We discuss how companies often forget to focus on the basics and jump right into the latest industry trend. It’s not enough to know 90% of your network inventory when that could leave 200 servers vulnerable. Organizations must remember that it’s typically the details that cause you problems in the long run.

We also dive into the fundamental security components and use cases of blockchain, IoT and their potential risks within the enterprise. We’ve all heard the use case of bitcoin with blockchain, but how can blockchain reduce the time we spend car shopping while surpassing the pushy cars salesmen?

Finally, Rich shares his best practices for increasing your network and launching a thought leadership brand at the same time. As you attend more conferences you start to learn what peers in the industry are doing and what technology you should invest your time learning. A larger network will also bring more public-facing potential, including public speaking and writing opportunities.

We discuss data analytics in the financial services industry and why the difference between perceived risk and actual risk is causing a lack of understanding about where data security is most appropriate.

We also look at the ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) process that exists in traditional data warehouse today and argue why instead the ELT (Extract, Land, Transform) process cuts costs, enriches the data and adds more value to the business. When you find yourself refactoring a data pipeline over and over again, you must ask yourself how much time do you spend maintaining legacy systems when you could be adding additional value to the business?

Finally, we consider what the data analytics space will look like for the financial services industry in the next 3-5 years. While cloud, machine learning, blockchain and other disruptive technologies are emerging, the industry wants to make sure they stay at the cutting edge, not the bleeding.

We discuss the increased adoption of DevOps and containers across the enterprise. Many large organizations, especially those in the Financial Services industry, have already surpassed the experimentation and POC development phase and are now moving towards production environments with the technology.

We look at how companies are helping their employees cross the learning chasm with the surplus of new technology. Many service integrators are developing tracks to help develop their staff’s skills. Technology is continuously changing and if you don’t engage in a continuous learning culture, you’re going to get left behind, both from a career, and business perspective.

Finally, we look at how the adoption of DevOps and container technology is changing the traditional data center technology stack. The need for speed is greater than ever and the latest technology supports this demand. But, it’s also integral that companies continuously update and streamline their business processes to accompany this new world.

We discuss why enterprises are adopting public and hybrid cloud strategies, the decline of private cloud and PaaS, and the announcements we expect to hear at re:Invent 2017.

With increased cost savings and agility coming from public and hybrid cloud strategies, more enterprises are ditching private cloud and PaaS solutions.

Our guest on the podcast this week is Lori MacVittie, Principal Tech Evangelist at F5 Networks.

We discuss what it’s been like tracking cloud computing trends for the past ten years. We look at public cloud. Are we leveling out on features and functions to stuff into public cloud? At some point, pricing wars with public cloud providers will end. Providers will need to differentiate fast. It will be interesting to see if AWS continues to be a leader with many followers or if each provider finds its niche. We also look at top predictions for cloud computing in 2018.

Our guest on the podcast this week is JP Morgenthal, CTO Application Services at DXC Technology.

We discuss the links and channels between microservices and DevOps. What happens to architecture in a Scrum world? Many think you need to just start with Scrum and fix problems as they come. This is a primarily dev perspective, and formal architects will need to have a say early in the process to set projects up for success. It is recommended to add architecture design as a part of a sprint. We also look at SOA versus microservices and how we are now able to manage the volume of SOA.

Our guest on the podcast this week is Jeff Dowds, CTO of Vanguard. We discuss why Vanguard went to the public cloud, the value of DevOps and best practices for IT leaders who are just getting started on their cloud initiative.

Our guest on the podcast this week is Ed Featherston, VP Principal Architect at Cloud Technology Partners.

Blockchain may be one of the most hyped technologies today, but it’s practical use cases make it more then the next shiny object. We discuss what the technology actually is, real use cases and what current adoption rates of the technology say about the future of Blockchain for industries like Financial Services.

Our guest on the podcast this week is Derrick Harris, Founder at ARCHITECHT.

We discuss AI in the modern enterprise and why robots stealing jobs may not quite be a problem yet. We look at what enterprises should be thinking about to grow their AI practices in the future. The truth is, AI engines rely on an enterprise already having a strong data practice under control. It relies on big data capabilities, a culture that can accept it, and data infrastructures to be in place. Most companies are not there yet. This is a case where the market hype gets ahead of itself and AI is still a few years down the road for most enterprises.

We also discuss the open-source versus cloud debate with regard to Kubernetes, containers, and more.  It’s hard to say what the industry will look like in the next ten years, but clearly a whole new ecosystem of technology is emerging.

Our guest on the podcast this week is Bernard Golden, CEO at Navica.

We discuss the similarities and differences between VMs, containers, and serverless computing.  A lot of organizations have optimized around VMs because they have a long history of virtualization and it’s what they understand. They’ve built a lot of processes around that. Then containers came around, and that was the hottest thing in cloud. Now serverless is here. VMs and serverless are still not highly standardized. Containers are more standardized and the orchestration is also moving towards standardization. Containers and serverless are development paradigms that the industry is starting to embrace. VM is not like a container. You can run containers within VMs but can’t run VM inside a container.

We also look at the skills gap in cloud computing today. There is a talent shortfall even in places like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google who are looking for tactical skills in devops, cloud ops, security, and more. Head hunters are befuddled because they cannot find people with the expertise and specific skills they are looking for in cloud computing and the technologies are changing so fast that the problem gets worse every day. 81% of IT leaders report to be concerned about missing out on cloud advances, and talent is a major part of staying ahead. This is a unique time in IT where the pace of change is visibly accelerated. Innovations are compressed into much shorter timeframes. The next few years will be challenging because of the skills shortage.