Michael Kennedy: Managing Your Own Python Infrastructure
The Real Python Podcast
Self‑Hosted Alternatives to Third‑Party Services
Michael explains replacing services like Google Analytics with first‑party self‑hosted alternatives to avoid cookie banners and tracking.
How do you deploy your Python application without getting locked into an expensive cloud-based service? This week on the show, Michael Kennedy from the Talk Python podcast returns to discuss his new book, “Talk Python in Production.”
Michael runs multiple Python applications online, including a training site, blog, and two podcasts. While searching for the best solution for hosting his business, he documented his findings in a book. We talk about containerizing Python applications, generating static sites, preparing for traffic spikes, and avoiding cloud service lock-in.
Course Spotlight: Speed Up Python With Concurrency
Learn what concurrency means in Python and why you might want to use it. You’ll see a simple, non-concurrent approach and then look into why you’d want threading, asyncio, or multiprocessing.
Topics:
- 00:00:00 – Introduction
- 00:01:28 – Welcome back!
- 00:03:05 – Is this your first book?
- 00:04:13 – A book that reads like a blog
- 00:06:15 – Incentives to keep you locked in
- 00:09:20 – Following the journey of the Talk Python sites
- 00:11:47 – Audio reader briefs
- 00:15:19 – Discussing Dev Ops as a topic
- 00:18:31 – Background of developing for the web
- 00:20:14 – Stack-Native vs Cloud-Native
- 00:24:40 – Using Quart web framework
- 00:25:50 – Embracing Docker
- 00:32:39 – Sharing a single powerful machine allows for individual peaks
- 00:37:04 – Video Course Spotlight
- 00:38:30 – Minimal cloud lock-in
- 00:40:04 – Using OrbStack for local builds and testing
- 00:42:07 – Coolify as a Docker host
- 00:47:14 – Moving away from Google analytics and a GDPR rant
- 00:50:43 – Diving deep into web tech of ngnix, SSL, and CDNs
- 00:54:33 – Talking about the prices for hosting
- 00:59:09 – Creating static sites
- 01:06:22 – Invitation to come back to discuss AI and agents
- 01:10:06 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?
- 01:16:19 – What do you want to learn next?
- 01:17:34 – What’s the best way to follow your work online?
- 01:19:40 – Thanks and goodbye
Links:
- Talk Python in Production Book
- Quart documentation: Documentation
- Docker: Accelerated Container Application Development
- South Korea Loses Its Government “Cloud” After a Fire: No Backups or Recovery Plan
- OrbStack: Fast, light, simple Docker & Linux
- Coolify
- Finances & the Future of Cara: Artist Social & Portfolio Platform
- awesome-selfhosted: A list of Free Software network services and web applications which can be hosted on your own servers
- Umami: Modern analytics platform
- umami-python: Umami Analytics Client for Python by Michael Kennedy
- Hugo: The world’s fastest framework for building websites
- mikeckennedy - Michael Kennedy: GitHub
- Michael Kennedy’s Thoughts on Technology
- Talk Python in Production Book - Link With Discount Code
Michael’s Recommended Hosting Locations:
- DigitalOcean - Cloud Infrastructure for Developers
- Hetzner - Dedicated Server, Cloud & Hosting aus Deutschland
Level up your Python skills with our expert-led courses:
The AI-powered Podcast Player
