>> Narrator: Live from Orlando, Florida.
It's theCUBE.
Covering Accelerate 19.
Brought to you by Fortinet.
>> Welcome back to theCUBE.
We are live in Orlando, Florida
for Fortinet Accelerate 2019.
I'm Lisa Martin with my co-host for the day Peter Burroughs.
Peter and I are pleased to welcome back to theCUBE
Patrice Perche, the senior executive vice president
of world wide sales and support from Fortinet.
Patrice, it's a pleasure to have you,
fresh from the Keynote Stage,
here on theCUBE program.
>> Yeah, well thank you for inviting me here.
It's a great opportunity.
>> So lots of people this morning and an energy infused
keynote starting from all this loud music that I loved
and helped wake me up,
so thanks to your events team for that.
About 4000 attendees,
>> Patrice: Yeah.
>> From 40 countries.
You have a ton of partners here.
You can hear a lot of the noise behind us.
I'd like you to share with our audience the connection
that you made in your keynote about what you guys shared
last Accelerate 2018 and the connection
to the world economic forum from just a few months ago.
>> Okay well, the last year we definitely in fact exposed
our strategy in term of the product,
in term of the go to market
and of course how we can
increase in fact the value proposition to our customer,
it was all about the fabric and the eco-system
that we build around the fabric.
So we have been of course since now 12 months
working hard on expanding and growing what I call
the Phase two of the fabric
and when Cain
went to Davos
which the World Economic Forum is held early in January.
And when we got all this, I would say a vision
from Klaus Schwab which is the Chairman
and Founder of the World Economic Forum.
Explaining that the false revolution that
we are all going through.
The Cyber Security its a massive, I would say
problem for them and it will be a key point
for the future because they will enable,
in fact, most of those take technology and use it
that we will go for this revolution, so
>> Peter: It's intrinsic.
>> It's intrinsic, they call it guardian.
So it really is something that if we can't,
fix this problem,
it's all about digital trust.
So none of the user, you, myself we will
not trust maybe voting system, or you cannot trust.
We know that everything is going digital.
And they expressed the need for of course
the education, because you need to educate
and you need to, increase the skilled
people especially with cyber-security as we
have a huge shortfall about 1.5million,
some say even two million for next year.
They need also need to work as an eco-system.
So, for them the eco-system is really to see
public, private collaboration but also
Government, technologies, companies like us.
And that's in fact the purpose of Davos.
To bring all this different,
in fact groups and be able to talk and share
and define some line for the future.
And for us of-course, the concept of the eco-system
is all about
building around
in fact this major problem that we are facing,
has all the traits.
In fact, a collective approach where everybody
can add value.
We as a vendor we build technology,
we build a lot of value but we can't be
with each of the customers.
So and we want to build a partnership
not only with the partner but also with the
customer because cyber security is a
real time problem.
So when something happen, you need to jump,
and you need to make sure that all the line is set
and then everybody can work together
to fix the problem.
So this eco-system really resonates
value well for us after we was talking
last year at the Accelerate.
And the last I will say pillar
for the Economic Forum is about of course
Education and clearly I was mentioning
one of the Engineers from the SERP which is nuclear agency
in Europe
Januity she said that 3D,
of course the problem is that with these robots
we will have a lot of jobs that will be omitted.
So they talk about 800 million.
So it's a massive number but it sees
more than an opportunity to up-skill people.
So the education is really helping of course
especially the young generation to go and
to up-skill it and especially on the cyber security.
Because, as everything is going digital,
we have to secure everything so it's really,
these pieces will grow much beyond that
what we think today.
Those three pillars are the Education,
the Eco-system and of course the Technology.
And the good news is that Ken was
representing in fact cyber security at the Davos,
so it was also a great moment
for us to see in fact pushing 14 at that
stage of level of discussion so.
Those three pillars: Education, Technology and
Eco-system of course fit very well with our strategy
that we build and that's why I decided to share
a bit this morning.
It's not everybody going to such a place.
And what really resonate well in term of the
strategy and the vision we are in fact
pursuing so that's what we are doing.
>> So I want to build on something that you said
to do so I want to paraphrase.
Peter who is much smarter than I am,
Peter Drucker who observed many years ago
there's a difference in strategies between what he
called: value in exchange was his presumption
that what I am selling is valuable.
And value in utility which is a presumption
that the value stems from how the something is used.
And that notion of partnership that Fortinet has
put in place with its customers so they can
get value in utility is so crucially important.
And you talked a bit this morning about you know
the different levels of customization,
and how you are going to allow customers to
engage you and apply technology to suit their business.
Could you take a bit about that especially
based on your experience in the field?
>> Yeah so as I mention I think we,
it has been also our sales strategy from day one.
So we always consider that in order to succeed,
we need to work through the partners and
through the people that are very close to our customer.
And as technology evolves of course it's a real
challenge to keep them at the level.
Even for us, internally, we used to understand
and be always at the top level about the
new technology that we are putting in place.
We imagine that, just for the employees,
it's a challenge so we do a lot of training.
But then for the partner it's another challenge.
So, I think we have been always trying to
help them to of course evolving on this expertise,
but we don't see that
the cloud of course there is a certain I will say a trend
about Okay lets go Direct because we don't.
The cloud can allow to sell direct to the customer
so you don't need those channels.
So there's no value for them.
We don't see that in the cyber security because
it's a much more complex environment and I think
that is why we have been successful.
We even see some of our competitor,
they tempted to go on this direction.
I think it's maybe one of the challenges
we'll face in the future.
So for us they key message I was trying to
give this morning to the partner is really that
we count on them, it's a partnership,
it's very important and of course
when we adapt our partner program we want to learn from them
to make sure that the three pillars of this program
will fit well with their, in fact, view because
of course we are from a vendor in certain perspective,
they have of course a different perspective on their side.
What I was mentioning the goal to market because
we see that some are very specialized on the cloud,
some are specialized on the premise.
We have to define what is the go to market here.
What kind of expertise there are in fact having
because as you can see we have very broad
product of frame cover, you know from almost
everything, so from OT, IT, even imbedded.
So, we are working with partners that are,
as an example, on the connected car.
That's for maybe the next two years where we
will secure those car.
They are not the typical or traditional partner
that you see on the networking business so,
we try to adapt in fact our engagement with them
and make sure that in fact we build a value proposition
that can fit in fact for the customer requirement.
So it's really about be very close and try to
have a bit of a-la-carte kind of approach.
And not try to enforce a very
historical view that we had in fact, to be honest.
But okay, you have like three tiers,
depending of level of business and then you sign.
So it's really moving away from that.
>> I want to stay in this notion of partners
because I think it's so crucially important.
You talked about the skills that they have
the capabilities that they have,
but your partners in general are amongst the companies
that have to learn the most about cyber security.
Because they are the ones that are trying to
match technology to the outcomes the customers have.
That leads to a question about your education programs.
I got to believe that there is, that even as
you're trying to educate your enterprise customers,
you're also really investing in your enterprise,
in upgrading and up scaling your partnership.
Talk a bit about the relationship of education
and Eco-system from a very practical standpoint.
>> Yeah so it's a very good point because of course
we need to help them to evolve and as an example
we have seen traditional IT partner,
interested to evolve on this OT security but they didn't
have too much skill so it was new for them.
So we see the purpose of building this NSC
training vocation course which we have eight level,
which started in 2015 and we have about
now almost 200 000 certified engineers.
A very large portion of those Engineers come from partners.
So, on this program, in fact the origin of the program,
depending on where you want to play.
If it's cloud, you will have to go for NSC4.
If you want to go beyond a OT, it can be NSC5.
We build in fact this expertise and we ask them also
to of course follow those course so the engagement with us,
the requirement will be also that
they have the right certified Engineer.
Depending on level of engagement they want to work with us.
So we build this course which is a lot of work
and we have a lot of, a big team to make this happen.
We have to refresh constantly because
it's evolving almost every day.
But as for this, the great value, you may have
seen it pass on the networking sites.
Cisco made a bit similar approach,
which was very successful.
I think we went like three years ago on thinking
about this and that's what we are achieving
right now and we are in fact the most
I will say advanced in such a report and
I think it's all NSC certification is becoming
a bit stand out in the market.
Both from end-user but the partner.
And even going as we was mentioning,
we are also working with the Academics to build in fact
and train in fact new Engineers that will come
in the market in the next two to three years.
So we help them on, it's not pure about product,
it's really about cyber security expertise
that we have and of course we help them on
understanding a bit how the Fortinet value
can deploy on the customer,
so that aspect and we try to target of course
young I will say people going for university
but also veterans who we had program to bring
those veterans because they're also looking
we are talking about up skilling.
That's a perfect example on bringing a change to them.
And I think it's high level, maybe it's a bit, you know
think that we have a high potential.
But we want of course to help on resolving
the overall challenge to be unemployed.
I can tell you that if you invest time and
you get a certification on cyber security
you will never have any problems with a job.
So that's a bit the overall idea we have
behind this education and certification.
And truly the partner, I will say,
evolution in terms of their expertise,
it's based about this NSC.
>> Alright Patrice as we kind of get towards the
end here, let's talk about outcomes.
Peter mentioned that word,
I know that when I was looking at my notes here that
in Q4 of 2018, service providers,
and managed security service providers represented
11 of the top 25 deals.
You guys also closed a massive seven figure deal in Europe.
Let's talk about outcomes that Fortinet
and your partner eco-system are helping
businesses achieve at the business level.
Not just in terms of obviously improving security
but are you helping businesses generate new
revenue streams, skip to new products on market faster,
identify attacks and become pro active?
What is one of those really key outcomes
that you are proud of?
>> I think the, and I was part of the
presentation last year.
We all, I would say on this digital transformation journey.
Whole company, even us.
We're evolving with much more tools, much automation.
So I think every sector, whether it's public or
private company, has to go for this evolution.
The biggest challenge is all about digital so
again the blocking point is about security.
So last year we explained about how we can help
with positioning our platform in the security fabric
to run to this obstacle and that was the
purpose of the security transformation that
we was talking last year.
And I know it's some, even complete as relayed a message,
it was interesting that it was part of all.
So I think it was really trying to unlock
this digital transformation that add business benefit
because at the end this whole, those company
will evolve in the future, generate more profit,
be more efficient, leverage, I would say,
the data that they are collecting from almost everywhere.
From customer but also the sensor,
and transform this to a more business intelligence and then
I will say generate in fact future revenue and
future dollars from that.
That has been a bit the idea behind.
So we definitely help on evolving and going
through this digital transformation journey.
I think we had few example of course as
one of our customers,
they deploying world wide on their gas-station.
A better customer journey.
Typically of course you calm,
you try to make your gas and you want to be connected.
And they try to increase of course by upselling
a lot of things.
So of course you have your go for the coffee machine,
you can even buy many goods.
We have been deploying you know, with secure access
so they have secure access they go for the internet
so that's where we play with segmentation.
But our wireless which is fully connected also
to the Fortigate and the analytic tools allow them
to do business intelligence in term of where people
are moving inside you know the shops.
And then, you know, redesign and rethink about
okay, how they move here.
So that's, that allow them to accelerate even
more business or decide that maybe this spot
doesn't work well, so they push that to the side
and they evolve.
That's depicted the value of all this intelligence
and we can grasp from the data that we collect
to transform to a business value.
>> So I want to make one comment before
we close here and that is that
I don't know the degree to which people
really understand the relationship between
secure networking and digital business.
Data is an interesting asset.
It could be shared, it could be copied,
it could be easily corrupted.
In many respects over the next five years
we believe that people will recognize that
network security is the basis for privatizing data.
It is what you do to turn data into an asset.
I don't think people have made that connection,
to the degree that they need to.
>> No I agree, I agree because maybe the mindset
they think about network, they think about wired.
In fact we are talking about 5G, we are talking
about Wireless so the data is that what we want
to protect because we don't want that people
stole your personal information or even company.
>> It's more than protect.
You want to create the asset.
>> Yes, we integrate the asset.
And then of course when we talk about network
it's no longer wires, of course it's
much more virtual I would say networks.
And that's the misinterpretation and why they
feel okay the network is moving away.
No, it's even more in the future.
And as Cain mentioned early this morning:
I think the edge will become much more important
in future because the compute power that
we are having now on every device and even.
That will in fact allow to of course generate
much more data.
Yeah and you need to protect.
You notice when you need to go and to
consolidate this into the cloud.
So it's really, the age will become a very important aspect.
But this will be a hybrid and that's what we feel
as Fortinet we've been building in fact the very
comprehensive offer and to the partner and to our customer.
We just want, in fact to give them the time to
move at their pace.
But they have everything ready for today.
That's a bit the concept.
>> Well if only we had more time Patrice,
we could keep going and going.
Thank you so much for sharing some time on the
program today talking about your GTM,
what you are doing to educate partners and customers
and this tremendous potential that Fortinet is attacking.
We appreciate your time.
>> Thank you very much, I appreciate it too.
>> We want to thank you for watching for
Peter Burroughs, I'm Lisa Martin.
You're watching theCUBE.
(upbeat music)