A special guest today, Keith Townsend joins Johna and Greg to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing compared to on-premises infrastructure. We start by clarifying the definition of cloud and emphasizing the significance of software-defined infrastructure and automation in on-premises data centers. Keith shares his perspective on hybrid infrastructure and making the case for a combination of on-premises and off-premises resources as the future of enterprise IT. *  addressing challenges such as the transition to object storage, * workload placement policies, and * the scarcity of skilled professionals in cloud computing. As hosts, * questioning how established vendors are responding to the cloud revolution and exploring the complexities of off-premises cloud solutions * the benefits of edge computing. * highlighting the considerations of using SAS, IAAS, and PAAS in workload placement policies. Links The CTO Advisor | Keith Townsend – https://thectoadvisor.com/ Link: Nemertes | Strategic Consulting and Research | IT Consulting – https://nemertes.com/ Transcript Johna (00:00:00) – Welcome to heavy strategy where the where we welcome unanswered questions more than unquestioned answers. And today we’re going to really take on one of the canonical premises of our time, which is cloud is better than than on prem. All three of us have somewhat nuanced views. And by all three of us, I mean Greg, myself and our guest, Keith Townsend. Keith, you want to say hi to everybody? Keith (00:00:25) – Hey, how’s it going? Packet pushers. Audience Good to see everyone again. Johna (00:00:29) – So we are going to talk about cloud, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent. Keith has some interesting ideas. Let’s just let’s just. Let’s just qualify. This cloud exists on prem and off prem, right? Greg Could we not? Because even though that’s the case, number one, every on prem data center is not also private cloud. No. And number two, it just blurs the distinction we’re talking about. Yes. You need automation and orchestration for your on prem data center. We get it. People who get it are doing it right. Transcript Johna (00:01:01) – But for the purposes of this particular podcast, can we just specify that we mean when we say cloud, we mean off prem and otherwise it’s on prem and we hope you’re doing all the right things with orchestration and yeah, we hope you’re already got software defined infrastructure and automation and all. Oh, if you’re not, then probably you don’t want to be listening to this podcast. You need to go fix your on prem. Keith (00:01:21) – And you know what to to. To be fair, I’ve talked to enough folks who said that they have a private cloud and it turns out that they just have a vSphere cluster that’s running vSphere 5.5. We’ll have something in here for you to for context, vSphere 5.5 is like 12 years old. So the it is there’s a there’s a lot of range. There’ll be something in here for you folks that have no automation that that are that have been told that you have to go to the cloud and the cloud is the solution. So you’ve invested in the private data center. This is kind of a warning to you. Johna (00:01:59) – And I just want to back up what you said there, Keith. Back when we were doing primary research about cloud versus not cloud, we used to ask people, so are you doing private cloud? And oh, yeah, we are. And then you look at it and you’re like, But you’re not doing any management, you’re not doing any orchestration, you’re not doing any automation. How is that private cloud?