The CTO Advisor

Keith Townsend

A conversation geared toward the CTO or Infrastructure Architect. Shows topics focus on future technologies and keeping today's infrastructure in-line with business requirements.

  1. 29 Jul

    Deterministic AI Isn’t the Goal. Deterministic Systems Are.

    AI agents are good at producing outcomes. The harder question is whether they can produce the same outcome twice, through a process you can inspect, test, and trust. In this episode, Keith Townsend talks with Adam Jacobs, CEO of Swamp Club and founder of Chef, about deterministic automation in the age of AI agents. The [...]

  2. 29 Apr

    From Network Engineer to Applied AI: Ryan Booth on the Career Path Nobody Maps Out

    Description: Keith sits down with Ryan Booth — former network automation specialist, Apstra alum, and now principal consultant at Blue Ridge Consulting — to trace the real career arc from infrastructure engineer to applied AI practitioner. They dig into the transferable skills that actually matter (hint: it's not the coding), why curiosity-driven entry points like [...]

  3. 23 Apr

    Clumio Data Protection for Google Cloud –

    At Google Cloud Next in Las Vegas, Keith sits down with returning guest Woon Jung, CTO of Clumio, to break down their new GCS backup launch — and why "replication" and "backup" are not the same thing. They dig into the real failure domains that catch GCP-native organizations off guard, the operational reality of multi-cloud [...]

  4. 18 Feb

    Your Data Is Getting Dirtier While We Talk — UnicornIQ’s Answer to AI’s Unsolvable Problem

    Everyone says clean your data before you invest in AI. The problem is, your data is getting dirty faster than you can clean it. In this episode, Keith sits down with Joe Onisick, founder of UnicornIQ, to dig into why data hygiene is AI's most underestimated failure point — and why throwing more GPU power [...]

  5. 4 Feb

    AI in the Data Center: When Faster Isn’t Better

    AI is changing the data center—but not always in the ways enterprises expect. In this episode, Keith Townsend is joined by Intel’s Lynn Comp for Part Two of their conversation, shifting the focus squarely to AI infrastructure realities. They explore why many AI workloads never justify GPUs, how CPU-based deployments often exceed real [...]

  6. 14 Jan

    Right-Sizing AI, Rationalizing Virtualization, and Becoming an Infrastructure Arbiter — with Melissa Palmer

    Episode Summary Enterprise leaders are facing two equally hard problems at the same time: deciding what to do next with virtualization in the post-VMware era, and figuring out how—or whether—to deploy AI infrastructure responsibly. In this episode of The CTO Advisor Podcast, Keith Townsend sits down with long-time industry peer and infrastructure expert [...]

  7. 17/12/2025

    The VMware Reckoning: Broadcom, AI, and the Future of Enterprise Infrastructure

    Enterprise IT didn’t plan for this problem—but now it has to solve it. In this episode of The CTO Advisor Podcast, Keith Townsend sits down with Lynn Comp, Head of Data Center Market Readiness at Intel, for a candid, unsugarcoated conversation about how Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has fundamentally disrupted the enterprise infrastructure status quo. [...]

  8. 17/09/2025

    Outrunning Ageism and Building a Second Career

    In this episode of The CTO Advisor Podcast, Keith Townsend sits down with Betsy Tong, founder of Authority Architect, to explore how seasoned professionals can transform decades of experience into thriving consulting businesses. Betsy shares her personal story of being laid off at 56 and realizing the traditional job market—dominated by keyword filters and age [...]

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About

A conversation geared toward the CTO or Infrastructure Architect. Shows topics focus on future technologies and keeping today's infrastructure in-line with business requirements.

Information

  • Creator
    Keith Townsend
  • Years Active
    2015 - 2026
  • Episodes
    52
  • Show Website
    The CTO Advisor

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