Explain IT

In the hybrid working world, everyone needs a fast and secure way to connect to their company's data.WAN or Wide Area Networks technologies have had an impressive impact; It's now easier than ever to do business. Using intelligence to optimize traffic across multiple links, we’ve gone from a trickle of information being sent between two direct points to terabytes of data sent at lighting speed across a network of points. In this episode of Explain I.T, we answer some important questions. How do we manage those connections? How do we keep performance consistent? And how do we keep our data secure?To discuss this topic we’ve networked with our partners to bring you some expert guests Adam Batten, Networking and Connectivity Solutions Engineer at Softcat and Kanwar Loyal, VP of North Europe and MEA at Cato Networks.If you want to listen to more episodes from this season, new ones are released on the last Tuesday of every month. Alternatively, you can stream or download all episodes from every season on your preferred platform.Your host for this episode of Softcat’s Explain IT podcast is Helen Gidney, Softcat’s head of Architecture. Join us as we talk tech in simple jargon free language.You can stream or download all episodes from every season on your preferred platform or at softcat.com. Have you got a burning question for the team? Please send us an email to explainit@softcat.comThis podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

To the public, elections can look relatively simple. However for lots of public sector organisations, there are weeks of preparation fraught with risk, excitement and a huge sense of purpose. Despite using paper ballots and lots of people-based processes on the day, technology and digital is key to delivering a successful election. There are so many technology areas to think about pre and post-election, from how authorities can protect election data, and how they prevent interference or rigging, to how social media usage can help voting and reduce “fake news”, and even how a new government might affect authority IT investment.Here to help us through the minefield of information on this General Election Special is Softcat’s dream team, Paul Fleming – Advisory Lead for Public Sector, Radhika Rangaraju - Chief Strategist for Public Sector, and Kieron Newsham – Chief Technologist for Cyber Security.Your host for this episode of Softcat’s Explain IT podcast is Helen Gidney, Softcat’s head of Architecture. Join us as we talk tech in simple jargon free language.You can stream or download all episodes from every season on your preferred platform or at softcat.com. Have you got a burning question for the team? Please send us an email to explainit@softcat.comThis podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

In the year of AI, can we get even closer to having it right at our fingertips?Helen Gidney, Softcat’s head of Architecture, and a team of experts discuss this fascinating question. AI is developing quicker than we can think and we’re seeing it pop up in our everyday lives more and more and in this episode we'll answer the big AI questions of the moment like, what is an AI laptop or AI PC and what can one do? How can it help customers in their work day? What could AI PC’s help us do in the future?In today’s episode we’ll delve deeper, with the help of our expert guests Kelly Calver, Hybrid Workspace Sales Manager at Softcat, Carlos Bento Senior Technology Strategist at Microsoft and Carlos Fernandez Pilo Director, EMEA Enterprise & Commercial Channel Sales at Qualcomm Technologies Inc This podcast is released on the last Tuesday of every month. Alternatively, you can stream or download all episodes from every season on your preferred platform or at softcat.com. Have you got a burning question for the team? Please send us an email to explainit@softcat.comThis podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Do you know everything that’s going on in your organisation?Today we’re talking about Observability. It isn't just a buzzword; it is the evolution of application and network performance monitoring into a seamless way to measure your full systems health.As IT environments become more complicated, observability is crucial for pinpointing the root causes of issues, harnessing data and logs from every corner of your environment to ensure that your systems remain efficient, reliable, and customer-centric.Hosted by Ashleigh Baker, guest host and Team Leader in Softcat’s Architecture Services, Ashleigh has the help of our experts, Tom Rowley – Chief Technologist for Networking and Connectivity, and Mat Ryer - Principal Engineer at Grafana Labs, we’ll get more observant on the topic!This podcast is released on the last Tuesday of every month. Alternatively, you can stream or download all episodes from every season on your preferred platform or at softcat.com. Have you got a burning question for the team? Please send us an email to explainit@softcat.comThis podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

With the explosive growth of internet connected devices in our everyday world, from mobile phones to our cars and even our homes, we are generating massive amounts of data all the time. Traditional centralised infrastructures just can’t keep up with the pace of information. So how do we bring processing power closer to the source of this data to help us harness its insights? What is Edge Computing? What are the benefits of Edge Computing? What are the challenges with Edge computing and could customers use cloud instead of on-premise edge computing? As ever we'll answer these questions and more in simple, jargon free language. This episode is hosted by Helen Gidney, Softcat’s head of Architecture and features expert guests Gary Hawkins, Softcat’s chief technologist Hybrid Platforms, and Luke Price, Partner Technical Specialist at IBM.This podcast is released on the last Tuesday of every month. Alternatively, you can stream or download all episodes from every season on your preferred platform or at softcat.com. Have you got a burning question for the team? Please send us an email to explainit@softcat.comThis podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

AI has been making headlines for a while now, and this year we’ll see more and more businesses adopting it to improve their performance and efficiency. But how do we ensure that AI is used in a responsible and ethical way? How do we avoid the risks and pitfalls that come with such a powerful technology? And how do we stop AI from getting out of control?Podcast host Helen Gidney, Softcat’s Head of Architecture, along with a team of experts are here to answer these questions and talk tech in simple jargon free language.In this episode we get the help of our expert guests Arran Speding, Softcat's AI specialist lead, and Rebecca Gorman, CEO of one of our good friends Aligned AI.Any questions? Please send us an email to explainit@softcat.com Make sure you follow the ExplainIT podcast in all the usual places and join us on a fascinating journey through the wonderful world of tech. You can also find out more anytime you like at Softcat.comThis episode was produced by The Podcast Coach.

Part two of our Tech Predictions for 2024! You can hear part one, here.In the past twelve months, Explain I.T has generated over 20,000 unique downloads and covered an array of topics.In the present, we have a collective group of Softcat technologists here to share their thoughts on tech. And in the future, Explain I.T will have a new presenter; Helen Gidney, Softcat's very own Head of Architecture. So, along with Dean Gardner, Softcat's Technology Director, join Helen along with a whole host of tech experts as they look ahead to the key innovations and challenges we might see in 2024. As ever, we're here to Explain I.T as we talk tech in simple, jargon free language, all brought to you by Softcat. Also featuring on this episode are:Gary Hawkins - Chief Technologist - Data PlatformsKieron Newsham - Chief Technologist - Cyber SecurityJack Lewis - Chief Technologist - Digital WorkspaceTom Rowley - Chief Technologist - Networking and ConnectivityRichard Lamacraft - Chief Technologist - MicrosoftAdam Harding - Head of OCTO Ask questions, send us an email to explainit@softcat.com Make sure you follow the ExplainIT podcast in all the usual places and join us on a fascinating journey through the wonderful world of tech. You can also find out more anytime you like at Softcat.comThis episode was produced by The Podcast Coach.

In the past twelve months, Explain I.T has generated over 20,000 unique downloads and covered an array of topics. In the present, we have a collective group of softcat technologists here to share their thoughts on tech.  And in the future, Explain I.T will have a new presenter; Helen Gidney, Softcat's very own Head of Architecture.  So, along with Dean Gardner, Softcat's Technology Director, join Helen along with a whole host of tech experts as they look ahead to the key innovations and challenges we might see in 2024.  As ever, we're here to Explain I.T as we talk tech in simple, jargon free language, all brought to you by Softcat. Also featuring on this episode are:Gary Hawkins - Chief Technologist - Data PlatformsKieron Newsham - Chief Technologist - Cyber SecurityJack Lewis - Chief Technologist - Digital WorkspaceTom Rowley - Chief Technologist - Networking and ConnectivityRichard Lamacraft - Chief Technologist - MicrosoftAdam Harding - Head of OCTO Ask questions, send us an email to explainit@softcat.com Make sure you follow the ExplainIT podcast in all the usual places and join us on a fascinating journey through the wonderful world of tech. You can also find out more anytime you like at Softcat.comThis podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.