In this podcast episode of This Week in Enterprise Technology, Hyoun Park and Charles Araujo critically assess the biggest tech news for the CIO office:
- Salesforce Hypes AI Success But Agentic Demand Still Lags
- IDC Launches AI-Based TechMatch for Software Selection
- IBM Plans to Acquire DataStax, Finishes Acquiring HashiCorp
- Take This Open Source Tech and Fork It
- RIP Skype: August 29, 2003 – May 5, 2025
- Overcommit and Don’t Invest: Microsoft Cuts Data Center Leases
- Wasabi Reports Data Center Costs Out Of Control
- Pew: Only 12% of Workers are Trained on AI
- Sergey Brin Wants Googlers In the Office Five Days a Week
- DOGE Shuts Down 18F, An Agency that Cut Software Costs
Buzzsprout Podcast Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2319034/episodes/16730460
For this video presentation of This Week in Enterprise Technology, Hyoun Park and Charles Araujo critically assess the biggest tech issues for the CIO office:
- Salesforce Hypes AI Success But Agentic Demand Still Lags
- IDC Launches AI-Based TechMatch for Software Selection
- IBM Plans to Acquire DataStax, Finishes Acquiring HashiCorp
- Take This Open Source Tech and Fork It
- RIP Skype: August 29, 2003 – May 5, 2025
- Overcommit and Don’t Invest: Microsoft Cuts Data Center Leases
- Wasabi Reports Data Center Costs Out Of Control
- Pew: Only 12% of Workers are Trained on AI
- Sergey Brin Wants Googlers In the Office Five Days a Week
- DOGE Shuts Down 18F, An Agency that Cut Software Costs
Salesforce Hypes AI Success But Agentic Demand Still Lags
A Tale of Two Agentforces. It was the best of times. It was the worst times. Salesforce ended its 2025 fiscal year with a ‘quarter of Agentforce’ with over 3,000 paying enterprise customers The company reported $900 million in revenue from its Data Cloud and AI segment, up nearly 120% from the previous year. But, Salesforce has admitted that demand for Agentforce is lower than expected, pushing back revenue expectations to 2027. Which of these two realities actually describes salesforce best? Charles and Hyoun duke it out.
Roberto Torres of CIO Dive: https://www.ciodive.com/news/salesforce-agentforce-AI-Q4-2025/741212/
Tom Krazit of Runtime News: https://www.runtime.news/salesforce-fesses-up-demand-for-ai-agents-is-slow/
IDC Launches AI-Based TechMatch for Software Selection
IDC is debuting a software selection tool based on analyst input. For large analyst firms, software selection support has been a challenge as many junior analysts have practically become contact center representatives taking calls and basing recommendations on Marketscapes, Marketscopes, Magic, and other existing research documents. Does this change the industry analyst market? Hyoun and Charles wrestle with this issue.
IBM Plans to Acquire DataStax, Finishes Acquiring HashiCorp
IBM had a good week as they both planned to acquire long time AI data partner DataStax and completed its Hashicorp purchase. IBM has focused on solving large problems regarding IT orchestration and modernizing large data environments. Charles and Hyoun discuss how both acquisitions fit strategically into IBM‘s specific hybrid cloud strategy for large enterprises. .
Datastax: https://www.datastax.com/blog/ibm-plans-to-acquire-datastax
Hyoun’s LinkedIn Response: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/hyounpark_accelerating-production-ai-and-bringing-nosql-activity-7300215943660552193-Iz6x
Take This Open Source Tech and Fork It
Dr Dawn Foster, director of data science at the CHAOSS Project, presented at the State Of Open Con ’25 in London regarding three major Open Source projects – Terraform, Redis, and Elasticsearch – and how they were forked after their licenses were changed for commercial reasons. Hyoun and Charles discuss repercussions for the CIO office in maintaining Open Source with a nod to Tidelift.
The Register: https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/24/open_source_licensing/
RIP Skype: August 29, 2003 – May 5, 2025
Microsoft has officially committed to an end date for Skype, a product that helped define the new world of computer-aided communications, but struggled to keep up with market demands over time. Microsoft transferred a lot of Skype capabilities to Teams and largely crippled Skype’s community over the past five years. Charles and Hyoun lament the end of an era and imagine what might have been.
Overcommit and Don’t Invest: Microsoft Cuts Data Center Leases
Based on a TD Cowen research note, Microsoft seems to have both canceled some leases and refrained from moving forward with other leases as Microsoft cuts back on data commitments. Even mighty Microsoft has limits on AI related spend as the financial considerations have changed rapidly. Hyoun and Charles marvel at how data center capacity is still a big CIO concern.
ForexLive: https://www.forexlive.com/news/here-is-the-td-data-center-note-that-has-everyone-buzzing-20250223/
Wasabi Reports Data Center Costs Out Of Control
Cloud Storage provider Wasabi reports 62% of its research respondents overran their budget in 2024. Charles and Hyoun bemoan how egress fees are a massive cost tracking concern for cloud IT.
Pew: Only 12% of Workers are Trained on AI
A recent Pew Research Center survey shows only 12% of workers have been trained on AI over the last year. But Charles thinks that Pew is asking the wrong question when it comes to AI adoption.
CIO Dive: https://www.ciodive.com/news/workers-lack-AI-training/740920/
Sergey Brin Wants Google Workers In the Office Five Days a Week
Google co-founder Sergey Brin suggests the Gemini team should work harder in the office. Despite his comments, Google still maintains a three-day office work policy. But both Charles and Hyoun have different reasons to think that Sergey is misplacing his blame for Google’s struggles in AI.
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/technology/google-sergey-brin-return-to-office.html
DOGE Shuts Down 18F, An Agency that Cut Software Costs
DOGE takes a look at government software license utilization, a topic that both Charles and Hyoun have plenty of experience with. We were… not impressed with the approach. And Elon Musk shut down the 18F agency & got rid of FinOps pros who had a variety of big wins both to reduce the cost of government and make access to government services easier, such as its recent free tax filing service.
Wired: https://www.wired.com/story/doge-software-license-cancel-federal-budget/
Silicon Angle: https://siliconangle.com/2025/03/02/elon-musks-doge-shuts-gsas-technology-unit/
Mark Cuban’s take: https://bsky.app/profile/mcuban.bsky.social/post/3lje6uqhmdc2w
18F Guide to Software Selection: https://guides.18f.gov/derisking-government-tech/