sagehirschfeld

Software Defined Edge

We revisit edge infrastructure and the motivations behind building and managing edge infrastructure with an unusual take. In this case, we ask ourselves if all of these edge devices are becoming more software defined or becoming more standardized, off the shelf component tree. And will that change how we look at managing and running edge infrastructure? Will we shift compute and operations processes into these ever smarter devices? The answer is going to surprise you.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/tGIcIC1bijvaW4OkJN…?utm_source=copy_url

UEFI Secure Boot Issue Discussion

We explore the certificate issue in which secure boot is potentially compromised because of certificates that have been compromised in ways they could be easily used as for an attack vector. This is a very significant flaw and something that should be on your purview and radar to fix.

We’re going to talk about what the issue is, why it’s important, how secure boot works, and what you can do to mitigate this problem in your own infrastructure. This is a really important episode for anybody running or managing desktops, data centers or infrastructure of any type.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/59uYpJpra5SutJOpEB…?utm_source=copy_url

Nonviolent Communication [Book Club]

Today we go back to our book club and talk about Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. It’s really foundational work that has elements pulled into a lot of other books that we’ve already discussed, and I think it’s essential for people who are looking to be better leaders. It’s also great to learn how to communicate with more empathy, to frame and phrase questions and engagement that explains your feelings, needs and intents, and hear other people’s needs.

If that sounds a little bit too foo-foo for you, bear with me. This is a really, really, really powerful communication technique.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/2p1NpJOZbuLxixQVOK…?utm_source=copy_url

State Of VCs

We dive deep into the current state of the venture capital (VC) market, exploring the significant shifts and challenges faced by entrepreneurs and investors alike in the post-COVID landscape.
Key topics discussed include:

The decline in the allure of VC funding and the impact of “pump and flip” models

The market volatility and caution among venture firms due to economic factors

The changing focus of VCs towards sectors like healthcare, fintech, and deep tech

The challenges in building sustainable, billion-dollar companies

The rise of corporate venture capital and strategic investments

The potential for rational valuation adjustments and market consolidation

The importance of clearly articulating the problem being solved and achieving product-market fit

The conversation provides valuable insights for founders navigating the evolving VC ecosystem, as well as investors seeking to adapt their strategies to the changing market dynamics. Join Rob and Rich as they explore the future of VC and the strategies needed to succeed in this dynamic landscape.

BootC created Bare Metal Containers [TechOps]

We dive deep into the technical details of BootC – a Red Hat-led technology that uses container-like definitions to describe machine boot processes. BootC is an important development, especially as companies embrace containers and seek a unified approach to machine configuration.

RackN CTO, Greg Althaus, provides an in-depth overview of how BootC works, its key capabilities, and the potential benefits and challenges for operations teams. They explore topics like BootC’s relationship to containers, the concept of immutability, different deployment methods, and the operational considerations around managing BootC at scale.

This conversation offers a balanced, non-Red Hat perspective on BootC, highlighting both its technical merits and the significant operational work required to successfully adopt and integrate it. Listeners will come away with a nuanced understanding of this emerging technology and the factors organizations should weigh as they evaluate BootC for their infrastructure.

Surveillance Capitalism [Book Club]

We dive into Shoshana Zuboff’s book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. Full of amazing insights, predictions, and insightful work, you can scan every page and read something fascinating. You don’t need the book to follow today’s discussion.

We start by watching Apple’s new iPad ad before we dive into the book, and I highly recommend that you watch it as well, link in the show notes. It’s a good tie into the surveillance capitalism discussion and I think you will enjoy our commentary about it.

References:
www.theverge.com/2024/5/8/2415223…rcial-artists-ai
www.amazon.com/gp/product/154175…search_asin_title

Transcript: otter.ai/u/Y-bm0QL3Vnfjcy4hgm…?utm_source=copy_url

Building Infrastructure for AI Training & Inferencing

How do you define infrastructure to support inferencing? Today we discuss that and more, including training. We walk through what it’s going to take to understand what to buy, what to build, how to build, how to put it together, and how hard it is to actually know what goes into the infrastructure behind an AI cluster. Importantly, exploring why we don’t have the answers is the first phase of understanding.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/2SIZyiLDtfyi_zGrol…?utm_source=copy_url

Out Of Band Management [TechOps Series]

We continue our TechOps series, this case diving deep and cheap into out of band management. One of the things about out of band management is that it quickly turns into an alphabet soup of protocol names, vendor names, specific pieces and even the way we talk about out of band management. We have different acronyms for the same action.

In this conversation. Greg Althouse reckons CTO and my co-founder explores lessons learned and things that you need to understand for technical details and a really core understanding of how to build BMC integrations.
We even cover why it’s so hard to do this well. Even if you have no plans in ever touching an out of band interface, the architectural lessons will help you.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/Feahh05PQI-1fxVXDR…?utm_source=copy_url

Understanding SystemD [TechOps]

System D is our topic for today discussing system processes, how do you manage and control processes, services, and fundamental components of Linux operating systems. In this discussion, we cover how to think about it, how it works, alternatives, process controls, and even how they get applied to containers.

Containers were a nice bridge from our previous discussions when we were talking about container management systems. If you are interested in Linux and Linux management, Linux automation, this is a good episode for you!

Transcript: otter.ai/u/KCK3f95lbUEAEzLgA6…?utm_source=copy_url

Hello OT, Meet IT

Edge technology versus OT was the focus of discussion today, and in this conversation, we cover infrastructure information technology versus operations technology, and the ongoing dilemma of edge sites specifically.

This includes factories, retail locations, data center technology and 10th standard cloud with operational tech. Operational tech being vendor locked, narrowly controlled siloed technologies versus general purpose technology. In this case, we’re talking about OT as specific vendor locked islands of technology versus IP, which is multipurpose, multifunction shared infrastructure technologies.

This podcast addresses the tension and how to resolve it between those two technology approaches.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/8-ufJsQAb0yrCXkZTB…?utm_source=copy_url