The ITPro Podcast

Business software is evolving faster than ever before, with advancements such as AI spurring developers to introduce new ways of working and interacting with the software layer.

But by and large, business hardware has stayed much the same for the past decade. With a few notable exceptions, the laptops, desktops, and portables we use for work today are simply evolved versions of what we were using in 2015.

Is this set to change? And what could the hardware of the future look like?

In this episode Rory speaks to Bobby Hellard, ITPro’s reviews ed...

San Francisco has played host this week to one of the biggest tech conferences of the year, Salesforce Dreamforce. The stalwart event has seamlessly transformed from being all about cloud for the best part of 20 years to being heavily AI focused in the past two years.

What can we learn from the pronouncements – and contradictions – being delivered on stage this year?

In this episode Jane speaks to Rory, who has been on the ground this week reporting from Salesforce Dreamforce 2025.

Highlights

"This year is part two of the hard turn into AI a...

The rise in popularity of generative AI has been centered largely around cloud AI, with popular chatbots and models accessed via API or dedicated websites. But with the right hardware, AI models can also be run on-device – and PC manufacturers are rushing to fill this niche.

AI PCs are quickly becoming the norm for new product lineups, with specialized hardware to run certain AI processes on-device, alongside integrated AI assistant software.

But what are the main benefits of this technology to businesses – and how far can we expect AI to transform the PC?

In t...

As developers have embraced AI to a greater degree, many have hailed the rise of so called vibe coding, in which broad prompts are given to AI models to produce refined code that's actionable and in many cases deployable.

But vibe coding also comes with risks, because by its very nature it's more of a hands-off activity. It decreases the degree to which developers can explain what their code is doing, and may lead to them overlooking vulnerabilities.

How serious is this risk, and what are the potential benefits of vibe coding in the future?<...

In modern businesses, your data is your value. This is not a new concept, but it can be a struggle to understand where to start when it comes to harnessing your data effectively.

Unstructured data, which can be generated in massive quantities before it ever produces value, can be especially difficult to handle. But if this task is completed correctly, businesses can future-proof their operations and lay the groundwork for future AI deployments.

What solutions are available to turn unstructured data into machine-readable content? And how does this feed into implementing in-demand tools such as...

The UK has immense AI potential, according to some of the biggest names in tech, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang having described the region as being in a “Goldilocks circumstance” due to its strong AI ecosystem and rich academic history.

This month, the US tech ecosystem made its first significant contribution to recognizing this reality with tens of billions invested in the UK ecosystem.

Will it pay off? And what does this investment mean in practical terms?

In this episode, Rory welcomes back Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to unpack this b...

Identity management in security has been a difficult issue for many years, but the arrival of AI and AI agents has only complicated this picture. 

In addition to human and machine identities, cybersecurity professionals now have to handle potentially 1000s of AI agent identities across MCP and API endpoints. 

How can businesses handle all of these complications while maintaining their cybersecurity?

In this episode, Rory speaks to Art Gilliland, CEO of cybersecurity firm Delinea, to discuss the thorny issue of identity attacks, and how IT leaders can get a grip on digital identities.

Artificial intelligence has made data more useful and accessible to businesses than ever, but if businesses want to get the most from their data they have to get it in a fit state to use.

There’s a significant disconnect between IT specialists, CEOs, and other parts of the business when it comes to understanding what this means and how ready they are, however. 

Research from Informatica found 69% of IT teams rate their data quality as excellent or very good, barely half of business leaders say the same at 51%. The same survey found 57% of business pro...

The flow of data is core to businesses all around the world – how much can be transmitted, and at what speed, is a fundamental aspect of IT systems ranging from cloud computing to the frontier of AI models.

In data centers, the tech sector is focused on reducing latency, improving bandwidth, and reducing energy consumption to improve AI performance and lower operating costs. But achieving these goals by shifting about current technology can only go so far.

Increasingly, firms are looking to cutting-edge technologies and approach such as all-photonics networks, which use photons for all pr...

Digital sovereignty is an issue that has been bubbling away in the background of IT for some time but doesn’t often see the limelight. In this episode of the ITPro Podcast, we’ve decided to change that.

From sovereign clouds to AI, Jane McCallion and Ross Kelly dig into what digital sovereignty is, how it’s being used, and its relationship with AI, cloud, and national data regulations.

Highlights

“The World Economic Forum describes digital sovereignty as the ability to have control over your own digital destiny andI think that's a really great wa...

In a recent episode of the podcast, we discussed the potential for AI to actually replace developer jobs. This is a complicated issue, as one has to consider both the accuracy of outputs – how well LLMs can code – as well as what execs think it can do.

Well, AWS CEO Matt Garman has weighed in this month, calling replacing devs with AI “the dumbest thing” he’s ever heard.

Elsewhere in August, Cisco has engaged in a round of layoffs, despite healthy figures in its recent financial report. 

What does all this mean for tech jo...

This episode was first published on 13/10/23.

The role of chief information security officer is among the most important in any firm. CISOs shoulder a heavy burden, with responsibility for protecting their company’s data, infrastructure, and associated assets.

As the tech stack has grown, so too has the pressure on those in the role. CISOs have to shepherd technologies including machine learning, artificial intelligence, and edge computing.

Gartner predicts that nearly half of all IT leaders could leave their roles by 2025, and CISOs are subject to the same talent shortages as the rest of...

Every now and then, international law enforcement announces a stunning takedown of a cyber crime group.

Typically realized in the form of website shutdowns, in which the National Crime Agency logo is emblazoned across the dark web site of would-be hackers, these are powerful PR moves to show that cyber crime doesn’t always pay – and the seriousness with which law enforcement approaches these crimes.

But the truth is, hackers continue to operate. And sometimes, the very groups that have been billed done and dusted simply reemerge under a new site, new servers, or with a fr...

For years, we humanities graduates have been told variations of the following message: you’re better off learning to code, because we’ll always need developers but writers will go the way of the dodo.

But advances in AI since 2022 have put this to the test. While human writers are no doubt being forced to compete with AI-written content, developers are also being asked to outsource more and more of their work to large language models in a bid for improved productivity.

While AI-generated code can be quick to produce and efficient to run, it also...

As the old saying goes, it never rains but it pours. And, seeing how we’re based in the UK, it would be fitting that the month this most accurately described in 2025 so far has been July.

In the past four weeks, two almighty security stories have broken, with far-reaching implications for the tech sector and beyond. First, we learned that the China-backed hacking group Salt Typhoon had critically breached the US National Guard for more than a year – and has potentially gone undetected in other US military networks.

Later in the month, Microsoft revealed a ma...

Ransomware payments could soon be a thing of the past in the UK – at least that’s the hope of new controls and mandatory reporting requirements to prevent ransomware from inflicting damage on UK businesses.

Under government proposals, public bodies and operators of critical national infrastructure would be banned from paying up when they’re hit by ransomware – and other businesses would have to be transparent when they decide to cough up the cash.

But can we really put a lid on ransomware? And might the new rules have unintended negative consequences?

In this epi...

Cyber attacks can feel a layer detached from the real world. Yes, businesses frequently see IP stolen, get frozen out of systems, or have data wiped by malicious actors. But if you haven’t got your finger on the pulse, cyber attacks can also fail to register in your day to day.

But there are instances where cyber attacks come crashing into the lives of everyday people, and become impossible to ignore: when attackers go after critical infrastructure and operational technology.

Breaches and malware attacks at power and water plants, against core supply chain organizations, or...

As organizations race to train more and more advanced AI models, as well as deploy existing models at scale, an enormous amount of time and money is being invested in expanding AI infrastructure.

All around the world, data centers are becoming more and more important, bringing data and computing power together to get the most out of AI workloads.

But this is far from a simple process. Without the right data center architecture, assembled with rigorous testing, organizations can’t achieve the full speed and performance of AI.

In this episode, in association wi...

The level to which firms are already using AI varies according to technological maturity, strategic focus, and on an industry by industry basis.

But what’s clear is that from the smallest to the largest businesses, the landscape is already shifting. We’ve spoken about AI agents on the podcast before – the promise of autonomous AI activity – but it’s only now that businesses are beginning to put more faith in these tools.

How is AI already being used to improve business processes? And what will progress in the sector look like?

In this episo...

This episode was first broadcast on 20 September 2024.

When people talk about the environmental impacts of data centers, normally the discussion focuses on energy usage. It’s something we’ve talked about at several points this year already, with reference to growing efforts to house AI workloads in green data centers that run on renewable energy to reduce their carbon impact.

But while we can generate nearly limitless amounts of green energy, there is a decidedly finite amount of water in the world – and unfortunately, most data centers need vast amounts of fresh water to cool hardwa...

If you’re looking to adopt AI right now, you’ll likely have heard the term ‘AI agents’. These systems can complete complex tasks autonomously, without user input.

But no doubt some of the audience will be thinking: “haven’t we heard this before?” Indeed, robotic process automation and software robots have been available since the turn of the century, completing multi-step, repetitive tasks for businesses without human oversight.

How have we evolved from robots to agents? And how can both be used by businesses to boost their productivity?

In this episode, in association wi...

June has been another busy month for IT and technology news. Whether it’s new naming conventions for cybercriminal groups, Britain’s big tech potential, and national security concerns over lost government devices, we’ve got a lot to unpick. 

ITPro’s news editor Ross Kelly and reviews editor Bobby Hellard step in for Jane and Rory this week to chew that fat on some of the biggest IT news stories of June.

AI reasoning models have emerged in the past year as a beacon of hope for large language models (LLMs), with AI developers such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic selling them as the go-to solution for solving the most complex business problems. 

However, a new research paper by Apple has cast significant doubts on the efficacy of reasoning models, going as far as to suggest that when a problem is too complex, they simply give up. What's going on here? And does it mean reasoning models are fundamentally flawed? 

In this episode, Rory Bathgate speaks to IT...

Any modern enterprise generates reams of data, which can be difficult to correctly store, process, and use without the right approach.

This has become even more important in the face of AI. Before any leader can begin implementing AI across their workflow, they must first ensure they’ve prepared data at the right scale – and across its entire lifecycle.

Data integration, in which data from across a business is combined into a single stream, can be a huge help here. But where do you start with this? And where do open data formats fit into this...

In the fast-changing world of cybersecurity, IT leaders have to keep up with evolving threats and new technologies to stay ahead of attackers.

With nation states lending a hand to threat groups with more pointed aims than ever before, alongside the double-edged sword of greater AI adoption in cybersecurity, there’s never been a more worrying – and exciting – time to specialize in the field.

This episode was recorded live at RSAC conference in San Francisco by Scott Becker, director of Webinar programs at ActualTech Media and Alan Liska, threat intelligence analyst and ‘ransomware sommelier’ at Recorded F...

Any modern enterprise generates reams of data, which can be difficult to correctly store, process, and use without the right approach.

This has become even more important in the face of AI. Before any leader can begin implementing AI across their workflow, they must first ensure they’ve prepared data at the right scale – and across its entire lifecycle.

Data integration, in which data from across a business is combined into a single stream, can be a huge help here. But where do you start with this? And where do open data formats fit into this...

We’re past the peak cloud hype of the 2010s and now well into the era of cloud maturity. But even as businesses have come to terms with multi-cloud and hybrid cloud models, new considerations have arisen, such as the growing push for cloud sovereignty and regional data center demand.

AI has put additional pressure on firms to figure out exactly what they’re running in the cloud – as agentic AI drives organizations to consider ‘always on’ workloads and whether this is feasible in a public cloud model.

How can leaders navigate this changing cloud landscape...

May has been a busy month for news in the IT world, with cyber attacks hitting retailers across the UK and Microsoft laying off over 800 developers.

In this episode of the ITPro Podcast, Jane is joined by news and analysis editor Ross Kelly to discuss three of the most significant news stories of the past month and wish Java a happy 30th birthday.

Highlights

“A significant portion of [the redundancies] are in Washington state, in the US, the heartland of Microsoft headquarters. It comes at quite an interesting period for Microsoft – they've been perf...

Dell Technologies World has just come to a close in Las Vegas and there is no doubt that the company is – in its own words “all in on AI”. From laptops to services, data center infrastructure and partnerships, everything is being led by AI.

What this means in practice for IT decision makers and business leaders can sometimes be hard to divine, however. This week, Jane sits down with John Roese, chief technology officer and chief AI officer at Dell Technologies, to dig into the practical effects of this, from how businesses will think about endpoints and device...

This episode was first broadcast on 22 March 2024.

As technological innovations happen, it can be easy to forget that even the most complex systems rely on large networks of basic infrastructure to operate. At the most fundamental level, all tech products rely on effective data storage 

But this is easier said than done. Each byte of data has to be stored somewhere, on a rack, disk, tape, or flash device. As the world embraces hardware and software that creates data at an even faster rate, businesses will be forced to push the frontiers of data storage a...

What do you do when you want to get your enterprise data into a usable format? And how can you make better use of the data you already use, through the likes of analytics, AI, and even quantum computing?

All these questions and more have been front and center at SAS Innovate 2025, the data and analytics veteran’s annual conference held in Orlando, Florida.

As the week has pressed on, what have we learned about SAS’ view of its place in the rapidly changing world of business technology? And what sets it apart from its comp...

RSAC Conference 2025 has been full on, with cybersecurity experts from all over the world descending on San Francisco to share trends, data, and announcements.

This year, ITPro has been providing both remote and on the ground coverage from the event, across talks covering topics such as AI security and threat actor methodology.

In this episode, Jane speaks to Rory about some of his RSAC coverage and key takeaways from the event.

Read more:

April has been a busy month for tech news – we recorded this episode with a week left in the month, but there’s already so much to discuss.

A major upset in the international database for tracking vulnerabilities had some in the cybersecurity field stunned – until a last minute U-turn.

Elsewhere, AWS is the latest hyperscaler to roll back on data center plans, but what does this mean for the market?

In this episode Jane and Rory speak once again to Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to unpack some of the most...

We’ve spent the past few years discussing large language models, the huge AI models that power a lot of the generative AI tools that have dominated the headlines.

But small language models are also possible – and rapidly growing in popularity.

What benefits do these tiny AI models offer, and how much use will they get in the coming months and years, and how do they differ from other lightweight, ‘low latency’ models?

In this episode, Jane and Rory take a look at some of the smallest AI models on the market, asking what the...

Las Vegas has been taken over by Google Cloud this week, with Google Cloud Next 2025 in full flow.

There have already been a number of headline grabbing announcements: we've seen the launch of a powerful new AI accelerator chip by the name of Ironwood, huge updates to Google Cloud's security capabilities, and new agentic AI development kits for enterprises. But there's been much, much more on top.

In this episode, Ross Kelly, news and analysis editor at ITPro, speaks to Rory about Google Cloud's messaging at its annual conference and what the mood on the...

When something goes wrong with IT at work, chances are you’ll be asked to submit a service ticket. This is a tale as old as time – see a problem, submit a ticket, wait for the service desk to come to your help.

But all this could be set for change. Advances in technology have opened the door to software problems being detected and remediated automatically, while internal learning platforms could also provide employees with the information they need to fix issues themselves.

How will all this come together, and is it really just around the...

The rule that your AI is only as good as your data is now well understood, with businesses all over the world looking to modernize their data sources and infrastructure to make the most of AI products and services. 

But something that can be easily lost in these discussions is consideration of the exact format your data exists in at rest. Unstructured data is especially important for AI and knowing where it fits into your AI strategy is essential. This doesn’t just mean knowing where it resides and capturing it, but also storing it in architecture tha...

March is very nearly at an end and it’s been quite a month for diverging views in the industry.

Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft, has spoken out against the tech sector’s apparent fixation on achieving AGI while comparing the potential for AI to the rise of Excel spreadsheets in business. The Microsoft chief has turned his attention to the material benefits of AI, as we enter a crunch year for AI developers.

Elsewhere this month, UK tech firms are being offered support with adopting a four-day week, which could have major benefits for staf...

Computer systems that can autonomously work on menial tasks have been the promise of technologists – and science fiction authors – for decades. While we’ve dabbled with the likes of robotic process automation and machine learning in the past, the arrival of advanced AI software has put these lofty ambitions back on the table.

According to AI developers, new tools known as AI agents will free up workers as never before, with the ability to autonomously complete tasks based on pre-approved instructions and by contextually processing new data. 

What does all this mean for businesses, and how far...

How much has your company invested in AI? Are you finding it a revolutionary technology, or still waiting for the promised gains to materialize?

As businesses seek to unlock productivity gains from AI, investment in the technology has continued to rise. All across the world, firms are buying AI products, undergoing digital transformation in preparation, or even fine-tuning AI to suit their bespoke use cases.

But how much of this is going to pay off? And what do you do if your AI project fails on its own terms?

In this episode, Jane...

International Women’s Day is here, a time for all those who care about women’s equality to celebrate the achievements of women both contemporary and historical and to focus on gender equality in our society.

The tech sector still has a sizable gender divide, with only around one quarter of all tech roles held by women. Tech leaders need to enter into open dialogue over how to make tech careers more attractive to women and to empower women within their workforce.

In this episode, Rory speaks to Elizabeth Barr, head of the Cisco Networking Acad...

February is the shortest month of the year – but that hasn’t stopped this month from being packed full of dramatic tech news.

Microsoft has made waves with Majorana 1, a first of its kind quantum chip that the tech giant says could open the door to usable quantum computers in years, not decades as previously thought.

Elsewhere this month, Sam Altman made a series of public rebukes of Elon Musk, following an offer by a Musk-led consortium to purchase OpenAI for over $97 billion. And could the tech sector be staring down the barrel of widespread ‘reveng...

The cybersecurity landscape gets more complicated every year, with emerging technologies such as AI and the shifting geopolitical landscape bringing extra chaos to any CISO’s desk.

Though automated defense systems are a welcome feather in cap for any company, it’s not just the good guys who have access to the latest tools. Off-the-shelf frameworks to launch attacks are becoming more common and businesses can’t rely on any single service to be a silver bullet.

What are the individual forces at play here? And how can security teams keep up?

In this e...

Years after first identifying the potential risks of AI systems, world leaders are having to balance concerns with an acknowledgment of the gains achievable through certain AI systems and nowhere is this more true than the EU.

The Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris has seen a number of high-profile announcements made on EU AI investments, on both a continental and regional basis. But it’s also highlighted the distance the EU has yet to go for true international AI competition – up against the likes of the US and China, can it continue to stand out? 

In...

As the dust settles on DeepSeek, we’ve had the chance to see who walked away from the impact it had on the stock market unscathed.

Apple and Meta did not undergo the same rapid stock shocks as Nvidia, Microsoft, and others in the immediate aftermath of the DeepSeek R1 launch – the latter has actually seen a healthy surge in the past few weeks. 

Why is this? And who actually wins thanks to DeepSeek?

In this episode, Rory speaks once again to ITPro’s news and analysis editor...

Every business has a bright future in the cloud, which is scalable and flexible to suit the needs of the modern enterprise. But rapid cloud adoption and data protection regulations, as well as emerging new regulations tied to AI, have been set on a collision course in recent years, with enterprises held to stringent regional laws that oversee how sensitive data can cross borders.

One solution to this problem is sovereign cloud. But how do sovereign clouds actually work and how can firms such as OVHcloud with VMware by Broadcom help European businesses meet both their legal and...

There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen, so the saying goes, and that is certainly true of the final week of January 2025 with the widespread impact of DeepSeek.

To say the Chinese large language model has caused an upset in the market would be an understatement. Within days of its release, it wiped more than a trillion dollars off the US stock market, and sent big tech into a public spiral.

But where did DeepSeek come from? And what does it mean for the future of...

This episode was first published 12 July 2024.

Every business will, at some point, be impacted by cyber attacks. Companies task security teams to prepare the first line of defense against cyber attacks, and most have plans in place for the damage they leave behind – be it data loss, encryption by ransomware operators, or large-scale service disruptions.

But something that often goes unremarked upon in the wake of cyber attacks is the psychological, human effects of cyber attacks. When the dust settles, staff can be left with feelings of fear or shame, particularly those directly related to IT se...

The Consumer Electronics Show has blown through Las Vegas, bringing – as always – a flurry of futuristic tech launches, promises, and some prototypes that will never see the light of day. But among the giant TVs and robotaxis, there were also some big moments for business tech.

From the dependable rollouts of AI PCs to novel – and more powerful – devices, a number of announcements will have caught the eye of business leaders.

In this episode, Jane and Rory talk to ITPro’s reviews editor Bobby Hellard, to explore some of the standout moments of CES 2025 and what it could m...

Anyone who works outside of a major city, or has ever tried to get work done while on a trip to a more rural location, knows that rural connectivity can be patchy. 

Despite the UK’s high population density and relative lack of difficult terrain, rural connectivity remains an uneven picture. Many rural businesses are still struggling to receive fiber optic cables, let alone leverage 5G signals to keep up with the demands of modern business.

Is UK connectivity improving? And how far have we still got to go?

In this episode, Jane and Ror...

January is a time for planning, goal-setting, and looking to the future and here on the ITPro Podcast things are no different.

While there are sometimes unexpected developments – take ChatGPT in 2022, for example – it’s nevertheless possible to tease out trends from the year gone by that can influence the new one.

For this new year’s edition of the podcast, Jane and Rory are joined by Dr John Honchell, IT industry analyst at Future B2B, to unpick the top trends from this year that will shape 2025.

Footnotes

Generative AI's cyb...

It's now a Christmas tradition on the ITPro Podcast to look back at trends that were expected to dominate the year but then fizzled out.

What predictions have gone the way of flying cars and the Metaverse? Which are delayed, perhaps permanently?

In this episode, Jane is joined by Bobby Hellard, ITPro’s reviews editor, and Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to discuss three of the trends that failed to materialise this year: Intel’s AI dominance, a nuclear solution to data center energy problems, and generative AI taking our jobs.

High...