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MICHELLE ROCKLER: Welcome to today's customer panel
discussion on Accelerate Your Enterprise Application
Migration with Google Cloud and its Partner Ecosystem.
My name is Michelle Rockler, and I head up
our global infrastructure partnerships.
And I'm excited to moderate today's session.
The panel discussion is in two parts.
The first part features Google customer Hackensack Meridian
Health and their services partner, Dito.
And in the second part, you'll hear
from a leading technology solution provider, World Wide
Technology.
Joining me in our panel discussion
today are Mark Eimer, Senior Vice President, Associate Chief
Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer at HMH.
Logan Song, Enterprise Cloud Director and Chief Architect
at Dito, and Neil Anderson, Area Vice President, Cloud
and Infrastructure Solutions, WWT.
Before we get started, I want to give you a sense of the Google
Cloud partner ecosystem and how it's grown tremendously
in the past few years in support of Google's mission
and strategy to accelerate the ability for every organization
to digitally transform their business by offering them
a unified cloud computing platform
that they can use to build on the technology
foundation for transformation.
And we see this across all four clouds--
data cloud, open infrastructure cloud, our trusted cloud,
and collaboration cloud.
We have an open ecosystem with a breadth of partners
across all partner types.
We look at the partner ecosystem through four lenses,
system integrators who can expand and accelerate
how quickly customers can migrate
their workloads to the cloud, independent software
vendors that broaden our addressable markets,
technology partners that complement and complete
our solutions, and finally, distributors,
who extend our reach.
We're very proud that we have rapidly
grown to over 92,000 Google Cloud partners.
In our discussion today, we are going
to start by zooming in on our customer HMH and their services
partner Dito, and the role infrastructure technology
partners play in HMH's cloud transformation.
Welcome, Mark and Logan.
Mark, let's start with you.
Tell us a little bit about HMH and the cloud transformation
you have gone through.
MARK EIMER: Thanks Michelle.
So Hackensack Meridian Health is the leading not-for-profit
health care organization in New Jersey, right?
We're the largest and most comprehensive and truly
integrated health network.
We have a complete range of medical services,
innovative research, and life-enhancing care.
We have 17 hospitals, four academic medical centers,
two children's hospitals, eight community hospitals,
behavioral health hospital, and two rehab hospitals.
We have over 500 locations across New Jersey.
We have more than 36,000 team members
and over 7,000 physicians.
From a cloud transformation perspective,
we've taken a three-pronged approach.
So we have either lift and shift,
we have workload mobility, or we have native cloud workloads.
HMH has opted for a hybrid cloud environment.
MICHELLE ROCKLER: So Mark, you have, no doubt,
a variety of workloads that you've prioritized
to move to Google Cloud.
How are technology partners helping you
in that cloud transition?
MARK EIMER: Yeah, Michelle, so really the question is,
how do I extend my on-prem into the Google Cloud
and do it seamlessly from an operational support model,
right?
So we have native data and analytics cloud
solutions that are currently extending
our on-prem technologies.
We're using VMware, GCVE, NetApp, Palo Alto, Citrix,
and Rubric in the Google Cloud, all extended from the on-prem.
These partners leverage cloud technologies
and have skill-sets and assets in the cloud that
allow us to reduce our operational support model,
mitigate our risk, and provide workload mobility
and transferability.
So some of the GCP highlights also
include delivery of cloud infrastructure
for exploratory analysis.
We've done migration of on-prem NAS.
We have predictive health using Google AI.
And we're doing Citrix hosting for on-prem scalability.
Our technology partner choices are important.
But equally important is the service partner.
Dito, Logan, and his team were instrumental to our success
in GCP.
And Logan, can you share more about Dito
and your engagement with HMH in the cloud transformation?
LOGAN SONG: Sure.
Thanks, Michelle, thanks, Mark.
Dito is Google's strategic partner
and is the security partner of the year in 2021.
We specialize in Google Cloud security infrastructure
and cloud transformation.
The success of HMH's cloud transformation
is really the result of a great teamwork among HMH, Dito,
and Google.
And during HMH's cloud transformation,
Dito did three things.
First, and key, we spend a lot of time
and have many, many workshops to discover
customers' environments.
We will listen and understand customers' goals
and strategies.
We think for and think with our customers.
Example, based on customers' IT modernization requirements,
we specifically dive deeper and discuss the infrastructure
as co-design and implementation, with cloud terraform modules.
Second, we advise.
We are the Google Workspace and Google Cloud experts.
And we advise HMH how to develop the best cloud strategy,
how to translate IBA, Nest, and other compliance requirements
into cloud security services, and how
to achieve performance efficiency
and operational excellence in the cloud,
while optimizing costs and hardening security.
During HMH cloud transformation, we actually
had 30-plus workshops diving deeper
into the security domain, because HMH
is in the health care industry, which has higher compliance
requirements.
Third, we deliver.
With our expertise and skills, we
deliver the best cloud solution with the highest quality.
From Google Workspace to VMware GCVE, to NetApps ONTAP,
to HashiCorps terraform models, to Rubric backup and recovery,
we work with our customer side by side to build the best cloud
infrastructure.
Who can reject a partner which cares, advises,
and delivers the best solution with the highest quality?
Nobody will.
So naturally the end result of our teamwork
is a trusting relationship, a long-term relationship,
a relationship such that when customer is in emergency needs,
they call Dito, not once, not twice, but all the times.
MICHELLE ROCKLER: So Mark and Logan, from what I'm hearing,
you were able to effect a business transformation
without operational risk.
And you leveraged familiar technologies from VMware
to NetApp and Citrix, and you were
able to implement a fully-managed VMware
service, RGCVE, and leverage infrastructure partnerships
to realize a fully integrated backup
and file services, and user and desktop services,
to empower Hackensack Meridian Health's workforce.
So Mark, you have some big cloud projects behind you.
What would you do differently if you asked your former self?
Would you have taken a different approach?
MARK EIMER: Well, Michelle, yes, we would have, right?
So the ultimate goal is to leverage the resources
that we already have on-prem in strategic partnerships
and to extend them out to Google Cloud to lower
operational efficiency.
You know, too, we would probably spend a little bit more
time ensuring that we have the right partner which
will be critical to the success of anyone that
wants to transform into the cloud, right?
So having the right strategic partnerships
allows for the integration of disparate technologies, which
enriches the experience for all team members and partners.
We would do a better job at enhancing our Google Partner
screening process and dedicate more time to discovery.
And we would evaluate.
Evaluation of our partners will include more due diligence
in a few areas--
core capabilities, applicable business experience,
regulatory best practices, and working collaboratively.
Our naivete in partner selection cost us both time and money,
right?
And we would want to spend more time in those areas.
MICHELLE ROCKLER: And for you, Logan, any comments
on your experience?
LOGAN SONG: Yeah, so, thanks, Mark and Michelle.
So just as Mark exactly said, finding the right partner,
finding the match partner, is very
important during the transformation journey.
So as you can see that Dito's business experience and acumen
enables us to design and implement solutions
meeting HMH's business needs, such as the security
compliance.
And Dito's security and infrastructure expertise
perfectly matching HMH's requirements
for security, compliance, and infrastructure modernization.
And our philosophy of customization
makes us a long-term partner that can be counted on.
So the joint success of HMH, Dito, and Google
is really based on our common core values--
quality, trusting, and long-term relationship.
MICHELLE ROCKLER: So I'm hearing the word trust a lot.
And not only did you both forge a trusted partnership,
you made it integral to your approach
in extending technologies that HMH and Dito knew well,
and trusted on-premises, as you move workloads to the cloud,
enabling a lift and transform faster to Google Cloud.
Thank you, Mark and Logan, for the insightful discussion.
Certainly a lot to think about in sharing
what we're important ingredients to your success.
Now we'll move to the second part of our discussion
and hear from a leading services partner, WWT.
Welcome, Neil.
Thank you for joining us today.
Before we jump into how you partner with Google Cloud
and work with customers, tell us a little bit more about WWT.
NEIL ANDERSON: So WWT is an infrastructure solutions
provider.
We've been in business for over 30 years,
and we bring a lot of technical experience
for many different solutions and leading solutions
in the market.
We represent dozens and dozens of the leading ISVs
in the industry, companies like NetApp and Google,
of course, Dell.
Name somebody, we're probably working with them.
And what's great about our Google partnership
is that it has allowed us to really extend our portfolio
to do some exciting things, applying tools
like Google Cloud, Anthos, Workspace, Chromebooks,
to really deliver holistic solutions
for our customers and the customer outcomes
that they're looking for.
And we have a great partnership with Google
and it's supported by a fantastic partner
team, which has been really key to our success.
They've leaned in, understood our business,
and how Google can plug into that.
MICHELLE ROCKLER: So Neil, how does
working with customers on-premises
differ from the cloud?
What have you observed?
NEIL ANDERSON: I think there are similarities and differences.
It's always, most solutions are always a people,
process, and technology, right?
The people and process part with cloud is definitely different.
It's a different environment.
It's a different way of working.
If you're really taking advantage of cloud,
you shouldn't do the same things.
You should really change the way that you're
approaching your people and your process to essentially take
advantage of cloud.
The technology part can be the same or it can be different.
Tools like GCVE, for example, it was mentioned earlier,
those can be very similar.
If you're familiar with VMware technology on-premise,
you can adapt it into the cloud and you're
going to get a very similar experience.
But cloud also brings a whole lot
of new tools and services, scalability that can really
accelerate time to market.
That helps our customers really realize their business value
a lot faster.
MICHELLE ROCKLER: So, Neil, can you
share some examples of customers that WWT has worked with,
and best practices that you recommend customers adopt?
NEIL ANDERSON: Certainly.
One recent example, we were working with a very large state
agency who was looking for how do they essentially leverage
cloud for disaster recovery.
That's a problem today that everybody is looking
for great solutions for, right?
So we helped them.
They had an on-premise environment with VMware.
We helped them with a migration of that
to GCVE, which is a fantastic platform for them,
because it really allowed them to very easily change
their skill-sets and evolve.
And so that's a really good example
of how we lean in with Google.
And the tools that are available there just
helped us to make that a great experience for our customer.
Other customers we're working on, it may be with storage,
or it may be with security or networking.
We're really helping them develop a hybrid solution
across their on-prem environment and into the cloud.
And we feel like we're pretty uniquely set up to do that.
With our plethora of infrastructure and on-prem
experience, we can really help them migrate to cloud and bring
those two together.
Best practices, we often see that some customers, their app
team may go ahead and move apps to the cloud.
But they haven't thought through the whole architecture.
They haven't thought about, well, what about security.
What about the connectivity with networking?
What about cost management?
And so we like to start with those customers
and really make sure that they've
thought through the networking part, the security
part, the cost management part as well.
It's also a best practice that we really
like to lean in with a workshop and understand our customer's
application architecture and application goals.
What do those look like?
App dependency mapping is a huge thing.
We need to understand, for their benefit,
where are their applications connecting to,
so we can make sure that when we move those applications
or tie those applications back to their on-prem environment,
that we understand those dependencies,
so that they can get a smooth experience.
So those are just some of the best practices, Michelle.
MICHELLE ROCKLER: OK, yeah, thanks for that.
So how is WWT evolving its partnerships
with well-known ISVs in the infrastructure space
to meet customer demands for the cloud?
NEIL ANDERSON: It's actually been
really exciting to watch our ISV partners like Cisco, Dell,
NetApp, Palo Alto, and others, evolve with the cloud.
Certainly they sell a lot of infrastructure on-premise.
But they've embraced cloud.
And really, we've seen new models
like the Cloud Marketplace come on,
which has just been tremendous benefit for them to get
their solutions and their licensing to customers
faster and easier, from a procurement standpoint.
And so it's really changed the game for our customers.
MICHELLE ROCKLER: So before we wrap up,
I've been to your headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri
a few times.
And one of the things that really stood out
for me was the Advanced Technology Center
and how customers can benefit from this unique environment.
Can you share with the audience a little bit more
about the ATC?
NEIL ANDERSON: Absolutely, our Advanced Technology Center
is really an ecosystem of dozens of different leading ISV
solutions.
So it's an over $500 million investment
that we've made to build out different solutions in our data
centers and labs.
It was very natural for us to extend that into Google Cloud.
And so, by doing that, it really allows
us to show customers how are their applications going
to perform?
How is it going to tie in to on-premise infrastructure
in a real way, in a real life way.
And so it's been a tremendous asset for us
to help customers make technology decisions faster
and derisk their deployments.
MICHELLE ROCKLER: Well, thank you,
Neil, so much for sharing the best practices and what you've
learned over the years as you've seen firsthand countless cloud
journeys and the role infrastructure
technology partners play.
So where do we go from here?
Or where do you go from here?
To learn more about all of our partners,
check out our partner directory on google.com
and/or go to our Google Cloud marketplace.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
And we look forward to working with you
at whatever stage you are at in your cloud journey.
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