2GT Podcast

In this month's special edition of the 2GT Podcast, I sit down with Lester Nichols, a long-time 2GT fan and the author of the Cybersecurity Architect's Handbook — 2nd Edition. And to be clear, this isn't a sponsored interview; Lester sent a copy with no strings attached, and once I started reading it, I had to get him on the show.

Lester walks us through his path from pre-med student to senior security architect — including the time an Access database he built for an anesthesiologist exposed a skimming biller, and how Norwich University's information assurance program launched his career. We dig into what makes the 2nd Edition "transformational" rather than just an update: a full rewrite of every chapter, the fight to keep the foundational chapters the publisher wanted cut, labs that now build progressively on each other (ending in a human-in-the-middle AI automation exercise), and a combined 1,400+ pages of book, labs, and supplemental material — all using free, open-source tooling you can replicate in a #homelab.

Beyond the book, the conversation gets big: the record Microsoft month and what AI-assisted vulnerability discovery means for patch management, supply chain attacks from SolarWinds to 7-Zip, why zero trust is still very much valid in a post-AI world (trust levels, segmentation, thinking the what-ifs), China's quantum claims and the legacy systems hiding in every enterprise's closet, all-in-one firewall failures, and honest, career-long advice for people new to InfoSec — fundamentals, burnout, and beating imposter syndrome. Links to the book, Lester's GitHub, and his blog can be found here:

• https://secdoc.tech/
• https://github.com/secdoc
• https://github.com/secdoc/Recommended_Reading
• https://github.com/secdoc/soc-pipeline-public
• https://www.amazon.com/Cybersecurity-Architects-Handbook-architects-enterprise/dp/180610539X/
• https://github.com/secdoc/devsecops-pipeline-public

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This video is brought to you by us! Check out HomeLab Gear here: https://homelabgear.shop/

Visit our website here: https://2guystek.tv/ for all things 2GT! And thank you so much for listening!

Every so often, we break from our typical format to just chat about different random topics, and lucky for you, July is one of those months!

This month, we talk about the tech news and dive into:

#AI in the home
Honey, I shrunk my #homelab
RAM prices going up and up and up
The sorry state of the Smart home

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Support the show

This video is brought to you by us! Check out HomeLab Gear here: https://homelabgear.shop/

Visit our website here: https://2guystek.tv/ for all things 2GT! And thank you so much for listening!

This month, Rich and Branden revisit the ongoing debate: virtualization, containers, or bare metal?

A lot has changed since they first tackled this topic, and the lines between these approaches have only gotten blurrier. The guys break down where virtualization still makes sense, when bare metal may be the better choice, and how containers fit into the modern infrastructure conversation.

They weigh the benefits, tradeoffs, and pitfalls of each approach to help answer the bigger question: is it time to rethink how we deploy workloads?

Enjoy!

**GET SOCIAL AND MORE WITH US HERE!**
Get help with your Homelab, ask questions, and chat with us!
🎮  https://discord.gg/5TcfBWBB7S

**Check out HomeLab Gear for all your homelab needs!**
💿 https://homelabgear.shop/ 

Subscribe and follow us on all the socials, would ya?
📸  https://instagram.com/2guystek
💻  https://facebook.com/2guystek

Find all things 2GT on our website!
🌍  https://2guystek.tv/

More of a podcast kinda person? Check out our Podcast here:
🎙️  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1852562

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

This video is brought to you by us! Check out HomeLab Gear here: https://homelabgear.shop/

Visit our website here: https://2guystek.tv/ for all things 2GT! And thank you so much for listening!

**Our listeners can get 30% off OpenMetal-hosted private clouds and bare-metal servers with the code below**

Promo Code: RICHOMI30
Discount: 30% off clouds and bare metal hardware
Promotion Page: 👉 https://openmetal.io/promos/2guystek-openmetal-intro/

What if the problem isn't your business, it's your cloud? Todd Robinson, founder and CEO of OpenMetal, built a hosted private cloud platform around a simple but powerful idea: your cloud should be architected to fit your business, not the other way around.

In this conversation, we get into Todd's background, how he ended up building OpenMetal, and why the hyperscaler model is fundamentally broken for a huge chunk of businesses that deserve better. We also talk about open-source infrastructure, cloud cost realities, and what it actually looks like to have an engineering-first cloud provider in your corner.

OpenMetal delivers on-demand, hosted private cloud infrastructure powered by OpenStack and Ceph, providing businesses with dedicated, single-tenant environments at a fraction of hyperscaler costs. No surprise billing. No vendor lock-in. No compromising your architecture to fit someone else's platform.

In this interview, we cover:

✅ How Todd built OpenMetal and why hosted private cloud needed a better solution
✅ OpenStack and Ceph as the open source foundation for enterprise private cloud
✅ Why AWS, Azure, and GCP aren't the right fit for every business workload
✅ Cloud cost optimization and what switching to private cloud actually saves
✅ The engineer-to-engineer approach that sets OpenMetal apart
✅ AI-enabled red teaming and what it means for cloud security right now
✅ Why open source infrastructure is winning against proprietary cloud platforms

Oh, and there's a story about a silverback gorilla in Uganda that you did not see coming. Trust me.

#Sponsored by #OpenMetal! Find them at https://openmetal.io/

If you’re an IT leader, infrastructure architect, DevOps engineer, or virtualization admin rethinking your cloud strategy, this is worth a look.

**GET SOCIAL AND MORE WITH US HERE!**
Get help with your Homelab, ask questions, and chat with us!
🎮  https://discord.gg/5TcfBWBB7S

**Check out HomeLab Gear for all your homelab needs!**
💿 https://homelabgear.shop/ 

Subscribe and follow us on all the socials, would ya?
📸  https://instagram.com/2guystek
💻  https://facebook.com/2guystek

Find all things 2GT on our website!
🌍  https://2guystek.tv/

More of a podcast kinda person? Check out our Podcast here:
🎙️  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1852562

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

This video is brought to you by us! Check out HomeLab Gear here: https://homelabgear.shop/

Visit our website here: https://2guystek.tv/ for all things 2GT! And thank you so much for listening!

This week's pod, we dive deep into two heavy topics around well-meaning government laws that have far-reaching negative effects on technology. Starting with the push to force the OS to be the arbiter of age controls for applications, followed by different bills and restrictions working their way through state and federal governments, and attempts to restrict 3D printers.

But first, a quick recap of the tech news!

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

This video is brought to you by us! Check out HomeLab Gear here: https://homelabgear.shop/

Visit our website here: https://2guystek.tv/ for all things 2GT! And thank you so much for listening!

We're back in the saddle again, and this month, Rich and Branden explore what it would take to create a buddy colocation to share homelab infrastructure with your friends while talking through pitfalls or risks!

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

This video is brought to you by us! Check out HomeLab Gear here: https://homelabgear.shop/

Visit our website here: https://2guystek.tv/ for all things 2GT! And thank you so much for listening!

We're back, people, did ya miss us?! This month, we're bringing you a special conversation I had with Dave Vincent, an IT professional, homelabber, AI Agent mastermind, and VergeOS user extraordinaire! 

Branden and I will be back next month with the same great pod. Until then, enjoy!

Check out Dave's blog here: https://blog.homelabadventures.com/

Join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/5TcfBWBB7S

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

This video is brought to you by us! Check out HomeLab Gear here: https://homelabgear.shop/

Visit our website here: https://2guystek.tv/ for all things 2GT! And thank you so much for listening!

This is the second part of our deep dive into the current state of virtualization 2025. In this installment, we talk about VMware by Broadcom's VCF 9.0, Red Hat OpenShift, SUSE Harvester, and touch on this month's news topics!

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

This video is brought to you by us! Check out HomeLab Gear here: https://homelabgear.shop/

Visit our website here: https://2guystek.tv/ for all things 2GT! And thank you so much for listening!

In this podcast, we dive deep into the current state of enterprise virtualization. We go deep into what's changed with Nutanix, VergeIO, Proxmox, XCP-ng, and Scale Computing, talk about where you should turn if you're trying to find your way out of the grips of Broadcom by VMware, and more!

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

This video is brought to you by us! Check out HomeLab Gear here: https://homelabgear.shop/

Visit our website here: https://2guystek.tv/ for all things 2GT! And thank you so much for listening!

This is a special edition podcast this month! We'll be back next month with more great content! Enjoy!

It's been nearly a year since I released my video on VergeIO's virtualization platform, #VergeOS. A lot has changed in a year, and I've been curious to see how things have been going for Verge, what new innovations they've been bringing to their platform, and where the #homelab version of VergeOS is!

In this interview, I sit down with Jason Yeager, SVP of Engineering at VergeIO, to talk about:
  •. The state of virtualization after VMware & Broadcom
  •. Why companies like Topgolf and federal agencies are choosing VergeOS
  •. Huge upcoming integrations: Veeam, NVIDIA vGPU, and AI orchestration
  •. The long-awaited Community Edition and why it matters
  •. How VergeIO is helping customers future-proof with edge, AI, and simplified infrastructure

You can find VergeIO at:  https://www.verge.io/

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

This video is brought to you by us! Check out HomeLab Gear here: https://homelabgear.shop/

Visit our website here: https://2guystek.tv/ for all things 2GT! And thank you so much for listening!