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Cloud Realities – the podcast series

Exploring both the practical realities and the exciting alternative realities that can be unleashed through cloud-driven transformation and cloud-native living and working.

In each episode, our hosts Dave Chapman, Esmee van de Giessen and Rob Kernahan talk to cloud leaders and practitioners to understand how previously untapped business value can be released, how to deal with the challenges and risks that come with bold ventures, and how human experience factors into all of this. They cover topics ranging from smart industry, customer experience, and sustainability, to Gen AI and data, cyber, cost, leadership, talent and, of course, tech.

This week’s podcast

Listen in and subscribe on the following channels:

Our hosts

Together, Dave, Esmee and Rob have over 70 years of cloud and transformation experience and act as our guides though a new reality each week.

Dave Chapman

VP Cloud Evangelist at Capgemini

Esmee van de Giessen

Strategic Partner Manager, Capgemini

Rob Kernahan

UK Chief Architect for Cloud and a Global SME on Cloud Technology, Data and IT Operating Models

Season 4: Explore all episodes

Live from the Yardbird in Las Vegas, we’re bringing you a special limited series of episodes on AWS re:Invent 2025. Join us as we check in with AWS and take an industry temperature check.  Plus, we’ll keep you updated on all the latest news and juicy gossip from the Strip.

In a packed show on day one of the conference, Dave and Rob first chat about expectations for re:Invent this year and the main Keynote announcements.

Then they talk to:

  • Rahul Sareen, Global Head Cross Industry about state of sustainable tech
  • Melissa Dougherty, MD Global Partner Sales, Financial Services about the future of FS
  • also, Matt Gillard, ‘Cloud Dialogues’ and Paul Mukherjee and Liam Walsh, UK Gov Defra, drop in to say hello.

TLDR:

  • 00:38 Setting the scene and emerging themes AWS re:Invent 2024 by the team and Matt Gillard
  • 14:38 State of sustainable tech with Rahul Sareen
  • 33:35 The future of FS with Melissa Dougherty
  • 1:01:44 Drop In with Liam Walsh and Paul Mukherjee

Guests:

Agentic intelligence will enable unprecedented levels of automation, it is a next step on from what has been possible for a number of years.  Is it now possible to automate 80% of IT tasks?

This week, Dave, Esmee, and Rob talk to Johan Sporre Lennberg, Vice President Cloud Service at Ericsson about how Hyper Automation is possible, to what extent and the best way to go after it in IT.

TLDR:

  • 01:35 Confusion about AI Ethos
  • 06:28 Cloud Conversation with Johan Sporre
  • 46:00 Showcasing value
  • 54:40 Riding in the season’s first snowfall!

Guest:

Live from the heart of Microsoft Ignite 2024 in Chicago, right from the Expo floor, we’re bringing you a special limited series of episodes.

Join us as we make connections between Microsoft, Azure AI and Data, Security, Industry, Development Community and customer experience. Plus, we’ll keep you updated on all the latest news and juicy gossip.

 On day three of the conference Dave and Rob talk to:

  • Kathleen Mitford, CVP Global Industry Marketing about Industry AI Transformation.
  • Irina Nechaeva, GM Identity & Access about the State of the Nation on IaM management.
  • Marco Casalaina, VP Azure AI about Democratization of AI

TLDR:

  • 00:40 The four main themes from Microsoft Ignite’24
  • 09:59 Industry meets AI Transformation with Kathleen Mitford
  • 40:47 IaM management meets AI with Irina Nechaeva
  • 1:07:47 The future meets AI with Marco Casalaina
  • 1:35:08 Final conclusion and goodbye to Chicago and Microsoft Ignite’24

Live from the heart of Microsoft Ignite 2024 in Chicago, we’re bringing you three daily episodes. Join us as we make connections between Microsoft, Azure AI and Data, Security, Industry, Development Community and customer experience. Plus, we’ll keep you updated on all the latest news and juicy gossip.

 On day two of the conference Dave and Rob talk to:

  • Rudra Mitra, CVP Purview about Data Security in the Age of AI
  • Sarah Bird, CPO for Responsible AI and Yina Arenas, VP, AI Foundry about Embedding Ethics in AI Innovation & the newly announced Foundry
  • Scott Hanselman, VP Developer Community about Empowering Developers with AI

TLDR:

  • 00:32 Bar in the Clouds and observation from Microsoft Ignite
  • 08:44 Data Security meets AI with Rudra Mitra
  • 33:30 Ethics and Foundry meets AI with Dr. Sarah Bird and Yina Arenas
  • 1:04:28 Developers meets AI with Scott Hanselman
  • 1:34:13 Conclusion of Day 2 and what will Day 3 bring?

Guest:

Live from the heart of Microsoft Ignite 2024 in Chicago, we’re bringing you three daily episodes. Join us as we make connections between Microsoft, Azure AI and Data, Security, Industry, Development Community and customer experience. Plus, we’ll keep you updated on all the latest news and juicy gossip. 

On day one of the conference Dave and Rob first chat with friend of the show Steve Webb about the main Keynote announcements by Satya Nadella, Ignite itself and the critical topic of Chicago pizza.

Then they talk to Arun Ulag, CVP Azure Data, Microsoft, about the importance of Data in the AI landscape.

TLDR:

  • 00:40 Main announcements at Microsoft Ignite 2024 by the team
  • 19:40 Azure Data meets AI with Arun Ulag

Guest:

In today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, understanding your organisations legal position on AI is critical. As it continues to advance, so do the complexities around data protection, intellectual property, and ethical use and regulation is struggling to keep up.

This week, Dave, Esmee and Rob talk to Jagvinder Singh Kang, Partner at International & UK Head of IT Law at Mills& Reeve about how businesses and individuals are navigating leveraging AI’s potential while staying within legal and ethical boundaries, including the current state of GenAI regulation, the relevance of the EU AI Act and the evolving legal landscape.

TLDR:

  • 02:25 Should we just give up and embrace the algorithm?
  • 07:43 Cloud conversation with Jagvinder
  • 41:03 The overwhelming pace of technological change for elders
  • 48:17 Great movies and preparing for a major GenAI event!

Guest:

As more people are displaced by war, economic instability, and a warming planet, more countries are turning to AI-driven technology to “manage” the influx.

This week, Dave, Esmee and Rob talk to Petra Molnar, Harvard Faculty Associate and Author of ‘The Walls Have Eyes’ about how tech is being deployed at borders, how it is impacting communities and how innovation could be used for good.

TLDR:

  • 02:01  Confused about whether we learn from disasters
  • 06:00 Cloud conversation with Petra Molnar
  • 36:05 Research about the state of AI narratives and the perceived “story crisis”
  • 41:35 Walking with a real dog in the park!

Resources:

Guest:

[AAA] In ‘Access All Areas’ shows we go behind the scenes with the crew and their friends as they try to unpick some issue or other.  It might get a bit messy.

This week, sometimes ‘big rocks’ exist in organizations and transformations that prevent or slow down getting to successful outcomes.  Dave, Esmee and Rob are joined by, Georgia Smith, Cloud Transformation Leader, to talk about the ‘big rocks’ visible in Cloud transformations, focusing on culture and governance, including the glorious messiness of cultural change, the ineffectiveness of bottom up change management, how to create effective adaptive governance during transformation and the importance of spa days.

Please get in touch with us, via LinkedIn or cloudrealities@capgemini.com, if you have questions or challenges for us, we’d love to hear from you!

TLDR:

  •  00:38 Its a new show variant!
  •  01:12 Cloud conversation
  •  49:02 What are the crew excited about doing next?

Useful links:

As AI scales and layered agents become more integrated, businesses face questions about just how automated they can become and what this means for efficiency, cost, and innovation.

This week, Dave, Esmee and Rob talk to Nicole Onuta, AI business transformation expert about the growing impact of generative AI on the software development lifecycle (SDLC), diving into both the opportunities and challenges that arise, how AI scales in an organisation and how hyper-automation is fast becoming a practical reality.

TLDR:

  • 04:40 Confused about whether frictionless CX can be too frictionless
  • 07:54 Cloud conversation with Nicole Onuta
  • 34:57 The Eliza bot in 1966
  • 43:08 AI execution!

Guest:

Resources:

Today drones are a common sight from use in industrial and military settings to incredible swarming light shows.  They are often used for aerial data capture at scale, providing intelligence over wide and inhospitable areas.

This week, Dave, Esmee and Rob talk to Dario Valenza, founder of Carbonix, about the state of the art of drones, their role in intelligent industry platforms, what’s holding back flying cars and the relationship between Americas Cup Yachts and drones.

TLDR:

  • 01:52 Confused about AI on the iPhone
  • 07:32 Cloud conversation with Dario Valenza
  • 33:56 Failure is a Feature of Learning
  • 44:10 Growth of Carbonix

Guest:

Ensuring your organization can quickly adapt to changing pressures is critical in today’s fast-moving market environments. However, many organizations are still structured with traditional hierarchies, which enable stable operations but can make change difficult.

This week, Dave, Esmee, and Rob talk to Tony McManus, Global Head of Enterprise Data and Index at Bloomberg, about tracking and responding to mega-trends, Bloomberg’s collaborative structure, supporting customers on their cloud journeys and how this helped prioritize Bloomberg’s Cloud strategy.

TLDR:

  • 01:15 Confused about lost data and knowledge
  • 05:05 Cloud conversation with Tony McManus, Bloomberg
  • 38:10 Michael Porter’s five forces model
  • 46:40 Going to Taipei!

Guest:

Enterprise Resource Planning software runs at the heart of the world’s largest organizations, helping to plan and operate companies, and underpinning the wave of globalization over the past 20 years. However, it too is about to evolve as the impact of GenAI deepens.

This week, Dave, and Rob talk to Miranda Nash, GVP Applications Development & Strategy, Fusion AI at Oracle, about focusing on not just PoC, but how you scale AI, the evolution of ERP software, the use of Agents to drive higher levels of automation and this years Oracle CloudWorld.  We also pick through the evolving jargon of AI in an attempt to demystify it.

TLDR:

  • 01:15 Confused about reaching the zenith of non-functional requirements (and the word Zentih)
  • 06:00 Cloud conversation with Miranda Nash
  • 35:50 Demystifying AI
  • 45:00 Dancing to Cuban music!

Guest:

Off to a slower start than many sectors with Cloud transformation, due to regulation lag, Financial Services is now picking up pace.  With challenger banks moving into the sector and regulations have caught up, so its now not just about moving to Cloud, its about Cloud enabled business growth.

This week, Dave, Esmee and Rob talk to Pranati Dave, Practice Director @ Everest Group,

about the state of Cloud in FS, highlights from recent Everest research into Enterprise Maturity Models for Microsoft Business Applications and how these models can help accelerate digital change in your organization.

TLDR:

  • 00:00 Chase glitch confusion
  • 06:25 Cloud conversation with Pranati Dave
  • 36:20 4 dimensions of Maturity
  • 41:20  Family time!

Resources:

Guest:

We are back!  In this opening episode we meet our new host and chat about the exciting things coming in Season 4.

To provide a way in for new listeners, we also take a step back and discuss what we actually mean by ‘practical and exciting alternate realities that can be unleashed through Cloud-driven Transformation’, what reflections we have on this from looking at it

over the last three seasons and how this sets up Season 4.

Finally, we are very keen this season to establish a feedback loop with listeners, so will be doing shows exploring listener questions and challenges – something we are really looking forward to. 

Please get in touch with us, via LinkedIn or cloudrealities@capgemini.com, if you have questions or challenges for us, we’d love to hear from you!

TLDR:

  • 00:45 Meeting Esmee!
  • 10:50  What else is new in Season 4?
  • 14:12  Exploring Cloud-driven transformation
  • 27:19  Psychological safety in the workplace
  • 33:30 What we’re excited about doing next in Season 4

Cloud Realities’ is an original podcast from Capgemini

Browse previous seasons

Season 3 (part 2)

January – August 2024

Season 3 (part 1)

September – December 2023

Season 2

January – August 2023

Season 1

November – December 2022

Credits

In addition to the hosts, thanks also go to Marcel Van Der Burg and Dave Chapman for production, and Ben Corbett and Louis Corbett for sound.