Alastair Cooke explores the practicalities and advantages of constructing your own AI infrastructure using Google Cloud, highlighting the accessibility and customization benefits that come with building a bespoke environment. He provides insights into how organizations can leverage Google Cloud’s robust tools and services to tailor AI solutions to their specific needs, enhancing both efficiency and scalability. For additional insights and extensive coverage of AI Infrastructure Field Day 2, watch The Futurum Group blogs.
The Unknown Unknowns of Cloud Providers with Catchpoint
Your Internet Application is full of unknowns, which will affect its performance and availability for your customers. This episode of the Tech Field Day Podcast features Catchpoint CEO and co-founder Mehdi Daoudi, Eric Wright, Jon Myer, and Alastair Cooke. Internet applications are seldom self-contained, relying on other web services for specialized functions and needing responses from the services before a final response to a user. Functions such as DDoS protection, tracking, embedded advertising, and other valuable services enable faster application feature development, but at what cost? Any delayed response from these services can slow down your application for your users, leading to dissatisfaction, even when your servers perform beautifully. Remember that the services you choose to use may, in turn, use other external services. Catchpoint champions user-centric monitoring and Internet Performance Monitoring (IPM) to complement existing APM tools. Visibility of issues outside your data center is vital to identifying issues before they become helpdesk tickets or application outages. If this Tech Field Day Podcast episode piques your interest, watch the Catchpoint appearance at Cloud Field Day on YouTube.
Managing Hybrid Cloud Networks Complexity with Infoblox
Managing hybrid-cloud networks is complex due to differing architectures and naming between on-premises and the multiple public cloud platforms. This Tech Field Day Podcast episode features Glenn Sullivan, Senior Director of Product Management at Infoblox, Eric Wright, and Alastair Cooke. Each public cloud has a unique management console and network management paradigm; none provides deep integration with each other or with on-premises networking. It is left to individual customers to assemble a jigsaw of pieces into a coherent whole. Customers may not plan to use multiple public clouds, but through different project requirements or mergers and acquisitions, most large organizations find themselves in a hybrid multi-cloud environment. Combining fast-changing public cloud applications with on-premises applications further complicates network management, requiring an automation-based approach. Infoblox UDDI (Universal DNS, DHCP, and IPAM) provides a consistent, automatable interface to manage and operate basic network infrastructure across all enterprise locations. UDDI includes bi-directional operation where changes using cloud-native consoles are visible in UDDI and vice versa.
Key Takeaways from AI Infrastructure Field Day 2
Alastair Cooke recently shared insights from the AI Infrastructure Field Day 2, highlighting key technological advancements and discussions that are shaping the AI infrastructure landscape. His comprehensive coverage offers a deep dive into the innovative solutions and challenges addressed by leading industry experts. For more insights and detailed coverage of the event, check out additional articles by Alastair Cooke on AI Infrastructure Field Day 2.
Hybrid Multi-Cloud: Trends and Takeaways
Alastair Cooke recently explored significant trends and key insights in hybrid multi-cloud environments, highlighting their increasingly critical role in enterprise IT strategies. He emphasized the need for seamless integration and interoperability among diverse cloud services to optimize performance and cost-effectiveness. For further information and detailed analysis, you can find more coverage of Cloud Field Day 22 by Alastair Cooke on Techstrong IT.
AI Needs to Be Boring
Mature technologies deliver business value by integration into boring production applications, so AI needs to be boring. This Tech Field Day Podcast episode features Max Mortillaro, Guy Currier, Jay Cuthrell, and Alastair Cooke. AI has frequently been in the public news, many organizations are busy building AI infrastructure and pipelines, and vendors have tagged their applications with AI to ride the hype. Yet, business value is usually delivered in applications that serve customers rather than generating headlines. The first steps towards AI being a functional but boring part of production applications have emerged, with interoperability mechanisms like MCP and A2A are vital steps towards pervasive AI. Options for Small Language Models (SLM) are opening up more cost-effective use of generative AI, while predictive AI continues to be the standard boring production AI. Data and output safety are other areas for development; avoiding GenAI hallucinations, model poisoning, and data leakage is vital for AI to become boring. Eventually, Generative AI will be as invisible and valuable in mainstream business applications, leading to a return on all the current investments.
What it Takes to Power AI at AI Infrastructure Field Day 2
Alastair Cooke provides a detailed introduction to the companies and technologies participating in AI Infrastructure Field Day 2 this week. His insights highlight the interplay between advanced hardware and optimized software essential for robust AI applications. For additional insights from Alastair Cooke on this topic, visit Techstrong IT and Techstrong AI for full coverage of AI Infrastructure Field Day 2.
You Already Have the Platform and Skills for On-premises AI Applications
Alastair Cooke explores the potential for businesses to leverage their existing on-premises infrastructure and skills to develop AI applications, bypassing the complexities and costs associated with cloud services. He emphasizes the strategic use of current hardware and team capabilities to enable innovation while maintaining control over data and processes. Watch the full episode of this Tech Field Day podcast on YouTube or at Techstrong IT.
Key Takeaways on Hybrid Cloud Networking, Security, and Protection from Cloud Field Day 22
Alastair Cooke provides insightful analysis on hybrid cloud networking, security, and protection gleaned from discussions at Cloud Field Day 22. His coverage spotlights innovative solutions and real-world strategies that industry leaders are deploying within these complex environments. For additional commentary and insights from Cloud Field Day 22 by Alastair Cooke, watch the new Tech Field Day Plus YouTube channel!
Production AI Applications with VMware Private AI on VCF
You already have the people and the platform to run production AI applications in your on-premises data center. This episode of the Tech Field Day podcast, presented by Broadcom, features Tasha Drew, Gina Rosenthal, Jay Cuthrell, and Alastair Cooke. The public cloud is a great place to innovate and test new technologies or for bursty workloads where on-demand access to near-limitless resources is essential. Predictable and steady-state production workloads are often more cost-effective on-premises, and AI applications are no different. Your existing on-premises compute platform, based on VMware Cloud Foundation, is a great place to run production AI applications with more direct cost control while keeping your data on-premises. Running your AI applications on your existing platform capitalizes on your investment in software, hardware, and your staff, who won’t need to learn a new paradigm.
Hybrid and Multicloud Applications are a Headache
Hybrid-multi-cloud applications have become part of the enterprise IT landscape, but they give me a headache. This episode of the Tech Field Day Podcast features Barton George, Mike Graff, Mitch Lewis, and Alastair Cooke discussing the dream of a single cloud provider being home to every application in the enterprise has long been morphed. The goal is to optimize applications by using both cloud and on-premises resources, but integrating different platforms is challenging. Services like AWS and Azure have distinct configurations, making a unified management console difficult to achieve. Some companies simplify by using a single cloud, but mergers or unique business needs often disrupt this approach. While hybrid multi-cloud setups improve efficiency, they also bring ongoing IT challenges.
We Are Still in the Early Innings of AI
Alastair Cooke explores the nascent stage of AI development following a delegate discussion at AI Field Day 6. The panel emphasized that while significant progress has been made, the technological journey is still in its early phases. They also discussed various advancements and challenges in the AI field, underscoring the potential and limitations currently faced by the industry. For more insights and detailed analysis, watch Techstrong AI.
Operations, Code or Die
Following a presentation by Ned Bellavance at Cloud Field Day 22, Alastair Cooke discusses the essential convergence of operations and coding, highlighting how today’s IT professionals must adapt to remain relevant in an evolving technology landscape. He asserts that mastery of both fields is crucial for effectively managing modern infrastructure and applications.
Trade Restrictions will Allow China to Out Innovate US AI Companies
China will out-innovate US AI companies because of the trade restrictions imposed on it. In this episode of the Tech Field Day Podcast features Ned Bellavance, Eric Wright, Justin Warren, and Alastair Cooke. They say that necessity is the mother of invention. US restrictions on AI chip exports have driven China to develop a sophisticated generative AI solution with older technology. Are the restrictions making Chinese companies more innovative than their US counterparts? DeepSeek was trained with far fewer resources than previous Large Language Models. On the other hand, DeepSeek isn’t groundbreaking, apart from the apparent censorship around taboo topics to the Chinese establishment.
The Network is Finally the Application
The network is, finally, the application in the public cloud. In this episode of the Tech Field Day Podcast, recorded before Cloud Field Day, features Jon Myer, Michael Levan, Larry Smith, and Alastair Cooke. Deploying applications across multiple clouds requires the network be the common connector to integrate applications across those clouds. Everything is an API, deploying networks on the cloud is software defined but every cloud has its own API and many on-premises networks have their own APIs. Observability across a multi-cloud application is far more complex than when everything was on-premises in our own data center, there are so many new places where issues might arise. The pace of change in modern applications makes analyzing and troubleshooting applications challenging too, when networks are built using a CI/CD pipeline the network configuration can change every day, with new software version deployment. Observability is vital; metrics, logs, and traces need to be fed into a single location where insights can be gained, without the insight there is no reason to collect the data.
Tackling Mulit-Cloud Challenges with AI, Security, and Other Innovations at Cloud Field Day 22
Cloud Field Day 2025 is here! Join us February 19-20 for expert insights from our delegates and analysts on hybrid and multi-cloud challenges, featuring Infoblox on seamless DNS, DHCP, and IP management, Selector AI on AIOps-driven incident resolution, Catchpoint on revolutionizing cloud monitoring with Internet Performance Monitoring (IPM), and Fortinet on advanced security intelligence for rapid threat detection. The event wraps up with a delegate roundtable discussing the complexities of multi-cloud application deployment. Watch live, engage on LinkedIn, and be part of the conversation!
Private Clouds are Coming Back
The public cloud is real; are private clouds real? Will we see more private clouds in 2025? Private cloud technology is far from the early days when on-premises virtualization was cloud-washed. In this episode of the Tech Field Day Podcast, Jon Myer, Allyson Klein, and Justin Warren join Alastair Cooke to examine why businesses deploy private clouds. The cloud operating model makes the private cloud more relevant in 2025 than ever.
Technology Silos Are a Thing of the Past
Enterprise IT has long been divided into silos. This is because of scarce resources and specialized knowledge required to perform some IT operations tasks. The world of today is much more focused on outcomes and the need for silos is waning. In this episode of the Tech Field Day Podcast, Stephen Foskett, Alastair Cooke, and Tom Hollingsworth discuss how enterprise IT has moved away from silos due to increased resource availability and cross training. They also look ahead to new challenges from advances like AI and quantum computing.
New Capabilities With Plenty of Citrix Heritage
Alastair Cooke recently discussed the evolving landscape of Citrix solutions, emphasizing the introduction of new capabilities while retaining the core heritage that many IT professionals trust. He explores how these advancements align with current enterprise needs, enhancing both functionality and user experience. Cooke’s insights highlight the importance of innovation balanced with reliable performance in Citrix’s offerings. Read more in this LinkedIn Pulse article inspired by the Citrix presentation at Security Field Day 12!
Qumulo Distributed Global Namespace and Filesystem
The Qumulo Distributed Global Namespace and Filesystem is designed to streamline data management across diverse storage environments, supporting a range of applications from data analytics to archival storage. With its scalable architecture, Qumulo allows enterprises to manage billions of files with ease, ensuring high performance and accessibility regardless of geographical distribution. This solution is particularly beneficial in environments requiring rapid access to large datasets, facilitating efficiency and collaboration across global teams. Read more in this LinkedIn Pulse article by Alastair Cooke following Qumulo’s presentation at Cloud Field Day 21.