Between Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s Next
Between Fires and Futures is the podcast for modern tech leaders caught in the constant tension of today and tomorrow.
It’s the space between daily firefights—cloud issues, AI hype, security breaches—and the visionary work of building scalable, resilient, future-ready organizations.
Each week, we talk with the strategists, technologists, and innovators doing the real work of leading change. These are unfiltered conversations that expose the tradeoffs, wins, and lessons no one puts in the case studies.
No spin. No fluff. Just pressure-tested leadership, real-world insight, and bold thinking.
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Between Fires and Futures: Real Conversations for Tech Leaders Navigating What’s Now—and What’s Next
From Firefighting to Forward Thinking – Automation for the Modern IT Leader with Chris Miller, Advizex
Want to know what automation strategies are actually working for real enterprise teams?
Automation may be one of the most overused buzzwords in IT—but it’s also one of the most underutilized solutions. In this episode, we sit down with Chris Miller, CTO of Advizex, whose journey from building an ISP at 19 to leading enterprise automation strategy has given him rare, hands-on perspective on what actually works. If you're stuck in firefighting mode but want to build a system that scales and sustains your team, this conversation is your roadmap.
We break down what intelligent automation actually looks like in practice—far beyond the hype—and how IT leaders can prioritize, operationalize, and scale automation across complex systems. From reducing provisioning wait times to unlocking agentic AI in cross-departmental workflows, this episode is packed with actionable insights you can take back to your team immediately.
Tune in to hear:
- Chris’s unique path from programming at age 6 to CTO, and how his early experiences shaped his systems-thinking mindset
- Where enterprise IT teams are feeling the most pressure—and how smart automation is relieving it
- Why consistency may be more valuable than speed when it comes to automation ROI
- High-leverage use cases like self-healing systems, intelligent provisioning, and automated security response
- The biggest blockers to scaling automation—and how to avoid project stall-out
- What smart, scalable automation really looks like when it’s done right
- How agentic AI is changing the future of IT operations (and what early adopters are doing now)
- Chris’s lean value analysis method for choosing the right automation projects based on time, cost, and business impact
- How to get leadership and IT buy-in without the overwhelm
Resources Mentioned:
🔍 Explore automation insights from Advizex: Search "Advizex automation" on TechnologyMatch.com
🤖 Reach out to Chris directly: CMiller@advizex.com