Cloud Computing Insider

In this compelling video conversation, David Linthicum sits down with Sebastian Mondragon, CEO of Particula Tech, to explore the practical journey of repatriating enterprise workloads from public clouds back to on-premises or hybrid environments. With candor and technical depth, Sebastian shares his firsthand experience leading AI-driven businesses through the complexities of cloud repatriation—highlighting why it's not just a cost-saving measure, but a strategic move toward control, scalability, and compliance.

Viewers gain actionable insights as Sebastian breaks down the challenges organizations often encounter in public cloud settings, from ongoing operational expenses to rigid infrastructure limitations and increasing scrutiny around data sovereignty. He details the systematic approach his team used to identify which workloads truly benefit from cloud versus which are more efficient and secure in-house.

Throughout the discussion, Sebastian and David tackle the nuances of migration planning, risk management, and performance optimization. They emphasize the importance of understanding core business needs and the limitations of "one-size-fits-all" cloud solutions. The conversation also highlights how explainability and transparency—key values at Particula Tech—inform every decision. This video is essential viewing for IT leaders considering their own repatriation projects or aiming to make more informed decisions in their cloud strategies.

Step into the heart of cloud computing as industry legend David Linthicum takes the hot seat on a special Q&A episode of The Cloud Computing Insider podcast. In this no-holds-barred session, David pulls back the curtain on the biggest myths, challenges, and game-changing trends that are shaping the cloud landscape today.

Listeners submitted their most pressing—and sometimes controversial—questions, and David doesn't shy away from any of them. Whether it's cloud migration headaches, the real impact of AI on cloud strategies, security nightmares, or vendor lock-in fears, David tackles it all with his signature candor, humor, and deep expertise.

This episode is a must-watch for IT leaders, cloud architects, and anyone who refuses to settle for buzzwords and wants real, unfiltered insights. Expect straight talk, surprising revelations, and actionable advice you won't find anywhere else. Whether you're just starting your cloud journey or are a seasoned pro looking for a fresh perspective, David's answers will challenge the status quo and leave you rethinking your approach to the cloud.

Don't miss this rare opportunity to hear David Linthicum answer your questions—raw, real, and relevant—on The Cloud Computing Insider.

Aggressively pursuing GPU adoption—whether in the cloud or on-premises—often leads organizations straight into costly traps. A surprising amount of infrastructure is chronically overprovisioned, with organizations buying or renting more GPU power than they'll ever use "just in case." This overkill results in idle or underutilized GPUs that drain budgets, mirroring the same wasteful patterns in both environments. Most enterprise workloads don't even need GPU acceleration, but the current industry hype pushes adoption far beyond what actual business goals require. Making matters worse, soaring GPU prices aren't delivering transformative returns for mainstream use, meaning costs rise faster than the benefits. The common claim that cloud pay-as-you-go solves utilization issues is misleading: many companies simply leave pricey instances running, wasting just as much as they do on underused hardware racks. Only persistent, compute-intensive tasks like AI/ML training truly justify ongoing GPU investment. The bottom line: Regardless of environment, only strong governance, real-time observability, and right-sized, hybrid strategies truly control spend and prevent waste. Without tight oversight, both clouds and datacenters fall victim to the same needless overspending.

In this video, I'm going to unpack what I see as the bad side of AWS's latest AI push at re:Invent—specifically around agents and mega‑scale infrastructure.

You'll hear a lot of polished narratives about "frontier agents," AgentCore, and AI Factories as if they're turnkey answers to every enterprise AI problem. I'm going to challenge that. To me, much of this feels like a rushed, "me too" sprint into the agentic hype cycle—an attempt to keep up with the fast followers rather than a confident, opinionated vision from the market leader. And when AWS looks reactive, it looks weaker than it actually is.

We'll talk about where branded agents like Kiro, the Security Agent, and the DevOps Agent risk becoming keynote theater instead of durable tools. We'll dig into why AgentCore may be more abstraction tax than simplification. And we'll look at AI Factories and ask whether most enterprises are really ready to run their own mini‑AWS in a basement.

If you're trying to separate signal from marketing noise, stay with me.

Cloud computing has transformed the technology landscape, turning from a buzzword into a strategic necessity across industries. Yet, for those just beginning their careers—or even seasoned professionals seeking to reinvent themselves—the path forward is more complex than ever. The days of simply learning how to spin up a server or migrate workloads are long gone. Today, the pace of innovation, the breadth of services, and the need for alignment with business strategy mean the cloud is about much more than technology—it's about vision, adaptability, and impact.

If I were starting my cloud career over today, I wouldn't just focus on mastering platforms or passing exams. I'd be looking at bigger, strategic moves: crafting architectures that fuel business growth, advocating for real transformation, mastering cloud economics, and keeping pace with relentless change. The industry now prizes thought leadership, business understanding, and the ability to connect technology to outcomes that really matter. In this video, I'll walk you through the seven most important things I would do differently to thrive from day one—drawing from three decades in the industry and a front-row seat to the cloud's ongoing evolution. Get ready for honest advice, strategic insights, and a candid roadmap for success.

Michigan isn't just flirting with bad tech policy—it's toying with breaking the basic security plumbing of the modern internet. Wrapped in "protect the children" branding, new proposals in Lansing would effectively ban or heavily restrict VPNs by forcing ISPs and websites to detect and block encrypted tunnels for Michigan users. On paper, it's about stopping teens from bypassing age‑verification for porn. In practice, it's a direct collision with how real‑world IT, cloud, and remote work actually function. VPNs are not a fringe tool for hiding adult content; they're the standard way businesses, schools, hospitals, banks, and governments protect data in transit and stay compliant with federal security rules. If Michigan normalizes breaking or banning VPNs, it's not just attacking privacy—it's attacking the same encryption that secures medical records, payroll, critical infrastructure, and every remote login you make from home. That leaves companies and institutions facing an impossible choice: weaken their security to satisfy a state law, or stay secure and become potential criminals. And if lawmakers push ahead anyway, they shouldn't be surprised when data centers, jobs, and serious cloud operations quietly leave Michigan behind.

Step into the boardroom of the future.

In this special episode, authors Meredith Stein and David Linthicum sit down to unpack their groundbreaking new book, Unlocking the Power of the Cloud: Governance, Artificial Intelligence, Risk Management, Value. They reveal why "the cloud revolution is reshaping the foundation of business" and why "the old playbook is obsolete"—and, more importantly, how leaders can finally get their hands on the new playbook for governing in the age of cloud and AI.

You'll hear Meredith and Dave break down how cloud computing and AI are fundamentally disrupting corporate governance, risk, and compliance—and how a well-designed cloud governance ecosystem can accelerate innovation rather than constrain it. They explore the critical intersection where cloud infrastructure meets AI deployment, and show how forward-looking organizations are harnessing that convergence for real competitive advantage, not just cost savings. Along the way, they explain how to manage risks that didn't even exist five years ago and turn compliance from a cost center into a strategic differentiator.

Whether you're a CEO, board member, CIO, security leader, auditor, or risk professional, this conversation is a wake-up call: your competitors are already moving. The question isn't whether you'll adapt to the cloud and AI era—it's whether you'll lead.

The reliability of the internet's backbone services is often taken for granted—until a sudden outage disrupts the global flow of information. Cloudflare, known for its robust web infrastructure solutions and security features, stands as one of the key pillars that keep millions of websites and digital services running smoothly. On the morning of the recent outage, a surprising chain reaction exposed how deeply interconnected, and vulnerable, today's digital ecosystem can be. From major platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), League of Legends, and Canva to services that monitor internet health, the effects were immediate and far-reaching.

This incident highlighted not only the essential nature of providers like Cloudflare but also the risks of an over-centralized internet. When a single point of failure cascades across continents, businesses and users alike are left to reassess their dependence on core infrastructure companies. Factors such as coincidental maintenance and the temporary suspension of key services like WARP in London suggest that complex dependencies and layered vulnerabilities remain a pressing challenge. As the dust settles, the outage offers a clear call to action: enterprises must prioritize redundancy, robust disaster recovery planning, and proactive risk management to build a truly resilient digital future.

The AWS outage in October 2025 has reignited concerns about the financial impact of cloud service disruptions and intensified debate over who carries the burden of resulting losses. As businesses grappled with widespread downtime, lost sales, and customer dissatisfaction, the spotlight turned to liability and recovery. Most standard service level agreements (SLAs) with leading cloud providers like AWS sharply limit liability, offering only service credits—rather than cash—to compensate for outages. These credits typically fall far short of covering actual losses or reputational damage.

In the aftermath, many organizations are closely examining their contracts and discovering they bear most responsibility for indirect or consequential losses. While cyber insurance or business interruption policies can provide some relief, these are not comprehensive solutions. Only a minority of large enterprises manage to negotiate customized terms that include more favorable compensation or financial remedies, and even these often exclude force majeure events such as natural disasters.

The shared responsibility model in the cloud space means businesses must proactively assess risk and develop contingency plans. The October 2025 AWS outage underscores the urgent need for robust business continuity strategies, rapid incident response, and clear customer communication to reduce the financial impact of inevitable, large-scale cloud service disruptions.

In this episode of The Cloud Computing Insider, David Linthicum takes you inside the bold predictions he made about the cloud that most experts dismissed—and how each one has become reality. From skyrocketing cloud costs and the rise of multicloud to the surprising comeback of private clouds, David unpacks what he saw coming before anyone else. Discover why PaaS stumbled, why the metaverse fizzled, and how Covid-19 fueled a cloud boom. If you want to understand where cloud computing is headed—and learn from the industry's most accurate forecast record—this episode is a must-watch for anyone in tech.