Screaming in the Cloud

This episode of Screaming in the Cloudfocuses on keeping critical data safe and organized, especially when there's a lot of it. Pranava Adduri, the CEO of Bedrock Security, shares the tools and methods Bedrock uses to help other businesses protect their essential information. They discuss how new technologies like AI can help manage vast amounts of data and ensure only the right people can access it.

About Pranava:

Pranava has worked in data protection and security for more than a decade. Before becoming an Entrepreneur In Residence at Greylock Partners in 2020, he was a Software Development Manager for AWS, where he worked with Fortune 500 CISOs to develop innovative products for data risk and compliance. Before that, he was a founding engineer at Rubrik, a SaaS data protection platform. Pranava graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Berkeley with a triple-major B.S. in Computer Science, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, and Economics, then obtained an M.S. from Berkeley in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. 

Show highlights:

(00:00) - Introduction 

(01:36) - Overview of Bedrock Security's solutions for large-scale data protection

(03:04) - The importance of data classification and access control was discussed

(04:47) - Exploring the limitations of current data governance 

(05:22) - Pranava details how data is managed in cloud environments

(09:39) - Evolving strategies in data lake management and data volume growth

(12:36) - Impact of generative AI on data creation and the need for retention

(15:50) - Discussion on cost-effective data management solutions

(23:45) - The role of AI in enhancing data security measures at Bedrock

(25:42) - How customer feedback shapes Bedrock’s AI security technology

(27:19) - The growing necessity for sophisticated data security systems

(29:22) - Upcoming events and where to find more about Bedrock Security and Pranava

Links:
 

Bedrock Security: https://www.bedrock.security/
Bedrock Security X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/bedrocksec
Bedrock Security LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bedrocksec/
Pranava’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/padduri/
Pranava’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/thenava?lang=en
Innovation Sandbox 2024: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240402284910/en/Bedrock-Security-Named-RSA-Conference-2024-Innovation-Sandbox-Finalist

Sponsor
Panoptica Academy: https://panoptica.app/lastweekinaws  

This episode of Screaming in the Cloud features Katie Reese, an experienced events producer at Tailscale, who walks us through the ins and outs of event marketing within the tech industry. Katie shares insights on effective swag management and event planning to create memorable experiences that drive product adoption. Additionally, Katie and Corey discuss the challenges and strategies of marketing in a post-pandemic, budget-conscious world and explore how remote-first companies have adapted to these changes.

Show Highlights: 

00:00 - Intro
00:19 - Welcome Katie Reese, discussing life in sunny Mexico City and her work at Tailscale
03:03 - How Tailscale's product-led growth feels like magic
05:08 - Success stories from the Tailscale Up conference
06:25 - Event strategies in the post-pandemic, budget-conscious era
09:04 - The benefits of remote-first companies and changes in the event landscape
10:36 - Katie's career journey and the value of networking at events
14:34 - The thoughtful approach to swag and reducing event waste
20:14 - How bad marketing can ruin customer interactions
25:40 - Ensuring swag runs out at the right time at conferences
28:10 - Discussion on ethical event practices and avoiding waste
32:04 - Closing thoughts and where to find Katie online

About Katie:

Katie leads field events at Tailscale and, when she is not traveling, splits her time between small-town Tennessee and Mexico City because it's all about balance.

Links referenced: 

*Tailscale: https://tailscale.com/
*Katie's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-reese/
*Katie’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/katiereese317?lang=en

Sponsor
*Panoptica Academy: https://panoptica.app/lastweekinaws

In this episode, Corey chats with Google's Nick Eberts about how Kubernetes helps manage applications across different cloud environments. They cover the benefits and challenges of using Kubernetes, especially in Google's cloud (GKE), and discuss its role in making applications more flexible and scalable. The conversation also touches on how Kubernetes supports a multi-cloud approach, simplifies the deployment process, and can potentially save costs while avoiding being tied down to one cloud provider. They wrap up by talking about best practices in cloud infrastructure and the future of cloud-native technologies.

Show Highlights: 

(00:00) - Introduction to the episode

(03:28) - Google Cloud's approach to egress charges and its impact on Kubernetes

(04:33) - Data transfer costs and Kubernetes' verbose telemetry

(07:23) - The nature of Kubernetes and its relationship with cloud-native principles. 

(11:14) - Challenges Nick faced managing a Kubernetes cluster in a home lab setting

(13:25) - Simplifying Kubernetes with Google's Fleets

(17:34) - Introduction to GKE Fleets for managing Kubernetes clusters 

(20:39) - Building Kubernetes-like systems for complex application portfolios 

(24:06) - Internal company platforms and the utility of Kubernetes for CI/CD 

(27:49) - Challenges and strategies of updating old systems for today's cloud environment

(32:43) - The dividing line between Kubernetes and GKE from a product perspective. 

(35:07) - Where to find Nick 

(36:48) - Closing remarks 

About Nick:

Nick is an absolute geek who would prefer to spend his time building systems, but he has succumbed to capitalism and moved into product management at Google. For the last 20 years, he has worked as a systems engineer, solution architect, and outbound product manager. He is currently the product manager for GKE Fleets & Teams, focusing on multi-cluster capabilities that streamline GCP customers' experience while building platforms on GKE. 

Links referenced: 

Sponsor

Xe Iaso, the Senior Technophilosopher at Fly.io, joins Corey to explore the world of unconventional thinking in technology. They discuss the magic of embracing bad ideas as stepping stones to innovation, the simplicity and power of deploying applications globally with a single command, and the humorous yet insightful take on using old tech in new, imaginative ways. Along the way, they tackle the importance of clear communication in tech, the challenges and rewards of making technology accessible, and how to creatively navigate the tech industry's evolving landscape. Join us for an enlightening conversation that challenges the conventional path to tech success.

Show Highlights: 

(00:00) - Intro 

(02:08) - The ease of deploying apps across data centers with Fly.io 

(04:33) - From Python to Go, Xe shares their programming journey

(07:26) - Using S3 as a message queue for cross AZ data transfer

(10:57) - How unconventional ideas can lead to tech breakthroughs

(14:50) - The dangers of being too close to a product and the importance of a broader perspective 

(19:15) - The challenge of making complex tech accessible to newcomers

(23:40) - Voice Coding in tech

(28:33) - The pioneering tech developments driven by the adult entertainment industry

(31:22) - The ethical implications and personal impacts of AI in creative fields

(36:22) - Xe's multi-faceted approach to creativity and tech

 (38:55) - Closing remarks

About Xe Iaso

I'm Xe Iaso, a technical educator, twitch streamer, vtuber, and philosopher that focuses on ways to help make technology easier to understand and do cursed things in the process. I live in Ottawa with my husband and I do developer relations professionally. I am an avid writer for my blog xeiaso.net, where I have over 400 articles. I regularly experiment with new technologies and find ways to mash them up with old technologies for my own amusement.

Links referenced: 

Sponsor

Corey sits down with Alyssa Miller, the CISO at Epic Global, for a discussion that cuts through the noise of the technology world in this episode of Screaming in The Cloud. Alyssa celebrates her personal journey to becoming a licensed pilot and invaluable insights into the current state and future of AI, cloud computing, and security. This episode ventures beyond the typical tech hype, offering a critical look at the realities of AI, the strategic considerations behind cloud computing at Epic Global, and the importance of explainability in AI within regulated industries. Additionally, Alyssa and Corey highlight the cyclical nature of tech hype, the misconceptions surrounding AI's capabilities, and the impact of startup culture on genuine innovation.

Show Highlights:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:33) Corey celebrates Alyssa Miller getting her general aviation license.

(04:10) Considerations of cloud computing at Epic Global.

(06:45) The hype and reality of AI in today's tech landscape.

(11:49) Alyssa on the importance of explainability in AI within regulated industries.

(14:21) Debunking myths about AI surpassing human intelligence.

(19:30) The cyclical nature of tech hype, exemplified by blockchain and AI.

(24:58) Critique of startup culture and its influence on technology adoption.

(29:01) Alyssa and Corey discuss how tech trends often fail to meet their initial hype.

(31:57) Where to find Alyssa Miller online for more insights.

About Alyssa:

Alyssa directs the security strategy for S&P Global Ratings as Business Information Security Officer (BISO), connecting corporate security objectives to business initiatives. Additionally, she shares her message about evolving the way people think about and approach security, privacy and trust through speaking engagements at various conferences and other events. When not engaged in security research and advocacy, she is also an accomplished soccer referee, guitarist and photographer.

Links referenced: 

This week on Screaming in the Cloud, Corey is joined by good friend and colleague, Charity Majors. Charity is the CTO and Co-founder of Honeycomb.io, the widely popular observability platform. Corey and Charity discuss the ins and outs of observability 1.0 vs. 2.0, why you should never underestimate the power of software to get worse over time, and the hidden costs of observability that could be plaguing your monthly bill right now. The pair also shares secrets on why speeches get better the more you give them and the basic role they hope AI plays in the future of computing. Check it out!

Show Highlights:

(00:00 - Reuniting with Charity Majors: A Warm Welcome

(03:47) - Navigating the Observability Landscape: From 1.0 to 2.0

(04:19) - The Evolution of Observability and Its Impact

(05:46) - The Technical and Cultural Shift to Observability 2.0

(10:34) - The Log Dilemma: Balancing Cost and Utility

(15:21) - The Cost Crisis in Observability

(22:39) - The Future of Observability and AI's Role

(26:41) - The Challenge of Modern Observability Tools

(29:05) - Simplifying Observability for the Modern Developer

(30:42) - Final Thoughts and Where to Find More

About Charity

Charity is an ops engineer and accidental startup founder at honeycomb.io. Before this she worked at Parse, Facebook, and Linden Lab on infrastructure and developer tools, and always seemed to wind up running the databases. She is the co-author of O'Reilly's Database Reliability Engineering, and loves free speech, free software, and single malt scotch.

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On this week’s episode of Screaming in the Cloud, Corey is joined by Kristi Perreault. Given Kristi’s title of AWS Serverless Hero, Corey and Kristi discuss the origins and current state of the serverless world, the similarities between AI and serverless as the tech world moves into this next era, and why she emphasizes that serverless is not always the right solution for every issue. Kristi also opens up about her role as Principal Software Engineer at Liberty Mutual, and what she enjoys most about jet setting around the globe giving speeches.

Highlights:

(00:00) - Introducing Kristi Perreault

(00:39) - The Unconventional Path to Becoming an AWS Serverless Hero

(05:05)- Exploring the Boundaries of Cloud Education

(10:53) - The Challenges of Keeping Up with Rapid Tech Changes

(11:51)- Redefining Serverless: Beyond the Hype

(13:12) - The Evolution of Serverless and Its Impact

(21:55) - Staying Grounded Amidst Technological Zealotry

(27:18) - Python Development in the Cloud

(29:31) - Upcoming Talks and Where to Connect with Kristi

About Kristi

Kristi Perreault is an AWS Serverless Hero and a Principal Software Engineer at Liberty Mutual Insurance, where her focus is serverless-first cloud enablement. She has over 5 years of industry experience, holds an M.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering, and is very passionate about promoting women in technology. She is an established speaker, appearing in over 35 conferences, podcasts, panels, and more. Kristi founded the Serverless Denver meetup, and currently co-organizes the Portsmouth, NH AWS User Group and CDK Day. Outside of work and the serverless tech space, Kristi can be found reading a good book in her tiny home, enjoying a good poke bowl, or jet setting all over the world.

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George Porter, a computer science professor at the University of California, San Diego, talks to us about advanced networking and the effects of computing on the environment In this episode of Screaming in the cloud. George explores the shift towards optical networking in data centers to meet growing bandwidth needs and discusses the significant carbon footprint associated with computing, from data centers to device production. In addition to providing a look into the future of scalable, sustainable computing systems, George mentions the difficulties and benefits of incorporating cloud computing into academic research. 

Show Highlights:

(00:00) - Introduction 

(03:15) - The Shift to Optical Networking

(07:50) - The Efficiency of Cloud Networks

(12:06) - Adaptable Networks for Different Uses

(16:19) - Reducing Computing's Carbon Footprint

(20:25) - Highlighting Computing's Environmental Impact Through Art

(26:51) - Cloud Computing Challenges in Academia

(31:18) - The benefits of cloud computing for academic research

(34:14) - Closing thoughts 

About George:
A Computer Science Professor at UC San Diego focusing on high-performance and sustainable computer systems

Links:

Join Corey Quinn and MinIO's co-founder and CEO, AB Periasamy, for a look into MinIO's strategic approach to integrating open-source contributions with its business objectives amidst the AI evolution. They discuss the effect of AI on data management, highlight the critical role of data replication, and advocate for the adoption of cloud-native architecture. Their conversation examines the insights of data replication, mentioning its pivotal role in ensuring efficient data management and storage. Overall, a recurring theme throughout the episode is the importance of simplifying technology to catalyze a broader understanding and utilization that can remain accessible and beneficial to all.

Show Highlights:
(00:00) - Intro

(03:40) - MinIO's evolution and commitment to simplicity and scalability.

(07:25) - The significance of data replication and object storage's versatility.

(12:12) - Challenges and innovations in data backup and disaster recovery.
(15:21) - Launch of MinIO's Enterprise Object Store and its comprehensive features.
(20:50) - Balancing open-source contributions and commercial objectives.

(30:32)- AI's growing influence on data storage strategies and MinIO's role.

(34:33)- The shift towards software-defined data infrastructure driven by AI and cloud technologies.

(39:40) - Resources and the future of tech 

(43:31)- Closing thoughts 

About A.B Periasamy:

AB Periasamy is the CEO and co-founder of MinIO. One of the leading thinkers and technologists in the open source software movement, AB was a co-founder and CTO of GlusterFS which was acquired by RedHat in 2011. Following the acquisition, he served in the office of the CTO at RedHat prior to founding MinIO in late 2015. AB is an active angel investor and serves on the board of H2O.ai and the Free Software Foundation of India. He earned his BE in Computer Science and Engineering from Annamalai University.

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Corey Quinn is joined by HumblePod CEO Chris Hill to dissect Chris's debut experience at AWS re:Invent. Together, they tackle the challenges of attending one of the biggest conferences in the IT industry, discussing its immense reach, logistical hurdles, and invaluable insights for anyone considering attending in the future. Beyond the event itself, Chris provides an intimate glimpse into the crucial behind-the-scenes efforts involved in producing exceptional content amid the chaos of AWS re:Invent, emphasizing the importance of kindness, professionalism, and superior audio quality. Discover how partnering with an experienced podcast production team can elevate any content to new heights of polish and engagement.

Full Description / Show Notes

(00:00) - Introduction to the Episode

(01:25) - Chris's First Impressions of AWS re:Invent

(02:09) - The Surprising Scale of AWS re:Invent

(04:13) - Lessons Learned and Things Chris Would Do Differently at Future AWS re:Invent Events

(07:52) - Balancing Content Creation, Networking, and Professionalism Under Stress

(13:42) - Chris and Corey’s Humorous Encounters with Security While Filming at AWS re:Invent

(15:35) - Exploring AWS Services and Billing Surprises

(21:12) - Significance of Professional Podcast Production

(25:04) - Closing Thoughts & HumblePod Contact Information

(26:19) - Closing Thoughts

About Chris:

Chris Hill is a Knoxville, TN native and owner of the podcast production company, HumblePod. He helps his customers create, develop, and produce podcasts and is working with clients in Knoxville as well as startups and entrepreneurs across the United States, Silicon Valley, and the world.In addition to producing podcasts for nationally-recognized thought leaders, Chris is the co-host and producer of the award-winning Our Humble Beer Podcast. 

He also lectures at the University of Tennessee, where he leads non-credit courses on podcasts and marketing.  He received his undergraduate degree in business at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he majored in Marketing & Entrepreneurship, and he later received his MBA from King University. 

Chris currently serves his community as the President of the American Marketing Association in Knoxville. In his spare time, he enjoys hanging out with the local craft beer community, international travel, exploring the great outdoors, and his many creative pursuits.

Links:

On this week’s episode of Screaming in the Cloud, Corey Quinn is joined by Joel Griffith. Joel is  the CEO of Browserless.io, a company focused on providing headless browser automation without the pains of hosting. Corey and Joel discuss the most common use cases for headless browsers, the spectrum of web scraping ethics over the last decade, and why it’s so important to always do what you are passionate about no matter how high you climb on the corporate ladder. Joel also gives us his insight into why so many engineers come from creative backgrounds and shares his story of moving from jazz trumpet player to CEO.

Full Description / Show Notes

About Joel

Master of puppets and the browsers they run! I'm Joel Griffith, and for over a decade I've helped run, destroy, and make manageable things related to browser automation. I've had the pleasure of working on this in big companies and small, and more recently started Browserless to bring the power of automation to teams of all sizes.

Links:

Corey is joined by William Collins, Alkira's head cloud architect, to discuss the obstacles and possibilities of cloud networking. They discuss the evolution, challenges, and necessity of cloud networking, highlighting why this fundamental part of cloud design often goes unrecognized yet truly deserves attention. From William's early days of cloud skepticism to the incredible influence of services such as AWS Transit Gateway, William shares his experiences and insights into how network planning can make a big difference in cloud installations in this episode of Screaming in the Cloud.

Show Notes:

About William Collins:

William Collins is a principal cloud architect at Alkira, where he plays a pivotal role in evangelizing the company's vision, building customer relationships, and leading thought in the network, security, and automation spaces within the cloud ecosystem. With a rich background in enterprise technology across financial services and healthcare, including a significant tenure as Director of Cloud Architecture at Humana, William has made substantial contributions to cloud adoption and network modernization. Beyond his professional pursuits, William is passionate about content creation, hosting The Cloud Gambit Podcast, and teaching as a LinkedIn Learning Instructor. His expertise spans automation, cloud computing, and network engineering. An advocate for continuous learning and innovation, William's outside interests include woodworking, playing ice hockey, and guitar. While his insights are influential, they reflect his personal views and not those of his employer.

Show Highlights: 

(00:00)Introduction

(03:24)William Collins shares his initial skepticism towards cloud computing 

(07:28)The evolution of cloud networking

(13:50)The role of upfront planning in cloud network deployment to avoid scalability and complexity issues.

(21:10) The shift from complicated, manual network setups to simple, effective cloud systems .

(24:13)William uses Netflix's network design as an example of how cloud networking powers seamless user experiences 

(27:44)The future of cloud networking and the ongoing need for innovation

(30:23) Closing remarks 

Links:

On this week’s episode of Screaming in the Cloud, Corey Quinn is joined by Jack Ellis. He is the technical co-founder of Fathom Analytics, a privacy-first alternative to Google Analytics. Corey and Jack talk in-depth about a wide variety of AWS services, which ones have a habit of subtly hiking the monthly bill, and why Jack has moved towards working with consultants instead of hiring a costly DevOps team. This episode is truly a deep dive into everything AWS and billing-related led by one of the best in the industry. Tune in.

Show Highlights

About Jack Ellis

Technical co-founder of Fathom Analytics, the simple, privacy-first alternative to Google Analytics.

Links:

Today Corey Quinn is joined by Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at WP Engine, Jason Cohen. Jason breaks down the biggest issues he has seen throughout his career hosting millions of websites including why seemingly rare problems should be expected at scale, how moving on after attaining a “good enough” metric can save time and money, and what it means to be proud of your work in the world of cybersecurity. Check it out!

Show Highlights

About Jason

Founder of unicorn WP Engine (200,000 customers, 1,200 employees). Previously founder of bootstrapped Smart Bear (sold 2008; re-sold in 2021 at ~$2B) and ITWatchDogs (sold 2004). Original mentor and angel investor with Austin-based Capital Factory since 2009.

Written about startups for seventeen years, most recently at https://longform.asmartbear.com; Twitter: @asmartbear.

Links Referenced:

Corey Quinn talks with Elad Ben-Israel, CEO and Co-founder of Wing Cloud, about the creation of Wing, a revolutionary programming language designed to simplify cloud application development. Elad shares his experiences at AWS and the journey to developing Wing Cloud, highlighting the challenges developers face with existing cloud paradigms and how Wing aims to seamlessly integrate infrastructure and application code. The conversation goes further into Wing's open-source nature, its design philosophy focused on making cloud development more accessible, and the delicate balance between commercial interests and open-source contributions.

Show highlights: 

(00:17) - Corey Quinn introduces Elad Ben-Israel

(02:27) - Elad Ben-Israel discusses the motivation behind creating Wing,

(06:28) - Elad presents Wing as a programming language designed to add an architectural dimension to cloud programming

(09:45) - The demarcation between application and platform is explored

(13:27) - Introduction of the "platform provider" within Wing

(22:18) - The Importance of Choice in Cloud Development

(31:22) - Getting started on Wing 

(33:14) - Closing remarks 

About Elad Ben-Israel:
Elad has been coding since he remembers himself, which is quite a long time ago, and always had an unexplained attraction to developer tools. He created the AWS CDK when working at AWS and is now the co-founder and CEO of Wing Cloud, which is building Winglang, a programming language for the cloud.

Links Referenced:

Kris Gillespie, lead platform engineer for Silverflow, joins Corey Quinn on "Screaming in the Cloud" to talk about Cloud WAN's exciting new role in cloud networking. Kris explains Silverflow's journey, from the original problems with network scalability and the resolution of IP conflicts, to fully utilizing Cloud WAN for global connectivity and easier network management. Kris, who enjoys simplifying complex network architectures, discusses how Cloud WAN has enabled Silverflow to seamlessly integrate between regions and cloud providers, meeting their mission-critical needs for low latency and reliable transaction processing. Listen in to see how Cloud WAN has transformed the approach to solving fundamental network problems, demonstrating the importance for companies and engineers of knowing how to navigate the constantly evolving cloud landscape. 

Show Highlights: 

About Kris

Kris is a 28-year industry veteran. He started in '95 back in Australia on the help desk for the first ISP in the country. Since then has moved to the Netherlands, switching roles between network, systems and storage engineering. During this time has been involved in developing certifications for both IBM and (the now defunct) EMC, among others. Worked heavily in the finance/banking sector. The last 10 years has been keenly focused on the cloud space and as is the term these days, combined these skills into what's popularly coined, a "Platform Engineer"

Currently works for a payments processing startup, Silverflow, as their Principal Platform Engineer, leading their Platform team and ensuring the platform can scale globally.

Links Referenced:

From a systems admin to a cloud computing pioneer, Anthony Esper illustrates the dynamic landscape of cloud technology and its impact on businesses in this episode of Screaming in the Cloud. Using his vast experience and extensive expertise, Anthony shares his insights on developing the Golden VPC module, the intricacies of cloud consulting across various industries, and the pivotal role of strategic planning in cloud adoption. Tune in for practical advice and expert insights!

About Anthony

Anthony Esper is a seasoned Chief Technology Officer with over two decades in technology consulting. His pioneering work includes developing self-showing real estate technology with Occupi Inc and leading over 20 AWS projects across major US corporations. Esper's expertise spans cloud computing, security, and big data, contributing to his reputation as a tech industry influencer.

Show highlights: 

Links Referenced:

Andrew Shieh shares the thrilling story of SmugMug’s bold leap into AWS’s cloud technology, marking it as one of the pioneering companies to harness the cloud for digital photography storage. This episode offers a unique perspective into the type of strategy and groundbreaking tech advancements that catapulted SmugMug’s success. Listen to the full episode for a masterclass in innovation and adaptation!

Show highlights: 

(00:00)Corey introduces the show & Guest Andrew Shieh

(00:54)Andrew shares the story of how SmugMug became AWS's first enterprise customer. 

(02:17)Discussion on the evolution of AWS's customer service

(04:31) Reflections on the expansion of AWS services. 

(06:08) The critical role of Amazon S3 in SmugMug's operations

(12:24) AWS's interest in unique customer stories and feedback 

(09:32)SmugMug's cloud strategy and optimization

(13:50) Andrew discusses challenges and solutions in cloud adoption

(17:38)Andrew shares his experiences at AWS re:Invent, offering thoughts on the conference's evolution

(21:09) A look into AWS's pricing formulas and business insights 

(31:55)Closing thoughts

About Andrew

Andrew "shandrew" Shieh is a multidisciplinary engineer, focused today on making the AWS cloud do what it promises to. Andrew started as an environmental engineer, focused on energy efficiency and air pollution modeling, but quickly got dragged into tech after spending most of college at the help desk of the Unix computer cluster.

Andrew's current interests include sustainability, cost efficiency, and economics. Most AWS service teams are his friends and he enjoys (a bit too much) talking to his SmugMug and Flickr coworkers about AWS. He recently spoke at AWS re:Invent about how his children (9 and 11) helped to teach him the value of trivia as a means of learning backwards. He also wrote a keynote for re:Invent's pandemic year, and has rescued billions of precious photos from extinction.

Links Referenced:

Cybersecurity leader Mike Isbitski explores the intricacies of cloud-native security and vulnerability management in today's technological landscape. With over 25 years of experience, he provides valuable insights into the challenges and complexities organizations face in securing ephemeral infrastructure and machine identities in the cloud. This episode also explores the cautious adoption of AI in cybersecurity, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach that maintains operational functionality while addressing evolving security concerns.

Key Points with Timestamp

About Michael

Michael Isbitski is a former Gartner analyst, cybersecurity leader, and practitioner with more than 25 years of experience, specializing in application, cloud, and container security. Michael learned many hard lessons on the front lines of IT working on application security, vulnerability management, enterprise architecture, and systems engineering. He's guided countless organizations globally in their security initiatives as they support their businesses.

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Technology meets economic empowerment in this episode featuring Angie Jones, Global Vice President of Developer Relations at TBD, a Block division. Angie sheds light on the role of decentralized technologies in shaping the future of digital identity and cross-border payments. Her journey from software engineering to a leadership role in tech innovation illustrates her profound impact on the industry. This episode offers valuable insights into how technological advancements are driving economic growth and changing the financial landscape. Angie's expertise and unique perspective make this a must-listen for anyone interested in the cutting-edge intersection of technology, finance, and innovation.

About Angie

Angie Jones is the Global Vice President of Developer Relations for TBD, Block’s new business unit focused on decentralized technologies. She is an award-winning teacher and international keynote speaker who shares her wealth of knowledge at software companies and conferences all over the world.

As a Master Inventor, Angie is known for her innovative and out-of-the-box thinking style which has resulted in 27 patented inventions in the areas of metaverses, collaboration software, social networking, smarter planet, and software development processes.

Show notes:

(00:25) Introduction to Angie Jones and Her Role at TBD

(01:25)Angie’s Recognition in a USA Today Crossword

(02:50) Career Journey and Transition into Developer Relations

(06:04) Block’s Mission and Services in Economic Empowerment

(10:09)Convenience vs. Decentralization in Technology

(16:49)Innovations in Cross-Border Payments

(25:01)Decentralized Tech Stories and Reflections on Tech Innovation

(30:22)Challenging Tech Industry Norms and Global Perspectives

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Join us for a fascinating talk with Ceora Ford, a Developer Advocate at Okta, as she explores the changing world of tech. Ceora shares her unique journey through different tech roles and talks about the importance of keeping technical skills sharp, even when focusing on advocacy. She also gives us a sneak peek into the exciting AI developments happening at Okta. Tune in to this episode to get a better understanding of the fast-paced tech industry and what's coming next.

About Ceora

Ceora Ford is a Developer Advocate from Philadelphia, renowned for her expertise in making complex computer science concepts accessible to a broad audience. With a rich history of creating educational content, she has significantly contributed to the tech community, working with leading companies like CodeSandbox, DigitalOcean, egghead.io, and Apollo GraphQL. Ceora's career is marked by her unique ability to simplify technical topics, making them understandable for everyone, from students to professionals in tech-adjacent roles. Her non-traditional path into tech and her current role at Okta showcase her commitment to making the tech industry more inclusive and approachable for all. 

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Jeremy Tanner joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss why his career in tech is the least interesting thing about himself, and why he feels everyone should be able to say the same thing. Corey and Jeremy discuss raising kids, their antics on motorcycles, and much more throughout this episode. Jeremy reveals what truly gives his life fulfillment, meaning, and what drives him in his career. Jeremy and Corey also discuss the importance of engaging your online audience the right way.

About Jeremy

Jeremy is a motorcyclist. An advocate (Developer, Community, BBQ). Not Questlove.

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Chen Gour Arie, Director of Engineering at Snyk, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how his company, Enso Security, got acquired by Snyk and what drew him to Snyk’s mission as a partner. Chen expands on the challenges currently facing the security space, and shares what he feels are likely outcomes for challenges like improving compliance across value-add on security tools and the increasing scope of cybersecurity at such a relatively early phase of the industry’s development. Corey and Chen also discuss what makes Snyk so appealing to developers and why that was an important part of their growth strategy, as well as Chen’s take on recent security incidents that have hit the news. 

About Chen

Chen is the Co-founder of Enso Security (part of Snyk) - the world's 1st ASPM platform. With decades of hands-on experience in cybersecurity and software development, Chen has focused his career on building effective application security tools and practices.

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Transcript

Announcer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.

Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I’m Corey Quinn. This promoted guest episode is brought to us by our friends atSnyk, and as a part of that they have given me someone rather distinct as far as career paths and trajectories go. Chen Gour Arie is currently a director of engineering over at Snyk, but in a previous life—read as about six months or so ago—he was a co-founder of Enso Security, which got acquired. Chen, thank you for joining me.

Chen: Thank you for having me, Corey.

Corey: So, I guess an interesting place to begin is, what has the past couple of years been like? And let’s dive in with, what is or was Enso Security?

Chen: Yeah. So, Enso started for me first as friendship because I joined the team that I was working with as a contractor for a while. There was such an excellent and interesting team with a very interesting environment. And then after a while, they asked me to join that team, and then I became part of the security team of a company called Wix.com.

It’s quite a large company, web do-it-yourself kind of platform, that you can build your own website with a presentation style kind of interface, and our job was to secure that. And we formed a very, very nice friendship throughout it, but we also gained a lot of experience because you work with such a large company, and you experience many challenges, including real-time attempts to penetrate, and the complexity of social engineering at large scale. You go through a lot of things. So, this was the start. And after a couple of years, we decided that we have some interesting ideas that can do good to the community in the cybersecurity industry, and we embarked on a new journey together to start Enso.

Corey: I can see why you aligned with Snyk. It sounds like a lot of what you were aimed at is very much in step with how they tend to approach things. I have a number of sponsors that I can say this about, but Snyk is a particularly fun one, in that, obviously, you folks pay me to run advertisements and featured guest episodes like this, which is appreciated, but we also pay you as a customer of Snyk because it does a lot of things that we find both incredibly useful and incredibly valuable. The thread that I’ve seen running through everything coming out of Snyk has been this concept of, I think, what some folks would say shifting left, but it comes down to the idea of flagging issues as early in the process as possible rather than trying to get someone to remember what they did three months ago, and oh, yeah, go back and address that. That alone has made it one of the best approaches to things that are truly important—and yes, I consider security to be one of those things—that I’ve seen in a while on the dev tool space.

Chen: Yeah, and this has been the mission of Snyk for a very long time. And when we started Enso, our mission was to help in some additional elements of the same problem space in introducing additional tools to help drive this shift left, this democratization of the security effort around and in the organization, and resolving some of the friction that is created with the, kind of, confusing ownership of security and software development. So, this was kind of the mission of Enso. The category introduced by it and the ASPM category to bring the notion of postural security, postural management to applications. And it really is a huge fit with the journey of Snyk, and we were very excited to be approached by them to join their journey and help them do further shift left and extend on problem space on the complexity of this collaboration between security and developers.

Corey: A question I have around this is that it seems to me that viewing security posture management from an application perspective, and then viewing other parts of it from a cloud provider perspective and other parts of it from a variety of different things—you know, go to RSA and walk up and down the endless rows of booths, and you know, look at the 12 different things that they’re all selling because it’s all the same stuff around 12 categories or so, with different companies and logos and the rest—it feels like, on some level, that can lead very quickly to a fractured security posture where, well this is the app side of the security, and then we have the infrastructure security folks, but those groups don’t really collaborate because they’re separate and distinct. How do you square that circle?

Chen: Yeah, it’s not an easy problem, and I think that the North Star of many vendors exists this notion of sometimes I think we call it CNAP or something that will unify all of it. Cloud as a solution, and the offering that exists with cloud computing enables a lot of it, enables a lot of this unification, but we have to remember that the industry is young. The software security industry in general is young. If we will look at any other industry with that size, all of them have much more history and time to mature. And inside this industry, the security itself is even younger.

It has become a real problem much later than then when software started. It has become a huge problem when cloud emerged and became, like, the huge deal that it is now. And when more and more businesses are based on digital services, and more people are writing software, a lot of it is young, and it needs time to mature, and it’s time to get to—to accomplish some big parts like this unification that you are pointing out missing.

Corey: I have to confess my own bias here. A lot of the stuff that I build is very small-scale, leverages serverless technologies heavily, and even when I’m dealing with things like the CDK, where I start to have my application and the infrastructure that powers it coalesce into the same sort of thing, it becomes increasingly difficult, if not outright impossible for some of these config...

Kim Harrison, a freelance content marketing strategist and author, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to talk about asking the right questions to find your target demographic, why she has such a deep love for story telling, and how marketing extends after the product has been sold. Kim shares her unique experiences with solving urgently painful problems that customers are experiencing and subsequently building a relationship with those customers that allows her to solve more pain points down the line. 

About Kim

Kim is a professional storyteller focused on strategic communications. She translates complex ideas into compelling narratives, helping teams share their perspectives. She enjoys building impactful stories, and using a range of mediums and channels to reach specific audiences.

For 10+ years Kim has worked closely with teams focused on big data and developer tooling. They have brought new methodologies forward, impacted the language used to describe technologies, and even established new industry categories.

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Jason Lengstorf, a developer media producer and host of the show Learn with Jason, joins Corey on this week’s episode of Screaming in the Cloud to layout his ideas for creative developer content. Jason explains how devTV can have way more reach than webinars, the lack of inspiration he experiences at conferences these days, and why companies should be focused on hiring specialists before putting DevRels on the payroll. Plus, Corey and Jason discuss walking the line between claiming you’re good at everything and not painting yourself into a corner as a DevRel and marketer.

About Jason

Jason Lengstorf helps tech companies connect with developer communities through better media. He advocates for continued learning through collaboration and play and regularly live streams coding with experts on his show, Learn With Jason. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

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Matthew Bonig, Chief Cloud Architect at Defiance Digital, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his experiences in CDK, why developers can’t be solely reliant on AI or coding tools to fill in the blanks, and his biggest grievances with AWS. Matthew gives an in-depth look at how and why CDK has been so influential for him, as well as the positive work that Defiance Digital is doing as a managed service provider. Corey and Matthew debate the need for AWS to focus on innovating instead of simply surviving off its existing customer base.

About Matthew

Chief Cloud Architect at Defiance Digital. AWS DevTools Hero, co-author of The CDK Book, author of the Advanced CDK Course. All things CDK and Star Trek.

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Evelyn Osman, Platform Engineering Manager at AutoScout24, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the dire need for developers to agree on a standardized tool set in order to scale their projects and innovate quickly. Corey and Evelyn pick apart the new products being launched in cloud computing and discover a large disconnect between what the industry needs and what is actually being created. Evelyn shares her thoughts on why viewing platforms as products themselves forces developers to get into the minds of their users and produces a better end result.

About Evelyn

Evelyn is a recovering improviser currently role-playing as a Platform Engineering Manager at Autoscout24 in Munich, Germany. While she says she specializes in AWS architecture and integration after spending 11 years with it, in truth she spends her days convincing engineers that a product mindset will make them hate their product managers less.

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Anna Belak, Director of the Office of Cybersecurity Strategy at Sysdig, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the newest benchmark for responding to security threats, 5/5/5. Anna describes why it was necessary to set a new benchmark for responding to security threats in a timely manner, and how the Sysdig team did research to determine the best practices for detecting, correlating, and responding to potential attacks. Corey and Anna discuss the importance of focusing on improving your own benchmarks towards a goal, as well as how prevention and threat detection are both essential parts of a solid security program. 

About Anna

Anna has nearly ten years of experience researching and advising organizations on cloud adoption with a focus on security best practices. As a Gartner Analyst, Anna spent six years helping more than 500 enterprises with vulnerability management, security monitoring, and DevSecOps initiatives. Anna's research and talks have been used to transform organizations' IT strategies and her research agenda helped to shape markets. Anna is the Director of Thought Leadership at Sysdig, using her deep understanding of the security industry to help IT professionals succeed in their cloud-native journey. 

Anna holds a PhD in Materials Engineering from the University of Michigan, where she developed computational methods to study solar cells and rechargeable batteries.

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Danilo Campos, Proprietor of Antigravity, joins @quinnypig on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his philosophy behind building tools that not only enhance developer experience but also improve the future of our world. Danilo shares his thoughts on how economic factors have influenced tech companies and their strategies for product, open source, and more. He also shares what he thinks is another, better way to approach these strategies, without ignoring the economic element.

About Danilo

Danilo Campos wants a world where technology makes us more powerful and expressive versions of ourselves. He worked with GitHub and the White House to deliver coding platforms to public housing residents, supported Glitch.com in its last days as an independent, and developed products for multiple early-stage startups, including Hipmunk. Today Danilo offers freelance developer experience services for devtools firms through Antigravity DX.

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Guillermo Rauch, Founder and CEO of Vercel, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how he decided to focus on building a front-end tool that is fast, reliable, and focuses on the developer experience. Guillermo explains how he discovered that Javascript was the language that set online offerings apart, and also reveals the advice he gives to founders on how to build an effective landing page. Corey and Guillermo discuss the effects of generative AI on developer experience, and Guillermo explains why Vercel had a higher standard for accuracy when rolling out their new AI product for developers, v0. 

About Guillermo

Guillermo Rauch is Founder and CEO of Vercel, where he leads the company’s mission to enable developers to create at the moment of inspiration. Prior to founding Vercel, Guillermo co-founded LearnBoost and Cloudup where he served the company as CTO through its acquisition by Automattic in 2013. Originally from Argentina,

Guillermo has been a developer since the age of ten and is passionate about contributing to the open source community. He has created a number of JavaScript projects including socket.io, Mongoose.js, Now, and Next.js.

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Maya Kaczorowski, Chief Product Officer at Tailscale, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss what sets the Tailscale product approach apart, for users of their free tier all the way to enterprise. Maya shares insight on how she evaluates feature requests, and how Tailscale’s unique architecture sets them apart from competitors. Maya and Corey discuss the importance of transparency when building trust in security, as well as Tailscale’s approach to new feature roll-outs and change management.

About Maya

Maya is the Chief Product Officer at Tailscale, providing secure networking for the long tail. She was mostly recently at GitHub in software supply chain security, and previously at Google working on container security, encryption at rest and encryption key management. Prior to Google, she was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, working in IT security for large enterprises.

Maya completed her Master's in mathematics focusing on cryptography and game theory. She is bilingual in English and French.

Outside of work, Maya is passionate about ice cream, puzzling, running, and reading nonfiction.

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Dave Mangot, CEO and founder of Mangoteque, joins Coreyon Screaming in the Cloud to explain how leveraging DevOps improves the lives of engineers and results in stronger businesses. Dave talks about the importance of exclusively working for private equity firms that act ethically, the key difference between venture capital and private equity, and how conveying issues and ideas to your CEO using language he understands leads to faster results. Corey and Dave discuss why successful business are built on two things: infrastructure as code and monitoring.

About Dave

Dave Mangot, author of DevOps Patterns for Private Equity, helps portfolio companies get good at delivering software.  He is a leading consultant, author, and speaker as the principal at Mangoteque.  A DevOps veteran, Dave has successfully led digital, SRE, and DevOps transformations at companies such as Salesforce, SolarWinds, and Cable & Wireless. He has a proven track record of working with companies to quickly mature their existing culture to improve the speed, frequency, and resilience of their software service delivery.

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Laura Nolan, Principal Software Engineer at Stanza, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to offer insights on how to use SRE to avoid disastrous and lengthy production delays. Laura gives a rich history of her work with SREcon, why her approach to SRE is about first identifying the biggest fire instead of toiling with day-to-day issues, and why the lack of transparency in systems today actually hurts new engineers entering the space. Plus, Laura explains to Corey why she dedicates time to work against companies like Google who are building systems to help the government (inefficiently) select targets during wars and conflicts.

About Laura

Laura Nolan is a software engineer and SRE. She has contributed to several books on SRE, such as the Site Reliability Engineering book, Seeking SRE, and 97 Things Every SRE Should Know. Laura is a Principal Engineer at Stanza, where she is building software to help humans understand and control their production systems. Laura also serves as a member of the USENIX Association board of directors. In her copious spare time after that, she volunteers for the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, and is half-way through the MSc in Human Factors and Systems Safety at Lund University. She lives in rural Ireland in a small village full of medieval ruins.

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Ned Bellavance worked in the world of tech for more than a decade before joining the family profession as an educator. He joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his shift from engineer to educator and content creator, the intricacies of Terraform, and how changes in licensing affect the ecosystem.

About Ned

Ned is an IT professional with more than 20 years of experience in the field. He has been a helpdesk operator, systems administrator, cloud architect, and product manager. In 2019, Ned founded Ned in the Cloud LLC to work as an independent educator, creator, and consultant. In this new role, he develops courses for Pluralsight, runs multiple podcasts, writes books, and creates original content for technology vendors.

Ned is a Microsoft MVP since 2017 and a HashiCorp Ambassador since 2020.

Ned has three guiding principles: embrace discomfort, fail often, and be kind.

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Robert Ross, CEO and Co-Founder at FireHydrant, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how being an on-call engineer fighting incidents inspired him to start his own company. Robert explains how FireHydrant does more than just notify engineers of an incident, but also helps them to be able to effectively put out the fire. Robert tells the story of how he “accidentally” started a company as a result of a particularly critical late-night incident, and why his end goal at FireHydrant has been and will continue to be solving the problem, not simply choosing an exit strategy. Corey and Robert also discuss the value and pricing models of other incident-reporting solutions and Robert shares why he feels surprised that nobody else has taken the same approach FireHydrant has. 

About Robert

Robert Ross is a recovering on-call engineer, and the CEO and co-founder at FireHydrant. As the co-founder of FireHydrant, Robert plays a central role in optimizing incident response and ensuring software system reliability for customers. Prior to founding FireHydrant, Robert previously contributed his expertise to renowned companies like Namely and Digital Ocean. 

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Peder Ulander, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer at MongoDB, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how MongoDB is paving the way for innovation. Corey and Peder discuss how Peder made the decision to go from working at Amazon to MongoDB, and Peder explains how MongoDB is seeking to differentiate itself by making it easier for developers to innovate without friction. Peder also describes why he feels databases are more ubiquitous than people realize, and what it truly takes to win the hearts and minds of developers.

About Peder

Peder Ulander, the maestro of marketing mayhem at MongoDB, juggles strategies like a tech wizard on caffeine. As the Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, he battles buzzwords, slays jargon dragons, and tends to developers with a wink. From pioneering Amazon's cloud heyday as Director of Enterprise and Developer Solutions Marketing to leading the brand behind cloud.com's insurgency, Peder's built a legacy as the swashbuckler of software, leaving a trail of market disruptions one vibrant outfit at a time. Peder is the Scarlett Johansson of tech marketing — always looking forward, always picking the edgy roles that drive what's next in technology.

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Randall Degges, Head of Developer Relations & Community at Snyk, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss Snyk’s innovative AI strategy and why developers don’t need to be afraid of security. Randall explains the difference between Large Language Models and Symbolic AI, and how combining those two approaches creates more accurate security tooling. Corey and Randall also discuss the FUD phenomenon to selling security tools, and Randall expands on why Snyk doesn’t take that approach. Randall also shares some background on how he went from being a happy Snyk user to a full-time Snyk employee.

About Randall

Randall runs Developer Relations & Community at Snyk, where he works on security research, development, and education. In his spare time, Randall writes articles and gives talks advocating for security best practices. Randall also builds and contributes to various open-source security tools.

Randall's realms of expertise include Python, JavaScript, and Go development, web security, cryptography, and infrastructure security. Randall has been writing software for over 20 years and has built a number of popular API services and open-source tools.

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Rachel Dines, Head of Product and Technical Marketing at Chronosphere, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss why creating a cloud-native observability strategy is so critical, and the challenges that come with both defining and accomplishing that strategy to fit your current and future observability needs. Rachel explains how Chronosphere is taking an open-source approach to observability, and why it’s more important than ever to acknowledge that the stakes and costs are much higher when it comes to observability in the cloud.

About Rachel

Rachel leads product and technical marketing for Chronosphere. Previously, Rachel wore lots of marketing hats at CloudHealth (acquired by VMware), and before that, she led product marketing for cloud-integrated storage at NetApp. She also spent many years as an analyst at Forrester Research. Outside of work, Rachel tries to keep up with her young son and hyper-active dog, and when she has time, enjoys crafting and eating out at local restaurants in Boston where she’s based.

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Jeff Morris, VP of Product & Solutions Marketing at Couchbase, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss Couchbase’s new columnar data store functionality, specific use cases for columnar data stores, and why AI gets better when it communicates with a cleaner pool of data. Jeff shares how more responsive databases could allow businesses like Dominos and United Airlines to create hyper-personalized experiences for their customers by utilizing more responsive databases. Jeff dives into the linked future of AI and data, and Corey learns about Couchbase’s plans for the re:Invent conference. If you’re attending re:Invent, you can visit Couchbase at booth 1095.

About Jeff

Jeff Morris is VP Product & Solutions Marketing at Couchbase (NASDAQ: BASE), a cloud database platform company that 30% of the Fortune 100 depend on.

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Couchbase:https://www.couchbase.com/

Jeremy Tangren, Director of Media Operations at The Duckbill Group, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how he went from being a Project Manager in IT to running Media Operations at a cloud costs consultancy. Jeremy provides insight into how his background as a Project Manager has helped him tackle everything that’s necessary in a media production environment, as well as what it was like to shift from a career on the IT side to working at a company that is purely cloud-focused. Corey and Jeremy also discuss the coordination of large events like re:Invent, and what attendance is really like when you’re producing the highlight reels that other people get to watch from the comfort of their own homes. 

About Jeremy

With over 15 years of experience in big tech, Jeremy brings a unique perspective to The Duckbill Group and its Media Team. Jeremy handles all things Media Operations. From organizing the team and projects to making sure publications go out on time, Jeremy does a bit of everything!

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Alex Lawrence, Field CISO at Sysdig, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how he went from studying bioluminescence and mycology to working in tech, and his stance on why open source is the future of cloud security. Alex draws an interesting parallel between the creative culture at companies like Pixar and the iterative and collaborative culture of open-source software development, and explains why iteration speed is crucial in cloud security. Corey and Alex also discuss the pros and cons of having so many specialized tools that tackle specific functions in cloud security, and the different postures companies take towards their cloud security practices. 

About Alex

Alex Lawrence is a Field CISO at Sysdig. Alex has an extensive history working in the datacenter as well as with the world of DevOps. Prior to moving into a solutions role, Alex spent a majority of his time working in the world of OSS on identity, authentication, user management and security. Alex's educational background has nothing to do with his day-to-day career; however, if you'd like to have a spirited conversation on bioluminescence or fungus, he'd be happy to oblige.

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Laurent Doguin, Director of Developer Relations & Strategy at Couchbase, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to talk about the work that Couchbase is doing in the world of databases and developer relations, as well as the role of AI in their industry and beyond. Together, Corey and Laurent discuss Laurent’s many different roles throughout his career including what made him want to come back to a role at Couchbase after stepping away for 5 years. Corey and Laurent dig deep on how Couchbase has grown in recent years and how it’s using artificial intelligence to offer an even better experience to the end user.

About Laurent

Laurent Doguin is Director of Developer Relations & Strategy at Couchbase (NASDAQ: BASE), a cloud database platform company that 30% of the Fortune 100 depend on.

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Mike Goldsmith, Staff Software Engineer at Honeycomb, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to talk about Open Telemetry, company culture, and the pros and cons of Go vs. .NET. Corey and Mike discuss why OTel is such an important tool, while pointing out its double-edged sword of being fully open-source and community-driven. Opening up about Honeycomb’s company culture and how to find a work-life balance as a fully-remote employee, Mike points out how core-values and social interaction breathe life into a company like Honeycomb.

About Mike

Mike is an OpenSource focused software engineer that builds tools to help users create, shape and deliver system & application telemetry. Mike contributes to a number of OpenTelemetry initiatives including being a maintainer for Go Auto instrumentation agent, Go proto packages and an emeritus .NET SDK maintainer..

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Amir Szekely, Owner at CloudSnorkel, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how he got his start in the early days of cloud and his solo project, CloudSnorkel. Throughout this conversation, Corey and Amir discuss the importance of being pragmatic when moving to the cloud, and the different approaches they see in developers from the early days of cloud to now. Amir shares what motivates him to develop open-source projects, and why he finds fulfillment in fixing bugs and operating CloudSnorkel as a one-man show. 

About Amir

Amir Szekely is a cloud consultant specializing in deployment automation, AWS CDK, CloudFormation, and CI/CD. His background includes security, virtualization, and Windows development. Amir enjoys creating open-source projects like cdk-github-runners, cdk-turbo-layers, and NSIS.

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Chris Hill, owner of HumblePod and host of the We Built This Brand podcast, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the future of podcasting and the role emerging technologies will play in the podcasting space. Chris describes why AI is struggling to make a big impact in the world of podcasting, and also emphasizes the importance of authenticity and finding a niche when producing a show. Corey and Chris discuss where video podcasting works and where it doesn’t, and why it’s more important to focus on the content of your podcast than the technical specs of your gear. Chris also shares insight on how to gauge the health of your podcast audience with his Podcast Listener Lifecycle evaluation tool.

About Chris

Chris Hill is a Knoxville, TN native and owner of the podcast production company, HumblePod. He helps his customers create, develop, and produce podcasts and is working with clients in Knoxville as well as startups and entrepreneurs across the United States, Silicon Valley, and the world.

In addition to producing podcasts for nationally-recognized thought leaders, Chris is the co-host and producer of the award-winning Our Humble Beer Podcast and the host of the newly-launched We Built This Brand podcast. He also lectures at the University of Tennessee, where he leads non-credit courses on podcasts and marketing.  He received his undergraduate degree in business at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he majored in Marketing & Entrepreneurship, and he later received his MBA from King University.

Chris currently serves his community as the President of the American Marketing Association in Knoxville. In his spare time, he enjoys hanging out with the local craft beer community, international travel, exploring the great outdoors, and his many creative pursuits.

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John Wynkoop, Cloud Economist & Platypus Herder at The Duckbill Group, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss why he decided to make a career move and become an AWS billing consultant. Corey and John discuss how once you’re deeply familiar with one cloud provider, those skills become transferable to other cloud providers as well. John also shares the trends he has seen post-pandemic in the world of cloud, including the increased adoption of a multi-cloud strategy and the need for costs control even for VC-funded start-ups.

About John

With over 25 years in IT, John’s done almost every job in the industry, from running cable and answering helpdesk calls to leading engineering teams and advising the C-suite. Before joining The Duckbill Group, he worked across multiple industries including private sector, higher education, and national defense. Most recently he helped IGNW, an industry leading systems integration partner, get acquired by industry powerhouse CDW. When he’s not helping customers spend smarter on their cloud bill, you can find him enjoying time with his family in the beautiful Smoky Mountains near his home in Knoxville, TN.

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Seif Lotfy, Co-Founder and CTO at Axiom, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how and why Axiom has taken a low-cost approach to event data. Seif describes the events that led to him helping co-found a company, and explains why the team wrote all their code from scratch. Corey and Seif discuss their views on AWS pricing, and Seif shares his views on why AWS doesn’t have to compete on price. Seif also reveals some of the exciting new products and features that Axiom is currently working on. 

About Seif

Seif is the bubbly Co-founder and CTO of Axiom where he has helped build the next generation of logging, tracing, and metrics. His background is at Xamarin, and Deutche Telekom and he is the kind of deep technical nerd that geeks out on white papers about emerging technology and then goes to see what he can build.

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Adnan Khan, Lead Security Engineer at Praetorian, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss software bill of materials and supply chain attacks. Adnan describes how simple pull requests can lead to major security breaches, and how to best avoid those vulnerabilities. Adnan and Corey also discuss the rapid innovation at Github Actions, and the pros and cons of having new features added so quickly when it comes to security. Adnan also discusses his view on the state of AI and its impact on cloud security.

About Adnan

Adnan is a Lead Security Engineer at Praetorian. He is responsible for executing on Red-Team Engagements as well as developing novel attack tooling in order to meet and exceed engagement objectives and provide maximum value for clients.

His past experience as a software engineer gives him a deep understanding of where developers are likely to make mistakes, and has applied this knowledge to become an expert in attacks on organization’s CI/CD systems.

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Joe Karlsson, Data Engineer at Tinybird, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss what it’s like working in the world of data right now and how he manages the overlap between his social media presence and career. Corey and Joe chat about the rise of AI and whether or not we’re truly seeing advancements in that realm or just trendy marketing plays, and Joe shares why he feels data is getting a lot more attention these days and what it’s like to work in data at this time. Joe also shares insights into how his mental health has been impacted by having a career and social media presence that overlaps, and what steps he’s taken to mitigate the negative impact.

About Joe

Joe Karlsson (He/They) is a Software Engineer turned Developer Advocate at Tinybird. He empowers developers to think creatively when building data intensive applications through demos, blogs, videos, or whatever else developers need.

Joe's career has taken him from building out database best practices and demos for MongoDB, architecting and building one of the largest eCommerce websites in North America at Best Buy, and teaching at one of the most highly-rated software development boot camps on Earth. Joe is also a TEDx Speaker, film buff, and avid TikToker and Tweeter.

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Jeff Geerling, Owner of Midwestern Mac, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the importance of storytelling, problem-solving, and community in the world of cloud. Jeff shares how and why he creates content that can appeal to anybody, rather than focusing solely on the technical qualifications of his audience, and how that strategy has paid off for him. Corey and Jeff also discuss the impact of leading with storytelling as opposed to features in product launches, and what’s been going on in the Raspberry Pi space recently. Jeff also expresses the impact that community has on open-source companies, and reveals his take on the latest moves from Red Hat and Hashicorp.

About Jeff

Jeff is a father, author, developer, and maker. He is sometimes called "an inflammatory enigma".

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Dmitry Kagansky, State CTO and Deputy Executive Director for the Georgia Technology Authority, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how he became the CTO for his home state and the nuances of working in the public sector. Dmitry describes his focus on security and reliability, and why they are both equally important when working with state government agencies. Corey and Dmitry describe AWS’s infamous GovCloud, and Dmitry explains why he’s employing a multi-cloud strategy but that it doesn’t work for all government agencies. Dmitry also talks about how he’s focusing on hiring and training for skills, and the collaborative approach he’s taking to working with various state agencies.

About Dmitry

Mr. Kagansky joined GTA in 2021 from Amazon Web Services where he worked for over four years helping state agencies across the country in their cloud implementations and migrations.

Prior to his time with AWS, he served as Executive Vice President of Development for Star2Star Communications, a cloud-based unified communications company. Previously, Mr. Kagansky was in many technical and leadership roles for different software vending companies. Most notably, he was Federal Chief Technology Officer for Quest Software, spending several years in Europe working with commercial and government customers.

Mr. Kagansky holds a BBA in finance from Hofstra University and an MBA in management of information systems and operations management from the University of Georgia.

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In this special live-recorded episode of Screaming in the Cloud, Corey interviews himself— well, kind of. Corey hosts an AMA session, answering both live and previously submitted questions from his listeners. Throughout this episode, Corey discusses misconceptions about his public persona, the nature of consulting on AWS bills, why he focuses so heavily on AWS offerings, his favorite breakfast foods, and much, much more. Corey shares insights into how he monetizes his public persona without selling out his genuine opinions on the products he advertises, his favorite and least favorite AWS services, and some tips and tricks to get the most out of re:Invent.

About Corey

Corey is the Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group. Corey’s unique brand of snark combines with a deep understanding of AWS’s offerings, unlocking a level of insight that’s both penetrating and hilarious. He lives in San Francisco with his spouse and daughters.

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David Colebatch, CEO of Tidal, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss Tidal’s recent shift to a product-led approach and why empathizing with customers is always their most important job. David describes what it was like to grow the company from scratch on a boot-strapped basis, and how customer feedback and challenges inform the company strategy. Corey and David discuss the cost-savings measures cloud customers are now embarking on, and David discusses how constant migrations are the new normal. Corey and David also discuss the impact that generative AI is having not just on tech, but also on creative content and interactions in our everyday lives.

About David

David is the CEO & Founder of Tidal.  Tidal is empowering businesses to transform from traditional on-premises IT-run organizations to lean-agile-cloud powered machines.

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Valerie Singer, GM of Global Education at AWS, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the vast array of cloud computing education programs AWS offers to people of all skill levels and backgrounds. Valerie explains how she manages such a large undertaking, and also sheds light on what AWS is doing to ensure their programs are truly valuable both to learners and to the broader market. Corey and Valerie discuss how generative AI is applicable to education, and Valerie explains how AWS’s education programs fit into a K-12 curriculum as well as job seekers looking to up-skill.

About Valerie

As General Manager for AWS’s Global Education team, Valerie is responsible for
leading strategy and initiatives for higher education, K-12, EdTechs, and outcome-
based education worldwide. Her Skills to Jobs team enables governments, education
systems, and collaborating organizations to deliver skills-based pathways to meet
the acute needs of employers around the globe, match skilled job seekers to good
paying jobs, and advance the adoption of cloud-based technology.

In her ten-year tenure at AWS, Valerie has held numerous leadership positions,
including driving strategic customer engagement within AWS’s Worldwide Public
Sector and Industries. Valerie established and led the AWS’s public sector global
partner team, AWS’s North American commercial partner team, was the leader for
teams managing AWS’s largest worldwide partnerships, and incubated AWS’s
Aerospace & Satellite Business Group. Valerie established AWS’s national systems
integrator program and promoted partner competency development and practice
expansion to migrate enterprise-class, large-scale workloads to AWS.

Valerie currently serves on the board of AFCEA DC where, as the Vice President of
Education, she oversees a yearly grant of $250,000 in annual STEM scholarships to
high school students with acute financial need.

Prior to joining AWS, Valerie held senior positions at Quest Software, Adobe
Systems, Oracle Corporation, BEA Systems, and Cisco Systems. She holds a B.S. in
Microbiology from the University of Maryland and a Master in Public Administration
from the George Washington University.

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Steve Tuck, Co-Founder & CEO of Oxide Computer Company, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his work to make modern computers cloud-friendly. Steve describes what it was like going through early investment rounds, and the difficult but important decision he and his co-founder made to build their own switch. Corey and Steve discuss the demand for on-prem computers that are built for cloud capability, and Steve reveals how Oxide approaches their product builds to ensure the masses can adopt their technology wherever they are.

About Steve

Steve is the Co-founder & CEO of Oxide Computer Company.  He previously was President & COO of Joyent, a cloud computing company acquired by Samsung.  Before that, he spent 10 years at Dell in a number of different roles. 

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Wes Miller, Research VP at Directions on Microsoft, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the various intricacies and pitfalls of Microsoft licensing. Wes and Corey discuss what it’s like to work closely with a company like Microsoft in your day-to-day career, while also looking out for the best interest of your mutual customers. Wes explains his history of working both at and with Microsoft, and the changes he’s seen to their business models and the impact that has on their customers.

About Wes

Wes Miller analyzes and writes about Microsoft security, identity, and systems management technologies, as well as Microsoft product licensing.

Before joining Directions on Microsoft in 2010, Wes was a product manager and development manager for several Austin, TX, start-ups, including Winternals Software, acquired by Microsoft in 2006. Prior to that, Wes spent seven years at Microsoft working as a program manager in the Windows Core Operating System and MSN divisions.

Wes received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

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Thomas LaRock, Principal Developer Evangelist at Selector AI, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss why he loves having a career in data and his most recent undertaking at Selector AI. Thomas explains how his new role aligned perfectly with his career goals in his recent job search, and why Selector AI is not in competition with other data analysis tools. Corey and Thomas discuss the benefits and drawbacks to going back to school for additional degrees, and why it’s important to maintain a healthy balance of education and practical experience. Thomas also highlights the impact that data can have on peoples’ lives, and why he finds his career in data so meaningful.

About Thomas

Thomas’ career and life experiences are best described as follows: he takes things that are hard and makes them simple for others to understand. 

Thomas is a highly experienced data professional with over 25 years of expertise in diverse roles, from individual contributor to team lead. He is passionate about simplifying complex challenges for others and leading with empathy, challenging assumptions, and embracing a systems-thinking approach. Thomas has strong analytical reasoning skills and expertise to identify trends and opportunities for significant impact, and is a builder of cohesive teams by breaking down silos resulting in increased efficiencies and collective success. He has a track record of driving revenue growth, spearheading industry-leading events, and fostering valuable relationships with major tech players like Microsoft and VMware. 

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Tony Baer, Principal at dbInsight, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his definition of what is and isn’t a database, and the trends he’s seeing in the industry. Tony explains why it’s important to try and have an outsider’s perspective when evaluating new ideas, and the growing awareness of the impact data has on our daily lives. Corey and Tony discuss the importance of working towards true operational simplicity in the cloud, and Tony also shares why explainability in generative AI is so crucial as the technology advances. 

About Tony

Tony Baer, the founder and CEO of dbInsight, is a recognized industry expert in extending data management practices, governance, and advanced analytics to address the desire of enterprises to generate meaningful value from data-driven transformation. His combined expertise in both legacy database technologies and emerging cloud and analytics technologies shapes how clients go to market in an industry undergoing significant transformation. 

During his 10 years as a principal analyst at Ovum, he established successful research practices in the firm’s fastest growing categories, including big data, cloud data management, and product lifecycle management. He advised Ovum clients regarding product roadmap, positioning, and messaging and helped them understand how to evolve data management and analytic strategies as the cloud, big data, and AI moved the goal posts. Baer was one of Ovum’s most heavily-billed analysts and provided strategic counsel to enterprises spanning the Fortune 100 to fast-growing privately held companies.

With the cloud transforming the competitive landscape for database and analytics providers, Baer led deep dive research on the data platform portfolios of AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, and on how cloud transformation changed the roadmaps for incumbents such as Oracle, IBM, SAP, and Teradata. While at Ovum, he originated the term “Fast Data” which has since become synonymous with real-time streaming analytics.

Baer’s thought leadership and broad market influence in big data and analytics has been formally recognized on numerous occasions. Analytics Insightnamed him one of the 2019 Top 100 Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Influencers. Previous citations include Onalytica,which named Baer as one of the world’s Top 20 thought leaders and influencers on Data Science; Analytics Week, which named him as one of 200 top thought leaders in Big Data and Analytics; and by KDnuggets, which listed Baer as one of the Top 12 top data analytics thought leaders on Twitter. While at Ovum, Baer was Ovum’s IT’s most visible and publicly quoted analyst, and was cited by Ovum’s parent company Informa as Brand Ambassador in 2017. In raw numbers, Baer has 14,000 followers on Twitter, and his ZDnet “Big on Data” posts are read 20,000 – 30,000 times monthly. He is also a frequent speaker at industry conferences such as Strata Data and Spark Summit.

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Bret Fisher, DevOps Dude & Cloud-Native Trainer, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss what it’s like being a practitioner and a content creator in the world of cloud. Bret shares why he feels it’s so critical to get his hands dirty so his content remains relevant, and also how he has to choose where to focus his efforts to grow his community. Corey and Bret discuss the importance of finding the joy in your work, and also the advantages and downfalls of the latest AI advancements. 

About Bret

For 25 years Bret has built and operated distributed systems, and helped over 350,000 people learn dev and ops topics. He's a freelance DevOps and Cloud Native consultant, trainer, speaker, and open source volunteer working from Virginia Beach, USA. Bret's also a Docker Captain and the author of the popular Docker Mastery and Kubernetes Mastery series on Udemy. He hosts a weekly DevOps YouTube Live Show, a container podcast, and runs the popular devops.fan Discord chat server.

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Austin Parker, Community Maintainer at OpenTelemetry, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss OpenTelemetry’s mission in the world of observability. Austin explains how the OpenTelemetry community was able to scale the OpenTelemetry project to a commercial offering, and the way Open Telemetry is driving innovation in the data space. Corey and Austin also discuss why Austin decided to write a book on OpenTelemetry, and the book’s focus on the evergreen applications of the tool.

About Austin

Austin Parker is the OpenTelemetry Community Maintainer, as well as an event organizer, public speaker, author, and general bon vivant. They've been a part of OpenTelemetry since its inception in 2019.

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Alex Gallego, CEO & Founder of Redpanda, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his experience founding and scaling a successful data streaming company over the past 4 years. Alex explains how it’s been a fun and humbling journey to go from being an engineer to being a founder, and how he’s built a team he trusts to hand the production off to. Corey and Alex discuss the benefits and various applications of Redpanda’s data streaming services, and Alex reveals why it was so important to him to focus on doing one thing really well when it comes to his product strategy. Alex also shares details on the Hack the Planet scholarship program he founded for individuals in underrepresented communities. 

About Alex

Alex Gallego is the founder and CEO of Redpanda, the streaming data platform for developers. Alex has spent his career immersed in deeply technical environments, and is passionate about finding and building solutions to the challenges of modern data streaming. Prior to Redpanda, Alex was a principal engineer at Akamai, as well as co-founder and CTO of Concord.io, a high-performance stream-processing engine acquired by Akamai in 2016. He has also engineered software at Factset Research Systems, Forex Capital Markets and Yieldmo; and holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and cryptography from NYU. 

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Kelsey Hightower joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his reflections on how the tech industry is progressing. Kelsey describes what he’s been getting out of retirement so far, and reflects on what he learned throughout his high-profile career - including why feature sprawl is such a driving force behind the complexity of the cloud environment and the tactics he used to create demos that are engaging for the audience. Corey and Kelsey also discuss the importance of remaining authentic throughout your career, and what it means to truly have an authentic voice in tech.

About Kelsey

Kelsey Hightower is a former Distinguished Engineer at Google Cloud, the co-chair ofKubeCon, the world’s premier Kubernetes conference, and anopen source enthusiast. He’s also the co-author ofKubernetes Up & Running: Dive into the Future of Infrastructure.Recently, Kelsey announced his retirement after a 25-year career in tech.

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Levi McCormick, Cloud Architect at Jamf, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his work modernizing baseline cloud infrastructure and his experience being on the compliance side of cloud engineering. Levi explains how he works to ensure the different departments he collaborates with are all on the same page so that different definitions don’t end up in miscommunications, and why he feels a sandbox environment is an important tool that leads to a successful production environment. Levi and Corey also explore the ethics behind the latest generative AI craze.

About Levi

Levi is an automation engineer, with a focus on scalable infrastructure and rapid development. He leverages deep understanding of DevOps culture and cloud technologies to build platforms that scale to millions of users. His passion lies in helping others learn to cloud better.

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Alysha Love, Executive Editor and Co-Founder of Payette Media House, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss her career journey going from journalism to editing and how she works with Corey on his content. Alysha describes why she feels it’s so important to capture the voice of the person you’re editing, and why editing your content makes a difference to those reading it. Corey and Alysha also explore the differences in editing for something that will be read silently versus something that will be read out loud, as well as the different styles of editing.

About Alysha

Alysha Love is executive editor and co-founder of Payette Media House, an editorial agency serving startups and tech companies. Alysha is the treasurer of ACES: The Society for Editing, the nation's largest editing organization, and trains editors and writers in digital best practices.

She was an editor at CNN and POLITICO during the Obama and Trump administrations. Alysha has a bachelor's in journalism from the University of Missouri and a master's in leadership and organizational development from the University of Texas. She's a big fan of the humble ampersand.

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Forrest Brazeal, Head of Developer Media at Google Cloud, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how AI, current job markets, and more are impacting software engineers. Forrest and Corey explore whether AI helps or hurts developers, and what impact it has on the role of a junior developer and the rest of the development team. Forrest also shares his viewpoints on how he feels AI affects people in creative roles. Corey and Forrest discuss the pitfalls of a long career as a software developer, and how people can break into a career in cloud as well as the necessary pivots you may need to make along the way. Forrest then describes why he feels workers are currently staying put where they work, and how he predicts a major shift will happen when the markets shift.

About Forrest

Forrest is a cloud educator, cartoonist, author, and Pwnie Award-winning songwriter. He currently leads the content marketing team at Google Cloud. You can buy his book, The Read Aloud Cloud, from Wiley Publishing or attend his talks at public and private events around the world.

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Josh Doody, Owner of Fearless Salary Negotiation, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how important tonality and communication is, both in salary negotiations and everyday life. Josh describes how important it is to have a positive padding to your communications in order to make the person on the other end of the negotiation feel like a collaborator rather than a combatant. Corey and Josh also describe scenarios where tonality made a huge difference in the outcome, and Josh gives some examples of where and when to be mindful of how you’re coming across in modern communication methods. Josh also reveals how negotiating with companies multiple times allows him to understand their recruiters more than a person who is encountering their negotiation process for the first time.

About Josh

Josh is a salary negotiation coach who works with senior software engineers and engineering managers to negotiate job offers with big tech companies. He also wrote Fearless Salary Negotiation: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Paid What You're Worth, and recently launched Salary Negotiation Mastery to help folks who aren't able to work with Josh 1-on-1.

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Matthew Prince, Co-founder & CEO at Cloudflare, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how and why Cloudflare is working to solve some of the Internet’s biggest problems. Matthew reveals some of his biggest issues with cloud providers, including the tendency to charge more for egress than ingress and the fact that the various clouds don’t compete on a feature vs. feature basis. Corey and Matthew also discuss how Cloudflare is working to change those issues so the Internet is a better and more secure place. Matthew also discusses how transparency has been key to winning trust in the community and among Cloudflare’s customers, and how he hopes the Internet and cloud providers will evolve over time.

About Matthew

Matthew Prince is co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world's largest networks, which spans more than 200 cities in over 100 countries. Matthew is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, winner of the 2011 Tech Fellow Award, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law. Matthew holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a George F. Baker Scholar and awarded the Dubilier Prize for Entrepreneurship. He is a member of the Illinois Bar, and earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago and B.A. in English Literature and Computer Science from Trinity College. He’s also the co-creator of Project Honey Pot, the largest community of webmasters tracking online fraud and abuse.

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Richard Seroter, Director of Outbound Product Management at Google, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss what’s new at Google. Corey and Richard discuss how AI can move from a novelty to truly providing value, as well as the importance of people maintaining their skills and abilities rather than using AI as a black box solution. Richard also discusses how he views the DevRel function, and why he feels it’s so critical to communicate expectations for product launches with customers. 

About Richard

Richard Seroter is Director of Outbound Product Management at Google Cloud. He’s also an instructor at Pluralsight, a frequent public speaker, and the author of multiple books on software design and development. Richard maintains a regularly updated blog (seroter.com) on topics of architecture and solution design and can be found on Twitter as @rseroter. 

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Anna Belak, Director of The Office of Cybersecurity Strategy at Sysdig, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the findings in this year’s newly-released Sysdig Global Cloud Threat Report. Anna explains the challenges that teams face in ensuring their cloud is truly secure, including quantity of data versus quality, automation, and more. Corey and Anna also discuss how much faster attacks are able to occur, and Anna gives practical insights into what can be done to make your cloud environment more secure.

About Anna

Anna has nearly ten years of experience researching and advising organizations on cloud adoption with a focus on security best practices. As a Gartner Analyst, Anna spent six years helping more than 500 enterprises with vulnerability management, security monitoring, and DevSecOps initiatives. Anna's research and talks have been used to transform organizations' IT strategies and her research agenda helped to shape markets. Anna is the Director of The Office of Cybersecurity Strategy at Sysdig, using her deep understanding of the security industry to help IT professionals succeed in their cloud-native journey.

Anna holds a PhD in Materials Engineering from the University of Michigan, where she developed computational methods to study solar cells and rechargeable batteries.

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Colleen Coll, Account Executive at The Duckbill Group, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss her journey of breaking into tech and why it’s so important to make your presence known. Colleen explains how she wound up working for The Duckbill Group after taking the initiative to go and meet Corey at a networking event, and what motivates her to take risks and do things that might feel intimidating in order to advance her career. Colleen and Corey also discuss the power of influencer marketing, as well as the focus The Duckbill Group has on setting a high standard for employee onboarding and culture.

About Colleen

Colleen Coll is a native of Pittsburgh and wannabe tech geek working in tech media sales, events, writing and marketing. She’s an advocate for women and underrepresented communities in tech and is extremely proud of her efforts to learn coding languages and engage and connect diversity in the open source circle! When she’s not geeking out and traveling the globe (and virtually) producing/ hosting tech podcasts and livestreams, she enjoys trips to local wineries, binging sci-fi, and hosting bolognese dinner parties.

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Evelyn Grizzle, Senior Salesforce Developer, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the often-misunderstood and always exciting world of Salesforce development. Evelyn explains why Salesforce Development is still seen as separate from traditional cloud development, and describes the work of breaking down barriers and silos between Salesforce developers and engineering departments. Corey and Evelyn discuss how a non-traditional background can benefit people who want to break into tech careers, and Evelyn reveals the best parts of joining the Salesforce community. 

About Evelyn

Evelyn is a Salesforce Certified Developer and Application Architect and 2023 Salesforce MVP Nominee. They enjoy full stack Salesforce development, most recently having built a series of Lightning Web Components that utilize a REST callout to a governmental database to verify the licensure status of a cannabis dispensary. An aspiring Certified Technical Architect candidate, Evelyn prides themself on deploying secure and scalable architecture. With over ten years of customer service experience prior to becoming a Salesforce Developer, Evelyn is adept at communicating with both technical and non-technical internal and external stakeholders. When they are not writing code, Evelyn enjoys coaching for RADWomenCode, mentoring through the Trailblazer Mentorship Program, and rollerskating.

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Ricardo Gonzalez, Senior Principal Product Manager at Oracle, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his approach to Product Management and cloud migration. Ricardo explains how a chance conversation landed him a role at Oracle, and why he feels it’s so important to always bring your A-game in any conversation. Corey and Ricardo discuss why being a good Product Manager involves empathy for your customers and being able to speak their language as well as the language of your product and development team. Ricardo also explains how he’s seen the Oracle product suite grow, and why he feels more and more companies are seeing the value of migrating their data to the cloud. 

About Ricardo

Ricardo is a Product Manager at Oracle, in charge of Database Migration to the Cloud, and the ZDM and ACFS products.

Ricardo is a native Costa Rican and has lived in Mexico, Italy and currently resides in the United States.

He is passionate about technology, education, photography, music and cooking. He loves languages and connecting with people from all over the world. In a future life, Ricardo wants to own a taco truck, and share taco happiness with everybody.

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Salman Paracha, Founder & CEO at Katanemo Labs, joins Corey at Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his vision for the future of SaaS application development. Salman and Corey discuss what led him to take the leap into founding a start-up, and Salman shares how he believes the future of SaaS application development is at an inflection point. Salman also explains why it’s critical to focus on the outcome your customers experience over infrastructure, and shares his vision for future developers looking to build the next wave of SaaS applications. 

About Salman

Building high-growth, high-tech software products that affect the lives of millions of customers. 15+ years of experience in building successful products and highly effective teams. I am deeply interested in bringing the power of the cloud to end customers, large scale data problems, and delivering scalable services on commodity hardware.

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Martin Mao, CEO & Cofounder at Chronosphere, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the trends he sees in the observability industry. Martin explains why he feels measuring observability costs isn’t nearly as important as understanding the velocity of observability costs increasing, and why he feels efficiency is something that has to be built into processes as companies scale new functionality. Corey and Martin also explore how observability can now be used by business executives to provide top line visibility and value, as opposed to just seeing observability as a necessary cost. 

About Martin

Martin is a technologist with a history of solving problems at the largest scale in the world and is passionate about helping enterprises use cloud native observability and open source technologies to succeed on their cloud native journey. He's now the Co-Founder & CEO of Chronosphere, a Series C startup with $255M in funding, backed by Greylock, Lux Capital, General Atlantic, Addition, and Founders Fund. He was previously at Uber, where he led the development and SRE teams that created and operated M3. Previously, he worked at AWS, Microsoft, and Google. He and his family are based in the Seattle area, and he enjoys playing soccer and eating meat pies in his spare time.

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Andreas Wittig, Co-Author of Amazon Web Services in Action and Co-Founder of marbot, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss ways to keep a book up to date in an ever-changing world, the advantages of working with a publisher, and how he began the journey of writing a book in the first place. Andreas also recalls how much he learned working on the third edition of Amazon Web Services in Action and how teaching can be an excellent tool for learning. Since writing the first edition, Adreas’s business has shifted from a consulting business to a B2B product business, so he and Corey also discuss how that change came about and the pros and cons of each business model.

About Andreas

Andreas is the Co-Author of Amazon Web Services in Action and Co-Founder of marbot - AWS Monitoring made simple! He is also known on the internet as cloudonaut through the popular blog, podcast, and youtube channel he created with his brother Michael.

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Brandon Sherman, Cloud Security Engineer at Temporal Technologies Inc., joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his experiences at recent cloud conferences and the ongoing changes in cloud computing. Brandon shares why he enjoyed fwd:cloudsec more than this year’s re:Inforce, and how he’s seen AWS events evolve over the years. Brandon and Corey also discuss how the cloud has matured and why Brandon feels ongoing change can be expected to be the continuing state of cloud. Brandon also shares insights on how his perspective on Google Cloud has changed, and why he’s excited about the future of Temporal.io.

About Brandon

Brandon is currently a Cloud Security Engineer at Temporal Technologies Inc. One of Temporal’s goals is to make our software as reliable as running water, but to stretch the metaphor it must also be *clean* water. He has stared into the abyss and it stared back, then bought it a beer before things got too awkward. When not at work, he can be found playing with his kids, working on his truck, or teaching his kids to work on his truck.

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Jonathan (Koz) Kozolchyk, General Manager for Certificate Services at AWS, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the best practices he recommends around certificates. Jonathan walks through when and why he recommends private certs, and the use cases where he’d recommend longer or unusual expirations. Jonathan also highlights the importance of knowing who’s using what cert and why he believes in separating expiration from rotation. Corey and Jonathan also discuss their love of smart home devices as well as their security concerns around them and how they hope these concerns are addressed moving forward. 

About Jonathan

Jonathan is General Manager of Certificate Services for AWS, leading the engineering, operations, and product management of AWS certificate offerings including AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) AWS Private CA, Code Signing, and Encryption in transit. Jonathan is an experienced leader of software organizations, with a focus on high availability distributed systems and PKI. Starting as an intern, he has built his career at Amazon, and has led development teams within our Consumer and AWS businesses, spanning from Fulfillment Center Software, Identity Services, Customer Protection Systems and Cryptography. Jonathan is passionate about building high performing teams, and working together to create solutions for our customers. He holds a BS in Computer Science from University of Illinois, and multiple patents for his work inventing for customers. When not at work you’ll find him with his wife and two kids or playing with hobbies that are hard to do well with limited upside, like roasting coffee.

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Jake Gold, Infrastructure Engineer at Bluesky, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his experience helping to build Bluesky and why he’s so excited about it. Jake and Corey discuss the major differences when building a truly open-source social media platform, and Jake highlights his focus on reliability. Jake explains why he feels downtime can actually be a huge benefit to reliability engineers, and why how he views abstractions based on the size of the team he’s working on. Corey and Jake also discuss whether cloud is truly living up to its original promise of lowered costs.

About Jake

Jake Gold leads infrastructure at Bluesky, where the team is developing and deploying the decentralized social media protocol, ATP. Jake has previously managed infrastructure at companies such as Docker and Flipboard, and most recently, he was the founding leader of the Robot Reliability Team at Nuro, an autonomous delivery vehicle company.

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Avi Freedman, CEO at Kentik, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the fun of solving for observability. Corey and Avi discuss how great simplicity can be deceiving, and Avi points out that with great simplicity comes great complexity. Avi discusses examples of this that he sees in Kentik customer environments, as well as the differences he sees in cloud environments from traditional data center environments. Avi also reveals his predictions for the future and how enterprise M&A will affect the way companies view data centers and VPCs.

About Avi

Avi Freedman is the co-founder and CEO of network observability company Kentik. He has decades of experience as a networking technologist and executive. As a network pioneer in 1992, Freedman started Philadelphia’s first ISP, known as netaxs. He went on to run network operations at Akamai for over a decade as VP of network infrastructure and then as chief network scientist. He also ran the network at AboveNet and was the CTO of ServerCentral.

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Jeremy Snyder, Founder of FireTail, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his career journey and what led him to start FireTail. Jeremy reveals what’s changed in cloud since he was an AE and AWS, and walks through how the need for customization in cloud security has led to a boom in the number of security companies out there. Corey and Jeremy also discuss the costs of cloud security, and Jeremy points out some of his observations in the world of cloud security pricing and packaging. 

About Jeremy

Jeremy is the founder and CEO of FireTail.io, an end-to-end API security startup. Prior to FireTail, Jeremy worked in M&A at Rapid7, a global cyber leader, where he worked on the acquisitions of 3 companies during the pandemic. Jeremy previously led sales at DivvyCloud, one of the earliest cloud security posture management companies, and also led AWS sales in southeast Asia. Jeremy started his career with 13 years in cyber and IT operations. Jeremy has an MBA from Mason, a BA in computational linguistics from UNC, and has completed additional studies in Finland at Aalto University. Jeremy speaks 5 languages and has lived in 5 countries. Once, Jeremy went 5 days without seeing another human, but saw plenty of reindeer.

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Kenneth Rose, CTO at OpsLevel, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how OpsLevel is helping developer teams to scale effectively. Kenneth reveals what a developer portal is, how he thinks about the functionality of a developer portal, and the problems a developer portal solves for large developer teams. Corey and Kenneth discuss how to drive adoption of a developer portal, and Kenneth explains why it’s so necessary to have executive buy-in throughout that process. Kenneth also discusses how using their own portal internally along with seeking out customer feedback has allowed OpsLevel to make impactful innovations.

About Ken

Kenneth (Ken) Rose is the CTO and Co-Founder of OpsLevel. Ken has spent over 15 years scaling engineering teams as an early engineer at PagerDuty and Shopify. Having in-the-trenches experience has allowed Ken a unique perspective on how some of the best teams are built and scaled and lends this viewpoint to building products for OpsLevel, a service ownership platform built to turn chaos into consistency for engineering leaders.

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Nickolas Means, VP Engineering at Sym, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how Sym is looking to solve the most common and most frustrating elements of compliance. Nick reveals why he finds it valuable to focus on making it easy for people to do the right thing over preventing them from doing the wrong thing, and why he feels the true spirit of compliance involves helping teams collaboratively come up with mutually beneficial solutions. Corey and Nick also dive into the common problems that engineers experience as a result of traditional compliance methods, and why historically the compliance industry has gotten a bad rap. 

About Nickolas

Nickolas Means loves nothing more than a story of engineering triumph (except maybe a story of engineering disaster). When he’s not stuck in a Wikipedia loop reading about plane crashes, he leads the engineering team at Sym, helping create the building blocks engineering teams need to build delightful developer access and approval workflows.

Nick has been leading software engineering teams for more than a decade in the healthtech and devtools spaces. His focus is on building distributed organizations defined by their cultures of high trust and autonomy. He’s also an international keynote speaker, having shared his unique brand of storytelling with audiences around the world. He works remotely from Austin, TX, and spends his spare time going on adventures with his wife and kids, running very slowly, and trying to brew the perfect cup of coffee.

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Chris Farris, Cloud Security Nerd at PrimeHarbor Technologies, LLC, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his new project, breaches.cloud, and why he feels having a centralized location for cloud security breach information is so important. Corey and Chris also discuss what it means to dive into entrepreneurship, including both the benefits of not having to work within a corporate structure and the challenges that come with running your own business. Chris also reveals what led him to start breaches.cloud, and what he’s learned about some of the biggest cloud security breaches so far.

About Chris

Chris Farris is a highly experienced IT professional with a career spanning over 25 years. During this time, he has focused on various areas, including Linux, networking, and security. For the past eight years, he has been deeply involved in public-cloud and public-cloud security in media and entertainment, leveraging his expertise to build and evolve multiple cloud security programs.

Chris is passionate about enabling the broader security team’s objectives of secure design, incident response, and vulnerability management. He has developed cloud security standards and baselines to provide risk-based guidance to development and operations teams. As a practitioner, he has architected and implemented numerous serverless and traditional cloud applications, focusing on deployment, security, operations, and financial modeling.

He is one of the organizers of the fwd:cloudsec conference and presented at various AWS conferences and BSides events. Chris shares his insights on security and technology on social media platforms like Twitter, Mastodon and his website https://www.chrisfarris.com.

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Josh Doody, Owner of Fearless Salary Negotiation, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how to successfully negotiate your salary, and why it’s important to do so even in times of economic uncertainty. Corey and Josh chat about some of the hidden reasons why salary negotiation is critical to job seekers, and what goes into determining salary bands behind the scenes. Josh also reveals why he feels there’s some stagnancy in the big tech job market, and why it’s critical for job seekers to have a balanced view of the value that they provide to employers when negotiating salary. Josh also describes some of the unexpected ways salary negotiations can come up throughout the interview process, and how to best handle the discomfort of negotiation.

About Josh

Josh is a salary negotiation coach who works with senior software engineers and engineering managers to negotiate job offers with big tech companies. He also wrote Fearless Salary Negotiation: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Paid What You're Worth, and recently launched Salary Negotiation Mastery to help folks who aren't able to work with him 1-on-1.

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Rich Mogull, SVP of Cloud Security at FireMon, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his career in cybersecurity going back to the early days of cloud. Rich describes how he identified that cloud security would become a huge opportunity in the early days of cloud, as well as how cybersecurity parallels his other jobs in aviation and emergency medicine. Rich and Corey also delve into the history of Rich’s involvement in the TidBITS newsletter, and Rich unveils some of his insights into the world of cloud security as a Gartner analyst.

About Rich

Rich is the SVP of Cloud Security at FireMon where he focuses on leading-edge cloud security research and implementation. Rich joined FireMon through the acquisition of DisruptOps, a cloud security automation platform based on his research while as CEO of Securosis. He has over 25 years of security experience and currently specializes in cloud security and DevSecOps, having starting working hands-on in cloud over 12 years ago. He is also the principle course designer of the Cloud Security Alliance training class, primary author of the latest version of the CSA Security Guidance, and actively works on developing hands-on cloud security techniques. Prior to founding Securosis and DisruptOps, Rich was a Research Vice President at Gartner on the security team. Prior to his seven years at Gartner, Rich worked as an independent consultant, web application developer, software development manager at the University of Colorado, and systems and network administrator.

Rich is the Security Editor of TidBITS and a frequent contributor to industry publications. He is a frequent industry speaker at events including the RSA Security Conference, Black Hat, and DefCon, and has spoken on every continent except Antarctica (where he's happy to speak for free -- assuming travel is covered).

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Kelly Shortridge, Senior Principal Engineer at Fastly, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss their recently released book, Security Chaos Engineering: Sustaining Resilience in Software and Systems. Kelly explains why a resilient strategy is far preferable to a bubble-wrapped approach to cybersecurity, and how developer teams can use evidence to mitigate security threats. Corey and Kelly discuss how the risks of working with complex systems is perfectly illustrated by Jurassic Park, and Kelly also highlights why it’s critical to address both system vulnerabilities and human vulnerabilities in your development environment rather than pointing fingers when something goes wrong.

About Kelly

Kelly Shortridge is a senior principal engineer at Fastly in the office of the CTO and lead author of "Security Chaos Engineering: Sustaining Resilience in Software and Systems" (O'Reilly Media). Shortridge is best known for their work on resilience in complex software systems, the application of behavioral economics to cybersecurity, and bringing security out of the dark ages. Shortridge has been a successful enterprise product leader as well as a startup founder (with an exit to CrowdStrike) and investment banker. Shortridge frequently advises Fortune 500s, investors, startups, and federal agencies and has spoken at major technology conferences internationally, including Black Hat USA, O'Reilly Velocity Conference, and SREcon. Shortridge's research has been featured in ACM, IEEE, and USENIX, spanning behavioral science in cybersecurity, deception strategies, and the ROI of software resilience. They also serve on the editorial board of ACM Queue.

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Brooke Sargent, Software Engineer at Honeycomb, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how she fell into the world of observability by adopting Honeycomb. Brooke explains how observability was new to her in her former role, but she quickly found it to enable faster learning and even a form of self care for herself as a developer. Corey and Brooke discuss the differences of working at a large company where observability is a new idea, versus an observability company like Honeycomb. Brooke also reveals the importance of helping people reach a personal understanding of what observability can do for them when trying to introduce it to a company for the first time. 

About Brooke

Brooke Sargent is a Software Engineer at Honeycomb, working on APIs and integrations in the developer ecosystem. She previously worked on IoT devices at Procter and Gamble in both engineering and engineering management roles, which is where she discovered an interest in observability and the impact it can have on engineering teams.

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Mike Brevoort, Chief Product Officer at Gitpod, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss all the intricacies of remote development and how Gitpod is simplifying the process. Mike explains why he feels the infinite resources cloud provides can be overlooked when discussing remote versus local development environments, and how simplifying build abstractions is a fantastic goal, but that focusing on the tools you use in a build abstraction in the meantime can be valuable. Corey and Mike also dive into the security concerns that come with remote development, and Mike reveals the upcoming plans for Gitpod’s local conference environment, CDE Universe. 

About Mike

Mike has a passion for empowering people to be creative and work together more effectively. He is the Chief Product Officer at Gitpod striving to remove the friction and drudgery from software development through Cloud Developer Environments. He spent the previous four years at Slack where he created Workflow Builder and “Platform 2.0” after his company Missions was acquired by Slack in 2018. Mike lives in Denver, Colorado and enjoys cycling, hiking and being outdoors.

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Tom Krazit, Editor in Chief at Runtime, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss what it’s like being a journalist in tech. Corey and Tom discuss how important it is to find your voice as a media personality, and Tom explains why he feels one should never compromise their voice for sponsor approval. Tom reveals how he’s covering tech news at his new publication, Runtime, and how he got his break in the tech journalism industry. Tom also talks about why he decided to build his own publication rather than seek out a corporate job, the value of digging deeper for stories, and why he feels it’s so valuable to be able to articulate the issues engineers care about in simple terms.

About Tom

Tom Krazit has written and edited stories about the information technology industry for over 20 years. For the last ten years he has focused specifically on enterprise technology, including all three as-a-service models developed around infrastructure, platform, and enterprise software technologies, security, software development techniques and practices, as well as hardware and chips.

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David Colebatch, CEO at Tidal.cloud, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how Tidal is demystifying cloud migration strategy. David and Corey discuss the pros and cons of a hybrid cloud migration strategy, and David reveals the approach that Tidal takes to ensure they’re setting their customers up for success. David also discusses the human element to cloud migration initiatives, and how to overcome roadblocks when handling the people side of migrations. Corey and David also expand on all the capabilities cloud migration unlocks, and David explains how that translates to a distributed product team approach.

About David

David is the CEO & Founder of Tidal.  Tidal is empowering businesses to transform from traditional on-premises IT-run organizations to lean-agile-cloud powered machines.

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Nate Avery, Outbound Product Manager at Google, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss what it’s like working in the world of tech, including the implications of AI technology on the workforce and the importance of doing what you love. Nate explains why he feels human ingenuity is so important in the age of AI, as well as why he feels AI will make humans better at the things they do. Nate and Corey also discuss the changing landscape of tech and development jobs, and why it’s important to help others throughout your career while doing something you love. 

About Nate

Nate is an Outbound Product Manager at Google Cloud focused on our DevOps tools. Prior to this, Nate has 20 years of experience designing, planning, and implementing complex systems integrating custom-built and COTS applications. Throughout his career, he has managed diverse teams dedicated to meeting customer goals. With a background as a manager, engineer, Sys Admin, and DBA, Nate is currently working on ways to better build and use virtualized computer resources in both internal and external cloud environments. Nate was also named a Cisco Champion for Datacenter in 2015.

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Everett Berry, Growth and Open Source at Vantage, joins Corey at Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the complex world of cloud costs. Everett describes how Vantage takes a broad approach to understanding and cutting cloud costs across a number of different providers, and reveals which providers he feels generate large costs quickly. Everett also explains some of his best practices for cutting costs on cloud providers, and explores what he feels the impact of AI will be on cloud providers. Corey and Everett also discuss the pros and cons of AWS savings plans, why AWS can’t be counted out when it comes to AI, and why there seems to be such a delay in upgrading instances despite the cost savings.

About Everett

Everett is the maintainer of ec2instances.info at Vantage. He also writes about cloud infrastructure and analyzes cloud spend. Prior to Vantage Everett was a developer advocate at Arctype, a collaborative SQL client acquired by ClickHouse. Before that, Everett was cofounder and CTO of Perceive, a computer vision company. In his spare time he enjoys playing golf, reading sci-fi, and scrolling Twitter.

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Eswar Bala, Director of Amazon EKS at AWS, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how and why AWS built a Kubernetes solution, and what customers are looking for out of Amazon EKS. Eswar reveals the concerns he sees from customers about the cost of Kubernetes, as well as the reasons customers adopt EKS over ECS. Eswar gives his reasoning on why he feels Kubernetes is here to stay and not just hype, as well as how AWS is working to reduce the complexity of Kubernetes. Corey and Eswar also explore the competitive landscape of Amazon EKS, and the new product offering from Amazon called Karpenter.

About Eswar

Eswar Bala is a Director of Engineering at Amazon and is responsible for Engineering, Operations, and Product strategy for Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). Eswar leads the Amazon EKS and EKS Anywhere teams that build, operate, and contribute to the services customers and partners use to deploy and operate Kubernetes and Kubernetes applications securely and at scale. With a 20+ year career in software , spanning multimedia, networking and container domains, he has built greenfield teams and launched new products multiple times.

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Liz Rice, Chief Open Source Officer at Isovalent, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the release of her newest book, Learning eBPF, and the exciting possibilities that come with eBPF technology. Liz explains what got her so excited about eBPF technology, and what it was like to write a book while also holding a full-time job. Corey and Liz also explore the learning curve that comes with kernel programming, and Liz illustrates why it’s so important to be able to explain complex technologies in simple terminology.

About Liz

Liz Rice is Chief Open Source Officer with eBPF specialists Isovalent, creators of the Cilium cloud native networking, security and observability project. She sits on the CNCF Governing Board, and on the Board of OpenUK. She was Chair of the CNCF's Technical Oversight Committee in 2019-2022, and Co-Chair of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon in 2018. She is also the author of Container Security, and Learning eBPF, both published by O'Reilly.

She has a wealth of software development, team, and product management experience from working on network protocols and distributed systems, and in digital technology sectors such as VOD, music, and VoIP. When not writing code, or talking about it, Liz loves riding bikes in places with better weather than her native London, competing in virtual races on Zwift, and making music under the pseudonym Insider Nine.

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John Mille, Principal Cloud Engineer at Sainsbury's UK joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how retail companies are using cloud services. John describes the lessons he’s learned since joining the Sainsbury’s UK team, including why it’s important to share knowledge across your team if you don’t want to be on call 24/7,  as well as why he doesn’t subscribe to the idea that every developer needs access to production. Corey and John also discuss an open-source project John created called ECS Compose-X.

About John

John is an AWS Community Builder (devtools), Open Source enthusiast, SysAdmin born in the cloud, and has worked with AWS since his very first job. He enjoys writing code and creating projects. John likes to focus on automation & architecture that delivers business value, and has been dabbling with data & the wonderful world of Kafka for the past 3 years.

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Michael Isbitski, Director of Cybersecurity Strategy at Sysdig, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the nuances of an effective cybersecurity strategy. Michael explains that many companies are caught between creating a strategy that’s truly secure and one that’s merely compliant and within the bounds of cost-effectiveness, and what can be done to help balance the two aims more effectively. Corey and Michael also explore what it means to hire for transferrable skills in the realm of cybersecurity and tech, and Michael reveals that while there’s no such thing as a silver-bullet solution for cybersecurity, Sysdig can help bridge many gaps in a company’s strategy. 

About Michael

Mike has researched and advised on cybersecurity for over 5 years. He's versed in cloud security, container security, Kubernetes security,  API security, security testing, mobile security, application protection, and secure continuous delivery. He's guided countless organizations globally in their security initiatives and supporting their business.

Prior to his research and advisory experience, Mike learned many hard lessons on the front lines of IT with over twenty years of practitioner and leadership experience focused on application security, vulnerability management, enterprise architecture, and systems engineering.

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Jean Yang, CEO of Akita Software, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how she went from academia to tech founder, and what her company is doing to improve monitoring and observability. Jean explains why Akita is different from other observability & monitoring solutions, and how it bridges the gap from what people know they should be doing and what they actually do in practice. Corey and Jean explore why the monitoring and observability space has been so broken, and why it’s important for people to see monitoring as a chore and not a hobby. Jean also reveals how she took a leap from being an academic professor to founding a tech start-up. 

About Jean

Jean Yang is the founder and CEO of Akita Software, providing the fastest time-to-value for API monitoring. Jean was previously a tenure-track professor in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.

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Darko Mesaroš, Senior Developer Advocate at AWS, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss all the weird and wonderful things that can be done with old hardware, as well as the necessary skills for being a successful Developer Advocate. Darko walks through how he managed to deploy Kubernetes on a computer from 1986, as well as the trade-offs we’ve made in computer technology as hardware has progressed. Corey and Darko also explore the forgotten art of optimizing when you’re developing, and how it can help to cut costs. Darko also shares what he feels is the key skill every Developer Advocate needs to have, and walks through how he has structured his presentations to ensure he is captivating and delivering value to his audience.

About Darko

Darko is a Senior Developer Advocate based in Seattle, WA. His goal is to share his passion and technological know-how with Engineers, Developers, Builders, and tech enthusiasts across the world. If it can be automated, Darko will definitely try to do so. Most of his focus is towards DevOps and Management Tools, where automation, pipelines, and efficient developer tools is the name of the game – click less and code more so you do not repeat yourself ! Darko also collects a lot of old technology and tries to make it do what it should not. Like deploy AWS infrastructure through a Commodore 64.

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Jess Dodson, Senior Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss all things security. Corey and Jess discuss the phenomenon of companies that only care about security when reacting to a breach, and Jess highlights how important it is to have both a reactive and a proactive approach to security. Jess also shares her thoughts on why it’s valuable to get security and operations working well together, and why getting the basics right in security is still a more pressing priority than solving for level 10 security threats. Jess and Corey also reveal best practices when it comes to monitoring and revoking admin rights and much more.

About Jess

Chances are if you’ve run into “GirlGerms” online, you’ve spoken to Jess! Based in Brisbane, Jess joined Microsoft in 2019 and is now a Senior Cloud Solution in Cyber Security, after working in a mixture of both government and higher education industries for over 15 years. Jess regards herself as a 'recovering systems administrator' and still wears her operations hat when looking at security - doing REAL SecOps!

Outside of work, Jess is mum to a 5 year old daughter, a cat, 4 chickens and a hive of bees. In her downtime, she spends far too many hours building Lego, playing video games or doing random crafty projects.

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