The CTO Advisor
Enterprise IT Leadership and CTO Level Resources
The CTO Advisor · Keith Townsend
Show overview
The CTO Advisor has been publishing since 2023, and across the 3 years since has built a catalogue of 97 episodes. That works out to roughly 1 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a monthly cadence.
None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-US-language Technology show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 3 weeks ago, with 7 episodes already out so far this year. The busiest year was 2024, with 42 episodes published. Published by Keith Townsend.
From the publisher
A conversation geared toward the CTO or Infrastructure Architect. Shows topics focus on future technologies and keeping today's infrastructure in-line with business requirements.
Latest Episodes
View all 97 episodesLayer2C Labs 001: Borrow the Vendor’s Plumbing, Not Its Judgment
Deterministic AI Isn’t the Goal. Deterministic Systems Are.
From Network Engineer to Applied AI: Ryan Booth on the Career Path Nobody Maps Out
Clumio Data Protection for Google Cloud –
Your Data Is Getting Dirtier While We Talk — UnicornIQ’s Answer to AI’s Unsolvable Problem
Everyone says clean your data before you invest in AI. The problem is, your data is getting dirty faster than you can clean it. In this episode, Keith sits down with Joe Onisick, founder of UnicornIQ, to dig into why data hygiene is AI's most underestimated failure point — and why throwing more GPU power [...]
AI in the Data Center: When Faster Isn’t Better
AI is changing the data center—but not always in the ways enterprises expect. In this episode, Keith Townsend is joined by Intel’s Lynn Comp for Part Two of their conversation, shifting the focus squarely to AI infrastructure realities. They explore why many AI workloads never justify GPUs, how CPU-based deployments often exceed real [...]
Right-Sizing AI, Rationalizing Virtualization, and Becoming an Infrastructure Arbiter — with Melissa Palmer
Episode Summary Enterprise leaders are facing two equally hard problems at the same time: deciding what to do next with virtualization in the post-VMware era, and figuring out how—or whether—to deploy AI infrastructure responsibly. In this episode of The CTO Advisor Podcast, Keith Townsend sits down with long-time industry peer and infrastructure expert [...]
The VMware Reckoning: Broadcom, AI, and the Future of Enterprise Infrastructure
Enterprise IT didn’t plan for this problem—but now it has to solve it. In this episode of The CTO Advisor Podcast, Keith Townsend sits down with Lynn Comp, Head of Data Center Market Readiness at Intel, for a candid, unsugarcoated conversation about how Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has fundamentally disrupted the enterprise infrastructure status quo. [...]
Outrunning Ageism and Building a Second Career
In this episode of The CTO Advisor Podcast, Keith Townsend sits down with Betsy Tong, founder of Authority Architect, to explore how seasoned professionals can transform decades of experience into thriving consulting businesses. Betsy shares her personal story of being laid off at 56 and realizing the traditional job market—dominated by keyword filters and age [...]
Outrunning Ageism and Building a Second Career
VMware Explore 2025: VCF 9, Developer Tribes, and the Future of Private Cloud – with Steven Dickens
In this episode, Keith Townsend welcomes back Steven Dickens, founder of Hyperframe Research, for a candid conversation following VMware Explore 2025. The duo dives deep into the latest developments from VMware, focusing on the launch of VCF 9 and what it means for developers, customers, and the broader ecosystem. Key topics include: Steven’s impressions of [...]
VMware Explore 2025: VCF 9, Developer Tribes, and the Future of Private Cloud – with Steven Dickens
AGI, Superintelligence, and the Race for Compute with Brian Wang
📝 Show Notes: On this episode of the CTO Advisor Podcast, Keith sits down with independent analyst Brian Wang of Next Big Future to unpack one of the hottest debates in enterprise IT and AI research: the path to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and beyond to superintelligence. Brian brings his unique lens as a technologist [...]
AGI, Superintelligence, and the Race for Compute with Brian Wang
Modernizing Network Ops in a Post-Cowboy World – CTO Advisor Podcast with Guest Scott Robohn
In this special CTO Advisor Podcast episode, Keith Townsend sits down with Scott Robohn, founder of Tech Sales Craft and co-founder of the Network Automation Forum, for a timely conversation recorded live during GTC week in San Jose — but not at GTC. The duo dive deep into the evolution of network operations and why [...]
Modernizing Network Ops in a Post-Cowboy World – CTO Advisor Podcast with Guest Scott Robohn
From CapEx Chaos to AI Scale: Kamiwaza CEO Luke Norris on the Future of Enterprise AI Infrastructure
From CapEx Chaos to AI Scale: Kamiwaza CEO Luke Norris on the Future of Enterprise AI Infrastructure
📄 Episode Summary / Show Notes: The AI infrastructure game is changing—fast. In this episode of The CTO Advisor Podcast, Keith Townsend sits down with Luke Norris, CEO of Kamiwaza, just steps from #NvidiaGTC, to unpack what planned obsolescence really means in a world of $100K GPUs with 18-month lifespans. 🔥 In this episode, we [...]
AI Assisted App Development with AWS’ Bryan Liles
AI Assisted App Development with AWS’ Bryan Liles
Episode Summary:In this episode of the CTO Advisor Podcast, Keith Townsend welcomes back Bryan Liles—a veteran developer and cloud expert—to discuss AI-assisted application development. The conversation covers how AI tools are transforming coding practices, from automating mundane tasks like converting data types and generating tests to speeding up complex problem-solving. Bryan shares his insights on [...]