In his position as co-chief executive officer of MemSQL Inc., Raj Verma (pictured), has plenty of conversations every week with top executives across a wide range of industries. The topics are varied, but inevitably one question usually gets asked.

“One of the things that most CEOs and CIOs ask for is: ‘Raj, how can I get the now, now?’” Verma said. “This COVID-19 crisis has really spurred and catalyzed a lot of digital innovations. The need for the ‘now’ has never been greater.”

Behind the need to reach “now” is concern among many companies that the global pandemic is accelerating the pace of digital change so rapidly that competitive disruption, or worse, is just around the corner.

“We’re seeing an amazing amount of bankruptcies for companies that did not have the infrastructure for delivering the now, now,” Verma noted. “We’re in unprecedented times, and it will take a hard and deep look, and something which will shake up the status quo, to be able to deliver the ‘tomorrow.’ For a company to see the sunrise of tomorrow, they have to be courageous enough to question their prejudices and biases. Those are the companies that will not only survive, but they will thrive.”

Verma spoke with Lisa Martin, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the value proposition offered by MemSQL, the dynamics around disruption and innovation, and a rapidly growing software-as-a-service market. (* Disclosure below.)

Sub-second response time

MemSQL helps companies adapt to the faster pace of change through technology that supports query and analysis of fast-moving enterprise data.

“If we could say that we would juice up your artificial intelligence/machine learning real-time dashboard reports by 4x in four weeks, how many of you are going to say no?” Verma asked. “From a response time of 15 minutes, if we could give you sub-second response times, like we’ve done for many of our vendors in the last three to four weeks, how many of you would say no? That’s what we are enabling.”

MemSQL is riding a wave of innovation at a time when global events have accelerated the speed of digital transformation dramatically. The company is helping customers avoid the pitfalls of disruption while maintaining a realistic view of an industry in which incumbents can never be too complacent.

“I think disruption is a tale of innovation,” Verma said. “Incumbents become a lot more inward focused, more about doing what got them to be successful, more process focused than outcome focused. The disruptors are essentially all about innovation and solving the customer’s problems for today and for tomorrow.”

One of the areas currently fueling solutions for tomorrow is software as a service. The SaaS market, currently at $158 billion in 2020, is projected to reach $307 billion by 2026.

“SaaS technology areas are the new gold now,” Verma said. “That’s one segment of the market that’s held up. That is what’s enabling the courageous enterprises to deliver the ‘tomorrow’ and help their employees and customers.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s CUBE Conversations. (* Disclosure: MemSQL Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither MemSQL nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE