Insightful conversations. Less snark.

Rasam Tooloee is a Cloud Network Evangelist at Alkira, Inc., a company that’s working on reinventing networking for the cloud era. Previously, he was an enterprise sales director at Microsoft, a senior strategic account executive at Salesforce, and an IP telephony architect for RHI Inc. He also had a 10-year stint at Cisco, working as a networking and collaboration sales specialist. Join Corey and Rasam to chat about how networking has changed over the last several years. They discuss what it was like for Rasam to work for Alkira and the solutions they’ve brought to the technology space. Rasam’s circuitous route that he’s taken over his career led him back to networking and thus his work at Alkira. A route that is the result of chasing the leading edge of innovation and how agility is the native value proposition of the cloud. They also discuss how Alkira is recognizing cloud is a competitive imperative and companies need to find solutions in that space.

Owen Rogers wears many hats at 451 Research; he’s the vice president of cloud transformation and digital economics, the research director for the firm’s digital economics unit, and a senior analyst for digital economics. Prior to these positions, Owen was a doctoral researcher in cloud computing at the University of Bristol, completing his PhD thesis in 2013; a product portfolio manager at Claranet; and an independent product management and cloud computing consultant, among other positions. Join Corey and Owen as they talk about what it’s like when two cloud economists meet at an event but only one has a PhD, what exactly an industry analyst does, how 451 Research found that 53% of companies increased cloud spend during the pandemic and what resources they’re investing in, the Law of Cloud Entropy and why Owen believes the cloud will only get more disordered in the future, why it’s easy for cloud costs to spiral out of control, how organizations are trying to rein in cloud spend despite using more cloud services, why Owen doesn’t believe we’ll reach cloud commoditization anytime soon, and more.

Sanjay Poonen is the former Chief Operating Officer at VMware, a position he held for nearly eight years. He’s also an investor affiliate with the Webb Investment Network and a board member for Dell Boomi. After beginning his career as a software engineer at Microsoft and Apple, Sanjay has held a number of different positions over the years, including SVP of Marketing and Corporate Officer at Informatica, VP of Strategic Operations at Symantec, and President and Corporate Officer at SAP, among other positions. He’s also served on the board for Zoom and DocuSign. Join Corey and Sanjay as they talk about the role VMware played in the development of the first iteration of the cloud and how the company has pivoted since then, how the partnership between AWS and VMware was forged and what it means for customers, what VMware will focus on over the next decade, how VMware is the Switzerland of the cloud, why Sanjay believes more and more customers are opting for multi-cloud, why every company is becoming a software company at its core, how there’s never been a more exciting time to write software coming out of college, and more.

Richard Seroter is the director of outbound product management at Google Cloud. He brings more than 20 years of experience to the role, having worked as a senior director of technical marketing and developer relations at VMware, vice president of product marketing at Pivotal, Inc., and vice president of product at CenturyLink most recently. He also worked at Amgen, Microsoft, and Accenture. Join Corey and Richard as they talk about what a director of outbound product management does, how it’s hard to find people who are broad and deep across anything in cloud, how many oranges can fit in the state of Utah, how Richard ended up at Google, how Google Cloud has evolved in recent years, why Richard believes the era of Google as an ivory tower is over, how Richard views multi-cloud and why he believes most orgs are multi-cloud, the difference between the kind of relationships companies have with Google and the relationships they have with AWS, and more.

As an industry we stand on the precipice of change! There is a lot going on in the cloud these days and Forrest Brazeal, Head of Content at Google Cloud, joins Corey again to talk about what's coming with his new career change! At the beginning of his transition to Google, Forrest goes into detail on what he is most excited to bring to the story telling of another cloud provider and how he is working to give back to the cloud community. Forrest discusses his time at A Cloud Guru and how it helped him in his new transition, his time as an AWS Severless Hero, and the technical excellence he brings to his vast ranging and prolific content. Forrest is also a successful author of a newsletter and multiple books, to include a children's book about the cloud! Needless to say, Forrest is an incredibly varied personality in the cloud community, tune in for a chance to get to know him better!

VMware is shifting its business as more companies move code to the cloud. What does that mean for the company internally? In this episode, Corey gets an inside view of this shift and discusses some recent acquisitions the company has made to change its business model.

This week Aparna Sinha, Director of Product Management at Google Cloud, is here fresh off the back end of Google Next. Aparna works alongside former “Screaming” two timer Richard Seroter, and both of them are taking measures with their teams to catapult Google Cloud forward. Aparna joins Corey to talk about GCP and how Corey was surprised to find that, in some ways, it was “its own universe.” Aparna offers up why folks can expect a developer user-friendly experience when using GCP, and how it differentiates them from the litany of cloud providers out there. From focusing on developing, to a vast array of costumers, GCP is bringing their best forward. Check out their conversation on how GCP is keeping their focus on the user!

Ashish Rajan, Principal Cloud Security Advocate at Snyk, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the intricacies of cloud security and providing unbiased formal education in the world of cloud. Ashish discusses how he went from CISO to his current role where he spends all his time democratizing cloud security, as well as how cloud has opened up more opportunities for newcomers to break into cybersecurity careers. Ashish clarifies what he feels is misinformation around breaking into the cybersecurity space, explains the importance of having security guardrails in place so you can go faster towards your organization’s goals, and expands on the limitations of trust found in cloud providers today and why it’s so critical.

AB Periasamy, Co-Founder and CEO of MinIO, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss what it means to be truly open source and the current and future state of multi-cloud. AB explains how MinIO was born from the idea that the world was going to produce a massive amount of data, and what it’s been like to see that come true and continue to be the future outlook. AB and Corey explore why some companies are hesitant to move to cloud, and AB describes why he feels the move is inevitable regardless of cost. AB also reveals how he has helped create a truly free open-source software, and how his partnership with Amazon has been beneficial. 

Brian Hall, VP of Product Marketing at Google Cloud, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the true meaning of digital transformation, where he sees us being in that process, and the approach Google Cloud is taking to cloud services. Listen in as Brian explains why he still sees cloud as being in its early days, and the approach Google Cloud has taken to unexpectedly delight its customers and gain its customers’ enthusiastic recommendation. Brian also reveals why calculating a Target Addressable Market for Google Cloud is nearly impossible, as the possible applications for cloud have barely scratched the surface.

Steve Tuck, Co-Founder & CEO of Oxide Computer Company, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his work to make modern computers cloud-friendly. Steve describes what it was like going through early investment rounds, and the difficult but important decision he and his co-founder made to build their own switch. Corey and Steve discuss the demand for on-prem computers that are built for cloud capability, and Steve reveals how Oxide approaches their product builds to ensure the masses can adopt their technology wherever they are.

For this episode we’re changing it up a bit. Corey sits down for a group chat with Shir Tamari, Head of Research at Wiz, and a couple of his esteemed colleagues; Nir Ohfield and Sagi Tzadik. While the structure is a tad different, the content is a frequent subject: security! Shir and his team of specialists at Wiz are making some serious research into cyber security, and in turn are developing some excellent insights. Shir, Nir, and Sagi reveal some of the cutting edge security research that they have been conducting. They’ve honed their research intent down to two primary responsibilities: find risks in cloud environments, and doing community research. Shir and co. break down the various vulnerabilities that their research has revealed, and the methods they’re developing to alleviate these multifarious risks.