As cloud computing disrupts the traditional way of doing business, companies must adopt new strategies around the shift or get left behind. Companies are dropping out of the S&P 500 at an alarming rate, creating a sense of urgency to get with the times, according to Floyd Strimling (pictured), global vice president, Platform as a Service, at SAP SE.

Strimling sees this as a tremendous opportunity for his organization. “We’ve got to be there to help them make this transformation, and that’s what we’re doing,” he said.

Strimling dialed into theCUBE’s Palo Alto, California, studio from SAP’s Sapphire Now conference in Orlando, Florida, to speak with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, to talk about SAP’s growing footprint in the cloud space. (*Disclosure below.)

A software-defined business model

Frick was excited to hear Hasso Plattner’s keynote from SAP SE co-founder and chairman of the board, during the Sapphire Now event. Frick recapped the keynote address and highlighted Plattner’s statements around getting to the cloud as fast as possible.

Strimling expanded on Plattner’s sentiments. “The first wave was dominated by infrastructure vendors, and the software vendors like SAP have a very big stake in this and are ready to take leadership on what is our vision,” he said. 

Moving forward, SAP’s focus will be on transforming the user experience and product definitions. Frick recalled statements made by Plattner, drawing on parallel to Tesla Motors.

“… It’s a different buying experience and a different experience in general … it’s a comparison for this transformative way that things are being done now that are different than before. It’s a software-enabled, software-powered, intelligent design, no-manual way of looking at things,” Frick said.

Strimling explained that SAP will be making a serious push to enhance its customer user experience with machine learning and AI.

“We’re going to put this into all of SAP’s applications, and we’re going to offer this to our customers in new and interesting ways that change the way you interact with the system,” he concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of SAP Sapphire Now. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for SAP Sapphire Now. Neither SAP nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE