[Narrator] Live from Las Vegas!
It's theCUBE covering Informatica World 2019.
Brought to you by Informatica.
>> Welcome back, everyone to theCUBE's
live coverage of Informatica World, here in Las Vegas.
I'm your host, Rebecca Knight,
along with my co-host, John Furrier.
We're joined by Sally Jenkins.
She is the executive vice president
and CMO here at Informatica.
Thank you so much for coming on theCUBE, Sally.
>> Oh you're welcome, thank you for having me.
Its nice to see you all again.
>> So congrats on a great show,
we're going to get to the stats of the show,
but the framework of Informatica World is built around
these four customer journeys.
Next Gen analytics, Cloud Hybrid,
360 engagement, Data Governance and Privacy.
Can you tell our viewers a little bit about
how this framework reflects what you're hearing from
customers and their priorities
>> Yes absolutely, Rebecca and yes,
you got the right and in the right order, thank you.
So, we started this journey with our customers
and trying to understand how do they want to be spoken to.
What business problems are they solving?
And how do they categorize them, if you will.
And so, we've been validating these are the right journeys
with our customers over the past few years.
So everything that you see here at Informatica World
is centered around those journeys.
The breakouts, our keynotes, all the signage
here in our solutions expo.
So, its all in validation of how our customers think,
and those business problems they're solving.
>> So the show, 2600 attendees
from 44 countries, 1200 sessions.
What's new, what's new and exciting.
>> Oh, gosh, there's so many things that are new this year.
And one other stat you forgot,
92 customers presenting in our Breakouts.
So our customers love to hear from other customers.
As to what journeys they're on,
what problems their solving.
Those are record numbers for us.
Record number of partners sponsoring.
We've got AWS, we've got Google, we've got Microsoft,
we've got the up and comers,
that we're calling in the Cloud and AI Innovation zone.
So people like DataBricks and Snowflake.
We wanted to highlight these up and comer partners,
what we call our ecosystem partners.
Along with the big guys.
You know, we're the Switzerland of data.
We play with everybody.
We play nicely with everybody.
A lot of new things there.
A few other things that are new,
direct feedback from our customers last year.
They said we want you to tell us
which breakouts we should go to.
Or what work shops should we attend.
So we rolled out two things this year.
One's called the Intelligent Scheduler.
That's where we ask customers what journey are they on.
What do they want to learn about.
And then we make a smart recommendation to them
about what their agenda should look like while they're here.
>> You're using the data. >> Yes, AI, we're involving AI,
and making the recommendations out to our customers.
In addition, our customers said
we want to connect with other customers that are like us,
on their journeys, so we can learn from them.
So we launched we called the Intelligent Connect
and again this is part of our app.
Which, our app's not new, but what we've done
with our app this year is new.
We've added gamification,
in fact as part of the AI and Cloud Innovation zone,
we are asking our customers and all of our attendees
to vote on who they think is the one
with the best innovation.
They're using our app to use voting.
They can win things, so there's lots of gaming.
There's social that's involved in that, so the app's new.
We're taking adavantage of day four.
We usually end around lunchtime on day four,
this year we're going all in, all day workshops,
so that our practitioners can actually roll up their sleeves
and get started working with our software.
And our ecosystem partners are also
leading a lot of those workshops.
So a lot that's new this year.
And as I mentioned, the Cloud and AI Innovation zone,
that's new it's like a booth within a booth
here on the solutions expo floor.
So this is the year of new, for sure.
>> You know one of the things that's been impressive,
I was talking with Anil and
also Bruce Chizen, who is a board member,
The bets you guys have made is impressive.
You look back, and this our tenth year in theCUBE,
so we go to a lot of events,
100s events in a year, over 100 events over 10 years.
We've seen this story with you guys,
this is now our fourth year doing theCUBE here.
And the story has not changed,
its been early moves, big bets.
Cloud, early.
Going private to see this next big wave.
AI, early before everyone else.
This is really kind of showing,
and I think the ecosystem part is on stage
with Databricks, with Snowflake.
Really kind of point to a new cast
of characters in the ecosystem.
>> That's right.
>> You're seeing not just the classic enterprise,
'cause you guys have great big,
large enterprises that you do business with.
That want to be SAS like, they want the agility,
they want all those great things but now you have Cloud.
The markets seems to have changed.
This is an ecosystem opportunity.
>> That's right. >> Can you share what's new?
Because you see Amazon, Google and Azure,
at the cloud, you got On-Premise, you now Edge and IoT,
everything's happening with data.
Hard, complex, what's new, what's the ecosystem benefit?
Can you just share some color commentary around
how you guys view that as a company.
>> Yeah, thanks, John, and that's a good question.
I'm glad you're pointing out that our whole
go to market motion is evolving.
It's not changing it's evolving
because we want to work with our customers
in whatever environment they want to work in.
So if they're working in a cloud environment,
we want to make sure we're there
with our cloud ecosystem partners.
And it doesn't matter who, cause like I said,
we work with everybody, we work nicely with everybody.
So we are tying in our cloud ecosystem partners
as it makes sense based on what our customer needs are.
As well as our GSI partners.
So we've got Accentra's here.
They brought 35 people to Informatica World this year.
We play nicely with Accentra, Deloitte, Cognizant, Capgemini
so we really are wanting to make sure
that we're doing what makes sense with our customer
and working with those partners
that our customers want to work with.
>> Well I think one of the observations we've made on theCUBE
and we said in our opening editorial segment this morning,
and we're asking the question about the skill gaps,
which we'll get into with you in second,
but these big partners from the Global System Integraters
to even indirect channel partners,
whether they're software developers
and or channel partners.
They all are now enabled and are mandated to create value.
>> Yes, that's right.
>> And if they can't get to the value,
those projects aren't going to get funded
and they're not going to get renewed
And so we've seen with the Hadoop cycle of just standing up
infrastructure for infrastructure sake isn't going to fly.
You got to get to the value.
And data, the business that you're in,
is the heart of it.
>> Well, data's at the heart of it.
That's why we're sitting at a really nice sweet spot,
because data will always be relevant.
And the theme of the conference here is data needs AI
and AI needs data.
So we're always going to be around.
But like I said, I feel like
we're sitting right in the middle of it.
And we're helping our customers
solve really complex problems.
And again, like I said if we need to pull in a GSI partner
for implementation, we'll do that
we've got close to 400,000 people around the world,
trained on how to use Informatica solutions.
So we're poised and we are ready to go.
>> We were talking before we came on camera.
We were sitting there catching up, Sally.
And I always make these weird metaphors and references,
but I think you guys are in an enabling business.
It reminds me of VMware, when virtualization came in.
Because what that did was, it changed the game
on what servers were from a physical footprint,
but also changed the economics
and change the development landscape.
This seems to be the same kind of pattern
we're seeing in data where you guys
are providing an operational model
with technical capabilities.
Ecosystem lift, different economics.
So kind of similar, and VMware had a good run.
>> We'll take that analogy, John, thank you.
>> What's your reaction?
Do you see it that way?
>> Yeah I do, and it all comes back
to the journeys that we talk about right.
Because our customers, they're never on just one journey.
Most of them are on multiple journeys,
that they are deploying at the same time.
And so as they uncover insights around one journey,
it could lead them to the next.
So it really comes back to that and data
is at the center of all that.
>> I want to ask about the skills gap.
And this is a problem that the technology industry
is facing on a lot of different levels
I want to hear about Informatica's thoughts on this.
And what you're doing to tackle this problem.
And also what kinds of initiatives
you're starting around this.
>> Well, I'm glad you asked because
it's actually top of mind for us.
So Informatica is taking a stance in managing the future,
so that we can get rid of the skills gap in the future.
And last year we launched a program we call the Next 25.
That's where we are investing in middle school aged students
for the next seven years.
Its starts in 6th grade and takes
them all the way through high school.
They are part of a STEM program, in fact we partnered
with Akash middle school here in Las Vegas.
Cause we wanted to give back to the local communities
since we spend so much time here.
And so these kids who are part of the STEM program
take part in what we call the Next 25.
Where we help them understand beyond academics
what they need to learn about
in order to be ready for college.
Whether that's social skills, or teamwork,
or just how do we help them build the self confidence,
so it goes beyond the academics.
But one of the things that we're talking about tomorrow,
is what's next as part of STEM.
Cause we all know they're very good at STEM.
And so we've engaged with one of the professors at UNLV
to talk about what does she see as a gap when she sees
middle school students and high school
students coming to college and so
that's where she recognizes that coding is so important.
So we've got a big announcement that we're making
tomorrow for the Next 25 kids around coding.
>> Its interesting, cause we could talk about this all day,
cause my daughter just graduated from Cal,
so its fresh in my mind,
but I was pointed out at the graduation ceremony on Saturday
that the first ever class at
University of California Berkley,
graduated a data science,
they graduated their inaugural class.
That goes to show you how early it is.
The other thing we're hearing also on
these interviews as well as others,
that the aperture or the surface area
for opportunities isn't just technical.
>> Right
>> You could be pre med and study machine
learning and computer science.
There's so much more to it.
What do you see just anecdotally
or from a personal standpoint and professional,
key skills that you think people should hone in on?
What dials should they turn?
More math, more coding,
more cognitive, more social emotional,
What do you see as skills they can tailor up for their--
>> Well so let's just start with the data scientist.
We know LinkedIn has identified that there are
150,000 job openings just for
data scientist in the US alone.
So what's more interesting than that,
is four times that are available for data engineers.
And for the first time ever, data engineers'
starting salaries are paying more
than starting salaries on Wall Street.
So, there's a huge opportunity,
just in the data engineering area
and the data scientist area.
Now you can take that any which way you want.
I'm in marketing and we use data
all day long to make decisions.
You don't have to be, you don't
have to go down the engineering path.
But you definitely have to have a good understanding of data
and how data drives your next decisions,
no matter what field you're in.
>> And its also those others skills
that you were talking about,
particularly with those middle school kids,
it is the collaboration and the team work
and all of those too.
>> It does, again, it goes beyond academics.
These kids are brilliant.
Most of them are 7th or 8th grade.
But nothing holds them back,
and that's exactly what we're trying to inspire within.
So we have them solving big global problems.
And you'll hear as they talk about
how they're approaching this.
They work in teams of five.
And they realize to solve huge problems
they need to start small and local.
So some of these big global problems they're working on,
like eradicating poverty,
they're starting at the local shelters here in Las Vegas
to see how they can start small and make a difference.
And this is all on their own,
I have folks on my team who are junior genius
counselors with them, but that is really
to foster some of the conversations.
All the new ideas are coming directly from the kids.
>> My final question is obviously for the folks
who couldn't make it here, watching, know you guys,
what's the theme of the show
because the news right out of the gate
is obviously the big cloud players.
That's the key.
And the new breed of partners,
Snowflake, Databricks as an example.
Hallway conversations that I'm hearing,
can kind of be geeky and customer
focused around "where do I store my data?"
so you're seeing a range of conversations.
What is the theme this year?
What's different this year, or what more the same?
Where are you doubling down?
What's going on here for the show?
What's the main content?
>> Well so this is our 20th
Informatica World if you can believe that.
We've been around for 26 years,
but this is our 20th Informatica World.
And several years ago we started
with the disruptive power of data.
Then last year we talked about
how we help our customers disrupt intelligently.
And this year the theme is around ClAIrity Unleashed.
You can tell the theme has been that we've been talking
about for the past three years is all underpinned with AI.
So it is all about how AI needs data and data needs AI.
And how we help bring clarity
to our customer's problems through data.
>> And a play on words, ClAIr, your AI to clarity.
>> Exactly, AI is at the center
of our Intelligent data platform.
So it is a play on AI but that
is where ClAIrity Unleashed comes from.
>> Terrific, thank you so much
for coming on theCube, Sally.
Its great having you. >> Great, thanks Rebecca.
Thanks, John. >> Thank you.
>> Nice to see you all.
>> I'm Rebecca Knight for John Furrier.
We will have more from Informatica World, stay tuned.
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