The Cloudcast

Brian and Brandon dive into the intersection of AI and cultural trends, likening AI adoption to college football. They explore how small businesses, such as car dealers, are leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT. The duo analyzes significant growth rates from major cloud providers while raising questions about the sustainability of AI-driven revenue. They discuss recent outages and resilience practices, review OpenAI's new products and corporate shifts, and speculate on Microsoft's partnership implications. Great insights into the evolving tech landscape!

This discussion explores how Amazon's trajectory mirrors that of Cisco during the early 2000s. Key topics include the cultural shifts within Amazon as it expands, the impact of recent layoffs, and how market dominance is evolving with the rise of AI. The team analyzes the changing buyer behavior from cloud to AI solutions, the implications of overcapacity in their retail sector, and the significance of leadership principles. The conversation leaves us pondering whether Amazon can avoid the pitfalls that befell Cisco.

In this engaging discussion, Soham Mazumdar, CEO and co-founder of WisdomAI, shares his remarkable journey from Google's search innovations to leading Rubrik through a $5.6 billion IPO. He tackles the pervasive issue of enterprises drowning in data yet starving for insights, exploring how agentic AI can revolutionize business intelligence. Soham highlights the transformative power of language models and discusses innovative solutions for ensuring data accuracy and governance, making complex analytics accessible to all.

Why are 95% of AI projects struggling to create positive ROI, according to a recent MIT study? Do businesses need help getting those first few AI projects started and driven to success?SHOW: 970SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #970 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:[TestKube] TestKube is Kubernetes-native testing platform, orchestrating all your test tools, environments, and pipelines into scalable workflows empowering Continuous Testing. Check it out at TestKube.io/cloudcast[Interconnected] Interconnected is a new series from Equinix diving into the infrastructure that keeps our digital world running. With expert guests and real-world insights, we explore the systems driving AI, automation, quantum, and more. Just search “Interconnected by Equinix”.SHOW NOTES:MIT Study - The State of AI in Business (2025)The Information - Interview with Vihod Khosla (Oct 2025)WHERE ARE THE BIGGEST AI RISKS?Why are Businesses struggling with AI projects in 2025?What are simple steps to make AI projects successful?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodBlueSky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Manzi Mirza, Co-founder and CEO of Krogl, transitioned from government research to tech giants like Splunk and Databricks. He explores how AI is reshaping cybersecurity, leading organizations to recognize it as a top concern. Manzi uses an 'Iron Man suit' analogy for Krogl, showing how it enhances security analysts' efficiency. He discusses the importance of knowledge graphs versus traditional models and emphasizes automating alert investigations while maintaining human oversight for critical decisions in security.

Dive into the complexities of AI economics as soaring investments clash with poor profitability. Discover how NVIDIA's dominance in GPUs shapes market dynamics and keeps prices high amidst supply constraints. Explore the rising costs of tokens in generative AI and how they threaten traditional SaaS models. Oracle's AI deals raise eyebrows with questions about profit margins, while potential rising consumer prices could create an AI divide. This discussion unpacks the pressing risks and future signals in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.

Animesh Koratana, CEO and Founder of PlayerZero, dives into the transformative role of agentic AI in software quality assurance. He explains predictive software quality and its importance in the age of AI-generated code. Animesh shares insights on agentic code simulation, highlighting its ability to proactively prevent problems rather than reactively debug. He also discusses how this innovation democratizes software quality beyond engineering teams, making it a critical tool for various departments.

Three years post-ChatGPT, the Enterprise AI landscape reveals fascinating insights. Only 5% of large firms have a solid AI strategy, while 10% allocate significant budget to signal their AI readiness. However, a staggering 85% remain uncertain about their focus areas. The conversation also uncovers the challenges of measuring ROI and the demand for simpler AI tools. There's a growing interest in private AI, yet access to necessary resources is limited. Overall, the complexity of existing systems is slowing down broad adoption.

Alan Lefort, CEO and co-founder of StrongestLayer, dives into the evolving landscape of phishing security. He reveals how traditional defenses falter against AI-powered attacks, which utilize perfect mimicry and personalized tactics. Alan discusses the multimodal approach to phishing, likening it to marketing strategies, making scams increasingly hard to detect. He introduces the TRACE architecture, emphasizing the need for LLM reasoning at the core of detection systems, moving from reactive patterns to proactive threat identification.

Explore the intriguing possibility of hyperscale cloud providers acquiring SaaS companies to create bundled offerings. The discussion delves into the trade-offs between investing in AI versus expanding into SaaS. Can large providers integrate new acquisitions without overshadowing their AI ambitions? The strategy of targeting verticals like financial services for SaaS bundling opens up new revenue paths. As the competition heats up, what might this mean for the future of cloud investments?