Podcast
The CTO Advisor
Hosted by The CTO Advisor · EN
A conversation geared toward the CTO or Infrastructure Architect. Shows topics focus on future technologies and keeping today's infrastructure in-line with business requirements.
14episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
From Network Engineer to Applied AI: Ryan Booth on the Career Path Nobody Maps Out
2w agoTap to summarizeDescription: Keith sits down with Ryan Booth — former network automation specialist, Apstra alum, and now principal consultant at Blue Ridge Consulting — to trace the real career arc from infrastructure engineer to applied AI practitioner. They dig into the transferable skills that actually matter (hint: it's not the coding), why curiosity-driven entry points like [...]
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Clumio Data Protection for Google Cloud –
3w agoTap to summarizeAt Google Cloud Next in Las Vegas, Keith sits down with returning guest Woon Jung, CTO of Clumio, to break down their new GCS backup launch — and why "replication" and "backup" are not the same thing. They dig into the real failure domains that catch GCP-native organizations off guard, the operational reality of multi-cloud [...]
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Your Data Is Getting Dirtier While We Talk — UnicornIQ’s Answer to AI’s Unsolvable Problem
Feb 18Tap to summarizeEveryone says clean your data before you invest in AI. The problem is, your data is getting dirty faster than you can clean it. In this episode, Keith sits down with Joe Onisick, founder of UnicornIQ, to dig into why data hygiene is AI's most underestimated failure point — and why throwing more GPU power [...]
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AI in the Data Center: When Faster Isn’t Better
Feb 4Tap to summarizeAI is changing the data center—but not always in the ways enterprises expect. In this episode, Keith Townsend is joined by Intel’s Lynn Comp for Part Two of their conversation, shifting the focus squarely to AI infrastructure realities. They explore why many AI workloads never justify GPUs, how CPU-based deployments often exceed real [...]
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Right-Sizing AI, Rationalizing Virtualization, and Becoming an Infrastructure Arbiter — with Melissa Palmer
Jan 14Tap to summarizeEpisode Summary Enterprise leaders are facing two equally hard problems at the same time: deciding what to do next with virtualization in the post-VMware era, and figuring out how—or whether—to deploy AI infrastructure responsibly. In this episode of The CTO Advisor Podcast, Keith Townsend sits down with long-time industry peer and infrastructure expert [...]
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The VMware Reckoning: Broadcom, AI, and the Future of Enterprise Infrastructure
Dec 17Tap to summarizeEnterprise IT didn’t plan for this problem—but now it has to solve it. In this episode of The CTO Advisor Podcast, Keith Townsend sits down with Lynn Comp, Head of Data Center Market Readiness at Intel, for a candid, unsugarcoated conversation about how Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has fundamentally disrupted the enterprise infrastructure status quo. [...]
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Outrunning Ageism and Building a Second Career
Sep 17Tap to summarizeIn this episode of The CTO Advisor Podcast, Keith Townsend sits down with Betsy Tong, founder of Authority Architect, to explore how seasoned professionals can transform decades of experience into thriving consulting businesses. Betsy shares her personal story of being laid off at 56 and realizing the traditional job market—dominated by keyword filters and age [...]
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VMware Explore 2025: VCF 9, Developer Tribes, and the Future of Private Cloud – with Steven Dickens
Sep 3Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Keith Townsend welcomes back Steven Dickens, founder of Hyperframe Research, for a candid conversation following VMware Explore 2025. The duo dives deep into the latest developments from VMware, focusing on the launch of VCF 9 and what it means for developers, customers, and the broader ecosystem. Key topics include: Steven’s impressions of [...]
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AGI, Superintelligence, and the Race for Compute with Brian Wang
Aug 20Tap to summarize📝 Show Notes: On this episode of the CTO Advisor Podcast, Keith sits down with independent analyst Brian Wang of Next Big Future to unpack one of the hottest debates in enterprise IT and AI research: the path to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and beyond to superintelligence. Brian brings his unique lens as a technologist [...]
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Modernizing Network Ops in a Post-Cowboy World – CTO Advisor Podcast with Guest Scott Robohn
Apr 2, 2025Tap to summarizeIn this special CTO Advisor Podcast episode, Keith Townsend sits down with Scott Robohn, founder of Tech Sales Craft and co-founder of the Network Automation Forum, for a timely conversation recorded live during GTC week in San Jose — but not at GTC. The duo dive deep into the evolution of network operations and why [...]
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