Leena Joshi, Splunk, at Splunk.conf 2014 with Jeff Kelly and Jeff Frick @theCUBE #splunkconf Leena Joshi points out that Splunk has been pushing the concept of a “connected data center”, which is taking all the data from the various technologies within a company and making it available in one centralized place. When regards to the Big Data challenge, Joshi explains, “…lots of different technologies providing data in a variety of formats, different types of data…being able to aggregate it, and index it, and analyze it is a Big Data challenge.” She feels that Splunk’s unique position will allow them to deliver results when it comes to the “volume, variety, and velocity of data coming in”. She goes on to mention the challenge of virtual machines and how Splunk’s new VM application is a tool to analyze the virtual machine activity within a company. Matthew Culver with Discovery Communications says that the main usage of Splunk in his area is operations-based. They also use Splunk for compliance data. Due to the many security requirements that they deal with as a company, Splunk helps to monitor their systems to keep compliance with those security parameters. As a customer at the conference he mentions that it is a rich source of experiences and solutions being shared amongst the attendees in their communications with Splunk. Lastly they return to Leena Joshi to talk about the new Splunk Storm service. This is a data analysis tool offered for customers that work in the cloud. When offering this service Splunk wanted to make it easy for the customers to use, make it scalable, and fit the purchasing models of their customers. Since most cloud customers are small business, Splunk Storm will be a way for them to have these data analysis tools now. Upon growth and/or their cloud exit, they can work with Splunk to change and continue their analysis.