hello everyone and welcome back to the cubes live coverage of NetApp converge here in Sin City I'm your host Rebecca Knight along with my co-host and analyst Rob stretche Rob this is a partner place this yeah it's about Partners I mean that's where net apppp has always been partner first and really leaned into that throughout from the engineering all the way to sales to going and engaging to this event it's always been that well who better to talk about the partner first philosophy than Jenny Fender she is the SVP worldwide partner group at netup thank you so much for coming on the cube Jenny thank you for having me what an amazing event yeah fantastic announcements today and thank you it is all about Partners okay so let me be clear I've got the best job at net app I actually am responsible for our entire Global Str stry around our Partnerships and um you know you mentioned another thing you know it'spartner Centric partner first at netup we do have a partner first culture and it shines through in so many aspects of what we do it starts from listening to our partners to co-selling with them to helping deliver customer success and then making sure that we have the programs to support them from an enablement standpoint making sure that we're helping them build the certification levels that they need the solution competencies to make them the best of the best out there to support net and our customers so it's fascinating to hear how this is a philosophy but that is constantly reinforced through at the organization fromyou from the top down talk us through netapp's partner sphere program whatit's all about so our awardwinning partner sphere program is a year into its laun launch um since wecame out with it and gosh the feedback has been phenomenal from the industry as well as from our partners what we wanted to do was put together a program that helped our partners differentiate themselves take our amazing product portfolio you know uh wrapped around with the services and all other offerings that we have to bring to Market solutions that can help them deliver customer outcomes and to help them successful as well so the partner program that we have sphere allows us to really interact with our partners based on their business models and how they want to interact with net apppp so it's been a beautiful program uh it's been fantastic we love it yeah and it's not just about uh the goto Market Partners like the vars and dises and things of that nature you're also your purview is over people like Nvidia who was just on stage and Lenovo and some of the OEM and things of that nature and to that extent a lot of the revenue for net apppp itself comes from this sphere of or ecosystem of Partners yes and how help us understand the just the magnitude of that so I would say around about 86% of our business is within three our partners so are we partner Centric hell yes uh you know do we have the best portfolio for us to become even you know more partner Centric and increase that absolutely our Partnerships Str you know stretch across different business models so like you said Nvidia strategic partner for us Lenovo strategic partner for us and we have so many that are co-engineering with us co-s solutioning and co-selling and together we just bring beautiful stuff to the market for our customers I think you saw some of that today yeah no wehad uh had them up on stage here and we were really talking about it and I think to your point it's about the solution and the outcomes and that has to be where youyou're focusing from a Partners is to really how do we deliver outcomes to the partners yes now we actually let me add on to this so recently we did a study you can call me Miss money bags oh or you know that's also good um 86% yeah we did a study recently with a firm called uh Canalis they an independent analyst firm and we wanted to show our partners Beyond just selling our product how do you really monetize the net app relationship and for every $1 of net app sold a partner can make up to $ 4.55 over and above that in services and what we've been doing with the partners sphere program and everything that we're engaging with these Partners through different business models is showing them how to monetize based on their differentiating factors based on their Solutions their services models their capabilities and it's just been fantastic so it's not just the portfolio it's then some because you know what that's how we deliver customer success it's not just selling the product it's actually delivering that outcome so we know that customers are clamoring tofor with demand for AI and for data driven Solutions how are you planning to weave this trend into Channel partner strategies to fuel excitement and further adoption of the NAT app offerings we already have it's done we did it in Partners sphere we have the AI competency solution competency so we already have partners that are attaining that solution competency where we're working with them to develop their capability in the market done we knew this was going to happen a long time ago we planned for it head of the Curve sowhen you look at it andyou look at your partner ecosystem and it it's very robust andI think to your point about the 4.55 not six or four but 55 so four over four and a half times yes every dollar there you're these competencies are helping them build that kind of build up their teams to be able to deliver these Solutions it's a fantastic way to work with our partners not only are we building cap capabilities but we are also showing our sellers within net app who are the best partners with the best capabilities out there and that is what partner sphere you know delivers for us as well so you can see who's got the various competencies that you need to engage with a customer so your leadership yourconfidence is really infectious and I want to ask you a question about leadership because here we are at this really exciting event where there's so much Buzz so much energy and momentum how do you as the leader Channel this back to your team and make sure that you carry forward with it because youwant to keep everyone moving forward in the same direction and making sure that you are taking advantage ofthis incredible event it starts with wearing great shoes okay all right makes sense no so um that is a greatquestion but uh the shoes are very important on stage uh we are a very infectious team a high sped team very passionate about the company and more so our partners and in fact what we're doing this year at converge is we've launched in a big way the whole co- selling motion with our sellers so we are literally taking our sellers through enablement sessions on how to coell with Partners how to engage them how to do you know strategic planning with them territory planning bring them into Deals they bring us into deals and how we just coell together it's just a fantastic thing so you'll see a lot of branding around this event and it's all about net up you know co-selling with Partners so it'sgetting very infectious besides the swag we handing out you can't miss it yes Ithink the swag game is very strong here I we go to a lot of events very on point I was very on point and I think that you know again brings back to people and the understand and oh yeah this is that and Ithink we were talking about it earlier the fact that youdon't want the sellers who are in the room on their laptops and on their phones but you want them understanding and taking this opportunity to not only work through the process but also and learn it but to actually focus and network with the folks that are here as well look I mean we've always been a partner Centric company and we love our partners we could not be successful without them and the way our product portfolio has just become more awesome with everything that you're seeing we have to develop new capabilities but we also have to bring our Sal along and make sure that you know we're showing them how we building these capabilities out there in the market to give them confidence to engage with the right partner within their customer base so Jenny what's next I mean here we are at thisbrilliant event but then what are you focused on over the next year so I'd say a couple of things AI is big for us you know being super successful I mean it would be a shame if people don't engage on our Solutions it'll be loss for them no but Partners SE the excitement and you know they're very excited about everything that we've announced so we're going to be bulldozing forward we're going to be successful in our ASA block uh approach as well we're going to be successful in our co- selling Partners will see and feel the difference in that as well we will continue to innovate in Partners sphere bringing the right solution competencies to Market that really help our partners differentiate themselves and you know what we are the calm amongst the storm especially when it comes to VMware right there's a lot of customers out there today that are not quite sure what to do we got partners that can literally help them no matter what destination they want to end up you know sort of landing on so we've got an amazing set of Partners out there I'm confident about how successful we going to be with them and I'm excited about what this year is going to hold for us and you're going to wear great shoes oh always Jenny fenders a pleasure having you on the cube thank you than I'm Rebecca Knight for Rob stret stay tuned for more of the cubes livecoverage of net app converge you're watching the cube the leader in technology Enterprise news coverage and Analysis