Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

Key TakeawaysOverview: Fisher gives an overview of his role as Chief Information Officer at BouMatic, all within the context of the dairy equipment industry that’s evolving toward larger, consolidated operations. BouMatic is the "third largest dairy equipment manufacturer in the world," and he gives context on the difference in marketplaces.AI: The rapid rollout of copilots and the pace of AI innovation have created a constant need to catch up on functionality, licensing, and deployment strategies, explains Fisher, prompting teams to shift from intended roadmaps to more flexible frameworks. As Fisher describes, “We're in a bit of a catch-up game all the time... not just with AI in general, but even in its deployment.”Addressing deployment challenges: Deploying AI has revealed long-standing data challenges, which Fisher compares to uncovering a “junk drawer” of neglected information. To address this, the BouMatic team uses sandbox environments for testing and follows a "five-pillar approach." Two of these pillars focus on user upskilling and cultural change, highlighting successful deployment through use cases, structured rollout plans, and ongoing support to ensure ROI.AI experimentation: When exploring AI, sandbox environments allow teams to experiment safely and securely, learn from both successes and failures, and prepare for production with a user-focused, iterative approach, notes Fisher.Contributors: John Siefert, Michael Fisher  Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I report live from Oracle AI World, where speed and innovation are front and center.Highlights00:13 — Here at Oracle AI World in Las Vegas, you can see there's lots going on. It's almost like the new tagline for Oracle — AI changes everything. Oracle is one of the very few companies — maybe the only one — that goes end-to-end: from cloud infrastructure, AI infrastructure, AI inferencing, databases, applications, industry-specific solutions, analytics, and more.01:00 — Some of the big ways it's doing this include: the new AI Database 26. There’s the new AI data platform it's launched. In OCI, it's launched the ZetaScale Cluster 10 for AI. There are AI-powered features now embedded in its Fusion Applications. They introduced many new features for Agent Studio and also the Agent Marketplace.02:00 — There’s much more going on at this show. I’ve been to a lot of Oracle events, and I think this one is by far the most ambitious, the most sweeping, and really, in a way, the most innovative in terms of product launches. Larry Ellison is strongly behind the notion that AI changes everything. That’s even reflected in the name change. For several years, it was CloudWorld — now it’s AI World.02:58 — The customers featured here say speed is an advantage. First-mover possibilities. They know they’ve got to move on these things. They can’t wait, because companies that get an early jump on AI are going to have a huge advantage. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, sponsored by CLOUDVICE, I explore how Oracle’s new CEOs, Mike Sicilia and Clay Magouyrk, are steering the company deeper into the AI revolutionHighlights00:00 — Today’s episode is brought to you by CloudVice, winner of the 2025 Oracle North America Technology and Cloud AI Innovation Partner Award. “We’re honored to receive the 2025 Oracle North America Technology & Cloud AI Innovation Partner Award, a recognition that underscores CLOUDVICE’s unwavering commitment to advancing enterprise AI on Oracle Cloud,” said Jaison Correya, CEO of CLOUDVICE. “This achievement reflects the breakthrough projects and real-world transformations we’ve delivered with Oracle — and at Oracle AI World 2025, we took that vision even further by unveiling CORX, our next-generation platform where AI thinks, Cloud scales, Blockchain verifies, and Robotics acts. It represents the next leap in intelligent automation and the future of real-world autonomy."00:25 — So, we’re beginning to hear the strategies Oracle’s two new CEOs are taking. That’s Mike Sicilia and Clay Magouyrk. It’s clear they think that Oracle’s supremacy in data and infrastructure is going to make them successful in AI — to the point that their main focus is: how do we drive great customer outcomes using AI services?01:20 — And Oracle’s plan, which they’ve been talking about a little bit and will unveil this week in much more detail, is that while LLMs currently work with public internet data, they’re going to make available — very securely, privately, and with all requisite compliance — enterprise data that also can be accessed by those LLMs.02:21 — Clay Magouyrk talked a bit about the work Oracle has done to reach the point where its infrastructure is seen as superior. Magouyrk said that inside Oracle, the idea came up — “What if we shrunk the cloud down to a very tiny size? Could we get better performance, and could we give more deployment options to customers?” — it turned out that was exactly the case.03:28 — This week at Oracle AI World, they’re going to introduce a new cloud bundle that has three racks — from 40 to three. Also, the stunning multicloud agreements that Oracle has reached with other hyperscalers — Microsoft, Google Cloud, and AWS — mean that those three competitors of Oracle sell the Oracle Database to their customers through their own clouds.04:21 — Because for all the things Oracle has done in its first 48 or 49 years, the next five years, triggered by all these changes we’ve just described, are going to be very different. Sicilia said, “One of the things you can count on as we move forward into those next five years is that we are currently, at Oracle, taking a very different approach.” Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In this special Cloud Wars interview, Oracle Executive Vice President for Applications Development Steve Miranda joins Bob Evans to discuss how Oracle’s transformation from CloudWorld to AI World signals a seismic leap in enterprise technology. Miranda shares how Oracle has delivered more than 600 agents, launched the Agent Studio and Marketplace, and unified AI capabilities across its Fusion Applications and industry verticals. The result: a powerful convergence of data, intelligence, and automation driving the next wave of business transformation.AI-driven EnterpriseThe Big Themes:Oracle’s Next Seismic Shift: Oracle’s renaming of CloudWorld to AI World isn’t a branding exercise, it’s a declaration. Just as “OpenWorld” and “CloudWorld” reflected past technology revolutions, “AI World” marks Oracle’s belief that AI represents a shift of even greater magnitude. Miranda describes this era as one where automation and intelligence redefine enterprise operations. Oracle’s applications division is now delivering hundreds of AI-driven agents and features at unprecedented speed.Agents Everywhere: In just two years, Oracle has gone from announcing 50 generative AI features to delivering over 600 agents across its Fusion and vertical applications. These agents automate tasks, surface insights, and optimize processes, often eliminating manual decision-making entirely. Oracle’s rapid release cadence (quarterly updates backed by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)) means customers constantly inherit new capabilities without disruption.OCI, the Engine: Oracle’s leadership in hosting and training large language models within Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) gives its applications a built-in edge. Customers automatically benefit from the latest AI tools, performance improvements, and model upgrades without manual migration. OCI’s second-generation architecture, featuring Exadata, cloud-native identity, and networking, delivers both reliability and continuous innovation.The Big Quote: “For many of our customers, it's great timing to have AI delivery, because they've gone live. They've gone through multiple phases. They're on the cloud. They're used to getting quarterly updates. Now, this is a big thing, but they're used to that people part of the transformation." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Company background: "HSO is the second largest Microsoft partner in the globe," Holwagner reports. It focuses on industries including professional services, manufacturing, finance, and the public sector. HSO continues to grow not only with its traditional ERP services but also around cloud and AI services. "The mission here is really to improve our clients' business performance with the results of Microsoft solutions."AI's market impact: "It's definitely a transformation happening faster than anything I've seen before," Holwagner says. While there's already been significant advancements with AI, it's still only the beginning of what has yet to be built out and understood. He breaks down AI across four different roles:At the top level, boards and owners are pushing for areas of efficiency to stay competitive, reimagining the business model using AI.The next level is the CTO or an IT manager; they have efficiency demands, but they're also primarily thinking about how to contain information and data in a security model.The business leaders or department heads are being tasked to think about efficiency using AI but they're mostly busy keeping their engine going. They need tools that show them where to get ROI.The last level is HR, which might be considering where AI is filling in for various jobs.Perspectives for applying AI: HSO looks from a responsibility perspective in three different areas. First, it aims to educate customers on what's possible while also focusing on what's doable. Second is protection, which involves having control over your domain information. The third area is thinking about use cases for specific AI components.Organizational transformation: With the introduction of AI, there's a transformation happening across organizations in a variety of industries. AI has been thought of as a technical element when it needs to be included in functional conversation, especially for consulting businesses, Holwagner notes. Leaders and managers must understand the concepts of weaving in AI to give it value. AI transformation will likely lead to a "healthy reduction in certain areas" in the workforce, but "the transformation of what people are going to do in the organization is going to change." It will be more business logic transformation consulting and fewer hands-on the keyboard-related tasks, Holwagner shares.Summit NA: HSO will be attending Community Summit North America. You can connect with HSO at booth #209. The HSO team will be presenting several sessions throughout the event as well, including:The Latest D365 AI Agents and Features to Automate Your Supply Chain on Monday, October 20thDelivering a Scalable, Secure Data & AI Platform on Monday, October 20th3 Hidden Risks of AI in the Enterprise—and How to Manage Them Responsibly on Tuesday, October 21stSolving Customer Master Data Challenges for a 360° View in Dynamics 365 CE (CRM) and F/SCM (FO) on Wednesday, October 22nd Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In this episode of the Cloud Wars Minute, sponsored by CLOUDVICE, I review the moves of Larry Ellison and Oracle over the past few years in anticipation of what's to come at Oracle AI World 2025.Highlights00:15 — CLOUDVICE is the winner of the 2025 Oracle North America Technology & Cloud AI Innovation Partner Award. “We’re honored to receive the 2025 Oracle North America Technology & Cloud AI Innovation Partner Award, a recognition that underscores CLOUDVICE’s unwavering commitment to advancing enterprise AI on Oracle Cloud,” said Jaison Correya, CEO of CLOUDVICE. “This achievement reflects the breakthrough projects and real-world transformations we’ve delivered with Oracle — and at Oracle AI World 2025, we took that vision even further by unveiling CORX, our next-generation platform where AI thinks, Cloud scales, Blockchain verifies, and Robotics acts. It represents the next leap in intelligent automation and the future of real-world autonomy.” Learn more about CLOUDVICE at Oracle AI World 2025 here: CLOUDVICE to Showcase its AI Orchestration and Oracle Cloud Expertise at Oracle AI World 2025.00:26 — This week, at AI World, it will be interesting to see what Oracle and Larry Ellison cook up. The company has two new CEOs, Mike Sicilia and Clay Magouyrk, as Safra Catz has moved over to the role of Executive Vice Chairman. It has lots of new technology, go-to-market plans, partnerships, approaches, strengths, and capabilities.01:00 — Ellison is now in his 49th year of leading Oracle and 82nd year on Earth — and he has been remarkable. His rate of innovation and constructive disruption has only increased this year. And that's what leads me to think that this year, there could be something pretty interesting brewing.01:32 — Over the past couple of years, he has taken on hyperscalers and cloud infrastructure against three of the biggest, most powerful, wealthiest, and most influential companies: Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. And Oracle has been extremely successful at it. He also got these competitors to agree to sell the Oracle database on their clouds to their customers.02:53 — Ellison even wooed OpenAI into a massive, strategic partnership that includes a $300 billion deal to supply infrastructure and AI inference and training. I believe this is the largest business deal ever struck. There might be others, please let me know. But that's what I think is up at the top.03:50 — Reflecting on the arc of what Ellison has done over the last few years, shaking up Oracle and the industry, it makes one think about what he might do at AI World this year. I suggest expecting the unexpected, as he's not one to let things sit still with the rapidly advancing AI Revolution. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Brad Haupt, Vice President of Supply Chain at Monument Health, joins Bob Evans at Workday Rising to discuss how the health system is modernizing operations through Workday’s unified platform. He shares how consolidating 17 systems into Workday created a single source of truth for finance, HR, and supply chain data. By pairing data intelligence with a culture of innovation, Monument Health is transforming supply chain management from a behind-the-scenes function into a strategic driver of better healthcare experiences.AI and the New Healthcare Supply ChainThe Big Themes:Monument Health’s Unique Challenges and Resilience: Located in remote western South Dakota, Monument Health faces the dual challenges of geographic isolation and sudden population surges during events like the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Haupt described how this environment demands both meticulous planning and quick adaptability. The annual influx of visitors, tripling the local population, acts as a stress test for supply chain agility. These experiences have honed the team’s crisis management skills.Linking Supply Chain Excellence to Patient Outcomes: Perhaps the most profound shift at Monument Health is redefining supply chain success through the “value equation”: patient, physician, and caregiver experiences and outcomes divided by cost. Haupt rejects the traditional view of supply chain as purely cost-focused. Sometimes the higher-cost item delivers greater patient value, improving safety or recovery time. By connecting financial, supply, and clinical data, Workday allows leaders to quantify this relationship.AI and Automation Redefining Contract Management: Haupt discussed Workday’s integration of Evisort for contract lifecycle management as a game changer. Currently, supply contracts can take eight to twenty-four hours of total work spread over weeks. With AI-assisted redlining and learning-based automation, the process could be reduced to seconds. The system will eventually learn from user edits, producing increasingly personalized and accurate suggestions. Haupt sees this as freeing supply chain professionals from time-consuming legal reviews to focus on high-value work.The Big Quote: “I think we're monitoring over 2,000 items that are back-ordered or shipping delays coming from overseas, or manufactured delays. So, we have to constantly communicate with the physician so they don't go into a procedure and think, I've got it all planned out in my brain, and then they say, 'Hand me a 12 French ...,' and they don't have one, and they've got to change their whole treatment plan. So, that communication is really key. Workday has helped us really automate some of that."More from Brad Haupt and Workday:Connect with Brad on LinkedIn or learn more about Workday and healthcare. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I look at how Google Cloud is helping businesses create their futures — not just optimize their past — through Gemini Enterprise.Highlights00:14 — Google Cloud really stepped out here with the launch of Gemini Enterprise, and I would like to share with you eight reasons why I feel that the launch of Gemini Enterprise now makes Google Cloud the number one player in the world for AI for business. So first, I think the end-to-end capabilities that are resident within the Gemini AI platform are essential for customers01:16 — It's a little hard to know where to start and really hard to figure out: How do I put together the right mix of piece solutions from lots of different vendors? Now, Gemini Enterprise here offers the full set of end-to-end capabilities Two: While Gemini Enterprise does offer all the pieces, it also gives customers complete choice to use third-party solutions.02:34 — Flexible pricing: There's Google Enterprise, which is $30 per user per month. And then there's Google Business, that’s $21 per user per month. It's got massive data access, right? So the need to ensure that these tools have access to the right data in a secure and fully integrated fashion is key. It's got that. The whole notion of governance and security.03:37 — The ecosystem that's been built out, that's been a huge part of Google Cloud's success. And it ties in with the openness for customers, giving lots and lots of different choices here — of who, of what Gemini Enterprise works with. And then a little bit of a not-so-secret secret here: the Delta team within Google Cloud Consulting and Professional Services.04:24 — What the most successful tech companies today are doing is helping companies create their futures, not just perfect what they've done in the past. And this is a long-standing thought here that Kurian has made. I've talked about this a number of times, and it goes back to six years ago when he took over as CEO of Google Cloud. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I look at why Microsoft thinks avatars will boost AI voice adoption.Highlights00:11 — Microsoft has introduced an experimental Portraits feature in Copilot Labs in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada. The feature offers Copilot users a choice of 40 cartoon-esque human avatars. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman said "You can now talk to a Copilot portrait in real time . . ."01:02 — This feature not only adds a personal touch to conversations but also makes them more engaging and ultimately relatable. Now, this is an important step for Copilot as Microsoft continues to promote voice interactions. While using Copilot features through text prompts has become increasingly popular, voice control remains a secondary player in the market.01:33 — However, the opportunities for more widespread voice usage are immense for Microsoft. The more users ask quick and simple questions, the more the technology will be utilized, leading to increased adoption. And the fact that you can have these interactions through voice as opposed to text will definitely speed up this adoption process. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Evan Goldberg, Founder and Executive Vice President at Oracle NetSuite, sits down with Bob Evans for a conversation about the company’s next chapter: NetSuite Next. He describes how AI will make business management simpler and more intuitive, allowing users to automate tasks, ask natural-language questions, and customize their systems with ease. Goldberg shares his vision of NetSuite evolving from a cloud pioneer into an AI-first platform built to power the next generation of enterprise growth.Where ERP Thinks BackThe Big Themes:NetSuite Next as a Hands-On AI Partner: NetSuite Next isn’t just layering AI on top of old systems, it’s embedding intelligence directly into the platform. Instead of hunting through menus, users can say, “Analyze sales for the past six months,” and get an instant, interactive response. The idea is to move from manual navigation to guided collaboration. This shift redefines usability for ERP.Customization and Agentic Flexibility: NetSuite Next extends Oracle’s agentic AI vision by letting businesses build custom AI agents that automate unique internal workflows. Goldberg highlights three pillars of NetSuite: the suite’s breadth, its deep industry specialization, and its adaptability to each business’s unique needs. The AI doesn’t erase distinct business models; it amplifies them.Strength in Oracle’s Ecosystem: As part of Oracle, NetSuite now sits atop one of the world’s most advanced technology stacks. Goldberg credits Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), the unified data model, and the Redwood design system as key differentiators against rivals. He emphasizes collaboration with Oracle Fusion, OCI, and the database teams as a unique advantage.The Big Quote: “You don’t have to dig through lots of menus and understand all of the analytics capabilities… it will be able to quickly bring up an analysis for you, and then you can converse in natural language to hone in on the things that you think are most important."More from Evan Goldberg:Connect with Evan on LinkedIn or learn more about Oracle NetSuite and AI. Visit Cloud Wars for more.