August 1, 2024 • 20 mins
Dive into the forefront of technology with Pablo Garcia-Curtis, Group CEO of Softsource vBridge, on the Right Place, Right Cloud, Right Place episode Podcast.
Explore exclusive insights from HPE Discover, uncovering how HPE GreenLake revolutionises accessibility in New Zealand. Discover the evolution of tech solutions tailored to local businesses, shaping a dynamic digital future in engaging, bite-sized episodes.
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S1 (00:05):
Welcome to another episode of the Lifting the Lid podcast,
brought to you by Soft Source V bridge, where we
talk about all things technology, innovation and insight. I'm Barry White,
your host and CIO here at Soft Source V bridge.
In this episode, I'm joined by Pablo Garcia Curtis, group
CEO here at Soft Source V bridge. Today we'll talk
(00:26):
about our history with Hewlett Packard and the journey we
have made together over the years. Dive into the latest
with HPE Greenlake and how this technology is transforming the
digital landscape right here in New Zealand. Well, Pablo, welcome
to the podcast. Uh, thanks for coming on today.
S2 (00:44):
Thanks, Barry. And it's great to be here.
S1 (00:46):
I know you've just got back from the US, and, uh,
I'm really keen to have a talk to you about
your trip. And I know you appeared on the big
stage with HPE at the Discover More conference in Las Vegas,
but before we kind of dig into that, maybe you
could talk a little bit about your role at Soft
Source V bridge? I mean, it's been what, over 19
years now, which by anybody's standards is a long time
(01:08):
in this industry. And you would have seen a lot
of changes in that time and not only to this business,
but of course to the industry. And I guess HP
have been a big part of that. Tell us a
little bit about that history and about your time with
Celsius Bridge.
S2 (01:20):
Yeah, it's been certainly a wonderful journey. Previously I've been
in the industry pretty close to nearly 28 years or so,
so it's been super exciting to get through different technologies.
But also there's been a constant around some of the
key partners that deliver that technology to all our customers
across New Zealand, and certainly HP originally. And then when
they split to HPE, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. Now, they certainly been
(01:44):
a massive partner for us over the years and one
that's been, um, a true ecosystem. So there's been a
win win, as I would call them, I suppose for
our listeners benefit of our listeners, it's been a partnership
that we were seen as early adopters of technology. And
I suppose that's what's been building the relationship, not just
in New Zealand, but in around Asia Pacific, but more importantly,
(02:07):
obviously globally now, because we were picked up their technologies
and made them to key solutions that make actually sense
for our customers. You know, we were one of the
first ones to look at the three. Com networking piece
when they acquired that many, many years ago and build
data centers around those cores. We were the first three
Pas to partner in Asia Pacific to pick up that
new technology and drive it as a infrastructure, as a
(02:29):
service platform. And we were the first Aruba MSP, or
managed service provider in New Zealand, delivering slightly different solutions
to customers that could take advantage of the, I suppose,
commercial models that we had come across. So the relationship
has expanded for many, many years and it's been exciting
to see it grow and change, but without changing the focus.
(02:52):
The focus has always been about how do we help
our customers get the best technology, the right commercial price,
and then all the support that goes around it, delivering
some great managed services.
S1 (03:02):
So that technology. And you touched on the three par,
which I know from an adoption point of view, it
really formed a key part of the sort of data
center infrastructure for self-service leverage, didn't it? Right. Right at
the beginning.
S2 (03:14):
Yeah, it certainly was. And it was something that gave
a differentiator in the market, the speeds and the ability
of having a workload back then. And ten minutes was
a huge change as we adopted the new cloud technology. Now,
of course, it's standard and something that we've seen. But
back then, gosh, we're talking about 15 odd years ago.
It was a big, big change in the way we
(03:36):
do it. And we're continually looking at new technologies and
how do we modernise and so on. And clearly the
partnership and obviously now bringing all the technology that Veeva
had into the fold was something that, again, revolutionized and
took the platform to a next level from a world class.
S1 (03:52):
So we kind of bring it back into the sort
of context of today. And I guess what's coming down
the line as well. But a lot of our clients
probably don't realize, is you really your member of the
advisory board for this, for this region, for for HPE,
and that's a role that you've been involved with for
a number of years now. And it's really through that
role that you were invited to join the main stage
(04:14):
this year at HPE. Discover more in Las Vegas. Tell it,
tell us a bit about how that came about. And
you know, really about your experience over there, because that
was a real honor, I guess, to be be asked
to do that and, uh, and to be able to
speak on behalf of not just hot sauce free bridge,
but really partners in this region.
S2 (04:30):
Yeah. Look, that's, um, something that we take a lot
of pride of, uh, representing all the partners and our customers, uh,
in the global stage, uh, telling the New Zealand story, uh,
telling around the maturity of our market how we adopt the, uh,
sort of those new technologies make them into a true
service that, regardless the size of business in New Zealand,
(04:52):
can adopt and get the best out of it, particularly
around the managed service Provider forum, where we deliver a
value that customers sometimes can't afford or shouldn't invest because
there are better ways of investing their, their capital. Um,
and so through that relationship over the years and understanding
and getting feedback from partners and being able to present
(05:13):
that in the Asia Pacific region, uh, when the Green Lake, uh,
about five years ago, Green Lake came into fruition and
it was Antonio Neri, the CEO of HPE, came on
stage and said, we are going to go consumption model
based when wrap services around with partners to really deliver value,
which was the ideology that soft sauce leverage picked up
(05:35):
probably about 12, 14 years ago. Um, it was great
to see the alignment, which again strengthened the relationship that
we saw that and through that last five year journey
through the greenlake, um, our expertise and what we had
created in New Zealand was really noticeable by the vice
presidents over there, and they understood that actually, um, we
(05:55):
were a great test case. And so through that, there's
been some new programs and pilots, I suppose you call it, uh,
the Partner Vantage program they've launched now, which may not
mean a lot unless you were built into these programs.
It gave us the opportunity to build some pilots and
some new technology into market and to collaboration with HP.
We've achieved that. Um, so being in these now global councils,
(06:19):
taking the story, uh, gave us the opportunity and, uh,
they were really proud of what we've done through the indelible, uh,
our backup and business continuity strategy that we are delivering
in New Zealand market today. Uh, they really wanted to
share that from a global perspective. How do we had
planned it? How do we had the right people delivering
(06:39):
the value back to customers, and how do we commercialize it?
So making sure that regardless of a 50 seat business
all the way to the large enterprise had the same experience,
which is critical to succeed in that place. So that
kind of gave us the platform not only to be
able to share that with the rest of the partner community.
And and they've got a big CEO conference there as well.
(07:02):
So everybody was interested to understand where our growth was coming,
how we were actioning it, but more importantly, how the
customers were adopting it and seeing the success that they
can then build around it. For those who.
S1 (07:15):
Perhaps less familiar with HPE and Greenlake, specifically as a
from a, I guess a strategy point of view, Could
you talk to us a little bit more about what
exactly Green Lake is? And already if we put it
in the context of of how we've taken advantage of that,
and particularly with indelible service, what that really means to
(07:36):
New Zealand customers and I guess some, some of some
of the basics around, well, what is green light and
a little bit more about indelible itself.
S2 (07:43):
Um, I suppose traditionally if I go back and look
at HP, originally we were a company that produced great technology.
Then the partners would adopt that technology and we would
deliver that on premise. Uh, traditionally, um, where customers will
basically capitalised and buy that equipment, and then there will
(08:05):
be potentially other partners like ourselves, help them install it
and then manage it, water it, feed it, and so on.
But that was a huge cost. And we know that
nowadays there's a challenges around cost of cash and cost
of human capital, that businesses need to be smarter on
how we do it. And we suddenly had this revolution,
like I said, a few a decade ago, around the
(08:25):
cloud and so suddenly was, do I need to have
things on premises? And when is it right to have
the things in the hyperscalers that were delivering value outside
in New Zealand. From a New Zealand perspective, we see
a true hybrid where actually there's a combination of the
hyperscalers requirements for the applications that are right and built
(08:45):
for cloud. There are still legacy applications and an end
user experience that needs to be sitting in country, um,
and could be at premises in something like manufacturing that
require something to be very close to, um, the goods
that they're trying to produce. But there's this middle piece,
and that middle piece is where the leverage is always excelled,
(09:07):
is that we can be the aggregator of both, give
the experience of a cloud where it's not on premises,
and they don't have to have the overheads to run
their own data center. But they have partners like ourselves
who run these data centers and have the infrastructure built
to it. And I suppose that was one of the
original concepts that HPE looked at and said, how do
(09:27):
we enable partners to grow and grow at the right
rate with the right investment at the right time? So
it became an annuity or a consumption model. So Greenlake
really originally came out of a finance transactional model, but
now it's grown to incorporate some services, incorporate obviously the
technology that they're using and the support, and that could
(09:49):
be a hybrid. It could be with through partners or
it could be through a global a part of like
HP and the services they provide. So certainly the customer
is getting the best of all worlds. They are keeping
the capital and reinvesting in the business where they can
get better returns. We are fulfilling and helping them grow
at the rate they want to grow by our human
capital and our people. But more importantly, there are platforms
(10:11):
that sit right for the application and the experience that require,
on top of that, the greenlake piece. And I suppose
the big differentiator is the partners locally can then do
the governance and compliance and the cyber security that comes
for customers. You know, we're seeing a huge, um, request
for customers to make sure they understand what's the most
(10:32):
important IP in the business and the data they have now,
as we're seeing new trends of technology coming with AI,
how do they make that from a local perspective under
local governance and drive the efficiencies they want into the business.
So Greenlake is an umbrella that allows them to, uh,
procure and consumption based model the right technology at the
(10:54):
right place, uh, with the key partnerships that give them, uh,
like services provided to all our customers.
S1 (11:02):
Do you think we're coming off a bit of a
bell curve now with the public cloud? You know, we've seen,
you know, with a whole bunch of different things such as,
you know, the pandemic and, and other world affairs where
we we had a race a few years ago for
the public cloud. But now, particularly on with the evolution
of AI, businesses are looking at their data more critically,
particularly through the lens of security and compliance. And, as
(11:24):
you say, looking at those workloads and saying, well, really,
you know, it's not appropriate to put that type of
data in the public cloud infrastructure. So we're starting to
see a lot of rationalization around that. And so really
this whole concept of true hybrid has really start to
come into its own now. Do you think that's a
sort of a bell curve we're sort of coming into now.
And it's sort of leveling out. And and hybrid cloud
(11:47):
really is becoming the way of the future as opposed to,
you know, what was 4 or 5 years ago. Everybody
was obsessed with being in the public cloud, right?
S2 (11:54):
The way I would frame it, Barry, is we were
in a cloud first adoption. So everything we thought had
to be in the cloud. I think the market's matured,
the market's understood a lot better and got educated on
actually what is it that I'm trying to do and
therefore what's the experience I'm going to get. And I
think also our market in New Zealand, we all have
(12:17):
matured a lot more and have delivered a huge range
of products that now customers say, well, actually the experience
is very similar. We move from a cloud first mentality
to a cloud economics now. And so now we're looking
at the volumes of data that we are working with.
We are looking in more particularly as where's the investment
(12:39):
and the return that I'm getting, how am I controlling
and what's the governance around that piece. And so customers
now are looking and saying, well, actually I don't need
to have all the eggs in one basket anymore. I
can then look and see what is it that I
need to that I see as the key IP in
the organization. You know, I always have the great conversation
(12:59):
and saying, what are you going to ensure if you
had to ensure something in the business, what is it?
And after a few questions and qualifications, you end and
understand the data they have and the and the insight
of the business is critical. So sometimes we find that
that it's the first thing they want to have a
little bit more local. They want that ability to understand
that if something is not quite right, they have the
(13:20):
support structure and the ecosystem around them to actually be
able to deliver that very, very quickly. And so there
is certainly where you talk about Bell Curve. I would
say there's certainly a requirement and need to have the
hyperscalers and what they can provide for some services, without
a doubt. No one's going to deny that. 365 is
a very good example. There's no point of anymore having
(13:43):
email in in that location in house. But certainly there's
applications in the core of the business. There are opportunities
to have that certainly in country. And we talked about
the governance piece already, and it's actually the support that
is becoming more critical for customers. They always everybody's feeling
the pinch and being doing more with less. Uh, we
(14:05):
understand that sometimes headcounts are not available, but actually also
the skill sets. Not so you.
S1 (14:09):
Used the word local there. Um, from your experience working
on the advisory board and your experience and your travels
and speaking at the HPE discover event in Las Vegas,
what are the what are the things that you're learning
that make this market unique? What are the what are
the things that are unique to New Zealand businesses that, um,
perhaps have formed an important part of your conversations with HPE? Um,
(14:34):
and talking about how you deliver solutions to our customers.
S2 (14:37):
We have a rate of an early adoption rate in
the country, which is phenomenal compared to the rest of
the world. You know, if you compare to parts of
Asia and certainly parts of Europe, even in the United States,
some of the conversations we are having now, they won't
have it till another three years time. So that was
the real interest for them going, you know why? How
(14:59):
you made it work. You know, we're struggling in other
parts of the world to deliver the similar messaging. And
why is it now There's several things. One is geographically,
we are we have to compete to the rest of
the world. So we want to stay ahead. So using
technology as one way of achieving that. And then, you know,
that's certainly one advantage that we have the number eight
wire mentality. And I think that's one of the great
(15:21):
things that sources of leverage have built the reputation of
the market for. It's around that guidance, that strategy and
that partnership. You know, if we take those three key
pillars and when you think about when we go and
connect with our customers and understand the businesses, how do
we help them grow at a rate that is the
right thing. So we sort of take that risk. We
(15:43):
trial these new technologies, we put solutions in play that
are really accessible for customers to grow and adopt. And
I think that's the key area, because then they can
build their own IP over the top and have that
differentiator in the market and the verticals they excel. And
if some of the and we're seeing more and more
companies take then advantage of our global reach and then
(16:07):
start expanding and growing their businesses and take the IP
they have overseas. And so, you know, that's something that
gives me great pride that in some small way we're
helping the New Zealand GDP to grow by delivering great
technologies at the right price and, more importantly, at the
right time for them to excel.
S1 (16:28):
So, Pablo, just to finish up, you know, in terms
of some of this innovation that we're seeing with customers
and and given the focus around AI today, what are
some of the conversations that you're having with customers and
how do you relate that to this technology and Greenlake
in particular? How can that help these businesses to develop
some of this IP, as you say, and deliver it
to their their customers, not just here in New Zealand
(16:50):
but internationally?
S2 (16:50):
The key, I suppose, is that we AI is a
fantastic enabler and we're starting to see a lot of
gains around, particularly productivity gains inside organisations. The key is
you have to have the house in order. Is your
data right for AI? You know, garbage in, garbage out.
That will always work that way. So the structure and this,
(17:13):
you know, if we talk about language models, in particular
large language models, um, how do you able to true up.
And what I mean by that is accelerate use that
language model that you can create, uh, get the information
you need to make the right decisions and then reduce
that cost to You need it. Do it again and again.
(17:34):
We're using GPU as a service, as a platform to
accelerate customers, to have ability to investigate, play with it,
understand the capabilities they have before they make some huge
commitments and grow it. You know, these new technologies are
certainly coming to a cost, but the output and the
outcomes you can get are huge. So we are on
a I'm going to call it a transition period. We
(17:58):
need to understand how our data is structured, what can
we do with it, and then what is the benefits
we want to see. And I think people think that
AI you can turn it on and it's going to work.
There is a huge amount of work that requires to
be done. And so I think the early adopters traditional
bell curve, the 17% of early adopters are certainly playing
(18:19):
with some kind of AI today. Um, 365 and Microsoft
done a great job around Copilot about delivering some messaging
to it, but customers need to understand the value they're
going to get out of that. And so the investment
they're making is going to be beneficial if they've done
the pre-work. And then from there, look, there is going
to be some huge changes in some industries around that.
(18:41):
And I'm excited about it. But it comes around back
to those core pillars. You've got to have some clear guidance.
You're going to have a very clear strategy and a
strong partnership. Customers should not try and do this on
their own. If they do, they have to have a
huge investment. And when we look at New Zealand standard
sizes and mid-market or the enterprise, the partnering piece, it
(19:04):
becomes critical. And so I think there's excitement around what
we can deliver for customers, But more importantly, it's how
can they structure in a sizes of New Zealand? We
can model that very, very quickly.
S1 (19:15):
Look, thanks very much for coming on today. I think
it's been fantastic to hear you tell the story and
and tell it as only you can. And, um, I know,
as you say, it's a very exciting time to be
in the industry right now. And I think, you know,
very exciting to be involved in the technology and particularly
the relationship with HPE. And yeah, thank thanks again.
S2 (19:33):
It's a pleasure, Barry. And it's a great to catch
up and hopefully everybody's excited as I am. There's a
bright future in industry and I look forward to seeing
how it progresses. Thank you very much for having me.
S1 (19:52):
Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Soft
Source V Bridge Lifting the Lid podcast series. We hope
you enjoyed uncovering the latest tech insights and stories of
growth with us. Look out for our next podcast where
we continue to lift the lid on technology. I'm Barry
White signing off. Until next time. Keep exploring, keep innovating
(20:12):
and keep lifting that lid.
Welcome to another episode of the Lifting the Lid podcast,
brought to you by Soft Source V bridge, where we
talk about all things technology, innovation and insight. I'm Barry White,
your host and CIO here at Soft Source V bridge.
In this episode, I'm joined by Pablo Garcia Curtis, group
CEO here at Soft Source V bridge. Today we'll talk
(00:26):
about our history with Hewlett Packard and the journey we
have made together over the years. Dive into the latest
with HPE Greenlake and how this technology is transforming the
digital landscape right here in New Zealand. Well, Pablo, welcome
to the podcast. Uh, thanks for coming on today.
S2 (00:44):
Thanks, Barry. And it's great to be here.
S1 (00:46):
I know you've just got back from the US, and, uh,
I'm really keen to have a talk to you about
your trip. And I know you appeared on the big
stage with HPE at the Discover More conference in Las Vegas,
but before we kind of dig into that, maybe you
could talk a little bit about your role at Soft
Source V bridge? I mean, it's been what, over 19
years now, which by anybody's standards is a long time
(01:08):
in this industry. And you would have seen a lot
of changes in that time and not only to this business,
but of course to the industry. And I guess HP
have been a big part of that. Tell us a
little bit about that history and about your time with
Celsius Bridge.
S2 (01:20):
Yeah, it's been certainly a wonderful journey. Previously I've been
in the industry pretty close to nearly 28 years or so,
so it's been super exciting to get through different technologies.
But also there's been a constant around some of the
key partners that deliver that technology to all our customers
across New Zealand, and certainly HP originally. And then when
they split to HPE, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. Now, they certainly been
(01:44):
a massive partner for us over the years and one
that's been, um, a true ecosystem. So there's been a
win win, as I would call them, I suppose for
our listeners benefit of our listeners, it's been a partnership
that we were seen as early adopters of technology. And
I suppose that's what's been building the relationship, not just
in New Zealand, but in around Asia Pacific, but more importantly,
(02:07):
obviously globally now, because we were picked up their technologies
and made them to key solutions that make actually sense
for our customers. You know, we were one of the
first ones to look at the three. Com networking piece
when they acquired that many, many years ago and build
data centers around those cores. We were the first three
Pas to partner in Asia Pacific to pick up that
new technology and drive it as a infrastructure, as a
(02:29):
service platform. And we were the first Aruba MSP, or
managed service provider in New Zealand, delivering slightly different solutions
to customers that could take advantage of the, I suppose,
commercial models that we had come across. So the relationship
has expanded for many, many years and it's been exciting
to see it grow and change, but without changing the focus.
(02:52):
The focus has always been about how do we help
our customers get the best technology, the right commercial price,
and then all the support that goes around it, delivering
some great managed services.
S1 (03:02):
So that technology. And you touched on the three par,
which I know from an adoption point of view, it
really formed a key part of the sort of data
center infrastructure for self-service leverage, didn't it? Right. Right at
the beginning.
S2 (03:14):
Yeah, it certainly was. And it was something that gave
a differentiator in the market, the speeds and the ability
of having a workload back then. And ten minutes was
a huge change as we adopted the new cloud technology. Now,
of course, it's standard and something that we've seen. But
back then, gosh, we're talking about 15 odd years ago.
It was a big, big change in the way we
(03:36):
do it. And we're continually looking at new technologies and
how do we modernise and so on. And clearly the
partnership and obviously now bringing all the technology that Veeva
had into the fold was something that, again, revolutionized and
took the platform to a next level from a world class.
S1 (03:52):
So we kind of bring it back into the sort
of context of today. And I guess what's coming down
the line as well. But a lot of our clients
probably don't realize, is you really your member of the
advisory board for this, for this region, for for HPE,
and that's a role that you've been involved with for
a number of years now. And it's really through that
role that you were invited to join the main stage
(04:14):
this year at HPE. Discover more in Las Vegas. Tell it,
tell us a bit about how that came about. And
you know, really about your experience over there, because that
was a real honor, I guess, to be be asked
to do that and, uh, and to be able to
speak on behalf of not just hot sauce free bridge,
but really partners in this region.
S2 (04:30):
Yeah. Look, that's, um, something that we take a lot
of pride of, uh, representing all the partners and our customers, uh,
in the global stage, uh, telling the New Zealand story, uh,
telling around the maturity of our market how we adopt the, uh,
sort of those new technologies make them into a true
service that, regardless the size of business in New Zealand,
(04:52):
can adopt and get the best out of it, particularly
around the managed service Provider forum, where we deliver a
value that customers sometimes can't afford or shouldn't invest because
there are better ways of investing their, their capital. Um,
and so through that relationship over the years and understanding
and getting feedback from partners and being able to present
(05:13):
that in the Asia Pacific region, uh, when the Green Lake, uh,
about five years ago, Green Lake came into fruition and
it was Antonio Neri, the CEO of HPE, came on
stage and said, we are going to go consumption model
based when wrap services around with partners to really deliver value,
which was the ideology that soft sauce leverage picked up
(05:35):
probably about 12, 14 years ago. Um, it was great
to see the alignment, which again strengthened the relationship that
we saw that and through that last five year journey
through the greenlake, um, our expertise and what we had
created in New Zealand was really noticeable by the vice
presidents over there, and they understood that actually, um, we
(05:55):
were a great test case. And so through that, there's
been some new programs and pilots, I suppose you call it, uh,
the Partner Vantage program they've launched now, which may not
mean a lot unless you were built into these programs.
It gave us the opportunity to build some pilots and
some new technology into market and to collaboration with HP.
We've achieved that. Um, so being in these now global councils,
(06:19):
taking the story, uh, gave us the opportunity and, uh,
they were really proud of what we've done through the indelible, uh,
our backup and business continuity strategy that we are delivering
in New Zealand market today. Uh, they really wanted to
share that from a global perspective. How do we had
planned it? How do we had the right people delivering
(06:39):
the value back to customers, and how do we commercialize it?
So making sure that regardless of a 50 seat business
all the way to the large enterprise had the same experience,
which is critical to succeed in that place. So that
kind of gave us the platform not only to be
able to share that with the rest of the partner community.
And and they've got a big CEO conference there as well.
(07:02):
So everybody was interested to understand where our growth was coming,
how we were actioning it, but more importantly, how the
customers were adopting it and seeing the success that they
can then build around it. For those who.
S1 (07:15):
Perhaps less familiar with HPE and Greenlake, specifically as a
from a, I guess a strategy point of view, Could
you talk to us a little bit more about what
exactly Green Lake is? And already if we put it
in the context of of how we've taken advantage of that,
and particularly with indelible service, what that really means to
(07:36):
New Zealand customers and I guess some, some of some
of the basics around, well, what is green light and
a little bit more about indelible itself.
S2 (07:43):
Um, I suppose traditionally if I go back and look
at HP, originally we were a company that produced great technology.
Then the partners would adopt that technology and we would
deliver that on premise. Uh, traditionally, um, where customers will
basically capitalised and buy that equipment, and then there will
(08:05):
be potentially other partners like ourselves, help them install it
and then manage it, water it, feed it, and so on.
But that was a huge cost. And we know that
nowadays there's a challenges around cost of cash and cost
of human capital, that businesses need to be smarter on
how we do it. And we suddenly had this revolution,
like I said, a few a decade ago, around the
(08:25):
cloud and so suddenly was, do I need to have
things on premises? And when is it right to have
the things in the hyperscalers that were delivering value outside
in New Zealand. From a New Zealand perspective, we see
a true hybrid where actually there's a combination of the
hyperscalers requirements for the applications that are right and built
(08:45):
for cloud. There are still legacy applications and an end
user experience that needs to be sitting in country, um,
and could be at premises in something like manufacturing that
require something to be very close to, um, the goods
that they're trying to produce. But there's this middle piece,
and that middle piece is where the leverage is always excelled,
(09:07):
is that we can be the aggregator of both, give
the experience of a cloud where it's not on premises,
and they don't have to have the overheads to run
their own data center. But they have partners like ourselves
who run these data centers and have the infrastructure built
to it. And I suppose that was one of the
original concepts that HPE looked at and said, how do
(09:27):
we enable partners to grow and grow at the right
rate with the right investment at the right time? So
it became an annuity or a consumption model. So Greenlake
really originally came out of a finance transactional model, but
now it's grown to incorporate some services, incorporate obviously the
technology that they're using and the support, and that could
(09:49):
be a hybrid. It could be with through partners or
it could be through a global a part of like
HP and the services they provide. So certainly the customer
is getting the best of all worlds. They are keeping
the capital and reinvesting in the business where they can
get better returns. We are fulfilling and helping them grow
at the rate they want to grow by our human
capital and our people. But more importantly, there are platforms
(10:11):
that sit right for the application and the experience that require,
on top of that, the greenlake piece. And I suppose
the big differentiator is the partners locally can then do
the governance and compliance and the cyber security that comes
for customers. You know, we're seeing a huge, um, request
for customers to make sure they understand what's the most
(10:32):
important IP in the business and the data they have now,
as we're seeing new trends of technology coming with AI,
how do they make that from a local perspective under
local governance and drive the efficiencies they want into the business.
So Greenlake is an umbrella that allows them to, uh,
procure and consumption based model the right technology at the
(10:54):
right place, uh, with the key partnerships that give them, uh,
like services provided to all our customers.
S1 (11:02):
Do you think we're coming off a bit of a
bell curve now with the public cloud? You know, we've seen,
you know, with a whole bunch of different things such as,
you know, the pandemic and, and other world affairs where
we we had a race a few years ago for
the public cloud. But now, particularly on with the evolution
of AI, businesses are looking at their data more critically,
particularly through the lens of security and compliance. And, as
(11:24):
you say, looking at those workloads and saying, well, really,
you know, it's not appropriate to put that type of
data in the public cloud infrastructure. So we're starting to
see a lot of rationalization around that. And so really
this whole concept of true hybrid has really start to
come into its own now. Do you think that's a
sort of a bell curve we're sort of coming into now.
And it's sort of leveling out. And and hybrid cloud
(11:47):
really is becoming the way of the future as opposed to,
you know, what was 4 or 5 years ago. Everybody
was obsessed with being in the public cloud, right?
S2 (11:54):
The way I would frame it, Barry, is we were
in a cloud first adoption. So everything we thought had
to be in the cloud. I think the market's matured,
the market's understood a lot better and got educated on
actually what is it that I'm trying to do and
therefore what's the experience I'm going to get. And I
think also our market in New Zealand, we all have
(12:17):
matured a lot more and have delivered a huge range
of products that now customers say, well, actually the experience
is very similar. We move from a cloud first mentality
to a cloud economics now. And so now we're looking
at the volumes of data that we are working with.
We are looking in more particularly as where's the investment
(12:39):
and the return that I'm getting, how am I controlling
and what's the governance around that piece. And so customers
now are looking and saying, well, actually I don't need
to have all the eggs in one basket anymore. I
can then look and see what is it that I
need to that I see as the key IP in
the organization. You know, I always have the great conversation
(12:59):
and saying, what are you going to ensure if you
had to ensure something in the business, what is it?
And after a few questions and qualifications, you end and
understand the data they have and the and the insight
of the business is critical. So sometimes we find that
that it's the first thing they want to have a
little bit more local. They want that ability to understand
that if something is not quite right, they have the
(13:20):
support structure and the ecosystem around them to actually be
able to deliver that very, very quickly. And so there
is certainly where you talk about Bell Curve. I would
say there's certainly a requirement and need to have the
hyperscalers and what they can provide for some services, without
a doubt. No one's going to deny that. 365 is
a very good example. There's no point of anymore having
(13:43):
email in in that location in house. But certainly there's
applications in the core of the business. There are opportunities
to have that certainly in country. And we talked about
the governance piece already, and it's actually the support that
is becoming more critical for customers. They always everybody's feeling
the pinch and being doing more with less. Uh, we
(14:05):
understand that sometimes headcounts are not available, but actually also
the skill sets. Not so you.
S1 (14:09):
Used the word local there. Um, from your experience working
on the advisory board and your experience and your travels
and speaking at the HPE discover event in Las Vegas,
what are the what are the things that you're learning
that make this market unique? What are the what are
the things that are unique to New Zealand businesses that, um,
perhaps have formed an important part of your conversations with HPE? Um,
(14:34):
and talking about how you deliver solutions to our customers.
S2 (14:37):
We have a rate of an early adoption rate in
the country, which is phenomenal compared to the rest of
the world. You know, if you compare to parts of
Asia and certainly parts of Europe, even in the United States,
some of the conversations we are having now, they won't
have it till another three years time. So that was
the real interest for them going, you know why? How
(14:59):
you made it work. You know, we're struggling in other
parts of the world to deliver the similar messaging. And
why is it now There's several things. One is geographically,
we are we have to compete to the rest of
the world. So we want to stay ahead. So using
technology as one way of achieving that. And then, you know,
that's certainly one advantage that we have the number eight
wire mentality. And I think that's one of the great
(15:21):
things that sources of leverage have built the reputation of
the market for. It's around that guidance, that strategy and
that partnership. You know, if we take those three key
pillars and when you think about when we go and
connect with our customers and understand the businesses, how do
we help them grow at a rate that is the
right thing. So we sort of take that risk. We
(15:43):
trial these new technologies, we put solutions in play that
are really accessible for customers to grow and adopt. And
I think that's the key area, because then they can
build their own IP over the top and have that
differentiator in the market and the verticals they excel. And
if some of the and we're seeing more and more
companies take then advantage of our global reach and then
(16:07):
start expanding and growing their businesses and take the IP
they have overseas. And so, you know, that's something that
gives me great pride that in some small way we're
helping the New Zealand GDP to grow by delivering great
technologies at the right price and, more importantly, at the
right time for them to excel.
S1 (16:28):
So, Pablo, just to finish up, you know, in terms
of some of this innovation that we're seeing with customers
and and given the focus around AI today, what are
some of the conversations that you're having with customers and
how do you relate that to this technology and Greenlake
in particular? How can that help these businesses to develop
some of this IP, as you say, and deliver it
to their their customers, not just here in New Zealand
(16:50):
but internationally?
S2 (16:50):
The key, I suppose, is that we AI is a
fantastic enabler and we're starting to see a lot of
gains around, particularly productivity gains inside organisations. The key is
you have to have the house in order. Is your
data right for AI? You know, garbage in, garbage out.
That will always work that way. So the structure and this,
(17:13):
you know, if we talk about language models, in particular
large language models, um, how do you able to true up.
And what I mean by that is accelerate use that
language model that you can create, uh, get the information
you need to make the right decisions and then reduce
that cost to You need it. Do it again and again.
(17:34):
We're using GPU as a service, as a platform to
accelerate customers, to have ability to investigate, play with it,
understand the capabilities they have before they make some huge
commitments and grow it. You know, these new technologies are
certainly coming to a cost, but the output and the
outcomes you can get are huge. So we are on
a I'm going to call it a transition period. We
(17:58):
need to understand how our data is structured, what can
we do with it, and then what is the benefits
we want to see. And I think people think that
AI you can turn it on and it's going to work.
There is a huge amount of work that requires to
be done. And so I think the early adopters traditional
bell curve, the 17% of early adopters are certainly playing
(18:19):
with some kind of AI today. Um, 365 and Microsoft
done a great job around Copilot about delivering some messaging
to it, but customers need to understand the value they're
going to get out of that. And so the investment
they're making is going to be beneficial if they've done
the pre-work. And then from there, look, there is going
to be some huge changes in some industries around that.
(18:41):
And I'm excited about it. But it comes around back
to those core pillars. You've got to have some clear guidance.
You're going to have a very clear strategy and a
strong partnership. Customers should not try and do this on
their own. If they do, they have to have a
huge investment. And when we look at New Zealand standard
sizes and mid-market or the enterprise, the partnering piece, it
(19:04):
becomes critical. And so I think there's excitement around what
we can deliver for customers, But more importantly, it's how
can they structure in a sizes of New Zealand? We
can model that very, very quickly.
S1 (19:15):
Look, thanks very much for coming on today. I think
it's been fantastic to hear you tell the story and
and tell it as only you can. And, um, I know,
as you say, it's a very exciting time to be
in the industry right now. And I think, you know,
very exciting to be involved in the technology and particularly
the relationship with HPE. And yeah, thank thanks again.
S2 (19:33):
It's a pleasure, Barry. And it's a great to catch
up and hopefully everybody's excited as I am. There's a
bright future in industry and I look forward to seeing
how it progresses. Thank you very much for having me.
S1 (19:52):
Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Soft
Source V Bridge Lifting the Lid podcast series. We hope
you enjoyed uncovering the latest tech insights and stories of
growth with us. Look out for our next podcast where
we continue to lift the lid on technology. I'm Barry
White signing off. Until next time. Keep exploring, keep innovating
(20:12):
and keep lifting that lid.
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