Tag Archives: Automation

Ops After Kubernetes

How has Kubernetes changed our industry? Today’s discussion is part of a multi podcast conversation in which we’re going to think about ways in which Kubernetes could go away, or could influence other technologies in such a way to be transformative.

We went down the path of what we have learned from Kubernetes and how it influences other aspects of IT operations, architecture and design, and explored the impact that the expectation for declarative immutable operational constructs will play into other aspects of our system. We also discuss micro LS microkernels and how operations are staged to talk about the need for declarative OS, banking on this idea that what Kubernetes has built extends into other areas.

Chat GPT Summary:
“The conversation is part of a multi-podcast series focused on exploring ways in which Kubernetes could influence other technologies, as well as the potential consequences if it were to disappear.
During the discussion, the group delved into the lessons learned from Kubernetes and its impact on various aspects of IT operations, architecture, and design. One key takeaway was the importance of declarative immutable constructs in managing the complexities of modern IT systems. The group also explored the potential for microkernels to revolutionize system design and emphasized the need for declarative operating systems.
Overall, the discussion highlighted the transformative role that Kubernetes has played in shaping the IT industry and underscored the importance of adopting a declarative, immutable approach to managing complex IT systems.”

Transcript: otter.ai/u/7SMjDGwHTMLmfaCACk…?utm_source=copy_url
Image: www.pexels.com/photo/submarine-m…-harbor-14707646/

Decentralized Platform Engineering

What are the human and management factors that go into building great platform engineering? And what are the efforts of control having too much control or too much flexibility, not enough collaboration, not creating space for innovation, and changing inside what’s inside these platform engineering efforts?

Today, we discuss centralized versus decentralized platform engineering, or as came up in the conversation about platform engineering, it’s the opposite of Java Enterprise, version and platform.

As you’re doing this type of work interacting with platform teams should influence how you design and authorize the effort to make that work. What type of slack you need to put in the system and what type of authority needs to be given to the platform engineering team.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/ySGeMTU_qFeeBbENz4…?utm_source=copy_url
Image: www.pexels.com/photo/keyboard-keys-lot-373072/

Rob’s Hot Take:

In the Cloud 2030 Podcast episode on March 14th, Rob Hirschfeld discusses the importance of adopting a system-wide view in platform engineering, emphasizing the need to identify over-optimization in certain areas like developer productivity while underestimating other critical aspects such as operations, security, or compliance. Hirschfeld advocates for a holistic approach to platform engineering, focusing on optimizing the entire system, streamlining teams, and making strategic trade-offs rather than just emphasizing technology or developer productivity. He suggests that this mindset can lead to improved efficiency, productivity, and return on investment for platform teams, highlighting the significance of considering the broader organizational context. Hirschfeld encourages listeners to explore the March 14 episode for a deeper understanding of these concepts, available on the 2030.cloud platform.

Deflating Cloud Mythology [+ book club]

Is hardware going to be innovative and change? Brian Cantrell brings up oxide computing and some of their design motivation.

Today we discuss our skepticism about some of his points, as well as the impacts for cloud distributed Compute hardware design mainframes, cloud, repatriation, and a whole bunch of topics about next generation thinking in Compute infrastructure management and applications.

We are officially starting our cloud2030 book group and I hope you will join us – we are going to be reading Data Cartels by Sara Landon, followed by Investments Unlimited by John Willis and crew.

Book Clubs Links:

May 4 > Data Cartels www.amazon.com/Data-Cartels-Comp…ion/dp/1503633713

Early July >
www.amazon.com/Investments-Unlim…tal/dp/1950508536

Transcript: otter.ai/u/S7CRv2J9fmOjAc8HM_…?utm_source=copy_url
Image: www.pexels.com/photo/a-man-stand…-balloon-9128460/

Generative AI in IT

What is generative AI and what are people now just generically calling ChatGPT?

We put these things in a technical frame, meaning can we use generative AI to improve our programming, testing or automation? What does it take to use these concepts in ways that iteratively improve IT infrastructures.

We review the state of chat, ChatGPT, AI infrastructure and things like that.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/nFCSMPFyUVHO50I0jG…?utm_source=copy_url
Image: www.pexels.com/photo/woman-leani…machine-15625100/

Rob’s Hot Take:

In a discussion on the DevOps Lunch and Learn podcast, Rob Hirschfeld, CEO of RackN, explores the complexities of generative AI and its impact on coding and automation. Hirschfeld raises questions about trust in generative AI models, emphasizing the need to understand how they are trained, updated, and refined to eliminate errors. He highlights the importance of creating reliable training sets to ensure the technology’s applications, focusing on enhancing system resilience and maintainability.

Can Platform Engineering Hide Complexity?

Is platform engineering effective at hiding complexity from developers? Today we tear apart what platform engineering is doing, how it came about and what it’s trying to be.

We discuss what companies are trying to accomplish with platform engineering – how can successful efforts improve outcomes for development teams and operations teams by improving collaboration in contracts? Why and how is that important, and what do those efforts entail?

Transcript: otter.ai/u/bVd1_IwEqFD-uEYxsy…?utm_source=copy_url
Image: www.pexels.com/photo/woman-posin…erwater-15674505/

Rob’s Hot Take:

In the Cloud 2030 podcast episode on platform engineering, Rob Hirschfeld, CEO of RackN, explores the profound impact of platform engineering on operational efficiency and developer complexity. He emphasizes the discipline’s role in making operations accessible, efficient, and repeatable, leading to significant benefits for companies and DevOps teams. While discussing how platform engineering can hide complexity, Hirschfeld highlights the ongoing essential work involved, debunking the notion of shortcuts and emphasizing the value it adds to organizations. He invites listeners to join discussions at the 2030.cloud, where important technology topics are analyzed in depth.

Business Value of Platform Engineering

https://soundcloud.com/user-410091210/business-value-of-platform-engineering

Platform engineering is quite buzzy and has a lot of hype at the moment.

Today we dug behind the hype to acknowledge how the term is being used and misused. We cover why this is a topic of interest, how it’s driving customer thinking around operations and development teams, how it’s working to establish standard operating procedure around infrastructure and operations to support a business, and how those needs drive the evolution of our technology, infrastructure and design thinking.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/GksMnMIZV0cyM6iwWj…?utm_source=copy_url
Image:www.pexels.com/photo/person-in-b…of-cards-6255293/

Rob’s Hot Take:

In the Cloud 2030 podcast episode on platform engineering, Rob Hirschfeld highlights the evolution of IT from bespoke and custom practices towards standardized operations. He emphasizes the need for easier-to-use systems that conform to standard practices, enabling businesses to optimize and scale infrastructure more efficiently. Hirschfeld discusses the challenges of unique and non-standardized operations within organizations, leading to scalability issues and touches on the broader trend driving platform engineering. He encourages listeners to explore the full conversation on the Cloud 2030 channel and engage in further discussions at 2030.cloud.

Chick-Fil-A Edge Kubernetes Deep Dive

https://soundcloud.com/user-410091210/chick-fil-a-edge-kubernetes-deep-dive

We break down the edge compute cluster by the Chick-fil-A team, and we talk about how they use Kubernetes, specifically K3s in 2500 of their restaurants to build an IoT and restaurant management system. This system uses Intel Knucks, a commodity commercial residential grade hardware.

It’s an update on a four year old Kubernetes story with a lot of buzz, and they show how they have been successful building this system.

If you’re interested in Kubernetes, Edge DevOps and distributed systems, this episode has a lot to enjoy.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/i0lBYq9PNQevn0AIvX…?utm_source=copy_url
Image: www.pexels.com/photo/person-in-b…of-cards-6255293/

Rob’s Hot Take:

In the Cloud 2030 podcast episode on Chick-fil-A’s Kubernetes control plane, Rob Hirschfeld highlights the challenges and benefits of transitioning cloud infrastructure and applications to edge locations using commodity gear. He emphasizes the success of Chick-fil-A’s approach in bringing cloud tools and platforms to non-cloud environments, showcasing the potential for mapping cloud processes back into edge computing. Hirschfeld encourages listeners to explore the detailed discussion on Chick-fil-A’s edge clusters and engage in broader conversations on Cloud 2030 at the2030.cloud.

Hachyderm.io Leaves Basement

https://soundcloud.com/user-410091210/hachydermio-leaves-basement

Hazel walks us through the Hackyderm.io leaving the basement migration. We also talk much more generally about Mastodon fediverse and scaling distributed systems.

This podcast is like a super class in what it takes to scale infrastructure and systems, especially live and under duress. Every minute of this conversation is worth listening to twice.

Check out these resources as well:
* hachyderm.io/@hazelweakly
* opalstack.social/@d3cline/109638734488964593
* community.hachyderm.io/blog/2022/12/…the-basement/

Transcript: otter.ai/u/FBIjekCBWcd8tlj1v-…?utm_source=copy_url
Image: www.pexels.com/photo/elephant-cu…ya-savanna-66898/

Rob’s Hot Take:

In the Cloud 2030 podcast episode discussing Hacky Derm’s scaling challenges, Rob Hirschfeld commends Hazel weekly for exploring the intricacies of exponential growth and federated platform integration. He highlights the significance of core architectural design decisions, such as Twitter’s use of immutable IDs for tweets and the necessity for sharing media files in federated systems. Hirschfeld emphasizes the impact of early design choices on an application’s lifecycle, resilience, and scalability, encouraging listeners to delve into the insightful January 31st episode and join the Cloud 2030 community for ongoing discussions at the2030.cloud.

Meta Data, Dark Data and Intent

https://soundcloud.com/user-410091210/meta-data-dark-data-and-intent

Data comes from many different places, sources, and ways. Some data we call dark data, which is data not accessible to you, and all of it relevant. Today we talk about metadata as part of the governance control management exposure of data.

An important layer beyond the data itself is the governance intent, how people access it, and how you combine data. We discuss exactly what that is, but still only touch the surface.

References:
yago-knowledge.org
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology

Transcript: otter.ai/u/rP_4gi-iDont0r2CaZ…?utm_source=copy_url
Image: www.pexels.com/photo/apples-and-…n-books-14098062/

Rob’s Hot Take:

In the Cloud 2030 Podcast episode on metadata and building a data control plane, Rob Hirschfeld emphasizes the challenge of controlling data egress due to its diverse sources and destinations. He contends that rather than attempting to create a locked box for all data, the focus should be on embedding information, particularly metadata, to control data consumption. Hirschfeld envisions a distributed system for a data control plane, involving multiple parties managing and providing consistent rules for data use, acknowledging the complexity of data storage across various locations. He encourages listeners to explore the insightful February 2nd episode and engage in ongoing conversations at the2030.cloud.

Retail Edge Kubernetes ala Chick-Fil-A

https://soundcloud.com/user-410091210/pt2-chickfila-devops-ll-230124

We get an update for the first time in four years about Chick-fil-A edge Kubernetes clusters that gets to the heart of how building distributed infrastructure works and what the challenges are.

Article: medium.com/chick-fil-atech/ent…ompute-f5e2fd63d20f

We had a fantastic conversation about laying the foundations for this. We came away with two really important thoughts about what edge infrastructure looks like, how you pick it, can Kubernetes be used, what is IoT and integration, and the design considerations that go into building this environment.

Listen to this podcast as a preview for a longer article.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/k3Y7S3Hoa0rPZZ8_L5vTn4SNwGI
Image: www.pexels.com/photo/cows-on-fie…andscape-8899447/