EP 368 – On-Prem vs. Cloud: What’s the Best Choice for Companies Today? – Idan Zalzberg – CTO of Agoda

by Michael Waitze | May 7, 2025

Building technology at scale is not about chasing the latest trends or making sweeping, one-time decisions. It’s about making a series of careful, long-term choices that prioritize control, efficiency, and resilience. Companies that rush into cloud adoption or AI implementations without understanding the trade-offs risk losing the ability to innovate on their own terms.

Technology leadership is never about a single, bold decision — it’s about a series of intentional, calculated choices that evolve over time. The Asia Tech Podcast sat down with ⁠Idan Zalzberg⁠, the Chief Technology Officer of Agoda, to learn how complex technology infrastructures are built, maintained, and reimagined.

Some of the topics that Idan cover in detail included:

One of the most surprising themes from Idan’s leadership style is his insistence that CTOs should continue to code. Remaining hands-on creates deep trust with engineering teams and maintains sharp intuition for decision-making.
It’s not about being pro- or anti-cloud. It’s about being in control of your tech stack and cost structures — and re-evaluating continuously.
To scale AI effectively, companies must build internal capabilities to continuously monitor, measure, and validate AI’s impact.
Rather than replacing engineers, AI is amplifying their productivity — making the best developers even more capable.
Agoda’s future goal isn’t just to be a booking site — it’s to be a travel companion.

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