Screaming in the Cloud

On this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, we look back at our conversation with Amy Negrette. Before she joined DigitalOcean Senior Development Advocate, she was a cloud economist at The Duckbill Group. Prior to that, Amy worked as a cloud architect at Trek10, Inc., a cloud software engineer lead at Cloudreach, a software developer at ASRC Research and Technology Solutions, and a software engineer at Yahoo, among other positions. She’s also an organizer of Write/Speak/Code, an organization committed to helping Under Represented Genders sharpen their technical speaking and writing capabilities. Join Corey and Amy as they discuss the pros and cons of remote work, what Duckbill’s organizational structure is like, remote work during the pandemic vs. remote work during the before times, why it’s nice to be able to work whenever you want to work instead of during fixed hours, why the future of travel in the tech industry should change, how Corey and Amy met, what makes cloud economics come natural to Amy, a tool that helps recreate physical events online more effectively than Zoom, and more.

Show Highlights

(0:00) Intro

(0:57) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(1:30) Amy’s experience working with The Duckbill Group during the pandemic

(7:20) When Amy was the only cloud economist with a background in software engineering

(12:36) Is it antiquated to go on-site to meet with clients?

(16:23) Amy’s time spent working at NASA

(17:55) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(18:38) What it’s like working IT for NASA

(20:28) Amy’s background prior to cloud consulting

(24:15) Amy’s view on public speaking events coming out of the pandemic 

(29:21) Corey’s qualms with re:Invent 

(31:51) Where you can find more from Amy

About Amy Arambulo Negrette

With over ten years industry experience, Amy Arambulo Negrette has built web applications for a variety of industries including Yahoo! Fantasy Sports and NASA Ames Research Center. One of her projects modernized two legacy systems impacting the entire research center and won her a Certificate of Excellence from the Ames Contractor Council. Amy believe that strong and consistent communication can produce the best product and overall customer experience, whether it's in gaming, educational outreach, or internal tools. Her long term goal is to lead people and have creative control over my projects.

Links

• The Duckbill Group: http://duckbillgroup.com/
• Amy’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/nerdypaws

Original Episode

https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/a-conversation-between-cloud-economists-with-amy-arambulo-negrette/

Sponsor

The Duckbill Group: duckbillgroup.com

On this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, Corey is joined by Microsoft's current Vice President of Developer Community, Scott Hanselman. They talk about how Scott is selling enthusiasm around free and open source software to empower the next generation of programmers, how technology can help you escape a suboptimal position in life, moving a blog that was hosted on a Windows Server 2008 server to Azure, using TikTok to encourage younger folks to get into coding, why there isn’t a wrong programming language to learn and why you should learn JavaScript, how the rise of SaaS and cloud computing has made Microsoft a “simpler” company, convincing banks to use open source in the 2000s, and more.

Show Highlights

(0:00) Intro

(0:29) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(1:13) What Scott did as Microsoft’s Partner Program Manager

(2:05) Scott’s various passions and projects

(4:37) Changes at Microsoft since Corey last kept track of the company

(10:15) Why Corey struggles to get back into the Windows ecosystem

(17:45) The convenience of having everything more accessible and hosted in Azure

(24:36) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(25:19) The importance of the struggle when starting out in tech

(30:55) Microsoft’s cultural transformation

(34:32) Why Scott has turned to social media to reach the next generation of engineers

(39:18) Where you can find more from Scott

About Scott Hanselman

Scott has been a developer for 30 years and has been blogging at https://hanselman.com for 20 years! He works in Open Source on .NET and the Azure Cloud for Microsoft out of his home office in Portland, Oregon. Scott has been podcasting for over 950 episodes of http://hanselminutes.com over 18 years and over 750 episodes of http://www.azurefriday.com. He's written a number of technical books and spoken in person to over one million developers worldwide! He's also on TikTok, which was very likely a huge mistake.

Links

• Hanselminutes Podcast: https://www.hanselminutes.com/
• Personal website: https://hanselman.com

Original Episode

https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/inspiring-the-next-generation-of-devs-on-tiktok-with-scott-hanselman/

Sponsor

The Duckbill Group: duckbillgroup.com

On this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, Corey is joined by James Governor, co-founder of RedMonk. In this throwback, they discuss how RedMonk is different from traditional analyst firms. You’ll also learn how Corey and James met, how James credentialed Corey as a bona fide industry analyst on Twitter, and how anyone can be an analyst in theory. Beyond that, James explains the mindset required to give advice as an analyst, what attracted him to becoming an analyst in the first place, and why RedMonk focuses on the qualitative instead of the quantitative.

Show Highlights

(0:00) Intro

(0:29) The Wiz sponsor read

(1:31) What lead James to become an analyst and founding RedMonk

(4:36) Why James believes developers are the “ new monarchmakers”

(10:06) Recounting the time James credentialed Corey as an analyst on Twitter

(12:24) Who and what are analysts?

(17:44) The woes of rage-driven development

(21:01) The Wiz sponsor read

(21:55) Why Corey thinks James is a model Twitter user and advocate

(25:23) What makes RedMonk’s industry events stick out from everyone else

(35:15) Why James habitually changes his name on Twitter

(36:45) Where you can find more from James

About James Governor

James Governor founded RedMonk in 2002 with Stephen O'Grady. They focus on developers as the real key influencers in tech. Understanding that people choose technology because of gut instincts not facts per se. As an ex-journalist, James has managed teams and news agendas in the weekly publication grind. He has also been IBM and MS watcher since 1995.

Links

• RedMonk: https://redmonk.com/
• James’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/MonkChips
• Monktoberfest: https://monktoberfest.com/
• Monki Gras: https://monkigras.com/

Original Episode

https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/analyzing-analysts-with-james-governor/

Sponsor

The Wiz: wiz.io/scream

On this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, Corey is joined by Emma Bostian, an Engineering Manager at Spotify in Stockholm. Emma is also an author, co-host of the Ladybug Podcast, and has a strong following on social media. She goes into the details on her podcast and the varied nature of her and her co-hosts, she also discusses her book Decoding the Technical Interview Process, in which she breaks down the seemingly esoteric nature of interviewing for these highly technical jobs—but her focus is on the frontend. She and Corey discuss the general banality of these interviews and the direction they can, and should, go in to improve. Emma also loves to teach, to add even more to her portfolio! She goes into the five w’s of her work with LinkedIn Learning and Frontend Masters. Emma also has some excellent insights into her sizable Twitter presence. Tune in for Emma’s variegated offerings!

Show Highlights

(0:00) Intro

(0:58) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(1:31) Hosting the Ladybug Podcast and teaching online courses

(3:13) Why Emma wrote Decoding the Technical Interview Process

(7:01) Corey’s qualms with how people interview in tech

(12:03) Why Corey appreciates Emma's guidance on how to interview

(14:50) Bizarre hiring practices that some interviewers use

(18:20) Passion, work/life balance, and seeking out new employees

(19:41) Turning side projects into revenue streams

(22:23) Seeking out sponsors instead of monetizing your audience 

(26:06) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(26:49) Balancing customer service with piracy

(29:35) Letting your online following become your resume

(36:01) Where you can find more from Emma

About Emma Bostian

Emma Bostian is an Engineering Manager at Spotify in Stockholm. She is also a co-host of the Ladybug Podcast, author of Decoding The Technical Interview Process, and an instructor at LinkedIn Learning and Frontend Masters.

Links

• Ladybug Podcast: https://www.ladybug.dev
• LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/emma-bostian
• Frontend Masters: https://frontendmasters.com/teachers/emma-bostian/
• Decoding the Technical Interview Process: https://technicalinterviews.dev
• Emma's Twitter: https://twitter.com/emmabostian

Original Episode

https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/changing-the-way-we-interview-with-emma-bostian/

Sponsor

The Duckbill Group: duckbillgroup.com

Corey Quinn welcomes Adam Zimman back to Screaming in the Cloud for a sponsored episode featuring Heroku by Salesforce. As Head of Product Marketing, Adam discusses after years of stagnation following its Salesforce acquisition. Recent investments and a dedicated team signal a renewed focus on developer experience. The duo explores Heroku's impact on modern app development, its role in popularizing the 12-Factor App model, and the decision to retire its free tier. Adam highlights key updates, including Kubernetes replatforming, .NET support, and AI tools for managed inference and agents. He also teases his upcoming book, Progressive Delivery, set for release next year.

Show Highlights

(0:00) Intro

(1:01) Heroku sponsor read

(1:39) How Heroku became resurgent

(5:46) Heroku’s legacy

(9:53) Adam’s thoughts on people’s response to the free tier going away

(10:55) Heroku’s target customer(s)

(13:51) Heroku sponsor read

(14:19) How Heroku saves organizations money and developed over time

(20:08) Heroku’s re:Invent announcements

(24:53) How modern-day developers have reacted to Heroku’s resurgence

(27:47) Where people can learn more about Heroku 

About Adam Zimman

Adam Zimman is Technologist and Author currently serving as the Head of Product Marketing at Heroku by SalesForce. Previously, he was a Venture Capital Advisor providing guidance on leadership, platform architecture, product marketing, and GTM strategy. He has over 20 years of experience working in a variety of roles from software engineering to technical sales. He has worked in both enterprise and consumer companies such as VMware, EMC, GitHub, and LaunchDarkly.

Adam is driven by a passion for inclusive leadership and solving problems with technology. He is a co-author of Progressive Delivery: Build the right thing, for the right people, at the right time. His perspective has been shaped by a degree (AB) from Bowdoin College with a dual-focus in  Physics and Visual Art, an ongoing adventure as a husband and father, and a childhood career as a fire juggler.

Links

• Heroku’s website: https://www.heroku.com/
• Adam’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/azimman.bsky.social
• Adam’s Mastodon: https://hachyderm.io/@az
• Adam’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamzimman/
• Personal site: https://progressivedelivery.com/

Sponsor
Heroku: http://heroku.com/

On this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, Corey is joined by accomplished tech journalist Daisuke Wakabayashi to explore the world of tech reporting. The pair discuss Dai’s 2019 article on AWS while touching on a number of topics, including how AWS evolved from a platform everyone built on top of to one that runs everything built on top of it. Both explore why it’s incredibly difficult to capture all the nuances of the world of open source in a single article, the collaborative nature of writing the news, and how a journalist can tell when they’ve written a story that doesn’t have mistakes. Dai and Corey also unpack why Amazon as a trillion-dollar company should expect more scrutiny, what it was like to try to get people to go on the record talking about AWS, and more.

Show Highlights

(0:00) Intro

(0:29) The Duckbill Group Sponsor read

(1:02) A brief look at Dai’s background as a journalist

(2:00) Dai’s article covering AWS’s business practices

(3:47) Unpacking the discussion around Dai’s article

(6:09) The careful thought and nuance that goes into writing an investigative news article

(8:59) How AWS insiders are responding to Dai’s article

(11:50) The importance of disclosures in journalism

(14:32) AWS’s blog post responding to Dai

(18:41) The Duckbill Group Sponsor read

(19:24) How criticism affects relationships with AWS

(23:36) Corey’s reaction to getting mentioned in Dai’s article and the NYT style guide

(27:18) Why it’s still important for journalists to speak truth to power

(32:22) Where you can find more from Dai

About Dai Wakabayashi
Daisuke Wakabayashi was born in Singapore, lived in Tokyo, and spent the bulk of his childhood in New Jersey. He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. Daisuke’s journalism career started at Reuters in Tokyo. He also worked for Reuters in Boston and Seattle, covering everything from industrial conglomerates to natural disasters. He returned to Japan with The Wall Street Journal covering technology and then returned to the United States to cover Apple. Wakabayashi joined The New York Times in 2016 and covered Google from the paper’s San Francisco bureau. In 2022, he moved with my family to Seoul to take his current job as an Asia business correspondent for The Times.

Links

• Dai’s 2019 article “Prime Leverage: How Amazon Wields Power in the Technology World”: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/technology/amazon-aws-cloud-competition.html
• Twitter: @daiwaka
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwakabayashi/
• Personal site: https://www.nytimes.com/by/daisuke-wakabayashi
• Company site: nytimes.com

Original Episode

https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/speaking-truth-to-power-in-tech-with-dai-wakabayashi/

Sponsor

The Duckbill Group: duckbillgroup.com

On this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, Corey is joined by Rich Burroughs, a former Staff Developer Advocate at Loft Labs. Rich is a great resource for all things Kubernetes, and he even hosts his own podcast (link in the description below) where he interviews people in the community. Rich and Corey discuss learning to work well with ADHD, which he has launched into the Twitter-verse for the sake of advocacy. Rich offers his perspective on how to do so, and to do it well. Rich talks about working at large companies, versus small and the various responsibilities of working with the latter. Tune in for Rich’s take!

Show Highlights

(0:00) Intro

(0:50) The Duckbill Group Sponsor read

(1:23) Loft Labs’s work with Kubernetes

(3:15) Doing developer advocacy with Kubernetes

(7:01) Is developer advocacy repetitive for Rich?

(12:06) Going in-depth about Loft Labs 

(16:40) The Duckbill Group Sponsor read

(17:22) The blessing (and curse) of being great at your job

(24:38) Learning to live with ADHD

(32:15) Where you can find more from Rich

About Rich Burroughs
Rich Burroughs is a tech professional focused on improving workflows for developers and platform engineers using Kubernetes. He's the creator and host of the Kube Cuddle podcast where he interviews members of the Kubernetes community. He is one of the founding organizers of DevOpsDays Portland, and he's helped organize other community events. Rich has a strong interest in how working in tech impacts mental health. He has ADHD and has documented his journey on Twitter since being diagnosed.

Links

• Kube Cuddle Podcast: https://kubecuddle.transistor.fm
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richburroughs/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/richburroughs
• Polywork: https://www.polywork.com/richburroughs

Original Episode

https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/helping-avoid-the-kubernetes-hiccups-with-rich-burroughs/

Sponsor

The Duckbill Group: duckbillgroup.com

On this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, we’re taking you back to our chat with Nick Frichette. He’s the maintainer of hackingthe.cloud, and holds security and solutions architect AWS certifications, and in his spare time, he conducts vulnerability research at Hacking the Cloud. Join Corey and Nick as they talk about the various kinds of cloud security researchers and touch upon offensive security, why Nick decided to create Hacking the Cloud, how AWS lets security researchers conduct penetration testing in good faith, some of the more interesting AWS exploits Nick has discovered, how it’s fun to play keep-away with incident response, why you need to get legal approval before conducting penetration testing, and more.

Show Highlights

(0:00) Intro

(0:42) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(1:15) What is a Cloud Security Researcher?

(3:49) Nick’s work with Hacking the Cloud

(5:24) Building relationships with cloud providers

(7:34) Nick’s security findings through cloud logs

(13:05) How Nick finds security flaws

(15:31) Reporting vulnerabilities to AWS and “bug bounty” programs

(18:41) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(19:24) How to report vulnerabilities ethically

(21:52) Good disclosure programs vs. bad ones

(28:23) What’s next for Nick

(31:27) Where you can find more from Nick

About Nick Frichette

Nick Frichette is a Staff Security Researcher at Datadog, specializing in offensive security within AWS environments. His focus is on discovering new attack vectors targeting AWS services, environments, and applications. From his research, Nick develops detection methods and preventive measures to secure these systems. Nick’s work often leads to the discovery of vulnerabilities within AWS itself, and he collaborates closely with Amazon to ensure they are remediated.

Nick has also presented his research at major industry conferences, including Black Hat USA, DEF CON, fwd:cloudsec, and others.

Links

• Hacking the Cloud: https://hackingthe.cloud/
• Determine the account ID that owned an S3 bucket vulnerability: https://hackingthe.cloud/aws/enumeration/account_id_from_s3_bucket/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/frichette_n
• Personal website:https://frichetten.com

Original Episode

https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/hacking-aws-in-good-faith-with-nick-frichette/

Sponsor

The Duckbill Group: duckbillgroup.com

On this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, Corey is joined by Nipun Agarwal, Senior Vice President of MySQL HeatWave Development at Oracle, to discuss the release of MySQL HeatWave and how it will benefit users among the sea of database offerings on AWS. Nipun reveals why Oracle decided to develop HeatWave, how HeatWave is providing meaningful cost savings to users, and how HeatWave has been optimized for the cloud. Nipun explains how they’ve lowered the barriers to entry for new users of HeatWave, and Oracle’s focus on implementing customer feedback when developing new offerings.

Show Highlights

(0:00) Intro

(0:55) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(1:28) The significance of HeatWave coming to AWS

(2:20) What is MySQL HeatWave?

(5:13) What jumped out to Corey during his conversations with Nipun on Oracle

(8:40) What’s “under the hood” of MySQL HeatWave

(14:12) How Oracle built out its pricing for MySQL HeatWave

(16:41) Why MySQL HeatWave doesn’t show up on AWS bills

(21:27) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(22:09) Oracle’s historical customer base and the company’s credit system

(24:30) The point behind MySQL HeatWave

(27:51) How MySQL HeatWave runs

(33:53) Where you can find more from Nipun and Oracle

About Nipun Agarwal

Nipun Agarwal is a Senior Vice President, MySQL HeatWave and Advanced Development, Oracle. His interests include distributed data processing, machine learning, cloud technologies and security. Nipun was part of the Oracle Database team where he introduced a number of new features. He has been awarded over 170 patents., Nipun Agarwal is Senior Vice President of MySQL Database & HeatWave Development. He leads a global engineering organization responsible for Oracle’s MySQL innovations that enable organizations to use a single database for both transactional and analytical workloads. His interests include data processing, distributed systems, machine learning, cloud computing and security. Prior to his current position, Nipun was with Oracle Labs and the Oracle Database team, where he introduced a number of new features. He has been awarded over 175 patents.

Links

• Oracle: https://oracle.com
• MySQL HeatWave info: https://www.oracle.com/mysql/ 
• MySQL Service on AWS and OCI login (Oracle account required): https://cloud.mysql.com

Original Episode

https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/heatwave-and-the-latest-evolution-of-mysql-with-nipun-agarwal/

Sponsor

The Duckbill Group: duckbillgroup.com

The tech industry is getting long enough in the teeth that now there are some bonafide old fogeys. Nevertheless there, fortunately, are plenty of younger tech folks out there pushing the thought and mentality of the industry forward. Andrew Brown, Co-Founder and Cloud Instructor at ExamPro Training Inc certainly is, but his presence in the community is so much more! On this Screaming in the Cloud Replay, Andrew talks about the various internet platforms that he stays active on, and his mission to provide education on the cloud. Importantly so, Andrew does so with an immense amount of generosity. As he puts it, he couldn’t imagine taking money for the courses that he has created. Andrew and Corey discuss at length their thoughts on cloud certifications, the worth of multicloud, and much more!

Show Highlights

(0:00) Intro

(0:41) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(1:15) Why Corey struggles to keep up with Andrew’s impressive online presence

(2:47) Explaining ExamPro

(6:39) The troubles of online “experts”

(13:01) Andrew’s thoughts on using certifications as proxies

(18:14) The value of certification vs. your level of experience

(22:47) The Duckbill Group sponsor read

(23:30) Should engineers learn more than one cloud provider?

(27:10) Is multi-cloud actually the way to go?

(34:31) Where you can find more from Andrew

About Andrew Brown

Andrew Brown has been working in tech 15 years. Today, he creates free cloud certification courses where he teaches people Cloud, DevOps, Data, ML, Security, K8s and Serverless.

Links

• ExamPro Training, Inc.: https://www.exampro.co/
• PolyWork: https://www.polywork.com/andrewbrown
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-wc-brown
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewbrown

Original Episode

https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/learning-to-give-in-the-cloud-with-andrew-brown/

Sponsor

The Duckbill Group: duckbillgroup.com