The Cloudcast

Dr. Ronen Dar (Co-Founder/ CTO of @runailabs) talks about the challenges of running compute infrastructure for AI, the GPU ecosystem, sizing LLMs and more. SHOW: 739CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:GCore - Global Hosting, CDN, Edge and Cloud ServicesUse promocode “CLOUDCAST” to receive a €100 credit on Gcore servicesEquinix Global Data Centers and Networking Learn more and signup at https://deploy.equinix.com/. Use the coupon code CLOUDCAST to get $500 in credits to get started.Datadog Kubernetes Solution: Maximum Visibility into Container EnvironmentsStart monitoring the health and performance of your container environment with a free 14 day Datadog trial. Listeners of The Cloudcast will also receive a free Datadog T-shirt.SHOW NOTES:Run:ai - Build Your Next Large Model (homepage)Ronen Dar, Run:AI's CTO, on managing computation resources in ML pipelinesTopic 1 - Welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about your background, and what you focus on at Run:ai.Topic 2 - Let’s begin by talking about the challenges of running AI applications. What unique characteristics and requirements do AI applications have?Topic 3 - Most AI applications run on GPUs. How do things change when using GPUs vs. CPUs to power AI applications? What is needed to get the most out of GPUs?Topic 4 - As environments grow larger, what is needed to scale-up environments, both in terms of scheduling applications and managing the underlying GPU infrastructure?Topic 5 - GPUs are not only expensive resources, but also in high-demand. How are companies doing capacity planning with GPUs? What struggles are you seeing companies have as they manage planning for AI projects?Topic 6 - Are the new Large Language Models (LLMs) much different in size than AI models of the past? Topic 7 - How well is the industry prepared to deal with the new interest in AI from across the industry? FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Some recent events in the tech industry have questioned the spirit of open source, the value of contributions, and the standards that various entities should be held to. This is not a new concept, and it’s often complicated.SHOW: 738CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:GCore - Global Hosting, CDN, Edge and Cloud ServicesUse promocode “CLOUDCAST” to receive a €100 credit on Gcore servicesEquinix Global Data Centers and Networking Learn more and signup at https://deploy.equinix.com/. Use the coupon code CLOUDCAST to get $500 in credits to get started.Find "Breaking Analysis Podcast with Dave Vellante" on Apple, Google and SpotifyKeep up to data with Enterprise Tech with theCUBESHOW NOTES:Meta’s LLAMA-2 is not Open Source (OSI opinion)LLAMA-2 doesn’t fit the definition of open source (Twitter)Are Software Companies Bad Businesses? (Clouded Judgment)John Rockefeller Jr. and Grand Teton National ParkGrand Tetons National Park (Wyoming, USA)History of Standard Oil, Trusts and MonopoliesTHE TECH WORLD HAS A STRANGE RELATIONSHIP WITH FREEThis past week I didn’t think about tech very oftenBut coincidentally the world I was in had a historic overlap with some discussions in the tech world.FREE IS GOOD RIGHT? WHAT ABOUT WHEN IT’S DEEMED TO BE NOT GOOD?When do we determine that free is a good thing or a bad thing?When do we determine that work or contributions are valuable? Or invaluable?Are there always good actors and bad actors when something of value is involved?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Addison Huddy (@addisonhuddy, Sr Dir of PM @Confluentinc) talks about the evolution of cloud-based Kafka platforms, and how this might reshape how all OSS software moves into the cloud.SHOW: 737CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Equinix Global Data Centers and Networking Learn more and signup at https://deploy.equinix.com/. Use the coupon code CLOUDCAST to get $500 in credits to get started.Datadog Security Solution: Modern Monitoring and SecurityStart investigating security threats before it affects your customers with a free 14 day Datadog trial. Listeners of The Cloudcast will also receive a free Datadog T-shirt.GCore - Global Hosting, CDN, Edge and Cloud ServicesUse promocode “CLOUDCAST” to receive a €100 credit on Gcore servicesSHOW NOTES:Cloud-native Service for Apache Kafka (Confluent) Apache Kafka - Open Source Event Streaming PlatformKora: The Cloud-Native Engine for Apache KafkaKora Engine - 10x Better than Apache KafkaTopic 1 - Welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about your background, and what you focus on at Confluent.Topic 2 - Let’s start with Confluent Cloud. What happens when you take an open source project and make it a cloud service?Topic 3 - After many years of learning, Confluent decided to build Kora. Walk us through that design process and the goals of this new 10x Kafka-compatible service. Topic 4 - As I’m looking through the capabilities of Kora (see below), can you give us a sense of how these compare to the previous Confluent Cloud?Topic 5 - Kora remains compatible with existing Kafka. How did you go about essentially maintaining the API/protocol while essentially re-writing the entire backend of the system?Topic 6 - Obviously you can’t speak for other open source projects, but given what Confluent has learned with Kora, do expect to see other companies potentially trying to build cloud-specific versions? (e.g. Kubernetes)Topic 7 - What sort of feedback do you get from users of the Kora system vs. the previous Confluent Cloud?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Higher interest rates, fragmented platforms, WFH uncertainty, VC funding declines, generational blending and technology shifts are going to force a new level of quality to be demanded by businesses. SHOW: 736CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Find "Breaking Analysis Podcast with Dave Vellante" on Apple, Google and SpotifyKeep up to data with Enterprise Tech with theCUBEGCore - Global Hosting, CDN, Edge and Cloud ServicesUse promocode “CLOUDCAST” to receive a €100 credit on Gcore servicesEquinix Global Data Centers and Networking Learn more and signup at https://deploy.equinix.com/. Use the coupon code CLOUDCAST to get $500 in credits to get started.SHOW NOTES:A few charts about Q2 VC funding (Josh Wolfe)“THAT’S A ZERO INTEREST RATE PROBLEM, BRO!”The power dynamics have changed and continue to change (money, location, communications, etc.)Dumb money is getting harder to find, hence ideas need to be better and execution needs to be betterEXPECTATIONS OF HIGHER QUALITY ARE GOING TO RISE SIGNIFICANTLYThe unicorn boom of 2020-2022 will face a reckoning by the end of 2023 or mid-2024VC funding is getting harder to obtain Higher interest rates are going to create higher (internal) hurdle rates within companiesSocial media channels are fragmentingWorking collaboratively is getting more difficult because of both WFH fragmentation and generational fragmentationCollaboration will be needed to teach what is expected and acceptableAI is going to create a new level of “commodity” of tasks and product capabilitiesCustomers are going to have new pricing power as they watch vendor sales slow downFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Jonathan Morin (Product Lead @datadoghq) & Jason Manson-Hing (Product Manager) talk about emerging trends in Database monitoring and observability. SHOW: 735CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Datadog Monitoring: Modern Monitoring and AnalyticsStart monitoring your infrastructure, applications, logs and security in one place with a free 14 day Datadog trial. Listeners of The Cloudcast will also receive a free Datadog T-shirt.GCore - Global Hosting, CDN, Edge and Cloud ServicesUse promocode “CLOUDCAST” to receive a €100 credit on Gcore servicesEquinix Global Data Centers and Networking Learn more and signup at https://deploy.equinix.com/. Use the coupon code CLOUDCAST to get $500 in credits to get started.SHOW NOTES:Troubleshoot blocking queries with Datadog DBMDatadog DBMAlwaysOn availability groups with Datadog DBMAlso, recently, Datadog announced a feature availability for DBM, the ability to create monitors and alerts on data surfaced from Datadog DBM. Here's a doc written by the engineers of Datadog on the feature announcement. Try Datadog Database Monitoring with a free trial to begin tracking and analyzing query metrics from your database fleet.  Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about your background, and what you focus on at Snowflake.Topic 2 - Let’s talk about database monitoring. There are so many types of databases these days (SQL, Graph, Time-Series, Document, etc.), are the concepts for database monitoring the same across any database, or does the system need specific domain expertise? Topic 3 - Given the importance of database performance for the overall application experience, do you find that DBAs (or application developers) are thinking about their monitoring strategy earlier in the DB design process? Topic 4 - What are some of the most common database challenges to monitor and troubleshoot (e.g. root problems, performance)? What are some of the most difficult to troubleshoot (e.g. AlwaysOn Availability groups)? Topic 5 - How much time and effort is typically spent monitoring/troubleshooting DB problems in real-time vs. looking at historical trends and trying to either troubleshoot issues or predict how things might behave in the future? Topic 6 - What are some of the things that can be done to find the right balance between resources being dedicated to application-database processing vs. database-monitoring processing? FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Just as ChatGPT gave AI a simple user interface, Meta’s new Thread application is going to make it easy to explain app modernization to your management team. SHOW: 734CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:GCore - Global Hosting, CDN, Edge and Cloud ServicesUse promocode “CLOUDCAST” to receive a €100 credit on Gcore servicesEquinix Global Data Centers and Networking Learn more and signup at https://deploy.equinix.com/. Use the coupon code CLOUDCAST to get $500 in credits to get started.Find "Breaking Analysis Podcast with Dave Vellante" on Apple, Google and SpotifyKeep up to data with Enterprise Tech with theCUBESHOW NOTES:Meta launches Twitter-clone called “Threads”IT’S GETTING OBVIOUS THAT TWITTER IS STRUGGLING AND YOU’D LIKE SOMETHING BETTERIt’s an important tool, but it’s not keeping up with the needs of the modern worldThe alternatives all seems to have more questions than answersBut the pain is enough to consider modernization optionsBUT WHAT ALL IS INVOLVED IN MOVING TO A MODERNIZED VERSION OF THE APP?Let’s evaluate what’s there today. Do we see the good or what’s missing?What can it replace today? What can’t it replace? What’s the roadmap? Will the roadmap ever replace all that’s missing? What’s important to us? Can we quantify it instead of just making it emotional?How long do we need to live with the alternative, potentially in parallel?What’s the learning curve? Can you re-training the user-base?How do you migrate data? How much data will you lose? How do you know if this will be successful when you start the modernization?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Brian and Brandon Whichard (@bwhichard, Co-Host @SoftwareDefTalk) talk about the major trends in the 1st half of 2023, plus some predictions for the rest of 2023.SHOW: 733CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Datadog Synthetic Monitoring: Frontend and Backend Modern MonitoringEnsure 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. GCore - Global Hosting, CDN, Edge and Cloud ServicesUse promocode “CLOUDCAST” to receive a €100 credit on Gcore servicesCloudZero – Cloud Cost Visibility and Savings​​CloudZero provides immediate and ongoing savings with 100% visibility into your total cloud spendSHOW NOTES:Topic 1 - What are your Top 3 biggest stories/trends so far in 2023?Topic 2 - What is your take on each of the Big 3 cloud providers in 2023?Topic 3 - How long do you think this Platform Engineering era will last? Is it the new DevOps, or something else?Topic 4 - Will this Cloud Cost Management trend just become a normal part of deploying to the public cloud, or become too burdensome and companies will keep apps in their Private Cloud?Topic 5 - How do you see the current AI hype playing out in the Enterprise? Is it more impactful for developers, or operations, or back-office groups? Anything that you are really interested in yet?Topic 6 - What has been your biggest surprise of the year, so far in 2023Topic 7 - Any early predictions about the 2nd half of 2023? FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Kelsey Hightower (@kelseyhightower) announced his retirement from Google this week. What comes next is unknown, but let’s take a few moments to appreciate the lessons he passed along to everyone.SHOW: 732CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:GCore - Global Hosting, CDN, Edge and Cloud ServicesUse promocode “CLOUDCAST” to receive a €100 credit on Gcore servicesCloudZero – Cloud Cost Visibility and Savings​​CloudZero provides immediate and ongoing savings with 100% visibility into your total cloud spendFind "Breaking Analysis Podcast with Dave Vellante" on Apple, Google and SpotifyKeep up to data with Enterprise Tech with theCUBESHOW NOTES:Kubernetes the Hard Way KubeCon 2023 AMA - From Community to CustomersTHE WORLD IS FULL OF SMART PEOPLE - BUT NOT ALL SMART IDEAS GET COMMUNICATEDLots of people in the DevRel world want(ed) to be like Kelsey HightowerHe was a little bit like Keiser Sozer; he left a small footprint behind.HOW DID KELSEY HIGHTOWER MAKE AN IMPACT ON YOUR TECH CAREER?He spoke from a position of authority, that he created and demonstratedHe believed that community was bigger (and more important) than companyHe seemed to believe in the rule of “2 vs 1” - listen more than talkHe didn’t take himself too seriouslyHe connected with crowds of people, and individual peopleHe highlighted the good more often than he criticized the badHe was always demonstrating the art of the possibleFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Jeff Hollan (@jeffhollan, Director of Product @SnowflakeDB) talks about bringing apps to data, how orgs manage AI/ML, and the “enterprise” needs of Generative AI. SHOW: 731CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Datadog Kubernetes Solution: Maximum Visibility into Container EnvironmentsStart monitoring the health and performance of your container environment with a free 14 day Datadog trial. Listeners of The Cloudcast will also receive a free Datadog T-shirt.Equinix Global Data Centers and Networking Learn more and signup at https://deploy.equinix.com/. Use the coupon code CLOUDCAST to get $500 in credits to get started.SHOW NOTES:Snowflake (homepage)Snowflake Summit 2023Snowflake SnowparkNVIDIA NeMo Framework (build customized generative AI models)Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about your background, and what you focus on at Snowflake.Topic 2 - For those not familiar, give us a high-level overview of the breadth of services that the Snowflake Data Cloud provides?Topic 3 - Challenges and patterns for orgs making data science / ML “real” in their companyTopic 4 - Evolution of data cloud platforms and emerging pattern of “bringing apps to the data” - the why and the howTopic 5 - Generative AI / LLMs for enterprise - peeling back the hype, enterprise considerations, tech opportunities.FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

For most people, you're not always associated with a winning team.  But for those moments when you are, it's so important to embrace it, enjoy it, and share it, because it often doesn't last long. SHOW: 730CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:CloudZero – Cloud Cost Visibility and Savings​​CloudZero provides immediate and ongoing savings with 100% visibility into your total cloud spendFind "Breaking Analysis Podcast with Dave Vellante" on Apple, Google and SpotifyKeep up to data with Enterprise Tech with theCUBESHOW NOTES:“The Man in the Arena” - Theordore Roosevelt, 1910 (speech)Perspective on Competition in Tech - Cloudcast #632 SOME PASSIONS GET INSIDE YOU AT A YOUNG AGEWhen I was a young kid, I loved the College World Series. SOMETIMES YOU WIN, SOMETIMES YOU LOSE, SOMETIMES YOU EXPERIENCE SOMETHING NEWMy team has historically been slightly better than average, but it was my team. This year, they were incredible. Record-setting. The best in the country.And the players all seemed to be good people. And the coaches are good people. And the coach made sure to bring all of us along on the ride. Most people are associated with teams that are generally above average.We need to savor the great moments, no matter how long they last, because sometimes they end quickly. Bring others along for the ride when things are good. FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet