 Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE. Covering VMworld 2017, brought to you by VMware and it's ecosystem partner. Okay, welcome back everyone. Live here in the VM village at VMworld 2017, it's theCUBE's exclusive three day coverage, day three. Kicking off, we're here with Robin Matlock, CMO of VMware, great to see you. With my co-host, Dave Vellante, how are you? Good, hi guys, great to be here. Day three, we noted, you got the same thing down this whole VMworld cadence. Day two is always a great networking night, a lot of different events going on, and then you kind of make it like a light morning, no keynotes by design, I'm sure. Yeah, thanks for that. Well, and the attendees really, to be honest, they want the breakout sessions in the lab. So you give them, you know, when we do keynotes, they don't have that opportunity to do that. So Wednesday and Thursday, there's no come, you know, not very little to compete with that. They can get to those breakout sessions, so. Okay, great, give us some of the inside, the numbers, attendees, what's going on this year, what's different about this year? If there's anything different that's the same formula, give us some of the data. Yeah, you know, it's going to be interesting as we kind of leave the event and get a little bit of more post-mortem insight, but my perception being in the middle of it is, the energy this year is, there's a tipping point. There is, we are at some inflection point in this industry, and you can just feel it here at VMware and VMworld. I think that, you know, kind of some of the partnerships that we highlighted on stage has just changed people's perspective about what's really going on in this industry and really what's VMware's role in it. Yeah, a new vibe too, I mean, VMware, we were talking about the transformation of VMware as a company, and from its roots to where it is now, and then just in the ecosystem, just in the past two years alone, you're seeing, it was almost like the eye of the storm, and then all of a sudden now a new ecosystem vibe is here, which is clarity. They kind of know what's going on, the cloud thing has decided, they know what to expect there, and so people see the beginning back down to business. Yeah, I think, first of all, the ecosystem is such a vital part of VMware's culture and success and history, but when any market goes to a massive disruption, it impacts everything, right? It starts with the customer and what they're trying to do with their business, but then all of us on the technology side, we're having to shift and adapt and change, and that means also our relationships with each other is shifting and adapting, you know, I think you're right. I think there is a lot of historical legacy and many of our relationships are very strong, and I think those are going to continue to be very strong, but you're seeing a lot of new brands step in, you know, whether that's the Googles or the Amazons, you know, kind of taking it to a different level. There's a new blood both on the ecosystem and also employees within VMware, we noticed some new keynote folks on stage, some great women in tech now, a lot of ladies in tech going on at VMware, you guys done a great work there, just want to give you a prop on that. Yeah, you know, actually thank you for acknowledging that because it's so important that we drive diversity and inclusion in our industry, and we all know, as an industry, we're not performing particularly well in that department. Actually, I was told by my CUBE guest one time, it's actually been changed, it's inclusion and diversity now, they kind of move the eye first. Yeah. That's what I was schooled on, but no, but this is important, inclusion has always been part of VMware, but you guys are doing more of it now. And we're working hard, and trust me, those were conscious choices about thinking about who is the messenger for our narrative and our story, from customers to employees, and want to make sure that we're representing the diverse world that we live in. So I got to ask you a question, I was already having an interrupt, but Sanjay was on, he was talking about the relationship with Amazon, now you've got Google, I interviewed Sam Ramjay yesterday after his keynote here, and VMware goes to the Amazon events, you don't see Microsoft going to Amazon events and Google going to Amazon events, so VMware is going to all the now cloud events. Kind of changes how you do the community as people start collaborating with Google now, you've got Microsoft, you have Amazon, how is that changing some of your marketing tactics? If any, does it change at all? I think it's, first of all, our marketing tactics are always grounded in one thing, what is the business outcome we're trying to drive? What's our business strategy? And then we think about what's the right marketing strategy to get us there? And look, we've been very vocal and very consistent, we believe the world will be made up of multiple clouds, right? We believe in a multi-cloud world, we think our customers are going to consume cloud services from a variety of cloud providers, and what we're all about is creating a common operating environment that lets you run, manage, connect, and secure clouds, workloads on any cloud, right? Consume by any device, and that means we've got to be present when these other clouds and their customers are engaging, VMware needs to be present, so that's what's driving my strategy. So that's really clear, the clarity is a really real theme to me, anyway, of this year, but when you think about maybe a related question on the marketing and the narrative, the broader narrative, you know, the lows in this industry sometimes are low because of external factors, sometimes they're self-inflicted and the highs are really high, and you guys are on a real high right now, so it's like your North Star is sort of that customer focus, that value piece. So when you think about the changes that are going on in the ecosystem, and it's reforming, do you try to sort of capture that momentum and ride it, or do you sort of try to stay steady stream from a marketing pro's perspective? No, I think absolutely we want to ride momentum, and I think, but first you have to have your fundamentals, right? I think all of it, we believe we create momentum. We create our own momentum, and we're not responding to momentum, we're creating it. Now, are we doubling down, are we paying attention to what is resonating, and what customers are saying, that's important to me. Well, yeah, then we'll kind of be agile and invest and really accelerate in particular areas. I do think VMware has tremendous momentum, but I think we've been working on that for a long time. I don't think it's some short-term thing that's happened. We've been building great momentum now, quarter after quarter for quite a while. Sort of a self-powered machine is essentially what you're saying, but I do feel as though, and tell me if you agree, that the clarity with respect to, say for instance, the AWS announcement, and the customer clarity, we've been talking about it all week with the notion that, I'm not just going to bring my data into the cloud. I've got to bring the cloud to my business model, and I think there's a reality that is set in. Have you seen those two factors sort of help you, help customers understand your vision better? I mean, I wonder if you could comment. Yeah, I think first of all, there's some level of just maturity that is happening. These things have been, three years ago they were so new, and we've gotten really involved, and we've started playing around, and we've started trying some things, and testing some things, and listening to more customers, and I think customers are going through their journey. So all of us, I think, are kind of on our spectrum of maturing, and that helps drive clarity. I think VMware has a vision, and it's consistent. It really hasn't changed for many, many years. We were advocating hybrid cloud long, long ago, and so now what you're seeing is the delivery against that vision. So clarity, you can start getting more and more focused because you keep making the next step forward in delivering on the vision that you set. Well, the bets come through. You can see which, as it shapes, which bets are happening, which ones are not, and then you get, okay, that's not working. Let's keep this going. And Dave, just your point about customers, I think for us we're always really deeply committed to saying connected to our customers. So the validation that customers are putting on stage and talking about, that's really evidence of just that they've validated our strategy and that as we're making these next milestones, they're in it with us. And I think that's a really important thing that we're constantly being responsive to what are their requirements as they learn more and digest this stuff more. One of the challenges that comes up with communities that are robust as VMware's has and VMware's communities have always been the strength and the ecosystem's part of the community is as the world grows, open source is growing, communities are growing, there's always been the talk that, oh, reinvents the new VMware world and then VMware world just never goes away. It's still a robust show. You guys continue to do a great job but now you start to see these communities come together. Reinvent and VMware world. Google now putting the olive branch out there with you guys. I still haven't seen the Microsoft piece come together yet but it's clear that Amazon web services and VMware have synergy. Andy Jassy's on stage with you guys. So you have to challenge the team to still be collaborative with the cross the communities. How do you balance that from a marketing standpoint? Because they still, they do compete. Amazon, Microsoft, Google kind of compete. Yeah, but if you look at VMware's position in that landscape, I mean, we are the common operating environment that lets you run, manage, connect and secure any work late, load on any cloud. And sure they're going to compete and they're going to compete fairly and they're going to go try to win in the market. Our job is not to help or break that. Our job is to elect customers, decide which of those clouds makes sense for their business and ensure they have a common operating environment. I think we used the word arms dealer yesterday with Sonja. I don't think he was going for that one pretty well. But you, VMware hasn't. That is not going to pass the marketing test. We like it because it's a good cube material. But VMware has a point of view and you have to assert that point of view as a leader or you have to be subservient to those other leaders and it doesn't appear that you want to be subservient and there is a stack war that's emerging and you are at the center of that and you can either lead it or you can follow it. And I think we all bring a different set of strengths to the table. At the end of the day, VMware has had incredible success in the enterprise and within the enterprise data center and that is our forte and we're going to leverage that and what we are, the experiences, the training, the expertise that our customers have, they want to capitalize on that. They don't want to throw that out the window and they don't need to. We're going to enable them to capitalize on that and use that in these other cloud environments and get the benefit from those cloud providers while not giving up some of the benefits they've been enjoying for years. Well, the technology matures very quickly and we're seeing that and you guys address some of the cloud native stuff but the people process stuff doesn't mature nearly as quickly. Somebody said the other day and I thought it was a great quote, you're moving at the speed of the CIO which is really underscores that you can't get out ahead and over rotate or you're going to lose that customer base. I would argue that the CIO probably needs to pick up the pace a bit because he's got to move or she at the speed of business. It's hard. And that's fast as Pat was saying. This is the slowest day of your life going forward today and the next day is going to be faster. Props to Pat, we'll have him on at one because he's having a great year. Congratulations for really VMware. You guys did your homework, you made some calls, some decisions, certainly with the cloud thing that was a good call and then continue to make your bets. We've never been afraid of being decisive and making big bets, you know? That's what staying relevant's all about. Well Robin, we made a bet on VMworld years ago, you made a bet on us and we're proud to work with you and thanks for your support for theCUBE and Andy Jassy the same with AWS. We made a bet on them when they were like didn't understand it now, here it is, and soon it'll be Google so thanks so much for your support. All right, well here's to adapting and being versatile in this crazy industry of ours. How about making the bets? Here at VMworld 2017, that's the theme, making the choices are clear, make the bets. This is theCUBE bringing you all the action from VMworld 2017. We'll be back with more live coverage after this short break.