Tech Interviews

There is no doubt that the way businesses operate has changed significantly throughout 2020 and while many of us had plans for and technology in place to deal with a distributed workforce, not many of us have the plans, technology or processes in place to deal with all of our workforce been distributed.

Now then, is the time for us to take a step back and rethink our distributed workforce, how we approach it? To help me to explore this is this week’s podcast guest Doug Miller, CEO of Brightworks Group, a company specialising in helping enterprises of all sizes to modernise their approach to IT and help to service a distributed workforce.

Join us as we discuss.

• Doug’s props!

• The demands of our changing world

• The opportunity of distributed workforces

• The power user problem!

• Big issues are not necessarily technical

• The digital transformation “lag”

• The data portability problem

• When the leadership does not embrace technology

• The importance of working with specialists who can help you

• Tips on rethinking your distributed workforce.

Doug brought a fabulous insight to the topic and shared it with not only great enthusiasm but also with a sword! You cannot ask for more than that! His knowledge and experience shone through as he shared some fantastic tips on how to re-tool your business to not only support but to take advantage of the opportunities presented by a distributed workforce.

If you have an idea for a show or would like to appear as a guest then email [email protected]. To catch then next episode then why not subscribe.

Until next time thanks for listening.

For full show notes : https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1Ow

The public cloud is playing an ever more important part in the modern enterprise’s infrastructure, whether they are SaaS services such as Microsoft 365 or native cloud services from compute to storage. The challenge when we look to adopt the cloud is how do we avoid developing a technology silo in our business, how do we make sure we don’t put the cloud on an island all of its own, one that has no integration into our enterprise datacentre. Because that is not the point is it? We want the cloud to be a valuable extension of what we do, something we can use “tactically” to solve problems and enable us to do things that are hard on-premises.

How then do we build appropriate bridges between what we do in the datacentre and those resources and services the public cloud has to offer? That is the subject of this week’s show as I am joined by Principal Architect and Cloud Evangelist at NetApp, Phoebe Goh.

We discuss.

• Why we need a Cloud data strategy.

• We need an Enterprise-ready cloud.

• It is not just about “somebody else’s computer”.

• Cloud is a “mindset”.

• Make your datacentre more cloud-like and your cloud more enterprise.

• Avoiding the human nature of silos!

• Joining the technology dots.

• The value of “specialists”.

• Tips for “joining the cloudy dots!”

• Looking forward to NetApp INSIGHT.

I always enjoy catching up with Phoebe her knowledge and enthusiasm are a great mix for sharing her experience of cloud architecture and providing tips on how you can make sure your use of public cloud is as effective as it can be. Phoebe also talked about NetApp INSIGHT during this session and regardless of whether you are a NetApp customer or not, this is a really useful event to hear from a specialist in data storage both on-premises and in the cloud and with a great line up of speakers Including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella.

If you have an idea for a show or would like to appear as a guest, then email me [email protected] and to catch the next episode why not subscribe.

Until next time thanks for watching and listening.

You'll find full show notes here : https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1Or

The fact that the importance of data to every business continues to grow is not a surprise. Our data estates been more complex, more geographically spread and housed in more data repositories than ever before, again should not be a surprise and neither is it that our demands on our data are also increasing, we want it to be more useful to us, be used as part of new data strategies, but we also need it to be more highly available than ever, more portable and more flexible.

However, it is these challenges that are also leading to us needing to consider another part of our data infrastructure and that is our data protection. The state of our data protection strategy should also be under constant review, does what we are doing today meet the demands of our business?

A few months ago, I attended VeeamON, Veeam’s annual technical conference, one of the sessions I found extremely useful dealt with the exact topic I’ve just described, the state of the data protection industry in 2020. With that in mind, I asked the presenter of the session if he’d be happy to share those thoughts with the Tech Interviews audience and he said yes, so on this week’s show I’m joined by Dave Russell, Veeam’s Vice President of Enterprise Strategy to share some of the ideas from that session as well as applying some updates to it based on the changes we have all witnessed in 2020.

We discuss.

Data strategy is for businesses of all sizes.

The current state of the protection market.

The enterprise “frustration”.

The complexity of data protection.

How 2020 has changed the market.

Do not underestimate “it just works”.

The risk of “cyber threat” and data protection.

How can we get our “backups” to do more?

How does a backup vendor be a part of “transformation”?

The importance of data portability.

Three tips for your data strategy.

Even licences need to be portable.

Data protection remains critical to every business and ensuring the strategy you have is right for your business needs is crucial. Dave mentioned the upcoming Veeam Live event on 20th October, for those of you interested in your data protection strategy and developing cloud data management best practices, this may be an event you find very useful you can find out more and register for it at veeamlive.com .

If you have an idea for a show or would like to appear as a guest why not email [email protected] and to ensure you catch the next episode then please subscribe on YouTube or via your favourite podcast app.

Until next time thanks for listening.

For full show notes please visit https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1O9

The need to modernise the way we deliver technology continues to be high on the agenda of both IT and broader enterprise leadership, whether it's how we manage and store data, build security or work with partners and customers we are looking at ways to do this more effectively and efficiently. This is also true of the applications that we use across the enterprise.

The public cloud has changed the perception of how we want to see our technology, including our applications, behave. This has led to new app development methodologies and tools, one of these is serverless. But what is serverless? Can I use it? I have got lots of big enterprise applications is it all relevant?

All of which are good questions and are the subject of this week's podcast as I'm joined by Ezhilarasi Chezhiyan of KOVAI.co to talk about serverless architecture.

Join us as we discuss.

Serverless is not without servers!

The LEGO approach to applications

Abstracting the infrastructure

Flexibility

Serverless use cases

Serverless limitations

Integrating with legacy applications

Defining serverless candidates

Building one thing supporting Serverless is something else!

I am new to the world of serverless and what it can do, but I learnt a lot from Ezhilarasi, I hope you did too.

If you have an idea for a show or would like to appear as a guest then why not email me at [email protected]. To make sure you catch the next episode of Tech Interviews please subscribe either on YouTube or via you podcast app of choice.

Thanks for listening.

Full show notes are here : https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1O2

As September rolls around it seems that the technology industry has decided this should be digital conference season, as we publish this week’s podcast in the week of the 28th September we see VMworld 2020 happening online and throughout October companies like Veeam, NetApp, ONUG and others will be holding their own digital events. Ahead of all of those we have had Microsoft Ignite, their major conference for the technical community.

What did we hear at Ignite? What Microsoft announcements should we go and check out? In the first of what is going to become a series of event wrap up shows over the coming weeks, I’m joined by Microsoft’s Sarah Lean and NetApp’s Kirk Ryan to give their views of Ignite, what surprised them and excited them. So technical issues (with the video version of the show) aside, settle back and join our chat as we talk about.

• Microsoft’s aims for ignite

• Azure in Space and in the sea

• Automating your Azure estate

• Windows is not dead

• Putting the power in the hands of those who need it

• If you could only check out one session

As you can tell from our chat there was a significant amount of content and a wide range of strategic and technical information. Kirk and Sarah did a great job of summing them up as Ignite again demonstrated just how much Microsoft has changed over the last few years and how cloud is helping them and their customers to innovate and grow in ways that would have seemed unlikely before Satya Nadella's time in charge.

If you'd like to appear as a guest on the show or have an idea for a show then email [email protected] and to catch the next episode then please subscribe on YouTube or you usual home of quality podcasts!

Thanks for listening.

Full show notes are here : https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1NX

There are two camps when it comes to the world of technology, there are those who use it and those who make it. The challenge is, how do we make sure that those who are developing and selling technology are supplying things that are useful to and solving the challenges of those who are buying and using it? How do you bring those two disparate groups together in a way that allows for constructive dialogue which in turn leads to delivering products that solve business problems while still allowing tech vendors to innovate and of course make money?

On this week's show, we look at an organisation who although new to me, has since 2012 been looking to address this problem and have done so with a fair degree of success, ONUG, as I'm joined by Co-founder and Co-chair Nick Lippis joins me to share the ideas behind ONUG and how you can get involved.

We discuss.

Where do execs go to talk to their peers?

Getting beyond price only influence with vendors.

It's not about users v sellers – it's about healthy debate!

ONUG successes – talking about things that end up getting built.

Pushing back on vendors.

The integration of business and digital strategy.

Upcoming ONUG conference.

Digital platforms for modern business.

Not new just quicker!

Leaving the datacentre.

The ONUG collaborative.

ONUG is certainly attempting to find a way of bringing together those disparate communities and ensure we get the right kind of solutions into the technology market and I'm certainly looking forward to catching some sessions at the upcoming conference.

If you have an idea for a show or would like to appear as a guest then why not email [email protected]. To ensure you catch the next episode please subscribe on either YouTube or your favourite podcast app.

for full show notes and links : https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1NR

2020 has of course been a very different year for most of us and for those of us in the technology industry one major impact has been on the tech community. For many of us the community is one of our core career tenants for us as we develop, it is where we learn and where we build relationships and friendships.

As VMworld 2020 approaches, like most of the major conferences this year, it will only happen online and while this is a great opportunity for many to attend for the first time, it also means that we will lose that chance for the tech community to be brought together.

On this week's show, I'm joined by VMware content strategist and founder of the excellent community initiative The Tech Level Up Project, Yadin Porter De León as we discuss what VMworld 2020 has to offer.

Join us as we discuss.

Inclusion in numbers

Community side channels

The no-risk chance to try out VMworld

A chance to pick and mix

"the future forward" them

A chance to "really deliver for the widest audience"

The Tech Level Up Project

Community and your career

The vTrailmap – signposting your way into the vCommunity

VMworld remains a key part of the technology calendar and this year, while different, still offers a great chance to learn and make new community connections. Thanks to the work Yadin has done and his enthusiasm for the tech community, the vTrialMap provides a great resource to guide you through this big and valuable community.

To find out more about Yadin and his work check out the full shownotes here https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1NH

If you have an idea for a show or would like to appear as a guest then email at [email protected] and if you want to make sure you catch future episodes then please subscribe via YouTube or your podcast app.

It's pretty much the norm for us now that when we visit a website we are increasingly used to seeing the arrival on-screen of a helpful chat assistant, normally popping up in the bottom corner of the page and offering to help us out and to try to triage our requirements.

The issue though is these types of services are limited and are not smart enough to understand our requirements or add context to the conversation, but what if they were smarter?

That is the question we ask on this week's Tech interviews with my guest CEO and founder of aigo.ai, Peter Voss.

Join us as we discuss;

the current state of "assistants"

where is the value in deploying them?

the limitations of assistants without a brain!

how is the technology and the market changing?

the power of cognitive intelligence

how a good assistant can help retain customers

how aigo.ai are helping

where to start with a cognitive assistant project

Peter provides a fascinating insight into a part of the technology market that is going to become increasingly prevalent to business as we all look at ways we can use technology to help us be more efficient and improve the experience of our customers, partners and employees.

If you have an idea for the show or would like to appear as a guest then email me at [email protected]. To catch the next episode, you can subscribe in all the usual ways.

Thanks for listening.

For full show notes :- https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1Ny

There is no doubt the world has changed in many ways in the last 3 months, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the global response to it has been something we have not witnessed before. From a technology point of view, it has presented many challenges. However as things start to change we are starting to turn our attention to returning to some kind of "normal", but this also presents an opportunity to us, the chance to take what we have learned over this period and take that knowledge and experience to help plan what we do next, so that next time we need to react quickly to change we can do it better.

To help with that I have put together a short series of shows looking at where do we go next for some of our technology decision making. In this episode, we take a look at an area that has been pushed more than most during the COVID response and that is the area of connectivity and especially how the reliance on connectivity.

To discuss that I'm joined by Rob Shore, Rob is a Senior Vice President of Marketing for Infinera a specialist in connectivity solutions for the most demanding of networks. Rob has 27 years' experience in the telecoms industry and offer a fascinating take on what he's seen during the COVID response and what it means for the telecoms industry in the future.

We discuss.

Where are the telecoms industry now and where does it need to go?

COVID has accelerated issues and changes that were already planned

The datacentre revolution.

COVID driven reliance on the cloud.

While we are used to compute flexibility and scale where is this in our connectivity?

COVID highlighting the access problem.

The need for "software-fication"

Redesigning lasers.

5G – it is more than a 4G update.

Rob's experience in the industry allowed us to have a really interesting conversation touching on the cloud, communications and the need for more intelligence in our network layers and how this is going to be key to take connectivity and network access that today, is struggling to cope with the huge changes that COVID has brought, into the future and make it fit for purpose.

This is the last Tech Interviews for a few weeks as we have a summer break, but to catch our shows on our return then you can subscribe in all good homes of podcasts.

We will be back with a bunch of new shows later in the year and if you have an idea for a show or would like to appear as a guest then email me at [email protected].

For now, enjoy the summer months, stay safe and healthy until next time, thanks for listening.

For full show notes : https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1Na

In this episode, we look at a topic that is not normal Tech Interviews territory, but one that is going to be a huge focus for businesses of all shapes and sizes as we come to grips with the COVID realities that will be with us for some time to come and that is how do we use technology to better market our organisations and sell our services?

My guest is Vlad Edelman, CEO and founder of Targetable a digital marketing platform and service that helps businesses to use technology to better market and sell to their customers base. Vlad has vast experience in the areas of both digital platforms and online marketing services with a very impressive CV developing solutions for some of the best-known brands in the world, in this episode Vlad shares some of that experience as we discuss some of the pitfalls with today’s marketing approaches and how marketing may not be quite as easy as everyone likes to think!

We discuss.

• I’m in IT why should I care about marketing?

• Why everyone thinks they can do a marketeer’s job!

• Contextually aware marketing.

• It’s all about the data.

• Not all interesting data is valuable.

• Nobody spends enough on marketing!

• The issue with tools from the big online providers.

• Importance of consistency and quick reactions.

Vlad shares some fascinating insights into the challenges and potential solutions when it comes to targeted transactional marketing in the modern world and how for many of us finding ways to win new customers is going to be crucial in the months to come and Vlad provides some valuable tips on how to achieve better results.

If you have an idea for a show or would like to appear as a guest then why not email me at [email protected].

If you want to ensure you catch the next episode then please subscribe.

For full show notes including links : https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1Mu