Designing Enterprise Platforms

At this year’s RSA 2019, Dan Woods of the Early Adopter Research podcast spoke with Tim Mackey, the senior technology evangelist at Software Integrity, a division of Synopsys. As Woods did with other tech leaders he spoke with at the conference, he asked about his three key cybersecurity questions for the year. There conversation covered: * 2:30 - What Synopsys does * 4:30 - The reality of zero trust * 8:45 - Should companies be focusing on pruning their cybersecurity portfolios? * 12:25 - How fast will the migration of cybersecurity components to the cloud occur?

Recently, at RSA 2019, Dan Woods of Early Adopter Research (EAR) spoke with Nick Lantuh, CEO of Fidelis in cybersecurity, for the EAR Podcast. During the interview, Woods asked Lantuh his three pressing cybersecurity questions for 2019, as well as getting a sense of where Fidelis fits into the cybersecurity landscape. Their conversation covered: * 3:15 - Why zero trust is additive * 10:15 - Should companies prune their cybersecurity portfolio? * 19:10 - Should CISOs focus on proving their ops discipline? * 25:45 - Is cyber insurance worth it?

This podcast is a continuation of the series of conversations that Dan Woods of Early Adopter Research (EAR) conducted with leaders in the cybersecurity field while at RSA 2019. In this interview, he speaks with Brian Contos, CISO of Verodin. Woods asked Contos his three major cybersecurity questions for the years, as well as exploring Verodin’s place in the cybersecurity marketplace. Their conversation covered: * 4:00 - Can zero trust provide what it promises? * 4:50 - Why aren't companies pruning cybersecurity products? * 9:40 - The need to evaluate cybersecurity through both people and processes * 15:00 - Why CISOs should focus more on dev ops

At RSA 2019, Early Adopter Research’s (EAR) Dan Woods spoke with a number of leaders in the cybersecurity field. In this interview for the EAR Podcast, he sat down with Malcolm Harkins, chief security and trust officer of Cylance. Woods asked Harkins his three key cybersecurity questions for 2019 and dove into the topics that are most impacting CISOs right now. Their conversation covered: * 2:00 - Cylance's place in the cybersecurity landscape * 9:00 - Why people are the perimeter * 16:05 - Does pruning in cybersecurity matter? * 24:10 - Why is so little cybersecurity moving to the cloud? * 29:20 - How do you improve cybersecurity awareness among staff?

In this edition of the Early Adopter Research Podcast, EAR’s Dan Woods spoke with Andrew Peterson, the CEO of Signal Sciences, while both were at RSA 2019. Woods asked him his three key questions for cybersecurity in 2019, as well as exploring Signal Sciences’ technology. The topics they covered included: * 3:30 - Does zero trust work? * 10:00 - Avoiding security nihilism * 15:30 - Why is cybersecurity always additive? * 23:00 - Why don't more companies improve their ops dev? * 27:00 - How do you make cybersecurity integral to a company's culture?

In this edition of the Early Adopter Research(EAR)Podcast, EAR's Dan Woods speaks with Scott Petry, the CEO of Authentic8. Their conversation focused on the current cybersecurity landscape and Authentic8's approach of securing the browser. Their discussion also covered: * 2:30 - Zero Trust * 7:20 - Why is cybersecurity always additive? * 13:30 - How will cybersecurity change as it moves to the cloud? * 20:00 - How to be a rational buyer in cybersecurity * 24:30 - Is cyber insurance necessary?

At the RSA 2019 Conference this year, Early Adopter Research’s Dan Woods spoke with a number of cybersecurity professionals. One conversation was with Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer at Carbon Black. Woods asked Kellermann about his three key cybersecurity questions for 2019 and delved into the future of cybersecurity in general. Their conversation covered the following topics: * 2:00 - Carbon Black's service model * 8:50 - Why are companies not pruning cybersecurity products? * 16:00 - Why cybersecurity companies shouldn't be auditing their clients * 24:30 - Is cyber insurance worth it? * 29:00 - Carbon Black's report on growing cybersecurity threats

At this year’s RSA conference, Early Adopter Research’s Dan Woods sat down for a podcast conversation with Michael Covington, VP of product strategy for Wandera. They discussed a number of topics, including an overview of what Wandera does. Woods also asked Covington about his three key cybersecurity questions for 2019. Their conversation also covered: * 2:40 - Zero trust * 9:10 - The need for visibility in a BYOD environment * 14:10 - Should CISOs focus on operational discipline? * 17:30 - How to improve the people side of security * 20:45 - Is cybersecurity insurance necessary?

At this year’s RSA Conference, Early Adopter Research’s Dan Woods conducted a podcast with Stan Lowe from Zscaler. Lowe is the Global CISO for Zscaler and their conversation covered three big questions about cybersecurity in 2019. Topics covered in the podcast include: * 3:15 - Is "zero trust" cybersecurity a reality? * 9:00 - Can companies move everything to the cloud? * 18:30 - The change in how security experts need to think about their jobs * 25:00 - What's the best way to create a culture of cybersecurity? * 30:00 - Is cybersecurity insurance worth it?

In this latest edition of the Early Adopter Podcast, Dan Woods speaks with First Round's Howard Morgan about how digital transformation fits into the larger history of technological change. The conversation covers the following: * 3:00 - The nebulous definition of digital transformation * 10:00 - Business process engineering * 13:30 - Six Sigma * 22:30 - How reusable code has changed software development * 31:30 - OKRs and how they're relevant to digital transformation

In this edition of the Early Adopter Research Podcast, Early Adopter's Dan Woods speaks with Rob Woollen, CEO of Sigma Computing.Sigma Computing’s products can be a component inside an enterprise platform, as the company was created to bring the spreadsheet paradigm to the world of business intelligence and data analytics. This is an idea that has been explored by companies like 1010data, DataMirror, and to some extent Looker. Woods and Woollen talk about how Sigma Computing came to be and how the company can play a role in the modern data landscape. Their conversation covers: * 1:30 - Why the spreadsheet interface is the basis of Sigma Computing's technology * 3:00 - The origins of Sigma Computing * 9:15 - Sigma's answer to hiding the complexity of queries * 15:45 - Sigma leaves data in its place * 26:45 - How Sigma users fit into the data supply chain

In this edition of the Early Adopter Research Podcast, Dan Woods speaks with two ESSEC Business School professors, Thomas Kude and Thomas Huber, about platform governance. The conversation focused on the way that platform governance can influence and inform the design of product based platforms. Huber is an associate professor of information systems at ESSEC Business School in Paris who is conducting research on platforms and the management of platform ecosystems. Kude is also an associate professor at ESSEC Business School who studies platform governance, agile software development, and IT governance in the digital age. Their conversation covers the following topics: * 4:40: Platforms in the modern world * 12:50: Standard versus non-standard platforms * 17:20: Platform complementers * 27:30: Balancing platform growth with values

In this edition of the Early Adopter Podcast, Dan Woods speaks with Palisade's CEO Craig Guarente about Java audits. It is the first podcast the "Escape Hatch from Oracle Series." Oracle has focused its innovation as much or more on licensing and audit practices as it has on technology. Oracle has created a lot of quality technology, but now it seems a lot of the company's energy is focused on maximizing the amount of money it gets from customers through licenses. The latest case of this involves the Java language which Oracle acquired in its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Java has a run time that is widely available and used for free most of the time powering many software programs. Oracle also sells a licensed version of the runtime with enhanced support and security patches. Oracle has long been in the business of using its leverage on software audits to encourage customers to buy more products. And it’s now starting to do audits aimed at promoting sales of its Java premium version. Guarente of

In this edition of the Early Adopter Podcast, Dan Woods speaks with Zoom's CEO and founder Eric Yuan. In his research, Woods has focused on four characteristics that can define a startup: 1. Are you searching for a business model? 2. Are you accepting venture capital financing? 3. Are you focused on rapid growth? 4. Do you strongly embrace aspects of startup culture? The conversation between Yuan and Woods focuses on startup culture, and how, even as startups grow, it’s important to maintain many aspects of startup culture so that nature of innovation keeps the company fresh and innovative. The topics covered include: * 6:10 - Zoom's startup culture of happiness * 11:30 - How Zoom has prioritized the happiness of its employees * 17:30 - The leadership principles of Zoom * 21:45 - How to avoid pitfalls in engineering code * 26:45 - The common mistakes Yuan sees startups making

In this edition of the Early Adopter Podcast, Dan Woods speaks with Spencer Kimball of Cockroach Labs about the history of the modern database market. The conversation covered the beginnings of databases, how they’ve evolved, and where they are right now. Kimball offered an interesting explanation of the history and development of SQL databases and other data storage systems. SQL databases did not spring form the head of Zeus. There was a long line of innovation that led to them. And in fact, they’re not as nearly uniform as one would think. By analyzing the design choices involved in SQL databases, an understanding can be gained about what may be a better data storage strategy for the modern world. The conversation covers the following topics: 3:00 - Why Kimball founded Cockroach Labs 12:30 - The ongoing evolution of databases 23:00 - The need for choosing compromises with databases 34:30 - The underlying problems in most business databases 45:30 - Why Google found location was important for databases

Productized analytics have been a focus of Early Adopter Research since it was launched. In this edition of the Early Adopter Podcast, Dan Woods spoke with Howard Dresner and Chris von Simpson from Dresner Advisory Services. They recently completed a report about IT analytics and their discussion covered that report which sheds light on the role of productized analytics in IT. The topics covered include: 2:00 - The levels of productized analytics 8:00 - The high rate of adoption for productized IT analytics 12:40 - The high rate of success with productized IT analytics solutions 17:40 - Why operations metrics are so important 22:10 - Why metrics are important across the business 27:00 - How analytics solutions provide value through greater resolution

In this edition of the Early Adopter Research podcast, Dan Woods speaks with HCL's Darren Oberst about HCL's unique way of approaching IP partnerships and technology company acquisitions. HCL is pursuing a strategy called Mode 3 that is taking the old model of global SIs and adding new elements related to both owning and developing products and IP in key technology areas. In December, Woods wrote about HCL’s acquisition of Actian and that piece touched briefly on the Mode 3 strategy. This conversation between Woods and Oberst delves far more deeply into the strategy, how it differentiates HCL, and how it is creating a new place for global systems integrators. It covers: * 1:10 - Defining HCL's business model * 9:30 - How HCL's business model fits together * 15:45 - The desire for integrated platforms based on products * 23:30 - HCL's recent announcement with IBM * 30:10 - The difference between real IP and BS IP * 40:00 - HCL's Mode 3 strategy * 48:15 - The difference between HCL's model and its competitors

In this episode of the Early Adopter Research Podcast, Dan Woods speaks with PWC's Tom Puthiyamadam about digital transformation. PWC has recently completed a Digital IQ Survey that shows how companies from across a variety of industries are succeeding and failing in their attempts with digital transformation. Their conversation covers the following: * 1:15 - The biggest mistakes in the market today * 2:35 - The characteristics of the companies that are doing digital transformation right * 7:30 - How to build high quality platforms for the enterprise * 11:15 - How to get companies to focus on what matters * 13:30 - Where companies are today with AI * 17:30 - How to get your platform investment started * 20:50 - The importance of small experiments

In this edition of the Early Adopter Research Podcast, Dan Woods speaks with Donald Farmer of TreeHive. The conversation focuses on how important data and analytics have become to the enterprise today. They discuss data supply chains and the productization of AI and data analytics, as well as the following topics: 2:45 - Farmer's theory that every company is now a data company 9:00 - The complexity of today's data supply chain and how to get the most out of it 14:10 - The levels of productized analytics 19:20 - Analyzing negative space 22:30 - Gaining trust in AI predictions 26:00 - How every company can get value from its data

In this edition of the Early Adopter Research Podcast, Dan Woods speaks with Sri Ambati of H2O.ai, a data science and machine learning platform. One of the features of H2O.ai that makes it unique though is that it is based on open source. Woods and Ambati explore the implications of this, as well as a variety of other topics including: 1:30 - Ambati's definition of what H2O.ai is right now 4:50 - How H2O.ai is an umbrella platform for other algorithms 14:15 - The value proposition of H2O.ai 21:35 - How H2O.ai is designed to augment and assist data scientists, not replace them 30:00 - The task of balancing hype and hope with AI 36:30 - How AI is as much a people challenge as technology one 47:00 - How AI can help companies find and use data no one else has 53:50 - Managing the ambitions of data scientists