Episode 0011 - m*cro-services

Carl and Brandon delve into the fascinating world of microservices, starting with a brief introduction and a comparison to macro-services like monolithic and modular monolith architectures. We explored the evolution from monolithic architectures to microservices, highlighting the advantages such as scalability, agility, resilience, and technology diversity. We also discussed the granular scalability of individual services, the independent development and deployment of services, and the use of different technologies for each service.

However, we didn’t shy away from the challenges, addressing the increased complexity, operational overhead, and resource consumption associated with managing distributed systems.

Links

• Macro-services to Nano-services: Evolution of Software Architecture
• Scaling up the Prime Video audio/video monitoring service and reducing costs by 90%
• Performing a Rolling Update | kubernetes

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• [email protected]
• linkedin.com/company/cloudchat

Episode 0010 - Risky Bidness: Ripped from the Headlines

In this episode, Carl and Brandon explored the recent CrowdStrike outage and the lessons to take from the event as it relates to high availability, business continuity, and disaster recovery (HA/BCDR) strategies in the cloud. The incident underscored the need for redundancy, swift response, and well-defined recovery procedures.

Surprisingly, we drew parallels to the banana crisis of the 1950s. The monoculture of the Gros Michel banana left the industry vulnerable to Panama disease. The lesson? Diversity in dependencies matters—whether in tech or agriculture.

Remember: HA/BCDR and diversity are key to resilience.

🎙️🍌🔒

Links:

• CrowdStrike IT Outage Explained by a Windows Developer | Dave’s Garage on YouTube
• CrowdStrike Update: Latest News, Lessons Learned from a Retired Microsoft Engineer | Dave’s Garage on YouTube
• Remediation and Guidance Hub: Falcon Content Update For Windows Hosts | CrowdStrike
• Build high availability into your BCDR strategy | Microsoft Docs, Azure Architecture Center
• Protect and recover in cloud management | Microsoft Docs, Cloud Adoption Framework
• Imperial Scaling Banana by smc | Printables

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Episode 0009 - Knowing Your (Cloud) Tools

In this episode, we delve into the world of “Cloud Tooling”. We explore how different cloud platforms take similar approaches to tooling, with a variety of tools such as command-line interfaces (CLIs), RESTful APIs (and even gRPC), as well as programming language-specific SDKs.

We discuss the spectrum of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) and Command Line Interfaces (CLIs), comparing portals, CLI, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) strategies. We also cover the differences between various Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), and the trend of living in the terminal/shell to be “leetcoderz”.

The episode also touches on the increasing popularity of the shell among coders and streamers, and the importance of achieving consistent experiences with different shells.

Links

• Azure Developer CLI Overview
• AWS CLI
• AWS Shell (Interactive)
• CloudFormation CLI
• GCP CLI
• GCP Cloud API Overview
• API Design
• GCP SDKs - Client Libraries
• Shell Customizations
  • Oh My Posh
  • Brandon’s Oh My Posh Configuration
  • zinit
  • ohmyzsh
• How Terminals Work

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• twitter.com/CloudChatTech
• discord.cloudchat.tech
• [email protected]
• linkedin.com/company/cloudchat

Episode 0008 - Container All the Things!

In this episode, Carl and Brandon delve into the world of containers, exploring their benefits and complexities. We discuss how containers compare to traditional server deployments and virtual machines, highlighting their advantages in development speed, reliable deployments, and consistency across different environments. However, we also touch on the challenges they present, such as complexity, networking, and security issues. We further explore the concept of container layers, the role of container runtimes, and the importance of container registries and orchestrators.

Show links:

• Understanding Containers
• Best Practices for Building Containers
• Demystifying a Docker Image
• Open Container Initiative
• Containerd
• Migrating from Dockershim

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• twitter.com/CloudChatTech
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• linkedin.com/company/cloudchat

Episode 0007 - What the WASM?

In this episode, we are joined by our first guest, Steven Murawski, a Principal Cloud Advocate at Microsoft, who provides an insightful discussion on WebAssembly (WASM) and its role in enabling interoperability across programming languages. The conversation delves into Web Assembly’s objective of creating a portable execution format for multiple languages with near-native performance, and how it is designed to create a new interface when transitioning from the browser to the server-side.

We also explore how WebAssembly can be leveraged to modify application behavior by publishing interfaces for scenarios such as incoming changes, logging, or composing rule components, and the potential standalone use cases in a cloud ecosystem. We also discuss the possibilites of SDKs as wrappers around REST APIs or other shared endpoints, the role of different runtimes like wasmtime and Spin, and the concept of “worlds” in WebAssembly.

We would like to extend our gratitude to Steven for joining us and sharing his valuable insights!

Show links:

• Web Assembly System Interface (WASI)
  • Web assembly system interface
  • WASI 0.2 Launched
  • Azure AKS Use WASI Node Pools
• Component Model
  • Component Model
  • WIT
• WASM Runtimes
  • Wasmtime
  • Wamr
  • JCO
  • containerd shim
• Fermyon
  • Fermyon - Spin
  • Fermyon - SpinKube
  • Getting Started with Fermyon
• Wasmcloud
  • Wasmcloud
• .NET
  • .NET WASI SDK
  • C# (and .NET) in WebAssembly
  • WASI Developer Experience Goals
• DeisLabs
  • Hippo
  • Yo Wasm
• Binding Generation
  • Wit Bind Gen
• Additional Learning Resources
  • WASM by Example
  • VS Code and WASM
  • VS Code Extensions and WebAssembly
  • Hyperlight
  • Microsoft Build 2023 Inside Azure Innovations - Hyperlight
  • Extending Web Assembly to the Cloud
• Open Source Projects
  • Cloudflare Cobweb
  • Azure Samples - AKS Store Demo

Visit us at:

• twitter.com/CloudChatTech
• discord.cloudchat.tech
• [email protected]
• linkedin.com/company/cloudchat

Episode 0006 - Who's Your Landlord?

In this episode, Carl and Brandon discuss the many layers of tenancy within a cloud solution. From single tenant to full multitenant, there are many options to consider. Additionally, building on the past episodoes of IaC and DevOps, Carl and Brandon talk about the disciplines required to move into a modern and automated solution that can scale with your organization and its services.

Show links:

•  
• What is multitenancy? | CloudFlare
• Landing Zones
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • GCP

Visit us at:

• twitter.com/CloudChatTech
• discord.cloudchat.tech
• [email protected]
• linkedin.com/company/cloudchat

Episode 0005 - Your Ops Are in My Dev

In this episode, Carl and Brandon cover a wide range of topics related to DevOps, including the technical and cultural aspects of DevOps, the role of scripting and automation, DevOps tools and infrastructure, communication and teamwork, and additional points on platforms like GitHub and Jira, monitoring tools, and metrics reporting.

Show links:

• DevOps on AWS
• DevOps on Azure
• DevOps on GCP
• Tooling
  • Azure DevOps
  • Bitbucket
  • Chef
  • Circle CI
  • GitHub, the world's source code repository
  • GitLab
  • Jenkins
  • Octopus Deploy
  • Puppet
• DevSecOps Periodic Table

Visit us at:

• twitter.com/CloudChatTech
• discord.cloudchat.tech
• [email protected]
• linkedin.com/company/cloudchat

Episode 0004 - From Portal to Code

Following the conversation on Deployment Stamps, Carl and Brandon dive into the concepts of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and its applications in cloud computing. The hosts discuss the benefits of using IaC, including version control and transparency in infrastructure deployment, making it easier to understand what has been built and why. They also highlight the importance of governance, such as naming conventions, in IaC, as this can make it easier to find resources later on. Carl and Brandon cover both first and third-party IaC frameworks, as well as pros and cons of each.

Show links:

• IaC Frameworks
  • First-Party (Cloud Provider-Specifid)
    • AWS Cloud Formation
    • Azure ARM/Bicep
    • GCP Deployment Manager
  • Third Party (Cloud Agnostic)
    • Ansible
    • Crossplane.io
    • Pulumi
    • Terraform
      • OpenTofu
• Other Links of Interest
  • Azure Verified Modules
  • Hashicorp Joins IBM
  • How an empty S3 bucket can make your AWS bill explode

Visit us at:

• twitter.com/CloudChatTech
• discord.cloudchat.tech
• [email protected]
• linkedin.com/company/cloudchat

Episode 0003 - Paying Forward the Postage   Carl and Brandon discuss the Deployment Stamp pattern and how it can improve your efficiency in the cloud. Create reproducible deployments across multiple environments, save on costs, and scale dynamically to meet demand.   Show links:

• Deployment Stamps 101 | blog.devgenius.io
• Types of GitHub accounts | GitHub Docs
• About organizations | GitHub Docs
• Azure subscription limits and quotas | Microsoft Learn
• Scale and manage IoT solutions with deployment stamps | Microsoft Learn
• Architectural approaches for the deployment and configuration of multitenant solutions | Microsoft Learn
• Deployment Stamps pattern | Microsoft Learn
• Coding Blocks Podcast
• Importance of Data Structures, Bad Documentation and Comments and More | Coding Blocks Podcast
• Cattle vs Pets | DevOps Explained | hava

Visit us at:

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Episode 0002 - Agile Hobbies   Carl shares his journey of transitioning a 20-year-old hobby project into a robust app, highlighting the importance of modern software development practices. The hosts discuss version control, formatting, and the concept of cloud readiness, emphasizing their relevance in both professional and personal cloud-based development.   Show links:

• Using GitHub Issues
• Developing Inside a DevContainer

Visit us at:

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• [email protected]
• linkedin.com/company/cloudchat