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.
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.
Platform9 Delivers On-Premises Private Cloud as a Service
Alastair Cooke discusses Platform9’s innovative approach to simplifying cloud infrastructure by offering an on-premises private cloud as a service. This model combines the convenience of cloud computing with the security and control of on-premise solutions, catering especially to organizations wanting to leverage cloud capabilities while retaining their data onsite. Platform9’s service underscores a significant shift in how companies can now approach their IT infrastructure, emphasizing flexibility and efficiency without the complexities traditionally associated with private cloud deployments. Read more coverage of Cloud Field Day 21 on The Futurum Group website.
AI Doesn’t Make App Dev Any Better
Generative AI is transforming many industries where people create content. Software development is no different; AI agents are in almost every development platform. But is AI improving application development and software quality? This episode of the Tech Field Day Podcast looks at some of the issues revolving around AI and App Dev with Alastair Cooke, Guy Currier, Jack Poller, and Stephen Foskett. The ultimate objective of a software development team is to deliver an application that fulfills a business need and helps the organization be more successful. An AI that can recommend basic code snippets doesn’t move that needle far. More sophistication is needed to get value from AI in the development process. The objective should be to have AI handle the repetitive tasks and allow humans to focus on innovative tasks where generative AI is less capable. AI agents must handle building tests and reviewing code for security and correctness to enable developers to concentrate on building better applications that help organizations.
Edge Computing is a Melting Pot of Technology
Edge computing is one of the areas where we see startup vendors offering innovative solutions, enabling applications to operate where the business operates rather than where the IT team sit. This episode of the Tech Field Day podcast focuses on the melting pot of edge computing and features Guy Currier, John Osmon, Ivan McPhee, and host Alastair Cooke, all of whom attended the recent Edge Field Day in September. To accommodate the unique nature of the diverse and unusual locations where businesses operate, many different technologies are brought together to form the melting pot of edge computing. Containers and AI applications are coming from the massive public cloud data centres to a range of embedded computers on factory floors, industrial sites, and farm equipment. ARM CPUs, sensors, and low-power hardware accelerators are coming from mobile phones to power applications in new locations. Enterprise organizations must still control and manage data and applications across these locations and platforms. Security must be built into the edge from the beginning; edge computing often happens in an unsecured location and often with no human oversight. This melting pot of technology and innovation makes edge computing an innovative part of IT.
There are Too Many Clouds
Public Cloud computing is a large part of enterprise IT alongside on-premises computing. Many organizations that had a cloud-first approach and are now gaining value from on-premises private clouds and seeing their changing business needs leading to changing cloud use. This episode of the Tech Field Day podcast delves into the complexity of multiple cloud providers and features Maciej Lelusz, Jack Poller, Justin Warren, and host Alastair Cooke, all attendees at Cloud Field Day. The awareness of changing business needs is causing some re-thinking of how businesses use cloud platforms, possibly moving away from using cloud vendor specific services to bare VMs. VMs are far simpler to move from one cloud to another, or between public cloud and private cloud platforms. Over time, the market will speak and if there are too many cloud providers, we will see mergers, acquisitions or failures of smaller specialized cloud providers. In the meantime, choosing where to put which application for the best outcome can be a challenge for businesses.
More than web server certificates, digital identity
Alastair Cooke discusses the broader implications and applications of digital identity beyond merely securing web server communications with certificates. He highlights how digital identity serves as a foundational element in enhancing security across various networking domains, from user authentication to device validation. Cooke’s discussion underscores the vital role that comprehensive digital identity strategies play in safeguarding modern digital environments. Read more in this LinkedIn Pulse article inspired by the DigiCert presentation at Security Field Day 12.