What Cost per GB Doesn’t Tell You About Long-Term Costs

Private GPT: Stop Sharing Company Data

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2536826/fan_mail/new] Book an AI Workshop Today - https://www.fortunadata.com/ai-workshop/ In this episode of Smarter Strategic Thinking, Ray Quattromini is joined by Nipa Soni, AI and HPC Enablement Lead at FSAS Technologies, to explore their fully on-premises private GPT solution designed from the ground up for organisations that cannot afford to compromise on data sovereignty, security, or regulatory compliance. FSAS Technologies is a Fujitsu spinoff operating across the UK and European market, aligned with the EU AI Regulatory Act and its emphasis on data control, governance, and privacy. Their private GPT runs entirely on-premises your data never leaves your environment, there's no internet exposure, and there are no per-query token costs. Licensing is user-based: unlimited usage for a fixed cost. What you'll hear in this episode: Nipa explains why public cloud AI models however capable introduce data sovereignty risk that regulated organisations and IP-sensitive businesses simply can't accept. They walks through the architecture that prevents data leakage, the department-level segregation model that keeps finance, HR, sales, and R&D siloed from one another, and how the system integrates with existing platforms including IBM Maximo via API and MCP. The conversation covers the end-to-end customer journey: from an initial enquiry through to the £2,500 discovery workshop which includes AI consultants, data scientists, and mathematicians working alongside the customer's own stakeholders to identify one or two specific, high-impact use cases. The workshop takes roughly half a day to a day; a detailed findings report follows within a week and a half to two weeks. From there, POC development proceeds at no additional cost until the customer is satisfied before any further commercial commitment is required. A UK manufacturer use case is discussed in detail: they deployed private GPT to address high error rates in part dispatch, training the model on their own proprietary data and seeing a significant reduction in errors and therefore returns within approximately three months. The episode also addresses AI ethics and governance, including FSAS's programme delivered to first-year college students exploring the societal implications of AI decision-making, and how those same ethics principles are embedded at the platform level making it well-suited to education environments and regulated industries. This episode is relevant to: CIOs and Heads of Infrastructure evaluating on-premises AI, MSPs and resellers considering private GPT for clients, organisations in regulated sectors (legal, public sector, manufacturing, education), and any business concerned about what happens to their data when staff use public AI tools. Smarter Strategic Thinking is produced by Fortuna Data a UK-based IT storage reseller and consultancy specialising in data sovereignty, LTO tape archiving, ransomware resilience, cloud strategy, and AI-ready infrastructure.

IBM CAS Solves Unstructured Data Growth

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2536826/fan_mail/new] In this episode, Ray Quattromini speaks with Patrick Kay, Product Manager for IBM Content Aware Storage (IBM CAS) at IBM, in one of the most technically detailed conversations on the podcast to date. IBM CAS is IBM's semantic interface for AI-ready data, a solution designed to transform unstructured enterprise data into a searchable vector database, without requiring costly data migrations or duplication. Patrick explains how IBM CAS uses Active File Management (AFM) to connect disparate storage environments, how the RAG framework is embedded directly into the storage layer, and why incremental vectorization dramatically reduces the GPU compute required to keep AI applications grounded in up-to-date enterprise data. They also discuss IBM CAS deployment architectures, storage tiering from flash to tape, the impact of the global storage shortage on AI infrastructure planning, and why IBM CAS is increasingly the missing layer between enterprise data estates and production AI workloads. Essential listening for CIOs, data engineers, storage architects and anyone evaluating IBM CAS or enterprise AI infrastructure.

Why Post-Production Studios Are Going Back to Tape

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2536826/fan_mail/new] Ray Quattromini of Fortuna Data is joined by David Fox from JPY, the UK distributor for Archiware, for a deep dive into one of the most underappreciated areas of IT: data archiving, backup, and long-term storage management.  David has been in the industry since the early 90s, starting out in pre-press and desktop publishing before migrating into the world of audio, video, and media storage. Today, he helps organisations across media & entertainment, law enforcement, universities, and enterprise manage and protect their data using Archiware's P5 software a powerful backup, archive, and replication platform that works across LTO tape, cloud, and a wide range of storage hardware.  In this episode, they cover: -  - The difference between backup and archive and why both matter  - Hot vs cold storage and why media companies are constantly running out of space  - How P5 handles LTO tape migration (LTO 8/9 to LTO 10) without losing your index - CCTV and law enforcement use cases, including 90-day retention compliance  - Why LTO tape is making a comeback especially for AI training data  - The real cost of cloud storage vs on-prem tape  - Immutable backups and ransomware protection using S3 object storage  - Data sovereignty concerns and the shift back to on-prem solutions  - New features in Archiware P5 v8: EDL restore for video editors  - How P5 is licensed and what that means for your infrastructure Whether you're in post-production, IT, or just trying to figure out where to put all your data this episode is packed with practical insight.  Find out more about Archiware: www.archiware.com  Find out more about Fortuna Data: www.fortunadata.com

Why the US Cloud Act Is a Threat to Your Data

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2536826/fan_mail/new] In this episode, Ray Quattromini speaks with Richard Howson, UK Channel Manager at Impossible Cloud, about one of the most overlooked risks in enterprise storage the US Cloud Act. Richard explains why simply storing data in the UK isn't enough if you're using a US-based cloud provider, and how true data sovereignty requires knowing where your data lives, who has legal access to it, and how it's protected. They also dig into the real cost of hyperscaler storage, the growing demand for UK sovereign solutions across all sectors, and how Impossible Cloud is positioning itself as the go-to object storage layer in a multi-cloud world. A must-listen for MSPs, resellers and IT leaders navigating data compliance and cloud cost control. Chapters 00:00 Introduction – Meet Richard Howson from Impossible Cloud 00:46 What Is Impossible Cloud and Richard's Role in the UK Launch 01:04 The US Cloud Act – What It Means for Your Data 02:16 How Impossible Cloud Delivers True Data Sovereignty 02:43 Why Hyperscalers Are Failing on Cost Transparency 04:09 How Impossible Cloud Pricing Works – Zero Egress, Zero API Fees 05:11 Setting Up Buckets and Managing Customers as an MSP 05:50 Immutability, Versioning and Data Encryption Explained 06:39 Cloud Performance – Does It Match the Hyperscalers? 07:47 S3 Compatibility and Software Integrations (Veeam, Acronis, HYCU) 09:23 Ransomware Recovery – How Fast Can You Restore? 10:00 Why Impossible Cloud Focus on Object Storage Only 12:15 The Partner-First Channel Model – No Direct Sales 13:57 The Problem With Hyperscaler Lock-In 16:19 Why You Need to Understand and Classify Your Data Now 18:47 Use Cases – CCTV, Media & Entertainment, AI Training Data 21:17 API Automation for MSPs and Resellers 23:14 Why Data Sovereignty Is Now a Board-Level Decision 27:02 Where Cloud Storage Is Heading in the Next 5 Years 29:23 Wrap Up

What Cost per GB Doesn’t Tell You About Long-Term Costs

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2536826/fan_mail/new] Is your storage strategy built for the future or setting your business up for failure? In this episode of the Fortuna Data Podcast, Ray Quattromini sits down with Matteo from Kingston Technology to break down what IT leaders, CIOs, and infrastructure decision-makers need to understand about modern storage. With data growing faster than most organisations can control, and AI workloads driving unprecedented demand, the wrong storage decisions today can lead to higher costs, downtime, and long-term risk. This conversation covers: How to choose the right SSD, NVMe, or memory for your workload Why total cost of ownership (TCO) matters more than cost per GB The real differences between SLC, MLC, TLC, and QLC NAND How AI is reshaping infrastructure and driving on-premise demand The hidden risks of cheap storage decisions Why storage is now a board-level conversation (not just IT) You’ll also gain insight into enterprise storage reliability, endurance, and performance trade-offs, plus what’s coming next in storage architecture, including PCIe Gen5 and composable infrastructure. Who This Is For CIOs, CTOs, and IT Leaders Infrastructure & Data Centre Managers Businesses scaling AI or high-performance workloads Anyone evaluating storage, backup, or long-term data strategy 00:00 The storage problem businesses are ignoring 00:22 Introduction: Fortuna Data x Kingston Technology 00:40 Kingston’s history and evolution in storage & memory 01:47 Matteo’s role: bridging customers and engineering 02:44 Storage shortages, rising costs, and supply strategy 05:07 Military-grade encrypted storage explained 06:17 NAND types explained: SLC vs MLC vs TLC vs QLC 08:46 Matching storage to workloads (and why it’s often missed) 09:48 Endurance vs capacity vs cost: making the right trade-off 10:42 What makes Kingston enterprise storage different 11:29 Testing, reliability, and lifetime warranties 13:43 Enterprise SSDs, NVMe, and performance benchmarks 15:25 AI workloads: hype vs real demand 16:14 Why businesses are bringing data back on-premise 18:08 Why cost per GB is the wrong metric 19:23 The biggest storage mistakes businesses will regret 21:02 NVMe vs SATA: where each fits 22:18 Why SSDs are NOT ideal for long-term archiving 24:01 The future of storage: architecture over hardware 25:10 CXL, memory pooling, and composable infrastructure 26:09 Silicon photonics and the future data centre 31:34 Why storage is now a boardroom priority 32:45 AI, cyber resilience, and data growth pressures 33:46 Energy efficiency and smarter storage decisions If you're rethinking your storage strategy or planning for AI-driven workloads: 👉 Visit Fortuna Data for expert guidance on building resilient, scalable infrastructure 👉 Or request a storage architecture review to ensure your decisions today won’t cost you tomorrow #DataStorage #EnterpriseStorage #StorageStrategy #ITInfrastructure #DataManagement #ITCosts #CostOptimisation #TotalCostOfOwnership #EnterpriseIT #CIO #CTO #DigitalTransformation #TechStrategy