The New Stack Podcast

Sylvain Corlay, Founder and CEO of QuantStack and a key figure in Project Jupyter, discusses the revolutionary JupyterLite, a fully browser-based JupyterLab that democratizes coding education. He shares insights on its impressive implementation in France, supporting hundreds of thousands of students. Corlay highlights the challenges of making programming accessible globally, especially in rapidly growing regions like Nigeria. He also delves into technological hurdles and the importance of collaboration and funding to achieve a billion-user vision.

Mike Stefanik, Senior Manager of Product Management for Amazon EKS and ECR at AWS, shares insights on the evolution of Amazon's Kubernetes services. He discusses how AI workloads are transforming operations and emphasizes the shift towards agentic workloads, predicting a production breakthrough in 2026. Mike highlights the significance of user-friendly tools and knowledge bases, and explains how Kubernetes can efficiently manage these emerging workloads. He also shares his experience with internal agents that significantly boost productivity.

In this engaging discussion, guests include Kate Goldenring, a software engineer at Fermyon Technologies who champions WebAssembly for secure edge model deployment, and James Harmison from Red Hat, focusing on AI infrastructure. Shaun O'Meara, CTO at Mirantis, emphasizes the need for deep infrastructure awareness for AI workloads. Sean O'Dell from Dynatrace highlights how AI amplifies observability challenges. Jonathan Bryce of CNCF stresses the importance of robust inference layers, ensuring that discussions extend beyond just chatbots to the critical aspects of AI-native systems.

Werner Vogels, the longtime Amazon CTO, reflects on his 21-year journey at Amazon and suggests it's time for younger voices to take the stage. He discusses the urgent need for quantum-safe encryption as today's data faces decryption risks. The conversation touches on technology’s role in alleviating loneliness through devices like Alexa and the rise of the 'Renaissance developer,' merging technical skills with creativity. Vogels also highlights the importance of personalized learning to nurture curiosity in students, emphasizing technology’s potential to enhance human connections.

In this engaging discussion, Jacob Yackenovich, a senior observability and cloud-native expert from IBM, dives into the complexities of telemetry in modern applications. He highlights the need for high-granularity data capture to ensure no critical performance signals are missed. Jacob also addresses the challenges posed by AI integration, distinguishing between add-on and blocking AI impacts on workflows. Plus, he emphasizes the importance of predictable pricing models for observability that allow innovation without financial blind spots. A must-listen for anyone in tech!

Jesse Butler, Senior AWS EKS lead, dives into the evolution of Kubernetes, drawing parallels to the early days of Linux. He discusses the significance of KRO (Kube Resource Orchestrator) in addressing the challenge of custom controllers by automating resource management. Karpenter's innovations in cloud autoscaling are highlighted, showcasing its just-in-time node provisioning and cost-optimization strategies. Butler emphasizes AWS's commitment to open source and community-driven solutions, marking a shift towards shared standards in the Kubernetes ecosystem.

Suresh Vasudevan, CEO of Clockwork, dives into the fascinating evolution of his company from synchronizing clocks to enhancing the performance of large GPU clusters. He highlights how FleetIQ revolutionizes traffic management, preventing costly disruptions in AI training. The conversation covers the critical importance of visibility, fault tolerance, and automated remediation, as well as integrating with NVIDIA libraries. Suresh also discusses common GPU failures and the future of AI infrastructure, providing valuable insights for tech enthusiasts.

Jonathan Guinegagne, a Senior Software Engineer at AWS's open-source team, discusses the launch of Jupyter Deploy at JupyterCon 2025. This tool is designed for small teams, educators, and researchers who need enhanced cloud collaboration without complex setups. Jonathan explains how Jupyter Deploy simplifies deployments using an encrypted stack with Docker and Terraform. He reveals its future plans, including Kubernetes integration, and highlights its vendor-neutral, community-driven approach, making it a unique solution in the cloud landscape.

Brian Granger, Senior Principal Technologist at AWS and co-creator of Project Jupyter, shares insights into Jupyter’s beginnings from physics principles and its evolution in the AI landscape. He discusses how AI is transforming development processes, enabling tasks like rewriting Jupyter Server in minutes. Granger emphasizes the need for sustainable governance and collaboration while navigating the challenges of AI contributions. He also highlights Jupyter's role in fostering human-centered research and education, stressing the importance of maintaining its mission in the age of AI.

David Qiu, a software engineer at AWS involved in Jupyter AI v3, and Piyush Jain, a principal software engineer at AWS, dive into the exciting developments in JupyterLab. They introduce customizable AI personas that help with tasks like coding and debugging, allowing users to create and share their own agents. The duo explains the benefits of a modularized codebase for flexible integration and collaboration features, envisioning an expansive ecosystem of AI personas that will enhance multi-user interactions and proactive AI support in workflows.