The Story of Software

Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis and podcast host, is joined by ‌Dominik Harz, Co-founder and CTO at Interlay.

On Cross Chain Technology:

The Guest - Dominik Harz, Co-founder and CTO at Interlay

Dominik has a unique blend of academic and professional expertise in the crypto field. He is the Co-founder and CTO of Interlay - the first fully decentralized and trustless gateway for Bitcoin into other blockchain networks starting with Polkadot, Ethereum and Cosmos. He is also finalising his PhD in Computer Science from Imperial College London and has a number of publications to his name

What Is Interoperability and Why Is It So Important?

Tune in as Dominik shares his insights and expertise on the interoperability of blockchains. Some of the topics discussed cover:

> What is blockchain interoperability? What are its main benefits?

> Financial regulations on blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

> Leading projects in blockchain interoperability

> Security considerations.

> The technological challenges in achieving interoperability.

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis and podcast host, is joined by Jason Maude, Chief Technology Advocate at Starling Bank, as they discuss challenger banks.

The Guest - Jason Maude, CTA at Starling Bank
Jason Maude, Chief Technology Advocate at Starling Bank. Jason has over a decade long experience working in the fintech sector. Coming from a software engineering background, he has the unique perspective of understanding in depth well the technological, as well as the wider business considerations of building and running a bank, and how these intersect. 

The New Wave Banks
In the past 10 or so years, since the financial crisis, we have seen a boom in the rise of digital banks and new financial institutions. Starling Bank is part of this new wave and has been selected as Best British Bank in the last 3 years. 

Tune in as Jason shares his insights on:

> What are challenger banks?

> The history and evolution of challenger banks.

> Digital vs incumbent banks.

> Technology strategies behind building a digital bank.

> Cryptocurrencies and disruption in the banking space.

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis and podcast host, is joined by Oisin Hurley , CTO at Swrve, as they discuss cloud economics and how to maximize your return on investment.

The Guest - Oisin Hurley, CTO at Swrve:

Oisin has spent the last 15 years leading software teams and is currently working as the CTO of Swrve, delivering real-time, multi-channel customer engagement software. Oisin is an expert in cloud-enabled, complex systems and today we hope to get his insights on how we can leverage cloud technologies, while maximizing our Return on Investment (ROI).

Why is this topic so important?

Cloud economics is the study of cloud computing’s costs and benefits and the economic principles that underpin them.

After payroll, cloud fees are often the highest cost technology companies face. Managing those correctly can be essential to running a sustainable and scalable business.

Tune in as Oisin walks us through what precipitated the rise of cloud computing; the main mistakes people make that can lead to astronomical cloud costs; who are the key people in your organisation who need to understand cloud costs and how each can make an impact - architects, engineers, sales people drafting deals; what is coming up next in this space.

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis and podcast host, is joined by David Boundy, CTO at Innowatts, as they discuss the opportunity for software to reduce the global carbon footprint of electricity production.


On Electricity Grids and Decarbonised Grids:

Energy production accounts for 72% of the global emissions. Moving this sector towards cleaner options is key in fighting climate change.  

This episode’s guest - David Boundy - has more than 20 years of experience in the energy and digital innovation sector. He is currently CTO at Innowatts, a data analytics company that helps utilities and energy retailers from around the world optimize their businesses with energy usage data and AI-enabled predictive analytics. 

Tune in as David shares his expertise and insights in this area. Some of the topics covered:

> What is an electric grid? What is a decarbonised grid?

> Who are the leaders internationally in driving renewable energy?

> The most promising technologies in the renewable space?

> How can software be used to decarbonize the grid? 

> Microgeneration.

> What does the future of the energy sector look like?

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis and podcast host, is joined by Tyler Patterson, Managing Director at C.H. Robinson, as they discuss the challenges and opportunities of logistics and supply chain technology.

On logistics and supply chain technology:

Tyler has spent the last decade in the logistics and supply chain space at C.H. Robinson, where he is currently Managing Director. Coming from an engineering background, he has deep expertise in the sector and the technology enabling it.

Here are some of the topics covered:

• The challenges and opportunities of the sector.
• The major changes in logistics and supply chain technology over the past years.
• The impact of 2020 on demand in the sector. 
• The complexity of Covid-19 vaccine distribution.
• What is next for the sector and where is technology evolving towards.

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis, is joined by Siobhán Fairman, Software Development Manager at Compliance and Risks, as they discuss how to successfully enable remote work for software engineering teams.

Remote Work Becomes the Norm; How Software Teams are Shaping the Way We Work Together

Siobhan has been working remotely for over 10 years and has managed a distributed software engineering team for most of that time. Padraig has enabled Zartis’ transition to a fully remote company of 180+ people across 5 countries.

They share their experience and insights on:

> What are the key ingredients to running a successful distributed team?

> What is the role of the team members, the manager, and the company in enabling successful remote work?

> What are the good practices for managing a successful distributed software engineering team?

> What can companies expect from a post-covid world and how can they adapt their approach to the many unknowns?

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis, is joined by Matthias Feys, CTO at ML6, as they discuss artificial intelligence, machine learning and their current and potential use cases.

On Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning:

This episode takes a deep dive into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), as Matthias shares his expertise and insights into this field. Here are some of the topics covered:

• What are AI / ML / Deep Learning and Computer Vision?
• Automation - loss of jobs vs improved quality of life.
• The history of artificial intelligence and the AI winters.
• AI in software development: software developing software.
• AI and ML in sports.
• Ethics in this space.
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis, is joined by Alex Wilson, Co-Founder at The Giving Block, as they discuss how technology is changing the philanthropy world.

This episode explores the huge opportunity for technology to make an impact within the philanthropy sector, focusing on what is already being done, how has Covid impacted the transition and what the future holds.

Alex walks us through the innovative ways technology is changing donations, more specifically focusing on enabling cryptocurrency donations. He shares his insights on enabling transparency in the philanthropy space and some interesting ideas as to enabling innovation. 

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis, is joined by Rob Zuber, CTO at CircleCI, as they discuss the evolution of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment (CI/CD) technology.

Rob has spent more than 20 years at the forefront of tech innovation and software startups. During this time, he co-founded 4 companies and served as CTO at 3, including CircleCI, the world’s largest shared continuous integration and continuous delivery platform. At CircleCI, he has led the company through its Series B through E rounds, and is currently leading a team of 150+ engineers. 

Rob walks us through the evolution of CI/CD from two main perspectives, both closely interlinked - on one hand the evolution of processes and working methodologies (e.g. the impact of Agile) and on the other - the evolution of tools in this space. 

The episode explores:

> What is Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment? 

> What are the advantages of implementing CI/CD approach?

> How did CI/CD ideas and technologies come about and evolved over the past few decades and who were the key figures behind them?

> Has Covid impacted the way or speed at which companies are implementing CI/CD?

> What does the future hold? The end of on-call?

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

In this episode, Padraig Coffey, CEO at Zartis, is joined by Mark MacMahon, CTO at the Steinbeis School of Management and Innovation in Germany and Dr. Tony Matthews from Griffith University in Australia, as they explore the evolution of educational technology in the context of universities. 

Third level institutions have been late to the party when it comes to tech innovation. Users of tech have been generally slow to adopt, and builders of tech have generally gravitated to more lucrative domains.

Covid is changing all of that quite rapidly, and the pressure being put on universities from a range of sources - students unhappy with the ROI from a degree, public health issues limiting the arrival of lucrative foreign students etc - is creating a reckoning for higher education providers.

Tune in to explore how technology can answer those challenges and changing demands, as well as open up a world of opportunities in the higher education space. 

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]