BT150 zeitgeist: Cloud capacity strains, AI agent governance, beware faux FTEs

Executives in Constellation Research's BT150 are starting to see the trickle-down effect from cloud capacity constraints.

The BT150 meetup was held June 26. This Constellation Research CxO call operates under Chatham House rules so the takeaways aren't attributed.

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Here are the takeaways from the June meeting of the BT150:

Enterprise customers are starting to feel hyperscaler capacity constraints. One Google Cloud customer said he was told on renewal that bulk rates wouldn't be available for compute due to capacity constraints. "We were told they have no more compute capacity. They also said they're not doing the bulk rate agreement anymore after I've already deployed and integrated everywhere," said the CxO.

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It's possible that Google Cloud is constrained on compute or just wants to raise prices. That said Google Cloud inked a deal with SpaceX AI for a reason. The company needs compute.

AI agent governance, accountability and cycle time remain a big issue as humans can't keep up with machine speed. CxOs in regulated industries note the issue with AI agents is that accountability still lies with a human. Defining who owns the decisions and risks as AI agents scale will be critical.

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Databricks surfaced in discussions as one of the more interesting AI app vendors to watch over the next two to three years. Everything Databricks is building is about displacing your current stack. It's possible that Databricks is building the platform and the architecture needed for the future.

Beware of salespeople masquerading as FTEs (forward deployed engineers). A real FTE understands how to take a requirement, put it back into a product and get something done. They're not field CTOs or architects. Today, too many vendors are on the FTE bandwagon and are not living up to the title. FTEs are members of a special forces team. By definition, there can't be as many of them as being announced.