The Tech Trek

On this episode of The Tech Trek, Shiva Parinandi, SVP of Cloud Infrastructure and Advancement at Paramount+, joins as a guest to discuss the challenges of dealing with the cloud at a large scale. He discusses the scale of his company and how they handle the technical aspects of dealing with cloud operations at a large scale. He explains that the amount of preparation needed depends on the size of the event. Shiva guides us through the significance of both the science and art of scaling for such large operations. Highlights [00:01:31] Large-scale live events on a streaming platform. [00:07:30] Website traffic monitoring. [00:10:20] Scaling for high-pressure situations. [00:13:14] Scaling cloud infrastructure horizontally. [00:18:06] Cloud Security Implications. [00:22:05] Competition in the entertainment industry. Guest: Shiva Paranandi  https://www.linkedin.com/in/shivaparanandi/ --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests?

In this episode of Tech Trek, Amir interviews Charlie Greene, the co-founder, and CEO of Rimento. This mobile app allows users to collect and enrich their family's most treasured stories and memories. Charlie talks about his journey of chasing his passion and turning it into a business. He shares details about Rimento's science-backed framework for uncovering stories and how it provides the tools to record, organize, and share memories with loved ones. Charlie also discusses his responsibilities as CEO, including fundraising, finance, strategy, marketing, and partnerships. Overall, this episode offers insight into the intersection of personal interests and business growth. Notes:  [00:02:31] Finding purpose through storytelling. [00:03:42] Importance of home video footage. [00:08:43] Career pivots and Steve Jobs. [00:12:06] Solving the problem of legacy. [00:14:11] Starting a Business. Just Start! [00:17:30] Building without code. [00:20:41] Importance of storytelling. [00:23:47] Contact Information. Guest: Charlie is the Co-Founder and CEO of Remento, an early-stage venture making it easier than ever to collect and enrich your family’s most treasured memories. Before founding Remento, Charlie held a variety of media and storytelling roles, including as a speechwriter in the Obama Administration and Public Affairs Director at 21st Century Fox. Previously, Charlie was a consultant with Burson-Marsteller’s crisis communications team and held multiple roles at NBC News. Charlie received a BA in Political Science from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-greene-2b649b23/ https://twitter.com/greenechar --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests?

This episode of Tech Trek features Susan Dikramanjan, a member of the IT leadership team at John Hancock, a Manulife company, who shares her insights on upskilling and ensuring optimal team efficiency, performance, and execution. Susan discusses her experience setting up an upskilling program at Manulife and the benefits of promoting a culture of lifelong learning within a team. As a lifelong learner, she highlights the importance of constantly seeking new knowledge and developing new skills for personal and professional growth. Highlights:  [00:01:09] Upskilling program. [00:03:54] Gamifying Learning with Salesforce. [00:07:39] Balancing workload and upskilling. [00:11:37] Upskilling for marketability. [00:16:28] Learning new technologies. [00:20:24] Upskilling program insights. [00:23:59] Delivery efficiency in management. Susan Dikramanjian is part of the IT Leadership Team at John Hancock / Manulife. Susan is accountable for the teams building the Storefronts, Contact Center Automation, Chatbots /AI, Back End APIs, and the Platform Teams. Susan has been with Manulife for nearly four years and has over 20 years of industry experience. Before Manulife, Susan worked in various Software Provider Companies. Susan holds an undergraduate Computer Science Degree as well as a Finance MBA. www.linkedin.com/in/susan-dikramanjian---Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

How do you know when you’re ready to start a company, especially with few resources or capital? Ken Babcock, Co-Founder and CEO of Tango, offers his insights on this episode of The Tech Trek. Ken also discusses several key moments in his career with host Amir Bormand. Show Notes 03:23 - Ken discusses his past experiences with Uber and Atomic. 08:05 - How do you know when you’re ready to start a company? 11:43 - Going back to school vs. searching for more opportunities. 20:26 - How can you resolve your weaknesses as a founder? 27:28 - Do priorities and goals change during your tenure as a founder? About: Ken Babcock is the Co-founder and CEO of Tango, which allows users to create step-by-step how-to guides with perfectly cropped screenshots, in seconds. Ken, along with his co-founders Brian Shultz and Dan Giovacchini, dropped out of Harvard Business School during the pandemic to start the company. Since then, the company has grown to over 300,000 users and 35 full-time team members. Tango’s launch on Product Hunt in September 2021 earned many accolades: #1 Product of the Day, #1 Product of the Week, and one of four finalists for Product Hunt’s Product of the Year. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbabcock/ --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

Allan Cutler, Director of Engineering at Endpoint, discusses why data-driven leadership is important on this episode of The Tech Trek. Allan also shares several standout moments from his 15 years as a technology leader with host Amir Bormand. Highlights 00:47 - Allan explains what data-driven leadership means to him. 06:03 - Finding the right software for the right job. 11:17 - Using data to overcome tech debt. 16:35 - The impact of high-level metrics on data. 21:12 - Allan’s best practices for continued education concerning data. About: Allan Cutler is a technology leader with 15+ years in the software industry. Extensive experience leading engineering and creative teams through the software delivery lifecycle, while staying customer and product-driven. Proven track record for building highly capable technology organizations to meet business goals within startup and enterprise environments. https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamcutler/ --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

This episode of The Tech Trek features Harish Parwani, the VP of Platform Engineering at CarGurus. Host Amir Bormand and Harish discuss the intricacies of shared services and how teams can maximize their productivity.  Highlights 00:56 - Harish offers his perspective and experience with shared services. 03:12 - Why do we need shared services? 06:37 - How do shared services impact team structure? 13:02 - Demonstrating the value of shared services to leadership teams. 16:45 -  Prepping shared service teams for mergers and acquisitions. 21:04 - What’s the “wrong way” of organizing shared services? About: Harish Parwani is VP of Platform Engineering at CarGurus. He is responsible for managing and leading multiple teams responsible for varying aspects of platform engineering. He brings with him almost 20 years of experience in the tech industry focused on DevOps and the previous avatars of DevOps. Harish holds a Master of Science Degree from New York University and is fluent in English, Danish and Hindi. https://www.linkedin.com/in/harishparwani/ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

Partha Chakraborty, security executive at Humana, joins host Amir Bormand in episode #230 of The Tech Trek. He and Amir explore the critical factors contributing to successful - and unsuccessful - cloud security projects. Highlights 00:51 - Partha shares his perspective on what contributes to the successful adoption of Cloud security services. 09:20 -  What is the “Fail-Fast” approach, and how does it apply to Cloud Security? 15:46 - How to keep matrix teams aligned on Cloud transformation projects. 22:48 - Partha offers advice for dealing with common (cloud security) challenges when adopting the Cloud. About: Partha has over 20 years of cyber security leadership experience in the financial services and healthcare industry. An active speaker and panelist in major cyber security conferences worldwide, and frequently called in for views and interviews in electronic media like The Economist, UK. Very passionate about learning new technologies and writing on recent groundbreaking cyber trends. He is also the founder of the Cloud Security Practitioner Council, a practitioner-driven forum to create security guidelines for the industry. Partha sits on the advisory board of a few security startups like Oak9 and TrueFort and on the Dean's Board at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Currently, he is heading up security architecture, engineering, and cloud for Humana Inc, a Fortune 46 healthcare company. Prior to Humana, Partha held executive leadership roles with Bank of Montreal, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, and Guardian Life Insurance Company. A CISSP, CCSP, CEH, CHFI certified security evangelist holding a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from NIT Rourkela, a Master's in Cyber Security from Western Governors University, another Master's in Technology Management from Columbia University, a cyber security professional certificate from Stanford University and executive CTO university credit program from Wharton Business School and the University of Pennsylvania. Currently researching security challenges in API, Microservices, Key, and posture management space. Partha also has two patents under his name for JP Morgan and Humana Inc. https://www.linkedin.com/in/parthasarathi-chakraborty-baa24810/ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

In this episode of The Tech Trek, host Amir Bormand interviews Roman Kleiner, the VP of Engineering at Egnyte. How and when do you decide to hire external talent when working on a task? When should you promote internally over hiring externally? These are just some of today’s topics. Show Notes 00:50 - What factors cause companies to look for external help? 06:27 - Is it possible to seamlessly integrate external talent with your team? 11:03 - The pros and cons of letting internal talent handle a challenging task. 13:21 - How far does institutional knowledge go? 17:22 - Culture fit versus culture add when hiring externally. About Our Guest: Roman is a technical engineering leader specializing in rapidly building and scaling SaaS products. He brings a strong focus on execution, domain expertise, and operating at a global scale. Roman was responsible for building and expanding teams that took new cybersecurity products to market, which then saw growth into billions of daily transactions, and grew ARR from zero to seven figures. Guest Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romankleiner/ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

Jonathan Villa, Practice Director of Cloud Security at GuidePoint, meets with host Amir Bormand in this episode of The Tech Trek. Jonathan shares his insights on how organizations can build effective Cloud security teams and adapt to a changing environment. Highlights 2:29 - How to upskill your Security team for the Cloud. 7:46 - Best practices for integrating Cloud security. 11:21 - Which skills best equip you for Cloud Security? 14:02 - Working with Cloud Security for the first time. 19:21 - How do you start learning and training for Cloud Security? About Our Guest: For more than twenty-two years Jonathan (“JV”) has served as a hands-on leader in various roles throughout information technology and cyber security. JV has been responsible for the growth and leadership of a national cloud security practice and worked side-by-side with his team to deliver services across various verticals. JV has served as an advisor to startups providing CIO/CTO services and consulted with enterprise-level CIO, CTO, and CISO leaders. Guest's Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanvilla/ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)

This episode of The Tech Trek features Vinod Ralhan, Director of Engineering at SurePrep. Vinod has immense experience managing projects and working with Microsoft Azure. He shares his best practices for using Azure for migration and modernization. Highlights 2:50 - Vinod recalls what his on-premises environments looked like before Azure. 4:36 - Which internal and external professionals can help with the transition? 8:09 - What sort of timeline can you expect when integrating Azure? 10:41 - Best practices for building your Azure implementation roadmap. 11:59 - How to hire the right people while implementing new technology. 16:09 - How to help your team adapt to Azure quickly Guest: Vinod Ralhan is a results-driven technology leader with 25+ years’ of experience in software architecture and development. A great mix of hands-on technical skills as well as management exposure. Implemented large-scale projects to impact the organization’s bottom line directly. Worked with off-shore development teams with proven results. Excellent communication skills. Believes in work-life balance, and when not at work, he spends time with family or swimming with his eleven-year-old daughter. ___ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)