The Cloudcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Rick Song (@rickcsong, CEO @Persona_IDV) talks about the evolution of identity verification and threat detection.

SHOW: 859

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SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #859 Transcript

SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET

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SHOW NOTES:

• Persona webpage
• Tech Crunch Article on Persona

Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. Give everyone a little bit about your background with a quick introduction please.

Topic 2 - You cut your teeth at Square prior to Persona, what lessons did you learn there, and how did your experience there impact what you are doing at Persona?

Topic 3 - We are, of course, seeing an uptick in personal fraud in both our personal and professional lives through identity theft and personal information leaking into the world. If someone has all the proper information, how do you identify this as a false identity?

Topic 4 - How has AI impacted all of this? I would think with the power of GenAI tools, this industry has accelerated dramatically?

Topic 5 - Do we have another arms race on our hands to identify and protect both our personal and professional lives from fraud?

Topic 6 - Is Persona a 3rd party API similar in architecture to Stripe? If I’m an architect in an organization today and I want to get started, how would I do that?

Topic 7 - If there was one thing you wanted people to understand about this, what would it be?

Topic 8 - You have access to a lot of personal data, how is this data handled and secured?

FEEDBACK?

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This past week, Amazon announced a new RTO policy that required 5 days a week in the office. What types of impacts could this have on tech workers and the tech industry? 

SHOW: 858

SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #858 Transcript

SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET 

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CHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST:  "CLOUDCAST BASICS"

SHOW SPONSOR:

• Access Gartner cloud research come to life with the “The Future of Cloud in 2028: From Technology to Business Necessity,” webinar.
• Secure your seat for Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference 2024 with our early bird savings of $400 off standard rates now.  

SHOW NOTES:

• Amazon announces new Manager/Employee Ratio and RTO policy for 2025

IT’S BEEN 4.5 YEARS SINCE PEOPLE WERE IN THE OFFICE - FULL TIME

• People have adapted their life to working from home
• People have adapted their families to working from home
• Daily commutes seem like a poor use of resources

IT’S BEEN 4.5 YEARS SINCE PEOPLE WERE IN THE OFFICE - FULL TIME

• Being around co-workers does tend to increase collaboration and idea sharing
• RTO is more difficult on certain employee (especially care-giving women)
• RTO is an effective way to reduce headcount without defined “layoffs”
• RTO may feel more impactful to mobility-able tech workers

FEEDBACK?

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Vinay Tripathi (Senior Member of IEEE,  Production Network Engineer @Google) talks about the evolution of backbone networks for the Cloud and Internet, future technologies and career opportunities. 

SHOW: 849

SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #849 Transcript

SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET

CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotw

NEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"

SHOW NOTES:

Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. Before we jump into cloud networking, let’s talk a little bit about your background and some of the areas you focus on today.

Topic 2 - Let’s start with something big - the anatomy of cloud backbone networks. What is the makeup of a typical cloud backbone network?

Topic 3 - What are some of the unique challenges and solutions that you need to think about in terms of scaling, reliability, securing, and maintaining these massive networks, along with the innovative solutions being implemented

Topic 4 - Looking forward, what are some of the emerging trends like intent driven networks, software defined global WAN, and the impact of AI/ML on cloud backbone infrastructure.

Topic 5 - Some people in the networking industry are concerned about the future of network engineers. Career Paths in Cloud Networking: skills and knowledge required for a successful career in this field, along with potential career paths.

FEEDBACK?

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Mike Long (CEO @_kosli) talks about the challenges of enabling Governance and Compliance into DevOps teams and processes

SHOW: 759

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SHOW SPONSORS:

• Code Comments - An original podcast from Red Hat (Season 2)
• Adjusting to new technology, from teams that have been through it
• Find "Breaking Analysis Podcast with Dave Vellante" on Apple, Google and Spotify
• Keep up to data with Enterprise Tech with theCUBE

SHOW NOTES:

• Kosli (homepage)
• Supply Chain Levels for Software Artifacts (SLSA)
• DevOps Automated Governance (Reference Architecture)

Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. Tell us a bit about your background.

Topic 2 - Let’s talk about building software for businesses. Lots of people have read the Phoenix Project, and yet most companies still struggle to deploy software fast enough. Where are the bottlenecks today?

Topic 3 - What about Governance or Compliance or Auditing as functions? Can you help the audience understand their purpose and what those groups/functions do?

Topic 4 - Software development seems to boil down to lots of impedance mismatches due to managing risk (testing, security, compliance, etc.). How does Kosli play a role in trying to improve those mismatches?

Topic 5 - DevOps Automated Governance. What is it, how is it implemented, what benefits do companies get from it?

Topic 6 - Kosli technology is often described as “a flight recorder for your runtime environments”. Is the recorder primarily for the auditors, or does it become part of operations?

'Topic 7 - How do companies typically get started using Kosli? Does it have to be all at once, are is there a typical Crawl-Walk-Run model?

FEEDBACK?

• Email: show at the cloudcast dot net
• Twitter: @thecloudcastnet

Today we explore what to do when you’re stuck at a career crossroads between being technically valuable and managerial or leadership valuable. How to consider the tradeoffs.

SHOW: 758

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SHOW NOTES:

I BROKE INTO THE INDUSTRY THROUGH A TECHNOLOGY TRACK, BUT I BROUGHT MORE TO THE TABLE

• Lots of people reach a crossroads when they decide to move from technically-focused to manager-focused. 
• They often struggle because their identity of technical skills feels like it’s slipping away, and they aren’t sure of their identity. 
• Being a manager can often be unsatisfying and some people want to go back to the technology path.

NOW I’M FINDING THAT I’M GOOD AT MANAGING, BUT I DON’T KNOW IF IT BRINGS ME JOY

• Gain an understanding of the career ladders for both a technical path and a managerial path (or other paths in between).
• Try and determine what it’ll take to get to several levels higher than you are today (extra schooling, extra certifications, developer technical skills, travel, etc.)
• Make a list of the things that are most important to you, and what you’re OK with not prioritizing as a negative. (Location, Salary, Opportunity, Title, Job Risk, etc.)
• Figure out what parts of the current path don’t motivate you. Can a mentor help? Can you offset that with enjoyment from other parts of the role? 
• Sometimes you need to leave a specific job/company, but do that with the “next job” in mind (not the “move job”)
• Early in your career you’ll move jobs for opportunity/money/title, but unknown managers. Later in your career you’ll move to work with specific people. Find those people. 

FEEDBACK?

• Email: show at the cloudcast dot net
• Twitter: @thecloudcastnet

Aaron Delp and Brian Gracely discuss the possibility of another major cloud provider emerging as the economy changes and new application workloads begin to take shape. 

SHOW: 757

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SHOW SPONSORS:

• Find "Breaking Analysis Podcast with Dave Vellante" on Apple, Google and Spotify
• Keep up to data with Enterprise Tech with theCUBE
• Reduce the complexities of protecting your workloads and applications in a multi-cloud environment. Panoptica provides comprehensive cloud workload protection integrated with API security to protect the entire application lifecycle.  Learn more about Panoptica at panoptica.app

SHOW NOTES:

• Microsoft hiring to build small reactors near data centers
• The economic case for Generative AI (a16z)
• AWS invests (up to) $4B in Anthropic
• NVIDIA DGX Cloud
• NVIDIA’s new computing model (Acquired podcast)

Topic 1 - Do you remember back when AWS was starting to take off, and Simon Wardley used to talk about how IBM or HP or Cisco or EMC/VMware should have been the ones building the utility cloud services? 

Topic 2 - We’re now at a stage when all anyone can talk about is AI (Generative AI, LLMs, etc.) and GPUs. So which one is more powerful, the Models/Data or the Infrastructure?

Topic 3 - Is it possible that NVIDIA could start building their own cloud? Do they potentially want to own a more vertical experience? 

Topic 4 - Obviously the buildout costs are enormous, but are they that much different from what the Big 3 are trying to do in retrofitting existing data centers, or hiring to build their own mini-Nuclear reactors?

Topic 5 - Who could potentially be a partner to NVIDIA in building out this type of cloud in the near-term? (Equinix, national governments, cities-of-the-future, sovereign wealth funds, etc.)

FEEDBACK?

• Email: show at the cloudcast dot net
• Twitter: @thecloudcastnet

What happens when every software company needs to be a hardware company first? And how are leading VC firms potentially predicting that the 2000s will be repeating themselves?

SHOW: 756

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SHOW SPONSORS:

• CloudZero – Cloud Cost Visibility and Savings
• ​​CloudZero provides immediate and ongoing savings with 100% visibility into your total cloud spend
• Datadog Application Monitoring: Modern Application Performance Monitoring
• Get started monitoring service dependencies to eliminate latency and errors and enhance your users app experience with a free 14 day Datadog trial. Listeners of The Cloudcast will also receive a free Datadog T-shirt.
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• Cloudfix Homepage

SHOW NOTES:

• AI’s $200B Question (Sequoia)
• 5 years and $15B later, a fiber venture fails (Global Crossing)
• Dot com bubble
• The history of Switch Data Centers
• Interest rates over the last 30 years
• The Cost of Cloud, A Trillion Dollar Paradox (a16z)
• VCs vs the Cloud (Eps.656)

BACK IN THE DOT COM DAYS, WE ASSUMED THAT EVERYTHING WOULD BE INTERNET

• Let's remember how we transitioned from the late 1990s to the early 2000s
• VCs used to have a $50M "hardware tax" on investments
• Cloud and Low Interest Rates changed everything
• New Technology with Simple UI + Infrastructure Buildouts + Unknown Business Models

NOW WE ASSUME THAT EVERYTHING WILL BE AI (and GPUs)

• Interest rates have come back up to 2001 levels
• VCs are back to paying the "hardware tax", and aren't happy
• New Technology with Simple UI + Infrastructure Buildouts + Unknown Business Models
• Let's see if history repeats itself.

FEEDBACK?

• Email: show at the cloudcast dot net
• Twitter: @thecloudcastnet

Alex Ratner (@ajratner, CEO @SnorkelAI) talks about labeling and training of LLMs. We go over Foundational Models and how to take an “off the shelf” model and fine-tune it for private use.

SHOW: 755

CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotw

NEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"

SHOW SPONSORS:

• Reduce the complexities of protecting your workloads and applications in a multi-cloud environment. Panoptica provides comprehensive cloud workload protection integrated with API security to protect the entire application lifecycle.  Learn more about Panoptica at panoptica.app
• Find "Breaking Analysis Podcast with Dave Vellante" on Apple, Google and Spotify
• Keep up to data with Enterprise Tech with theCUBE

SHOW NOTES:

• SnorkelAI (homepage)
• SnorkelAI on The Cloudcast #523

Topic 1 - Welcome back to the show. We last spoke two years ago. A lot has changed so we thought it would be a great time to talk about updates. For those that aren’t familiar, give everyone a quick background.

Topic 2 - Let’s start with when we last spoke. We talked a lot about data scientists and how data labeling works for training LLM’s. For those that aren’t familiar, can you give everyone a quick intro to data labeling and why it is important for training?

Topic 3 - When we last spoke, LLM weren't as mainstream as they are today. How has this impacted how you think about AI/ML in general? What are the big challenges for LLM today that you see?

Topic 4 - Many organizations are trying “off the shelf” models but this may or may not be a good idea. On one side they don’t have to build a model but on the other they still have to fine tune it to their specific needs and use case. What are your recommendations for organizations to get started and be as effective as possible?

Topic 5 - In addition to organization specific models, are teams building purpose built models for specific functions (i.e. are they running multiple models each with a different task?) How does labeling and training come into play here?

Topic 6 - Another challenge I’m seeing is security and data privacy concerns. What do folks getting started need to be aware of to make sure company data is safe?

FEEDBACK?

• Email: show at the cloudcast dot net
• Twitter: @thecloudcastnet

As OSS projects continue to look for ways to balance community, sustainability and profitability, let’s explore some alternative considerations for companies and communities. 

SHOW: 754

CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotw

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SHOW SPONSORS:

• Datadog Synthetic Monitoring: Frontend and Backend Modern Monitoring
• Ensure frontend issues don’t impair user experience by detecting user-facing issues with API and browser tests with a free 14 day Datadog trial. Listeners of The Cloudcast will also receive a free Datadog T-shirt. 
• AWS Insiders is an edgy, entertaining podcast about the services and future of cloud computing at AWS. Listen to AWS Insiders in your favorite podcast player. 
• Cloudfix Homepage
• CloudZero – Cloud Cost Visibility and Savings
• ​​CloudZero provides immediate and ongoing savings with 100% visibility into your total cloud spend

SHOW NOTES:

• Troubles with Open Source Gig Economy (Chris Aniszczyk, CNCF)
• Open Source Needs Maintainers, How Do They Get Paid? (TNS)
• A New Way to Think about Open Source Sustainability (InfoWorld)

OPEN SOURCE HAS BECOME CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR BUSINESSES

• Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, Kafka, MongoDB, ElasticSearch, Java are all mission-critical to businesses. 
• Cloud providers have disrupted the previous OSS models - operationalize vs. contributions
• How to pay contributors?
• How to avoid unpredictable changes to licensing?
• How to provide better transparency to customers and communities?

DO OSS PROJECT NEED MORE STRUCTURE TO SUCCEED OR SUSTAIN?

• Establish “types” of projects: Business, Community, Any - Years to Action
• Establish some timelines around various types of projects
• Patents have a timeline to explore - can there be OSS licenses that have timelines
• Government tax credits for paying OSS contributors
• Should governance foundations create forks at established times?
• Should groups like CNCF be more active in recruiting forks after a period of time?

FEEDBACK?

• Email: show at the cloudcast dot net
• Twitter: @thecloudcastnet

Matt Spitz (@mattspitz, Head of Engineering at @TrustVanta) talks about the challenges of developer security and compliance. 

SHOW: 753

CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotw

NEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"

SHOW SPONSORS:

• Find "Breaking Analysis Podcast with Dave Vellante" on Apple, Google and Spotify
• Keep up to data with Enterprise Tech with theCUBE
• Reduce the complexities of protecting your workloads and applications in a multi-cloud environment. Panoptica provides comprehensive cloud workload protection integrated with API security to protect the entire application lifecycle.  Learn more about Panoptica at panoptica.app

SHOW NOTES:

• Vanta (homepage)

Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about your background. What made you join Vanta and did your experience at Dropbox factor into this decision?

Topic 2 - Our topic today is developer security and compliance. Let’s start by helping our listeners understand the problem. We hear all the time about developers wanting to go fast. Things like security and compliance can be an afterthought. Do you agree and is this the root of the problem or is it something else?

Topic 3 - Most organizations, especially smaller orgs or startups just getting going, they just want to get to MVP, what advice to you have for them in building security and compliance into their CI/CD pipelines so this becomes more programmatic?

Topic 4 - Security is certainly one angle, but probably just as important, if not more so is compliance. To make it slightly more difficult, compliance can mean many different things based on geography (SOC in US for instance). How do organizations staff for this and keep up with regulation changes? Or, maybe on the flip side, is this a common area where they are understaffed and need outside assistance?

Topic 5 - In security and compliance worlds there is often the concept of identification and discovery as one part, but remediation as the second part. Where and how does Vanta work with organizations to solve for both vectors?

Topic 6 - Automation, especially into CI/CD pipelines seems like a no-brainer here, but I would also add is this an area where AI/ML will come into play in the future?

Topic 7 - If folks want to dig in and learn more, how do you suggest they get started?

FEEDBACK?

• Email: show at the cloudcast dot net
• Twitter: @thecloudcastnet