Utilizing Tech - The Podcast Series about New and Emerging Technologies

Tech Field Day - Part of The Futurum Group

Utilizing Tech is a weekly podcast exploring practical technology in the modern enterprise. Each season spotlights an emerging area: three seasons on AI, plus dedicated seasons on CXL and Edge. Season Six revisited AI, while Seasons Seven and Eight—presented by Solidigm—examined AI Data Infrastructure and AI at the Edge. Now, Season Nine turns to Agentic AI.

  1. 09x06: AI Agents are Coming to the Real World with Olivier Blanchard of the Futurum Group

    1H AGO

    09x06: AI Agents are Coming to the Real World with Olivier Blanchard of the Futurum Group

    We are surrounded by intelligent devices and these increasingly use various AI interfaces and processing capabilities to support the needs of users. This episode of Utilizing Tech focuses on edge AI and AI assistants and agents with Olivier Blanchard of The Futurum Group along with Frederic Van Haren and Stephen Foskett. We have all used so-called intelligent assistants, starting with Apple Siri and Amazon Alexa and continuing with Google, Microsoft, and many others. These voice interfaces are increasingly functioning as agents, connecting with various data sources and tools to perform tasks on the behalf of the user. AI assistants have arrived at the same overall paradigm as AI agents, and there is an inevitable crossover between these technologies, as the best of breed components are adopted. The needs of AI assistants has also lead to an increase in availability of specialized processing on PCs and even personal devices, and this helps offload the tremendous need for power and space of AI applications. Guest: Olivier Blanchard, Research Director at The Futurum Group Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stephen Foskett⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tech Field Day Event Series⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Frederic Van Haren⁠⁠⁠, Founder and CTO of HighFens, Inc. ⁠⁠⁠Guy Currier⁠⁠⁠, Chief Analyst at Visible Impact, The Futurum Group. For more episodes of Utilizing Tech, head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the dedicated website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and follow the show ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on X/Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

    35 min
  2. 09x05: The Role of Data Infrastructure in Enterprise AI with Ingo Fuchs of NetApp

    OCT 27

    09x05: The Role of Data Infrastructure in Enterprise AI with Ingo Fuchs of NetApp

    As customers try to figure out how to present data to Agentic AI applications, many of them are realizing that it’s time for the storage infrastructure team to step up and take a seat at the table. In this episode of Utilizing Tech, recorded live at NetApp Insight in Las Vegas, hosts Stephen Foskett and Guy Currier from The Futurum Group sit down with Ingo Fuchs, Chief Technologist for AI at NetApp, to explore the critical role of data infrastructure in supporting enterprise AI and agentic AI applications. As organizations move AI workloads into production, traditional infrastructures—especially storage teams—must take a more active role in enabling performance, efficiency, and governance. Ingo emphasizes the emerging needs for data quality, control, compliance, and currency, particularly as AI agents begin making decisions and interacting with sensitive enterprise data. The conversation highlights how NetApp’s capabilities, such as AI Data Engine and native infrastructure integrations, enable real-time data pipeline management, enforce guardrails, and ensure consistent and secure data delivery. This shift represents a transformative intersection of storage, infrastructure, and AI operations, paving the way for scalable and reliable enterprise AI solutions.' Guest: Ingo Fuchs, Chief Technologist of AI at NetApp Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stephen Foskett⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tech Field Day Event Series⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Frederic Van Haren⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder and CTO of HighFens, Inc. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Guy Currier⁠⁠⁠⁠, Chief Analyst at Visible Impact, The Futurum Group. For more episodes of Utilizing Tech, head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the dedicated website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and follow the show ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on X/Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

    29 min
  3. 09x04: Bringing Agentic AI to Production with Articul8

    OCT 20

    09x04: Bringing Agentic AI to Production with Articul8

    Most generative AI work has been fairly general purpose to date, but it is far more effective to develop expert models focused on specific industries. This episode of Utilizing Tech features Arun Subramaniyan, founder and CEO of Articul8 AI, in conversation with Guy Currier and Stephen Foskett. According to Arun, an agent is a model with a set of tools plus data that has agency to be called and interact with other agents. If these agents are domain-specific they can perform tasks more effectively than general purpose agents at certain points in this chain. Agentic AI is able to accomplish tasks previously thought impossible, and these systems keep improving. But people remain responsible for using and managing these systems. Costs can rise significantly if AI is used improper, but it is possible to deploy it profitably. Companies that can combine domain expertise with a novel AI-powered application are breaking free from the pack. Guest: Arun Subramaniyan, CEO and Founder of Articul8 AI Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stephen Foskett⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tech Field Day Event Series⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Frederic Van Haren⁠⁠⁠, Founder and CTO of HighFens, Inc. ⁠⁠⁠Guy Currier⁠⁠⁠, Chief Analyst at Visible Impact, The Futurum Group. For more episodes of Utilizing Tech, head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the dedicated website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and follow the show ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on X/Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

    35 min
  4. 09x03: Bringing Agentic AI Applications to Market with Brad Shimmin of The Futurum Group

    OCT 13

    09x03: Bringing Agentic AI Applications to Market with Brad Shimmin of The Futurum Group

    From the very first episode of this podcast back in 2020, we've been focused on practical applications for AI technology, and we're starting to see these come to market with agentic tools. This episode of Utilizing Tech features Brad Shimmin, VP and Practice Lead for Data and Analytics at The Futurum Group discussing the ways AI is gaining autonomy with hosts Frederic Van Haren of HighFens and Stephen Foskett, organizer of AI Field Day. Agentic AI is all about autonomy, leveraging generative AI to perform actions on our behalf. There are many different types of agentic AI components, ranging from tools for data and analytics, connections and processes for integrating data, and end-user agents. Increasingly, model context protocol (MCP) is used to specify the capabilities and data for each of these tools, enabling them to work together as part of an agentic process. Frameworks like agent2agent (A2A) enable these components to work together. And models are becoming true platforms to serve the needs of users. Companies like OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Mistral are transforming their models into real agentic platforms, while Salesforce, Microsoft, Oracle, Google, and more are trying to support their business customers with Agentic AI. The Futurum Group is addressing this market with their new Signal reports, including a forthcoming one focused on agentic AI. Guest: Brad Shimmin, VP and Practice Lead, Data and Analytics at The Futurum Group Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stephen Foskett⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tech Field Day Event Series⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Frederic Van Haren⁠⁠, Founder and CTO of HighFens, Inc. ⁠⁠Guy Currier⁠⁠, Chief Analyst at Visible Impact, The Futurum Group. For more episodes of Utilizing Tech, head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the dedicated website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and follow the show ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on X/Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

    35 min
  5. 09x02: Moving Beyond Text for Agentic AI Applications with ApertureData

    OCT 6

    09x02: Moving Beyond Text for Agentic AI Applications with ApertureData

    Our online interactions include audio, video, and sensor data, but most AI applications are still focused on text. This episode of Utilizing Tech considers how we can integrate multimodal data with agentic applications with Vishakha Gupta, founder and CEO of ApertureData, Frederic Van Haren of HighFens, and Stephen Foskett of Tech Field Day. After decades of developing AI models to process spoken word, images, video, and other multimodal data, the ascendance of large language models has largely focused on text. This is changing, as AI applications are increasingly leveraging multimodal data, including text, audio, video, and sensors. Many agentic applications still pass data as structured or unstructured text, but it is possible to use multimedia data as well, for example passing a clip of a video from agent to agent if the system has true multimodal understanding. Enterprise applications are moving beyond text to include voice and video, data in PDFs like charts and diagrams, medical sensors and images, and more. Guest: Vishakha Gupta, CEO and Founder, ApertureData Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stephen Foskett⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tech Field Day Event Series⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Frederic Van Haren⁠, Founder and CTO of HighFens, Inc. ⁠Guy Currier⁠, Chief Analyst at Visible Impact, The Futurum Group. For more episodes of Utilizing Tech, head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the dedicated website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and follow the show ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on X/Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

    38 min
  6. 09x01: Utilizing Agentic AI with Frederic Van Haren, Guy Currier, and Stephen Foskett

    SEP 29

    09x01: Utilizing Agentic AI with Frederic Van Haren, Guy Currier, and Stephen Foskett

    AI is the hottest topic in tech right now, evolving dramatically over the previous eight seasons of this podcast. We are kicking off Utilizing Tech season nine with a discussion of the state of the art of Agentic AI with Frederic Van Haren of HighFens, Guy Currier of Visible Impact, and Stephen Foskett of Tech Field Day. Generative AI augments our capabilities, and is being used every day by millions of people. Agentic AI combines reasoning with actions, enabling AI to perform actions on our behalf. Although AI does not reason like us, the way it manipulates data resembles intelligence, and iterative analysis can result in a chain of thought that strongly resembles reasoning. Agents can then receive context and take actions based on this using a framework like Model Context Protocol (MCP). These techniques help move generative AI from concept to production, building real applications rather than simply processing text. This season of Utilizing Tech will help our listeners understand the emerging agentic AI, and how this technology can make end users more productive and build profitable businesses using AI technology. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Stephen Foskett⁠⁠⁠⁠, President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Tech Field Day Event Series⁠⁠⁠ Frederic Van Haren, Founder and CTO of HighFens, Inc. Guy Currier, Chief Analyst at Visible Impact, The Futurum Group. For more episodes of Utilizing Tech, head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠the dedicated website⁠⁠⁠⁠ and follow the show ⁠⁠⁠⁠on X/Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠on Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠.

    35 min
  7. 08x12: Revolutionizing Data Infrastructure for AI with WEKA

    JUN 16

    08x12: Revolutionizing Data Infrastructure for AI with WEKA

    Fore more episodes: https://www.utilizingtech.com/ Storage software running on modern hardware can deliver incredible performance and capability to support AI applications. This episode of Utilizing Tech wraps up our season with a discussion of WEKA's data platform for AI with Alan McSeveney, Scott Shadley of Solidigm, and host Stephen Foskett. Modern hardware is capable of incredible performance, but bottlenecks remain. The limiting factor for AI processors is memory capacity: GPUs are hungry for data and must be refreshed from storage quickly enough to keep them running at scale. Storage can also be used to share data between GPUs across the data center and to cache working data to accelerate calculation. The secret to scalability, from storage to applications to AI, is distribution and parallel processing. Modern software runs at incredible scale, and all elements of the stack must match. Technologies like Kubernetes allow applications to use huge clusters of workers all contributing to scale and performance. WEKA runs this way, matching the GPU clusters and web applications we rely on today. Guest: Alan McSeveney, Field CTO of Media and Entertainment, WEKA Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠Stephen Foskett⁠⁠⁠, President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the ⁠⁠⁠Tech Field Day Event Series⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Jeniece Wnorowski⁠⁠⁠, Head of Influencer Marketing at ⁠⁠⁠Solidigm⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Scott Shadley⁠⁠⁠, Leadership Narrative Director and Evangelist at ⁠⁠⁠Solidigm⁠⁠⁠ Follow Tech Field Day ⁠⁠⁠on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠on X/Twitter,⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠on Mastodon⁠⁠⁠. Visit the ⁠⁠⁠Tech Field Day website⁠⁠⁠ for more information on upcoming events. For more episodes of Utilizing Tech, head to ⁠⁠⁠the dedicated website⁠⁠⁠ and follow the show ⁠⁠⁠on X/Twitter⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠on Mastodon⁠⁠⁠.

    32 min
  8. 08x11: Long Live Immersion Cooled Servers with Hypertec

    JUN 9

    08x11: Long Live Immersion Cooled Servers with Hypertec

    More episodes and seasons of Utilizing Tech: https://utilizingtech.com/ Immersion cooling requires specialized servers designed to operate submerged in a tank of coolant, but there are many benefits. In this episode of Utilizing Tech, sponsored by Solidigm, we continue our conversation on immersion cooling with Patrick Scateni of Hypertec, the leading manufacturer of immersion-cooled servers. Most of the current demand for immersion cooling is in the datacenter, but edge computing is rapidly adopting this technology thanks to the demands of AI applications. Hypertec calls their servers immersion born, since they are designed for this specific application rather than being modified for use in a coolant tank. Sustainability is growing in importance and immersion cooled solutions are much more power efficient, much closer to a PUE of 1 compared to 1.5 for a conventional air-cooled server. It also uses no water, while air-cooled data centers often use evaporative cooling equivalent to an olympic-sized pool every day or two. Immersion cooled servers can be packed closer, enabling smaller datacenters, and are cheaper, more reliable, and longer-lived than conventional equipment. Guest: Patrick Scateni, VP of Global Sales at Hypertec Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠Stephen Foskett⁠⁠⁠, President of the Tech Field Day Business Unit and Organizer of the ⁠⁠⁠Tech Field Day Event Series⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Jeniece Wnorowski⁠⁠⁠, Head of Influencer Marketing at ⁠⁠⁠Solidigm⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Scott Shadley⁠⁠⁠, Leadership Narrative Director and Evangelist at ⁠⁠⁠Solidigm⁠⁠⁠ Follow Tech Field Day ⁠⁠⁠on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠on X/Twitter,⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠on Mastodon⁠⁠⁠. Visit the ⁠⁠⁠Tech Field Day website⁠⁠⁠ for more information on upcoming events. For more episodes of Utilizing Tech, head to ⁠⁠⁠the dedicated website⁠⁠⁠ and follow the show ⁠⁠⁠on X/Twitter⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠on Bluesky⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠on Mastodon⁠⁠⁠.

    36 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Utilizing Tech is a weekly podcast exploring practical technology in the modern enterprise. Each season spotlights an emerging area: three seasons on AI, plus dedicated seasons on CXL and Edge. Season Six revisited AI, while Seasons Seven and Eight—presented by Solidigm—examined AI Data Infrastructure and AI at the Edge. Now, Season Nine turns to Agentic AI.

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