Heavy Strategy

Some companies use formal Enterprise Architecture (EA) to maintan a consistent IT strategy. Its not often successful so we discuss possible ways to practically maintain the EA function.

Are there angles on future metaverse that make sensee ? Johna and Greg dive into their perspectives on what is a metaverse and converge on the face that its a form of collaboration. Potentially it could be immersive with VR googles but more likely it’s about engaging data from external domains into the collaboration experience.

You can't make a profit from Cybersecurity, its a cost. How do we work with business to see IT risk management on the same level as accounting and human resources ? Johna and Greg discuss various options on market, process and methods that could help you work on your cyber situation.

Whats the deal with Quiet Quitting ? Johna & Greg get into a heated debate about the nature of work. Johna wants people to ‘do your job’, Greg wants ‘pay me more to do more’. How much can a companies expect from their employees as hustle culture is being rejected by more people.

Should LEO space networks be part of your network ? Are there common questions about using and designing for them ? What should be expecting from your telco ?

Graphiant Stateless Cloud WAN addresses the limitations of SDWAN - better scalability, more flexibility and service guarantees. Their stateless network core is multi-tenant, predictable and scalable. Customers get the benefit of SDWAN with less of the problems. We unpack the details in this episiode with Khalid Raza, Founder and CEO of Graphiant and ask questions to understand how it would fit you...

Is there a role for career mentors and coaches in modern IT ? We discuss the topic and establish some points. IT Careers are high value and high effort but unlike other professions (such as law or medicine) there are no gatekeepers to working. This leads to training and ‘life coaches’ that are unregulated and often unprofessional.

We discuss how Kolide tools engage the user to improve end-point security. Monitoring devices and then contacting the user to gather more information and provide contextual questions is a novel approach.

Both sides of the low code/no code debate. We outline two sides of the debate, discuss four topics in favour of low code and then cover four negatives. Avoidance of toil coding, avoid skill shortage and viable testing are good things. Lockin, shadow IT and ownership are problematic. Its a solid debate on the topic.

The pro and con's of having preferred supplier for IT technology ? You can save time and effort, simplify purchasing and move quicker but are you getting the best solution and support. We discuss different perspectives on going down the path and point out the subscription pricing moves towards vendor lockin.

We discuss different aspects of selecting technology to buy. Topics include business case, planning, selection, evaluation and review - as you might expect - but we find that there isn't one right answer.

Cold takes on the Broadcom/VMware acquisition. We consider Broadcom's stated goal to increase VMW profit margin from 35% to 65% and what this will mean to customer experience.

What are the right questions for developing and maintaining a technology strategy for your company ?

Does planning for cybersecurity failure include the concept of 'crime scene' ? Can you provide evidence to an external investigation sufficient to get justice or simply prove to insurance investigator that you met the policy requirements ? Should you be lobbying governments ? How does this drive your cyber spending - defense, microsegmentation, detection or evidence collection ?

Shadow IT does not always lead to bad outcom

What about changing the work we do ? Perhaps with orchestration / automation and even AI ? So many questions, not many answers.

Contracts are caveat emptor but the client often knows little about the what they are buying and why.

We start debating the nature of technical debt. What is it, how is it created before moving into solutions. Then we take an unexpected turn into operational debt, why its more important and how software defined has delivered solutions here. Also, we dunk on digital transformation.

Headlines about ‘great resignation’ tend to ignore that people are moving jobs not quitting work. We believe many people are making  choices about what work they want in their lives. We discuss four reasons:  1) toxic workplaces 2) lifestyle and remote work 3) downstepping and 4) early retirement. We note that recruiters are toxic arms ... Read more »

What makes a technology strategy ? Where do you start ? Are you business or solution centric ? Being a leader means risk and funding, being a follower is simpler and faster. What questions should you be asking when establishing an IT strategy ? Heavy Strategy is where the questions are more important than the ... Read more »

Johna believes that API management is part of IT operations. Greg doesn't understand the question and so we set off in search of answers.

The internet has become part of society now and this means that governments will want to put controls on it. Are our standards bodies fit for purpose ?

Discussing what might drives team structure in Enterprise IT.

With so much money allocated to marketing teams, why do customers find it disagreeable and unpleasant to be a victim of their activities ? 

Do you need new hardware to cloud enable your infrastructure ? Should you strategise products on new hardware/greenfield basis or enable your existing brownfield infrastructure ? In this episode we discuss value of enabling existing infrastructure Beware of the vendor goldfield that Greenfield represents Whether supply chain impacts your decisions ? The value of federated ... Read more »