Why Software Deployment Is the Hidden Cost of Cloud

What this episode covers

In this episode of Gaining the Technology Leadership Edge, Mike is joined by Steve Kelly, a longtime technology executive and founder of Argentil, to explore a problem most organizations underestimate: software deployment. Steve shares lessons from his career at Motorola, Cisco, and as a founder of early managed service and deployment-focused companies. He explains why many organizations unknowingly spend more time deploying software than writing it—and why deployment scripts are often treated as disposable instead of valuable intellectual property. The conversation dives into how deployment challenges multiply in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, where tools and processes differ across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and private infrastructure. Steve explains how Argentil approaches deployment as a reusable, platform-agnostic system, allowing teams to organize scripts, apply machine learning to describe them, and build low-code workflows that reduce dependency on highly specialized engineers. Mike and Steve also discuss leadership and organizational dynamics, including why executives often don’t see deployment problems, how engineers become key influencers in technology adoption, and why transparency between technical teams and leadership is critical. This episode is especially relevant for CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and senior technology leaders who want to reduce operational risk, scale DevOps and DevSecOps teams more effectively, and stop rebuilding the same deployment solutions over and over again. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why deployment is often more expensive than development How reusable scripts become hidden intellectual property The challenges of hybrid and multi-cloud deployments Why deployment automation is an organizational problem How leaders can better support DevOps teams

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