>> Announcer: Live from Denver Colorado, it's theCUBE!
Covering Commvault GO 2019.
Brought to you by Commvault.
>> Hey, welcome back to theCUBE.
Lisa Martin with Stu Miniman
and we are live on the show floor
of Commvault GO 2019 fourth annual event.
A couple of thousand customers here
and Stu and I are welcoming back the CMO
of Commvault, Chris Powell.
Chris, welcome back!
>> Thank you, thanks.
Good to be here.
>> We're excited to be here,
we just came out of the keynote.
Some interesting news to talk about...
>> Yeah.
>> But let's kind of talk about what's happened.
Commvault is a a 20 year young company,
tremendous amount of acceleration.
>> Yes.
>> In the last nine months a lot of leadership changes,
you must be kind of holding on to the table
'cause you got like the whiplash right?
>> It's been exciting,
it's been exciting. >> So tell us,
here we are at the fourth annual GO,
news in terms of sales leadership changes,
go to market opportunities with Metallic,
with new partner programs for the enterprise.
Tell us what are the,
some of the things that are exciting to you
and how Commvault is really in 20 FYI 2020 positioned,
hey we're listening to our customers and partners?
>> Yeah, yeah.
Well a lot of the things
that you're seeing here at this show is just that.
It's market driven,
it's us responding to what we're seeing in the market,
working with our partners.
And a show like this is all about working with partners,
our customers and the announcements
that we're making here are really releasing
a completely new Commvault.
But the brand refresh
that we've done just over the last month
or so is being tied to a lot of the things
that are changing with regard to the product portfolio,
the Hedvig acquisition and a lot
of the different leadership changes that you're seeing.
And the leadership changes are really driving a lot
of this shift of focus
and really I shouldn't say shift,
really extended focus for the organization
from a technological standpoint as well
as from working with our partners.
>> It's interesting, the news ahead of the show Mettalic.
Commvault now are SaaS providers,
>> Yeah.
>> so it's interesting.
Give us your view as a marketer,
on the one hand you need
to be the trusted enterprise supplier
with you know, >> Yeah
>> a lot of customers
and the other one they've got Cloud microservices,
all the latest buzzwords.
And SaaS is the model that a lot
of customers want to be able >> Yeah
>> to consume their software standpoint, so?
>> Yeah, yeah.
So I know you have Rob Kaloustian
who's going to be coming on so I'll steal some
of his thunder,
I'll try not to steal too much so don't tell him.
The, what excites me so much about the Metallic product.
When we first started down this path it was,
we really started looking at the market
and the challenge that came from Sanjay
when he just first entered the building really was,
we have industry leading technology,
a lot of folks will talk about
how we have industry leading technology.
But if you really took a step back you would have
to have an honest view and say,
sometimes they would say,
well, look if it's a really straightforward installation
maybe Commvault might bring too much to the party
so why won't you look at some of the other solutions?
And as we were talking to different customers out there
they were looking for SaaS solutions
and but they at the same time,
they didn't want to make any compromises.
And so much of the research that Rob and team,
working with Janet and with David Ngo,
we're seeing is that as they were going out there
the solutions that were available today
and this sounds like marketing spin right?
But it's really what we were hearing back.
They weren't very good,
they weren't...
SaaS solutions are supposed to be easy,
the customers really didn't see them as easy.
They were running into scale issues,
they were running into flexibility issues.
So from the standpoint of building the solution
what we quickly realized is
if we could reach Sanjay's challenge to us
which is bringing this fundamentally solid technology
to a broader audience,
with the simplified use cases,
that there's a great opportunity for us to bring value
to more companies so that's where this went.
And the beginning reviews of this
as we brought this into beta
and different people were seeing it,
different customers, different partners,
they even came into the conversation
a little bit pessimistic
and the all left excited about what they were seeing.
It's really good,
it's really good.
>> So targeted towards mid market companies
with around 25 000 or 500 to 25 000 employees,
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> give me just a little bit of a perspective on the choice
that Commvault is now offering the mid market
with complete backup and recovery.
That's one of your flagship >> Yeah.
>> And Metallic.
>> So the Metallic offerings are meant
for some of the most common use cases
that are out there so...
>> Like Office 365 back up? >> You know, Office 365
and the, what we're trying to inject into the market
and the target of 500 to 25 000 employees
is really just where we see the sweet spot
of most of the customers of those sizes are the ones
that are looking at SaaS solutions right now.
But that's not to say as we've talked to larger enterprises,
many of them are considering the addition of Metallic
into their either subsidiaries
or other areas in their business.
And what Sanjay talks about,
he sort of refers to as the data brain
is really bringing this together
where you can add SaaS solutions on
to your existing on-prem solutions.
So if you're running Commvault Complete,
you can also be running Metallic across other aspects
of your business so that's one of the things
that makes it powerful upmarket
but then we're also targeting the more common use cases
that are more turnkey downmarket.
Chris, let's switch gears a little bit.
So your team had a little bit fun opening up the keynote,
>> You had some >> Yes.
>> of the stunt doubles for Thor from Star Wars
and the woman has done both Star Wars and Marvel.
>> Yeah.
>> And talking about the unsung heroes behind the scenes,
kind of like your customers here
but there is another connection because they were Avengers
and Commvault is,
I believe it's the global Business Avengers.
>> Yes.
>> And it has to do with sustainability which I know
is something near and dear to your heart.
>> Yeah.
>> So will you explain a little bit about
why that's important and what it is?
>> So it's definitely a passion of mine
and something that we at Commvault are looking to...
Every company as we're driving this should try to stand
for something bigger than themselves.
And as we look at,
this all started two years ago when we sponsored
and I joined Robert Swan's expedition to the South Pole.
We were the data sponsor for that expedition
and it was the first expedition
to rely solely on renewable energy.
And what has evolved from that from different conversations,
we started having discussions about the carbon footprint
of data and with 5G,
the Internet of Things coming
and more and more data on the horizon,
the people that we're speaking with
and the reality I think that tech has come to
is that we can't be part of the problem,
we have to be part of the solution.
So through a series of connections we ended up speaking
with the folks who were responsible for the UN Global Goals.
It's the 17 Global Goals around the world
that were endorsed by all
of the UN countries five years ago,
there's 10 more years of it.
And Commvault is extremely proud to be joining some
of the largest companies in the world,
Coca-cola, Microsoft,
Google, Salesforce,
many in our industry and outside obviously
to sponsor one of the Global Goals.
But the way the program works is it's 17 Global Goals
and there's one company for each one of them,
in order to try to represent it
and drive it forward.
>> Chris you actually took a few
of us around the show floor before
it opened last night. >> Yeah.
>> We know conferences can have a bit of an impact
from a negative standpoint
so tell us some of what Commvault's doing to make sure
that this conference >> Oh, that's a good one too.
>> doesn't have such an impact >> Yeah so,
so as you mentioned before,
it's about 2000 people that are here
and I was shocked to learn
and a lot of this is all an education
as you go through life.
An event of this size typically will generate 25 000 pounds
of rubbish, of trash.
So what we've done is partner with our good customer
which is the Gaylord Hotel Systems
and we've put together a model where we're trying
to minimize the overall footprint
so we donate a lot of what you see around here.
Construction materials are donated to schools
and local organizations,
we're using all of the natural plants
that will go back into the environment after this,
no plastic, I'm trying
and the cups you see here on the table are all plant-based.
So we're trying to be very unconscientious about everything
that we're doing here at the show
and minimize the footprint.
>> When you're talking with customers
as I'm sure as CMO you are doing a lot,
we often, Stu and I
and the rest of theCUBE crew,
sustainability is a topic that comes up at every event.
>> Yeah.
>> Where is that when you're talking
with customers in any industry,
whether it's healthcare or oil and gas?
Where is sustainability in terms of conversation?
Is that one of the key things that comes up
that was also really important for Commvault
to say, hey we want to be able sure
that the technologies we're delivering are going
to help our customers meet their sustainability goals?
>> Absolutely and it's increasingly part of some,
a number of RFPs that will come in for Commvault
so their companies are looking to have us be able
to really represent what our sustainability,
what our corporate social responsibility systems are
and what we put in place.
And so we look at this through the lens
of what do we do within our facilities,
what do we do in events like this
and then also what can we do with our customers.
So it's increasingly relevant and there's tons of research,
I'm sure you guys have seen that
at the millennial generation becomes more and more part
of either significant influencers or decision makers,
they're looking for companies that have a mission you know
and that stand for something.
>> All right, so Chris talking about sustainability
is something you're passionate about.
How does that tie into the broader
brand discussion of Commvault?
Companies going through,
we talked about the executive changes,
you've got a lot of new products
so when people leave Commvault GO 2019
how do you want them to think of Commvault?
>> Uh that's a great question.
I think what we're hoping
that were really using Commvault GO as a combination
of so many of the things
that have been happening over the last couple of quarters
and certainly as I look through what we're representing now,
it's what are we as an organization,
what's the story we're trying to tell.
So we launched,
just in the last few weeks a new tagline
which is "be ready".
And that whole concept of data readiness
is something that we're having within this show
and it will be in a lot of our messaging as we move forward
so this thinking of Commvault as the organization
that enables you to be ready and then extending that
to sort of saying well what does that mean?
And that's around how we protect the data,
help you control where it resides,
help you manage it for compliance
and different regulatory needs,
and then help you use it and get value from it
so that's the big take away we're hoping that people have.
The other piece of this that we have each year
is we expose people to such expertise here at the show,
this is not Commvault talking about Commvault.
70% of our sessions in the breakout theaters are partners
or customers or other influencers
so we want people to come here
and really see Commvault as data experts,
as the people who are willing to work with them.
>> Yeah one little nugget you shared also,
you've been growing how many developers you bring
from internal to the show. >> Yeah, yeah.
>> I have to think that Sanjay has a little push from
that based on his last role >> Yeah, yeah
certainly the devops community is increasingly,
especially with some of the moves we've made in Hedvig.
The devops community is going to be increasingly an audience
for us to engage with
but the, we bring 45 developers
to the show this year.
It's about 40 from Commvault and five more
that have joined with Hedvig
and they have 30 or 60 minute whiteboard sessions
and they're completely jam packed.
There's, I think last year
there was over a 150 whiteboard sessions
over two days with customers just coming in
and going through the details of this.
'Cause a lot of organizations they're faced with,
right now and in Sanjay's words,
they have to move from something to something
and they need people to be able to sit down
and have honest conversations with them.
I joke with people sometimes that one of the terrible things
that happens has happened to marketing
with the advent of technology
is we have to be truthful now,
you can't just spin things.
And so, we're stuck having to tell the truth
but Commvault has a great truth that its,
we've got a really solid truth to tell,
we just need to tell it.
>> Well and I love how marketing is so scientific these days.
You're right, you have to tell the truth
but you also have,
if you have the right foundation within your organization,
the ability to access data.
Actually glean insights from it,
develop whether it's a new partner program
or new technologies,
new rounds to market,
that's the power that having this ability
and access to the data >> Yeah.
>> can deliver to any type of organization.
When you talk with customers who've been,
we got some on the show today,
hey we've been using Commvault for 10 years.
When you talk to them today,
this theme of be ready,
more than ready, how are they perceiving their foundation
with Commvault and all of the changes that you've made?
Not just in the last 10 years
but in the last nine months,
what's that customer feedback?
>> Yeah, the customer feedback has been tremendous.
I think they, so many customers are
and it's something that's so great about Commvault
is our customers want us to succeed.
They see this market shifting tremendously,
they've been with us for a while
and they want us to succeed.
When they look at the changes
that they're having to overcome,
they're excited about really beginning to learn
that as they move from something to something,
that we can help them on that journey,
that they don't have to go somewhere else for that journey.
So whether that's looking into SaaS areas,
whether that's modernizing their infrastructure,
whether it's moving to multicloud and those environments,
we have the right solutions
and the right way for them to be able
to make this transition for their company.
>> So Chris, we're relatively early still in this show
so I hate to ask but give us a little bit of a go forward.
A lot of change in the last nine months.
>> Yeah.
>> What should you customers be expecting from Commvault
through the rest of the year
and by the time we come back to Commvault GO 2020?
>> Well I think when you talk to Sanjay he always says,
it puts me back on my heels a little bit,
and tells me that there's more coming,
there's more coming,
we're going to keep going.
So Sanjay is a very dynamic leader
and he's looking to make sure
that the company isn't just driving to Commvault GO
and then it's going to sort of be smooth sailing
with these things.
I think this is an exciting time to be here at Commvault,
this is an exciting time to be in the industry so
as we look forward,
the new leadership that's come in
and some of the things they'll be able to do
in terms of our go to market,
I think are going to be exciting.
Avinash coming into this organization
and his expertise,
his skill set and all
of the brilliant engineers he's brought in
to sort of join our industry leading engineering team,
it's going to be...
I can't wait to see what they come up with.
From a marketing standpoint,
we had a solid product for a number of years
but it's always challenging to sort of continue
to tell a story and come up with new ways
to tell it as you get new things in your box
to be able to talk about,
it's great to be here.
>> Well Chris we want to thank you
for joining us on theCUBE today.
We're excited about the next two days
of all of the folks,
leaders, new leaders,
customers, partners
that we're going to be talking to and really unpacking
what being ready means to them.
So we thank you for your time. >> Thanks.
>> And we look forward to a great event.
>> Great, thanks very much.
>> For Stu Miniman, I'm Lisa Martin.
You're watching theCUBE from Commvault GO '19.
(slow bouncy music)