Edge of IT

What if the biggest cost driver in your AI strategy isn't the model, but the data underneath it?

In this episode of Edge of IT, host Jonathan Gough sits down with Vrashank Jain, Director of Product Management at Dell, and Brad Miller, Data and AI Sales Leader at Pellera, to unpack what Jonathan calls "the data layer tax": the hidden cost organizations pay when their data isn't ready for AI.

Together, they explore why the AI bottleneck has shifted from compute to data quality, how a disorganized data layer can double or triple your cost per query, and what context engineering actually looks like in practice. They also get into how to frame data investment for executive buy-in, why business acumen may matter more than coding skills, and where leaders should start if they know their data layer isn't ready.

If you want to get more out of AI without burning budget on bloated context windows, start here.

Enterprise networking currently faces an interesting quandary: Do you use AI to improve your network, or does your network need to improve to support AI? And between the two, where should you start?

In this episode of Edge of IT, host Jonathan Gough is joined by James Robertson, VP & Head of Field CTO & CISO at HPE, and James Bowick, Director of Solutions Architecture, Network & Network Security at Pellera Technologies, to unpack what's really changing beneath the surface of enterprise networking. Together, they explore how the network has evolved from carrying traffic to carrying business intent, security context, and the next wave of AI-driven decisions.

From the security challenges of east-west traffic to data sovereignty and managing decades of technical debt, this episode breaks down where modern networking stands and where leaders should start.

Nobody gets breached by a chatbot. They get breached because of the data the chatbot has access to.

In this episode, Jonathan Gough is joined by Tunde Oni-Daniel, Deputy CTO at OneMain Financial, and Niko Zivanovich, who leads Pellera's Cybersecurity practice in the West, to unpack why every AI and security conversation inevitably becomes a conversation about data governance, identity, and access.

Together, they explore how threat actors are weaponizing AI to find vulnerabilities, scale attacks, and move faster than traditional defenses can keep up. The conversation makes one thing clear: Organizations can’t afford to rely on patch-and-monitor thinking alone. They need to know where their critical data lives, who has access to it, and how to stress-test their defenses before an attacker does.

From offensive security and automated defense to governance, tagging, and identity hygiene, this episode is a clear reminder that the organizations best positioned to benefit from AI are the ones that get the fundamentals right first.

In the Season 4 premiere of Edge of IT, host Jonathan Gough welcomes back Emily Martin, Executive Vice President of AI Strategy at Pellera, for her third appearance on the show. Together, they unpack why AI adoption feels so overwhelming right now, and why the answer isn't a better roadmap, it's a better operating model.

Emily breaks down the framework she uses with clients: AI as a feature, a product, and a factory, not a ladder to climb, but a consumption management model that shifts with what an organization actually needs. They also dig into the increasingly tricky world of tokenomics and model selection, and why the smartest AI decisions have less to do with the technology and more to do with who's in the room.

If you're wondering where your organization stands on the road to an AI factory, or whether that road even ends, this episode is for you.

To learn is to iterate: ask a question, get an answer, and immediately ask another. If you work in IT, you know this. If you listen to Edge of IT, you're about to watch it come to life.

Host and Pellera Chief Scientist Jonathan Gough is back for Season 4, and with technology moving faster than ever, keeping pace with the bleeding edge takes the kind of relentless questions this podcast is ready to ask.

This season is all about building for a future no one can fully see. Together, we’ll explore how the sharpest leaders, strategists, and technologists are making the right calls right now. The calls that are unlocking competitive advantage, measurable ROI, and unparalleled innovation.

Each episode brings you candid conversations with the people closest to the work, packed with actionable insights. So if you're ready to hear the questions fueling the next wave of curiosity, follow us and don't miss an episode.