HPE Tech Talk Podcast - The Future from Edge to Cloud at #HPEDiscover 2021, HPE’s Jim Jackson, Ep.17

[HPE-Editor]

Ahead of HPE Discover June 22-24, HPE’s Chief Marketing Officer Jim Jackson offers an early look at what the global, virtual “edge-to-cloud” conference has in store for attendees this year. Hear about the can’t-miss speakers, like Lewis Hamilton and Megan Rapinoe; the most immersive demos, including one that digitally transports you into outer space; and much more. 

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Transcript

Robert Christiansen:	[0:24] Welcome to the HPE Tech Talk. I'm your host, Robert Christiansen. Today's going to be a great conversation, because we have HPE's Chief Marketing Officer, Jim Jackson with us, and he's here to give us the inside scoop on this year's HPE Discover event kicking off next week on June 22nd. Jim, thanks for being with us.
Jim Jackson:	[0:45] Hey, Robert, thrilled to be with you here today.
Robert:	[0:49] So am I, Jim. I'm looking forward to the Discover event and I'm super happy to talk about this, and specifically, this year's event is named HPE Discover: The Edge-to-Cloud Conference. Why the change and what does it mean for the attendees?
Jim:	[1:05] We're really looking forward to Discover, Robert. But when you think about where we're at right now as a company and as an industry, we believe that we're living in the age of insight with data at the core of everything that we're doing. Edge-to-cloud architectures will be the future is more and more data is processed at the edge, but then needs to be united with a cloud model so that it can be translated into insights, really bringing that edge-to-cloud architecture together. We're going to show at HPE Discover how HPE GreenLake is our edge-to-cloud platform. At this Discover, you're going to see us reinforce momentum against our strategy and really show how we're helping customers build their edge-to-cloud architecture so that they can optimize their data. [1:50] Robert, you know this, but GreenLake is on fire. You're going to see a lot of new innovation to make the experience better. As we started thinking about this event, we saw a great opportunity to line up Discover, which has a great brand, with edge-to-cloud. That's exactly what we're doing and the story that we're going to tell.
Robert:	[2:08] Jim, I couldn't agree with you more. Everywhere we talk with clients, you and I are both out there day to day, talking with clients who are changing how they do this work. GreenLake is in such a position to handle that edge-to-cloud space. Can you talk a little bit more about the components that are coming up underneath that GreenLake area and why it's unique to HPE to solve this edge-to-cloud problem?
Jim:	[2:33] I believe that HPE is uniquely built to deliver against an edge-to-cloud strategy. I mean, first, if you think about it, we're a leader at the edge with Aruba. We announced a few years ago that we were going to be spending $4 billion, all focused around connectivity. Connectivity is going to be really, really critical as we think about an edge-to-cloud platform. With GreenLake, as you just mentioned, our GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform, we're a leader in on-prem cloud computing. We're bringing that cloud experience forward. We're also investing in software and, Robert, you can go deep on this with Ezmeral and everything that we're doing in that space to really bring that data strategy and that data fabric forward for our customers. Of course, we're a leader in compute and storage. We've got tons of expertise in our services organization that we can really bring forward to help our customers really build the right data strategy for their future. [3:25] Then the final point I'll make is we're also investing in critical areas like security. You're going to hear us talk about edge-to-cloud security at Discover. It's something that we're really excited about. We're also continuing to grow our ecosystem, especially around GreenLake. We see a lot of our partners really, if you will, coming to the GreenLake ecosystem and building and giving us the ability to deliver additional capabilities and services to our customers. So a lot of things happening and great timing for the company.
Robert:	[3:56] I couldn't agree more. One of the things that we learned right at the beginning of the pandemic last year, it's that massive shift between when we are at a physical event going to a virtual event. This is our second year. We're going to be virtual again. What's the differences we're looking for? What does a year do for us, if you think about it, in a virtual event? Some places are loosening up. Other places are actually locking down globally. Obviously, it wasn't the time to go physical again. What can the experiences look like? What are those differences going to feel like for people as they attend?
Jim:	[4:32] We learned a lot last year about how to deliver our virtual events in digital. What I would say is one of the areas I'm probably most excited about is just the sheer amount of innovation happening in this space. You're going to see us bring that forward into Discover this year to make the experience ultimately better for our customers and for all attendees. But maybe just a couple of things to kind of shine a light on what's different. First of all, this year Discover is going to be shorter, bolder. We're going to bring more innovation. And we're going to bring more sizzle. So when we think about how we're framing it, that's how I would start to set the context. [5:07] We've got a brand new platform. It's going to make it easier for customers and attendees to engage content, to engage with our HPE experts, to build their agenda in a very simple way so that they can really take full advantage of the virtual experience. This year we have three days of connected content, all themed around data. Day one is all about strategy and innovation. The headline is really Antonio's keynote. We're really excited about this. We have a lot of other content that attendees can leverage as well on day one. [5:40] Day two is where we go deeper. We'll have a lot of our key business leaders showcasing how it's all coming together to deliver against Antonio's vision and strategy and how we're bringing it to play for our customers. This is where we get into a little bit more depth on our technology roadmaps. We'll also hear from a lot of customers who are talking about why HPE is their transformation partner for the future. Then, Robert, as you know this, day three is all about technology for technologists. We're going to stay on the data theme, but we're going to get deep into specific technologies both for today and tomorrow. Where's the market going? And how do we as an industry need to think differently about the future technologies that are going to enable us to really translate data into insight in real time? [6:25] We also have things like hands-on labs, expert sessions, et cetera, where our technologists can really engage with HPE experts. But, Robert, maybe I'll turn it over to you. You're part of the day three keynote. You did a great job. Maybe you can just give a little bit of context here about what you see on day three that the audience could be excited about.
Robert:	[7:26] Yeah, Jim, you're absolutely right. That’s… day three is all about the technologies that we were working on, on the strategy. The strategy continues to evolve. We're finding that HPE is seriously, seriously positioned to allow for clients to get value out of data. When we think about that, at the core is this ecosystem of consumers of data connecting with producers of data. That's not a new environment, right? That's basically computer science in day one. But how do we get our arms around just the sheer volume of that? That's what day three is all about. How do we allow for connectivity? How do we allow for discovery? How do we allow for security? And really creating that environment that, I believe, is the evolution of the data-centric enterprise going forward and the distributedness of data across mass devices globally. It's really a game changer, I think. [8:26] And HPE, with all of our assets, come to bear in a very, very pointed, very, very sharp solution sets that I think that solve problems. And, Jim, I hope that answered the question. But as you start thinking about this and the announcements that we have, can you give us a couple of sneak peaks?
Jim:	[8:47] I can't get into all the detail here obviously, but we're going to announce new cloud services that will expand our suite of GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform offerings. We already have a rich set of solutions and offerings around data, workloads and you'll see us expand that. You're going to also see us bringing innovation at the Silicon level, so stay tuned for that. We're going to be launching a new workload optimized infrastructure that's going to make the GreenLake experience even better. [9:16] Finally, you're going to hear us talk more about security in an edge-to-cloud world. I touched on that earlier. But that's something that we're really excited about and looking forward to just having the dialogue with our customers and with attendees around how we need to rethink security and really zero-trust security and think about that whole environment as the world becomes more and more distributed. So a lot of exciting announcements that we're going to be bringing forward, Robert.
Robert:	[9:45] Yeah, you and I both know a bit about them. It's one of those things, oh, I wish I could say something about that, but we can't, obviously. So, Jim, I'm super excited about this, anything that you want to share with us about where they would go to register and one of the things that they could do to get plugged in.
Jim:	[10:02] Yeah, sure, it's real simple, hashtag HPE Discover, it'll take you right to your registration, or you can just search on HPE Discover. It just takes two to three minutes. And maybe a couple other things I would just highlight in terms of how we're thinking about the event, you kind of touched on it, Robert, around data. We're going to be leveraging data and we're thinking differently about how we want to deliver experiences. We really wanted to think in terms of words like immersive or experiential. When we thought about our demo experiences this year, and we really are thinking not just a static Zoom type of a thing, but how do we actually take our attendees to space or to track side at an F1 event or to a soccer game, where they can actually feel the energy of the event. [10:50] And then, more importantly, they'll hear from HPE customers reinforcing how our technology and our expertise is giving them that competitive advantage. So really how we thought about the demo experience and being much more engaging is something we're excited about. Another thing that I would probably highlight is that we've got a really strong lineup this year of special sessions with some very serious star power speakers. Like for example, Lewis Hamilton, who was a seven time Formula One drivers champion. Or Megan Rapinoe, who was a U.S. soccer star. Michelle Wie West, female golfer, just outstanding. Mary Barra, who was the CEO of GM. Beth Ford, CEO of Land O'Lakes. I could go on and on. [11:32] They're going to be talking about topics focused on building a more sustainable future or how we can all be champions of change around topics like purpose and equality or how we can foster more women representation in technology. That's an area that we're very passionate about. We have a great session teed up this year. We feel that there is something for everyone at Discover this year and we're really looking forward to the event.
Robert:	[12:20] Jim, always great to talk with you and thanks for joining me today.
Jim:	[12:25] Well, so awesome to be here today with you, Robert.
Robert:	[12:28] I appreciate it. Hey, to our listeners, I really hope you enjoyed this episode. Take a second and subscribe. Leave us a review and tell us what you think. We really want to know your feedback. And, of course, join us at HPE Discover. Thank you for tuning in and have a great day. Bye-bye.