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>> Hey, welcome back everyone,
to theCUBE's coverage of AWS re:Invent 2021
here in Las Vegas,
I'm John Furrier your host of theCUBE
with my co-host David Nicholson
Cloud Analyst here with SiliconANGLE.
On theCUBE we've got a great guest, Reza Honarmand,
SVP cloud hyperscalers transformation TD SYNNEX
welcome to theCUBE, thanks for coming out Reza Honarmand.
>> Hey good morning.
>> Good morning.
You guys just had this big acquisition
with billions and billions of dollars in revenue,
take us through what do you guys do
for such a table for the company.
>> Right, okay, yeah it is a pretty big one,
we're now number 60 on the fortune 100.
Worldwide revenue is around just under 60 billion dollars.
We represent somewhere in the region
of 1500 vendors and OEMs
and in over 100 countries
and we serve over 150 000 partners now worldwide.
So you got everything from the endpoint style products
all the way up to data center,
cloud serving, from the retail to SMB to VAS
going all the way to enterprise specialists and SIs.
>> So TD SYNNEX is big company, you've global reach,
you hit everybody, basically,
you you sell a lot of product, software,
hardware you name it.
Cloud is here, what is the big trend
that you guys are seeing with cloud
because you're talking all the customers,
you have a lot of services and you have products,
you represent a lot of different brands
how are people rolling them together,
are they composing cloud,
what are you seeing in the global landscape?
>> Well, we specialize in cloud,
we've been doing that for a number of years
and actually depending on where partners are
within the journey
they will have different levels of specialization
and the way we like to look at it is a matrix
in terms of where is the complexity of the product
that they're trying to take to market
versus what is the size and their own maturity.
So we tune our services and our support for those partners
to help them better understand
and on board all of that technology
and address it towards their partners.
So if you can imagine you got many many announcements
that were made here,
and our partners have to consume all of that information,
all of that technology and learn how to use it
and that's where we come in.
We effectively act as the bridge
to help them get up there running
and lower the barrier of entry for them
to execute on those products.
>> And they want to add services to it all good
cloud's perfect for that,
so what's the relationship with AWS,
I'm sure they're actually enabling a lot of value
what is the relationship with AWS partner, network,
what are you guys enabling with Amazon.
>> So if I give you the picture of our cloud practice builder
that's a good place to start.
Our cloud practice builder program starts
with looking at the partner,
understanding what is their maturity in that path
specifically related to the technologies
that they want to work on with AWS
and we look at them
in terms of have they got the sales capability,
have they got the operational capability,
the financial set up
and really help them then on that journey,
so yeah we can go very very deep
where we have our own cohorts who help those partners
get up to speed with technologies-
>> So you guys do a little vetting,
you got to make sure people have the right capabilities
and certain people have certain orientation
to certain things, maybe levels of certification.
>> Yeah.
>> Is there swim lanes developing in the partner network
that you guys are working with, big trends,
are they specializing more in application modernization,
is it more infrastructure,
or what are you guys seeing in terms of trends?
>> There are multiple trends there,
so as you say, we have one lane specifically
for our ISVs,
one lane for people who host with infrastructure,
we are, you know, obviously data center
is one of our biggest focus areas
and so each of our partners goes into a specific lane
specifically related to where they want to focus on.
So if you consider for instance somewhere
in the area of ISVs,
the primary thing that many of the ISVs out there don't have
is the ability to understand all of the AWS programs.
So we help them understand that,
understand how they can get
the most optimal cost and program with AWS
and then you get into the next level
which is around their cloud operations,
how they actually transact with us
and you can you can build a stack,
you get into security,
and then you get well architected frameworks.
So this is just one of the swim lanes
that you could effectively go
and we can help help build that up for them.
>> Yeah, so Reza, draw a little map for me,
a sort of a mental map
from the perspective of an end user customer,
say I'm a very large organization,
I've got a large IT footprint,
I'm looking towards modernizing in the future,
how am I engaging
with what TD SYNNEX is actually delivering to the market?
We've been talking about partners,
so give us a hypothetical again,
I'm the customer, who's the sales rep
who's calling on me initially,
how am I interacting with you versus the partner?
And I know that there are a variety of ways
but give us an example, I want to make sure
that people watching this understand
because we use the term partner
to mean a whole variety of different things.
>> Yeah, very, very good question
because TD SYNNEX is one of the biggest companies
that the vast majority of the consumers out there
haven't heard of.
>> Right.
>> Yeah, we are for number 16 in the fortune 100.
Now, most organizations deal with a local IT,
trusted IT partner,
that trusted IT partner then is who they would go to
whether it is their infrastructure,
whether that is their security,
they would work with that partner to help them manage it.
Now what we do is really support the partner
to have the knowledge they need to have,
the expertise they need to have,
the services that they need to have,
the solutions that they need to have
to deploy those technologies with that customer.
Now, in majority of the cases,
the customer will never come in contact with us
because we are behind the scenes supporting our partners,
however, increasingly we are seeing three motions
that we work with,
one is with our partners we do sell too, right,
partner knows what they want,
they've worked with the customer,
they've established a need, they come to us
and we help them deliver that technology.
We do a sell with, so this is the part
where you're talking about more of the newer technologies
where the partner may be lacking some of that expertise.
So this is where our our experts
and give an idea we have over 300 certifications
just in the last year with AWS,
where our experts would then help the partner
actually land that technology with the customer
and then the ultimate level is a sell for,
you're talking about longer sell cycles,
very complex, where they really need to get deep
so we have our own experience centers,
customer immersion programs
where the customer actually comes to us with a partner
where we then help them actually get through that process.
>> To your multi-tier distribution system,
you provide service layer to the front line partners
before the end users,
provide support and software technology
and executive services for them to serve their customer.
>> Sure.
>> Because they're probably not staffed up,
they don't have the resources,
they have a good business model
and they want to make a lot of money.
>> They do, they do and-
>> They have good gross profit margins (laughing)
>> I hope so, we help them actually deliver
better profit margins and as they move to services
and recurring revenues with cloud
that becomes more predictable
and sustainable for them as well.
>> I was kidding but I'm serious
I want to get into this gross margin
because I think one of the things that you're bringing up
with this question is if I'm a wreath a partner
and I'm talking to an end user,
I want to make a lot of profits,
so services are naturally important,
I make more gross profit on services.
So if you have volume discounts on things
that I might not have that volume discount
if I'm going direct to the manufacturer or platform,
you provide that is that right, am i getting that right?
That you guys get provide that discount, pass through.
>> We do, with AWS we get a lot of support
through their programs
they announced many programs this week for instance
and as the partner gains more specializations
and they gain access to more support through us
they also gain access to some preferred pricing.
So to an extent it's about volume,
it's also about how deep they go,
how much they invest in their own expertise.
So really is not just a volume game
but it's also a quality game as well.
>> Some of the operational value you provide
because you guys must have a lot of programs
that pass through to the partner software, systems,
what kind of examples can you give
if I'm the partner and I have an end user,
I have a boutique, let's just say I specialize
in data analytics and or whatever that unique thing,
you're providing me services,
is there like certain software systems
that you guys have,
what operational support do you give to your customers?
>> So in terms of the technology that the consumer consumes
there is a whole range of technologies
around data management and data analytics,
then if you're talking about in terms of the support
the operational support we give to the partner
again there's the bigger the partner
the more transactions the more volume they do,
they need to have that operational optimization as well
again that's where we come in and give them the tools
and the technologies they need to optimize that.
>> Okay so I've got to ask you to re:Invent
now that we're in person again been two years
since we've been to re:Invent.
What's your assessment of the show this year,
what's the big takeaway that you see this year
that's going to be relevant for you?
>> You know what, I love the way these guys land
some incredibly new technologies
and I love the theme of pathfinders from yesterday,
so when I look at the 5G,
I mean that sounds like a game changer to me
and I think there should be a lot of partners out there
thinking hold on a minute
this is a massive opportunity for us.
Yeah I mean so-
>> And the server-less stuff is getting better and better
>> Yeah.
>> I mean like they do a good job on their announcements.
>> There is a reason why their technology is so highly rated,
these guys know how to do technology (laughing)
>> And I think that the services that you could roll
on top of this, I mean if you're in front of a customer,
big, medium, or large I mean, if I'm a developer,
a service provider, I can make so much more profit
by building more of these services
because that pathfinder opens up these net new things,
5G, AI as a service, kind of the anything.
>> Yeah, I mean, they have their business models,
the ones who have figured out how to wrap the services
around the solutions that are out there,
typically we find that they're the most successful
with the fastest growth rates
and they kind of get themselves
into a very positive virtual cycle,
the more they can wrap around those services
the higher their value,
the more margin they tend to make
the more profitable they are.
And actually then they continue to invest
and expand their footprint.
>> So Reza, quick advice,
pretend that I am about to become
essentially a local trusted value-added reseller partner
for my end user customers
and I'm going to become a partner of your company,
what would your council be to me
about what I should focus on,
what's the hottest tip of the spear-
>> Right now?
>> Yes right now I need to go out and hire these people.
>> Data, data, data, analytics, data.
I would absolutely zoom in on that
it is the new oil and every organization
needs to have insights
and if businesses out there do not have those insights
they are at a disadvantage,
partners who can figure out
how to build services around data,
they're the guys who are really winning.
>> Awesome, great insight,
Reza, thanks for coming on theCUBE,
here at re:Invent,
great conversation, great insight.
Thanks for coming on, I appreciate it.
>> My pleasure.
>> Okay, CUBE coverage, you're watching theCUBE,
the leader in worldwide tech coverage
here in re:Invent, I'm John Furrier
with David Nicholson, hosts of theCUBE,
thanks for watching, we'll be right back.
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