The Premise: When it comes to wireless, redesigns are useless.

Redesigns in wireless are done more for compulsive than technical need. When a new access point comes out, the entire wireless network doesn’t need a redesign, other than to satisfy the need to tinker for those managing them. We discuss if and when a redesign is actually needed, why you need to consider what’s driving your wireless refresh in the decision, and how to put a monetary value on defining a “pointless” redesign.

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The Premise: Backing up SaaS apps isn’t my problem, the cloud provider should handle it.

We all know how traditional backup work, but SaaS is different. Since the software comes as a service, backup is just one of those services, right? The roundtable discusses this idea. Do current SaaS offering really provide backup? If they don’t, should that even be their responsibility? And should you always want to be doing your own backup anyway? This was a really great discussion to get you thinking on the topic.

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The Premise: The traditional office will be dead in the next 5-10 years.

The traditional office is dying. Since the rise of telecommuting in the 90s, less and less people need to be in the office. With open offices killing productivity, in the near term, we’re going to see the traditional office become extinct. The roundtable debates how true this is, and what makes it worth it for a lot of organizations to still keep the office lights on.

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The Premise: VARs are useless.

Value-added resellers (VARs) are often characterized as useless, adding a needless cost for something that should be sold direct to customers. In this On-Premise IT Roundtable, the panel discusses where the value actually gets added and what benefits VARs can still provide. It was an interesting discussion with a lot of different perspectives.

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The Premise: By proliferating the number of devices on our networks, IoT is making our society less secure.

On this episode, the roundtable discusses if IoT is making us less secure overall. They get into a discussion of what kind of attack surfaces IoT presents, whether these device impact privacy more than security, and why current IoT is based on a “no support” model.

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The Premise: The push for multi-cloud is driven by vendors and analysts, not by an actual IT need. 

On this episode, the roundtable discusses if the framing of multi-cloud as an inevitable IT outcome is really accurate. Is multi-cloud just something being pushed by analysts and vendors with solutions to sell? If so, will it ultimately be a fad? They further discuss what they mean when they say multi-cloud, which further clarifies the premise.

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The Premise: Data protection policy isn’t defined by business need or IT capability, rather than an inherited set of traditions and superstitions.

On this episode, the roundtable discusses data protection policy. The premise is that most organizations are doing this wrong. There’s a fundamental misalignment between what IT thinks it needs to be doing and what the business needs for operations and compliance. They discuss who needs to be taking ownership of these policies, how storage vendors are partially responsible, and how to move forward.

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The Premise: There’s value to the business in bringing your personal interests to work in IT.

Today’s show discusses when you can bring your personal life into IT. We discuss if doing so is just a way to reduce burnout, or if there is legitimate business value to be found. We touch on how to approach supposed “third rail” topics and more.

Be sure to checkout Leon Adato’s book discussed in the episode, The Four Questions Every Monitoring Engineer is Asked.

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The Premise: People don’t want cloud, they want what it does.

Today’s episode considers if people want cloud, or what the cloud actually does. In this case, we’re looking at if a focus on providing services will eventually make the cloud irrelevant, since people don’t really care about it. Or have the cloud providers created sufficient value-add services to solve business problems that make the cloud itself relevant, not just API-driven functions.

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The Premise: Network analytics is too expensive for the modern enterprise.

Thanks to the growth of software-defined networking, a lot of network information that used to be unknown, is now known. But in order to get that information out of the network, you have to spend a lot of money on specialized hardware, software, and talent to program it all. Is it beyond the reach of most enterprises? Or is the cost of not knowing always greater? The roundtable discusses.

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