The Cloud Architects Podcast
Episodes
Episode 102: Guardrails are good, but..
08 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Episode 102 of the Cloud Architects Podcast, we sit down with Mona Ghadiri to explore the rapidly evolving world of AI governance. As organizations...
Episode 101: The State of AI in 2026
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Episode 101 of the Cloud Architects Podcast, we welcome Microsoft AI MVP James Westall for a candid “state of the nation” discussion on AI in 2...
Episode 100: Opal AI
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this milestone 100th episode, we sit down with Daniel Brown, a Microsoft MVP based in Adelaide, to explore how AI is transforming the rugged world ...
Episode 99: Working Smarter
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we are joined by guest Kirsty McGrath, a Microsoft MVP and adoption expert, for an insightful conversation on working smarter in today...
Episode 98: Incident Responders
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we are joined by guests Ernie Anderson and Darrell Switzer from TBDCyber to discuss the critical topic of incident response (IR). Erni...
Episode 97: Reinvent
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At Microsoft Ignite 2024, we sat down with our old friend Anthony Bartolo to discuss the industry’s shift from traditional infrastructure roles to d...
Episode 96: Copilot in the real world
23 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we sit down with our old friend Antonio Maio. We recorded this episode at Microsoft Ignite 2024 in Chicago, and as always it was an en...
Episode 95: Passkeys & Verifiable Creds
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We've all been prompted to create a Passkey when logging in to online services like Google - but are Passkeys ready for enterprise use? Do we still ne...
Episode 94: Clown Car!
17 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It seems everyone is selling AI at the moment - how can we make the most of these technologies in a measured, controlled way without exposing ourselve...
Episode 93: Things that go bang!
14 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Have you heard the story of malware that targets programmable logic controllers (PLCs) on industrial systems and causing fast-spinning centrifuges to ...
Episode 92: Dutch!
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
No language encryption here... In this episode we have the honor of sitting down for a late-night discussion with our Dutch friends Koos, Jeroen and M...
Episode 91: Copilot is like a teenager
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we welcome back a couple of our old friends Stephen Rose and Darrell Webster to talk about Copilot and AI - how useful or useless are ...
Episode 90: Storyteller
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we have the honor of being joined by Richard Campbell - an industry veteran and podcast legend who has recorded more than 3,000 episod...
Episode 89: Help us, help you!
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Another in-person episode! We recorded this one at the MVP Summit in Redmond earlier this year and had a great time talking to Katie and Pablo about c...
Episode 88: Data is the new oil!
07 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we're once again joined by Philip Miller to continue our AI discussion, and this time we also invited Todd Wright from Progress to dis...
Episode 87: Prompt Architect
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
AI is everywhere at the moment - it seems like every product or service now includes AI. What does that mean exactly? Can technology really think for ...
Episode 86: Crusty Critical Apps
06 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Camila Martins from Microsoft to talk about Microsoft's new Security Service Edge (SSE) solution. SS...
Episode 85: M&A Easy Button
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode we talk to Twan, Neil and Conrad who are the founders of PowerSyncPro, a software vendor solving complex migration problems for c...
Episode 84: "Entra like Magenta"
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
"Back by popular demand" - even if they do say so themselves! In this episode we are excited to welcome back to the show Tarek Dawoud and Mark Morowcz...
Episode 83: @merill
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you follow the latest developments in the Entra space, you have no doubt come across Merill Fernando. In this episode Merill joins us for a great d...
Episode 82: All bad things happen inside the allow rule
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Shortly before Thanksgiving, Nic and I had the great pleasure of talking to John Kindervag. I once read about John that he has "forgotten more about t...
Episode 81: Modern Endpoint Management (and dinosaur stories)
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We recently had a great conversation with Joe Flynn about modern endpoint management and how the way we manage our devices has changed over the years ...
Episode 80: Cyber Security Awareness
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's Cyber Security Awareness month and in this episode, we talk to Shannon Garcia about the realities of the security industry and have an honest dis...
Episode 79 - It was DNS!
14 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's ALWAYS DNS! We've all fallen victim to DNS at some point in our careers. In this episode we are once again joined by Robby Pedrica as we discuss ...
Episode 78: The Modern Admin
09 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Same product, new name - RIP Azure AD/long live Entra ID! In this episode we're joined by long-time friend of the show Michael Van Horenbeeck to discu...
Episode 77: Open-source
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we're joined by long-time friend Robby Pedrica as we talk about Open-source software. We asked Robby about Open-source technologies in...
Episode 76: Insiders
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is insider risk and how does it differ from an insider threat? Did you know that these are not always bad actors or malicious acts? We were curio...
Episode 75: Explaining AI to your parents
29 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If you were to open your Twitter/LinkedIn/Mastodon feed at the moment, it is undoubtedly filled with AI posts - while some of these might be interesti...
Episode 74: Llama Cam
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we geek out about home automation, Azure and training cognitive services to recognize llamas. Wait.. sound weird? Maybe, but we had a ...
Episode 73: Persistently Vulnerable
01 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Exchange Server 2013 officially reached its end of support on April 11, 2023. What exactly does end of support mean? What should you do if your organi...
Episode 72: Cyber Readiness
02 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We're Back! Happy 2023 to all - and yes, I realize that it's February. We often talk on this podcast about cyber readiness and the important of having...
Episode 71: CISO
08 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A CISO, or chief information security officer, is a senior-level executive who oversees an organization's information, cyber, and technology security....
Episode 70: All about Teams
18 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We recently had a great time talking to fellow Microsoft MVP Tom Arbuthnot about all things Microsoft Teams - covered some of the great community work...
Episode 69: Exchange Server - Fine wine or Swiss cheese?
04 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We love Exchange Server! No, really - I've personally been working with Exchange Server in some form or fashion since Exchange Server 5.5 in the late ...
Episode 68: In the kitchen with Chef
14 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We apologize for the poor audio at the beginning of this episode - we're not sure what happened, but it does improve as the episode progresses. What ...
Episode 67: PSA - The end of Basic Auth in Exchange Online (no, really!)
09 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Microsoft first announced the deprecation of Basic Authentication in September 2019 with the intention of starting the retirement process in October 2...
Episode 66: Use your dongle
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we chat to James "UCMadScientist" Arber. Some of you may know him as the guy who ran Doom on a Sonus/Ribbon SBC 1000 or set fire to a ...
Episode 65: ISO 27001:2022, say what?
18 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As an IT professional, governance and compliance have never been the sexiest of concepts. For many of us, these are things that distract us once a yea...
Episode 64 : The S word
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We recently had a lot of fun connecting with Koos Goossens to talk about Microsoft Sentinel. Koos has a wealth of knowledge and shared some great tips...
Episode 63: Tech Simplified
15 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is all about certifications. I sat my first industry certification exam in the late 1990's and it's safe to say that certifications and t...
Episode 62: Human Journey
01 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We recently had the pleasure of talking to a long time friend of the show Jay Gundotra. Jay is incredibly passionate about the community and you have ...
Episode 61: Inner Warrior
16 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we had the pleasure of talking to Kexin Ye and hearing her inspirational story of personal growth and how she went from selling Fair t...
Episode 60: 2022 - New Year, New Undies
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We're back for our first episode of 2022! We had so much fun catching up in-person in Cape Town last month to record this one. In this episode we're j...
Episode 59: The Red Shirt Tour
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I really miss in-person conferences and I'm sure I'm not the only one. We've always enjoyed being able to connect with new and old friends and peers, ...
Episode 58: Data Security and why you should "stop buying stuff.."
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Data Security is top of mind for many organizations at the moment with so many of them transitioning to a permanent work from home or hybrid working m...
Episode 57: "Technologies don't fix problems.."
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wondered what a SIEM is? How about SOAR? In this episode we have a fantastic conversation with ML who helps us understand what these are, how the...
Episode 56: Is Exchange leaking your creds?
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you follow the Microsoft productivity space, you have no doubt seen or heard about the "Autodiscovering the Great Leak" research paper recently pub...
Episode 55: Microsoft Security and EDR
10 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We've often joked on the show that Microsoft is the world's largest security vendor and when you consider their massive investment in security-related...
Episode 54: Wine and whine
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We've all heard the statement "Fast, Cheap or Good? Pick two" and it seems this continues to ring true. Does the current rate of innovation and change...
Episode 53: Catching up with Stephen L Rose
06 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We recently had a lot of fun catching up with our old friend and possibly our biggest fan - Stephen L Rose. We talked a little about his passion for r...
Episode 52: Knowledge has a Price Tag
09 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 52: Knowledge has a Price Tag by The Cloud Architects
Episode 51: Zero Trust Network Architecture
04 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After our recent 'reflections' episode, we felt it would be a great idea to catch up with our long-time sponsor KEMP to talk about how the load balanc...
Episode 50: Reflections
16 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 50! In this episode we reflect on our journey to 50 episodes - thinking about the fun we've had, everything we've learned and the guests we've...
Episode 49: What is ATO and why do I care?
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's 2021! Well, technically it's been 2021 for three months and it looks like many of the trends established in 2020 are continuing - not only in our...
Episode 48: Digital fatigue and laying your pipes
30 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
2020 has been an interesting and very different year for most of us. We're doing more things online than ever before - Microsoft recently announced th...
Episode 47: "Never trust, always verify"
02 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Zero Trust is a term that is thrown around a lot these days and seems to mean many different things to different folks. At its core, Zero Trust is a p...
Episode 46: Teams and PowerShell with Lee Ford
01 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Microsoft Teams has seen some incredible growth in recent months as many organizations worldwide adjust to a new normal that involves a remote, work f...
Ignite 2020 Special Edition
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It's almost time for Microsoft Ignite 2020, but this year things are going to be a little different. In this special episode, Anna Chu (a.k.a The Comm...
Episode 45: Microsoft 365 Security For IT Pros
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There is no denying that the rate of change in the Microsoft Cloud in astounding. Microsoft continues to innovate and improve very rapidly with new fe...
Episode 44: "Security is a business enabler and a risk reducer.."
03 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We're Back! Yes! it's been a little while since we last recorded an episode. Needless to say, the COVID-19 situation globally upset our planned travel...
Episode 43: "Skype is an apple, but Teams is a fruit salad.."
23 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There is no denying the ever-increasing popularity of Microsoft Teams. Microsoft recently reported an unprecedented spike in Teams usage due to the on...
Episode 42: Multi-vendor cloud management with Microsoft Azure
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Multi-cloud is a hot topic at the moment and in this episode we talk to Rick Claus and Joey Snow - a.k.a Patch And Switch from Microsoft about this ne...
Episode 41: Azure AD B2B, bring your own identity and viral accounts
28 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Azure AD business-to-business (B2B) collaboration allows organizations to securely share applications and services with guest users from any other org...
Episode 40: "There's one docs place and one training place.."
17 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
docs.microsoft.com is the new home for all Microsoft documentation and Microsoft Learn is a free, online training platform that provides interactive l...
Episode 39: "Do I really need to monitor Office 365?"
03 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A move to the cloud is almost always accompanied by change. Sometimes these changes are pretty obvious and easy to grasp while other times they are mo...
Episode 38: Outlook for Mac - No longer a second-class citizen..
27 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Outlook for Mac has come a long way since it's humble beginnings as Microsoft Entourage. As avid Outlook for Mac users ourselves, Nic and I were excit...
Episode 37: "Rumors of the death of email have been greatly exaggerated"
17 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Message transport in Office 365 "Just works" and is often considered to be the plumbing of the service. Despite the rise in popularity of social messa...
Episode 36: All about Microsoft FastTrack
09 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ever heard of Microsoft FastTrack? FastTrack helps customers deploy Microsoft cloud solutions - customers with eligible subscriptions can use FastTrac...
Episode 35: Calendar - Outlook's unsung hero!
18 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you're like me, your Outlook Calendar is the first thing you look at every morning and the last thing you look at before heading off to bed - days ...
Episode 34: Azure For AWS Professionals
06 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
With the explosive growth of cloud services, many organizations suddenly find themselves having to manage multiple cloud environments, either intentio...
Episode 33: Data warehousing, data lakes and big data with SQLChick
25 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Data warehousing is a massive topic! We've all heard of data lakes, data swamps and big data in general, but what does it all mean? We sat down with M...
Episode 32: Adoption vs Consumption (and feeding your kids broccoli)
01 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Adoption is top of mind for many organizations at the moment - be it adoption of a particular workload (like Microsoft Teams) or cloud services in gen...
Episode 31: Any cloud, anywhere over the internet with Philip Griffiths
22 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Nic and Chris catch up with Philip Griffiths about next-generation WAN being delivered over the internet, how perimeter security is not everything and...
Episode 30: The human side of adoption with Darrell Webster
08 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Nic catches up with Darrell Webster (aka Darrell as a Service) to talk about cloud adoption messes, infrastructure challenges, people challenges, how ...
Episode 29.1: Cloud Short - The value of Microsoft Inspire with Michael Van Horenbeeck
26 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Microsoft Inspire recently wrapped up in Las Vegas and in this episode, Nic catches up with Michael Van Horenbeeck to talk about his experience at Mic...
Ignite 2019 Special Edition - Call for Content
19 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
With Microsoft Ignite 2019 fast approaching, the Community Call for Content is now open and closes on August, 4. In this special episode, Anna Chu (a....
Episode 29: Exchange Online - "Massive scale.. granular control"
18 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ever wondered about the scale of Exchange Online or what it takes to manage a service at that scale while constantly deploying new features? Microsoft...
Episode 28: The Community Khaleesi Returns
11 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
July 1 every year is a big day for the MVP community - Its renewal day for MVPs and we also get to welcome new MVPs into the community. Nicolas, Warre...
Episode 27: Modern Hybrid In Exchange (and little old ladies)
29 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Microsoft Office 365 Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW) has come a long way since it was first introduced in Exchange 2010 SP2, prior to that confi...
Episode 26: "There is no choice... that is do nothing and stay secure"
10 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We often talk about "The long tail of previous best practices" and how in today's ever-evolving cloud landscape it is very important to follow updated...
Episode 25: The Legendary Ross Smith IV
11 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you've ever used the Exchange Server Role Requirements Calculator or consulted The Exchange Preferred Architecture you'll be very familiar with the...
Episode 24: Organizational Change Management and Adoption
14 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There is no denying that the only constant with cloud services is change, the nature and rate of this change often brings about some interesting chall...
Episode 23: Phoummala Schmitt - Azure Governance - Hong Kong
27 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When sitting having our morning breakfast at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong, we started a conversation with the incredible Phoummala Schmitt about Azure...
Episode 22: Governance With Antonio Maio
06 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Governance is a big word and is a concept that is often thrown around. It seems to confuse a lot of organizations, even those who have successfully na...
Episode 21: Get-IoTEpisode -GuestName "Anthony Bartolo"
13 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Internet of things (IoT) seems to be everywhere these days. Anything from connected light bulbs and door bells to sensors that monitor and report ...
Episode 20: Azure Active Directory and B2B
30 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We take for granted everyday that we can login securely to our Office 365 or Azure accounts, but do we ever wonder how that works or why it works the ...
Episode 19: Unsung Heroes
01 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Documentation is something we all rely on, especially in today's rapidly changing cloud world where the only constant seems to be change. Perhaps I'm ...
Episode 18: The One with Exchange Goddess
17 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Diversity and inclusion in tech was one of the powerful themes at Microsoft Ignite this year and I'm excited to see if get bigger every year. Nicolas ...
Episode 17: The Community Khaleesi
02 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Microsoft Tech Community was launched in 2016 and is an evolution of the Office 365 Network, extended to support the Azure; Windows Server, and S...
Episode 16: Jeff Mealiffe and the Awesomeness of Exchange (Ahem, Office 365)
20 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Nic and Warren have a chat to the Perf Guy himself, Principal Lead Program Manager at Microsoft, Jeff Mealiffe We talk the evolutio...
Episode 15: Automation, DevOps and the evolution of the IT Pro
15 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The word DevOps seems to be everywhere at the moment, I can't open LinkedIn without coming across a bunch of posts and articles talking about DevOps. ...
Episode 14: Waxing lyrical about GDPR with Tony Redmond
24 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been on everyone's mind recently. GDPR became enforceable today, 25 May 2018 and is a regulation in ...
Episode 13.1: Microsoft Cares about Developers, Here's Why! Tech Summit 2018 Cape Town
26 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, live from Tech Summit 2018 In Cape Town South Africa, Warren catches up with Bernd Verst, Bernd is an awesome and passionate Microsof...
Episode 13: All About Mary-Jo Foley
13 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this Episode, Nic and Warren had the privilege of interviewing the legendary Mary-Jo Foley, Mary-Jo has been covering the tech industry and Microso...
Episode 12: Skype for Business, Teams and the evolution of Telecommunications
19 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The telecommunications industry has come a long way since the days of manual service telephone exchanges. We caught up with fellow MVP Greig Sheridan...
Episode 11: "I'm not scared of what AI will do, but what humans will do with AI"
08 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this incredibly interesting episode, Warren and Nic catch up with Joe Baguley from VMware to talk what it's like speaking live in front of 90 milli...
Episode 10: Device Management needn't be complex
30 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mobility has been a hot topic for some time - in fact, IDC forecasts that the U.S. mobile worker population will surpass 105 million by 2020. Organiz...
Episode 8: SharePoint isn't so scary..
21 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
SharePoint can be intimidating, especially for those of use who don't work with it everyday. In this episode, WonderLaura tells us why SharePoint is...
Episode 7: “The cloud can make a real fool of you”
15 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Change can be difficult for any organization. Changing the working culture of your user population and driving product adoption can seem overwhelming,...
Episode 6: "I like OneDrive, but…"
05 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
OneDrive for Business has come a long way since it was initially launched and has earned it's place as a leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Conten...