The ITPro Podcast

Women are still greatly underrepresented in STEM. The latest figures from the Women Tech Network show women only make up around 26-27% of the STEM workforce and the organization estimates that at the current rate of change, it will be nearly 123 years before the economic gender gap is closed.
It’s International Women’s Day 2026 – and the rate of women hired in tech continues to lag far behind that of men. As hiring teams turn to AI tools to automatically field candidates, we’re at something of a crossroads – do we fix the bias inherent in hiring? Or simply replicate it at scale with similarly biased AI tools?
In this episode, Jane are Rory are joined by Clare Hickie, EMEA CTO at Workday, to discuss how businesses can engage in bias-free talent acquisition in the age of AI.

February is the shortest month, but you wouldn’t know it from the sheer amount of news that’s broken in just the past 26 days.
Amid growing fears of AI stealing jobs, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has claimed that firms are simply using the technology as an excuse for mass layoffs. Earlier this month, a series of Anthropic releases drove stocks down at a range of companies – all tied to fears that the SaaS model might be on its way out.
Also this month, Pure Storage has rebranded as Everpure – what’s behind this decision and what does it say about the company’s strategy going forward?
In this episode, Jane and Rory welcome back Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to explore some of February’s biggest stories.
Read more:
Sam Altman just said what everyone is thinking about AI layoffs
Why Anthropic sent software stocks into freefall
Anthropic says Claude Code can help streamline 'cost-prohibitive' COBOL modernization, but IBM says it's not that simple
What might cause the 'AI bubble' to burst – and what impact would that have on the business world?
Pure Storage snaps up 1touch in data management pivot

Digital sovereignty has quietly become one of the most urgent requirements in the tech sector. Once a matter for policy debate, this is now a critical business issue and as much a matter of resilience as one of compliance.
Indeed while we’ve spoken about the need for digital sovereignty before, recent geopolitical developments have cast the debate in far starker light. With European governments and businesses leaning heavily into digital sovereignty, it’s clear there’s an emerging race to secure critical workloads.
Just how important will digital sovereignty be in 2026?
In this episode, Jane and Rory discuss all things digital sovereignty – how it’s being realized, the scale of the transformation, and how we could see things play out.
Read more:
Sovereign infrastructure spend to triple in Europe as fifth of workloads stay local
What is a sovereign cloud?
Sovereign cloud services are now the “bare minimum” expected by customers, and hyperscalers are scrambling to meet demand
What the new AWS European Sovereign Cloud means for enterprises
What the new Microsoft Sovereign Cloud push means for European customers
CIOs wrestle with Europe's new digital sovereignty approach
Can the UK achieve AI sovereignty?

Risk management is a constant point of concern in the modern enterprise, with cybersecurity threats, compliance pressures, and financial leaps of faith all piling pressure on the teams who are forced to manage them.
But risk management can’t always be about bailing out the sinking ship. Sooner or later, businesses need to integrate their risk management systems and connect teams together via a centralized framework.
What are the benefits of overhauling risk management in this manner? And how can it be achieved?
In this special edition of the ITPro Podcast, in association with Qualys, Rory is joined by Ivan Milenkovic, VP Risk Technology EMEA at Qualys, to explore how businesses can reduce the burden on C-suite executives and improve their overall resilience by restructuring their approach to risk management.
Read more:
Risk Operations Center (ROC) | Qualys

This episode was first published on 18 July 2025.
Cyber attacks can feel a layer detached from the real world. Yes, businesses frequently see IP stolen, get frozen out of systems, or have data wiped by malicious actors. But if you haven’t got your finger on the pulse, cyber attacks can also fail to register in your day to day.
But there are instances where cyber attacks come crashing into the lives of everyday people, and become impossible to ignore: when attackers go after critical infrastructure and operational technology. Breaches and malware attacks at power and water plants, against core supply chain organizations, or against transport networks can all cause catastrophic damage, enormous financial losses – and even lead to deaths.
In this episode, Rory speaks with Magpie Graham, technical director of intel and services at Dragos, to discuss attacks on operational technology, critical infrastructure, and the future of large-scale cyber attacks.
Read more:
What is operational technology – and why is it at risk?
Manufacturing firms are struggling to handle rising OT security threats
When everything connects, everything’s at risk
Former NCSC head says the Jaguar Land Rover attack was the 'single most financially damaging cyber event ever to hit the UK' as impact laid bare
CISA shares lessons learned from Polish power grid hack – and how to prevent disaster striking again