In this episode of the Cloud Native Testing Podcast, Ole Lensmar sits down with Daniel Bryant, Engineer, Speaker, and Head of Product Marketing at Syntasso, to explore how testing is evolving in modern cloud-native environments. They dive into the critical role platform engineering plays in shaping a healthy testing culture, and how teams can strike the right balance between enforcing standards and empowering developers.

Daniel shares hard-won insights on testing in production, infrastructure validation, and why contract testing is essential when working with external dependencies. From technical best practices to organizational mindset shifts, this episode unpacks what it really takes to make testing a first-class citizen in the cloud-native world.

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This podcast is proudly sponsored by Testkube, the cloud-native, vendor-agnostic test execution and orchestration platform that enables teams to run any type of test automation directly within their Kubernetes infrastructure. Learn more at www.testkube.io

In this episode, Ole Lensmar talks with Joe Karp, DevOps Architect at UWM, about what it really takes to build a testing culture inside a modern, cloud-native organization. Joe shares how his team intentionally designed clear ownership between developers, QA engineers, and platform teams—and why empowering devs to own their testing is key to scaling quality across hundreds of services.

From infrastructure-level chaos testing to critical-path monitoring in production, Joe walks through the tooling, strategies, and cultural shifts that enabled UWM to test across multi-cloud, multi-cluster environments. They discuss why off-the-shelf tools often fall short, how internal platforms should be treated like products, and what it means to build resilience into both systems and teams.

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This podcast is proudly sponsored by Testkube, the cloud-native, vendor-agnostic test execution and orchestration platform that enables teams to run any type of test automation directly within their Kubernetes infrastructure. Learn more at www.testkube.io

In this episode, Ole sits down with Oleg Nenashev—CNCF Ambassador, open source advocate, Jenkins Maintainer, and Lead Developer Advocate at Gradle—to unpack the evolving world of cloud native testing. From the rise of integration testing to the role of tools like Testcontainers and WireMock, Oleg shares why modeling realistic systems is more powerful (and more reliable) than traditional mocking. They explore the complexities of testing in Kubernetes and why Java is experiencing a renaissance in the cloud native ecosystem.

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This podcast is proudly sponsored by Testkube, the cloud-native, vendor-agnostic test execution and orchestration platform that enables teams to run any type of test automation directly within their Kubernetes infrastructure. Learn more at www.testkube.io

In this episode, Ole sits down with Ramiro Berrelleza, CEO and co-founder of Okteto, to explore the evolution and impact of ephemeral environments in cloud-native development. They discuss the challenges of testing in traditional setups, how Kubernetes enables ephemeral environments, and their growing role beyond testing—spanning customer research, support, and more. The conversation also dives into data management strategies and the seamless integration of ephemeral environments into the development lifecycle, emphasizing faster feedback loops and enhanced collaboration between developers and QA teams.

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This podcast is proudly sponsored by Testkube, the cloud-native, vendor-agnostic test execution and orchestration platform that enables teams to run any type of test automation directly within their Kubernetes infrastructure. Learn more at www.testkube.io

In this episode, Ole and Laurent Py of Packmind explore how AI is reshaping software development, particularly in quality assurance and testing. The discussion delves into AI’s dual role in testing—both as a tool for generating tests and as a complement to human critical thinking. They also examine the ongoing importance of exploratory testing, the impact of AI on test execution efficiency, and the challenges junior developers face in an AI-driven landscape. The conversation wraps up with insights into the future of AI in software development, emphasizing the need for a balance between automation and human oversight.

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This podcast is proudly sponsored by Testkube, the cloud-native, vendor-agnostic test execution and orchestration platform that enables teams to run any type of test automation directly within their Kubernetes infrastructure. Learn more at www.testkube.io

In this episode, Ole speaks with Mario-Leander Reimer, Managing Director of QAware, about the evolution of testing in cloud-native environments. They discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by shifting left in testing, the responsibilities of developers and QA teams, and the importance of continuous testing. The conversation also touches on the need for holistic quality insights, the role of specialists in quality assurance, and the significance of exploratory testing in maintaining software quality.

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This podcast is proudly sponsored by Testkube, the cloud-native, vendor-agnostic test execution and orchestration platform that enables teams to run any type of test automation directly within their Kubernetes infrastructure. Learn more at www.testkube.io

Welcome to the Cloud Native Testing podcast! Meet your host Ole Lensmar—creator of SoapUI, CTO of Testkube, and a long-time advocate for better software testing. 

We’ll explore the challenges of testing in cloud-native environments, the role of observability, automation, and emerging trends that are shaping the future of testing. Whether you're a tester, developer, or platform engineer, this podcast is for anyone looking to extend their testing strategies into today's cloud native world.

Thanks for listening!

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This podcast is sponsored by Testkube—the cloud-native testing framework that helps teams automate, orchestrate, and scale their testing workflows in Kubernetes environments. With Testkube, testing shifts left for faster feedback and scales right to meet the demands of modern, distributed systems. 

Learn more at testkube.io