46 - The Private Cloud Playbook with David Morales

David Morales helped build Walmart's private cloud from the ground up—385,000 virtual cores, a custom PaaS layer, and AI-powered store robots before the world knew what to do with them. Now, as SVP of Technology and CIO at Western Governors University, he applies those same principles to keep a 100% digital learning environment running for 193,000 students at 99.7% uptime—while fending off nearly 10,000 cyber attacks per minute. In this episode, David and host Matt Pacheco cover why lift-and-shift migration fails, how to build governance into your architecture instead of bolting it on, and what AI readiness actually requires. His closing framework says it all: listen first, get the fundamentals right, and focus on outcomes—not outputs.