How do you keep a 20-year-old ad tech company on the cutting edge? You rewrite every single line of code.In this episode, Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser are joined by special guest Andrew Casale, founder and CEO of Index Exchange, for a deep dive into the past, present, and future of programmatic infrastructure. Andrew shares the story of starting his company in high school and the massive "bet-the-company" decision to re-architect the entire Index platform in 2020. He explains how moving from a monolith to a microservices architecture cut compute costs in half and enabled the platform to handle massive "live" event spikes in microseconds.The crew then tackles the industry's hottest (and most controversial) buzzword: the "agentic future." Andrew and Gareth break down why they believe this new vision is a massive step backward—arguing it's just "bundle trading" that abandons the hard-won gains of real-time, impression-level decisioning.00:00 Intro01:01 Sponsor Shout-out: Pontiac Intelligence01:33 Welcoming Guest Andrew Casale, CEO of Index Exchange02:22 The Longevity of Index: Starting in High School03:33 Why Ad Tech? The "Economic Engine" of the Internet05:27 What Are the Core Innovations in Ad Tech History?07:18 Gareth: Ad Tech Fundamentals Haven't Changed (It's Still a Placeholder)09:49 Andrew: Why Index Rewrote Every Line of Code in 202012:18 The Bet: Moving from Monolith to Microservices (Golang)14:38 How Re-Architecting Enables "Live" Ad Spikes (World Series)17:17 Innovation: AI-Based Creative & Making TV Approachable for SMBs20:47 The Rise of Containerization (Amazon AWS Fabric)22:04 Attacking the "Cost of the Cloud" in Ad Tech25:19 Debate: The "Agentic Future" (Are Agents Just "Bundle Traders"?)29:33 Andrew's Case Against Agents: Standards Must Follow Proof31:52 Agents vs. Real-Time Decisioning (A Step Backwards?)33:02 Agents Are at an "Intern Level" & "Human in the Loop" Doesn't Scale35:58 The GAM Problem: Ad Servers Can't Handle Millions of Line Items39:44 Gareth: RTB Was Built to Replace This Manual Process42:18 The Buy-Side vs. Sell-Side Tension (Supply Path Optimization)43:09 Andrew on SPO: "Prove It" with A/B Tests45:48 Adding Value (Like Data) Without Adding Fees47:50 Goal: Get More Ad Spend into "Working Media"48:32 News: The AppLovin SEC Investigation & "Co-Reg" Installs54:04 Q&A: How Do You Reverse Bid Duplication?55:03 Gareth & Adam: Use Sell-Side Decisioning (Chalice)59:17 Q&A: Are Direct Buys Better for Publishers?59:53 Gareth: No, It's "Wistful" for Selling "Garbage for 20 Bucks"1:01:42 Wrap Up & Halloween Costumes