THE DOPPLER

Over the past few years, most organizations are asking not whether they will move to the cloud, but when and what they will move to the cloud. Over the past 13 years, cloud computing was just one of the trends Box placed their bets on. The content management organization also invested heavily in on-the-go mobile access for their customers, and, more recently, artificial intelligence and machine learning to fundamentally change they way consumers interact on, and with, their platform.

We also discuss the increasing levels of regulation around data privacy and how the majority of the world's organization will be, or has already been, impacted by GDPR regulations.

Finally, we look at the rise of intelligent metadata and how automation can play an integral part in bringing hundreds of new use cases to fruition.

Operating in the cloud is different. Your old tools won't work here. We discuss the leading indicators of cloudwashing you should be looking for when selecting tools for the cloud.

We also discuss "dark data" and how organizations can overcome platform scalability challenges. Ben shares how Sumo Logic is helping their own customers ingest data in real time, react quickly and make more informed decisions.

Finally, we discuss application portability, the effects of data gravity and how this affects the way we should be utilizing container-based technologies, such as Kubernetes.

From what organizations should do with their existing data center estates after they complete their cloud transformation, to the facepalm mistakes enterprises make when it comes to owning and operating their own IT infrastructure, we discuss data center best practices on the podcast this week.

Cloud initiatives clearly do not come in "one size fits all" packages. They vary widely in focus and complexity, from basic migration projects to extreme cases involving the strictest security and performance requirements of a global financial services giant.

Dana Gardner sat down with Mastercard's Paolo Pelizzoli and CTP's Robert Christiansen to learn about their hybrid cloud adoption.

We discuss the importance of good hygiene from the beginning of every technology transformation. Typically, when we see that our clients are doing something incorrectly in their data center, they will likely be making the same mistakes in the cloud as well. To right these environments, it doesn’t necessarily take fixing bugs, but rather educating the team on the best way to use new technology stacks in a hybrid world.

Whether it's migrating 300 applications to the cloud, or studying for his Professional AWS Certified Solutions Architect exam, Andy Clark's day is never boring.

In this episode of The Doppler podcast we discuss what it's like working at CTP, the importance of surrounding yourself with positive mentors, how to progress your career, and the importance of soft skills when embarking on an IT transformation journey.

Our guest on the podcast this week is Ken Lavoie, Principal Technical Account Manager at Sysdig. We discuss the rise of containers in the enterprise and the education, resources and enablement required to support the technology.

We also look at the common challenges in container adoption, including the progression of learning, shadow IT, security requirements and scale. In order to adequately scale, an organization must understand first and foremost how container orchestration works.

As with anything in technology today, staying current is no longer a differentiator, it's a requirement. Ken shares his journey from hardware to containers and the resources he used to get there, including LinkedIn, CodeSignal, Codeacademy, Docker, Red Hatand more.

Recorded live from the AWS NY Summit, we discuss the new reality of cloud maturity. AWS' latest announcements included exciting new features, but there wasn't anything groundbreaking – in a good way. Instead of chasing after new shiny objects, we are seeing focused efforts, new innovative use cases and the acceptance of cloud stability.

We also look at the people, process and technology tripod. If one leg is broken, the organization will lose stability. Over the last decade, we have seen technology get significantly easier to comprehend, while the people and process components remain difficult.

Finally, we discuss the progress of modern security and why builders now have the luxury of cloud services with security built into its fabric. AWS services, such as Macie, can serve 90-99% of security use cases, and the larger security needs can me met by the partner network.

Catch up with Mark every morning on his daily vlog.

We discuss the difficulty for organizations to be innovative when they are so busy sustaining older technologies. Amadeus is one of many companies that have begun transitioning its SaaS offerings to a multi-cloud solution in order to better leverage existing cloud technology and offer more innovative and integrated solutions in the process.

We also look at how organizations shifting SaaS solutions to multi-cloud environments can effectively retire products and successfully transition clients over with minimal disruption. Often times we find that people can be most difficult part of such IT transformations. At times the "shiny new object syndrome" can cause employees to quickly change directions and priorities. With that said, it's essential that any cloud leader ensure they have the mindshare so stakeholders continue to remain engaged.

Finally, we discuss the disruption in the hospitality industry specifically. While organizations in hospitality have been traditionally slow-to-move in the past, they now understand that they are competing in a vastly different marketplace today (think Airbnb). Making the technology shifts to provide customizable and personal solutions is now essential to stay afloat.

We discuss the new era of public cloud adoption. Six months ago there were people who were just getting their toes wet in public cloud and now those same people are going all in, not just with dev-test environments but with their major production initiatives.

We also discuss some of the common pitfalls and places where we see organizations getting stuck in their cloud programs, from lost connections between on-prem and the cloud or simply mislabeling code that deploys the wrong applications.

Finally we discuss how to take the next steps to continue your education. Chris is a VMware expert, but a few years ago when he recognized the value of public cloud, he enrolled in ACloudGuru and signed up for the 12-month free tier in AWS. He is still actively learning about AWS and VMware to better consult his clients on their cloud initiatives.