Techzine TV podcast

The title of this episode of Techzine Talks on Tour is a (perhaps somewhat rhetorical) question Don Schuerman, the CTO of #Pegasystems asks the audience during #PegaWorld Inspire, Pega's annual flagship event. Sander sat down with him at the show to discuss how statistical AI and GenAI can help find an answer.

During this conversation, Don and Sander discuss many facets of what drives #innovation. For example, the outcome of some research suggests that GenAI not only helps generate hype for #GenAI, but also causes an increase in adoption for 'good old-fashioned' statistical AI. In other words, innovation in one part can have unintended but good side-effects on other parts.

Other topics that they discuss is how companies like Pega, but also others in the industry can and should help organizations build innovation around use-cases that haven't even been properly defined yet. That's one of the key issues that needs to be addressed today. We're at a stage where a lot of it is about pragmatic and practical use of AI, but that's only possible if you have a good idea of what is pragmatic and practical. 

Apart from the general AI discussion, Don and Sander also get into some of the new developments at Pega. They talk about things like KnowledgeBuddy, an example of #RAG, or Retrieval-Augmented Generation), but also Pega GenAI #Blueprint. The latter of the two has the potential to up-end the development of specific apps in organizations. You just tell it to build you an application for, say, loan applications, and it does so in a couple of steps. 

Give this new episode a listen right now, and get valuable insights into innovations in software development in general, and in Pega's platform in particular. 

Keeping bad guys out is always better than trying to detect breaches after they have happened. Many security vendors seem to have given up on that idea, however. That is, there's a lot of focus on an 'assume breach' attitude nowadays, not so much on 'assume our defenses will hold'. There are a lot of reasons why this is the case, reasons we have gone into at length in earlier episodes of this podcast series. But what does a prevention-first mindset look like in 2024? Listen to this episode of Techzine Talks on Tour to find out.

 To better understand a prevention-first approach, Check Point is one of the obvious vendors to chat with. It's one of a very select group of security suppliers that still holds this position. As one of the inventors of the firewall around 30 years ago, this position makes perfect sense of course. Still, it's quite rare nowadays to hear a company take this stance so clearly, without losing sight of the necessity of things like EDR and XDR in its platform too.  

For this episode of Techzine Talks on Tour, Sander sits down with Itai Greenberg, Chief Strategy Officer at Check Point, at RSA Conference in San Francisco. They discuss in depth what it means to have a prevention-first approach, not only from the point of view of Check Point, but also what it means for its customers. Especially in a world in which AI-driven cyber threats are on the rise and will continue to be on the rise for some time, (AI-driven) prevention is more important than ever, he states.

Besides a prevention-first approach, Itai and Sander discuss many more things. The challenge for customers of how to integrate various security solutions into one security stack is one. More collaboration between security vendors is absolutely crucial to achieve this. Another interesting discussion in this episode is the one on the risks posed by vulnerabilities in open-source and third-party software. 

All in all, there are quite a few interesting nuggets of information on the security landscape as a whole, Check Point's role in it and organizations' approaches to cybersecurity in this episode.

Organizations invest $200 billion globally in IT security. However, data breaches and ransomware attacks are still rampant. How can that be? What does this say about the impact of all those investments? We discuss these and other topics with Filip Verloy, Field CTO at Rubrik, one of the big players in this space. 

At RSA Conference earlier this year, we recorded a number of episodes for our relatively new Techzine Talks on Tour podcast series. Data security is without a doubt one of the big themes for organizations to get right. As is the case for virtually all other components of cyber security, it turns out to be quite a daunting task to do so.  
 
According to Verloy, one of the key things to do as an organization is to assume a so-called 'assume breach' attitude. This is especially important when it comes to the data of an organization, as that usually is very valuable. One of the trends Verloy signals in this respect is that attackers are shifting from traditional encryption methods to sophisticated data exfiltration techniques. That fundamentally changes the game. It shifts the focus from prevention to resilience, among other things. 

Tune in to this new episode of Techzine Talks on Tour to hear much more about what's happening in data security. It's a very important topic that should be near the top of the list of priorities for organizations. Especially with AI and new regulations like NIS2 being added to the equation, effective security posture management is of paramount importance.    

Every software company globally is focusing on integrating AI into its solutions. ServiceNow has built one of the biggest platforms and workflow engines today. We talked to Pat Casey, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of DevOps at ServiceNow, to learn how ServiceNow is building AI into its platform.

ServiceNow has chosen to unify its AI team into a single technology group, ensuring AI will not be the next add-on but a core component of the ServiceNow platform. Casey takes us through the transformative impact of this alignment and how organisations can enhance workflows and deliver superior customer experiences. Dive deep into the Generative AI Controller and understand how it empowers customers to build AI solutions using various large language models, emphasizing the critical role of data in AI training and deployment.

We talk about many ServiceNow platform AI features like playbook generation and prompt engineering that are designed to save time and empower users. Learn about the text-to-playbook feature, which allows even less experienced users to create effective workflows, and a customizable prompt builder that enhances engagement across various applications. 

We even discuss ServiceNow's switch from MariaDB to Postgres and modern database management. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in ServiceNow and AI integration into platforms. Whether you are a ServiceNow customer or not, it is packed with expert knowledge. Listen now to this latest Techzine Talks on Tour.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) can be very complex and time-consuming. A lot will change with the introduction of generative AI; processes can be easily automated and made more efficient. We see the introduction of LLMs for analyzing data and processes and even offering solutions for upcoming problems. In this Techzine Talks episode, we talk to Nicky Tozer, vice president of Oracle NetSuite.

Tozer gives insights into NetSuite's innovations, like text-enhance, which streamlines the creation of sales orders, customer campaigns, and support reports, offering substantial time savings. Learn from real-world implementations like Bloom and Wild, who leverage AI to minimize waste and bolster sustainability. Customer feedback is a crucial driver in refining AI for future ERP applications.

Our conversation also delves into the critical aspects of AI integration within NetSuite, focusing on data security and privacy. Additionally, we underscore the pivotal role of NetSuite partners in crafting AI solutions specifically tailored for small to medium-sized businesses with limited IT resources. Looking ahead, there’s exciting potential for these partners to introduce their own models. Listen to this episode where we explore AI’s future in ERP with Nicky Tozer.

This week's episode of Techzine Talks on Tour is a rather special one, even if we do say so ourselves. At the RSA Conference in San Francisco, Sander Almekinders from Techzine sat down with Anand Prakash from SentinelOne. They chatted about how he, a white hat hacker, built one of the most advanced cloud security platforms in the industry. Well worth a listen, so go ahead and click on the play button below.

In their discussion, Anand and Sander touch on a variety of different topics. Of course there's the story about how Anand became an ethical hacker. This story itself is a reminder that grasping the opportunities when they arrive is more important than trying to plan your whole life beforehand.

Being an ethical hacker gave Anand a distinct advantage when he starting thinking about setting up his own company. It all starts with the attacking mindset that a hacker has. That mindset became visible in what PingSafe, the company he founded and headed, offered. SentinelOne saw potential in PingSafe's offerings and decided to snap up the company. PingSafe's product has now become Singularity Cloud Native Security.

Tune in now to hear all about how a guy from India went from exposing flaws in Facebook to developing a cutting edge Attack Engine to secure cloud environments. You won't regret spending thirty minutes on it.

During Cisco Live last June in Las Vegas, we had the opportunity to sit down with Tom Casey, SVP and General Manager at Splunk. We asked him all about how he thinks the portfolios from Splunk and Cisco work together, and reinforce each other. How does Splunk make Cisco better, and vice versa?

The acquisition of Splunk by Cisco was big news near the end of 2023. After closing the acquisition somewhere last March, the teams at both companies really got to work and already delivered some integrations.

Observability underpins a lot of what Cisco has done over the past few years. It has an impact on its security business, but also its networking business and obviously its AppDynamics business. Without observability, all the talk by Cisco about Digital Experience Assurance would not be possible, or at least a lot less confident.

Making sense of a crazy heterogeneous space

With the addition of Splunk to the fold, Cisco now has fundamentally different data to add to its Full Stack Observability approach. One of the key talking points of this episode of Techzine Talks on Tour is what this means, and what companies can get out of this. Tom Casey breaks down the essence of observability, detailing its critical layers. In addition, we talk about the necessity of a unified data platform that curtails alert overload while ensuring consistent insights across both traditional and modern cloud environments. 

Listen to this episode if you want to gain a better understanding of how combining Cisco’s data to Splunk’s data can transform raw data into actionable intelligence. According to Casey, we need fundamentally better insights to deal with the "crazy mixed up heterogeneous space" that a company's infrastructure and insights have become. 

The conversation isn't limited to observability, though. We also touch on how Splunk and Cisco can advance the state of the art in networking and security. 

Listen to this new episode now. You won't be disappointed.

This week's episode of Techzine Talks on Tour was recorded several months ago. At the HP Amplify Partner Conference in Las Vegas we sat down with Ian Pratt, Global Head of Security for Personal Systems at HP, to talk about the changes and challenges in that department.

One of the key differentiators HP PCs bring to bear is the so-called Endpoint Security Chip, or ESC. We discuss the role of this piece of custom silicon in some detail. In addition, we also also focus on the more general role endpoints like the ones HP manufactures and sells play in the security stack as a whole. It's a rather complex stack in 2024. Even a big company like HP has to collaborate with the likes of Intel and AMD to improve security of its devices.

How do you secure the endpoint?

Just to be sure, and perhaps state the obvious, protecting endpoints is very important. Over 70% of breaches start at the endpoint. HP has a big responsibility to make sure these are as secure as possible. It does this not only by means of innovations in hardware, also software and services play an important role in this. In our discussion with Pratt, we'll also touch on the importance of platform-based security approaches like XDR and the rising threat of sophisticated phishing attacks generated by AI.

What about the role of quantum in securing endpoints?

The next part of our conversation deals with the future of cybersecurity. That is cybersecurity in a quantum computing world. Together with Pratt, we explore the steps HP is taking to ensure PCs are quantum-resistant. It's important to understand the risks posed by quantum computers to traditional cryptographic signatures and discuss the implementation of new, robust algorithms. Pratt offers insights into preparing for this next leap in technology, including how organizations can transition to quantum-resistant cryptography and meet emerging governmental mandates. 

Tune in now for what we think is a very interesting discussion about the role of the endpoint in cyber security.

In this new episode of Techzine Talks on Tour, we take an inside-out look at cyber security. That is, we discuss challenges and developments a cyber security company faces. We do this with Adam Marrè, Chief Information Security Officer at Arctic Wolf. We also discuss current trends, obviously AI and the rise of deepfakes.

As the CISO of cyber security firm Arctic Wolf, Marrè has an interesting outlook on this. He's not necessarily in the business of selling things, and doesn't do a lot of customer meetings.  His main focus is to keep Arctic Wolf's platform safe. That's extremely important, but also necessary if we do a quick search on Techzine for zero-days, breaches en leaks in cybersecurity software. Marrè's job is to make sure that Arctic Wolf never gets on those pages.

Basic hygiene still challenge number one
To a certain extent the problems of the market and the potential issues that Arctic Wolf could run into don't differ that much. It all comes down to taking a risk-based approach to cyber security. In such an approach it's the basic stuff that still causes chaos at companies. Things like patching and managing identities are at the basis of a lot of problems in the world. It's crucial everyone does more to tackle this. 

A company's leadership plays a critical role in in defining an organization's risk tolerance and how outsourcing security services can be both a boon and a challenge. Marrè further emphasizes that while outsourcing can strengthen a small team, it doesn't replace the necessity for internal vigilance and a deep understanding of an organization's unique risk landscape.

Finally, Marrè shares his insights on the immediate threats posed by deep fakes and misinformation, and the evolving landscape of AI-driven attacks and defenses. We discuss how AI has the potential to significantly enhance defensive capabilities by leveraging existing tools and data more effectively. 

Listen to this new episode right now!

For this new episode of Techzine Talks on Tour, we sat down with Shaun O'Meara, CTO at Mirantis, to discuss the state of Kubernetes, its challenges, maturity and what the impact of AI is on it.

Disclaimer regarding the text below: we let the built-in AI functionality of Buzzsprout generate a summary of the conversation Sander from Techzine had with Shaun from Mirantis. This is not because we're too lazy to write our own summary, but part of what you might call some research. Do you think it gives a good impression of the conversation? We would love to hear your thoughts on this, so please reach out if you have an opinion on this.

How will AI revolutionize Kubernetes and cloud-native development? In our latest episode, we uncover the transformative power of AI, particularly in infrastructure management and machine learning. Recorded live at KubeCon Europe, the episode kicks off with an exploration of how AI is reshaping Kubernetes, making this complex system more accessible and efficient. We also highlight some groundbreaking open-source contributions that are driving these changes, giving you a front-row seat to the future of IT infrastructure.

Ever wondered what it takes to build a robust Kubernetes platform? We dive into the nitty-gritty of platform engineering, breaking down what it means to create a valuable, secure, and efficient environment for developers. Discover how adding supportive components and development acceleration tools can make a world of difference. Listen as we discuss the progress Kubernetes has made towards becoming as ubiquitous as Linux and the balanced approach that Mirantis employs to keep platform engineering both opinionated and flexible, focusing on lifecycle management and mature project curation.

What does the future hold for IT infrastructure and AI integration? We explore emerging trends, from VM replacement to the rise of edge computing. Hear our insights on the strategic considerations organizations must weigh to modernize their digital infrastructure without losing control. As AI continues to evolve, we'll discuss its growing role at the edge and the revolutionary impact of GPUs, all while highlighting the broader implications for various sectors. Tune in for a comprehensive and thought-provoking discussion on the current and future landscape of AI and Kubernetes.