Cloud Wars analyzes the major cloud vendors from the perspective of business customers. In Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans talks with both sides about these profoundly transformative technologies, and with monthly All-Star guests from across the business community about the trends impacting how the world lives, works, plays, and dreams. Visit https://cloudwars.com for more.
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explain how AI is fueling Salesforce’s renewed push for innovation and scale. Highlights 00:01 — We've got Salesforce now reporting some very nice numbers for its fiscal Q4 ended January 31. The bigger story behind that, I think, is the company is fully recommitted to growth once again. 01:18 — What Benioff is back to now is to get the company, with the AI Revolution, into a high-growth mode again. Chief Revenue Officer Miguel Milano referred to Q4 as the greatest...
Key Takeaways Laying groundwork : Weiner will be leading a session at the AI Kickstart Preconference, introducing attendees to Copilot Studio and how to build their first custom AI agent. He explains that the session will cover real-world examples and walk through agent creation, deployment, monitoring, and governance to help participants "get the groundwork to take advantage of the future days in the conference." Event takeaways : When discussing event takeaways, Weiner explains that the AI Age...
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I break down Aneel Bushri’s powerful case for pairing AI with enterprise apps. Highlights 00:02 — There are some wild things going on in the enterprise software business, some of it rational, much of it irrational. But the big issue right now is for customers, partners, and the software vendors, the Cloud Wars Top 10 , to figure out what is going to be the right way forward, the optimal mix of AI with enterprise applications. 01:47 — I think the most important thing...
In this AI Agent & Copilot Minute, Mason Siefert outlines how Microsoft’s latest enhancements to Copilot Studio — especially the new tools in the Power CAT Copilot Studio Kit — are designed to bring structure, governance, and measurable quality to enterprise-scale AI agents. Key Takeaways Rubrics refinement: The headline feature in the updated kit is the rubrics refinement tool, which addresses a growing challenge in agentic AI operations — how to consistently and accurately grade agent resp...
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explain why aligning your role with AI may be the key to thriving in the next 18 months. Highlights 00:05 — There's a lot of discussion right now about the impact of AI on the job market. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman has weighed in on this debate regarding the pace of AI innovation and its impact on employment. 00:53 — “I think that we're going to have a human-level performance on most, if not all, professional tasks. So white-collar work, where you're sittin...
Key Takeaways SEO evolution : Most people prefer having answers given directly rather than searching for them, which is reshaping how information is accessed. As a result, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is evolving toward AI-driven assistants and agents that deliver faster, more personalized responses than traditional web searches. AEO & GEO : Two approaches emerging from this shift are Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) . AEO focuses on making conten...
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explain why deep on-premises expertise is becoming a strategic advantage in the AI-driven cloud economy. Highlights 00:03 — One of the things we're seeing here in early 2026, as so many things change around the tech industry and customer expectations, is that three old timers in the Cloud Wars Top 10 —Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle — for each company, 50% or more of its revenue comes from the cloud. 00:56 — So these are, in some ways, the graybeards, and some people h...
In this episode of the AI Agent & Copilot Podcast, John Siefert, CEO of Dynamic Communities and host of the podcast, is joined by Christopher Lochhead , bestselling author of "Play Bigger," to explore the shift from knowledge worker to “creator capitalist.” Lochhead previews his new book, "Creator Capitalist," which he will officially launch at the 2026 AI Agent & Copilot Summit NA in San Diego, outlining how AI and agents are transforming value creation, careers, and leadership in the m...
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I examine the rising threat of AI recommendation poisoning and what it means for enterprise security. Highlights 00:09 — Now, have you heard of AI recommendation poisoning? It could become a major security issue in the AI Era. Microsoft researchers have found a large number of instances of AI memory poisoning attacks — a kind of prompt injection specific to AI assistants. What's happening is that companies are embedding hidden instructions in familiar "Summarize wit...
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I unpack how Palantir is turning AI’s commoditized cognition into a competitive advantage. Highlights 00:03 — One of the big stories of 2026 has been the ongoing rise of Palantir, a true unicorn at 23 years old, but still a unicorn in the enterprise software business and its incredible growth. In Q4, its revenue is up 70% to $1.4 billion, and it's projecting 61% growth for all of calendar 2026. So this was not an aberration or a flash in the pan. 01:49 — CEO Alexand...
Eric Newell, CEO of Stoneridge Software, discusses his upcoming session at the AI Agent and Copilot Summit, focusing on guiding organizations to effectively implement and secure AI, specifically M365 Copilot. He emphasizes moving beyond experimentation to establish robust AI strategies, policies, and governance to prevent data misuse and ensure productivity. The episode highlights the critical need for companies to define how AI tools should and should not be used by employees.
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I examine how AI-powered partnerships are redefining growth and desirability in the consumer economy. Highlights 00:15 — I want to talk today about how Google Cloud, the number one company on the Cloud Wars Top 10 , has partnered up with its longtime customer, Unilever, to develop what I'm calling an AI-powered marketing and fulfillment engine for the AI economy. 00:59 — The focus about AI on large language models and tokens is incredibly important, but not the end ...
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I unpack why one founder’s departure may mark a turning point in the AI Era. Highlights 00:03 — There's huge news today in the AI space. Peter Steinberger, founder of OpenClaw, has joined OpenAI. Now I'll start by giving you some background on OpenClaw and its significance in the industry, followed by my commentary on why this is such a shake-up. 00:56 — Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of OpenClaw is its capability to handle these [active computer use] tasks thro...
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I analyze how AI inferencing and custom chips are reshaping the cloud power structure. Highlights 00:05 — 2026 is off to a booming start. One of the numbers we saw was that Amazon is committed to spending $200 billion in CapEx in calendar 2026. That will be, by far, the largest CapEx expenditure in a single year that any company in any industry has ever made. So, truly some monumental, groundbreaking stuff going on here. It shows the size of the opportunity. 01:11 —...
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I explore why Bill McDermott says ServiceNow is not a SaaS company and why SaaS is “on the menu.” Highlights 00:03 — Welcome back to Cloud Wars Minute. The big thing is ServiceNow. As Bill McDermott says, ServiceNow is hungry and SaaS is on the menu. He went to great lengths in ServiceNow's recent Q4 earnings call , and also in a follow-up interview with Jim Cramer of Mad Money, to say that ServiceNow is doing great. We hit and exceeded all our numbers. We are not a...
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I break down ServiceNow’s latest AI expansion with Anthropic and what it means for enterprise workflows. Highlights 00:04 — I recently reported on ServiceNow ’s expanded collaboration with OpenAI. That agreement makes OpenAI’s models the go-to solution for companies running upwards of 80 billion annual workflows on the ServiceNow platform. 00:17 — Now, ServiceNow has announced that Anthropic’s Claude models will be integrated into core ServiceNow workflows for tasks...
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I analyze the leadership shift at Workday and what it means in the age of agentic AI. Highlights 00:00 — I want to talk about a change at the top of Workday. And I want to point out somebody who's been a real superstar in this business and that's Workday co-founder, former co-CEO, former CEO , chairman, executive chairman, resigned as CEO, now back in as CEO, Aneel Bhusri. 01:13 — He was going to be the person that ran all the business, the operations. And Aneel sai...
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I break down the strategic collaboration between AWS and NTT DATA and what it means for enterprise AI transformation. Highlights 00:02 — AWS and NTT DATA, an IT and business consultancy, have announced a multi-year collaboration agreement aimed at helping enterprise clients modernize legacy systems and adopt responsible agentic AI at scale. The companies are combining capabilities to develop solutions that modernize workloads and accelerate enterprise transformation...
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explain why the AI revolution isn’t a bubble — it’s backed by unprecedented backlog growth. Highlights 00:02 — There are some wild numbers being thrown around here early in 2026 as we think about the CapEx investments that the four hyperscalers — Microsoft, AWS, Google Cloud, and Oracle — are making to build up their AI factories, their AI and cloud infrastructure to meet the incredible demand for AI training, inferencing, cloud transformations, business transform...
This episode explores the transformative impact of AI agents and automation on the business landscape with TMC CEO Jen Harris. The discussion highlights the strategic reasons behind TMC's acquisition of TMG, the critical shift from technology stacks to holistic solutions, and the necessity of cultivating an AI-first mindset to overcome resistance. Harris emphasizes evolving from reactive to proactive roles, celebrating inspiring women in tech, and underscores the enduring importance of human connection and collaboration in an increasingly AI-driven world.
This episode emphasizes that robust security is paramount for successful AI adoption, highlighting the unique risks posed by AI tools and sensitive data. Drawing from the 2026 Microsoft Data Security Index report, it outlines three key priorities for organizations: moving towards unified data security, supporting AI productivity gains with strategic controls, and utilizing GenAI for enhanced security. The discussion also addresses the paradox of GenAI serving as both a threat vector and a prevention mechanism, advocating for a nuanced approach to build a secure AI ecosystem.
In this latest episode of Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans i s joined by Colleen Kapase , Vice President of Channels and Partner Programs at Google Cloud, and Rakesh Sancheti, Chief Growth Officer at Tredence. Together, they explore how agentic AI is transforming enterprises from insight-driven organizations into adaptive, reflexive businesses. The conversation highlights how AI agents , data foundations, and partner ecosystems are reshaping productivity, decision-making, and real-time execution acros...
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I examine why incremental growth matters more than sheer cloud size. Highlights 00:02 — Made big changes atop the Cloud Wars Top 10 here at the beginning of 2026. Driven by trends in the financial results that the three biggest hyperscalers: Microsoft, Google Cloud, and AWS are reporting. There are changes taking place at the top among those companies, in terms of customer demand and the choices customers are making going forward into the AI Economy. 00:48 — My big ...
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I analyze hyperscaler Q4 numbers and reveal why growth rates matter more than size right now. Highlights 00:02 — We've got the final hyperscaler numbers in now, so we can do some comparisons here. AWS reported a very strong Q4 numbers late last week. I want to talk about that in two contexts. First of all, those numbers themselves and the very nice performance AWS put together. 00:42 — The second one, though, is relative to its big competitors, specifically Google C...
In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explain why agent sprawl may become one of the biggest hidden risks of the AI Era. Highlights 00:03 — The massive increase in the adoption of agentic AI technology will have significant consequences for businesses. There’ll be increased productivity, the ability to reskill employees who have more time to focus on other areas of the business, and opportunities to explore new business ideas and avenues. 00:32 — And something else — a surge in the number of AI agents...
Highlights 00:02 — A month ago, I moved Google Cloud up to the #1 spot on the Cloud Wars Top 10, moved Microsoft down to #3. That was predicated in large part on the tremendous job Google Cloud has done in building sort of the twin pillars: AI and cloud, the way its customers are building for the future, not just perfecting what they've done in the past. 00:27 — And also the company's impressive growth rates, showing that more and more, in spite of the size differential between Microsoft and Goo...
In this episode, Dona Sarkar, Chief Troublemaker for Enterprise AI Advocacy at Microsoft, explores the complexities of deploying AI agents in enterprise environments, moving beyond initial experimentation. She highlights the importance of distinguishing tasks best suited for AI versus those requiring unique human interaction, stressing that responsible AI adoption necessitates robust governance and cross-functional teams. Sarkar also shares insights from Microsoft's internal AI development, revealing that many new tools stem from learning directly from their own deployment challenges, and encourages listeners to share their experiences at upcoming summits.
Microsoft has released the Copilot Studio extension for Visual Studio Code, providing developers with robust tools to directly build and manage AI agents within their IDE. This extension integrates standard Git, pull reviews, and source control, equipping developers with best practices used for traditional app development. It aims to empower developers to create complex AI agents efficiently and safely, maintaining control and enabling responsible scaling while ensuring performance.
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I break down Palantir’s breathtaking Q4 results and why its customer-first AI approach is a wake-up call for the entire enterprise software industry. Highlights 00:06 — Several companies in the Cloud Wars Top 10 have been rolling out their numbers for Q4 and for year 2025, the numbers from Palantir , expected to be pretty good. They're absolutely stunning. Total revenue growth for Q4 was up 73% and their guidance for Q1 indicates more of the same. They are guiding t...
Key Takeaways AI's progress : Wiese expresses excitement to return to the event after a year to hear real case studies on how people have embraced AI, especially appreciating the human and change‑management side of this transformational journey. Specifically, she's eager to learn where organizations have tested, scaled, or faced pushback over the past 12 months, noting that adopting AI is an ongoing, iterative process. Curating the agenda : "I think my number one view of all of the submissions w...
