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

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.