the center of the value proposition. So talk a little bit about what's going on with things like NASCAR and how instrumental it is to quote instrument. Well, you know, yeah, it's instrumentation, but it's really, I mean, that's a great illustration of real time, is what it really is, because ultimately what they're trying to understand is media engagement and fan engagement. So, you know, so if you look at somebody like NASCAR, like there was an example, there was a race not long ago, I think it was a premiere at 300, where, you know, sadly, although nobody, I guess, was killed, as I understand, but there was a crash and the cameras cut away. And as soon as the cameras cut away, people started tweeting like crazy, like, I don't want to see it, right? So it doesn't necessarily mean you should show it, but it's, you know, it gives you a decision point. It gives you real time feedback on what people want, what people want to see, what they care about. You know, obviously in a moment like that, there's a lot of passion involved, and there's generally a lot of passion both ways, but having that information in real time really teaches you something. Before Jeff gets his question, I want to ask one more question before he gets, you've been a big part of the HP turnaround with the big data group, okay, Vertica. HP Vertica's been a big success story at the HP. You've been a big part of that. Tell us what's going on in the cutting edge of the big data world relative to your customer base. Honestly, business is good on your end. What's happening? Yeah, I mean, we're fundamentally a platform business. We're kind of the big data analytics platform inside of HP. We've got the support of this, you know, giant, worldwide, well-known brand, and I think in a lot of ways, beloved brand. That's been one of the most gratifying things about, you know, kind of being part of, I don't know, I don't like the word comeback. It's just like, you know, the fact that we're doing well, we're growing, business is growing. You know, people are talking about HP, and, you know, we've got services, we've got infrastructure, we've got all the support behind us, and yeah, it's been really great to be a part of that. So, you know, business is a sport too, and it's, you know, yeah, there might have been a couple of seasons where the playoffs maybe weren't quite made, but you know, it's, things are humming on all cylinders right now, you know, it's fun. Get beer, as they say in Boston, right? You know, it's fun to be a part of the team. Let's put it that way, so, yeah. So, one of the things, you know, our first two guests here at Sports Data, we didn't even really talk a lot about the technology itself that's kind of supporting a lot of the database decisions that they're making. From Vertica's perspective, how do you communicate with, you know, customers, prospective customers, and make that balance between the conversation around, here's the technology, here's the fees, and here's the business value, here's how it's going to actually move your business forward, because, you know, I think as we're moving, you know, in the big data world, we're kind of moving from that early adopter to more of the mainstream adopter. I see the conversation shifting, or at least it needs to shift. How do you approach that? Yeah, well, I think a lot of times, I mean, it depends on the conversation, but a lot of times when we talk into customers and potential customers, I like to sort of talk about exploratory analytics versus sort of production analytics, because, you know, a lot of the work that's gone on today isn't exploratory, where we have a lot of data, we don't really know what it means, we don't really know what it says, we might have some ideas, we're not really sure what to do with it. You know, we don't necessarily need it in real time. I mean, there is, you know, it's funny, I was in another conference earlier this week, and I heard a bunch of sessions talking about price, you know, how much big data costs, and how much it costs to manage big data, and then there were other sessions talking about performance, but you didn't really see anybody talking about price performance, you know, and I mean, think about it in sports, you know, it's funny, I noticed you guys didn't invite my friend Billy Bean, but, or maybe he chose not to come because there's enemy territory here, right? But, you know, you talk about price performance, right? I mean, that's what Moneyball's all about, right? It's about getting the most from your investments, and that's really what most businesses are trying to do, you know, not everybody can be the Yankees in their industry and outspend their competitors, so, and the same thing's true with data, right? You gotta understand, like, what are really the key areas where you really have to invest heavily, because you need absolute real time up to the minute performance. There are other areas that it may not necessarily be, you know, you might have, you know, I won't do too many sports business analogies, but a deeper bench, you know, or it just might be that critical to, you know, your, you know, your overall strategy, right? So, it's really making those decisions because it's trade-offs. I mean, ultimately, you know, again, if you are the Yankees of your industry and you can afford to outspend everybody, yeah, you can probably press for maximum performance in every area, but most of us in our businesses don't face that. We have to make trade-offs and we have to make decisions. Yeah, I would say the majority of businesses out there are not in a position where they flush with cash. Right, and I know I'm sitting with Boston guys here, so, you know, bringing up the Yankees is, that's true, it's a little bit of a source, but I will let that one carry out. Well, I'm a big fan of Jeter's last season. He's been amazing. I mean, that guy, you know, props to him no matter what fan base you are. By far the best Yankee of all time, in my opinion. Well, but he's got a Mo guy, though, so. I've heard a lot of people saying that about Mo, but I don't know, it's, you know, anyway. I'm a med fan, so, yeah. Oh, geez, I don't know. Yeah, they're a meds fan. Mo, who? I never heard of them. Oh, yeah. Well, but I think you bring up a good thing of Mo Vaughn, right? You know, the greatest friends last of all time. No, he's probably not in that conversation, but. We can digress into some root one conversations. Yes. We could. Is it late enough at night to do that? I know, I was gonna stay on task later on camera, so. But I think, yeah, the price performance question is important, because, but that's, again, that's a business question, it's about making, you know, setting priorities in your business. Yes. So again, how does Vertica, and HP Vertica, or HP generally, engage customers in those conversations? Is that part of your value proposition? Is not just the technology, but we're gonna help you kind of make those important business decisions? Yeah, it is. You know, I mean, Vertica's always been very much about high performance at scale. You know, truly big data, when you're getting up into many terabytes of petabytes of data, and you're really into performance, that's been sort of the core sweet spot for Vertica along. You know, we started shipping our FlexZone product in December, and that actually gives us kind of a bridge to the worlds of Hindu, and those SQL as well. For some of that data, you might want to do more exploratory work on it, and you might not necessarily want to invest quite as much, because you don't know what you have yet, and then if you decide this is important data, you can then fully materialize it, so we're kind of trying to build bridges to the area, but the key is, you know, it's funny, I was asked at this other conference, I was at this week, you know, what's over-hyped? And I think everybody thought I was gonna say, I do, or something like that, and I don't. I mean, we're actually big fans of Hindu, but I think to me, what's over-hyped is anything for everything is kind of the way I answered it. Like, there's a single big data solution that's right for all problems. That's not true, and I think what's happening in the market right now, it's just like, you know, we can go back to baseball analogy, right? You know, a good shortstop is not your best first baseman. You know, who you have in the center field is not probably not your best catcher, so, and you need a portfolio of talents, a portfolio of skills, a portfolio of technology, so we obviously, you know, in particular as we start to talk about HB Haven, we've got a pretty broad portfolio of, not just products, but products and services across the company, but you know, obviously the new position H in Haven, so we see a role for that. And so we try to have a very broad ecosystem as well that really allows us to serve a lot of people. I got to ask the most important question. What do you think about the guests so far? The 49ers have yet to come on, the Chargers have to come on, get the Giants and the earthquakes. So far, critique, what's your take about their business? I want to get your tech athletes. It's been awesome. I've actually had a chance to meet everybody personally and talk to them one-on-one. I've actually been so busy because this place is packed. I've been talking to people, so I've like been in and out of the sessions, but yeah, I think the conversation's been great. And I think the best part has been the fact that these guys have been able to relate it back to things we can all relate to, right? I mean, like you said, it's not necessarily just about the team or about the sport, but I mean, there's a lot of general lessons. The passion is Dave's passion, he's got a lot of applause. Bill, it's just, you hear him saying, I work 81 games. We get in the morning, everyone else, they leave at 11 o'clock. Sounds like what we do is you look at A, like you, you know, we broadcast 24-7 marathon, but they're normal people, doing a fun job in sports, but yet now the pressure is there. The pressure is absolutely there. It's, you know, it's, I mean, sports is a really brutal business, right? It's like, you know, and I mean, these guys are talking about the business side, but whether you're a player or what they know, it's, I mean, careers are very short and you know, your performance is right there and not only is it right there every day, but it's in the papers every day. So, you know, and that's ultimately at the end of the day, that's what it's all about. Okay, but they get a ring. They do get a ring. He got a ring, yeah. Oh, I got a wristband, so. So tell us a little bit more about what's on tap for HP Vertica. We know you've got your HP Vertica big data conference coming up this summer, where the queue will be and looking forward to that. Tell us a little bit about what's on your roadmap over the next six months through a year. Yeah, well, you know, we just shipped Vertica 7, so in terms of product, we've got a new release out which includes the FlexZone product, so that came out in December. We've been, you know, hitting various industry events. Obviously, this one being, you know, we're really, I mean, it's funny because I always say there's like new big data shows and conferences being launched every day, which kind of shows how hot the market is right now. But yeah, we've got our own big data conference coming up the week of August 11th. We'd love to have, you know, anybody watching this, please come join us at conference.vericica.com. Last year we had Billie Bean, which was awesome. This year we've actually got Tom Davenport, who's more of a business guy, if you know him, analytics 3.0, so he's going to be our keynote speaker, but, you know, we get a wide variety of people there. We're really looking forward to that. We get HB Discover kind of from June. You know, we definitely have announcements coming out. I'm not really allowed to get into the specifics, but we have a lot of cool stuff that's going to be coming along. I would also say one of the coolest things we've done recently, and it's funny, I've been talking about this a lot tonight, is our Vertica Marketplace, which is where we've been inviting our partners and also our customers and developers to submit various types of add-ons and tools and technologies and parsers and we've got our Vertica innovations in there, so we've got about, I think, almost 100 products in there right now that have value to Vertica, so, and that's been getting great takeover from years ago. Yeah, tell us a little bit more about that. We talked about that in Santa Clara at Big Data SB. Yeah. We had just launched the Marketplace, a house attraction happening, you're attracting a lot of developers and what's kind of the responsibility? We're attracting developers, we're attracting partners, we're attracting customers, and you know, they're sharing with each other. They're sharing best practices, they're sharing things they've built, they're sharing tools, and you know, it enables them not to keep beating up the sports technologies, but to sort of get the game, and you know, for customers to be able to share with each other, you know, it's funny because, you know, our community, the company that we work with, we work with a company called Get Satisfaction on the Vertica community, and they always show in their demos, I guess they've told me this, I haven't actually seen one of their demos, that when you type in, for instance, I want to migrate from Oracle to Vertica, our community comes up at the top of the Google rank, and you know, so, and we have materials to talk about like migrating from Oracle to Vertica for anybody who might want to do that, but if you really think about it, you know, if I'm a customer, and I want to do this, and I search Google for it, what's more powerful than hearing from another customer? Right, so to us, it's like, it's sort of like you're hearing here, you've got peers in the industry exchanging ideas with each other, right? So giving customers a platform where they can share with each other and developers and other partners, and they can start to share information back and forth among themselves, and then, you know, being able to expose that, and have that available for others and come in and join the conversation. It means so much more, I mean, I run marketing at the company, so I love when people listen to what I and we say as a marketer, but the net net, is customers really want to hear from each other, that's what we do at our big data conference too. We, like, no pitches, you know, it's just customers talking about their experience, so, because more and more and more, that's what you're seeing, and that's where, you know, that's where all of the value comes from. Chris, thanks so much for coming on theCUBE and sharing, you're supposed to update on Vertica and some of your vision around that, and thanks for supporting SiliconANGLE Network on theCUBE's special broadcast here at AT&T PARC, great vision, and a lot of fun, thanks so much. Beautiful venue, beautiful night, pleasure to be here. Okay, we'll be right back with our next guest after this break.