(gentle music)
>> Hey, everyone.
Welcome back to New York City.
Lisa Martin and John Furrier here with theCUBE,
covering AWS Summit NYC.
This is a series of summits this year.
There's about 15 of them globally.
We are excited to be here with a couple of guests.
We have an alumni back with us.
Couple of guests from Caylent,
Stephen Garden joins us, the Executive Chairman,
and Valerie Henderson, Chief Revenue Officer.
Guys, welcome to the program.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you.
Thank you for having us.
>> Great to have you, welcome back.
>> Appreciate it, from 2016.
>> 2016, it's been a minute.
>> Yep. >> But that was before Caylent.
Talk to us about Caylent, what do you guys do?
What do you deliver?
How are you affiliated with AWS?
>> Sure, so we were founded in 2015,
initially as a container management product.
So our roots are very deeply centered
around Cloud native.
We've since evolved and become a Cloud native consultancy.
We're all in with AWS.
We were actually just awarded AWS Premier Partner
a couple of weeks ago,
so we're pretty pumped about that,
but we're about 250 people now,
across North and South America.
And our goal is really to work with customers
that are looking to innovate and evolve and use AWS
as a catalyst to build new products for their business.
>> As a catalyst, I like that.
Valerie, talk about the customer.
Obviously so much tumbled
in the last couple of years.
Still going through it.
>> Yeah, of course.
>> How have customer conversations evolved and changed
in the last couple of years, from your perspective?
>> Yeah, I think from my perspective
it is such a unique time
and it's a time that is constantly changing.
And I think change breeds opportunity,
and I feel like customers see that, and they're leaning in.
They want the opportunity to create new revenue streams,
do more, more efficiently, and I think that's the key.
And the questions are really asking,
how can we take our data, and turn it into something
that we can monetize?
How can we be smarter with what we have?
And I think it's an incredible time
to be in the space that we're in.
Every conversation I have is really forward thinking,
and about the business.
And I've been in this space for a while,
and that was not always that case.
And I think now people are shifting that IT shop to IP shop,
and that's so key, from my perspective.
>> Interesting, interesting shift there.
Every company has to be a data company these days,
to be competitive, the last couple of years it was,
how did we survive?
Pivot, pivot, pivot.
But to be a data company,
means you have to be able to extract the value and insights
from that data and act on it, to your point,
develop new products,
new revenue streams, new opportunities.
How do you enable companies,
and maybe this is a question that you can both answer,
to truly become data companies?
>> The whole model from a service's perspective
is not a do-for model, it is a do-with model.
And any time we go into a customer,
it's like, where are they on the curve?
From monolith application, to microservices,
where do they sit today?
And I think when you dig in, you assess,
you deeply understand where they are,
you can get them to where they want to be, and build a plan.
And the way our model works is,
we're doing it with them,
and what that means is we're enabling them,
documentation, we're supporting them,
that if we're not there,
they're going to be able to carry it forward
and continue to do more.
So, that's so so important.
I'd love Stephen's take on it.
>> Yeah, I think the other trend
that we're seeing in data more recently
is that customers need to share their information
with other partners, collaborate.
And AWS is just the perfect platform
to be able to do that, enable that sharing.
And you're seeing even businesses like Snowflake
build a data Cloud on top of AWS.
So, I think that's a new angle that we're seeing
which is really bringing together way more innovation-
>> What about that data clean-room trend that's going on,
Snowflake's doing a lot of that.
But some of them have a little lock in spec there,
versus being open,
security, privacy, governance,
what's the balance between open sharing
and the requirements you need to be secure and compliant?
>> Yeah, I think very simplistically,
the information that you are using
to deliver your product and service to customers
generally safer, more public and available,
the information that's confidential
to your business behind the scenes,
obviously, you use the right protocols to lock it out.
But it is a very hot topic in today's world,
especially with Web3
and people seeking to get their information back, so...
>> So you mentioned you guys around since 2015,
if you go back in time, it seems like yesterday,
but Cloud time, it's like two generations ago.
Why is data now more relevant?
Is it because the technology's gotten better and easier,
or more maturization of the client's understanding,
or being full with data, having a data problem
and hence an opportunity?
Or is it open source has evolved?
Or all three, what's your reaction to that?
Why is it exploding now
when it's been around for a while?
>> It keeps exponentially growing, right?
The more and more data.
There was a stat four or five years ago about,
hey, we're taking more photographs in a single year now
than all of mankind, leading up to that date,
but I think just the sheer quantities
and the way people are managing it now,
and being able to actually capture information points
of everything across their entire business,
just presents a much bigger opportunity
to be able to take and form decisions of the back of that.
>> So do you see the customers having
more data full problems, that they're having more data?
So that's...
And in that one >> 100%.
>> Of the consequences of not leveraging it?
>> Yeah, it's what to do. Yeah, absolutely,
and if you think about when you wake up in the morning
if you ask Alexa what the weather is, and like,
you're creating data, in every engagement with the world.
So I think it's this explosion of it,
but then it exists, and what do you do,
and having a strategy.
I still think one of the biggest gaps is people,
and talent, and expertise to do the work, frankly.
Which is, the hypothesis of Caylent existing.
>> Yeah, I think a data concept and application,
because what's the weather to Alexa,
is an application of what's the weather,
it's a request,
but it's actually the data's built into the app.
>> It's built in.
>> So data as code is a new trend.
>> Yes, yeah, yeah, and I think it's funny
to answer the question.
There's more data points
surrounding how to leverage your data,
and I'm like, it's crazy,
I think you're really seeing that working-
>> We have an old data warehouse,
we can't get the weather data,
although it's there somewhere.
But that's the problem.
Getting the data, in the applications, this is not...
Wasn't around 10 years ago.
No one was talking like that.
Now it's more standard.
That sounds like DevOps to me, a DevOps problem.
>> Yeah, moving from the monolithic
to the microservice is wild, and just the way
that people are building applications today.
The users, their customers are demanding more
from the service, and AWS is able to deliver that.
>> What are some of your customers doing
with you guys, can you give some examples
and scope the scale of your relationship
with the customers, vis-a-vis AWS and the Cloud,
how they're using you guys and the Cloud.
>> Yeah, yeah, for sure, a customer of ours,
Allergen, which is an incredible organization,
really had a large effort to modernize.
And they actually have a data lab within their company
called Allergen Data Labs, and they leveraged us
to truly just modernize this containerization effort.
How they can do more with less,
and that serverless experience.
So, I think from my perspective
what we're seeing is also a need to be thoughtful
about DevOps retooling and tooling
because talent wants to work with the best toolset,
the hottest stuff on the street,
and again, to keep talent is key,
in any organization's success.
>> Valerie, how does Caylent help with that
from a talent perspective?
Obviously there's talent shortage,
we're also still in the great resignation.
>> Oh my gosh.
>> How do you help organizations bridge the gap
so that they can glean insights from data
and be competitive and win?
>> Yeah, we actually just published a case study
with Novus which was bought by SEI,
which is a huge financial firm.
Where they said,
"Listen, it's human nature to say I have a gap,
and I need to fill it, I'm going to hire somebody."
That's human nature to say,
okay, this is what we're going to do.
But the reality is,
I think companies are starting to see the advantage
of using a partner and say,
okay, I could hire one person or I could bring in a partner
who's going to have a team of five,
works incrementally for a period of time, does with,
helps coach my team up, document all of that,
and I think that they're seeing value from that.
And ultimately, it's not that we don't want them
to eventually hire.
When they do hire,
we want that person to come in and have the best experience.
>> And sometimes the people aren't even available, right?
>> Correct, yeah.
>> So you have a combination of managed services,
a plethora of managed services
that are also involved with the customers.
So, it's that integration, scale,
and partnering and sharing.
You mentioned sharing data earlier,
how do you guys view that integration piece,
'cause if you have a modern architecture,
you got to have that decomposed, decoupled
but integrated approach.
>> Yeah, we really believe that the whole world
of project services and managed services
is coming together as one.
So we have a single delivery model
which we're really passionate about.
And we look at it as an embedded team within our customers,
embedded DevOps to support them,
basically on anything that could be
from a modernizing a new application
through to addressing a more traditional Cloud
architecture framework that's in place.
But yeah, the trick to it is, as Val said earlier
is the do with approach, not just do for, right?
I think customers need to learn about the Cloud.
They need to understand the technology that they're using.
They want to have that understanding.
And we found a way of fitting in our services
to help them accelerate that part.
>> So Valerie, I got to ask you the question.
So, in sports you talk about the modern era of baseball
or whatever, we're in the modern era of Cloud,
going next generation.
We call it Super Cloud,
a concept that Dave and I put out at re:Invent.
If someone asks you, what does the modern era look like?
As you look at your customer base
and the data you guys have,
how would you describe this modern era?
What is it made up of?
Is it outcomes versus solutions?
Is it technology that's decentralized?
How do you talk about it?
What is the modern era, if you were-
>> Not to oversimplify it,
but I'm going to,
the idea that somebody could come into work
and all they have to think about is business outcomes
and the data points
that they need to achieve said business outcomes.
I'm the biggest fan of measure what matters,
I think it is an incredibly powerful methodology.
And I think anybody who thinks about running business,
they know that it's a scale.
The amount of companies that are in that place
is very small right now.
So I think modern era is really that running an IT company
to an IP company.
>> So Stephen, if you unpack that,
what's under the covers to make that happen?
Automation, machines,
what's your assessment of that outcome,
which by the way was well said.
Beautiful, beautiful comment.
What makes that happen?
>> I think it is around automation.
It is around do once and then apply many times.
That is key.
Obviously it's a fundamental principle of the Cloud,
is that consistency in that repeatability.
So when you can simplify services
down to a point, click, deploy,
I think you're in a much better position
to be able to move quickly
and then not have to worry about anything
under the hood and just focus, like Val said,
on the business outcomes.
>> That's more creative.
They're focusing on the problems, to not do the rock fetches
and the heavy lifting that's not differentiated.
>> I find that what gives people energy
generates opportunity.
And I think when people hit those roadblocks of,
these things don't work together.
There's all these interdependencies.
It's really challenging.
So I love what's happening.
I think there's never been a better time
to be in this business.
>> Not a dull moment, That's for darn sure.
>> Not a dull moment.
>> Valerie, talk about outcomes.
You mentioned a couple of customers
that you're working with, some case studies.
It is all about outcomes these days.
That's the conversations that we have
with the entire ecosystem is all about business outcomes.
What are some of those key transformative business outcomes
that Caylent is helping customers to achieve?
>> Yeah, to me one thing that is key is,
anytime I'm meeting with a customer,
I want to understand who their customers are.
I'm like, who is your customer?
And how can we create a better experience for that customer.
Whether it's their end users or their external customers.
And I think that is a huge element.
What we're seeing is that sassification of,
how do I make it easier for my customers to procure
and engage with my platform?
And a lot of what we're doing right now
is helping clients with that.
And it's not a flip of a switch,
it's not a click of a button, it's complicated.
But that is what we are here to help, help simplify,
help create that understanding of what's possible.
>> How do you guys talk to your customers,
take a minute to give a plug for the company.
What are you looking for?
What's the stats?
How many employees you guys hiring,
and what's the pitch to customers?
>> Yeah, so I think every organization
is on their journey to the Cloud now.
It's gotten to that point where if you're not working
with a public Cloud provider,
you're part of a very, very small group.
We like to say that we'll meet customers
where they are, and help evolve them as a business,
help evolve their teams.
And that's what we mean when we say do with,
so it's a pretty broad spectrum.
We're big in healthcare.
We're big in FinTech.
We've worked with a lot of startup customers.
We have about 250 customers today, 250 employees.
And we're scaling rapidly.
We've grown that from about 50 employees a year ago.
>> Oh, wow.
>> Yes, when I started,
we were just around 60 people and we're at 260 today.
>> And why are people working with you?
What are you guys, solving a problem?
Are you enabling them?
What's the pitch?
>> Without a doubt, I love that.
Being in sales my whole career,
somebody asking me for a pitch is my favorite.
>> Okay, let's go.
>> Yeah, yeah, the true value prop of what we do
is all of the above.
We enable, we help customers do more faster,
but again, we do not want customers
to walk away from an engagement with us saying,
oh no, we don't know what to do.
We want them to feel empowered.
I still think the biggest gap
from everything being in that IP business outcome is people.
And for us,
we're so passionate about that,
and building a company that really truly believes that.
And that's part of who we are as a company
and our value system.
>> And the digital transformation,
ultimately what they're going through,
you get them there faster.
They get the outcomes and they're operational.
>> Absolutely, and also to be clear,
when a customer has a great experience working with you,
they want to tell other people about the experience.
And for us, like the referrals that we get,
the partnership with Amazon is so key.
>> What are some reactions
after you go through an engagement?
We've been riffing on this concept of Super Cloud
where you're starting to see people build on top
of, not the AWSs, but their partners
that work with them.
And so the customers
are getting their own Cloud experience at scale.
What are some of the comments you hear
from your successful customers?
What are some anecdotal feedback?
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> I'm so glad we did this because now I'm selling more,
I'm doing this,
what are some of the things that they're thinking?
>> Yeah, yeah, I think ultimately the consistent theme
that we get is,
"I'm so glad that I didn't let fear hold me back
from engaging a partner,"
because a lack of control scares a lot of customers.
It does.
And I think customers that are willing to say,
"Okay, I'm going to have a little faith,
trust in the process."
They thank us.
They do, and we've seen that across the board.
I think that crossing that chasm
is not to be underestimated without a doubt.
>> Great story, congratulations.
>> Oh, thank you.
>> Well, there's nothing more powerful and potent
than the voice of the customer.
>> Without a doubt.
And really you have to listen.
>> Yes, yes, definitely.
Stephen, Valerie, thank you so much for joining Dave and me
on the program today, talking about Caylent,
what you guys are doing for customers with AWS,
empowering, enabling, collaboration.
I love it, thank you.
>> Yeah, thank you both.
>> All right, our pleasure.
For John Furrier, I'm Lisa Martin.
You're watching theCUBE live in New York City,
we are at AWSO in NYC,
John and I will be right back with our next guest.
(gentle music)