AI Proving Ground Podcast: Exploring Artificial Intelligence & Enterprise AI with World Wide Technology

At a time when artificial intelligence feels like oxygen — powering every tool, every conversation, every strategy — security leaders at the forefront are sounding the alarm: it won’t fix the fundamentals. In this episode, top voices from government, industry and the next generation of cyber talent share unfiltered perspectives on AI-augmented threats, the velocity of attacks and what it really takes to defend in 2025 and beyond. Interviews include former CISA Director Jen Easterly, former NSA Cybersecurity Director Rob Joyce and a bevy of cyber experts from inside and out of WWT.Support for this episode provided by: SentinelOne The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Charged with moving fast on artificial intelligence? You might be setting yourself back. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT AI expert and data scientist Ina Poecher and Chief Technology Advisor Bill Stanley break down why the organizations that win with AI won't be the ones spending the most — they'll be the ones that get the fundamentals right. From "garbage in, garbage out" to building modular, reusable solutions, they share hard-earned lessons on how to align your teams, clean your data and choose the right first use cases to create a compounding "flywheel" of success. If you're feeling the pressure to move fast, this conversation will show you why the smartest move might be to slow down.Support for this episode provided by: NetscoutMore about this week's guests: Ina Poecher is a Technical Solutions Architect at World Wide Technology (WWT) and collaborates with customers and internal teams to design and validate innovative technology solutions. Working within WWT's Advanced Technology Center, she leverages extensive experience across IT infrastructure, cloud, networking and automation to develop and test complex architectures that drive business outcomes and support strategic initiatives.Ina's top pick: AI Agents: Scaling Your Digital WorkforceWilliam Stanley is a Chief Technology Advisor with nearly 30 years in IT, specializing in data strategy. With an MBA and BS in Computer Science, he aligns data, technology and business goals to drive outcomes. A trusted advisor and innovative leader, his expertise spans IT strategy, architecture and analytics. A lifelong educator, he also teaches a graduate big data course and brings deep, cross-industry experience to every engagement.Bill's top pick: The Data Traps That Are Killing AI InitiativesThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Artificial intelligence isn't just evolving — it's accelerating into every corner of business and society. But while innovation surges ahead, AI policy and regulation is playing catch-up. In this episode of The AI Proving Ground Podcast, two of WWT's foremost AI and cyber experts — Kate Kuehn and Bryan Fite — dive deep into the fragmented and fast-changing world of AI policy, regulation and governance. Plus, what every enterprise should be doing right now to stay ahead of regulatory change while building AI systems that are secure, inclusive and future-proof. We’re replaying an episode of the AIPG Podcast to celebrate Kate Kuehn, who will be a prominent guest and speaker at Black Hat 2025. This episode originally aired in April 2025.Kate Kuehn joined WWT in early 2024. She brings more than 25 years of experience leading and advising cyber security, technology, innovative AI strategies and teams to help shape the industry with better business security and risk decisions. Kate is a trusted advisor, thought leader, speaker, published author, and mentor. Currently, her main area of expertise focuses on the collaboration of Risk Executives and Boards to achieve a successful and secure integrated cyber risk management program in this new normal of ever-changing regulations in this elevated threat landscape. Kate also has expertise in the correlation between security, traditional IT initiatives and the implications of AI.Kate's top pick: Trustworthy and Responsible AI at the Global ScaleBryan Fite is a committed security practitioner and serial entrepreneur who uses Facilitated Innovation to solve "Wicked Business Problems". Having spent over 25 years in mission-critical environments, Bryan is uniquely qualified to advise organizations on what works and what doesn't. Bryan has worked with organizations in every major vertical throughout the world and has established himself as a trusted advisor. "The challenges facing organizations today require a business reasonable approach to managing risk, trust and limited resources, while protecting what matters.Bryan's top pick: Shadow AI: The Threat You Didn't See ComingThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Federal technology leaders reveal how to start small, set data‑cyber guardrails and scale fast — all without blowing the budget . Listen to Dan Carroll (Dell Federal Field CTO), Ryan Simpson (NVIDIA Chief Technologist for Public Sector Partners) and Brandon Bulldis (WWT Federal Civilian Engineering Director) discuss how federal government agencies are sprinting from artificial intelligence hype to real mission impact. Hear wins like multimodal chatbots and desk‑side AI supercomputers, plus three battle‑tested rules: guardrails first, design for surge and invest in people. Watch or listen now and leave with a clear playbook for infrastructure, talent and funding.More about this week's guests:Dan Carroll is the Field CTO for Cybersecurity – US Federal at Dell Technologies, helping government customers meet cybersecurity and compliance goals. He partners with teams to build solutions that align with standards like HIPAA, FISMA and NERC-CIP. Dan also leads R&D collaborations with groups like NIST and DoD labs, shaping future tech in areas like 5G, IoT, supply chain assurance and digital twins.Dan's top pick: Advancing IT for Federal Agencies with Dell and WWTRyan Simpson is the Engineering Chief Technologist for Federal Partners at NVIDIA, driving AI and data analytics adoption across agencies through the NVIDIA Partner Network. With nearly 20 years in government, including key AI work at USPS, he holds 16 patents in AI and image processing. Ryan brings deep expertise in aligning advanced technologies with public sector needs, policies and mission-driven impact.Ryan's top pick: About NVIDIA & WWTBrandon Bulldis began his career as a Communications Tech in the U.S. Air Force and now brings over 20 years of IT experience to WWT's Federal Civilian Engineering team. With a passion for continuous learning, he's helped public and private sector customers align technology with mission and business goals. A strong advocate for WWT's Advanced Technology Center, Brandon is dedicated to empowering organizations through education and innovation in an ever-evolving tech landscape.Ryan's top pick: Public Sector OverviewThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Enterprise adoption of artificial intelligence agents is skyrocketing, with most large organizations already running pilots — but not all that glitters is gold. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, Technical Solutions Architect Ina Poecher and Senior Director of WWT’s AI Practice cut through the noise to expose widespread “agent-washing” and spotlight practical, ROI-driven use cases you can implement today. Tune in to learn how agentic architecture transforms generative AI hype into secure, measurable enterprise outcomes — and what’s next for the multi-agent future.Support for this episode provided by: IslandMore about this week's guests:Ina Poecher is a Technical Solutions Architect at World Wide Technology (WWT) and collaborates with customers and internal teams to design and validate innovative technology solutions. Working within WWT's Advanced Technology Center, she leverages extensive experience across IT infrastructure, cloud, networking and automation to develop and test complex architectures that drive business outcomes and support strategic initiatives.Ina's top pick: Hack the Future: AI Meets SecurityJason Campagna leads AI solution strategy at World Wide Technology, helping enterprises adopt intelligent systems from AI assistants to autonomous agents. A technologist since 2001, he brings deep expertise in cloud, automation and platform architecture. Jason is known for bridging disruptive tech with real-world execution and building agile, diverse teams to drive innovation at scale.Jason's top pick: WWT at ONUG AI Networking Summit—Dallas 2025The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Cloud-native artificial intelligence is rewriting the enterprise playbook. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, guest host Robb Boyd joins data strategist Ina Poecher and cloud architect Zaid Elkhateeb to explore why 2025 belongs to firms that treat hyperscale cloud as their default R&D lab. Reporting from WWT’s AI Proving Ground, they reveal how on-demand GPUs, modular services, and policy-as-code governance collapse GenAI timelines from quarters to days — without riling security auditors. Tune in for a four-step blueprint — clean data, outcome-driven architecture, elastic cloud services, and continuous guardrails — that turns artificial intelligence experiments into production-grade advantage.More about this week's guests:Ina Poecher is a Technical Solutions Architect at World Wide Technology (WWT), and collaborates with customers and internal teams to design and validate innovative technology solutions. Working within WWT’s Advanced Technology Center, she leverages extensive experience across IT infrastructure, cloud, networking, and automation to develop and test complex architectures that drive business outcomes and support strategic initiatives.Zaid Elkhateeb is a Technical Solutions Architect at World Wide Technology (WWT), specializing in Google Cloud Platform. He brings deep expertise in cloud engineering, data architecture, and AI/ML services, joining WWT's GS&A team from another leading Google partner. Zaid helps enterprise clients design and implement scalable cloud solutions that power innovation and drive real business outcomes.The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Agentic artificial intelligence systems have the potential to work together — but not yet at scale. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, WWT engineer Sally Jankovic and AI advisor David Geddam break down two emerging standards — Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) communication. Both promise modular AI integration, safer data flows, and agentic collaboration that actually scales, making them essential infrastructure for enterprise artificial intelligence.Support for this episode provided by: GleanMore about this week's guests:Sally Jankovic earned her PhD in Applied Math from the University of Minnesota in 2023. Drawn to real-world problem-solving, she began her career as a data scientist at a healthcare startup, working on ML, NLP, and LLMs. Her hands-on experience led her to the platform team before joining WWT, where she was inspired by the MC group's collaborative culture and the chance to work across diverse tech stacks and projects.Sally's top pick: Agent-2-Agent Protocol (A2A) - A Deep DiveDavid Geddam is a Senior AI Advisor and Chief Solution Architect at World Wide Technology, with 25+ years of experience in AI, healthcare tech and enterprise solutions. He’s held key roles at Kaiser Permanente, GE Healthcare, Philips, IBM Watson Imaging and multiple startups. David holds degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Healthcare Technology and specializes in AI, cloud, NLP, computer vision and real-time navigation. On the hobbies front, he is involved in playing competitive tennis at USTA 4.0 level for teams in St. Louis.David's top pick: Scaling Agentic AI: Impact of Model Context (MCP) and Agentic (A2A) protocolsThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

For many, artificial intelligence success isn’t limited by how many GPUs you can buy; it’s limited by how fast those GPUs can talk to each other without tripping over the plumbing. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, two of WWT’s top networking minds —Justin van Schaik and Eric Fairfield — lay out the real choke points slowing AI projects to a crawl and how powerful, modernized network architectures are quietly rewriting the rulebook for scaling AI.Support for this episode is provided by: NokiaLearn more about this week's guest:Justin van Shaik is a Technical Solutions Architect at World Wide Technology, specializing in High Performance Networking, AI and Open Networking. A seasoned technologist, he helps organizations design and deploy advanced infrastructure to support next-gen workloads at scale.Justin's top pick: The Future of High Performance Networking: Ultra Ethernet ExplainedEric Fairfield is a Technical Solutions Architect at World Wide Technology with a passion for solving data center networking challenges. He specializes in Cisco ACI, VMware NSX and their integration. Outside of tech, Eric has spent over 30 years immersed in motorsports, working with F1, IndyCar, IMSA and other major racing organizations.Eric's top pick: WWT at ONUG AI Networking Summit—Dallas 2025The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

Jack in the Box CTO Doug Cook and WWT Chief Digital Advisor Charlie Lawhorn detail how a multi-year modernization sprint paved the way for advancements in artificial intelligence — and what every business can learn from the fast-food chain's journey. Doug and Charlie offer a candid conversation that delivers a playbook for prioritizing AI use cases, funding innovation in capital-constrained environments and rolling out AI with minimal disruption.For more about this week's guests:Doug Cook joined Jack in the Box as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer in October of 2021. Cook brings more than 20 years of industry experience leading guest and employee-facing platforms to Jack in the Box. Cook most recently served as interim CTO of Jack in the Box, effectively leading the technology team and strategy during his interim period. Prior to joining Jack in the Box, Cook served as Chief Information Officer at Pizza Hut. Before Pizza Hut, Cook spent two decades with Sonic applying leading-edge technologies and analytics to grow the company's innovation and market position.Doug's top pick: Jack in the Box Case StudyCharlie Lawhorn is an experienced transformation leader with a career dedicated to designing and executing complex programs that help organizations navigate digital change. He specializes in aligning process design with modern digital technologies to enhance enterprise relevance and performance in a data-driven marketplace. Charlie leads teams that prioritize business outcomes, working closely with stakeholders to identify opportunities, apply the right processes and technologies and deliver measurable business value.Charlie's top pick: Modernizing the Point of Sale at Jack in the Box to Drive Efficiency, Insights and GrowthThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments. 

At Cisco Live 2025, the networking giant rolled out a sweeping agenda to make artificial intelligence not just powerful, but practical — and secure. In this episode, we caught up with leaders from Cisco, NVIDIA and WWT to talk about what this year's announcements actually mean for enterprise teams tasked with building scalable, secure, AI-ready infrastructure. From the rise of the Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA to the reality of agentic workflows and persistent inference traffic, this episode unpacks the architectural shifts reshaping the modern data center.Learn more about this week's guests:Kevin Wollenweber is Cisco's Senior Vice President and General Manager of Data Center, Internet, and Cloud Infrastructure. In this role, he leads product strategy to enhance Cisco's infrastructure solutions for the data center, high-performance routing, and mobile networks. His leadership is pivotal in driving growth and developing cutting-edge solutions to meet the dynamic needs of businesses worldwide.Kevin's top pick: About Cisco and WWTChris Marriott is the VP/GM of Enterprise Platforms at NVIDIA, where he has spent 14 years advancing enterprise solutions. With a background in engineering, including 10 years in ASIC development, Chris combines technical expertise with strategic insight to address the evolving tech landscape.Chris's top pick: About NVIDIA and WWTNeil Anderson has over 30 years of experience in Software Development, Wireless, Security, Networking, Data Center, Cloud and AI technologies. At WWT Neil is an VP in our Global Solutions and Architecture team, with responsibility for over $16B in WWT's solutions portfolio across AI, Networking, Cloud, Data Center, and Automation. Neil advises many large organizations on their global architecture and IT strategy across Global Enterprise, Global Service Provider, and Public Sector. Neil is also on the advisory board of several high-tech companies and startups.Neil's top pick: Building for Success: A CTO's Guide to Generative AIThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.