The Cloudcast

Borja Burgos (@borja_burgos, Director of Product @datadoghq) talks about monitoring and measuring CI/CD environments, “shift left” for security and test coverage, and understanding test coverage patterns.SHOW: 612CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:LoadForge - Modern, developer-first load testing and stress tests for websites, APIs and servers.LoadForge uses your cloud to rapidly scale large numbers of simulated users to load test your website, store, API, or application for cheap - just cents per test! Teleport is the easiest, most secure way to access all your infrastructure Get started with TeleportSpot by NetAppMore Cloud, Less Cost (Spot by NetApp)SHOW NOTES:Datadog acquires Undefined Labs (2020)Borja on The Cloudcast (Eps.231) to discuss Tutum CloudDatadog CI Visibility supports shift-left testingIdentify and resolve front-end issues on your web applications before your customers notice. Start a free trial today.Master is the new Prod, Devs are the new OpsTopic 1 - Welcome to the show. You’ve got quite an impressive track-record as an entrepreneur and founder. Tell us a little bit about your background, and some of the things you’re now focused on at Datadog.Topic 2 - You wrote that “Master is the new Prod, and Devs are the new Ops”. Can you help us unpack the concepts that you were trying to convey?Topic 3 -.How widespread is the understanding that it’s important to monitor CI/CD environments, vs. the more traditional focus of monitoring production environments?Topic 4 - What are some of the areas where CI visibility or synthetic CI/CD testing helps improve application quality and overall availability in production?  Topic 5 -  All of these efforts to test earlier, integrate earlier and have visibility earlier sound like the “shift left” movement. Are those things difficult to do, since many companies have siloed teams?  Topic 6 - What are some of the ways that your team has been able to take the technology from Undefined Labs and bring it into the broader scope of capabilities that are available through Datadog? FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Could you explain Twitter to a 5yr old? Some things are just difficult to explain, and this week we look at the challenges of trying to explain complex technical concepts to everyday people. SHOW: 611CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:CloudZero - Cloud Cost Intelligence for Engineering TeamsstrongDM - Secure infrastructure access for the modern stack. Manage access to any server, database, or Kubernetes instance in minutes. Fully auditable, replayable, secure, and drag-and-drop easy. Try it free for 14 days - www.strongdm.com/signupMonitor CI Pipelines and Tests with Datadog CI VisibilityStart monitoring the health and performance of your CI environment with a free 14 day Datadog trial. Listeners of The Cloudcast will also receive a free Datadog T-shirt.SHOW NOTES:Back to the Future of Twitter (Ben Thompson, Stratechery) I GET HOW IT WORKS, BUT WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY DO?Many of us use Twitter on a daily basis, but if you had to explain it to someone, could you explain what it is and what value it provides? Many of us are tasked with a similar challenge in trying to explain our day-to-day work.  EXPLAINING COMPLEX THINGS IS HARD. MAYBE THAT’S A SIGN THAT IT’S TOO TECHNICAL OR SHOULD BE BROKEN APARTWhat problem does something solve? Who has that problem? Does the problem need to be solved by a product or a platform?Does the product align to one or many people’s jobs?Does the platform align to one of many people’s jobs?If it’s a platform, do the people with the problem want all of it?Does the platform approach limit your ability to monetize it (e.g. too restrictive)?Could you platform be valuable if it was broken up? FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Ian McClarty (President @PhoenixNAP) talks about the evolution of the CoLocation and DataCenter-as-a-Service market, cloud repatriation, how software has changed the economics and working closely with hyperscalers.SHOW: 610CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Teleport is the easiest, most secure way to access all your infrastructure Get started with TeleportSpot by NetAppMore Cloud, Less Cost (Spot by NetApp)LoadForge - Modern, developer-first load testing and stress tests for websites, APIs and servers.LoadForge uses your cloud to rapidly scale large numbers of simulated users to load test your website, store, API, or application for cheap - just cents per test! SHOW NOTES:PhoenixNAP - Data Center, Dedicated Servers, Cloud and CoLocation Services Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. You’ve run PhoenixNAP for more than a decade. Give us some sense of the evolution of the CoLocation | Managed Services market over that time.Topic 2 - Lots of people focus on the cloud hyperscalers, but there are a ton of business needs that they can’t satisfy - whether it’s location, or dedicated resources, or offloading skills, etc. What are the biggest challenges that your customers are facing these days?Topic 3 - The breadth of capabilities that you offer has really evolved - from locations, to capabilities, to flexibility you can offer customers. How much has the industry shift to software-defined-services enabled that to accelerate? Topic 4 - What is a typical relationship that your customers have between you and the hyperscalers? It seems like there are a lot of potential synergies that benefit everybody.  Topic 5 - What differentiates the CoLocation | Managed Cloud providers these days? And where do you see that evolving? Topic 6 - What are some of the most common ways that your customers take advantage of the value you provide them - whether it’s technology, or people skills, or capacity planning or locations? FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Transitioning from a technical role to a “less” technical role can be scary. Let’s look at how you might evaluate a change, and some tips to succeed in the transition.  SHOW: 609CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:strongDM - Secure infrastructure access for the modern stack. Manage access to any server, database, or Kubernetes instance in minutes. Fully auditable, replayable, secure, and drag-and-drop easy. Try it free for 14 days - www.strongdm.com/signupDatadog 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.CloudZero - Cloud Cost Intelligence for Engineering Teams SHOW NOTES:I DON’T WANT TO LOSE MY TECHNICAL SKILLS OR REPUTATIONIt’s completely normal to be concerned about losing your technical skills, the thing that has established your current value to your employer, if you transition to a more product or business-focused role. HOW TO SUCCEED (OR AVOID FAILING) IN A TRANSITIONYour technical knowledge will still be extremely valuable.Not all technical decisions are based on technology. Understanding economics, and business context, and flexibility options, and personalities involved are equally as important. Understand what you’ll be building vs. managing. Is it stand-alone or part of something larger? What are the things you can influence and change? Your people skills will be challenged, and rewarded. Understand that you’re part of a large ecosystem of people that will determine your perceived success. The choices of jobs expands when you’re closer to the people that use your technology.FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Ben Hagan (@ben_hagan, Founder/CEO @polyScaleAI) talks about the challenges of database performance, distributed data and applications, and how caching-as-a-service can improve performance.SHOW: 608CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Spot by NetAppMore Cloud, Less Cost (Spot by NetApp)LoadForge - Modern, developer-first load testing and stress tests for websites, APIs and servers.LoadForge uses your cloud to rapidly scale large numbers of simulated users to load test your website, store, API, or application for cheap - just cents per test! Teleport is the easiest, most secure way to access all your infrastructure Get started with TeleportSHOW NOTES:Polyscale.ai - The Edge First Data PlatformPolyscale announces GA and Round-A of FundingTopic 1 - Welcome to the show. You’re very much a data-centric person. Tell us a little bit about your background and what led you to found Polyscale?Topic 2 - Before we dive into what Polyscale does, let’s talk about the problem that it solves for companies. Topic 3 - Let’s talk about how Polyscale makes data-access faster, without having to rewrite a bunch of applications or databases. Help us understand things like placement, scaling, resiliency, etc.Topic 4 - How much different will the experience be for an application-developer or DBA? How much visibility will be available to troubleshoot or make adjustments?  Topic 5 - How is Polyscale different from a CDN platform?   Topic 6 - What are some of the initial use-cases or problem areas where companies can take advantage of Polyscale capabilities? FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Every week we talk about new technologies and new trends. But studies show us that new technology adoption tends to be very slow, especially at high levels. What’s behind the inability of new tech to displace legacy tech?  SHOW: 607CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "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.CloudZero - Cloud Cost Intelligence for Engineering TeamsstrongDM - Secure infrastructure access for the modern stack. Manage access to any server, database, or Kubernetes instance in minutes. Fully auditable, replayable, secure, and drag-and-drop easy. Try it free for 14 days - www.strongdm.com/signupSHOW NOTES:Why Enterprise software moves so slow, despite tech innovations (Matt Asay, TechRepublic) IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX ITFor existing companies, most of the budget (typically 70-80%) is spent maintaining existing systems. New technologies are rarely used to replace existing technologies, but are usually additive. New teams and new processes are created, and those teams are often expensive (rare skills).OUTSIDE OF CLOUD, THE COSTS OF CHANGE ARE DIFFICULT TO MANAGEThe learning curve can be long, so companies often hire new talent. For new technologies, talent is difficult to find, so often very expensive. And new technology takes a while to mature, so the number of available use-cases is initially limited. It’s not unusual for wide-spread adoption to take 3-5 years (if it succeeds).  Oftentimes, existing technologies will see a market disruption coming and add similar capabilities. Many technology spaces have too many alternative options, so it can take a while before a “winner” emerges in the market. FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

William Collins (@@WCollins502, Principal Cloud Architect @AlkiraNet) talks about how to seamlessly build multi-cloud networks for any applications.SHOW: 606CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:LoadForge - Modern, developer-first load testing and stress tests for websites, APIs and servers.LoadForge uses your cloud to rapidly scale large numbers of simulated users to load test your website, store, API, or application for cheap - just cents per test! Teleport is the easiest, most secure way to access all your infrastructure Get started with TeleportSpot by NetAppMore Cloud, Less Cost (Spot by NetApp)SHOW NOTES:Alkira - Cloud Networking as a ServiceAlkira - ExplainedAlkira Overview - 1 Click Cloud NetworkingTopic 1 - Welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about your background.Topic 2 - Every survey that comes out says customers are going to be using multiple clouds for quite a while. Interconnecting all these services, either simply or in complex ways is now a reality. Walk us through how this challenge is typically approached? Topic 3 - Walk us through the different options, from VPNs to SD-WAN to Cloud Interconnects. What are the pros/cons and trade-offs for companies? Topic 4 - Has the COVID pandemic and all the remote work changed how companies network with the clouds? Are these expected to be temporary changes, or likely to remain long-termTopic 5 - How does Alkira fit into the cloud networking picture? Does their approach to simplifying things help when companies are adopting things like DevSecOps, where networking might not be the primary focus?Topic 6 - What are some ways that companies on their multi-cloud journey can benefit from simplified ways to enable security and inter-connections to the cloud?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

DevOps mashes together two things, Dev and Ops. But in reality, it includes much more than that. But who owns DevOps? Does anyone use all of DevOps? And is DevOps a people, process or technology?SHOW: 605CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:CloudZero - Cloud Cost Intelligence for Engineering TeamsstrongDM - Secure infrastructure access for the modern stack. Manage access to any server, database, or Kubernetes instance in minutes. Fully auditable, replayable, secure, and drag-and-drop easy. Try it free for 14 days - www.strongdm.com/signupDatadog 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:WHEN DOES A TOOL STOP, AND A PROCESS BEGINS?How would you define DevOps? Who owns DevOps? MOST PEOPLE ONLY USE 30% OF THE FEATURES OF ANY TOOLWhat happens if a company doesn’t go full DevOps?What happens if a team, within a company, doesn’t go full DevOps?Can there be more than one definition of DevOps within a company?Is velocity the best measurement for DevOps?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Loren Goodman (CTO @InRule) talks about the intersection of AI/ML, DevOps, and Low Code/NoCode and making complex decisions using automation.SHOW: 604CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:strongDM - Secure infrastructure access for the modern stack. Manage access to any server, database, or Kubernetes instance in minutes. Fully auditable, replayable, secure, and drag-and-drop easy. Try it free for 14 days - www.strongdm.com/signupDatadog 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.CloudZero - Cloud Cost Intelligence for Engineering TeamsSHOW NOTES:InRule Technology (homepage)Topic 1 - Loren, welcome to the show. How about a brief introduction and background. Topic 2 - Our audience shows an interest in AI/ML but at least as us as the hosts, we aren’t deep on the AI/ML side. So, let’s start at the start, what is a decision platform? How is AI/ML involved? And most importantly, why do companies need one?Topic 3 - As I understand this, this is about an intersection of AI/ML with DevOps and then providing access to non-technical SME’s as well? Is this the correct way to think about this? How does this relate to automating complex decisions and how does this help the business? Does this stray into the topic of LowCode/NoCode?Topic 4 - Anytime I think about automation, especially highly automated CI/CD pipelines, I worry about a ripple effect. Is it true to say the more complex the decisions, the higher the risk that something will not go as planned? Any recommendations or best practices/lessons learned you would like to share?Topic 5 - This has me thinking about another trend, we keep hearing anything with Ops tacked on the back. Of course DevOps, then DevSecOps, AIOps, etc. Is this DecisionOps? What industries are typically drawn to these types of platforms? I can see this benefiting highly regulated industries. Topic 6 - As this may be a new topic for some, if folks want to learn more, how would you suggest they get started in this space?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Making changes to applications has always been difficult. DevOps and Microservices introduced new techniques to simplify that, but also introduced new challenges that can be difficult to manage. Should things be easier for Devs or Ops?  SHOW: 603CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:BMC Wants to Know if your business is on it's A-GameBMC Autonomous Digital EnterprisePolyscale.ai - PolyScale solves global database latency and performance with intelligent serverless caching and compute at the edge.Check out PolyScale’s global edge data platform at www.polyscale.ai and sign up for a free account today.SHOW NOTES:Microservices: Why are we doing this? (Michael DeHaan)Why developer freedom might be worth microservices headaches (Matt Asay) DEVELOPERS WANT MORE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE AND MAKE CHANGESSince the earliest days of PaaS, developers have wanted more freedom to choose how they build applications, and wanted less to distract them. But those trade-offs move the challenges of managing applications to different areas. HAS DEVOPS FIGURED OUT HOW TO BALANCE THOSE TRADEOFFS PROPERLY?PaaS platforms have challenges when the use-cases drift outside the guard-rails.We can give developers freedom, but that often leads to silos or snowflakes.We don’t need containers or immutable systems, but the alternatives can be prohibitively expensive or add security risks. DevOps assumes that Devs and Ops can work together, but that assumes that individuals within teams all have the same goals, motivations and timelines. Some technologies have emerged to fit into these new working models (e.g. Kubernetes, Service Mesh, etc.)“If it’s 2pm on a Wednesday, and your team wants to roll out a new set of application features into production, how confident are you that the business won’t skip a beat?” FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet