Podcast
Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans
Hosted by Bob Evans · EN
Cloud Wars analyzes the major cloud vendors from the perspective of business customers. In Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans talks with both sides about these profoundly transformative technologies, and with monthly All-Star guests from across the business community about the trends impacting how the world lives, works, plays, and dreams. Visit https://cloudwars.com for more.
68episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
AI Agent & Copilot Podcast: John Siefert and Cedric Wells Discuss AI Leadership, Vibe Coding, and Governance
Yesterday00:22:10Tap to summarizeIn this episode of the AI Agent & Copilot Podcast, John Siefert, Founder and CEO of Cloud Wars, is joined by Cedric Wells, IT leader and former Senior Manager of Infrastructure and Operations at Gorilla Glue. Together, they explore how AI is reshaping IT leadership, software development, governance, and enterprise transformation. Wells shares why continuous learning, balancing strategic vision with execution, and maintaining strong security and data governance will define successful organizations in the AI Era. Their conversation also reflects many of the leadership themes that attendees explored at the 2026 AI Agent & Copilot Summit NA. Key Takeaways Growth mindset is becoming the most valuable IT skill. Wells believes technical expertise alone is no longer enough. The speed of AI innovation requires professionals at every level to continuously refresh their knowledge and remain adaptable. He explains that technologies evolve so rapidly that learning has become a permanent responsibility rather than a periodic exercise. As Wells notes, "Having a mindset that's really around learning as much as I can as things are changing" is essential. He also reminds listeners, "It's changing so fast," making curiosity and adaptability foundational qualities for future IT leaders. AI enhances leadership — but doesn't replace technical understanding. Wells argues that AI is helping close the gap between technical specialists and business leaders, allowing executives to understand complex technologies more quickly. However, leaders still need enough technical context to ask intelligent questions and make informed decisions. As he explains, "Being able to really as a leader leverage AI as much as possible" creates significant advantages. He also emphasizes that "bridging that gap with your leadership skills and leveraging AI on the technical side" will define successful IT leadership moving forward. Governance and security are becoming even more important. Throughout the conversation, Wells repeatedly emphasizes that AI initiatives require close collaboration between infrastructure, information security, governance, and data teams. Without proper oversight, organizations risk exposing sensitive information, creating compliance issues, or building unreliable AI systems. Wells reminds listeners that "It's very important to make sure that those two departments are aligned" and warns that "Employees are doing it whether or not you like it," making proactive governance and secure enablement far more effective than restrictive policies alone. Visit Cloud Wars for more.
Transcribe →Salesforce Agentforce Help Agent Introduces Pay-for-Resolution AI Model
Yesterday00:02:27Tap to summarizeIn today's Cloud Wars Minute, I look at why Salesforce's new Help Agent represents a major shift toward performance-based enterprise AI. Highlights 00:03 — Salesforce is launching the Agentforce Help Agent, a pre-built AI customer service agent that customers can deploy in a matter of minutes. It's designed as an alternative to custom-built agents, connecting to existing Salesforce knowledge articles and support content, which means only minimal configuration is required. 00:23 — I'm going to walk you through the features of this new agent before getting to the part I'm most excited about, and I think you will be too. The agent was built on the Agentforce platform and uses the Salesforce Data Cloud and CRM data for context, incorporating the responsible use and governance policies there too. 00:43 — It delivers enterprise-grade customer support by answering customer questions, troubleshooting issues, escalating complex cases to a human support agent. Salesforce validated the agent internally before the launch, and the company has reported that its own Help Agent handled 4.3 million customer conversations and resolved around 70% of inquiries autonomously, really showcasing its effectiveness. 01:16 — Here's the kicker: the new Help Agent operates on a resolution-based pricing model. This means that customers are only charged when the agent successfully resolves a customer's issue. There's no charge if the conversation is handed off to a human agent before resolution, and this approach is quite groundbreaking. In many ways, Salesforce is testing a new pricing model for enterprise AI. 01:50 — From an AI in the workplace perspective, this agent operates on a performance-based pricing scenario, similar to how a gig worker is paid for successful tasks completed, right? So, Salesforce is not the first company to use outcome-based pricing for software, but bringing it to Agentforce and pushing it further into enterprise AI is remarkable stuff and a great step forward from Salesforce. Visit Cloud Wars for more.
Transcribe →Race for AI Future: Google, Oracle, Microsoft, AWS Try to Meet Insatiable Demand
2d ago00:04:59Tap to summarizeIn today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explain why hyperscalers are rewriting the rules of deal-making to build the next generation of AI infrastructure. Highlights 00:01 — We are seeing the beginnings here of an incredible round of innovation, not just in technology, but in deal-making, partnerships, alliances, and financing, all by the hyperscalers trying to meet this insatiable AI demand. We're seeing these companies undertake some very innovative, bold, distinctive new strategies to build the capability and capacity to get these AI data centers built out to meet this insatiable demand. 00:49 — Google Cloud did a joint venture with Blackstone, in which Blackstone invested $5 billion into the joint venture. We have seen Amazon issue a series of debt and bond offerings totaling over $100 billion. AWS has said that in calendar year 2026 it will spend $200 billion on CapEx, most of which is going into AI data centers. Oracle announced $50 billion in debt and equity financing. 01:57 — This funding, this raising of funds to build out the data centers, is because there is, among these hyperscalers, over $2 trillion in committed contracted business. While Oracle right now is the smallest by revenue of the hyperscalers, it has the largest backlog, and in order to meet that, it has to spend a lot of money to build the capacity. 02:46 — Microsoft is using proceeds from its brilliant early relationship with OpenAI to help secure some of the funding. Under a newly restructured agreement between the two companies, Microsoft now will receive 20% of OpenAI revenues for the next few years. Plus, Microsoft has a huge ownership stake in OpenAI. 04:17 — Remarkable things are going on here as the technology buildout by all these companies has helped create this incredible demand. What we're seeing now is extraordinary efforts by the hyperscalers to combine with other companies, move into different industries, and do everything possible — at staggering expense — to meet this insatiable customer demand for AI. Visit Cloud Wars for more.
Transcribe →SAP and Giotto.ai Launch Pilot Projects for Smarter Joule Agents
3d ago00:02:02Tap to summarizeIn today's Cloud Wars Minute, I look at how reasoning-focused AI will strengthen SAP Joule agents with enterprise-grade security and governance. Highlights 00:03 — SAP has partnered with Giotto.ai to explore the integration of Giotto.ai's AI reasoning capabilities into SAP Joule agents. Now, for some background, Giotto.ai is a Swiss AI company that has developed compact, reasoning-focused AI models designed for deployment in secure and controlled enterprise environments. 00:25 — Quick recap here: reasoning-focused AI models are designed not just to generate answers, but to really work through problems in a more structured and logical way before giving a response. The partnership will initially focus on pilot projects aimed at enhancing SAP Joule agents in enterprise scenarios that require structured reasoning, reliability, and integration with enterprise data. 00:50 — The collaboration will also serve as an opportunity for Giotto.ai to validate its technology in demanding real-world business environments. According to CEO Aldo Podestà, the partnership will demonstrate the practical value of the company's reasoning-focused models in an enterprise setting. 01:10 — For SAP, the collaboration provides an opportunity to explore how reasoning-focused AI can enhance its enterprise agents, particularly in use cases that require dependable decision support and close integration with the business data processes available there. 01:29 — For SAP customers, the partnership could result in AI agents that provide more reliable recommendations, better decision support, and greater automation of more complex business processes, critically, and this is the USP of Giotto .ai critically, while maintaining enterprise-grade security and governance. Visit Cloud Wars for more.
Transcribe →Chris Leone on Oracle's Fusion Agentic Applications and the Future of Enterprise AI | Cloud Wars Live
4d ago00:20:04Tap to summarizeAs enterprise AI rapidly evolves from isolated assistants to autonomous systems capable of executing complex business processes, organizations are looking for practical ways to turn AI into measurable business outcomes. In this episode of Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans speaks with Chris Leone, Executive Vice President of Oracle Applications and AI, Oracle about Oracle's latest innovations in Fusion Agentic Applications, the new Fusion Builder Experience, and AI Studio Skill. Leone explains how Oracle is combining enterprise applications with AI agents to automate work, empower both business users and developers, and help organizations accelerate AI adoption while maintaining enterprise-grade security and governance. AI That Delivers Outcomes The Big Themes: Outcome-Driven AI Changes Everything: Oracle's vision for agentic AI begins with a simple premise: enterprise software should no longer focus primarily on completing tasks — it should focus on delivering business outcomes. Leone explains that Oracle has intentionally designed Fusion Agentic Applications around measurable objectives rather than individual transactions. Instead of asking users to manually coordinate dozens of activities, organizations define a goal, such as reducing supplier spending or shortening inventory lead times, and the application orchestrates the work required to achieve it. Teams of AI agents collaborate, monitor progress, recommend next steps, and increasingly automate execution while keeping humans involved whenever appropriate. Autonomous Work Is Gradual: Oracle isn't advocating for immediate, fully autonomous enterprises. Instead, Leone introduces the idea of an "autonomy dial" that organizations can gradually increase as confidence grows. Initially, AI agents recommend actions while employees remain responsible for approvals and execution. Over time, companies can allow the system to automatically perform more routine work while humans supervise exceptions and strategic decisions. Leone illustrates this using Oracle's Sourcing Command Center, where customers establish objectives like lowering supplier costs or reducing lead times. The application identifies shortages, creates RFQs, manages supplier auctions, recommends winners, and continuously guides employees throughout the process. As organizations become more comfortable, more of these steps can execute automatically. This phased approach helps customers balance productivity gains with governance, compliance, and trust while steadily reducing repetitive work and allowing employees to concentrate on higher-value business decisions. Customers Are Moving Fast: Leone describes Oracle's customer base as spanning the full spectrum of AI adoption. Some organizations are already experimenting aggressively with Oracle's newest Builder Experience, posting demonstrations almost immediately after release. Others have successfully deployed Oracle AI capabilities into production, with more than 7,000 customers already using Oracle AI services. Still, others remain cautious, focusing primarily on traditional transactional systems while gradually evaluating AI opportunities. Despite these varying adoption rates, Leone believes Oracle must continue innovating at the leading edge because tomorrow's competition may come from AI-first startups rather than traditional enterprise software vendors. The Big Quote: "We're truly moving from this system of record that we've been delivering for many years to truly delivering outcomes for our customers." More from Chris Leone: Follow Chris Leone on LinkedIn or send a message via Oracle AI for Fusion Applications. Visit Cloud Wars for more.
Transcribe →Microsoft vs AWS: AI-Deployment Names Show Different AI Visions
4d ago00:05:26Tap to summarizeIn today's Cloud Wars Minute, I compare Microsoft's and AWS's dramatically different branding strategies for AI deployment services. Highlights 00:01 — We see here, in the unfolding AI Deployment Wars, some interesting naming conventions from Microsoft and AWS. And if you look at the comparison of these two, I wonder what they were hoping to achieve by this. I mean, I'm sure they wanted to have these names resonate clearly with people, but they picked wildly different names. 00:48 — AWS calls it Forward Deployed Engineering. Now, that is wildly unimaginative, but it's very clear. This is what you're going to get: forward-deployed engineers. That's the heart of it. It'll be both AWS's own FDEs and also some partners. They have three different tiers of services that customers can tap into. 01:22 — Microsoft is calling its company Microsoft Frontier Company, and I think, in a way, that's a little bit of a cross between Star Trek and Little House on the Prairie. Microsoft is sort of positioning this like companies really want to be the first in their field, out on the frontier. 03:13 — I think what business leaders are looking for isn't so much about frontier. What they want is: let's make this stuff work. Let's make it work clearly. Let's show quantifiable results. Let's get our culture right. Let's get our processes optimized. Let's get not only costs taken out of the company, but let's get new revenue streams building here. 04:07 — So I guess, of the two, if I had to pick one that I think was better, I'd have to give the nod to AWS. They're not going to try to impress anybody. They're not going to try to confuse anybody. You want this? This is what it is. So we'll see how this all plays out. But wild times are coming along here. Visit Cloud Wars for more.
Transcribe →Oracle Targets Faster Patching as AI Threats Intensify | Cloud Wars Live
5d ago00:18:01Tap to summarizeAs artificial intelligence accelerates both innovation and cyber risk, organizations are facing unprecedented pressure to secure sensitive data while deploying AI at scale. In this episode of Cloud Wars Live, Bob Evans speaks with Vipin Samar, SVP, Software Engineering, Database Security, Oracle, about Oracle's expanded AI security strategy and how the company is helping customers defend against increasingly sophisticated AI-powered attacks. Samar explains Oracle's three-part security philosophy and why removing barriers to rapid patching and risk assessment has become essential in the emerging era of agentic AI. Winning the AI Security Race The Big Themes: AI Has Fundamentally Changed the Cybersecurity Landscape: Vipin Samar argues that artificial intelligence has dramatically shifted the balance between defenders and attackers. While organizations are rapidly adopting agentic AI to improve productivity and automate business processes, the same advances are empowering cybercriminals. Modern large language models can now write software, analyze applications, identify vulnerabilities, and even recommend methods for exploiting those weaknesses. Tasks that once required highly trained hackers and weeks of effort can now be completed in hours by individuals with far less technical expertise. Speed Has Become a Critical Security Requirement: One of the interview's strongest themes is that cybersecurity now operates on AI timelines rather than human timelines. Samar explains that attackers no longer wait weeks or months to exploit newly discovered vulnerabilities. AI allows them to identify weaknesses, analyze patches, and develop exploits almost immediately after updates become available. That makes rapid patch deployment essential. Oracle is responding by simplifying and accelerating the entire patching lifecycle through automation, database lifecycle management tools, application testing capabilities, and deployment technologies that reduce operational complexity. Oracle Is Removing Adoption Barriers: Oracle's strategy extends beyond developing new security technology. Samar explains that many organizations delay implementing security improvements because of procurement hurdles, lengthy approval processes, limited budgets, or concerns about operational disruption. Oracle is attempting to eliminate those obstacles by making several enterprise-grade security products available free for a limited time, including Oracle Data Safe, Database Security Assessment capabilities, Database Lifecycle Management Pack, and Exadata Management Pack. Visit Cloud Wars for more.
Transcribe →Google Cloud All-in w/Ecosystem for Agentic Transformation as Others Launch Deployment Co.'s
5d ago00:05:39Tap to summarizeIn today's Cloud Wars Minute, I compare Google's ecosystem-first AI strategy with the hybrid deployment models of Microsoft and AWS.Highlights 00:03 — A crazy new trend here in 2026 has been AI deployment, or agent deployment, agentic transformation. The connection is this remarkable technology that all these AI companies have been pumping out with the desired business goals that business leaders are demanding. You see a couple of different approaches emerging here. 00:26 — The five big AI companies leading the way on this are Google Cloud, Microsoft, AWS, OpenAI, and Anthropic. The only one of those that is going with an exclusively partner ecosystem-led approach for these AI deployments is Google Cloud. I think the big thing is it's going 100% with its ecosystem partners for these AI deployments, for what Google Cloud calls agentic transformation. 01:51 — President, Global Partner Ecosystem, Kevin Ichhpurani has been a very successful in his efforts. He's also been a staunch supporter of this [approach], he says: "We're a technology company. We're really good at doing the technology, and we want to surround ourselves with force multiplying partners who are really good at the deployment. And Google Cloud will be connected with them in some ways." 03:16 — Partner-driven revenue was up 80%. Bookings driven by partners were up 100%, so they doubled. And sales of partner-created solutions on the Google Cloud Marketplace were up 90%. As high-growth as Google Cloud was in 2025, they're moving and growing, expanding at an even more blistering pace here in 2026. 04:36 — Google Cloud has said, "Hey, what we've been doing so far has been working really well. We're going to double down on that with lots of training and incentives for our partners," whereas AWS and Microsoft say, "You know what? We're going to keep working with partners. In some ways, we need to build our own capabilities and expertise." Visit Cloud Wars for more.
Transcribe →AI Agent & Copilot Podcast: Solgari's Ed Grant on Transforming Customer Engagement with AI
1w ago00:18:03Tap to summarizeKey Takeaways Solgari's leading innovations: Grant explains that Solgari provides a customer engagement platform built on Azure that extends Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365 (as well as other CRMs) to capture customer conversations and centralize that data for better engagement. Customers are adopting it to quickly solve specific engagement challenges, gain fast ROI, and apply it to AI strategies to drive more intelligent business outcomes. AI's role in customer engagement: Companies that centralize customer conversations into a single data platform gain an advantage because AI is only as effective as the data it can access. Grant says customer engagement is "ground zero for AI" as it enables capabilities like automation, sentiment analysis, and sales or service intelligence that improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and deliver measurable ROI. Use case: Grant shares details on Solgari's involvement with AMB Sports & Entertainment, who own the Atlanta Falcons. Solgari helped them unify fan engagement across voice, SMS, email, and WhatsApp within Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365, creating a repository of fan conversations in Dataverse. By consolidating this data, AMB Sports & Entertainment is now well positioned to "create momentum around their AI strategy." Final thoughts: In closing, Grant shares why Solgari has shifted its customer and partner conversations away from product demos and toward business outcomes, showing how customer engagement data can evolve into valuable AI use cases over time. Visit Cloud Wars for more.
Transcribe →Salesforce-Databricks Alliance Strengthens Enterprise AI with Trusted Data
1w ago00:02:40Tap to summarizeIn today's Cloud Wars Minute, I explain why the next phase of agentic AI is all about governance, security, and business processes. Highlights 00:03 — Salesforce has expanded its partnership with Databricks to help organizations better connect enterprise data with business outcomes in the era of agentic AI. At its core, the expanded partnership is about recognizing that as AI agents take on a larger role across the enterprise, they need access to complete, connected data that's paired with business context, security controls, and enterprise processes. 00:51 — Access to data alone really is not enough for AI agents to deliver meaningful business value. "Customers consistently tell us they want AI agents to become a larger part of how work gets done across the enterprise," said Andy Kofoid, President of Global Field Operations at Databricks. "To make this a reality, they need access to trusted data, business contexts, and governance controls wherever that information lives." 01:32 — "Together, Salesforce and Databricks are helping customers connect governed data and business contexts across platforms, giving humans and agents the shared foundation they need to search, reason, and act with confidence." 01:46— I think this partnership is, yet again, part of a pattern that's emerging here. It's representing a broader shift that's taking place across the AI industry as organizations move beyond experimentation and toward large-scale deployment of AI agents. 02:00 — As this is happening, success really depends less on the models and more on the ability to unite these agentic capabilities with data governance, security, and business processes. Salesforce and Databricks are betting that enterprises need all of those elements working together cohesively if agentic AI is to deliver on the promises it has made. Visit Cloud Wars for more.
Transcribe →