One thing I’ve learned from talking to telco execs across the globe about the public cloud is that security is top of mind. Another thing I’ve learned is that many of them don’t know a lot about just how secure the public cloud is. So for this episode, I’m joined by Amy Zwarico, director of cybersecurity at AT&T, one of the world's largest and oldest telcos. She’s here to explain why the public cloud is more secure than the way many telcos are doing business today, and how AT&T has been preparing for its transition to use Azure. Hit play to hear our conversation about:

• What convinced AT&T that the public cloud and Microsoft Azure were the path to the future [02:32];
• How AT&T shifted operating models to run workloads in the public cloud [04:47];
• What advice Amy has for teams starting their cloud move [08:23];
• Why developing security patterns ahead of time is critical [09:11];
• How AT&T has benefited from its cloud migration [10:40].

Fun fact: Amy is our first female guest on Telco in 20! We both want to see more women in tech leadership, so we finish our conversation by talking about how to encourage STEM learning and IT careers for young women. For every listen to this episode in the first 30 days, we’ll donate $1 to the Girls Who Code chapter of my high school!

Be sure to subscribe and follow this podcast. You can find the transcript for this episode here.

Links and Resources

• Read the June 2021 announcement about AT&T and Microsoft joining forces
• Check out AT&T’s cybersecurity blog
• Download  this AT&T Cybersecurity report about securing the edge
• Learn more about Girls Who Code, an awesome nonprofit that works to close the gender gap in technology
• Check out pictures of my gorgeous high school alma mater, El Paso HIgh School. Don’t miss the super cool amphitheater football stadium. Famous graduates include F. Murray Abraham, Sandra Day O’Conner, Beto O’Rouke – and yours truly, of course!
• Amy loves classical music and singing, and has performed with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra (ASO) in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. Learn more about ASO.
• I, on the other hand, am NOT a singer – but I did rap (terribly) in an early podcast episode featuring Forrest Brazeal. Check it out!

Wanna talk public cloud? Telco execs set up a meeting with our team to learn how to tap the immense business value it can bring.

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This week’s guest

About Amy Zwarico
Amy Zwarico is a director in AT&T’s Chief Security office. She’s been involved in Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) security since the Amsterdam release, and currently serves as vice chair of the ONAP Security Subcommittee. Amy has worked in the telco industry for more than 25 years, focusing for the past 20 years on app sec, cloud security, applied cryptography, mobility security, software supply chain security and policy. 

Podcast Credits

• Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Royston, TelcoDR
• Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo
• Editor/Marketing: Alisa Jenkins, Springboard Marketing
• Editing: Andrew Condell
• Music: Dyami Wilson