What's Up with Tech?

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The digital transformation journey has evolved dramatically over the past two decades, and now generative AI stands as the latest force reshaping how enterprises operate. But what does it truly mean to be "AI-ready" in today's landscape?

According to ManageEngine, the answer lies not in chasing AI for its own sake, but in understanding how it enhances your existing digital foundation. True AI readiness means "AI is doing the work for you, and you're not doing all the hard work to make AI work."...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Automation is fundamentally transforming how enterprises build, deploy, and manage applications in the cloud. Dive deep into this evolution as we speak with Bert Toma, the product management leader for Broadcom's Tanzu division, fresh from the groundbreaking announcements at VMware Explore.

The conversation reveals how Tanzu is revolutionizing enterprise cloud environments with an automation-first approach that dramatically simplifies the developer experience. "What they want to do is say I have my code, I'd like this to be in production," Bert explains, highlighting how Tanzu...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Salesforce's Chief Digital Officer Joe Inzerillo reveals fascinating insights from the new Agentic Enterprise Index, painting a vivid picture of how AI agents are transforming business operations at unprecedented speed. Within six months, we've witnessed changes that would typically unfold over half a decade with previous technological revolutions.

What makes this shift truly revolutionary isn't just the pace, but how fundamentally different it is from past disruptions. Unlike earlier innovations where humans simply needed to learn new tools, AI agents bring entirely different capabilities...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Automation isn't just a buzzword—it's becoming the cornerstone of enterprise technology strategy. This conversation with Bert, who leads Tanzu's product management at Broadcom, reveals how VMware's cloud automation vision is transforming from aspiration to reality.

At the heart of this transformation is a refreshingly simple philosophy: developers should be able to say, "Here's my code, here's my intent, please make it happen." The Tanzu division delivers on this promise by handling all the complexity—no Terraform templates to configure, no cluster tinkering required. Just...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The technology landscape is experiencing unprecedented disruption as AI reshapes enterprise IT infrastructure, operations, and strategy. Herb Hogue, SVP at Myriad 360 with over three decades of experience across engineering, architecture, and leadership roles, brings unique perspective to this transformation.

What makes the current AI revolution remarkable isn't just its capabilities but its adoption velocity. Unlike previous technological shifts that took years to mature, AI has moved from hype to implementation with stunning speed. Organizations readily embrace AI functionality integrated into existing tools, but struggle...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The race to implement AI is leaving many businesses struggling with hallucinations, compliance concerns, and disappointing results. What's missing? According to Dominik Tomičević founder and CEO of Memgraph, it's the critical connection between AI and graph technology.

Dominik shares his fascinating journey from winning a Bill Gates grant at Davos to founding Memgraph after encountering scaling walls with traditional graph databases. His team has pioneered an approach called GraphRAG (Graph Retrieval Augmented Generation), which grounds large language models in living knowledge graphs rather th...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The networking landscape is experiencing a seismic shift as artificial intelligence transforms traditional connectivity into intelligent, business-driven infrastructure. Gary Sidhu, Senior Vice President of Product Engineering at GTT, takes us on a fascinating journey through this evolution, explaining how networks are evolving from "dumb pipes" to strategic "business compasses."

At the heart of this transformation is GTT's Envision platform, which connects enterprises to their data and applications globally through edge and core infrastructure components. Sidhu articulates how AI is enabling intent-based networking, where administrators...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The telecommunications industry faces unprecedented challenges in operational efficiency, customer experience, and digital transformation. Enter TUPL – the quiet powerhouse revolutionizing how telecom giants handle everything from network operations to technical customer care.

Meet Rafael Ballesteros of TUPL, who shares the remarkable journey of this Seattle-headquartered company with R&D roots in Malaga, Spain. With seven years at TUPL (including a brief "boomerang" departure that brought him back), Rafa reveals how their AI-powered automation platform has become indispensable to giants like T-Mobile, where 40,000 customer care re...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The data protection landscape has fundamentally changed. Gone are the days when IT leaders maintained complete control over data housed solely in on-premises environments. Today's reality is vastly more complex – a scattered ecosystem of on-premises systems, multiple clouds, and countless SaaS applications that Andy from HYCU aptly describes as "everything is everywhere all at once."

In this eye-opening conversation, we explore HYCU's groundbreaking expansion of its rCloud platform to protect over 90 workloads across on-premises, public cloud, and SaaS environments – all through a unified interface. This...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The explosion of generative AI has created an urgent need for enterprises to run AI workloads on-premises to protect sensitive data, maintain governance, and safeguard intellectual property. In this illuminating conversation with Tasha Drew, who leads the engineering team for private AI services within VMware Cloud Foundation, we explore how Broadcom is transforming enterprise AI infrastructure following their landmark announcements at VMware Explorer.

Tasha reveals how VMware's AI platform, now baked directly into VCF, enables organizations to implement comprehensive model governance, scale models efficiently...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The digital infrastructure landscape has fundamentally changed. What was once a simple utility—broadband connectivity—has evolved into a strategic asset requiring sophisticated architecture, security considerations, and specialized expertise. In this insightful conversation with James Coberly CTO/ COO of Massive Networks, we explore why the traditional carrier-customer relationship must evolve to meet modern business demands.

James brings 35+ years of telecommunications experience to bear on the challenges facing today's MSPs and enterprises. He articulates a vision where carriers serve as true partners rather than mere vend...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The evolution of industrial IoT is transforming how businesses approach connectivity, resilience, and edge intelligence. Digi International stands at the forefront of this revolution, having journeyed from a hardware-focused connected devices company to a comprehensive solutions provider over its 40-year history.

What makes this transformation remarkable, per Ron Konezny
President and CEO, is how Digi has woven together hardware excellence with sophisticated software, connectivity, and perhaps most importantly - exceptional service. As their leader explains, service isn't just about fixing broken devices; it's...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The digital identity revolution is here, and it's transforming how we verify who we are online. In this fascinating conversation, Raj from Trua explains how their innovative approach to identity verification is creating what amounts to a "TSA PreCheck for the digital age" - a system where you verify your identity once and reuse it countless times without repeatedly sharing your sensitive personal information.

As data breaches continue to plague major institutions and AI makes identity fraud increasingly sophisticated, our current approach of repeatedly...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

What happens when cutting-edge AI meets the traditionally conservative world of accounting? A revolution that's transforming how high-net-worth individuals and family offices manage their wealth.

Meet Brian, CEO of Montreal-based Wealth Write-Up, who brings a fascinating perspective on how technology is reshaping investment accounting. Having implemented AI solutions across multiple industries for over a decade, he's now applying those lessons to the financial world with remarkable results.

The numbers tell a compelling story: high-net-worth clients often generate over 100,000 financial transactions annually. Traditionally...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Have you ever wondered how AI coding assistants could work in secure enterprise environments without sending your proprietary code to the cloud? That's exactly what Tabnine is tackling as an enterprise-first AI assistant that predates even GitHub Copilot.

The secret to effective AI agents in enterprise settings isn't just raw model power—it's context. Tabnine creates a comprehensive "map" of your organization by connecting code repositories, documentation, configuration files, and project management tools. This enables their AI agents to understand the environment they're operating in...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Ever wonder why healthcare costs keep rising while hospitals struggle financially? The answer might lie in what Ananth Manivannan Founder @ Resolvd AI, calls "the swivel chair problem" – the countless hours healthcare professionals spend manually transferring data between systems instead of focusing on patient care.

The journey behind Resolvd AI began in an ICU room, where Ananth watched nurses smuggle basic supplies like pillowcases between departments while his parent battled a brain tumor. This striking illustration of broken healthcare operations sparked a mission to fix th...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The digital transformation journey toward AI implementation presents enterprises with a fundamental challenge: leveraging decades of data stored across disconnected silos. Unlike early AI pioneers who built purpose-designed infrastructure from scratch, most organizations must work with existing investments while meeting the unique demands of artificial intelligence workloads.

Hammerspace tackles this challenge head-on by flipping the traditional "data gravity" paradigm. While IT has historically moved compute to where data resides, AI requires the opposite—bringing distributed enterprise data to GPUs and models that may exist el...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The private cloud revolution is gaining momentum, with VMware's Virtual Cloud Foundation (VCF) emerging as the platform of choice for enterprises seeking alternatives to public cloud. In this enlightening conversation with Vijay Ramachandran, who leads product management for core infrastructure at Broadcom, we dive deep into the transformative innovations unveiled at VMware Explore

Storage technology has undergone remarkable evolution, with vSAN now featuring global deduplication that dramatically reduces costs. This software-defined approach, combined with high-performance capabilities, is driving organizations away from traditional hardware-based solutions...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The security landscape is dramatically shifting as organizations embrace private AI and cloud environments, creating new vulnerabilities alongside unprecedented opportunities. Umesh Mahajan VP & GM, Application Networking and Security Division, Broadcom pulls back the curtain on this evolving threat landscape where generative AI is democratizing attack capabilities: "suddenly machines can be used and anybody can become an attacker."

Ransomware attacks don't appear from nowhere—they represent the culmination of methodical intrusions where attackers establish footholds through back channels before executing their final devastating blow. As VM...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Private cloud is experiencing a dramatic resurgence as organizations rethink their cloud strategies. Prashanth Shenoy reveals fascinating insights from their research spanning 1,800 global IT decision-makers: 53% are building new workloads on private cloud while a striking 70% are repatriating workloads from public environments.

What's driving this shift? Security concerns top the list, particularly for regulated industries handling sensitive data that can't be exposed in public environments. Cost predictability follows closely behind, as organizations struggle with unexpected public cloud expenses and seek more transparent alternatives. The generative...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Ever wonder what would happen if we completely reimagined driver safety? What if instead of focusing on mistakes, we celebrated what drivers do right? That's exactly what Netrodyn is doing with their groundbreaking AI-powered approach to road safety.

Netrodyn, whose name literally means "the power of vision," is transforming fleet safety by using artificial intelligence to create a positive relationship with drivers. As Adam Kahn explains, traditional safety approaches focus on the few things drivers do wrong, when in reality, drivers do hundreds of...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

What if you could run CUDA code on AMD hardware without changing a single line of code? This groundbreaking possibility is now reality thanks to Spectral Compute's Scale compiler, which we explore in depth with founder Chris in this eye-opening conversation.

Born from frustration with cross-platform GPU programming limitations, Scale represents seven years of dedicated compiler development that allows developers to simply recompile their existing CUDA applications for AMD hardware. "Keep your code exactly how it is. Just recompile it," explains Chris, highlighting how...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Communication lies at the heart of every successful organization, but in today's information-saturated workplace, getting messages to resonate has never been more challenging. Frank Gauld CPTO @ Poppulo reveals a startling paradox: while companies are struggling to connect with their workforce despite more communication tools than ever, employees are simultaneously craving deeper connection and belonging.

The numbers tell a compelling story. Poppulo's employee communications platform reaches about 50 million people daily, with companies sending over 2.2 billion messages last year. Yet their research shows only 45% of communicators b...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The bond between humans and their pets runs deep, but communication barriers have always limited how well we understand our furry companions. What if technology could bridge that gap? That's exactly what SATELLAI is achieving with their revolutionary smart dog collar.

David Teaster, Product Marketing Director at SATELLAI takes us behind the scenes of what might be the most advanced pet wearable ever created. This isn't just another GPS tracker – it's a comprehensive safety and wellness system that combines cutting-edge location technology, customizable virtual fe...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Ever wondered who teaches AI what's right and wrong? That's exactly what we explore in this eye-opening conversation with Olga Megorskaya
Chief Executive Officer from Toloka, the company providing the human infrastructure behind today's most advanced AI systems.

Toloka stands at the fascinating intersection of human expertise and artificial intelligence, serving major players like Anthropic, Amazon, Microsoft, and Shopify. As Olga explains, while the industry has long focused on algorithms and hardware, data quality remains the overlooked pillar of AI development. There's a...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The race to implement AI is creating a massive challenge for enterprises: how to connect their existing data to AI models without rebuilding their entire infrastructure. Hammerspace has emerged with a revolutionary solution that's changing how organizations think about data mobility.

Molly Presley, from Hammerspace, reveals how decades of enterprise data storage strategies have created silos that now block AI progress. While companies like Meta and Google built purpose-designed AI infrastructure from scratch, most enterprises must work with what they already have – petabytes of da...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The convergence of artificial intelligence and edge computing is reshaping how frontline workers perform their jobs across industries. In this thought-provoking conversation with Tom Bianculli, Chief Technology Officer at Zebra Technologies, we explore the revolutionary concept of the "far edge" – bringing computational intelligence directly to mobile devices and fixed infrastructure at the point of activity.

Tom explains how Zebra has evolved from basic barcode scanning to creating comprehensive solutions that provide visibility, mobility, and intelligent orchestration for retail associates, warehouse workers, nurses, and manufacturing pe...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Ever bought something only to discover you don't really own it? That's the troubling reality Lewis Rossman is fighting against through his work with the Fulu Foundation.

What began as frustration over limited access to repair parts for Apple products evolved into a broader movement challenging how technology companies control our devices long after purchase. Rossman takes us behind the scenes of the right-to-repair movement, revealing how Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act effectively criminalizes breaking digital locks on products you've purchased – with pe...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

What happens when we take cancer care out of the sterile hospital environment and bring it into the comfort of patients' homes? Dan Nardi, CEO of Reimagined Care, is pioneering this transformative approach through a powerful combination of technology, AI, and human expertise.

Cancer patients spend roughly 98% of their treatment journey outside clinical settings, often feeling isolated and unsupported between appointments. Many "suffer in silence" rather than "bothering" their busy oncology teams with questions and concerns, while healthcare providers struggle with overwhelming workloads that...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

When a technology has been around for over three decades, you might assume its most exciting days are behind it. But as SUSE CEO Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen aka DP reveals, Linux and open source are actually at the center of today's most transformative technologies - from AI to edge computing to digital sovereignty.

The conversation begins with a passionate reminder of why open source matters: it creates exponential innovation through collaboration. "None of this would have been possible if it wasn't for people sharing...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Data protection in the legal world is evolving rapidly, and the stakes couldn't be higher. When it comes to safeguarding critical case files and client information, law firms face unique challenges that extend far beyond typical enterprise concerns.

The sheer volume of data maintained by legal organizations creates formidable technical and financial hurdles. As Will from Helient explains in this eye-opening conversation from ILTACON 2025, law firms must navigate exceptionally long retention requirements while ensuring data remains secure across multiple locations and storage media. This...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

From zero to everywhere in just one year—that's the meteoric rise of agentic AI in the enterprise space. But beneath the buzzwords and hype, who's actually delivering real value with this technology?

At AI4 in Las Vegas, Cognigy's Alan Ranger cuts through the noise to explain what truly differentiates agentic AI from traditional automation. Unlike the deterministic bots of yesterday, today's AI agents possess human-like reasoning capabilities—they understand everything, make decisions autonomously, and complete complex tasks while connected to enterprise systems at scal...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Data protection sits at the crossroads of legal technology's most pressing challenges. As law firms rapidly migrate to cloud services, a dangerous gap has emerged between adopting SaaS applications and properly securing their critical data.

During our live conversation at ILTACON with Andy Fernandez, Senior Director of Product Marketing at HYCU, we dive into the startling reality that the average law firm now uses 99 different SaaS applications - each containing sensitive client information requiring ironclad protection. Andy reveals the launch of HYCU's groundbreaking enterprise...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Ever wondered what happens when artificial intelligence becomes more than just a feature but the very essence of your business? Eric Vaughan CEO of IgniteTech, Khoros, and GFI Software, has moved beyond the familiar "AI-first" terminology to something more profound – what he calls "AI DNA." His organization has transformed to the point where 75% of employees integrate AI into their daily work, regardless of their role.

The conversation reveals fascinating insights into IgniteTech's recent acquisition of Khoros, bringing community forum environments and social media management so...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Ever wonder why your AI tools aren't delivering the results you need? The answer might surprise you. 

Tech futurist Shelly Palmer reveals that older professionals often outperform their younger counterparts with AI tools—not because of technical prowess, but because they know exactly what questions to ask. This counterintuitive insight is just one of many game-changing perspectives shared in our conversation about how artificial intelligence is reshaping our world.

Palmer takes us behind the corporate curtain, explaining how enterprises have shifted from exp...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The last frontier of cloud computing is finally giving way as ERP systems—the mission-critical applications that businesses depend on—migrate to cloud environments. In this revealing conversation, Kevin Beasley, CIO of VAI, takes us behind the scenes of this significant shift in enterprise technology.

With 47 years of experience as an ERP software vendor, VAI has witnessed the transformation firsthand since launching their cloud offerings in 2009. Kevin explains why ERP systems were traditionally the most resistant to cloud migration: "ERP runs everybody's businesses. It's the...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The race to 5G Advanced is accelerating, and the stakes couldn't be higher for telecom operators worldwide. This transformative technology represents the third wave of 5G deployment, moving beyond enhanced speeds to turn networks into programmable revenue engines capable of monetizing quality of service, implementing dynamic network slices, and enabling edge computing solutions.

Stephen Douglas Head of Market Strategy @ Spirent —a leader in test automation and assurance for the communications industry—walks us through what makes 5G Advanced revolutionary. While most consumers currently experience non...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The SaaS landscape is experiencing a seismic shift, with artificial intelligence accelerating at a pace unlike any previous technological wave. For companies under $100 million in revenue, this represents both an extraordinary opportunity and a critical inflection point. As Jason Masciarelli from Launchpad.io explains, these businesses now face a rapidly closing window to pivot toward AI-native solutions or risk obsolescence in an increasingly competitive market.

Most mid-sized SaaS companies find themselves in a challenging position - trapped between maintaining their existing product backlog and...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

Autonomous AI agents represent one of the most transformative technologies for enterprise operations, but deploying them without proper orchestration creates substantial risks. In this thought-provoking conversation with Sagi Eliyahu Co-Founder and CEO Tonkean as we unpack the critical relationship between AI agents, orchestration, and governance in modern enterprises.

What makes AI agents fundamentally different from traditional automation is their autonomous nature—their ability to use tools and make decisions in ways that might be unexpected. As Sagi explains, "No one is going to...

Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com

The digital infrastructure powering our modern world faces unprecedented challenges – from AI's insatiable power demands to increasingly unpredictable weather events threatening uptime. How do data centers adapt and survive?

Dave Schaible, Chief Operating Officer at Radix IoT, pulls back the curtain on the sophisticated monitoring systems keeping critical facilities operational 24/7. Their cloud-native Mango platform collects second-by-second data from infrastructure components across four continents, providing the real-time intelligence needed to prevent costly outages and optimize performance.

The conversation explores the three pillars keeping da...