3232: IT Press Tour Insights: Redefining Backup-as-a-Service with Auwau
Release Date: 04/05/2025
3248: Atlassian - When AI Becomes a Teammate, Not Just a Tool
Tech Talks Daily
What does it take to lead with empathy in a world where AI transforms our work? In this episode, I sit down with Avani Prabhakar, Atlassian's Chief People Officer, to discuss how the company is creating a people-first culture while embracing rapid innovation. Avani shares how Atlassian is approaching AI not just as a technology shift, but as a mindset shift. When teams see AI as a collaborator instead of a task bot, 90 percent say it improves the quality of their work. That’s not a statistic about productivity. It’s a signal that mindset makes a measurable difference. We explore how...
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3247: Atlassian’s Sanchan Saxena Talks ROI, AI, and the Future of Teamwork
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when tools like Jira, Confluence, Loom, and AI-powered agents come together under one unified strategy? At Team 25 in Anaheim, I sat down with Sanchan Saxena, Atlassian’s Head of Product for Work Management, to explore the company’s new Teamwork Collection and what it means for the evolving nature of collaboration. With leadership experience at Coinbase, Airbnb, Instagram, and Microsoft, Sanchan brings a pragmatic lens to building products that meet teams where they are. In our conversation, we unpack the thinking behind the Teamwork Collection, a curated set of Atlassian...
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3246: Why Most Startups Fail and What to Do Differently with Tekyz Inc.
Tech Talks Daily
What does it really take to build a software startup that doesn’t crash before it can fly? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with David Hirschfeld, founder of Tekyz Inc., a software veteran who’s spent over 35 years working across more than 90 startups. From his early days studying physics at UCLA to becoming the top national salesperson at Computer Associates, and later founding and selling his own successful software company, David has seen the full arc of startup life—success, failure, and the lessons in between. In our conversation, David unpacks the patterns he’s...
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3245: How Trello is Tackling Task Overload with AI and Design Thinking
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when one of the world’s most loved productivity tools decides to reinvent itself for the age of AI? At Team 25 in Anaheim, I sat down with Gaurav Kataria, Head of Product for Trello at Atlassian, to unpack the biggest release in Trello’s history and what it means for individuals and teams navigating the chaos of modern work. Gaurav describes the new Trello as “an AI-powered to-do list,” built not to replace project management tools like Jira but to complement them—especially for those personal tasks, scattered action items, and mental notes that get lost in a sea of...
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3244: From Mainframes to AI: Paula Paul on Building Software That Lasts
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when four decades of hands-on engineering experience meet today’s fast-moving AI and open-source ecosystem? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Paula Paul, Founder and Distinguished Engineer at Greyshore, to explore that intersection. Paula began her tech career in the early 1980s writing code for IBM mainframes and has since become a trusted voice in enterprise modernization, cloud adoption, and open-source governance. Today, she advises organizations on how to build with confidence in an era defined by complex software supply chains, generative AI, and...
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3243: How Atlassian CTO Turned Developer Joy Into a Performance Metric
Tech Talks Daily
What does it really mean to build software with joy? At the Team 25 event in Anaheim, I had the opportunity to sit down with Rajeev Rajan, CTO of Atlassian, to explore how one of the world’s most influential engineering organizations is redefining developer experience from the ground up. Rajeev shares how developer joy became a guiding principle for Atlassian, not as a feel-good initiative but as a core driver of performance and innovation. Rather than focusing solely on velocity or throughput, Atlassian measured how productive developers felt in their codebases. That metric has now improved...
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3242: L.E.K. Consulting on Using AI to Balance Speed, Risk, and Growth
Tech Talks Daily
What if most product launches fail not because of bad ideas—but because of broken processes? In today’s episode of Tech Talks Daily, I’m joined by Stuart Jackson, Vice Chair of L.E.K. Consulting and co-author of the forthcoming book Predictable Winners (Stanford University Press, 2025). Stuart brings nearly four decades of experience in strategic growth and innovation, and his insights offer a much-needed reframe for businesses navigating the high-stakes world of new product and service development. We sat down to explore a topic many leaders shy away from: why 70–90% of product...
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3241: Transparency, Trust, and AI: Atlassian’s Legal Framework in Action
Tech Talks Daily
At Team '25 in Anaheim, I had the unique opportunity to sit down with Stan Shepard, General Counsel at Atlassian, for a conversation that pulled back the curtain on how legal and technology are intersecting in the age of AI. Stan’s journey from journalism to law to shaping legal operations at one of the world’s most forward-thinking companies is as fascinating as it is relevant. What emerged from our discussion is a clear signal that legal teams are no longer trailing behind innovation—they’re often at the front of it. Stan shared how Atlassian’s legal function achieved 85 percent...
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3240: How Storadera Is Simplifying S3-Compatible Cloud Storage
Tech Talks Daily
What if cloud storage could be simple, transparent, and genuinely affordable? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Tommi Kannisto, founder of Storadera a company based in Estonia that's redefining the way businesses approach object storage. I first met Tommi during the IT Press Tour in London, where Storadera's fresh perspective on S3-compatible cloud storage stood out for all the right reasons. In our conversation, Tommi shares the journey behind building a hyper-converged cloud storage platform that challenges conventional thinking. From eliminating hidden fees to maximizing...
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3239: From Google to AppsCode: Tamal Saha’s Journey to Kubernetes Innovation
Tech Talks Daily
What if managing databases on Kubernetes didn’t require a team of specialists or endless configuration? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Tamal Saha, founder and CEO of AppsCode, to explore how his team is building a more intuitive, scalable, and enterprise-ready approach to Kubernetes-native data management. Recorded during the IT Press Tour in London, this conversation traces Tamal’s journey from Bangladesh to Google, and ultimately to launching AppsCode in 2016. He shares how early experiences with Google's internal systems helped shape his vision for a cloud-native...
info_outlineWhat does it take to simplify the chaos of multi-vendor data protection while keeping sovereignty, scalability, and automation firmly in sight?
In this episode, I’m joined by Thomas Bak, CEO of Auwau, to explore how his company’s Cloud Utility platform is helping managed service providers and enterprise IT teams redefine control and efficiency.
I had the pleasure of meeting Thomas at the IT Press Tour, where he shared not only the story behind Cloud Utility but also how Auwau is supporting white-labeling, API-first workflows, and fully integrated billing automation.
This isn’t about adding yet another tool to the tech stack. It’s about building a self-service-first platform that acts as a single control point for complex, multi-tenant environments. Cloud Utility enables service providers and internal IT departments to operate with greater transparency and agility, from backup and object storage to role-based access and recurring billing.
Thomas also opens up about why many customers still demand on-prem deployments, especially in sectors where data residency and control are non-negotiable. His perspective on how service providers can offer branded experiences for resellers while maintaining central governance is especially relevant in today's compliance-driven climate.
We also discuss how Auwau’s background as an MSP shaped its customer-centric approach to product development, and why flexibility across technologies like IBM Storage Protect, Rubrik, and Cohesity is baked into the product’s core.
If your business is struggling to scale its data protection offerings or looking for better ways to serve distributed teams and clients, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss. How are you future-proofing your infrastructure without losing visibility or control? Let’s explore that together.