Screaming in the Cloud

Latest Episodes:

Episode 51: Size of Cloud Bill: Not About Number of Customers, but Number of Engineers You've Hired Mar 05, 2019

Show notes

Years ago, if you wanted to launch an Internet company or Web application, you had to own necessary hardware. Now, the economics have changed drastically with the ease of Cloud computing. It’s still a new industry that people are trying to figure out, especially when it comes to cost and optimization.

Today, we’re talking to Dann Berg, a Cloud ops analyst at Datadog. He helps others understand and lower the cost of Cloud operations. Dann is a detective who is dedicated to figuring out why a company’s Cloud bill is so high.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

Companies struggle with field of Cloud economics; can be overwhelming because there’s so much to learn about products and implementation
Companies use the Cloud to grow quickly, which makes their Cloud costs grow quickly and more than expected
Only access to full list of every resource being used is the Cloud bill; there’s no comprehensive inventory service available
Companies need to offer visibility to Cloud bill; not everyone has access to understand how their actions impact the bill
Cost of Cloud bill is dependant on different factors, including new features, new users, and cost of goods sold (COGS)
Scale and manage bill by using a platform app or hiring a consultant/team
Understand pricing of AWS and learn best practices for cost controls early on
Don’t leave money on the table by focusing on engineering time - not best use of resources; focus on the smallest things that have the biggest impact
Cost is important, but don’t slow down those developing in the Cloud; open lines of communication to create culture to understand cost, value what’s measured

Links:

Episode 50: If You Lose Data, Your Company is Having a Very Bad Day Feb 27, 2019

Show notes

If you use MongoDB, then you may be feeling ecstatic right now. Why? Amazon Web Services (AWS) just released DocumentDB with MongoDB compatibility. Users who switch from MongoDB to DocumentDB can expect improved speed, scalability, and availability.

Today, we’re talking to Shawn Bice, vice president of non-relational databases at AWS, and Rahul Pathak, general manager of big data, data lakes, and blockchain at AWS . They share AWS’ overall database strategy and how to choose the best tool for what you want to build.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

Database Categories: Relational, key value, document, graph, in memory, ledger, and time series
AWS database strategy is to have the most popular and best APIs to sustain functionality, performance, and scale
Many database tools are available; pick based on use case and access pattern
Product recommendations feature highly connected data - who do you know who bought what and when?
Analytics Architecture: Use S3 as data lake, put in data via open-data format, and run multiple analyses using preferred tool at the same time on the same data
AWS offers Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB) and Managed Blockchain to address use case and need for blockchain
Authenticity of data is a concern with traditional databases; consider a database tool or service that does not allow data to be changed
Lake Formation lets customers set up, build, and secure data lakes in less time
DocumentDB: Made as simple as possible to improve customer experience
AWS Culture: Awareness and recognition that it takes many to conceive, build, launch, and grow a product - acknowledge every participant, including customers

Links:

Episode 49: Open Source Software: Slipping Beneath the Surface of Awareness Feb 19, 2019

Show notes

Does operating system (OS) choice even matter anymore to most people? Especially with the emergence of serverless and containers? Debian may not see its name up in lights much these days, but it’s still very much front, center, and relevant to what people are doing in Cloud environments.

Today, we’re talking to Elana Hashman, a Python packager and Debian developer. Everything inside a base operating system may not be interesting to end users, but such a collection of components is necessary to create a functioning Linux system.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

Alternative Linux operating systems, including Amazon Linux 2
Level of awareness about free software when choosing and distributing an OS
What is a Python packager? How do you become one?
Python is the new default language due to growth and adoption of its ecosystem
Packaging community off-putting to beginners; find someone who understands the system to guide you

Links:

Episode 48: Nobody Gets Rid of Anything, Including Data Feb 12, 2019

Show notes

Companies can find working in the Cloud quite complicated. However, it’s a lot easier than it used to be, especially when trying to comply with regulations. That’s because Cloud providers have evolved and now offer more out-of-the-box services that focus on regulation requirements and compliance.

Today, we’re talking to Elliot Murphy. He’s the founder of Kindly Ops, which provides consulting advice to companies dealing with regulated workloads in the Cloud.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

Technical controls are easier, but requirements are stricter
Risk Analysis: Putting locks on things to thinking about risks to customers
Building governance and controls; making data available and removable
Secondary Losses: Scrub services to make scope and magnitude of loss smaller
Computing became ubiquitous and affordable; people started collecting data to utilize later - nobody gets rid of anything
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set of regulations apply to marketing technology stacks to manage systems
Empathy building exercise and security culture diagnostic help companies understand compliance obligations
Security Culture: Beliefs and assumptions that drive decisions and actions
Evolution of understanding with public Cloud’s security and availability
Raise the bar and shift mindset from pure prevention to early detection/ mitigation; follow FAIR (factor analysis of information risk)

Links:

Episode 47: Racing the Clouds Feb 05, 2019

Show notes

More and more enterprises and on-prem applications are moving to the Cloud. Therefore, flexibility, agility, time-to-market, and cost effectiveness need to be created to address a lack of visibility and control.

Today, we’re talking to Archana Kesavan, senior product marketing manager at ThousandEyes. The company offers a network intelligence platform that provides visibility to Internet-centric, SaaS, or Cloud-based enterprise environments. Our discussion focuses on ThousandEyes’ 2018 Public Cloud Performance Benchmark Report.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

Purpose of Report: Reveals network performance and architecture connectivity for Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud (GCP), and Microsoft Azure
Report gathered more than 160 million data points by leveraging ThousandEyes’ global fleet of agents that simulate users’ application traffic
Data collected during four-week period was ran through ThousandEyes’ global inference engine to identify trends and detect anomalies
Internet X factor when calibrating network performance of public Cloud providers; best-effort medium that has no predictability and is vulnerable to attacks
AWS’ performance predictability was lower than GCP Cloud and Azure leveraged their own backbones to move user traffic
Certain regions, such as Asia, were handled better by GCP and Azure than AWS
Customers should understand value of long-distance Internet latency when selecting a Cloud provider
Determine what the report’s data means for your business; conduct customized measurements for your environment

Links:

Episode 46: Don't Be Afraid of the Bold Ask Jan 30, 2019

Show notes

If you’re looking for older services at AWS, there really aren’t any. For example, Simple Storage Service (S3) has been with us since the beginning. It was the first publicly launched service that was quickly followed by Simple Queue Service (SQS). Still today, when it comes to these services, simplicity is key!

Today, we’re talking to Mai-Lan Tomsen Bukovec, vice president of S3 at AWS. Many people use S3 the same way that they have for years, such as for backups in the Cloud. However, others have taken S3 and ran with it to find a myriad of different use cases.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

Data: Where do I put it? What do I do with it?
S3 Select and Cross-Region Replication (CRR) make it easier and cheaper to use and manage data
Customer feedback drives AWS S3 price options and tiers
Using Glacier and S3 together for archive data storage; decisions and constraints that affect people’s use and storage of data
Feature requests should meet customers where they are, rather than having to invest in time and training
Different design patterns and best practices to use when building applications
Batch operations make it easier for customers to manage objects stored in S3
AWS considers compliance and retention when building features
Mentorship: Don’t be afraid of the bold ask

Links:

Episode 45: Everybody Needs Backup and Recovery Jan 23, 2019

Show notes

Do you have to deal with data protection? Do you usually mess it up? Some people think data protection architecture is broken and requires too many dependencies. By the time a business needs to backup a lot of data, it’s a complex problem to go back in time to retrofit a backup solution for an existing infrastructure.

Fortunately, Rubrik found a way to streamline data protection components. Today, we’re talking to Chris Wahl and Ken Hui of Rubrik.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

Transform backup and recovery to send data to a public Cloud and convert it to native format
Add value and expand what can be done with data - rather than let it sit idle
Easy way for customers to start putting data into the Cloud is to replace their tape environment; people hate tape infrastructure more than their backups
Necessity to backup virtual machines (VMs) probably won’t go away because of challenges; Clouds and computers break
Customers leaving the data center and exploring the Cloud to improve operations, utilize automation
Business requirements for data to have a level of durability and availability
People vs. Technology: Which is the bottleneck when it comes to backups?
Words of Wisdom: Establish an end goal and workflow/pathway to get there

Links:

Episode 44: Disagree In Commits Console Recorder for AWS Jan 08, 2019

Show notes

Do you have some spare time? Can you figure out an easier way to do something? Then, why not build some software?!

Today, we’re talking to Ian Mckay of Kablamo, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) consultancy. He is the author of Console Recorder, which is a browser extension that records your actions in the Management Console to convert them into SDK code and infrastructure as code templates.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

Timeline to build Console Recorder
Infrastructure as Code: How to code repeatedly without starting over and take ownership of what you built by hand
AWS vs. Individual Achievements: People asked AWS for years to create something to record console click-throughs that Ian did in his spare time
Console Recorder support for any browser that exports Web extensions
Sharp edges of what’s expected of Console Recorder to speed up development
Management Console’s unreadable responses require reverse engineering
Console Recorder: Recommended use cases and areas
How to alleviate security concerns with Console Recorder
Changes to Management Console that may break things
Ian’s past, present, and future projects and products
Words of Wisdom: If you don’t like something, just fix it yourself

Links:

Episode 43: Here’s a Document on How to Best Deal with My Foibles Jan 01, 2019

Show notes

A Manager README is a document designed to establish clarity between a manager and those who report to them. These documents are especially useful for onboarding content. For example, if you have someone new starting on your team, there's so many things you need to share with them - pieces of advice and guidance that help them to make the best decision about what to do in specific situations. A Manager README sets some expectations in advance to make things easier and reduce friction and anxiety for team members.

Today, we’re talking to Matt Newkirk, who manages Etsy’s localization and translation group. He explains that even if your company has an intensive onboarding program and review process, some things are still left out. A Manager README is a helpful and proactive piece of content that prompts conversations about how people perceive things.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

Avoid writing READMEs that are extremely self-centered/arrogant
READMEs clarify what to do until a relationship is established between the manager and their employee
Get feedback early on to make sure that what you include in the document is helpful; it should reflect reality and be discussed
Share README with your manager to make sure you’re both on the same page about team philosophies and expectations
README is a living document that needs to be updated occasionally because things change
README adds context; it’s not designed to make employee feel like they’re back in school and panicking because they’re not prepared
Manager README - Not Matt’s best selection of terminology
Who’s the best boss you ever had? Why? They can be a force that shapes your life and career from the right perspective
Philosophy of Management: Don’t do what terrible managers have done; be transparent about strategic reasons for priorities changing

Links:

Episode 42: SCREAMING WITH CHAOSSEARCH: A reInvent reTrospective Dec 25, 2018

Show notes

Would you like access to unlimited retention of your data within your Amazon S3, which costs far less than online storage on disc? Well, the next time you’re at re:Invent, visit CHAOSSEARCH’s booth.

Today, we’re talking to Pete Cheslock, vice president of products at CHAOSSEARCH and former vice president of operations at Threat Stack. CHAOSSEARCH helps people get access to their login event data using Amazon S3.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

re:Invent - Year of the Pin: People go nuts for conference swag and were collecting pins as if they were gold
Scan Your Badge and Drip Emails: Annoying and passive-aggressive marketing trends meant to be spontaneous and interesting
Need a job? Corey’s looking to hire a “Quinntern” to use a tag email address to gather conference swag at the next re:invent; if interested, contact him
Corey and Pete’s Swag Rules: Something you want or can use, continues to be valuable, no sizes, no socks
Densify Drama: Conference flyer to generate leads failed, created complaints
Track and analyze data, but don’t use it to invade privacy or become creepy
Las Vegas: Right place for conferences, such as re:Invent?
Rather than focusing on going to conference sessions, make meeting and talking to people doing interesting things your priority
Midnight Madness Event: Only place Corey could do stand-up Cloud comedy
re:Invent 2019: Plan appropriately, identify what you want to get out of it, register ASAP to get a nearby hotel, and schedule meetings with AWS staff

Links:

Pete Cheslock on Twitter
Pete Cheslock on LinkedIn
CHAOSSEARCH
Threat Stack
AWS
Amazon S3
Amazon Elasticsearch
re:Invent
Corey Quinn’s Newsletter
Corey Quinn on Twitter
Corey Quinn’s Email
Sonian
Acloud.guru
Densify
Oracle
Apache Cassandra
DigitalOcean
AWS re:Invent 2018 - Keynote with Andy Jassy
AWS re:Invent 2018 - Keynote with Werner Vogels
AWS re:Inforce
VMware
Dreamforce
Kubernetes
Datadog

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