On Cloud

Multi-cloud security is one of the most difficult pieces of the cloud complexity puzzle to solve for. It's also one of the most critical. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Ramesh Menon about how shifting security left—i.e., implementing appropriate security during application development to solve issues before systems go live—can help companies move from a reactive to a more proactive security posture and increase the effectiveness of their security program.

Despite a cooling job market in some sectors, many companies are still experiencing a shortage of cloud talent. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Josh Haims about how companies can fill that gap. Josh's take is that education must catch up with technology, companies should build a culture that attracts employees and builds tech fluency throughout the organization, and HR and the business need to build a closer relationship with a shared set of goals and outcomes.

Why do some companies glean more value from their cloud investments than others? According to the recent Deloitte US Cloud Survey, cloud leaders spend purposefully to innovate and they use technology as a force multiplier. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Chris Thomas and Diana Kerns-Manolatos about that survey, and about what sets cloud leaders apart. Bottom line: leaders innovate, they build a strong software engineering culture, and they have confidence in cloud.

Why do some digital transformation initiatives flounder while others succeed? One answer might lie with the C-suite leadership. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with StarCIO's founder Isaac Sacolick about his latest book, Digital Trailblazer: Essential Lessons to Jumpstart Transformation and Accelerate Your Technology Leadership. According to Isaac, good leadership is about understanding how technology can serve the business, adapting to innovation, and building high-performance teams.

Blockchain is evolving, and use cases for it may be almost limitless if the technology is harnessed effectively. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Edgevana's Mark Thiele about how blockchain has evolved and how it can help solve pressing problems ranging from protecting intellectual property and personal data, to boosting IT security, to detangling global supply-chains, to democratizing computing in general. Mark also believes blockchain may someday underpin the emerging metaverse.

As cloud adoption increases and multi and hybrid clouds become the norm, operations become more complex and monitoring performance becomes more difficult. In this Knowledge Short podcast, David Linthicum talks about how the concept and practice of Observability goes beyond traditional systems monitoring to help IT teams observe, gain insight into, and maybe even predict what's happening in their cloud ecosystem to better manage increasing complexity.

Manufacturers continue to respond to an increasing demand for products amid a volatile supply chain, labor shortages, and a fluctuating global economy. Improving production processes in the factory can help, but it's not the only answer. In this podcast, David Linthicum and Deloitte's Stephen Laaper talk about how companies can use AI and other cognitive tools to harness the vast streams of data collected from manufacturing operations to automate and increase safety, productivity, and quality and build the smart factory of the future.

Every so often, a technology comes along that has the power to change how we view and perform in the world. One of those just might be wearable cognitive assistance (WCA) devices. In this episode, David talks with Carnegie Mellon University professor Mahadev Satyanarayanan and Deloitte's Arpan Tiwari about how WCA, via leveraging the edge and AI to augment human capabilities, will transform the way we work and live, and open up worlds of knowledge and ability to anyone who wears a device. Wearable Cognitive Assistance | Deloitte US

As cloud moves into its second decade, there are still growing pains. In this episode, David Linthicum and Mike Kavis discuss cloud's most pressing issues and offer solutions. Leveraging cloud for innovation, multi-cloud complexity, a talent shortage, and slowing cloud migration are the top challenges. The solutions? Focusing on value delivery, aligning business needs with technology, changing organizational culture, and realizing that slowing down isn't necessarily such a bad thing.

For companies that operate across geographies, IT architectures and regulatory requirements can make it difficult to access widely distributed data for analysis. Extended enterprise clouds (EEC) can help provide access to disparate data via augmenting the enterprise multi-cloud with third-party services such as vertical clouds, AI clouds, or data clouds—all with a common control plane. Building an EEC takes planning and a cultural change around data ownership, but it's well worth the effort.

There's little doubt that sustainability has become a global imperative. In this Knowledge Short, David Linthicum discusses the vital role cloud computing can play in sustainability initiatives. He makes the case that cloud computing is more sustainable because resource use is optimized, and cloud providers typically employ green operations practices. He also talks about other ways organizations can practice sustainability in their everyday operations.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion aren't just words; they're a key component of success for nearly any endeavor, cloud computing included. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Josh Walker, co-founder of Black Orlando Tech, about his efforts to bring diversity to the tech workforce. They also discuss ways companies can change their culture to hire more minorities by creating a culturally diverse, friendly workspace and ensuring that minorities feel more welcome.

As cloud matures, managing cloud costs has become a top priority for many organizations. That's where the new discipline of FinOps, or financial operations, can help. The goal of FinOps is to help companies manage and maintain accountability for cloud usage and costs. In this Knowledge Short podcast, David Linthicum explains what FinOps is, how it can help companies control cloud costs better, and how culture change and automation play a key role in FinOps implementation.

Cloud-native design principles make cloud apps scalable, flexible, and more quickly deployable. Those principles can be applied to situations other than cloud, as well. Take edge computing, for instance. Edge can be thought of as a point-of-presence cloud, so applying cloud-native principles to the edge can make app performance, speed, and scalability cloud-like. And it can help solve the "edge war" of the future: the battle to reduce latency to its vanishing point.

Look around at any cloud conference, and you'll see a lopsided ratio of men to women. Why aren't there more women in tech, and in cloud computing specifically? In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Lisa Noon and Appgate's Tamara Prazak about how to get more women into cloud. In the end, it comes down to bridging the STEM gap for girls early on, recruiting more women, and making their working lives more flexible. Cultural change also plays a big role in closing the gap.

Despite cloud's many benefits, organizations are often shocked at its operational costs. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Erik Peterson, co-founder and CTO of CloudZero, about how companies can leverage software engineering and focus on costs to optimize cloud spend and drive value. According to Erik, success lies in cooperation between finance and engineering to better understand the financial impact of cloud and close the feedback loop in terms of mapping costs to features.

Edge computing isn't a new concept, but pairing it with artificial intelligence holds new promise. However, there are significant challenges that companies must meet to realize the promise of Edge AI. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with ClearBlade's Aaron Allsbrook about how Edge computing, paired with AI, works, and how it can give companies that leverage it a competitive advantage. He also lays out some challenges they'll face to reach their Edge goals.

Cloud computing is a hot sector in IT right now, and many companies can't hire enough workers to fill cloud roles. In this Knowledge Short, David Linthicum gives advice to anyone seeking to move into cloud computing as a career. David's take is that no matter where you're starting from—a college student or recent graduate, a non-IT worker looking to change careers or an IT professional looking to shift gears—you can find your path to cloud and a successful, often lucrative, career.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for 40-plus years, but its future has never been brighter. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Professor Vasudeva Varma and Deloitte's Ponnu Kailasam about how AI, in the context of information retrieval, can wade through information overload in search results to deliver contextually-appropriate, actionable information. Vasu and Ponnu agree that AI powered by cloud, and cloud powered by AI, will be critical to the process.

Digital transformation (DT) is often easier said than done, but it's essential for organizations to transform to remain competitive. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Thomas Erl, author of the book A Field Guide to Digital Transformation, about putting DT concepts into practice. According to Erl, customer centricity is the driving force behind DT efforts, and to be successful, it's absolutely critical to have the right thought leadership at the helm of any DT initiative.

Observability is the new buzzword in cloud, and many people confuse it with monitoring, but it's so much more. In this episode, Mike Kavis talks with Erez Barak, VP of Product Development at Sumo Logic, about observability—what it is, how it helps organizations deal with cloud complexity, and how it's helped by (and helps) AI. To implement observability successfully, however, a new IT operating model that removes silos and fosters collaboration is absolutely essential.

Artificial intelligence (AI)—especially when it's cloud-enabled—can be a force multiplier and powerful tool for innovation. However, there's a crucial need to think about the ethical issues and implications of ubiquitous AI. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Beena Ammanath about the reasons to establish ethical guardrails around the use of AI, as well as who should be responsible for developing and maintaining those guardrails—now and in the future.

Military personnel serve our country in countless ways, but sometimes the transition to private life can be difficult. To help ease that transition, Deloitte participates in Hiring Our Heroes—a collaboration with American businesses to create job opportunities for veterans post-service. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with three veterans who are participating in the program with Deloitte to find out how they're faring during their transition and what lessons they've learned.

Music and IT may seem to be at opposite ends of a spectrum, but in reality, they have much in common if you know where to look. In this episode, Mike Kavis talks with Matt Davis, staff infrastructure engineer at Blameless, about how practice methods in music can aid in building great SRE teams and site reliability in general. According to Matt, it's all about how you practice for the real thing: If your practices are good, and you can improvise, your SRE performance will top the charts.

Cloud can be a force multiplier for most companies. However, cloud is a general solution, and many organizations need industry-specific capabilities built for their particular vertical market. In this Knowledge Short, David Linthicum discusses how industry clouds can meet those needs by providing composable, industry-specific bundles of digital services that enable organizations to pick the services they need to meet their transformation needs and achieve better outcomes.

The impetus these days for most organizations is to transform their business to achieve competitive advantage. It's a good imperative, but the reason for change matters, too. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with consultant and author John Hagel on how to build a future based on seeing opportunity rather than fear. John's view is that it takes building a strong corporate narrative for the future, cultivating a shared passion, and building learning platforms to bring people together.

Global market forces, coupled with the pandemic, have spurred most organizations to accelerate their digital transformation to keep their competitive edge—but that's often easier said than done. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Diana Kearns-Manolatos about why strategy is central to accelerating the transformation journey. Diana lays out five "digital imperatives" for speeding transformation. She also explains the role industry clouds play in that process.

True digital transformation requires a hyper-connected ecosystem where information flows freely between those who need it and those who provide it. However, that level of connectivity has often proven elusive. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with MuleSoft's Matt McLarty and Deloitte's Kurt Anderson about how new thinking on application and technology integration holds promise to help organizations achieve their connectivity goals and enable faster digital transformation.

To be sure, cloud is a boon to organizations that make the leap, but, as with any technology, there are bumps along the road to implementation. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Techstrong Group's Mike Vizard about how companies can address three particularly vexing issues: multicloud complexity, cloud cost management, and cloud security. Mike's advice is to develop a sound multicloud cloud strategy, treat cloud as a strategic investment, and view security as a process, not a problem.

The 2021 "Accelerate State of DevOps" report from Google is out! In this episode, Mike Kavis talks with Google's Nathen Harvey and Deloitte's Manoj Mishra about the report's most compelling findings. Among them: DevOps and SRE are complementary; successful SRE equals knowing your customer; documentation is critical, but it should be organic; and there's a newly-announced "Reliability" metric. The group also discusses customer satisfaction and the new "Release Management" role in DevOps/SRE.

Despite—or maybe because of—growing adoption across all industries, cloud is still experiencing growing pains, but the future is bright. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Converge Technology's Steve Worthington about cloud trends for 2022 and beyond. Steve's take is that technologies such as AIOps will bolster cloud success, but the trend toward multicloud and hybrid cloud architectures has introduced serious cloud complexity issues that will require a human touch to solve.

Smartphones are ubiquitous; they're also a prime target for fraud. However, governments and companies with innovative ideas are using technology to fight that fraud, and cloud is at the core of the fight.

Semiconductors aren't normally hot news. However, the recent chip shortage has them front and center—especially since they power the machines that power cloud. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Brandon Kulik about the state of the semiconductor industry—how it's leveraging cloud to move faster, and how hyperscalers are beginning to manufacture their own chips to meet demand. Brandon also discusses new players in the market and what the future holds for the industry.

What's in store for cloud in 2022? A distributed, edge-based cloudscape that's more cost effective, and growing at such pace that talent is at a precious premium. In this episode, David Linthicum and Mike Kavis look ahead at cloud's 2022. Their insights? More cloud architectures will include federated containers, companies will compete ferociously over top talent, movement to the edge will continue, and FinOps will enable organizations to understand and govern their cloud spend more effectively.

The past year has been pivotal for cloud. Adoption is growing, but many organizations have growing pains. In this episode, David Linthicum and Mike Kavis look back at 2021 and spotlight four prevalent trends that are shaping cloud today—and tomorrow. According to David and Mike, they are: greater multicloud adoption, an increased focus on CloudOps, enhanced cost-consciousness, and the realization that cloud deployments require the right people and processes to succeed.

AWS re:Invent was spectacular this year, focusing on making cloud simpler, better leveraging technology for more cloud impact, moving older apps to cloud, and building cloud sustainability programs. In this episode, Deloitte's David Linthicum and Tony Witherspoon talk all things re:Invent, from how AWS is helping organizations get to cloud faster—and integrate and operate better once they get there—to new product and service announcements that will make cloud better, starting now

Ever wonder how software developers get those lucrative partnerships with cloud hyperscalers? In this episode, David Linthicum talks with 13three founder Jeff Aden about how 13three helps cloud software vendors begin, or accelerate, their partnerships with major hyperscalers such as AWS to take their software global. Jeff's view is that success takes the right tools and culture, but it also takes a cloud-native mindset and an understanding that change is the only constant in the market.

Migrating mainframe apps to cloud is a daunting journey, but there's a growing need to modernize. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Bjoern Langmack and AWS's Hemant Ahire about how companies can successfully transition from mainframe to cloud. The challenges are myriad, but not insurmountable. The group's advice: Automate as much as you can in the migration process, use the right tools, and try to disrupt the business as little as possible during the migration

Cloud architecture is more art than science. Building a solid architecture takes a broad understanding of both IT in general and cloud specifically, and it also takes lots of up-front work. In this podcast, David Linthicum shares four key tips for building a sound cloud architecture: Focus on the business value, build in security and governance from the get go, have a solid plan for ops and tech, and test as you go to ensure the final product meets your needs from day one.

Subscription-based billing methods for SaaS products aren't flexible, and they're often not fair. Drop-in metered billing solutions change that dynamic by enabling consumption-based billing—with customer-chosen metrics—for SaaS. The result? For customers, a more equitable billing structure with improved cost control. For software vendors (or any company looking to monetize home-grown software), the ability to build a more flexible, customer-driven product and get it to market faster.

Containers power cloud flexibility and portability, but over time container technology has become complex and expensive to deploy. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Portainer.io CEO Neil Cresswell about how Portainer enables Containers-as-a-Service (CaaS) to democratize access to container technology by centralizing container configuration, management, and security. With CaaS, companies can gain the benefits of container technology without having to navigate all of its complexity.

It's cliché, but true: Cloud is different than traditional, on-prem IT operations, and it requires fundamental changes to how IT is done. In this podcast, David Linthicum discusses the emerging discipline of CloudOps and how it can help companies get more value from their cloud journey. With CloudOps, savvy companies can rethink and reinvent their operating model and talent and skills mix—and implement the tools (such as AIOps) they need to operate more effectively in cloud.

Cloud security issues are a serious—and growing—problem. Most companies don't have the resources or expertise in-house to effectively manage security in a constantly-changing cloud ecosystem. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Ntirety's President and CEO, Emil Sayegh, about how cloud managed services providers (MSPs) can help. For Emil, it's simple: MSPs provide companies with the security expertise and resiliency they need—24/7/365—to reduce their cloud security risk.

Cloud isn't just cloud. It's multi, hybrid, edge, and everything in between. The complexity can be mind-numbing. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with RackN's Rob Hirschfeld about how companies can use infrastructure pipelines to better standardize and manage their infrastructure ecosystems—which can significantly reduce complexity. Rob's take is that automation is key, but it has to be standardized. Of course, infrastructure as code plays a critical role.

Multicloud is now the norm, but multicloud environments are incredibly complex and can be maddeningly difficult to manage in a way that provides strategic value to the business long-term. In this podcast, David Linthicum shares tips to help organizations successfully migrate to, deploy, and manage multicloud environments. Long-term success lies in monitoring the middle, thinking long-term, staying app and security focused, building a solid business case, and following best practices.

What's the future of cloud? No one really knows, but it's the job of futurists to try to predict it. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Chief Futurist, Mike Bechtel, about where cloud may be headed. Mike's take is that, over the next five to ten years, decentralized cloud and quantum computing will make a huge impact on cloud and how companies use cloud as a force multiplier for innovation. The catch? Companies must be bold and take calculated risks to get there.

Working with Deloitte, the Utah Department of Government Operations recently completed the first part of an effort to migrate its mainframe applications to cloud. It was a mammoth undertaking, but an overall successful effort. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with project leaders from both the state and Deloitte teams. The trio discuss the project's challenges, successes, and lessons learned. They also share what's up next—an app modernization plan to help realize cloud's full potential.

Cloud app delivery runs on tight timelines. Unfortunately, other organizational processes, like procurement or legal, often create workflow bottlenecks that hobble the software delivery process. In this podcast, Mike Kavis and guests, Chris Young and Mattia Battiston, discuss teams, workflow, and value delivery. Their advice: IT and business must work collaboratively to manage change, identify and clear bottlenecks, and understand where value lies to optimize workflow.

AI/ML has been around for decades, but cloud has made it possible for companies to leverage AI/ML in new ways, and on a scale never before possible. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Brijesh Singh about why AI/ML is easier to implement with cloud. The pair also discuss new uses for AI/ML—especially vis-à-vis customer service applications—and what's in store for the future of AI/ML. Finally, Brijesh gives advice to practitioners who want to acquire AI/ML skills.

Although edge computing is growing, it lacks the maturity of cloud. That's changing. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Lisa Noon and Clarify360's Jo Peterson about how research organizations are bringing standards to the edge and how companies are building on that to apply edge computing to more and more real-world situations. The consensus? Edge is a wide-open space with lots of potential, and companies that leverage edge effectively will have a competitive advantage.