WhyQ vs. It is what it is

Tech CEOs are making bold proclamations, from WhyQ to It is what it is. How will companies navigate this spectrum as they seek innovation, accountability and profitability throughout 2025? SHOW: 922SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #922 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudSHOW NOTES:Amazon 2024 CEO Letter to Shareholders - A Why CultureUber CEO says “it is what it is” about changing benefitsWHEN DOES WHY BECOME IT IS WHAT IT IS? Communicating is difficult, especially as the company grows in size (or is remote)Communicating change is difficult, even when communication channels are strongOutside of finance, tech tends to pay at the high end of salaries and perksWe’re in an interesting time of challenging economics and pressure from AI Perks are difficult to pull back, because business success isn’t evenly rewardedWhy is positioned as open culture, or strategy, but it’s also about day-to-day behaviorIt is what it is a decision, but it’s also accountability and continued viabilityMost leaders are going to have to manage between Why and It is what it is in 2025Most workers are going to have to work between Why and It is what it is in 2025FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodBlueSky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Aaron Delp, Brian Gracely, and Brandon Whichard discuss the top stories in Cloud and AI from April 2025, including OpenAI, MCP, VibeCoding and Hyperscaler earnings. SHOW: 921SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #921 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK:  http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST:  "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SPONSORS:Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudSHOW NOTES:Link to April 2025 News and ArticlesFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netBluesky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

As more companies begin to adopt AI into their workforce and day-to-day processes, it will be interesting to watch how their learning curve  is spread across knowledge workers. SHOW: 920SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #920 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudSHOW NOTES:AI Horseless Carriages (AI user-experiences)HOW WILL WE VIEW AN AI AGENT IN THE CONTEXT OF HUMANS OR “USERS”The low-hanging fruit, simple on-ramp is the key to early AI adoption Google and Microsoft are already showing revenue increases, likely through the productivity apps bundlingExpect prices to increase slowly, but frequently as adoption happens and companies get used to the knowledge worker productivity increases (or expectations)Curious how knowledge workers are adopting, sharing, increasing their learning curveSharing still seems to be lacking within the AI tools. Not just sharing of an individual task, but sharing of learning curves, best practices, datasetsIs there a dataset collection opportunity? This feels like Big Data or Data Lake 5.0. FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodBlueSky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Mark Freydl (CEO/Founder @codiacio) talks about the challenges of blending IaaC, DevOps and Platform Engineering to drive efficient software development lifecycles.SHOW: 919SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #919 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK:  http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST:  "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW NOTES:Codiac websiteCodiac at Tech Field DayTopic 1 - Welcome to the show, Mark. Give everyone a quick introduction.Topic 2 - Before we dig into the tech, let’s start with the problem. What problem were you seeing in software development that wasn’t being solved with IaaC, Platform Engineering, DevOps, etc.? Where does SDLC fit into this? Topic 3 - Have microservices helped or hurt? We hear all the time about the loose coupling of microservices and benefits towards production, but doesn’t that also make it harder to develop? How do you recreate an environment where you are dependent on a bunch of microservices in a development pipeline?Topic 4 - I get the feeling this is all about removing friction. But where and how? I see Kubernetes as a blessing and curse many times. It’s an awesome application platform, as long as you aren’t the one that has to do the care and feeding on it. Thoughts?Topic 5 - The goal here I believe is a closed loop system that is beneficial for developers and SRE’s, but how do you balance closed loops vs. extensibility and abstraction of different platforms to the systems that are truly write once.Topic 6 - How does the culture and relationships in the org have to change to meet the changes in the tech?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netBluesky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

There is a lot of excitement around AI Agents.  Here are five questions we're asking ourselves about how AI Agents will be used and managed. SHOW: 918SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #918 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudSHOW NOTES:Anthropic warns that fully AI employees are a year awayAuthZ Agents ChaosWhy we need to get AuthZ rightAI Agent Gateway and AI Agent MeshAuth in the age of AI Agent (Cloudcast Eps. 885)Trust will make or break AI Agents Introducing the Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A - Google)Introducing the Model Context Protocol (MCP - Anthroopic)Top 9 AI Agent FrameworksHOW WILL WE VIEW AN AI AGENT IN THE CONTEXT OF HUMANS OR “USERS”[Who] How is an AI agent represented in the context of a person, a group, an organization? [What] How will we audit Agent created data or content? Will we need a way to label Agent-created information?[Where] Will we have agents that are focused on non-human-interactions (e.g. optimizations) vs. human-interactions (e.g. empathy)?[When] Are today’s auth systems able to manage AI agents, or will they need to be re-engineered to deal with different scale, granularity of actions?[Why] Why will we choose an Agent (as the implementation) over another form or working on a problem?[How] Are today’s auth systems able to manage AI agents, or will they need to be re-engineered to deal with different scale, granularity of actions?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodBlueSky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Taylor Pechacek (Head of Product, API Collaboration Core @getpostman) talks about APIs, AI, and MCP (Model Context Protocol). We cover what is top of mind for developers and what has shifted in the industry recently.SHOW: 917SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #917 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST:  "CLOUDCAST BASICS" SPONSORS:Try Postman AI Agent Builder TodayCut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudSHOW NOTES:Postman - The World’s Leading API PlatformOpenAPI SpecificationMCP - Model Context Protocol (Anthropic)Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. Tell us a bit about your background, and what you focus on these days at Postman? Tell us a little bit about Postman, for our audience that might not be familiar. Topic 2 - Let’s begin with some broader concepts - in today’s world, where does a developer interact with software vs. an API - what are the most important things they have to think about?Topic 3 - What are the standards that are most important for developers these days? Where does OpenAPI Spec fit into that space?Topic 4 - APIs are now so pervasive. What are the best practices for API usage patterns and governance? What are some of the things that Postman is doing to improve this for developers and companies?Topic 5 - Let’s talk a little bit about how you’re seeing AI change how developers work, and if/how AI is impacting APIs.Topic 6 - Help us understand how you expect to see APIs interacting with AI Agents. What will the bigger picture look like for these interactions, and how will they be different than current API interactions?Topic 7 - Can we finish by talking about MCP (Model Context Protocol) a little bit? This is a new standard that is being adopted by many companies. FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netBluesky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Instead of focusing on augmenting existing teams and processes with AI, are we beginning to see more companies looking to replace teams with AI? Will economic pressure increase this likelihood? SHOW: 916SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #916 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Try Postman AI Agent Builder TodayCut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudSHOW NOTES:CEOs choose more AI, fewer jobsOpenAI plots charging $20,000 per month for PhD-level AgentsWhy AI isn’t giving Salesforce a boostThe one person $Billion dollar companyHUMAN-AUGMENTED vs HUMAN-REPLACEMENT IS A COMPLEX AI STRATEGYMost AI projects today as either augmenting or replacing humansTechnology has augmented, shifted or replaced human tasks for a while, this isn’t anything newManagement/owners have tried to replace workers with technology for a long timePricing will tell you something about the goal of the technology (e.g. seat vs. task)Now we’re starting to see the psychology of aligning AI to business goals - augmenting, shifting or replacingThe hyperbole of AI funding is to convey direct lines to AI success (whatever success is - AGI, No Coders, No Operations, No Entry-Level, etc..)“How do we replace the employees with AI?”The path to get there isn’t well defined. The politics to get there isn’t defined by technology. Will the current economic downturn accelerate this line of questioning / strategy? The Bed Bath and Beyond 20% coupon test. “The $billion dollar company with one employee.”FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodBlueSky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Evan Powell (@epowell101, CEO at DeepTempo) talks about the intersection of CyberSecurity, Deep Learning and new AI techniques to improve operational security. SHOW: 915SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #915 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS" SPONSORS:Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudTry Postman AI Agent Builder TodaySHOW NOTES:DeepTempo websiteThe Promise of CyberSecurity Foundation ModelsEvan on The Cloudcast #165Topic 1 - Welcome back to the show, Evan. It’s hard to believe it’s been over ten years since we last spoke in your StackStorm days. Give everyone a quick introduction.Topic 2 - Today's topic is the intersection of Deep Learning and CyberSecurity. Let’s start at a high level. As someone who has founded several companies, what’s interesting enough in this space for you to jump in?Topic 3 - I talk to many customers about AI and use cases. If they don’t have a leading use case, I often ask where they have a lot of data, and they want insights data. The needle in the haystack scenario. It could be text, unstructured data, log files, data lakes, just about anything. Is this scenario correct when it comes to CyberSecurity? What are the leading use cases?Topic 4 - I’ve been reading and hearing how AI has been a boon for hackers; what are your thoughts on the ever-lasting cat-and-mouse game in the security space and how it has evolved with AI?Topic 5 - Let’s dig into the tech; at DeepTempo’s core, you use Deep Learning and specific foundational models. You wrote a great blog recently on Cybersecurity models. When folks hear the term foundational or frontier model, they think of LLMs and GenAI. How is this different?Topic 6 - Is this a SaaS model? On-prem? Where does the tech sit and why?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netBluesky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Are companies starting to get concerned that AI isn’t meeting expectations? Concern is a part of any new technology adoption curve, but let’s explore some areas where expectations might not be meeting results. SHOW: 914SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #914 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Try Postman AI Agent Builder TodayCut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudSHOW NOTES:Why AI isn’t meeting expectations (The Artificial Intelligence Enterprise)IS THREE YEARS ENOUGH TIME FOR ANY TECHNOLOGY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD?Costs are still high, and positive ROI is still evolvingThe technology stack and standards are still evolvingEnterprise expectations are being confused with consumer expectationsAI predictions and timelines are overly aggressiveHow is anymore measuring AI success? The AI future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed“AI First” strategies are following “Cloud First” strategies - unevenly and distributedMost people don’t like to talk about the augment vs. replace issueMiscellaneous stuff:ChatGPT is the fasting growing tech ever AGI will be here at any momentFor the first 18+ months, it was only an OpenAI + NVIDIA marketAll software development will be done by AIThere will be $1B companies with 1 personGenAI, Frontier Models, Open Source Models, Agents, etc.Deep Seek, MCP, etc. FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodBlueSky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Dan Lee, (@_dan_lee_, CEO Nooks.ai, @JoinNooks) talks about agentic AI vs. AI assistants, their differences, and we explore ROI in this space vs. GenAI and common paths to adoption.SHOW: 913SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #913 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST:  "CLOUDCAST BASICS" SPONSORS:Try Postman AI Agent Builder TodayCut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudSHOW NOTES:Nooks.ai websiteNooks Founders on Forbes 30 under 30 for AITopic 1 - Welcome to the show, Dan. Give everyone a quick introduction.Topic 2 - Our topic today is AI Agents vs. Assistants. Let’s start there. Many out there are hearing the terms and will often think an AI Agent is equal to an AI Assistant. What’s the difference?Topic 3 - One of the big problems I’ve seen with AI adoption vs. hype is the ROI. GenAI hit the scene and brought AI into the mainstream, but the world is quickly moving on to Agentic AI. I’ve mainly seen this play out because the ROI on “chatbots” just isn’t there most of the time and also everyone is still scared for data leaks/privacy and hallucinations.Topic 4 - We’ll get into Nooks.ai in a bit but before we do, I wanted to point out that your company started prior to the big breakout of GenAI. How did you see the market back then and has LLM’s and transformer models in general changed your approach to AI Assistants?Topic 5 - When taking customers through the adoption process for AI Assistants, what are the typical steps? How do you go about getting consensus and buy-in from the various orgs in the company? Are there common hurdles folks need to consider?Topic 6 - With Nooks, you’ve decided to conquer the domain of sales and sales prospecting. What was your thoughts here in deciding where and how to remove friction from sales? Is this decision and thought process transferable to other areas? Any universal considerations?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netBluesky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod