Embracing Digital Transformation Podcast

25 August 2026

Recently, I had the pleasure of being interviewed for the Embracing Digital Transformation Podcast with host Dr. Darren Pulsipher.

We had a really great conversation that covered a variety of topics, which you can find here:

https://embracingdigital.org/en/episodes/edt-377/index.html

Or here if you want the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lUUocIGbkM

Here is their summary of the conversation:

Cloud outages, cybersecurity incidents, and high-pressure decision-making can make even experienced teams freeze. Dr. Darren welcomes Matt Lea, AWS consultant and creator of Cloud War Games, to explore how simulated outages, gamified cloud training, and scenario-based exercises help leaders build resilience, improve collaboration, and reduce risk before a real crisis hits. Tailoring these simulations to different organizational sizes and cloud setups ensures relevance and effectiveness for diverse teams.

Key Takeaways

  • Passive training often fails to prepare teams for real-world outages; simulated pressure reveals how people actually respond, helping them feel more confident and supported in their readiness.
  • Cloud war games can help teams practice misconfigurations, ransomware attacks, and other outage scenarios in a controlled environment.
  • These exercises are useful not only for training, but also for hiring and assessing soft skills like communication, collaboration, and calm under pressure.
  • Cross-training is critical: if only one person knows how a system works, that creates a dangerous single point of failure.
  • Gamifying cloud and cybersecurity concepts can make learning more engaging, especially for non-technical audiences and future builders, encouraging enthusiasm and active participation.
  • Technical resilience is a leadership issue, not just an engineering one—teams should rehearse failure before it happens so that leaders can inspire confidence and preparedness.