This Week in Enterprise Tech Episode 550 Transcript
Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.
Lou Maresca (00:00:00):
On this week, enterprise hack. We have Mr. Aris back on the show while the rest of the co-host are gallivanting in Alaska. Today we're gonna talk about dark data, right? That's right. It's the not so valuable data that your organization is unintentionally collecting and storing, but cyber criminals, they love it. Plus our guest today, Rana Barla. He's Vice President of Field Engagement and Marketing at Oracle. We're gonna discuss simplifying tech stacks to reduce costs plus e r p. Is that the answer for your organization? Definitely shouldn't miss it. TW on the set
TWIT Intro (00:00:34):
Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is is tweet.
Lou Maresca (00:00:48):
This is twy this week, enterprise Tech episode five 50, recorded June 30th, 2023, shine a light on Dark Data. This episode of this week at Enterprise Tech is brought to you by Collide. Collide is a device trust solution that ensures that if a device is insecure, it can't access your apps, it's zero trust For Okta, visit collide.com/twy and book a demo today. And by lookout, whether on a device or in the cloud, your business data is always on the move. Minimize risk, increase visibility, and ensure compliance with lookout's Unified platform. Visit lookout.com today. And by ZipRecruiter, if you're hiring, you're currently dealing with a slowing economy, which adds to your challenges. Thankfully, there's a hiring partner who's focused on you and your needs. Ziprecruiter, four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter, get a quality candidate within the first day. Try ZipRecruiter for free at ziprecruiter.com/twy. Welcome to twy this week at Enterprise Tech. The show that is dedicated to you, the enterprise professional, the IT pro, and that geek who just wants to know how those worlds connect. And I'm your host, Louis Moka, your guide. You're the big world of the enterprise, but I can't guide you by myself. I need to bring in the professional and the expert. So I'm gonna ready on Mr. Oliver Wrist. He's a longtime friend in this show, Oliver, it's been a while, my friend. How you been?
Oliver Rist (00:02:18):
I've been good. I've been all right. It's it's getting hot here in Connecticut. We're gonna hit over a hundred in the next couple of weeks. Won't that be awesome? But I made sure my air conditioner works, so I probably won't die
Lou Maresca (00:02:29):
Now. You <laugh> now you're not getting hit with any smoke, right?
Oliver Rist (00:02:33):
No, like I said, yeah, we we saw bad about a week and a half ago. Like it was really gray. Like you, I don't know what, it's just, it was kind of frightening, but it's been clear as a bell since then. So I don't know what I'm getting in, in my lungs tey, but it looks fine.
Lou Maresca (00:02:49):
It looks fine. <Laugh> outta sight outta of mind. That's the way it is. Well, I'll tell you, so one thing I did read a recent article on Wir by you hottest electric mar motorcycles out there. And I know, I'm gonna tell you I'm a motorcycle enthusiast. My wife won't let me get them because we have small food, dude. But I want to ask you a question. The live wire S two Delmar or the Curtis one? Which one?
Oliver Rist (00:03:10):
Curtis one Without he, he actually I'm gonna get to ride it. I gotta fly to California to, to do it, but he's gonna let me actually sit on it and, and actually move it around, which I thought was, I'm terrified cuz <laugh>, if I drop it, I'm screwed. But look, if you wanna buy a bike, you can start in my garage. It's fine. Your wife will never know.
Lou Maresca (00:03:31):
Okay, sounds good. All right. We live close enough. Maybe that'll work. Well, thank you for being here. A I appreciate, well, while all our other co-hosts are actually gallivanting around the beautiful state of Alaska, Oliver and I are gonna get to business here. And today we're gonna discuss dark data. That's right. This is the data that you inadvertently collect and store that might be not so valuable to you. But I'll tell you one thing, cyber criminals, they love it. It's gold to them. So we're gonna talk about that. Plus our guests today, <inaudible>, he's vice president of Fuel Engagement and marketing of at Oracle. And we're gonna talk about simplifying your tech stacks, help you reduce some of your costs there. But we're also gonna try to define a threshold for you because obviously sometimes when you have lots of change and lots of new tech, you can sometimes get into tech debt as well.
(00:04:10):
So we're gonna talk about that lots coming up. So definitely stick around. But first, it's been a busy week in the enterprise. So we definitely should get into our news clips in an alarming update this week via this TechCrunch article. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing company, or T S M C, the world's foremost contractor in chip making has confirmed a cybersecurity breach. Now, the lock bit ransomware gang with ties to Russia claims responsibility and threatens to release the sensitive data unless a whopping 70 million ransom is actually met. Now this incident raises the stakes in cyber warfare with such a hefty ransom demand. Considering one of the highest on record Equinix cyber threat intelligence researcher William Thomas states that the refusal to pay could lead to a further exposure of network entry points and credential data. The breach was traced back to IT Hardware supplier kin max technology. It involves information crucial for server initial setup and configuration assuring its stakeholders.
(00:05:10):
C S M C has emphasized that neither its business operations nor customer data has been compromised. However, they swiftly severed actually data exchange with kinex acting to, in accordance with their security protocols. Now, question is, is it too late server exchanging, you know, say severing their exchange data with them? Sorry guys, I think the data's already compromised. Well, we'll see. Kin Max a well regarded IT services a consulting organization with high profile partners such as H P E, Cisco, Microsoft, Citrix, and VMware discovered the attack on its specific testing environment. Now, while no further comments around the incidents have come up or any affected customers, this incident serves as a stark reminder of the global risk posed by ransomware attacks.
Oliver Rist (00:05:55):
Okay it's time to say goodbye to Scent Os apparently. So red Hat you know, those guys have been the name of the game for Enterprise Linux for probably more than 20 years now. But despite the fact that it's been an extremely popular os, probably the more popular os, at least according to my old alma mater, info world is Cent Os. And they're figuring up to 20 times more popular. So for the most part up until now, sent Os was, was pretending to be a rel clone, I'm sorry, red Hat Enterprise Linux Rel clone. But red Hat killed that myth back in 2020 when it unveiled Scent Os Stream. So that ride is about to end. Red Hat just announced that Cent OS seven will be end of life in June of 2024. So just like Redmond with windows, you got no more software and no more security patches.
(00:06:49):
A company also said that Cent OS Stream will now be the only repository for any public rel related source code. So if you're an enterprise that's using Santos seven, and I think that's probably most enterprises your IT planning for the next year had better include what, what you're gonna do once you're off Santos. According to Red Hat, there's already a safe and pretty straightforward way to do a cloud migration from sent tore. But then it got a little ominous. It says if you're doing that from sent to anything else, like say Linux or Rocky Linux, it's more difficult unquote. Then again, red red Hat would have to say that. So if you wanna run a test or you know, 10 that probably wouldn't be outta line if, if you like freebie Linux clones. But, you know, speaking from a personal IT experience I think there's better ci CYA in, in just going the, the Red Hat route than there is in striking out in some freebie version.
Lou Maresca (00:07:49):
It wouldn't be an enterprise week without a leak. To this week. We need to discuss a financial cyber attack campaign targeting vulnerable SSH servers with the goal of turning them into nodes for a convert or covert peer-to-peer proxy network, like peer to profit or honey gain. Now the threat dubbed as proxy jacking. That's right, proxy jacking uses SSH for remote access writing scripts to subtly include victim servers in the network. Now, unlike crypto jacking, which elicit uses a system's resources for mining crypto cryptocurrency, proxy jacking uses the victims' unused bandwidth to can clandestinely actually run services in the background. Now, this is offers dual benefits to the attackers. It enables monetization with a reduced resource load, making it more covert and thereby, thereby actually reducing chances of discovery. The reverse actually exists because the anonymity provided by proxy wear services can actually be misused by threat actors to obscure their attacks by routing traffic through intermediary nodes.
(00:08:49):
Now, more sinister twist in this tale is that threat actors have been found hosting a minor on the same server <laugh>, so indicating simultaneously crypto jacking and proxy jacking activities at the same time. Now, while proxy wear isn't inherently malicious when installed without users consent, it becomes a cybercrime tool allowing the threat actors to actually control the system and generate illegal revenue. Now, to mitigate these risks, enterprises must of course adopt strong security practices like robust passwords or even MFA rigorous patching engagement, which we talk about all the time, and of course, start lagging some stuff.
Oliver Rist (00:09:26):
So chat gp G P T is still in diapers and it's already getting sued. So according to information week chat, G p t got served not one, but two papers while still in its crib though it looks like they're well-deserved. So its parent company OpenAI is facing two lawsuits, which, which were both filed on Wednesday. The first suit sounds pretty nasty because it's stating that when open AI changed its policy in 2019 and went from being all hippy dippy about good tech to being, Hey, let's make some money it decided to forget all about the principles that it said that originally it was gonna, it was gonna observe. So little things like ethics and privacy and security. So the suite says that the company instead embarked on this massive grab of any personal data that it could get us grubby little mitts on, no matter where that data might be on the internet or whom it might actually belong to.
(00:10:19):
So that's private data conversations, medical data, information about minors. Basically, if it was there and Chad G p t could get its hands on it, they took it. So as you might expect the suit wants OpenAI to stop, and not just that, they want 'em to stop both commercial sales and use as well as any development on chat G P T until new regs are put in place. Somebody figures out what the right safeguards are and that OpenAI not only implement those, but prove that it, that it has implemented those. So we'll see how far that gets. The second lawsuit is kind of similar, but it's a smaller in scope. It says that while it was being trained chat OpenAI was using books to train chat G P T and it didn't ask whether it could use those, those books or not.
(00:11:04):
It's a class action lawsuit was filed in San Francisco and it states that all the books that were taken and used by OpenAI were done without consent, without giving any kind of credit, and definitely not with any kind of compensation. I'm not sure how much traction the second suit is gonna get because it's smaller in in scope. But that first one is definitely gonna make some, some waves considering that companies like ibm, Microsoft, big pile of others, they all want to use AI to make little AI of their own. And just like open ai, these big companies are moving ahead very fast and they're hoping that the law catches up with them later. Meanwhile, all kinds of data is, is getting swiped and, and not just from individuals using chat g PT directly or from anybody who's using a chat G P T app integration, which means Spotify teams Slack, and that's just a few.
(00:11:52):
That that list is long and it's getting longer very, very fast. So this thing fries my clams because this concept of personal data and privacy on the internet is not like it's new. We've been talking about it for a long time. Regs are in place and the fact that these guys are just ignoring it so that because they wanna move along quickly with a, with a new tech, that's just flat out wrong. Plus, if you've already had your data stolen, you're still gonna be damaged even once any new regs get, get put in place because you can't put that genie back in the bottle. So Color Oliver upset.
Lou Maresca (00:12:20):
Well folks, that does it for the blips. Next up we have the news bytes, but before we get to the news bytes, we do have to thank a really great sponsor of this week, enterprise Tech, and that's Collide. Collide is a device trust solution that ensures unsecured devices that can't access your apps. Now, I work with enough organizations to know if you're allowing bring your own device or even securing the device set of managed devices that are out there, it's a difficult and almost next to impossible scale or an IT organization. Well, it's time to change that Collide has some big news. If you're an Okta user, collide can get your entire fleet to a hundred percent compliance. Collide Patch is one of the major holes in zero trust architecture, and that's device compliance. Think about it, your identity product only lets known devices log into your apps.
(00:13:06):
But just because a device is actually known doesn't mean it's secure state. In fact, plenty of devices in your fleet probably shouldn't be trusted at all. Maybe they're running an out of date OS version, or maybe they got an unencrypted credentials line around. If a device isn't compliant or isn't running the Collide agent, it can't access the organization's SaaS apps or other resources. And the device user can't log into your company's cloud apps until they fix the problem on their end. It's really that simple. And, for example, the device will be blocked if an employee doesn't have an up-to-date browser. And using end user remediation actually helps drive your fleet to a hundred percent compliance without overwhelming your IT team. Without collide IT teams have no way to solve these compliance issues or stop and secure devices from logging in. Now, with Collide, you can set and enforce compliance across your entire fleet, whether it be Mac, windows, and even Linux.
(00:14:02):
Now, collide is unique in that it makes device compliance part of the authentication process. Now, when a user logs in with Octa Collide alerts them to compliance issues and prevents unsecured devices from actually logging in, now it's security you can feel good about because Collide puts transparency and respect for users at the center of their product. To sum it up, collides method means fewer support tickets, less frustration, and most importantly, a hundred percent fleet compliance. Visit collide.com/twy to learn more or book a demo. That's K O L I D e.com/tw. And we thank collide for their support of this week in enterprise tech.
(00:14:45):
Well, folks, it's time for the bites. Now let's talk about a little known gold mine for cyber criminals. That, that's right, that's called dark data. This is information that companies actually forget about. It's that data you maybe mistakenly collect in store, which doesn't really factor into any business transactions, but it's really a great value to threat actors now in the digital age where data forms really the backbone of many of the decisions that businesses make. It's unsurprising and it's not really surprising that an excess or dormant dormant amount of data or dark data is actually piling up in the background. Now imagine the cost of storing such data. Let's put it into perspective a little bit. Netflix, last year, they shelled out around 10 million monthly for cloud storage in 2019. Now, dark data comparable to dark matter and physics per the Gartner researches is more than just sensitive customers or employee data.
(00:15:37):
It extends to system backups, those log files, you're collecting configuration files, even sensitive and internal procedures a lot more there as well. Alarmingly, many companies actually store this data beyond the mandatory retention period because there are some regulations that say you need to store it like HIPAA or gdpr. So the question is, how do we protect from this unknown data? Well, there's some really good steps in this dark reading AR article. Actually, there's a five step plan. Now, first they suggest increase your data visibility, build a data inventory and perform threat modeling to understand and quantify threats and prioritize those solutions. Second, you should think about your adversary. You know, you use ethical hacking and really use professional security testers to actually uncover some of your vulnerabilities. And once you have a clear picture of your data footprint, counter that I thought as well.
(00:16:26):
Reinforce security controls and target areas, enforce policies. Also, make sure you delete unnecessary sensitive data. A strategy we like to call shrinking the battle space. <Laugh>, avoid relying so solely on data loss prevention. Jus don't rely only on them. Remember, it's a balance between people, process and technology. Now, back, back your chosen tools with really well-documented processes and workflows. I can tell you that if you don't do that, obviously the next guy, the next person's not gonna know. Whilst that, of course, managed by skilled professionals. Now, dark data, while seemingly irrelevant, can actually be costly if it's not managed correctly. Remember, it may also be elusive asset, but it's also potentially your most expensive liabilities. So think about that. So let's, I wanna bring Oliver in Oliver, this is an important topic because a lot of organizations obviously collect data. Sometimes they don't even know that they're collecting this data. What do you think, how do you think is important for people, especially organizations to know about this? Like what, what they should, what should they be doing other than the stuff that the article says, <laugh>
Oliver Rist (00:17:30):
<Laugh>? Well, the stuff the article says isn't exactly easy. I mean, when you go out and you look at what people term dark data, I mean, it's anything. It's, it's your all, it's that email thread that you did or that the fired guy that you that, that you can't last week did because you didn't delete his email store. It's the, it's the TIF snapshot that somebody took of the whiteboard and then put on their hard disc or put up, up on the on the cloud share and then forgot about. It's that, you know, that PowerPoint presentation that you started and and didn't finish. It's all that stuff. So you've gotta find it. That's, you know, plus speaking of Netflix, by the way, this is not new. I mean, it's, it's got a cute name now, but I think Netflix is showing that movie hackers remember that from 1995 with little kids running around in the, in the really bad visual representation of a, of a enterprise data center.
(00:18:24):
That's what those kids were hunting then, right? Snippets of documents and a document that somebody forgot about that they can use. It's, this is old stuff and right. I think, I think if you have to identify the worst problem, to me it's, it's a finding it, which I don't think is gonna be that hard now that you have ai. I think finding it's gonna be fairly straightforward, but after that managing it, securing it, to me that all sounds like you're gonna have user hurdles. And as soon as you, you know, that's gonna be a howling hoard of users. And I think that's probably what's gonna keep most businesses from, from doing this.
Lou Maresca (00:19:01):
I think the next challenging part is that you really can just go blindly delete it. Yeah, I mean, obviously organizations can say, oh, we have this bunch of stuff. We have a bunch of emails, or we have a bunch of like log data or whatever. You just can't go blindly delete it. One, because you could be filing policies and, and compliance and two, because you could be getting rid of data that people may or may not need later on. So I think this is one of the other challenging things I think with dark data is you, you can't, we need a way to essentially classify this data and, and catalog it in some way and then un maybe even quantify its value. So I think that that's another hard part here. Now the article emphasizes the balance of people, process and technology in data protection. What do you think, what's your point of view here is, is that, is that really the main challenge of an organization's for data protection? Is the fact that they have to balance that <laugh>?
Oliver Rist (00:19:49):
Yes. Without, I mean, look, the tool, this is, I mean, you've asked me these questions are are similar questions several times. And I'm always the old time snarky guy who says the tools that we need to use, we already have, we just have to use them. It's true. That is exact. And, and, and it's the, it's the, the same thing here with the, maybe AI is, is a, is a new point, but as far as securing and classifying and user access, that's all there, right? Putting it in place, that's a hurdle. And then convincing your users that, you know, the extra hoops that, that they're gonna have to jump through are worth it and, and keep them safer and making them care about that. To me, that's always gonna be the biggest hurdle.
Lou Maresca (00:20:27):
Yep. Yeah, I think that's really interesting that a lot of organizations are large, especially large enterprises, they don't know that they have this data there and so, or they do and they, they just are storing it for for no good reason. In fact, I've actually seen organizations where they've gone through what they call COGS week, where they actually go in and you know, they, they task their teams. I actually was a witness of this in one organization I visited where they actually task their teams to reduce cogs by trying to find ways to reduce data retention data, data storage. I think that's pretty interesting because you know, that means that, again, they just don't have visibility into this data. I think it's you know, it's a problem whether you are a huge conglomerate or a small, you know, s M b, it's it's, it's definitely a problem.
(00:21:14):
Now, I talked a little bit about my blip about T S M C. They're, they're sharing, obviously they're sharing their data. They got compromised. You know, I I think that just by them saying they severed their data connections here, it doesn't really mean anything cuz it could mean that they're dark data here. The dark data that they thought wasn't really valuable could actually be super valuable to, you know, cyber criminals. Cause they can weed through it, they can utilize it, they can use it for other purposes. Now is is, do you think that this is a dark horse for a lot of organizations, especially from a cyber cri criminal perspective?
Oliver Rist (00:21:46):
Yeah cuz I mean, it, it, it really depends upon how you define dark data, right? I think the article you're looking at had a pretty I, you know, I think the word I'm looking for is optimistic definition right? Of, of, of dark data, right? I, I read some other articles about it and man, you know, they're, they're, I IDing it as not just stuff in your, you know, on your official cloud servers, but your hard disc your thumb drives, you know, there's always some weenie out there who thinks that is, that is personal Google Drive is, is the same thing as his hard drive. So, perfect. So he dumps stuff there and he, and he has a 1, 2, 3, 4 password. All that stuff can be dark data. So finding it, classifying that and then, you know, putting d RM or, or TTL restrictions on stuff that that's, that's spread out that far. I mean, that's a major project. I'm not saying that you shouldn't try it and, you know, I think you definitely need to, I'm just saying it's not gonna, it's not gonna be a, a short term play.
Lou Maresca (00:22:48):
Right? Yeah, I think there are some easy aspects and don't be easy way simple, I guess you could say. Like for instance, you could institute data retention policies, right? Where you can say, Hey, data that's stored here or here will only be around for so long unless you need it. And of course, you know, they'll be, you know, they'll be, users will be alerted when it's time to go. There's also data storage places like things like SharePoint or OneDrive or, you know, whatever the cloud storage that you use out there. They have ways to essentially have similar data retention policies where you can, you know, enact things around, Hey, this data can only be here for so long, this file's too large, that kind of thing. But like you said, there's other places, like for instance, log files. I think this is a pretty interesting one.
(00:23:29):
You know, a lot of, a lot of teams that I've interacted with in some organizations, whether it's financial industry or whatnot they have only a small amount of retention for especially log files. Only because again, there's a level of compliance that needs to be applied there. As well as it's also a costly thing to store log files. Do you really need 60, 90 days worth of logs if you've already processed them and computed a data off of them? So that's also another interesting topic is take a look at your, the fact that do you really need all of those logs from, whether it's your hardware, your services, your applications, because they might not be useful after a certain amount of time. They have a level of expiration, I guess, on the usefulness. So I think another thing that I want to talk about here just a little bit is the fact that there's obviously practical steps and innovative tools here. Do you know Oliver, Oliver any like tools that can help with something like this to help go out and catalog what people are using for data storage and data sources and, and, and help them kind of find a way to, to manage it a little bit better? Is there, is it just a kind of a, a conglomerate of older tools?
Oliver Rist (00:24:32):
Well, that actually brings me to a question that I wanted to ask you, but yeah, I'll answer yours first. No, I don't think there's any new tools other than ai. I think somebody is gonna turn who, who wants to make a quick billion dollars is is gonna turn, you know, a good AI algorithm toward this specific task. I mean, this is, this would be exactly what that tech is, is would be good at. But for you, I'd like to ask I think the last time I worked with the SQL guys was back 20 12, 20 14 was SQL Azure. And back then they were having me do stuff on data lakes. You know, don't worry about structured data, just toss it all into this big bucket. And we have really smart algorithms that'll organize it and do your queries for you. Do you think this trend or this discovery of this trend is gonna push people back toward, towards structured data?
Lou Maresca (00:25:23):
Well, that's a good, that's an interesting question. I don't think so. I think that the fact is you're gonna get unstructured from lots of different sources, obviously. I mean, there's gonna be, there's gonna be hardware, there's gonna be software, there's gonna be services, there's gonna be dependencies that will, that still shell out unstructured data. So you're gonna need to wait to store it no matter what. Now would that mean that we could process that data and struc, you know, create some structure out of it, create some amenities and, and actually d kind of extract structured data from, and then just store the structured data? That could be, I think that that could be a maybe a push to, maybe to getting away from the data lake scenarios. However, I think I don't think data lakes will go away. And, and obviously I, I don't think that unstructured data will go away. And people already have processes to utilize it. So I think that, you know, just making it so that they can have better data management and retention in the, in places like data lakes is probably the best course of action rather than trying to rid yourself of, of data lakes scenario. But I, I don't think they'll go away anytime soon.
Oliver Rist (00:26:24):
Okay.
Lou Maresca (00:26:25):
Yeah. Cool. I think that this is one of those things that, it's interesting because, you know, we, we talk a lot with, and I talk a lot with, with organizations who think don't really consider dark data as a really important thing. However, in the, especially in the health industry, this is a very interesting thing because they do sometimes collect a ton of extra data. And although they they don't know if they need it or not, they have to comply with things like hipaa when it comes to it. And so now they have to re retain that data for a certain period of time, even though they might think it's not valuable. So do you think that there's maybe other parts of, I I don't know of any other parts of industry that, you know, that might collect as much data as maybe the health industry does, maybe unnecessary data, but do you know of any other, you know, industries that do that, that might have a similar problem, especially around being compliant?
Oliver Rist (00:27:17):
Oh well, I mean, the example I would use in the medical industry would've been the one, I don't know if you've been to the doctor recently, but the last time I went, the guy's wheeling around on, on a cart, his little computer set up, but the last time I went, he's taking notes with a pen an electric pen on, on a, on a screen, right? So that type of dark data, you know, he didn't put that in a database that's just sitting there. And so if you're thinking about that in other industries, I mean, yeah, personal finance, I'm sure there's a lot of you know, unofficial notes being taken, unofficial strategies with names. I hope not. Account number is that what scare the hell outta me, but, but I'm, I'm sure that's there off the top of my head. What else?
(00:27:59):
Anything with, with estate planning and, oh, lawyers. I mean, yes, my wife, like, like you should see all the, I mean, she, she's like, like me old school, so she has a bunch of paper notebooks, but I've done work at a bunch of legal offices and she would be the exception these days, not, not the rules. There is gonna be tons of, of dark data generated by lawyers, taking notes by lawyers mapping out strategies by their whiteboard. I mean, it just, it'll, it'll just go on. So, yeah, and all those, I think both, obviously both finance and the legal industry are subject to, to GDPR and various regulations here. So, you know, right. It's, it's gonna be another lawyer fest which means it's not gonna get regulations very quickly, but hopefully we'll, we'll get them.
Lou Maresca (00:28:46):
Yeah, I think lastly, I think, I definitely think that one good recommendations. Definitely check out back outs to backups too, because I'd say one of the biggest things, obviously with most organizations, they have a lot of backups. And I, I don't think that they realize that they're not only backing up you know, useful data, but they're also backing up dark data. And I think this is not only a, a risk for them from a security perspective, but it's also a risk from from a financial perspective. I think it's, you know, it's, it's an expensive thing to be backing things up like that. And you're gonna need to go in and, and review all that. So I, I definitely think this is a, a tough challenge and I think this is a challenge that organizations will continue to fight over time.
(00:29:25):
I do think you're right though. I do think that if somebody has some big idea out there, they can come in and, and and actually review all of your data, just like they do with a lot of the networking hardware that's out there today. They kind of review all your logs coming in, transactions just like Splunk or whatnot. They can do that with all of your data and actually give you some idea on how to go in and make use of it secure, delete it, put policies on it. I think that there could buy completely new new product there. I definitely think it'd be a a very lucrative product for sure.
Ranga Bodla (00:29:56):
I'll send you a business plan.
Lou Maresca (00:29:57):
All right, sounds good. Thanks Oliver. Okay, well that does it for that. Let's move on to the guest cuz we have a great guest today. Drop some knowledge on the Twilight Riot, but before we do, we do have to thank another great sponsor of this weekend Enterprise Tech and that's Lookout Business has basically changed forever. Boundaries to where we work or even how we work, have literally disappeared. And that means your data is always on the move, whether it's on a device or it's in the cloud, or cross networks that we're at the local coffee shop. Well that's great for your workforce. It's really a challenge for IT. Security and Know Lookout helps you control your data and free your workforce. Now with Lookout, you gain complete visibility into all your data so you can minimize risk for external internal threats. Plus ensure compliance by seamlessly securing hybrid work or your organization doesn't have to sacrifice productivity for security now.
(00:30:46):
And Lookout makes it security a lot simpler and working with multi-point solutions and legacy tools, today's environments is really complex. It's too complex with its single unified platform. Lookout reduces it complexity to give you more time to focus on whatever comes your way. Now, good data protection isn't a cage, it's a springboard letting you and your organization bound toward a future of your making. Visit lookout.com today to learn how to safeguard data, secure hybrid work and reduce it complexity. That's lookout.com and we thank Lookout for their sport of this week in enterprise tech. Well, folks, it's my favorite part of the show. We actually could get to bring, gonna guest to drop some knowledge on it, twi, right. Today we have Ranga Boda, he's Vice President of Field Engagement and Marketing of Oracle. Welcome to the show, Ranga.
Ranga Bodla (00:31:41):
Hey Lou. Hey Oliver. How are you guys doing this afternoon?
Lou Maresca (00:31:44):
Doing well. Thanks for being here. Now, I forgot to tell you before the show, but I, hopefully this is not a surprise. Our first question normally is the fact that our organ needs is such a diverse audience. We have so many people that are starting out in their career and they, you know, they maybe even CTOs, CIOs and CEOs. In fact, I do know that we have a bunch of those listening to the show. They'd love to hear people's origin stories. Can you maybe take us through a short journey through chat and what brought you to Oracle?
Ranga Bodla (00:32:09):
Happy to. So I've been in the industry for, for 25 years. I know I only look 25, but I've, I've actually been in the industry for 25 years. Started my career at at ibm had was at some startups out in Silicon Valley, some spectacular failures. And found my way to a startup that got acquired by by sap. And then joined NetSuite, which is the organization I'm in now. And was there for about six years before we got acquired by Oracle. So I've been, we've been at this, in this journey now for about 13 years, about six and a half years prior to acquisition. And then another six, six and a half years here post acquisition. So it's been a fun it's been a fun, fun time. And, you know, during that timeframe I've gone from everything from product management to sales to marketing and gotten to experience a lot of those different things. But you know, when I started at ibm it was, it was funny. We were working on outsourced cloud you know, outsourced analytics via the cloud. And and, and no one even understood what the heck that was back in 19 97, 19 98. They were, they just didn't even understand that concept. So it's funny now cuz it's just kind of a, a given, whereas back then it was definitely pushing, pushing a string uphill. I could say that for sure.
Lou Maresca (00:33:30):
Right, right. Well, I can say I, 20 years ago I started my career in e R P, so I can definitely tell you it's, it's great to see integrations and automations happening in that part of the industry. But before we get into that, I want to start, start with tech stacks. Now, many businesses today, they, they grapple with the problem of bloated tech stacks, complexity you know, lots of things like that. You know, how would you recommend these companies simplify their technology infrastructure without really sacrificing both functionality and efficiency?
Ranga Bodla (00:33:58):
You know, it's a, the, the thing that I see happen, and this is regardless of size of company, I see this happen in small organizations. I say small, like even like two or three or four people type organizations, two very, very large organization, this notion of tech bloat or, or having too many solutions, it happens all the time. You end up with this hairball of solutions and, and part of it is it's just you find a problem, you, you, you find a solution for it, and then you find another problem, you find another solution for it, and you sometimes don't take a step back to say, well, maybe we should be thinking about this a little bit more strategically. And and, and I think that you are seeing that shift a little bit. I think you, you know, we, we even see it from a consumer perspective.
(00:34:45):
You, you and I personally from a consumer perspective, you know, you look at your subscriptions, I mean, you know, I mean, how many subscriptions do you have nowadays? And then you kind of, it's like every periodically you go through and you say, oh wait, you know, what, do I really need 17 subscriptions to to you know, to watch tv Maybe odd, maybe I only need to go back to two. Maybe there are three or four, whatever it is. The same thing's happening on the tech side where I think people are looking back and saying, well, you know what? I went and bought all these different subscriptions, all these different software, different things to go and solve these solutions. Can we take a step back as we're thinking about the more long-term approach as we're gonna grow? And frankly, we've also gotta, gotta save some dollars because, you know, it's not, it's not growth at all costs, but how do we be much more intelligent in how we grow and how we go after these things?
(00:35:35):
And so I think, you know, a a seems simple, but I think there is a little bit of a taking a a step back that collaboration between the CFO and the cio you're seeing finance professionals get much more aligned with the IT professionals in the, in the organization. It's much less of a adversarial relationship and much more of a, Hey, how can we help each other to, to enable the company to be a better or organization to be in a better spot. And I think those are, those are some of those ways I think that, that become part of that part of that. Lou,
Lou Maresca (00:36:15):
You bring up a good point. I do wanna dig into that for just a second because I think, I do like the fact that you're right, a lot of organizations do PE pay for a lot of things they don't need. You know, they pay for the, even some of the baseline things that they're going out there, whether it's cloud services or services in the cloud or you know, anything, whether it's storage or whatnot, they're usually paying their baseline foundational part of their subscriptions, give them a bunch of stuff they don't need when the fact they probably should go find another service provider, another provider that maybe doesn't require that and is, is maybe less expensive that can do the same thing. So I think there's, there's that opportunity, especially in this is this, this day and age. Now, you shared a little bit about your thoughts around the ccio and the CFO working together now I think that that's great, but how do you maybe foster such a relationship to make sure that's, you know, a well aligned, cause obviously the CFO's worried about revenue and the fact that, you know, there's obviously the cost of operations and there's also the intern coming in, Rene, they, you see iOS, they're only really worried about you know, their, how they're doing, what they're doing with the information and what they're doing with their services and that kind of thing.
(00:37:20):
And so how do you kind of foster that alignment?
Ranga Bodla (00:37:23):
Well, I think both, I mean, I mean some of it has come naturally. I think there is, there is a little bit of a, the, the market conditions, I mean, and I mean just the, the nature of how some of the stuff has shifted. There is a little bit more of where, where folks do wanna work more closely together. Cuz you know, frankly the CIO is interested in trying out bringing in new technology into the organization, bringing in new ideas, bringing in new ways to be smarter and more efficient. The CFO is looking at how can I be more how can I get the organization to be more cost effective? How can I drive more revenue? How can I drive more margin to the bottom line? And so they're both aligned from that perspective is, hey, if I can eliminate some of this stuff that's, that's we're not really using and isn't really helping us, then it, it frees up capital or frees up dollars for me to go in and pull in things that actually help on that front.
(00:38:15):
You made a really good good comment there about, about, you know, a lot of people have a lot of stuff that's sitting on the shelf. I mean, the original premise of the cloud was that, oh, you know, all these cloud services, you know, people weren't gonna have a bunch of shelfware. You and I both know that's not the reality of what's happened. In fact, people go to go and buy it and it, and you know, it may be that they're using maybe some baseline of it, but they're not, you know, they have a hundred seats and they're using 10 you know, or they have you know, a thousand seats and they're using a hundred. But either way, there's an opportunity to, to both reduce and make sure that, that, you know, the actual, that you're actually using it. And I'm not saying that people have to just eliminate those services.
(00:38:57):
It may be also just a, an issue of, hey, maybe I'm, I've got, I've got these services in the same place and, and now I can go and go and leverage that. But ultimately if I can free both, both the CIO and the CFO are looking at how can I free up dollars to either a drive more margin or to drive more innovation. And they're both kind of aligned in that. It's not to say that you one-to-one, i I cut this much spending, it's all gonna go to the bottom line. There's gonna be some somewhere in the middle, but they've gotta be chatting about that to, to figure that out as a, as an organization, right?
Lou Maresca (00:39:31):
Right. Now, obviously when you're, when you cut things, obviously maybe sometimes you need to replace things as well. So you might think, oh, I need to maybe reduce my cost cuz I'm using this service or this application or this system, but I need a replacement that maybe comes with less bells and whistles, but might be less expensive. However, sometimes it's a challenge to evaluate new technologies. How does that work when you're collaborating with the CIO and the CFO together and they're working together? How are they evaluating these new things?
Ranga Bodla (00:39:59):
I mean, I think that the, this sometimes people don't, don't actually go through that process of like, you know, literally it's like it's, it's like the conversation I have with my kids sometimes about like, you know, you gotta make that, that checklist of the, the pros and cons and you know, it's like what are, what are really the things I I, what are the things I actually need versus the things I'd like to have? And I think that's, that exercise is, is a really big part of that conversation, which is not just using, it still happens to be clear, but I think you're starting to see less and less of it where it's like, I'm gonna just go and download the big feature list. And it's like, okay, every solution I look at, it's gotta have these 2,700 features. And if you don't, you know, if you only have 2,200 features, you know what I'm gonna, I'm gonna eliminate you off the short list.
(00:40:51):
I think it's really coming back to that like, what's actually gonna help me run my business better? What's gonna actually, you know, I so I've been in NetSuite for 13 years, like I mentioned, and you know, we, we we're always putting out new releases, we're always putting out new features. But, you know, the thing I, I find and, and, and look, there are some solutions out there. There's some on-premise solutions, for example, that were purpose-built for a given industry. And if I was to compare that solution to our solution for that exact industry, you might look at it and say, oh, well they got a thousand features and we have 780. I, I'm making these numbers up, obviously. But, but my point in saying that is, you know, the, the reality though is what, what they're, they may get more features, but if they don't have the flexibility to go and integrate with some of those other systems to go and get access to their data to make smarter choices, I mean, you guys are just talking about thinking about your data and how you're smart about your data and where who has access to it and privacy.
(00:41:53):
I mean, this is, these are the other things that people need to be thinking about too when you think about your tech stack is how, how many people am I giving my data up to that my data or, or not giving up my data, but you know, that has access to my information and where, where it's stored and where, where that information is.
Lou Maresca (00:42:13):
Right? Right. Well, when we come back, I do wanna talk more, and I wanna get into the, the E R P segment here and talk about that data integration. Cause that a very important thing for organizations to understand. But before we do, we do have to thank another great sponsor of this. We can enterprise tech, and that's ZipRecruiter. Now, if you're looking to hire people, you know the market right now, it's, it's flooded with a lot of potential candidates and it's a buyer's market out there. And you need a way to weed through the forest to find the right candidate. Plus you're currently dealing with economic uncertainty, which adds to the challenge now more than ever. It's more important to hire the right people faster and more efficiently to keep overall costs down. Thankfully, there's a hiring partner who's focused on you and your needs.
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That's ZipRecruiter. Now from pricing to technology, everything that ZipRecruiter does is for you and what works best for you. And right now you can try them free at ziprecruiter.com/twy. Go there right now. I'll wait. And let me tell you a little bit about how ZipRecruiter prioritizes your needs. They have straightforward pricing. That's right. You know what you pay for before you post your job so you can stick to your budget. No surprises. Reach more qualified people. That's right. Ziprecruiter sends your job post to more than a hundred job sites. Find great candidates faster with their smart technology and invite the best matches to actually apply for your job. Feed out the competition for talent cuz ZipRecruiter lets you invite candidates. You really want to apply to your job before other businesses can actually snag them. Now, if you invest in a partner that you need to expand your business, ZipRecruiter needs to be that partner.
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Oliver Rist (00:44:41):
Sure, yeah. So we actually did an E R P roundup back in, I think for PC mag back in 20 16, 20 15, which I think is when you and I might have met. And that was the biggest bear nightmare of a round of tests that I have done since we had to do object-oriented databases back in the mid nineties. And the two things people complained about the most users, I mean, and, and wanted us to look at, which was practically impossible was a lead time, right? The biggest hurdle people saw was, wow, these things are so huge, they can be so efficient. But then when they really tried to implement it they got, they got frightened or, or overwhelmed. And then the last one was the other one was customization. That was like a no issue before 2015, but it was starting to change in 20 15, 20 16. You're able to build your own dashboards, things, things like that. So how, how is necessary talking to, to customers about that, about both those things now?
Ranga Bodla (00:45:34):
Yeah, it's a great question and you know, let me take each one separately. The, on the, on the lead time or the implementation side, we really we're very focused now and especially now compared to those almost, yeah, six years ago now, seven years almost, is this notion of bite small, chew faster. We, we, you know, I think all the vendors out there are guilty of, you know, it's like, oh, you gotta go and consume as much as you can on day one. And, you know, that's the reality is that doesn't work. You really gotta think about this notion of of of get take, take a small chunk, get successful with it, and then add on to that. And the, the, the more you do that, the the better off you'll be. And I think, you know, I think it is a little bit of a change.
(00:46:18):
It's something that we, we espouse particularly in the, on the notion of this cloud side of things is, look, you're the, the, you become a customer. The, the, it's the beginning of your journey. It's not, you know, it's not like on premise where you sell this big deal, get it implemented, and you walk away in, in, in our world is very much about like, we want to get you as a customer, get you successful and then continue to grow with you. And, and you know, in our world as we look at it is if, if you are, if you're successful, you're continuing to iterate, you're continuing to add on, you're looking across your, your landscape and you're saying, you know what? I do this manually today. I'm gonna go and, and and figure somebody out and figure out how I can, I can build that in the system.
(00:46:59):
We actually had a customer, and I I love this story. They, they, they, the, the guy, he he had two college hires, these computer science guys, and he said, he said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, here's what your job is. I want you to walk around our business and I want you to talk to people about what they do manually. And if you can figure out how to build that in into the system you know, and, and you, you know, I'll give you a timeline, I'll, and I'll give you a bonus. And they did this for like two years and they had all these great changes. They made all these great efficiencies, and then they ended up quitting and went and, and built their own business, their own NetSuite business to literally help do this with other clients. And it was like they learned all this great stuff on how to do, do, do these customizations, and then they went and did it for other clients.
(00:47:46):
And that comes to your second question on the customization front. We always recommend to folks, look, you, you, every client is gonna have certain business processes that they, that are really unique to them, that are differentiated and they gotta make sure follow. The reality though is a lot of processes, a lot of things order to cash, procure to pay a lot of the, the base processes that are out there. They don't, they're not necessarily that different. They're not even necessarily that different by, by industry. I mean, I'm saying there are, there there's some nuances. And so we really focus on, hey, here's what the standard process looks like. Can you show me what your process looks like and where you really see that differ? A differentiated process is a competitive advantage for you, and if it is, look, we'll work with you to make sure that you have that and you can customize it.
(00:48:38):
And you know what, that customization will go with our upgrades and everything, but we really try to take it forward with them to make sure that the customizations make sense and that they can continue it forward. Again, I don't necessarily think customization is a bad word but what I, what I think is important is making sure that you've got the right set of customizations that you actually need as opposed to just taking, you know, what happens sometimes is people are on one system, they move to a new one and they're like, you know what? We're gonna replicate that existing system you know, from, from scratch rather than thinking about is there, is there a benefit? I mean, we, we now, you know, we're, we're I think in our latest latest, latest release, you know, up to 37,000 customers, you know, we really think about how do we take what we learn from our customers and feed that back to our clients because you know what what we see, you know, by, by continually implementing those different clients, we're seeing what works, what doesn't work. We're seeing how we can optimize those, those processes and we wanna bring that across. So when we say, you know, you can absolutely customize, but you may not want to, it's not as, it's not because the system doesn't allow it, it's more about a conversation of you, you are protecting your, your business processes so that they're not, you know, overly complex. And but it's also important that those customizations be able to move forward. And that's that's another piece of this as well.
Lou Maresca (00:50:06):
You actually bring up a good point around customization. I think. I wanna, I wanna ask a question about that because I think with E R P, especially the fact there's a lot of e r p systems today, in order to get the data integrations that people need, you need to customize the system. Now is this is, you know, and obviously sometimes you're customizing the system to so much that it's hard for you basically locked in to that system, there's no way you can move off that system to something else less expensive because you're, you're locked in with customer and that exists not in just e R p, but pretty much anywhere if you think about it. What, what's some of your suggestions around that? Like obviously I, is it more looking for systems that have deep integrations by default?
Ranga Bodla (00:50:42):
No, I don't necessarily think you have to look at deep integrations by default. One of the approaches that we take so we, we take, and we have two new releases every, every year. We gotta, you know, we do one in the spring, we do one in the fall, and one of the things we really push is that all of our customizations move forward. So, you know, it's like when you go to the newest release, those, those move forward. And every single one of our clients, when I say we have 37,000 clients, every single one of those 37,000 clients is on the exact same version of NetSuite. Now there's like some small like window when everyone's getting upgraded and, you know, and that's, there's an upgrade window. But once that process is done, everybody's on again on the same release. What that means though, for our partners is partners.
(00:51:26):
If somebody says, Hey, we are integrated with NetSuite, Shopify is a partner that's integrated with NetSuite. When they say that, it's not like, well, I'm integrated with version 2010 0.2, it's, they're integrated with NetSuite. It's not that they're integrated with, you know, 2015. And so there's this notion of, of version lock that I think is really important that, that, you know, it, what's the partner ecosystem look like, and making sure that when you are looking at add-ons, when you're looking at integrations, when you're looking at those, that, that, those, those things that you're, you're getting don't lock you in to a specific release. And I think that's un that's unfortunately what really ha happened with a lot of the on-premise E R P systems and even some of the cloud ones is people got locked into a version of the system and they couldn't upgrade, they couldn't change. And and then, and then even if they wanted to leverage all these great new technologies out there, they couldn't. And, you know, then you have the issue of trying to find resources that that can use that. And you know, consulting firms make a lot of money off of that <laugh>.
Lou Maresca (00:52:32):
Right, right. So I, I think one thing that I find interesting about NetSuite is the fact that it's built on Oracle's fusion Cloud. And I think the interesting about about that is it can run on Oracle's cloud, but it also be lifted, shifted, and run on on other infrastructure. Is this kind of a very similar going back to like obviously spend and reducing costs, some people might say, Hey, listen, I I'm paying for more, more than what I need. I might wanna move this off and move it somewhere else. Less expensive. How easy is it for an organization to do that?
Ranga Bodla (00:53:06):
So it's not that you're gonna, you, you're gonna move this off of, of, so we're, we're hosted, we, we, we leverage oci Oracle Cloud infrastructure to that's, that's the data center that we, we leverage and, you know, we're, we're focused on, on the application. It really, it really sits within that. I don't know that someone's gonna necessarily move. We don't, we don't, today, we don't go off of and work in other clouds. Now we can integrate with other clouds. So sometimes where somebody has, they might have another application in another cloud or they might have an an on-premise system and they can integrate with that and it's all, you know, depending if they want to then bring that into OCI as well, they have that option. But you know, it's also something that Oracle in general has been really focused on is, is we either want, you know, people can leverage our cloud, they can work with other clouds. I mean, in fact, Microsoft and, and you know, Oracle have, have had a lot of partnerships around this. You know, I think it's, it's important to note that, that you know, we're not, we're not so arrogant to believe that you know, we we're the only cloud out there. We know that there's, there's these other clouds and, and in some cases we gotta make sure that we're, we're, we're able to integrate with that. And that's something that's, that's probably the important thing there.
Oliver Rist (00:54:17):
I did have one more, so actually maybe two two, two-tier E r p. I'm still hearing people talk about two-tier e r P in this day and age. Like is that still a thing for, for NetSuite? And if so, like how do you talk to customers about that?
Ranga Bodla (00:54:32):
You know, it is still a thing. And it's, it's, what it is, is they've got a system, it's not broke, let's not, you know, they, they've got a system and they're, and they don't want to just take a huge set of, of in invested IP in hours and just take that and, and go through a a, a brand new e R P implementation. What they wanna do though is they've got a new business venture, they've got a new country, they've got a new, new part of their business that they're trying to go after. And in those cases, they need to make sure that they, they have a, you know, an e r P system to, to run that. And oftentimes it's not just cheaper, but also faster to leverage NetSuite and, and integrate in a two-tier fashion, then go and say, expand the existing system that you know, that they already invested in. And and you know, for that, for that new venture, that's oftentimes where we see that really that two-tier environment is it's expansion. It's expansion in some way, shape or form, whether it's international or business model based.
Oliver Rist (00:55:43):
Right. and then I got a soft one. Sure. So this is based on personal experience. So if, if you were on one side of the table now, and Lou and I were on the other, I'd be the guy chasing down the workflows you know, dark data, the dark workflows, I had to use that, the dark workflows. And Lou would be the data integration guy, but I've actually been in a room where I'm the data integration guy and they send in some Yahoo who was, you know, calls himself the, the cio and he has decided he doesn't need to do any, any workflow chasing He knows it all and you see him heading for a buzz saw, like you just know it. And there's not a lot you can say how, I mean, can you guys mandate a fix there? Like how do your guys or your field engineers handle that issue? Like when they see a guy, you just know it's gonna crash. Like what do you do?
Ranga Bodla (00:56:30):
You know, it, it, I still always think it comes back to, we, we had this really big notion of uhs you know sell what you deliver, what you sell, and we're really, we want, we wanna be really transparent upfront. We, we had a problem a few years back. It's more than a few years back now, but, but you know, we had this issue sometimes where we would demo something and it wasn't, it wasn't purposeful, it wasn't like a, our malicious, I should say. And, and we had our demo environment and the demo environment didn't match what necessarily they saw on day one when they were implementing. And so we, we changed that, that was really what we tried to do with sweet Success. And, and it was this notion of sell what you deliver, deliver what you sell so that when, when you as a, as a user when you go or a, or a, a buyer, when you see the demo, what you see and what the version, like the, the dashboards and all the things that you're seeing, all those bells and whistles when you go and implement, that's what you get on day one.
(00:57:29):
Because what we wanna make sure of is that we're not misleading you to think, you know, where, where you have that. And so you know, when you get somebody that that's like, Hey, I know exactly what they're, well, we wanna show 'em exactly what you, what you get. And if, if, if they're, if he or she is like, I don't want any of that, we'll cut that out. We'll, we'll cut that out. And they, you know, they, they know that what they're getting is, is what they ask for. But we wanna try to be, we try to be as straightforward as possible in that regard. We, we actually call it the alignment call where we're going through and we're aligning like, Hey, here's what the business process is for order to cash. Here's what the business process is for procure to pay. Here's the, the you know, hire to fire. Like we go through those business processes that they want to see and make sure that, that they see that ahead of time so that there's not missed set expectations and that they know what they're getting themselves into.
Lou Maresca (00:58:22):
Well wrong with any great show. Time flies, unfortunately. We're running low on time. I just wanna give you a chance to maybe tell the folks at home a little bit about Oracle NetSuite, where they can find more, maybe where they can get started, understand some of the integrations.
Ranga Bodla (00:58:35):
Sure, I'm happy to. So you know, netsuite.com of course, that's always the, the best place to get more information about NetSuite. Probably the biggest thing you know, as we we've talked about here is 37,000 companies around the world run NetSuite to, to, to manage their business. That's everything from supply chain to finance, to crm, you know, these are all elements of the business. We were, we were, we were actually, this is the 25 year anniversary of NetSuite. And you know, we're one of the few founder led companies out there Evan Goldberg who founded NetSuite 25 years ago. He still runs NetSuite, you know, reporting directly into SFR Katz our our ceo. And the, the great thing is he is he's passionate about making sure that every company has access to the types of technology that we can offer. And so rather than targeting the Fortune 500, it's about targeting the Fortune 5 million and making sure and provide them the power of what we have to offer.
Lou Maresca (00:59:37):
Thanks again for being here. Appreciate
Ranga Bodla (00:59:39):
It. Thank you.
Lou Maresca (00:59:40):
Well, folks, you've done it again, you shot through another hour of the best day, Andrew Bride in IT podcast in the universe, so definitely tune your podcast Catcher to Twy. I want to thank everyone who makes this show possible, especially to my co-host today. Oliver, thank you so much for being here. It's always a pleasure seeing you. Can you tell the folks at home what's coming up for you and maybe work people can find you in your work?
Oliver Rist (00:59:59):
Yeah. You you mentioned it earlier. Wirth Magazine is my new home and I'm just kicking off the gear issue. They're, they're actually gonna let me write the, the, the most innovative gear issue, but the boss already took golf. So that leaves me hunting down what do super rich people do for fun that has gear in it? Best I can come up is maybe yacht, yacht gear, or <laugh>. I don't know. I, I gotta think about it. If you have any suggestions, feel free to send 'em over. But that's, that's my next project.
Lou Maresca (01:00:25):
Thanks Aller. Thanks. Appreciate you being here. Well folks, Steve, I wanna thank you as well. That's right. You're the person who drops in each and every week to watch and to listen to our show to get your enterprise goodness. And I wanna make it easier for you to watch and listen to catch up on your enterprise news. So go to our show page right now at twit tv slash tw that you'll find all the amazing backup episodes. Of course, all of our notes for the show, of course, are there as well. But more importantly, next to those videos, you'll get those helpful. Subscribe and download links. Get your audio version or your video version of your choice listed on any one of your devices, cuz we're on all of them, all of your podcast applications, definitely subscribe, support the show and be part of the movement.
(01:01:04):
But of course, if you haven't subscribed, you could also be part of Club Twit as well. That's right. It's a members only ad free podcast service with a bonus TWIT plus feed that you can't get anywhere else. And it's only $7 a month. And there's a ton of great things about Club Twit, especially the fact that you don't have any ads as part of our shows. But most importantly, also, there's also the exclusive access to our members only Discord server there. You can chat with hosts and producers. I'm in it right now. You can have lots of separate side discussions and channels. There's a ton of channels in there. There's a cooking channel. I mean, lots of great channels in there, lots of great discussions going on right now. Plus they also have special events, which I witnessed this week, which was awesome. So thank you for all of that.
(01:01:43):
So if you, if you wanna be part of that fun, be part of that movement, definitely join Club Twit at twit tv slash club twit. Now, just so you know, they also offer corporate group plans as well. It's a great way to give your team access to our Ad Free Tech podcast. The plan start at five members at a discounted rate of $6 each per month. And you can add as many seats as you like. And this is a great way for your IT departments, your developers, your support teams, your sales teams, whatever up to, to really stay up to date with all of our podcasts. And just like the regular memberships, it's, you can jump into to a Discord server can be part of that TWIT plus bonus fee as well. So definitely check that out. Now also, if you want to, you can also give this to your family as well.
(01:02:26):
Family plans. That's right. Family plans are $12 a month. You get two seats in there and then you can just add $6 each for each additional seat that you want to add. So a lot of great advantages to that, to this, to the single plan as well. You could also get the single plan, but just like everything else, you'd get the same advantages with family plan as well. So lots of options. TWIT TV slash club twit. Now, after you subscribe, I want you to impress your family, your friends, your coworkers with the gift of Tya cuz we, we have fun on this show. We have talked a lot about some fun tech topics. I guarantee they will find it fun and interesting as well. So have them subscribe and if you've already subscribed, you should know that we do this show live. That's right, 1:30 PM Pacific Time.
(01:03:05):
On Fridays we're live right now. You can just go to live dot twit tv, that's the website. You'll see all the streams there. You can come see how the pizza's made, all the behind the scenes, all the banter before and after the show. So definitely jump into the live stream. And if you, if you're watching the live stream, you gotta jump into our infamous IRC channel as well, twit live channel. You just go have to go to irc dot twit tv And there are some great people in there, great characters each and every week. We have lots of fun discussions. In fact, they're giving 'em to some really good show titles this week. Thank you guys for being there and being part of that. Lots of fun. So definitely check that out. IRC twit tv. Now get ahold of me. I want you to hit me up on Twitter, lm I'm on, I'm Lou m on Twitter.
(01:03:44):
Hit me up with a direct message. Just come and chat. You can see all the things that I post on there. You can also send me a message on LinkedIn. I always try to respond to all of them. I I do that on Sunday evening, so if I don't get back to you right away, I apologize. Of course, I also I'm on Mastin on as well as umab@twit.social. Wanna check me on there. I'm trying to get more used to doing that and posting on there as well. So definitely hit me up on there as well. Now if you wanna know what I do during my normal work week at Microsoft, you can check out developers.microsoft.com/office that we do and post all the latest and greatest ways for you to customize your office suite. There it is. Of course, if you got Microsoft 365, if you open Excel right now, there's a great new automate tab.
(01:04:28):
That automate tab is a way for you to record things that you do in Excel and you can play them back. You can edit the scripts directly and this is JavaScript TypeScript, it's all the new stuff. And you can run it on the web. You can even use it as an Excel script or run an Excel script. And power automate's a lot of fun stuff. You do it unattended. It's definitely check that out and be part of that as well. Now I also wanna thank everyone who makes this show possible, especially to Leo and to Lisa. They continue to make this show possible and support the show each and every week and for many, many years. So thank you for their support. Of course. Before we sign out, I want to thank our engineers and staff at twit. I wanna also thank Mr. Brian Chee, who's gallivanting around Alaska.
(01:05:05):
I wanna thank him as well. He's our producer, Tyler's producer, not co-host, but our producer as well. He does all the bookings and the plannings for the show and he's, he also checked up on us before this show, even though he's probably on a cruise somewhere. So thank you Chiefer for doing that. Of course. Before we sign on, I wanna thank our editor for today cuz they make us look good after the fact. And of course, r TD count, Mr. And Pru, and it's always great to see you, my friend. What's going on for you this week in at Twit?
Ant Pruitt (01:05:29):
Thanks Mr. Lou just hanging out here, trying to keep my stuff rolling here inside of this TD booth. And hey folks, club 12 members, I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Hugh Howie. And if you don't know who that is, great think about silo the TV series. I'm still a bit beside myself about that opportunity. So yeah, check that out.
Lou Maresca (01:05:53):
Absolutely, absolutely, definitely check that out. It was great. It was great. Thanks Sam. Well, until next time, I'm Louis Mariska just reminding you, if you wanna know what's going on in the enterprise, just keep twiet
