 That was a funny comment. He's been working and doing Dell since he was, what, 1920? You were trying to figure that out earlier. You were right. We should have placed a bet. So what are you guys hearing from the people here? So far it's been really good. We had the Island up this morning. They were talking about how they're working with Dell, with the Ecologic, and compelling to drive different workloads in their cloud infrastructure. I liked Michael's comments around, we were on a greater good theme yesterday. And I like to hear what Dell is doing, Dell is going through some of their partners to advance things for the greater good. Island is doing some work with some pharmaceuticals to improve drug research and things like that. It's always fun to see where your product ends up. You build a storage device, right? But the hospitals and research firms and nonprofits, I was telling one customer story about the Royal Horticultural Society in London. So it's neat to see what you're doing. I was at Heineken last week, where they make beer, where our storage helps make beer. You were having beer last night too. I was having a new tagline, our storage helps make beer. Well, we always say we have fluid data, they're the ultimate fluid customer. Who's better than Heineken? But horticulture is important in pharmaceuticals as well, right? We find a lot of new compounds in different plants, things like that, get applied different ways. And the nice thing is it's all data intensive. It sounded like Michael was very interested in that medical field and using Dell products to move forward in that area and kind of push the limits in terms of how everything's organized and gathered. So that's interesting to me. I'm passionate about the medical industry from a technical perspective. Well, unfortunately, we're all going to need it too. Yeah, definitely. It has a personal importance for a lot of people. Absolutely. Walter, it's going to transform technology, actually, because it's so big in the data, you're talking about genomic research, and it's the next industry, I think. It's going to be really, really big. Just like the computer is going to change it, that's going to change things, and genomics is going to be a big piece of it. Definitely. Very data intensive. So one of the other things that you were talking about is innovation. You were saying the benefit of being small is that innovation comes easier, right? But the benefit of having a larger company and being big is the clout that comes along with it. Can you expand a little bit on that? Yeah, you know, it's like, take your young startup company, whatever. You can innovate in a single area really, really well, better than anyone. That's why I talked yesterday about all the innovations come from non-legacy vendors in the last decade. And so because you can focus on one problem and really change how you do it there. But you can see in the room here, though, it's also big that you have to have this fit into a bigger universe, you know, a bigger ecosystem. And you can try to do it, you know, guerrilla warfare style there, but they don't give you any support. So the nice thing is when you got something like Dell as the largest reseller, almost everybody's equipment, they work with you right away. So you're going to get access to their innovations sooner than others, and then you can innovate on top of that. So it's a different kind of innovation, you know, once you're established versus when you're starting up. But the only thing you got to do at the same time is don't lose that little small feeling in subgroups. You know, you don't have to do it in the big, you know, it's a sub part of the big group. Right, and you talked about that. It's one of the reasons I think that you're running compelling, you're doing integration. You talked about having the integration team show up on a weekend, right? Two guys with the integration team. Very quickly. Very quickly. But you're also, it's Dell-compellent right now. And so you're using that to sort of help maintain the culture, and as you ease it in, what's the story there? I think they describe, Darren described really well, you want to integrate into the Bigger Dell, but don't lose the individual cultures and stuff. So they really let us do our own thing, and we have our own town hall meetings up there. The one thing I've noticed throughout the conference is that everybody talks about the culture and how great the culture is and all aspects of it. So I think that's just fantastic that you guys have been able to do that and it continues. Yeah, cultures are really hard to build. We actually have a name for ours. We call it Positive Aggressive. Positive Aggressive? Yeah, I've seen that quote before, and I meant to ask you yesterday to explain what Positive Aggressive is. That would be great. Yeah, the ultimate way to describe Positive Aggressive is ask anybody if they've ever worked at a negative aggressive company. And they know right away what it is. Okay, so it's basically not that. But the way to describe it is that we want to be as aggressive as any other competitor or person out there. So fight hard to win deals and get the best prices from vendors and make things happen sooner or later. So very aggressive. But doing it in a positive manner is kind of how you do it. It's just a different style. So you don't have to have somebody bloody down the floor when you get the deal done. If a rep wins a deal, others aren't jealous. They're actually excited because they got another reference they can work with. You don't have to take credit for everything. You want to credit others when things go right. It's a corny name, but it's actually, I've had employees... A little bit of touchy-feely there too. That's what I'm talking about. I've actually had employees tell me that they've tried to take Positive Aggressive into their personal life. How interesting. Which means it ended up being more than a slogan for them. They have to repeat the corporate slogan. That's one thing, but if they really try to personalize it, that's a good sign. That's very nice. And Dell's got a similar culture. They just don't have the word Positive Aggressive. And there's just a lot more of them. Maybe you can license it to them. That'd be a good idea. I should trade my time in it. Or trade secrets. That would be cool. Shouldn't have talked about it to them. I think that opportunity's passed. I think they bought that with a package. Is there anything that, when you guys were asking Michael any questions, is there anything that you found interesting or that you didn't know or that stuck out to you? I had heard most of it. It was fun to see him talk about Copilot. He got a lot of people telling him about our Copilot last night and how important it is and how differentiated it is. He already knew it. He's already heard it. It was very supportive of it. He actually does his homework. He does his homework. He's a very engaged CEO. Very engaged in both with customers and employees. He knows what's going on there. No, I think it was kind of what I expected, frankly. I'm a little curious. How did the deal happen? Can you give us a city call on that? A little negotiating. Negotiations are negotiations. It's been nasty. It's kind of funny. It actually started. One of the last times we did this, you guys, is at VMworld. We did a joint press conference with Heineken at VMworld. Actually, on the way to VMworld, somebody got the first call. They said, hey, we need to talk and learn more about you guys. So they reached out. And you didn't talk about that on air on theCUBE? I didn't. I know. theCUBE would... I was waiting for Oprah. I don't know. Oh, outs! That wasn't good. County is the next hope. You know that, right? I know it. I know it. So then you got to understand what we have and some joint meetings there with a lot of smart people and due diligence and it was kind of a fun story. We met in a hotel room and you got to kind of be incognito. Yeah. So you can't put, you know, this room reserved for Dell and Compellant, right? Right. It's probably not good for Wall Street rumors. Yeah. So my assistant's name is Lynette Wolfe. Yeah. And I said, well, just say it's Wolfe Enterprises meeting in that room. So I gave her a necklace, you know, with the chairman of the board of Wolfe Enterprises. But the Dell guys, I thought that that's what we, our connotation was, they're a big wolf that was going to eat us. So I just might know that's Lynette's last name. Good, good. That's funny. And Darren talked when he was up there with you about some of the fears that employees have is it's going to be you come in and slash and burn and take cost out, things like that. So then, but in fact, it's about open recs and let's get going. Cool story. All right. So even just since we announced the deal, we've got almost 200 people. How many are you now? We're a little, about over 700. Okay. And we'll keep growing this year. And it's, you know, it's, lots of different functional functional areas, but a lot in engineering, support and sales. So that's exciting. That's pretty cool. You talked about how it was, you were hiring as the deal was going on and how it was super easy and probably the most efficient acquisition yet, right? Don't get me right. It's hard work. Well, of course. Of course. And the Dell people have a few more people to work on it than we did too, right? But that time between when we announced the deal until we closed it, we worked a lot on integration planning, which that planning can save you a lot of pain after it really happens. So that paid off. It really did. And hiring in anticipation of the growth and avoids, you know, having support problems or things like that later on. If you were to do it again, would you change anything in that process? On the integration part? Yeah. The negotiation part. The negotiation, you always do something different. Yes, exactly. But no, it's the hard parts that's going to be hard. You can redo it, but I think it'll be disassured in other ways. Okay. You've started two companies, right? I'm getting that right. Any advice for startups? Yeah, the one advice I tell them is that if you feel like you want to do it, do it. I have a lot of people tell me that they're worried about the risk and all that stuff there. And one thing I tell them is that when you do a startup, there's actually less stress. And the reason being is you control it. So it's stressful, don't get it wrong, but it's one that's a controllable stress where if you want to change it tomorrow, you change it tomorrow, right? It's you. So you don't have to worry about something else getting in your way. So if you got that bug, we need more going on in this economy. Where do you see the big areas, opportunities for innovation? Storage has been a lot of innovation and you brought a lot of it to market through your two companies. But where do you see the big unmet need today? Well, I think in addition to storage, I think security is going to be huge. And it's going to get more and more important to it, not that it's not important now, but I think issues are going to happen and it's going to get really key for us to handle those types of things. This whole integration of things is making it automated, integrated, that type of thing. There's been a lot of innovation in that front there too. We've got a lot of pieces and parts out there now, right? We need to kind of make it a little bit more of a seamless effort in that front there. So you founded both companies with the same two guys, right? What are they doing now? One example, my partner John is really into actually genomics research. He's really into that. At a scientist level, not just kind of He was your CTO, right? He was the COO, but just a brilliant guy there. And Larry, my wife was just at the son's graduation party, so he's getting kids graduated from high school right now. Oh, he's going to have some free time now. Yeah, he's getting one of the kids out of the house there, so. Okay. All right. But no new startups yet for them? No, nothing to talk about. I'm just focusing on growing just a billion dollars. No, I don't mean, Oh, not for you. I meant for your former partners. We wouldn't approve. No. We want you to focus. That's good. Watch your back in the cube. That's good. So. Well, um... Yes? I just wanted to make sure that we don't keep him longer than we have to. Yeah. But we're good. Cool. We get to keep him for longer. Okay, okay. Darren's there if you need Darren up here too. Yeah, yeah. We can get Darren on in a bit. Okay. Right? So, you know, I guess just going back to the keynote. Do you still get nervous going up on stage? Or are you... Oh, that's just a question. See, I keep going there with him, right? Yeah. I don't know. Do I look nervous? No, you don't. No, you guys, all three of you look very relaxed. I just wonder, you look very relaxed. You look like you were old friends. And I mean, you've been working with him for a little while. We're young friends, not old friends. You wouldn't dare when we're going at it. You get a little nervous, but if you don't get a little nervous, you're not at your peak, if you know what I mean. Right. You've got to kind of have a little bit of that nervous feeling there. But it's not like I fred over it. Right. I've done a few. I'm an old school teacher. I guess that comes in handy again. Oh, that's right. Yeah. We were talking a little yesterday about that. Nothing tougher than being up in front of teenagers, right? Yeah, that's right. It's just hard up there. You know, you can't... I threw a few jokes out there yesterday. I wasn't sure if they got them because you can't hear the laughter as well on the stage, right? No, they were laughing hard. We were all laughing hard. So you see friends out there and that kind of makes you relax and try to make it be normal. Absolutely. What's the toughest questions you've been asked at the show? Oh, you know, the channel partners have asked things about, you know, direct versus channel. You know, those have been ones we've got to address there. You know, how quick can you get some products out that people are waiting for? Yeah. They're excited about a roadmap and those are all you want today, not tomorrow. Right. But we're a real short term on a lot of those things. Expand them. Good answers there. You talked a little bit about that timing up on stage too. Can you expand a little bit on that in terms of the pressures that you have and the things that you're trying to fix before you go to market, obviously? Right. Well, one thing that's really nice too when we got together with our engineering teams and kind of combined the roadmaps, you know, all the things we're working on are right at the top of the roadmap. Yeah. So we're already working on it. And some things we're in the process of doing, Dell had already started some efforts in those areas, you know, de-duplication and, you know, the scalable file system. Right. We call it the fluid file system. So the nice thing is we're going to be able to leverage some of those initiatives and kind of accelerate our endeavors there. So it's gotten really, really integration has gotten really well. And the timing is there's just a lot more people to get going and deliver on that timing. And that takes a while for people to get productive. All right. You have anything else? I think we're good. You guys are always fun. I appreciate it. Always good to see you. Okay.