Enterprise tech made operationally clear.
Explain IT is a Softcat technology show built around business IT choices. Episodes bring named practitioners into plain-spoken conversations about data sovereignty, private cloud, AI adoption, Windows migration, smart workspaces, WAN, SASE, and security operations.
PRESS PLAY
Explain IT is a Softcat enterprise technology show focused on the decisions sitting behind modern IT estates. It is practical first. Recent conversations move through data sovereignty, multi-cloud strategy, private cloud, AI infrastructure, Kubernetes, Windows migration, smart workspaces, WAN, SASE, automation, and security operations. The show regularly frames technology through business pressure: where data should live, who can access it, how critical workloads stay protected, and how teams can reduce operational drag. Cloud is a major thread. Episodes on VMware, Broadcom, HPE, hybrid platforms, and Private Cloud AI keep returning to the same underlying tension between flexibility, control, compliance, and speed. AI is treated less as a slogan than as an implementation problem. The excerpts connect AI adoption to data pipelines, model training, Kubernetes containers, business process knowledge, and the need for strong partnerships between technology teams and the wider business. Security is never far away. Windows 10 end of support becomes a risk conversation, while WAN and SASE discussions focus on connectivity, consistent performance, and data protection across hybrid work. The show also pays attention to workplace experience. Smart workspace episodes bring together connectivity, collaboration platforms, sensors, Microsoft Teams rooms, unified communications, and zero-touch deployment as parts of a broader office environment. The language is deliberately accessible. Guests explain acronyms, define platform concepts, and keep technical claims tied to operational examples rather than abstract transformation talk. The show is not trying to be a general tech roundup. It is closer to a guided briefing for people who need to understand how infrastructure choices affect resilience, compliance, productivity, and future projects. Named specialists appear from Softcat and partner organizations, giving the conversations a practitioner-led feel. The result is useful when a listener wants to hear how enterprise tools are being positioned, challenged, and connected to real customer concerns. Explain IT suits someone weighing practical IT modernization choices. It is especially strong when the subject is not one technology in isolation, but the chain of dependencies around it: data, platforms, security, users, operations, and governance.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants enterprise technology explained through practical IT choices, especially around cloud, security, networking, workplace tools, and AI infrastructure. It fits someone who prefers operational context over abstract transformation talk.
What sets it apart: Explain IT sets vendor and platform conversations inside concrete business questions about control, risk, compliance, user experience, and operational workload. Its strongest value is the bridge between architecture language and day-to-day IT consequences.
This is Explain IT, a show for IT professionals by IT professionals; offering insight, knowledge, experience and opinion on a variety of enterprise tech topics. With new episodes out regularly, follow the podcast in your favourite app and you'll get notified with every new release. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A private cloud pitch is easier to judge when your data has a passport problem.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical discussion of data sovereignty as an access, control, and platform design challenge.
Explain IT treats data sovereignty less as a map problem than an access problem: who can reach critical data, under which rules, and through what technology.
A grounded review of Windows 11 planning, security automation, private cloud, and AI for teams managing technology change.
Explain IT: Highlights from our conversations in 2025 turns Softcat's year of technology discussions into a clear, practical look at change, risk, and the operational work behind both.
A practical discussion of connected offices, IT efficiency and the push to make workplaces more collaborative.
Explain IT frames the smart workspace as a practical systems challenge: how connected technology, reliable connectivity and integrated platforms can make offices easier to run and more useful to the people inside them.
A clear, business-minded case for keeping AI deployment close to the data it depends on.
Softcat's Explain It gives Private Cloud AI a grounded sales case, with Helen Gibney and guests from HPE and Softcat presenting it as a factory-integrated, turnkey way to develop, train, and implement AI models.
A clear, practical case for private cloud built around confidence and workload fit.
Private cloud is framed through a useful idea of confidence: infrastructure that can follow an organisation's rules without slowing teams to a crawl.
IPv6 operations, from RFCs to real networks.
Network reality, from packets upward.
Infrastructure talk across the Packet Pushers network.
Packet-level detail across modern infrastructure.
Real-world context for network design.
Patient tech fixes, one setting at a time.
Helen Gidney, Softcat's Head of Architecture, hosts Sabina Anya of Broadcom and Gary Hawkins of Softcat to unpack data sovereignty, private cloud, and AI-driven infrastructure choices.
Softcat's Explain It 2025 recap stitches together Windows 11 migration, data strategy, cyber automation, service operations, VMware VCF9, and AI in networking.
["Explain IT's \"Why Businesses Need Smarter Workspaces\" brings Ashley Baker, Tom Rowley, Jack Lewis, and Rob Lay together to argue that office technology should improve collaboration, sustainability, and employee experience.", "The guests point to Softcat's Manchester move, where Cisco video conferencing, smart office technology, and room setups with USB-C and HDMI are meant to remove meeting-room anxiety and make customer tours useful.", "They say modern workspaces now need wireless-first design, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 7, IoT sensors for air quality and leaks, zero-touch deployment, and Microsoft Teams interoperability.", "The final stretch focuses on observability, agentic AI, edge processing, and three-to-five-year planning so the office can stay useful as workplace expectations change."]
Softcat's Explain It episode on Private Cloud AI opens with Helen Gibney citing IDC's figure that 88% of AI pilots fail to reach production.
Helen Gibney of Softcat hosts Explain IT with Broadcom EMEA CTO Joe Bagley and Softcat VMware Product Specialist Richard Fraser to discuss VMware Explore on Tour and private cloud.
Microsoft ended Windows 10 support after October 14, leaving vulnerabilities unpatched for organizations that stay on the system.
At Big Data London, Andy Crossley and Alex Pierce argue that weak data foundations help explain why AI pilots stall.
Industry experts discuss HPE's 10-year journey, strategic vision, and impact on IT innovation, AI, cloud, and infrastructure.
This episode explains the evolution of Wide Area Networks (WAN) and introduces SASE as a solution for secure, high-performance connectivity in hybrid work environments.
A panel of chief technologists discuss their predictions for key tech areas in 2023.
Softcat's CTO and panel discuss key business developments in tech over the past year and look ahead to the future.