Azure & DevOps Podcast

Kevin is a software developer who finds great joy in teaching and learning from others. He’s been honing my craft for over two and a half decades. If he’s not in code, he’s near it. Kevin is often working on practices and processes that improve the engineering excellence of the team.   Currently, Kevin is in an architecture/lead development position at Northern Arizona University. He develops best practices tailored to the team and company culture. Kevin is a strong believer in applying systems thinking to all he does.   Topics of Discussion: [2:13] How Kevin discovered his passion for software, and proof you can be successful even if you are bad at math! [4:51] Kevin loves giving back to others by offering his mentorship. [5:15] How we can adjust to a changing culture. [8:09] The evolution of his DevOps team. [12:11] The idea of being able to read the code. [13:06] How do you start the DevOps journey? [15:05] What is a build script? Why is it important, and what are the most important components that need to be in the build script, in Kevin’s opinion? [20:16] What are the items that Kevin likes to make sure are in the DevOps environment when developers are starting a new application? [23:00] Creating a new web application in an existing environment vs. a new environment. [27:12] The importance of getting value out the door. [29:41] Safe database deployment, safe database changes. [32:45] Kevin’s chosen practice for using toggling and deprecating feature flags along with some of his favorite tools and libraries. [34:01] Protecting against API changes with third-party services.   Mentioned in this Episodes: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us programming@palermo.network Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Architect Tips — Video podcast! Azure DevOps .NET Architect Forum   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Greg is a Cloud Architect that assists organizations with cloud adoption and innovation and is currently a Public Cloud Architect at AT&T. He has been working in the IT industry since his time in the military and is a developer, teacher, speaker, and early adopter. Greg has worked in many facets of IT throughout his career and is currently the president of TampaDev, a community meetup that runs #TampaCC and various technology events throughout Tampa. Greg holds a certification as a Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert, and Microsoft Certified Trainer, and is an Azure MVP.   Topics of Discussion: [3:01] Greg talks about being a military veteran from the first Gulf War and then transitioning into the technology arena. [3:33] Giving back to the veteran community. [6:04] Is AI inherently irresponsible? [6:30] Greg defines responsible AI. [7:02] Thinking about AI as your personal assistant, but only presenting you with the facts. [8:53] The difference between the public models set out by the big companies, and the other aspect of creating your own model by choosing your own set of data using the GPT technology to analyze that data. [16:43] Hallucinations in AI and GPT models. [17:10] What is actionable right now for developers when they are designing it so that we can have some safeguards built in? [21:55] The difference between fact and affirmation. [23:41] The system shouldn’t just give us what we want, but it should be able to route that want into something that’s factual. [33:10] The design process for developers that want to create their own model. [37:11] Does Greg have any Chat GPT models?   Mentioned in this Episodes: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us programming@palermo.network Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Architect Tips — Video podcast! Azure DevOps .NET Architect Forum “Architecting For Azure with Greg Leonardo”   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.  

Matthew Renze is a data science consultant, author, and public speaker. He is the founder of Renze Consulting, an AI consulting company that has trained over 500,000 software developers and IT professionals. His clients range from small tech start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. He is also the President of Serenze Global, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to improving access to technology education for under-represented individuals by empowering the next generation of tech community leaders. Matthew is currently working on his Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence with a Data Science specialization at Johns Hopkins University. He currently has double degrees in Computer Science and Philosophy with a minor in Economics from Iowa State University. He is a Microsoft MVP in AI, an ASPinsider, and an author for Pluralsight, Udemy, and Skillshare. His interests include AI, ML, data science, mindfulness, technology education, and tech community leadership.   Topics of Discussion: [1:41] How Matthew got into software development and eventually AI, rebranding himself as a data scientist and then AI consultant. [5:40] Matthew is getting his Master’s Degree in Artificial Intelligence. [6:04] How can we demystify AI and all the buzzwords we use? [9:13] Are there any current products that meet the definition of strong general AI? [11:03] What does weak general AI mean? [13:51] For .NET developers, what can they actually do today, with this latest generation of generative AI? [17:02] What are some examples in AI right now that Matthew has come across that clearly violate any standard of ethical boundary? [19:00] A few of the issues with AI currently or ways that AI systems are being abused: AI hallucination AI-generated misinformation Algorithmic bias and discrimination Lack of trust in AI Recommendation engines (rabbit holes) Lack of basic AI literacy [22:00] Is it even possible for these models not to be biased? [22:35] We have to make sure that we’ve got balanced data sets in order to get the models to train properly. [25:41] How do we regulate ethics? [27:55] The distinction between using supervised learning, and then self-supervised learning, or reinforcement learning. [39:20] How we can prevent deep fake videos. [42:01] It’s important to get these tools in the hands of the right people, provide education, and move forward mindfully. [47:02] Curating your own algorithm and handling information overload. Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us programming@palermo.network Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Architect Tips — Video podcast! Azure DevOps .NET Architect Forum Matthew Renze Developing Your AI Strategy Matthew's Website Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Sagar Lad is a Technical Solution Architect with a leading multinational software company and has deep expertise in implementing Data & Analytics solutions for large enterprises using Cloud and Artificial Intelligence. He is an experienced Azure Platform evangelist with 9+ Years of IT experience and a strong focus on driving cloud adoption for enterprise organizations using Microsoft Cloud Solutions & Offerings. He loves blogging and is an active blogger on Medium, LinkedIn, and the C# Corner developer community. He was awarded the C# Corner MVP in September 2021 for his contributions to the developer community. He’s also the author of three books, Mastering Databricks Lakehouse Platform, Azure Security for Critical Workloads, and Hands-On Azure Data Platform.   Topics of Discussion: [2:57] Sagar talks about the critical points in his career that led him to technology. [6:01] What turned Sagar on to a love of data? [8:39] With so much technical jargon out there, how do you simplify? [12:40] What is Data Lakehouse? [13:25] What are some common scenarios where Data Lakehouse can be really valuable? [18:53] What does unit testing mean in the data bricks world? [22:10] How long does it take to run the tests in Azure? [25:42] What’s the most expensive Databricks environment that Sagar has seen on a monthly basis? [27:54] What are some of the things that are being missed around the industry? [31:42] Sagar says that when we talk about security, there are seven layers.   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us programming@palermo.network Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Architect Tips — Video podcast! Azure DevOps .NET Clear Measure Architect Forum Sagar Lad books on Amazon Certifications: Sagar Lad on Credly LinkedIn: Sagar Lad on LinkedIn Twitter: @AzureSagar (Twitter: Sagar Lad) Medium: Sagar Lad on Medium   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.  

René is a Principal Cloud Solution Architect - Engineering (CSA-E) and technical lead for Azure DevOps and software development processes at Microsoft in Germany. In his role as CE, he helps customers adopt good development practices and processes as well as understanding the principles of DevOps. As an Azure DevOps expert, René trains customers in using the DevOps toolchain and shows ways to integrate Azure DevOps into existing heterogeneous environments.   Before his start at Microsoft in late 2008, René had been working as a developer of enterprise logistic systems for almost ten years.   Topics of Discussion: [3:05] René’s start of his career and how he got into programming. [5:20] How does René define the real difference between the 1990s waterfall mindset and the agile mindset, just from a process perspective? [7:49] How DevOps is an evolution of Agile. [9:13] What is DevOps all about? [11:29] The three ways of DevOps as described in The Phoenix Project: Maximize flow or system thinking. Amplify feedback loops. The culture of continuous experimentation and learning. [16:52] The importance of creating a natural cadence in your iteration. [17:16] What’s the best way to standardize across different teams? [21:13] Choosing the right tool at the right point in time. [24:10] What type of test automation does René find himself recommending? [27:50] To René, the most important thing is to get your code right. In addition, unit testing also has a very positive impact on your architecture and design because you're building a testable product. [28:50] What is Rene’s view on open telemetry in a DevOps mindset?   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us programming@palermo.network Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Architect Tips — Video podcast! Azure DevOps .NET Clear Measure Architect Forum The Phoenix Project book: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win, by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford Test-driven development: By Example, by Kent Beck Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, by Kent Beck and Cynthia Andres The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data, by Gene Kim The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, by Frederick Brooks Jr. The Art of Unit Testing: With examples in JavaScript, by Roy Osherove Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems, by Jennifer Petoff, Niall Murphy, Betsy Beyer, and Chris Jones   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Toi B. Wright is an independent consultant who has been working as a software developer for over 25 years. She has a BS in Computer Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. She has been a Microsoft MVP in ASP/ASP.NET since 2005. She is also an ASPInsider. Ms. Wright is the author of two editions of Blazor WebAssembly by Example: A project-based guide to building web apps with .NET, Blazor WebAssembly, and C#. She is also the author of other .NET books and training courses.   Ms. Wright was the organizer of the original We Are Microsoft — Charity Challenge Weekend, www.wearemicrosoft.com, which was the precursor to Give Camps Everywhere. She is the Founder of the Dallas ASP.NET User Group, www.dallasasp.net. She has been involved with various user groups around Dallas since 1994 and has been running one or more user groups since 2000. She most recently helped organize the new Geeks in Pink group. This group supports women in technology.   Topics of Discussion: [3:46] What got Toi into web development? [8:17] What inspired Toi to write a book, and what is it about this version of Blazor web application technology on top of .NET that just that really captivated her? [10:54] What’s new in the second version of Blazor web assembly? [13:21] What can people expect now, using Visual Studio and debugging with Blazor WebAssembly? [15:01] Are there specific things that are in a Blazor project that people need to think about when it comes to secure web applications? [17:34] Does Toi know the state of the component vendors out there for web assembly? And do all those components work in the web Assembly version? [20:10] What is Toi’s favorite hosting model? [22:59] More about Blazor Unity, and what Toi is excited about most for the future. [28:15] What does Toi think the “normal” .NET application is going to be with all of these choices?   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.network Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Architect Tips — Video podcast! Azure DevOps Toi Wright Toi on Twitter Blazor WebAssembly By Example: Use practical projects to start building web apps with .NET 7, Blazor WebAssembly, and C#, 2nd Edition   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Ryan is an Advocate at Redgate focusing on PostgreSQL. Ryan has been working as a PostgreSQL advocate, developer, DBA, and product manager for more than 20 years, primarily working with time-series data on PostgreSQL and the Microsoft Data Platform.   Ryan is a long-time DBA, starting with MySQL and Postgres in the late ’90s. He spent more than 15 years working with SQL Server before returning to PostgreSQL full-time in 2018. He’s at the top of his game when he's learning something new about the data platform or teaching others about the technology he loves.   Topics of Discussion: [1:23] Ryan’s background and his love of helping people with their data. [6:06] What are some features of Postgres that really intrigued Ryan? [6:12] What are some of the choices in the database world that people should be well versed in? [11:00] Is there a marketplace for these extensions? [15:00] Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and many others have been very interested over the last 3‒4 years in the open-source code base. [15:50] Is there any environment or platform where Postgres can’t run? [17:24] Can we use a downsized database engine? [19:19] Ryan discusses Amazon Redshift. [23:58] What’s the state of the modern Redgate tools? [26:42] What are the top three tools developers should reach for? [27:00] What are the features of Flyway?   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.network Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Architect Tips — Video podcast! Azure DevOps Ryan Booz Ryan on Sessionize Flyway   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Maddy Montaquila is a Senior Product Manager on the .NET MAUI team and has been working with .NET mobile apps since 2018 working on Xamarin tooling. When she first joined Microsoft and worked with the Xamarin team as an intern, she realized the impact that she could have in creating amazing developer tools and frameworks, which inspired her to pursue a role as Program Manager. You can connect with her on Twitter and GitHub @maddymontaquila!   Topics of Discussion: [4:21] How did Maddy get lucked into development and the mobile side of product management? [7:39] You can distill product manager roles to the intersection of the technology and what’s possible, the business, what’s going to make you money, and what your customers actually want and need. [9:17] Why is it important for program managers to have at least some coding background? [10:41] When people dive into Maui, what can they expect right now? [15:44] What tools or resources does someone need to get started, and what are the limitations? [20:44] What is the current DevOps story for going from a developer workstation all the way through testing and packaging, and then finally delivering it to the App Store? [23:47] Is there a favorite deployed test framework? [27:26] Why does Maddy prefer sometimes to work in Xaml? [29:17] If you’re going to reach for controls right now, is everything that they need built-in? What is the status of DevExpress? [37:03] It’s a great time to be a .net developer!   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.network Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Architect Tips — Video podcast! Azure DevOps .NetMaui Maddy on LinkedIn .NET Multi-Platform App .Net Maui Samples .Net Maui Development   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Andy is a Data Platform and AI Architect at Microsoft, where he has worked for over 24 years. A long time ago, his father dropped two books on his desk and said: "Andy, I need you to be an SQL Expert for a meeting tomorrow. Can you handle that?" Recently out of college, he was still accustomed to cramming for an exam, so he showed up the next day, won the project, and began his new life as a “data guy.”   Since then, he’s “been around the (data) block.” Whether a developer, database analyst, architect, project lead, or more recently a part of a sales organization, the heart of his job has always revolved around data: acquiring it, shaping it, moving it, protecting it, using it to predict future outcomes, processing it efficiently, etc.   Topics of Discussion: [4:56] Andy has always grown up with computers around and has his father to thank for a lot of it. [6:39] What is it that causes some developers to say, I want to write code, but I don’t want to mess with the database? [14:29] What does Andy’s job as an AI architect look like? [16:19] When you have that predictive function with something to host it, that’s where AI happens and when intelligence starts happening in your application. [17:16] The importance of pre-trained models in machine learning. [20:00] What is reinforcement learning? [20:58] Why are we calling some things artificial intelligence and other things, not AI? [24:44] Andy gives his advice for those new to writing software and in developing. [29:08] What is a data lake? [31:48] The importance of thinking about the database as part of the application, not a separate thing.   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.network Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Architect Tips — Video podcast! Azure DevOps Andy Roberts LinkedIn Architect Forum   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Donovan Brown is a Partner Program Manager in the Azure CTO Incubations team at Microsoft. The Incubations team focuses on forward-looking development and innovation to facilitate the development of new projects and ideas. Before joining Microsoft, Donovan spent seven years as a Process Consultant and a Certified Scrum Master. Donovan has traveled the globe helping companies develop solutions using agile practices in many industries. Donovan is an avid programmer, often finding ways to integrate software into his other hobbies and activities.   Topics of Discussion: [7:37] Why is Donovan retiring? [8:49] Donovan talks about redefining his success and the decision he and his wife made to go live the life they want to live. [12:03] Living paycheck to paycheck is a bad idea, regardless of how big the paycheck is. [14:02] The importance of paying yourself first and making good money choices. [17:50] If it’s putting money in your pocket, it’s an asset. Some houses are assets, while others are liabilities. [18:36] Your money is your number one employee. [23:42] Donovan gives his thoughts on inflation. [31:00] Donovan gives advice for those early on in their career in both programming and making wise money decisions, including avoiding credit card debt. [31:26] The importance of being tenacious despite not having a degree or experience. [40:47] Donovan encourages programmers to learn a language that allows them to dabble in all different platforms.   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.network Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! Jeffrey Palermo’s Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! Architect Tips — Video podcast! Azure DevOps Ep 002 with Donovan Ep 219 with Donovan   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.