Explore the forefront of AI technology in our exclusive AITech Interview with Osmond and Dave, experts from Intelligent CloudCare. Unravel the potential of intelligent solutions and their impact on the future of businesses.
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role as the manager of Intelligent CloudCare.
Ozzie – As far back as I can remember I’ve been surrounded by computers and technology. It all started with my aunt’s Commodore 64 PC when I was in my youth. I found it fascinating. There’s a quote from the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, “I asked for a car, I got a computer.” My situation is relatable. When I became old enough to drive all I wanted was a car. Instead, I received a new IBM PC.
I started my professional career in 2001, as a bench tech for a local IT solutions company. Since then, I’ve played varying roles, across a multitude of teams, ranging from higher education and medical billing to manufacturing and industrial design. Needless to say, it’s been quite a journey! These experiences showed me just how much technology is interwoven with so many aspects of our daily lives.
My current role, as the Sr. IT Manager of Intelligent CloudCare, is by far my favorite. I’ve been given the opportunity to develop a team and oversee the day-to-day operations, as well as grow the Intelligent CloudCare brand. My goal is to empower and encourage. My role is to foster individual progress and align team evolution with our overall organizational strategy- not an easy thing to pull off. However, I like to think I’ve won a bit of lottery. My team is truly second to none. Each member has so much passion, and brings an exceeding amount of knowledge, as well as personal style, to every task they undertake. They almost make it too easy for me.
Steve Jobs once said, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”, and I am fortunate enough to see that in action every day.
What inspired you to pursue a career in AI and cloud technology, and how did you first get started in the industry?
Dave – I’ve been working with technology since I was a little kid, and after college I started blogging for a collection of websites focused on the IT channel. As a blogger, I traveled to trade shows that focused on cloud technology, interviewing key channel players while also reviewing products and hosted platforms unique for managed service providers. In 2010 cloud was still nascent and the hype was everywhere, with various cloud-based suites and tools popping in and out of existence. 13 years later, things have matured, and now artificial intelligence seems like a natural extension of the last decade’s worth of advancements.
Can you tell us more about Intelligent CloudCare and its mission and vision?
Dave – Intelligent CloudCare was spun off from Intelligent Production Solutions as we sought to bring the same level of care and detail from our internal work at IPS to the IT space as a Managed Service Provider. Our mission is to provide exceptional IT support, protection, and education for small to mid-sized companies worldwide.
In your opinion, what are the most exciting recent developments in AI and cloud technology, and how do you see these innovations impacting businesses and consumers in the near future?
Dave – In the cloud space, the tools for managed service providers are getting increasingly more sophisticated and robust. Remote monitoring and management tools continue to expand their feature list, enabling us to do more for an end-user with less interaction or intervention. Essentially, each year, the cloud becomes more central to the environment we work in, and a web browser becomes a portal to all things. When AI becomes incorporate into these environments, I expect natural-language alerts and recommendations when issues crop up, instead of reviewing a list of logs or alerts that still leave us researching a fix. In a word: streamlining.
The overall impact on business will be the same thing – an increased efficiency that will become in-demand by MSPs so they can compete to provide a higher quality of service.
As a manager, what are some of the biggest challenges you face when it comes to developing and implementing new AI and cloud-based solutions for your clients?
Ozzie – AI and cloud-based solutions is the future. One of the biggest challenges I face is determining when it is necessary to implement one as a solution. I need to believe it is the best solution because I need my client to believe in it as well. Cloud solutions have been around long enough where businesses are starting to feel more comfortable scaling out their infrastructure to the cloud. AI solutions are far more situational. While AI can be useful, it’s still unreliable in the fact that, well, it can’t distinguish fact entirely.
Dave – I think managing expectations around AI is the biggest thing right now. Depending on what you use it for, it can produce bad results or simply non-factual information, especially when we’re looking at products like ChatGPT. When it comes to AI generated art, there becomes a question of copyright based on what images it was trained on. I think the ‘killer app’ for AI is natural language search or interaction.
We’ve yet to see AI implemented in the MSP space as a tool we can use for our clients but it won’t be long until there are integrations for many existing products. Whether or not the AI component is a useful or just a neat gimmick really remains to be seen.
How do you ensure that your AI and cloud technology is secure and protects sensitive data from cyber threats and other security risks?
Dave – For our IT services clients, we use a variety of encryption-based tools and secure backup technologies that keep data safe in the cloud. Likewise, Microsoft’s Office 365 suite has also proved to be robust and secure. Our largest concern is less about data in the cloud and more about local data on-site that is *not* backed up to the cloud. Data lurking locally that is not controlled or properly protected is the real target for things like ransomware and data exfiltrating malware.
What advice would you give to businesses looking to adopt AI and cloud technology in their operations, but are unsure about where to start or how to ensure a successful implementation?
Dave – Go cloud first, understanding your objectives and needs, then you can start to look at where AI might fit into that puzzle. There’s nothing I’ve seen that is ‘off-the-shelf’ that has AI baked in and is professionally ready to go. Sure, some products may boast AI integration, but it’s still very much an open beta for the world.
As AI and cloud technology continue to evolve and become more advanced, how do you see these developments impacting the job market and the skills required for success in the industry?
Dave – Perhaps in the far-off future we’ll be looking for folks with machine learning skills who can build out custom AI platforms or develop AI models that match the needs of our clients. I don’t see AI supplanting the traditional needs for a break-fix IT technician or human interaction, I still see it as augmentation for existing IT support.
How do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and advancements in AI and cloud technology, and what resources do you rely on for ongoing learning and development?
Dave – I’m always reading the latest blogs that cover innovations or new discoveries. Hack-a-Day is as big favorite, and I have a collection of other geek-news RSS feeds. Collecting the information on what’s happening on the bleeding edge helps us anticipate what will be coming down to the end-user (or MSP) in the near future and helps us serve our IT clients better.
Looking ahead to the next 5-10 years, what are your predictions for the future of AI and cloud technology, and how do you see these technologies shaping our world and our daily lives?
Dave – I think interacting with computers using natural language will become a default user interface before long, quickly approaching something like the ship’s computer in Star Trek. As the cloud becomes more advanced and interwoven, AI technologies will help navigate those systems for the standard end user.
Osmond Lane,
Senior Technology Manager at Intelligent CloudCare
Osmond Lane, Senior Technology Manager at Intelligent CloudCare, has a more than 20-year career in technology. Prior to joining Intelligent CloudCare, he worked in a wide array of industries, including at Harvard Business School and Wayfair. Intelligent CloudCare is a Managed Service Provider that helps companies improve their cybersecurity hygiene, protect against ransomware attacks, and manage their networks and infrastructure.
Dave Courbanou
Manager at Intelligent CloudCare
Dave Courbanou is one of the senior members of Intelligent CloudCare, and leads the CloudCare University educational portal as a content creator, producing security awareness training for corporations or individuals. Intelligent CloudCare is a Managed Service Provider, helping companies improve their cybersecurity hygiene, protect against ransomware attacks, and manage their networks and infrastructure.
