The CTO Advisor

The official Twitter handle for The CTO Advisor a Advisor Bench Company

[Sarbjeet Johal @sarbjeetjohal]

We are all set for keynote at #Googleio in Mountain View! Sitting here with @BBlosen, @CTOAdvisor, and @rseroter!

[Keith Townsend @CTOAdvisor]

"Your agent just deleted prod. Now what?"

AI agents are operating at scale — and when they go wrong, the blast radius isn't one file. It's entire buckets.

Woon Ho Jung, CTO of @ClumioInc, breaks down why replication won't save you and what air-gapped backup across AWS and GCP actually looks like in practice.

One policy. One portal. Two clouds. And a recovery point that no agent can touch.

https://t.co/xVTvnfIliM

Full conversation on the CTO Advisor podcast.

[Sriram Subramanian @sriramhere]

#googlecloudnext analyst reception fun - indie analysts galore! /cc @samcharrington @sarbjeetjohal @SanjMo @MaribelLopez @CTOAdvisor

[Sriram Subramanian @sriramhere]

Three musketeers @ the #googlecloudnext Analyst Reception last night. /cc @CTOAdvisor @samcharrington

[The CTO Advisor @thectoadvisor]

@CTOAdvisor @VMware @virtualizedgeek

[The CTO Advisor @thectoadvisor]

@CTOAdvisor Welcome back!

[Keith Townsend @CTOAdvisor]

Ran into @bocanuts at the show. I asked him if he had any AMD Strix Halo under that hat.

[Keith Townsend @CTOAdvisor]

Roadtrip work life.

[Keith Townsend @CTOAdvisor]

We are at @Articul8_AI as part of our #CTOARoadtrip talking the impact of Claude Code and Openclaw on enterprise AI adoption and speed.

[Keith Townsend @CTOAdvisor]

We are making road trip stops to Equinix and Articul8 this week. I’m looking forward to learning more about their AI solutions heading into GTC.

[Keith Townsend @CTOAdvisor]

The flying cloud has seen some things. We checked off three more states on this #CTOARoadtrip
-Kentucky
-Kansas
-Utah

[Melissa Townsend @MrsCto]

The CTO Advisor Road Trip 2026 ⁦@CTOAdvisor⁩

[Steven Dickens @StevenDickens3]

When you open source data good things happen!!!

We only dropped the HyperFRAME Research Lens AI stack data yesterday and already it is being picked up by the community.

Check out my dear friend @thectoadvisor @CTOAdvisor recent blog 👇

https://t.co/Uc6Mv9ICY2

[Keith Townsend @CTOAdvisor]

One of the things people don’t always realize about the CTO Advisor Flying Cloud is that it isn’t just a mobile studio.

It’s our home.

Yes, it’s where we record interviews.
Yes, it’s where we produce sponsored content.
Yes, it’s where I work while driving across the country.

But when companies or customers step inside the Airstream to do an interview, they’re not walking into a production set.

They’re stepping into our living room.

That changes the tone of the conversation.

The interviews feel different.
More relaxed.
More honest.
More like two practitioners talking through what’s actually happening in the field.

Melissa plays a big role in that atmosphere.
If you’ve ever been around The CTO Advisor at events, you know people ask two questions:

“Where’s the Airstream?”
and
“Is Melissa here?”

The Flying Cloud works because it’s personal.
It isn’t a corporate studio.

It’s our home on the road.

And when vendors and customers sit down with us inside it, the conversation reflects that.
#CTOARoadTrip @MrsCTO

[Keith Townsend @CTOAdvisor]

Today was a good day. We got to interview the Town Manager of the Town of Vail during our #CTOARoadTrip

One of the best AI stories I’ve heard so far.

[Keith Townsend @CTOAdvisor]

Not AI. This is my office for the next couple of days.

[Keith Townsend @CTOAdvisor]

The CTO Advisor Road Trip isn’t a vacation.

It’s 1,300 miles down.
And we’re only halfway to California.

That means:

• Client deliverables from truck stops
• Strategy calls somewhere between state lines
• Editing decks in the passenger seat
• Planning interview shoots inside an Airstream

Tomorrow?

Dry runs for recording interviews.
Testing audio in a rolling aluminum echo chamber.
And washing 1,300 miles of road grime off the rig — before we drive another 1,300.

This is the part people don’t see about “location freedom.”

It’s not less work.
It’s compressed work.
Stacked work.
Chosen work.

We’re parked in one of the most beautiful parts of the country — the kind of view people take PTO to see.

And I’m here… building.

Shipping client outcomes.
Creating content.
Designing conversations that matter.

Entrepreneurship isn’t about escaping responsibility.

It’s about deciding which hard you’re willing to carry.

1,300 miles in.
1,300 to go.

Wouldn’t trade it.

I love my job. @MrsCto

[Keith Townsend @CTOAdvisor]

The first content stop for #CTOARoadTrip is along the Vail Pass in Colorado. We’ll sit down with @KamiwazaAI @HPE to talk about their smart cities AI project with the Town of Vail.

[Melissa Townsend @MrsCto]

Day 5 — Road Trip

Today was a beautiful day, with the sun beaming down on my face. Keith is doing such a great job driving, making the journey smooth and peaceful. It was one of those days that turns into a great memory — simple, sweet, and filled with gratitude. @CTOAdvisor

[Keith Townsend @CTOAdvisor]

Black History Month — Tech Edition | Legacy Day

This month, I’ve been on the road.

Literally.

Driving across the country for the CTO Advisor Road Trip — meeting founders, executives, platform teams, and enterprise leaders shaping the future of technology.

And as I’ve been driving, I’ve been thinking about something.

A kid from Englewood, Chicago doesn’t end up in enterprise boardrooms, cloud strategy sessions, and AI infrastructure debates by accident.

That path was paved.

Paved by:

Engineers who proved they belonged in rooms where they weren’t expected.
Mathematicians who made mission-critical systems possible.
Executives who cracked boardroom ceilings in the 70s and 80s.
Founders who built platforms instead of waiting for invitations.
Community builders who refused to pull the ladder up behind them.

Every name we highlighted this month did more than achieve.

They widened the road.

When Ken Coleman entered executive leadership in eras where representation was rare, he widened the road.
When John Thompson operated at the governance layer of Microsoft, he widened the road.
When Kelsey Hightower demystified Kubernetes for operators, he widened the road.
When Kimberly Bryant built pipeline infrastructure for young Black technologists, she widened the road.
When Morgan DeBaun built distribution rails instead of waiting for legacy media access, she widened the road.

None of them just climbed.

They left lanes open.

This road trip I’m on — professionally and literally — exists because others laid asphalt in places where there wasn’t pavement.

Black history in technology isn’t a side story.

It’s a structural story.

It’s hardware.
It’s math.
It’s governance.
It’s capital.
It’s community.
It’s leadership.

And for a kid from Englewood to navigate enterprise infrastructure at scale — that’s not individual achievement.

That’s generational contribution.

The road is wider than it used to be.

And the responsibility now is simple:

Don’t narrow it.

Keep building lanes.

@MrsCto