Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

This episode is brought to you by Oracle.

Sponsored Content

For this sponsored Cloud Wars Live conversation, I spoke with Steve Daheb, Senior Vice President, Oracle Cloud. He starts with the Autonomous Database. Steve says quarter by quarter it’s growing by 100% and thousands of customers are running on it. It eliminates human error and it’s self-driving, self-securing, and self-repairing.

Steve says with machine learning and other technologies, you don’t need a room full of PhDs to figure it out. Oracle has done the hard work for you so you can focus on what matters most for your company.

He says it’s all about the perimeter and protecting the network. But he says users are the new perimeter and 70% of breaches are still happening internally to a company, and if that data isn’t encrypted – which was the case with one financial institution – you can lose a hundred million records because of internal malpractice. Steve says these breaches wouldn’t have happened on Oracle’s watch: they would have been self-patched.

He goes on to say Oracle’s adding a new data center every day. In the last six months, it’s been Seoul, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Zurich, Sydney and three DOD data center regions.

Steve talks about how Oracle Cloud’s ERP is used by some of the biggest companies in the world – like Biogen, Cisco, MGM, Walgreens, and Swiss Post. They are all companies that are using Autonomous and Gen 2 together. He says it’s exciting to go into 2020 with this head of steam around Autonomous – and Steve Miranda, who is executive vice president, applications development – is leading the charge.

This episode is brought to you by Oracle.

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Each month, Tony Uphoff, visionary CEO of Thomasnet.com, joins Cloud Wars Live for a recurring segment. “Uphoff on Industry” will explore the innovations, upheavals, and breakthroughs reshaping the world of manufacturing and industrial markets. Join Tony and me as we discuss disruptive new trends in the digital-industrial world. These include how we design, source and manufacture products. And also the new ways in which industrial companies are getting up to speed on marketing, sales and customer experience.

Episode 9

In this episode: Tony and I begin by discussing our recent experience at Carnegie Mellon University. Our Digital All-Star Sean Ammirati, who founded the Corporate Startup Lab, invited us to participate in a day-long event that touched on Disney+, the industrial IoT, data silos, and a host of other topics.

Tony was with a company called Rodon, and they were launching a new product called “SillDry.” It’s for a commercial building where if you’re putting in windows you can make sure they stay dry. They built a rubber unit that goes into the application, and it fits in cleanly and easily.

Later, he says he implemented the Harvard strategy of “Jobs to be Done” as a research methodology and formalized process. He says it was exhaustive, and Thomas did five-hundred 90-minute interviews. But, he says, the qualitative analysis is helping ThomasNet put the data into perspective, so they can see the patterns a little better.

Tony talks about how workers on the factory floor are looking at real-time data and are better able to make decisions. They’re looking at customer orders, customer needs, and how many orders are shipping and where they’re being shipped. Everyone knows what’s going on.

Finally, he says we don’t need managers – we need leaders.

You can see the Thomas Industry Update podcast on every major platform – and on Thomasnet.com.

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Each month, “Lochhead on Different” episodes will explore the need to differentiate people, products, and services in a world that encourages a lot of imitation. A best-selling author, top podcaster, and former tech-industry CMO, Christopher Lochhead is a student of not only business and technology and marketing but also human nature, human folly, human genius, and very human joy.

Episode 8

In this episode, Chris agrees with me that “Data is the new oil” is stupid. He says data is more valuable than cash. Data can be converted into value in more and powerful ways than cash. He goes on to say that cyberbullying is an epidemic, and that people of all ages are committing suicide as a result.

According to IDC, Chris says, there’s going to be a 10X increase in the amount of data on planet earth –163 zettabytes. And according to Statistica, the average person – adults and children – will interact with a connected device nearly 4,800 times a day! Also according to Statistica, the Internet of Things will have 75.5 billion connected devices by 2025.

Chris says there’s a company called DribbleUp, and they have created a “smart basketball," which tracks things and gives data back to your phone – and presents you with different and more effective ways of training and using the ball.

Chris says there’s a term going around called, the “data flywheel.” Simply stated, the company that has the most data around who their customers are and what customers are purchasing. Chris and his partner Eddie Yoon co-authored a Harvard Business Review article that said the company with the fastest growing data flywheel is most likely the one who is going to be able to dominate that category, because their lead will soon be insurmountable.

He says many concert tickets get sold on the secondary market – and are essentially digitally scalped. So Adele said on her recent tour, ”If we don’t solve this problem, somehow only the people who are in the audience are a bunch of rich people. I want to perform for my most enthusiastic fans – some might be rich, but others aren’t. So how do I allocate the tickets?” The solution was an algorithm. It was effective in getting tickets into the hands of fans who actually wanted to come – and that is an example of a data flywheel.

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“Sadin on Digital” episodes explore the fast-changing and high-stakes world of digital business. Wayne Sadin and I focus in particular on what CEOs and boards must do to lead their companies successfully into the Digital Age. Today, we explore how business leaders should hire CIOs. Because the industry is changing, and the role needs to change along with it.

Episode 9

In this episode, Wayne and I talk about how his Christmas present this year to his clients and potential clients is about what to think about next year. He says that all technology is not good technology – and it’s sometimes hard to tell the wheat from the chaff.

He says there are too many things in the market called Fake Cloud. They sound like Cloud, they look like Cloud, but they just add to complexity and cost. And there’s a balloon payment due in the form of ransomware that holds your data for hostage.

I tell him that this week Cloud Wars named Thomas Kurian the Cloud Wars CEO of the Year. Wayne says he put Google into the business of supplying Cloud to enterprises – and he says it’s a terrific choice for those of us that see Cloud as a place to put mature workloads.

Wayne says everybody who has done a big ERP knows that if you’re not ready for a seven, eight, nine-figure investment, take a look at something else. He says technical debt comes in because clients don’t realize that every year they have to keep spending that. And by moving to SaaS, hyperscale Cloud, and modern ERP they can buy the product, pay their monthly fee, upgrade it maintain it – and not create technical debt.

Wayne says blockchain is a solution in search of a problem. He says every problem that’s been brought to him he found a cheaper, simpler, easier way to solve it. Also, he says 5G will one day be a terrific product, but it’s just not ready yet.

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Thomas Kurian has been CEO of Google Cloud just one year, and in that time he has transformed the organization.

Thomas says Google started the year by focusing on changing to organization to be more customer-centric, and enabling the customer journey. He goes on to say if you’re talking to a financial institution, are there better solutions to do fraud detection, anti-money laundering? If you talk to logistics and manufacturing companies, how can I optimize the location of my fleet? How can I save money doing that better? How can I do scheduling better?

He says everybody wants to create that magic moment with a customer.

Thomas says there’s a scarcity of talent in AI and machine learning – at least people that do it well. He says Google’s approach has been to create a solution that helps people fundamentally improve the experience that their consumers have when they call the contact center – without having an army of people and expertise themselves. He says Google wants to enable organizations to be bold and brave – and don’t feel afraid of embracing technology.

Thomas says there are different kinds of partners that customers have needs for – not just distributors and resellers, but system integrators, solution partners, and managed services companies. And he says they’ve really been pleased with the growth in the partner community.

Thomas says Google has had customers tell us, “Hey, I've been told it'll take me 10 years to re-optimize my supply chain infrastructure – and what you guys delivered for me in four months is improving my inventory turns and my supply chain efficiency by 10 times.”

Finally, Thomas compares this to running a marathon. He says there’s a great runner called Eliud Kipchoge who ran a marathon in two hours – something that people never thought possible. He says you have to be patient, but you have to have a sense of urgency – and the people who work at Google do both.

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Each month, “Ammirati on Innovation” episodes will look at ways that the disruptive-startup mentality is spreading beyond young entrepreneurs to big established corporations. Serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist and Carnegie Mellon B-school professor Sean Ammirati, who sits at the intersection of these high-change dynamics, provides insight.

Episode 8

In this episode, Sean and I discuss how Disney+ had over 10 million people signed up in 24 hours – and they’re registering 1.2 million downloads a day on the app. He says his wife was one of the 10 million people who signed up for Disney+. And because he has two kids he says you need food, water, and Mickey Mouse.

I told him about a guy who used to work for Oracle who said to Larry Ellison, “Hey Larry, we’re doing a lot of stuff here at Yahoo and we got a call from some people at Disney. And they asked if maybe we could discuss the opportunity of doing some things together. I don't know, what should we tell them?” Larry said, “Let’s see, they have the greatest movies in the world, they have theme parks, hundreds of millions of fans around the world, an incredible brand, loyal employees. You know, all these assets you’d die for. What does Yahoo have? Free news and email.”

Sean says SAP is reimagining HR the transition from HCM to HXM – in other words, employees first. He says SAP is creating a whole new category, and he thinks that’s not going to be the last thing you’re going to see coming out of SAP.

Salesforce and Microsoft were in a bidding war for LinkedIn, and Sean says what felt expensive for LinkedIn now feels awfully cheap with the HCM space heating up.

Sean circles back to Disney+ and says the CEO of Netflix should figure out what to do to level the playing field. He says that his currency is down in the last six months, and he has less currency to deals than he did six months ago. Sean knows the history of AOL and TimeWarner. He says the world has changed and you need to scale to play in the game that Netflix and Disney+ a playing out today.

The Agile Giants podcast is on all the major platforms.

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Each month, Tony Uphoff, visionary CEO of Thomasnet.com, joins Cloud Wars Live for a recurring segment. “Uphoff on Industry” will explore the innovations, upheavals, and breakthroughs reshaping the the world of manufacturing and industrial markets. Join Tony and me as we discuss disruptive new trends in the digital-industrial world. These include how we design, source and manufacture products. And also the new ways in which industrial companies are getting up to speed on marketing, sales and customer experience.

Episode 8

In this episode, Tony and I begin with his podcasts, which are available at the Thomas Industry Update and on every major platform such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc. Karen Norheim was on Episode 3. She is president and COO of American Crane & Equipment Corporation and Tony said she is doing some really innovative things.

He says tariffs are constantly in the headlines, and you can’t predict the impact – we don’t know what’s going to happen. He suggests that companies are identifying localized supply chains as their backup – if not their primary.

Tony says upwards of 75% of trading relationships are paid via a traditional purchase order or traditional check, rather than e-invoicing or electronic payments – which seems astounding to him.

He goes on to say that, “Boy I outsourced my manufacturing to Vietnam.” If you own the supply chain, he says, you know how long it takes to ship it back – and the loss or breakage along the way.

Tony says companies now have dashboards up in a centralized service area, and they will have a physical camera showing all the different components of their supply chain – so if anything were to happen, they can move in real-time.

Tony says he gets several emails every day saying, “I stumbled across your profile, and I thought we should connect.” He imagines that if you’re an industry tradeshow and you see the CEO of a customer company and walk over and go, “Hey I just happened to stumble upon you.”

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Each month, “Ammirati on Innovation” episodes will look at ways that the disruptive-startup mentality is spreading beyond young entrepreneurs to big established corporations. Serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist and Carnegie Mellon B-school professor Sean Ammirati, who sits at the intersection of these high-change dynamics, provides insight.

Episode 7

In this episode, Sean and I kick off with a new look at the evolving WeWork and Softbank story. Sean explores what it means that SoftBank chose to invest even more money into WeWork, and now owns about 80% of the business. Plus, the fact that the former CEO is making $180 MILLION during the transition! I think we all can agree, that’s a pretty good consulting package.

In our last podcast episode, Sean compared WeWork to a real estate business. Now he says it’s basically a rental car company: they buy expensive fixed assets, and then they rent them out in very short units of time. But there are still reasons for optimism. For example, Sean says, Amazon has 5,000 WeWork desks in New York alone.

We also debate whether the SoftBank decision to keep WeWork running is a smart one. Are they following the sunk cost fallacy? Or doubling-down on their belief in WeWork’s ability to lead the transformation of work trend? Sean quotes hedge fund manager Howard Marks, who says, “To be a great investor you need to be two things: you need to be contrarian and correct.” SoftBank is definitely being contrarian. Only time will tell if they’re also correct.

Sean and I then jump to a discussion of a few of the Cloud Wars Top 10 vendors. I have some questions for Sean about ServiceNow, which now has Bill McDermott as CEO. You could argue that it’s the #1 most innovative company in the world; it’s growing at 35% and approaching a billion dollars in revenue per quarter.

Finally, we have a high-level discussion of innovation. Sean says his employer, Carnegie Mellon, has been ten years ahead of the world in AI – they were using self-driving cars in the aughts. Innovation works differently everywhere. But some recent moves by Microsoft, Amazon and Google to take a leadership position in AI indicate that the time for widespread, non-stop innovation is NOW.

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SPONSORED CONTENT

This episode is brought to you by Cloudera.

For this sponsored Cloud Wars Live conversation, I spoke with Mick Hollison, CMO of Cloudera. Mick just came back from a Cloudera customer event in New York City called Strata Data, in which they unveiled the new Cloudera Data Platform to the world. He said customers wanted it to be open-source, open APIs, open compute, and open storage.

Mick quotes Peter Levine of Andreesen Horowitz, who says the early phase is dictated by convincing developers and technologists to start programming; the next phase is to get users; and the third phase is how to extract meaningful analytics and insight from the data.

He goes on to say that they have a customer, Komatsu, which makes massive mining equipment costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Cloudera put sensors on the devices to ingest the data, analyze it, and then predict what was going to happen to the machines. The machines, by the way, literally sink into the earth.

Cloudera recently announced that the Cloudera Data Platform is available on AWS – and coming up shortly, on Microsoft Azure. And early next year, Google Cloud Platform.

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Each month, Tony Uphoff, visionary CEO of Thomasnet.com, joins Cloud Wars Live for a recurring segment. “Uphoff on Industry” will explore the innovations, upheavals, and breakthroughs reshaping the the world of manufacturing and industrial markets. Join Tony and me as we discuss disruptive new trends in the digital-industrial world. These include how we design, source and manufacture products. And also the new ways in which industrial companies are getting up to speed on marketing, sales and customer experience.

Episode 7

In this episode, Tony and I discuss the passing of Mark Hurd, co-CEO of Oracle. He says he could be tough, but Tony had huge admiration for his business acumen.

He goes on to say that there’s really cool technology around what’s called “smart warehousing,” where they’re combining man and machine to automate and improve efficiencies.

Tony was invited to give a keynote address at the Electronic Components Industry Association (ECIA), and he spoke about data and research. When he got off the stage, somebody used the expression, “You punched us right in the face with the reality of where our buyer’s going – even if we didn’t want to hear it.”

Tony was also on Fox Business News, and talked about the state of U.S. manufacturing. Prior to his appearance, the stock market tanked by 500 points. He says it was a fascinating time to go on the show, since the markets were reacting to the ISM survey of manufacturers.

Tony says that your prospective customer knows more about your products, your offering, your competitors, and the marketplace than your best sales rep could ever know.

Tony has a new podcast called “Thomas Industry Update.” Their first guest is Anne Evans, director at the Department of Commerce, who is helping U.S. companies understand the complexities of exporting. It’s available on all platforms: www.thomasnet.com/update.

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