The Cloudcast

Erik Peterson (@silvexis, Founder/CTO/CISO @CloudZeroInc) talks about how Cloud Cost Mgmt has matured, the importance of business context for cloud costs, and best practices for managing SaaS costs. SHOW: 592CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Usage.ai (homepage)Start saving up to 57% of your AWS EC2 spend in under 5 minutes with Usage AI. No code change, no downtime, no engineering work required.New Relic (homepage)Services down? New Relic offers full stack visibility with 16 different monitoring products in a single platform.BMC Wants to Know if your business is on it's A-GameBMC Autonomous Digital EnterpriseSHOW NOTES:CloudZero (homepage) - Cloud Cost IntelligenceTopic 1 - Welcome to the show. You have a very interesting background. Tell us a little bit how you’ve gone from Nuclear watchdog to Banking to Product guy to Security guy and now focus on Cloud costs. Topic 2 - Let’s start by talking about maturity levels of companies using the cloud. Engineering teams are fairly mature, but how mature are product teams, finance teams, marketing teams, etc, especially when it comes to understanding cloud costs in their world?Topic 3 - Cloud Cost Mgmt used to be all about when to use on-demand vs. Reserved Instances. Have the systems evolved to be more contextual - (example) so marketing teams can run experiments and product teams can make smarter feature priority decisions? Topic 4 - We’re seeing a lot of companies moving from selling software to delivering their capabilities as a SaaS offering. This is a big change in the economics of that business. How can those types of teams think about cloud costs? Topic 5 - How much of Cost Mgmt is systems vs. people that understand the contexts of costs? What is your perspective on how much should be automated systems vs. human expertise to augment automated systems? Topic 6 - What are some of the most common mistakes you see companies make around Cost Mgmt, or some tips you give to immediately help companies better spend on CloudFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Shadow IT and start-ups were the original users of public cloud, over a decade ago. But as public cloud has become a multi-billion dollar business, let’s explore how the role of Shadow IT has evolved. SHOW: 591CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "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.Teleport is the easiest, most secure way to access all your infrastructure Get started with Teleport CloudZero - Cloud Cost Intelligence for Engineering Teams SHOW NOTES:Shadow ITWhy Software is Eating the World (WSJ, 2011)“Does IT Matter” (Nicholas Carr, 2014)Bi-Modal IT (Gartner, 2015) DOES SHADOW IT STILL EXIST IF PUBLIC CLOUD IS MAINSTREAM?Shadow IT began as a way to be more productive in the office (server under the desk, WiFi in a conference room, etc.) and then it went to the cloud (SaaS, the IaaS/PaaS). But how did it evolve and what situations has it created now? WHAT DOES THE NEW DISTRIBUTED IT LOOK LIKE NOW?Everybody has the ability to get access to (almost) any technology, via open-source or public cloud, or freemium services.Everybody has the ability to learn something new (YouTube, ACloudGuru, Developer Evangelists, etc.IT organizations have less influence over company-wide architectures and strategies.IT still is often tasked with maintaining applications/security/compliance, even after another group deployed it. IT leaders are asked to lead digital transformation projects, and typically aren’t staying in the same place for more than 2-3 years. How much of that time is spent coordinating, communicating, re-organizing around DevOps, DevSecOps, FinOps, AIOps, etc..There are hybrid applications, but they aren’t hybrid in the sense of consistently being deployed everywhere to manage vendor lock-in.There are many multi-cloud companies because IT no longer has a boundary. And the economics of cloud means that most applications won’t move once deployed (easier to turn off than to move).There are many, many pains-of-glass. FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Tim Banks (@elchefe, Principal Cloud Economist @duckbillgroup) talks about how public cloud providers are offering committed spend programs, and ways to best use their programs to manage cloud spending. SHOW: 590CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:New Relic (homepage)Services down? New Relic offers full stack visibility with 16 different monitoring products in a single platform.Usage.ai (homepage)Start saving up to 57% of your AWS EC2 spend in under 5 minutes with Usage AI. No code change, no downtime, no engineering work required.SHOW NOTES:Duckbill Group (homepage)Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. You’ve got a very interesting background of hands-on technical and being on the business side of things. Tell us a little bit about your background and what you focus on at Duckbill Group. Topic 2 - Let’s start by talking about this trend of long-term cloud contracts. Why are we seeing more and more announced, and who does it seem to benefit more (cloud provider or customer)?Topic 2a - How do companies typically size these deals? Is it some percentage of current spend forecasted forward, or some aspirational goal, or something else? Topic 3 - When a company signs up for one of these long-term committed spend contracts, what are the mechanics of the contract? Is it just “all-you-can-eat” technology, or do they tend to include additional capabilities/services, etc?Topic 4 - What have you found to be the behavior of companies that sign these contracts? Does it lead to more projects getting created, or more experimentation, or any other unintended consequences?Topic 5 - At what point do companies start re-evaluating the contracts? What happens if they find themselves way below expected spending expectations?  Topic 6 - Have you seen any new behaviors from the cloud providers once they sign a contract, whereas one group (or service) is pushing hard to capture a bigger portion of the contract? FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Our industry is fascinated with the origin stories of founders and the end of technology trends. In between, we seem fine with learning curves and technical debt.  SHOW: 589CLOUD 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 Teleport CloudZero - Cloud Cost Intelligence for Engineering TeamsDatadog 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.SHOW NOTES:As Kubernetes matures, the Edge needs containment (The Next Platform)Kubernetes Documentary - Part 1 (CNCF)Kubernetes Documentary - Part 2 (CNCF)41% drop in views for Serverless training (O’Reilly) WHEN ONE TECHNOLOGY ENDS, DOES ANOTHER TAKE ITS PLACE?During a recent interview, I was asked “How close to complete is Kubernetes?”. We also saw a survey saying that less people are interested in Serverless (knowledge/training). Kubernetes is far from complete, and Serverless was supposed to be the next thing.   WHY DO WE WORRY MORE ABOUT THE END OF A TECHNOLOGY AND LESS ABOUT TECHNICAL DEBT?Is the technology media only interested in origin stories and ending stories?Kubernetes is far from being complete, both as a project and the adjacencies around it. Why are we more interested in the end than in the middle (e.g. developer experience)?Serverless was supposed to replace Kubernetes - why have we lost interest in Serverless?Serverless didn’t have any “wars”, and it didn’t have any major startups or acquisitions (at least not yet)FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Preeti Somal (@psomal, EVP Engineering @Hashicorp) talks about the evolution of Hashicorp Cloud Platform, creating cloud services from software projects, and the evolution of cloud SREs and SLAs.SHOW: 588CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Usage.ai (homepage)Start saving up to 57% of your AWS EC2 spend in under 5 minutes with Usage AI. No code change, no downtime, no engineering work required.New Relic (homepage)Services down? New Relic offers full stack visibility with 16 different monitoring products in a single platform.SHOW NOTES:Hashicorp Cloud Platform (homepage)Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. We’re always excited to have women leaders on the show. Tell us a little bit about your background and your focus areas at Hashicorp. Congrats on the UGA National Championship. Topic 2 - Let’s talk about the Hashicorp Cloud Platform. We’ve covered Hashicorp software for years. How did HCP come about, and how has it changed how Hashicorp thinks about what you’re building (software vs. cloud services)?Topic 3 - To create a cloud service out of an existing Hashicorp product (e.g. Terraform or Vault), does it just require creating an SRE team to run it, or do you have to rethink how the technologies are built and operated? Topic 4 - How have Hashicorp customers adapted to consuming cloud services vs. running the software themselves? Sometimes the cloud services have to be more restrictive to deliver SLAs.Topic 5 - Are you able to do anything unique in the cloud(s) that you couldn’t do as software products? Does multi-cloud provide any unique opportunities?Topic 6 - Are you finding any new ways to interact with your communities now that Hashicorp is offering cloud services? FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

As the “Great Resignation” rolls along, many people are facing the prospect of a new role or a new company. What are some tips to be successful in the near-term in this new role?  SHOW: 587CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Podcorn - The leading podcast influence marketplaceHuge thanks to Podcorn for sponsoring this episode. Explore sponsorship opportunities and start monetizing your podcast by signing up here: https://podcorn.com/podcasters/Mergify - the ultimate automation tool that makes your engineering team save time. Start saving time with the most powerful merge queue for GitHub, offering speculative checks, batch merges, and multiple queueing options. Visit mergify.com to get started or request a demo!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:Great Resignation (“The Big Quit”) - WikipediaWho is Driving the Great Resignation? (HBR)The Great Resignation? More like the Great Renegotiation (NPR) 20-25% OF PEOPLE IN TECHNOLOGY HAVE CHANGED JOBS IN THE LAST 18 MONTHSLots of people are taking new jobs, and right now the industry is paying a premium for talent. So how can you stand out in your new role or company? How can you make an immediate difference?   HOW CAN YOU STAND OUT IN YOUR NEW ROLE OR NEW COMPANYKeep in mind that most managers don’t expect you to make big contributions for 3-6 months (sometimes longer) as they realize there is always a learning curve.But everyone is watching what you do to make a judgment of “are they a good fit?”.Find out what’s important to your boss. Understand the things that they are measured on.Identify an area that is either broken or needs improvement. And try to fix it. Read as much as you can (read the docs!), and try to be valuable in your group and somewhere else in the company. FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Dave Vellante (@dvellante, Cofounder & Co-CEO SiliconANGLE Media, co-host of @theCUBE) talks about the emerging trends of powerful application services built for multiple public clouds. SHOW: 586CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS: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.Mergify - the ultimate automation tool that makes your engineering team save time. Start saving time with the most powerful merge queue for GitHub, offering speculative checks, batch merges, and multiple queueing options. Visit mergify.com to get started or request a demo!CloudZero - Cloud Cost Intelligence for Engineering Teams SHOW NOTES:The Rise of the Supercloud (SiliconAngle)theCUBE (homepage)Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. We’ve known each other for a while, but tell folks about your background. Topic 2 - Let’s talk about this term that you’ve been using at SiliconAngle, “SuperCloud”. You introduced it at AWS re:Invent 2021. Give us some context about what you think is new and what has changed? Topic 3 - The three major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) now have 100s of services, but we’re seeing success from these companies built on top of them. Do you think the cloud providers have misjudged the importance of innovation vs. integration?  Topic 4 - We now have a decade of knowledge in how to build technology on top of the public cloud (architectures, economics, partnership models, etc.). Do you think we’ll see an acceleration of these Supercloud services, and maybe even some unique new capabilities? Topic 5 - You highlighted that this isn’t just IT-centric services, but also industry-vertical services. We’ve seen SaaS services try and disrupt some vertical industries (FinSvcs, Health, Streaming Media, etc.). How do you see the industry-verticals accelerating with supercloud architectures?Topic 6 - Do you think that supercloud becomes the new normal for cloud providers, or do you think they double-down on trying to build their application portfolios?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

We’re looking for some listener feedback on a new idea to help make it easier to learn about new technologies, and bring more new ideas into The Cloudcast community.  SHOW: 585CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:CloudZero - Cloud Cost Intelligence for Engineering TeamsMergify - the ultimate automation tool that makes your engineering team save time. Start saving time with the most powerful merge queue for GitHub, offering speculative checks, batch merges, and multiple queueing options. Visit mergify.com to get started or request a demo!Datadog Application Monitoring: Modern Application Performance MonitoringGet started monitoring service dependencies to eliminate latency and errors and enhance your users experience with a free 14 day Datadog trial. Listeners of The Cloudcast will also receive a free Datadog T-shirt. SHOW NOTES:The Cloudcast - YouTube ChannelCloudcast Basics (podcast) CAN WE MAKE IT EASIER TO SHOW MORE TECHNOLOGYWe get 100s of requests to come on the podcast, but we struggle to find the best way to both highlight new technologies and fit them into 52 week in a year. So we'd like to try something new. #CloudcastDemosSUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO PRIORITIZE THE PEOPLE AROUND YOUIt's often difficult to understand new companies and new technologies. Demos are often times too much marketing, or don't answer the questions you have. How can we make it easier to find the right technology for your business needs?How can we find ways to expose more new technologies to our community, but also continue to be respectful of the valuable time of our audience?Give us your feedback using #CloudcastDemos to @thecloudcastnet or show@thecloudcast.netFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Chris Castiglione (@castig, Co-Founder One Month, Adjunct Professor @Columbia_Biz) talks about the fundamental concepts behind web3 (crypto, blockchain, decentralized applications and identity of resources), as well as smart contracts and how to get started with web3 apps. SHOW: 584CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Mergify - the ultimate automation tool that makes your engineering team save time. Start saving time with the most powerful merge queue for GitHub, offering speculative checks, batch merges, and multiple queueing options. Visit mergify.com to get started or request a demo!CloudZero - Cloud Cost Intelligence for Engineering TeamsDatadog 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. SHOW NOTES:One Month (homepage)Stacks.btc (homepage)Columbia Business School"WEB 3 vs  WEB 2" Reading Lists (Eps.578)Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. You’re a man of many skills. Tell us a little bit about your background, as an entrepreneur, an educator and as a developer. Topic 2 - Web3 is potentially a big concept. As someone who both builds web3, but also explains web3, how do you begin explaining the main concepts to newbies? Topic 3 - Many of the web3 discussions center around “distributed systems”. Can you help us understand what is distributed vs. these more centralized on-ramps like Coinbase or Openseas or a virtual world? Topic 4 - Is everything associated with web3 tied to cryptocurrencies? Is that the starting point for everything web3? Topic 5 - What are some ways to understand not only the broad set of crypto coins/tokens, but also the differences between currencies and smart contracts? Topic 6 - Is there a way to build a Hello World app for web3? Or how would you structure a One Month (to Code) for web3? FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Ever since the pandemic started, remote work is trending up. Whether or not this becomes the new normal or just a more common option, let’s look at some ways to succeed in distributed environments.SHOW: 583CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:CloudZero - Cloud Cost Intelligence for Engineering TeamsDatadog Kubernetes Solution : Modern Monitoring and AnalyticsGet started monitoring your container environment with a free 14 day Datadog trial. Listeners of The Cloudcast will also receive a free Datadog T-shirt.SHOW NOTES:The Great Switch: distributed work first (Redmonk article)The Great Switch: distributed work first (Twitter thread)Software Defined Talk - Slack Channel (come discuss The Cloudcast) COVID HAS REDEFINED WHERE AND HOW PEOPLE WORKJames Governor at Redmonk makes a great case for how remote work reshaped Silicon Valley and many companies around the world. His article has spurred much debate about whether or not the trend will last. WHAT LESSONS CAN BE LEARNED TO BE MORE EFFECTIVE AS A REMOTE WORKERSpend timing understanding how time zones AND cultural norms will affect your communications. Expect that different people will work different hours (length of day).Establish some team norms (standards) about how you will communicate, track goals, share information, and notifications. Figure out ways to have complex or difficult conversations. Just using Green / Yellow / Red status updates often lead to problems down the road. Managers will need to spend time doing “quality control” between groups in different locations. It’s very easy to let the separation create gaps. Create mentorship or big-brother / big-sister programs, where people are paired together to help each other. Just like we design cloud failure domains, it might be useful to organize around failure domains that incorporate locations. Budget for f2f get togethers (quarterly, every 6 months)  FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet