Podcasts about Google Cloud

Fahmi Syed of the Midnight Foundation joins CoinDesk Live to discuss the network's upcoming mainnet launch, strategic cloud partnerships, and the role of "rational privacy" in the AI era. Fahmi Syed, President of the Midnight Foundation, joins CoinDesk Live at Consensus Hong Kong to break down the rapid evolution of the Midnight network. With infrastructure partnerships now in place with Google Cloud and Telegram, Syed details the strategic roadmap for Midnight's late-March federated mainnet launch. He explores the real-world utility of Midnight City—a SimCity style environment where users can interact with zero-knowledge proofs and private stablecoins in a live simulation. As AI-driven data exploitation becomes a global concern, Syed explains why "rational privacy" is the essential bridge for institutions and retail users to trade and protect their identities without compromise. - This episode was hosted live by Jennifer Sanasie and Sam Ewen at Consensus Hong Kong 2026, presented by Hex Trust.

The following article of the AI Cloud & Data industry is: “When AI Enters Through the Back Door: The Shadow AI Phenomenon” by Julio Velázquez, Managing Director, Google Cloud Mexico (AA2411)

In this episode, Michael Lynn (MongoDB) and Yang Li (Google Cloud) break down the architectural blueprint for building intelligent, production-grade applications. Move beyond simple RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) and explore the world of AI Agents.What you'll learn:The Google Cloud AI stack: Vertex AI, Agent Space, and Model Garden.Deep-dive integration: Connecting MongoDB Atlas with BigQuery and Dataflow.Real-world Demo: Building a grocery store AI assistant using Gemini and Vector Search.Startup Perks: How to access up to $350k in Google Cloud credits and $10k in MongoDB credits.

John LeBaron is the CRO at Pattern, the leading e-commerce accelerator that helps brands scale profitably across marketplaces worldwide. John runs the SaaS and Services business units for Pattern and oversees all global go-to-market activities for the company and its partners. Prior to joining Pattern, John ran marketing for the Google Cloud business at Rackspace and has held a variety of global marketing roles with leading tech companies including Apple, Cisco, and Ciena. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, an MSW from Columbia University, and a B.A. in Communications from Brigham Young University.Highlight Bullets> Here's a glimpse of what you would learn…. Challenges faced by e-commerce brands, particularly on Amazon, including competition and pricing pressures.The importance of inventory management and maintaining stock levels to avoid losing market share.Strategies for optimizing conversion rates, focusing on product imagery and continuous testing.The role of data-driven approaches in improving traffic, conversion, price, and availability.The significance of strategic pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and its relationship with organic rankings.Insights on leveraging AI and technology for product listing optimization and advertising efficiency.The impact of overseas competitors on the e-commerce landscape and brand profitability.The concept of the "e-commerce equation" and its components: traffic, conversion, price, and availability.Best practices for managing logistics and shipping to enhance operational efficiency.The importance of continuous improvement and adapting to changes in the e-commerce environment.In this episode of the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast, host Josh Hadley interviews John LeBaron, CRO at Pattern. They discuss how e-commerce brands can profitably scale on Amazon amid rising competition, pricing pressures, and operational challenges. John shares Pattern's data-driven strategies—optimizing inventory, pricing, traffic, and conversion—using advanced AI tools and logistics solutions. Key takeaways include the importance of inventory availability, rigorous conversion rate optimization, and strategic PPC management to build organic rankings. The episode offers actionable advice for brands seeking sustainable growth and highlights Pattern's role as a partner in navigating today's complex e-commerce landscape.Here are the 3 action items that Josh identified from this episode:Protect Your Availability or Lose the GameForecast demand aggressively, fix your inbound bottlenecks, and partner with fast-moving 3PLs—because every stockout destroys ranking, momentum, and profit.Obsess Over Conversion, Starting With the Main ImageRun continuous A/B tests on your hero image, audit your live content weekly, and optimize every element (titles, bullets, A+, coupons, bundles) to lift conversion without increasing ad spend.Use PPC to Own Keywords, Not Rent Them ForeverShift ad spend toward keywords that improve organic rank, monitor Buy Box and conversion signals, and prioritize long-tail opportunities to build profitable, compounding visibility.Resources mentioned in this episode:Josh Hadley on LinkedIneComm Breakthrough ConsultingeComm Breakthrough PodcastEmail Josh Hadley: Josh@eCommBreakthrough.comTmallTikTokWalmartPickFuLovable AIPatternLinkedInThe E-MythAtomic HabitsAll In PodcastSpecial Mention(s):Adam “Heist” Runquist on LinkedInKevin King on LinkedInMichael E. Gerber on LinkedInRelated Episode(s):“Cracking the Amazon Code: Learn From Adam Heist's Brand Scaling Secrets” on the eComm Breakthrough Podcast“Kevin King's Wicked-Smart Tips for Building an Audience of Raving Fans” on the eComm Breakthrough Podcast“Unlocking Entrepreneurial Greatness | Insider Secrets With E-myth Author Michael Gerber” on the eComm Breakthrough PodcastEpisode SponsorSponsor for this episode...This episode is brought to you by eComm Breakthrough Consulting where I help seven-figure e-commerce owners grow to eight figures. I started Hadley Designs in 2015 and grew it to an eight-figure brand in seven years.I made mistakes along the way that made the path to eight figures longer. At times I doubted whether our business could even survive and become a real brand. I wish I would have had a guide to help me grow faster and avoid the stumbling blocks.If you've hit a plateau and want to know the next steps to take your business to the next level, then go to www.EcommBreakthrough.com (that's Ecomm with two M's) to learn more.Transcript AreaJohn Lebaron 00:00:00  We're absolute zealots around something we call the e-commerce equation, which is revenue as a function of traffic times, conversion times, price times, availability. And I think that's very much the way that we think about accelerating brands is just isolating those specific variables of the equation and really going to work on okay for traffic, for example, there's paid traffic. There's, you know, organic traffic, there's off platform traffic. And what are all the hundreds of different kind of atomic levers that we want to pull and automate increasingly via AI for the brands that we represent. And and then helping them set an expectation, helping them forecast appropriately, helping them understand what is their ops upside.Speaker 2 00:00:47  Welcome to the E-comm Breakthrough Podcast. Are you ready to unlock the full potential and growth in your business? You've already crossed seven figures in sales, but the challenge is knowing how to take your business to the next level.Josh Hadley 00:01:00  Are you tired of getting squeezed by Amazon, watching your sales fall? Watching more overseas competitors come in to overtake your market share? Watching the race to the bottom pricing.Josh Hadley 00:01:12  Well, today's guest has the answer for you of how to di...

Paula Natoli of Google Cloud talks about 2026 supply chain challenges & opportunities; AI & data; and what teams can do now to build a better tomorrow.     IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS: [04.20] An introduction to Paula and her decades-long supply chain career. [06.15] The single biggest mindset shift supply chain leaders need to make this year to stay ahead of the curve. "2026 is going to be a pivot point... Decades ago our brains, as supply chain professionals, were wired to solve for least cost… But now it's not just a cost center mentality… It's a mindset shift that has exploded into a new foundational element that gets away from traditional siloed thinking, and moves us into a value creation model." [10.39] Why organizations need to move past a focus on resilience, the next frontier for competitive advantage, and how Google Cloud is guiding leaders to think beyond just surviving disruptions. "The move from just efficiency to overall agility becomes key." [13.42] Why companies are still struggling to turn data into action, and how Google Cloud helps bridge the gap. "We're not short of data! We're capturing and storing data at crazy amounts but, as organizations, we still haven't fully unlocked the value associated with that." [17.18] The role of technology, particularly AI and data, in helping companies meet aggressive sustainability goals, and why achieving a unified data platform is critical. [20.52] Why powering its own global supply chain is a big advantage for Google, and how it informs customer conversations around making their operations more resilient, efficient, and sustainable. "It establishes a level of proven solutions and credibility." [23.31] The multi-layered approach that sets Google Cloud apart and makes them the ideal partner for companies dealing with immense complexity. "It's the full stack that allows us to work with customers wherever they are on their AI journey." [27.21] How Google Cloud is making powerful AI and analytics tools accessible to the everyday supply chain planner or logistics operator. "It's really being democratized. This AI is being injected into the tools and technologies that supply chain professionals and frontline workers are using every day." [30.26] Beyond faster insights, how Agentic AI is fundamentally changing how supply chain teams interact with their data and systems. "We're moving from a passive level to actually executing things… Don't just tell me what my options are. Find the right option, and execute it." [34.05] As AI takes on more of the analytical heavy lifting, how the role of the human supply chain professional is going to evolve, and the new skills that will be most valuable in 2026 and beyond. [36.07] Paula's one piece of advice for C-Suite Leaders and Chief Supply Chain Officers who want to build a truly AI-driven, future-ready supply chain. [39.54] The combination of emerging technologies that will have the biggest impact on supply chains in the next five years. [41.09] The one thing every supply chain professional needs to do differently today to start building a better supply chain.   RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED:   Head over to Google Cloud's website now to find out more and discover how they could help you too. You can also connect with Google Cloud and keep up to date with the latest over on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) or YouTube, or you can connect with Paula on LinkedIn. If you want to hear more from Google, check out 507: Logistics Providers: Ready For An AI-First Approach? Then Discover Your Biggest Opportunity, with Google Cloud. Check out our other podcasts HERE.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I examine how AI-powered partnerships are redefining growth and desirability in the consumer economy. Highlights 00:15 — I want to talk today about how Google Cloud, the number one company on the Cloud Wars Top 10, has partnered up with its longtime customer, Unilever, to develop what I'm calling an AI-powered marketing and fulfillment engine for the AI economy. 00:59 — The focus about AI on large language models and tokens is incredibly important, but not the end goal. The end goal is the business outcome. And I think this is a very healthy thing to see the conversation shift from being heavily focused on the technology to being focused on the desired business outcomes. 02:07 — They said, we are working together in this partnership to create a new model for how consumer packaged goods brands are discovered and shopped. How consumers find them, look for them, shop for them, pay for them, and create growth for these companies. Technology has moved to the core of value creation. 02:52 — Consumers are going to be looking for, finding, and engaging with products via AI. [Unilever's Head of Supply Chain and Operations] said, we now have to be the company that presents them our products, services, possibility, our value to them in the AI context. This goes beyond a tech vendor supplying products and services to a big customer. 03:50 — They're going to use all of Google's vast AI portfolio, from Vertex AI to Gemini on the model side, so from platform to model. They're going to move a lot of Unilever's enterprise applications and data platform over to Google Cloud to allow this better end-to-end capability. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Det vælter ud med rumnyheder i denne tid, og RumNyt har også denne gang proppet lastrummet til randen. Vi følger op med en masse bonusnyt om AI-datacentre i rummet, og så handler det bagefter blandt andet som meget tidlige sorte huller, og en kæmpestor jernstang i midt i en ring af rumtåge. Vi skal dog også høre om (flere) kinesiske raketopsendelser, om raketter der spiser sig selv(!), og om brugen af seismometre til at racke rumskrot på vej ned gennem atmosfæren. Lyt med

En el Radar Empresarial de hoy ponemos el foco en los compromisos económicos de gran envergadura que ha dejado la cumbre global de inteligencia artificial celebrada en la India. El encuentro, encabezado por el primer ministro Narendra Modi, reunió a destacados dirigentes internacionales como Emmanuel Macron y Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. La cita tuvo como propósito principal examinar los desafíos y oportunidades que plantea el desarrollo de la inteligencia artificial en el país asiático, así como su impacto en la economía global. Además de los líderes políticos, participaron figuras clave del sector tecnológico, que aprovecharon el foro para anunciar ambiciosos planes de inversión. Entre los anuncios más relevantes destacó el de Thomas Kurian, máximo responsable de Google Cloud, quien confirmó una inversión de 15.000 millones de dólares durante los próximos cinco años. El proyecto contempla la creación de un gran centro integral de inteligencia artificial en Visakhapatnam. Por su parte, Sundar Pichai, consejero delegado de Alphabet Inc., comunicó la puesta en marcha de dos nuevas rutas de fibra óptica para reforzar la conectividad regional, y subrayó la relevancia estratégica que la IA tiene ya en la vida cotidiana y en la competitividad empresarial. Otra de las grandes protagonistas fue Microsoft. Su presidente, Brad Smith, avanzó un compromiso inversor de 50.000 millones de dólares hasta el final de la década con el fin de ampliar el acceso tecnológico en el sur global. Aunque se esperaba la intervención de Bill Gates, finalmente canceló su participación para que la atención se centrara en los objetivos esenciales del foro. Estas cifras se suman a los 17.000 millones ya destinados el año anterior, consolidando a India como un mercado prioritario. También OpenAI anunció avances significativos. La empresa creadora de ChatGPT se asoció con Tata Consultancy Services para levantar dos centros de datos dentro del proyecto Stargate, con una capacidad inicial de 100 megavatios ampliable hasta un gigavatio. Su director ejecutivo, Sam Altman, incidió en el papel transformador de la IA. La cumbre dejó además una imagen llamativa: Altman y Dario Amodei, máximo responsable de Anthropic, evitaron estrecharse la mano en la despedida oficial.

Perform 2026 felt like a turning point for Dynatrace, and when Steve Tack joined me for his fourth appearance on the show, it was clear this was not business as usual.  We began with a little Perform nostalgia, from Dave Anderson's unforgettable "Full Stack Baby" moment to the debut of AI Rick on the keynote stage. But the humor quickly gave way to substance. Because beneath the spectacle, Dynatrace introduced something that signals a broader shift in observability: Dynatrace Intelligence. Steve was candid about the problem they set out to solve. Too much focus on ingesting data. Too much time spent stitching tools together. Too many dashboards. Too many alerts. The real opportunity, he argued, is turning telemetry into trusted, automated action. And that means blending deterministic AI with agentic systems in a way enterprises can actually trust. We unpacked what that looks like in practice. From United Airlines using a digital cockpit to improve operational performance, to TELUS and Vodafone demonstrating measurable ROI on stage, the emphasis at Perform was firmly on production outcomes rather than pilot projects. As Steve put it, the industry has spent long enough in "pilot purgatory." The next phase demands real-world deployment and real return. A big part of that confidence comes from the foundations Dynatrace has laid with Grail and Smartscape. By combining unified telemetry in its data lakehouse with real-time topology mapping and causal AI, Dynatrace is positioning itself as the engine behind explainable, trustworthy automation. When hyperscaler agents from AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud call Dynatrace Intelligence, they are expected to receive answers grounded in causal context rather than probabilistic guesswork. We also explored what this means for developers, who often carry the burden of alert fatigue and fragmented tooling. New integrations into VS Code, Slack, Atlassian, and ServiceNow aim to bring observability directly into the developer workflow. The goal is simple in theory and complex in execution: keep engineers in their flow, reduce toil, and amplify human decision-making rather than replace it. Of course, autonomy raises questions about risk. Steve acknowledged that for now, humans remain firmly in the loop, with most agentic interactions still requiring checkpoints. But as trust grows, so will the willingness to let systems self-optimize, self-heal, and remediate issues automatically. We closed by zooming out. In a market saturated with AI claims, Steve encouraged listeners to bet on change rather than cling to the status quo. There will be hype. There will be agent washing. But there is also real value emerging for those prepared to experiment, learn, and scale responsibly. If you want to understand where AI observability is heading, and how deterministic and agentic intelligence can coexist inside enterprise operations, this episode offers a grounded, practical perspective straight from the Perform show floor.

L'e-commerce passe du SEO au GEO : Entre agents autonomes et révolutions logistiques.Dans ce 257ème épisode, Laetitia et Adrien décryptent la bascule historique que nous vivons : la fin du moteur de recherche au profit du moteur de conversation. Entre l'alliance Shopify x OpenAI et l'arrivée de la pub sur ChatGPT, le retail ne sera plus jamais le même.Au programme de cet épisode :

In un'epoca in cui Internet è diventato il sistema nervoso della nostra società, sempre più servizi dipendono da un numero ristretto di provider cloud come Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure e Google Cloud. Negli ultimi mesi abbiamo assistito a una serie di disservizi globali che hanno colpito milioni di utenti: dal blackout di AWS che ha reso irraggiungibili innumerevoli siti per 15 ore, ai problemi di Cloudflare, Azure e altri giganti del cloud che hanno paralizzato servizi come ChatGPT, Zoom e Shopify. Questi episodi alimentano la percezione che Internet sia diventato più fragile. Ma è davvero così? O è solo il riflesso di come l'infrastruttura di rete è cambiata negli ultimi decenni? In questa puntata analizziamo come il passaggio da server distribuiti al cloud centralizzato ha trasformato la resilienza di Internet.Nella sezione delle notizie parliamo di NanoIC, il nuovo impianto europeo per la produzione di semiconduttori, del progetto europeo REPper e infine di come la NASA ha autorizzato l'utilizzo di smartphone personali a bordo delle prossime missioni spaziali.--Indice--00:00 - Introduzione01:08 - La strategia UE per la sovranità tecnologica (Europa.eu, Luca Martinelli)02:27 - Il progetto REPper per le riparazioni (AltroConsumo.it, Davide Fasoli)03:29 - NASA autorizza gli smartphone nello spazio (Wired.it, Matteo Gallo)04:53 - Internet è diventato più fragile? (Luca Martinelli)18:06 - Conclusione--Testo--Leggi la trascrizione: https://www.dentrolatecnologia.it/S8E7#testo--Contatti--• www.dentrolatecnologia.it• Instagram (@dentrolatecnologia)• Telegram (@dentrolatecnologia)• YouTube (@dentrolatecnologia)• redazione@dentrolatecnologia.it--Brani--• Ecstasy by Rabbit Theft• Moments by Lost Identities x Robbie Rosen

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explain why the AI revolution isn't a bubble — it's backed by unprecedented backlog growth.Highlights00:02 — There are some wild numbers being thrown around here early in 2026 as we think about the CapEx investments that the four hyperscalers — Microsoft, AWS, Google Cloud, and Oracle — are making to build up their AI factories, their AI and cloud infrastructure to meet the incredible demand for AI training, inferencing, cloud transformations, business transformations, and more.01:28 — The money, the huge revenue, is already there, and it's growing at an incredible pace. That's why these companies are investing so much, because the market is so enormous, the potential is so huge. This number —$1.63 trillion — that's the amount of either RPO or backlog combined that those four companies have generated going forward.02:12 — The RPO backlog figures for each of these companies are: Microsoft, $625 billion, growing at 110%; Oracle, $523 billion, growing at 438%; AWS, $240 billion, up 40%; Google Cloud, $240 billion, growing at 55%. These are very fresh figures from their Q4 earnings results.03:28 — Microsoft and Google each going to spend about $185 billion in CapEx this fiscal year; AWS, $200 billion; and Oracle, about $75 billion. That totals up to $645 billion dollars in CapEx. The world has never seen anything like this. We're into unprecedented territory here.04:39 — That is money that's chasing this already committed business in RPO and backlog. This is $1.63 trillion. That's right here, right now — a snapshot of what they already have in backlog. Even if they don't come anywhere close to those growth rates, they're still showing extraordinary growth and vitality. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Multi-cloud used to be a dirty word — something that happened to you through mergers, shadow IT, or teams gone rogue with corporate cards. But the walls came down, the standards converged, and best-of-breed finally seemed within reach. Then AI arrived with a whole new layer of complexity.Or did it?In this episode, we explore how agentic AI might actually solve the thing that made multi-cloud hard in the first place. Three cloud experts—Jack French from World Wide Technology, Alex Kozaris from Softchoice's AWS practice, and Ron Espinosa from Softchoice's Google Cloud team—break down what's changed, what matters for mid-market teams, and why the "gold record" might finally be possible. Key Takeaways:• Why 90% of organizations are already multi-cloud (whether they planned to be or not)• How abstraction layers and platform engineering help smaller teams manage complexity• What each major cloud does best: AWS for builders, Microsoft for productivity, Google for data/AI• The compliance curve ball forcing some organizations into multi-cloud for AI governance• How agentic AI creates "connective tissue" that makes integration problems irrelevant Featuring:• Jack French, Senior Director of Cloud, World Wide Technology• Alex Kozaris, Public Cloud Leader for AWS, Softchoice• Ron Espinosa, Google Cloud Category Director, SoftchoiceThe Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection of humans and technology.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I examine why incremental growth matters more than sheer cloud size.Highlights00:02 — Made big changes atop the Cloud Wars Top 10 here at the beginning of 2026. Driven by trends in the financial results that the three biggest hyperscalers: Microsoft, Google Cloud, and AWS are reporting. There are changes taking place at the top among those companies, in terms of customer demand and the choices customers are making going forward into the AI Economy.00:48 — My big point here is that there is a metric, key growth metric, and in Q4 for the first time that I can recall, this key metric, both Google Cloud and AWS beat Microsoft in this. This hasn't happened that I can recall. The key here isn't so much about mass accumulated over the years, but about the growth and who customers are spending their money with now.01:42 — Microsoft Cloud revenue of $51.5 billion, up 26%. AWS, $35.6 billion up 24%. Google Cloud, $17.7 billion up a whopping 48%. Now look at the incremental Q4 over Q3 momentum. AWS up $2.6 billion. Google Cloud up $2.5 billion. Microsoft up $2.4 billion.03:13 — Google Cloud actually brought in more incremental revenue in Q4 versus Q3 and this is the first time I believe this has ever happened. Google Cloud's now has $70 billion on an annualized basis, not a little company by any means. In Q4 it grew 48% and it took more new business Q4 versus Q3 than Microsoft did.04:56 — Google Cloud almost matched what AWS did in incremental growth for Q4, and it beat Microsoft. That validates the position I took when I moved Google Cloud to number one on the Cloud Wars Top 10. These numbers reflect what customers are doing, where they're spending their money, who they're choosing, and who they're going with. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In this latest episode of Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans is joined by Colleen Kapase, Vice President of Channels and Partner Programs at Google Cloud, and Rakesh Sancheti, Chief Growth Officer at Tredence. Together, they explore how agentic AI is transforming enterprises from insight-driven organizations into adaptive, reflexive businesses. The conversation highlights how AI agents, data foundations, and partner ecosystems are reshaping productivity, decision-making, and real-time execution across industries.The Responsive EnterpriseThe Big Themes:AI Moves From Insight to Action: Enterprises are transitioning from AI that merely advises to AI systems that actively execute decisions. Agentic AI workflows enable systems to sense changes, analyze signals, and take action without waiting for human intervention. This marks a fundamental shift from dashboards and reports to operational intelligence embedded directly into business processes. The result is faster adaptation, reduced latency in decision-making, and organizations that can respond to market changes in near real time rather than after-the-fact analysis cycles.Partners Are the Critical Bridge: Technology platforms alone cannot deliver transformation. Partners play a crucial role in translating AI capabilities into real-world outcomes by combining industry expertise, customer context, and accelerators. They bridge the gap between powerful AI platforms and the specific operational realities of each enterprise. This partnership model accelerates deployment, reduces experimentation cycles, and ensures AI agents are connected to real data and real processes.Retail Emerges as a Leading Use Case: Retail provides a vivid example of agentic AI in action. Multi-agent systems personalize experiences, optimize merchandising, adjust media spend, and guide customers in real time. These systems act continuously, responding to shopper behavior, inventory signals, and market conditions instantly. The result is improved customer experience, higher returns, and operations that function more like living systems than static processes.The Big Quote: “We're really going to move past the era where data is just sitting in warehouses and being collected and really looking at it independently, and instead take advanced AI and put it in the hands of every single individual.”More from Tredence and Google Cloud:Dive into Tredence's exploration of AI agents and Google Cloud's guide for putting AI agents on the marketplace.  Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In this episode, hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham take you inside how Oracle brings its industry-leading database technology directly to AWS customers.   Senior Principal OCI Instructor Susan Jang unpacks what the OCI child site is, how Exadata hardware is deployed inside AWS data centers, and how the ODB network enables secure, low-latency connections so your mission-critical workloads can run seamlessly alongside AWS services.   Susan also walks through the differences between Exadata Database Service and Autonomous Database, helping teams choose the right level of control and automation for their cloud databases.   Oracle Database@AWS Architect Professional: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-databaseaws-architect-professional/155574 Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu   Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, Anna Hulkower, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.   -------------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript:   00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started! 00:26 Nikita: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services with Oracle University, and with me is Lois Houston, Director of Communications and Adoption with Customer Success Services.  Lois: Hi there! Last week, we talked about multicloud and the partnerships Oracle has with Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Amazon Web Services. If you missed that episode, do listen to it as it sets the foundation for today's discussion, which is going to be about Oracle Database@AWS.  00:59 Nikita: That's right. And we're joined by Susan Jang, a Senior Principal OCI Instructor. Susan, thanks for being here. To start us off, what is Oracle Database@AWS?  Susan: Oracle Database@AWS is a service that allows Oracle Exadata infrastructure that is managed by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or OCI, to run directly inside an AWS data center.   01:25 Lois: Susan, can you go through the key architecture components and networking relationships involved in this?    Susan: The AWS Cloud is the Amazon Web Service. It's a cloud computing platform. The AWS region is a distinct, isolated geographic location with multiple physically separated data center, also known as availability zone. The availability zone is really a physically isolated data center with its own independent power, cooling, and network connectivity.  When we speak of the AWS data center, it's a highly secured, specialized physical facility that houses the computing storage, the compute servers, the storage server, and the networking equipment. The VPC, the Virtual Private Cloud, is a logical, isolated virtual network.  The AWS ODB network is a private user-created network that connects the virtual private cloud network of Amazon resources with an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Exadata system. This is all within an AWS data center. The AWS-ADB peering is really an established private network connection that's between the Oracle VPC, the Virtual Private Cloud, and the Oracle Database@AWS network. And that would be the ODB.  Within the AWS data center, you have something that you see called the child site. Now, an OCI child site is really a physical data center that is managed by Oracle within the AWS data center. It's a seamless extension of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. The site is hosting the Exadata infrastructure that's running the Oracle databases.  The Oracle Database@AWS service brings the power as well as the performance of an Oracle Exadata infrastructure that is managed by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to run directly in an AWS data center.  03:57 Nikita: So essentially, Oracle Database@AWS lets you to run your mission-critical Oracle data load close to your AWS application, while keeping management simple. Susan, what advantages does Oracle Database@AWS bring to the table?  Susan: Oracle Database@AWS offers a powerful and flexible solution for running Oracle workloads natively within AWS. Oracle Database@AWS streamlines the process of moving your existing Oracle Database to AWS, making migration faster as well as easier.  You get direct, low latency connectivity between your application and Oracle databases, ensuring a high performance for your mission-critical workloads.   Billing, resource management, and operational tasks are unified, allowing you to manage everything through similar tools with reduce complexity. And finally, Oracle Database@AWS is designed to integrate smoothly with your AWS environments' workloads, making it so much easier to build, deploy, and scale your solutions.  05:15 Lois: You mentioned the OCI child site earlier. What part does it play in how Oracle Database@AWS works?   Susan: The OCI child site really gives you the capability to combine the physical proximity and resources of AWS with the logical management and the capability of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. This integrated approach allows us to enable the ability for you to run and manage your Oracle databases seamlessly in your AWS environment while still leveraging the power of OCI, our Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.  06:03 Did you know that Oracle University offers free courses on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for subscribers! Whether you're interested in multicloud, databases, networking, security, AI, or machine learning, there's something for everyone. So, what are you waiting for? Pick your topic and get started by visiting mylearn.oracle.com.   06:29 Nikita: Welcome back! Susan, I'm curious about the Exadata infrastructure inside AWS. What does that setup look like?  Susan: The Exadata Infrastructure consists of physical database, as well as storage servers. That is deployed-- the database and the storage servers are interconnected using a high-speed, low-latency network fiber, ensuring optimal performance and reliable data transfer.  Each of the database server runs one or more Virtual Machines, or VMs, as we refer to them, providing flexible compute resources for different workloads. You can create, as well as manage your virtual machine, your VM clusters in this infrastructure using various methods. Your AWS console, Command-Line Interface, CLI, or Application Program Interface, that's your API, giving you various options, several options for automating, as well as integrating your existing tools.  When you're creating your Exadata Infrastructure, there are a few things you need to define and set up. You need to define the total number of your database servers, the total number of your storage server, the model of your Exadata system, as well as the availability zone where all these resources will be deployed.  This architecture delivers a high-performance resiliency and flexible management capability for running your Oracle Database on AWS.  08:18 Lois: Susan, can you explain the network architecture for Oracle Database deployments on AWS?   Susan: The ODB network is an isolated network within the AWS that is designed specifically for Exadata deployments. It includes both the client, as well as the backup subnet, which are essential for securing and efficient database operations.  When you create your Exadata Infrastructure, you need to specify the ODB network as you need the connectivity. This network is mapped directly to the corresponding network in the OCI child site. This will enable seamless communication between AWS, as well as the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.  The ODB network requires two separate CIDR ranges. And in addition, the client subnet is used for the Exadata VM cluster, providing connectivity for database operations. Well, you do also have another subnet. And that subnet is the backup subnet. And it's used to manage database backups of those VM cluster, ensuring not only data protection, but also data recovery.  Within your AWS region and availability zone, the ODB network contains these dedicated client, as well as backup subnet. It basically isolates the Exadata traffic for both the day-to-day access, and that would be for the client, as well as the backup operations, and that would be for the backup subnet. This network design supports secure, high performance, and connectivity in a reliable backup management of the Oracle Database deployments that is running on AWS.  10:23 Nikita: Since we're on the topic of networking, can you tell us about ODB peering within the Oracle Database architecture?  Susan: The ODB peering establishes a secure private connection between your AWS Virtual Private Cloud, your VPC, then the Oracle Database, the ODB network that contains your Exadata Infrastructure.  This connection makes it possible for application servers that's running in your VPC, such as your Amazon EC2 instances to access your Oracle databases that is being hosted on Exadata within your ODB network. You specify the ODB network when you set up your infrastructure, specifically the Exadata Infrastructure. This network includes dedicated client, as well as backup subnets for an efficient and secure connectivity.  If you wish to enable multiple VPCs to connect to the same ODB network and access the Oracle Database@AWS resources, you can leverage AWS Transit Gateways or even an AWS Cloud WAN for scalable and centralized connectivity.   The virtual private cloud contains your application server, and that's securely paired with the Oracle Database network, creating a seamless, high-performance path to your application to interact with your Oracle Database.  ODB peering simplifies the connectivity between the AWS application environments and the Oracle Exadata Infrastructure, thus supporting a flexible, high performance, and secure database access.  12:23 Lois: Now, before we close, can you compare two key databases that are available with Oracle Database@AWS: Oracle Exadata Database Service and Oracle Autonomous Database Service?  Susan: The Exadata Database Service offers a fully managed and dedicated infrastructure with operational monitoring that is handled by you, the customer. In contrast, the Autonomous Database is fully managed by Oracle, taking care of all the operational monitoring.  Exadata provides very high scalability though resources, such as disk and compute, must be sized manually. Where in the Autonomous Database, it offers high scalability through automatic elastic scaling. When we speak of performance, both service deliver strong results. Exadata offers ultra-low latency and Exadata-level performance, while the Autonomous Database delivers optimal performance with automation.  Both services provide high migration capability. Exadata offers full compatibility and the Autonomous Database includes a robust set of migration tools. When it comes to management, Exadata requires manual management and administration. And that's really in a way to provide you the ability to customize it in the manner you desire, making it meets your very specific business needs, especially your database needs.  In contrast, the Autonomous Database is fully managed by Oracle, including automated administration tasks, optimal self-tuning features to further reduce any management overhead. When we speak of the feature sets, the Exadata delivers a full suite of Oracle features, including the RAC application cluster, or the Real Application Cluster, RAC, whereas the Autonomous offers a complete feature set, but specifically that is designed for optimized Autonomous operations.  Finally, when we speak of integration, integration for both of this service integrates seamlessly with AWS service, such as your EC2, your network, the VPC, your policies, the Identity and Access Management, your IAM, the monitoring with your CloudWatch, and of course, your storage, your SC, ensuring a consistent experience within your AWS ecosystem.  15:21 Nikita: So, you could say that the Exadata Database Service is better for customers who want dedicated infrastructure with granular control, while the Autonomous Database is built for customers who want a fully automated experience. Thank you, Susan, for taking the time to talk to us about Oracle Database@AWS.  Lois: That's all we have for today. If you want to learn more about the topics we discussed, head over to mylearn.oracle.com and search for the Oracle Database@AWS Architect Professional course. In our next episode, we'll find out how to get started with the Oracle Database@AWS service. Until then, this is Lois Houston…  Nikita: And Nikita Abraham, signing off!  16:06 That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I analyze hyperscaler Q4 numbers and reveal why growth rates matter more than size right now.Highlights00:02— We've got the final hyperscaler numbers in now, so we can do some comparisons here. AWS reported a very strong Q4 numbers late last week. I want to talk about that in two contexts. First of all, those numbers themselves and the very nice performance AWS put together.00:42 — The second one, though, is relative to its big competitors, specifically Google Cloud and Microsoft. AWS, in spite of good numbers itself in Q4, continues to fall behind the pace being set by the leaders, particularly Google Cloud. Its revenue is up 24% to $35.6 billion. I think that's about a $142 billion annualized run rate.01:44 — Very impressive, excellent growth rate. Each quarter this year, their growth rate has gone up: Q1, 17%; then 17.5%; then 20%; and now 24%. Best quarter in more than three years for them. And their backlog, they said, was up 40% to $244 billion. But at the same time, Google Cloud's explosive Q4 numbers show that they have a 48% growth rate versus AWS's 24%.02:16 — That's twice as much. So AWS is twice as big as Google Cloud, but Google Cloud is growing twice as fast. The growth rate now — 48% in Q4 for Google Cloud, 26% for Microsoft Cloud, and AWS 24% — that is really an outlier there. One is in incremental quarter-over-quarter revenue. So the revenue in Q3, then look at the revenue in Q4.03:02 — AWS is in the lead: $2.6 billion incremental revenue in Q4 versus Q3. Google Cloud, $2.5 billion. Microsoft Cloud, $2.4 billion. AWS is twice as big as Google Cloud, but Google Cloud matched them on this incremental new growth. Microsoft is three times bigger than Google Cloud, but Google Cloud actually exceeded, by a little bit, what Microsoft did in Q4 over Q3.04:27 — Those numbers in any other industry would absolutely be astonishing, unprecedented. In the Cloud Wars, though, as good as those AWS numbers are, it's only third-best. Oracle is expected to grow 40% to 44% in numbers that will come out in about a month, when it reports its most recent quarter. Microsoft is bigger than AWS, and it's growing faster. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Anthropic startet einen frontalen Angriff auf OpenAI mit vier Super-Bowl-Werbespots: "Ads are coming to AI". Sam Altman reagiert sichtlich angefasst und nennt Anthropic "autoritär". Amazon und Google liefern starke Earnings – AWS wächst 24%, Google Cloud sogar 48% – aber beide Aktien fallen. Pip prognostiziert: Amazon verkauft Whole Foods. Neue Details zum SpaceX-XAI-Merger: Ein Two-Step-Merger könnte XAIs desaströse Zahlen vor Investoren verstecken. Reddit hört auf, eingeloggte User zu reporten. Bei Neura Robotics, dem deutschen Robotik-Unicorn, stapeln sich die Red Flags. Steve Bannon fordert öffentlich, dass ICE und Militär während der Midterm-Wahlen an Wahllokalen patrouillieren sollen. Die Washington Post entlässt 30% der Journalisten – während Jeff Bezos 75 Millionen für den Melania-Film ausgibt. Unterstütze unseren Podcast und entdecke die Angebote unserer Werbepartner auf ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠doppelgaenger.io/werbung⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Vielen Dank!  Philipp Glöckler und Philipp Klöckner sprechen heute über: (00:00:00) Intro (00:03:08) SpaceX-XAI Merger: Two-Step-Struktur erklärt (00:06:01) Tesla und Elon Musks Kontrollproblem (00:08:49) Software-Ausverkauf (00:11:55) Die Zukunft der Unternehmenssoftware (00:14:58) Starlink-Konkurrenz: Logos bekommt FCC-Genehmigung (00:17:57) Anthropic Super Bowl Ad trollt OpenAI (00:24:12) Amazon Earnings (00:34:01) Google Earnings (00:54:22) Google Network stirbt (00:57:16) Bedrohung für den Journalismus (01:00:01) Veränderungen im Nachrichtenkonsum (01:02:32) Gemini vs ChatGPT: 750 Mio. User (01:05:16) Reddit Earnings: Stoppt User-Metriken (01:09:11) Google bestraft Self-Promotion Listicles (01:12:32) GEO ist overhyped: Wo ist der Umsatz? (01:15:34) Werbung auf ChatGPT: Sinnvoll? (01:17:17) TikTok: EU verlangt Design-Änderungen (01:19:11) Grok: Sexualisierung war bewusster Hack (01:21:28) Steve Bannon: ICE an Wahllokalen (01:25:40) Washington Post feuert 30% der Journalisten (01:31:08) Starlink auf russischen Drohnen (01:34:54) Krypto verliert 2 Billionen (01:37:53) Neura Robotics Shownotes Verkauf von XAI bringt steuerliche und rechtliche Vorteile für SpaceX-Investoren - reuters.com FCC genehmigt Logos den Einsatz von über 4000 Breitband-Satelliten - spacenews.com Anthropic plant keine Werbung für Claude - engadget.com Sam Altman verärgert über Claude Super-Bowl-Werbung - techcrunch.com Cerebras erhält 1 Milliarde Finanzierung bei 23 Milliarden Bewertung - bloomberg.com rentahuman - rentahuman.ai Amazon vom Kartellamt mit Strafe belegt - tagesschau.de Die Gemini-App erreichte 750M+ monatlich aktive Nutzer im Q4 2025. - x.com Applovin wegen Geldwäschevorwürfen angeklagt - finance.yahoo.com Google geht gegen selbstfördernde Bestenlisten vor - searchengineland.com TikTok muss möglicherweise sein "süchtig machendes Design" ändern. - theguardian.com Elon Musk allegedly deliberately fueled Grok's porn scandal - computerbild.de Büros in Frankreich durchsucht, UK untersucht Grok erneut. - bbc.com Elon Musk Sánchez - x.com Steve Bannon fordert Einwanderungsbeamte an Wahllokalen während Zwischenwahlen - theguardian.com Der Mord der Washington Post - theatlantic.com Starlink in Ukraine von Russland blockiert - edition.cnn.com Ein Reddit-Nutzer loggte sich in Epsteins Outlook-Konto ein. - x.com Justizministerium | Startseite | Justizministerium der Vereinigten Staaten - justice.gov Mandelsons Verbindungen zu Palantir müssen vollständig offengelegt werden. - theguardian.com Dateien zeigen Epsteins Geld in Silicon Valleys Tech-Start-ups. - nytimes.com US-Firma interessiert an deutschem Robotik-Start-up Neura Robotics - manager-magazin.de Auswirkungen von AG1® auf Darmmikrobiom: klinische Studie. - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explain why agent sprawl may become one of the biggest hidden risks of the AI Era.Highlights00:03 — The massive increase in the adoption of agentic AI technology will have significant consequences for businesses. There'll be increased productivity, the ability to reskill employees who have more time to focus on other areas of the business, and opportunities to explore new business ideas and avenues.00:32 — And something else — a surge in the number of AI agents, millions, millions, and millions of them. All of these agents lead to a phenomenon called agent sprawl. So if data sprawl is diesel-driven, think of agent sprawl as running on jet fuel. Without proper governance and visibility, this can lead to shadow AI, which, in the wrong hands, could effectively bring down a business.01:04 — To avoid this, Salesforce has added automated discovery for AI agents and tools to MuleSoft Agent Fabric. Andrew Comstock, SVP and GM of MuleSoft at Salesforce, said "The expanded capabilities give you the freedom to innovate across any platform while maintaining the unified visibility and control needed to scale."01:32 — At the core of these enhancements are agent scanners, which automatically detect and catalog AI agents across Salesforce Agentforce, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud's Vertex AI, and other authorized AI platforms. Additionally, for MCP services and other bespoke agents, MuleSoft Agent Fabric facilitates easy integration across a company's entire agent ecosystem.02:01 — The recent updates replace manual oversight with automation, enhance security by providing instant visibility into multi-cloud agents, highlight internal tools that may otherwise be overlooked, and offer a unified agent map to identify areas for optimizing AI investments. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Highlights00:02 — A month ago, I moved Google Cloud up to the #1 spot on the Cloud Wars Top 10, moved Microsoft down to #3. That was predicated in large part on the tremendous job Google Cloud has done in building sort of the twin pillars: AI and cloud, the way its customers are building for the future, not just perfecting what they've done in the past.00:27 — And also the company's impressive growth rates, showing that more and more, in spite of the size differential between Microsoft and Google Cloud, Google Cloud was winning a disproportionate share of new business, showing it is becoming, back then, the favored cloud and AI vendor.00:47 — Well, the Q4 numbers for Google Cloud came out yesterday, and there's no doubt that that was the right call To make. Google Cloud's Q4 revenue jumped 48% to $17.7 billion and they beat Microsoft for the first time ever in a very key metric, it's the really the big thing I want to talk about here today.01:50 — Microsoft's last three quarters, it grew 27% 26, 26. For Google Cloud, it's 32, 34, 48. Google Cloud is on a massive acceleration run here. So, in spite of the fact that the numbers here, the revenue figures, are different, what we see is Google Cloud accelerating wildly. Well, Microsoft has leveled off again.02:23 — The key point here, this key metric I talked about up above, if you look at the incremental revenue gains each company made, looking at what calendar Q3 ended, September 30 to calendar Q4 December 31, those are the periods we're looking at. Google Cloud's revenue Q3 to Q4 went up $2.5 billion from just over $15 to $17.7, Microsoft's went up $2.4 billion $49.1 to $51.5.03:30 — While the heart of this discussion is around Google Cloud, Microsoft has been doing an extraordinary job in this very competitive market, but that's why I call it the greatest growth market the world has ever known. We're seeing companies perform in this market unlike any other industry at any time in human history.04:47 — The big thing about it here is you've got these smaller, disruptive cloud and AI players, Google Cloud at #1, Oracle #2, Microsoft down at #3. I moved AWS down to #7. It's doing some really good things in a lot of ways, but as far as the company setting the agenda in line with their customers for the future for the AI economy, it's Google #1, Oracle #2, Microsoft #3. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In a world that's being transformed by AI agents and agentic systems, how do software developers unlearn what they know while also maintaining engineering rigor? In an in-person conversation with Nathen Harvey, Developer Relations Engineer at Google Cloud, and Patrick Debois, Developer Relations at Tessl, host Ken Mugrage dives into the ways individuals, teams and organizations are walking the line between experimentation and well-established engineering practices as they seek to innovate while ensuring resilience, reliability and security. Thoughtworks is a platinum sponsor of the 2025 DORA report: https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-us/insights/reports/the-2025-dora-report  

El foco del mercado se dirige casi por completo a los resultados presentados por Alphabet tras el cierre de la sesión. La compañía tecnológica registró un beneficio neto de 122.000 millones de dólares, lo que representa un avance del 32% frente al mismo periodo del año anterior. Este desempeño se apoya principalmente en el crecimiento de los ingresos, que en el último ejercicio marcaron un récord histórico de 374.000 millones de dólares, con un aumento interanual del 15%. Dentro de esta evolución, la publicidad y las suscripciones de YouTube volvieron a ser claves, al generar cerca de 55.000 millones de dólares. En el cuarto trimestre, los analistas siguieron de cerca el desempeño de Google Cloud, que superó expectativas con un crecimiento interanual del 48%. La división de nube se ve impulsada por Gemini, su agente de inteligencia artificial, que ya alcanza 750 millones de usuarios activos mensuales y consolida su posición estratégica dentro del grupo tecnológico global. La inteligencia artificial concentró gran parte del interés del mercado. Sundar Pichai, consejero delegado de Alphabet, señaló durante la presentación que el grupo prevé destinar entre 175.000 y 185.000 millones de dólares en 2026 a inversiones en chips, servidores y centros de datos. Esta cifra superó ampliamente las previsiones de Bloomberg, que apuntaban a 95.000 millones, y explicaría las caídas del valor en el mercado fuera de hora, generando nuevas dudas sobre la financiación futura de estos ambiciosos planes. Pese a ello, Pichai calificó el trimestre como excepcional. También destacó Waymo, la unidad de conducción autónoma, cuyas pérdidas operativas superan los 3.000 millones de dólares, aunque la empresa mantiene su apuesta. Alphabet anunció una ronda de financiación de 16.000 millones de dólares para Waymo, principalmente aportada por el grupo, lo que implicó un cargo extraordinario de 1.950 millones de euros y elevó su valoración hasta 126.000 millones de dólares, reforzando su papel como proyecto clave dentro de estrategia.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Rashmi Mohan hosts software development productivity expert Nicole Forsgren, Senior Director of Developer Intelligence at Google. Forsgren co-founded DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA), a Google Cloud team that utilizes opinion polling to improve software delivery and operations performance. Forsgren also serves on the ACM Queue Editorial Board. Previously, she led productivity efforts at Microsoft and GitHub, and was a tenure track professor at Utah State University and Pepperdine University. Forsgren co-authored the award-winning book Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps and the recently published Frictionless: 7 Steps to Remove Barriers, Unlock Value, and Outpace Your Competition in the AI Era. In this interview, Forsgren shares her journey from psychology and family science to computer science and how she became interested in evidence-based arguments for software delivery methods. She discusses her role at Google utilizing emerging and agentic workflows to improve internal systems for developers. She reflects on her academic background, as the idea for DORA emerged from her PhD program, and her time at IBM. Forsgren also shares the relevance of the DORA metrics in a rapidly changing industry, and how she's adjusting her framework to adapt to new AI tools. 

Send us a textWhat if the future of work depends less on technology and more on how much humanity we choose to preserve?This week on The UpLevel Podcast, we welcome Marshall Belcher, Principal Strategist and AI Innovation Lead for Strategic Customer Engagement at a global tech company, for a thoughtful and timely conversation on leadership, right relationship, and artificial intelligence.Marshall works at the forefront of artificial intelligence, supporting executive strategy and CEO-level engagements across some of the most influential organizations in Silicon Valley. With more than 30 years of experience across companies like Cisco, AT&T, and Prudential, he brings rare depth at the intersection of technology, leadership, and relationship intelligence.But what makes this conversation especially powerful is Marshall's commitment to service, care, and responsibility. We'll explore what it means to be in right relationship with technology as AI reshapes how we work, lead, and connect. Marshall shares why AI must be designed and implemented through intentional alliances, ethical frameworks, and human-centered systems that prioritize safety, dignity, and trust.As we continue our exploration of right relationship, Marshall reminds us that the question is not whether AI will shape our future but how intentionally and relationally we choose to shape AI.Together, we explore:AI as a tool to elevate human potential rather than replace itThe importance of training, governance, and culture when embedding AI into workplacesWhy relationship intelligence matters just as much as technical intelligenceLeadership approaches that preserve humanity in high-performance environmentsWhy right relationship requires putting service before metricsFriendship and genuine connection as strengths in leadershipThe risks of measuring success through individual performance aloneWhy AI must be approached with discernment, training, and humilityHow emotional intelligence and right relationships are essential for AI safety and alignmentWhat it means to design alliances with technology rather than emotional attachments*Disclaimer: What's discussed in this episode are Marshall's personal views and in no way represent Alphabet, Google.About Marshall:Marshall Belcher is a Principal Strategist and AI Innovation Lead for Strategic Customer Engagement at Google Cloud, where he drives executive AI strategy and supports CEO-level engagements for Alphabet's largest customers in Silicon Valley. He designs and delivers strategy sessions, consultative workshops, speaking engagements, and advanced AI demonstrations inside Google Cloud's flagship executive environment.He is a Wharton CTO Program graduate, holds a Master's in Innovation & Entrepreneurship from Full Sail University, and earned his B.S. in Microbiology & Cell Science from the University of Florida.Driven by a belief in AI's power to elevate human potential, Marshall is a lifelong learner who loves to run, eat well, and explore the world.https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbelcher/www.uplevelproductions.comhttps://www.instagram.com/uplevelproductions/https://www.linkedin.com/company/uplevelproductionscompanyhttps://www.facebook.com/uplevelproductionscompany

In the latest episode of the Data Center Frontier Show Podcast, Editor in Chief Matt Vincent speaks with Sailesh Krishnamurthy, VP of Engineering for Databases at Google Cloud, about the real challenge facing enterprise AI: connecting powerful models to real-world operational data. While large language models continue to advance rapidly, many organizations still struggle to combine unstructured data (i.e. documents, images, and logs) with structured operational systems like customer databases and transaction platforms. Krishnamurthy explains how vector search and hybrid database approaches are helping bridge this gap, allowing enterprises to query structured and unstructured data together without creating new silos. The conversation highlights a growing shift in mindset: modern data teams must think more like search engineers, optimizing for relevance and usefulness rather than simply exact database results. At the same time, governance and trust are becoming foundational requirements, ensuring AI systems access accurate data while respecting strict security controls. Operating at Google scale also reinforces the need for reliability, low latency, and correctness, pushing infrastructure toward unified storage layers rather than fragmented systems that add complexity and delay. Looking toward 2026, Krishnamurthy argues the top priority for CIOs and data leaders is organizing and governing data effectively, because AI systems are only as strong as the data foundations supporting them. The takeaway: AI success depends not just on smarter models, but on smarter data infrastructure.

Multicloud is changing the way modern teams run their workloads: with real choice and real control.   In this episode, hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham welcome Senior Principal OCI Instructor Sergio Castro, who explains how Oracle has partnered with Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS to bring Oracle Database directly inside their data centers, unlocking sub-millisecond latency and new levels of flexibility.   They discuss how organizations can seamlessly migrate from on-premises or between clouds with minimal disruption, take advantage of best-in-class cloud services, and enhance business continuity.   Oracle Database@AWS Architect Professional: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-databaseaws-architect-professional/155574 Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu   Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, Anna Hulkower, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.   ------------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript:   00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started! 00:26 Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Lois Houston, Director of Communications and Adoption with Customer Success Services, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services. Nikita: Hi everyone! We're kicking off a new season of the podcast today, this time on Oracle Database@AWS. But before we fully dive into that, we've got Sergio Castro with us to introduce multicloud and talk about some of its use cases. Sergio, who you may have heard on the podcast before, is a Senior Principal OCI Instructor with Oracle University.   01:02 Lois: Hi Sergio! Thanks for joining us today. We've spoken a lot about multicloud before, but we couldn't possibly discuss Oracle Database@AWS without another quick intro to multicloud. So, for anyone who doesn't already know, what is multicloud? And could you also talk about what Oracle is doing in this space?  Sergio: It is the use of several Cloud providers to deliver an IT service. Basically, a multi-cloud strategy allows organizations to distribute their workloads across multiple Cloud platforms and providers. This will help aiding the flexibility when picking the right tool for each job. Basically, by selecting the best Cloud Service, IT architects can take advantage of each provider's strengths, including custom hardware, software, and service capabilities. And Oracle is a pioneer in multi-cloud. We have partnerships with Azure, Google Cloud, AWS, and we've been doing multi-cloud since 2019, including Oracle Interconnect for Azure and Oracle Interconnect for Google Cloud. Our multi-cloud products is the Oracle Database Service at Azure, at Google Cloud, and at AWS. Here we have our database inside the data centers of these Cloud Service providers. And multi-cloud can be complemented by resources that you have on-premises, providing you with a hybrid Cloud model. And our public Cloud offerings are not limited to the commercial realm. Multi-cloud is beginning to be available also in the government realm. You can now find Oracle Interconnect for Azure in the US government realm. We also have government realm offerings in the UK and in the European Union. And of course, dedicated Cloud. If you're going to be involving on-premises, you can also have all the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources behind your firewall, behind your routers with dedicated Cloud. So the offers from Oracle Cloud Infrastructure are really exceptional. It offers you great flexibility and choice. And the choice is yours. You select the platform for your Oracle Cloud solutions.  03:39 Nikita: You've already mentioned a few of them, but could you talk about the various benefits of multicloud? Sergio: A solid multi-cloud approach enables organizations to leverage the unique strengths and offerings of various Cloud service providers. By not being limited to a single vendor's capabilities or policies, businesses can adapt quickly to changing environments, deploy workloads where they fit best, and rapidly integrate new solutions as market demands evolve.  Relying on a single Cloud vendor can make it challenging and costly to migrate workloads or switch providers if businesses needs change. Multi-cloud strategies mitigate this risk by distributing applications and data across multiple platforms, making technology transition smoother and giving organizations greater bargaining power.  Now, diminishing single points of failure at the Cloud service provider level is great, because distributing systems and data across multiple clouds can definitely reduce dependence on a single provider or region.  This increased geographic diversity improves resilience and provides a more robust backup and recovery option, helping to ensure business continuity in the event of a disaster or even an outage. With access to a range of pricing models and service levels from different providers, organizations can allocate workloads based on cost effectiveness.  This best fit approach encourages cost savings by enabling the selection of the most economical provider for each workload. And this facilitates continuous cost optimization efforts. For example, OCI provides significantly lower data egress charges, this in comparison to our competitors.  Multicloud management empowers organizations to place their workloads in the environments where they perform the best. By distributing workloads based on latency, processing power, or data proximity, businesses can realize performance improvements and achieve higher availability for their critical services.  Now regarding best of breed, each Cloud provider brings unique innovations and specialized services to the market. With a multi-cloud approach, organizations can tailor solutions to meet specific business needs.  Operating across multiple Cloud platforms means access to a wider array of data centers worldwide. This extended reach supports expansion into new markets, improves local performance for users, and helps satisfy data sovereignty requirements in diverse jurisdictions. And speaking about jurisdictions, this flexibility helps meet industry standards and regional data protection laws more effectively.  06:50 Nikita: You mentioned that Oracle's multicloud journey started in 2019 with Azure. What was that early phase like? Sergio: The Oracle Cloud Infrastructure multi-cloud offering started with the Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure, where we connect FastConnect, our digital circuit, to the equivalent Express Route, the digital circuit of Microsoft Azure. Basically FastConnect, it is used typically for extending the OCI services into on-premises. In this case, it is extending these services into another Cloud Service provider, Microsoft Azure or various applications. 07:29 Lois: And then we moved on to Oracle Database Service for Azure, right?  Sergio: It's very similar to what we have right now, the Oracle Database Service at Azure, except that back then, the interface was on OCI. Basically on OCI, we had a console that resembled Azure, but all the services were still running on OCI. Now, the difference with Oracle Database Service at Azure is that we extended Oracle Cloud Infrastructure into the Azure data centers. So Oracle Database at Azure is a child site in the Microsoft Azure data centers. Basically we are placing our hardware in Azure data centers. And this gives us a very good latency, sub-one millisecond latency. 08:24 Lois: What about Oracle's multicloud services with Google and Amazon Web Services?  Sergio: Oracle Interconnect org and Oracle Database app are available for Google Cloud. We do have a service called Oracle Interconnect or Google Cloud, similar to the Azure one. And we also have the Oracle Database inside the Google Cloud data centers operating as a child site. And back in 2024 during Oracle Cloud World, we announced Oracle Database@AWS. This product is now available in two AWS regions. In a similar way, we have the Oracle Database inside the AWS data center with sub-one millisecond latency. We are currently in two data centers, but we have brought plans for being available in over 20 plan regions between Oracle Cloud and Amazon Web Services. 09:32 Nikita: Sergio, how do the capabilities of Oracle Database multicloud help enterprises modernize? Sergio: Oracle Database multi-cloud capabilities help enterprise modernize, adopting a Gen AI strategy, obviously, using the Oracle database to bring Oracle's powerful AI to business data. When you move to multi-cloud environments, you have a playground for you to test and run your workloads and then go into productions with your choice of services on the Oracle Exadata. And reducing risk, it's very easy to move to cloud and gain Oracle maximum availability architecture benefits. And by moving into a multi-cloud environment, you guarantee that you're going to be lowering your cost because you're going to be selecting the best of breed of the services that the Cloud Service provider can offer. Now, with the Oracle Database on multi-cloud environments, you're able to port your Oracle Database knowledge that you have from on-premises to a single cloud provider to a multi-cloud environment. It is the same solution, the same Oracle Database capabilities available everywhere-- on-premises, on your private cloud, on a single cloud provider, or on a multi-cloud environment. Having the same capabilities make it very easy to migrate from on-premises or to migrate from one cloud service provider to the other. Oracle Database multi-cloud solutions really offer the best of both worlds. So a choice of services directly from hyperscaler marketplace and the vendor's cloud portal. 11:21 Lois: And when you say "hyperscalers," who exactly are you referring to? Sergio: These hyperscalers, we're talking about OCI, we're talking about Azure, we're talking about Google cloud, we're talking about AWS. Having the Oracle Database inside the Cloud data centers, regardless of who the hyperscaler provider is, guarantees low latency from your application into your database. But Oracle Database is not the only product. We also offer Oracle Interconnect for Azure and GCP. So if you want to go beyond Oracle Database@Cloud Service provider, or if you're looking to going into a region where the service is not available yet, you can leverage the Oracle Interconnect for Azure or Google Cloud platform. Basically, this service interconnects the Cloud Service providers. We have a partnership and selected regions where we interconnect with either Azure or Google Cloud platform.  12:25 Are you working toward an Oracle Certification? Join one of our live certification prep events! Get insider tips from seasoned experts and connect with others on the same path. Visit mylearn.oracle.com and kick off your certification journey today! 12:45 Nikita: Welcome back! Sergio, could you tell us about some key Oracle Database multicloud use cases? Sergio: Move to cloud. Lift and shift from on-premises to Cloud. Lift and shift from one Cloud Service provider to the other, and consolidate your database on Exadata. This will guarantee all the tools that you need for building innovative applications, bringing artificial intelligence to your business data, on the Oracle powerful AI suite, and combine Database AI with hyperscaler services and frameworks. Remember, the best of breed from the Cloud Service provider of your choice. And this will allow you to reduce complexity and cost. Now according to knowledge is not the only thing. You can also lift and ship without refactoring your data, reducing migration times, complexity, and costs with the Oracle Database Exadata and maximum availability architecture. 13:47 Nikita: What are the key differentiators and benefits of moving Oracle Database workloads to the cloud? Sergio: Extreme performance. Accelerate your database workloads with scalability, scale infrastructure, and consumption, and extreme cost optimization. But that's not all. You also get extreme availability with the Oracle maximum availability architecture, extreme resiliency, making sure that you're always running with high availability and disaster recovery protection and extreme simplicity. So you can use all your Oracle Database and Exadata capabilities. Build innovative applications with Cloud-First capabilities. These are Cloud native capabilities that are going to enable you to innovate for all your applications. And having a unified multi-cloud environment reduce complexity and cost because you can leverage your Exadata infrastructure with share licenses, low administration with database lifecycle automation, and purchase through your hyperscaler marketplace. So you can only have one vendor running all billing, even if you're leveraging multi-cloud solutions. And you can leverage your Oracle investments with bring-your-own-license and earn up to 33% towards Oracle tech license. Reduce administration by up to 65% with the Autonomous self-driving database. Only pay consumption for actual usage with online scaling, Autonomous Database, elastic pools, and per second billing. And enjoy advanced features at no added cost, like using the built-in AI vector search. 15:31 Lois: Can you give us a real-world example of a company using Oracle Database@AWS? Sergio: Fidelity Investments rely on Oracle Database@AWS. They were one of the very first customers to leverage the best of both worlds, in this case, the offering from the AWS hyperscale applications and the Oracle Database Exadata Cloud service inside AWS. Specifically, Fidelity uses this integration to make it easier to move some of its database workloads to AWS, combining the reliability and security of AWS with the critical enterprise software provided by Oracle.  16:17 Lois: Thank you, Sergio, for joining us on the podcast! To learn more about what we discussed today, head over to mylearn.oracle.com and search for the Oracle Database@AWS Architect Professional course. Join us next week when we dive deep into what Oracle Database@AWS is all about. Until then, this is Lois Houston… Nikita: And Nikita Abraham, signing off! 16:43 That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

AI took center stage at NRF 2026, and few moments underscored its importance more than Google CEO Sundar Pichai's keynote, where he outlined how shopping is evolving in an increasingly agentic, AI-driven world.This episode of Retail Remix, recorded live from the show floor, features host Nicole Silberstein in conversation with Anil Jain, who leads Global Strategic Industries at Google Cloud. Anil shares how Google Cloud is working with retailers to reimagine everything from product discovery to post-purchase service and why agentic AI represents a fundamental shift in how consumers will interact with brands.Key TakeawaysWhy AI is becoming the great equalizer, helping smaller companies compete with limited resources;How AI experiences in general-use platforms like Google Search are upping the ante for everyone, and how to keep up;What multimodal search unlocks when consumers can shop using not just text, but also voice, images and video;Why hyper-personalization is finally within reach after decades of promise;The change management that will be required as AI shifts the way we all work; How Google and its Cloud division are building for this future.Related LinksRelated reading: Google Launches Direct Checkout in Search, GeminiLearn how Google Cloud is helping retailers adopt AI at scaleExplore more NRF26 coverage and retail insights from Retail TouchPointsSubscribe so you don't miss more episodes of Retail Remix from the show floor of NRF26

Send us a textIn this episode, Frank and Stephen share the latest in cloud computing. They focus on AWS innovations, like new EC2 instances, generative AI advancements, and cost management strategies. They explore how AI integrates into cloud services and introduce Amazon Nova 2 for advanced reasoning tasks. They also discuss improvements in billing and support services. The conversation includes updates from Azure and Google Cloud, showcasing the changing cloud technology landscape and its impact on businesses.

This interview was recorded for GOTO State of the Art in October 2025.https://gotopia.techRead the full transcription of this interview here:https://gotopia.tech/articles/415Nathen Harvey - DORA Lead, Product Manager at Google Cloud & AuthorCharles Humble - Freelance Techie, Podcaster, Editor, Author & ConsultantRESOURCESNathenhttps://bsky.app/profile/nathenharvey.bsky.socialhttps://x.com/nathenharveyhttps://github.com/nathenharveyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nathenhttps://linktr.ee/nathenharveyhttp://nathenharvey.comCharleshttps://bsky.app/profile/charleshumble.bsky.socialhttps://linkedin.com/in/charleshumblehttps://mastodon.social/@charleshumblehttps://conissaunce.comLinkshttps://dora.devhttps://dora.dev/research/2025/dora-reporthttps://dora.dev/research/2024/dora-reporthttps://thenewstack.io/ebooks/kubernetes/kubernetes-at-the-edge-container-orchestration-at-scaleDESCRIPTIONCharles Humble speaks with Nathen Harvey, leader of Google's DORA research team, about the real impact of AI on software development.Drawing from surveys of nearly 5,000 practitioners, Nathen reveals a surprising finding: increased AI adoption initially correlates with decreased stability and throughput - the very metrics teams have optimized for decades. The conversation explores why this happens, what capabilities organizations need before scaling AI adoption, and how AI acts as an amplifier of existing systems rather than a silver bullet.Nathen introduces DORA's seven AI capabilities model and discusses critical issues around trust, documentation, skill devaluation, and the future of software delivery in an AI-native world.RECOMMENDED BOOKSEmily Freeman & Nathen Harvey • 97 Things Every Cloud Engineer Should Know • https://amzn.to/3UlWBLtCharles Humble • Professional Skills for Software Engineers • https://www.conissaunce.com/professional-skills-shortcutNicole Forsgren, Jez Humble & Gene Kim • Accelerate • https://amzn.to/442Rep0Kim, Humble, Debois, Willis & Forsgren • The DevOps Handbook • https://amzn.to/47oAf3lJez Humble & David Farley • Continuous Delivery • https://amzn.to/452ZRkyJez Humble, Joanne Molesky & Barry O'Reilly • Lean Enterprise • https://amzn.to/47pcOXDAdrienne Braganza Tacke • "Looks Good to Me": Constructive Code Reviews • https://amzn.to/3E75XrDYevgeniy Brikman • Fundamentals of DevOps and Software Delivery • https://amzn.to/3WMPMFUBlueskyTwitterInstagramLinkedInFacebookCHANNEL MEMBERSHIP BONUSJoin this channel to get early access to videos & other perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_tLP3AiwYKwdUHpltJPuA/joinLooking for a unique learning experience?Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket: gotopia.techSUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted daily!

Episode 159: In this episode of Critical Thinking - Bug Bounty Podcast we sit down with the Google Cloud VRP Team to deep-dive policy and reward changes, what the panel process looks like, and how to best configure for success.Follow us on XGot any ideas and suggestions? Feel free to send us any feedback here: info@criticalthinkingpodcast.ioShoutout to YTCracker for the awesome intro music!====== Links ======Follow your hosts Rhynorater, rez0 and gr3pme on X: ====== Ways to Support CTBBPodcast ======Hop on the CTBB DiscordWe also do Discord subs at $25, $10, and $5 - premium subscribers get access to private masterclasses, exploits, tools, scripts, un-redacted bug reports, etc.Get some hacker swagToday's Sponsor: Join Justin at Zero Trust World in March and get $200 off registration with Code ZTWCTBB26https://ztw.com/Today's Guests:Darby HopkinsMichael Cote====== This Week in Bug Bounty ======AI Red Teaming Explained by AI Red TeamersGood Faith AI Research Safe HarborJoin the Adobe LHE at NULLCON GOA====== Resources ======‘Legendary Guy' - Jakub DomerackiGoogle Cloud VRP rewards rulesGoogle Cloud VRP product tiersBug Hunters blog on the 2025 Google Cloud VRP bugSWATGoogle VRP DiscordGoogle VRP on X====== Timestamps ======(00:00:00) Introduction(00:10:03) CloudVRP Bugswat Event Breakdown(00:16:40) VRP Policy & Rewards Changes(00:04:50) Panel Process(01:00:08) Configuring for Success & Avoiding Downgrades(01:33:47) Scenarios for Success

Episode 159: In this episode of Critical Thinking - Bug Bounty Podcast we sit down with the Google Cloud VRP Team to deep-dive policy and reward changes, what the panel process looks like, and how to best configure for success.Follow us on XGot any ideas and suggestions? Feel free to send us any feedback here: info@criticalthinkingpodcast.ioShoutout to YTCracker for the awesome intro music!====== Links ======Follow your hosts Rhynorater, rez0 and gr3pme on X:====== Ways to Support CTBBPodcast ======Hop on the CTBB DiscordWe also do Discord subs at $25, $10, and $5 - premium subscribers get access to private masterclasses, exploits, tools, scripts, un-redacted bug reports, etc.Get some hacker swagToday's Sponsor: Join Justin at Zero Trust World in March and get $200 off registration with Code ZTWCTBB26https://ztw.com/Google Cloud VRP Swag Bonus! Mention the podcast in any rewarded (cash or credit) VRP report submission before the end of April to receive bonus swag!Today's Guests:Darby HopkinsMichael Cote====== This Week in Bug Bounty ======AI Red Teaming Explained by AI Red TeamersGood Faith AI Research Safe HarborJoin the Adobe LHE at NULLCON GOA====== Resources ======‘Legendary Guy' - Jakub DomerackiGoogle Cloud VRP rewards rulesGoogle Cloud VRP product tiersBug Hunters blog on the 2025 Google Cloud VRP bugSWATGoogle VRP DiscordGoogle VRP on X====== Timestamps ======(00:00:00) Introduction(00:10:03) CloudVRP Bugswat Event Breakdown(00:16:40) VRP Policy & Rewards Changes(00:04:50) Panel Process(01:00:08) Configuring for Success & Avoiding Downgrades(01:33:47) Scenarios for Success

Chris McHenry, Chief Product Officer at Aviatrix, joined Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, to discuss the launch of Aviatrix 8.2 and how the company is redefining zero trust security for modern cloud-native environments. McHenry explained that as critical business data and AI workloads increasingly reside in public clouds such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, traditional perimeter-based security models are no longer sufficient. Aviatrix has spent the last decade building its Cloud Native Security Fabric, a platform designed specifically for cloud operational models rather than retrofitted on-premises approaches. With release 8.2, Aviatrix significantly expands its “zero trust for workloads” capabilities, focusing on Kubernetes, serverless environments, and AI-driven applications. A central theme of the conversation was the evolution of zero trust from a networking concept into a workload-centric security strategy. McHenry noted that recent supply-chain attacks have shown how quickly cloud-native environments can be compromised if basic network controls are missing. Aviatrix 8.2 introduces deeper Kubernetes awareness, policy-as-code integration, and initial native support for securing AWS Lambda, allowing organizations to apply micro-segmentation and least-privilege access directly to modern workloads. McHenry emphasized that cloud security must also evolve operationally. Security teams can no longer rely on slow, ticket-based firewall processes while developers deploy infrastructure at machine speed. Aviatrix 8.2 supports a DevSecOps-friendly model that enables developers to manage zero trust policies within guardrails defined by security teams. As McHenry put it, “If your workloads get more modern but your controls don't, security gets worse without you touching anything.” The discussion concluded with guidance for CIOs and CISOs preparing for the next wave of cloud and AI-driven threats: assess whether existing network security tools truly understand cloud-native workloads, modernize security operations alongside development practices, and prioritize platforms that unify cloud, network, and security teams. More information on Aviatrix 8.2 and the Cloud Native Security Fabric is available at https://aviatrix.ai/.

Who actually owns AI learning: L&D, HR, or you?  Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips break down the talent crisis, the rise of the generalist, and realistic timelines for AI agents. They explain the specific signals that tell you a pilot is failing due to human resistance rather than tech, why it is unlikely we will see a universal "GPT-4 moment" for agents this year, and the critical importance of maintaining human authenticity in an era of AI-generated content. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:06:11 — Question #1: Who owns AI learning: L&D or departments? 00:09:52 — Question #2: Hiring dedicated AI change management consultants.  00:11:54 — Question #3: Middle management's role in normalizing adoption. 00:14:27 — Question #4: Signals a pilot is failing due to culture, not tech.  00:16:12 — Question #5: Balancing learning pace vs. rapid experimentation.  00:20:11 — Question #6: Hiring for critical thinking and AI skills. 00:23:31 — Question #7: Experience vs. Adaptability in talent acquisition.  00:25:35 — Question #8: Protecting and compensating AI leaders. 00:27:56 — Question #9: Using AI with confidential data restrictions. 00:30:35 — Question #10: Realistic timelines for AI agent advancement.  00:33:21 — Question #11: Managing model selection and "agent chaos." 00:37:24 — Question #12: The rise of the Generalist vs. Specialist.  00:41:14 — Question #13: Proving AI skills beyond certificates.  00:44:25 — Question #14: Trust and authenticity in AI content. 00:48:35 — Question #15: AI SDRs: Vendor questions vs. building in-house.  This episode is brought to you by Google Cloud:  Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I compare how AWS, Microsoft, Google Cloud, and Oracle are competing in the sovereign cloud race.Highlights00:03 — AWS has announced the general availability of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. This new, independent cloud service is located solely within the EU's borders, ensuring that it's separate from other AWS regions. Ultimately, the European Sovereign Cloud enables companies to comply with the EU's sovereignty requirements without sacrificing any of the power of AWS infrastructure.00:55 — AWS is not alone in the Cloud Wars Top 10 in offering sovereign cloud capabilities to the European market. Microsoft provides the Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty through localized frameworks. Google Cloud, through local partnerships, has also developed sovereign-focused solutions. And Oracle has introduced the Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud Regions.01:24 — It appears there is space for all of these competitors, because the market is demanding this sovereignty more than ever. Now, originally, this movement towards sovereign cloud solutions in Europe was stimulated by the EU's tough stance on data protection.02:03 — However, as we enter a period of increased global instability, these sovereign services may take on further significance by enabling companies to operate more independently, and by that, I mean in geographies of their choice. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

LikeFolio's Andy Swan considers Microsoft (MSFT) one of the best-executing companies on Wall Street. While the Mag 7 giant's Azure cloud saw anemic growth compared to Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google Cloud, Andy likes Microsoft's recent stock dip and believes the company is poised for a strong 2026. Why? Microsoft's enterprise reach is undeniably strong, according to Andy. ======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day.Options involve risks and are not suitable for all investors. Before trading, read the Options Disclosure Document. http://bit.ly/2v9tH6DSubscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about

forced Microsoft out of the #1 spot in the Cloud Wars Top 10.Highlights00:03 — Going to go a little more deeply into the shuffles in the Cloud Wars Top 10, some big shake-ups here. Companies moving up and down. Microsoft, former number one, drops down to number three. Google Cloud, up to number one, Oracle to number two.00:25 — I want to talk today about my main reasons for moving Microsoft down from number one to number three. The Microsoft tumble here is really centered on its deep cybersecurity flaws that were exposed about 18-24 months ago. The range and scope of these cybersecurity shortcomings and weaknesses outweigh the extraordinary financial revenue and commercial success.01:38 — The significance of these cyber business shortcomings really came out about just over a year ago, when simultaneously both CEO Satya Nadella and Charlie Bell, who's Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Security business, both came out with public documents outlining how they were going in tandem to totally overhaul Microsoft's cybersecurity business, top to bottom.02:44 — This came out only after a government watchdog had very publicly flagged these shortcomings that Microsoft had and the results, the disastrous results, that led to some issues in China and some exposures of valuable information and more after that. I covered this extensively through the middle of 2024 and later throughout the year,04:18 — Microsoft has always said — Nadella has so frequently said — "Cybersecurity is our number one priority." Well, it's easy to say that. Apparently, it's very hard to do that and to live it. And this also then speaks to a lot of the questions I get about, "How do you do these rankings?" I take into account here the customer value that's being created.05:35 — It's a remarkable time here. And, I just want to emphasize Microsoft's commercial success. Revenue growth has been remarkable. It's by far the biggest cloud company in the world. Its growth rates have been remarkable. Its RPO numbers are great, but this cybersecurity failing just absolutely knocks them out of the running to be the top dog here. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

No business school prepared leaders for managing humans alongside autonomous AI agents. In this AI Answers episode, Paul Roetzer and Cathy McPhillips break down the immediate strategic shifts required for 2026. They explore where marketing agencies can use AI in a post-billable-hour world, the rise of the AI Output Verification manager, and why LLM's "alien technology" requires a new approach to risk. Plus: Practical advice on building custom GPTs and knowing when not to automate. Show Notes: Access the show notes and show links here Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Intro 00:03:38 — Question #1: AI Leverage for Marketing Agencies 00:07:44 — Question #2: The "Alien" Nature of LLMs 00:10:06 —Question #3: Responsible AI Mistakes to Avoid 00:13:07 — Question #4: Evaluating AI Platforms 00:16:32 — Question #5: Platform Consolidation 00:18:32 — Question #6: Building Internal Systems vs. Third-Party Tools 00:20:09 — Question #7: Data Privacy Concerns 00:23:09 — Question #8:  Signaling Trust & Authenticity 00:25:47 — Question #9: Reinventing Workflows & Org Charts 00:30:50 — Question #10: How to Start Building AI Assistants 00:33:34 — Question #11: What You Should Never Automate 00:36:12 — Question #12: Scaling AI Too Fast 00:38:36 — Question #13: New Leadership Skills 00:41:42 — Question #14: AI Output Verification 00:45:29 — Bonus: AI Book Recommendations This episode is brought to you by Google Cloud:  Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. Learn more about Google Cloud here: https://cloud.google.com/   Visit our website Receive our weekly newsletter Join our community: Slack LinkedIn Twitter Instagram Facebook Looking for content and resources? Register for a free webinar Come to our next Marketing AI Conference Enroll in our AI Academy 

In episode 171 of Cybersecurity Where You Are, Sean Atkinson and Tony Sager sit down with Soledad Antelada Toledano, Security Advisor, Office of the CISO, Google Cloud at Google. Together, they discuss securing critical national infrastructure (CNI) in U.S. State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) government organizations through artificial intelligence (AI) adoption.Here are some highlights from our episode:00:50. Introduction to Soledad02:48. How the convergence of informational technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) has created bigger attack surfaces04:10. The proliferation of threat actors targeting critical infrastructure sectors07:24. The challenge of legacy systems for U.S. SLTT owners of CNI08:13. Alert fatigue, limited visibility, and other challenges facing OT networks13:22. The value of automated cyber threat intelligence (CTI)24:46. Building strategic AI implementation around human in the loop (HITL)33:17. U.S. SLTTs' use of the cloud to test and build trust for securing CNIResourcesThe Changing Landscape of Security Operations and Its Impact on Critical InfrastructureCybersecurity for Critical InfrastructureEpisode 139: Community Building for the Cyber-UnderservedEpisode 119: Multidimensional Threat Defense at Large EventsLeveraging Generative Artificial Intelligence for Tabletop Exercise DevelopmentThe Evolving Role of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Cyber Threat LandscapeEpisode 148: How MDR Helps Shine a Light on Zero-Day AttacksVulnerability Management Policy Template for CIS Control 7CIS Critical Security Controls v8.1 Industrial Control Systems (ICS) GuideIf you have some feedback or an idea for an upcoming episode of Cybersecurity Where You Are, let us know by emailing podcast@cisecurity.org.

Google about to snatch the crown… and a lot of y'all still stuck worshipping Nvidia like it's the only AI play that matter. I'm telling you right now: the market switches leaders — and when that leadership flips, it leaves people behind who don't see the shift coming.In this episode I break down why I believe Alphabet (Google) can become the #1 most valuable company, how AI chips + Gemini + YouTube + Cloud partnerships are stacking the deck, and why Nvidia still can run… but the competition is finally heavy. We also get into Apple picking Gemini, big tech power moves, Meta spending like a maniac on nuclear energy, and the 2026 IPO watchlist (SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, Stripe, Revolut, Canva — and my sleeper pick will surprise you).High-intent SEO keywords we touch naturally: Google stock, Alphabet stock, Gemini AI, Nvidia competition, AI chips, Big Tech leadership rotation, Apple Gemini deal, Google Cloud, YouTube revenue, AI investing, market leadership switching, Meta nuclear energy deal, 2026 IPOs, SpaceX IPO, OpenAI IPO, Anthropic IPO, Databricks IPO, Stripe IPO, Canva IPO, AI infrastructure stocks.Apple Picked Google Gemini. Bad News for Nvidia?Join our Exclusive Patreon!!! Creating Financial Empowerment for those who've never had it.

SummaryIn this episode, Peter dives into the current state of the crypto landscape, focusing on the Midnight and Cardano Blockchains. He discusses the implications of the recently passed Genius Act, which allows for stablecoin rewards, and highlights the ongoing struggle between banks and crypto companies over regulatory control. Peter emphasises the need for a level playing field where both sectors can thrive, particularly in the realm of stablecoins. He also shares insights on the price trends of the Midnight token, upcoming developments, and his plans to attend meetups in Japan to engage with the community and learn more about the ecosystem.The episode further explores various projects building on the Midnight Blockchain, including a new identity solution and a DeFi project aimed at unlocking liquidity from staked assets. Peter also touches on the collaboration between Google Cloud and Midnight, the launch of new tools and wallets, and the integration of swaps into the Lace Wallet. He wraps up with a discussion on hardware wallets and the importance of security in the crypto space, encouraging listeners to stay informed and engaged with the evolving landscape.Chapters00:39 Current Regulation State03:06 Midnight $NIGHT Update04:21 Midnight Ambassador Program05:10 What's Being Built on Midnight - Nocy08:31 Building on Midnight: Keyd Network09:20 Interview with Atlas DeFi Building on Midnight Coming Up10:34 Google Cloud Comes to Cardano & Midnight11:46 Midnight Explorer12:31 Splash & DexHunter to Merge14:10 FROST Signatures15:41 Bitcoin DeFi: Bifrost Bridge16:25 FluidTokens P2P Loans18:06 Smart Token DEX20:06 Emurgo & W3iSoftware MoU21:38 Lace Wallet Introduces Swaps23:02 Get a Hardware Wallet24:03 Become a Channel MemberDISCLAIMER: This content is for informational and educational purposes only and is not financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not affiliated with, nor compensated by, the project discussed—no tokens, payments, or incentives received. I do not hold a stake in the project, including private or future allocations. All views are my own, based on public information. Always do your own research and consult a licensed advisor before investing. Crypto investments carry high risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. I am not responsible for any decisions you make based on this content.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I break down how Google's new Gemini 3 Flash delivers near-real-time AI performance with the speed, scale, and cost efficiency enterprises need as AI moves from Q&A to action.Highlights00:03 — Google has expanded its Gemini 3 model family with the introduction of Gemini 3 Flash, a model designed for speed without sacrificing quality. Gemini 3 Flash enables organizations to process data close to real time, and it's incredibly efficient, combining enhanced speed with better price performance, with this speed comes scalability.00:48 — Ultimately, Gemini 3 Flash enables multimodal processing, which means it can build applications that analyze video and extract data in near real time. Gemini 3 Flash addresses the demand for AI-driven coding and supports the development of more autonomous AI ecosystems at scale, all in a cost effective manner.01:14 — It delivers incredibly low latency, providing near real time experiences, which contrasts with many existing other large language models that often suffer from delays. Speed-optimized models like Gemini 3 Flash are becoming essential as the AI Revolution transitions from the Q&A to one of action.01:40 — Customers now demand capabilities that drive live applications and assist users in real time. This is particularly important considering predicted growth of autonomous AI agents. Now beyond this, as users become more accustomed to AI, they expect multimodality. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Apple has introduced Creator Studio, a subscription-based suite that embeds AI-assisted features directly into familiar productivity and creative tools while maintaining strict control over interfaces and user experience. Alongside this launch, Apple confirmed a multiyear partnership with Google to use Gemini and Google Cloud as foundational AI infrastructure, reportedly involving annual payments of around $1 billion. The approach reinforces Apple's strategy of treating AI models as interchangeable components while retaining authority at the application layer, shifting responsibility for governance and oversight away from the platform and toward downstream users and advisors.Google, meanwhile, expanded Gemini through a new Personal Intelligence feature that can reason across Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube data for consumer accounts. Available initially to paid subscribers and requiring explicit consent, the capability highlights Google's advantage in contextual data rather than model novelty. By keeping the feature out of Workspace for now, Google appears to be setting user expectations in consumer environments before enterprise deployment, a move that may influence how business users evaluate AI-enabled decision support in the future.Pax8 disclosed a data leak affecting approximately 1,800 MSP partners after an internal spreadsheet was mistakenly shared with a limited number of recipients. While no personally identifiable information was exposed, the data included licensing and commercial details that could be used for competitive intelligence or targeted attacks. The incident coincides with Pax8's rapid international expansion, new regional offices, and growing reliance by MSPs on its marketplace for procurement and security tooling, including the recent addition of Cork Cyber's risk intelligence platform.Taken together with renewed attention on AI governance, the Secure by Design initiative, and guidance on when to apply GenAI versus traditional code, the episode underscores a widening gap between automation and authority. Surveys show a majority of IT leaders now prioritize AI governance, reflecting concern over accountability, data flows, and failure handling. For MSPs and IT service providers, these developments reinforce the need to clearly define who has the power to approve, pause, or override AI-driven systems and platform dependencies, as clients increasingly expect service providers to explain and manage outcomes they may not fully control. Four things to know today Apple's Creator Studio and Google Partnership Show a Strategy Built on Control, Not AI OwnershipAs Gemini Reasons Across Gmail, Search, and YouTube, Google Redefines AI Advantage Around Context            Pax8 Data Leak, Rapid Expansion, and Marketplace Growth Expose Risk Shift to MSPsAI Governance, Secure by Design, and GenAI Adoption Reveal a Growing Authority Gap for MSPs This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by:  https://scalepad.com/dave/

Bob Evans sits down with Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, following Google Cloud's rise to the #1 position on the Cloud Wars Top 10. Their conversation explores how Google Cloud's customer-first philosophy, deep industry specialization, and long-term AI investments have reshaped its trajectory. Kurian shares how disciplined portfolio choices, partner ecosystems, and applied AI are helping customers innovate for the future rather than reinforce the past.Customer-Led Cloud StrategyThe Big Themes:Customer-Driven Strategy Wins: Google Cloud's ascent to the top spot is rooted in a consistent formula: deeply understanding customer problems and applying technology in distinctive, practical ways. The company's direction has always been shaped by what customers actually need, not internal agendas. This mindset extends across product design, go-to-market execution, and partner alignment. By accepting that only customers can ultimately “say no,” Google Cloud has maintained focus and avoided distractions.Industry Specialization as a Differentiator: Early recognition that industries have fundamentally different needs led Google Cloud to build specialized expertise by vertical. Rather than offering generic solutions, the company invested in industry-aligned product teams, domain-specific capabilities, and tailored go-to-market motions. This approach allows customers to adopt cloud and AI faster, without reinventing best practices.Full-Stack AI, Built Over Time: Google Cloud's AI strategy spans custom silicon (TPUs), infrastructure, models, platforms, and now agents. Kurian says that this wasn't a sudden pivot—it's the result of years of sustained investment, even when AI wasn't fashionable. With Gemini positioned as a leading model, Google Cloud now supports both first-party and third-party models, giving customers flexibility. This layered approach allows enterprises to innovate at their own pace.The Big Quote: “If you want to adopt a technology successfully, you need to pick a few important projects and do them well, rather than spraying on a lot of little projects.”Learn more about Google Cloud and Thomas Kurian:Check out the Google Cloud blog and Thomas Kurian. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I spotlight Thomas Kurian's game-changing customer strategy at Google Cloud.Highlights00:03 — We've got a new number one on the Cloud Wars Top 10. That's Google Cloud. They've leapfrogged Microsoft, and Oracle has moved up to the number two spot, with Microsoft coming in at number three. This is reflective of a very, very different business environment that we're facing here at the beginning of the AI Economy.00:37 — I had the chance to speak with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. The big point that Kurian made is you've got to understand the customer. But, you've got here a world-class technology company that, before Kurian's arrival in 2019, had as its sole focus: make world-class technology and the world will beat a path to our door.02:15 — As I said, Google Cloud has leapfrogged Microsoft to the number one spot on the Cloud Wars Top 10. The big thing is this customer understanding. And Kurian, in our video interview, describes a number of scenarios across industries, across domains, and how Google Cloud ties that all together for customer success going forward.03:38 — I've had lots of lively discussions with people who believe that because Microsoft and AWS have more revenue than either Google Cloud or Oracle, therefore those are the dominant players. There's market presence on one hand, and then there's this key thing which is: How do you help customers build their futures rather than just perfecting what they've already done in the past?04:15 — And I want to just say congratulations to everyone at Google Cloud for a monumental ascent — from number nine back in 2017, when I started the Cloud Wars Top 10, to number one. And overtaking Microsoft was an extraordinary feat, and that is driven by what customers want, not by internal tech-industry Silicon Valley metrics.Check out my full conversation with Thomas Kurian here. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explore the massive reshuffle in the Cloud Wars Top 10 driven by the rise of AI-first strategies. Later this morning, I'll expand upon these themes in a second fireside chat with my CEO, John Siefert, specifically focusing on numbers four through ten on the list.Highlights00:03 — We've got more big changes going on in the Cloud Wars Top 10. SAP moves up to number four. Palantir rockets from number 10 to number five. AWS tumbles from number four to number seven, and OpenAI makes its debut on the Cloud Wars Top 10 at number 10.00:37 — So, SAP's got 25% consistent growth for the past couple of years. Clearly, customers are voting for SAP as they move aggressively into agents. Palantir is intensely disruptive, but not just in technology and not just to be different. It feels that today's move — the evolution from this into the AI economy — requires new types of technology.01:46 — In Q3, the last quarter for which Palantir has reported numbers, revenue grew at a remarkable 63% to almost 1.2 billion during that Q3. The number of salespeople that Palantir has actually went down. So, it's finding new ways to engage with customers. AWS started off as number one. It's still a great company, but “great company” is no longer good enough.02:45 — They are not, though, being the leaders — the agenda setters. That has slipped over to Google Cloud; Oracle has taken that away. So, they are the big leaders here, as AWS goes from number four to number seven. OpenAI makes its debut in the Cloud Wars Top 10, as they have now much more than the ChatGPT phenomenon from three years and three months ago.03:49 — Got lots of people now, and certainly Palantir, saying, “Hey, we're an AI platform company as well.” The whole premise for the last nine years of the Cloud Wars Top 10 is tech vendors are now able make their own internal operations, product development, how they engage, who they partner with, how they go to market, tied very tightly to the directions that customers want to go.04:19 — In the old days, the tech vendor sat back, said, “I'm going to make my server 2% faster and 3% less expensive than theirs,” and expected, you know, the world to beat a path to their door. No longer the case. Now, it's the tech companies that have to respond incredibly fast and incredibly decisively and effectively to the new directions that customers are heading in. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Bob Evans, Founder of Cloud Wars, joins John Siefert, CEO, Cloud Wars and Dynamic Communities, to unpack one of the most dramatic reshuffles in the history of the Cloud Wars Top 10. Together, they explore what Bob calls “tectonic shifts” as Google Cloud rises to number one, Oracle surges to number two, and Microsoft slips to third. The conversation goes well beyond rankings, diving into AI platforms, enterprise outcomes, customer-driven innovation, and why growth, not size alone, defines cloud leadership heading into 2026.A New Cloud OrderThe Big Themes:Growth Transparency Matters: IBM's exit from the Top 10 underscores a critical principle — financial transparency is essential when growth is a core ranking metric. While IBM's leadership and strategy is worthy of praise, the lack of disclosed cloud performance data makes objective evaluation impossible. The Cloud Wars Top 10 prioritizes measurable momentum that reflects customer demand.AWS Reflects the Past, Not the Future: AWS's drop to number seven does not reflect failure but rather strategic timing. While AWS continues to perform well financially, its narrative is more aligned with the cloud's past than its AI-driven future. In contrast, competitors are redefining platforms around agents, inference, and AI-native architectures. The Cloud Wars rankings reward forward momentum, and AWS now faces pressure to reassert innovation leadership rather than rely on historical dominance.The AI Platform Battle Is Escalating: A central theme is the race to become the trusted AI platform. ServiceNow and Palantir are the most explicit contenders, while Google Cloud closely follows. Customers want AI platforms that integrate existing systems, deliver fast outcomes, and scale securely. The winners will be those who enable co-creation, not just consumption, as enterprises build AI capabilities tailored to their specific needs.The Big Quote: "For a while we talked about the hyperscalers as if they're all very homogeneous, all exactly the same, just different variations on a theme. I think what the new Cloud Wars Top 10 reflects is that is not the case at all."More about the Top 10 Shifts:Check out the updated Cloud Wars Top 10 List. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Artificial intelligence adoption is accelerating without formal ownership as employees, customers, and patients integrate AI tools into daily decisions. Surveys from Gallup show 45% of U.S. employees use AI at work at least occasionally, while research cited by OpenAI indicates roughly 60% of American adults recently used AI for health-related questions. Zoho and Arion Research report that 41% of organizations have strengthened privacy measures after adopting AI, reflecting growing concern about data exposure and accountability. For MSPs, the shift places liability closer to the systems being used rather than the vendors supplying them.Trust in digital media is also eroding as AI-generated content becomes harder to distinguish from authentic material. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri states that assuming photos or videos reflect real events is no longer reliable and suggests verification at the point of capture rather than labeling generated content. This approach reframes trust as a technical system rather than a social assumption. For IT providers, the issue extends beyond social platforms to security footage, compliance evidence, training data, and any asset where authenticity must be demonstrated.At the same time, automation and AI training are converging on the same constraint: expert judgment. HireArt's 2025 AI Trainer Compensation Report shows subject-matter experts earning $60 to more than $180 per hour, compared with under $20 for generalist data labelers, reflecting the cost of errors in regulated or technical fields. Kaseya's 2025 EMEA MSP Benchmark Report finds that while nearly 75% of MSPs expect revenue growth, 45% face staffing and skills shortages, increasing reliance on automation built on accurate data and curated exceptions.Major vendors are embedding judgment directly into platforms. ServiceNow's planned $7.75 billion acquisition of Armis expands asset classification and risk scoring within workflows. Freshworks' acquisition of FireHydrant integrates AI-driven incident management into ITSM. Google Cloud's revamped Partner Network shifts incentives toward outcome-based tiers beginning in 2026. For MSPs and IT service leaders, these moves concentrate responsibility around interpretation, governance, and accountability, even as tools increasingly define risk and success.Four things to know today00:00 Surveys Show AI Adoption Is Happening Without Ownership as Employees, Customers, and Patients Lead Usage04:50 Instagram's CEO Says Trust Is No Longer Assumed as AI Forces Proof-of-Reality Models07:22 AI and MSP Automation Are Converging on the Same Bottleneck: Expert Judgment09:52 Vendors Shift From Tools to Judgement as ServiceNow, Freshworks, and Google Cloud Embed Risk, Incidents, and Outcomes This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by:  https://scalepad.com/dave/

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this exclusive interview, Vince Menzione sits down with Darryl Peek, Vice President for Partner Sales (Public Sector) at Elastic, to decode how Elastic achieved the rare “triple crown”—winning Partner of the Year across Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Cloud simultaneously. Darryl breaks down the engineering-first approach that makes Elastic sticky with hyperscalers, reveals the rigorous metrics behind their partner health scorecard, and shares his personal “one-page strategy” for aligning mission, vision, and execution. From leveraging generative AI for cleaner sales hygiene to the timeless lesson of the “Acre of Diamonds,” this conversation offers a masterclass in building high-performance partner ecosystems in the public sector and beyond. https://youtu.be/__GE0r2fPuk Key Takeaways Elastic achieved “Pinnacle” status by aligning engineering roadmaps directly with hyperscaler innovations to become essential infrastructure. Successful public sector sales require a dual approach: leveraging resellers for contract access while driving domain-specific co-sell motions. Partner relationships outperform contracts; consistency in communication is more valuable than only showing up for renewals. Effective partner organizations track “influence” revenue just as rigorously as direct bookings to capture the full value of SI relationships. Generative AI can automate sales hygiene, turning scattered meeting notes into actionable CRM data and reducing friction for sales teams. The “Acre of Diamonds” philosophy reminds leaders that the greatest opportunities often lie within their current ecosystem, not in distant new markets. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Keywords: Elastic, Darryl Peek, public sector sales, hyperscaler partnership, Microsoft Partner of the Year, AWS Partner of the Year, Google Cloud Partner, partner ecosystem strategy, co-sell motion, partner metrics, channel sales, government contracting, Carahsoft, generative AI in sales, sales hygiene, Russell Conwell, Acre of Diamonds, open source search, observability, security SIM, vector search, retrieval augmented generation, LLM agnostic, partner enablement, influence revenue, channel booking, SI relationships, strategic alliances. Transcript: Darryl Peek Audio Episode [00:00:00] Darryl Peek: I say, I tell my team from time to time, the difference between contacts and contracts is the R and that’s the relationship. So if you’re not building the relationship, then how do you expect that partner to want to lean in? Don’t just show up when you have a contract. Don’t just show up when you have a renewal. [00:00:13] Darryl Peek: Make sure that you are reaching out and letting them know what is happening. Don’t just talk to me when you need a renewal, right? When you’re at end of quarter and you want me to bring a deal forward, [00:00:23] Vince Menzione: welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi. Own your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. [00:00:34] Vince Menzione: We just came off Ultimate Partner live at Caresoft Training Center in Reston, Virginia. Over two days, we gathered top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room, this episode brings you right to the edge of what’s next. Let’s dive in. So we have another privilege, an incredible partner, another like we call these, if you’ve heard our term, pinnacle. [00:01:00] Vince Menzione: I think it’s a term that’s not widely used, but we refer to Pinnacle as the partners that have achieved the top rung. They’ve become partners of the year. And our next presenter, our next interview is going to be with an organization. And a person that represents an organization that has been a pinnacle partner actually for all three Hyperscalers, which is really unusual. [00:01:24] Vince Menzione: Elastic has been partner of the Year award winner across Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Cloud, so very interesting. And Darrell Peak, who is the leader for the public sector organization, he’s here in the Washington DC area, was kind enough. Elastic is a sponsor event, and Darryl’s been kind enough to join me for a discussion about what it takes to be a Pinnacle partner. [00:01:47] Vince Menzione: So incredibly well. Excited to welcome you, Darryl. Thank you, sir. Good to have you. I love you. I love your smile, man. You got an incredible smile. Thank you. Thank you, Vince. Thank you. So Darryl, I probably didn’t do it any justice, but I was hoping you could take us through your role and responsibilities at Elastic, which is an incredible organization. [00:02:08] Vince Menzione: Alright. Yeah, [00:02:09] Darryl Peek: absolutely. So Darrell Peak vice President for partner sales for the US public sector at Elastic. I’ve been there about two and a half years. Responsible for our partner relationships across all partner types, whether that’s the system integrators, resellers, MSPs, OEMs, distribution Hyperscalers, and our Technology Alliance partners. [00:02:26] Darryl Peek: And those are partners that aren’t built on the Elastic platform. In regards to how my partner team interacts with our team. Our ecosystem. We are essentially looking to further and lean in with our partners in order for them to, one, understand what Elastic does since we’re such a diverse tool, but also work with our field to understand what are their priorities and how do they identify the right partners for the right requirements. [00:02:50] Darryl Peek: In regards to what Elastic is and what it does elastic is a solution that is actually founded on search and we’re an open source company. And one of the things that I actually did when I left the government, so I worked for the government for a number of years. I left, went and worked for Salesforce, then worked for Google ran their federal partner team and then came over to Elastic because I wanted to. [00:03:11] Darryl Peek: Understand what it meant to be at an open source company. Being at an open source company is quite interesting ’cause you’re competing against yourself. [00:03:17] Vince Menzione: Yeah, that’s true. [00:03:18] Darryl Peek: So it’s pretty interesting. But elastic was founded in 2012 as a search company. So when you talk about search, we are the second most used platform behind Google. [00:03:28] Darryl Peek: So many of you have already used Elastic. Maybe on your way here, if you use Uber and Lyft, that is elastic. That is helping you get here. Oh, that is interesting. If you use Netflix, if you use wikipedia.com, booking.com, eBay, home Depot, all of those are search capabilities. That Elastic is happening to power in regards to what else we do. [00:03:47] Darryl Peek: We also do observability, which is really around application monitoring, logging, tracing, and metrics. So we are helping your operations team. Pepsi is a customer as well as Cisco. Wow. And then the last thing that we do is security when we’re a SIM solution. So when we talk about sim, we are really looking to protect networks. [00:04:03] Darryl Peek: So we all, we think that it’s a data problem. So with that data problem, what we’re trying to do is not only understand what is happening in the network, but also we are helping with threat intelligence, endpoint and cloud security. So all those elements together is what Elastic does. And we only do it two ways. [00:04:18] Darryl Peek: We’re one platform and we can be deployed OnPrem and in the cloud. So that’s a little bit about me and the company. Hopefully it was clear, [00:04:24] Vince Menzione: I’ve had elastic people on stage. You’ve done, that’s the best answer I’ve had. What does Elastic do? I used to hear all this hyperbole and what? [00:04:32] Vince Menzione: What? Now I really understand what you do is an organiz. And the name of the company was Elasticsearch. [00:04:36] Darryl Peek: It was [00:04:37] Vince Menzione: elastic at one time when I first. Worked with you. It was Elasticsearch. [00:04:40] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. Yeah. So many moons ago used to be called the Elk Stack and it stood for three things. E was the Elasticsearch which is a search capability. [00:04:48] Darryl Peek: L is Logstash, which is our logging capability. And Cabana is essentially our visualization capability. So it was called Elk. But since we’ve acquired so many companies and built so much capability into the platform, we can now call it the elastic. Platform. [00:05:00] Vince Menzione: So talk to me about your engagement with the hyperscalers. [00:05:02] Vince Menzione: You’ve been partner of the Year award winner with all three, right? I mentioned that, and you were, you worked for Google for a period of time. Yes. So tell us about, like, how does that work? What does that engagement look like? And why do you get chosen as partner of the year? What are the things that stand out when you’re working with these hyperscalers [00:05:19] Darryl Peek: and with that we are very fortunate to be recognized. [00:05:23] Darryl Peek: So many of the organizations that are out there are doing some of the same capabilities that we do, but they can’t claim that they won a part of the year for all three hyperscalers in the same year. We are able to do that because we believe in the power of partnership, not only from a technology perspective, but also from a sales perspective. [00:05:39] Darryl Peek: So we definitely lean in with our partnerships, so having our engineers talk, having our product teams talk, and making sure that we’re building capabilities that actually integrate within the cloud service providers. And also consistently building a roadmap that aligns with the innovation that the cloud service providers are also building towards. [00:05:56] Darryl Peek: And then making sure that we’re a topic of discussion. So elastic. From a search capability, we do semantic search, vector search, but also retrieval augmented generation, which actually is LLM Agnostic. So when you say LLM Agnostic, whether you want to use Gemini, Claude or even Chad, GBT, those things are something that Elastic can integrate in, but it actually helps reduce the likelihood of hallucination. [00:06:18] Darryl Peek: So when we’re building that kind of solution, the cloud service provider’s you’re making it easy for us, and when you make it easy, you become very attractive and therefore you’re. Likely gonna come. So it becomes [00:06:28] Vince Menzione: sticky in that regard. Very sticky. So it sounds like very much an engineer, a lot of emphasis on the engineering aspects of the business. [00:06:35] Vince Menzione: I know you’re an engineer by background too, right? So the engineering aspects of the business means that you’re having alignment with the engineering organizations of those companies at a very deep level. [00:06:44] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. So I’m [00:06:45] Vince Menzione: here. [00:06:45] Darryl Peek: Yeah. And being at Elastic has been pretty amazing. So coming from Google, we had so many different solutions, so many different SKUs, but Elastic releases every eight weeks. [00:06:54] Darryl Peek: So right before you start to understand the last release, the next release is coming out and we’re already at 9.2 and we just released 9.0 in May. So it’s really blazing fast on the capability that we’re really pushing the market, but it’s really hard to make sure that we get it in front of our partners. [00:07:10] Darryl Peek: So when we talk about our partner enablement strategy, we’re just trying to make sure that we get the right information in front of the right partners at the right time, so this way they can best service their customers. [00:07:19] Vince Menzione: So let’s talk about partner strategy. Alyssa Fitzpatrick was on stage with me at our last event, and she Alyssa’s fantastic. [00:07:25] Vince Menzione: She is incredible. Yes, she is. She was a former colleague at Microsoft Days. Yes. And then she, we had a really interesting conversation. About what it takes, like being in, in a company and then working with the partners in general. And you have, I’m sure you have a lot of the similarities in how you have to engage with these organizations. [00:07:42] Vince Menzione: You’re working across the hyperscalers, you’re also working with the ecosystem too. Yes. ’cause the delivery, you have delivery partners as well. Absolutely. So tell us more about that. [00:07:50] Darryl Peek: So we kinda look at it from a two, two ways from the pre-sales motion and then the post-sales. From the pre-sales side. [00:07:56] Darryl Peek: What we’re trying to do is really maximize our, not only working with partners, because within public sector, you need to get access to customers through contract vehicles. So if you want to get access to some, for instance, the VA or through GSA or others, you have to make sure you’re aligned with the right partners who have access to. [00:08:12] Darryl Peek: That particular agency, but also you want domain expertise. So as you’re working with those system integrators, you wanna make sure that they have capability that aligns. So whether it is a security requirement, you wanna work with someone who specializes in security, observability and search. So that’s the way that we really look at our partner ecosystem, but those who are interested in working with us. [00:08:30] Darryl Peek: Because everybody doesn’t necessarily have a emphasis on working with a new technology partner, [00:08:36] Vince Menzione: right? [00:08:36] Darryl Peek: So what we’re trying to do is saying how do we build programs, incentives and sales plays that really does align and strike the interest of that particular partner? So when we talk about it I tell my team, you have to, my grandfather to say, plan your work and work your plan. And if you fail a plan, you plan to fail. So being able to not only have a strong plan in place, but then execute against that plan, check against that plan as you go through the fiscal year, and then see how you come out at the end of the fiscal year to see are we making that progress? [00:09:01] Darryl Peek: But on the other side of it, and what I get stressed about with my sales team and saying what does partners bring to us? So where are those partner deal registrations? What is the partner source numbers? How are we creating more pipeline? And that is where we’re now saying, okay, how can we navigate and how can we make it easier? [00:09:17] Darryl Peek: And how can we reduce friction in order for the partner to say, okay, elastic’s easy to work with. I can see value in, oh, by the way, I can make some money with. [00:09:25] Vince Menzione: So take us through, have there been examples of areas where you’ve had to like, break through to this other side in terms of growing the partner ecosystem? [00:09:33] Vince Menzione: What’s worked, what hasn’t worked? Yes, I’d love to learn more about that. [00:09:36] Darryl Peek: I’ll say that and I tell my team one, you partner program is essential, right? If you don’t have an attractive partner program in regards to how they come on board, how they’re incentivized the right amount of margin, they won’t even look at you. [00:09:49] Darryl Peek: The second thing is really how do you engage? So a lot of things start with relationships. I think partnerships are really about relationships. I say I tell my team from time to time, the difference between contacts and contracts is the R and that’s the relationship. So if you’re not building the relationship, then how do you expect that partner to want to lean in? [00:10:07] Darryl Peek: Don’t just show up when you have a contract. Don’t just show up when you have a renewal. Make sure that you are reaching out and letting them know what is happening. I like the what Matt brought up in saying, okay, talk to me when you have a win. Talk to me when you have something to talk about. [00:10:22] Darryl Peek: Don’t just talk to me when you need a renewal. When you’re at end the quarter and you want me to bring a deal forward, that doesn’t help ab absolutely. [00:10:28] Vince Menzione: So engineering organizations, sales organizations, what are, what does a healthy partnership look like for you? [00:10:35] Darryl Peek: So I look at metrics a lot and we use a number of tools and I know folks are using tools out there. [00:10:41] Darryl Peek: I won’t name any tools for branding purposes, but in regards to how we look at tools. So some things that we measure closely. Of course it’s our partner source numbers, so partner source, bookings, and pipeline. We look at our partner attached numbers and pipeline as well as the amount or percentage of partner attached business that we have in regards to our overall a CV number. [00:11:00] Darryl Peek: We also look at co-sell numbers, so therefore we are looking at not only how. A partner is coming to us, but how is a partner helping us in closing the deal even though they didn’t bring us the deal? We’re also looking at our cloud numbers and saying what amount of deals and how much business are we doing with our cloud service providers? [00:11:15] Darryl Peek: Because of course we wanna see that number go up year over year. We wanna actually help with that consumption number because not only are we looking at it from a SaaS perspective, but also if the customer has to commit we can help burn that down as well. We also look at influence numbers. [00:11:27] Darryl Peek: Now, one of the harder things to do within a technology business is. Capturing all that si goodness. And saying how do I reflect the SI if they’re not bringing me the deal? And I can’t attribute that amount of deal to that particular partner, right? And the way that we do that is we just tag them to the influence. [00:11:44] Darryl Peek: So we’re able to now track influence. And also the M-S-P-O-E-M work that we are also tracking and also we’re tracking the royalties. And lastly is the professional service work that we do with those partners. So we’re looking to go up into the right where we start them out at our select level, we go to our premier level and then our elite level. [00:12:00] Darryl Peek: But left and to the right, I say you gotta go from zero to one, one to five, five to 10, and then 10 to 25. So if we can actually see that progression. That is where we’re really starting to see health in the partnership, but also the executive alignment is really important. So when our CEO is able to meet with the fellow CEO of the co partner company that is really showing how we are progressing, but also our VPs and others that are engaged. [00:12:20] Darryl Peek: So those are things that we really do measure. We do have a health score card and also, we track accreditations, we track certifications as well as training outcomes based on our sales place. [00:12:30] Vince Menzione: Wow. There’s a lot of metrics there. Yeah. So you didn’t bring, you didn’t bring any slides with that out? [00:12:35] Darryl Peek: Oh, no. I’m not looking at slides, by the way. [00:12:40] Vince Menzione: Let’s talk about marketplace. [00:12:42] Darryl Peek: All right? [00:12:42] Vince Menzione: Because we’ve had a lot of conversations about marketplace. We’ve got both vendors up here talking about marketplace and the importance of marketplace, right? You’ve been a Marketplace Award winner. We haven’t really talked about that, like that motion per se. [00:12:55] Vince Menzione: I’d love to s I’d love to hear from you like how you, a, what you had to overcome to get to marketplace, what the marketplace motion looks like for your organization, what a marketplace first motion looks like. ’cause a lot of your cut a. Are all your customers requiring a lot of direct selling effort or is it some of it through Marketplace? [00:13:14] Vince Menzione: Like how does it, how does that work for you? [00:13:15] Darryl Peek: So Elastic is a global organization. Yeah. So we’re, 40 different countries. So it depends on where we’re talking. So if we talk about our international business, which is our A PJ and EMEA business we are seeing a lot more marketplace and we’re seeing that those direct deals with customers. [00:13:28] Darryl Peek: Okay. And we’re talking about our mirror business. A significant amount goes through marketplace and where our customers are transacting with the marketplace and are listing. On the marketplace within public sector, it’s more of a resell motion. Okay. So we are working with our resellers. [00:13:39] Darryl Peek: So we work our primary distribution partner is Carahsoft. So you heard from Craig earlier. Yes. We have a strong relationship with Carahsoft and definitely a big fan of this organization. But in regards to how we do that and how we track it we are looking at better ways to, track that orchestration and consumption numbers in order to see not only what customers we’re working with, but how can we really accelerate that motion and really get those leads and transactions going. [00:14:03] Vince Menzione: Very cool. Very cool. And I think part of the reason why in, in the government or public sector space it has a lot to do with the commitments are different. Absolutely. So it’s not government agencies aren’t able to make the same level of commitments that, private sector organizations were able to make, so they were able to the Mac or Microsoft parlance and also a AWS’s parlance. [00:14:23] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:14:24] Darryl Peek: definitely a different dynamic. Yeah. And especially within the public sector. ’cause we have Gov Cloud to work with, right? That’s right. So we’re working with Microsoft or we’re working with AWS, they have their Gov cloud and then we Google, they don’t have a Gov cloud, but we still have to work with them differently. [00:14:35] Darryl Peek: Yeah. Within that space. That’s [00:14:36] Vince Menzione: right. That’s right. So it makes the motion a little bit differently there. So I think we talked through some of this. I just wanna make sure we cover our points [00:14:43] Darryl Peek: here. One thing I’ll do an aside, you talked about the acre of diamonds. I’m a big fan of that story. [00:14:47] Vince Menzione: Yeah, let’s talk about Russ Con. Yeah, [00:14:49] Darryl Peek: let’s talk about it. Do you all know about the Acre Diamonds? Have you all heard that story before? No. You have some those in the audience. [00:14:55] Vince Menzione: I, you know what, let’s talk about it. All [00:14:56] Darryl Peek: See, I’m from Philadelphia. [00:14:57] Vince Menzione: I didn’t know you were a family. My daughter went to Temple University. [00:14:59] Vince Menzione: Ah, [00:15:00] Darryl Peek: okay. That’s all I know. So Russell Conwell. So he was, a gentleman out of the Philadelphia area and he went around town to raise money and he wanted to raise money because he believed that there was a promise within a specific area. And as he continued to raise this money, he would tell a story. [00:15:14] Darryl Peek: And basically it was a story about a farmer in Africa. And the farmer in Africa, to make it really short was essentially looking to be become very wealthy. And because he wanted to become very wealthy, he believed that selling his farm and going off to a long distant land was the primary way for him to find diamonds. [00:15:28] Darryl Peek: And this farmer didn’t sold us. Sold his place, then went off to to this foreign land, and he ended up dying. And people thought that was the end of the story, but there was another farmer who bought that land and one time this big, and they called him the ot, came to the door and said you mind if I have some tea with you? [00:15:43] Darryl Peek: He said, all right, come on in. Have a drink. And as he had the drink, he looked upon the mantle and his mouth dropped. And then the farmer said what’s wrong? What do you say? He says, do you know what that is? No. He said no. Do you know what that is? He says, no. He said, that’s the biggest diamond I’ve ever seen, and the farmer goes. [00:16:01] Darryl Peek: That’s weird because there’s a bunch right in the back where I go grab my fruits and crops every day. So the idea of the acre diamonds and sometimes that you don’t need to go off to a far off land. It is actually sometimes right under your feet, and that is a story that helped fund the starting of Temple University. [00:16:16] Vince Menzione: I’m gonna need to take you at every single event so you can tell this story again. That’s an awesome job. Oh, I love it. And yeah, they founded a Temple University. Yeah. Which has become an incredible university. My daughter, like I said, my daughter’s a graduate, so we’re Temple fan. That’s great story. [00:16:31] Vince Menzione: That is a very cool, I didn’t realize you were a Philadelphia guy too, so that is awesome. Go birds. Go birds. All right, good. So let’s talk, I think we talked a little bit about your ecosystem approach, but maybe just a little bit more on this, like you said, like a lot of data, a lot of metrics but also a lot of these organizations also have to under understand the engineering side of things. [00:16:53] Vince Menzione: Oh, yeah. There’s a tremendous amount to become. Not everybody could just show up one day and become an elastic partner [00:16:58] Darryl Peek: absolutely. Absolutely. So take us [00:16:59] Vince Menzione: through that process. [00:17:00] Darryl Peek: Yeah. So one of the things that we are trying to mature and we have matured is our partner go to market. [00:17:06] Darryl Peek: So in order to join our partner ecosystem, you have to sign ’em through our partner portal. You have to sign our indirect reseller agreement. ’cause we do sell primarily within the public sector through distribution. And we only go direct if it is by exception. So you have to get justification through myself as well as our VP for public sector. [00:17:21] Darryl Peek: But we really do try to make sure that we can aggregate this because one thing that we have to monitor is terms and conditions. ’cause of course, working with the government, there’s a lot of terms and conditions. So we try to alleviate that by having it go through caresoft, they’re able to absorb some, so this way we can actually transact with the government. [00:17:36] Darryl Peek: In regards to the team though we try to really work closely with our solution architecture team. So this way we can develop clear enablement strategies with our partners so this way they know what it is we do, but also how to properly bring us up in a conversation. Also handle objections and also what are we doing to implement our solutions within other markets. [00:17:55] Darryl Peek: So those are things that we are doing as well as partner marketing. Top of funnel activity is really important, so we’re trying to differentiate what we’re doing with the field and field marketing. So you’re doing the leads and m qls and things of that nature also with partner marketing. So our partner marketing actually is driven by leads, but also we’re trying to transact. [00:18:10] Darryl Peek: And get Ps of which our partner deal registration. So that is how we align our partner go to market. And that is actually translating into our partner source outcomes. [00:18:18] Vince Menzione: And I think we have a slide that talks a little bit about your public sector partner strategy. [00:18:23] Darryl Peek: Oh yeah. Oh, I share that. So I thought maybe we could spin it. [00:18:25] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. [00:18:25] Vince Menzione: I know you we can’t see it, but they can. Oh, they can. Okay. Great. [00:18:29] Darryl Peek: There it’s there. [00:18:30] Vince Menzione: It’s career. [00:18:31] Darryl Peek: One thing, I think this was Einstein has said, if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. So that was the one thing. So I always was a big fan of creating a one page strategy. [00:18:39] Darryl Peek: And based on this one page strategy one of the things when I worked at Salesforce it was really about a couple things and the saying, okay, what are your bookings? And if you don’t have bookings, what does your pipeline look like? If you don’t have pipeline, what does your prospecting look like? [00:18:51] Darryl Peek: Yeah. If you don’t have prospecting what does your account plan look like? And if you don’t have an account plan, why are you here? Why are you here? Exactly. So those are the things that I really talk to my team about is just really a, it’s about bookings. It’s about pipeline. It’s about planning, enablement and execution. [00:19:05] Darryl Peek: It’s about marketing, branding and evangelism, and also about operational excellence and how to execute. Very cool. So being able to do that and also I, since I came from Salesforce, I talk to my team a lot about Salesforce hygiene. So we really talk about that a lot. So make, making sure we’re making proper use of chatter, but also as we talk about utilizing ai, we just try to. [00:19:21] Darryl Peek: How do we simplify that, right? So if we’re using Zoom or we’re using Google, how do we make sure that we’re capturing those meeting minutes, translating that, putting that into the system, so therefore we have a record of that engagement with that partner. So this is a continuous threat. So this way I don’t have to call my partner manager the entire time. [00:19:36] Darryl Peek: I can look back, see what actions, see what was discussed, and say, okay, how can we keep this conversation going? Because we shouldn’t have to have those conversations every time. I shouldn’t have to text you to say, give me the download on every partner. Every time. How do we automate that? And that’s really where you’re creating this context window with your Genive ai. [00:19:53] Darryl Peek: I think they said what 75% of organizations are using one AI tool. And I think 1% are mature in that. But also a number of organizations, it’s 90% of organizations are using generative AI tools to some degree. So we are using gen to bi. We do use a number of them. We have elastic GPT. Nice little brand there. [00:20:11] Darryl Peek: But yeah, we use that for not only understanding what’s in our our repositories and data lakes and data warehouses, but also what are some answers that we can have in regards to proposal responses, RP responses, RFI, responses and the like. [00:20:23] Vince Menzione: And you’re reaching out to the other LLMs through your tool? [00:20:26] Darryl Peek: We can actually interact with any LLM. So we are a LLM Agnostic. [00:20:29] Vince Menzione: Got it. Yep. That’s fantastic. And this slide is we’ll make this available if you don’t have a, yeah, have a chance. We’ll share it. I [00:20:36] Darryl Peek: am happy to share, yeah. And obviously happy to talk, reach out about it. Of, of course. I simplified it in order to account for you, but one of the things that I talk about is mission, vision of values. [00:20:45] Darryl Peek: And as we start with that is what is your mission now? How is anybody from Pittsburgh, anybody steal a fan? Oh wow. No, there’s a steel fan over [00:20:54] Vince Menzione: here. There’s one here. There’s a couple of ’em are out here. So I feel bad. [00:20:57] Darryl Peek: The reason why I put immaculate in there is for the immaculate reception, actually. [00:21:00] Darryl Peek: Yes. And basically saying that if you ever seen that play, it was not pretty at all. It was a very discombobulated play. Yeah. And I usually say that’s the way that you work with partners too, because when that deal doesn’t come in, when you gotta make a call, when you’re texting somebody at 11 o’clock at night, when you’re trying to get that at, right before quarter end. [00:21:17] Darryl Peek: Yeah. Before the end of it. It really is difficult, but it’s really creating that immaculate experience. You want that partner to come back. I know it’s challenging, but I appreciate how you leaned in with us. Yes, absolutely. I appreciate how you work with us. I appreciate how you held our hand through the process, and that’s what I tell my team, that we have to create that partner experience. [00:21:32] Darryl Peek: And maybe that’s a carryover from Salesforce, Dave. I don’t know. But also when we talk about enhancing or accelerating our partner. Our public sector outcomes that is really working with the customer, right? So customer experience has to be part of it. Like all of us have to be focused on that North star, and that is really how do we service the customer, and that’s what we choose to do. [00:21:48] Darryl Peek: But also the internal part. So I used to survey my team many moves ago, and I said, if we don’t get 80% satisfaction rate from our employees how do we get 60% satisfaction rate from our customers? Yeah. So really focus on that employee success and employee satisfaction. It’s so important, is very important. [00:22:03] Darryl Peek: So being able to understand what are the needs of your employees? Are you really addressing their concerns and are you really driving them forward? Are you challenging them? Are you creating pathways for progression? So those are things that I definitely try to do with my team. As well as just really encouraging, inspiring, yeah. [00:22:19] Darryl Peek: And just making sure that they’re having fun at the same time. [00:22:21] Vince Menzione: It shows up in such, I, there’s an airline I don’t fly any longer, and it was a million mile member of and I know it’s because of the way they treat their employees. [00:22:29] Vince Menzione: Because it cascades Right? [00:22:30] Darryl Peek: It does. Culture is important. [00:22:32] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Absolutely. [00:22:32] Darryl Peek: What is it? What Anderson Howard they say what col. Mark Andresen culture eat strategy for [00:22:37] Vince Menzione: breakfast. He strategy for breakfast? Yes. Very much this has been insightful. I really enjoyed having you here today. Really a great, you’re a lot of fun. You’re a lot of fun. [00:22:43] Vince Menzione: Darry, isn’t you? Amazing. So thank you for joining us. Thank you all. Thank And you’re gonna be, you’re gonna be sticking around for a little while today. I’m sticking around for a little while. I’ll be back in little later. I think people are gonna just en enjoy having a conversation with you, a little sidebar. [00:22:55] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. I’m looking forward to it. Thank you all for having me. Glad to be here. And thank you for giving the time today. [00:23:01] Vince Menzione: Thank you Darryl, so much. So appreciate it. And you’re gonna have to come join me on this Story Diamond tool. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for tuning into this episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering. [00:23:12] Vince Menzione: We’re bringing these episodes to you to help you level up your strategy. If you haven’t yet, now’s the time to take action and think about joining our community. We created a unique place, UPX or Ultimate partner experience. It’s more than a community. It’s your competitive edge with insider insights, real-time education, and direct access to people who are driving the ecosystem forward. [00:23:38] Vince Menzione: UPX helps you get results, and we’re just getting started as we’re taking this studio. And we’ll be hosting live stream and digital events here, including our January live stream, the Boca Winter Retreat, and more to come. So visit our website, the ultimate partner.com to learn more and join us. Now’s the time to take your partnerships to the next level.

Might internal memos be a thing of the past?When you can just build something as fast as writing a memo about it, why wouldn't you just build the demo? In this episode of Everyday AI, we sit down with Google Cloud's Richard Seroter to break down five simple ways to use AI with Google. No technical background needed.We talk faster research, better learning, building ideas without overthinking, and why “demos over memos” might change how teams work.If you want practical, no-BS ways to actually use AI in your day‑to‑day, this one's worth a listen.5 Practical AI Workflows That Actually Matter -- An Everyday AI Chat with Jordan Wilson and Google's Richard Seroter (Replay)Newsletter: Sign up for our free daily newsletterMore on this Episode: Episode PageJoin the discussion on LinkedIn: Thoughts on this? Join the convo on LinkedIn and connect with other AI leaders.Upcoming Episodes: Check out the upcoming Everyday AI Livestream lineupWebsite: YourEverydayAI.comEmail The Show: info@youreverydayai.comConnect with Jordan on LinkedInTopics Covered in This Episode:Five Practical AI Workflows with GoogleGemini Deep Research for Rapid AnalysisNotebookLM AI-Powered Knowledge ExplorationGemini CLI and Code Assist for DevelopersGoogle Jewels Autonomous Coding AgentsAI Change Management and Workflow AutomationGemini's Contextual Integration with Email and CalendarGemini and Agentic AI Across Google ProductsTimestamps:00:00 "Simple AI Strategies for Workflows"06:14 "Embracing AI-First Thinking"08:49 "Effective Strategies for Deep Research"11:24 "Context Engineering with LLMs"15:32 "Unlocking AI's Business Potential"17:33 Simplifying Complexity with AI21:21 "Everyone's a Builder Now"24:54 "Building AI Tools for Everyone"28:06 "Communicating Intent to AI Agents"30:16 "AI: The Smarter Interface"33:30 "Everyday AI: Wrap-Up & Subscribe"Keywords:Gemini Deep Research, Google AI, generative AI, AI workflows, Google Cloud, NotebookLM, AI strategies, AI transformation, change management, contextualized AI, agentic work, AI-powered research, personalized AI, deep research tools, collaborative AI agents, AI in business, AI for analysis, large language models, AI for everyday business leaders, Gemini CLI, code assist, AI coding agent, Google Jewels, autonomous AI, background AI teammate, context engineering, integrating AI in workflows, AI for HR, marketing AI, AI-powered knowledge management, learning with AI, AI onboarding, student AI tools, spec driven development, Send Everyday AI and Jordan a text message. (We can't reply back unless you leave contact info) Ready for ROI on GenAI? Go to youreverydayai.com/partner 

(0:00) Intro! (2:47) Tony Hinchcliffe roasts the Besties (15:01) Interview: Kill Tony success, MSG rally, origin story, free speech in Europe (36:03) The Besties play Kill Tony! (50:14) The 2025 Bestie Awards: Business, Politics, Tech, and more Thanks to our partners for making this happen! IREN: https://iren.com OKX: https://okx.com Google Cloud: https://cloud.google.com Follow Tony: https://www.youtube.com/@killtony https://x.com/TonyHinchcliffe Follow the besties:  https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://x.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://x.com/TheZachEffect