KBKAST

In this episode, we sit down with Nathan Thomas, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), to explore Oracle’s evolving multi cloud strategy and the major trends shaping the cloud landscape. Nathan discusses the company’s shift from an Oracle-first approach to a multi cloud reality, driven by customer expectations for flexibility, governance, and sovereignty of data. He highlights the persistent demand for sovereign solutions, the impact of AI on accelerating multi cloud adoption, and the need for seamless integration and portability as customer loyalty becomes more fluid. Nathan also delves into the complexities of cloud migration, Oracle’s focus on delivering efficient and cost-effective infrastructure, and how maintaining a narrow focus on core services differentiates OCI in a crowded marketplace. Finally, he emphasizes the importance of holding cloud vendors accountable for innovation, value, and enabling truly multi cloud operations.

Nathan Thomas is senior vice president of Product Management at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), overseeing product strategy and development of Oracle’s cloud and multicloud services. His organization is responsible for providing secure, reliable, and high-performance solutions that enable customers to run Oracle’s industry-leading services across their preferred cloud environments, addressing complex technical challenges and promoting long-term innovation and growth.

Prior to Oracle, Nathan held senior product and engineering leadership roles at Amazon Web Services, Epic Games, Google Cloud, and Red Hat. His work has been instrumental in promoting enterprise adoption of open-source technologies, driving the commercialization of cloud computing, and broadening the application of real-time 3D technology across multiple industries.

Nathan is based in Nashville, Tennessee.

In this episode, we sit down with César Cernuda, President at NetApp, as he explores the growing significance of data and the evolving role of trust, governance, and transparency in managing this strategic asset. César discusses how organizations and nations must build intelligent data infrastructures to enable AI and navigate complex regulatory landscapes, emphasizing the importance of cybersecurity, interoperability, and modernizing data lakes. We also examine the balance between protection and openness, the resurgence of sovereign cloud requirements, and the pressure for leaders to cultivate a data-first mindset to stay competitive.

César Cernuda has led NetApp’s integrated go-to-market organization since July 2020, delivering on the company’s promise to meet customers wherever they are on their digital-transformation journeys by providing the superior products, specialist skills, and services they need to architect, build, and manage their data fabrics.

César joined NetApp following a long career at Microsoft, where he served as President of Microsoft Asia Pacific, President of Microsoft Latin America, and Global Corporate Vice President of the brand. Having walked in the shoes of NetApp’s enterprise customers, he brings a customer-centric perspective to all he does as president. César serves as the non-executive director and Chairman of the ESG committee at Gestamp, an international organization dedicated to the automotive industry; as an advisory board member of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business; and as an international advisory board member of IESE Business School – University of Navarra.

Richard Stiennon is Chief Research Analyst for IT-Harvest, the firm he founded in 2005 to cover the 3,051+ vendors that make up the IT security industry. He has presented on the topic of cybersecurity in 31 countries on six continents. He was a lecturer at Charles Sturt University in Australia. He is the author of Surviving Cyberwar (Government Institutes, 2010) and Washington Post Best Seller, There Will Be Cyberwar.  Stiennon was Chief Strategy Officer for Blancco Technology Group, the Chief Marketing Officer for Fortinet, Inc. and VP Threat Research at Webroot Software. Prior to that he was VP Research at Gartner. He has a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and his MA in War in the Modern World from King’s College, London. His latest book Security Yearbook 2022 was released in June, 2022. Get a copy here.

Data is exploding. Environments are getting noisier and the line between observability and security, it’s basically gone. Search isn’t just a feature anymore, it’s infrastructure. It’s how you see, how you detect, and ultimately how you defend from ai, power detection, engineering to unified visibility across logs, metrics, t races and security telemetry. We’re officially in a world where if you can’t search it in real time, you can’t secure it.

This bonus episode features Mandy Andress, CISO at Elastic, live from Elastic{ON} Sydney 2026. As Australia navigates its unique, sector-led approach to AI regulation, Karissa Breen and Mandy Andress explore the challenges—and opportunities—facing CISOs on the front lines of the agentic AI revolution.

Mandy Andress is currently the CISO of Elastic and has a long career focused on information risk and security.‬ Prior to Elastic, Mandy led the information security function at MassMutual and established and built information security programs at TiVo, Evant, and Privada. She worked as a security consultant with Ernst & Young and Deloitte & Touche, focusing on energy, financial services, and Internet technology clients with global operations. She also founded an information security consulting company with clients ranging from Fortune‬ 100 companies to start up organizations.‬

‭She is a published author, with her book Surviving Security having two editions and used at multiple‬ universities around the world as the textbook for foundation information security courses. Mandy also tested‬ and reviewed information security products for multiple publications as well as serving as the author for the weekly InfoWorld security column. She has been a sought after expert in the field, speaking at signature‬ security conferences such as BlackHat and Networld+Interop. In addition, she has taught a graduate level‬ Information Risk Management course for UMass Amherst in the College of Information and Computer‬ Sciences.‬

Mandy has a JD from Western New England University, a Master’s in Management Information Systems from Texas A&M University, and a B.B.A in Accounting from Texas A&M University. Mandy is a CISSP, CPA, and‬ member of the Texas Bar.‬

In this episode, we sit down with Simon Cook, Director of New Offerings at Genetec, as he discusses the convergence between physical and cybersecurity, and the impact of global standards such as GDPR and IRAP on industry practices. Simon details the shift from siloed teams to collaborative approaches, highlighting how increased connectivity and advancements like generative AI have expanded the attack surface, making cyber risks a broader business concern. He explores the ongoing challenges of device security—from consumer cameras to enterprise solutions—and the market’s growing awareness of attack vectors stemming from seemingly innocuous network devices. Simon also unpacks the complexities of privacy legislation, especially the right to be forgotten, emphasizing the need for technology providers to embed privacy and trust by design at every stage of product development. Finally, he offers insight into the future direction of physical security, predicting the acceleration of proactive, technology-driven systems and deeper integration of compliance frameworks worldwide.

Simon is a highly motivated, innovative and creative security professional with almost 20 years’ experience in the Pre-Sales and design space working with hardware, software and cloud solutions. Leadership experience and a proven track record of success growing and evolving teams in both medium and large organisations and on a global scale. Accustomed to speaking up to C- Level, in public forums and to press. A commercial techie that is inspired by good products, and passionate and motivated people.