Techstrong Gang
2 Seasons
Techstrong Gang is your daily roundtable where industry leaders and analysts break down the biggest stories in technology, AI, cybersecurity, DevOps, and digital transformation. Hosted by Alan Shimel alongside rotating experts from across the Techstrong Network, the Gang brings sharp insights, candid debates, and forward-thinking perspectives on how innovation is reshaping business, society, and the future of work.
New episodes drop Monday through Friday, offering timely conversations that cut through the noise and connect you directly to what’s driving the tech world today.
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47:30Episode 1
Techstrong Gang - May 29, 2025
Episode 1
Mike, Jon and Teri Robinson dive into the motivations driving an $8 billion acquisition of Informatica being made by Salesforce.
Then the gang takes a look at the level of progress being made in terms of adopting best DevSecOps practices before revisiting the latest tariff threats to Apple being...
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47:56Episode 2
Techstrong Gang - May 28, 2025
Episode 2
Alan, Mike, Chris Blask and Guy Currier, an analyst with The Futurum Group, dive into a big beautiful bill that puts all responsibility for artificial intelligence (AI) regulation in the hands of the Federal government.
Then the gang assesses the relevance of Java as the programming language tur...
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58:44Episode 3
Techstrong Gang - May 27, 2025
Episode 3
Alan, Mike, Tracy Ragan, Chris Blask and Jack Poller dive into the controversy over Microsoft Recall now that Signal has found a way to turn off the screen capture technology in Windows 11 before discussing to what degree are cybersecurity professionals addicted to too many tools.
Then the gang ...
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43:49Episode 4
Techstrong Gang - May 23, 2025
Episode 4
Alan, Mike, Jon and Lisa Martin, the CMO Advisor for The Futurum Group, discuss the implications of a $6.5B acquisition of a hardware company founded by legendary Apple designer Jony Ive that made by OpenAI before delving in an ambitious agentic artificial intelligence (AI) initiative launched by...
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48:51Episode 5
Techstrong Gang - May 22, 2025
Episode 5
Alan, Mike, Mitch, Jon, Anne Ahola Ward and Fred Wilmot dive into a survey from The Futurum Group that surfaces high rates of platform engineering adoption.
Then the gang reviews the latest artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives being launched independently by Google and Red Hat.
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41:10Episode 6
Techstrong Gang - May 21, 2025
Episode 6
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45:19Episode 7
Techstrong Gang - May 20, 2025
Episode 7
Mike, Bonnie, Futurum analyst Guy Currer and Stephen Foskett, president of the Tech Field Day arm of The Futurum Group dive into the future of artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps).
Then the gang takes a look at the impact agentic AI will have on analytics following a Qlik Connect ev...
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45:04Episode 8
Techstrong Gang - May 19, 2025
Episode 8
Alan, Mike, Jon, Teri Robinson and Futurum Group analyst Guy Currier dive into the growing feud between Apple and President Donald Trump before discussing the latest controversy to engulf the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Then the gang turns its attention to a mov...
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46:07Episode 9
Techstrong Gang - May 15, 2025
Episode 9
Alan, Mike, Jon, Anne Ahola Ward and Robert Reeves discuss the degree to which graphics processing units (GPUs) have become chips that are being exchanged in a larger international trade negotiation before delving into why Pope Leo IV seems to be warming up to the ethical use of artificial intell...
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45:25Episode 10
Techstrong Gang - May 14, 2025
Episode 10
Alan, Mike, Mitch, Chris Blask and Jules Okafor dive into cybersecurity spending levels that are projected to reach $288 billion before discussing an OpenText report that suggests 2.8% of endpoints are infected with malware.
Then the gang turns its attention to the need for more cost efficient a...
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46:25Episode 11
Techstrong Gang - May 13, 2025
Episode 11
Alan, Mike, Bonnie, JP Morgenthal and Stephen Foskett, president of the Tech Field Day arm of the The Futurum Group, delve into the rise of quantum networking before reviewing the merits of Wi-Fi versus LTE networks.
Then, the gang takes a look at the degree to which artificial intelligence (AI)...
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37:49Episode 12
Techstrong Gang - May 12, 2025
Episode 12
Alan, Mike, Mitch, Teri Robinson and Guy Currier, a research analyst for The Futurum Group, dive into the implications of a research paper that shows it’s possible to predict prime numbers that are used to encrypt data.
Then the gang turns its attention to another vendor that may be experiencing...
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36:46Episode 13
Techstrong Gang - May 9, 2025
Episode 13
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34:03Episode 14
Techstrong Gang - May 8, 2025
Episode 14
Alan, Mike, Jon, Sulagna and Chris Blask dive into an effort by the U.S. Department of Treasury to prevent platforms accused of laundering Bitcoin on behalf of cybercriminals from being able to access financial networks before turning to an effort to validate the identities of humans using retina...
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36:12Episode 15
Techstrong Gang - May 7, 2025
Episode 15
Alan, Mike, Mitch, Jon and Amanda debate IBM’s ability to regain its artificial intelligence (AI) mantle in the agentic era before delving into the degree to which the open source community might welcome back Redis.
Then the gang wonders why so many AI platforms being developed for human resourc...
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51:55Episode 16
Techstrong Gang - May 6, 2025
Episode 16
Alan, Mike, Mitch, Bonnie and Stephen Foskett, president of the Tech Field Day arm of The Futurum Group, explore the potential of Amazon's satellite communications service as a viable alternative to Starlink before moving on to appreciate all the advancements enabled by the Hubble Space Telescope...
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52:10Episode 17
Techstrong Gang - May 5, 2025
Episode 17
The Gang reflects on the RSAC Conference and discuss the rise of agentic AI, noting a 72% usage rate among organizations. They highlight the API economy's role in AI integration and predict widespread adoption by 2029. Innovations in power and memory technology aim to enhance efficiency while add...
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48:06Episode 18
Techstrong Gang - May 2, 2025
Episode 18
At the 2025 RSAC Conference, Mitch Ashley, Jon Swartz and Lisa Martin discuss the crucial role MCP servers play in AI deployment, raising significant security concerns that require effective monitoring. Then, they highlight how cyber resilience is essential for companies to withstand attacks, wit...
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44:30Episode 19
Techstrong Gang - May 1, 2025
Episode 19
In today’s Techstrong Gang from the RSAC Conference, Lisa Martin, Mitch Ashley, Jon Swartz and Alan Shimel discuss RSAC happenings. They highlight the keynote by DHS Secratery Noem, which called for taking CISA back to its core mission, and debate whether this a good thing for the industry. Next,...
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45:09Episode 20
Techstrong Gang - April 30, 2025
Episode 20
From the RSAC Conference in San Francisco, Alan, Lisa Martin and Jon Swartz highlight the rise of AI and technology trends. Cisco announces an open-source AI model for cybersecurity, while IT managers express concerns about AI-related risks. The discussion covers potential security breaches, rans...
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54:59Episode 21
Techstrong Gang - April 29, 2025
Episode 21
Mike, Tracy Ragan, Guy Currier, chief analyst for the Visible Impact arm of The Futurum Group, and Stephen Foskett, president of the Tech Field Day arm of the Futurum Group, dive into the state of artificial intelligence (AI) security before discussing what infrastructure will be required to run ...
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44:05Episode 22
Techstrong Gang - April 28, 2025
Episode 22
Alan, Mike, Tracy Ragan, Chris Blask and Teri Robinson dive into a United Nations report highlighting the use of slave labor to perpetrate online scams before discussing the degree to which artificial intelligence (AI) agents may soon enable application developers to build more secure application...
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35:07Episode 23
Techstrong Gang - April 25, 2025
Episode 23
Alan, Mike, Mitch, Jon and Lisa Martin, the CMO Advisor for The Futurum Group, highlight how a navigation application built using quantum computers might one day replace the ground positioning system (GPS) based on satellites that is pervasively used around the world.
Then, the gang turns its at...
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52:22Episode 24
Techstrong Gang - April 24, 2025
Episode 24
Alan, Mike, Mitch, Jon, Sulagna and JP Morgenthal dive into how artificial intelligence (AI) agents will be used to expose criminal behavior online before debating the merits of a raft of AI coding tools that are now becoming available.
Then, the gang turns its attention to how AI will enable th...