Brad Anderson's Lunch Break s9 e6 Mark Gregory, CIO & EVP, Premera Blue Cross

- It's lunch time and this is Brad Anderson's Lunch Break. Here in Redmond we're visited by some of the smartest people on the planet. Pretty much every day. Every chance I get I meet up with them for lunch. (upbeat music) Today I talked to a very smart guy who gets his hair cut at the same place I do. Mark Gregory the CIO of Premera Blue Cross. So you're here from Premara - Yeah - located right here in Seattle. You guys are the biggest provider of insurance in the Northwest. - Yeah. - I didn't realize this but Premera is 85 years old. So what's it like working for a company like that, has these incredibly old roots and history and culture going through the digital transformation. - The history is great. Companies that have been around a long time like Premera, our challenge is to take care of all the technology that got us where we are. - Mm-hmm. - But also advance it and get prepared for the future. There's four basic problems we see in health care. The first one is, I don't get the care I need. Second one is I get care I don't need. - Yeah. - Which is waste but also - Well it's time - Can be dangerous. - Sure exactly. - Right. The third one is really around value. I pay a lot, do I really get value for what I pay? And the fourth one, Brad, is experience right. So how many times have you had a bad experience with health care of some type? Part of what we try to do at Premera and how we leverage technology is to solve those four issues. - So how do you use some of the technology that address those four concerns? - We sit on large quantities of data. - Yeah. - Right? So, if I can or we collectively at Premera can engage the customer with tools that let them see their options right. Where can they get the best value for their healthcare dollar? Where can they go to get the best health care outcome? Right? And that all comes through data and engagement tools to help them solve that problem. Also on our side, how do we help lead them there? - Not only do we have the same haircut, (laughs) but we also share, you know we have names that are fairly common. So I did a search on LinkedIn and there were multiple Mark Gregorys that I found. - Right. - So let's play "Which one are you?" - Okay. (laughs) - Do you play keyboard in the band Hot Tub? - I do not. - Back in the early 2000 did you own a small chain of Pizza restaurants in Alaska? - I did not. - Did you have a role in the movie Adam and Eve, Meet the Cannibals? - Oh man, no. I wish I did though. Didn't that sound like a great experience? - Seriously right? - I'm tellin' you man, there is a lot more interesting Mark Gregorys out there than me clearly. - Next time on Brad Anderson's Lunch Break - When we introduced Cloud to the organization we did not introduce it as a cost play. We introduced it as a value play. - Yeah, yeah. - Really, right? So how quickly can I bring up the capabilities that move the organization forward. I wanna bring it up lighter, quicker, faster. And then I want more options with it.

Brad Anderson's Lunch Break s8 e6 Terry Myerson, EVP, Windows (Part 2)

(car zooms) - It's lunch time and this is Brad Anderson's Lunch Break. (happy music) (cars driving) Here at Redmond, we're visited by some of the smartest people on the planet, pretty much every day. Every chance I get, I meet up with them for lunch. (happy upbeat music) In this episode I wrap up my in depth conversation with Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group. We were talking yesterday and you were describing how you see the role of the CIO really change into one who focuses on the culture of creativity and teamwork in an organization. - Well, certainly the modern workplace CIO's for sure. - Yeah Yeah those who are kinda ahead of the game and thinking about it, I think it's gonna be all about that culture, it's gonna be all about, You got millennials entering the work force with different expectations than you know, I guess we're not millennials, huh? (laughs) - We try to be. - Yeah so they have different expectations than people that've been in the workforce for 20 years, different tools but you want everyone to work together. To me that's a culture of question of how you want your company to work. - You were one of the pioneers on taking us to the cloud. I mean, go back to when we were working together when you were running exchange and I mean I was running systems center, you know saw this opportunity, this vision to take change to the cloud, and that's really kinda the foundation of what became Office three 65, what were you seeing then that led you to say, hey we need to go deliver this as a cloud service, that was very early. - Oh what happened there was some amazing customers began to scale of what they wanted to do with exchange. Number of devices they wanted to support, number of remotes sites they want to support, the amount of storage they wanted to manage on behalf of those users, and then compliance came in, it was complex. And it got to this place where there were just repeatable patterns across customers, and just got to this place where some, especially with medium sized businesses, there was this sort of you know, customers in this 500 to a couple thousand seats that weren't able to hire big teams with the expertise, it was like let us do it for you. We did get started with you know these few customers and then it was about learning, about listening and learning and then understanding what it would take so we could offer the same capabilities to customers all over the world. - And now you look at that and that really has been the foundation that Office three 65 was built on, which is the most commonly used cloud service enterprise period. - Yeah. I mean it's amazing. It's, - And then you did something similar when you took over Windows, I can remember hearing you for the first time describing delivering Windows as a service, you know so what patterns were you seeing there? - I think it's the same pattern of, you're listening to the customer, and you're looking for where the challenges were happening, in terms of serving these customers best, in the case of Windows we were on a three yearly cycle, and we had this disconnect where customers were asking for, they wanted to have more influence over the, more transparency more open development model, but they also just wanted be able to get bite size value. And you know that's quite a challenge, 'cause Windows is an enormous codebase. - Oh my word. - It's it might be the single biggest software project in the world of course we don't know the size of every other software project, but it's certainly the biggest software project we have at Microsoft and that we know of and the, so thinking about how do we now develop it more incrementally such that we can still go after these bold and ambitious goals, but also deliver it you know, what's now twice a year, allows us to have this ability to listen learn react to what customers want. - I think it was you look at it kinda like the history of the software industry, I think what you guys pulled off in a single release, really is one of the most amazing things that I've ever seen done in software. - I mean that's nice to say but we built on top of the work done before us in all cases. You know if you look back in Windows history, Windows seven was a fantastic release that built on some great work in Windows Vista that didn't land very well, and I think we'll look back on Windows 10 and say it really did build on some great work in Windows eight. Which you know we didn't land as well as we would've liked. You know these big platform releases with hundreds and hundreds of millions of lines of code, you got backward compatibility, you've got security you got everyone from militaries around the world to consumers depending on it to work and, - The thing's that you set that vision up that gave you the most trepidation as the leader in finally changing how Windows (laughing) I mean what were the things that gave you the most concern? - The biggest challenge is always the ecosystem. You know with Windows you're not building a product, you're building an ingredient that really encompasses the work of so many companies. (lighthearted music) - Well you know we should make this like a regular occurrence (laughter) - Alright man see you around - Thanks Terry - There are a lot of cameras in here - Alright thanks Terry - Next time on Brad Anderson's lunch break, How much seniority do you need at ABI in order to ride one of the Clydesdales? (laughter) - Let's not talk about technology - Yeah - Let's talk about capabilities and that really helps you get that seat at the table and then you can use that to innovate.

Brad Anderson's Lunch Break s8 e3 Raja Ukil, SVP & CIO, Wipro

- It's lunch time, and this is Brad Anderson's Lunch Break. (chipper music) Here in Redmond, we're visited by some of the smartest people on the planet, pretty much every day. Every chance I get, I meet up with them for lunch. (chipper music) This week I'm talking with Raja Ukil, the Senior Vice President and CIO of the massive Indian IT company Wipro. (piano lounge music) Wipro, you guys are massive, 175,000 employees. I don't think there's very many companies in the world that have been in IT for that long. - [Raja] We started off in the vegetable aisles and then there were market opportunities. We diversified, and in the 70s, we took that opportunity, went into hardware and just grew from there. I think the industry was coming into shape and, you know, those are good old days. I would like to look at security more comprehensively around identity, around data protection, and privacy. We are all getting ready for the GDPR, which is coming in May in Europe. So your strategy is very comprehensive, right? And if you look at some of the things which are happening of late, it's essentially somebody falling prey to identity theft. It starts from there, right? - That's where it starts. And then, just by protecting identity will not be enough. You have to have a comprehensive protection strategy, but which doesn't kill user experience, and that is where I think your strategy is what I love. You're protecting all of this, but not killing the user experience. We had pieces of this, not comprehensively, in traditionalized research solutions and they were infringing into user experience into privacy. - In college, you played cricket for your university. - Yes sir. - As Americans, we kind of struggle to grasp the rules and the concepts of cricket. So, we're gonna play a little game here where I'm gonna give you some cricket terms, - Yeah, okay. - and have you explain it for those of us who don't understand. - Okay. - The slog sweep. - Oh, the slog sweep, yes. So the slog sweep, there is a reverse sweep and a slog sweep. - Of course. - When you can't figure out what the bowler is going to do and you're desperate, you just bend down on your knees and just sweep it. - Among all the possible sweeps, is that the best one? - Yeah, I have seen many batsmen close their eyes and just play it in my day. - OMG, close your eyes? - The silly mid off. - The mid off is a position, how do I explain it? It's like, you know, when you are batting? It is like at an angle of, maybe 30 degrees. - That makes sense to me. How about the golden snitch? - Golden snitch, I think is a golden duck. (laughter) - I played a trick on you. That's a Harry Potter game. (laughter) - You need to ask my daughter. - Oh, OK. Alright. The dibbly-dobbly. - Well... (laughter) I need to get back to you. - Gotcha, okay. - The Duckworth-Lewis. - The Duckworth-Lewis, this one I can do. It is one of the most illogical things to happen in cricket. When you have a disruption in a game, the team batting second actually gets a limited number of overs. And, for some strange reason, gets a target which is steeper than the original target. So, this is a thing which is prevalent now. Nobody wants it, but they have never been able to find out a better alternative. - OK. The pace of innovation that we are delivering for you, are we meeting your expectations with Microsoft 365? - Yeah, absolutely. Every time, Brad, I come here, I just come here to learn. It's a different Microsoft. You are incredibly fast today. You think of it, and it is there. I know we have spoken for so many years. You have explained your strategy and what you are trying to do in a few days. I can't believe that the product is ready with millions and millions of customers today around the world. It's just incredible. Coming from the days where you used to have releases once every year. - Yeah. - So, this is fascinating. Another thing I must compliment you and your colleagues, is that you are listening to customers. Obviously, there are different use cases all of us will have, and you are focusing on creating those use cases for all of us part of a common platform, and that is fascinating. - Wow. That just makes, that just makes my day. You're one of the largest Windows 10 customers in the world. You know, with 170,000+ employees, you're one of the largest Office 365 customers in the world. Help me understand, as you think about, as you embrace these new technologies, even if you just talk about Microsoft early on. What are the benefits that your community, your employees see, and what is the benefit that IT sees? - Employees simply love it. Right? It's ... today's world, if you look at the employees' average age, we have a lot of millennials, right? These employees don't engage in the way, possibly, I engage. And so, - They're digital natives. You and I are a little bit older. - I wasn't going to say that specifically. (laughter) So, what happens is you need new tool sets, you need applications which are intuitive, re-imagined, simple, and essentially, you know, you empower every front line employee so that they don't waste time, and they can do things very simply. Now, to do all of this, it was not possible previously. The experience was broken because of the technology was not there. Today, thanks to Microsoft, you have a complete end-to-end story. It was the right strategic direction. And mobility - 50,000 of our people are not in any Wipro office. So, erstwhile, deployment architectures are a thing of the past. You can't manage such explosion with that kind of a thing. I'm happy Microsoft has focused and brought it to a shape where it's a real blessing. (light music) - Next time, on Brad Anderson's Lunch Break - I'm proud to say that every dollar we earn, 40 cents goes back to charity. - Wow! - Yes - I did not know that. - Is it explaining cricket someone in the US, or trying to teach a dog Calculus? (laughter) (chipper music)

Brad Anderson's Lunch Break s8 e2 Rhonda Vetere, CTO, Estée Lauder Co. (Part 2)

- [Narrator] It's lunch time, and this is Bard Anderson's lunch break. Here in Redmond, we're visited by some of the smartest people on the planet pretty much everyday. Every chance I get, I meet up with them for lunch. Today I finish talking with the CTO of Estee Lauder, a very smart and always fabulous Rhonda Vetere. So now let's take a look at your team itself. And, you now, the IT department. How has the morale gone now that you've moved so much to the cloud, how has that morale gone up? Do people say that their jobs are more impactful, or have they this, this fear that they have, well maybe my job gets eliminated? What's been that impact? - That's been an interesting transition. And really worked with a team on the mental model shift. Their mental model on growing and spring boarding into what we call the new technology world. The morale is up. At first you have what I call going the valley of despair. And then it goes back up, just like things in life. But as you lead and show them how things come more productive, how they're giving back, how they can free up their time, quite frankly, and work on more fun things. And not so fingers on the keyboard on operational issues. Their morale goes up. And we're proud of that. And there's a lot of rock stars that have developed out of that. - So that topic of staying relevant is really important. You know, during your career, you spent time at CompuServe and WorldCom and MCI. You've had a front row seat at companies who were at the pinnacle of driving different portions of the industry, and then kind of fell away, right? What can technology leaders learn from that? What did you take away from those experiences? - Being relevant and that you become obsolete overnight. And not realize it. No matter what field that you're in. Being in technology, you can be merged, acquisitions, everything happens. And things are coming at you from all angles and you need to be able to manage that change. So I took that as a learning experience, and stayed through all the different merges and acquisitions to be that constant denominator to drive that change in making the companies more relevant as the world changed. - I read an article where you listed your top ten list of business standards. And there were three of them that just like really hit home with me because I value these three as much as you do. One of them is what you called managerial courage. - Very good. - Recognize your team. And then know your metrics. - Yes. Recognize your team. So I'm always about it's the team. And recognizing them. It's celebrating success as most people forget to celebrate. - It can be little successes that you celebrate. That have a tremendous impact on the culture. - Absolutely. - Give me an example. You talk about leadership courage. - Leadership courage is the ability to step up and say the power of no in a nice way. I don't agree with this, this is what it means, we're doing the wrong thing, and even on a team and partners I look for that. Someone who has a challenging spirit that can tell you you're going down a wrong way. - All too often, people are afraid to say no. And most times, you know, who you're talking to, they just wanna know what the answer is, and no is okay. But it takes courage, and for many people, that's a courage that has to be developed. That's actually one of the interview questions that I asked when I'm interviewing senior leaders. Tell me about a time when you had to say no and were convicted that the right answer was no. And you knew it was gonna be a challenge to get the rest of the organization aligned. I'll tell you, if people cannot come back and give me an example of exactly when they've done that, they haven't had enough leadership time. They haven't had enough leadership experience. - Great point. That's great. - It has been a pleasure. - It's been a pleasure. Thank you. All right. Thank you. - Thank you so much. Bye. - [Brad] Next time on Brad Anderson's lunch break. Duckworth-Lewis. - The Duckworth-Lewis say, I can give a, it says one of the most illogical things to happen in that regard. Erstwhile, deployment architectures, you know are a thing of the past. You can't manage such explosion with that kind of a thing.

Brad Anderson's Lunch Break s7 e9 Dr. Nicole Forsgren, CEO, DORA

- [Brad] It's lunch time, and this is Brad Anderson's Lunch Break. Two of my favorite things about Microsoft are the smart people that constantly visit campus and the great fleet of shuttles. Whenever I can I try to take advantage of both of these things, and grab lunch with some of the tech industry's best and brightest. Today I'm driving around with Dr. Nicole Forsgren, a researcher, DevOps expert, and CEO and Chief Scientist at DORA. (jaunty music) - Hey - [Brad] How's it goin', Nicole? - I'm good. Sweet minivan. - You know, I wanted to harken back to the early days when we needed to have a minivan in order to put our kids in it. It's like a walk down memory lane here for me. In software, we're all about data and we all use data to make decisions, and you've brought this uncanny academic rigor to how you use data. In fact, you have so much passion you formed your own company. So tell us a little bit about the company, your background and this passion on data. - Sure. So DORA is DevOps Research and Assessment. We've been doing research looking at how organizations can use so many fantastic capabilities to drive improvement in their ability to make software with both speed and stability. That's really the key central component in helping organizations perform amazingly well. And I say perform, so that's profitability, productivity, market share. - Yeah so it's both internal and external because a big part of performing is employee satisfaction, employee passion. - Also, decreasing employee pain, decreasing burnout. - Because we talk about this in-depth DevOps approach to IT and to Dev. How does that impact morale? - When we study DevOps or technology transformation we take kind of a holistic approach and it includes culture, it includes technology, it includes Agile in measurements, and the piece in Agile includes how you develop software and team experimentation. And so the way it affects morale and team culture is we see greater communication, greater information flow, risks are shared, novelty is encouraged and implemented, morale is improved, and that ends up feeding through and having a positive impact on the entire organization's performance. For so long, have you heard before, 'IT's a cost center, IT's a cost center,' - That's definitely transitioned but that's the way it's been talked about for years. I'm tired of it. - Right? Seriously. But what we find is that it's really an investment. If you see it and if you view it as an investment it pays back dividends tenfold, because it makes your technology better. It makes your employees better. It makes your employees happier. It delivers value to your business. Again, profitability, productivity, market share. - [Brad] What's the most common pitfall organizations fall into in this area? - So there, I think there are a couple. So one is not measuring the things that matter. Right, so we have, sometimes it's just local optimizations. Right, sometimes people are like 'I'm gonna do CI, Continuous Integration, or I'm gonna do Continuous Delivery, because Continuous Delivery,' and then they just get spun up on something. Right? Or they'll measure something because it's convenient, or easy, and then it shows up on a report and that's all they pay attention to. And I'm sure you've seen that. - Oh, a hundred times, and then there are even things that I've asked to be measured and then realized it was the wrong things. - Which is fine, because it's continuous improvement, continuous learning, so then you could still keep it if you want, but at least pull it off the report. - Yeah, but start measuring, and then you're gonna realize that you're gonna get better. Just the numbers, when you first start doing the measurement the numbers are gonna be dirty, they're not gonna be clean. - Realize the power of an honest baseline. If it's bad, that's even better because you have nowhere to go but up. - At least you got a place to start from. That has been this journey, I think, that many of us have gone through. That it is all about getting started and then constantly learning, constantly getting better, constantly refining, but you gotta start. - And it gives you something to talk about and communicate about. Suddenly, if you're on a different team, I can talk to you about it. And, if I think your performance or your metrics or something sucks, that's okay because I have something to talk about instead of yelling at you, we can yell about the thing. - That makes it tangible and real. You can have a conversation and then say 'Okay, now how are we gonna go get better on this?' - Exactly - Next time on Brad Anderson's Lunch Break: - If you wanna be super capitalistic about it, we find so much research everywhere showing that diversity of background, diversity of thought, diversity of gender, diversity of race, diversity of all the things leads to better outcomes. You make better products, you build better software, you get better outcomes. It's worth the investment. (jaunty music)

Brad Anderson's Lunch Break s7 e8 Mauricio Guerra, CISO, Dow Chemical (Part 2)

- It's lunch time, and this is Brad Anderson's Lunch Break. Two of my favorite things about Microsoft are the smart people that constantly visit campus, and the great fleet of shuttles. Wherever I can, I try to take advantage of both of these things, and grab lunch with some of the tech industry's best and brightest. (sunny music) This week, I'll wrap up my conversation with Mauricio Guerra, the chief Information Security Officer at Dow Chemical. (sunny music) So I heard this amazing story about the founder of Dow Chemical, Henry Dow. - Mm-hmm. - He came with this idea to use electrolysis to basically separate chemicals, but the financial backers thought that was a crazy idea, and actually fired him! - Mm-hmm. - So, he turned around and used that technology to create Dow Chemical, and the rest is history. So what technology do you think organizations are not using enough of, to keep their company safe? - I don't want to say that it's a particular technology but that will be different, say, pointing to technology A, or B, or C. What I would like to stress, is the need to have a comprehensive cyber security program. Understanding that cyber security is not installing, implementing a couple of firewalls here, and this, and that, and that. It's making sure that from the executive level down, the companies understand, and properly manage the risk. And it sounds obvious, or too simplistic, what I'm saying, but what I'm seeing, the industries, that there might be a better opportunity for companies to take a more, more, more structured approach into cyber. - Kind of a footnote in history, you know, Henry Dow actually went back and bought the company that fired him. So, words of wisdom, be Henry Dow. - Oh, okay. (laughing) (jazzy music) When we see winning innovation, that will bring big challenges for people that are in like we will be dealing with way more automation, we'll be dealing with more data, more devices, more connectivity - it's more complex - More clouds, more complexity, huge complexity. And normally when you drive innovation is when you bring risk. And I'm not implying that's a negative, that's the way it is. - That's reality. - That the reality. New stuff, new challenges then we either need to adjust our security poster or figure it out how to mitigate risk. To summarize my point, yes it's a bigger challenge. Not only managing the well known threats, but also enabling those capabilities that companies like Dow will be using to drive innovation and being more and more and more competitive. I mean better leveraging IT tools. (sunny music) - A big part of Mauricio's job is evaluating the security aspects of what IT wants to deploy. - Mmhm. - So how do you challenge the partners that you're working with to make sure that they're delivering the right balance of value and security? - At the end of the day, there is not a perfect solution. They need judgment, different perspective. So it is all about helping businesses making educated decisions. By educate I mean informed decisions - Yeah, sure. - Personally, I spent a lot of time on visiting companies, participating in industry forums that gives me good feel on where the industry is going. But, at the end of the day, there is judgment. Judgment, but then, you need to establish a strong network and be credible with the businesses. - Yeah, so you have to have all this signal coming into you so that you're constantly being aware of what the innovations are, what the attacks are, and then you have to help synthesize that and share it with all the leadership. - Exactly. (light upbeat music) - This has been awesome. - For so long, I mean have you heard before: You know I'd use a cost center, who's heard that? - It's definitely transitioning but I've heard that - And there's been so many times right? If you see it and if you view it as an investment it pays back dividends ten fold. (light upbeat music)

Brad Anderson's Lunch Break s7 e4 Ben Kepes, Public cloud analyst (Part 2)

- [Brad] It's lunch time, and this is Brad Anderson's Lunch Break. Two of my favorite things about Microsoft are the smart people that constantly visit campus, and the great fleet of shuttles. Wherever I can I try to take advantage of both of these things, and grab lunch with some of the tech industry's best and brightest. (upbeat music) Today I'll wrap up my conversation with Cloud expert and New Zealand's finest, Ben Kepes. Out of all of those hobbies, what's your favorite? - To be honest, running is my thing. I've got two sons, my eldest son is about 17, and he's also a runner, so we head out and do ultra marathons together. So there's nothing better than hanging with my kids. - So what's the most miles you've logged in a single day? - So I've actually got a 100 mile race coming up, in about 10 days, so that will be my longest race to date. Previously I've done 100km. (light swing music) - So why did we have to send Uber to bring you here today? - Well I actually did suggest that we go out for a run, but you weren't up for it! - I was chicken, I was totally chicken on it, because I knew I couldn't talk and run at the same time. - Well who needs to talk? (laughs) We could run slow. - You know, one of the really big pivots that I've seen in the last year, is the focus that IT is placing on the end user experience is dramatically greater than what it was in the past. - Totally, and that's a generational thing. At the end of the day, if you're a millennial going into the work force, and you've spent your life on Instagram or Snapchat, or Facebook or whatever. You're not gonna use those lengthy enterprise systems that are just horrendous. - [Brad] A couple of years ago we really focused our design on how do we develop an environment that IT can deliver that is loved by users, and trusted by IT. And doing both is really hard. - It totally is, and there's this tension there, right? And the reality is, you need give people like a sliding scale, you want to give people that optionality, to go all in on the user love, but that's gonna cause more IT pain, if that's their choice for them. Or the other way, as an organization, I guess Microsoft needs to think about what is the line at which you won't go? - So there's a balance, and every organization is gonna have a different balance on that one. - [Ben] It's funny, I spend my time in analysts' session, sit around with a bunch of analysts who've been in the industry for 50 years or whatever. How many of them have owned products that a billion people use? None. So the reality is, it's all very well to say this is what this vendor should do, this is what this product should do, but at the end of the day, if you've got a billion users to think about, you've actually got a responsibility there. It's not quite as easy as it looks. - I think people would be amazed if they understood the level of the investments that we make on backwards compatibility, and making sure that we don't leave the customers behind. It's a stunning amount of our investment. - For sure. - [Brad] We're gonna play a game that I call "This or That?" So I'll give you two subjects, and I'm gonna read you a list of descriptions, and you tell me which of the subjects it applies to. - Okay. - [Brad] Public cloud, or caffeine? Don't try running a company without a lot of it. (deep breathing) - Caffeine first, but both. - Yeah, I agree. Its benefits and drawbacks are under constant debate. - No, I'm gonna say cloud. - When you first start using it, you have to build up a tolerance, or your system will freak out. - It's an interesting one, isn't it? Really is an interesting one, I think ... I'm gonna go with caffeine. - It's easy to get hooked and start adding it to everything. - Yeah, definitely both. - Now one of the things you related to me is how intriguing and how innovative Azure Stack is, I'd love to get your perspective on Azure Stack. - Yeah, so it's really exciting for me, and for me the reality is there are a lot of purists who say the public cloud is it, and there's no validity to the private cloud. If you were talking to someone in the banking space, or maybe someone in the medical space, or in a particular geography, or someone who's running a cruise ship company, and has boats going out on the high seas, well that abstract kind of idea doesn't really work in practice, because they've got times where they can't, they're not connected. So absolutely hybrid is the reality. I'm super excited about Azure Stack, where you've got something that is the same public cloud, private cloud. You can have interplay between the two, your applications can run on both. That's kind of the future, and I think it's really disrespectful for the pundits who say public cloud is the only way, and private cloud isn't real, because at the end of the day, that doesn't respect the reality for a number of organizations. - Well you know, the next time we're gonna do this I think we're gonna do it in New Zealand, we'll go for a run. - Sure, so you sent me a shuttle. Next time send a Microsoft corporate jet, pick me up in New Zealand, and we'll go do some stuff. - I'll get workin' on that. - Awesome. - Hey, thank you so much. - Thanks, man. - Bye bye, man. - When I first met them they showed us how they can ingest a page of text. It just happened to be a page of Harry Potter. And not only read the words and define the words, but comprehend what was going on. (laughs) But I do get right and left mixed up, and I get port and starboard mixed up. - Do you really? - Yeah, all the time. So I'm hoping that no one ever has to launch those missiles. I don't want them to go up the wrong side. (upbeat music)

Brad Anderson's Lunch Break s7 e3 Ben Kepes, Public cloud analyst

- [Brad] It's lunch time, and this is Brad Anderson's Lunch Break. Two of my favorite things about Microsoft are the smart people that constantly visit campus and the great fleet of shuttles. Whenever I can, I try to take advantage of both of these things and grab lunch with some of the tech industry's best and brightest. This week, I'm meeting up with one of the planet's foremost cloud experts, Ben Kepes. He's also an ultra-marathoner and part-time firefighter. - Hey man, so I ordered an Uber Deluxe. You send me a shuttle? - You know, this is like the top of the line shuttle here at Microsoft. - So you know I come from New Zealand, and not only do we get slow internet speeds, but we get the dodgy car as well. - [Brad] In addition to owning your own industry consulting analyst firm, you write for Computer World, you're one of the leading experts on the cloud, but you also run ultra-marathons and you're a volunteer firefighter? If there's ever a forest fire a hundred miles away, you're the man to call. - You're fun. I was actually a paramedic, - Oh, so you dialed it down a little, you said. - If we have an accident while we're driving, I've got you sorted. (laughing) - [Brad] Okay, so when you consult with businesses that are in the process of modernizing, what are the characteristics of the companies that really are able to make that transition successfully? - Yeah, so like I've already said it's about culture. So the culture being adept probably would change. - I think so many of us overlook that. - Yeah, and it's pretty interesting. I mean, if you look at an organization I find, 'cause I do a lot of consulting with these large organizations. I can walk into an organization and pretty much I can get a sense of what it's like. I look at the torques they use, I look around, I look at simple things like what it's like to get into the building, what it's like, you know, if they've got a receptionist there who's kind of about blocking access to people, you know, those things. - That's old school. - Yeah, it's really those things. And those things, you know, people would say that has nothing to do with my technology adoption. - [Brad] Your company invested in a lot of startups. Okay, so we're gonna play a game that I call Startup Game. Okay, so I'm gonna give you some names some are real startups and some are fake. Okay, so the first one is Thundera. Thunder with an A. Real or make believe? - Fake. - That is a fake one, you got it right. Okay, the next one is Foodler. F-O-O-D-L-E-R. - Yeah, that's gotta be a Sunken Valley true company. - That is a true company. Okay, the next one, WubbaLubDub. - See, that's too many letters for a URL, so that's fake. (laughing) - You are a hundred percent right, and I think your logic is probably right as well. Flingr. - Yeah, now that works, that's true. - That's a fake one. But it could've been a legit name, right? - Yeah. - BlaBlaCar. - I'm pretty sure that's actually a real company. - That is a real company. - But it's a bad URL. - Man, you did, by far, the best anyone's ever done on that game. - There you go. - [Brad] If you were talking to an organization that really is kind of a little bit hesitant to enter into the cloud, start using the cloud, what would be your biggest piece of advice to them? - So I think the first piece of advice is that this is happening. This change is there, you don't have any option. It's kind of this carrot and stick. So the stick is you have no option, you have to change. The carrot is, there's ways that you can damper with this, there's ways that you can do some other little things, and just showing people what you can do with things like, you know, Help EI, when it's in the cloud, for example. Just showing people the value that that unlocks. In a small way, in a discreet part of their business, we'll get them to kind of develop the muscle memory, like it's getting to feel a little bit more comfortable, until they can start moving more or mass into the cloud. - [Brad] You know, one interesting thing I was thinking about as you were talking, you know, we made the decision as we were building what I oversee in Enterprise Mobility and Security, back in 2012 they were going to do it entirely from the cloud. And I remember in 2014, you know, about one out of two customers would tell us, "Hey, I'm not comfortable doing this from the cloud." 2015 it was maybe 20 percent. Now, it's rare that I ever hear an organization say, "Hey, I'm not totally comfortable with my management security coming from the cloud." - You know, it's totally funny. I mean, just the awareness. I've been doing this for, I guess, ten years since the cloud's been around. And four or five years ago, I was at a function, I was introduced to an elected member of parliament in New Zealand, and someone introduced me as this global cloud expert, and this dude said, without a word of light, "You study the weather, do you?" Fast forward to today, only a few years later, and there's no one that doesn't have at least a vague notion about what the cloud is. And it translates into organizations who understand it, are starting to use it, to some extent. And it's the ridge, right? We're kind of midway up the angle of the ridge, and it's only getting lighter. It's the reality. - And there's literally no limit on where this can go. - And it's cool for those of us who have been kind of, you know, saying, "this is the future," for ten years. It's so cool to kind of be vindicated. - [Brad] Next time, on Brad Anderson's Lunch Break: - I think it's really disrespectful for the pandets who say, "Public cloud is the only way and private cloud isn't real." Because at the end of the day, that doesn't respect the reality for a number of organizations.

Brad Anderson's Lunch Break s7 e14 Tim Anderson, Journalist (Part 2)

- It's lunch time, and this is Brad Anderson's Lunch Break. Two of my favorite things about Microsoft are the smart people that constantly visit campus and the great fleet of shuttles. Whenever I can, I try to take advantage of both of these things, and I grab lunch with some of the tech industry's best and brightest. (bright, happy music) Today I'll finish up my conversation with veteran tech journalist, Tim Anderson. (car revving) One of the challenges that just about every organization in the world is now grappling with is, as the data moves out to the Cloud, and the data moved to mobile devices, the traditional perimeter-based security model they've used is just no longer effective. - Sure. - So what we believe is in this mobile and Cloud-first world, identity becomes the new perimeter, and we believe that, in terms of Enterprise Mobility, identity is like the most foundational piece. And so, as you give advice or as people ask you questions to get your perspective, 'cause you've got so much historical perspective, talk about the importance of identity in this mobile-first, Cloud-first world. - Well, so it is what we care about, identity, every organization - Yeah. has got data that it cares about, and what we care about most, in terms of security, is who has access to that data. - [Brad] Exactly. - And also we, perhaps, care about who doesn't have access to that data, - (laughing) well said. so clearly it's, identity is at the heart of that. - So as we take a look at the data breaches, that it seems like we read about just about every week, - Mhm, yeah. like 70 percent or more of those eventually trace back to somebody's credentials having been compromised, a phishing attack or they had weak credentials. In that world, most organizations basically have to take an assumption that they've been breached, that they have identities that somebody is using to steal or attack them. How can organizations protect themselves? - I think, one thing I've noticed, is that the answer to that question varies according to the size of the organization, so in the smaller businesses, I still see a lot of very poor practice and security because it's not really understood. I think a lot - Yep. of education has to happen then, I do think that the Cloud is an enabler here, because the Cloud services are giving smaller businesses a taste of enterprise level computing, which is a lot better than they've perhaps had in the past. Now in a large organization, I mean a lot of it is around about handle credentials and authentication, so we need to do multifactoral - Yep. authentication, and try and move on from passwords. - Yeah. So Tim, you know, you've had this incredible perspective for 30 years in technology, so think of someone who's like at the early to midpoint of their career, and they're asking you for advice on managing and growing their career and impact. What advice would you give 'em? - One of the things I've been a bit surprised by is that even though computing is, in one sense, the cutting edge of modern life, of great change, IT professionals can be quite conservative in their attitudes, - Yeah. And I think it's important to keep learning, I think it's important to go to events, to read books. Keep enjoying it if you are a developer, for example, remember the magic of it, remember the magic of programming and seeing something before your eyes turn into a project that has intelligence and has a user interface and delights users, and just keep a sense of the magic of it that will keep you motivated to do what you do best. - That's great advice. Tim, it's always a pleasure to see ya, I always look forward to seeing every time we get to meet up - No it's been great, at an event. - thank you very much. We gotta make sure we go do this again. - Sure, yeah. - Alright, alright thank you very very much. - Thank you. (door closing) - [Narrator] Next time on Brad Anderson's lunch break, - So your two terms are transatlantic flights, or World of Warcraft. - Okay. Okay, do you know much about World of Warcraft? - A little bit. I had to stop playing - Alright. so I could finish - Work? (laughing) writing my dissertation, yes. - Okay, alright here we go. You would do something unspeakable in exchange for an upgrade. - Transatlantic flight. - You know, I've got hundreds and hundreds of engineers who have built ARM Print products for, for some of them decades, we've had to go through that same cultural transition internally that many customers right now are facing, as we're helping them and pushing them to move to the Cloud, but we've had to go through it first. (happy, bright music)