Next in Tech

The world of IT is filled with technical qualifications in all manner of disciplines. They've become an expected baseline for knowledge in broad fields like networking and security, as well as narrower, vendor-specific knowledge and skills. But what happens as IT leaders move up to more senior roles? Steve Clarke, cofounder and director of Freeman Clarke joins host Eric Hanselman to talk about the challenges that senior IT professionals have in establishing their bona fides as technical business people. The role of a CIO, CTO, CISO or CDO requires technical depth, but the more important part is the ability to integrate that knowledge with business operations. It's not an easy transition to undertake and even more complicated to identify. 
Discussions that are taking place in the 451 Research 451 Alliance community brought up the idea of a business level certification process and how it would have to characterize that unique knowledge set. The Standard is an approach that Steve and his colleagues began to address this issue. The 451 Alliance membership is free and open to all qualified IT professionals and business leaders who want to contribute to industry-leading research. Members take anonymous online surveys in exchange for access to research results that power their IT strategy.
 
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Host/Author: Eric Hanselman
Guest: Steve Clarke, cofounder and director of Freeman Clarke and Tech Leaders Connect
Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible
Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun and Sophie Carr

As enterprises integrate greater levels of AI into their operational workflows, many are concerned about the effectiveness and accuracy of the decisions with which it's being entrusted. Mike Fratto joins host Eric Hanselman to talk about his recent research into the ways in which observability can provide greater context to AI systems and administrative teams. Data is the raw material from which AI value is created and a lack of solid operational data will mean that management systems won't have a complete perspective. Observability platforms have been expanding to collect and correlate a broader range of data and they can be particularly useful, if they're integrated well.
Observability data can also assist in building confidence in automation and support automation efforts by creating scripts and validating control decisions. It can be a huge help to staff to digest and make sense of existing run books and processes and guide decisions in the event of failures. When novel incidents occur, being able to rule out certain areas can be just as powerful as finding the root cause. No, the network isn't always the cause of the outage…
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Agent orchestration and observability go hand in hand: The case for governance in motion
Host/Author: Eric Hanselman
Guest: Mike Fratto
Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible
Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun and Sophie Carr

There is a dramatic push of technology into space. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are changing the broadband communications market and there's speculation about putting data centers in orbit. Analysts Ellie Brown and Johan Vermij join host Eric Hanselman to look at the practical aspects of this push into a new frontier as a preview to their upcoming webinar. The cost of access to space has been dropping significantly, but there are many considerations that impact the viability of some of these plans. LEO satellite lifetimes are shorter than geosynchronous ones and the sustainability impacts of the launch volumes necessary to maintain multiple, massive constellations are daunting. Space is an attractive vantage point for observation with imaging to support geopolitical needs and ecological ends, like methane emissions tracking. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is piercing cloud and vegetation layers to reveal landscape details.
Space-based data centers are seeing a lot of interest, but popular misconceptions about cooling capabilities may be adding more encouragement than is warranted. While space is "cold", radiating heat is more complicated in its vacuum. The International Space Station, with a massive radiation system, rejects only 70 KW of heat, less than a few racks of equipment and much less than a typical GPU cluster. And the need to service equipment on orbit hasn't been meaningfully addressed. Smaller satellites with distributed processing could pre-process data before it's sent to earth, but that will require greater levels of coordination to manage the massive scale on which this would have to operate. 
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Host/Author: Eric Hanselman 
Guests: Ellie Brown and Johan Vermij
Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible
Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun and Sophie Carr

The popular image of quantum computers is the sparkling "chandelier" of the superconducting approach, but this next episode in our Quantum CEO series looks neutral atom quantum computers. Quantum analyst Ellie Brown returns to the podcast to join Andy Ory, the CEO of QuEra, to discuss their approach, the benefits of practical fault tolerant qubits and the advantages of quantum hubs that may have a dearth of beer with host Eric Hanselman. Neutral atom systems don't require the ultra-low operating temperatures used for superconduction. They stabilize the atoms they're using with lasers that still their motion. That free space setting allows simpler interaction between larger numbers of qubits that improves scaling of quantum computations. Stability reduces error rates and can improve the effectiveness of quantum error correction.
Quantum computing has become a very buzzy topic, with IPO's and major funding announcements. There is growth of the supporting ecosystems around quantum application development, with software tools and cloud-based services offerings that are expanding access. The greatest challenge is the supply of a quantum workforce that can put quantum capabilities to work. Systems doing optimization approaches, like quantum annealing, are here today. The date for the availability of general purpose, practical quantum computers keeps getting closer. Some have said 2030 might be a target date and QuEra is talking about delivering their next-generation system in 2028. It's time to be getting quantum-literate today!
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Host/Author: Eric Hanselman
Guests: Andy Ory and Ellie Brown
Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible
Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun and Sophie Carr

This episode of our AI CEO series looks at the potential for AI capabilities to address one of AI's largest challenges – energy availability. Dr. Varun Sivaram, founder and CEO of Emerald AI, joins host Eric Hanselman to explore how greater flexibility is AI workloads can unlock unused capacity. Traditionally, data center construction has focused on delivering peak capacity, even at those times when it may not be needed. That doesn't mesh well with a power grid that is already under stress. AI intelligence can shift workloads dynamically to reduce data center demands when the power grid needs it and to leverage excess grid capacity when it's available.
Flexing AI workloads to respond to grid conditions isn't simple, but it can be more attractive than alternatives. Adding generation capacity is a long-term and expensive process and community concerns about rate increases are creating headwinds for new data center builds. Adding Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are costly and have their own capacity and durability limitations. Flexing workload demand could address grid integration problems on a much shorter timeline.
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Host/Author: Eric Hanselman
Guest: Varun Sivaram
Producer/Editor: Dylan Scheible
Published With Assistance From: Feranmi Adeoshun and Sophie Carr