
#123 - From Nokia to AI-IoT: Engineering the Physical World with Bernd Groß // CEO @ Cumulocity
alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical LeadersShow Notes
The physical world is becoming digital—and it requires fundamentally different technical architecture than traditional IT systems. Bernd Groß leads technical leaders through the evolution from enterprise software to industrial IoT, where real-time data from 30,000 wind turbines and millisecond-level decision-making define system requirements.
As co-founder and CEO of Cumulocity, Bernd has navigated one of tech's most complex domains: connecting industrial hardware through standardized platforms. His journey from Nokia's early cloud computing initiatives to building Germany's leading IoT platform offers unique insights on technical leadership in physical-digital convergence.
Technical leaders will gain valuable perspectives on:
• 🏗️ Architecting speed-layer systems that handle 50TB monthly data flows while maintaining real-time responsiveness
• 🔄 Managing technical debt across hundreds of industrial protocols while modernizing from monoliths to microservices
• 🤖 Implementing "AI-IoT" strategies that bridge machine learning models with operational technology deployments
• ⚡ Building edge-cloud hybrid architectures for regulated environments and latency-critical applications
• 🛠️ Engineering platforms that scale from device management to data operationalization across industrial verticals
More from alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical Leaders
Raffi Krikorian has built teams at scale: platform engineering at Twitter, Uber's self-driving center, and the Democratic National Committee, where he was its first CTO. Today he's CTO of Mozilla, working to make AI as open as the web, and on the side he runs three rotating Claude Max subscriptions and a GPU in his closet.
Chris Wysopal was one of the first hackers to go public. As "Weld Pond" at the L0pht hacker collective in Boston, he testified before the US Senate in 1998, where the group delivered the soundbite that they could take down the internet in 30 minutes. He also wrote the Windows version of Netcat. In 2006 he co-founded Veracode, which by his account has now analysed trillions of lines of code. Today he's the company's Chief Security Evangelist.
Charles Guillemet has spent nine years building Ledger's security organization from scratch — first as the founder of The Donjon, Ledger's in-house offensive security research team, then as CTO overseeing security for a company safeguarding roughly 20% of the world's crypto (per Tobi's intro framing).
Sponsored by Blocks: Save at least 20% on your AWS costs with AI-powered optimization and enterprise discounts. Get your free Cloud Check at https://blocks.cloud/alphalist?utm_source=alphalist&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=blocks-podcast-2026
Sponsored by Blocks: Save at least 20% on your AWS costs with AI-powered optimization and enterprise discounts. Get your free Cloud Check at https://blocks.cloud/alphalist?utm_source=alphalist&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=blocks-podcast-2026