The Pinpoint Asia Podcast (pinpointasia.com‪)‬ Pinpoint Asia

Abel is an accomplished technologist with several years of experience in the DevOps space. He has been the DevOps lead for many high-growth firms such as Xendit, Cake Group, and Foodpanda.

Today, we are going learn about DevOps and Cloud from him. We will also talk about his background and try to understand what made him the tech guru that he is!

Abel's background

You've been to many parts of the world like China and Africa and are now in Singapore. Could you talk to us about your background? What got you interested in technology and what keeps you interested in tech?

The 101s

Let us start off with architecture. Perhaps we can start with the basics.

Could you tell us what architecture is and how it has evolved? We have heard of two-tier and three-tier in the past. What are they? As far as applications go, there are other architecture terminologies that are being used these days. For example, microservices architecture and monolithic architecture. Could you please tell us what they are? Also, what would be a real-world example of this?

DevOps, SRE, Platform Engineer, DevSecOps and PaaS

Moving onto some 101 about DevOps, could you please define what that is? What did tech people do before DevOps was in practice? What makes someone a good DevOps practitioner? Is there a difference between Application and Infrastructure DevOps?We also hear the term SRE being used interchangeably with DevOps. What is the difference between the two? What about DevSecOps and PaaS? What are they?

Cloud 101

Moving onto the basics of the Cloud, the basic premise is that the infrastructure that was on the premises in a company can now be shared through combined computing power in a data center which is called the Cloud. Is that description somewhat accurate? There are so many Cloud providers like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud and so on. What are the differences between them? Other than pricing does the Cloud matter much to a developer? We hear about terms like Kubernetes, Containers, and so on. What are they?

Leading people

You have also lead a large number of people and we have some questions relating to this. The first one is which one do you find more enjoyable? The leading people bit or the tech bit? How should a hardcore techie learn to people manage? What are some of the challenges you have encountered with this? At some point, the general perception is that if you do not manage people, your career tends to stagnate. How much truth is there to this?

Trends in the industry

How will DevOps evolve in the future? Is AI/Predictive Analytics really going to disrupt industries in the future or is it more hyped?

Advice to budding technologists

What sort of advice would you give to budding technologies these days? Is a degree as important as it once was? Or, can one self learn the most pressing topics which universities don’t exactly teach? Would you have any other comments or anything else you want to share?


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Our guest today has extensive experience as a CIO with large banks. He has successfully set up and managed 3 sizeable Technology Development Centers in the mainland and has played a key role in the initiation of 2 startups including one in the FinTech space in the mainland. Let me welcome Greg Au Yeung to the Podcast!

Today on the podcast, we are going to ask Greg about how his career trajectory and we are also going to delve into his experience setting up development centers in China and the future of technology there. Greg has recently started his own YouTube Channel called Inspiring China (https://youtu.be/JyrVpCGc5Ug) 

Intro Questions:


Greg, could you please give us an intro of yourself in your own words? Are you from Hong Kong originally?


Can you talk about your experience as an IT person - how did you rise to the level of being a CIO and did you always want to become a CIO?


According to your LinkedIn Profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregauyeung/), you started getting involved in building Technology Development Centers as early as 2005 when you were with State Street. Why the interest in China?



More questions about China:


In 2005 many people were not entirely sure about moving to China whereas you seemed to have embraced the chance of building your experience and expertise in China. Why is that? What was your motivation? Was it a career-driven move?


What challenges did you face in setting up a development center in China? Can you speak to the talent available in China?


One of the problems with offshore development centers tends to be that it is harder to integrate a Mandarin-speaking tech center with an English-speaking front office business in Hong Kong or in other parts of the world. What are your thoughts on bridging this sort of language barrier?


Some say that China is becoming more expensive and the offshore centers would now have to move to places in South America. What are your thoughts on this?


How do you see the trend of offshore centers in China developing over the next few years?



Technology Questions:


There is no doubt that clear winners are emerging from China. Like DJI, BYD, TikTok, BitMain and so many more. How would you compare the landscape of mainland-based tech unicorns with their Silicon Valley counterparts? Do you think the government in China is very encouraging of the development of new tech startups? Is the legal system conducive to building a good environment for these startups to mature?


From a data standpoint, given China has less stringent rules on privacy, do you think they have an advantage when it comes to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence as these technologies need more and more data to become better?


What do you think are the roadblocks when it comes to the development and progress of technology in China?


Can you talk about the startups you've been involved with? How did you choose them and what has your role been in them?



YouTube Channel:


What inspired you to set up your YouTube channel Inspiring China?


Could you talk about who your target audience is and why they should subscribe?



Personality:


You've been working for a while now and have achieved quite a bit in your career. Do you still have the same drive to learn and grow as you did at the start of your career?


What career advice would you give to young ambitious IT professionals who want to be CIO one day?


Has there been any particular mentor who has been instrumental in your career development?


What books do you read? Is there a pattern and what are some of the top books you'd recommend?


How do you manage stress?


Has there been a key mentor or a significant person in your life who has enabled you to achieve the success you have had in your career?


Knowing what you know now if you could travel back to when you were 25 years old, what advice would you give yourself?


Is there anything else you would like to say that we ha

Today we are grateful to be talking to the Deputy Chief Product Officer of PwC's Digital Products Group.

Sarah Johnson comes from a unique background. She used to be the Operations Manager for the Polar Challenge / South Pole Race and spent 3 months in Antarctica for this. After a few more roles in technology, she is now the Deputy Chief Product Officer of the Digital Products Group arm of PwC.

Today on the podcast, we will ask her a few questions about her current role and try to glean some wisdom from her. After that, we will also talk to her about her personality and her contribution to society and to women in particular. So let me extend a warm welcome to Sarah and thank her for agreeing to do this!

Questions:


If you were to introduce yourself in three sentences or less, what would you say?


Let's go back to the beginning of your career. We just need to talk about your experience in Antarctica. How did that come about and what was it like living over there for 3 months?


Can you talk about the trajectory of your career and how it helped you get to where you are today?


Has your experience in seemingly unrelated jobs like the one in Antarctica helped you with your current job? If so, how?





Digital Products Group:


Can you talk about what Digital Products Group is?


Why was there a need to start Digital Products Group to begin with?


How old is Digital Products Group and can you talk about some of the successes so far that this group has achieved so far?


What have been some of the challenges of delivering these products?



Personality:


You seem to have a 'giving' and a charitable side to you. You are a mentor for HandsOn Hong Kong and sever as a mentor in the Women's Foundation of Hong Kong helping women advance in their careers. Why do you feel the need to give back and help develop women?


In your opinion, what can be done to promote more women in technology?


How ambitious and determined have you been to rise to the top of your profession and where does this ambition come from?



Final questions:


How do you think technology will evolve in the next 10 years or so?


What career advice would you give to young ambitious IT professionals?


Do you have a special routine that you follow that has enabled you to achieve success in your career so far? 


What books do you read? Is there a pattern and what are some of the top books you'd recommend?


Is there anything else you would like to say that we haven't asked you?




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Today on the podcast, we have Ricky Lui who is a Security Consultant with SailPoint which is a company specializing in Identity Access Management. This topic of Identity Access Management is becoming increasingly important in today's world especially as internet connectivity everywhere is getting deeper and faster.

We will be talking about this topic in depth with Ricky today so first of all, let me welcome Ricky to the podcast.

Questions


Please introduce yourself in your own words


What is the relationship between Accenture and Sailpoint?


Can you please also talk about your background and how you ended up specializing in IT Security / Identity and Access Management



Questions on our topic:


What is the difference or relationship between IT Security and Identity Access Management?


Can you give us an overview of IAM? Provisioning / Entitlement


What is IAM so important? Especially, why now?


As databases grow, how does one protect private data / prevent outside attacks?


What kind of problem does Sailpoint solve in particular?


Can Sailpoint's solutions be applied to Cloud-based CRMs like Salesforce?


Can you talk about cases where companies have lost money due to bad IAM?


Is this important for small companies and big companies?


Can you talk through a couple of examples of implementation of IAM?


Is IAM mainly deployed on the Cloud? Is IAM mainly deployed on the 'Application' side or the 'Infra' side?


What are some of the mistakes companies make when it comes to IAM and how do they fix it?


Do the latest concepts like Machine Learning and AI also interact with IAM?



Future of IAM


What is the future of IAM and how is it changing?






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There has been so much talk about Virtual Banks in the past few months. Some newspapers have reported that this could be a big threat to traditional retail banks. But, what exactly is a Virtual Bank and what can we expect from them over the next couple of years? On the podcast today, we are privileged to have Andrew Farmer, the CIO of Mox Bank (Standard Chartered's Virtual Bank) talk to us about this.

1. Could you please give us an intro of yourself in your own words?

2. Could you talk about how the transition from being the CIO for BP to entering the finance industry came about? What made you want to join the Commonwealth Bank and what brought you to Hong Kong?

3. Has the experience of working in an entirely different industry like the Oil and Gas industry helped you in your banking role? What about your current role? Do you think you have an advantage compared to others who have only worked in the banking domain?

Virtual Banking 101:

1. What exactly is a "Virtual Bank"?

2. Traditional retail banks essentially lend money at interest and attract deposits. That's the simplified business model for a retail bank. What is the typical business model for a Virtual Bank?

3. Does the "virtual" in a virtual bank mean that one can never walk to a branch?

4. What is so good about a Virtual Bank? How do the services on offer differ from that of a traditional bank?

5. From the standpoint of the complexity of the systems and infrastructure, how is working for a VB different from working in a traditional bank?

6. The mobile apps for (say) HSBC / Citi and other banks keep better so what advantage would a VB add to the already easy-to-use apps provided by traditional banks?

7. What would make a good VB technologist and would they differ from traditional technologists that banks hire?

Questions about Mox in particular:

1. We have all heard of Mox Bank, a numberless master card. Can you please talk about the benefits of banking with Mox?

2. What other products can we expect from Mox in the next year or two?

3. If SCB has a retail bank, won't this new Virtual Bank cannibalize its retail bank?

4. How would Mox differentiate itself from ZA Bank or Livi?

5. Are deposits under VBs also protected by Hong Kong's deposit insurance scheme?

The Future:

1. 8 companies have been awarded VB licenses. That seems like a small number but what would happen if more and more companies are awarded licenses? Would the population be "overbanked"?

2. How would VBs continue to evolve in the next 5-10 years?

3. How would technologies like blockchain, machine learning, and AI impact VBs?

As we look to wind up, I would be remiss if I didn't you about your secret of success from starting your career as a Management Consultant for Accenture to rising to the level of becoming the CIO for Mox. So, I want to take this opportunity to ask you a few "character" questions:

Personality:

1. You've been working for a while now and have achieved quite a bit in your career. Do you still have the same drive to learn and grow as you did at the start of your career?

2. How ambitious and determined were you to rise to the top of your profession?

3. What career advice would you give to young ambitious IT professionals who want to be CIO one day?

4. Do you have a special routine that you follow that has enabled you to achieve success in your career?

5. Has there been any particular mentor who has been instrumental in your career development?

6. What books do you read? Is there a pattern and what are some of the top books you'd recommend?

7. How do you manage stress?

8. Has there been a key mentor or a significant person in your life who has enabled you to achieve the success you have had in your career?

9. Knowing what you know now, if you could travel back to when you were 25 years old, what advice would you give yourself?

10. Is there anything else you would like to say that we haven't asked you?

Thank you so so much for your time and for sharing your

Our guest today is Sandesh Raikar. He has a wealth of experience in the Cloud space. He is the Director of Operations for Softlayer which is now called IBM Cloud. He played an instrumental role in increasing revenue for IBM Cloud by 300% and also grew their staff base by 300% in a 24-month period. I had the opportunity to meet him in Singapore and he totally dazzled me with his wealth of knowledge in Cloud technology. 

We're going to start off by talking to him about the basics of Cloud computing and we will attempt to slowly get into more detail about the subject during the latter part of our conversation with him.

"Sandesh's background"


Could you please introduce yourself in your own words and say a few words about your background?


You've got a strong background in building and managing large-scale Data Centers. Did you seek out those jobs because of an interest in this area or did these jobs find you?


Are data centers bought or rented by companies like IBM? What are the benefits of owning a data center vs renting one?


Is the speed of connectivity the most important differentiating factor for a data center? 



"Cloud Computing"


For the average not-so-technical person, what is Cloud Computing? Why are you so passionate about it?


What problem does Cloud Computing solve?


Can you please explain these concepts: virtualization / VMWare


We hear about SAAS, PAAS, IAAS - what's the difference between them?


There seem to be many firms like Google Cloud, MS Azure, AWS and now Alibaba Cloud. Can you talk about the market shares of these companies?


What is the difference between these Cloud providers?


How does IBM Cloud differentiate itself and who are the main target customers?


How can one judge the quality of a good Cloud Platform? Is speed the main criterion?


Talk about Cloud Security and Cyber Security. It seems to be on the news everywhere. What is the difference between IT Security, Cyber Security, Cloud Security and Cyber Risk?


MS recently sunk one of their Data Centers to the bottom of the ocean for what they claim is because of better cooling. Do you think it was more of a marketing stunt or is such cooling the thing of the future?


Is Cloud computing already mature as a technology? How do you think Cloud Computing will evolve in the future? 



"Advice and Future Trends"


How will data centers evolve in the future in your opinion?


Are you following other trends in FinTech like BlockChain, AI and Cryptocurrencies? What is your view on them?


In your opinion, how should today's computer science student prepare for work in the FinTech world of tomorrow?


What books do you read? Is there a pattern and what are some of the top books you'd recommend?


Has there been a key mentor or a significant person in your life so far that has enabled you to achieve the success you have had in your career?


Knowing what you know now, if you could travel back to when you were 20 years old, what advice would you give yourself?


Is there anything else you would like to say that we haven't asked you?





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