Cloud Currents

In this episode, Matt sits down with Rick Mischka, Senior Director of Education and Enablement at Avant Communications and a recently minted PhD in cyberpsychology, to unpack the human side of cybersecurity. They dig into what's really driving burnout and talent shortages in security teams, why mental resiliency training can extend a professional's career by nearly a decade, and how leaders can sp...

In this episode, Matt sits down with Kunal Agarwal, co-founder and CEO of Unravel Data, to unpack the often-overlooked costs lurking beneath the surface of enterprise AI investments. Kunal breaks down why the real story isn't the model costs everyone talks about, but the pipeline inefficiencies, zombie jobs, and idle compute that quietly drain budgets. The conversation digs into the critical diffe...

In this episode, Matt sits down with Gary Dowdy, Chief Technology Officer at Trinity Logistics, one of North America's leading freight brokerage firms. Gary shares his fascinating career journey through warehouse automation, mobile banking, and seven years helping build the JB Hunt 360 digital freight marketplace before landing at Trinity. Together, they explore how Trinity is leveraging cloud inf...

In this episode, Matt sits down with Anthony Baio, VP of AI, Machine Learning, and Data Infrastructure at West Hills, whose career path wound through D1 athletics, the Air National Guard, and hands-on hardware hacking before landing at the forefront of enterprise AI. Anthony breaks down the real security risks organizations face when employees use consumer AI tools with corporate data, and shares...

In this episode, we sit down with two cybersecurity veterans from Neon Cyber: Mark St John, who's been in the trenches since the dial-up era, and Cody Pierce, an offensive security specialist who's spent the last decade chasing emerging threats. Together they unpack the most pressing threats hitting cloud environments right now — from AI-powered phishing campaigns so convincing they fool trained s...

Sumit Taneja, SVP and Global Head of AI Consulting at EXL Service, took one of the most unconventional paths to the top of enterprise AI — and he's got the battle scars to prove it. In this episode, Sumit breaks down real agentic AI deployments, why most enterprises are failing at AI readiness, and the hard truth about what it actually takes to get AI working at scale. No hype. No theory. Just 25...

Kevin Surace — inventor of the world's first virtual assistant and the technology that laid the foundation for Siri — joins Cloud Currents for a wide-ranging conversation on the two forces reshaping enterprise tech: AI and cybersecurity. Kevin exposes why the MFA and authenticator apps most companies rely on are actively being exploited, and why biometric FIDO2 is the only real fix. He also gets c...

David Morales helped build Walmart's private cloud from the ground up—385,000 virtual cores, a custom PaaS layer, and AI-powered store robots before the world knew what to do with them. Now, as SVP of Technology and CIO at Western Governors University, he applies those same principles to keep a 100% digital learning environment running for 193,000 students at 99.7% uptime—while fending off nearly...

In this episode of Cloud Currents, host Matt Pacheco sits down with Yabing Wang, VP of Security & IT Services and dual CISO/CIO at JustWorks, for one of the most candid conversations yet on what it actually takes to lead security in the age of AI. Yabing opens up about her unlikely path from philosophy major to Netscape engineer to cybersecurity leader — and why that winding road gave her the ment...

In today's episode, Jeremy Uniake, VP of IT at Thrive, shares how he's modernizing 40 million lines of COBOL while implementing AI that analyzes 10+ million calls with 98% accuracy—all at a fraction of typical enterprise costs. From managing tech across 10+ acquisitions to challenging what "AI" really means (spoiler: it's pattern matching, not intelligence), Jeremy delivers no-BS insights on legac...

Join host Matt Pacheco as he sits down with Manish Khadiya, VP of IT Enterprise Architecture and Cybersecurity at DirecTV, for insights into one of the most complex enterprise transformations happening today—DirecTV's separation from AT&T. With nearly three decades of technology leadership across GE, NBCUniversal, Facebook, and Parker Hannifin, Manish shares how they're building enterprise archite...

Matt Pacheco sits down with Danny Matzlavi, VP of Engineering at Blackhawk Networks, for a deep dive into the rapidly evolving world of platform engineering. With over 25 years of experience spanning VMware, Nutanix, and fintech, Danny shares how Blackhawk has built a comprehensive platform engineering organization that unifies infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, observability, and SRE under one umbr...

In this episode, we talk to Microsoft MVP Christopher Turner, a seasoned Product Technology Architect at TierPoint. As organizations grapple with VMware's licensing changes under Broadcom, Christopher shares invaluable insights into Azure Local as a compelling alternative for hybrid infrastructure. We unpack the complexities of modern cloud migration strategies, from avoiding the common lift-and-s...

Join us for a conversation with Jeff Barr, VP and Chief Evangelist at AWS, as he takes us on a 23-year journey from witnessing the birth of Amazon Web Services to predicting an AI-driven future where data outlasts applications and ancient languages like Quechua can generate Python code. Jeff shares insider stories about AWS's humble beginnings when EC2's first $10 day felt monumental, reveals his...

Join host Matt Pacheco as he sits down with Matthew Toussain, Founder and CEO of Open Security and former US Air Force cyber warfare specialist from the military's first specialized cybersecurity class. In this episode, Matthew reveals the shocking reality of cloud security in the AI era—from unsecured S3 buckets that still plague enterprises to the terrifying new world of AI-generated vulnerabili...

In this episode, host Matt Pacheco sits down with Mohit Kalra, CISO and VP of Security at Typeface, to explore the evolving landscape of AI security. Mohit shares how traditional SaaS security principles must evolve to address GenAI challenges, from data governance and model selection to building enterprise trust through transparency. The conversation covers the intersection of FinOps and security...

Today Matt Pacheco sits down with Tamanna Sait, VP of Engineering for Cloud at Crusoe, who brings over 25 years of experience spanning IBM's public clouds, Facebook's massive private cloud architecture, and customer-side optimization at Netflix and Airbnb. In this episode, we discuss how Crusoe is pioneering the world's first vertically integrated AI infrastructure platform by harnessing large-sca...

Join host Matt Pacheco as he sits down with Elliott Clark, CEO of Batteries Included and former Facebook infrastructure engineer, for a discussion about why giving developers Kubernetes is like handing them "a spinning ball of razor blades." Elliot shares hard-won insights from seven years at Facebook on cloud cost optimization, why security is fundamentally a human problem, and his revolutionary...

Today Matt sits down with Ryan Raub, VP of Cloud Infrastructure at SmartRent. From scaling infrastructure that supports millions of IoT devices to navigating the challenges of AWS IoT Core, Ryan shares invaluable insights from his journey from government work to startup leadership. Don't miss Ryan's practical advice on implementing Terraform at scale and his perspective on how AI might transform c...

Today, Matt sits down with Diego Costa, Cloud and Senior Platform Manager at Nestle, as he unveils the complexities of managing one of the world's largest cloud environments. From orchestrating a team of nearly 100 across multiple time zones to navigating security challenges in the food and beverage industry, Diego shares insights and advice from his 25-year journey in tech. Learn how Nestle appro...

In this episode, we discuss Etsy's transformative cloud journey with Danny Daya, Director of FinOps and Cloud Strategy. From orchestrating a massive cloud migration to pioneering innovative FinOps practices, Danny shares invaluable insights on balancing technological innovation with financial responsibility. Learn how Etsy is leveraging generative AI to revolutionize both their marketplace and int...

Today Matt sits down with Peter Van Iperen, CISO at Own Company (recently acquired by Salesforce). From the challenges of multi-cloud environments to the transformative impact of AI on cloud security, Peter shares invaluable insights from his 25+ years of experience in tech leadership. Listen to why backup strategies are more critical than ever, why Infrastructure as Code isn't the silver bullet m...

Join host Matt Pacheco as he sits down with Chris O'Brien, Director of Engineering at Tinder, for a discussion on scaling cloud infrastructure in one of the world's most popular social platforms. From managing billions of daily interactions to implementing cutting-edge AI solutions, Chris describes his journey of transforming Tinder's infrastructure. Discover how this dating app giant maintains 99...

Cloud Currents host, Matt Pacheco, sits down with Dennis Walker, Senior Director of HPC Solutions Architecture at HPE, discusses the world of high-performance computing and cloud infrastructure. From managing massive-scale supercomputers to implementing cutting-edge AI solutions, Dennis shares his expertise on the challenges and innovations in modern computing infrastructure. Learn about the inter...

Cloud Currents host Matt Pacheco sits down with Sameer Airyil, Executive Director of Cloud and Cybersecurity at JPMorgan Chase, as he pulls back the curtain on building and managing cloud security at one of the world's largest financial institutions. From navigating complex regulations to embracing cutting-edge technologies, Sameer shares his journey of building a cloud assurance function from the...