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!

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

Recent Tech Field Day Podcast Episodes

  • 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…

  • We Are Long Past Passwords

    Passwords have served their use in the enterprise. We need to start moving away from simple passwords as an authentication mechanism. In this episode of the Tech Field Day podcast, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Tony Efantis, Karen Lopez, and Fernando Montenegro as they discuss the premise that we are long past passwords, exploring the complexities and frustrations of relying on them for myriad online accounts. The conversation highlights the concept of economic externalities, where developers easily implement simple passwords, but the burden of managing hundreds of unique credentials falls on the individual user. While passwords were initially designed for…

  • MLO is a Lie

    One of the most anticipated features of Wi-Fi 7 isn’t ready for the public. Worse yet, it may never deliver on the promise of fast, reliable wireless connectivity. In this episode, Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Allyn Crowe, Peter Mackenzie, and Chris Reed as they discuss the way that multi-link operation (MLO) has been included in the specification for Wi-Fi 7 yet not quite implemented. They highlight the technical difficulties of deploying such a complicated protocol and how vendors are trying to squeeze every drop of performance out of their hardware. They wrap up with advice on whether or not…

  • A Different Type of Datacenter is Needed for AI

    AI demands specialized data center designs due to its unique hardware utilization and networking needs, which require a new type of infrastructure. This Tech Field Day Podcast episode features Denise Donohue, Karen Lopez, Lino Telera, and Alastair Cooke. Network design has been a consistent part of the AI infrastructure discussions at Tech Field Day events. The need for a dedicated network to interconnect GPUs differentiates AI training and fine-tuning networks from general-purpose computing. The vast power demand for high-density GPU servers highlights a further need for different data centers with liquid cooling and massive power distribution. Model training is only…