 From London, England, extracting the signal from the noise. It's theCUBE, covered, Discover 2015. Brought to you by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Now your host, John Furrier. Okay, welcome back everyone. We are here live in London for Silicon Angles theCUBE. This is our flagship program. We go out to the events and extract the signal from the noise. I'm John Furrier, the founder of Silicon Angle and we're excited to be in London for HPE Enterprise. HPE Enterprise is first official as a split new independent entity company. HPE Discover 2015 in London. Our next guest is Chris Kazep. Vice President Morgan Aruba, HPE Company and Doug Crawford, VP of Global Network Services, Infrastructure, Competence Center at Warner Brothers Entertainment. Guys, welcome to theCUBE. Thank you. Thank you. Warner Brothers, obviously a lot of going on there. Media entertainment is hottest thing. Consumerization of IT. You're in the hot seat every day. Big time. As a customer, we'll get into some of the customer dynamics. But I got to ask you, with the phones going crazy, my LTE builds off the charts. I look for a Wi-Fi hotspot anytime I can get one. I'm downloading my Snapchat from my kids. I got the Instagram, I got the Facebook. Media is now coming across in multiple screens. What's going on? Tell us dynamics for you. What's happening for you? The pressure that you're under. Well, I think for Warner Brothers, when you take a look at, Warner Brothers is the largest independent production company in the world. So it's not just Warner Brothers, it's on the lot. It's also Disney and Paramount and all the others. So what we've been looking at for the last couple of years, how do we enable them with new technology so they can be more productive? And so the net net is, we started investing in an Aruba infrastructure a couple of years ago. First for just Wi-Fi connectivity. But now what we've done is working with our business units, post-production sound and TV production. We've been starting to put together a number of business portfolios so that we can provide those services to those companies so that it enables them to have diverse staff all over the lot. They're still communicating with each other. They can do post-editing, not be in the same facility. So with that, along with what we're doing for our tours, we've been taking a partnering with our business units on how to truly enable new business capabilities with the investment we made in the Wi-Fi over the last few years. This is one of the most exciting years. We got to ask you the progression. Take us through the, not play-by-play, but kind of high level, just go back even four or five years ago. I mean, Wi-Fi, I remember one of the Centrino chips that came out, I was talking to Dom on the trials and tribulations of wireless. First kind of business logic for Wi-Fi was checking email, just getting access to the network and doing your thing, right, and all kinds of things. Take us through the progression from the first instantiation of Wi-Fi to now and how it's changed from just access to business model affinity for you guys. Good question. So first of all, we started deploying about nine years ago. We were the first client with Aruba when we went out to a marketplace to see who really has the type of innovation we're looking for that's scalable and we can migrate with. And so initially for the first four or five years, it was basically business functions, being able to get to your email, being able to eventually do phone calls over it. We started experimenting with video conferencing so that post-production people we get away from a stage, they need something on the stage. They can do it by video, Wi-Fi, anywhere on the lot. They can visualize what's needed on the stage. Since then, we started to take a look at what we call geo-fencin so that with our tour, which has anywhere from 20 to 25,000 people a day that take the tour, we're taking a look now based on where they are, physically in front of a stage and they're looking at all the movies and TV shows that have been produced on that stage. They'll have the app where they can download that and we'll send specific clips of the type of shows and movies they're interested in that were actually produced in that stage before they go inside. So we're starting to customize the experience by leveraging the Wi-Fi infrastructure we put in place. So that's kind of the latest of where we are today. So this, I love the whole future of work meme that goes around, oh the future of work and the conversation is narrative is dominated by the CRM companies. But now you're seeing the workflow changing not just for funnel based up kind of old processes but new processes. So how has it changed the work environment? Because now you're essentially piping workflow, work streams into a non-traditional environment. How's that going? What are some of the things you've learned that you could share with folks? Because now what you're enabling is people to work wherever they are. You don't have to come into the factory or if you will, or the studio or their cubicle or office. How's that changed? That's a good point. So one of the things we haven't covered is as we try to 80% of the production companies at Warner Brothers or Independence when they come in for a week, a month or years we have to find space for them. And inherently we've tried to have them where they could be in a common space, writers, producers. But with this type of technology it gives them more mobility, more flexibility. So now we can have it whereby we can find a space for writers. We can find another area for producers. We also have the staff on the stages and they're all interconnected via the Wi-Fi infrastructure. But they're comfortable being creative or doing their job together. They don't have to be forced into a forcing function of an office. No, actually you'll find them to be more innovative because you got the writers in one building doing their thing with all their whiteboards up there but they're able to then through video over the Wi-Fi be able to present that to the producers on the stage they can make adjustments during the shoot. Chris, I got to ask you, the network has always been the battleground. Certainly now SDN certainly is still, people are looking at, is it big and there's always these questions. But the old days it was called sneaker net. You run files across, probably you guys, terabytes of disk drives, shuttling with the backpack. But now with wireless certainly that changes the game. But the pressure of wireless is significant and I always joke, you can't change the laws of physics but you can write software. So talk about the dynamics now because now you're at the physics point now. Talk about the dynamics, how you guys are pushing the envelope from the tech and how that's translating and kind of making it easy for customers to deploy. Yeah, actually so one of the amazing things that we've seen with Wi-Fi technology is just the evolution of the standard itself. So if you think about back to, I think it was around 2099 where we had just the very simple two megabits of data rate now to multi-gig data rate so that the standard and the innovation just keeps advancing to the point where we seem to be able to stay just that little step ahead of the customer need in terms of the capacity that they're looking for within their network. So obviously with Fuel Packard Enterprise we continue to drive that innovation. That's part of our investment in R&D to make sure that we not only really exceed the customer needs in terms of capacity but increasingly more importantly understand things like context, understanding who the user is, where the user is, what device they're using, what applications they're using and I think that ultimately gets back to allowing us to do a lot of what Doug was talking about which is to say turn that investment in the infrastructure into really a revenue generating opportunity. So one of the things that comes up all the time in every conversation from CIOs for entertainment companies like sports, their number one consumer app is Wi-Fi and even to the fact that even on Facebook the meme that goes around is the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs that was actually penciled in where Wi-Fi is the lovelace form that feeds food and shelter. It's a lot like water in a utility. People expect, their expectations are now at a level where it is like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs it's become so proliferated that they need performance. So now comes the question is, what does it go next? What are you guys thinking? How do you make that so ingrained in fabric of people's lives and work as well? How do you, what's next and how are you guys staying ahead? I think, you know, from our perspective it's really, first of all it's about making sure that connectivity is pervasive and getting people onto the network wherever they need it. That's the foundation. But then I think what's next for us is again all around the idea of engaging with the individual engaging with the consumer allowing our customers to extend their brand out to that mobile device to create loyalty, to offer services, to offer personalized content and information. And that really transforms that brand experience that I may have with my consumers. Pulling them into me, allowing them to be either return visitors or increase revenue, wallet share or things like this. That ultimately from our perspective is really the transformational effect that Wi-Fi is bringing. Doug, any comments on your take on that? Yeah, because one of the things we're taking a look at now is to be specific. Our ability to have Wi-Fi kiosks. We have a lot of people that come for cast calls during the day. We have 72 buildings on the lot alone, let alone the ranch. You see people wandering around with pieces of paper all the time. We want to be able to have either a kiosk or a download app for buildings. But more importantly, we can also have it where when they get onto a floor they can know where they're supposed to go. Also at the same time, for all the consumers that are there during the day our ability to, if they continue to pull down a certain TV show or a certain movie as they're looking at the stages, our ability to push information to them that at the end of the tour, here's where they might see some of those products and services so that we're able to upsell a little bit in terms of what they walk away with. So that's a little bit of something we don't, we are unable to do today but we will be able to do in the future. Doug, talk about the dynamic, and I'll share two perspectives. One is well known, and that is I want more Wi-Fi, faster, smaller, cheaper, kind of Moore's Law. The other one is the, it happens after the fact, security. Oh, I don't want to lose my information. No one complains about security until the breach happens or something happens. Let's talk about the first one. The number one discussion I have with customers looking at Wi-Fi is, I'm worried about contention for the radio signals, cross talk on the radio channels, all this stuff that goes on, man. I'm oversimplifying it, but the idea is that I can't just throw hardware at the problem. There are some unique things about radio frequency that require certain tweaks. That can become a pain in the butt, cost wise and IT support wise. How do you guys manage that? How are you guys solving that problem? Or I know you solved it, certainly at Levi Stadium and other areas. Because you can have all this radio signal, but it's still going to bottleneck if I can't, if my radio on my laptop is not talking to the access point, getting backhaul. Like I have all this backhaul in the world, but all this radio interference. And I think for actually for Aruba, when Aruba was founded as a company, one of the key things was we knew that to grow the business, we had to make it simple. In other words, if customers had to go out and figure out kind of all the elements of RF and radio frequency, it would never scale. It would never make it into enterprise class. So one of the very early on focuses was around radio management or RF management, making sure that the system would have the intelligence to understand where users are, what cross channel interference may exist, what sources of interference may be there, and actually then use that intelligence within the system to mitigate that. And that ultimately would mean that customers like Warner Brothers don't have to spend the time and the people and the resources to actually do that. It's automated within the system. So that's been a key focus for the technology is to make sure it's easy. You guys had a good experience with that, Doug? Yeah, we've been very sensitive to that because if you look at wireless mics, wireless cameras, and many times people are bringing on their own equipment onto the lot, we had to be very sensitive to the fact that they were managing the frequencies properly. So we look at that all the time. So far, working with post-production sound, we have found that with the dynamic nature of the Aruba product, we have had no conflicts. We have an impact of the shoot. Be it on a street, in a prop, in a stage, anywhere. I think also on the security piece you mentioned earlier, we're very sensitive to that because content is our product. Yeah, the Sony hack, I mean, we saw that. Tell me. I mean, that's right in your backyard. So we've actually partitioned off. We have our internal Wi-Fi for internal employees, but we also have a Wi-Fi that the production companies in that can use, and based on their security in that, we allow them to get out to the internet, get out to their post-production shops on the outside, but we have two separate Wi-Fi. That's an SLA for you. You have to, that's table stakes. You need that. That's correct. Because you have partners. It's an expectation. So that's why the new technologies enhance things too. The new standard has been phenomenal for us. Oh, that's awesome. So I got to ask you the kind of best practice here with the audience question, which is, there's a lot of folks out there kicking the tires, scratching their heads. Maybe they've tried XYZ vendor, and they bump into the same thing, and you have a lot of content going through the networks. Me talking about video, talking about artwork, talking about a lot of images, a lot of contentions, not emails, a lot of bandwidth. But the question is, how does another IT manager, a network operator, or engineer architect, how do they operationalize the Wi-Fi? You've been successful. Obviously you had nine years of working with Aruba, but for the folks now looking for solutions today, it's not just the speeds and feeds, it's the operationalizing the wireless from understanding the geo-fencing, understanding security requirements, understanding the throughput capabilities, both to backhaul and radio, air interface. How do you operationalize, what's your advice, any best practice you can share with folks watching? Sure, so as we look at the operational environments, become much more dynamic, and most importantly, our clients are depending upon us to give them a first rate product, because now it's an essential part of their production environment. So what we basically have done is, by having the right management tools, which we've worked with Aruba on, the ability to monitor and manage all the variants of the type of services that are out there. So we can be looking at various criteria performance, everything from latency to what's the amount of bandwidth on an access point, is that shifting to the next access point and balancing out what's going on? We can have it down where we can, we have VIPs that we track, so we can see what the performance is on whatever device they're using. But to have that kind of capability means you're giving better service to your clients, and that's why it's one of the advantages people come to use, what we call StudioNet. StudioNet is the Wi-Fi environment that we get at production companies with the type of service levels we provide to them, so they can count on it as part of their production portfolio. What are some of the hairpin turns out there in terms of this road to world-class Wi-Fi? I mean, can you share some things you've observed that you could advise people to watch out for, some gotchas that might surprise someone that might not be foreseen in, say, an RFP process or a sales motion or a proof of concept? Actually, that's a good question. I think one of the first things that is a challenge for us is the fact that there is now an expectation by all clients that it's a limitless bandwidth. And so it's like where we've been with wired for a long time until the last few years. So I think the first challenge is trying to make sure that you set expectations. By doing that, you set the right expectations with your vendors about here's our work environment, here's where we're migrating to here, the kind of files and the dynamics of our work environment. If you don't incorporate that into your RFP, and it's just a generic RFP on technology alone, not business-oriented, then you are sending yourself up for a problem later on, but not knowing how to manage properly the expectations of your clients overall. Chris, I'll ask you the different question in vendor language, total cost of ownership. Yeah. Okay, I want to buy some gear, I want to go world-class campus-wide, I want remote campuses, I got all that stuff going on, access methods and networking thing, core network requirements. Now I have my Edge, my cloud, if you will, or Air Interface, I'm price-sensitive. Yeah. So what is the hidden costs from that year standpoint, because I'm sure you have to go in there and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, it's not just the price. That's right. Talk about that. I think the first thing starts in the point similar that I made earlier, which is we need to do everything we can within the system to make the management, the security just seamless, just automated within the system so that the user doesn't really need to spend any time doing that. And that's ultimately the largest cost in the total cost of ownership is the operational cost. So as much as we can do to bring that down, it's going to be to the benefit of the customer. But what I'd say, in addition to that, we help our customers explore then the opportunity around revenue generation, right? Because obviously the cost discussion becomes less of a discussion if we're then starting to see how this infrastructure can start to deliver revenue or incremental value to the business. And so that can be either in the sense of, again, understanding the customer and reaching the customer with services or promotions, such as within a shopping center or within an airport, for example. But it can also be- It's the data, right? It's the data. It's understanding your location. You come into this venue. I know who you are. I know that you've shopped here before. I can deliver you a promotion. I can keep you within the store and upsell. That's a data-driven transformation. It's one of the bullets to you guys, but it's also a business model opportunity. That is absolutely correct. Big time. Customization of the message to the particular user. One of the things we'll be looking at, as we have production companies that are repeat business having an awareness of what did they expect before and being aware of that and try to customize even more the type of technology we give to them. I'm sure they're looking to build apps too, so they're probably thinking how can I be more efficient, use the data? Okay, great. So I want to ask the fun question now. So we'll start with, because Warner Brothers certainly love the sex appeal of Hollywood, love the creativity. Kind of like an enterprise, but in a different class. You've got diversity of workforce. Yeah. A lot of cool things happening. So I got to ask you, what are the couple anecdotal coolest things that you've seen enabled by great wireless in your past couple of years? Some cool anecdotal benefits and examples of maybe a breakthrough and some sort of film or workflow, work stream, what are some cool things that you've seen? I think a couple. One is we have a jungle that's been there since the 30s. And we had a heck of a time trying to get to be Wi-Fi enabled. A lot of trees. A lot of trees. A lot of bamboo. So one of the things we were able to finally accomplish a few months ago was to truly get a ubiquitous Wi-Fi presence out there. And we got accolades coming back as with all the people doing the scenes through the jungle, through the bamboo and all that and into the lagoons. They never lost connectivity. Total saturation. That's the first one. Second one was on Big Bang Theory when if you remember they had the robot, that was Wi-Fi enabled. And on the first shot on that, the Wi-Fi went out and the robot stopped in front of a live audience. The Wi-Fi went out on the robot device or the inter- Our Wi-Fi. Or your Wi-Fi. Okay, okay. Cut. So the fact that that's when you want to make sure you have the right operational tools to be able to diagnose it, get it back up so they can continue to shoot of that particular show. How did that go out? Did they do the diagnosis up and running quick? Was that a quick turnaround? We found out what the issue was and we took care of it. But the pressure there when everybody all of a sudden stops and looks It's real money. And nobody's getting their job done. Everybody's standing there. You got to get back online really fast. The audience is sitting there watching who are they all looking at, right? They're looking at the IT people. That's what they're looking at. Exactly. The red phone goes off. Is there like a red phone or something? So no, they just yell your name. So but it shows the integration of technology like this now into productions to be able to make a TV show or a feature film. How about accolades? You get like emails, hey amazing. Are the artists happy? Are people happy in general? We don't get very many accolades. We will hear when there's a problem. It's a thankless job, right? It's a thankless job. But the fact is, very, very seldom now do we get a complaint that they've lost connectivity walking between stages and that. That's really the positive piece. Chris, coolest thing that you've seen. Yeah, actually I'd have to point to the Levi's stadium. And actually Levi's as a venue has one of the highest uses of their applications that they deployed. I think the statistics are roughly 30% of people attending the game have the app. And one of the cool things that they did to actually increase the adoption and the use of the app was to actually pull from the app owner's Facebook image and then project the image of the Facebook photo, the Facebook photo up on the mega screens around the stadium. So if you think about the integration that had to come together there. First of all, seamless Wi-Fi within that venue. The application itself that's running there that then identify to the user and the individual themselves pulls back into their Facebook, pulls their image and then projects it on the big screen. I think that's pretty cool. You know, Venue Next is one of the most impressive things that they've done there. They've got that IT group and then now selling that to other stadiums. No, you're right. Are you guys part of that whole sales motion too? Absolutely. So Venue Next is a key partner with Aruba. Absolutely. It's impressive. It's very impressive. Guys, thanks for coming on theCUBE. Really appreciate it. Final question, give you guys the last word. Show, vibe, what's your take? Doug, what's your thoughts here for other customers watching? What's going on here at the new HPE? I think my observation, if you take a look out here at the innovation area is packed. And I think the uniqueness of that is people are looking at how to leverage the technology, the part where their business is more, versus just being an IT shop. You need to add more value. That's why I found it is extremely crowded over there because I think a lot of people are starting to look at to be a successful IT shop. You got to have a tighter relationship with your business units. Time to value, make Whitman's key point in the keynote. Having access via wireless, great stuff. Chris, final thoughts? Big thought for me is all around the transformational areas here. So you're seeing actually really the use of transformational whether it be enable workplace productivity, protect the digital enterprise, et cetera. All this kind of idea about, it's less about the technology, it's more about how we transform business. And I think that's a key takeaway from the show. Aruba, strategic asset for HPE, great acquisition. Astley, it's the on ramp, wireless on ramp, tied into the core network. It's the on ramp to the cloud. Last mile, first mile, big date, a lot of opportunities, business model changes. Guys, thanks for sharing the insights here in theCUBE. It's theCUBE right back with more after the strip break. I'm John Furrier with SiliconANGLES, theCUBE right back.