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cloud realities – season 3.1

September to December 2023

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

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Season 3.1: Explore all episodes

There is no doubt that Artificial Intelligence, and specifically GenAI, has been one, if not the, most widely discussed and debated subjects of the year.  The question of AI ethics and how seriously to take the impact of AI on society is one of the biggest and most polarising questions of our time.

In this very special Christmas episode Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk about the ethical issues inherent in any technology use, which are specifically critical when it comes to AI, with Father Paolo Benanti, Professor of Ethics & Technology, Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Advisor in the Vatican and member of the Advisory Board to the General Secretary of the United Nations.  We also cover the incredible roles he has with the Vatican and UN, how he frames ethical use of AI and ‘The Rome call for AI Ethics’.  We then talk about how the importance of understanding the challenges and risks of implementing AI.

TLDR:

  • 01:07 Super-Cloud!
  • 05:02 Cloud conversation with Paulo Benanti
  • 39:40 Understanding the challenges and risks of AI implementation
  • 46:47 Some time over Christmas to read a good book!

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Cyber has long been a top risk for businesses.  However, it is still often perceived as an IT or tech issue, rather than the existential risk to the business that it could be.  It is also likely that Cyber will continue to grow as an issue, and in complexity, as we enter the AI-age.

This week Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to Simon Hodgkinson, ex-FTSE 100 CISO & Board and Executive Advisor, about the history of the Cyber threat, current threat levels and attack surfaces, sensible mitigations and what is missing in the conversation that Boards and senior teams are having about the Cyber risk.  They also talk about the top trends in the world of Cyber security in 2024.

TLDR:

  • 01:00 Rob can’t work Bluetooth!
  • 04:30 Cloud conversation with Simon Hodgkinson
  • 37:14 Top Cyber Trends 2024
  • 43:10 Some summer sun! 

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Open source and Cloud Native thinking and approaches can be very synergistic and drive value for organisations, but both are still not well understood today.

This week, Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to Massimo Ferrari, Distinguished Product manager, Red Hat about open source philosophy, misunderstandings about open source that still exist, what Cloud Native actually is and question if these two approaches can come together to drive faster value.  We then talk about how GenAI can power Cloud transformation.

TLDR:

  • 01:00 The technology singularity
  • 06:11 Cloud conversation with Massimo Ferrari
  • 35:24 How GenAI and Cloud compliment each other
  • 43:50 Festive trip around London!

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We are live from AWS re:Invent 2023 in Las Vegas, direct from the Expo floor, with a limited series of episodes talking to AWS leaders on themes of the conference, as well as filling in on all of the news and gossip.

Dave, Sjoukje and Rob talk to Rahul Sareen, Global Head Sustainability Solutions and GTM, AWS about AWS’s evolving approach to sustainability

The gang also do a final round up of themes, highlights and best swag to wrap up this years re:Invent 2023 series.

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We are live from AWS re:Invent 2023 in Las Vegas, direct from the Expo floor, with a limited series of episodes talking to AWS leaders on themes of the conference, as well as filling in on all of the news and gossip.

In this weeks second double feature, we are looking at Sovereignty & Cyber, we focus on how AWS Cloud is responding to two of the biggest challenges today.  Dave, Sjoukje and Rob dig into this in two separate sessions with:

Max Peterson, VP sovereign cloud, AWS about the importance of recognising sovereignty, how AWS frame the requirement and the response.

Gary Meshell, MD Global GSI cybersecurity program & Anne Saunders, Global Cybersecurity Director, Capgemini about the growing threat and sophistication of Cyber in an evermore complex world.

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We are live from AWS re:Invent 2023 in Las Vegas, direct from the Expo floor, with a limited series of episodes talking to AWS leaders on themes of the conference, as well as filling in on all of the news and gossip.

Dave, Sjoukje and Rob talk to Jeff Barr, VP & Chief Evangelist, AWS, about his early days at AWS, the evolution of re:Invent itself, the three major compute paradigms over the last 60 years, how Cloud and AI fit into that and how to equip the next generation.  We also hear about Jeff’s family all being at re:Invent for the first time together this year.

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We are live from AWS re:Invent 2023 in Las Vegas, direct from the Expo floor, with a limited series of episodes talking to AWS leaders on themes of the conference, as well as filling in on all of the news and gossip.

In this double feature looking at ‘Industry Cloud’, we focus on the impact of the Cloud in two sectors.  Dave, Sjoukje and Rob talk to:

Keith Mulder, Partner Strategy Leader, AWS Automotive & Manufacturing, about disruption in the Automotive sector, including connected car, the energy transition and changing customer expectations and buying habits.

Melissa Dougherty, Director Partner Success for Global Financial Services, AWS about disruption in the Financial Services sector, including state of legacy and legacy modernisation.

Finally, we get an update on Robs search for a mouse and have some alarming news about the Cloud Realities monkey!

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We are live from AWS re:Invent 2023 in Las Vegas, direct from the Expo floor, with a limited series of episodes talking to AWS leaders on themes of the conference, as well as filling in on all of the news and gossip.

Dave, Sjoukje and Rob talk to Tanuja Randery, VP EMEA, AWS, about the opportunities and challenges in leading across such a diverse region, her top 3 themes across EMEA from her many discussions with organisations, her passion for promoting women in leadership and tech, GenAI adoption at scale and Cirque du Soleil!

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We are live from AWS re:Invent 2023 in Las Vegas, direct from the Expo floor, with a limited series of episodes talking to AWS leaders on themes of the conference, as well as filling in on all of the news and gossip.

Dave, Sjoukje and Rob talk to Rohan Karmarkar, Director GSI Solutions Architecture, AWS, about two immediate themes of the conference (1) modernise to both go faster and save money (2) Amazon Q.  We talk about how these innovations impact the Customer conversation with AWS, a good customer example and catch up on what else has been announced at the show.  Finally, we have a chat about our preferred steaks and answer the most important question… sauce or no sauce?

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The Cynefin Framework sets out different lenses through which circumstances can be made sense of, from ‘clear’ through to ‘chaos’!  As we have covered on previous episodes of the show (CR020 & CR003), it is very useful for helping frame and understand the shift to “digital”.

This week, Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to Rob England and Cherry Vu, who are Teal Unicorn and explore new ways of management, about the relevance of the Cynefin Framework in their work with organisations, the builds Rob and Cherry have made on it (with Dave Snowden!), and what results they have seen.  We also talk about ways to drive additional value from the Cloud.

TLDR:

  • 01:00 Anti-Compentative UK probe into Cloud Service Providers
  • 04:40 Cloud conversation with Rob England and Cherry Vu
  • 44:13 Three actions to unlock greater Cloud Value
  • 51:50 Celebrating Robs 21st birthday and a Corporate Rebels write up!

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Technology democratisation is the process of reorienting technology tools to require less specialized knowledge to use and drive value.  This can happen at organisational or societal level, and lead to more rapid application and radically increased innovation.

This week, Dave, Sjoukje, and Rob talk to Nabil Bukhari, CTO and CPO at Extreme Networks and a regular contributor to Forbes, about how he became so inspired by tech democratisation, why it is important for society to have equal access to tech and what the implications and advantages are for your organisation.  Finally, we talk about successful innovation tactics for leaders.

TLDR:

  • 01:13 Next gen smart glasses
  • 02:30 Cloud conversation with Nabil Bukhari
  • 33:35 8 tactics for leaders to successfully innovate
  • 42:22 Talk at a CIO conf in the Valley! 

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In a first technology convergence, physics came together with engineering to produce an array of astonishing new technologies: radios, telephones, televisions, aircraft, radar, nuclear power, computers, the Internet and a host of still evolving digital tools.  Today we are on the cusp of a new convergence…

This week, Dave, Sjoukje and Rob talk to Susan Hockfield, President Emerita, MIT about how biology is now coming together with engineering to create a wave of next generation technologies.  They talk about the evolution of this new technology, exciting initial use cases and the challenges of industrialising these new machines.  We also talk about how LLM’s might also learn the language of biology and drive further breakthroughs.

TLDR:

  • 01:47 Will virtual realities ever really be a reality?
  • 05:29 Cloud conversation with Susan Hockfield
  • 44:30 Biology and LLM’s
  • 48:28 MIT Energy Initiative external advisor conference!

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GenAI use cases emerge everyday, however they tend to be quite discreet currently, to unlock its potential at scale we are likely to see platforms and significant organisational change emerge at an unprecedented speed over the next year.

In a special live episode from London at Microsoft Envision The Tour in October 2023, Dave, Sjoukje and Rob talk to a panel led by John Cairney, Head of Digital Strategy and Architecture, Scottish Water with Giles Walker, CTO Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods, Microsoft and Steven Webb, CTIO UK, Capgemini about what good AI experimentation and use cases look like, what Scottish Water are doing to pilot GenAI at scale, in particular their experiences with Co-Pilot, along with what the scale organisational implications of GenAI might be and looking to the future, if and when AI transformation might ultimately tackle process centric enterprise apps such as ERP. 

TLDR:

  • 00:44 What Dave, Sjoukje & Rob did in London
  • 03:00 Cloud conversation with John Cairney, Giles Walker, and Steven Webb
  • 46:50 Outro

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Automation in software development is a way to minimise errors during the software development process, make it faster and more cost-efficient, and improve team collaboration and productivity.  Highly effective development teams dedicate their best staff to this task, believing it will unlock new levels of developer productivity and creativity.

This week, Dave, Sjoukje and Rob talk to Ramiro Berrelleza, Founder and CEO at Okteto, a company that modernises the development experience, about the core idea and founding of Okteto, why developer automation has high value attached to it, whether business leadership are engaging with it as route to value and, it wouldnt be a show without it, what disruption AI is already having on software development.

TLDR:

  • 00:55 Is the lack of necessity the mother of invention?
  • 03:50 Cloud conversation with Ramiro Berrelleza
  • 31:15 How AI can transform software engineering
  • 37:00 The week to be over and Peruvian food!

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Keep up with Cloud Realities

Check out all episodes – including the very latest!

Cloud Realities

Our hosts

Together, Dave, Sjoukje 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

Sjoukje Zaal

Chief Technology Officer and AI Lead at Capgemini

Rob Kernahan

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

Credits

Thanks also go to Marcel Van Der Burg and Dave Chapman for production, and Ben Corbett and Louis Corbett for sound.