Ctrl Alt Lead

 Alexandra Ebert, advisor to regulators like the FCA and IEEE, as well as chief AI and democratisation officer at Mostly AI, joins Tom to discuss the modern AI landscape. She warns that too many organisations are rushing to “get more GenAI” without doing the groundwork, arguing that AI needs to be a strategic capability rooted in solid data foundations and alignment between technology and business...

In this bonus episode Tom Allen sits down with Katia Gil Guzman, a founding member of OpenAI’s Developer Experience team, to explore how AI coding is evolving beyond the hype. Katia explains why OpenAI actively discourages “vibe coding” for anything beyond small experiments, arguing that enterprise-ready AI tools should behave more like software engineers - producing pull requests, following proje...

Cyber attacks and crisis response are daily realities for security professionals, but the demands of  defending critical systems and services from cyber attack can exert a heavy toll on cybersecurity practitioners at all levels. A combination of the "always on" nature of cybersecurity, the urgency of the task and some of the personality traits often found in cyber teams mean that difficulties are...

When John Seabourn asked his team how AI made them feel, the answers ranged from "excited" to "concerned," but the word that stood out most was "efficient". In this episode of Ctrl Alt Lead , John - CDIO of global environmental consultancy APEM Group - joins Tom to unpack what that word really means in a world where technology can accelerate renewable energy projects, yet consumes vast amounts of...

Queen Mary University of London CIO Rachel Bence joins Computing ’s Penny Horwood to discuss how the university is embedding sustainability into its IT strategy — from using waste heat from high-performance computing to warm student halls, to running datacentres powered by recycled energy. Rachel shares how a focus on sustainability aligns with Queen Mary’s mission of inclusivity and social mobili...

Banking is known for its monolithic, legacy IT systems, but new challenger banks have a different approach. Cynergy Bank's CDIO Rana Bhattacharya joins Tom to explain how the bank is blending the latest tech with a modern mindset. By adopting Flutter and a microservices architecture, Cynergy has been able to build once and deploy across iOS, Android and the web, improving productivity while stream...

Tom speaks with Steve Capper, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Carnival UK, whose brands include Cunard and P&O Cruises. Formerly a multi-award-winning leader in the engineering and construction world, Capper explains how the leap into the cruise industry revealed unexpected parallels, from large-scale refits to complex logistics, but with one major difference: everything moves. Steve lifts...

Paul Smith, CIO of Amnesty International, offers a rare glimpse into what it means to lead technology in one of the world’s largest and most complex nonprofit organisations. With operations in over 150 countries, Paul’s role goes far beyond the usual CIO remit: from safeguarding whistleblowers in war zones to supporting campaigners in politically sensitive regions, all while working under tight bu...

Technology still plays second fiddle to steel and scaffolding in many people’s view of construction, but that image belies the truth behind the industry's impressive digital progress. In this episode of Ctrl Alt Lead Matt Sharp, CDO at RLB, talks about how he launched his IT team as a separate digital consultancy to serve clients beyond construction, how it became revenue generating in the first y...

In this episode of Ctrl Alt Lead , Tom speaks with Joanna Drake, CIO and now also CTO at THG (The Hut Group), about the company’s radical IT modernisation journey. Facing rapid growth, fragmented storage, and escalating demands for AI and machine learning, Jo led a transformation of THG’s global infrastructure with zero downtime. She discusses the strategic decision to partner with Pure Storage, t...

Every tech vendor is trying to crack AI, but does that match up to how it's being adopted on the ground? In this episode Tom and Alex Rutter of Google Cloud talk about the difference in approach from IT leaders - focusing on governance, compliance and integration - and business leaders - eager to move quickly and pushing for quick, transformative wins. Alex outlines how Google's prioritisation of...

Leon Butler, IBM’s UK and Ireland CEO, explains why most generative AI models aren't fit for enterprise use and stresses the need for transparent, trusted systems. He also discusses how recent acquisitions - including HashiCorp and DataStax - support IBM’s push to automate enterprise IT.  Leon talks about other key IT areas, like data sovereignty and regulation; agentic AI; and quantum security. H...

In this episode of Ctrl Alt Lead, Tom speaks with AWS CISO Chris Betz about the evolving AI landscape and its implications for cybersecurity. They discuss the challenges and blind spots security leaders face with AI agents; the importance of proactive security measures, and the differences in AI security between public and private sectors. Betz, who leads security across Amazon Web Services global...

With AI agents taking over the world, Oracle's launch of AI Agent Studio last week is exceedingly timely. UK country leader Siobhan Wilson joins Tom at Oracle Cloudworld 2025 to explain how it works, who can use it, and what it means for IT teams. Siobhan also discusses Oracle’s $5 billion investment in UK cloud infrastructure, why demand for AI agents is growing, and whether it comes at the expen...

In this episode Tom talks to GitHub's VP of Developer Relations, Martin Woodward, about open source's evolving landscape and funding models, as well as the role of AI in software development. We dive deep into GitHub's Secure Open Source fund , the importance of financial sustainability for open source projects, and how AI tools like GitHub Copilot are reshaping the developer experience. Become a...

A tobacco company that wants more regulation? Javed Iqbal, Director of Digital & Transformation at British American Tobacco, describes how clear rules, plus technology, can accelerate safer alternatives to smoking. He reveals how AI is driving breakthroughs in marketing insights, patent research and even tackling ESG issues like child labour; and describes how BAT’s investment in ethical AI, cloud...

Healthcare has massive potential for tech-driven disruption, but adoption is - for good reason - cautious. In this episode Perran Pengelly, CTO of NHS partner DrDoctor, shares insights on the challenges and opportunities of modernising healthcare delivery. Perran explains the emerging model of hybrid healthcare, which could alleviate the mismatch between demand and capacity in the NHS. He also div...

In this episode Tom talks to Karen Byer, lead project manager and chair of UK RISE at PA Consulting, about business resource groups' role in fostering inclusive workplaces. Karen shares practical advice for IT leaders on how to support informal groups, develop impactful initiatives, and create environments where everyone thrives - all while balancing their day-to-day responsibilities. Become a mem...

The end of the year is peak sales time, extending from Black Friday in November to the sales in January. Mattie Toia, VP of infrastructure at ecommerce platform Shopify, explains how the platform handles this “peak of peaks." Tom and Mattie discuss the role of resilience, game-day simulations and the use of real-time data visualisation tools, as well as diving into how AI is transforming e-commerc...

In this episode, legal expert Jonathan Armstrong of Punter Southall Law breaks down the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and its implications for financial services firms and their suppliers. Jonathan talks about DORA's key requirements, the challenges of cross-border compliance, and how CIOs can prepare for these sweeping changes across the EU and UK. Click here to learn more about DORA...

General purpose AI models are great if you want to discuss everything from geopolitics to baking with the same chatbot; but when you have hard limits on data and compute, you need a more focused system. Enter, small language models. This week Tom talks to Arm's Paul Williamson about what the rise of SLMs means for edge computing and the people who use it; different ways to shrink language models;...

Multifactor authentication is better than nothing, but is it really just a false sense of security? With attackers increasingly knowing how to break MFA, whether technically or through social engineering, director Richard Richison switched his entire company of 1,600 employees over to a phishing-resistant process relying on biometric security keys and device-level checks. In this episode of Ctrl A...

Will Amazon's return-to-office mandate be a success, or will Andy Jassy's employees slap on a return label? Reed co-founder Mark Ridley and Dr Andrew MacLaren, Associate Professor of Team Communication at Heriot-Watt University,  join Tom to talk all about the points for and against office vs remote work - and why hybrid might be not the perfect middle ground. What does Jassy's order mean for remo...

What effect will a protectionist President have on the global tech sector? Professor Grant Neeley discusses Donald Trump's stance on tech issues from AI to immigration, and what we can expect from his historic second term. The incoming President is critical of regulation, but has spoken out against Big Tech. He is anti-China, but pro-TikTok. He wants tariffs on global imports, but expects lower pr...

Acquiring new companies is a popular way to grow quickly, but it brings a host of technical challenges: from finding the right company, to due diligence, and finally integrating their systems.  In this episode Ardonagh Advisory CTO Tom Clark discusses the role tech leaders must play at every stage of the process  to smoothly bring new companies on board. Become a member of Computing today at www.c...