In this MonkCast with the Monks, we have mustered the analysts and run amok to discuss recent developments in the open source landscape, focusing on the NATS controversy with the CNCF, the Redis relicense, and the rise of the AGPL. They chat about the implications of licensing changes, the dynamics of community involvement, the sustainability of open source business models, and the contrasting situations of different projects like Linkerd and NATS. The discussion emphasizes the need for nuanced conversations around the value of foundations like the CNCF and challenges faced by smaller open source projects.

Show notes: https://redmonk.com/blog/2025/05/19/mwm-amok-state-of-oss/

RedMonk senior analyst Kate Holterhoff took the MonkCast on the road to devopsdays Atlanta 2025. In episode 2 of this 2-part series, Kate interviews Rachel-Lee Nabors, Nathen Harvey, Pratik Parikh & Kimasia Ayers about their devopsdays talks and the roast of John Willis. Other subjects covered include how AI is changing the way developers build; the impact of generative AI on the software development lifecycle, including some of the latest research from DORA; IDPs, DevOps, and Kubernetes; and what's often missing when we talk about “user-centered design” in tech.

Show notes: https://redmonk.com/blog/2025/05/12/monkcast-on-the-road-devopsdays-atlanta-2025-e2/

RedMonk co-founder James Governor speaks with Mike Long, CEO of Kosli, about the challenges and evolving practices of software governance and compliance in regulated industries. They explore how sectors like finance, automotive, and healthcare face similar software risks despite differing regulatory language, and discuss efforts to create shared terminology and control patterns. The conversation also covers how modern platforms, including Kosli, help organizations automate compliance, improve delivery metrics, and streamline audits by maintaining detailed, real-time records of software changes.

Show notes: https://redmonk.com/videos/a-redmonk-conversation-automated-governance-and-compliance-in-software-delivery-what-to-even-call-this/

RedMonk senior analyst Kate Holterhoff took the MonkCast on the road to devopsdays Atlanta 2025. In episode 1 of this 2-part series, Kate interviews Andrew Clay Shafer, John Willis, and Katie Anderson about their devopsdays talks, their interest in W. Edwards Deming, and the roast of John Willis.

Show notes: https://redmonk.com/blog/2025/05/05/monkcast-on-the-road-devopsdays-atlanta-2025-e1/

Todd Gardner, CEO of Request Metrics and TrackJS, discusses "Frontend Observability" with RedMonk senior analyst Kate Holterhoff. In an attempt to answer the question "Is Frontend Observability Hipster RUM?," Kate and Todd delve into the concept of frontend observability by exploring its definition, historical context, and the uphill marketing hurdles involved in educating web developers about observability tools. Their conversation highlights the disconnect between observability terminology and the practical needs of developers (from SREs to frontend engineers), emphasizing the need for a user-centric approach to positioning these products for the market.

Show notes: https://redmonk.com/blog/2025/04/22/rmc-frontend-observability-todd-gardner/

In this RedMonk conversation, Coraline Ada Ehmke discusses her new book, We Just Build Hammers: Stories from the Past, Present, and Future of Responsible Tech, with Kate Holterhoff, senior analyst at RedMonk. In addition to outlining the book's argument and major themes, Kate and Coraline also chat about extensible lessons from science fiction including what is means to be a hacker and how the history of science connects to contemporary tech justice movements.

In this conversation, John O'Hara, inventor of the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP), discusses this standard's history and development with Kate Holterhoff, senior analyst at RedMonk. O'Hara shares insights about the complexities of middleware, the importance of standards, and the evolution of AMQP 0-9-1 and 1-0. He reflects on the AMQP working group, the role of hyperscalers in shaping standards, the limitations of HTTP, and the importance of standards bodies like ISO, OASIS, and IEC. O'Hara emphasizes the need for middleware to become as ubiquitous as the web and shares insights on the future of AMQP and the standards process.

In this RedMonk conversation, Alexis Richardson, Founder and CEO of ConfigHub, discusses the evolution and significance of messaging in distributed systems, and particularly RabbitMQ, with Kate Holterhoff, Senior Analyst at RedMonk. Alexis shares insights from his experience in the tech industry, including the development of messaging protocol AMQP, the founding of Rabbit Technologies and its acquisition by VMware, and his role in founding the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). The discussion highlights the importance of messaging for asynchronous communication, scalability, and integration in modern technology, particularly in financial services and cloud computing.

In this RedMonk conversation, Andrew Hutchings (aka LinuxJedi), a software engineer at wolfSSL, discusses what he terms "a war going on within the WordPress community" with Kate Holterhoff, senior analyst at RedMonk. Andrew shares his journey into open source, his experiences at MariaDB, and his involvement in the WordPress.org open source community. The discussion delves into the current litigation and his WordPress Slack ban, including this so-called war's broader implications for open source projects.

In this RedMonk conversation, Ram Iyengar, Chief Evangelist at the Cloud Foundry Foundation, chats with Rachel Stephens, Research Director at RedMonk. Their wide-ranging conversation centers on developer experience from cf push and the promise of PaaS, to Korifi, a developer platform built by the Cloud Foundry community for deploying cloud-native applications on Kubernetes.

This RedMonk conversation is sponsored by the Cloud Foundry Foundation.