Samantha Weston - theCUBE Research

Formerly known as Wikibon

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Samantha Weston

Industry Analyst, Application Development

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Bringing more than a decade of varying experience crossing multiple sectors such as legal, financial, and tech, Sam Weston is an accomplished professional that excels in ensuring success across various industries. Currently, Sam serves as an Industry Analyst at theCUBE Research where she collaborates closely in the areas of application modernization, DevOps, storage, and infrastructure. With a keen eye for research, Sam produces valuable insights and custom content to support strategic initiatives and enhance market understanding. Rooted in the fields of tech, law, finance operations and marketing, Sam provides a unique viewpoint to her position, fostering innovation and delivering impactful solutions within the industry. Sam holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems and Business Analytics from Colorado State University and is passionate about leveraging her diverse skill set to drive growth and empower clients to succeed.

Research

Kion and ProsperOps Unite to Streamline FinOps Governance at Scale

Kion and ProsperOps Unite to Streamline FinOps Governance at Scale

Paul Nashawaty June 11, 2025

AWS Revamps FinOps Tools to Empower Developer Cost Control

AWS Revamps FinOps Tools to Empower Developer Cost Control

Paul Nashawaty June 10, 2025

HPE Aruba Networking Expands to Support AI Workloads with DPU-Enabled Smart Switches

HPE Aruba Networking Expands to Support AI Workloads with DPU-Enabled Smart Switches

Paul Nashawaty June 10, 2025

CloudBolt Report Reveals Gaps in Developer FinOps Execution

CloudBolt Report Reveals Gaps in Developer FinOps Execution

Paul Nashawaty June 10, 2025

Databricks Acquires Neon to Power Serverless Postgres at Scale for the AI-Native Era

Databricks Acquires Neon to Power Serverless Postgres at Scale for the AI-Native Era

Paul Nashawaty June 10, 2025

Cloud Cost Management Gets Smarter - FinOps X 2025 Highlights a Unified Industry Push Toward AI and FOCUS Standardization

Cloud Cost Management Gets Smarter – FinOps X 2025 Highlights a Unified Industry Push Toward AI and FOCUS Standardization

Paul Nashawaty June 6, 2025

Taming Cloud Complexity With Intelligent Automation

Taming Cloud Complexity With Intelligent Automation

Paul Nashawaty June 6, 2025

You said: provide a comma list of tags for Research Note: Red Hat Advances AI-Driven IT Automation and Compliance Readiness Based on theCUBE Research analysis of a Red Hat multi-speaker meeting held May 20, 2025 At a recent multi-speaker strategy session hosted by Red Hat, the company showcased continued momentum in integrating AI into IT operations, accelerating automation, and reinforcing secure software development practices. The event highlighted RHEL Lightspeed, container-based system images, supply chain security, and organizational shifts toward generalist IT roles. Based on theCUBE Research’s ongoing industry data, the conversations underscore a maturing enterprise appetite for AI-enabled operational tools, cost-aware modernization, and stronger compliance enforcement. Red Hat’s RHEL Lightspeed was a focal point, representing a major step forward in embedding generative AI directly into Linux workflows. A new command line assistant—similar in behavior to a co-pilot—allows users to ask questions in natural language, returning recommended Linux commands without executing them. For example, users can pipe system command outputs or attach logs, and the assistant interprets them or generates migration-ready shell scripts. The feature leverages Red Hat’s documentation, RATA, and internal knowledge bases. Customer feedback suggests strong demand to integrate organizational-specific procedures into the AI model. Early usage emphasizes accelerated troubleshooting and improved onboarding, especially as organizations hire fewer entry-level roles—a trend echoed in theCUBE Research survey of 850 IT leaders, where 67% reported shifting from hiring specialists to generalists. Another Lightspeed feature, integrated into Insights Image Builder, offers package recommendations in a UX reminiscent of e-commerce: “If you use this package, you may also need that one.” This eases the challenge of discovering relevant packages among the thousands in RHEL’s ecosystem. Future iterations may evolve toward a curated "mini marketplace" experience, blending user guidance with automated best-practice enforcement. Across the broader Red Hat portfolio, AI and automation are becoming symbiotic. OpenShift AI and RHEL AI are designed to scale from proof-of-concept to production, with Ansible acting as the “glue” binding infrastructure layers and workflows. Ansible’s automation of “Day 2” operations—what happens after deployment—is increasingly essential. Organizations see AI not just as a development accelerator, but as a foundational component of long-term operational resilience. In terms of migration and modernization, many enterprises initially rushed to exit legacy platforms like VMware. However, what was expected to be a mass exodus has become a phased transition. Enterprises now focus on automating existing VMware operations to reduce manual effort and extend value from existing assets. theCUBE Research data reveals that 73% of organizations renewed their VMware contracts for up to three years but are actively exploring alternatives, with plans to reassess within 12 to 18 months. Migration is no longer a one-time IT initiative; it requires continuous operations teams with evolving skill sets. Red Hat experts noted a growing emphasis on simplifying tools to support generalist roles, such as cloud administrators replacing network specialists. CIOs, according to theCUBE Research’s enterprise modernization index, prioritize three core challenges: reducing complexity, closing skill gaps, and managing costs. With FinOps entering strategic conversations, enterprises are balancing modernization with long-term budget discipline. Another standout discussion focused on the shift in developer responsibilities. Historically, developers wrote and compiled code. Now, many act as aggregators—assembling open-source components, managing APIs, and orchestrating modules. The future, according to participants, may not require developers to write code at all, as AI-assisted assembly becomes the norm. However, this evolution raises concerns about diminishing entry-level opportunities, as AI increasingly handles the simpler, educational tasks once reserved for junior staff. Universities are responding: NC State, for example, has introduced majors such as “Psychiatry in Computing” to prepare students for a world blending behavioral science, language models, and engineering. Compliance and regulation emerged as a pressing theme. With CRAA (Cyber Resilience Act for Applications) mandates taking effect by December 2027 and compliance reporting beginning as early as September 2025, organizations must automate compliance checks. Non-compliant apps will be rejected automatically—a shift that redefines DevSecOps from a best practice to a mandatory capability. The emergence of AI does not absolve responsibility: participants cited a case in which an airline chatbot mistakenly offered tickets at the wrong price, only for the airline to be held accountable. This underscores the need for robust policy frameworks and human oversight. Red Hat’s innovations around container-based system images offer new ways to address patching, consistency, and security. Moving away from static “gold images,” the BootC technology enables full-system container images—including the kernel and firmware—to be updated or rolled back via container tags. This modernizes image management and provides traceability. While the approach improves consistency, it introduces a risk: shared base images can become single points of failure if compromised. Recovery is possible via image rollback, but this requires strict base image governance. Microservice architectures built on slimmed-down, shared images can minimize attack surfaces while streamlining updates. BootC’s promotion to CNCF sandbox status suggests growing community traction. Supply chain security and software pipeline integrity were recurring concerns. Participants noted that accelerated release cycles—pushed by DevOps KPIs—often skip critical validation stages. theCUBE Research data shows a mismatch between desire and readiness: while 24% of organizations aim to release code hourly, only 8% achieve it. The result is a “push-and-pray” culture, where insufficient testing exposes organizations to security breaches and breaking changes. SBOMs, version control, and traceable sign-offs are becoming minimum standards. A secure-by-design supply chain, complete with signed firmware, containers, and boot stacks, is seen as the "holy grail" of operational integrity. Currently, only a handful of experts globally can implement such a system—but Red Hat’s roadmap aims to democratize this capability. In summary, Red Hat’s latest developments point to a future in which AI, automation, and compliance are tightly integrated across IT operations. The conversations reflect a broader industry trend: organizations must modernize securely, incrementally, and in ways that enable less specialized teams to operate complex systems. As regulatory mandates loom and workloads shift to containerized, AI-assisted environments, Red Hat’s platform-centric, open-source approach positions it well to lead in enterprise transformation. Action Items: Explore model context protocol (MCP) integration for permission-based command execution in RHEL Lightspeed. Investigate extending RHEL Lightspeed to incorporate internal knowledge and customer workflows. Develop automation frameworks for WebAssembly (WASM) deployment in edge environments. Address concerns around common base image security and rollback capabilities. Consolidate customer feedback loops to prioritize roadmap features across AI and container initiatives. Follow up on business development leads generated during the event for collaborative opportunities. ChatGPT said: Here’s a comma-separated list of relevant tags for your research note: Red Hat, AI-driven automation, IT operations, compliance readiness, RHEL Lightspeed, container-based system images, supply chain security, software supply chain integrity, DevSecOps, Ansible automation, OpenShift AI, AI in Linux, generative AI, IT modernization, VMware migration, generalist IT roles, enterprise IT transformation, FinOps, software supply chain, Cyber Resilience Act, CRAA compliance, developer role evolution, AI-assisted development, system image security, BootC technology, CNCF sandbox, microservices security, secure software pipelines, SBOM, operational resilience, cloud administration, AI governance, software compliance automation, theCUBE Research, enterprise automation trends, AI-enabled troubleshooting, package recommendation UX, knowledge-based AI, edge computing automation, WebAssembly deployment, organizational IT skills, policy and oversight in AI, AI and software security, technology strategy. You said: provide a short keyphrase ChatGPT said: Red Hat AI-driven IT automation and compliance innovation

Red Hat Advances AI-Driven IT Automation and Compliance Readiness

Paul Nashawaty May 29, 2025

Navigating Monetization Complexity in Modern App Dev

Navigating Monetization Complexity in Modern App Dev

Paul Nashawaty May 28, 2025

Google Unveils Gemini 2.5 and AI Mode in Search, Announced at Google I/O for AI Stack for Developers and Enterprises

Google Unveils Gemini 2.5 and AI Mode in Search, Announced at Google I/O for AI Stack for Developers and Enterprises

Sam Weston May 23, 2025

From Tool Sprawl to Intelligence-Driven Automation

From Tool Sprawl to Intelligence-Driven Automation

Paul Nashawaty May 22, 2025

AI as Infrastructure, Agent, and Enterprise Accelerator

Microsoft Build 2025: AI as Infrastructure, Agent, and Enterprise Accelerator

Paul Nashawaty May 21, 2025

Twilio Shows It’s Ready to Power the Next Chapter of AI-Driven Engagement

Twilio Shows It’s Ready to Power the Next Chapter of AI-Driven Engagement

Sam Weston May 21, 2025

Nutanix and Pure Storage Unite: A Game Changer for Virtual Workloads

Nutanix and Pure Storage Unite: A Game Changer for Virtual Workloads

Paul Nashawaty May 18, 2025

Amazon Debuts Nova Premier: High-Performance Multimodal AI for Agent Workflows

Amazon Debuts Nova Premier: High-Performance Multimodal AI for Agent Workflows

Paul Nashawaty May 18, 2025

Amazon Launches Nova Platform and Nova Act SDK to Accelerate AI Agent Development

Amazon Launches Nova Platform and Nova Act SDK to Accelerate AI Agent Development

Paul Nashawaty May 18, 2025

LoftLabs Launches vNode to Advance Kubernetes Multi-Tenancy with Virtualized Nodes

LoftLabs Launches vNode to Advance Kubernetes Multi-Tenancy with Virtualized Nodes

Paul Nashawaty May 18, 2025

Rethinking Modern Architecture From Cloud to Edge to Agents

Rethinking Modern Architecture From Cloud to Edge to Agents

Paul Nashawaty May 18, 2025

Red Hat Summit 2025: AI, Virtualization, and the Future of Open Hybrid Cloud

Red Hat Summit 2025: AI, Virtualization, and the Future of Open Hybrid Cloud

Paul Nashawaty May 18, 2025

Accelerating the Agentic AI Era Through Cloud-Native Innovation

Google Cloud Next 2025: Accelerating the Agentic AI Era Through Cloud-Native Innovation

Paul Nashawaty May 15, 2025

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