Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

The Big Themes:• The Ambassador: Excited about the project and are telling everyone about it. They’ll be the first ones that post their go-live badge on LinkedIn. They’re also rolling-up their sleeves to contribute.• The up-and-comer: Might not have previous experience but see the project as an opportunity to grow in their career and add a successful digital transformation to their resume. Great attitude.• Debbie Downer/Don Downer: “We’ve always done it this way” is their MO. They have a problem for every solution.• I’m only here for the snacks: Quiet and non-participatory in meetings and email. Demotivate the team and get credit where credit is not due.The Big Quotes:“The success of a project is going to boil down to good people management.”“You want to make sure that you're hand picking the team.”“A lot of these problems can be solved through good documentation and a good project blueprint where people have known exactly what they're needing to contribute and buy one.”This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• It just doesn’t magically happen: It’s not the data you already have, this is one of the hard lessons that lot of folks think.• DataStax fits into that equation: And this is one of the things that I think goes back to what you talked about in terms of agility.• Everybody has S3 compatible APIs: You've got your storage now that is just scale out via very simple APIs. You've got your compute now that's been standardized on top of Kubernetes.• You may have some rock stars: But majority of code written even at these internet companies is written by good developers. And I guarantee you, you've got good developers.The Big Quotes:“And so Cassandra was what enabled a number of retailers, many of the major retailers in operation today built critical parts of their e-commerce stack on top of Cassandra.”“The starting point for most folks is you start talking about saying, ‘Okay, you need to collect and log and interpret all of these streams of data.’”“And so the open data stack is about trying to make data catch up to where Kubernetes is in terms of giving you that agility.” Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• You've got great leaders at the top of the house: In both those companies you really understand innovation.• One of our venture companies: We sold a company to a publicly traded company that when that transaction happened, I got a lot of congratulations.• That ship has sailed: I also think though that speaks to another thing that we expected to happen when you plug into an organization – like in this case of Salesforce or Oracle.• Very fast moving dynamic: So we need to keep in mind not to get locked into an idea that will surely be obsolete in a matter of weeks or months.The Big Quotes:“But that doesn't mean that the $27 billion was a fair price. I think it probably was not unfortunately for the shareholders.”“The game was how many times could you say synergy in a windowless conference room for 30 minutes?”“I think in enterprise tech you're really seeing something of this happening now in Slack.”This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:• A fascinating cultural shift: The millennial generation’s increasing dissatisfaction with “knowledge work” and the increasing interest in wanting to make things.• The cultural legacies of the US manufacturing industry: This is why so many industries are disrupted by outsiders.• Technology continues to advance dramatically: It’s time to transform and upgrade how technology is positioned, explained, and sold.• Many scheduled office re-openings have been pushed back: We’re seeing some companies announce full remote plans in perpetuity. What will this push-back do to the tentative office re-opening plans?The Big Quotes:“I think I shared with you in New York City that there's over 8,000 small manufacturers that are generating over $7 billion a year in revenue in New York City.”“We hit a really interesting inflection point where the number of millennial managers were in the workforce and at the same size as the Baby Boom managers.”“The US manufacturing industry is close to a $3 trillion industry—there are not of industries of that size walking around.”This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Accenture ransomware: Accenture’s response – they quickly detected, defended, and repaired. So far, it appears to be only a low-value material leaked.The New Digital Edge: McKinsey article rethinking strategy for the post-pandemic era. “By 2023, most companies will need to build new digital businesses to stay economically viable.”Talking to CFOs: After talking with several CFOs since the last episode, I think it’s time for some changes. Why does IT report to the CFO at so many companies?What should happen: CFO should tell the CEO, ‘no thanks!’ CFOs and the CIOs make a more powerful team – even better as peers. The Big Quotes:“Accenture also said none of our confidential material was leaked.” “And you know that whole 19th century model of the green eyeshades and the rolled-up sleeves at the desk – that world has changed, and we've got to recognize it.” “So go back 50, 60 years, the first people that put technology and the first computers went in the 1950s – that's 70 years ago.” “Walter Wriston, the founder of the organizer of Citibank, said information about money is as valuable as money itself.” This episode is brought to you by BMC Software.  Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The “T” in Teamwork: Why employees with breadth and depth are imperative for harmonizing organizational goals and culture. We call this the acceleration economy.We are launching a brand-new program: August 19th to be exact, and it's all content driven to what is the future role of the office of the CFO.Tie in the future effects of the office: What’s the difference between data digitization – and why organizations should care.I think develops a richer culture: It also helps for those people who are in those decision-making roles to better understand what you're doing.The Big Quotes:“A lot of organizations are needing to be adaptive and changing on a dime.”“I think more roles are going to be a little less tactical – a little more visionary and strategic.”“Check out our podcasts, The Wrap, that is one of my highlights of the week, and it's a time that we can share what we've heard through the week.This episode is brought to you by BMC Software.  Visit Cloud Wars for more.

As President of SAP S/4HANA, Jan Gilg oversees development of SAP's flagship ERP product, digital supply chain, and industry solutions. In this conversation, Jan discusses how the shift to a digital economy is driving unprecedented changes in how businesses operate, and the new types of software solutions businesses require to thrive in such an environment. In the midst of all that upheaval, SAP itself has changed in significant ways, and Gilg shares his perspectives on the benefits those changes are driving for customers. The Big Themes:Across all 25 industries: Now moving into the cloud we are really following the old modularization strategy on the one hand side – and blurring much, much more.Much better visibility: I probably want to have more visibility into multiple tiers of my supply chain. The Big Quotes:“This will be a steering dimension for every company in every industry.” “And we capture the data from the sensors and feed it again into the context of the vehicles.” “The shift to Office 365 was massive from our perspective.” This episode is brought to by BMC Software.  Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Like Goldilocks' testing out the three different sized chairs: This one is too big, this one is too small—this one is JUST RIGHT. Mid-size businesses need solutions and partners that are "just right" for them.McKinsey has reported: What mid-size enterprises really need to realize their growth potential is "the ability to access foreign markets, increase operational efficiency and adopt growth-enabling technologies."Big idea: Businesses need to choose software that is flexible, agile, and facilitates collaboration – especially as businesses re-think in-person versus remote workspaces for their people.Perhaps most important of all: The midmarket needs software that's quick and less expensive to implement compared to big on-premise ERP systems. The Big Quotes:“So Goldilocks was sort of a modern software pioneer.” “This year we're upwards of 1,200 project reviews at this point.” “Because I'm thinking if it's too hot and you get a blob of that on your tongue, it's not going to be a good experience.” This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:You must preserve the core of your business: Leadership is about to make the investments, provide the autonomy, create the innovation culture and align it to your overall strategy.The four freedoms: An organization that allows for innovation, capability to really thrive, grow, and affect the future of your business.What I call the beacon model: You create a capability that is related – but separate from the core of your business.These are courageous innovators: They have to be able to frame and form their own culture. There is a certain amount of operational form of freedom. The Big Quotes:“So the relationship between leadership and courage – and then the ability to be an innovator.” “Jeff Bezos he has a bunch of them, but one of my favorites is he says something to the extent of, ‘You cannot be afraid of being misunderstood.’” This episode is brought to you by BMC Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:We went all in with Google Cloud: Most of our peers were actually going in the other direction. They wanted to be multicloud, making acquisitions in adjacent ecosystems.Return to work shouldn’t mean return to normal: If I talk to our software developers, who were already remote before the pandemic.This is the future of our business: We are about to make an investment that will change the trajectory of the company forever, and we have very high expectations. The Big Quotes:“There's no customer that adopts the Google platform stack without taking on some bit of change.” “We serve all the traditional enterprises that are fighting for relevance and survival, and we're serving all the startups that are actively disrupting them.” “We've attracted some of the most talented, and amazing – like Miles – executives in the world to come join us on this journey, and so, I think our customers feel that.”  Visit Cloud Wars for more.