The IT market is built for sellers, not buyers. That's why 80% of tech buyers regret their last major purchase. Deals take longer than they should. Teams get locked into platforms that don't fit, contracts they can't escape, and vendors they wouldn't choose again. The pitches, demos, and analyst reports are built to close deals, not help buyers make the right one. Signed is the podcast for the buyers. Host Max Clark, CEO of ITBroker.com, talks with CIOs, CFOs, operators, and founders who've lived inside real enterprise tech deals — the ones who can explain what actually determined whether the deal worked. Plus weekly Playbooks breaking down the moments that matter most: renewals, M&A, compliance mandates, office moves, budget cuts, and the specific plays that separate buyers who get it right from those who regret it. If you're responsible for choosing, negotiating, or living with the consequences of enterprise technology, this show is for you. New episodes weekly. An ITBroker.com podcast.
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November 10, 2026Episode 2332 min
Playbook: Which [Blank] Is Right for You?
Someone on your team says the platform you run is holding you back: too much tech debt, a code base that needs a rewrite, or another vendor that's simply better. Max explains why "X versus Y" is usually the wrong place to start, how changing one piece of your environment affects everything connected to it, and the four questions to answer before anyone replaces a platform. What You'll Learn Why a vendor comparison can't tell you whether to switch How one platform change affects the systems around it Why chasing newer technology keeps IT from helping the business win The four questions Max asks before any platform swap Answer These Before You Replace a Platform What does the business need? Name the problem you're solving and whether the current platform can solve it at a cost and risk you can accept. What are you already running? List every system, contract and skill connected to the platform you'd replace. Each one is something to check before you switch. Where are you heading? Check the change against what the business has actually committed to, like an acquisition, a growth target or a new regulation. How do you win? Write down what success looks like, how you'll measure it and who owns the result. If you can't answer these in writing, you're not ready to compare vendors. Max explains why in the episode. The Playbook (00:00) - The most dangerous person in your company (00:21) - Which [blank] is right for you? (00:43) - Why chasing newer tech costs you (01:04) - You're comparing the wrong thing (01:14) - Swap one block, everything around it changes (01:29) - Four questions to answer before you switch (01:42) - That's the playbook Resources Mentioned Further reading, Two Questions to Answer Before You Compare a Single Vendor: https://www.itbroker.com/blog/brownfield-vs-greenfield-it-infrastructure About Signed Signed is the podcast for buyers in a market built for sellers. Playbooks are the solo format: one trigger, one specific play. New episodes weekly at itbroker.com/podcast. If the trigger in today's Playbook is one you're facing right now, book an intro call at itbroker.com. We help buyers make the right call the first time. Buy tech without regret. Follow: @itbrokerdotcom Full Transcript Click here to view the episode transcript.
November 3, 2026Episode 2321 hr 26 min
Why Are You Paying More for the Same VMware?
A buyer recently emailed Mac McClenathan asking for two servers hosted on Hyper-V to run his Sage accounting software. His only reason was to avoid Broadcom's 72-core minimum. Mac's company sells VMware capacity from a pooled license, so the minimum never applied to him. He was ready to change platforms over a rule that wasn't his. Mac McClenathan is VP, National Partner Development at 11:11 Systems. He joins Max Clark to break down what Broadcom's licensing changes did to VMware buyers, why so much of the renewal increase comes from bundled products customers never bought, and how to compare renewing, migrating, and having a provider run VMware for you. They get into a regional healthcare organization that priced hosted VMware, Nutanix and managed Azure side by side. Moving to Nutanix came out $250,000 more over five years, and Azure was almost double the hosted option before backup was even included. They also cover the March 2027 cutoff for providers that lost the right to sell VMware, an immutable backup plan that would have cost about $1.5 million more than it needed to, and why the first real backup test almost always finds a gap. If your VMware renewal is due in the next year and nobody has checked what you're paying for, this episode starts there. What You'll Learn Why did our VMware renewal cost go up so much? Does Broadcom's 72-core minimum apply to my company? What are the alternatives to renewing VMware with Broadcom? Is hosted VMware cheaper than moving to Nutanix or Azure? What happens to our contract if our VMware provider lost its Broadcom authorization? Is migrating off VMware worth the cost and the risk? Do we need to make all of our backups immutable? How do we know our backups would work after a ransomware attack? In this conversation: (00:00) - Cold open: why 2025 and 2026 are very different stories (00:33) - Why VMware decisions keep getting put off (06:50) - The 72-core minimum that didn't apply (09:43) - Why your renewal jumped: one product became eight (14:01) - When immutable backups cost more than they save (28:41) - The March 2027 provider cutoff and your contract (33:54) - Why hosted VMware got cheaper after Broadcom (41:31) - Hosted VMware vs. Nutanix vs. Azure: the real numbers (59:27) - Why your first backup test will find a gap (01:10:51) - Who's moving back from Hyper-V and public cloud (01:15:00) - Why an MSP doesn't replace your IT team What We Mentioned 11:11 Systems , Mac's company: cloud infrastructure, backup, disaster recovery and network services VMware vSphere , the only product Mac says about 75% of VMware customers ever bought VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) , the bundle most renewals now move into Broadcom Nutanix Microsoft Hyper-V Proxmox Microsoft Azure AWS Cohesity Rubrik Zerto Veeam Sage Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) , which tracks how long attackers stay inside a network CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification) CyrusOne , Mac's Houston data center during Hurricane Harvey vMotion (moving a running server between machines without downtime) Immutable backups (backups that can't be changed or deleted for a set period) RPO and RTO (how much data you can lose, and how fast you need to be running again) Clean room recovery (restoring into a separate, trusted environment after an attack) About Mac McClenathan Mac McClenathan is VP, National Partner Development at 11:11 Systems. He has worked in the cloud business for about 20 years and joined 11:11 through Green Cloud, its first platform acquisition. 11:11 provides cloud infrastructure, backup, disaster recovery and network services, with about 6,000 customers worldwide using its backup and disaster recovery. Mac McClenathan on LinkedIn | 11:11 Systems | 11:11 Systems on LinkedIn About the Show Signed is the podcast for buyers in a market built for sellers. Host Max Clark, CEO of ITBroker.com, sits down with CIOs, CFOs, operators, and founders who've lived inside real enterprise tech deals. New episodes weekly at itbroker.com/podcast. If you're in the middle of a real tech decision and want someone in your corner, book an intro call at itbroker.com. Buy tech without regret. Follow: @itbrokerdotcom Full Transcript Click here to view the episode transcript.
October 27, 2026Episode 2317 min
Playbook: Three Quotes
You got three quotes, pushed all three vendors, and took the one with 20% off. That process compares price on the basics every platform shares and hides what actually decides the purchase: whether the platform fits your business, and what the service really costs to deliver. Max explains why the three quote rule breaks down for enterprise technology and why a discount off the industry's opening price can still leave you overpaying. What You'll Learn How to tell whether three vendor quotes are actually comparable What to define before you ask any vendor for a quote Why one vendor can quote far below the others How platform owners and resellers price differently When support is worth more than another 5% off Why a 20% discount can still leave you overpaying Answer These Before You Request Quotes What does this have to do that's specific to your business? Every phone system makes and takes calls. Write down what you need after that, like the systems it has to connect to and the hardware you plan to keep. That list is what makes the quotes comparable. Why is each vendor on your list? If the honest answer is "they were the ones we'd heard of," the comparison was decided before it started. Build the list from your answer to the first question. Does the vendor build the platform or resell it? A vendor that runs its own platform works from different costs than one reselling it wholesale. Ask each vendor which one they are, because it changes how far they can move on price. What will your team handle that the vendor won't? If your users are spread across locations, someone has to set things up on site and help people when something breaks. Price that work before you compare quotes. Another 5% off won't cover it if your team ends up doing the vendor's job. What price did every quote start from? Vendors in a category tend to open near the same list price. A 20% discount from that number tells you the vendor was willing to move. It doesn't tell you the price is competitive. If you can't answer two of these in writing, three quotes won't tell you which vendor to pick. Max walks through why in the episode. The Playbook (00:00) - Why “get three quotes” is dangerous advice for enterprise tech (00:59) - When price shopping actually works (01:42) - Same core features, very different platforms (02:41) - Why one vendor can sell so much cheaper (03:37) - Why platform owners and resellers price differently (04:05) - When support is worth more than another 5% off (04:35) - Why 20% off a $25 seat can still mean overpaying (05:33) - What three quotes will never show you Resources Mentioned Unified communications (UCaaS): https://www.itbroker.com/solutions/unified-communications-as-a-service Further reading, You Have Three Vendor Quotes. Here's What You're Still Missing Before You Sign.: https://www.itbroker.com/blog/how-to-compare-it-vendor-quotes About Signed Signed is the podcast for buyers in a market built for sellers. Playbooks are the solo format: one trigger, one specific play. New episodes weekly at itbroker.com/podcast. If the trigger in today's Playbook is one you're facing right now, book an intro call at itbroker.com. We help buyers make the right call the first time. Buy tech without regret. Follow: @itbrokerdotcom Full Transcript Click here to view the episode transcript.
October 20, 2026Episode 2304 min
Playbook: Brownfield vs Greenfield
Before you compare a single vendor, a lot of the decision is already made. The systems you run today rule some platforms out, and the choices you make now decide whether a requirement three years from now means adding a license or replacing something the business runs on. In this Playbook, Max Clark, CEO of ITBroker.com, answers a question he was asked directly: which is harder, brownfield or greenfield? Brownfield means building on systems you already have. Greenfield means starting from nothing. Max walks through why your existing setup narrows your options more than any feature comparison or RFP, what to plan for when you're starting fresh, and why each situation needs its own approach. What You'll Learn How to tell if a new platform will work with the systems you already run How your existing technology narrows your vendor options before you compare them What to plan for when you're choosing IT infrastructure from scratch How to plan infrastructure for the next three to five years of business growth How to avoid buying technology you'll have to replace later Why brownfield and greenfield projects need different buying approaches Answer These Before You Compare Vendors What does a new system have to work with? List the hardware you plan to keep and the platforms it has to connect to, like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and your CRM. A vendor that can't support something on that list is either out or carrying a replacement cost. Which of those are you willing to replace? Some older equipment is worth replacing anyway. Decide that before the demo, so it's in the vendor's price instead of showing up during the rollout. What does your business plan say about the next three years? New locations and new compliance requirements change what your platform has to support. Write them down while they're still plans. If one of those happens, is it a license or a rebuild? Ask this about every platform you're considering. A feature you can turn on is a line item. A core system you have to replace is a project. If you can't answer two of these in writing, you're not ready to compare vendors yet. Max walks through both sides in the episode. The Playbook (00:00) - The three year test: add a license or replace a core system (00:32) - Why existing systems make vendor selection easier (01:32) - Why your current setup matters more than the RFP (02:31) - Starting from scratch: decisions that last five to seven years (02:59) - How your industry shapes what you'll need next (03:55) - Why neither approach is easier Resources Mentioned Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace , Max's first example of a decision that already limits which platforms fit Salesforce and HubSpot , the CRM choice that shapes what you can layer on top of it Unified communications (UCaaS) , the phone system category in Max's example of checking a new platform against the hardware you already own About Signed Signed is the podcast for buyers in a market built for sellers. Playbooks are the solo format: one trigger, one specific play. New episodes weekly at itbroker.com/podcast. If the trigger in today's Playbook is one you're facing right now, book an intro call at itbroker.com. We help buyers make the right call the first time. Buy tech without regret. Follow: @itbrokerdotcom Full Transcript Click here to view the episode transcript.
October 13, 2026Episode 2291 hr 37 min
What AI Is Doing in Your Company (That You Don’t Know About)
Steve Wilson built his own AI assistant the careful way. He gave it its own Google account and read only access to his calendar, and told it not to talk to strangers. His company's CISO had a pen testing team go after it, and 4 days later the assistant reported that it had compressed his source code and attached it to a meeting with an outside consultant. A fake email from a lookalike domain, written as if it came from Steve, was all it took. Steve Wilson is Chief AI and Product Officer at Exabeam and founder and co chair of the OWASP Gen AI Security Project. He joins Max Clark to break down what AI agents are already doing inside companies, who is responsible for them, and what to check before you approve one. They get into why an agent using an employee's login is its own identity, why you can't filter prompt injection out, why blocking AI tools only sends people around IT, and what Steve's forecast of 10x the digital workers and 10x the attacks means for security teams. If nobody at your company can say which AI agents are running and who answers for them, this episode starts there. What You'll Learn What are the biggest security risks of AI agents inside a company? How do we know what AI agents our employees are running? Should an AI agent use an employee's login, or have its own identity? Who is responsible when an AI agent does something it shouldn't? Can an AI agent be tricked into leaking company data? Can you stop prompt injection with a filter? Should we block employees from using AI agents, or approve one and manage it? Can AI help a security team, and what does it do in the first minute of an alert? In this conversation: (00:00) - Intro (00:44) - What an AI agent does in the first minute of a security alert, so a human starts with a finished investigation (11:51) - Steve's two-year forecast: 10x more digital workers on your network, 10x more sophisticated attacks, 100x the data to sort through (19:30) - Insider threats now include AI agents that malfunction or go off course (37:41) - Blocking AI just sends people around you. Approve one tool and manage it instead (44:04) - The three kinds of AI agent in your company, and why you can't filter prompt injection out (49:32) - Who owns an AI agent: security, IT, the business, or the employee who built it (56:10) - He gave his AI assistant its own identity and limited access. It still got phished (01:02:44) - Shadow AI spreads faster than shadow IT, and your approved tool gets abandoned (01:22:53) - Why AI won't shrink your security team, and the entry-level hiring gap it leaves (01:31:48) - AI is moving back in-house, and what that changes for security What We Mentioned The Developer's Playbook for Large Language Model Security (O'Reilly) . Steve's book. It lays out what can go wrong when AI is built into products and how to defend against it, drawing on the 400+ experts behind the OWASP Top 10 for LLMs. It is written for developers and security teams, and it is the plain language reference if AI agents already have access to your systems. OWASP Gen AI Security Project OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications Exabeam Exabeam Nova , the AI agent built for security operations centers OpenClaw , the open source AI agent Claude Code Claude Cowork OpenAI Codex MCP (Model Context Protocol) , the way software lets AI agents use it Salesforce Microsoft SharePoint Okta CrowdStrike Palo Alto Networks Cortex Microsoft Sentinel Dropbox , Steve's early example of shadow IT SOC (security operations center) SIEM (security information and event management), the central system that collects security data MSSP (managed security service provider) MDR (managed detection and response) EDR (endpoint detection and response) Prompt injection (hidden instructions an AI follows as if they were yours) Pen testing (authorized attacks used to test your defenses) About Steve Wilson Steve Wilson is Chief AI and Product Officer at Exabeam and founder and co chair of the OWASP Gen AI Security Project. He wrote the first OWASP Top 10 for large language models and the O'Reilly book The Developer's Playbook for Large Language Model Security. Steve Wilson on LinkedIn | Steve Wilson on X | Exabeam | Exabeam on LinkedIn | OWASP Gen AI Security Project | OWASP Gen AI Security Project on LinkedIn About the Show Signed is the podcast for buyers in a market built for sellers. Host Max Clark, CEO of ITBroker.com, sits down with CIOs, CFOs, operators, and founders who've lived inside real enterprise tech deals. New episodes weekly at itbroker.com/podcast. If you're in the middle of a real tech decision and want someone in your corner, book an intro call at itbroker.com. Buy tech without regret. Follow: @itbrokerdotcom Full Transcript Click here to view the episode transcript.
October 6, 2026Episode 22818 min
Playbook: Cybersecurity Truths
Before you compare a single vendor, a lot of the decision is already made. The systems you run today rule some platforms out, and the choices you make now decide whether a requirement three years from now means adding a license or replacing something the business runs on. In this Playbook, Max Clark, CEO of ITBroker.com, answers a question he was asked directly: which is harder, brownfield or greenfield? Brownfield means building on systems you already have. Greenfield means starting from nothing. Max walks through why your existing setup narrows your options more than any feature comparison or RFP, what to plan for when you're starting fresh, and why each situation needs its own approach. What You'll Learn How to tell if a new platform will work with the systems you already run How your existing technology narrows your vendor options before you compare them What to plan for when you're choosing IT infrastructure from scratch How to plan infrastructure for the next three to five years of business growth How to avoid buying technology you'll have to replace later Why brownfield and greenfield projects need different buying approaches Answer These Before You Compare Vendors What does a new system have to work with? List the hardware you plan to keep and the platforms it has to connect to, like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and your CRM. A vendor that can't support something on that list is either out or carrying a replacement cost. Which of those are you willing to replace? Some older equipment is worth replacing anyway. Decide that before the demo, so it's in the vendor's price instead of showing up during the rollout. What does your business plan say about the next three years? New locations and new compliance requirements change what your platform has to support. Write them down while they're still plans. If one of those happens, is it a license or a rebuild? Ask this about every platform you're considering. A feature you can turn on is a line item. A core system you have to replace is a project. If you can't answer two of these in writing, you're not ready to compare vendors yet. Max walks through both sides in the episode. The Playbook (00:00) - Intro (00:41) - The mistake: treating insurance's four checkboxes as the finish line (04:22) - The play, step 1: what security buyers skip past SWG, CASB, and ZTNA (09:07) - The play, step 2: what actually gets security budget approved, and why ROI is the wrong pitch (13:19) - The play, step 3: test your backups before you need them (14:38) - What to watch for next: measuring security by detection and containment speed, not tools bought Resources Mentioned Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace , Max's first example of a decision that already limits which platforms fit Salesforce and HubSpot , the CRM choice that shapes what you can layer on top of it Unified communications (UCaaS) , the phone system category in Max's example of checking a new platform against the hardware you already own About Signed Signed is the podcast for buyers in a market built for sellers. Playbooks are the solo format: one trigger, one specific play. New episodes weekly at itbroker.com/podcast. If the trigger in today's Playbook is one you're facing right now, book an intro call at itbroker.com. We help buyers make the right call the first time. Buy tech without regret. Follow: @itbrokerdotcom Full Transcript Click here to view the episode transcript.
September 29, 2026Episode 22711 min
Playbook: CSPs
Buying Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or Azure direct feels like the simpler choice, until you need support or get locked out of your own tenant. In this Playbook, Max Clark breaks down what a Cloud Solution Provider (a CSP) actually does between you and the platform: faster support and escalation, help recovering a locked tenant, engineering and migration support, and access to vendor funding you can't reach on your own, usually at little or no added cost. If you're deciding whether to buy direct or through a CSP, or renewing that decision without ever having checked it, this one's for you. The Playbook (00:00) - The cold open (00:51) - What a CSP actually is (01:29) - Why Microsoft and Google aren't built to handle support directly (01:55) - Where a CSP actually sits between you and the platform (02:24) - The market development and incentive funds vendors push through CSPs (03:19) - The dedicated admin account problem most companies skip (04:17) - The real causes of a tenant lockout (05:14) - How being a sub of the CSP changes your escalation path (06:11) - The engineering, migration, and configuration work a CSP's own staff can do (06:38) - Why CSPs range from pure billing pass throughs to full service providers (07:03) - Tier zero versus tier one support (08:26) - The difference between support built for end users and support built for admins (09:25) - Why CSPs get paid through the platform's margin (10:17) - Max's bottom line: why the CSP relationship is worth having almost every time About Signed Signed is the podcast for buyers in a market built for sellers. Playbooks are the solo format, 10 to 15 minutes, one trigger, one specific play. New episodes weekly at itbroker.com/podcast. If the trigger in today's Playbook is one you're facing right now, book an intro call at itbroker.com. We help buyers make the right call the first time. Buy tech without regret. Follow: @itbrokerdotcom Full Transcript Click here to view the episode transcript.
September 22, 2026Episode 2261 hr 53 min
Did You Choose Cloud for the Wrong Reason?
A customer walked in sure they wanted colocation. The quote in their head was $10,000 a month. Once Jeremy Pease's team modeled the real requirements, staffing, connectivity, compliance, the number came back at $80,000. Jeremy Pease is CEO of Aptum, a hybrid multi cloud managed service provider. He joins Max Clark to break down how IT leaders should actually decide where applications run, across public cloud, private cloud, colocation, and bare metal, instead of starting with the platform and working backward. They get into egress costs that can exceed the infrastructure bill itself, the VMware exodus ahead of the April 2027 contract deadline, why most companies are running workloads at a scale they never needed, and why repatriation almost always requires someone willing to make the unpopular call. The question isn't whether you negotiated a good rate. It's whether you're on the right infrastructure in the first place. What You'll Learn Is public cloud cheaper than running our own infrastructure? Why is our cloud bill so much higher than we expected? How do we decide which applications belong in the cloud? Is our data more secure and compliant in the public cloud? When does it make sense to move off public cloud? Does a company our size still need VMware? How much will our VMware renewal go up in 2027? How long does it take to migrate off VMware? In this conversation: (00:00) - The colocation quote that changed after the real requirements came out (00:53) - Why the application should dictate the infrastructure, not the other way around (04:16) - The myth that cloud is automatically more secure or compliant (06:15) - Why shared cloud workloads create a real compliance gap (08:11) - The five Cs: cost, compliance, customer service, complexity, and visibility (09:27) - Gently explaining to a customer that their plan is wrong (10:42) - When a board mandates cloud migration without understanding the tradeoffs (13:17) - Why small IT teams can't manage what they've been told to run (15:03) - Patching still exists in the cloud, just under a different name (16:14) - The rise and quiet retreat of the multi cloud pitch (20:38) - How much of infrastructure strategy is really about a toxic relationship with IT (22:15) - Running infrastructure alone for six of the largest US banks on $130K a month (26:25) - Ad tech, real time bidding, and why egress became the real cost center (27:13) - Internet connectivity now costs more than the infrastructure itself (29:03) - FinOps isn't cost control, it's just explaining the bill (31:54) - Why repatriation needs a founder willing to make the unsafe decision (32:56) - The cloud spend threshold where a real conversation starts (35:44) - Data sovereignty, the US Cloud Act, and owning entities by country (37:01) - The EU tiers where US controlled infrastructure becomes disqualifying (40:12) - Is data sovereignty the real trojan horse for repatriation (43:02) - Aptum's seventy two to seventy five percent average cost reduction (43:48) - Walking a repatriation curious customer from first call to signed contract (47:13) - Why some staff can't follow the migration to a new platform (48:11) - Cloud as the ultimate expression of tech debt (50:38) - Why your AWS account team is incentivized to grow your bill, not shrink it (52:23) - A CEO's gross revenue cloud spend becoming a business viability problem (53:31) - Why finance teams hate the cloud: no control, no predictability (55:11) - What people get wrong about disaster recovery in the cloud (58:48) - Why dedicated DR instances still cost less than running them live (01:00:27) - The real question for any circuit: more or less than $500 a month (01:02:12) - Why some customers blame the public internet for problems they chose (01:04:33) - The coming skills gap: why electricians are becoming the new high demand hire (01:07:09) - Being an expert generalist in a market that rewards niching (01:11:01) - Nine hundred and sixty seven vendors, narrowed to eighty two (01:13:41) - Controversial take: IT is a solved problem, most issues are self inflicted (01:15:32) - Shadow IT and the spreadsheets built because IT wouldn't touch it (01:19:27) - VMware's relevance after the Broadcom price increases (01:20:39) - The Oracle playbook: raise prices until only the trapped customers remain (01:23:19) - What April 2027 actually means for every VMware contract (01:25:36) - What percentage of VMware customers actually use its differentiators (01:29:31) - Migrating off VMware: where the majority of workloads are actually going (01:32:15) - Short executive tenure and who's left holding the decision (01:34:19) - The customer who insisted on colo, until the real number was $80K a month (01:36:29) - Nobody cares about the technology, they care what it lets them do (01:38:10) - Building the ROI presentation the IT team can't build for themselves (01:40:44) - Helping IT teams speak board, not just TCO and ROI (01:42:49) - Aptum's real ICP: one to three thousand employees, five to ten IT staff (01:43:47) - Migration work versus simply needing an expert to run it (01:48:01) - Efficiency and specialization: why selective outsourcing wins at scale (01:48:46) - Self serve without losing control: automation when they want it, service when they need it What We Mentioned Aptum AWS Microsoft Azure Google Cloud VMware (now part of Broadcom) Broadcom Nutanix Proxmox Zerto Megaport Equinix Digital Realty Netflix (one of the earliest and most public cloud repatriation cases) Dropbox FinOps EDP (Enterprise Discount Program) RI (Reserved Instance) RTO / RPO (Recovery Time Objective / Recovery Point Objective) DR (Disaster Recovery) About Jeremy Pease Jeremy Pease is CEO of Aptum, a global hybrid multi cloud managed service provider. He has more than two decades of experience leading data center, cloud, and managed infrastructure businesses, including executive roles at Hivelocity, Colohouse, DataBank, and Aptum. Jeremy Pease on LinkedIn Aptum About the Show Signed is the podcast for buyers in a market built for sellers. Host Max Clark, CEO of ITBroker.com, sits down with CIOs, CFOs, operators, and founders who've lived inside real enterprise tech deals. New episodes weekly at itbroker.com/podcast. If you're in the middle of a real tech decision and want someone in your corner, book an intro call at itbroker.com. Buy tech without regret. Follow: @itbrokerdotcom Full Transcript
September 15, 2026Episode 22516 min
Playbook: Buy on Purpose
You didn't choose your cloud provider. You inherited it, from whoever picked the safe option first and called it a decision. In this Playbook, Max Clark, CEO of ITBroker.com, names what that habit actually costs: three decades of consensus defaults, from the dot com era stack to LAMP to AWS's US East 1, and what the buyers who never questioned any of them paid for it, including the 15 hour outage this past October that took down Snapchat, Venmo, and a foreign government's tax site along with them. One question either ends the habit or exposes that you've never really made this decision at all: compared to what? The Playbook (00:00) - Why "nobody gets fired for buying IBM" still runs every enterprise tech decision (01:28) - The mistake: the consensus default isn't neutral, it's the product the market is built to sell you (03:05) - Proof from history: the safe choice and the weird choice have traded places twice before this one (04:37) - Today's default: AWS, US East 1, and what the October 2025 outage actually cost the buyers who never questioned it (06:32) - The play, step 1: the average cost structure you guarantee yourself by matching every competitor's stack (08:00) - The play, step 2: the cloud flexibility trap, committed spend agreements, and what cockroach mode actually protects (08:57) - The play, step 3: a16z, 37signals, and Netflix chose three different answers, on purpose (13:51) - What to watch for next: this isn't anti-cloud, it's anti-default (15:00) - The buyer's job: ask "compared to what?" on every consequential decision Resources Mentioned Andreessen Horowitz, "The Cost of the Cloud: A Trillion Dollar Paradox" (Sarah Wang & Martin Casado, 2021) 37signals / DHH's public cloud exit writeup (Basecamp, HEY) Netflix Open Connect Dropbox's pre-IPO infrastructure buildout AWS US East 1 outage, October 2025 Further reading: Most of Your Infrastructure Can Be Standard. Some of It Shouldn't Be. — the six-part decision filter for identifying which infrastructure choices actually deserve a comparison against the default, built directly from this episode About the Show Signed is the podcast for buyers in a market built for sellers. Playbooks are the solo format, 10 to 15 minutes, one trigger, one specific play. New episodes weekly at itbroker.com/podcast. If the trigger in today’s Playbook is one you’re facing right now, book an intro call at itbroker.com. We help buyers make the right call the first time. Buy tech without regret. Follow: @itbrokerdotcom Full Transcript Click here to view the episode transcript.
September 8, 2026Episode 2241 hr 59 min
How to Tell If Anyone Is Actually Managing Your Technology Spend
A 270 line wireless account doesn't look like it has much room for savings. It had $4,000 a month sitting unnoticed, almost $40,000 a year, nobody had looked closely enough to catch it. Tommi Ellis is Channel Director at Intratem, a telecom and technology expense management company built on auditing invoices against the contracts, inventory, and usage behind them, not just processing the bill. She joins Max Clark to break down why invoice approval and invoice validation are two completely different jobs, and why almost nobody is doing both. They get into what actually happens when an employee's personal device gets pulled into a legal discovery request, why POS line replacement generates more noise than it deserves relative to its actual cost, and why the biggest myth about outsourcing this work is that it threatens somebody's job. What You'll Learn Why are our phone and telecom bills wrong so often? What is telecom expense management? At what size does a company need telecom expense management? Is outsourcing telecom expense management cheaper than hiring someone? Should we give employees a phone stipend instead of company phones? What should we ask when choosing a telecom expense management provider? What contract terms should we get from a TEM provider? Do we have to collect employees' personal phones in a lawsuit? In this conversation: (00:00) - Cold open: the $4,000 a month hiding on a 270 line account (03:24) - What TEM actually means, beyond telecom cost cutting (05:51) - Who the real customer is inside the company: IT, finance, or both (08:00) - Why bills are wrong so often, and why carriers are slow to fix their own mistakes (10:54) - Why the fear of outsourcing fades once a company sees real savings (13:36) - From telco to wireless to SaaS: how TEM kept being renamed (16:27) - How AI license waste mirrors old wireless waste, and what size company actually needs a TEM (19:14) - Why in house control rarely means real control (22:26) - Stackable services: how mobility work turns into wireline and MDM work (24:43) - Why MDM deployment is still scary, even when it's the right call (28:49) - Why bills are wrong so often: disconnects that keep billing, and bad tax codes (31:17) - Why first bill reviews exist, and what they usually catch (36:08) - The lifecycle problem: phones in a drawer, and what nobody reclaims (36:47) - Help desk as an untapped part of TEM, and what it actually solves (39:26) - The hidden cost of sending an employee to the Apple Store (41:05) - BYOD vs. corporate owned: where companies actually get into trouble (44:43) - Why e-discovery is the real argument against personal devices for work (46:39) - Spoliation: the legal risk of not being able to produce an employee's device (52:10) - How MDM solves geolocation, not just security (54:49) - Does a company need a TEM and FinOps separately, or do they merge (59:30) - Why visibility, not cost cutting, is the actual product (01:01:39) - Reinventing the same IT problems generation after generation (01:03:42) - Top three onboarding mistakes: HR feed delays, "we're already optimized," and fear of being audited (01:07:15) - Do companies negotiate good contracts and then just stop enforcing them (01:08:22) - The biggest myth about TEM: that it replaces someone's job (01:10:41) - Spotting a partner who says they do TEM but doesn't do it well (01:14:10) - What a real first 90 days of onboarding actually looks like (01:16:57) - Reconciling four different sources of truth down to one (01:20:20) - What a human account manager actually does that software can't (01:22:13) - How a people led business scales without losing the human part (01:24:23) - Who actually receives the invoice, and who pays it (01:27:32) - What's included by default versus what's billed as an add on (01:29:32) - Rip and replace versus optimizing within what a client already has (01:32:38) - Why TEMs and aggregators solve the same problem but bill differently (01:34:00) - Does the customer relationship change once the big first year savings are gone (01:38:21) - How the TEM and carrier relationship is quietly changing (01:40:10) - Who actually signs the check: IT, finance, or a split (01:42:07) - What a good channel partner does that a mediocre one doesn't (01:43:48) - The five questions that actually matter when evaluating a TEM (01:45:54) - The biggest red flag: a vendor that leads with the portal (01:46:26) - What protections to put in a TEM contract, including term length and exit clauses (01:48:06) - Private equity's growing interest in TEM, and what that means for customers (01:51:20) - The $2,000 a month POS line nobody noticed (01:53:21) - Why POS line retirement keeps getting delayed, even when the carrier wants out (01:55:13) - Why POS lines get disproportionate attention next to the bigger problems (01:57:18) - Speed round: broken billing systems, the best unused negotiation lever, iPhone vs. Android cost, and 30 years of career advice What We Mentioned Intratem Verizon Wireless AirTouch Cellular ServiceNow Microsoft 365 (E3, E5) MDM (Mobile Device Management) BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) MACD (Moves, Adds, Changes, Disconnects) TEM (Telecom/Technology Expense Management) FinOps e-discovery and spoliation POS lines (Plain Old Telephone Service) LOA (Letter of Authorization) About Tommi Ellis Tommi Ellis is Channel Director at Intratem, where she was brought on to build out the company's partner and channel program. She spent 20 years at Verizon Wireless, first in retail stores and then as a corporate trainer, before moving into telecom and technology expense management. Intratem positions itself as human led and data backed, auditing telecom and technology invoices against the contracts, inventory, and usage behind them rather than just processing the bill. Tommi Ellis on LinkedIn Intratem About the Show Signed is the podcast for buyers in a market built for sellers. Host Max Clark, CEO of ITBroker.com, sits down with CIOs, CFOs, operators, and founders who've lived inside real enterprise tech deals. New episodes weekly at itbroker.com/podcast. If you're in the middle of a real tech decision and want someone in your corner, book an intro call at itbroker.com. Buy tech without regret. Follow: @itbrokerdotcom Full Transcript Click here to view the episode transcript.
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