Have you ever been curious about what moving to the cloud really means? Is it a one-and-done move or is it more? Today's guest, Jeff DeVerter, Chief Technology Evangelist of RackSpace, breaks down the cloud, cloud-based services, and how it can impact your business. From an engineering point of view to the creation of a supply chain for data, Jeff describes the trends and implications facing ingress, egress, and utilization of the ever-growing volume of data that companies curate. He even shines a light on the often hidden or disguised cost of doing business in the cloud, the dreaded egress fees, and shares tips for lowering your cost of data utilization. After all, Jeff considers moving to the cloud as a change of business, not a change of processes.

Don't worry, this episode isn't just about the cloud. Rob and Jeff share a backstory of server farms and negative scaling that is sure to entertain. Since cloud services didn't always exist, the original stop-gap method to run models for Power Pivot was on a SharePoint server. We learn from their experience that when you have an issue, it can't always be solved by throwing hardware at it. While the additional hardware was ineffective, this method did lead to discoveries that were eventually shared through the user experience and directly led to a more robust Power BI Cloud Service.

Finally, Jeff, Rob, and Tom discuss the successful evolution of a company's data strategy and the 4 phases: Data Aware, Data Literate, Data Fluent, and Data Affluent. Discover where your company falls and how to move to the next phase of development.

Don't forget, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to help others find our show by leaving us a review on your favorite Podcast Platform.

Also in this episode:

Rackspace Acquires SharePoint911

ML Ops

ML & Algorithms Hit the Bigtime, w/DataRobot's Diego Oppenheimer

Data Robot

FinOps.org

CloudReach

Seinfeld: Jimmy's Jumps High

Silver Fox Advisors

Parenthood – TV series

Keebler Tato Skins

Facts of Life Theme Song

Different Strokes Theme

Barney Miller Theme

A Most Generous Mentor, w/ Microsoft's Dany Hoter

Raiders of the Lost Ark – warehouse

Crossing the Chasm - book

Speak Softly but Pack a Mean Elbow, w/ Jen Stirrup

City Slickers - One Thing