ITOps, DevOps, AIOps - All Things Ops

Amin Astaneh is an SRE veteran with over 12 years of experience working at major tech companies such as Acquia and Meta.

Now, Amin is spearheading his own venture, Certo Modo, a technology consultancy that helps tech companies reduce their operational costs, increase efficiency, and improve the customer experience using DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering.


In this episode, you'll learn:

1. What makes the perfect Site Reliability Engineer?
2. The reasons for and benefits of a DevOps transformation
3. The most important tools for modern Site Reliability Engineering
4. Real behind-the-scenes stories of major outages

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About Amin:
I'm a consultant who specializes in dramatic turnarounds for tech companies that struggle with operations and scale. After living in Boston for 12 years, I recently became a digital nomad to explore the US, learn more about myself, meet interesting people, and go to the occasional electronic music show. I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experience with others through public speaking and most recently as a guest on podcasts!

Find Amin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aminastaneh/

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About Certo Modo:
Certo Modo provides technical consulting, leadership, and training for any Software Engineering/IT team looking to transform how they launch and operate their products and services. We tap into over a decade of experience in cloud systems engineering, DevOps, and Site Reliability Engineering in both startup and Big Tech companies to help businesses achieve high uptimes and build customer confidence. Certo Modo seeks to be your trusted partner and guide when tackling operational challenges!

Website: https://certomodo.io
Industry: IT Services and IT Consulting
Company size: 0-1 employees
Headquarters: Boston, MA
Founded: 2023

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About the host Elias:
Elias is the VP for North America at Checkmk. He comes from a strategy consulting background but has been an entrepreneur for the better part of the last 10 years. In his spare time, he likes to do triathlons.

Get in touch with Elias via LinkedIn or email [email protected]
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Podcast Music

Music by Ströme, used by permission
‚Panta Rhei‘ written by Mario Schoenhofer
(c)+p 2022, Compost Medien GmbH & Co KG
www.stroeme.com
https://compost-rec.com/

This podcast is produced by our friends at SAWOO 

Bijit Ghosh is the Global Cloud Engineering Lead and Head of Cloud Engineering at Deutsche Bank, the number-one financial institution leading the charge in DevSecOps and GDPR compliance.

In this episode, Bijit talks about how he's improving the bank's tech stack, reducing tech apps, and enabling the bank to provide a seamless customer experience.

What's in it for you:

1. Learn how and why to incorporate SRE into the early stages of system development
2. What is Observability-Driven Development?
3. The most important SRE Anti-patterns you should avoid

About Bijit:
Bijit is a passionate engineering leader who enjoys building software and solutions in the areas of cloud, virtualization, containers, and distributed systems. He has 13 years of experience shipping multiple new products in enterprise, service provider, and consumer tech. He has an extensive background in operations and architecture and is passionate about the adoption and evangelization of new technologies to drive business value and improve the developer experience. These include cloud architecture hosting, containerization and infrastructure platform, automation, CI/CD, AIOps, ML and AI.

Find Bijit on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bijit-ghosh-48281a78/

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About Deutsche Bank:
Deutsche Bank provides retail and private banking, corporate and transaction banking, lending, asset and wealth management products and services as well as focused investment banking to private individuals, small and medium-sized companies, corporations, governments, and institutional investors.

Website: https://www.db.com
Industry: Financial Services
Company size: 10,001+
Headquarters: Frankfurt am Main, Hessen
Founded: 1870
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About the host Elias:
Elias is the VP for North America at Checkmk. He comes from a strategy consulting background but has been an entrepreneur for the better part of the last 10 years. In his spare time, he likes to do triathlons.

Get in touch with Elias via LinkedIn or email [email protected]
__________

Podcast Music

Music by Ströme, used by permission
‚Panta Rhei‘ written by Mario Schoenhofer
(c)+p 2022, Compost Medien GmbH & Co KG
www.stroeme.com
https://compost-rec.com/

This podcast is produced by our friends at SAWOO 

Transitioning to the cloud can be as simple as switching to a new hosting provider.

But this approach leaves countless benefits on the table. Instead, you should consider other cloud migration strategies like re-platforming, re-architecting and re-purchasing to get the most out of the process.

In this episode, Director of Technology for Xebia Cloud US Laurens Baardman explains the differences between these strategies and their relevant payoffs.

What's in it for you:

1. The difference between re-platforming and re-architecting as part of cloud transformation
2. Second-order effects (technical, security & organizational) of re-architecting decisions
3. Security and observability as enablers of cloud transformation
4. Why Kubernetes may often not be the best answer to a re-architecting question


About Laurens:
Laurens is the technology leader for Xebia Cloud & Data USA. With an extensive background in engineering, cyber security and cloud, Laurens has the hands-on experience and pragmatic approach that is required to solve business problems. Laurens loves to bridge the gap between business and engineering. Enabling the best talent to do their best work delivering value that really advances the clients of Xebia.

Find Laurens on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurens-baardman/

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About Xebia:
Xebia is a pioneering IT consultancy company. We strive to be the Authority: as a company, in each of our service domains and as professionals.
This mission was defined in 2004 and has guided Xebia ever since to become the company it is today: 6,000 people with 19 offices on 4 continents.
We realize our mission through our values: People first, customer intimacy, quality without compromise, and sharing knowledge.
When teaming up with Xebia, expect in-depth expertise based on an authentic, values-led and high-quality driven way of working that inspires all we do. We sometimes call ourselves “Mainstream Frontrunners’’. And it all starts with hiring the right people.

Website: https://xebia.com/
Industry: Architecture, Information Technology, Software
Company size: 6,000
Headquarters: Hilversum, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands
Founded: 2001
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About the host Elias:
Elias is the Director of International and Indirect Business at tribe29. He comes from a strategy consulting background but has been an entrepreneur for the better part of the last 10 years. In his spare time, he likes to do triathlons.

Get in touch with Elias via LinkedIn or email [email protected]
__________

Podcast Music

Music by Ströme, used by permission
‚Panta Rhei‘ written by Mario Schoenhofer
(c)+p 2022, Compost Medien GmbH & Co KG
www.stroeme.com
https://compost-rec.com/

This podcast is produced by our friends at SAWOO 

From Military Police Officer in the US Navy to Coffee Shop Owner, Marine Combat Instructor to IT Security Engineer, Neil's career path has been unconventional, to say the least.

In this episode, Neil Cosson, Associate Director of Cloud Security Engineering at OneMain Financial, shares his remarkable story, and how his early experience in the military has shaped his career in IT Security.

What's in it for you:

1. How Neil's career as a Marine Combat Instructor shaped his career in IT Security
2. What are insider threats to IT security and what can companies do to mitigate them?
3. How IT professionals should be thinking about risk
4. Why false positives and false negatives are a problem for monitoring and security professionals


About Neil:
Almost 15 years of Active Duty service where he spent his last years of service as a USMC Combat Instructor and the School of Infantry - East.  He currently serves as the Associate Director of Cloud Security Engineering at OMF where his team and him deliver support services to various teams across the organization and drive key security initiatives.


Find Neil on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-cosson/

About OneMain Financial:
OneMain Financial is the leader in offering nonprime customers responsible access to credit.  We are committed to being the partner of choice and empowering our customers to reach a better financial future.  Our team helps customers meet critical financial needs, including debt consolidation, home and auto repair, medical procedures, and other major expenses.

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About the host Elias:
Elias is Director of International and Indirect Business at tribe29. He comes from a strategy consulting background, but has been an entrepreneur for the better part of the last 10 years. In his spare time, he likes to do triathlons.

Get in touch with Elias via LinkedIn or email [email protected]
__________

Podcast Music

Music by Ströme, used by permission
‚Panta Rhei‘ written by Mario Schoenhofer
(c)+p 2022, Compost Medien GmbH & Co KG
www.stroeme.com
https://compost-rec.com/

This podcast is produced by our friends at SAWOO 

There are 2 types of people in every large organization:

Those who help you to implement change – and those who don't.

In this episode, Juan Cercos, Senior DevOps Director at DAI, shares with Elias, how he's driving change at a multinational organization, and why he uses data to inform his decisions.

What's in it for you:

1. How Juan is driving the change towards modern DevOps in a large organization
2. Why data is critical for identifying priorities and making decisions
3. The importance of capability-driven design for designing IT solutions
4. The value of IT in the eyes of businesses


About Juan:
Juan is an IT Leader with 22 years of experience who spent most of his career focused on IT Management, with a lens on Operations, and more recently DevOps and SRE.  He worked at Fannie Mae, a large Financial Institution, for nearly 20 years, holding various roles from Production Support Manager to Sr. Manager DevOps Enterprise. Most recently, Juan is working as Sr. Director of DevOps, reporting to the CIO at DAI. He managed hundreds of people throughout the career and enjoy the People and Process aspects of IT the most.

Find Juan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-cercos-7790285/
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About DAI:
DAI is in the International Development industry, which Administers Development Projects in Developing Nations on behalf of clients like USAID, the EU Government, and the Gates Foundation. DAI’s mission is to make a lasting difference in the world by helping people improve their lives. It envisions a world in which communities and societies become more prosperous fairer and better governed, safer, healthier, and environmentally more sustainable.

Website: https://dai.com
Industry: Foreign trade and international development
Company size: 3,000
Headquarters: Bethesda, United States
Founded: 1970
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About the host Elias:
Elias is Director of International and Indirect Business at tribe29. He comes from a strategy consulting background, but has been an entrepreneur for the better part of the last 10 years. In his spare time, he likes to do triathlons.

Get in touch with Elias via LinkedIn or email [email protected]
__________

Podcast Music

Music by Ströme, used by permission
‚Panta Rhei‘ written by Mario Schoenhofer
(c)+p 2022, Compost Medien GmbH & Co KG
www.stroeme.com
https://compost-rec.com/

This podcast is produced by our friends at SAWOO 

You acquired a company, and now you want to tackle successful system integration – but how?

And what extra challenge do different size environments bring with them?

Thomas Sweet, CIO of Industrial Refrigeration Pros, has done it all: From tackling IT at large enterprises like GM Financial, to building IT in smaller environments.

Today, he shares with Elias how he does it, what role integration playbooks play for him, and how monitoring & observability play into the process.


What's in it for you:

1. How and why Tom uses pre-built IT integration playbooks in any company acquisition
2. Different layers of cybersecurity issues in an acquisition
3. What role observability plays as part of integrating IT environments
4. Tom’s career journey from GM Financial to Industrial Refrigeration Pros & the differences in IT requirements in different size environments



About Tom:
Thomas J. Sweet is CIO of Industrial Refrigeration Pros, a partnership of companies that service the industrial refrigeration market. Previously, he was VP Cloud Services at GM Financial. Sweet is passionate about digital transformation, DevOps, Agile, crypto, cloud, and attacking the talent shortage head-on by investing in his teams. His views are his own and not that of his employer.

Find Tom on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasjsweet/
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About Industrial Refrigeration Pros:
Industrial Refrigeration Pros designs, builds, and services industrial refrigeration systems, serving the agriculture, food production and other industries.

Website: https://www.industrialrefrigerationpros.com/
Industry: Construction
Company size: 50
Headquarters: Dallas, USA
Founded: 2022
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About the host Elias:
Elias is VP of Sales for North America at tribe29. He comes from a strategy consulting background, but has been an entrepreneur for the better part of the last 10 years. In his spare time, he likes to do triathlons.

Get in touch with Elias via LinkedIn or email [email protected]
__________

Podcast Music

Music by Ströme, used by permission
‚Panta Rhei‘ written by Mario Schoenhofer
(c)+p 2022, Compost Medien GmbH & Co KG
www.stroeme.com
https://compost-rec.com/

This podcast is produced by our friends at SAWOO

There's more to performance engineering than testing.

You have to look at the whole picture.

In today's episode, Scott Moore, Founder at Scott Moore Consulting LLC, sheds some light on parts of that big picture.

He chats with Elias about the role of monitoring and observability in performance engineering today, and shares insights from his 30 years in IT and his work as a performance engineering consultant.


What's in it for you:

1. How Scott defines Performance Engineering and how the various parts work together
2. What role monitoring and observability play in performance engineering
3. The key takeaways from the 2022 market overview of Application Performance Monitoring vendors
4. How to balance security and functionality in your applications
5. What is "chaos testing" and how can it help you enhance your applications


About Scott:
With over 30 years of IT experience with various platforms and technologies, Scott Moore is an active writer, speaker, influencer, and the host of the online show “The Performance Tour” and SMC Journal podcast. He has tested some of the largest applications and infrastructures in the world. As a performance engineering consultant, he helps clients address complex issues concerning performance testing, performance engineering, digital experience, application performance monitoring (APM), and observability.

Find Scott on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmooreconsulting/
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About Scott Moore Consulting LLC:
Scott Moore Consulting LLC is a consulting organization that is constantly solving application performance issues for many Fortune 500 companies, industry leading integrators, and small to medium-sized businesses. How can we help you? Find out at: https://ScottMoore.consulting

Industry: Information Services
Company size: 1
Headquarters: Avon Park, Florida, US
Founded: 2015
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About the host Elias:
Elias is Director of International and Indirect Business at tribe29. He comes from a strategy consulting background, but has been an entrepreneur for the better part of the last 10 years. In his spare time, he likes to do triathlons.

Get in touch with Elias via LinkedIn or email [email protected]
__________

Podcast Music

Music by Ströme, used by permission
‚Panta Rhei‘ written by Mario Schoenhofer
(c)+p 2022, Compost Medien GmbH & Co KG
www.stroeme.com
https://compost-rec.com/

This podcast is produced by our friends at SAWOO 

Are containerized microservices always the best deployment approach?

Kubernetes has quickly become the default system for managing containerized applications across multiple hosts, but its use often lacks nuance.

Some are pointing out that Kubernetes can potentially add unnecessary complexity to your environment.

In today’s episode, Ádám Márton Beke, DevOps Engineer at CGI, chats to Elias about the limits of automation in migrations, why he doesn’t always recommend K8s for deployment, and more.

What's in it for you:

1. Why you should do trial migrations before production
2. The challenges of automation in production servers
3. What is toil and why it should be automated
4. Why Kubernetes shouldn't be the default answer to every question about infrastructure


About Ádám:
Ádám is a DevOps engineer with a background in Python programming, Kubernetes orchestration, Terraform deployment, Cisco networking, Windows/Linux system administration, virtual and physical security, infrastructure monitoring, and automation. He also produces his own videos and articles on a weekly basis on his professional YouTube channel. At the age of 12, Ádám downloaded a song by Eminem that contained a virus and destroyed his computer.

Find Ádám on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ádám-márton-beke-01458416b
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About CGI:
CGI is a Canada-based information technology consulting, systems integration and outsourcing company. CGI was founded in 1976 by Serge Godin and André Imbeau by providing IT consulting services. The company gradually entered the outsourcing market and began a strategy of acquiring other outsourcing companies. CGI provides end-to-end IT and business process services in the growth of businesses and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Website: https://www.cgi.com/
Industry: Banking, Consulting, Cyber Security, Information Technology, Infrastructure, Insurance, IT Management, Outsourcing, Retail, Transportation
Company size: 68,000+
Headquarters: Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Founded: 1976
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About the host Elias:
Elias is the VP of North America at Checkmk. He comes from a strategy consulting background, but has been an entrepreneur for the better part of the last 10 years. In his spare time, he likes to do triathlons.

Get in touch with Elias via LinkedIn or email [email protected]
__________

Podcast Music

Music by Ströme, used by permission
‚Panta Rhei‘ written by Mario Schoenhofer
(c)+p 2022, Compost Medien GmbH & Co KG
www.stroeme.com
https://compost-rec.com/

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This podcast is produced by our friends at the SCL Program by SAWOO 

Can High-Performance Computing (HPC) be containerized effectively?

Containerized workflows are attractive to the research community for many reasons, but when it comes to classic HPC environments, there are many hurdles to overcome.

In today’s episode, Jason Mcdonald, DevOps Team Lead at Harvard Medical School, talks to our host Elias about some of these challenges, his team’s approach, and why he believes Security should be an integral part of DevOps.

What's in it for you:

1. The IT challenges of modern biomedical research
2. The pros and cons of containerized workflows for research communities
3. Why Jason’s team integrates Security with DevOps
4. The latest open-source projects tackling the unique challenges of HPC environments


About Jason:
Jason is DevOps Team Lead/ Engineer with nearly 20 years administration experience. He's mostly interested in large system development and deployment. The first time Jason ever broke an operating system, was when he tried to use Windows 95 at the age of 15, by thrashing a whole bunch of erroneous files that didn't seem to make sense.

Find Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonfmcdonald/
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About Harvard Medical School:
Harvard Medical School is a medical education and scientific research institution focused on education, research, clinical care and service. With its vast reservoir of talent, extensive network of affiliates and commitment to problem solving, Harvard Medical School is uniquely positioned to steer education and research in directions that will benefit local, national and global communities.

Website: https://hms.harvard.edu/
Industry: Education, Health Care, Higher Education, Medical
Company size: 11,000+
Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Founded: 1782
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About the host Elias:
Elias is responsible for the North American business at tribe29. He comes from a strategy consulting background, but has been an entrepreneur for the better part of the last 10 years. In his spare time, he likes to do triathlons.

Get in touch with Elias via LinkedIn or email [email protected]
__________

Podcast Music

Music by Ströme, used by permission
‚Panta Rhei‘ written by Mario Schoenhofer
(c)+p 2022, Compost Medien GmbH & Co KG
www.stroeme.com
https://compost-rec.com/

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This podcast is produced by our friends at the SCL Program by SAWOO 

The question of a recession is no longer if, but when.

Markets are flashing signs that the global economy is teetering on a cliff’s edge, but there’s hope yet.

With the help of AIOps, there’s plenty you can do to keep costs low.

In today’s episode, Mohan Kompella, VP of product marketing at Big Panda, explains how AIOps can help to recession-proof the cost of ITOps.


What's in it for you:

1. The three main avenues of AIOps
2. The challenges of monitoring and observability in hybrid infrastructures
3. Insights from Mohan’s study on the cost of IT operations
4. The role of monitoring, observability and AIOps in recession-proofing the cost of ITOps

About Mohan:
Mohan Kompella, BigPanda's VP of Product Marketing, is an ITOps veteran that has spent 20+ years deploying, architecting, marketing and selling IT monitoring, event correlation, and ITSM tools for Fortune 1000 and Global 5000 companies. Mohan has a BS in Aerospace Engineering from IIT Madras and an MBA from the Kellogg school at Northwestern University.

Find Mohan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkompella/
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About BigPanda:
BigPanda helps businesses prevent and resolve IT outages with their AIOps platform. F500 enterprises such as Intel, Cisco, United, Nike, Marriott and Expedia rely on BigPanda to prevent outages, reduce costs, and give their teams time back for digital transformation.

Website: https://www.bigpanda.io/
Industry: Cloud Infrastructure, Developer Platform, Enterprise Software, Information Technology, SaaS
Company size: 500
Headquarters: Mountain View, California
Founded: 2012
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About the host Elias:
Elias is Director of International and Indirect Business at tribe29. He comes from a strategy consulting background, but has been an entrepreneur for the better part of the last 10 years. In his spare time, he likes to do triathlons.

Get in touch with Elias via LinkedIn or email [email protected]
__________

Podcast Music

Music by Ströme, used by permission
‚Panta Rhei‘ written by Mario Schoenhofer
(c)+p 2022, Compost Medien GmbH & Co KG
www.stroeme.com
https://compost-rec.com/

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This podcast is produced by our friends at the SCL Program by SAWOO