The Cloudcast

Computers break. Software has bugs. Cloud services fail. And yet we don’t deal with failures very well. Why don’t we have better Plan B’s, for both personal and business uses of cloud?  SHOW: 576CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:JumpCloud (homepage)At the intersection of devices, identities, and access, JumpCloud’s cloud directory platform unifies the IT resources in any company’s infrastructure – anywhere work happens. Fully evaluate JumpCloud for free today Datadog Security Solution:  Modern Monitoring and Security - Datadog Application Monitoring: Modern Application Performance Monitoring. Get 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:AWS US-East-1 Outage (Dec.10,  2021) - Post Mortem (AWS Blog)AWS US-West outage (Dec.5, 2021)AWS is Too Big to Fail (The Information - Corey Quinn)YouTubeTV loses ESPN and other Disney channels (Dec.18, 2021)The Tech Industry after a Year of Burnout (The New Stack) WHY DO WE EXPECT SO MUCH FROM COMPUTERS? While we have automated testing, test coverage, SLAs, redundancy best practices, etc - We still really don’t know when computers and software will break. So why do we get so frustrated when it happens, instead of having backup plans? SHOULD WE LOOK AT TECHNOLOGY FAILURES AS THE WORLD TRYING TO TELLING US SOMETHING?Cloud service failures happen, and tend to last less than a full work day. Most are only a couple hours.We tend to believe that we’re very dependent on technology and cloud services, until they go away. And then we figure out that we can all adapt. We could all use some time reading a book, getting outside to do some exercise (go for a walk), or spending some time away from computers or being online.We could all use a break in our extended hours work days.  FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Gil Hoffer (@gilhoffer, Co-Founder / CTO @salto_io) talks about the challenges of managing and integrating SaaS applications, the blurring line between business and technical engineer, and software supply-chain for SaaS integrations. SHOW: 575CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Megaport - Network as a Service PlatformTry Megaport - Cloud Connectivity SimplifiedCBT Nuggets: Expert IT Training for individuals and teamsSign up for a CBT Nuggets Free Learner accountSHOW NOTES:Salto (homepage)Companies today have, on average, 800 SaaS applicationsSalto (OSS code) - manage business applications by codeTopic 1 - Welcome to the show. You have a broad background in engineering and entrepreneurship. Let’s talk about your background and what led you to create Salto. Topic 2 - There is a big trend happening, where companies are using more and more technology outside of the “central IT” groups. This includes quite a bit of SaaS usage. But it also requires more than just vanilla SaaS. Let’s talk about this concept of a “business engineer”.Topic 3 - How often do SaaS applications need customizations? How often does a business application require integrations across multiple SaaS services? Topic 4 - Walk us through a day in the life of a business engineer, and what’s involved in some of the integrations? How much is being able to code, and how much Topic 5 - Integrations can be complicated, not only to build, but also to maintain. How does Salto simplify the creation and life cycle of these integrations?Topic 6 - Salto is available as OSS, software and SaaS. What seems to be the best usage model for certain use-cases or types of businesses?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

AWS had an outage in a region and many people responded. What did we learn about outages, responses, and dealing with cloud services going forward? SHOW: 574CLOUD 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.JumpCloud (homepage)At the intersection of devices, identities, and access, JumpCloud’s cloud directory platform unifies the IT resources in any company’s infrastructure – anywhere work happens. Fully evaluate JumpCloud for free today SHOW NOTES:AWS US-East-1 Outage (Dec.10,  2021) - Post Mortem (AWS Blog)Your Response to AWS Going Down Shouldn’t Be Multicloud (Tech Republic)Larry Ellison brags about Oracle Cloud after AWS outage CLOUD OUTAGES ARE A PART OF USING A SHARED SERVICEThis week another major cloud service had an outage. They happen frequently enough, for some period of time (usually measured in hours), that we really notice them and then move on. Their impact is felt across many sites and dependent services, SOME THOUGHTS ON RESPONSES TO CLOUD OUTAGES5 levels of grief - denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.The cloud providers (typically) don’t snipe at either other - they’ve all been there.The post-mortems are becoming more consistent - any highly anticipatedWe continue to learn about differences in cloud architectures, and where failures points (and failure actions) occur.We still don’t understand the internal cloud architectural dependencies of each cloud.How many companies actually follow multi-region best practices? How much does multi-region cost? Multi-cloud is often a knee-jerk reaction, but it’s never that simple - cost, complexity, skills FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

We review the new strategic directions of AWS under CEO Adam Selipsky, as well as major announcements from AWS re:Invent 2021. SHOW: 573CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:JumpCloud (homepage)At the intersection of devices, identities, and access, JumpCloud’s cloud directory platform unifies the IT resources in any company’s infrastructure – anywhere work happens. Fully evaluate JumpCloud for free today 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.SHOW NOTES:AWS re:Internet 2021 - What’s NewTop Announcements of AWS re:Invent 2021“What’s New at AWS” on TwitterThe Official AWS Podcast: Keynote recaps each day and moreAWS OnAir: Livestreaming from the show floorBIG ANNOUNCEMENTS:Private 5G Managed WANServerless Data ServicesNew Low-Code Development platformGraviton v3Mainframe MigrationIoT TwinMaker (digital twins)FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

In 2015, Dell acquired EMC and VMware for a record-setting $67B. In 2021, Dell spun out VMware as an independent company. What lessons were learned? SHOW: 572CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Megaport - Network as a Service PlatformTry Megaport - Cloud Connectivity SimplifiedCBT Nuggets: Expert IT Training for individuals and teamsSign up for a CBT Nuggets Free Learner account SHOW NOTES:Dell offers $67B for EMC - 2015Dell finalizes acquisition of EMC (and VMware) - 20163 Years Later, Was it Worth the Debt? (TechCrunch)Dell’s Public Journey from Private Equity to VMware Share Swap (2018)Dell spins out VMware - Dell (2021)A New Day for VMware - VMware (2021)EMC Revenues (2015-16)Dell Revenues (2015-2021)VMware Revenues (2015-2021) WHAT WERE THE GOALS OF THE DELL ACQUISITION OF EMC?Dell was trying to recover from having to go private in 2013. Wanted to consolidate the Enterprise infrastructure market. Wanted to have a one-stop-shop from desktop to enterprise infrastructure to security to applications to hybrid cloud. WHAT VALUE DID DELL BRING TO VMWARE?VMware - 26 acquisitions (2016-2021)VMware grew revenues 66% (2016-2021), 11% annuallyVMW shares grew from $70 to $118 (+68%)Dell grew revenues from $50B to $94B (EMC revenues $25B)VMware on AWS launched in 2016 - grown to around $3B business (26% revenues)Michael Dell gets an A+ for financial engineeringDell/EMC/VMware missed an opportunity to create an alternative to the Big3 cloud providers.  FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Shanea Leven (@ShaneaLeven, Founder/CEO @CodeSeeio) talks about enabling development teams to better understand the complexities and interdependencies of their code throughout the lifecycle.SHOW: 571CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Megaport - Network as a Service PlatformTry Megaport - Cloud Connectivity SimplifiedCBT Nuggets: Expert IT Training for individuals and teamsSign up for a CBT Nuggets Free Learner accountSHOW NOTES:CodeSee (homepage)OSS Port (homepage)Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. You’ve had an interesting background prior to CodeSee. Tell us a little bit about your journey, and what led you to create CodeSee.Topic 2 - Let’s start by talking about developer productivity and the types of things that create bottlenecks for teams. Help us understand where CodeSee fits into the flow of how applications are built and lifecycled. Topic 3 - Teams change, teams grow, projects evolve over time. How does CodeSee help teams improve the learning curve of what’s in code and how to understand what came before them?Topic 4 - Walk us through a day, or week, in the life of application teams that are working with CodeSee and without CodeSee. I’ve seen you use the term “Continuous Understanding” - what does that mean to you?Topic 5 - Development teams have all sorts of tools in front of them. What are some of the interesting ways that CodeSee integrates with the other tools that are commonly put in front of them? GitHub recently called out a nice integration.Topic 6 - We talk alot about developer productivity. How do you find companies measuring improvement when using CodeSee?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

You’ve been hearing about Web3 and metaverse and crypto, and everything is changing. But is that a good thing or a bad thing? Let’s yell at the metaverse and see what echoes back.SHOW: 570CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Juniper Networks – Experience-First NetworkingLearn more about Juniper’s cloud-native solutionsDatadog 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:What is web3? (CB Insights)Notes on Web3 (Robin Sloan)An Engineer’s Hype-Free Observations on web3 (PSL)Why Microsoft might beat Zuckerberg to the metaverse (Venture Beat)It’s a web3 world now, how does the hype compare to Web 2.0? (The NewStack)The Facebook Company is now Meta WHY IS EVERYONE TRYING TO CHANGE THE EXISTING INTERNET?The metaverse is part of a bigger evolution called “Web3”, which is looking at new interaction models, new payment models, and new ways to represent life in a fully digital world. How did we get here? What lessons from the past can we learn? HOW MIGHT THE METAVERSE CHANGE THE INTERNET, FOR GOOD OR BAD?Like Web 1.0 and 2.0, Web3 is initially being positioned as “for the youth”, but there’s already a subculture of people trying to make it “for the Enterprise, as well”.Metaverse and Web3 have all-digital versions of things (identity, goods, payments, etc.) that seem complicated and confusing to anyone that doesn’t start there. There will (likely) be many metaverses, and this will be OK, and people will ask for standards and things to interoperate. There will be consumer metaverses and Enterprise (“work”) metaverses. People will wish the work one was more like the consumer one - but not always. Metaverse assumes that we want to blur the lines between what had been a distraction (e.g. gaming) and what we want in the rest of our lives. A lot has changed since we first tried this 15 years ago (e.g. Second Life). There is a lot more psychology involved in these virtual worlds than you initially think, especially outside of the “native” community.Be cautious around the people that talk very fast when you ask questions, and always tell you that you don’t understand it and need to be authentic. Experiment. Ask questions. To research with problems in mind.  FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Jim Walker (@jaymce, Principal Product Evangelist at @CockroachDB) talks about how serverless has moved from compute to backing data services, and focuses on improving application developer productivity. SHOW: 569CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Megaport - Network as a Service PlatformTry Megaport - Cloud Connectivity SimplifiedCBT Nuggets: Expert IT Training for individuals and teamsSign up for a CBT Nuggets Free Learner accountSHOW NOTES:Cockroach LabsCockroachDB Serverless(Eps.438) Scalable Databases on KubernetesTopic 1 - Welcome to the show. Let’s start by talking a little bit about your background, and where you focus your attention at Cockroach Labs. Give us a quick overview of CockroachDB.Topic 2 - We’ve covered “Serverless” quite a bit on the show, mostly focused around compute services, but there seems to be a growing trend around serverless as it relates to data services. Can you give us some background on what’s driving these new capabilities?Topic 3 - Implementations of Database-as-a-Service have been around for quite a while now. What’s new or different around service database offerings? Topic 4 - CockroachDB is fairly unique in its ability to span locations (e.g. in essence be multi-cloud). Help us connect the dots between the core elements of CockroachDB, and where the new serverless capabilities enhance that (for an application, for a DB team, for an Operations team, etc.)Topic 5 - What are some of the new use-cases that can potentially be unlocked with the new serverless offering? Topic 6 - How do you expect the new serverless offering to change the way that application teams and operations teams interact with systems going forward? FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

Many people ask us about technical product marketing - the skills needed, the challenges, the career rewards - and how to work in those jobs. This week we explore what’s needed to be a successful technical product marketer.SHOW: 568CLOUD 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.Juniper Networks – Experience-First NetworkingLearn more about Juniper’s cloud-native solutionsSHOW NOTES:HOW DOES SOMEONE BECOME A TECHNICAL PRODUCT MARKETERIs marketing just lies and double-speak? If a product or technology is great, does it even need marketing? These are the questions that people often ask themselves before exploring roles that have some aspect of “marketing” in their name. WHAT SKILLS ARE NEEDED TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL TECHNICAL PRODUCT MARKETERThere are lots of different types of marketers - product-specific, go-to-market, regional, technical marketing, evangelist/advocate, etc.There is value in lots of different skills around marketing - technical, speaking, writing, critical listeningThe timeline of a marketer is somewhat different than a product manager. Both have to manage short and long-term. But marketing tends to be more focused on today’s problems/challenges/opportunities.Marketers have to understand the technology, but also how to translate it to business problems and business value. Marketers need to understand the difference between drills and holes. The role of marketing has significantly changed in the last few years. We’ve moved from more directed marketing to more automated and data-driven marketing.  FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

In October and November, Microsoft hosted the GitHub Universe and Ignite 2021 conferences, focused on Developers and Cloud Computing. We review the important announcements and analyze the future directions for Azure, GitHub, etc SHOW: 567CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:CBT Nuggets: Expert IT Training for individuals and teamsSign up for a CBT Nuggets Free Learner account Megaport - Network as a Service PlatformTry Megaport - Cloud Connectivity SimplifiedBMC Wants to Know if your business is on it's A-GameBMC Autonomous Digital EnterpriseSHOW NOTES:Microsoft Ignite 2021 AnnouncementsMicrosoft Ignite 2021 (Keynote)Everything new from GitHub Universe 2021GitHub Universe 2021 (Keynote)Azure - Bigger Announcements Azure OpenAI Service - access to GPT-3 Azure Cognitive Service for LanguageAzure Cosmos DB Azure Managed Instance of Apache CassandraAzure Synapse Analytics Azure Container Apps (preview) Open Service Mesh for Kubernetes(Java EE) Oracle Weblogic  on Azure Kubernetes Service. (Java EE) Websphere Liberty on Kubernetes/OpenShiftEnhancements to Azure DevOps (see GitHub)GitHub - Bigger AnnouncementsImproved CI/CD workflows with GitHub ActionsImprovements to GitHub CodespacesCustom repository roles (security)Improved “Issues” and “Discussions”FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet