On Cloud

The impetus these days for most organizations is to transform their business to achieve competitive advantage. It's a good imperative, but the reason for change matters, too. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with consultant and author John Hagel on how to build a future based on seeing opportunity rather than fear. John's view is that it takes building a strong corporate narrative for the fu...

Global market forces, coupled with the pandemic, have spurred most organizations to accelerate their digital transformation to keep their competitive edge—but that's often easier said than done. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Diana Kearns-Manolatos about why strategy is central to accelerating the transformation journey. Diana lays out five "digital imperatives" for speedin...

True digital transformation requires a hyper-connected ecosystem where information flows freely between those who need it and those who provide it. However, that level of connectivity has often proven elusive. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with MuleSoft's Matt McLarty and Deloitte's Kurt Anderson about how new thinking on application and technology integration holds promise to help organi...

To be sure, cloud is a boon to organizations that make the leap, but, as with any technology, there are bumps along the road to implementation. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Techstrong Group's Mike Vizard about how companies can address three particularly vexing issues: multicloud complexity, cloud cost management, and cloud security. Mike's advice is to develop a sound multicloud cl...

The 2021 "Accelerate State of DevOps" report from Google is out! In this episode, Mike Kavis talks with Google's Nathen Harvey and Deloitte's Manoj Mishra about the report's most compelling findings. Among them: DevOps and SRE are complementary; successful SRE equals knowing your customer; documentation is critical, but it should be organic; and there's a newly-announced "Reliability" metric. The...

Despite—or maybe because of—growing adoption across all industries, cloud is still experiencing growing pains, but the future is bright. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Converge Technology's Steve Worthington about cloud trends for 2022 and beyond. Steve's take is that technologies such as AIOps will bolster cloud success, but the trend toward multicloud and hybrid cloud architectures...

Smartphones are ubiquitous; they're also a prime target for fraud. However, governments and companies with innovative ideas are using technology to fight that fraud, and cloud is at the core of the fight.

Semiconductors aren't normally hot news. However, the recent chip shortage has them front and center—especially since they power the machines that power cloud. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Brandon Kulik about the state of the semiconductor industry—how it's leveraging cloud to move faster, and how hyperscalers are beginning to manufacture their own chips to meet demand. B...

What's in store for cloud in 2022? A distributed, edge-based cloudscape that's more cost effective, and growing at such pace that talent is at a precious premium. In this episode, David Linthicum and Mike Kavis look ahead at cloud's 2022. Their insights? More cloud architectures will include federated containers, companies will compete ferociously over top talent, movement to the edge will continu...

 The past year has been pivotal for cloud. Adoption is growing, but many organizations have growing pains. In this episode, David Linthicum and Mike Kavis look back at 2021 and spotlight four prevalent trends that are shaping cloud today—and tomorrow. According to David and Mike, they are: greater multicloud adoption, an increased focus on CloudOps, enhanced cost-consciousness, and the realization...

AWS re:Invent was spectacular this year, focusing on making cloud simpler, better leveraging technology for more cloud impact, moving older apps to cloud, and building cloud sustainability programs. In this episode, Deloitte's David Linthicum and Tony Witherspoon talk all things re:Invent, from how AWS is helping organizations get to cloud faster—and integrate and operate better once they get ther...

Ever wonder how software developers get those lucrative partnerships with cloud hyperscalers? In this episode, David Linthicum talks with 13three founder Jeff Aden about how 13three helps cloud software vendors begin, or accelerate, their partnerships with major hyperscalers such as AWS to take their software global. Jeff's view is that success takes the right tools and culture, but it also takes...

Migrating mainframe apps to cloud is a daunting journey, but there's a growing need to modernize. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Bjoern Langmack and AWS's Hemant Ahire about how companies can successfully transition from mainframe to cloud. The challenges are myriad, but not insurmountable. The group's advice: Automate as much as you can in the migration process, use the ri...

Cloud architecture is more art than science. Building a solid architecture takes a broad understanding of both IT in general and cloud specifically, and it also takes lots of up-front work. In this podcast, David Linthicum shares four key tips for building a sound cloud architecture: Focus on the business value, build in security and governance from the get go, have a solid plan for ops and tech,...

Subscription-based billing methods for SaaS products aren't flexible, and they're often not fair. Drop-in metered billing solutions change that dynamic by enabling consumption-based billing—with customer-chosen metrics—for SaaS. The result? For customers, a more equitable billing structure with improved cost control. For software vendors (or any company looking to monetize home-grown software), th...

Containers power cloud flexibility and portability, but over time container technology has become complex and expensive to deploy. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Portainer.io CEO Neil Cresswell about how Portainer enables Containers-as-a-Service (CaaS) to democratize access to container technology by centralizing container configuration, management, and security. With CaaS, companies...

It's cliché, but true: Cloud is different than traditional, on-prem IT operations, and it requires fundamental changes to how IT is done. In this podcast, David Linthicum discusses the emerging discipline of CloudOps and how it can help companies get more value from their cloud journey. With CloudOps, savvy companies can rethink and reinvent their operating model and talent and skills mix—and impl...

Cloud security issues are a serious—and growing—problem. Most companies don't have the resources or expertise in-house to effectively manage security in a constantly-changing cloud ecosystem. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Ntirety's President and CEO, Emil Sayegh, about how cloud managed services providers (MSPs) can help. For Emil, it's simple: MSPs provide companies with the securit...

Cloud isn't just cloud. It's multi, hybrid, edge, and everything in between. The complexity can be mind-numbing. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with RackN's Rob Hirschfeld about how companies can use infrastructure pipelines to better standardize and manage their infrastructure ecosystems—which can significantly reduce complexity. Rob's take is that automation is key, but it has to be stan...

Multicloud is now the norm, but multicloud environments are incredibly complex and can be maddeningly difficult to manage in a way that provides strategic value to the business long-term. In this podcast, David Linthicum shares tips to help organizations successfully migrate to, deploy, and manage multicloud environments. Long-term success lies in monitoring the middle, thinking long-term, staying...

What's the future of cloud? No one really knows, but it's the job of futurists to try to predict it. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Chief Futurist, Mike Bechtel, about where cloud may be headed. Mike's take is that, over the next five to ten years, decentralized cloud and quantum computing will make a huge impact on cloud and how companies use cloud as a force multiplier fo...

Working with Deloitte, the Utah Department of Government Operations recently completed the first part of an effort to migrate its mainframe applications to cloud. It was a mammoth undertaking, but an overall successful effort. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with project leaders from both the state and Deloitte teams. The trio discuss the project's challenges, successes, and lessons learned...

Cloud app delivery runs on tight timelines. Unfortunately, other organizational processes, like procurement or legal, often create workflow bottlenecks that hobble the software delivery process. In this podcast, Mike Kavis and guests, Chris Young and Mattia Battiston, discuss teams, workflow, and value delivery. Their advice: IT and business must work collaboratively to manage change, identify and...

AI/ML has been around for decades, but cloud has made it possible for companies to leverage AI/ML in new ways, and on a scale never before possible. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Brijesh Singh about why AI/ML is easier to implement with cloud. The pair also discuss new uses for AI/ML—especially vis-à-vis customer service applications—and what's in store for the future of A...

Although edge computing is growing, it lacks the maturity of cloud. That's changing. In this podcast, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Lisa Noon and Clarify360's Jo Peterson about how research organizations are bringing standards to the edge and how companies are building on that to apply edge computing to more and more real-world situations. The consensus? Edge is a wide-open space with lots...