The Cloud Gambit

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Technology is evolving at a rapid pace along with the tools, methods, and education practices. Today, Derek Morgan joins the show to discuss the intersection of automation, DevOps, and Infrastructure-as-Code. Derek is the Founder of More Than Certified, an e-learning platform hosting courses on DevOps, Terraform, Docker, and more. We discuss the importance of foundational knowledge in modern tech, the role of tools like Terraform in enterprise environments, and the future of DevOps education. Derek also provides valuable insights into content creation and the philosophy behind effective technical teaching methodologies.

Where to Find Derek

• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/derekm1215
• Twitter: https://x.com/mtcderek
• Company: https://morethancertified.com

Show Links

• Linux Academy (Now part of Pluralsight): https://www.pluralsight.com/
• Terraform: https://www.terraform.io/
• OpenTOFU: https://opentofu.org/
• Jenkins: https://www.jenkins.io/
• GitHub Actions: https://github.com/features/actions
• Ansible: https://www.ansible.com/

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• Podcast: https://www.thecloudgambit.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCloudGambit
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecloudgambit
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCloudGambit
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecloudgambit

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From managing servers in his closet to leading the AWS Well-Architected Framework performance pillar, Ryan Comingdeer's cloud journey mirrors the evolution of cloud governance itself. Now, as Co-Founder & CEO of Platformr, he's tackling one of cloud computing's biggest challenges: how to scale governance from individual workloads to entire organizations. Join us for a conversation that spans personal experiences, technical insights, and a vision for the future of cloud management that goes beyond traditional frameworks.

Where to Find Ryan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/comingdeer/
• Company: https://platformr.cloud/

Show Links

• AWS Well-Architected Framework: https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/well-architected/
• Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE): https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/enterprise-strategy/what-is-a-cloud-center-of-excellence-and-why-do-you-need-one/
• AWS Trusted Advisor: https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/technology/trusted-advisor/
• Platform Engineering: https://platformengineering.org/
• Re:Invent: https://reinvent.awsevents.com/

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• Podcast: https://www.thecloudgambit.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCloudGambit
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecloudgambit
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCloudGambit
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecloudgambit

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Finding product-market fit is a psychological puzzle, especially for first-time founders launching during a pandemic. Meet JJ Tang, Co-Founder and CEO of Rootly. In this episode, JJ shares his journey—from growing up in China to attending university in Canada and founding a successful incident management platform used by giants like Cisco, NVIDIA, Canva, LinkedIn, and more. We explore valuable lessons from Y Combinator’s S21 batch, the role of messaging in achieving product-market fit, and JJ’s fresh insights on building trust, understanding customer needs, and why incident management is as much about people as it is about technology.

Where to Find JJ Tang

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jjrichardtang/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jjrichardtang

Show Links

• Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/
• Forbes 30 Under 30: https://www.forbes.com/profile/jj-tang/
• Rootly: https://rootly.com/
• Instacart: https://www.instacart.com/

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• Podcast: https://www.thecloudgambit.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCloudGambit
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecloudgambit
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCloudGambit
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecloudgambit

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Meet Nicholas Calcutti: Manager of IT Operations at US Assure and Adjunct Professor at Florida State College Jacksonville. Nick shares his fascinating journey from collecting garbage via horse and buggy on Mackinac Island to managing complex network and cloud infrastructures. We explore the challenges of transitioning from on-premises infrastructure to the public cloud, the importance of unlearning old habits, embracing new paradigms, and teaching the next generation of IT professionals.


Where to Find Nicholas

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-calcutti-0660aa94/
• Twitter: https://x.com/NicholasCalcut1
• Website: https://www.technicalcutti.tech/

Show Links

• US Assure: https://usassure.com/
• Azure Cloud: https://azure.microsoft.com/
• Mackinac Island: https://www.mackinacisland.org/
• KTech CONNECT: https://www.knoxtech.org/ktech-connect/
• Daniel Pelfrey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielpelfrey/
• Florida State College Jacksonville: https://www.fscj.edu/
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory: ​​https://www.ornl.gov/

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• Podcast: https://www.thecloudgambit.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCloudGambit
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecloudgambit
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCloudGambit
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecloudgambit

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In this final episode of 2024, William and Eyvonne dive into a comprehensive year-end retrospective. What is happening on a personal level with The Cloud Gambit hosts? What were our favorite technical innovations? Could it be Google’s Willow quantum chip breakthrough? Or maybe, it’s Elon Musk’s “Colossal” data center build in Memphis. Join us for a fun conversation about the events of 2024, where Eyvonne defends her timing for putting up holiday decor and William attempts to explain quantum computing.

Show Links

• Google Willow: https://research.google/pubs/willow-quantum-computing/
• X/Tesla Dojo Supercomputer: https://www.tesla.com/AI
• NVIDIA AI Infrastructure: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/
• Proxmox Virtual Environment: https://www.proxmox.com/
• Gallium Discovery / Montana: https://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2024/mar/uscriticalmaterials-210324.shtml
• xAI Colossus: https://www.maginative.com/article/inside-elon-musks-colossus-xais-world-leading-ai-supercomputer/
• Tesla TTPoE: https://wcollins.io/posts/2024/tesla-adapts-ethernet-for-with-modified-transport-for-dojo/

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• Podcast: https://www.thecloudgambit.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCloudGambit
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecloudgambit
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCloudGambit
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecloudgambit

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Andy Suderman, CTO at Fairwinds, CNCF Ambassador, and Kubernetes Policy Working Group Co-Chair, joins us to decode the complexities of Kubernetes adoption. From deployment challenges to policy management best practices, Andy shares real-world insights drawn from his experience helping organizations navigate container orchestration. We explore the nuanced differences between cloud providers' Kubernetes offerings, discuss the critical role of policy in securing and optimizing clusters, and get his perspective on where Kubernetes is headed in the coming years.

Where to Find Andy

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudermanjr/
• BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sudermanjr.bsky.social

Show Links

• CNCF: https://www.cncf.io/
• CNCF Slack: https://slack.cncf.io/
• Fairwinds: https://www.fairwinds.com/
• Fairwinds GitHub: https://github.com/FairwindsOps
• Fairwinds YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fairwinds1174
• Kubernetes Slack: https://kubernetes.slack.com/
• Policy Working Group: https://github.com/kubernetes/community/tree/master/wg-policy

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• Podcast: https://www.thecloudgambit.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCloudGambit
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecloudgambit
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCloudGambit
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecloudgambit

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What happens when your mobile app needs to perform flawlessly across thousands of different devices? Meet Hanson Ho - Android Architect at Embrace. In this episode, Hanson shares battle-tested strategies from his experience at Twitter and beyond. Diving deep into real-world challenges, Hanson reveals how mobile observability has evolved from basic crash reporting to sophisticated performance measurement. Learn why traditional monitoring falls short in mobile environments, how to measure what truly matters for user experience, and why the industry is rallying around OpenTelemetry as a standard.

Where to Find Hanson

• Blog: https://hanson.wtf
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanson-ho/
• Twitter: https://x.com/bidetofevil
• BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/bidetofevil.wtf

Show Links

• CNCF: https://www.cncf.io/
• OpenTelemetry: https://opentelemetry.io/
• Embrace Mobile SDK: https://github.com/embrace-io/embrace-android-sdk
• Android Compose: https://developer.android.com/jetpack/compose

Follow, Like, and Subscribe!

• Podcast: https://www.thecloudgambit.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCloudGambit
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecloudgambit
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCloudGambit
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecloudgambit

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Emily Freeman is a bestselling author, prolific speaker, and influencer across AI, DevOps, and Cloud Engineering. Prior to founding Freeman & Forrest, Emily led Developer Relations and Product Marketing at AWS and Microsoft. In this episode, Emily shares her journey from ghostwriter to developer to tech community leader. We explore the intersection of authenticity and sponsorship, discuss the changing dynamics of social media platforms, and unpack what it truly takes to build a meaningful presence in the tech community. Emily also provides candid insights into her entrepreneurial venture, and shares powerful advice for both marketing teams and aspiring content creators in the tech space.

Where to Find Emily

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/editingemily
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/editingemily/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/emilyfreeman.bsky.social
• Website: https://emilyfreeman.io/

Show Links

• Freeman + Forrest: https://www.freemanandforrest.com/
• DevOps For Dummies: https://www.amazon.com/DevOps-Dummies-Computer-Tech/dp/1119552222
• 97 Things Every Cloud Engineer Should Know: https://www.amazon.com/Things-Every-Cloud-Engineer-Should/dp/1492076732
• What is DevOps?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBV8gPVZNEE

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• Podcast: https://www.thecloudgambit.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCloudGambit
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecloudgambit
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCloudGambit
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecloudgambit

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William and Eyvonne are back to dig into current events! They discuss the recent impacts of hurricanes Helene and Milton on critical infrastructure, the growing challenges of power grid stability and the future of nuclear energy. The conversation then shifts to practical strategies for time management, work-life balance, and effective leadership in tech. Drawing from their personal experiences as parents and technology leaders, they share valuable insights on setting priorities, building systems, and fostering growth in teams through thoughtful questioning and mentorship.

Show Links

• James Clear's Atomic Habits: https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits
• Pomodoro Technique: https://francescocirillo.com/products/the-pomodoro-technique
• Getting Things Done Methodology: https://gettingthingsdone.com
• Socratic Method: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Socratic-method

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• Podcast: https://www.thecloudgambit.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCloudGambit
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecloudgambit
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCloudGambit
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecloudgambit

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Pete Lumbis, Principal Engineer at NVIDIA, joins us to discuss the resurgence of hardware importance in the AI era. Pete shares his journey from network engineering to the cutting-edge of AI infrastructure, offering valuable insights into the evolving landscape of hardware and software interactions in modern computing. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the technical underpinnings of AI, data center technologies, and the future of computing infrastructure.

Where to Find Pete Lumbis

• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/alumbis
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/peteccde

Show Links

• NVIDIA: https://www.nvidia.com/ 
• Ultra Ethernet Consortium: https://www.ultraethernet.org/ 
• NVIDIA's Mellanox Acquisition: https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-completes-acquisition-of-mellanox-creating-major-force-driving-next-gen-data-centers 
• Acquired Podcast - NVIDIA Episode: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/jensen-huang

Follow, Like, and Subscribe!

• Podcast: https://www.thecloudgambit.com/ 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCloudGambit 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecloudgambit 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCloudGambit 
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecloudgambit