Russell Smith

For years, cybersecurity teams have focused on keeping attackers out. But in today’s AI-driven environments, the bigger challenge may be understanding what’s happening after they get in. New research from ExtraHop shows that nearly half of organizations don’t detect attacks until after data has already been exfiltrated. Joining me today is Heath Mullins, Chief Evangelist…

User provisioning has evolved beyond simply creating Active Directory (AD) accounts. Modern IT teams must manage the entire identity lifecycle across Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, HR systems, on-premises directories, and cloud platforms. As organizations adopt more applications and support increasingly distributed workforces, manually provisioning and deprovisioning users becomes inefficient and risky. Delayed…

Microsoft is merging the consumer and commercial versions of Copilot into a single app but is your corporate data governance ready? At the same time, they’ve launched an AI security platform where autonomous agents hunt for your vulnerabilities around the clock, and published an AI containment framework that says, in black and white, if you…

Microsoft Entra ID sits underneath Microsoft 365, Azure, and thousands of enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. If users, groups, app registrations, Conditional Access policies, roles, or service principals are deleted or misconfigured, the impact is not limited to the identity team. Users can lose access to core business applications, administrators can lose privileged access workflows, and…

AI agents can now write code, investigate incidents, and in some cases resolve IT problems before anyone is even aware there’s an issue. But how close are we really to autonomous IT? In this episode, I sit down with Karthik Sj, Chief AI Officer at LogicMonitor, to explore how AI is moving beyond chatbots into…

Many organizations are rushing to adopt artificial intelligence (AI), but according to Troy Norcross, AI Governance Advisor and Founder of SERTeam, they are approaching the challenge from the wrong direction. In a recent episode of Petri Dish, Norcross explained that too many companies are starting with AI and looking for places to use it, rather…

Microsoft 365 is the productivity backbone for many organizations, but it doesn’t include a ‘complete’ backup solution out-of-the-box. Microsoft has improved the native story with Microsoft 365 Backup and Microsoft 365 Backup Storage, but third-party backup solutions remain important because they often cover more workloads, offer richer retention and recovery options, and provide additional data…

AI is changing almost every part of the tech hiring process, from how candidates tailor résumés and apply for roles to how employers screen, assess, and communicate with applicants. But as both sides lean more heavily on automation, the process risks becoming noisier, less personal, and harder to trust. In this episode, I’m joined by…

Microsoft Entra ID is now the identity control plane for many organizations, but managing Entra ID well is no longer just about creating users, assigning groups, or enabling multifactor authentication (MFA). Identity teams are dealing with hybrid Active Directory (AD), Microsoft 365, SaaS apps, privileged access, contractors, lifecycle automation, audit evidence, service accounts, and identity-based…

Copilot Cowork is here but so are Copilot Credits, cost controls and awkward ROI questions. This month, Russell Smith and Craig Birch also dig into Windows Ready Print, NTLM’s future, and Microsoft’s passkey push. Episode overview Thanks to Cayosoft for sponsoring this episode!

Is your organization building real business value with AI or just putting on a show? In this episode of Petri Dish, Russell Smith speaks with Troy Norcross, Founder of SER Team, Fractional COO and AI Governance Advisor, about why so many enterprise AI projects fail to deliver meaningful results. Instead of starting with a clear…

Finance wants to become more strategic, but IT has to provide the governed, trustworthy data foundation first. In this episode of Petri Dish, I’m talking to Brian Kobleur, who is Vice President of Ecosystems at Vena Solutions. We discuss how the humble Excel spreadsheet is still quite often the core tool used by financial planning…