On Cloud

Observability is the new buzzword in cloud, and many people confuse it with monitoring, but it's so much more. In this episode, Mike Kavis talks with Erez Barak, VP of Product Development at Sumo Logic, about observability—what it is, how it helps organizations deal with cloud complexity, and how it's helped by (and helps) AI. To implement observability successfully, however, a new IT operating model that removes silos and fosters collaboration is absolutely essential.

Artificial intelligence (AI)—especially when it's cloud-enabled—can be a force multiplier and powerful tool for innovation. However, there's a crucial need to think about the ethical issues and implications of ubiquitous AI. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Beena Ammanath about the reasons to establish ethical guardrails around the use of AI, as well as who should be responsible for developing and maintaining those guardrails—now and in the future.

Military personnel serve our country in countless ways, but sometimes the transition to private life can be difficult. To help ease that transition, Deloitte participates in Hiring Our Heroes—a collaboration with American businesses to create job opportunities for veterans post-service. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with three veterans who are participating in the program with Deloitte to find out how they're faring during their transition and what lessons they've learned.

Music and IT may seem to be at opposite ends of a spectrum, but in reality, they have much in common if you know where to look. In this episode, Mike Kavis talks with Matt Davis, staff infrastructure engineer at Blameless, about how practice methods in music can aid in building great SRE teams and site reliability in general. According to Matt, it's all about how you practice for the real thing: If your practices are good, and you can improvise, your SRE performance will top the charts.

Cloud can be a force multiplier for most companies. However, cloud is a general solution, and many organizations need industry-specific capabilities built for their particular vertical market. In this Knowledge Short, David Linthicum discusses how industry clouds can meet those needs by providing composable, industry-specific bundles of digital services that enable organizations to pick the services they need to meet their transformation needs and achieve better outcomes.

The impetus these days for most organizations is to transform their business to achieve competitive advantage. It's a good imperative, but the reason for change matters, too. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with consultant and author John Hagel on how to build a future based on seeing opportunity rather than fear. John's view is that it takes building a strong corporate narrative for the future, cultivating a shared passion, and building learning platforms to bring people together.

Global market forces, coupled with the pandemic, have spurred most organizations to accelerate their digital transformation to keep their competitive edge—but that's often easier said than done. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Deloitte's Diana Kearns-Manolatos about why strategy is central to accelerating the transformation journey. Diana lays out five "digital imperatives" for speeding transformation. She also explains the role industry clouds play in that process.

True digital transformation requires a hyper-connected ecosystem where information flows freely between those who need it and those who provide it. However, that level of connectivity has often proven elusive. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with MuleSoft's Matt McLarty and Deloitte's Kurt Anderson about how new thinking on application and technology integration holds promise to help organizations achieve their connectivity goals and enable faster digital transformation.

To be sure, cloud is a boon to organizations that make the leap, but, as with any technology, there are bumps along the road to implementation. In this episode, David Linthicum talks with Techstrong Group's Mike Vizard about how companies can address three particularly vexing issues: multicloud complexity, cloud cost management, and cloud security. Mike's advice is to develop a sound multicloud cloud strategy, treat cloud as a strategic investment, and view security as a process, not a problem.

The 2021 "Accelerate State of DevOps" report from Google is out! In this episode, Mike Kavis talks with Google's Nathen Harvey and Deloitte's Manoj Mishra about the report's most compelling findings. Among them: DevOps and SRE are complementary; successful SRE equals knowing your customer; documentation is critical, but it should be organic; and there's a newly-announced "Reliability" metric. The group also discusses customer satisfaction and the new "Release Management" role in DevOps/SRE.