As AI and data demands skyrocket, the future of IT infrastructure hinges on one critical resource — power. In this episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to IT, host Michelle Dawn Mooney sits down with Pete DiSanto, Executive Vice President of Engineering Solutions at Enchanted Rock, to explore why energy resilience is becoming the new competitive edge for data centers and digital infrastructure leaders.

Drawing on decades of experience across nuclear, fossil, and distributed generation, DiSanto breaks down how the industry is rethinking its relationship with the grid. He explains how distributed microgrids and flexible interconnections can help data centers not only protect against outages but also give power back to the grid when it’s needed most. From lessons learned during Texas’s Winter Storm Uri to the push for cleaner, faster, and smarter energy solutions, DiSanto reveals how power and IT are converging to form the next great frontier of innovation.

Key Takeaways:

• Resilience Through Partnership: Collaboration between data centers and utilities is key to stabilizing and strengthening the grid.
• Flexibility Is the Future: Flexible interconnections and distributed microgrids can transform data centers from power consumers into grid assets.
• People Drive Reliability: Even the best technology depends on skilled, mission-driven teams to keep systems running when it matters most.
• Prepare, Don’t React: Regular operation and testing of on-site generation ensures performance under real-world stress.
• Shared Innovation: The data center industry’s culture of collaboration and knowledge-sharing is accelerating the path to a resilient energy future.

As AI and data demands skyrocket, the future of IT infrastructure hinges on one critical resource — power. In this episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to IT, host Michelle Dawn Mooney sits down with Pete DiSanto, Executive Vice President of Engineering Solutions at Enchanted Rock, to explore why energy resilience is becoming the new competitive edge for data centers and digital infrastructure leaders.

Drawing on decades of experience across nuclear, fossil, and distributed generation, DiSanto breaks down how the industry is rethinking its relationship with the grid. He explains how distributed microgrids and flexible interconnections can help data centers not only protect against outages but also give power back to the grid when it’s needed most. From lessons learned during Texas’s Winter Storm Uri to the push for cleaner, faster, and smarter energy solutions, DiSanto reveals how power and IT are converging to form the next great frontier of innovation.

Key Takeaways:

• Resilience Through Partnership: Collaboration between data centers and utilities is key to stabilizing and strengthening the grid.
• Flexibility Is the Future: Flexible interconnections and distributed microgrids can transform data centers from power consumers into grid assets.
• People Drive Reliability: Even the best technology depends on skilled, mission-driven teams to keep systems running when it matters most.
• Prepare, Don’t React: Regular operation and testing of on-site generation ensures performance under real-world stress.
• Shared Innovation: The data center industry’s culture of collaboration and knowledge-sharing is accelerating the path to a resilient energy future.

As AI workloads surge, data centers face growing pressure to deliver more compute with less environmental impact. In this episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to IT, host Michelle Dawn Mooney sits down with Svante Horn, CEO and founder of Scandinavian Data Centers, to explore how his team is redefining what it means to build sustainable, resilient digital infrastructure.

Horn shares the story of how Scandinavian Data Centers emerged from a unique combination of financial expertise, repurposed military infrastructure, and a vision for circular, community-powered operations. By capturing and reusing waste heat from data centers to power local district heating systems, Horn’s model turns digital demand into societal and environmental value — a concept he calls Data Center 3.0.

The conversation dives into the technological and economic innovations behind this approach, from liquid cooling and heat pumps to integrating with local energy grids and even supporting greenhouse agriculture. Horn also discusses the broader implications for the AI era — how sustainability, resilience, and cost-efficiency must align for infrastructure to truly scale.

Looking ahead, Horn predicts a shift toward more localized, circular, and transparent data center ecosystems — ones that not only serve global compute needs but also strengthen the communities and grids that host them.

Key Takeaways:

• Circular and Secure: How reusing waste heat and aligning with local grids strengthens both sustainability and resilience.
• Data Center 3.0: Designing data centers around societal and environmental benefit — not just IT efficiency.
• AI & HPC Ready: The rise of high-grade heat from AI workloads is creating new opportunities for energy reuse.
• Future-Proofing IT: Why power availability and grid collaboration will define the next decade of digital infrastructure.
• Societal Impact: How sustainable data centers can become engines for local employment, energy stability, and food security.

In this episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to IT, host Michelle Dawn Mooney sits down with Nabil Bukhari, Chief Technology & Product Officer and GM of Subscriptions at Extreme Networks, to explore how IT leaders can scale smarter in today’s hybrid, AI-driven landscape—where every infrastructure decision has ripple effects on agility, cost, and resilience.

With decades of experience leading infrastructure transformation across global enterprises, Nabil shares how organizations can move beyond tactical decisions to build scalable, outcome-aligned strategies. He breaks down why functional silos are breaking down, how platforms are replacing scattered SaaS sprawl, and what it really takes to prepare for the future of AI and edge computing.

The conversation covers:

• Why starting with business outcomes—not technology—is key to smart infrastructure decisions
• How to avoid vendor lock-in while maintaining strong strategic partnerships with cloud providers
• What distinguishes a true platform from a bundle of SaaS tools—and why that matters for scale and governance
• The ARC model (Accelerate, Replace, Create) for deploying AI initiatives that matter
• How AI is reshaping leadership expectations—and why C-suite roles must evolve or risk becoming obsolete
• Preparing for the shift from centralized AI to edge-native intelligence

Tune in for a bold, business-first perspective on what’s next for IT infrastructure, from one of the industry’s top voices in networking and cloud innovation.

In this episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to IT, host Michelle Dawn Mooney sits down with Galvin Widjaja, CEO and co-founder of Lauretta.io, to explore the intersection of situational awareness, AI-driven infrastructure, and ethical design.

Widjaja’s journey defies expectation. From managing a family-run restaurant in Singapore to leading behavior-based AI initiatives with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, his career reflects a unique blend of technical innovation and human empathy. At Lauretta.io, he’s reimagining video analytics—not through facial recognition or biometrics, but by understanding behavior and context while putting privacy first.

The conversation covers:

• Why designing AI systems around intent and behavior—not identity—unlocks powerful use cases in environments like airports, retail, and military bases
• How Lauretta.io's privacy-first infrastructure mimics the value of cookies in the digital world—tracking context without compromising personal data
• Real-world examples where intelligent, non-invasive surveillance reduced threat response times from hours to minutes
• What it takes to unify fragmented data across airport checkpoints and deliver seamless security profiles in real time
• How IT leaders can implement privacy-aligned architecture through intentional data collection, risk calibration, and behavioral aggregation

Whether you're building smart physical infrastructure, advancing ethical AI, or modernizing situational awareness tools, this episode offers a bold look at what's next and how to do it responsibly.

In this episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to IT, host Michelle Dawn Mooney sits down with Galvin Widjaja, CEO and co-founder of Lauretta.io, to explore the intersection of situational awareness, AI-driven infrastructure, and ethical design.

Widjaja’s journey defies expectation. From managing a family-run restaurant in Singapore to leading behavior-based AI initiatives with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, his career reflects a unique blend of technical innovation and human empathy. At Lauretta.io, he’s reimagining video analytics—not through facial recognition or biometrics, but by understanding behavior and context while putting privacy first.

The conversation covers:

• Why designing AI systems around intent and behavior—not identity—unlocks powerful use cases in environments like airports, retail, and military bases
• How Lauretta.io's privacy-first infrastructure mimics the value of cookies in the digital world—tracking context without compromising personal data
• Real-world examples where intelligent, non-invasive surveillance reduced threat response times from hours to minutes
• What it takes to unify fragmented data across airport checkpoints and deliver seamless security profiles in real time
• How IT leaders can implement privacy-aligned architecture through intentional data collection, risk calibration, and behavioral aggregation

Whether you're building smart physical infrastructure, advancing ethical AI, or modernizing situational awareness tools, this episode offers a bold look at what's next and how to do it responsibly.

As AI workloads surge, data centers face growing pressure to deliver more compute with less environmental impact. In this episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to IT, host Michelle Dawn Mooney sits down with Svante Horn, CEO and founder of Scandinavian Data Centers, to explore how his team is redefining what it means to build sustainable, resilient digital infrastructure.

Horn shares the story of how Scandinavian Data Centers emerged from a unique combination of financial expertise, repurposed military infrastructure, and a vision for circular, community-powered operations. By capturing and reusing waste heat from data centers to power local district heating systems, Horn’s model turns digital demand into societal and environmental value — a concept he calls Data Center 3.0.

The conversation dives into the technological and economic innovations behind this approach, from liquid cooling and heat pumps to integrating with local energy grids and even supporting greenhouse agriculture. Horn also discusses the broader implications for the AI era — how sustainability, resilience, and cost-efficiency must align for infrastructure to truly scale.

Looking ahead, Horn predicts a shift toward more localized, circular, and transparent data center ecosystems — ones that not only serve global compute needs but also strengthen the communities and grids that host them.

Key Takeaways:

• Circular and Secure: How reusing waste heat and aligning with local grids strengthens both sustainability and resilience.
• Data Center 3.0: Designing data centers around societal and environmental benefit — not just IT efficiency.
• AI & HPC Ready: The rise of high-grade heat from AI workloads is creating new opportunities for energy reuse.
• Future-Proofing IT: Why power availability and grid collaboration will define the next decade of digital infrastructure.
• Societal Impact: How sustainable data centers can become engines for local employment, energy stability, and food security.

In this episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to IT, host Michelle Dawn Mooney welcomes Matt DeBergalis, co-founder and CEO of Apollo GraphQL, to explore how enterprises can tame API sprawl, accelerate development, and unlock scalability through a federated approach to APIs.

DeBergalis has spent his career at the intersection of open source, developer experience, and enterprise architecture. From his early days championing the social vision of open-source software to leading Apollo in redefining how APIs power modern applications, his journey underscores the deep connection between technical progress and human collaboration.

The conversation covers:

• Why API complexity has exploded in the era of microservices and multi-cloud — and what that means for dev and infra teams
• How GraphQL simplifies orchestration across fragmented systems, from retail logistics to omnichannel hospitality experiences
• Why API federation helps teams ship faster while minimizing coordination overhead
• The role of APIs in powering next-generation AI agents and hyper-personalized customer experiences
• Real-world examples from The New York Times, Major League Baseball, and Cisco showing how GraphQL enables scalability and innovation
• Practical steps for IT leaders to modernize legacy systems and API strategies without overwhelming their teams

Whether you’re navigating legacy systems, seeking to unify siloed APIs, or preparing your infrastructure for the AI-driven future, this episode offers a clear roadmap for moving faster — without sacrificing security, performance, or developer experience.

In this episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to IT, host Michelle Dawn Mooney sits down with Nabil Bukhari, Chief Technology & Product Officer and GM of Subscriptions at Extreme Networks, to explore how IT leaders can scale smarter in today’s hybrid, AI-driven landscape—where every infrastructure decision has ripple effects on agility, cost, and resilience.

With decades of experience leading infrastructure transformation across global enterprises, Nabil shares how organizations can move beyond tactical decisions to build scalable, outcome-aligned strategies. He breaks down why functional silos are breaking down, how platforms are replacing scattered SaaS sprawl, and what it really takes to prepare for the future of AI and edge computing.

The conversation covers:

• Why starting with business outcomes—not technology—is key to smart infrastructure decisions
• How to avoid vendor lock-in while maintaining strong strategic partnerships with cloud providers
• What distinguishes a true platform from a bundle of SaaS tools—and why that matters for scale and governance
• The ARC model (Accelerate, Replace, Create) for deploying AI initiatives that matter
• How AI is reshaping leadership expectations—and why C-suite roles must evolve or risk becoming obsolete
• Preparing for the shift from centralized AI to edge-native intelligence

Tune in for a bold, business-first perspective on what’s next for IT infrastructure, from one of the industry’s top voices in networking and cloud innovation.

In this episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to IT, host Michelle Dawn Mooney is joined by Jaro Tomik, Chief Technologist and Digital Enablement Expert at CDW UK, to tackle a big question: How many human-centered designers does it take to implement AIOps?

As IT teams face growing pressure to automate, predict, and self-heal, Jaro breaks down why cultural roadblocks, poor data hygiene, and outdated processes continue to stall progress. With a sharp focus on end-user experience and data orchestration, he outlines a vision for zero-ticket futures where automation quietly resolves issues—before users even notice them.

You’ll learn:

• Why IT still struggles with bad data and invisible processes
• How zero-ticket ops flip the script on traditional service desks
• The role of human-centered design in scaling automation
• What predictive self-healing actually looks like in practice
• Why the real risk isn’t AI—it’s ignoring how to use it effectively
• How business leaders are bypassing IT’s self-reported metrics

Jaro’s perspective blends practical experience with big-picture thinking. If your team is exploring automation, AIOps, or just wants fewer support tickets, this is your starting point.