Cloud realities – a podcast series

This week Dave and Rob talk to Krishnan Venkata, Chief Client Officer at LatentView Analytics, about the impact of data visualization on leadership and the shift from dashboards to Decision Boards.

TLDR:

• 02:00 Rob is confused about Unbossing!
• 07:11 Cloud conversation with Krishnan Venkata
• 28:55 Top 10 tips for designing communication 
• 40:00 Exploring home like a tourist!

Guest:

• Krishnan Venkata

The rising shortage of IT professionals is a critical issue, driven by rapid technological advancements and a growing demand for specialized skills, leaving businesses struggling to fill crucial roles at a time that they are still struggling to implement and/or mature new devops concepts.

This week, Dave and Rob talk to Cory O’Daniel, CEO and Co-Founder at Massdriver about using software to bridge the cloud infrastructure talent gap, the role of platform engineering in this ongoing challenge, a state of the nation on maturity on the ground in platform engineering devops teams and the criticality of getting your ops teams head above water.

TLDR:

• 02:00 Rob is confused about social media!
• 07:11 Cloud conversation with Cory O’Daniel
• 54:00 The five core elements around platform engineering
• 01:03 Hot tubbing!

Guest:

• Cory O’Daniel

Well implemented FinOps is not just basic cost control, it is an emerging discipline that allows you to develop new tools and practices, advancing your cloud economics and improving overall financial accountability in the cloud. 

This week, Dave and Rob talk to Roi Ravhon, Co-Founder & CEO of Finout, about FinOps basics, the current state of the art, and key differentiators between cost management and modern FinOps.

TLDR:

• 02:10 Rob is confused about the one-week strategy
• 05:21 Cloud conversation with Roi Ravhon
• 33:00 What really impacts the cost in the Cloud
• 41:15 A baby-boy!

Guest:

• Roi Ravhon

For our 100th recording (incl studio and live) we talk about why governance is so important in the digital age, fending off both attack as well as ensuring tech innovation is safe.

This week Dave, Rob and Sjoukje talk to Bart Groothuis, Member of the European Parliament about the role the EU play in cybersecurity, making cyber risk visible to the C-suite, cyber resilience and the new race to ensure we have safe AI.  We also discuss the spread of mis-information from some countries and the importance of being aware, as it has a major impact on our world. 

TLDR:

• 01:40: Is Rob confused about counting to a 100?
• 03:50: Cloud conversation with Bart Groothuis
• 33:40: Security predictions include the rise in AI generated threats
• 39:00: Bart’s daughter birthday!

Guest:

• Bart Groothuis

On-line experience is going up a level.  New hardware along with next level visualisations are creating real world experiences with products virtually, whilst in store experiences move closer to providing the customisation and efficiency we are now seeing (and expecting) in digital.

Dave and Rob talk to Angelo Coletta, CEO and Founder of Zakeke, a company focused on the visualisation layer, about the evolution of the digital experience, the founding ideas at Zakeke, how digital product is becoming more physical and how physical is becoming more digital and the group also chat about what shopping experience resonated with them recently, and did the modern digital experience play a part in that.

TLDR:

• 00:56 Is it all getting too complex?
• 06:00 Cloud Conversation with Angelo Coletta
• 38:14 How we are changing our buying habits
• 49:10 Horse riding!

Guest:

• Angelo Coletta

‘Digital transformation’ is a term widely, and often badly, used.  It generally gets used to describe simply digitising a process and making what we already do run more efficiently.  However, good DTx is far more than that…

This week, Dave and Rob talk to Nathan Clark, Founder & CEO of Ganymede, about how their platform provides data in the right place, at the right time, and in the right order across the laboratory process in biotech. They discuss how this functions, the outcomes it improves, and whether it provides a useful case study for what good digital transformation looks like. 

TLDR:

• 02:30 Is Rob confused about being a super hero in the Matrix?
• 05:40: Cloud Biotech conversation with Nathan Clark
• 31:50:  Will the the future bring the Star Trek communicator?
• 37:50: Buying a house in New York!

Guest:

• Nathan Clark

There is a scary contradiction in the increased power consumption of the latest technical innovations, and the impact the increased power consumption will have on society and the planet.

This week Dave and Rob talk to Michael Carbb SVP of Commercial at Last Energy about huge growth in power consumption due to electrification, power perhaps becoming the new constraint, modular nuclear power, perceived danger vs. real danger of nuclear, do we have any alternatives and how long it takes to get modular power to a data centre.

TLDR:

• 03:00: Hyper personalization of communication
• 06:25: Cloud conversation with Michael Crabb
• 34:00: Hyperscale data centers and sustainability
• 52:35:  Waiting for the baby!

Guest:

• Michael Carbb

How far has GenAI come beyond the tech innovation in the last 18 months – we hear a lot about the latest amazing advancements, but with its business application, are we still stuck in a PoC loop?

This week Dave and Rob talk to Bernard Marr, Futurist, Tech & Strategy Advisor about his work to date (over 20 books!) and his new book ‘Generative AI in practice. 100 amazing ways it is changing our world‘.  We touch on evolution of AI, effect on business and society and the risks and challenges.

TDLR:

• 01:21:  Optimistic Spam
• 06:25: Cloud conversation with Bernard Marr
• 44:44: The rise of AI assistants
• 52:35:  Keynote in Boston!

Guest:

• Bernard Marr

Book:

• Generative AI in Practice: 100+ Amazing Ways Generative Artificial Intelligence is Changing Business and Society

For every innovation and progression in digital technology bringing us new opportunities, they also potentially bring new attack surfaces, providing opportunities for the black hat community too!

This week Dave and Rob talk to Jeremy Snyder Founder and CEO of FireTail about Cyber in a world of APIs and micro services, new challenges and vulnerabilities that are introduced, why traditional Cyber techniques are becoming insufficient and we celebrate World Password Day! 

TLDR:

• 03:00 The three dot stress
• 06:00 Cloud Conversation with Jeremy Snyder
• 41:00  Pa55w0rds, p@sswords, password1234s
• 49:30 The summer and Arsenal’s end of season run!

Guest:

• Jeremy Snyder

AI-driven platforms for automating multiple management workflows are increasingly common place in todays enterprises. However, the potential to exploit these platforms currently exceeds implementation footprints.

This week Dave, Sjoukje & Rob talk to Gretchen Alarcon, SVP & GM, Employee Workflows Products at ServiceNow about automating IT service management, IT operations management and IT business management, just digitising what is there vs. rethinking, how AI fits in and questions just how much of todays traditional management workflows can be automated.

TLDR:

• 01:09   Does internet search have future?
• 06:00  Cloud conversation with Gretchen Alarcon
• 34:30  The next big thing in automation
• 40:40  Knowledge 2024 & moving to Ohio!

Guest:

• Gretchen Alarcon

In the second part of our occasional series, looking directly at the digitalisation journeys and challenges of the worlds leading companies with their leaders, we are focusing on Unilever, one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies.

They believe that digitalisation allows them to respond to customer expectations, supply chain disruption, cost inflation and the impact of an escalating climate crisis by unlocking radical new levels of collaboration, capability and consumer centricity.

Dave, Sjoukje & Rob talk to Juan Carlos Parada, Global Head of Customer Operations at Unilever about what a digital version of Unilever means, the excitement and anxiety of digitalisation, the challenges in leading such a scale transformation and the personal learnings from the journey.

TLDR:

• 01:30  Big tech vs nation state confusion
• 04:37  Cloud conversation with Juan Carlos Parada
• 57:22  Top customer experience trends
• 01:00:32  Digital immersion!

Guest:

• Juan Carlos Parada

Haleon, a world-leading consumer health company, refer to themselves the worlds biggest startup.  However, they are also dealing with large enterprise legacy, as they were formed via a demerger from GSK.  While product engineering and the transition to product-centric organizations are often associated solely with born-in-the-cloud companies, the reality is usually much broader, and Haleon are on that journey.

This week Dave, Rob and Sjoukje talk to Steve Westgarth, Global Head of Engineering & Architecture at Haleon, about product engineering best practices, building high performing teams, aligning product teams with the business, getting the engineers as close to the business as possible and whether Agile is dead or not.

TLDR:

• 02:30 Cookie confusion
• 05:40 Cloud conversation with Steve Westgarth
• 29:00 Five key characteristics of high performing teams 
• 35:00 A surprise birthday party!

Guest:

• Steve Westgarth

Sustainability and climate impact is widely understood as a critical problem, but what we can specifically do at an individual level in a business environment is sometimes less clear.

This week, Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to Rainer Karcher, Chief Sustainability Officer, Allianz Technology about how CSR and the Climate challenge come together, the 3 pillars of of societal responsibility, how digitalisation fits in, how to be a climate activist at work and whether we all should be one.

TLDR:

• 03:05 Smart City and robot confusion
• 06:00 Cloud conversation with Rainer Karcher
• 36:00 New steps into the future!

Guest:

• Rainer Karcher

Live from the heart of Google Next’24 in Las Vegas, right from the Expo floor, we’re bringing you a special limited series of episodes. Join us as we make connections between Google, AI, industry adoption, cloud transformation and customer experience. Plus, we’ll keep you updated on all the latest news and juicy gossip. 

On day three of the conference Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to 

• Kevin Shatzkamer, Managing Director Conversational AI about Accelerating Customer Experience meets AI
• Miku Jha, Director, AI/ML Partner Engineering, about Software engineering for generative meets AI.

TLDR:

• 00:55 Announcements from the Expo floor at Google Next’24
• 06:45 Accelerating Customer Experience meets AI with Kevin Shatzkamer
• 35:00 Software engineering for generative meets AI with Miku Jha
• 01:05:40 The gang round the week off

Guests:

• Kevin Shatzkamer
• Miku Jha

Live from the heart of Google Next’24 in Las Vegas, right from the Expo floor, we’re bringing you a special limited series of episodes. Join us as we make connections between Google, AI, industry adoption, cloud transformation and customer experience. Plus, we’ll keep you updated on all the latest news and juicy gossip. 

On day two of the conference Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to: 

• Nigel Walsh, Head of Global Insurance about Insurance meets AI. 
• Paula Natoli, Director, Global Strategic Industries, Supply Chain and Logistics about Supply Chain meets AI 
• Fabien Duboeuf, Industry Manager, Manufacturing about How AI is revolutionizing Production Operations and Customer Experience

TLDR:

• 00:40 Announcements from the Expo floor at Google Next’24
• 12:11 Insurance meets AI with Nigel Walsh
• 32:55 Supply Chain and Logistics meets AI with Paula Natoli
• 52:42 Cloud transform & customer experience meets AI with Fabien Duboeuf
• 1:15:24 End

Guest:

• Nigel Walsh
• Paula Natoli
• Fabien Duboeuf

Live from the heart of Google Next’24 in Las Vegas, right from the Expo floor, we’re bringing you a special limited series of episodes. Join us as we make connections between Google, AI, industry adoption, cloud transformation and customer experience. Plus, we’ll keep you updated on all the latest news and juicy gossip. 

On day one of the conference Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to 

• Erwan Menard, Director Product Management and Customer Activation, Cloud AI about Innovation meets AI 
• Justin Keeble, Managing Director for Global Sustainability about Sustainability meets AI

TLDR:

• 00:40 Announcements from the Expo floor at Google Next’24
• 08:38 Innovation meets AI with Erwan Menard
• 30:02 Sustainability meets AI with Justin Keeble

Guests:

• Erwan Menard
• Justin Keeble

As a first part of a new occasional series, we look directly at the digitalisation journeys and challenges of the worlds leading companies with their leaders. 

We start with Fresenius, a European multinational health care company based in Bad Homburg, Germany. It provides products and services for dialysis in hospitals, as well as inpatient and outpatient medical care.

This week, Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to Ingo Elfering, Group CIO of Fresenius and German CIO Magazine’s CIO of the Year 2023, about their complex, multi-threaded transformation approach. They discuss what this approach now enables for Fresenius, how the cloud is at the heart of enabling the change, the next steps now that a significant new platform has been established, and how the right tone was set at the Board level to enable the transformation.

TLDR:

• 01:33 Kern-Vergence!
• 06:00 Cloud conversation with Ingo Elfering
• 49:47 What next after the transformation and planning this years vacation!

Guest:

• Ingo Elfering

GreenOps presents a significant challenge in enterprise’s approach to emissions data, sustainability, and cloud operations. Balancing tech innovation with eco-responsibility requires strategic alignment and continuous effort, but the rewards are worth it!

This week Dave and Sjoukje talk to Mark Butcher, Founder & CEO of Posetiv, about GreenOps, how it aligns with the reality of our software, SaaS, and cloud usage, why emissions data will go up before it goes down, and if cost is truly a reliable proxy for sustainability. 

TLDR:

• 01:00 Rob is confused about is his carbon footprint
• 06:15 Cloud conversation with Mark Butcher
• 19:10 Amazing survey outcomes and impact on Talent
• 43:25 Federation across Green Ops

Guest:

• Mark Butcher

Telzio are a great example of Cloud driven innovation, providing a software driven telecoms platform to businesses of all sizes on the Cloud.  But even more fascinating is the story of how Telzio came to exist at all…

This week Dave and Sjoukje talk to Peter Schroeder, Founder and CEO, Telzio about why and how a successful DJ started a Cloud driven Telecoms company, how you kickstart without external funding or advertising, the Telecom industry competition and challenges, oh, and how you survive a plane crash!

TLDR:

• 01:36 Cosmic Rays
• 05:42 Cloud conversation with Peter Schroeder
• 31:20 AI in the music industry
• 38:46 Spend time with my kids doing whatever they want to do!

Guest:

• Peter Schroeder

A ‘Digital Certificate’ proves the authenticity of a device, server, or user as they communicate with each other – they quietly enforce safety and security in our digital world.  However, like in most industries, there is disruption on the horizon in the world of digital certs, and that affects all of us.

This week Dave and Sjoukje talk to Nick France, CTO of SSL, Sectigo about what certificates do to keep us safe, the impact if a certificate is compromised, what the coming changes are, how they impact organisations and what they should do about it.  We also talk about the big Cyber trends for 2024.

TLDR:

• 01:40 Apple and the EU
• 07:00 Cloud conversation with Nick France
• 32:30 2024 Cyber Trends
• 38:11 Industry change and Bricktastic!

Guest:

• Nick France

To celebrate International Womens Day we are delighted to welcome Women in Data back to the show.  They provide a platform that allows professionals at all levels to share their knowledge and experience, while working alongside businesses to help them embrace and develop the enormous advantages generated by diversity.

This week Dave and Sjoukje talk to Roisin McCarthy, Founder at Women in Data and Elisa Sai, VP Analytics & AI at Capgemini Invent about Women in Data’s ‘Twenty in Data & Tech’ series, this weeks flagship event at Londons o2, get an exclusive announcement on next years ‘Twenty in Data & Tech’ series and a call to action!  We also talk to Elisa about what it is like to be involved in the movement.

TLDR:

• 00:56 Intros
• 02:17 Cloud conversation with Roisin McCarthy and Elisa Sai
• 28:10 International Womens Day
• 35:00 Rest of the year with WiD & a birthday! 

Guest:

• Roisin McCarthy
• Elisa Sai

We are live from #MWC24 (Mobile World Conference 2024), direct from the Expo floor, with a limited series of episodes talking to leaders from across the industry on themes of the conference, as well as filling in on all of the news and gossip.

Dave, Sjoukje and Rob talk about ‘Humanising AI‘ with Fawad Qureshi  Field CTO at Snowflake and Phil Kippen, Global Head Of Industry – Telecommunications at Snowflake. The gang then round out the weeks shows by exploring the sixth and final theme, ‘Manufacturing DX‘ and share their reflections on the show, and their disappointments in certain demos…

Guests:

• Fawad Qureshi
• Phil Kippen

We are live from #MWC24 (Mobile World Conference 2024), direct from the Expo floor, with a limited series of episodes talking to leaders from across the industry on themes of the conference, as well as filling in on all of the news and gossip.

Dave, Sjoukje and Rob talk to Zarn Kucel, Global Head of AWS Hybrid Edge, Telco & CSP and Chris McKenna is the Worldwide Head of Business Development for Private Networks at AWS about the theme of ‘5G and beyond‘, Hybrid Edge and Mobile Private Networks, discover the potential of NaaS (Network as a Service) and how the Cloud and Communications are converging to provide an unltra-powerful innovation platform.

Guests:

• Zarn Kucel
• Chris McKenna

We are live from #MWC24 (Mobile World Congress 2024), direct from the Expo floor, with a limited series of episodes talking to leaders from across the industry on themes of the conference, as well as filling in on all of the news and gossip.

Dave, Sjoukje and Rob explore the conference theme of ‘Game Changers‘ by talking to three technology providers who are creating new solutions to solve some of our biggest challenges: Paul Armstrong, Global Sales Director, Digital Services, Schneider Electric about Smart Buildings and their critical role in helping businesses operating more sustainably and how having an ‘Energy Command Centre’ can help; and Greg Pelton, CTO Iridium and Richard Deakin, CEO, Stratospheric Platforms Ltd about the potential of non-terrestrial networks in both the stratosphere and low earth orbit to bring communications to previously hard to reach locations and space networks direct to consumer devices. They also talk about the difficulties in working in space!

Guests:

• Paul Armstrong
• Greg Pelton
• Richard Deakin

We are live from #MWC24 (Mobile World Congress 2024), direct from the Expo floor, with a limited series of episodes talking to leaders from across the industry on themes of the conference, as well as filling in on all of the news and gossip.

Dave, Sjoukje and Rob talk to Mohamed Awad, SVP/GM, Infrastructure Business at Arm about the ‘Our Digital DNA‘ conference theme, the evolution of processing power and the challenges of ever increasing demand whilst managing the impact on the environment.  They also chat about the exciting consumer devices that have been announced at the show, including a flying taxi.

Guest:

• Mohamed Awad

We are live from #MWC24 (Mobile World Congress 2024), direct from the Expo floor, with a limited series of episodes talking to leaders from across the industry on themes of the conference, as well as filling in on all of the news and gossip.

Dave, Sjoukje and Rob set out the themes of the Conference, then focus in on the theme of ‘Connecting Everything’ with Muneyb Minhazuddin, VP/GM Network and Edge, Intel on Edge and 5G, and Anand Chandrasikher, Founder and CEO, Aira Networks on Intelligence in Open and Disaggregated RAN (Radio Access Network).

Guests:

• Muneyb Minhazuddin
• Anand Chandrasikher

The FinOps Foundation defines FinOps as “an operational framework and cultural practice which maximizes the business value of cloud, enables timely data-driven decision making, and creates financial accountability through collaboration between engineering, finance, and business teams.”  Sounds good! So why are many organisations still not doing it well?

This week Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to Kunal Agarwal, CEO and Co-founder, Unravel Data on the requirement for finops, what is it and why do you need it, if the Finance Depts are getting involved, what good practices looking, how ‘inform, govern, optimise’ fit in and why you should measure everything!

TLDR:

• 01:03 Why do people still use weak passwords?
• 06:20 Cloud conversation with Kunal Agarwal
• 32:34 Top Cyber Trends 2024
• 37:20 Cars, cars, cars!

Guest:

• Kunal Agarwal

Private Equity organisations are in the fascinating position of having a view across many organisations, they help smaller organisations scale and have a strong grip on what works, and what doesn’t, in scaling and optimising businesses.

This week Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to Bas Kamphuis, Founder and CEO, Wingspan, a company who seek to increase the value of software companies through cloud transformation, about what repeatable truths of cloud transformation can be learned from seeing the patterns working across multiple companies and what lessons we can be taken away.

TLDR:

• 01:00 The future of news
• 05:12 Cloud conversation with Bas Kamphuis
• 38:18 The vital role of Cloud for Private Equity firms
• 44:24 Happy to be alive!

Guest:

• Bas Kamphuis

The ‘energy transition’ refers to the global energy sector’s shift from fossil-based systems of energy production and consumption — including oil, natural gas and coal — to renewable energy sources like wind and solar, as well as lithium-ion batteries.  It is one of, if not the most, significant issues of our time.  Tech can both help and hinder in this journey.

This week Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to Rob Easton, Senior Sales Manager, AWS Energy EMEA, AWS on how energy is made, how its moved and how its used, how Amazon are ready themselves as an organisation, but also how they are providing tools and services to allow other organisations to impact the carbon footprint of their tech and maybe more widely.

TLDR:

• 01:10 JUMP! and will robots be looking after us when we are (more) elderly?
• 06:00 Cloud conversation with Rob Easton
• 36:20 AI and the energy transition
• 41:50 Family ski holidays!

Guest:

• Rob Easton

Can AI help solve a perinial problem of how we leverage data in our organisations to drive value

This week Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to Iain Niven-Bowling, CTO, Harbr about data demoraticsation, access data, connect data sources and make it available via natural language interfaces

TLDR:

• 01:04 Streaming confusion
• 06:00 Cloud conversation with Iain Niven-Bowling
• 23:35 GenAI as the starting point for innovation
• 31:00 the Fan Dance!

Guest:

• Iain Niven-Bowling

As a special treat in what we think is our 50th studio episode, we have an extended conversation with none other than Gene Kim, industry thought leader and author of The DevOps Handbook, the seminal Pheonix Project, the Unicorn Project, and now Wiring the winning organisation.  Gene is one of the true thought leaders in modern tech and its exciting to explore the themes of Cloud Realties with him!

The gang talk about Genes early work, then deep dive into his new work, which reaches outside the realms of tech and talks about what it takes to become a modern organisation.

TLDR:

• 01:00 Easy to let facts get in the way of a good story
• 04:30 Extended cloud conversation with Gene Kim
• 43:10 Playing with AI!

Guest:

• Gene Kim

Each year Capgemini publishes TechnoVision – a comprehensive prediction of the year in business tech to come, along with useful principles that guide both its prediction and use.  It seeks to bring some fresh thinking to the technology business issues of today.

In this special two part episode Dave, Sjoukje & Rob talk to Robert Engels, Global CTIO for AI Futures, Head of Generative AI Lab at Capgemini, about a foundational theme of TechnoVision 2024, data and AI.  They cover whether investment cycles are keeping up with the hype curve, data eco systems, new risks and issues introduced by AI and whether we are still using the same old use cases, or if new and previously unimaginable use cases are now emerging.

TLDR:

• 01:45 Lego Data model?
• 03:47 Cloud conversation with Robert Engels
• 45:20  Forbes tech trends
• 44:12  Snow games and seeing how 2024 develops!

Further Reading:

• Exec Briefing
• Full Report

Guest:

• Robert Engels

Each year Capgemini publishes TechnoVision – a comprehensive prediction of the year in business tech to come, along with useful principles that guide both its prediction and use.  It seeks to bring some fresh thinking to the technology business issues of today. 

In this special two part episode Dave, Sjoukje & Rob talk in detail with the reports leader Ron Tolido and get a special insight into the creation and themes and trends of TechnoVision 2024!  The next generation of human augmentation with technology is at the heart of the report and the discussion. We also find out how much Ron likes Taylor Swift and compare and contrast the predictions in TechnoVision with other trend predictions for 2024.

TLDR:

• 01:45 The team catch up after the Christmas break
• 03:47 Cloud conversation with Ron Tolido
• 45:20 Forbes tech trends
• 51:15 Alexa run my business!

Further Reading:

• Exec Briefing
• Full Report

Guest:

• Ron Tolido

With the launch of their connected car, the AFEELA, Sony Honda Mobility seek to redefine mobility, beyond simply transportation, and create the opportunity to use the space creatively and explore the relationship between people and mobility.

In this special episode Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to Takuya Nishibayashi, Head of E&E System Architecture Development Division, Sony Honda Mobility Inc., who is at CES2024 for the release of the AFEELA.  They cover why Sony Honda are collaborating on a connected car now, how responsible and ethical GenAI is leveraged for assisted driving (ADAS), how mobility can be used as a creative entertainment space, including using gaming engines, the integrated in vehicle experience and how Microsoft partner with them for GenAI tooling and Cloud-scale computing platforms.

TLDR:

• 01:07 Introduction of the AFEELA by Dave, Sjoukje and Rob
• 06:53 Cloud conversation with Takuya Nishibayashi
• 30:59 Outro 
• 31:57 End

Guest:

• Takuya Nishibayashi
• AFEELA
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