>> (Narrator) Live from Atlanta, Georgia, it's theCUBE
covering Citrix Synergy Atlanta 2019,
brought to you by Citrix.
>> Hey welcome back to theCUBE,
Lisa Martin with Keith Townsend wrapping up day two of
wall-to-wall coverage of Citrix Synergy 2019.
Keith, what a two days we have had.
>> This was not a boring show.
This has been really exciting.
>> It has, my cheeks hurt from smiling.
(Laughs)
>> You know what, I've been to shows where
the messaging can be repetitive.
We've, well, we did almost 20 interviews over
the past couple of days, talking to executives,
three of their customers.
Well, actually more than three customers-
>> (Lisa) Four.
>> ... we've talked to four customers and all
the conversations have been different and dynamic
and exciting, and that's really great to say
about Citrix again.
Citrix is exciting.
If I were a Citrix customer today,
I'd definitely invite them in, get a, and I didn't make the
the show, I'd invite them in and have a conversation
to find out what's going on.
The intelligent experience is a, as Christian said,
they've been working on it for a few years,
releasing it today.
Not a surprise, but definitely a great, uh, start.
>> Absolutely, you know they came out
of the gates yesterday morning in the general session,
really with this massive pivot for Citrix,
of really developing technology for the end user.
For, rather, the general user,
like those who are not power users,
those who shouldn't have to become power users
to do their job, whether they're in supply chain or
marketing or finance.
So that pivot towards that general purpose user,
which is the majority of users, was very ostensible,
and it was welcome from, not just all the customers that
we talked to, but the analysts, as well.
>> Yeah, I think it's one of those things that you look at,
AI, uh, you've said something repeatedly, that,
an interesting stat we heard yesterday that
applications are designed for the 1%, the power user,
and what we heard today was the, basically,
commoditization of AI and ML.
I've always thought that AI and ML, at some point,
would get to the point that we can push it down to the user,
and the user would use AI and ML the same way
that they use Microsoft Excel today.
Citrix has kind of flipped it on me and presented
a way to use AI and ML in a way that I had not thought of,
which is to take processes, business processes,
not IT processes, but business processes,
package them up, no matter what apps
they're being used to deliver that process,
package that up into a micro app and end users themselves
will be able to build it.
Christian Reilly, Citrix's CTO, said he's mostly
excited- that was a great question you asked-
mostly excited about 2019 putting this builder,
the Citrix builder, in the hands of, not IT administrators,
but business process owners.
>> So, and I wish we had more time,
on that front, I was curious, what does that
do to shadow IT, empowering those business users?
Does that, I wanted to get your perspectives on that.
>> Yeah, so you know what?
It's exciting and scary at the same time.
You know, the idea that a business user
can automate a process in which he takes data
out of one system and puts it into another one.
On the surface, it's pretty cool.
But I've been kind of keeping my eye out on this
multi-cloud thing.
What happens, from a security perspective,
when a user builds something in AWS, and they have
Salesforce and they have their Oracle Database
online and they create a workflow,
this builder will give them the capability
to basically build a multi-cloud,
I wouldn't even call it an app,
a multi-cloud business process that becomes,
that becomes a competitive advantage to the business, and
then becomes a business-critical application, as a result.
So, you know what, we're, we're, I see why the excitement
is there, but from just the bureaucratic IT person
that has over 20 years of IT experience I just can't get
out of me, there's a lot to kind of just be wary of,
and, and plan for.
It's all good stuff.
>> It is, but you're right.
You bring up, you know, I just was kind of envisioning
this proliferation of IP, of these sort of
custom applications that lines of business users
are going to be able to build.
A lot of enablement there, but then of course,
in terms of this application, exponential growth
within a company, what are some of the implications?
You talk about security, we talked about that a lot
the last couple of days, so that's absolutely critical.
But in terms of that app proliferation,
what are your thoughts on that?
>> Yeah, you know, you, think about, interesting term, IP.
The early '90s, or late '90s, were just in e-commerce,
and it was very controversial.
Amazon was patenting business processes,
the 1-Click to purchase was a big, big deal.
Competitors couldn't do that.
End users who have a completely different perspective, too.
This is a tool, you know, it doesn't matter
if this is a Samsung phone, iPhone, doesn't matter,
this is a tool so that I can get a business thing done.
The results, you know, were where we've put
imaginary barriers, you know, the AS/400 and Salesforce
shall never touch.
Well, business users will destroy those barriers.
They'll see these applications, they'll see these uses,
and then, we run into, you know, typical problems.
You will create a thousand of these
in a single organization, how do you find them?
Like, you know, app discovery, when you want a new app
on your iPhone, finding an app to do a specific thing,
you know, I can probably search for Flashlight
on my iPhone and get, what, a thousand apps?
Which one is the one for my process and best for my process?
I can see that app proliferation
being a problem and an enterprise.
>> Something that we'll have to keep our eyes on.
Another thing I was curious to get your feedback on is RPA.
You were one of the first ones on Twitter to call that out
yesterday, saying, all right, if Citrix wants to be
delivering the future of work, automation's going to be
essential, and then voilà!
There's the intelligent experience.
But something that we heard a lot yesterday, as well,
we hear this at every show, is these massive workforce
talent shortages that we're going to be seeing
in the next few years.
Some industries are already facing them.
So, looking at the talent shortage and then
the concern over AI and RPA taking over jobs,
they seem to sort of balance each other out.
I'm sure it's not that simple.
>> Yeah, we've talked about this an awful lot in my circles.
There are some people who just won't be able to make
the transition to being, to delivering
higher value work output.
My son talked about a coworker
who did not know how to maximize Excel.
And, you know, we look at that now, you kind of,
you chuckle maybe a little bit, but that's payable.
What happens when that, when RPA automates their job?
Their job is definitely a, a process that can be automated.
But on the flip side, we need people to write RPA scripts,
we need people to, you know, we talked about, you know,
there'll always be someone to operate the robots.
RPA is a, is definitely an area that,
we not only need people to create the robots,
we need someone to maintain them.
What happens when a regulation changes, you know?
Christian talks about liability, uh,
if something is automated and we forget that it's automated,
a regulation changes and we continue to go along
with the automated process and we're in violation
of a standard or a compliance law, we need someone
to go in and quickly make a change.
Who are these people, where is that talent coming from?
And then, displaced workers, how do we find work for them
to do that's valued at,
that they can make the transition to do?
So, it's a lot of complicated questions yet to be answered.
>> Well, another thing that was really obvious the last
couple of days, is the breadth of customer success
that Citrix is having.
We were able to talk with, as you mentioned,
four customers from the Miami Marlins, so Major League
Baseball to financial manage- a wealth manager company,
Schroders in the UK, we spoke with Indiana University
based here in the States, and what they're doing
to enable end users like you and me, from students
to consumers of wealth management technology to
baseball fans, is radically different, but at the same time,
it's all about delivering this experience that's
personalized, that's customized, and tailored to
what each individual wants to achieve.
>> And this is without even giving the new product
from Citrix.
We had Dana Gardner, an analyst, on earlier today
who said that Citrix really needs to toot their own horn,
there should be a Citrix inside-
I remember early SaaS products from companies like ADP,
I'd get support calls on it, I'd go to an end user's
desktop, and they said, "I'm using this ADP software."
This is before Software as a Service was really a big thing,
and I looked at them like, "Oh, this is just Citrix going
into another, going into a data center somewhere else."
Today, that is very much a SaaS service,
and Citrix is the underlying foundation of that.
So, it was no surprise, from a technology perspective,
to see what UI are doing, or ZF was doing, or Schroders,
or even the Marlins.
What was surprising was the impact that they're having.
You know, the, providing accessibility applications to
rural parts of Indiana via 200,000 end points,
from a university.
This is not, you know, you think of 200,000,
there's a lot of clouds, uh, cloud companies,
SaaS companies that would love to
have 200,000 devices accessing its infrastructure.
So, extremely diverse set of customers that Citrix has,
and the capability, even without the products
announced today, uh, pretty exciting.
>> I'm excited to hear, in the next, you know,
six months or so, from those beta customers who've been
testing out intelligent experience and seeing
what other enhanced business outcomes they're achieving.
Also wanted to get your perspective on what you heard
over the last couple of days with respect to,
how does it change the game for Citrix,
from a competitive advantage standpoint?
>> Yeah, the, I tweeted out that VMware is either going to
acquire or quickly announce a RPA-type solution.
This is something that businesses will care about.
This is not something that can be ignored.
Uh, UiPath, which is a complementary solution to Citrix,
just got a $568 million Round D.
Let's put this in perspective.
We are hearing software companies get $60 million rounds
to create hardware.
This is a software-only company: AI, machine learning,
it does RPAs, robotic process automation.
Investors are seeing the value in this company enough
that they are going to give a software company,
who doesn't have buildings, they don't have,
this is just to invest in sales, salespeople and R&D,
$568 million to make it happen.
You're going to see competitors like VMware, uh, Citrix
is a frenemy, I'm sorry, Nutanix is a frenemy of Citrix,
you know, they go to market a lot together
but they have their Frame solution.
Citrix is, I think, put, you know, all in and said,
"You know what? VMware, Nutanix Frame, put up or shut up."
This is, this is, uh, you know,
this is a seismic move in the industry.
>> So I gather that you're leaving here pleasantly
surprised by some of the things that were unveiled.
>> I did not expect Citrix to move so quickly into
RPA, robotic process automation, and this is not something
that they thought of last-minute, so, you know,
Christian said that they've been working on this
for three years, so this is something
that they've given quite a bit of thought to.
If the same thought hasn't happened already at Frame,
uh, that competitive solution for uh, Desktop as a Service,
or if it hasn't already happened in VMware Workspace,
in their set of VDI solutions, then uh,
Citrix is obviously three years ahead.
>> And your thoughts on the announcements with respect to
deepening relationships and partnerships
with Microsoft, with Google?
>> Yeah, and some of that is catch-up.
VMware has had a solution with Azure for quite some time,
bringing Desktop as a Service there,
so VMware has a slight lead on that.
But Citrix, you know what?
Citrix is still a verb.
Even when customers are using other solutions,
they say, it's like, "It's the Kleenex,"
and, like, "I would like Citrix access."
"Well, it's Horizon, it's Frame."
"Whatever, I want, I need to get my job done and
I hear that I have to get a Citrix account to get it done."
So uh, I think Citrix is definitely caught up
with both Nutanix, when Nutanix has their Frame solution,
and VMware with Horizon, with Solutions on Azure.
And then what went unannounced,
what went, I think, unnoticed, is that Citrix
partnered with VMware to deliver the XenDesktop solution
in VMware's VMware Cloud on AWS, so that went unnoticed
over the past couple of days, but again, more choice.
If I were a customer looking at VDI,
desktop, Workspace modernization, I'd be pretty excited
about my options in a competitive landscape.
>> I think they did a great job of positioning themselves
as being enablers of the future of work.
We talked a lot about today's workforce with
five generations of active workers.
We saw a great example of, I guess, a baby boomer,
with Dr. Madeleine Albright onstage this morning
at 82 years old.
>> Yeah, see?
Here, baby boomer, she's of the greatest generation.
I think she's that fifth, you know,
that fifth oldest generation, 82 years old.
I hope, I'm not as sharp as that now and I'm
a little bit more than half that age, so, uh,
it's not looking too good for me.
(Lisa laughs)
>> Me neither.
But how she talked about when she was Secretary of State,
didn't even have a computer on her desk,
and now she's riding in driverless vehicles.
>> And presenting at tech conferences.
And, with respect, this is not always,
"Oh, it's Madeleine Albright,
what can she have to offer us?"
It was an engaged audience, uh,
even with her slight leaning on political policies.
She got some, at the end she got a standing ovation,
at a tech conference.
So, you know, it's an amazing uh,
testament to what you can offer no matter your age.
>> Exactly, and Citrix is doing a great job of being able to
deliver and enable their customers to help
all of their workers, at any age, at any generation,
just get the stuff done.
Keith, it has been such a great time, such a pleasure
working with you for the last couple of days.
I thank you for being my partner in crime.
>> Turned out better than we hoped.
We said we were going to have fun,
I think we had more fun than we thought we would.
>> I agree.
Well, thanks so much.
Safe flight home, I know I'll see you at the next show
sometime in some city soon.
>> You know, theCUBE is at four places right now,
I'm pretty sure we'll be in the same location pretty soon.
>> I think so.
Keith and I want to thank you so much for watching
theCUBE's two-day coverage of Citrix Synergy 2019
from Atlanta, Georgia.
We've had a blast, we hope you've had a blast watching.
Thank you.
(upbeat techno music)