What's Up with Tech?

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com
Your network can be “up” and still be the thing that slows every cloud migration, security rollout, and AI initiative. From the Lumen booth at the Gartner IT Symposium, we sit down with Scott Yao to get specific about what’s really driving enterprise network complexity: different networking models to the cloud, inside each cloud, and between clouds, plus the operational burden that grows every time you add another workload or provider.

Scott walks us through Lumen’s push to modernize the old telco experience and flip the model from ticket-based provisioning to on-demand, software-defined connectivity. The conversation gets practical fast: pre-provisioning capacity to the destinations enterprises actually use (cloud platforms, GPU and AI farms, SaaS), then exposing that capacity as programmable capabilities so teams can turn services on and off, scale bandwidth, and add destinations in minutes instead of waiting weeks.

AI is the accelerant. When machines talk to machines and data pipelines move petabytes, the network can’t be the bottleneck, and the control plane matters as much as the fiber in the ground. We dig into why orchestration and intent-based operations are becoming mandatory, how Alkira fits into Lumen’s strategy for unified multi-cloud networking, and why security, encryption, and services like DDoS protection need to be built in, not bolted on. You’ll also hear a clear “where do we start?” framework and a real-world example of colo simplification by virtualizing expensive hardware-heavy deployments.

If you’re responsible for multi-cloud connectivity, network automation, or AI-ready infrastructure, subscribe, share this with your team, and leave a review with the one network problem you want solved next.
Support the show
More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com
US tech companies don’t usually lose in Europe because the product is bad. They lose because they market like Europe is one big country. From Berlin, B2B marketer and podcast host William Delaney joins us to compare how SaaS and tech companies sell, market, and grow across Europe versus the United States, especially in traditional industries like manufacturing, pharma, and logistics where trust is everything and “move fast” is not the default setting.

We dig into a simple but revealing contrast: in many European markets, buyers want the “instruction manual” before they buy. That shows up as longer decision cycles, more cautious adoption of new tools, and a stronger demand for proof. William shares why testimonials and human credibility often beat ads, why feature-driven product marketing can matter more than broad “solutions” language, and how community-led growth can open doors when you’re an unknown vendor.

We also get practical about localization, not just translation. Messaging that works in the UK and Ireland can fall flat in Germany, Austria, or Benelux, and the tone shifts again in Mediterranean markets. Then we tackle GDPR and data privacy: when regulation slows scaling, when it strengthens long-term trust, and how that intersects with AI adoption right now. If you’re building a go-to-market strategy for Europe or trying to sell complex B2B software anywhere, you’ll leave with clearer angles, better expectations, and tactics you can apply immediately. Subscribe, share this with a founder or marketer who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest Europe go-to-market question.
Learn more about Microsoft's ISOC announcement: https://fandf.co/4iQ9b5n
Support the show
More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com
A fiber cut, a congested wireless sector, a storm blocking satellite visibility: any one of these can happen on a normal day. The real question is whether that moment turns into a business outage. We walk through what “virtually unbreakable” enterprise networking looks like when you plan for failure up front and build an always-on connectivity model that keeps traffic moving even when a link goes bad.

We’re joined by Jonathan Drexel from T-Mobile, who shares why outage risk has changed shape and scale, including the hard costs leaders now track at the board level. We unpack the trap hidden in many “redundant” wired designs, where two circuits that look diverse on paper still share common underground or upstream failure points. From there, we explore why the golden age of connectivity is here: fiber remains the capacity anchor, but 5G fixed wireless and LEO satellite internet have matured into enterprise-grade options that break differently, giving you a realistic path to network resilience and business continuity.

You’ll hear a practical framework for designing resilient networks: start by defining business requirements by site criticality, then confront your network reality by building an availability matrix for each address. We also dig into why the convergence point matters, how to pressure test failover with real corporate traffic, and what operational burden shows up when you try to stitch multiple providers and hardware stacks together. Jonathan also explains how a managed 5G plus Starlink approach can keep a secondary path always ready and support a strong service-level commitment.

If you care about uptime, redundancy, failover testing, and keeping critical applications online, this one is for you.
T-Mobile for Business Partner
Support the show
More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com
Hybrid isn’t a stepping stone anymore. For a lot of organizations, it’s the only realistic way to balance cloud innovation with the uptime, compliance, and control they cannot give up, especially in healthcare, public sector, utilities, and other high-stakes environments. We sit down with a panel from Mitel and GlobalData to get specific about what’s changing in unified communications, why “move everything to the cloud” keeps running into the real world, and what buyers should demand from vendors when resilience is non-negotiable. 

Our GlobalData principal analyst walks through what “integrated workforce experience” should actually mean, and why most collaboration stacks still miss the point: about 70% of the workforce is deskless. When frontline teams are cut off, work gets done through a patchwork of apps and unofficial tools, which creates delays, service quality issues, and real security risk, especially as unmanaged AI usage grows. We break down the three core questions leaders need to press on: coverage for the whole workforce, what happens during an outage, and how AI is governed across roles and devices. 

Mitel leaders Eric and Martin share what they built with Mitel Workforce Experience (Mitel WX) and why it’s designed around workflows, plugins, and deployment choice across public cloud, hybrid, and private models. We also tackle the obvious question: can you just use Microsoft Teams, and where does a workflow-first frontline layer add value without ripping anything out. If you’re trying to unify communications, improve frontline productivity, and reduce tool sprawl while staying compliant, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share with your IT or operations team, and leave a review with the biggest communications gap you’re trying to fix.
Learn more about Microsoft's ISOC announcement: https://fandf.co/4iQ9b5n
Support the show
More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com
Networks don’t “run themselves” by magic, they do it by stacking the right data, platforms, and automation logic until the network can sense trouble, reason about options, and act safely. We sit down with Rodrigo from Ericsson to unpack what autonomous networks really mean in practice: self-healing, self-optimizing, and self-configuring capabilities that reduce operational effort for communication service providers while improving quality of service for all of us using mobile networks every day.

From there, we get concrete about how you scale automation beyond isolated point solutions. Rodrigo explains how an open service management and orchestration (SMO) approach, rooted in O-RAN concepts, creates a common platform where multiple automation apps can run side by side. Think R apps for RAN automation, a growing ecosystem, and the governance needed to make AI-driven changes trustworthy. We talk about why trusted, granular, low-latency data matters so much, and why “built for AI” is more than a slogan when you’re operating a live 5G network.

The big news is the move from radio automation into core network automation, introducing C apps and the kinds of high-impact use cases operators care about most: anomaly detection, root cause analysis, proactive fixes, capacity forecasting, and premium experience. We also dig into agentic AI and why it changes the game from automating single tasks to automating entire workflows, with human guardrails, permissions, and runtime knowledge to keep reliability high.

If you care about 5G, RAN automation, core network automation, SMO, O-RAN, or agentic AI for network operations, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review with the one network workflow you wish could be fully automated.
Support the show
More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel