Silo Busting 37: Cloud Mastery, Part I, with Jim Wilt, Norm Judah, and Miha Kralj

For many organizations, the cloud is shrouded in mystery. It doesn’t have to be. Cloud mastery isn’t out of reach, but achieving it requires clear thinking, a tolerance for systemic complexity, and a willingness to invest and test. Our latest episode of *Silo Busting*—the first in a two-part series—will help prepare you to scale the cloud’s intimidating edifice. To ascend to a higher level of understanding, listen to the informed but easygoing back-and-forth between experts Jim Wilt, Distinguished Architect of Digital Strategy & Technology Innovation at a Fortune 100 retailer promoting cloud-native solutions via empowered DevSecOps teams; Norm Judah, EPAM Advisory Board Member; and Miha Kralj, EPAM’s VP of Cloud Strategy. Know first that humility is required. “It is absolutely impossible to know everything about everything in the cloud,” admits Judah. “You can know something about everything, and everything about something, but knowing how all the components work is a task that's sort of intractable to normal humans.” And yet, normal humans—particularly those on the IT side of things—need to explain to their business counterparts that, as Kralj puts it: “Cloud is not just a cheaper data center in the sky but actually provides, on its own, an additional business value through greater agility, greater speed, better access to business innovation.” Part of the reason we can move so quickly in cloud is that today’s technology enables rapid experimentation and fast learning. Says Wilt: “I'm learning one hundred ways to not do something so that when I find the two ways to do it, I can go into that with high confidence because I'm an expert at failing at it.” The trio riffs on how the cloud got so complex, the need for continuous education, the importance of aligning technical and business mastery, and more. If you're curious about cloud, get listening! As Judah says, cloud mastery “isn't static—you either get better or you get worse, but you never stay at the same level.” Host: Kenji Ross Engineer: Kyp Pilalas Producer: Ken Gordon