Virtually Speaking Podcast

At VMUG Connect 2026 in Minneapolis, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with security expert Bob Plankers to discuss how AI is changing cybersecurity—on both sides of the battle.

The conversation explores how threat actors are increasingly using AI-powered techniques, from sophisticated social engineering attacks to campaigns like UNC5221 and “Brickstorm.” Bob explains why identity remains the primary attack surface, why many organizations still misunderstand Zero Trust, and how privileged accounts have become some of the most valuable targets in modern IT environments.

The discussion also covers AI-generated voice and video impersonation, the importance of strong identity controls, conditional access, privileged access management, and why organizations need to think differently about trust in an era where convincing fakes can be generated in seconds.

Finally, the team explores how AI can be used defensively, including emerging efforts by frontier model providers to identify vulnerabilities, improve software security, and help organizations stay ahead in the cybersecurity arms race.

At KubeCon 2026 in Amsterdam, Jad El-Zein and John Nicholson sit down with Philippe Klapp from F5 to discuss the evolution of Kubernetes networking, ingress, Gateway API, and web application security in modern cloud-native environments.

The conversation explores how F5 has evolved from traditional hardware load balancers to cloud-native solutions running inside Kubernetes clusters, including NGINX, Container Ingress Services (CIS), and Distributed Cloud. They also discuss VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS), Gateway API momentum, WAF deployment models, AI-era protocols like MCP, and what platform engineering means for both VMware and F5 customers.

If you’re running Kubernetes at scale or trying to simplify networking and security across private cloud and platform engineering workflows this episode is packed with practical insights.

Guests: Philippe Klapp, F5

Hosts: Jad El-Zein & John Nicholson

Event: KubeCon 2026 – Amsterdam

At KubeCon 2026 in Amsterdam, Jad El-Zein and John Nicholson sit down with Duffie Cooley, Field CTO at Isovalent, to talk about eBPF, Cilium, Kubernetes networking, and the growing partnership between Isovalent and VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS).

The conversation dives into how Cilium integrates with VKS as a day-zero add-on, how eBPF changes networking and observability inside Kubernetes, and why technologies like BGP, ECMP, and kube-proxy replacement matter for scalable modern platforms.

Duffie also explains how Isovalent and VMware networking strategies complement each other, how enterprise capabilities extend beyond open source Cilium, and why add-on ecosystems are becoming critical for platform engineering teams operating Kubernetes at scale.

If you’re building modern Kubernetes platforms, exploring VKS, or trying to simplify networking and security operations, this episode is packed with practical insights from one of the pioneers behind the technology.

Guest: Duffie Cooley, Field CTO – Isovalent

Hosts: Jad El-Zein & John Nicholson

Event: KubeCon 2026 – Amsterdam

etworking has traditionally been one of the biggest barriers to private cloud agility. In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with Dimitri Desmidt from the VMware Cloud Foundation Networking team to explore how VCF Networking simplifies network operations in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1.

The discussion covers how VPCs, connectivity policies, IP Address Management (IPAM) integration, and network automation allow infrastructure teams to provision networking services directly from vCenter without requiring deep networking expertise or constant coordination with network administrators.

Dimitri walks through real-world examples showing how VCF Networking delivers self-service networking, multi-tenancy, simplified application isolation, and integrated network services while preserving the flexibility and scale required by modern private cloud environments.

If you’ve ever wanted networking to be as easy to consume as compute and storage, this episode is for you.

Troubleshooting complex IT environments isn’t just about technology, it’s about people, process, and collaboration.

Recorded at VMware Connect 2026, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with Kim Delgado and Mandy Bosco-Wilson (better known as Team Kandy) to discuss collaborative troubleshooting methodologies that help organizations solve problems faster and more effectively.

The conversation explores common troubleshooting anti-patterns, the importance of psychological safety, blameless inquiry, scientific troubleshooting methods, and real-world examples of complex issues spanning vSAN, Kubernetes, Cloud Native Storage, networking, and infrastructure operations.

Kim and Mandy share stories from the field, including how a seemingly simple issue bounced between multiple support teams before collaborative troubleshooting uncovered the true root cause. They also discuss strategies for handling multi-vendor incidents, avoiding siloed thinking, and creating environments where everyone can contribute to finding solutions.

Whether you’re a VMware administrator, platform engineer, SRE, architect, or IT operations leader, this episode offers practical techniques you can apply to your own troubleshooting processes.