Ep. 167 - FinOps and Battle for Cloud Costs

As organizations push to realize the benefits of AI, they are increasingly challenged to deliver the necessary data to fuel their initiatives. While most have data repositories to draw from, the quality and accessibility of that data can be an issue. Shiv Trisal of Databricks and John Schirripa of S&P Global Market Intelligence, join host Eric Hanselman to explore the nature of these challenges and ways to address them. One of the major benefits of AI tooling is the democratization of access to data and it has to be a primary goal, but it’s not always easy to achieve. It means pulling together complex data sets and being able to wrap the necessary controls around them. Governance concerns demand better data quality at the outset, to make the path to implementation simpler. This week’s guests:Shiv Trisal, global industry lead for manufacturing and industry at DatabricksJohn Schirripa, VP, product management, distribution solutions, at S&P Global Market Intelligence

In this special report from the RSA Conference, we hear from seven of the team who were there at the event. It’s a set of quick takes on the latest trends and take aways from the conference in discussions with host Eric Hanselman. Whether it’s AI, cybersecurity or M&A, there was a lot going on and a lot to sort out. Guests:Scott Crawford, Research director for information securityGarrett Bekker, Principal research analystDan Kennedy, Principal research analystPaige Bartley, Senior research analystMark Ehr, Principal research analystJustin Lam, Senior research analystBrenon Daly, Research director, M&A

The flexibility and adaptability of cloud-based infrastructure brings great value to enterprises, but most have been wrestling with managing cloud costs. Melanie Posey, Jean Atelsek and William Fellows join host Eric Hanselman to look at FinOps, the cost management initiative that is looking to regain control of infrastructure costs in this new model. Hyperscalers are expanding their tooling and a bevy of startups are angling to optimize both operations and deployment. It’s not a simple path.

The NAB show, what’s become not only a venue for broadcast innovations, but also the latest in consumer electronics, has just wrapped up. Analysts Justin Nielson and Peter Leitzinger join host Eric Hanselman to discuss their thoughts on the show and perspectives on NextGen TV, AI capabilities and advertising. For over 100 years, the NAB show has served as a forum for content alignment and it’s taking on more. High-definition television got another boost with advances in ATSC 3.0 delivery.

The annual gathering of the business side of the cybersecurity industry, the RSA Conference, will kick off in early May. Scott Crawford and Dan Kennedy return to preview what they’ll be expecting with host Eric Hanselman. The upheaval in the security markets is being mirrored at the conference, with one major vendor deciding not to exhibit and consolidation taking place. All of this takes place as security teams struggle with operational scale. AI to the rescue? We’ll have to see.

Semiconductors are back in the spotlight with the shortage of GPU’s in the generative AI explosion. But the supply chain that produces them is complex and is not a simple thing to accelerate or scale up. This episode brings Next in Tech together with the Economics and Country Risk podcast, hosted by Kristen Hallam. Chris Rogers and John Abbott join us to dig into the dynamics and geopolitical pressures that make the supply chain so difficult to fix.

Effectively managing information security for any enterprise can be a challenge, but airlines have to deal with the compounding effects of regulations in multiple domains, life safety issues and much more. Air New Zealand CISO, Phil Ross, joins host Eric Hanselman to discuss prioritizing cybersecurity efforts, the practical aspects of zero trust and the potential of new security architectures. Tackling technical debt can be struggle, particularly in risk averse areas, like aviation.

While getting to a cloud native development pattern is a goal for most organizations, it can be a significant journey to transform both infrastructure and processes. Analyst Carl Lehmann joins host Eric Hanselman to explore the paths that can move enterprises forward. DevOps approaches can speed development, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) can change ways of managing risk and platform engineering can simplify tool sets, but adoption does not always follow a straight line.

The integration of payment technologies in the automotive realm offers interesting potential, but it has to be done with care to ensure customer experience meets expectations. FinTech’s move into the EV software ecosystem is a first step and analysts Beatriz Minamy and Sophia Furber join host Eric Hanselman to explore automotive as the latest software platform to embed payments, what’s needed, concerns about fraud and how the market is evolving. It can be more than charging, if it’s done well.

While there is no end of generative AI discussion, it’s not often clear how it’s being used. Nick Patience and Alex Johnston return to explore the results of a recent study that digs into AI use cases with host Eric Hanselman. Projects are charging forward and concerns around data dominate. Getting access to data remains challenging, but, as use matures, data quality has become increasingly critical. Interestingly, trust in AI results is declining as understanding grows. Hallucination anyone?