Petri Dish

Why Hybrid IT Is So Hard — And How SolarWinds Helps Simplify It

Virtualized infrastructure across on-premises data centers and the cloud was supposed to make life easier for IT teams. Instead, it’s often become a tangle of complexity. Why is something as established as virtualisation turning into a headache and what are we missing? To find out, I’m joined by Brad Cline, Vice President of IT Operations at SolarWinds [https://www.solarwinds.com/]. With nearly 30 years in IT, Brad’s seen virtualization evolve from a neat idea to a real-world minefield. He’s here to help us unpack where teams get stuck – and why managing virtual environments isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Thanks to Cayosoft [https://cayosoft.com] for sponsoring this episode!

Entra App Owners = Global Admin Power? Audit It with Privileged App Path Auditor

Most Entra ID reviews focus on roles and permissions. I.e., who’s a Global Admin, what’s been consented, what looks obviously dangerous. But what if the real risk isn’t a privileged user at all? What if a regular user, with no admin role, can still put themselves on a path toward Global Administrator, simply because of an application they own? That’s the question behind today’s episode. Today on Petri Dish, I’m joined by Nicolas Blank, identity architect and Microsoft MVP, to talk about a class of Entra ID risk that many teams completely miss, why traditional reviews don’t catch it, and a new tool that he’s developed called Privileged App Path Auditor. Thanks to Cayosoft [https://www.cayosoft.com/] for sponsoring this episode!

90% of AI Token Spend “Goes Nowhere” — What CIOs Must Measure Now

In this episode of Petri Dish, we’re looking at one of the most important shifts happening in enterprise work right now: the rise of AI-powered document creation. Joining me is Jean-Marc Chanoine, Chief Sales Officer at Templafy [https://www.templafy.com/], a company that’s been at the forefront of integrating AI and automation into the everyday tools knowledge workers already use, like Microsoft 365 and Copilot. Templafy helps orgs automate and standardize business document creation, helping large organizations produce compliant, on‑brand documents quickly and at scale.

AI Changed IT Training: It’s About Judgment Now, Not Clicks

Today we’re diving into the story behind Skillable, a platform that helps IT professionals build real-world skills. I’m joined by Danny Abdo, Chief Operations and Product Officer at Skillable, and Corey Hynes, Executive Chairman and founder of Skillable, to explore the problem the company set out to solve, how the product was built, and how it’s evolving to meet the demands of an AI-driven world.Skillable is a cloud-based “hands-on learning” platform focused on immersive, real-world practice. It allows organizations to deliver secure, scalable virtual lab environments where users can learn by doing in environments that simulate real IT scenarios.👏 Thanks to Cayosoft [https://cayosoft.com/] for sponsoring this episode!#itpros #ittraining #microsoftazure

Hybrid Threats and Human Factors: Lessons from the Digital Defense Report

Attackers aren’t breaking in—they’re logging in. In this episode, we unpack the Microsoft Digital Defense Report (MDDR) and what it reveals about today’s identity-first threat landscape: info-stealers, hybrid ransomware operations, and social engineering that blends into “normal” activity. Joining the conversation are Chloé Messdaghi (strategic advisor on AI governance and cybersecurity at Microsoft) and Etan Basseri (Principal Product Manager, Microsoft Identity), with practical steps leaders can take now, from phishing-resistant multifactor authentication (MFA) to passkeys and building an identity control plane for humans and AI agents. Download: Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2025 [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/cybersecurity/microsoft-digital-defense-report-2025/]