As an IT Professional, one of the things I believe is crucial is continued learning and development. Over the last few months I’ve spent more time in the world of cloud infrastructure, both public and private and have started to want to understand more how to automate much of its delivery. This led me to the concept of Infrastructure as Code (IAC), the idea that we can deploy infrastructure in our cloud via templates, meaning that we retain a consistent repeatable deployment experience, allowing...
Sep 04, 2019•35 min
The ever changing cyber security threat landscape is high on the IT agenda for enterprises as they attempt to deal with numerous threats and attacks. One area constantly under attack and a rapidly growing risk is user identities, numerous phishing scams, key loggers and social engineering are all attempts to compromise a user's identity and their security credentials. The risk posed by the theft of credentials and identity is significant, how then do we protect ourselves, how do we build a secur...
Jul 10, 2019•32 min
As more of us move infrastructure to the cloud we come up against an age old IT problem, how do we know if we are getting the best from our cloud investment, we have deployed it following best practice, we have optimised its performance and increasingly have we secured our infrastructure in the way we need too? These queries are not new to cloud infrastructure, these are challenges we have whenever and wherever we deploy infrastructure and applications. However, one thing that cloud does allow u...
Jul 03, 2019•36 min
Earlier this year I got the chance to chat with Cumulus Networks as part of a series of articles I was working on with my friends at Gestalt IT. It was an interesting piece of research focussed on an area that was new to me, the idea of open networking, using a software driven approach to deliver infrastructure with the scale and flexibility that is required to meet the demands of many modern businesses. Cumulus introduce this idea as part of their Infrastructure with Purpose strategy an approac...
Jun 26, 2019•35 min
Back in February, I saw a presentation from Hammerspace, a startup company in the field of data management. Their proposition was based on dealing with one of IT’s most challenging problems, that of successfully sharing data across multiple locations, be that datacentres, branch offices or cloud repositories. What appealed to me with their approach was how they not only thought of a new way of addressing the problem but also redefined how the problem should be looked at. On this week’s show, I’m...
Jun 19, 2019•33 min
One of the biggest challenges that IT Pro’s face is trying to evaluate new technology and select the right solution for you. One of the tools available is the use of Proof of Concepts (POC), a POC is a short project to evaluate the suitability of potential solutions. POC’s can, when done properly, be a valuable tool in our assessment of potential solutions. But POC’s are not always a success, why is that the case? The main issue tends to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what a POC is, often ...
Jun 12, 2019•31 min
Back in October 2018, I attended Microsoft's Future Decoded event in London, the presentation that stayed with me the most was from Jenny Lay-Flurrie, Microsoft's Chief Accessibility Officer. Jenny, who is herself deaf, spoke with great enthusiasm and passion about how the work Microsoft is doing with accessibility technology was changing people's lives. As a technology enthusiast, I love to see how technology impacts the world around us, however, nothing is more inspirational than seeing how te...
Jun 06, 2019•33 min
The Tech Conference is always an interesting source of information, a chance to learn about anything from strategy to technical details. I'm lucky enough to attend quite a few events throughout the year but one that I've never attended is Dell Technologies World. Dell with their wide portfolio, including VMware, can potentially impact and influence organisations of all types, with that in mind, Dell Technologies World is becoming an increasingly interesting event as their wide portfolio has the ...
May 22, 2019•35 min
Security and compliance of systems is right at the top of the priority list for almost all organisations and as our data and the systems that hold it are ever more critical, the impact of the loss of these systems or the data that resides upon them is significant. As our systems become more complex and diversely spread managing and reducing their vulnerabilities is a real challenge. On this week's show we discuss how we take a modern approach to security, governance and vulnerability control wit...
May 14, 2019•30 min
Your modern infrastructure is highly unlikely to be built on a single platform, in fact not only unlikely to be on a single platform but unlikely to be built in a single location, as increasingly we are developing hybrid infrastructure that can be spread across datacentres, remote locations and of course the public cloud. While this adds complexity to our technology stack, it also adds opportunities when technology vendors work together to bring value to each other’s offerings, improving end-use...
Apr 30, 2019•34 min
Software defining your storage – Andy Scholl -Ep94 by Tech Interviews
Apr 02, 2019•31 min
The technology world is constantly evolving, what we do with Tech, what it does for us, how we can use it to do things differently and more quickly, innovation is core to the technology industry. One of the fastest moving areas of innovation right now is the development of voice as a way for us to interact with our data and technology platforms, opening new ways for us to perform a wide variety of tasks, from asking your voice assistant to add to the shopping list to making technology accessible...
Mar 26, 2019•32 min
In the final part of our series on architecting for Public Cloud we take a slightly different tact to the previous parts which focussed on Cloud as a more primary goal. In this episode, we focus more on the tactical use of Cloud, when the wholesale move to Cloud isn’t the aim but more how we can use it in specific parts of our organisation to deliver better outcomes, improve our technology or serve our customers better. To do that I’m joined by NetApp Cloud Architect, Phoebe Goh. Phoebe is our f...
Mar 19, 2019•36 min
Cybersecurity is at the top of the list of priorities for organisations of all types, as our systems and data become ever more critical to how we operate on a daily basis, the risk posed by security threats, such as malware, data leakage and targeted attacks continues to grow and be even more complex. The challenge in improving our security posture and ensuring we limit the vulnerabilities of our IT systems is a big one and not solved easily by one technology solution or the pressing of the big ...
Mar 05, 2019•29 min
Be Sure before you Azure – Sarah Lean – Ep90 by Tech Interviews
Feb 26, 2019•31 min
The adoption of public cloud continues to grow and remains high on the list of priorities of those tasked with delivering technology solutions to their business, be you someone making strategic decisions or the IT pro tasked with delivery of services, the move to public cloud brings with it a whole set of new challenges. How do I design my cloud infrastructure? How do I integrate it with what I have? How do I get my crucial on-prem assets into the public cloud? Are just some of the questions we ...
Feb 13, 2019•33 min
As the importance of our data continues to grow, so does our need to scale its use, be it for performance, resilience or reasons of data locality, the need to architect solutions and find technologies to support this demand for data at scale is increasingly important. If we look at the way cloud giants use their data, it's clear that "traditional" database methods are not going to be suitable and of course it's not just "cloud giants" who need their data at scale, today, enterprises of all types...
Feb 05, 2019•34 min
The ever-evolving cyber threat and how to protect ourselves against It continues to be at the top of the list of priorities for most IT Pros and execs. As technology and our data is more crucial than ever to our day to day operations, the threat of disruption to it and the impact that will have grows almost exponentially. As we head into February of 2019, what is the current state of the threat? How is it evolving? And how do we build a plan to handle it? That is the topic of this week's Tech In...
Jan 29, 2019•26 min
On Tuesday of this week (January 22nd, 2019) Veeam made a series of announcements around their technology stack, these announcements showed, in my opinion, the first elements of them really starting to deliver the technology to underpin their intelligent data management strategy that they first shared back in 2017. In this extra edition of Tech Interviews, I wanted to explore some of the key parts of these announcements and why I believe they are an important step in starting to shift Veeam from...
Jan 22, 2019•42 min
Social media, it’s a phrase that we constantly hear, the use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc. are commonplace, but does social media have a place in our day to day professional lives? Social media has great value, not just in terms of developing relationships, but also in how we are perceived, both as individuals and as businesses, regardless of whether your business is a technology one. How many of us, before we buy a product or service, visit a website or Facebook page before buy...
Jan 15, 2019•39 min
Welcome to the first Tech Interviews Podcast of 2019, we already have a bunch of shows lined up and ready to go over the next few weeks, there’s a wide range of topics including Social Media and the IT Pro, Cloud Native Databases and Cyber Threat Hunting, all coming up soon. But how else do you start a new podcast year than by dusting off the crystal ball and looking ahead to some of the trends and developments that will affect your IT decision making, strategies and day to day work in tech. Our...
Jan 08, 2019•36 min
It's that most wonderful time of the year, yes, the last Tech Interviews of 2018. For this show, we focus on two of technologies biggest trends, ultra-high performance and the world of artificial intelligence and machine learning. First, we look at ultra-high performance as I chat with Glenn Dekhayser, Field CTO at Red8, about NetApp's new technology MAX Data and how it is changing the very nature of delivering extreme performance. Glenn provides some insight into what MAX Data is and how it dri...
Dec 11, 2018•35 min
If you spend any time listening to vendors in the technology market, you won't go very far before you hear about how they are embracing automation, ensuring their API's are there for all to use and sharing their expertise in community repositories like GitHub. But what does it all really mean? What is automation good for and what can it help you achieve? Does it offer more than just a way to simplify repetitive tasks? These are all questions I've had for a while and on this week's podcast I catc...
Nov 27, 2018•18 min
The data industry is a really interesting place right now, for many organisations their data and the challenges of how they use it, secure it and derive value from it is right at the top of the CIO’s priority list. However, data is not the only area of the technology industry that is interesting, automation, AI, machine learning, IoT and of course the fascinating world of the hyperscalers. So, when you are an experienced technologist, well known in the industry and you are presented with a range...
Nov 20, 2018•31 min
Storage Ferraris in the cloud for $20 an hour - Lee Jiles - Ep80 by Tech Interviews
Nov 13, 2018•23 min
As we adopt an ever-increasing amount of cloud services into our businesses, are we part of a technology revolution or is it just the next evolutionary step in the way we do things? There is no doubt that cloud has revolutionized some businesses and that some would not exist without the incredible amount of services and innovation that the public cloud, in particular, can offer to us. However, that's not the case for everyone, for those whose businesses pre-date "The Cloud", we have legacy syste...
Oct 30, 2018•31 min
Stay cloudy VMware - Glenn Sizemore - Ep78 by Tech Interviews
Oct 16, 2018•40 min
Cloud is not new, I don’t think that’s news to anyone, many of us have deployed a cloud solution as cloud continues to play a major part in IT strategy for an ever-increasing amount of businesses. However, this move to cloud has not come without us learning an awful lot on the way, we’ve probably all heard of cloud deployments that have not gone as we expected. Many of the issues that have led to those poor cloud experiences have been driven by an "immaturity" to our approach. Is our approach to...
Oct 09, 2018•32 min
We’re at that time of year when the tech conference season, after a bit of a summer break, swings back into full gear, some we’ve already had, such as MSIgnite and some we have to come, over the next couple of months there’s a range of shows big and small dotted across the globe on a range of topics. One of the biggest and still one of the most influential tech shows of the year is VMworld, VMware’s showcase event, a long time cornerstone of the technology community for IT pro’s and vendors alik...
Oct 02, 2018•40 min
In the last couple of weeks the world has shown us how the only predictable thing for many of us who deliver technology is the unpredictability of what we have to deal with, from the massive data breach at British Airways to the catastrophic impacts of hurricanes on both the western and eastern sides of the globe, these are incidents that we should to be prepared for, the question is, are we? If you don’t have a plan, or not sure if your plan has value? Then this episode of the podcast is for yo...
Sep 18, 2018•29 min
