Lifting the Lid Mini Series

Unpack AI

With special guest Philip Meyer, Catalyst 345 | The Microsoft ecosystem, AI, Sovereignty, Security and Compliance and the Agent shift

In our mini series of Lifting the Lid, Barry White sits down with the man who spent nearly four decades at the centre of the cloud and Microsoft story, and who still hosts the longest running Microsoft partner community in this part of the world. Together they work through the questions New Zealand businesses are actually asking.

Inside the fish bowl your vision is distorted by the shape of the glass.
Inside, it was product, product, product.

Outside, I need a solution. I need an outcome.

- Philip Meyer, Catalyst 345, of his time at Microsoft

Where your data lives, what AI actually does with it, how people adopt it, how to keep it safe, what it costs, and where it all heads next. These are the questions we hear answered.

Tune in below to hear how you can gain solutions and outcomes from AI and your Microsoft suite.

Episodes

Data and the cloud repatriation

Philip Meyer spent 35 years inside Microsoft. In our first episode of this Microsoft Mini Series Philip chats with Barry White to explain why so much of New Zealand still runs a hybrid setup, why sovereignty is not going away, and why the tool that makes your team faster can also expose the things you never meant to share.

From data centres down the spine of the country to the quiet rise of Shadow AI, this is a grounded look at control, cost and risk, before the AI conversation even begins.

Into the AI Plumbing

AI hype is over. So what now? Barry and Philip pick up the thread and follow it into the machinery of real business.

They talk about the moment millions of agents started holding conversations with each other, why most AI projects still need old fashioned plumbing to work, and how Microsoft Fabric lets you have a conversation with your data. Along the way, a blunt truth. A lot of what businesses want from AI, they could have built five years ago. AI just makes it better.

People didn't Pilot Electricity

Stop treating AI like trial technology, and start treating it like the wiring. Find out why waiting is the risky move. Do you have to pay for Copilot? Is a free version enough? And who actually adopts AI this quickly?

Barry and Philip take a critical look at Copilot, the difference between personal productivity and real business transformation, and the myth that older people are slow to change. At 66, Philip has a view, and the receipts to back it up.

This is the episode about mindset, and why choice and a good interface beat backing a single horse.

If AI can see all, it will tell all

A student used their school AI to show the salaries of every teacher.

Nobody had leaked anything. The files had been available for years, hidden by obscurity - without compliance for role or person.

In this episode Barry and Philip take on confidentiality in the age of AI, why oversharing is almost always accidental, and how tools like Purview help you set guardrails before something you never meant to share turns up in a search.

Our Experts

Host, Barry White

VCIO/Principal Consultant

With a passion founded on technology and services as an enabler, Softsource vBridge VCIO/Principal Consultant, Barry White holds more than 30 years of ICT industry knowledge and experience.

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Guest, Philip Meyer

Director, Catalyst 345

Philip Meyer is a Technology Strategist and ex-Microsoft Veteran of nearly 35 years. Bringing close to five decades of experience across the IT industry, his experience spans Microsoft productivity platforms, cloud migration, artificial intelligence, security and large-scale digital transformation initiatives.

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