Heavy Strategy
72 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago -From technology to workplace culture, from geopolitical trends to economics, Heavy Strategy debates pivotal questions in enterprise IT. Hosts Greg Ferro and Johna Till Johnson bring their technical expertise, analytical acumen, and contrasting viewpoints to discuss complex topics of interest to IT leaders. Frequently irreverent and always thought-provoking, these are the conversations you wish you could have at the leadership table. Tune in and join the think tank, where unanswered questions are better than unquestioned answers.
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Episodes
Day Two Cloud: The Duality of Enterprise AI
April 18, 2024 15:48 - 55 minutes - 75.9 MBWelcome to a crossover episode with the Day Two Cloud podcast! AI has been around forever; AI is emergent. AI is just data analytics; AI hallucinates. AI doesn’t have many business use cases; AI is already being used by your employees. Today, Greg and Johna from the Heavy Strategy podcast join Day Two Cloud to... Read more »
HS069: Regulating AI
April 09, 2024 21:43 - 29 minutes - 40 MBIn today’s episode Greg and Johna spar over how, when, and why to regulate AI. Does early regulation lead to bad regulation? Does late regulation lead to a situation beyond democratic control? Comparing nascent regulation efforts in the EU, UK, and US, they analyze socio-legal principles like privacy and distributed liability. Most importantly, Johna drives... Read more »
HS068: What’s the Point of Having a Tech Strategy?
March 19, 2024 18:38 - 34 minutes - 48.1 MBWhat does having a tech strategy actually do for an organization? In today’s episode, Greg and Johna highlight how a good tech strategy benefits a company: creates a foundation of first principles, reduces bias in vendor decisions, better allocates human resources, kills bad ideas, sunsets projects, and makes meetings a little more enjoyable and harmonious.... Read more »
HS067: The Right People to Have on Your Tech Strategy Team
March 05, 2024 22:13 - 37 minutes - 51.1 MBExactly who should be on your technology strategy team? From inside your organization, who should represent the areas that come into play: Business, development, operations, etc? And what about outsiders–what kind of external consultant do you want for your strategy team? Do you even need one? Johna and Greg cover it all in today’s episode.... Read more »
HS066: The Holy Grail: A Functioning Tech Strategy
February 23, 2024 12:43 - 25 minutes - 17.8 MBIt’s rare for strategists, executives, and technologists to all get on the same page in order to create, execute, and adjust an organization’s tech strategy, much less do it well. But it is possible. Johna and Greg discuss their experiences of seeing through some consultants’ smoke and mirrors, honestly evaluating an organization’s capability to implement... Read more »
HS065: Calculating the Value of Telco AIOps (Sponsored)
February 13, 2024 20:04 - 26 minutes - 37.5 MBAI and automation are hot topics in telco, but not all projects are created equal in terms of the bottom-line value. We dive into how to calculate total value, and discuss why the area of assurance looks set to generate the most value. We provide key questions to ask when considering what AIOps to add... Read more »
HS064: Mastering the Art of Strategy and Architecture with Pocket Change
February 06, 2024 17:18 - 40 minutes - 28.3 MBWelcome, trailblazers and visionaries! Today, I’m thrilled to unpack a treasure trove of wisdom that zooms into the exhilarating realm of strategy architecture and the craft of sculpting strategy roadmaps on a shoestring budget. The Thrill of Resourcefulness In this episode, my esteemed co-host Johna and I dove headfirst into a challenge that plagues countless... Read more »
HS063: What’s On Our Minds
January 23, 2024 18:21 - 27 minutes - 19.3 MBHosts Greg Ferro and Johna Till Johnson reflect on the technological advancements of 2023 and discuss the trends for 2024. In this wide-ranging conversation, they chat about the rise of AI, tech consolidation, and the impact of automation on infrastructure. They also explore the geopolitical impact on supply chains, the move away from Chinese manufacturing,... Read more »
HS062: Questions On Being Service-Oriented
January 11, 2024 17:44 - 29 minutes - 27.9 MBJohna and Greg discuss service-oriented networking and the challenges of defining and delivering network services. They explore the negative impact of siloed organizational structures on service delivery and the importance of continuous adaptation in infrastructure management. They debate the perception of services by users, using metaphors like sidewalks and electricity, and the importance of defining... Read more »
HS061: What is IT Training or Education
December 19, 2023 13:50 - 31 minutes - 22.3 MBThe difference between training and education is signficant and technology industry often conflates these terms. They are vastly different ways to providing learning and we dive into why we need more education and less training.
HS060: Power Micro-Generation for Data Center
December 05, 2023 14:00 - 33 minutes - 31.2 MBPowering data centres is big deal in current decade. Massive increases in consumption and scaling of off-prem clouds has exceeded the capacity of civilian power grids while cloud operators are reluctant to sign thirty year supply agreements so that more power plants can be built. Enter power micro-generation where too large DCs needs too small... Read more »
HS059: Cognitive Load and Platforms
November 28, 2023 20:38 - 33 minutes - 30.6 MBOur conversation begins with an exploration of the concept of cognitive load in relation to platforms. David, despite being an IT professional and not a psychiatrist, brought an intriguing perspective to the table. He emphasized how platforms, such as VMware, Kubernetes, and Cloud Foundry, are designed to remove effort from users, making it easier for... Read more »
HS058: Are We Pausing The Technology Cycle?
October 26, 2023 15:43 - 30 minutes - 28.4 MBToday we debate its technoloyg is reaching a stable phase. Greg argues that we are in a period of stability, citing resistance to change and a slowdown in advancements. Johna believes that the rise of quantum computing and AI will lead to significant disruptions. They also discuss the future of AI and quantum computing, with Johna predicting a transformative impact by 2026, while Greg suggests a slower adoption due to existing heavy investments in technology.
HS057: Technical Debt
October 11, 2023 12:15 - 31 minutes - 29.3 MBIn this podcast episode, Johna and I discuss the concept of technical debt. We provide different definitions of technical debt, with me focusing on the inability to switch solutions easily and Johna emphasizing the trade-off between immediate speed and long-term efficiency. We give examples of technical debt, such as outdated systems and insecure infrastructure, and... Read more »
Heavy Strategy 56: FU to the Followup
September 27, 2023 13:36 - 34 minutes - 24.2 MBTaking your feedback and followup and discussing the questions you bring us. Zero Trust Defintions, Out of Band in Zero Trust, Johna and/or Greg is/are insufferable and re-evaluating the Tech Job Debacle with hindsight.
HS055: Cloud Is Not The Only Future
September 12, 2023 10:26 - 34 minutes - 23.8 MBA special guest today, Keith Townsend joins Johna Greg to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing compared to on-premises infrastructure. We start by clarifying the definition of cloud and emphasizing the significance of software-defined infrastructure and automation in on-premises data centers. Keith shares his perspective on hybrid infrastructure and making the case for a combination of on-premises and off-premises resources as the future of enterprise IT.
HS054: Matching IT and Corporate Culture
August 29, 2023 16:54 - 30 minutes - 21.4 MBAre you interested in learning more about aligning technology choices with organizational goals? Our podcast has got you covered! Listen now to explore the importance of technology alignment with business objectives.
HS053: IT Facilities in 2023
August 02, 2023 14:57 - 37 minutes - 17.7 MBThe use of physical infrastructure has changed substantially in the last three years. Data centres are scaling down, offices and branches are being re-considered. One view is that offices are ‘playgrounds’ where white collar workers gather to chat, socialise, drink free coffee and have face-to-face for one or two days a week. An opposing view is that its legacy way of working but it will take time for people to adapt to remote work.
HS052: Professional Liability and Qualified Design
July 18, 2023 12:23 - 38 minutes - 26.9 MBAs technology becomes more critical and vital to companies business leaders are beginning to question the reliability and liability. Insurers now require audits and demand complienace with set practices before issuing a policy. Corporate boards are realising that so-called tech professionals have zero training or professional requirement, consultants have even less and the analysts are... Read more »
HS051: Things I Wish I’d Known Back When
July 11, 2023 09:22 - 23 minutes - 16.8 MBOft-asked question that doesn't have a right answer. We discuss non-convential answers that career coaches or self-help twaddle won't give you.
HS050: The Tech Job Debacle
June 28, 2023 13:47 - 28 minutes - 19.7 MBGoogle, Microsoft, Twitter, META/FB and a few others laid off an estimated 200,000 tech and tech-adjacent folks in recent weeks. Other companies like Fedex and Amazon have made layoffs, many impacting the IT teams. What does that mean for the tech industry? Between AI and our corporate overlords are we all lucky to be employed, and should we go back to working 80 hour in-office weeks?
HS049 Evanescent vs Enduring IT
June 07, 2023 16:12 - 25 minutes - 12.3 MBIT organisations tend towards two strategic approaches - enduring, permanent and susatined. Or short term, consumable and fungible IT.
HS048 Using Personal Product Branding To Be Better Paid Technology Engineer
May 23, 2023 12:47 - 26 minutes - 18.7 MBMany business executives are incompetent scumbags and yet they managed to get the job and get paid serious money. What can technology engineers learn from these fools so that they get the same results aka more money and less work.
HS047: Architect/Engineers/Operations, Career Progression and Liability
May 02, 2023 17:55 - 25 minutes - 12.1 MBWhat are these roles and how do they fit into a strategy ? Who solves problems, designs solutions, and tests to make sure that’s workable ? How do we create/train people for these roles ? What about professional liability ?
HS046 What Do We Do About China ?
April 18, 2023 13:45 - 27 minutes - 19.5 MBThe new geopolitical reality means that China is part of IT Strategy. The supply chain is changing, joint ventures are limited and more.
HS045 Seize Opportunities for Modern IT Operations with VIA (Sponsored)
April 11, 2023 12:17 - 29 minutes - 20.5 MBAIOps is been a buzzword but public generative AI and LLMs like ChatGPT mean there is a lot more awareness and demand. In todays sponsored show we are talking to Vitria about VIA AI Ops and how you can add it to your IT strategy.
HS044 Is Digital Transformation Bollocks ?
April 03, 2023 16:00 - 23 minutes - 16.6 MBSo much wasted marketing on Digital Transformation. Was it all bollocks or was there something real underneath the bombast and hype ?
HS043 Is The IT Team In The Service, Project or Product Business
March 21, 2023 14:16 - 27 minutes - 25.3 MBDifferences between project (disruption, replacement), service (smooth, continuous) and product (updates, changes) mean that process and people have very different approach to technology management and operations.
HS042 Is ChatGPT Coming For Your Job
March 08, 2023 15:31 - 48 minutes - 45.1 MBShort answer is yes. Long answer is long. CHatGPT is useful for demonstrating potential and getting more funding for AI. In terms of potential for real work, well, its not good enough.
HS041 Intelligent Network Automation With BackBox – Sponsored
March 01, 2023 12:40 - 29 minutes - 27.7 MBWe talk a lot about automation and orchestration and how they can change your network strategy and smooth network workflows. But not everybody wants to sit around writing code and building test labs. Greg and Johna talk with Josh Stephens and Chanoch Marmorstein from sponsor BackBox about its network automation software, how it fits into a network operations strategy, and how BackBox focuses on the network engineer.
HS040 Top Mistakes Technology Strategists Make
February 21, 2023 20:06 - 35 minutes - 33.1 MBIt might be curmudgeon day. Johna and Greg ask what are mistakes that we have seen in technology strategies.
HS039 Operating an Enterprise Architecture Function
January 25, 2023 16:18 - 27 minutes - 13 MBAfter setting questions and perspectives on What is Enterprise Architecture, the natural sequence is How to Maintain and Operate an Architecture team.
HS038 What is Enterprise Architecture And How To Plan For It
December 07, 2022 18:55 - 32 minutes - 15.4 MBSome companies use formal Enterprise Architecture (EA) to maintan a consistent IT strategy. Its not often successful so we discuss possible ways to practically maintain the EA function.
Heavy Strategy 037 – Metaversing The Office is More Than One Thing
November 22, 2022 18:26 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBAre there angles on future metaverse that make sensee ? Johna and Greg dive into their perspectives on what is a metaverse and converge on the face that its a form of collaboration. Potentially it could be immersive with VR googles but more likely it’s about engaging data from external domains into the collaboration experience.
HS036 Cyberstupid – Can We Stop Doing Dumb IT Security
November 01, 2022 14:11 - 33 minutes - 31.5 MBYou can't make a profit from Cybersecurity, its a cost. How do we work with business to see IT risk management on the same level as accounting and human resources ? Johna and Greg discuss various options on market, process and methods that could help you work on your cyber situation.
HS035 Quiet Quitting Hustle Culture
October 18, 2022 18:39 - 33 minutes - 15.4 MBWhats the deal with Quiet Quitting ? Johna & Greg get into a heated debate about the nature of work. Johna wants people to ‘do your job’, Greg wants ‘pay me more to do more’. How much can a companies expect from their employees as hustle culture is being rejected by more people.
HS033 Getting real about LEO Space Networking
October 05, 2022 13:07 - 22 minutes - 11 MBShould LEO space networks be part of your network ? Are there common questions about using and designing for them ? What should be expecting from your telco ?
HS034 Introducing Graphiant Stateless Cloud WAN – Sponsored
September 27, 2022 10:53 - 36 minutes - 17.2 MBGraphiant Stateless Cloud WAN addresses the limitations of SDWAN - better scalability, more flexibility and service guarantees. Their stateless network core is multi-tenant, predictable and scalable. Customers get the benefit of SDWAN with less of the problems. We unpack the details in this episiode with Khalid Raza, Founder and CEO of Graphiant and ask questions to understand how it would fit your strategy.
HS032 Mentors and Leadership
August 30, 2022 17:31 - 19 minutes - 18.3 MBIs there a role for career mentors and coaches in modern IT ? We discuss the topic and establish some points. IT Careers are high value and high effort but unlike other professions (such as law or medicine) there are no gatekeepers to working. This leads to training and ‘life coaches’ that are unregulated and often unprofessional.
HS031 Kolide and Honest Security
August 23, 2022 13:21 - 29 minutes - 27.6 MBWe discuss how Kolide tools engage the user to improve end-point security. Monitoring devices and then contacting the user to gather more information and provide contextual questions is a novel approach.
HS030 Can Low Code Fit Your IT Strategy
August 16, 2022 14:37 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBBoth sides of the low code/no code debate. We outline two sides of the debate, discuss four topics in favour of low code and then cover four negatives. Avoidance of toil coding, avoid skill shortage and viable testing are good things. Lockin, shadow IT and ownership are problematic. Its a solid debate on the topic.
HS029 Do You Want A Strategic Vendor ?
August 04, 2022 11:50 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBThe pro and con's of having preferred supplier for IT technology ? You can save time and effort, simplify purchasing and move quicker but are you getting the best solution and support. We discuss different perspectives on going down the path and point out the subscription pricing moves towards vendor lockin.
HS028 – Do’s and Don’ts of Selecting Technology Provider
July 19, 2022 19:00 - 41 minutes - 38.4 MBWe discuss different aspects of selecting technology to buy. Topics include business case, planning, selection, evaluation and review - as you might expect - but we find that there isn't one right answer.
HS 028 – Do’s and Don’ts of Selecting Technology Provider
July 19, 2022 19:00 - 41 minutes - 38.4 MBWe discuss different aspects of selecting technology to buy. Topics include business case, planning, selection, evaluation and review - as you might expect - but we find that there isn't one right answer. The post HS 028 – Do’s and Don’ts of Selecting Technology Provider appeared first on Packet Pushers.
HS027 Broadcom and VMware – What’s Gonna Happen?
June 28, 2022 12:06 - 26 minutes - 24.6 MBCold takes on the Broadcom/VMware acquisition. We consider Broadcom's stated goal to increase VMW profit margin from 35% to 65% and what this will mean to customer experience.
HS 026 So You Want to Develop A Technology Strategy ?
June 21, 2022 16:28 - 5 MBWhat are the right questions for developing and maintaining a technology strategy for your company ?
HS025 Did You Know Your IT is a Crime Scene ?
June 07, 2022 15:26 - 24 minutes - 23.2 MBDoes planning for cybersecurity failure include the concept of 'crime scene' ? Can you provide evidence to an external investigation sufficient to get justice or simply prove to insurance investigator that you met the policy requirements ? Should you be lobbying governments ? How does this drive your cyber spending - defense, microsegmentation, detection or evidence collection ?
HS 024 – Is Shadow IT a Good Thing
May 26, 2022 13:32 - 25 minutes - 24.1 MBShadow IT does not always lead to bad outcom
HS 023 Horrors and Hurdles of Hybrid Work
May 17, 2022 15:24 - 34 minutes - 32.2 MBWhat about changing the work we do ? Perhaps with orchestration / automation and even AI ? So many questions, not many answers.
HS022 Top Mistakes Customers Make Dealing With Vendors
May 04, 2022 15:03 - 5 MBContracts are caveat emptor but the client often knows little about the what they are buying and why.