TLDR: The “Mixture of Experts” series, a collaboration between theCUBE and NYSE Wired, is examining the profound impact of artificial intelligence and evolving cloud strategies on the enterprise technology landscape. The series highlights how organizations are confronting and overcoming challenges in complex hybrid and multicloud environments, showcasing innovative solutions such as FluidCloud’s “cloud cloning” platform and advanced defenses against AI-powered threats.
The “Mixture of Experts” interview series, a joint initiative by theCUBE and NYSE Wired, has commenced, offering deep insights into the disruptive forces reshaping enterprise technology. Launched on September 8, 2025, the series focuses on the collision of enterprise AI and cloud strategies, infrastructure transformation, and the economic factors driving industry-wide change. John Furrier, executive analyst at theCUBE Research, emphasized the series’ scope, stating, “This is our Mixture of Expert series featuring the leaders in technology, AI, crypto… robotics that are making the change over happen.”
The discussions within the series highlight the mounting challenges faced by enterprises in hybrid and multicloud environments, including rising costs and entrenched complexity. The series aims to uncover how innovation is emerging at the forefront of these pressures, delivering solutions that promise enhanced flexibility and freedom for organizations in transition. One notable segment featured FluidCloud, a startup that recently secured an $8.1 million seed round led by Unusual Ventures. FluidCloud co-founders Sharad Kumar and Harshit Omar introduced their “cloud cloning” platform, touted as the world’s first solution for seamless replication of entire infrastructure across various clouds, accounts, and regions.
FluidCloud’s platform is built upon deep, attribute-level mapping across different cloud providers and a robust pipeline that verifies API changes multiple times daily. Key features include read-only discovery, cloud-agnostic snapshots, and a “time machine” roll-back capability for infrastructure. This innovative approach directly addresses critical issues such as vendor lock-in and data sovereignty, which have been exacerbated by recent industry developments like Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and the focus of VCF 9.0 on private cloud.
The company’s migration coverage extends across major cloud platforms including VMware, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, OVHcloud, and Vultr, with plans to integrate Nutanix and OCI. FluidCloud aims to streamline migration timelines and alleviate resource constraints for cloud providers, system integrators, and mature enterprises through a marketplace-style go-to-market strategy. Kumar and Omar noted that customers in the financial and healthcare sectors are particularly affected by challenges such as cease-and-desist letters and reported 1000% price hikes, with cloud providers experiencing 20-25% of won deals being canceled due to failed migrations.
Addressing the role of AI in their solution, FluidCloud’s founders acknowledged the stringent requirements for accuracy in infrastructure configuration. They stated, “The challenge with AI is when it comes to infrastructure, you need absolute accuracy on the configuration, zero hallucinations. Yes, and that is not possible with today’s technology so we went ahead and actually built lot of the core functionalities in house.” This underscores a critical aspect of AI adoption in sensitive technical domains.
The series also delves into the crucial area of cybersecurity, with Kevin Tian, co-founder and CEO of Doppel Inc., discussing strategies for defending against AI-driven threats. Doppel utilizes a graph-based architecture and advanced AI to connect threat actor infrastructure across multiple channels, providing scalable defenses beyond traditional phishing protections.
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Overall, the “Mixture of Experts” series offers a timely examination of how technology, business strategy, and market forces converge in today’s cloud-first world, providing a platform for leaders to discuss big ideas, complex problems, and candid analyses of the rapidly evolving tech landscape.
