Screaming in the Cloud

Whether remote or local, Gitpod Co-Founder and CTO Chris Weichel thinks there’s a clear benefit to standardizing automated development environments. On this episode of Screaming in the Cloud, Chris joins Corey to chat about the inception and progression of Gitpod, highlighting the company’s mission to streamline development workflows, improve security, and enhance developer productivity. They also discuss the hurdles and solutions that come with balancing organizational standardization with individual developer preferences. You’ll also get the inside scoop on why Gitpod is transitioning away from Kubernetes and the innovative aspects of Gitpod Flex!Show Highlights(0:00) Introduction(0:27) Gitpod sponsor read(1:39) What is Gitpod in the modern era?(3:07) The debate of local vs. remote development(4:57) Explaining Gitpod's target customers(9:36) Clarifying Corey's misconceptions about Gitpod(12:42) Building between developer environments(15:23) Is something inherently bad if your employer forces you to use it (17:49) Gitpod sponsor read(19:01) Deploying local development tools at large scale(21:16) Launching Gitpod Flex(22:54) Creating a separate product based on feedback(24:58) Gitpod's decision to leave Kubernetes(28:16) Where you can find more from Chris and GitpodAbout Chris WeichelChris Weichel is the Chief Technology Officer at Gitpod, where he leads the engineering team that builds and maintains the cloud-native platform for software development. With over 20 years of experience in software engineering and human-computer interaction, he has a comprehensive view of the systems Gitpod creates, from the user experience to the underlying technology.Chris is passionate about creating technology that empowers users, and solving complex engineering problems. His expertise in cloud-native architecture, programming, and digital fabrication has resulted in multiple publications, patents, and awards. Chris is always looking for new opportunities to apply my broad skill-set and excitement for creating technology in a commercial or research context.LinksChris’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-weichel-740b4224/Chris’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/csweichelGitpod: https://www.gitpod.io/Why Gitpod is leaving Kubernetes: https://www.gitpod.io/blog/we-are-leaving-kubernetesSponsorGitpod: https://www.gitpod.io/

Before cloud economics entered his life, Corey’s first true love was a good book. On this episode of Screaming in the Cloud, he’s joined by Laura Brief, the CEO of nonprofit 826 National. The organization is the largest youth writing network in the country, something that’s near and dear to our hearts at The Duckbill Group. Corey and Laura talk about why having a deep appreciation for reading and writing is vital no matter what career path you take. From offering a creative escape for kids to moonlighting as a “pirate supply company,” 826 National helps children realize that there’s an author inside all of us. So check out this great conversation, and be sure to buy one of our shirts while you’re at it!Show Highlights(0:00) Introduction(1:02) Gitpod sponsor read(2:14) The Duckbill Group's history working with 826 National(3:01) What is 826 National?(4:43) Corey's love of reading, writing, and how it correlates with 826 National's mission(10:11) The rise of ChatGPT and its impact on reading and writing(13:49) Why GenAI fails to capture the feeling of writing(22:30) Why writing education is important(24:54) The benefits of reading and writing for kids(31:39) 826 Valencia: the Pirate Supply Company(35:24) Buy a shirt benefiting 826 National!(37:15) Where you can find more from Laura Brief and 826 NationalAbout Laura BriefLaura Brief is the CEO of 826 National. Prior to joining the nonprofit, Laura held leadership positions at high achieving youth organizations including Build, First Graduate, Juma Ventures, and The Posse Foundation, where she developed the organization’s first national career, corporate engagement, and alumni programs. She holds a Master’s in Education and a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from Columbia University, and is the Chair of the Board of Directors at Youth Speaks.Links826 National: https://826national.org/Reach out to Laura: laura@826national.org Buy our charity shirt to help support 826 National: shitposting.fashionSponsorGitpod: gitpod.io 

Corey Quinn talks with Serena DiPenti, aka “SheNetworks,” about her career from Cisco to Black Hills Information Security and her challenges in content creation. Serena reflects on starting at Cisco, where her role as a tech engineer required deep expertise and navigating rigid, high-pressure situations that led to burnout and limited growth opportunities. Now at Black Hills, she enjoys the hands-on work in security analysis and network-based penetration testing. Serena finds content creation more demanding than her cybersecurity work, often facing audience skepticism and burnout. However, her podcast Breaking the Internet provides a rewarding, conversational outlet for sharing insights.Show Highlights(00:00) Introduction(00:37) Dragonfly sponsor read(1:20) Catching up with Serena since she was last on the show(2:34) Serena’s experience at CISCO(8:00) How Serena got stuck in her TAC role(11:06) Serena’s pivot to her new role at Black Hills Information Security(14:10) When Serena finds time to sleep during her busy schedule(16:43) Corey’s short-lived attempt at YouTube(20:28) The importance of conversational content(21:43) Serena’s plans for naming and branding(25:49) Where Serena sees herself aiming next(31:18) How to follow Serena’s workAbout SerenaSerena DiPenti is an offensive security professional who shares her experiences and expertise through her Shenetworks educational content on platforms like TikTok, Twitter (X), YouTube, and Twitch. Her focus includes topics related to penetration testing, ethical hacking, and other areas of cybersecurity. She's passionate about helping others break into the cybersecurity field, offering tips, guidance, and career advice.Serena’s work includes creating accessible and engaging content that demystifies complex cybersecurity concepts, making the industry more inclusive and approachable for beginners and professionals alike.LinksYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@shenetworks TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shenetworks?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/shenetworksBuy our charity shirt to help support 826 National!https://store.lastweekinaws.com/SponsorDragonfly: dragonflydb.io

Corey Quinn sits down with Stephen Barr, Chief Evangelist of CloudFix. With his extensive history in the cloud, the pair delve into Stephen's journey with AWS, relatable anecdotes on optimizing cloud costs, and the complex role of tech evangelists in fostering better communication between engineering and finance teams. Corey and Stephen also weigh the pitfalls of early AI adoption, how to come up with effective content creation strategies, and even postulate a hopeful vision of a tech-driven future (from a Trekkie’s point of view at least).Show Highlights(0:00) Intro(0:40) Gitpod sponsor read(1:52) How Stephen defines his role(4:26) Breaking down recent shakeups at AWS and the ever-growing promotion of AI(9:36) How will AI impact how we teach younger people about coding?(13:45) AI marketing, crypto, and other professional grifts(16:56) Stephen's history with AWS and the cloud ecosystem(20:42) Wiz sponsor read(21:30)Oversights that can easily inflate a cloud bill(25:32) Acting as a marriage counselor between engineering and finance(30:09 Stephen's creative process as a Chief Evangelist(33:54) Stephen's thoughts on the future of technology(35:28) Where you can find more from StephenAbout Stephen BarrStephen Barr, Principal Architect and Technical Evangelist at CloudFix, is known throughout the technology industry for his joyful frame of mind and deep expertise in data engineering, machine learning, LLMs, systems architecture, and all things AWS.Even as a teenager, Stephen’s digital curiosity and drive landed him at an email hosting startup working on network administration. He also worked at Microsoft while still a high school student.After graduating from the University of Washington, he continued graduate studies at the University of Rochester and Washington. Stephen has also worked as a data scientist, software developer, technical consultant and more.When he’s not researching or communicating about the power of AWS, Stephen enjoys spending time with his family at home in Seattle. His interests outside of work include science fiction, 3D printing, and the outdoors., Stephen Barr, Principal Architect and Technical Evangelist at CloudFix, is known throughout the technology industry for his joyful frame of mind and deep expertise in data engineering, machine learning, LLMs, systems architecture, and all things AWS.Even as a teenager, Stephen’s digital curiosity and drive landed him at an email hosting startup working on network administration. He also worked at Microsoft while still a high school student.After graduating from the University of Washington, he continued graduate studies at the University of Rochester and Washington. Stephen has also worked as a data scientist, software developer, technical consultant and more.When he’s not researching or communicating about the power of AWS, Stephen enjoys spending time with his family at home in Seattle. His interests outside of work include science fiction, 3D printing, and the outdoors., Stephen Barr, Principal Architect and Technical Evangelist at CloudFix, is known throughout the technology industry for his joyful frame of mind and deep expertise in data engineering, machine learning, LLMs, systems architecture, and all things AWS.Even as a teenager, Stephen’s digital curiosity and drive landed him at an email hosting startup working on network administration. He also worked at Microsoft while still a high school student.After graduating from the University of Washington, he continued graduate studies at the University of Rochester and Washington. Stephen has also worked as a data scientist, software developer, technical consultant and more.When he’s not researching or communicating about the power of AWS, Stephen enjoys spending time with his family at home in Seattle. His interests outside of work include science fiction, 3D printing, and the outdoors.Links ReferencedLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenjbarr/AWS Made Easy: https://awsmadeeasy.com/SponsorsGitpod: gitpod.ioWiz: https://www.wiz.io/scream

Corey Quinn chats with Dylan Etkin, CEO and co-founder of Sleuth. He joins this episode of Screaming Into the Cloud to share his insights on reshaping engineering metrics to prioritize team success. Sleuth emphasizes team-level productivity over individual output, sidestepping controversial metrics like lines of code and focusing on alignment and iterative improvement. By aggregating data from tools like GitHub, Jira, and Datadog, Sleuth provides actionable insights, helping leaders reallocate resources for optimal impact without disrupting unique team workflows. Designed for collaborative review, Sleuth’s slide deck-like interface supports meaningful discussions around DORA metrics and deploy tracking. Show Highlights(0:00) Intro(0:51) Sleuth sponsor read(1:12) What Sleuth is(2:02) How Sleuth evaluates engineers’ work(5:41) The value that evaluations brings to a business(9:34) Who Dylan usually discusses results with(11:04) Sleuth sponsor read(11:30) The day-to-day experience of using Sleuth(14:23) The importance of meeting people where they are(18:21) The actual outcome of implementing Sleuth(20:27) Why engineering teams should care about metrics(24:27) The interface that people have when they're working with Sleuth(26:23) Where you can find more from SleuthAbout Dylan EtkinDylan was one of the first twenty employees of Atlassian, and a founding engineer and the first architect of Jira. He has led engineering at scale for Bitbucket and Statuspage. He has a Master's in Computer Science from ASU. Dylan is a bit of a space nut and has been seen climbing around the inside of a life-size replica of the Mir space station in Star City Russia.SponsorSleuth: https://www.sleuth.io/ 

On this Replay, we’re revisiting our conversation with Jason Yee, Staff Technical Advocate at Datadog. At the time of this recording, he was the Director of Advocacy at Gremlin, an enterprise-grade chaos engineering platform. Join Corey and Jason as they talk about what Gremlin is and what a director of advocacy does, making chaos engineering more accessible for the masses, how it’s hard to calculate ROI for developer advocates, how developer advocacy and DevRel changes from one company to the next, why developer advocates need to focus on meaningful connections, why you should start chaos engineering as a mental game, qualities to look for in good developer advocates, the Break Things On Purpose podcast, and more.Show Highlights(0:00) Intro(0:31) Blackblaze sponsor read(0:58) The role of a Director of Advocacy(3:34) DevRel and twisting job definitions(5:50) How DevRel confusion manifests into marketing(11:37) Being able to measure and define a team’s success(13:42) Building respect and a community in tech(15:22) Effectively courting a community(18:02) The challenges of Jason’s job(21:06) Planning for failure modes(22:30) Determining your value in tech(25:41) The growth of Gremlin(30:16) Where you can find more from JasonAbout Jason YeeJason Yee is Staff Technical Avdocate at Datadog, where he works to inspire developers and ops engineers with the power of metrics and monitoring. Previously, he was the community manager for DevOps & Performance at O’Reilly Media and a software engineer at MongoDB.LinksBreak Things On Purpose podcast: https://www.gremlin.com/podcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gitbisectOriginal episodehttps://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/chaos-engineering-for-gremlins-with-jason-yee/SponsorBackblaze: https://www.backblaze.com/

Ryan Nolette, a Senior Security Engineer at AWS Outreach with almost two decades in info security, shares insights on vulnerability disclosure. He discusses AWS's commitment to communication with security researchers and the importance of responsible disclosure methods. Ryan highlights the nuances between vulnerability and bug bounty programs, advocating for transparency in security practices. He emphasizes the need for collaboration to tackle security flaws and speaks about the balance between encouraging researchers and managing opportunistic behaviors in the field.

Forrest Brazeal, a cloud educator, cartoonist, and author, shares insights on his journey from leading content at Google Cloud to his current role at Freeman & Forrest. He discusses the importance of community in the cloud space and highlights projects like The Cloud Resume Challenge, designed to help others succeed. Forrest also provides a humorous take on the job interview process, advocating for more authentic assessments. Tune in for his creative approach to combining technical excellence with community engagement!

Miles Ward, CTO of SADA, shares insights from his rich experience at Google Cloud and AWS. He discusses the recent acquisition by Insight, enabling SADA to tackle complex projects like multi-cloud migrations. The conversation dives into AI's evolving role in business, the difficulties of managing its costs, and the distinctions between cloud-to-cloud versus data center migrations. They also touch on the quirks of domain registrars and lament the slow demise of popular Amazon services.

Seth Eliot, Principal Resilience Architect at Arpio and former AWS Global Reliability Lead, shares his expertise in cloud resilience. He explains how Multi-AZ configurations can meet most needs, reserving multi-region setups for specific risks. Seth emphasizes the delicate balance between cost and resilience, cautioning against check-box mentality in disaster recovery. He also discusses common pitfalls in resilience testing and warns about the risks of poorly designed multi-cloud setups, highlighting the importance of real-world complexities in disaster planning.