Screaming in the Cloud

Latest Episodes:

The Need for Reliability with Lex Neva Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

Lex Neva, Staff Site Reliability Engineer at Honeycomb and Curator of SRE Weekly, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss reliability and the life of a newsletter curator. Lex shares some interesting insights on how he keeps his hobbies and side projects separate, as well as the intrusion that open-source projects can have on your time. Lex and Corey also discuss the phenomenon of newsletter curators being much more demanding of themselves than their audience typically is. Lex also shares his views on how far reliability has come, as well as how far we have to go, and the critical implications reliability has on our day-to-day lives.

About Lex

Lex Neva is interested in all things related to running large, massively multiuser online services. He has years of SRE, Systems Engineering, tinkering, and troubleshooting experience and perhaps loves incident response more than he ought to. He’s previously worked for Linden Lab, DeviantArt, Heroku, and Fastly, and currently works as an SRE at Honeycomb while also curating the SRE Weekly newsletter on the side.

Lex lives in Massachusetts with his family including 3 adorable children, 3 ridiculous cats, and assorted other awesome humans and animals. In his copious spare time he likes to garden, play tournament poker, tinker with machine embroidery, and mess around with Arduinos.

Links Referenced:

SRE Weekly: https://sreweekly.com/
Honeycomb: https://www.honeycomb.io/

Making Open-Source Multi-Cloud Truly Free with AB Periasamy Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

AB Periasamy, Co-Founder and CEO of MinIO, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss what it means to be truly open source and the current and future state of multi-cloud. AB explains how MinIO was born from the idea that the world was going to produce a massive amount of data, and what it’s been like to see that come true and continue to be the future outlook. AB and Corey explore why some companies are hesitant to move to cloud, and AB describes why he feels the move is inevitable regardless of cost. AB also reveals how he has helped create a truly free open-source software, and how his partnership with Amazon has been beneficial.

About AB

AB Periasamy is the co-founder and CEO of MinIO, an open source provider of high performance, object storage software. In addition to this role, AB is an active investor and advisor to a wide range of technology companies, from H2O.ai and Manetu where he serves on the board to advisor or investor roles with Humio, Isovalent, Starburst, Yugabyte, Tetrate, Postman, Storj, Procurify, and Helpshift. Successful exits include Gitter.im (Gitlab), Treasure Data (ARM) and Fastor (SMART).

AB co-founded Gluster in 2005 to commoditize scalable storage systems. As CTO, he was the primary architect and strategist for the development of the Gluster file system, a pioneer in software defined storage. After the company was acquired by Red Hat in 2011, AB joined Red Hat’s Office of the CTO. Prior to Gluster, AB was CTO of California Digital Corporation, where his work led to scaling of the commodity cluster computing to supercomputing class performance. His work there resulted in the development of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory’s “Thunder” code, which, at the time was the second fastest in the world.

AB holds a Computer Science Engineering degree from Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India.

AB is one of the leading proponents and thinkers on the subject of open source software - articulating the difference between the philosophy and business model. An active contributor to a number of open source projects, he is a board member of India's Free Software Foundation.

Links Referenced:

MinIO: https://min.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/abperiasamy
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abperiasamy/
Email: mailto:ab@min.io

Exciting Times in Cloud Security with Chris Farris Mar 21, 2023

Show notes

Chris Farris, Cloud Security Nerd at Turbot, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the latest events in cloud security, which leads to an interesting analysis from Chris on how legal departments obscure valuable information that could lead to fewer security failures in the name of protecting company liability, and what the future of accountability for security failures looks like. Chris and Corey also discuss the newest dangers in cloud security and billing practices, and Chris describes his upcoming cloud security conference, fwd:cloudsec.

About Chris

Chris Farris has been in the IT field since 1994 primarily focused on Linux, networking, and security. For the last 8 years, he has focused on public-cloud and public-cloud security. He has built and evolved multiple cloud security programs for major media companies, focusing on 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’s architected and implemented multiple serverless and traditional cloud applications focused on deployment, security, operations, and financial modeling.

Chris now does cloud security research for Turbot and evangelizes for the open source tool Steampipe. He is one of the organizers of the fwd:cloudsec conference (https://fwdcloudsec.org) and has given multiple presentations at AWS conferences and BSides events.

When not building things with AWS’s building blocks, he enjoys building Legos with his kid and figuring out what interesting part of the globe to travel to next. He opines on security and technology on Mastodon, Twitter and his website https://www.chrisfarris.com

Links Referenced:

Turbot: https://turbot.com/
fwd:cloudsec: https://fwdcloudsec.org/
Mastodon: https://infosec.exchange/@jcfarris
Personal website: https://chrisfarris.com

Combining Community and Company Employees with Matty Stratton Mar 16, 2023

Show notes

Matty Stratton, Director of Developer Relations at Aiven, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud for a friendly debate on whether or not company employees can still be considered community members. Corey says no, but opens up his position to the slings and arrows of Matty in an entertaining change of pace. Matty explains why he feels company employees can still be considered community members, and also explores how that should be done in a way that is transparent and helpful to everyone in the community. Matty and Corey also explore the benefits and drawbacks of talented community members becoming employees.

About Matty

Matty Stratton is the Director of Developer Relations at Aiven, a well-known member of the DevOps community, founder and co-host of the popular Arrested DevOps podcast, and a global organizer of the DevOpsDays set of conferences.

Matty has over 20 years of experience in IT operations and is a sought-after speaker internationally, presenting at Agile, DevOps, and cloud engineering focused events worldwide. Demonstrating his keen insight into the changing landscape of technology, he recently changed his license plate from DEVOPS to KUBECTL.

He lives in Chicago and has three awesome kids, whom he loves just a little bit more than he loves Diet Coke.

Links Referenced:

Aiven: https://aiven.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattstratton
Mastodon: hackyderm.io/@mattstratton
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattstratton/

AWS and the Journey to Responsible AI with Diya Wynn Mar 14, 2023

Show notes

Diya Wynn, Senior Practice Manager in Responsible AI for AWS Machine Learning Solutions Lab, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss her team’s efforts to study and implement responsible practices when developing AI technology. Corey and Diya explore the ethical challenges of AI, and why it’s so important to be looking ahead for potential issues before they arise. Diya explains why socially responsible AI is still a journey, and describes how her and her team at AWS are seeking to forge that path to help their customers implement the technology in a safe and ethical way. Diya also describes her approach to reducing human-caused bias in AI models.

About Diya

Diya Wynn is the Senior Practice Manager in Responsible AI for AWS Machine Learning Solutions Lab. She leads the team that engages with customers globally to go from theory to practice - operationalizing standards for responsible Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning and data. Diya leads discussions on taking intentional action to uncover potential unintended impacts, and mitigate risks related to the development, deployment and use of AI/ML systems. She leverages her more than 25 years of experience as a technologist scaling products for acquisition; driving inclusion, diversity & equity initiatives; leading operational transformation across industries and understanding of historical and systemic contexts to guide customers in establishing an AI/ML operating model that enables inclusive and responsible products. Additionally, she serves on non-profit boards including the AWS Health Equity Initiative Review Committee; mentors at Tulane University, Spelman College and GMI; was a mayoral appointee in Environment Affairs for 6 consecutive years and guest lectures regularly on responsible and inclusive technology. Diya studied Computer Science at Spelman College, the Management of Technology at New York University, and AI & Ethics at Harvard University Professional School and MIT Sloan School of Management.

Links Referenced:

Machine Learning is a Marvelously Executed Scam: https://www.lastweekinaws.com/blog/machine-learning-is-a-marvelously-executed-scam/

Evolving Alongside Cloud Technology with Jason McKay Mar 09, 2023

Show notes

Jason McKay, Chief Technology Officer at Logicworks, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how the cloud landscape has changed and what changes are picking up steam. Jason highlights the benefit of working in a consulting role, which provides a constant flow of interesting problems to solve. Corey and Jason also explore why cloud was positioned well for the current economic changes, and how Kubernetes is slowly but surely becoming more standardized. Jason also reveals some of his predictions for the future of cloud-based development.

About Jason

Jason is responsible for leading Logicworks’ technical strategy including its software and DevOps product roadmap. In this capacity, he works directly with Logicworks’ senior engineers and developers, technology vendors and partners, and R&D team to ensure that Logicworks service offerings meet and exceed the performance, compliance, automation, and security requirements of our clients. Prior to joining Logicworks in 2005, Jason worked in technology in the Unix support trenches at Panix (Public Access Networks). Jason graduated Bard College with a Bachelor of Arts and holds several AWS and Azure Professional certifications.

Links Referenced:

Logicworks: https://www.logicworks.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonhmckay/

The Realities of Working in Data with Emily Gorcenski Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

Emily Gorcenski, Data & AI Service Line Lead at Thoughtworks, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how big data is changing our lives - both for the better, and the challenges that come with it. Emily explains how data is only important if you know what to do with it and have a plan to work with it, and why it’s crucial to understand the use-by date on your data. Corey and Emily also discuss how big data problems aren’t universal problems for the rest of the data community, how to address the ethics around AI, and the barriers to entry when pursuing a career in data.

About Emily

Emily Gorcenski is a principal data scientist and the Data & AI Service Line Lead of ThoughtWorks Germany. Her background in computational mathematics and control systems engineering has given her the opportunity to work on data analysis and signal processing problems from a variety of complex and data intensive industries. In addition, she is a renowned data activist and has contributed to award-winning journalism through her use of data to combat extremist violence and terrorism. The opinions expressed are solely her own.

Links Referenced:

ThoughtWorks: https://www.thoughtworks.com/
Personal website: https://emilygorcenski.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EmilyGorcenski
Mastodon: https://mastodon.green/@emilygorcenski@indieweb.social

The Growing Dominion of Cloud Providers with Raj Bala Mar 02, 2023

Show notes

Raj Bala, Founder of Perspect, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to chat about his experiences working in the world of cloud and why he made the shift from Gartner Analyst to Founder. Raj asks the question, “Is AWS truly customer-obsessed?” in the face of their business practices, and challenges the common notion that analysts don’t need to have lived experience with a product to criticize it. Raj and Corey also explore the absurdity of Azure naming conventions, how cloud providers are creating roadblocks to multi-cloud, and the response of the greater public as cloud providers become more and more powerful.

About Raj

Raj Bala, formerly a VP, Analyst at Gartner, led the Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services since its inception and led the Magic Quadrant for IaaS before that. He is deeply in-tune with market dynamics both in the US and Europe, but also extending to China, Africa and Latin America.

Raj is also a software developer and is capable of building and deploying scalable services on the cloud providers to which he wrote about as a Gartner analyst. As such, Raj is now building Perspect, which is a SaaS offering at the intersection of AI and E-commerce.

Raj's favorite language is Python and he is obsessed with making pizza and ice cream.

Links Referenced:

Data Protection the AWS Way with Wayne Duso and Nancy Wang Feb 28, 2023

Show notes

Wayne Duso, VP of Storage, Edge and Data Governance Services at AWS and Nancy Wang, GM of AWS Data Protection, both join Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss data protection and analysis at AWS. Wayne and Nancy describe how AWS Backup has scaled to protect over 90% of the data stored on AWS today. Nancy explains how her team specializes in helping AWS customers develop custom solutions for their specific data needs, and the way that AWS has built out new tools and services to accommodate that customization. Wayne also reveals how important data analysis is to the AWS team when it comes to improving services and developing ground-breaking new innovations.

About Wayne

Professionally, Wayne is a Vice President at Amazon Web Services (AWS) where he leads a set of businesses delivering cloud infrastructure services. In 2013, he founded and continues to lead the AWS Boston regional development center. Wayne is an always-curious entrepreneur who is passionate about building innovative teams and businesses that deliver highly disruptive value to customers. He loves engaging people who build and deliver customer-obsessed solutions, as well as customers wanting to realize value from those solutions. Wayne also holds over 40 patents in distributed and highly-available computer systems, digital video processing, and file systems. Personally, Wayne is a proud dad to great people, and loves to cook and grow things, it relaxes and grounds him, and he cherishes finding adventure in the ordinary as well as the extraordinary.

About Nancy

Nancy is a product & engineering executive, advisor, and investor with significant experience in cloud computing, cybersecurity, and SaaS. Nancy advises Fortune 10 companies on accelerating revenue growth, and she advises startups on attracting their first 100K enterprise customers.

Currently, Nancy is the Director of Product & Engineering and General Manager at Amazon Web Services, where she leads P&L, product, engineering, and design for its data protection and data security businesses. Prior to Amazon, she led SaaS product development at Rubrik, the fastest-growing enterprise software unicorn, and built healthdata.gov for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Passionate about growing early-stage startups, Nancy is a Venture Partner for Felicis Ventures, where she works with early-stage data infra and security companies on their product-market fit, market segmentation, and product scaling.

Excited to advance more women into technical roles, Nancy is the founder & board chair of Advancing Women in Tech, a global 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has already informed and educated 30,000 Coursera learners worldwide on how to get their first, or next, tech leadership role.

She earned a Bachelors of Applied Science from the University of Pennsylvania, where she serves on the Board of Directors for the UPenn School of Engineering Online.

Links Referenced:

re:Invent talk with Nancy and Neha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELSm3WgR8RE

Getting the Basics Right in Cloud Security with Fouad Matin Feb 23, 2023

Show notes

Fouad Matin, Co-founder & CEO of Indent, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how to get data security right without creating unnecessary barriers for your development team. Fouad and Corey discuss how getting admin access as a developer can be time consuming and vague, when it should be efficient and come with an easily defined reason for granting access. Fouad also explains why he feels most breaches are due to not getting the basics right, and why he feels storing customer and sensitive data should be done with the same principles as dealing with hazardous waste.

About Fouad

Fouad Matin is the co-founder and CEO of Indent, a security company that enables teams to perform mission-critical operations faster and more securely. With Indent, organizations like HackerOne, Modern Treasury, Vercel, and PlanetScale are able to grant secure, time-bound user and admin permissions for cloud apps and infrastructure through Slack.

Prior to Indent, Fouad worked as an engineer at Segment, a customer data platform helping companies secure their pipelines for handling customer data. He co-founded a non-partisan non-profit in 2016 to help people register and get out to vote through easy-to-use, privacy preserving tools. In 2018, while validating Indent’s mission, partnered with Vote.org to build tools for users to find their polling place and preview their ballot using client-side encryption.

Links Referenced:

Indent: https://indent.com
Nobody Should Have Production Access:https://indent.com/blog/production
Fouad on Twitter:https://twitter.com/fouadmatin
Indent on Twitter:https://twitter.com/indent
Unplanned Maintenance:https://unplannedmaintenance.com
Least Privilege in Practice Blog Post from Indent: https://indent.com/blog/least-privilege

Additional Links Referenced:

Email: mailto:fouad@indent.com
Fouad LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indentinc/
Indent LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fouadmatin/

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