AI strategy without execution is just a dream — but execution without strategy is a nightmare. In this episode of The AI Proving Ground Podcast, we dive into the critical components of AI-ready infrastructure with Jeff Fonke and Matt Halcomb, two experts in data center and high-performance architecture.

Learn more about this week's guests:

Jeff Fonke is a passionate technology leader who leads new and growth solutions areas at World Wide Technology, including High-Performance Architectures that support AI and Data. With over 25 years of experience in the tech industry at WWT, he has a proven track record of building scalable data center architecture solutions within WWT's own IT organization, WWT's Advanced Technology Center, leveraging those experiences to help advance customers along their journey to simplify the complex.

Jeff's top pick: Pure Storage FlashBlade

Matt Halcomb is a Data Center Principal Solutions Architect with over 25 years in IT, including 17+ at WWT. He is part of the Global Solutions Development Team, focused on creating and deploying innovative technologies in WWT’s Advanced Technology Center. His expertise spans compute, storage, hyperconverged, software-defined, and composable infrastructure, with an emphasis on next-gen solutions that incorporate ESG and sustainability principles.

Matt's top pick: Enterprise-Ready Supercomputing: The HPE Cray XD Approach to Agile AI Infrastructure

The AI Proving Ground Podcast leverages the deep AI technical and business expertise from within World Wide Technology's one-of-a-kind AI Proving Ground, which provides unrivaled access to the world's leading AI technologies. This unique lab environment accelerates your ability to learn about, test, train and implement AI solutions.

Learn more about WWT's AI Proving Ground.

The AI Proving Ground is a composable lab environment that features the latest high-performance infrastructure and reference architectures from the world's leading AI companies, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, Dell, F5, AMD, Intel and others.

Developed within our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), this one-of-a-kind lab environment empowers IT teams to evaluate and test AI infrastructure, software and solutions for efficacy, scalability and flexibility — all under one roof. The AI Proving Ground provides visibility into data flows across the entire development pipeline, enabling more informed decision-making while safeguarding production environments.