Anywhere Cloud fuels new opportunities for Cloudera partners in APAC

According to Derek Judge, Alliances & Channels Lead, APAC, for Cloudera, a lot of partners are now coming to Cloudera because their clients want to have a Private AI solution.

For Derek Judge, Alliances & Channels Lead, APAC, for Cloudera, the launch of Anywhere Cloud recently couldn’t come at a better timing as it is parallel with what is going on in the market in the Asia Pacific region.

According to Judge, a lot of organizations continue to be challenged with a lot of different tool sets and very fragmented data environments. As they try to leverage these data environments to deliver AI in production, the biggest challenge for these organizations is how do they control their data as well as managing the risks and costs when using the data for AI.

“Those three areas of taking back control of data are driving a lot of organizations to consider private AI or sovereign AI. Private AI and sovereign AI typically means either bringing data on premise or air-gapped or a very restricted regulation environment, which from Cloudera's point of view is great because it means that's an area where we play very well. Cloudera has a strong on-premises suitable for regulated, suitable for private AI environment,” Judge explained in an interview with CRN Asia.

[Read more: Cloudera unveils Anywhere Cloud to give enterprises greater control over AI deployments]

Specifically, Judge feels that as the need to control data for regulatory, compliance and also security reasons become increasingly important, organizations will not want the data on the public cloud but instead on premise and be air gapped.

However, to be on-premises and have private AI or sovereign AI capabilities would also need an AI re-architecture.

“Re-architecting how the organization works is driving a lot of changes in the market. Last year, I was probably saying it's going to be on premises. But that doesn't encapsulate what we've seen in terms of the tech crunch as people go towards having their own kit so they can control it and the economics behind that,” he added.

From the channel perspective, Judge explained that a lot of partners are now coming to Cloudera because their clients are wanting to have a Private AI solution.

“We need to re-architect or re-platform what we're doing with our data to then deliver Private AI. And then when the partners look at that, particularly if the customer already has Cloudera or has very large data assets under management with Cloudera, the answer is going to be to use Cloudera for data and AI for private AI delivery,” he said.

Having control and flexibility

As Anywhere Cloud enables greater control and flexibility for data, Judge pointed out that it also allows organizations to run workloads either on their own data center or on public cloud but operating within the same governance framework.

“This allows you to address all of those issues of control. If we look at the drivers behind it from a Cloudera point of view, it is the ability to provide the convenience and the software-as-a-service style delivery of workloads in a more predictable manner. So, what we're seeing in the market is the need for control in risk governance and data risk and pricing and cost.”

“In other words, you can decide where your data sits and where your data resides. You can bring your AI to the data, so you don't have to take your data out, which then attacks those things of control. So, the way in which we've got the product aligns very closely with those three areas of control,” he said.

At the same time, with Anywhere Cloud, Judge added that there is also a realization that Cloudera is not only good for the on-premises part of it, particularly if there's large data assets which are already under Cloudera management, but it also works perfectly well on public cloud.

“We can have a whole data governance framework across both with a unified fabric. That means Anywhere Cloud has this promise of being able to have a practical and pragmatic way to deliver hybrid AI,” he said.

For organizations that still want the flexibility of using public cloud, Anywhere Cloud provides flexibility and convenience.

“If 80% of what we're going to do in AI is known, organizations can budget for it and have proper cost and accountability. They can be doing that under an environment that they control more tightly. But if you look at the tokenonmics discussion, the public cloud is part of it. How do we do both? And so Cloudera with Anywhere Cloud has the ability to do this,” he added.

This is exactly why Judge believes that more organizations are at an inflection point on how they re-architecture how data is used.

The partner opportunity

For Judge, partners remain critical to Cloudera as they help them get new customers and projects. The capability of Anywhere Cloud is also seeing Cloudera partners get more opportunities as it is now one of the focus areas with partners.

He shared that as more industries become regarded as regulated or critical infrastructure, partners are also starting to uncover more new opportunities or opportunities for growth and expansion that Cloudera weren't necessarily covering so well before.

“Partners are seeing RFPs coming out for many projects. Customers are saying they want a solution for their infrastructure to deliver AI across the organization as part of their standard operating procedures. They need an infrastructure which is going to be with them for the next five, 10 years. And Anywhere Cloud and Cloudera really fit well into that request,” he explained.

Looking at Cloudera’s partners, Judge said that some partners are moving up onto the AI piece together data.

“We're seeing quite an uptick in partners doing that with existing customers and new RFPs for expansion and growth. We're also seeing existing partnerships where they are moving heavily into the AI space together with us, particularly where they want to have air-gapped AI. And then there are the new partners who come to us because they are working in the regulation industries and want to do AI in the regulation industries. We are a clear choice for what they want to do,” he added.

Judge highlighted that Cloudera is seeing a lot more strength in partner engagements, with not just more RFPs but also new customers and expansion projects with their partners.

Looking at Cloudera’s partner program, Judge stated that Cloudera will not be making any changes at the moment as the partner program is already good, especially in what it offers to partners from the ability to co-invest in marketing and enablement.

“If we look at the more mature markets, it's going to be more around expansion and it's going to be with partners who are already enabled. But if we look in some of the newer markets, like the emerging markets in Southeast Asia, our partner team in the region is really helpful in supporting partners, either in person or remotely, in their first projects,” Judge said.

For Judge, the combination Cloudera has with its professional services together with partners is the best he has seen compared to the other companies.

“In terms of how we support, there is co-investment and the partner support team. If that works, we can get a partner over the line and they can deliver it themselves, which will be brilliant for us,” he concluded.