It turns out, you don’t need to step outside to observe the clouds. On this episode, we’re joined by Chronosphere Field CTO Ian Smith. He and Corey delve into the innovative solutions Chronosphere offers, share insights from Ian’s experience in the industry, and discuss the future of cloud-native technologies. Whether you're a seasoned cloud professional or new to the field, this conversation with Ian Smith is packed with valuable perspectives and actionable takeaways.

Show Highlights:

(0:00) Intro

(0:42) Chronosphere sponsor read

(1:53) The role of Chief of Staff at Chronosphere

(2:45) Getting recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant

(4:42) Talking about the buying process

(8:26) The importance of observability

(10:18) Guiding customers as a vendor

(12:19) Chronosphere sponsor read

(12:46) What should you do as an observability buyer

(16:01) Helping orgs understand observability

(19:56) Avoiding toxicly positive endorsements

(24:15) Being transparent as a vendor

(27:43) The myth of "winner take all"

(30:02) Short term fixes vs. long term solutions

(33:54) Where you can find more from Ian and Chronosphere

About Ian Smith
Ian Smith is Field CTO at Chronosphere where he works across sales, marketing, engineering and product to deliver better insights and outcomes to observability teams supporting high-scale cloud-native environments. Previously, he worked with observability teams across the software industry in pre-sales roles at New Relic, Wavefront, PagerDuty and Lightstep.

Links

• Chronosphere: https://chronosphere.io/?utm_source=duckbill-group&utm_medium=podcast
• Ian’s Twitter: https://x.com/datasmithing
• Ian’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ismith314159/

Sponsor

Chronosphere: https://chronosphere.io/?utm_source=duckbill-group&utm_medium=podcast

In this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, we’re revisiting our conversation with Miles War — perhaps the closest thing Google Cloud has to Corey Quinn. With a wit and sharpness at hand, and an entire backup retinue of trumpets, trombones, and various brass horns, Miles is here to join the conversation about what all is going on at Google Cloud. Miles breaks down SADA and their partnership with Google Cloud. He goes into some details on what GCP has been up to, and talks about the various areas they are capitulating forward. Miles talks about working with Thomas Kurian, who is the only who counts since he follows Corey on Twitter, and the various profundities that GCP has at hand.

Show Highlights:

(0:00) Intro

(1:38) Sonrai Security sponsor read

(2:40) Reliving Google Cloud Next 2021

(7:24) Unlikable, yet necessary change at Google

(11:41) Lack of Focus in the Cloud

(18:03) Google releases benefitting developers

(20:57) The rise of distributed databases

(24:12) Backblaze sponsor read

(24:41) Arguments for (and against) going multi-cloud

(26:49) The problem with Google Cloud outages

(33:01) Data transfer fees

(37:49) Where you can find more from Miles

About Miles Ward

As Chief Technology Officer at SADA, Miles Ward leads SADA’s cloud strategy and solutions capabilities. His remit includes delivering next-generation solutions to challenges in big data and analytics, application migration, infrastructure automation, and cost optimization; reinforcing our engineering culture; and engaging with customers on their most complex and ambitious plans around Google Cloud.

Previously, Miles served as Director and Global Lead for Solutions at Google Cloud. He founded the Google Cloud’s Solutions Architecture practice, launched hundreds of solutions, built Style-Detection and Hummus AI APIs, built CloudHero, designed the pricing and TCO calculators, and helped thousands of customers like Twitter who migrated the world’s largest Hadoop cluster to public cloud and Audi USA who re-platformed to k8s before it was out of alpha, and helped Banco Itau design the intercloud architecture for the bank of the future.

Before Google, Miles helped build the AWS Solutions Architecture team. He wrote the first AWS Well-Architected framework, proposed Trusted Advisor and the Snowmobile, invented GameDay, worked as a core part of the Obama for America 2012 “tech” team, helped NASA stream the Curiosity Mars Rover landing, and rebooted Skype in a pinch.

Earning his Bachelor of Science in Rhetoric and Media Studies from Willamette University, Miles is a three-time technology startup entrepreneur who also plays a mean electric sousaphone.

Links:

• SADA.com: https://sada.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/milesward
• Email: miles@sada.com

Original episode:
https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/gcp-s-many-profundities-with-miles-ward/

Sponsors

Sonrai Security: sonrai.co/access24

Backblaze: backblaze.com

After years of trying, Corey has finally convinced a TAM to come on the show! In this lively episode, AWS Senior Technical Account Manager Shlomo Dubrowin takes the mic to share his fascinating experiences dealing with cloud complexities. Listen in as Shlomo recounts building AWS Reasonable Account Defaults from scratch, stresses the importance of writing a solid application, and shares the benefits of leveraging GenAI to help maintain his work. Don't miss this entertaining and insightful conversation that could save you a few bucks!

Show Highlights:

(0:00) Intro

(0:42) Chronosphere sponsor read

(1:15) Finally getting a TAM on the show

(2:24) Providing quality customer service as a TAM

(5:31) AWS Reasonable Account Defaults

(11:01) What went into crafting AWS Reasonable Accounts Defaults

(12:20) Chronosphere sponsor read

(12:54) Writing a program that won't break easily

(17:25) Optimizing billing data

(19:53) Transparency in costs

(21:27) Expanding AWS Reasonable Account Defaults

(23:34) Further optimizing AWS Reasonable Account Defaults in the future

(26:18) Building with GenAI

(29:01) Where you can find more from Shlomo

About Shlomo Dubrowin

Shlomo Dubrowin has been a TAM for over 6 years supporting AWS customers from startups through to Fortune 100 companies. He has spoken at re:Invent twice and has specialized in Cost Optimization. Shlomo has been in the tech industry since 1994. And he lives with his wife, son and 2 dogs.

Links

• Clouded Torah: https://www.clouded-torah.org/

Sponsor

Chronosphere: https://chronosphere.io/?utm_source=duckbill-group&utm_medium=podcast

In this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, we revisit a spirited debated between Corey and the VP of Product and Industry Marketing at Google Cloud, Brian Hall. The topic — How much time should one spend in a job? But thankfully, their conversation doesn’t limit itself to just that! Corey and Brian chat about how social media’s failure to capture nuance and context can lead to some unfortunate misinterpretations. Brian offers some insight on his significant amount of time spent at Microsoft under various roles. He gives his perspective on how one should optimize their career path for where they want to go, and not just follow the money. Tune in to see how Corey and Brian let the dust settle, and develop what was a disagreement into a well-rounded conversation.

Show Highlights:

(0:00) Intro

(1:02) Chronosphere sponsor read

(1:36) Job hopping vs. job loyalty

(6:14) Being in the right place at the right time

(9:57) Investing in the job vs. the job investing in you

(13:31) Weighing the cost of job hopping

(20:14) Chronosphere sponsor read

(20:47) Changing jobs to get a raise

(24:02) How to attract people as a cloud employer

(26:31) Changing paths into the industry

(30:14) What's ahead for Brian

(32:33) Where you can find more from Brian

About Brian Hall

Brian Hall leads the Google Cloud Product and Industry Marketing team - focused on accelerating the growth of Google Cloud. Before joining Google, he spent more than 25 years in different forms of product marketing or engineering.

Brian is the father of three children who are all named after trees in different ways. He met his wife Edie at the beginning of their first year at Yale University, where he studied math, econ, and philosophy and was the captain of the Swim and Dive team my senior year. Edie has a PhD in forestry and runs a sustainability and forestry consulting firm she started, that is aptly named “Three Trees Consulting”. They love the outdoors, tennis, running, and adventures in Brian's 1986 Volkswagen Van, which is his first and only car, that he can’t bring myself to get rid of.

Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/IsForAt
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brhall/
• Episode 10: https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/episode-10-education-is-not-ready-for-teacherless/

Original Episode:
https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/letting-the-dust-settle-on-job-hopping-with-brian-hall/

Sponsor

https://chronosphere.io/?utm_source=duckbill-group&utm_medium=podcast

On this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, we revisit our fall of 2021 conversation with Chloe Condon. At the time of recording, Chloe was a Senior Cloud Advocate for Microsoft, and today, she works for Google as a Senior Developer Relations Engineer. When we spoke to her, Chloe had recently started the Master Creep Theatre (yes, with the British spelling) which is a project to bring some more creative and artistic efforts into the tech world! Given Chloe’s non-traditional background she’s able to bring a lot of great perspective to weaving these two worlds together. Chloe also discusses the politics of navigating DMs as a woman on the internet, fun. Her and Corey discuss internet culture in general and how to make the most of it, in spite of all the baggage. Tune in for Chloe's take!

Show Highlights:

(0:00) Intro

(0:47) Sonrai sponsor read
(1:48) Master Creep Theatre
(6:16) The wide world of creepy DMs
(12:21) What's the root of the creep behavior?
(15:52) Harassment and privilege in tech
(20:00) The fight for privacy

(27:58) Backblaze sponsor read
(28:24) Designing things to be more inclusive and "jerk-free"
(37:49) Where you can find more from Chloe

About Chloe Condon:
Chloe is a Bay Area based Developer Advocate for Google Cloud and AI. Previously, she worked at Microsoft, as well as Sentry.io where she created the award winning Sentry Scouts program (a camp themed meet-up ft. patches, s’mores, giant squirrel costumes, and hot chocolate), and was featured in the Grace Hopper Conference 2018 gallery featuring 15 influential women in STEM by AnitaB.org. Her projects and work with Azure have ranged from fake boyfriend alerts to Mario Kart 'astrology', and have been featured in VICE, The New York Times, as well as SmashMouth's Twitter account. Chloe holds a BA in Drama from San Francisco State University and is a graduate of Hackbright Academy. She prides herself on being a non-traditional background engineer, and is likely one of the only engineers who has played an ogre, crayon, and the back-end of a cow on a professional stage. She hopes to bring more artists into tech, and more engineers into the arts.

Featured in the Grace Hopper Conference 2018 gallery featuring 15 influential women in STEM by AnitaB.org: https://vimeo.com/289762602/30c246c503

Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChloeCondon
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gitforked/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChloeCondonVideos

Sponsors
Sonrai: http://sonrai.co/zombie
Backblaze: https://www.backblaze.com/

Much of the discourse surrounding GenAI has centered on replacement, but what if tools focused on harmony instead? In this episode of Screaming in the Cloud, Kubiya CEO Amit Eyal Govrin explains why his company is flipping the script on AI. Amit and Corey discuss the perks and shortcomings of today’s automation, how Kubiya functions as a teammate alongside its human counterparts, and the GenAI trends that aren’t getting the attention they deserve. If you’re worrying about your job security in the current AI climate, this discussion may help put your fears at ease.

Show Highlights:

(0:00) Intro

(0:47) Chronosphere sponsor read

(1:21) What Amit and Kubiya are building

(5:34) Pros and cons of automation

(9:10) Building a virtual teammate

(12:39) Implementing AI with nuance

(16:16) Real world applications of the tech

(18:09) Firefly ad read

(18:43) The value of human review in the world of AI

(21:10) Complexities (or lack thereof) of GenAI

(24:36) What people are sleeping on when it comes to GenAI

(28:08) Where you can learn more about Kubiya

About Amit Eyal Govrin:

Amit is the CEO of Kubiya, helping the industry Break through the Time-To-Automation Paradox. As an early pioneer in the FinOps domain - executive position at Cloudyn (currently Azure Cost Manager), Zesty (advisor, early investor) and leading DevOps partnerships at AWS.

Links Referenced:

• Kubiya: kubiya.ai

Sponsor
Chronosphere: https://chronosphere.io/?utm_source=duckbill-group&utm_medium=podcast

A cloud service is only as good as the team of network engineers who keep it up and running. In this episode, AWS Vice President and Distinguished Engineer Tom Scholl breaks down the importance of security and legwork needed to support the company’s massive infrastructure. Corey picks Tom’s brain while singing the praises of the AWS DDoS Protection Team, marveling at the scale of the modern internet, and looking ahead to the next generation of network engineers that could land at AWS. If you’ve ever wondered about the inner workings of the AWS cloud, then this is the discussion for you.

Show Highlights:

• (0:00) Intro
• (1:09) The Duckbill Group sponsor read
• (1:42) The importance of a good network for AWS
• (3:38) Evolution of networking
• (6:03) Efficiency of the AWS DDoS Protection Team
• (7:29) AWS Cloud and weathering DDoS attacks
• (10:03) Policing network abuse
• (12:08) Walking the SES tightrope and network attacks
• (15:00) Ensuring the security of the internet
• (17:53) The Duckbill Group sponsor read
• (18:37) Scale of the modern internet
• (20:47) Migrating the AWS network firewall
• (21:54) Internal network scaling
• (24:27) Preparing for DDoS disruption
• (29:14) Finding the next generation of network engineers
• (32:15) Where to learn more about AWS cloud security

About Tom Scholl:

Tom Scholl is a VP and Distinguished Engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the infrastructure organization. His role includes working on AWS’s global network backbone, as well as focusing on denial of service detection and mitigation systems. He has been with AWS for over 13 years.

Prior to AWS, Tom was a Principal Network Engineer at nLayer and AT&T Labs (formerly SBC Telecom). He also previously held network engineering roles at OptimalPATH Digital Network and ANET Internet Services.

Links Referenced:

• AWS Security Blog: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/
• How AWS threat intelligence deters threat actors: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/how-aws-threat-intelligence-deters-threat-actors/
• Using AWS Shield Advanced protection groups to improve DDoS detection and mitigation: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/using-aws-shield-advanced-protection-groups-to-improve-ddos-detection-and-mitigation/
• AWS re:Inforce 2024 presentation on Sonaris and MadPot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Z9csvyFDg
• NANOG 2023 presentation on AWS networking infrastructure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tcR-iQce7s
• AWS re:Invent 2022 presentation on AWS networking infrastructure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJNR_dX8g8c
• AWS re:Invent 2022 presentation on Scaling network performance on next-gen Amazon EC2 instances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNYpWa7gf1A&t=1373s
• IEEE paper on Scalable Relatable Diagram (SRD): https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9167399

Sponsor
The Duckbill Group: https://www.duckbillgroup.com/

Data breaches can throw countless lives into disarray. With massive leaks and compromises happening on what feels like a daily basis, what can be done to protect people and services? On this episode, Sysdig Product Manager Maya Levine joins us for a discussion on the current state of affairs in the world of cybersecurity. Why do these attacks keep happening? Are they becoming too frequent? What can we do to prevent them? Maya has all the answers as well as tips to help keep you and your organization safe.

Show Highlights:

• (0:00) Intro
• (0:37) Sysdig sponsor read
• (0:58) Product management at Sysdig
• (2:09) Are cyber attacks becoming more frequent in the cloud?
• (5:58) Urgency (or lack thereof) while under attack
• (10:37) Motives and methods in modern data breaches
• (15:57) Sysdig sponsor read
• (16:20) The cost (and necessity) of audit logging
• (18:46) “If breach is inevitable, what can people do?”
• (22:36) Maya’s “I am Confused” talk
• (25:40) Stopping attacks before they spiral out of control
• (32:32) Where can find more from Maya and Sysdig

About Maya Levine:

Maya Levine is a Product Manager for Sysdig. Previously she worked at Check Point Software Technologies as a Security Engineer and later a Technical Marketing Engineer, focusing on cloud security. Her earnest and concise communication style connects to both technical and business audiences. She has presented at many industry conferences, including AWS re:Invent and AnsibleFest. She has also been regularly interviewed on television news channels, written publications, and podcasts about cybersecurity.

Links:

• Maya’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maya-levine/
• Sysdig: https://sysdig.com/

Sponsor

Sysdig: https://sysdig.com/