CR116: Unlocking Cloud for critical missions with Danny Polaine, Thales

Accelerating cloud adoption to drive innovation across domains like space, identity, and naval systems presents unique challenges. Success depends on aligning organizational culture, governance, financial models, and regulatory frameworks to enable collaboration, scalability, and software-defined capabilities. 

This week, Dave, Esmee, and Rob speak with Danny Polaine, Chief Information Officer at Thales, about the strategic shift to cloud technologies in a high-security sector like defense and the unique challenges that come with it. 

TLDR:

00:52 – Introduction to Danny Polaine

03:35 – Rob is confused about the AI privacy dilemma

07:40 – Exploring tech in high-security sectors with Danny

35:34 – The biggest challenge isn’t tech, it’s people adapting to new ways of working

44:55 – Reflections on the CIO role and a fun story about singing waiters at a wedding

Guest 

Danny Polaine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-polaine-5713454/?originalSubdomain=uk 

Hosts

Dave Chapman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chapmandr/

Rob Kernahan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-kernahan/

Esmee van de Giessen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esmeevandegiessen/

Production

Marcel van der Burg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcel-vd-burg/

Dave Chapman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chapmandr/

Sound

Ben Corbett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-corbett-3b6a11135/

Louis Corbett:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/louis-corbett-087250264/

'Cloud Realities' is an original podcast from Capgemini