HP Discover 2012 Conference Promises Insights, Information and User Networking as Businesses Face a Crossroads in IT Performance

Transcript of a sponsored BriefingsDirect podcast on the upcoming June 4 HP Discover 2012 event in Las Vegas.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod. Download the transcript. Sponsor: HP.

Dana Gardner: Hi, this is Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions, and you’re listening to BriefingsDirect.

Today, we present a sponsored podcast discussion on the upcoming HP Discover 2012 conference and why this June event in Las Vegas is both an exclamation point on the current enterprise IT climate of change, as well as a neon signpost for HP's strategy and direction.

We'll look at why IT is at a crossroads, and how the very nature of IT is being redefined as a result of such large and global trends as the accelerating speed of business, cloud computing, security needs, mobile, energy-conservation demands, and especially the new role of IT as a service.

Such trends are pushing those tasked with supporting their businesses, as never before, to meet and collaborate with their peers and colleagues, and really re-evaluate how IT and business come together.

We'll show how HP Discover 2012 provides an unparalleled opportunity for HP users to absorb the insights of the HP ecosystem and to learn more about their fields and technologies from their peers and associates. [Disclosure: HP is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

We'll further examine how this event marks an important time for HP, as it solidifies its responses to these trends, provides new levels of education and more insight into its new product services, vision, and leadership.

Lastly, we'll explore how attendees at such events can best benefit while there by identifying some best practices and by describing some of the meetings, fun events, and collaboration opportunities.

With me now to help better understand HP Discover and its benefits is Nina Buik, Chief Marketing Officer at Connect Worldwide, the largest user community of HP Business Technology customers with more than 55,000 members worldwide. Nina is also a noted blogger, author, and a longtime observer of all things HP.

Nina, welcome to BriefingsDirect.

Nina Buik: Thank you. Good to be here, Dana.

Gardner: Now, I've been at a few of these events, and you've been at a few of these events. Almost every time we’ll hear the idea that things are different and changing, but I honestly believe that this is really an exceptional time for IT. The amount of change, the pressure, the insistence from businesses on getting new and better results from IT make it an unprecedented time. I hope you share that, and maybe you can explain it better than I can.

A crossroads

Buik: Absolutely, Dana. You I have been in this industry for quite some time and have seen lots of changes, but I think we're at a crossroads right now, going into a new era of computing with cloud computing, bring your own device (BYOD), the challenges with security, and a laser focus on gaining better business outcomes through technology. This is why it's so important this year to come to events like HP Discover to get answers.

We've talked about networking with peers in order to be able to understand how they're achieving some of these goals, but also you want to look within the data center. You’ve got fewer and fewer people supporting IT.

IT has become very sophisticated, requiring fewer hands to touch the system. Therefore folks need to get out and hear messaging from their partners, HP, and HP’s partners to see how they can achieve these goals.

Gardner: One of the interesting things, when we talk about the effect on individuals who are managing and implementing IT, is that they're being required to be both specialists and generalists. The days of being niche oriented are over. You need to be very deep, but you also need to understand the business implications and how you play a role in the organization culturally.

So it's an important time for people to look within themselves and ask, "How can I improve my situation in order to help IT be better for my company?"

Folks who were in more of a management or a systems management role are being asked to be strategic as well.

Buik: You're absolutely right. You bring up an important point, because I think that the trend also is that folks who were in more of a management or a systems management role are being asked to be strategic as well.

They're having to expand their knowledge of systems, instead of just focusing on the network and the integration of how storage fits into this, how parts of our ecosystem work together and, talking about goals, how do we achieve these goals by integrating all of these aspects?

Gardner: HP Discover is at the Venetian Hotel and Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas. It is the week of June 4 and goes for 4-5 days. For those folks who might not be familiar, Discover is really the culmination and the integration of a number of other conferences that had been a part of HP and its other companies that came from the acquisition trend that led to the modern HP over the years.

So this isn't really a small event. I think it's something like 10,000 attendees. This is really the mother of all events for HP. Isn't that right, Nina?

Buik: Absolutely. I've been attending this event every year since it's started in Orlando. If you recall, Katrina forced the event to move to Orlando from New Orleans, and I've seen it grow every year. It's been so exciting not only to see the changes in technology, but to bring in other communities.

Important addition

As you know, the event brought in the software community. Software Universe merged with HP Technology Forum & Expo to become HP Discover. That was really an important addition to this event, because you really can't have one without the other. They need to be together, and it's very exciting to see the results of that. Last year was incredible with 10,000 people together, and really, it helps the attendees get the most out of their investments.

Gardner: You bring up an interesting point about the technology, the software, and everything coming together. All of those people involved with these aspects of IT will be under the same roof. This is another reason I think we’re at an really exceptional time in IT.

Innovation in the past sort of came on a spot basis. We may have had an ability to do networking faster. We may have had an opportunity for new standards to be brought to interoperability. Or perhaps there were accelerating benefits around best practices for development, test, deploy and performance management.

But when you look at trends like big data, cloud computing, hybrid computing, converged infrastructure, and modernizing applications -- these are trends that have cut across all aspects of IT. They show that IT needs to be done with a comprehensive strategic approach. It's not just bolting something on anymore.

One of the things about HP is that there are really just a very few organizations that can be brought to bear at that strategic level, where it’s not incumbent than upon the end-user organization to pull these threads together. You’ve got a partner in a company that also has its fingers in all the right places.

There are so many opportunities where you can sit down side by side with engineers and get questions answered.

Do you share that view that we're at a unique time, where being comprehensive is actually an asset to being able to change IT holistically?

Buik: You hit on something key. Partnerships and alliances are so critical right now. A lot of companies in the small-to-medium size business (SMB) space typically don't have that opportunity to sit down with a company like HP to discuss all of these concerns and how to tie them all in together. At HP Discover they can do that.

There are so many opportunities where you can sit down side by side with engineers and get questions answered. So you have that expertise at your fingertips. You're able to bring that back to your organization, make those plans, and achieve the goals that you're looking for.

But in terms of partnership, relationships are built on trust. When you have that trust relationship, there's accountability on both sides to communicate well, to focus on the goals, and look at HP as a trusted partner.

I use Pella as an example. You and I have spoken about Pella before. Pella is a great example of how an effective strategic alliance relationship with a key partner can absolutely yield better business outcomes. They're in the housing industry. I think they're the number one or two windows and doors company in the world, and they maintained their profitable status through the worst housing crisis we’ve ever faced.

Strong partnership

They’ve done that through proper utilization of their information technology, so that they don’t over order and they don’t over staff. It’s been remarkable to see how they’ve done this through a strong partnership with HP and they're getting ready to implement a hybrid cloud as well.

Gardner: We’ll revisit some of the users and ways that companies are benefiting a little bit later, but I’d like to hear some more about Connect Worldwide. You’ve also had a variety of different threads that have come together over the years and now you're large and global with 55,000 members. Tell me a little bit about the history of Connect and why this is such a big deal for you too?

Buik: This is near and dear to my heart, Dana. I’ve been involved with the HP user communities going back almost 20 years, as a former member of the community and a member of the board of directors. The communities decided to come together in 2008. You had the NonStop community, the traditional HP-Interex community, as well as Encompass come together to form one large HP enterprise user community, and we became Connect.

The things that we’ve accomplished together and the way that we focus on help the users become successful with the technologies they use. Our goal is to help a member get the most out of their business technology investments. We do that through providing opportunities to influence HP and HP’s partners, or advocacy, and education and awareness. We're making the members aware of not only what’s going on within HP, but educating them on products and solutions that HP has available for them.

Most importantly, we provide opportunities for like-minded users to get together and share best practices. They can learn from each other, and it’s magical when it comes together. It truly is. So we look forward to having a record number of members attend HP Discover this year.

They bring these two together and they're able to make some strategic decisions that they can bring back to their organizations.

Gardner: Why do you suppose that’s the case, Nina? Why do you have so many Connect users flocking to Discover this year?

Buik: There are a number of reasons. Number one, we're introducing new special-interest group meetings at HP Discover this year. We're launching a cloud special interest group (SIG). We have a Superdome SIG and a variety of other SIGs. But aside from community, I think this is the right time.

We're at crossroads in technology, and people within the community know that, at community events, they're going to be able to discuss with other folks how they're using a particular technology. For example, if they're interested in cloud computing, what’s a better place to come together to learn how other companies are using these technologies as well as understand what HP is offering? So they bring these two together and they're able to make some strategic decisions that they can bring back to their organizations.

Gardner: I should point out as full disclosure that I'm a blogger on the Connect site and really appreciate the opportunity to participate. It’s been three or more years that we’ve been doing that.

I envy the fact that you’ve got 55,000 people that you can tap into. As a researcher, myself, it’s probably an unparalleled opportunity to reach the HP ecosystem and find out what’s going on. Have you’ve been doing any polling recently? What have you been able to tell us about what the zeitgeist, the mentality, is among your users?

Peer networking

Buik: We can talk about a few polls that we’ve done recently. Just before the registration for Discover launched, we wanted to understand why our members wanted to attend Discover. The number one reason was peer networking, followed closely by education.

That ties right back into what we were just talking about, being able to talk to other members and just other attendees about their experiences working with HP and using various HP technologies. What is the saying, "Self praise is no recommendation?" You really learn more from others.

Then again, tie that right into speaking with the HP engineers and other professionals about what HP has to offer, and between the two, you can make great decisions. In terms of education, there are over 700 sessions in the session catalog. There's everything from cloud to security. There is just so much being offered.

Another interesting poll that we did on the top technology trends for 2012, a lot of folks are looking at platform migration, the Oracle announcement. So we know there are members who are looking at platform migration, and that could be a huge endeavor, depending on the company size, the size of the systems, or the number of systems involved.

So what better place to go to, to learn from others who perhaps have experienced that, than at an event like HP Discover?

There are members who are looking at platform migration, and that could be a huge endeavor, depending on the company size, the size of the systems, or the number of systems involved.

Gardner: You know, how dependent we are now on social media, with tweets, blogs, Facebook alerts, and walls of friends and associates scrolling by us. But there really isn’t a better place to do that than in person. If you're a big fan of social media then you'd think that you’d also be a big fan of social interactions that can be far richer and extemporaneous.

You are going to have interactions, as I often do at these events, that you don’t expect. We meet people that you don’t have on your list. It’s a way of broadening those concentric circles that we all seem to depend on more-and-more.

Buik: Absolutely, and you can extend the conversation beyond 140 characters.

Gardner: Tell me, before we move on to some of the particulars, what’s going to happen at Discover. Certification is also a big deal now. Getting back to that issue about career and how to position yourself at these crossroads for your personal future, isn’t there sort of a big opportunity around certification here at these events?

Buik: There is. The ExpertONE community is offering five free certifications with your registration. Each one of those certifications cost anywhere between $150 and $200. So that’s a huge deal. But more than that, through the years, the importance and significance of certifications has changed.

Now, more than ever, IT professionals are looking at certification as a means to separate themselves from the competition for particular job opportunities, or even within an organization, to show that they can kind of move up within an organization.

Flooded market

There are just so many people now looking for work. It’s a very flooded market. I recently spoke with the CIO who said, I post one opportunity and my human resource manager brings me 1,500 résumés. The only way I can differentiate, to weed out the first round, is through certification. So it’s really important.

Gardner: Discover, of course, provides an unprecedented opportunity for HP itself. They have the opportunity of getting 10,000 people under "one tent." They have their main stage presentations. It’s really the premiere coming-out party for HP, when it has new vision, when it has strategies that it wants to solidify, and when it comes to introducing and affirming leadership.

As I understand it, these main-stage events are going to have an emphasis on converged cloud, application transformation, enterprise security, and information optimization, that big-data part that’s so important for organizations now. Of course, that includes the non-structured information too.

We're going to hear from Meg Whitman, HP’s President and CEO. I think it’s her first big appearance in North America. She did, of course, present in Vienna at the fall Discover. Is this a big deal for Meg, in particular, do you think, Nina?

Buik: I think so. I did hear her speak in Vienna, as her first opportunity to address HP customers. She did absolutely what she should do, as explained in her vision for the company. Now it’s time to turn the corner and talk about technology, where we're going with technology, and how HP has committed to supporting the customer through these changes.

There are just so many people now looking for work. It’s a very flooded market

This is even more important than that first opportunity to say, "Here’s who I am. Here’s a little bit about me." She has established herself, and now it’s time to focus on the technology and on how HP is committed and dedicated to helping HP business technology customers achieve success in this new environment.

Gardner: And she is going to be joined on stage by such HP leaders as Dave Donatelli, the Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Enterprise Group; Todd Bradley, the Executive Vice President of Printing and Personal Systems Group; Bill Veghte, the Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President of HP Software; Mike Lynch, the Executive Vice President for Information Management; and John Visentin, Executive Vice President for Enterprise Services.

I also understand that Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of Dreamworks Animation, is going to be on stage. Of course, Dreamworks has been in tight collaboration with HP in the production of its animation and 3D products. So that should be very interesting.

You mentioned earlier that we’ve got something like 700-800 business and technical sessions. There is the Discover Zone of the exhibits area, where more than 350,000 square feet space will be devoted to IT solutions from the ecosystem, where you can find the partners and the folks that are part and parcel of the total-solution approach.

There is the one-day Partner Summit on Monday, June 4, and an invitation-only CIO Summit as well. Now, tell me about Connect. You’ve got some of your own events at Discover, I think there is a community night?

Opportunity to network

Buik: Absolutely. Connect will be part of the Community Lounge in the Discover Zone. It’s right next to the bloggers’ lounge. So it’s an opportunity for Connect members and folks who don’t know about Connect to come to learn more, as well as take a load off their feet. No one is trying to sell anything. We're just trying to make sure everybody is comfortable, happy, and has an opportunity to meet and network with others.

Typically, a lot of folks come to the Community Lounge and use it somewhat as an informational area. Where can they learn more about x, y, z, or where might there be a particular topic? The great thing is that so many people are attending, we can actually make those connections right there. So it’s really a neat place to be.

Also, on Wednesday evening, we're hosting a community appreciation night with Vivit which is the HP software community. That’s going to be at Gilley’s, across the street from the Venetian at Treasure Island. Wednesday evening, we're going to host a tweet up from 7:00 to 8:00 followed by a Going for the Gold community appreciation night. So there’s going to be a lot of fun, as we kind of celebrate the ancient Greek games, but western style with a twist. So we’ve got a lot of fun things coming.

As we talked about social media earlier, we're really tying in social media as part of this event to extend the buzz around the world.

Gardner: It’s in Vegas. So there are always interesting things going on there, and HP takes advantage of that venue.

My advice to folks who are attending an event as big as HP Discover is to define what your goals are for the event.

So I'm looking forward to this. There are a lot of fun things, a lot of interesting things for your personal career, for your company, and then of course, learning more about where HP is heading in the coming year or two.

Any other presentations that jump out at you? I know there are over 700 to choose from, but maybe you could tell us some best practices, when you’ve got this ocean to boil at an event this big, but you have limited time and availability for taking advantage of that. How do you triage? How do you find the best and tailor what to do to get the most bang for your buck and your time?

Buik: Dana, my advice to folks who are attending an event as big as HP Discover is to define what your goals are for the event. I want to learn more about XYZ or my goal is to come back with a plan for how we're going to implement a hybrid cloud or a private cloud? Or my goal could be that I find myself in between jobs. I know folks who are doing this. They've bought their registration and they're going there to network, because they’ve worked in the HP space for so many years.

But have a plan. Then, go look at the session scheduler and find the sessions that match your plan. You can do a keyword search. You can do a search by track. Identify the sessions that will meet your needs or help you meet those objectives.

Look for SIG meetings, if you want to hear from peers. Connect has 12 SIG meetings. So keyword search SIG. That's a great opportunity for you to interact not only with other like-minded professionals, but also with HP folks who are subject matter experts on that particular topic or SIG.

Have a plan

But it's really important to have a plan. As you just said, Dana, there is something going on every minute of every day for those four days. So you have to plan carefully.

But also take time to socialize. A lot of times at these evening events and member appreciation events, really good networking occurs, because everybody is not so focused on learning, but open to having discussions and conversations with others. So I definitely encourage folks to take advantage of the social opportunities, as well as so many educational opportunities that exist.

Gardner: I was looking over some of the presentations and a couple jumped out of me. I'm going to give some times and dates. They're subject to change, but I'm going to take the risk anyway.

One that grabbed my attention was "Winning with HP's Converged Cloud Solutions," 11:15 on Tuesday, June 5. Marge Breya, Vice President Worldwide Marketing for HP Software, will be presenting along with Steve Dietch, Vice President, Worldwide Cloud. That should be of interest.

"Project Odyssey," which is defining the mission-critical computing, 1:30 on Tuesday. Martin Fink, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Business Critical Systems, will be presenting and redefining data-center economics with the new ProLiant Gen8 servers, a very interesting subject.

There is something going on every minute of every day for those four days. So you have to plan carefully.

Mark Potter, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Industry-standard Servers and Software, will be presenting "Enterprise Security," always a top topic, at 5:15 on Tuesday, June 5. Tom Reilly, Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Security. So lots of big stuff, not just the main stage, but some really interesting subjects by some of the top people in the field.

So I hope we’ve enticed some people’s interest in this. I hope that they consider not only the event but also being part of Connect tin the community. More information of course is available online. You can do a search on HP Discover 2012 and get there very rapidly. There is also a full page devoted to HP Discover on the hp.com site.

And if you haven't registered, there are ways of doing that. Do you have any codes or any goodies for people that are registering that might take advantage of your organization?

Buik: We absolutely do, Dana. You can learn more about Connect by visiting connect-community.org, but also if you register for HP Discover you can get a $300 discount and be affiliated with the community, so that you can get your fast pass into the community party on Wednesday evening. The code is UG2012.

Gardner: That's worth $300?

Buik: $300.

Gardner: Not bad.

Buik: Easy money.

Gardner: Well good. I look forward to the event. I look forward to seeing you again, Nina. It's fun to hang out and learn more from the folks around us. I'm going to be doing some podcasting as well at Discover, as I have been doing for a few years now. So that should be fun.

You've been listening to a sponsored BriefingsDirect podcast discussion on the upcoming HP Discover 2012 Conference and why this June event in Las Vegas is both an exclamation point, if you will, on the current enterprise IT climate of change, as well as a neon signpost for HP's strategy and direction.

We've seen how this June 4 event marks an important time for HP and it certainly should mark an important time for the attendees, their careers, their companies, and how they're going to tackle this important time in IT and business in general.

I would like to extend a thanks to our guest, Nina Buik, Chief Marketing Officer at Connect Worldwide. Thanks Nina.

Buik: Thank you, Dana. See you in Vegas.

Gardner: Absolutely. This is Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions. Thanks again for listening, and come back next time.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod. Download the transcript. Sponsor: HP.

Transcript of a sponsored BriefingsDirect podcast on the upcoming June 4 HP Discover 2012 event in Las Vegas. Copyright Interarbor Solutions, LLC, 2005-2012. All rights reserved.

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Ariba Network Plus Dynamic Discounting Give Startup Mediafly Cash Flow Benefits, Help in Managing Capital

Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how cloud networking helps a small company work well with Fortune 500 enterprises.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod. Download the transcript. Sponsor: Ariba.

Dana Gardner: Hello, and welcome to a special BriefingsDirect podcast series coming to you from the 2012 Ariba LIVE Conference in Las Vegas.

We’re here to explore the latest in cloud-based collaborative commerce and learn how innovative companies are tapping into the networked economy. We’ll see how they're improving their business productivity along with building far-reaching relationships with new partners and customers.

I'm Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions and I'll be your host throughout this series of Ariba-sponsored BriefingsDirect case study discussions. [Disclosure: Ariba is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

Our next innovator interview focuses on Mediafly, a startup company that delivers cloud-based applications for content management and distribution on mobile devices for Fortune 500 companies.

We’ll learn how Mediafly, through the Ariba Network, gained insight and control over its cash flow and found new means of managing capital and in aiding its ability to support ongoing operations, as well as to drive future growth.

To hear how they did it, please join me now in welcoming two executives from Mediafly, Carson Conant, CEO, and John Evarts, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Welcome to you both.

Carson Conant: Thank you.

John Evarts: Thank you very much. Good to be here.

Gardner: Let me start with you, Carson. Tell me about the type of business you are. I think there's an interesting opportunity here to explore why buying and selling things works in an advantageous way for you. Tell me about the size of your company and why managing cash flow is so important.

Conant: Mediafly is the leader in the presentation platform market. What that means is that we’re the company that helps bridge the gap between large Fortune 1000 companies, their internal systems, and primarily mobile applications, but also things like Internet-connected televisions, and so forth.

Lots of video

Large companies create lots of video. It could be live broadcast, sales presentations, training videos, and TV and movie industry content. When they're trying to distribute that content to make it available on all of these emerging devices, particularly at that large scale, they need a provider like Mediafly. We’re a leader in the space right now.

Gardner: As a small company, what are you facing, when it comes to the financial pressures? Let’s go to you, John.

Evarts: As a small company, we often don't have a balance sheet that’s attractive to banks, among other things. As we seek things like angel investment or equity investment, we need to do things that are extremely capital efficient with those funds.

When we have an opportunity for revenue, especially revenue at large corporations, Fortune 100 companies, these are large contracts. As a small organization, contracting with larger organizations, it’s absolutely critical for us to manage that cash flow well and have visibility into the cash flow.

As we said, we’ve been growing very quickly. So our recurring revenue has grown by 3x over the last two years. As we grow quickly, we need to have that visibility into cash management, because it’s absolutely critical that we staff at the right time relative to taking advantage of opportunities that are out there in the market.

Gardner: So looking at this from an elasticity point of view, larger companies have a bit more wiggle room. As a smaller company you don't, but you need to grow fast. Help me understand what led you to do things differently in order to make this elasticity work in your favor.

Conant: We’re very fortunate. One of our largest customers is in the media entertainment space and we did a large seven-figure deal with them over a series of years. But the way that they do invoicing and transactions is through the Ariba Network. They said, "For you to get paid, join the Ariba Network."

So that was the first thing that got us onto the network. What was amazing is that once we got on there, as John said, it was unlike a lot of our other transactions with similarly large companies. In those companies it’s just like a black box. You've got a several hundred thousand-dollar invoice that goes out, and you may not know if that’s going to come in in two weeks or six weeks.

What was amazing to us with Ariba was the ability to know exactly where we were in that payment process. Ultimately we took advantage of this program they call "dynamic discounting," which allowed us to accelerate cash for a couple of basis points.

Huge ramifications

So for a fairly inconsequential amount of money to us, we were able to get paid in about 14 days instead of 60 days. It had huge ramifications on our business. What that did for us is allowed us to interact with them in a way that they preferred, but still have the nimbleness that we need from it as being a small company.

Gardner: So visibility and predictability are really important. In the past, people would generally go to a bank to get a line of credit and pay a high interest rate in order to have that accordion to manage their cash flows. You’ve found a way to do this, not through a bank, but through working directly with your customers and perhaps even incentivizing them to help you with your cash flow and visibility and your saving on the interest. It sounds like a win-win all around.

Evarts: It's an excellent opportunity for us to work with a partner and deepen that partnership with our vendors. We’ve found that, as Carson said, for a few basis points of a concession on the contract, we’re able to factor 100 percent of the contract value of the invoice.

When that occurs, the advantage to us is that we're able to immediately take advantage of it, as soon as it hits the system, to take 100 percent of those otherwise unknown collection periods. When we can reduce the collection periods from 60 days all the way to 14 days. We’re in a much stronger financial position, because we can take advantage of those dollars.

Gardner: Carson, what has this enabled you to do in terms of growing your company?

Conant: The first time we took advantage of dynamic discounting, it was relatively early in a development cycle for a security package that we were in the process of building. What that did allowed us to get access to cash to bring in additional resources to accelerate those featured enhancements.

It sparked additional Fortune 100 contracts. It was fundamentally game changing for us.

Literally, two weeks after signing this deal with one of the largest entertainment companies in the world, we were in the board room with one of the largest global banks in the world touting these new security features we had, which we otherwise wouldn’t have had for maybe 60 days.

It sparked additional Fortune 100 contracts. It was fundamentally game changing for us. We joke that it would be interesting if all of our customers leveraged something like dynamic discounting. It would be transformative for our business. It would drastically accelerate how we can deploy cash. Then you think about it in terms of what could it do for the economy.

If all these companies were taking advantage of this, it would boost the stability and the growth of their partners and their vendors. It would be something. That’s why we’re so vocal about it.

Evarts: As a small organization that is very nimble and trying to innovate, it speeds up and accelerates the pace of innovation that we’re able to generate. The new features that we offered to this first client, we were immediately able to turn and sell to one of the leading investment banks as the same security capability.

So when we’re able to quickly accelerate and bring new innovations to market, obviously everybody benefits. Mediafly benefits, and ultimately, our customers are going to benefit as well.

Level playing field

Gardner: And what strikes me is that this seems to be a level playing field between you, a small company, and as you point out, some of the largest media companies in the world. You’re playing with the same rules with Ariba being the arbiter, if you will. You can partake in those services just as easily as the big company. Is this a leveling of the playing field?

Conant: Absolutely. There are probably two or three technologies that we've taken advantage of that have just come into play in the last three to five years. One of them is cloud-based infrastructure. We don't have to buy servers anymore. That’s allowed a company of our size to outpace and out-compete companies that have been around for a long time and provide enterprise services to Fortune 100 global companies.

Then, you look at Ariba, and it's very similar. It allows us to interact with them the same way that they would interact with another large company. Doing business with us doesn’t feel different than doing business with another large company.

They get what they want, we get some additional visibility and some things that are valuable to us. But, these technologies have just come into play in the last three to five years, and it's really allowed a company like Mediafly to exist.

Gardner: A lot of times, analysts like myself focus on the technology behind the cloud, but it's really a game changer, when it comes to business processes and allows for the compression of what used to be latency in terms of business functions, monetization, and cash flow. Now, when everybody has visibility, when the level field is there for all participants, it's much more efficient and direct, and we’re just starting to pick some of the fruit of that.

These technologies have just come into play in the last three to five years, and it's really allowed a company like Mediafly to exist.

Evarts: And you touched on it. Creating scalable solutions is absolutely critical and it allows a small organization with relatively limited initial capital, first to be able to scale to a level, and participate in the Ariba Network, and basically have the same credentials as some of the largest companies in the world.

Folks who are transacting with Mediafly are doing it in the exact same way that they do with other Fortune 100 peers. To some degree, to us, it's a competitive advantage, and we feel that way. We feel that if we're on the system, we’ve been vetted, and other folks are using us on the system. It's an excellent credential for us to have and a nice reference for us.

Gardner: So it's also a go-to market strategy.

Evarts: Absolutely.

Gardner: Tell me a little bit more about Mediafly. What do you do? Content management, the mobile thing, is huge. You're using cloud to your advantage in a number of different ways. Maybe you can give us the elevator pitch about what you do, and why people should be interested.

Conant: One of the best ways is to think of an example. Think of all the TV and movie productions that are going on the studios. Those companies have thousands of video files that they're housing inside of their four walls. They're trying to expose that content to all of their executives and staff, everybody from the makeup artist that needs to watch the last three dailies to the CEO and the president.

Perfect platform

Now, they want to be able to do that on iPads, iPhone, Android, and on televisions connected to the web. We're the perfect platform, because there is so much that has to go on that so many gears are turning to make all that happen.

That’s a perfect solution for the cloud, and those companies now integrate with us so that that material is available to all the different stakeholders on all of these different devices. So we’ve dropped ourselves in and filled the gap between their in-house systems and all of these mobile devices.

Gardner: If I understand correctly, lots of content needs to be shared, and you're able to deal with the multiple panes of glass, the formats, the streaming, codecs, all these other technical issues.

Conant: Yes. Security is a huge thing, too. Think about the value of this content. It's their important assets. How do you move this thing around so that when it's on an iPad, if that iPad gets stolen or persons are let go from the organization, that they're not walking away with sensitive information.

We also provide that same service for documents for one of the larger global banks. So when they're training their sales force or their sales force is going on doing one-on-one presentations to large money managers, they are doing that with iPads. If that thing is lost or that thing gets hacked into, that content is protected. This comes back to that security suite. There is a whole lot of functionality we’ve added to really make this enterprise great.

We feel that this Ariba Discovery concept is extremely valuable to us as a small organization, as we look to scale as a lead generation opportunity and ultimately, as we’re transacting business.

Gardner: Now that we understand a bit more about how this is important as a function, let's revisit this notion about the cloud as an enabler. Ariba calls it the networked economy. That really gets to what we've been talking about -- that there are multiple levers that incentivize all the players to contribute. But then they all get something out of it, including that great visibility and control, when it comes to money, as well as business processes that can make all the difference.

Let's go one more time into this notion of the networked economy. We’ve touched briefly on how this could be a go-to market for you. Let's expand on that. How in providing a discount incentive to cash flow, and using the Ariba Network, does that end up getting you more customers?

Evarts: One of the tools that we’re just trying to tap into is this concept called Ariba Discovery. Discovery allows you to self select a series of industries, what they call commodities. That allows you to say, "These are the services that we offer." Then, large companies are able to go on that system and say, "These are the services that we're looking for." So it's really kind of a matchmaking function.

While we’ve only scratched the surface -- we feel we're relatively new to this system -- we feel that this Ariba Discovery concept is extremely valuable to us as a small organization, as we look to scale as a lead generation opportunity and ultimately, as we’re transacting business.

We feel that as a small vendor, if there are a number of individual companies that are looking to leverage this system, we're happy to make a light concession, obviously, for the right amount of basis points and just for the right timing. We're able to then take advantage of that, accelerate cash in. When non-financial companies, at the end of third quarter last year, had $3 trillion sitting on their balance sheets, you know that there's a ton of liquidity out there that will be invested, and is going to be invested in different ways.

One way that folks can take advantage of it is using a system like Ariba in order to support the supply chain, investing in their current partners.

Of, for, by the cloud

Gardner: So you're sort of of, for, and by the cloud. When it came to moving toward Ariba and using some of their services, did that work as an off-the-cloud service, where there wasn't anything on premise or you didn’t have to have your IT people involved in? How friendly a cloud player did Ariba turn out to be?

Conant: Extremely friendly, relative to some other more manual processes that some of our other customers leverage. The best example that is our ultimate discovery of the dynamic discounting program. Our controller noticed a checkbox in our interface. It's a web-based interface and he asked John, "This looks interesting. Should we take advantage of it?" We said, "Yeah, let's try it on our first invoice."

This was not some training that had to happen before we understood how to use this system. It was a couple of checkboxes, and now we are getting paid earlier.

To me, that's really what the cloud is. A company like Ariba, in my opinion, has done a really good job of abstracting, so you're left with just an elegant functionality and it's in the cloud. It's all web-based. There's nothing we had to deploy on premises.

We're a cloud company. So it feels natural. I can't even imagine how simple it must seem to somebody who's used to using things on premises.

Not only can we now take full advantage of their entire cloud-based infrastructure, but it was very easy for us as a small vendor to get onto this system.

Evarts: One of the key elements for us was the ease to get on the system. When a customer whose that large asks you to join, and you're as small as you are, you say absolutely, how quickly and when. Ariba was absolutely fantastic in helping us to get onto this system and then ultimately helping us navigate, within the course of a couple of hours max, to have been fully integrated into the system. Not only can we now take full advantage of their entire cloud-based infrastructure, but it was very easy for us as a small vendor to get onto this system.

Gardner: On the other side, the flip side of the coin, these global Fortune 500 companies were familiar with Ariba. You didn’t have to drag them along and convince them. There was already the established trust and credibility.

Conant: We’re still scratching the surface, as more and more companies are moving this way. It seems like a lot of the people that we’re talking to are moving into cloud-based procurement solutions, things like Ariba. As more time goes on, more and more of our customers will be on Ariba and leveraging dynamic discounting and so forth.

What's great is that each one that is using Ariba is already set up. It's just a matter of them attaching our profile or however it happens behind the scene. But there are not a whole lot of additional process. That’s what's neat about the network effect. Once multiple parties are on a network, it's just a matter of connecting the two lines together.

Gardner: I am afraid we’ll have to leave it there. We’ve been talking about how Mediafly, through the Ariba Network and a dynamic-discounting program, gained insight and control over its cash flow and found new ways of managing capital to support ongoing operations and drive future growth.

Join me in thanking our guests. We’ve been here with Carson Conant, CEO of Mediafly based in Chicago. Thank you, Carson.

Conant: Thank you, very much.

Gardner: We’ve also been here with John Evarts, the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Mediafly. Thank you.

Evarts: Thanks for having me.

Gardner: And thank you to our audience for joining us for this special podcast coming to you from the 2012 Ariba Live Conference at Las Vegas. I'm Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions, your host throughout this series of Ariba-sponsored BriefingsDirect discussions. Thanks for listening, and come back next time.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod. Download the transcript. Sponsor: Ariba.

Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how cloud networking helps a small company work well with Fortune 500 enterprises. Copyright Interarbor Solutions, LLC, 2005-2012. All rights reserved.

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For Acorda Therapeutics, Disaster Recovery Protects Vital Enterprise Assets and Smooths Way to Data-Center Flexibility and Migration

Transcript of a sponsored podcast discussion on how a fine-tuned disaster recovery program can produce benefits across the IT landscape.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod. Download the transcript. Sponsor: VMware.

Dana Gardner: Hi, this is Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions, and you’re listening to BriefingsDirect.

Today, we present a sponsored podcast discussion on how biotechnology services provider Acorda Therapeutics has implemented a strategic disaster recovery (DR) capability to protect its highly virtualized IT operations and data.

We will see how Acorda Therapeutics’ use of advanced backup and DR best practices and products has helped it to manage rapid growth, cut energy costs, and gain the means to recover and manage applications and data faster. We will also see how these advanced DR benefits have led to other data center flexibly and even migration benefits. [Disclosure: VMware is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

Here to share more detail on how modernizing DR has helped improve many aspects of Acorda Therapeutics’ responsiveness is Josh Bauer, Senior Manager of Network Operations at Acorda Therapeutics in Hawthorne, New York. Welcome to BriefingsDirect, Josh.

Josh Bauer: Thank you.

Gardner: From a high level, looking at the landscape of how things are changing so rapidly, what do you perceive as being different today about DR than just a few years ago? Is this really a fast moving area?

Bauer: One of the most prominent changes is recovery time, especially with this technology such as virtualization using VMware. You no longer need to restore from physical tape and see recovery times of upwards of 24 hours, something that we hadn’t seen until recently. We implemented Site Recovery Manager (SRM) from VMware and we can now do that same recovery in about four hours.

Gardner: So one of the chief benefits is just moving from tape into a more virtualized environment, where you can get fast turnaround. How about completeness? Is there an element of completeness that has improved as well?

Bauer: Absolutely. We're constantly replicating using RecoverPoint and we can get data up to the minute, versus tape, where you are at the whim of whether the backup completed on time -- did everything go to tape, and when was it done? It could have been two days ago, versus now, when it's data that’s 100 percent synced up to a minute ago.

Gardner: I am also wondering, because you are in the healthcare and biotechnology field, are there aspects of this that appeal to you from a compliance or regulatory perspective as well?

Bauer: Definitely. Four times per year we have to prove that we can recover all of our software and data by doing a DR test. Until we had SRM, we had to do it all from tape, from a cold facility, and it would take us a day, sometimes a day-and-a-half. That’s just not the best way to do things. But now, with SRM, we can always do these tests on the fly, even from our office, from home, or from wherever.

Gardner: Tell me a little bit more about Acorda Therapeutics. You were founded in 1995. Tell us what you do, so our audience can understand the type of company you are and type of products and services you provide.

Recent growth

Bauer: We create treatments for people with multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, or other neurological disorders. We have two marketed drugs in the market right now, the most recent of which, Ampyra, helps people with multiple sclerosis walk better, and it has been a huge success. And that's the main reason we've been growing so much lately.

Gardner: Tell me about this issue of growth. When you started to look at your facilities, your data center, and your infrastructure, you obviously made the move to virtualization in a big way. How did it make sense in your mind to go to a DR improvement and how did that come to bear on this issue of being able to ramp up and deal with a fast growing organization?

Bauer: That was just the next logical step. Prior to virtualization, we were spending a lot of time managing our infrastructure, with all those physical servers. Once we virtualized everything, we spent way less time managing the infrastructure and could spend more time helping the business.

In fact, the IT department itself has become less like a computer repair shop and more like a strategy center. I'm constantly being brought into projects to help the business make the right decisions when it comes to any type of technology.

The next logical step would be to have my team spend less time doing these four-times-a-year DR drills the way I described before. With SRM it’s a few clicks. We're saving so much time and we are able to do other things.

The IT department itself has become less like a computer repair shop and more like a strategy center.

Gardner: Just so we have a sense of the growth, you went from 80 employees a few years ago to how many now?

Bauer: Now, it's about 350.

Gardner: That’s pretty impressive. Obviously, too, in this type of field you're dealing with large amounts of data, data that is structured and unstructured. Give us a sense of the storage and/or data requirements that you're facing?

Bauer: When we had about 80 employees, we probably barely had a terabyte, and now we easily have over 14 terabytes.

Gardner: At a high level, tell me about how you approach this, and if you use partners, how you sought some help in terms of figuring out your journey. What was it that you went to in terms of beginning the journey and how it unfolded and got you to the point today, where you can deal with something like 14 terabytes and moment-by-moment backup capability?

Bauer: Specific to DR or the data recovery?

Gardner: The whole journey. How you approached this problem, got some help, and then got to the level you are now.


Strategic partner

Bauer: It all really started at VMworld. That’s been a fantastic way for me to learn what's out there, what's coming up, and just staying in the know. That’s actually where I met International Computerware, Inc. (ICI), who is one of our strategic partners for storage and virtualization.

I had approached them with the growth issue. We had already started doing virtualization on our own. I had used it at a previous company, but I wasn’t familiar with SRM, and it looked like it might be a nice fit for improving our DR. So ICI came in and they sort of held our hands and helped us with that project.

Specific to storage, they have also helped us make sure that we do better management of growth, anticipate our growth, and show that we have more than what we're going to need, before the growth happens, and they've done some analysis on like what we have. We brought them in before things got too bad.

Gardner: So how about beyond the technology and the products? People and process also play a big role in this. Did this require a big shift in culture or skills when you went from cold tape to this more modern and software-based approach?

Bauer: Not much of a cultural shift, luckily, because of projects like virtualization and how successful we've been. The company trusts us to take on new technologies and they kind of leave it to us.

Within IT, the shift was a good one. It was a reduced workload on them, and it's a much better process.

But within IT, the shift was a good one. It was a reduced workload on them, and it's a much better process. As a result, it got more people in my IT department involved in virtualization as well.

Gardner: I'm intrigued about this relationship between server virtualization and a track record of strong skills and process to moving into DR. Tell me a little bit about your IT environment and your level of virtualization and why that led to a sort of no-brainer, when it came to moving to SRM ,and a higher degree of efficiency, when it comes to DR?

Bauer: Since using VMware, we've noticed uptime upwards of three nines monthly. Before that, when we were mostly a physical environment, it was nowhere near that much. We had physical servers going down all the time.

VMware immediately gained our trust, seeing that they came out with this product for DR. It was a name that we trusted. Then, we played with it for a while, and it worked out fantastically.

It's all about trusting VMware and then, again, ICI, working with them. They just know their stuff. We have a lot of different partners we work with, but we prefer to use ICI, because they really focus on doing things properly. It's more about working with someone that really knows what they are doing. They understand that we have some skills, as well. They're not trying to sell us something we don’t need.

Gardner: I believe that ICI was named VMware Business Continuity Partner of the Year in 2011. So clearly there is a strong relationship between them and VMware. But getting back to the products, do you recall what degree of virtualization you have among your servers?

95 percent virtualized

Bauer: We are 95 percent virtualized here. The only thing that’s not virtual is our fax server, which requires a physical fax board and that’s about it. Everything else is virtual.

Gardner: So this is across all tiered apps, tier one, three, four?

Bauer: That’s correct, our SQL apps, our Exchange, everything you can think of is virtualized.

Gardner: I understand you're using vSphere 5. You're on vCenter SRM 5. That only came out towards the end of last year. So you just jumped right on that.

Bauer: Oh, I didn’t waste any time. We were very excited about it, especially this new option of using a failback, which wasn’t really part of SRM Version 4.

Gardner: Tell us a little bit more about why that’s important to you.

They've certainly fixed some of the bugs, and the interface is much better. The whole testing process seems to be a lot more smooth.

Bauer: If you ever have the very unlikely event of a a disaster, when you do a recovery, you're now operating off of the disaster equipment or recovery equipment. While that’s happening, people are still saving files and generating new data. If you were to just simply turn on the original equipment again, all that data would be lost. So you need to fail back to re-sync everything.

With SRM Version 4, you had to configure two one-way recovery systems. So it would take a lot more time. But now with failback, it's a lot more smooth, kind of built-in.

Gardner: How about doing test? If you wanted to try out and see how things were working, perhaps preparing for some of those compliance and regulatory requirements, does that happen a bit easier as well now with the newer version?

Bauer: We've seen a higher success rate on the new version versus the old one. They've certainly fixed some of the bugs, and the interface is much better. The whole testing process seems to be a lot more smooth.

Gardner: Let's move on to how you know you're doing this correctly. Do you have any metrics? Do you track this? Is there anecdotal evidence from your business users, even those who are involved with the compliance issues? Of course, the number one metric is that you don’t suffer downtime and you don’t lose data, but are there other ways that you look at this and say, "Wow, we're saving money, reducing workload, and reducing labor?" Anything along those lines?

Bauer: When we do these four-times-a-year test, we create this lab bubble and we also have a few Windows XP and Windows 7 virtual workstations on there. We invite a few people from the business to log in and test their applications.

They would be protected

So right there, we're getting people outside of IT involved to let them see how cool this is. It also gives them the comfort in knowing that, if there ever were a disaster, they would be protected. They can see it for themselves by actually dialing into the computer and testing things themselves. So there's a huge benefit to that. It deepens the trust between IT and the business.

Gardner: Do you actually have separate data centers that you are backing up to? What's the topology or architecture that you're using?

Bauer: We have two separate data centers, recovery and production.

Gardner: And do you have them far apart in different geographies or do you have them hosted.

Bauer: At the moment they're only a few towns apart, but we are shopping around for a data center much further away. We hope to do that in the next six months or so.

Gardner: And this is all in Hawthorne, New York. Is that correct?

We reduced the footprint by easily 75 percent by not needing so many physical servers.

Bauer: Right.

Gardner: Looking to the future, one other area I wanted to hit on, which is important to a lot of folks, especially in some overseas markets, is this issue about energy. Did you have any impact on energy and/or storage costs associated with the total life cycle of the data?

Bauer: We reduced the footprint by easily 75 percent by not needing so many physical servers. That’s a pretty huge shout-out to VMware there. Also, we're not using that much power. We don’t need as big a data center. Not as much cooling is needed. There's a whole assortment of things, when you take out all the physical servers.

Gardner: Now, looking to the future, other areas that people have described as a segue from going to high virtualization, exploiting the latest technologies in DR, is to start thinking about desktop virtualization infrastructure (VDI) and desktop-as-a-service. They're even looking at cloud and hybrid-cloud models for hosting apps, then backing them up and recovering them in different data centers, which you've alluded to. Do you have any thoughts about where this could possibly lead?

Bauer: In fact, if you were going to ask me what my next initiative was going to be, and you didn’t mention desktops, that’s the first thing that would have come to mind. We're starting to explore replacing our laptops with virtual desktops. I'm hoping this is something that we could implement next year.

Right way to go

This seems like the right way to go, because our helpdesk team spends too much time swapping out laptops or replacing laptops that are dropped on the ground. You're looking at a small thin client, which is the fraction of the cost of a laptop. Plus, the data is no longer kept in a laptop. There are no security or compliance issues. You can l just give them a thin client, and they are back in business.

Gardner: So you rest easily of course with good DR, but you rest easy, as well, when your intellectual property is all well protected across the entire spectrum of its deployment and use in local storage.

Bauer: Exactly. It makes everybody in this company, especially at the top-level, nervous to know that some sensitive data still does make it out to the laptops. We tell people to save everything to their network drives, but without using thin clients and virtual desktops, there's no other way to force that.

Gardner: How about advice for those folks that might be moving towards a more modern DR journey, as you described it? What would you advise to them as they begin, and what lessons might you have learned that you could share?

Bauer: First off, do it. You're going to be glad that you did. The good thing about this is that you can do it in parallel with your current DR plans. You don’t have to change your existing recovery plans. You can take as much time as you want to set it up right. And the key is to set up a demonstration for the key business owners and players that are going to make the decision on the change.

Set it up right with a handful of important apps, important VMs, and then just show it to people. Once they see how great it works, you're definitely going to want to change.

Gardner: And that disruption, or the lack of disruption I suppose I should say, when you're implementing this seems to be important too. Any thoughts about what you might be able to inform people about, when it comes to level or lack of level of disruption when you're putting this together?

Bauer: As I said, you can do this in parallel. As you're setting up this new environment, it doesn’t affect your existing environment whatsoever.

The key is to set up a demonstration for the key business owners and players that are going to make the decision on the change.

Gardner: A matter of flipping the switch.

Bauer: Exactly.

Gardner: Anything else you would like to offer in terms of your thoughts on strategic and tactical benefits around DR and your journey?

Bauer: It's always helpful to have some outside help. No matter how skilled you are, it's always good to have a second pair of eyes look at the work that you did, if for nothing more than to confirm that you've done everything you could and your plans are solid. It's helpful to have a partner like ICI.

Gardner: Great. We've been talking about how biotechnology services provider Acorda Therapeutics has implemented a strategic DR capability to augment its highly virtualized IT operations. And we have seen quite a few tactical and strategic benefits for that for their IT group, as well as for the larger organization and its requirements as a healthcare provider, for compliance, regulation, and protection of their assets.

Thanks so much to our guest. We've been here with Josh Bauer. He is the Senior Manager of Network Operations for Acorda Therapeutics. Thanks so much, Josh.

Bauer: Thank you.

Gardner: This is Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions. Thanks again for joining, and come back next time.

Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes/iPod. Download the transcript. Sponsor: VMware.

Transcript of a sponsored podcast discussion on how a fine-tuned disaster recovery program can produce benefits across the IT landscape. Copyright Interarbor Solutions, LLC, 2005-2012. All rights reserved.

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