Understanding and Advising CIOs

Reid Robinson (@Reidoutloud_, Lead AI Product Manager @Zapier)  talks about automation, application integrations and how to integrate AI in projects with Zapier SHOW: 831SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #831 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:Zapier AI homepageZapier integration with OpenAIZapier Central - AI Workspace to Teach AI Bots to work with AppsZapier Chatbots - Build AI ChatbotsZapier Canvas - Diagram AI WorkflowsTopic 1 - Welcome to the show, Reid. Before we get started, tell us a little bit about your background, and what you focus on now at Zapier.Topic 2 - Lots of individuals and companies use Zapier for a wide variety of automated tasks and application integrations. Recently, the company has added a number of ways to integrate AI into those workflows. At a high-level, how did you go about thinking about adding AI into the platform?Topic 3 - What are some of the most common AI usage-patterns and integrations that you’re seeing companies build around?Topic 4 - As Zapier began to integrate with OpenAI (or any 3rd-party LLM), how did you think about it as a source of integration? What did you have to think about regarding filtering, security and hallucinations with ChatGPT?Topic 5 - We often hear discussions about AI agents interacting with other AI agents to complete tasks, or evolve the outputs of multi-step, complex tasks. Is that an area where we might expect to see things like the new Zapier AI tools playing a role? Topic 6 - What are some of the best ways to get started building AI apps around these new integrations and tools?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Let’s explore how today’s early AI era is like the unicorn-filled, heavily VC-funded early 2020s. (Part 3 of 3)SHOW: 830SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #830 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSOR:Panoptica, Cisco’s Cloud Application Security solutionSHOW NOTES:Part 1: How Today's AI is like the Early 2000s (Cloudcast Eps:826)Part 2: How Today’s AI is like the Early 2020s (Cloudcast Eps.828)THE EARLY 2020s were SHAPED by COVID and FREE CASHVCs were pouring money into startups; “unicorns” were a daily occurrenceMany assumed that “today’s normal” would be the “forever normal”Business models were drowned out by technology fascinationDO CURRENT AI ECONOMICS AND FUNDING LEVELS MAKE SENSE?VCs and cloud providers are funding infrastructure like it’s 1997-2000Business models around AI are still being sought outFunding valuations have no basis in anything real, at least not yetAre we near an AI (economic) crash, or at least deflation of the bubble?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Solomon Hykes (@solomonstre, Co-Founder @Dagger_io) talks about the evolution of the container industry, fixing broken CI/CD systems, and modern DevOps.SHOW: 829SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #829 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"SPONSOR:Neo4j explores knowledge graphs and vector search (graphstuff.fm podcast)See what graphs can do for you at Neo4j.com/developerSHOW NOTES:https://dagger.io/InfoQ Article on DaggerDaggar and GPTScript for AI (video)Tech Crunch ArticleSolomon’s first time on The Cloudcast - Episode #66Topic 1 - Welcome back to the show. We’ve spoken a number of times over the years and we’ve been overdue to catch up. For the few listeners out there who might not be familiar, give everyone a quick intro and your background with Docker and containers prior to Dagger.Topic 2 - Dagger has been around for a few years, coming out of stealth in 2022. If I understand Dagger correctly, it is a declarative model to abstract away CI/CD pipelines. What problem are you trying to solve?Topic 2a - Anytime you add an abstraction layer, you potentially add overhead and complexity. What are your thoughts on this?Topic 3 - Let’s go back to containers quickly. How has Containers as an “industry” changed over the years? How does that relate to what you are trying to do with Dagger?Topic 3a - What lessons learned from Docker and even back to dotCloud days do you want to bring forward with Dagger?Topic 4 - What metrics are organizations using to measure the performance and success of Dagger implementations? Is it velocity (number of deployments)? Reduction in friction?Topic 4a - I get the advantage on the Dev side of DevOps, what’s in it for Ops?Topic 5 - Dagger has three components, Dagger Engine, Dagger Cloud and Dagger SDK. Walk everyone through the offerings at a high level.FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

The introduction of cloud computing brought about a significant change on how we use technology with our businesses. Let’s look at the historical parallels to today’s AI for the Enterprise. (Part 2 of 3)SHOW: 828SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #828SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSOR:Panoptica, Cisco’s Cloud Application Security solutionSHOW NOTES:Part 1: How Today's AI is like the Early 2000s (Cloudcast Eps:826)Part 2: How Today’s AI is like the Early 2020s (Cloudcast Eps.828)WHAT SHAPED THE EARLY 2010s?2008 financial crash and less money available for technology (uncertainty)Increased frustration with corporate IT organizations (too much “no”)The possibilities of mobile computing and socially connected societies (abundance)EARLY CLOUD WAS ALL ABOUT BREAKING AWAY FROM CORPORATE ITIt’s a new generation of computing, so the future winner is unknown.Many companies are trying to have centralized IT policies - one size fits allData governance and legal liability is driving corporate policies (education needed)Consumer AI is widely available and applicable to some job functionsExecutives are starting to talk about “AI First” policiesCloud-native and Cloud-migrated were very different things, with different resultsFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Brian Gracely (@bgracely) and Brandon Whichard (@bwhichard, from @SoftwareDefTalk) talk about all the major news stories in Cloud and AI from May 2024SHOW: 827SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #827 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: The Cloudcast YouTube ChannelCLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSOR:Neo4j explores knowledge graphs and vector search (graphstuff.fm podcast)See what graphs can do for you at Neo4j.com/developerSHOW NOTES: LINKS TO ALL ARTICLES FOR MAY 2024 CLOUD NEWSSegments Covered in the Show:Good Old Fashioned Cloud NewsThe AI Innovation Continues Trend 1 - Is anyone going to talk about Cloud anymore? Trend 2 - Is AI a real conversation with Enterprise yet, or does AI need to go through a consumer period first? Trend 3 - Every large acquisition was deemed a “terrible mistake” within a few months, according to the press - (e.g. Hashicorp, VMware)Trend 4 - Is April to June the new “trade show season”, or will it just be “always on” in the new AI world?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Let’s put today’s AI era into some historic context by looking at the similarities and parallels to the explosion of the 1st wave of the consumer Internet. (Part 1 of 3)SHOW: 826SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSOR:Panoptica, Cisco’s Cloud Application Security solutionSHOW NOTES:Building the Information Super Highway (pre-2000)Executives discuss the Information Super Highway2001 - A DotCom Bubble Odyssey (Cloudcast Eps.772)Part 1: How Today's AI is like the Early 2000s (Cloudcast Eps:826)Part 2: How Today’s AI is like the Early 2020s (Cloudcast Eps.828)WE’RE FASCINATED BY THE IDEA OF TECHNOLOGY CHANGING EVERYTHING2000s era Internet was going to change everythingGenAI is predicted to change everythingMOST TECHNOLOGY’S SHIFT HAPPEN WITH CONSUMERS FIRSTGenAI still can’t validate accuracy (e.g. hallucinations)GenAI is still extremely expensive to create, maintainGenAI still doesn’t have a widely-adopted business modelShadow GenAI groups will emerge in the EnterprisePeople are still mostly thinking about GenAI as a way to offload things they don’t want to do vs. improving their existing skillsFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Tim Crawford (@tcrawford, CIO Advisor at @AVOAcom) talks about the challenges of the modern CIO, managing stability vs. innovation, and understanding the business value of tech.SHOW: 825SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #825 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: The Cloudcast YouTube ChannelCLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS" SHOW SPONSOR:Neo4j explores knowledge graphs and vector search (graphstuff.fm podcast)See what graphs can do for you at Neo4j.com/developerSHOW NOTES:AVOA WebsiteTim’s article on HashiCorpTopic 1 - Tim, welcome back to the show! We’ve been friends for years, and it’s great to get you on today! We will discuss everything at the top of CIOs' minds today. Why don’t you give everyone a quick background on how you became known as the CIO Advisor?Topic 2 - Before we go into trends over the last few years. Put everyone in a CIO mindset. What do they care about? How do they think about the intersection of technology and business? What keeps them up at night?Topic 3 - We’ve heard many times CIOs have to balance two things: keeping the lights on (the boring side of the business that is often undifferentiated, and the innovative side that often moves the needle. A CIO’s job is to minimize the former and maximize the latter. Do you agree? How accurate is that statement? Topic 4 - I’ll follow that up with a real-world example many organizations might be facing, one we’ve discussed on the show in the past. We’ll discuss VMware on one end of the stable, the keep the lights on model, and AI on the other end as an innovative technology that could differentiate. Let’s talk about VMware first… Topic 4b  - Now the other end of the spectrum, AI. Have we reached peak AI washing and craziness? Is the trough of disillusionment coming? How should a CIO think about it?Topic 5 - Let’s talk about economics over the last few years. Zero-interest money has gone away for VCs and startups and we are seeing some big changes on the vendor side. How does this impact the people you talk to?Topic 6 -  Last topic, you were there and talked about Hashicorp when they rang the bell last week and then were bought 24 hours later. What was that like as someone who was there?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

When you see the headline “<ex-employee> says <company> AI strategy is in chaos”, what does it really mean? Is any company’s AI strategy NOT in chaos at this point? SHOW: 824SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW NOTES:Ex-Google says Google's AI strategy is in chaos (Decoder)The Transformer Paper from Google (foundation of GenAI)NVIDIA coverage on Stratechery (Ben Thompson)DBRX LLM from DatabricksArtic LLM from SnowflakeOpenElm LLM from AppleOpenAI and Apple sign deal, Apple still wants a Google optionIBM and Red Hat bring Open Source to AI with InstructLabWE OVERESTIMATE IN 1YR, AND UNDERESTIMATE IN 10YRS“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” - Bill GatesDOES ANYONE REALLY HAVE THEIR AI STRATEGY FIGURED OUT? NVIDIAGoogleOpenAIMicrosoft / Azure / GitHubAmazon / AWSMetaAppleIBM / Red HatOracleSnowflakeDatabricksVCsStartupsFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Jonas Rosland (@jonasrosland, Head of Open Source Community @CIQ) talks about using AI tools to accelerate building and communications in Open Source Software (OSS) communities. We also discuss the differences between Community Roles and Dev Rel.SHOW: 823SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #823CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS" SHOW SPONSOR:Neo4j explores knowledge graphs and vector search (graphstuff.fm podcast)See what graphs can do for you at Neo4j.com/developerSHOW NOTES:Jonas’ session abstract from All Things Open (ATO) 2023Session slides and description of the talkHit Save! - Video Game Preservation OrganizationCIQ Enterprise Linux PlatformTopic 1 - Good Afternoon Jonas! Give everyone a quick background on your time building open-source communities and a bit about your foundation. We’ll dig into both areas today.Topic 2 - We caught up at All Things Open last fall. You gave a fascinating talk on using AI tools to accelerate the building of OSS communities. Give everyone the backstory on how that topic and presentation came to be.Topic 3 - This may be a dumb question, but DevRel is (still) all the rage. What is the difference between the approach to building OSS communities and the straight-up DevRel teams? How is success tracked in each? Are there solid metrics, or is it “fuzzy”?Topic 4 - Sadly, as far as I can tell, the session wasn’t recorded. But, for me, the big takeaway was how much dabbling you were doing with the tools and your good and bad experiences. I learned a lot from a practical aspect. But, the AI industry and tools are moving so fast. What’s in your toolbox today and why?Topic 5 - What are some of the gaps in the tools today? What’s missing?Topic 6 -  Let’s talk about your side gig. You were part of the founding team and are exec director of a video game preservation society, Hit Save! How did that come to be? What does that entail?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

After just three years, AWS is making another change at the top of the leadership org-chart. What lessons can we learn from leadership transitions and what might come next?SHOW: 822SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #822SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW NOTES:Andy Jassy makes AWS leadership announcement“There’s no AI without the cloud”, says AWS CEO (Decoder podcast)Six things to know about the new AWS CEO, Matt GarminAWS HAS NEW LEADERSHIP. WHY NOW? Adam Selipsky is out, Matt Garmin is in. What does it mean?Why is AWS making the change now?WHAT LESSONS CAN WE LEARN FROM SELIPSKY’S 3 YEARS AS AWS CEOProbably don’t take the job immediately after someone is the Nick Saban of techDon’t be the complete opposite of the previous boss (wings guy vs. wine guy)[Andy on X] Lead Amazon, married and father of two kids, big sports/music/film fan, experienced buffalo wings eater. Go Kraken![Adam on X] Husband & dad. Water skier/tennis player. Fan of Seahawks & Sounders. CEO at #AWS.[Andy Jassy] I’ve always had a lot of respect for Adam, and we met several times to discuss the possibility of coming back to lead AWS. In those conversations, we agreed that if he accepted the role, he’d likely do it for a few years, and that one of the things he’d focus on during that time was helping prepare the next generation of leadership.[Andy Jassy] Matt has an unusually strong set of skills and experiences for his new role. He’s very customer focused, a terrific product leader, inventive, a clever problem-solver, right a lot, has high standards and a meaningful bias for action. Realize when your job is to lead and inspire vs. producing the weekly reportThe post-ZIRP CEO of AWS2021 - $62B, , 2022 - $80B, 2023 - $90B, 2024 - $100+BLost key peopleBehind on GenAI vs. other clouds“Wartime CEO” vs. “Peacetime CEO”FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod