Tech Interviews

Welcome to the first Tech Interviews Podcast of 2019, we already have a bunch of shows lined up and ready to go over the next few weeks, there’s a wide range of topics including Social Media and the IT Pro, Cloud Native Databases and Cyber Threat Hunting, all coming up soon.

But how else do you start a new podcast year than by dusting off the crystal ball and looking ahead to some of the trends and developments that will affect your IT decision making, strategies and day to day work in tech.

Our look ahead this year is focused on the world of data management as I’m joined by Dave Russell, VP, Enterprise Strategy at Veeam. Dave’s career of almost 30 years has been predominately focussed on data management, specifically backup and has included working at some of the world’s biggest data management companies as well as a stint as a respected analyst at Gartner.

We discuss a wide range of topics and Dave gives some thoughtful insight into the trends he expects to see impact us during 2019.

During the show, we discuss, what keeps him so enthusiastic about the data industry, key trends including the increased use of multi-cloud, flash storage becoming more commonplace, the development of predictive analytics, the changing role of people in technology as well as some trends that are likely to continue in 2018 and may well inhibit our ability to adopt some of the technology we'd like.

It's a fascinating chat, enjoy the show.

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

It's that most wonderful time of the year, yes, the last Tech Interviews of 2018. For this show, we focus on two of technologies biggest trends, ultra-high performance and the world of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

First, we look at ultra-high performance as I chat with Glenn Dekhayser, Field CTO at Red8, about NetApp's new technology MAX Data and how it is changing the very nature of delivering extreme performance.

Glenn provides some insight into what MAX Data is and how it drives the storage industry close to its ultimate goal, to ensure that storage performance is never the bottleneck of any solution. We also discuss not only how this solution delivers extreme performance but how it does so while greatly simplifying your infrastructure.

In the second part of the show, it's the technology industries favourite topics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). John Woodall, VP of engineering at Integrated Archive Systems (IAS) joins me to talk about the industry in general and how NetApp is the latest tech provider, in association with NVIDIA, to offer businesses the chance to buy an "off the shelf" AI solution.

We talk about how the technology industry is finally starting to deliver something that technologists and scientists have spoken about for decades, the ability to build true AI and make it available in our daily lives. Beyond this NetApp solution (known as ONTAP AI) we look at the wider use of AI and ML. John shares some thoughts on why business is looking at these technologies and what it can deliver, but he also cautions on the importance of understanding the questions you want this kind of technology to answer before you get started.

This is the last show of 2018, so I would just like to thank you all for listening to Tech Interviews throughout the year and I hope you'll be able to join me for more shows in 2019.

That leaves me to just wish you all a great Christmas holiday and until next year, thanks for listening.

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

If you spend any time listening to vendors in the technology market, you won't go very far before you hear about how they are embracing automation, ensuring their API's are there for all to use and sharing their expertise in community repositories like GitHub.

But what does it all really mean? What is automation good for and what can it help you achieve? Does it offer more than just a way to simplify repetitive tasks? These are all questions I've had for a while and on this week's podcast I catch up with Jason Benedicic, an independent consultant, who amongst other things, specialises in automation, to help answer some of these basic questions about automation and why it's useful.

In this week's show Jason provides some great insights into the world of automation, we discuss what we mean by automation, what makes a good candidate and why it's more than just coding repetitive tasks.

Jason shares some thoughts on why automation is about more than innovation and how it can be a key part in managing and securing your infrastructure.

We finish up with some tips on how to identify a good candidate and how to get started in the world of automation.

Jason provides some great insights, I hope you enjoy it and it helps you start your automation journey.

Thanks for listening.

Full Show Notes are here :- https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1Cl

The data industry is a really interesting place right now, for many organisations their data and the challenges of how they use it, secure it and derive value from it is right at the top of the CIO’s priority list.

However, data is not the only area of the technology industry that is interesting, automation, AI, machine learning, IoT and of course the fascinating world of the hyperscalers.

So, when you are an experienced technologist, well known in the industry and you are presented with a range of new opportunities, what is it that attracts you back to work in the data industry?

That’s the question I put to this week’s guest, experienced tech industry “veteran” Greg Knieriemen. Greg has just left a highly successful stint at Hitachi and was presented with a range of interesting opportunities; however, it was one of those established storage vendors, NetApp that appealed the most to him, but why? What could the data industry continue to offer someone with an already wide experience of it?

During this show, I chat with Greg about why NetApp? Why they are no longer just a storage company.

We discuss the evolution of multi-cloud and how it is becoming the new reality for many organisations.

We finish up looking at what is exciting Greg in his new role and why you should never believe a technology evangelist!

I really enjoyed meeting up with Greg at NetApp Insight and certainly enjoyed our chat here and Greg’s take on the industry, I hope you enjoy listening.

Full show notes :- https://bit.ly/2KgWSwj

Storage Ferraris in the cloud for $20 an hour - Lee Jiles - Ep80 by Tech Interviews

As we adopt an ever-increasing amount of cloud services into our businesses, are we part of a technology revolution or is it just the next evolutionary step in the way we do things? There is no doubt that cloud has revolutionized some businesses and that some would not exist without the incredible amount of services and innovation that the public cloud, in particular, can offer to us.

However, that's not the case for everyone, for those whose businesses pre-date "The Cloud", we have legacy systems, "traditional" approaches to doing things and systems that are not architected like cloud applications.

So, what does that mean to us as we adopt cloud services? Especially when it comes to those "boring" topics such as data protection of our cloud integrated systems?

That's the topic I explore with this week's guest "Mr Backup" also known as W. Curtis Preston, Curtis is Chief Technical Architect at Druva and has worked in the data protection space for 25 years.

In this show we discuss the evolution of hosting our data, from datacentres to the cloud. We discuss the challenges of protecting cloud native apps and how Druva are tackling this problem.

We also take a look at how the continued move to the cloud will break our traditional data protection approaches and we finish up with a conversation about VMware cloud on AWS and its impact.

Curtis shares some great information.

Enjoy the show.

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

Stay cloudy VMware - Glenn Sizemore - Ep78 by Tech Interviews

Cloud is not new, I don’t think that’s news to anyone, many of us have deployed a cloud solution as cloud continues to play a major part in IT strategy for an ever-increasing amount of businesses.

However, this move to cloud has not come without us learning an awful lot on the way, we’ve probably all heard of cloud deployments that have not gone as we expected. Many of the issues that have led to those poor cloud experiences have been driven by an "immaturity" to our approach.

Is our approach to cloud beginning to change? have we got, or do we need to consider our cloud strategy a little differently?

That’s the question we ask on this weeks podcast, an episode inspired by a fantastic article written by my guest Matt Watts, Director of Technology and Strategy, EMEA at NetApp, In the article Matt posed the question Are you Cloud First! or Cloud First? And the difference a simple bit of punctuation can make.

During the show we discuss the article in depth, why Matt felt the need to write it, we look at mistakes people have made in their initial forays into Cloud.

We also look at the problems that come with taking our on-prem infrastructure and "dumping" it in the cloud. We also take a look at why cloud isn't about saving money.

We wrap up looking at examples of building a more mature cloud strategy and how this has worked well, Matt shares some examples of how NetApp’s own cloud maturity has driven their own internal decision making.

Matt, as always, shares some fascinating insight into cloud strategy.

Enjoy the show.

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

We’re at that time of year when the tech conference season, after a bit of a summer break, swings back into full gear, some we’ve already had, such as MSIgnite and some we have to come, over the next couple of months there’s a range of shows big and small dotted across the globe on a range of topics.

One of the biggest and still one of the most influential tech shows of the year is VMworld, VMware’s showcase event, a long time cornerstone of the technology community for IT pro’s and vendors alike.

VMworld attracts IT Pro’s and vendors from many disciplines’ server and storage vendors, through to automation and analytics companies all working closely with VMware’s platforms to deliver services across enterprise and organisations of all types.

What can you expect to learn from a show like VMware? What’s the benefit for you? Well as we sit handily between VMworld US and Europe, I thought it would be a useful to explore VMworld a little more.

Joining me to discuss this, is the co-host of the fantastic Virtually Speaking podcast Pete Flecha, a veteran of a number of VMworld’s as customer, partner and now as employee, he’s in a great position to provide some background to the show, how it’s changed and some of the key announcements from Vegas and what to look out for in Barcelona.

We discuss what exactly is VMworld, its size, the community it attracts and why it's a show about much more than virtualisation.

We hear Pete's favourite announcements from the show including the intriguing "Project Dimension" and finish up looking ahead to Barcelona and discussing why, if you've never attended VMworld, you may want to get it on your calendar for next year.

Enjoy the show.

Click here for full show notes:- https://wp.me/p4IvtA-1B4

In the last couple of weeks the world has shown us how the only predictable thing for many of us who deliver technology is the unpredictability of what we have to deal with, from the massive data breach at British Airways to the catastrophic impacts of hurricanes on both the western and eastern sides of the globe, these are incidents that we should to be prepared for, the question is, are we?

If you don’t have a plan, or not sure if your plan has value? Then this episode of the podcast is for you as we look at business continuity planning, with my guest continuity planning consultant Steve Lambert of Biscon Planning.

I chat with Steve on a range of topics, why do we need a plan at all? And how continuity planning goes beyond IT. We discuss the types of incidents you need to plan for and compare the differences between operational and enterprise risks.

Steve takes us through some of the steps you need to consider when building a plan, from understanding risk appetite, to impact assessment. We also look at the importance of testing plans and crucially how it’s not only your plans, but those of your suppliers.

The importance of incident planning cannot be underestimated, and Steve provides some great tips on how to build and test your plans.

Enjoy the show.

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