Tech Field Day Podcast

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What’s the Premise?

The Tech Field Day Podcast is a weekly discussion of enterprise IT topics featuring a constantly-changing panel of independent technical influencers. Each episode is centered around a single topic or premise, which we select to be thought-provoking and topical. The podcast is recorded in association with the Tech Field Day event series, and is often recorded on-site at our events.

In 2017 we launched the On-Premise IT Roundtable, a weekly podcast featuring the Tech Field Day delegates. Each episode featured a discussion centered around a premise statement. We chose the name as a play on words, since many used the term “on-premise” to refer to things on-location (or on-premises) as opposed to in the cloud. Between April 2017 and March 2024 we published 322 episodes and reached hundreds of thousands of listeners through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and more.

On March 26, 2024, we refreshed our branding, introducing the Tech Field Day Podcast. The format remains the same, with a panel of independent technical influencers discussing a central premise. Each episode’s panel is drawn from the Tech Field Day delegate community, typically focused on the current Tech Field Day event, with some episodes recorded on-premises! The episodes are moderated by Stephen Foskett or Tom Hollingsworth, our topic leads, who try to keep the discussion on-premise.

We post a new episode every Tuesday and post a video and accompanying article to our social media accounts as well. We do not insert advertisements but some “Spotlight” episodes do feature paying sponsors on the panel to discuss the topic of their choice. Our commitment is to provide an entertaining, technical, and thought-provoking discussion of a single area of enterprise IT every week!

Subscribe to the Tech Field Day Podcast!

New episodes of the Tech Field Day podcast are posted every Tuesday!

Recent Tech Field Day Podcast Episodes

  • Early Adoption of Generative AI Helps Control Costs with Signal65

    If you haven’t already, start working with Generative AI now and make sure to control your ongoing costs. This episode of the Tech Field Day podcast features Russ Fellows, Mitch Lewis, and Brian Martin, all from Signal65, and is hosted by Alastair Cooke. Generative AI is delivering value to businesses of all sizes, but significant evolution in models and technologies remains before maturity is achieved. Experimentation is essential to understand the value of new technologies, starting with cloud resources or small-scale on-premises servers. Business value is derived from the inference stage, where AI tools generate actionable information for users. Generative…

  • Datacenter Networking Needs AIOps with HPE Juniper Networks

    Enterprise networking is too large and complex, we need AI Operations. This spotlight episode of the Tech Field Day podcast features Bob Friday and Ben Baker, both from Juniper Networks, with Jack Poller and Alastair Cooke. Modern enterprise networks reach far beyond the well-controlled walls of data centres and corporate buildings. The rate of change enabled by public cloud platforms makes an enterprise network highly dynamic. Access to cloud and on-premises applications over the Internet means your users are dependent on many network elements outside of your control. Bob founded Mist Networks to help businesses manage the complexity of user-to-cloud…

  • Network Engineers are Facing an Identity Crisis

    Network engineers are the firefighters and knowledge bases of enterprise IT, however the role of a network engineer is rapidly evolving. With the rise of automation, orchestration, and AI, the familiar image of an engineer hunched over a command-line interface (CLI) is giving way, leading many to question the future of their profession. In this episode, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Ryan Harris, Chris Grundemann, and Nathan Nielsen as they discuss how the perception of their role has shifted, the continuous need for learning and adaptation, and whether the CLI is truly dead. The conversation explores the challenges and opportunities…

  • Re-Imagining the Mainframe for the AI Era at SHARE

    As Tech Field Day heads to SHARE in Cleveland, we are considering the many ways the mainframe has been re-imagined and re-built for the AI era. This episode of the Tech Field Day podcast features Cynthia Overby of Rocket Software and SHARE, Derek Britton, and Jeffrey Powers discussing the modern mainframe with Stephen Foskett. Walk around the SHARE conference and you’ll see the same concepts and technologies that you would find at any other conference: AI, security, data management, software development, and connectivity. Although the mainframe platform is radically different from the so-called open systems used in the cloud and…

  • The DoJ Just Devalued Juniper Mist

    The proposed remedies for the HPE acquisition of Juniper Networks did a real disservice to Juniper Mist. The confusion around what’s going on with the proposed Juniper AIOps for Mist auction have professionals asking a lot of questions. In this episode, recorded on the eve of the close of the acquisition, Tom Hollingsworth sits down with Sam Clements, Jake Snyder, and Ed Weadon to make sense of it all. There are discussions about what exactly is included in the auction and what benefit will come from the license to use Juniper AIOps for Mist. Also discussed is who might be…

  • Enterprises Shouldn’t Be Outsourcing Their IT Anymore

    Enterprise networks are complicated but outsourcing all of the operations team doesn’t lead to better outcomes. It’s important to remember that enterprise covers a wide range of network definitions. In this episode, Ed Weadon, Chris Grundemann, and Jody Lemoine join Tom Hollingsworth as they discuss how businesses see the network and IT in general as a cost center instead of value generation. They also talk about the various sizes of networks and why each of them has issues with the most popular outsourcing methods. They also discuss the human factor and why not all managed providers can give you the…