Enterprise IT has long been divided into silos. This is because of scarce resources and specialized knowledge required to perform some IT operations tasks. The world of today is much more focused on outcomes and the need for silos is waning. In this episode of the Tech Field Day Podcast, Stephen Foskett, Alastair Cooke, and Tom Hollingsworth discuss how enterprise IT has moved away from silos due to increased resource availability and cross training. They also look ahead to new challenges from advances like AI and quantum computing.

Hosts:

Tom Hollingsworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/networkingnerd

Alastair Cooke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alastaircooke/

Tech Field Day:

Event Page: https://techfieldday.com/event/cfd21/

The IT industry’s reliance on acquisitions is a necessary driver of innovation, though they often seem to get in the way of competition and progress. This episode of the Tech Field Day podcast, recorded during Cloud Field Day 21, features Ray Lucchesi, Jon Hildebrand, Ken Nalbone, and Stephen Foskett considering whether acquisitions in the IT industry are a necessary evil or a detriment to innovation. Acquisitions are often seen as a double-edged sword, with both positive and negative implications. On one hand, acquisitions can fuel innovation by providing smaller companies with the resources and market access they need to scale their ideas. On the other hand, they can stifle competition, lead to cultural clashes, and sometimes result in the disappearance of promising technologies or products.

Host:

Event Page: https://techfieldday.com/event/aidifd1/

There is a significant gap between storage companies and their ability to effectively support AI infrastructure. In this episode of the Tech Field Day podcast, recorded during the AI Data Infrastructure Field Day 2 in Santa Clara, host Stephen Foskett and guests Kurtis Kemple, Brian Booden, and Rohan Puri explore the evolving relationship between storage and AI. The discussion highlights a significant gap between storage companies' current capabilities and the demands of AI applications. While storage vendors are pivoting to support AI, many lack deep AI expertise, often focusing on cost and efficiency rather than offering integrated, AI-specific solutions. The panel emphasizes the need for storage companies to move beyond being mere data repositories and instead develop end-to-end solutions that address AI workflows, data preparation, and metadata management. They also stress the importance of education, partnerships, and hiring AI specialists to bridge the knowledge gap and drive innovation. The conversation underscores the early stage of this convergence, with a call for clearer strategies, open standards, and more cohesive integration between storage and AI to meet the growing demands of data-driven applications.

Stephen Foskett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sfoskett/

Panelists:

Tech Field Day:

Podcast:

Tags: #TFDPodcast, #AIDIFD1, #AIDataInfrastructure, @TechFieldDay, @TechFieldDayPod, @SFoskett, @TheFuturumGroup, @GestaltIT, @Rohan_Puri, @_DigitalVandal, @Brian_Booden,

Event Page: https://techfieldday.com/event/nfd36/

Network engineers are notorious for doing whatever it takes to keep their customers and users happy. No reference architecture is safe from modification. However, these unique designs, commonly referred to as "snowflakes", create challenges when unforeseen consequences occur. In this episode of the Tech Field Day podcast, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Dakota Snow, Steve Puluka, and Bob McCouch as they discuss the challenges behind snowflake design and operations. They talk about the best way to build better systems and prevent the challenges caused by uniqueness.

Host:

Tom Hollingsworth:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/networkingnerd

Panelists:

Bob McCloud: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobmccouch

Steve Puluka: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spuluka/

Dakota Snow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dakota-seufert-snow-8a220764/

Tech Field Day:

Website: https://www.techfieldday.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tech-field-day

X/Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/techfieldday

Podcast:

Website: https://www.techfieldday.com/podcast

X/Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/techfielddaypod

Tags: #TFDPodcast, #NFD36, #Networking,

Event Page: https://techfieldday.com/event/mfd12/

Wi-Fi is the most dominant client connectivity option on the market today. The growth of ubiquitous computing has only happened because of the mass deployment of Wi-Fi. However, Wi-Fi isn’t the only wireless solution and isn’t always the best way to connect devices. In this episode, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Lee Badman, Troy Martin, and Ron Westfall as they discuss what other options exist and what workflows they can improve.

Host:

Tom Hollingsworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/networkingnerd/

Panel:

Ron Westfall, Research Director, The Futurum Group: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-westfall-b7679a/

Troy Martin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/labguy/

Lee Badman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leebadman/

Tech Field Day:

Website: https://www.techfieldday.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tech-field-day

X/Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/techfieldday

Podcast:

Website: https://www.techfieldday.com/podcast

X/Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/techfielddaypod

Tags: #TFDPodcast, #MFD12, #Mobility, #WiFi, @TechFieldDay, @TechFieldDayPod, @Cisco, @NileSecure,

Event Page: https://techfieldday.com/event/adfd2/

Generative AI is transforming many industries where people create content. Software development is no different; AI agents are in almost every development platform. But is AI improving application development and software quality? This episode of the Tech Field Day Podcast looks at some of the issues revolving around AI and App Dev with Alastair Cooke, Guy Currier, Jack Poller, and Stephen Foskett. The ultimate objective of a software development team is to deliver an application that fulfills a business need and helps the organization be more successful. An AI that can recommend basic code snippets doesn’t move that needle far. More sophistication is needed to get value from AI in the development process. The objective should be to have AI handle the repetitive tasks and allow humans to focus on innovative tasks where generative AI is less capable. AI agents must handle building tests and reviewing code for security and correctness to enable developers to concentrate on building better applications that help organizations.

Host:

Panelists:

Tech Field Day:

Podcast:

Event Page: https://techfieldday.com/event/nfd36/

Artificial Intelligence is creating the kind of paradigm shifts not seen since the cloud revolution. Everyone is changing the way their IT infrastructure operates in order to make AI work better. In this episode of the Tech Field Day Podcast, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by John Freeman, Scott Robohn, and Ron Westfall as they discuss how AI is driving innovation in the networking market. They talk about how the toolsets are changing to incorporate AI features as well as how the need to push massive amounts of data into LLMs and generative AI constructs is creating opportunities for companies to show innovation. They also talk about how Ethernet is becoming ascendant in the AI market.

Event Page: https://techfieldday.com/event/efd3/

Edge computing is one of the areas where we see startup vendors offering innovative solutions, enabling applications to operate where the business operates rather than where the IT team sit. This episode of the Tech Field Day podcast focuses on the melting pot of edge computing and features Guy Currier, John Osmon, Ivan McPhee, and host Alastair Cooke, all of whom attended Edge Field Day in September. To accommodate the unique nature of the diverse and unusual locations where businesses operate, many different technologies are brought together to form the melting pot of edge computing. Containers and AI applications are coming from the massive public cloud data centres to a range of embedded computers on factory floors, industrial sites, and farm equipment. ARM CPUs, sensors, and low-power hardware accelerators are coming from mobile phones to power applications in new locations. Enterprise organizations must still control and manage data and applications across these locations and platforms. Security must be built into the edge from the beginning; edge computing often happens in an unsecured location and often with no human oversight. This melting pot of technology and innovation makes edge computing an innovative part of IT.

Host:

Event Page: https://techfieldday.com/event/cfd21/

Public Cloud computing is a large part of enterprise IT alongside on-premises computing. Many organizations that had a cloud-first approach and are now gaining value from on-premises private clouds and seeing their changing business needs leading to changing cloud use. This episode of the Tech Field Day podcast delves into the complexity of multiple cloud providers and features Maciej Lelusz, Jack Poller, Justin Warren, and host Alastair Cooke, all attendees at Cloud Field Day. The awareness of changing business needs is causing some re-thinking of how businesses use cloud platforms, possibly moving away from using cloud vendor specific services to bare VMs. VMs are far simpler to move from one cloud to another, or between public cloud and private cloud platforms. Over time, the market will speak and if there are too many cloud providers, we will see mergers, acquisitions or failures of smaller specialized cloud providers. In the meantime, choosing where to put which application for the best outcome can be a challenge for businesses.

Host:

Panelists:

Tech Field Day:

Podcast:

Tags: #TFDPodcast, #CFD21, #HybridCloud, #MultiCloud, @TechFieldDayPod, @TheFuturumGroup, @GestaltIT, @TechFieldDay, @DemitasseNZ, @JPWarren, @Poller, @@MaciejLelusz,

Event Page: https://techfieldday.com/event/xfd12/

With the advent of quantum computers, the likelihood that modern encryption is going to be invalidated is a possibility. New standards from NIST have arrived that have ushered in the post-quantum era. You don’t need to implement them yet but you need to be familiar with them. Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Jennifer Minella, Andrew Conry-Murray, and Alastair Cooke in this episode to discuss why post-quantum algorithms are needed, why you should be readying your enterprise to use them, and how best to plan your implementation strategy.