Between Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s Next

Tonya Turrell

Between Fires and Futures is the podcast for modern tech leaders caught in the constant tension of today and tomorrow. It’s the space between daily firefights—cloud issues, AI hype, security breaches—and the visionary work of building scalable, resilient, future-ready organizations. Each week, we talk with the strategists, technologists, and innovators doing the real work of leading change. These are unfiltered conversations that expose the tradeoffs, wins, and lessons no one puts in the case studies. No spin. No fluff. Just pressure-tested leadership, real-world insight, and bold thinking. https://www.technologymatch.com/ 

  1. Oct 19

    You've Got AI Everywhere and Nothing to Show For It with Arvita Tripati

    What happens when your organization has AI running across the business, but no one can explain whether it’s actually improving performance? In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down with Arvita Tripati, founder and CEO of Vahana Labs AI, to unpack one of the biggest challenges facing organizations investing in artificial intelligence: the growing disconnect between AI adoption and measurable business value. Drawing on 18 years of experience in highly regulated technology environments, including medical devices, gene and cell therapy, and clinical research, Arvita explains why implementing more AI tools doesn’t automatically create operational efficiency, financial returns, or meaningful business progress. Arvita breaks down why so many organizations are accumulating AI pilots, overlapping tools, and fragmented workflows without clearly defining who owns the results. She explains the critical difference between AI activity and actual operating leverage, why saving time on individual tasks doesn’t necessarily make a business more productive, and how traditional usage metrics can create a false sense of success. From identifying accountable business owners to establishing baselines and measuring improvements in throughput, reliability, and cost, Arvita shares how leaders can connect technology investments to the financial and operational outcomes that matter. Tonya and Arvita also explore why organizations should rethink their approach to AI implementation by eliminating unnecessary work, simplifying processes, and identifying operational constraints before introducing new technology. Arvita shares how to structure AI pilots around measurable business outcomes, establish clear criteria for scaling or stopping investments, and evaluate projects that are already underway without proper ownership or benchmarks. Rather than treating technology adoption as proof of innovation, she challenges IT leaders and executives to ask a more important question: Is the business actually working better because AI is there? Tune in to hear: Why widespread AI adoption doesn’t necessarily translate into measurable business valueHow overlapping AI tools, fragmented workflows, and unclear ownership undermine operational efficiencyThe difference between AI activity, productivity gains, and true operating leverageWhy saving time on individual tasks doesn’t always create meaningful business capacityWho should own AI initiatives and why accountability must extend beyond the IT departmentWhy AI usage reports and adoption metrics fail to tell the full ROI storyHow eliminating unnecessary work and redesigning workflows should come before automationWhat organizations should measure before launching, expanding, or investing in AI pilotsHow to establish baselines, business outcomes, and clear criteria for scaling, redesigning, or stopping AI projectsWhat IT leaders can do when existing AI investments lack ownership, benchmarks, or measurable resultsImportant Links: https://app.technologymatch.com/vendor/solutions?filter=all

  2. Oct 12

    The Breach Was Just the Beginning: How Criminals Turn Your Data Into Real-World Crime with Rivka Tadjer

    What happens when the biggest cybersecurity threat to your organization starts outside the network your security team is actually protecting? In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down with Rivka Tadjer, CEO of Zero Hack, to unpack a growing blind spot in enterprise cybersecurity: criminals are no longer just targeting corporate networks, endpoints, and infrastructure. They’re researching executives, exploiting personal devices, home networks, email accounts, and even family members to find ways into financial accounts and company systems. Drawing on decades of experience across technology, privacy, identity theft, cybercrime prevention, and forensic investigation, Rivka explains why today’s security risks require leaders to think beyond the traditional enterprise perimeter. Rivka explains how the shift toward remote and mobile work has blurred the boundaries between personal and professional technology, creating vulnerabilities that traditional cybersecurity tools may never see. She breaks down how stolen information is collected, bought, sold, and combined to build increasingly detailed profiles of potential victims, and why phones have become one of the most important attack surfaces to secure. From SIM protection and mobile carrier accounts to financial credentials, home Wi-Fi, personal email, and family devices, Rivka shares practical ways executives can reduce their exposure even when their existing data is already circulating online. Tonya and Rivka also explore why this problem shouldn’t fall entirely on IT and security teams. Rivka argues that protecting executives outside the corporate network is an operational risk that requires broader C-suite ownership, especially as AI makes impersonation, deepfakes, and social engineering increasingly convincing. Rather than assuming a breach is inevitable and prevention is impossible, Rivka explains why creating new credentials, separating sensitive accounts, securing personal technology, and changing everyday behaviors can make executives and their organizations significantly harder targets. Tune in to hear: Why cybercriminals are increasingly targeting executives outside the traditional corporate security perimeterHow remote work, personal devices, home networks, and family members have expanded the enterprise attack surfaceWhy an executive’s phone may be one of the most important cybersecurity vulnerabilities to addressHow stolen personal data is collected, combined, bought, and sold to build more effective attacksWhy the overlap between personal and professional technology creates significant operational riskHow AI-powered impersonation and deepfakes are making social engineering attacks more convincingWhy securing SIMs, mobile carrier accounts, financial credentials, and personal email can reduce exposureWhat prevention looks like when passwords, Social Security numbers, and other personal information are already circulating onlineWhy cybersecurity outside the corporate network should be treated as a C-suite operational issue, not solely an IT problemHow separating credentials, accounts, devices, and networks can make executives and their families harder targets

  3. Oct 5

    Some of Your Vendors Need to Be Put on a PIP: The Vendor Performance Review Most CIOs Have Never Done with Knit.Ai’s Matt Glenn

    What happens when your technology vendors are underperforming, but your organization doesn’t have the data to prove it? In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down with Matt Glenn, co-founder and CEO of Knit AI, to unpack a blind spot hiding inside many IT organizations: companies hold employees accountable for performance, but often spend millions of dollars with technology vendors without applying the same level of scrutiny. Drawing on experience from both sides of the vendor relationship, Matt explains why support quality can decline as technology providers prioritize growth and operational efficiency, and why IT leaders need better visibility into what their vendors are actually delivering. Matt explains why vendor performance is often buried across support portals, emails, individual interactions, and unreliable memories, leaving CIOs without the evidence they need when renewal and contract negotiations arrive. He shares what Knit has learned from analyzing more than a million vendor interactions, including how unresolved support cases, missed SLAs, product defects, and months of back-and-forth can quietly consume valuable engineering resources. Rather than relying on vendor-curated QBR data or how teams feel about a provider at the moment, Matt argues that organizations need a system of record that reveals performance over time. Tune in to hear:  Why technology vendors should be held to the same performance standards as employeesHow growing reliance on SaaS, cloud, and third-party technology has increased vendor riskWhy missed SLAs, product defects, and unresolved support cases quietly drain IT resourcesWhat more than a million vendor interactions reveal about the true cost of poor performanceWhy vendor-curated QBRs and customer reviews don’t always tell the full storyHow bringing objective performance data into vendor meetings changes the power dynamicWhy vendor data can help CIOs distinguish between a provider problem and an internal team problemHow performance trends can serve as an early warning system for long-term vendor decisionsWhy contract renewals and negotiations change when IT leaders have measurable evidenceHow vendor intelligence can help CIOs move from reactive problem-solvers to strategic businessImportant Links:  https://app.technologymatch.com/solutions/vendor-performance-management Website: knitit.ai LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewglenn/ Academic paper about the personality traits of people that work in it: https://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/cis/article/view/36413

  4. Sep 28

    You Hired a Thousand Agents and Skipped Onboarding with Sumeet Vaidya

    What happens when AI helps your engineering team write code faster than your organization can actually test, validate, and safely ship it? In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down with Sumeet Vaidya, co-founder and CEO of Crafting, to unpack a growing challenge inside AI-powered engineering organizations: coding velocity has accelerated, but the infrastructure needed to test, review, and validate that work hasn’t necessarily kept pace. Drawing on nearly a decade of engineering leadership experience at companies including Uber and Discord, Sumeet explains why adopting AI agents isn’t simply about giving teams new tools. It requires rethinking the systems, guardrails, and accountability structures surrounding the work those agents produce. Sumeet explains why organizations should stop chasing every new AI tool and instead take an outcomes-driven approach to adoption. He shares why engineering leaders should ask what would break if they suddenly had 10 times as many engineers, how hundreds or thousands of agents can make even a mid-market company operate with the complexity of a much larger organization, and why testing, validation, code review, coordination, security, and infrastructure can quickly become new bottlenecks. Rather than accepting that risk as the cost of moving faster, Sumeet argues that companies need to hold agents to many of the same standards they already use for human engineers. Tune in to hear: Why faster AI-generated code is shifting the bottleneck from writing to testing and validationWhat separates companies strategically adopting AI agents from those simply chasing the latest toolsWhy organizations shouldn’t accept untested AI output just because agents are moving fasterThe thought exercise every engineering leader should try: what would break if your team suddenly grew 10x?How hundreds or thousands of agents can make a mid-market company operate with enterprise-level complexityWhy testing, code review, infrastructure, security, and coordination can become hidden AI bottlenecksHow holding AI agents accountable like human engineers can unlock more valuable workWhy guardrails, identity, access, and authentication become critical as agents gain more autonomyThe risks of giving AI agents unrestricted access to company systems and sensitive informationHow better AI infrastructure can free people to focus on judgment, strategy, relationships, and uniquely human workhttps://app.technologymatch.com/vendor/solutions/f007e47c-fdbb-4d3d-a2a2-ecb4b739cb89

  5. Sep 21

    Hackers Just Went Machine-Speed, Your Defense is Still Human with Cyberhoot’s Craig Taylor

    What if the biggest cybersecurity threat facing your company is about to move faster than your team can respond? In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down with Craig Taylor, co-founder of CyberHoot, to unpack a rapidly changing cybersecurity landscape where AI can discover software vulnerabilities at machine speed, dramatically shrinking the amount of time businesses have to protect themselves. With nearly three decades of cybersecurity experience and a background in psychology, Craig explains what this shift means for IT leaders, MSPs, and mid-market organizations trying to prepare without creating panic or burning out their teams. Craig breaks down five practical steps organizations can take now to reduce their exposure, including shrinking their internet-facing attack surface, accelerating patching, isolating or modernizing legacy systems, reducing unnecessary data storage, and improving early breach detection. He explains why traditional patching timelines may no longer be fast enough, how years of forgotten data can turn a security incident into a costly nightmare, and why leaders need to understand exactly which doors and windows into their environment have been left open. They also explore the human side of cybersecurity and why fear-based phishing tests may actually work against the behavior companies are trying to create. Craig shares how positive reinforcement, psychological safety, and hands-on learning can help employees build lasting cybersecurity habits. As AI changes both offensive and defensive capabilities, he explains why organizations need to strengthen their technology defenses while creating a culture where employees feel confident recognizing risks, reporting mistakes, and becoming an active part of the security strategy. Tune in to hear: Why AI-powered cybersecurity threats are moving from human speed to machine speedWhat the “months, not years” warning means for IT and business leadersFive practical steps companies can take now to prepare for AI-driven cyber threatsWhy reducing your internet-facing attack surface should be a priorityHow AI is changing the timeline between software patches and active exploitationWhy organizations may need to rethink traditional patching schedulesHow legacy systems can create hidden vulnerabilities and what to do about themWhy keeping decades of unnecessary data can dramatically increase the impact of a breachHow honeypots and early detection can help reduce attacker dwell timeWhy traditional “gotcha” phishing tests can undermine employee trust and engagementHow positive reinforcement can create stronger, longer-lasting cybersecurity behaviorsWhy psychological safety matters when employees make security mistakesHow AI-powered phishing is making personalized social engineering more convincingWhat IT leaders should prioritize this quarter to prepare for the changing threat landscapeWhy cybersecurity resilience requires both stronger technology and better-equipped peoplehttps://app.technologymatch.com/vendor/solutions/cyberhoot-vciso-services

  6. Sep 14

    Why Your IT Provider Keeps Letting You Down And Why It's Probably Not Their Fault — with Scott Raymer, Get IT Sense

    What if the IT provider you trust isn’t actually the problem—but the way IT support is structured is setting your company up to stay reactive? In this episode of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down with Scott Raymer, founder of Get It Sense, to unpack why so many IT departments and managed service providers are stuck in constant firefighting mode—and what business and IT leaders should be looking for if they want to move from reactive support to proactive IT management. With more than two decades of experience consulting businesses on their technology needs, Scott explains why today’s IT challenges often come down to three critical areas: people, products, and processes. As cybersecurity threats, compliance requirements, data privacy concerns, and emerging technologies continue to evolve, the old “set it and forget it” approach to managed IT simply isn’t enough. Companies need clearly defined responsibilities, the right technology, proactive oversight, and providers willing to be held accountable for the service they promise. Scott also breaks down what leaders should demand before signing an IT contract, including clearly defined service level agreements, response and restoration expectations, escalation paths, reporting, and a regular cadence of strategic reviews. He explains why organizations shouldn’t assume they are secure simply because nothing has gone wrong yet—and why factual, current assessments are essential for uncovering the invisible risks that could lead to downtime, ransomware, compliance issues, or costly business disruption. They also explore how companies can strengthen an existing IT relationship without necessarily replacing a trusted provider, why cybersecurity and compliance require deeper expertise than many smaller IT teams can provide alone, and how emerging technologies like AI are making continuous education and modernization even more important. Scott shares why the IT solution that works today may not be enough six months from now—and what leaders can do to make sure their technology partners are prepared to evolve with them. Tune in to hear: Why so many IT departments are stuck in reactive firefighting modeThe three gaps behind many IT support problems: people, products, and processesWhy the traditional “set it and forget it” MSP model no longer worksHow invisible cybersecurity and compliance risks can become expensive business disruptionsWhat IT leaders should demand in writing from their service providersWhy clearly defined SLAs, escalation paths, and accountability matterThe red flags to watch for when evaluating a new IT providerHow to strengthen a trusted IT relationship when your current provider lacks depthWhy leaders need current, factual data before assuming their IT environment is secureHow AI and other emerging technologies are changing what companies need from their IT partnersImportant Links: https://www.getitsense.com/

  7. Sep 7

    The Cost of Intelligence: Why Your AI Bill Exploded While Tokens Got Cheap — with Dell's Allen Clingerman

    What happens when the cost of artificial intelligence keeps dropping, but your company’s AI bill keeps climbing? In this season three premiere of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits down once again with Alan Clingerman, Chief Technology Strategist and Partner AI Officer at Dell Technologies, to unpack the rapidly changing economics of enterprise AI and what IT leaders need to understand as they plan for the future. Alan explains why cheaper AI tokens aren’t necessarily translating into cheaper AI deployments. Longer context windows, agentic AI, data processing, cloud infrastructure, and increasingly complex workloads are creating costs that many organizations never anticipated. He also shares why companies that began experimenting with AI in the public cloud are now reconsidering where their workloads should live as those experiments move into production and scale. They also dive into the growing shift toward edge, core, and cloud strategies, why AI PCs could fundamentally change the economics of AI adoption, and how specialized models and intelligent AI routing may help organizations control costs without sacrificing performance. Alan also explains why getting your data architecture right remains one of the most important steps companies can take as they prepare for a future driven by agents. Tune in to hear: Why AI bills are rising even as token costs fallHow AI agents dramatically increase token consumptionThe hidden costs behind enterprise AI deploymentsWhy scaling cloud-based AI can create unexpected costsHow to decide where AI workloads should run across edge, core, and cloudWhy AI PCs could change the economics of AI adoptionWhy more organizations are bringing AI workloads back on-premiseHow smaller, specialized models can improve cost and performanceWhy data readiness is essential for successful agentic AIThe three moves mid-market IT leaders should make right nowImportant Links: https://app.technologymatch.com/solutions/dell-technologies-ai-factory https://app.technologymatch.com/solutions/dell-ai-pcs https://app.technologymatch.com/solutions/dell-ai-solutions https://app.technologymatch.com/solutions/dell-pro-ai-studio https://app.technologymatch.com/solutions/dell-pro-max-with-gb10 https://www.linkedin.com/in/clingerman/

  8. May 25

    The Cheapest Decision in IT Is the Most Expensive One: Why Mid-Market Tooling Choices Are Quietly Capping Your AI Strategy with Corey Wisdon

    What if the technology decision that saved your company money three years ago is the very thing slowing your growth today? In this season two finale of Between Fires and Futures, Tonya sits with Corey Wisdon to unpack one of the biggest hidden problems in mid-market IT: the long-term cost of “cheap and fast” infrastructure decisions. Corey shares the story of a $3 million enterprise deployment that took eight months before users could even log in, and how that experience completely changed the way he approaches IT strategy, ServiceNow implementations, and AI adoption today.  They also dive into the surprising reality behind enterprise deployments, the burnout happening on service desks, and why simplicity, integration, and long-term thinking matter more than ever in 2026. Tune in to hear:  Why the “fast and cheap” IT decision often becomes the most expensive one later  The hidden costs of fragmented tool stacks and over-customized platforms  What really causes enterprise deployments to stall after go-live  Why many organizations are failing to see ROI from AI tools  The biggest mistakes companies make when rolling out AI internally  How poor governance creates “agent sprawl” inside organizations  Why mid-market companies are underserved by enterprise IT vendors  The difference between ticketing systems and scalable enterprise platforms  How RL Canning’s hosted ServiceNow model gets organizations live in just 45 days  The importance of roadmap thinking instead of reactive technology purchases  Why simplicity is becoming the most important strategy in modern ITConnect with Corey:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-wisdom-553a1611/https://www.linkedin.com/company/rl-canning/https://app.technologymatch.com/solutions/servicenow

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About

Between Fires and Futures is the podcast for modern tech leaders caught in the constant tension of today and tomorrow. It’s the space between daily firefights—cloud issues, AI hype, security breaches—and the visionary work of building scalable, resilient, future-ready organizations. Each week, we talk with the strategists, technologists, and innovators doing the real work of leading change. These are unfiltered conversations that expose the tradeoffs, wins, and lessons no one puts in the case studies. No spin. No fluff. Just pressure-tested leadership, real-world insight, and bold thinking. https://www.technologymatch.com/ 

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