AI Proving Ground Podcast

• Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A): The Future of Enterprise AI

  Agentic AI systems have the potential to work together, but not yet at scale. This episode breaks down two emerging standards — Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) communication. Both promise modular AI integration, safer data flows, and agentic collaboration that actually scales. WWT engineer Sally Jankovic and AI advisor David Geddam explain why these protocols are becoming essential infrastructure for enterprise AI.Support for this episode provided by: GleanMore about this week's guests:Sally Jankovic earned her PhD in Applied Math from the University of Minnesota in 2023. Drawn to real-world problem-solving, she began her career as a data scientist at a healthcare startup, working on ML, NLP, and LLMs. Her hands-on experience led her to the platform team before joining WWT, where she was inspired by the MC group's collaborative culture and the chance to work across diverse tech stacks and projects.Sally's top pick: Agent-2-Agent Protocol (A2A) - A Deep DiveDavid Geddam is a Senior AI Advisor and Chief Solution Architect at World Wide Technology, with 25+ years of experience in AI, healthcare tech and enterprise solutions. He’s held key roles at Kaiser Permanente, GE Healthcare, Philips, IBM Watson Imaging and multiple startups. David holds degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Healthcare Technology and specializes in AI, cloud, NLP, computer vision and real-time navigation. On the hobbies front, he is involved in playing competitive tennis at USTA 4.0 level for teams in St. Louis.David's top pick: Scaling Agentic AI: Impact of Model Context (MCP) and Agentic (A2A) protocolsThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground. The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others. Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.

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• AI's Invisible Bottleneck: Why AI Stalls at the Network, not the GPU

  For many, AI success isn’t limited by how many GPUs you can buy; it’s limited by how fast those GPUs can talk to each other without tripping over the plumbing. In this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast, two of WWT’s top networking minds —Justin van Schaik and Eric Fairfield — lay out the real choke points slowing AI projects to a crawl and how powerful, modernized network architectures are quietly rewriting the rulebook for scaling AI.Support for this episode is provided by: NokiaLearn more about this week's guest:Justin van Shaik is a Technical Solutions Architect at World Wide Technology, specializing in High Performance Networking, AI and Open Networking. A seasoned technologist, he helps organizations design and deploy advanced infrastructure to support next-gen workloads at scale.Justin's top pick: The Future of High Performance Networking: Ultra Ethernet ExplainedEric Fairfield is a Technical Solutions Architect at World Wide Technology with a passion for solving data center networking challenges. He specializes in Cisco ACI, VMware NSX and their integration. Outside of tech, Eric has spent over 30 years immersed in motorsports, working with F1, IndyCar, IMSA and other major racing organizations.Eric's top pick: WWT at ONUG AI Networking Summit—Dallas 2025The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground. The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others. Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.

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• Jack in the Box CTO Reveals AI Playbook

  Jack in the Box CTO Doug Cook and WWT Chief Digital Advisor Charlie Lawhorn detail how a multi-year modernization sprint paved the way for advancements in AI — and what every business can learn from the fast-food chain's journey. Doug and Charlie offer a candid conversation that delivers a playbook for prioritizing AI use cases, funding innovation in capital-constrained environments and rolling out AI with minimal disruption.For more about this week's guests:Doug Cook joined Jack in the Box as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer in October of 2021. Cook brings more than 20 years of industry experience leading guest and employee-facing platforms to Jack in the Box. Cook most recently served as interim CTO of Jack in the Box, effectively leading the technology team and strategy during his interim period. Prior to joining Jack in the Box, Cook served as Chief Information Officer at Pizza Hut. Before Pizza Hut, Cook spent two decades with Sonic applying leading-edge technologies and analytics to grow the company's innovation and market position.Doug's top pick: Jack in the Box Case StudyCharlie Lawhorn is an experienced transformation leader with a career dedicated to designing and executing complex programs that help organizations navigate digital change. He specializes in aligning process design with modern digital technologies to enhance enterprise relevance and performance in a data-driven marketplace. Charlie leads teams that prioritize business outcomes, working closely with stakeholders to identify opportunities, apply the right processes and technologies and deliver measurable business value.Charlie's top pick: Modernizing the Point of Sale at Jack in the Box to Drive Efficiency, Insights and GrowthThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground. The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others. Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.

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• What Cisco Live 2025 Revealed About the Future of Enterprise AI

  At Cisco Live 2025, the networking giant rolled out a sweeping agenda to make AI not just powerful, but practical — and secure. In this episode, we caught up with leaders from Cisco, NVIDIA and WWT to talk about what this year's announcements actually mean for enterprise teams tasked with building scalable, secure, AI-ready infrastructure. From the rise of the Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA to the reality of agentic workflows and persistent inference traffic, this episode unpacks the architectural shifts reshaping the modern data center.Learn more about this week's guests:Kevin Wollenweber is Cisco's Senior Vice President and General Manager of Data Center, Internet, and Cloud Infrastructure. In this role, he leads product strategy to enhance Cisco's infrastructure solutions for the data center, high-performance routing, and mobile networks. His leadership is pivotal in driving growth and developing cutting-edge solutions to meet the dynamic needs of businesses worldwide.Kevin's top pick: About Cisco and WWTChris Marriott is the VP/GM of Enterprise Platforms at NVIDIA, where he has spent 14 years advancing enterprise solutions. With a background in engineering, including 10 years in ASIC development, Chris combines technical expertise with strategic insight to address the evolving tech landscape.Chris's top pick: About NVIDIA and WWTNeil Anderson has over 30 years of experience in Software Development, Wireless, Security, Networking, Data Center, Cloud and AI technologies. At WWT Neil is an VP in our Global Solutions and Architecture team, with responsibility for over $16B in WWT's solutions portfolio across AI, Networking, Cloud, Data Center, and Automation. Neil advises many large organizations on their global architecture and IT strategy across Global Enterprise, Global Service Provider, and Public Sector. Neil is also on the advisory board of several high-tech companies and startups.Neil's top pick: Building for Success: A CTO's Guide to Generative AIThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground. The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others. Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.

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• 3 Easy Steps to Kickstart AI the Right Way

  AI leaders these days have little time for proofs of concept. They need ROI. If you're leading AI transformation in a large organization, this episode of the AI Proving Ground Podcast is your blueprint. AI consultants Kathleen Nowicke and Yoni Malchi share how top enterprises prioritize use cases, align across business units and unlock lasting ROI, and detail a three-step process to get AI right from the start.Support for this episode provided by: VAST DataMore about this week's guests:Kathleen Nowicke is an experienced consultant in data-driven digital transformation, with a broader background in Enterprise Architecture and a passion for healthcare. Skilled in leading delivery of complex services engagements, business development, and building high-performing teams. Previous consulting experience with Boston Consulting Group; PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.Kathleen's top pick: Building for Success: A CTO's Guide to Generative AIYoni Malchi is a Managing Director in Consulting Services at WWT focused on AI and Cloud Strategy. He leads AI engagements with key customers bridging the gap between the business and technology teams. Yoni also leads the AI R&D efforts which researches cutting-edge AI techniques, tools, and platforms to provide differentiated recommendations to our clients.Yoni's top pick: A Guide for CEOs to Accelerate AI Excitement and AdoptionThe AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions. Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground. The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others. Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.

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