 Live from San Francisco, California, it's theCUBE at VMworld 2014. Brought to you by VMware. Cisco, EMC, HP, and Nutanix. Now, here are your hosts, John Furrier and Stu Miniman. Okay, welcome back. We're here live in San Francisco for VMworld 2014. This is our fifth year with theCUBE, extracting the signal from the noise at VMworld. Always a pleasure, and we have the chief marketing officer, Robin Matlock, here inside theCUBE with my co-host, Stu Miniman for this segment. Robin, welcome back to theCUBE. Thank you. Great keynote this morning. You opened it up in front of Packed House for Pat Gelsinger and delivered an amazing keynote. But before we get to some of the keynotes, what's some of the stats for the show here? Obviously, VMworld, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger every year. Well, you know, it's amazing. The energy is fantastic here this year. We're going strong. We have well over 22,000 attendees. The solutions exchange is packed. There's about 250 companies that are there exhibiting. We have all kinds of breakout sessions and content. I mean, if you just walk around here, the energy is just really thriving. And the theme is no limits. So I got to get some of the backstory on the theme. Obviously, no limits breaking through. This is the transformation market. The signage is great. Give us a quick taste of how this all came together. Yeah. And what's the meaning behind the pictures that are all on the hall? You know, it's really fun. The themes every year actually put just tremendous effort into them. They can really be stressful. But at the end, when you land the right one, it feels so good. This whole notion of concrete, you know, and breaking through and that there's something on the other side that is truly infinite. For us, that just really spoke to our business. It spoke to what our customers are going through. And it truly spoke to the potential of this incredible, you know, this incredible industry. You know, I was, when I think of the no limits, I think about the space jump, the Red Bull. I think about some of the things within the cloud that developers are doing. I mean, you know, Pat mentioned Uber. They have no asset of massive valuation of Hertz and two companies combined. This is the kind of dream that entrepreneurs think about is like, this is inflection point stuff, right? So is that, was that some of the vibe you guys were thinking? Absolutely. And I think when we look at where we are in our journey relative to cloud, relative to a software defined world, we're really passionate that, you know, the customers and the attendees of this conference are very well positioned to truly break through some of the silos that have been holding us back for a long time. And we are at Crossroads. You know, we believe vehemently that the data center is destined to be software defined. And that many of these attendees are well positioned to take us on that journey. So I got to ask you, because obviously you're involved in the brain trust and all the formulation of the strategy of the company and how to communicate. It's always a challenge when it's like a moving train of innovation, but you have some new things going on this year. First of all, nothing new in strategy. It's the same marching orders with Pat's cadence, hybrid cloud, you know, march to that cadence, obviously server defined data center. But now AirWatch comes on over the top. How did that affect things for you? Or did it? It's just more of more of the same. So actually they're bringing in some of that security and the apps piece of the business. Did that change some of the thinking at all? Yeah, no, it's an interesting question. But I think at the end of the day, the three strategic priorities for VMware have been very consistent now for multiple years, you know, largely under Pat's leadership. It's about a software defined world. That's the software defined data center. It's about extending that to the hybrid cloud. And it's always been about end user computing. I think the AirWatch acquisition just took it up a couple notches. Really the world of mobility where big advocates and believers that the mobile workforce is exploding, but that there's a really strong connective value between what's happening at the infrastructure layer and what we can do to enable that mobile workforce. So I think it was very consistent with the strategy, but I do think the AirWatch acquisition is changing the game. And it's certainly producing Pat was giving us a little taste on the cube. Talk about the themes of the show. Today we had Pat, had Bill Fathers Carl up to do a little Q and A, a little cube action almost on stage with Bill. And what's tomorrow? Did you guys bring it up by theme? Share with the folks out here. Just to lay the land here. What's the concept for tomorrow? So today what we try to do is really tell the expanse of the entire story. What's going on holistically. And you know, the Carl part of it was a lot about getting our customers to really talk about what's working for them. And I think that's really important because we laid out a vision for VMware, you know, a couple of years ago and it's important to make that tangible and real. And I hope the customers were able to bring that to life for people. Tomorrow is all about the technical under the hood. Let's get inside and really understand how the technologies are delivering against that vision. And we're going to go through the whole thing. It's going to cover the infrastructure. It's going to talk about the hybrid cloud and we're going to talk a lot about mobility. Well, the geeks want under the hood. I mean, it's a geek show at the end of the day. It's very content rich at VMworld, as we know. It's super busy. A lot of parties going on, it's dead going on. Certainly the business transactions are happening. But it's still a geek show. You guys have preserved that here, right? You know, we ask ourselves every year, you know, how and should or shouldn't we evolve VMworld? And I tell you, we're really resolved at the end of the day. This is largely a practitioner show. They come for technological information, education, certifications. And we have no desire to take a square post and put it in a round hole. I mean, it works so well for this audience. Let's just give this crowd what they need. And I want to do more of it year after year. Yeah, and we can always tell how good the conferences are in terms of content based upon how much Twitter activity there is in terms of like, if people are just talking a lot on Twitter and not saying anything, that means it's kind of a boring show. When there's not a lot of Twitter activity, mostly it's tech sessions, people are too busy running around between the events. I mean, are you guys seeing the sessions packet? We haven't had a chance to go out there. What's happening? Yeah, well, to be really honest, I haven't had a moment to scan too much, but from what I'm hearing, they are overflowing. And frankly, they were booked, you know, even before we showed up today, because we do give people the schedule builder and a chance to book their sessions. So I know that they are all full. We're doing repeats. We're trying to get more breakouts so people can deal with Wednesday and Thursday as things settle down. But all the reports I'm getting so far is that we are pretty much oversold and oversubscribed. Yeah, so, Vides, do you want to ask a question? Yeah, Robin, I was just going to say, you know, this is my fifth year now coming to VMworld, and it's always impressive just the passion of the people in the virtualization community. It's such a good community. Everybody gives back. I really like what you guys did with the charity event that's going, I mean, what's it? Destination give back. 25,000 with 250,000. Oh, not 25,000. 250,000 dollars, I mean, that's fantastic. You know, I got to talk to the hands-on lab guys today, and things are running so smooth and so many people do it, because as John said, the geeks really love to geek out here. I noticed it looked like on the badge it had, you know, the show's spread out beyond just the North, South and the West. You brought the analysts kind of off to a hotel because they don't need to be in the center of all the geeks and everything. The show floor is cranking as usual, so it sounds like you still have the core and just pieces add on to it. Yeah, I mean, the core of the program, if you were to look at breakout sessions, keynotes, labs, that's going to stay right here in Moscone, but the reality is we're bursting out at the seams. And we love San Francisco, we love the venue, but we have to take advantage of all the hotel space around. So we got things at the W, we got things at the West, and we got things at the Marriott, we got things at the Intercontinental. I mean, we're everywhere, frankly, but you're right. We are having to kind of spread out a little bit. So I got to ask you about the 10-year anniversary because that was a pretty epic event, and you made a comment on stage, where'd that world go? And I love the Golden Gate Bridge metaphor you put together. What's changed for you over the past year? It seems to be like, it seems like seven years ago, internet years, it seems like a decade ago, almost from last year. I mean, a lot's changed. Can you share your perspective? Yeah, I think a lot has changed. I think to be honest, all for the good, in my view. I think VMware had built such a business and kind of one core platform, which was compute virtualization. And over the last several years, we've really broadened our wings, right? And we are now dealing with networking and storage and security and automation and cloud and mobility. And I think the diversity that that brings from a customer perspective, from an ecosystem perspective, from a routes to market perspective, I mean, certainly it is definitely a charge because there's just so much tremendous diversity. It also means we've got a lot of things to cover. So, I think with that comes the responsibility to make sure our customers can understand all these different diverse offerings. What's your objective of the show? What's your preferred outcome? If you can look back and just fast forward to Thursday evening, Friday morning, you know, you're in a hot tub relaxing, maybe it's Saturday or Monday morning. What do you want to have happen? What's your ideal outcome for VMware? Beyond the fact that I like my feet attached to my body because right now I'm afraid they might fall off, but let's say personal attributes aside. You know, I really hope that these attendees, you know, 22,000 plus people get on those airplanes, fly home and feel like they had one of the most invigorating, educational, inspirational experiences professionally that they're going to have all year. I hope that they got to the content that was relevant for them, that they were able to navigate and really spend time in the areas of focus for them. And I hope that people met dozens and dozens of new people that will only help them broaden their career. So I have this little prop I brought because I attended the VIP event. You guys had an amazing event, Mark Andrees since CNBC was broadcasting there, Joe Tutti was there. And then, you know, opening up your new facility, which has kind of been around for a while, still got some new areas, got these hot pens there. So I'm going to ask you about the culture and the brand, future brand for VMware. I mean, it's an amazing campus, eco-friendly, beautiful design, high quality. Is this the brand of VMware that you see vision for? I mean, what's your vision for the brand? I mean, it's evolving in real time for the company. It is evolving, but at the same time, I think our brand and what we stand for as a company is also very stable. It's great that you came to that event and saw the final unveiling of the last building as we finished it up. And certainly, it's a beautiful campus and it's green. You know, it's very, you know, natural woods and doing all kinds of things to protect the environment. I think at the core of VMware, there's, you know, five key values and those values are sustaining the test of time. You know, it's about innovation, it's about community, it's about people, it's about integrity, and it's about our customers. And I think really, no matter what products and services and solutions we wrap around our company, I think we still stand for the same core values and I hope that never changes. So I got to ask you about the community. I think it's one of those things, you know, I was talking to Pat about how Docker has implemented their community aspect of the open source of their product and made them a success. You guys have had great community over the years and really part of the backbone of VMware versus other companies, some people don't even have a heartbeat to a community. You guys have a great thriving ecosystem. How do you maintain that as we get more connected with the crowdsourcing, with the Twitter expansion and all the people talking and it's not just forums anymore, it's a more, it's a virtual event every day. It's like VMworld every day out there. How do you handle that? What's your vision and how are you going to get your arms around that going forward? Well, yeah, I think it's really critical. First of all, just like anything, whether you're talking about technologies or you're talking about engaging with customers, you have to evolve. You can't use the same techniques that you used last year really to propel you next year. So I think it's all about making sure you understand how our customers choosing to engage and then embrace that. For us, our social channels are really important, our communities are really important and we're all about enabling facilitation and engagement and I think we're really, that's kind of philosophically how we go about our whole social strategy. It's all about enablement. So I'm going to ask a personal question to you. Yeah, I don't know if I'm ready for this. I've always loved your eye for detail. Remember the first VMworld we did? You had pointed out the VMware stickers, which ended up being a perfect camera location. I'm like, I like her, I like this Robin woman. She's awesome. But what are you excited about now? I mean, what are you personally motivated on right now? What gets you really excited about the tech industry about what you're involved in? What's the one thing that gets you so excited? You know, frankly, I'm extremely proud to be the CMO of VMware. I think VMware is a great company and I think we're part of something truly meaningful. I think there was a time when maybe we weren't going to be as relevant. We, and by we, I don't mean just VMware. I mean this, this whole thing, that maybe we weren't going to be as relevant in the next decade, but we collectively as an industry are making bold moves. We're doubling down on software. We're pushing the boundaries of the data center. We're getting out beyond compute. We're going to storage. We're going to networking. We're looking at security. We're layering in automation. And I think we are really securing our future as an industry that we are relevant and we need a seat at the table, a strategic seat at the table, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. And you certainly have the global footprint. The virtualization has been a great part of enabling that mindset. Great to have you on theCUBE. Any other tidbits about the show you'd like to share with the folks? You know, I think the main thing is just get involved and try some things that are different. Push your own personal boundaries. Explore there's so much content. There's so many networking opportunities. There's breakouts and I think definitely sampling a little bit of everything and making sure that you go home exhausted and then I'll be happy. Well, certainly it is exhausting show, but Pat brought up the whole brave concept. That's really about bold moves, right? And that's about, that's kind of the whole theme here, right? Yeah, I think, you know, the notion of bravery is in the sense that given that things are changing so rapidly and the world is so dynamic and fluid as a business climate, it's going to take some calculated risk. You're going to have to really decide where are you partnering? Where are you betting? What kind of steps are you going to take? And I think action is key and the one thing that probably isn't going to work is status quo. Robin Matlock, the chief marketing officer for VMware keynote speech this morning. Set the table for Pat Gelsinger. Great job. Set the big picture. Lay it out, everything out. The holistic vision of VMware continues to thrive. Thanks for coming on theCUBE. Always great to have you. This is theCUBE, we're starting to see it from the noise. We'll be right back with our next guest after this short break. Great, thanks, John. All right. All right.