Join us as Amelia shares the debugging story nobody tells you about - how her vector store DB couldn't surface specific data until she tested it with simplified data from ChatGPT.

Amelia walks through her journey from throwing JIRA tickets into a large language model without understanding pipelines or data cleaning, to discovering why her production vector store was failing. You'll learn about the gap between chatting with data and getting accurate connections, how to validate vector similarity search results, the difference between production and synthetic test data, and practical troubleshooting workflows for AWS vector stores. This episode reveals the messy reality of RAG systems - when everything seems fine but the outputs are subtly wrong, and how testing with simplified data can expose what production complexity hides.

Timestamps

0:00 Cold Open

1:03 Welcome & Introduction

2:06 Amelia's Background & DeepRacer Trophy

4:49 The JIRA Ticket Use Case Origin Story

5:53 Getting Into the Presentation

6:03 Accessing & Cleaning Data Sets

8:12 Losing Production Data & Recreating with ChatGPT

• 12:45 Understanding Vector Databases

How to find Amelia:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameliahoughross/

Join us as Du'An breaks down AI agents in a way that actually makes sense - what they are, how to use them, and how to get started today.

Du'An walks through the fundamentals of AI agents with live demos and practical code examples you can use immediately. You'll learn about agent frameworks, when to use agents versus simple LLM calls, building your first agent, and real-world applications from bookmark management to automated workflows. This episode cuts through the hype with realistic expectations about what agents can and can't do, while showing you concrete examples including MCP servers, Strands Pack, and Du'An's personal second brain system.

Timestamps

0:00 Welcome & Introduction

1:39 Du'An's Background & Previous Episode Success

3:06 Segueing from Last Week's Episode

4:03 CEOs Vibe Coding Discussion

6:49 Real Estate Developer Building Apps Story

8:23 Getting Started with the Presentation

• 12:45 What Are AI Agents?

How to find Du'An:

https://www.duanlightfoot.com/

https://github.com/labeveryday/

Links from the show:

https://github.com/labeveryday/strands-pack

https://github.com/labeveryday/writestat-mcp

https://github.com/labeveryday/bookmark-manager-site

https://bookmarks.duanlightfoot.com/

https://github.com/openai/whisper

https://openai.com/index/whisper/

Join us as Chris gets brutally honest about tech employment in the AI era: what's dying, what's thriving, and how to position yourself to survive the chaos.

Chris walks through the current state of tech layoffs hitting record numbers while companies post record profits, the disappearance of entry-level roles, and practical strategies for navigating this unprecedented moment. You'll learn about skill development in the AI era, why fundamentals still matter more than hype, how to build resilience through community, and what hiring managers are actually looking for right now. This episode doesn't sugarcoat the challenges from hollowed-out expertise at major companies to early-career professionals wondering if their degree still matters, but it also provides actionable guidance on positioning yourself and why humor and human connection remain irreplaceable in an AI-driven world.

Timestamps

0:00 Welcome & Setting the Tone

3:09 Chris Miller's Background & Journey

7:30 The Current State of Tech Employment

• 12:45 Layoffs vs Record Profits Discussion

How to find Chris:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-t-miller/

https://www.chrismiller.com/

Links from the show:

https://roadmap.sh

Join us as Marian explains what AI governance means for vSphere administrators and why it matters now.

Marian walks through practical governance frameworks that vSphere admins need to understand, from IEEE 7000 series standards to mapping governance controls onto infrastructure you already manage. You'll learn what your CISO will ask for, how to respond using your existing VMware stack, and why governance isn't about slowing innovation - it's about enabling it safely. This episode covers real-world scenarios from data lineage and model transparency to integrating governance tools with existing infrastructure, and addresses the gap between compliance requirements and practical implementation for virtualized environments.

Timestamps

0:00 Welcome & Introduction

5:16 Marian's Background in Tech & Governance

6:37 What is Governance?

• 12:45 IEEE 7000 Series Standards Overview

How to find Marian:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariannewsome/

Links from the show:

https://ethicaltechmatters.com/

Join us as Peter explores the core principles and practices of FinOps that help organizations optimize cloud spend without slowing innovation.

Peter walks through what FinOps really is, why it matters beyond just cost cutting, and how engineers can collaborate effectively with finance teams to design cost-aware architectures. You'll learn about the three phases of FinOps (Inform, Optimize, Operate), how to get leadership buy-in for cloud initiatives, and practical strategies for managing cloud costs from the architecture phase through operations. This episode covers real-world scenarios from hybrid cloud cost tracking to building cost models before migrations, and explains how FinOps fits into your existing team structure regardless of organization size.

Timestamps

0:00 Welcome & Introduction

6:10 Peter's Background & Journey to FinOps

• 10:45 What is FinOps?

How to find Peter:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/petercrenshaw/

Links from the show:

https://finops.org

https://finopsweekly.com

https://thefrugalarchitect.com

Join us as Neel explores how observability is evolving beyond traditional logs, metrics, and traces into a predictive, AI-powered discipline.

Neel walks through the evolution of Observability, demonstrating how OpenTelemetry, machine learning, and LLMs are transforming how we monitor and maintain modern applications. You'll learn about dynamic sampling techniques that reduce costs while maintaining visibility, how ML algorithms detect anomalies before they cause outages, and practical implementations using tools like the OpenTelemetry Collector. This episode covers real-world scenarios from reducing massive log volumes to predicting system failures before they impact customers.

Timestamps

0:00 Welcome & Introduction

4:29 Neel's Background & Community Work

5:03 The Evolution of Observability

6:29 The 2 AM Production Incident Scenario

8:13 OpenTelemetry's Role in Modern Observability

• 12:45 Dynamic Sampling Techniques

How to find Neel:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/neelcshah/

https://bento.me/neelshah

Links from the show:

https://neelshah.dev/blogs/observability-2

https://opentelemetry.io/

https://middleware.io/blog/observability-2-0/

Join us as Sam demonstrates how to teach AI to write Terraform configurations using Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.

Sam introduces the Terraform MCP server and walks through practical demos showing how AI can understand and safely interact with your infrastructure. You'll see live examples of AI planning, generating, and evolving Terraform configurations - from creating landing zones to setting up workspace variables automatically. Whether you're managing complex multi-cloud environments or just getting started with infrastructure as code, this episode demonstrates how MCP servers bridge the gap between AI capabilities and real-world Terraform workflows. Learn how to get started, which Claude models work best for different tasks, and best practices for integrating AI into your IaC pipelines.

Timestamps

0:00 Welcome & Introduction

4:37 Sam McGeown's Background

6:02 Introduction to Terraform MCP Server

• 12:35 What is Model Context Protocol?

How to find Sam:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sammcgeown/

Links from the show:

https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/mcp-server

Join us as Gautam breaks down the evolution of tool use in generative AI and dives deep into MCP.

Gautam walks through the progression from simple prompt engineering to function calling, structured outputs, and now MCP—explaining why MCP matters and how it's changing the way AI systems interact with external tools and data. You'll learn about the differences between MCP and traditional API integrations, how to build your first MCP server, best practices for implementation, and where the ecosystem is heading. Whether you're building AI-powered applications, integrating AI into your infrastructure workflows, or just trying to keep up with the latest developments, this episode provides the practical knowledge you need. Gautam also shares real-world examples and discusses the competitive landscape between various AI workflow approaches. Subscribe to vBrownBag for weekly tech education covering AI, cloud, DevOps, and more!

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Timestamps

0:00 Introduction & Welcome

7:28 Gautam's Background & Journey to AI Product Management

• 12:45 The Evolution of Tool Use in AI

How to find Gautam:

https://gautambaghel.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gautambaghel/

Links from the show:

https://www.hashicorp.com/en/blog/build-secure-ai-driven-workflows-with-new-terraform-and-vault-mcp-servers

Presentation from HashiConf:

https://youtu.be/eamE18_WrW0?si=9AJ9HUBOy7-HlQOK

Kiro Powers: https://www.hashicorp.com/en/blog/hashicorp-is-a-kiro-powers-launch-partner

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11dZZUO2w7ObjwYtf1At4WnL-ZPW1QyaWnNjzSQKQEe0/edit?usp=sharing

Join the vBrownBag crew and AWS Hero Peter Sankauskas for the 2026 AWS Community Survey 🎯 – your chance to shape the conversation around AWS careers, cloud adoption trends, and emerging technologies. Peter breaks down this year's survey methodology, shares surprising insights from previous years, and explains how your responses help the entire AWS community understand compensation trends, service adoption patterns, and career development paths. Whether you're a cloud architect, DevOps engineer, or just starting your AWS journey, your voice matters ☁️ Take the survey from January 6 to February 6, 2026, and help build the most comprehensive snapshot of the AWS ecosystem!

Chapters:

• 00:00:03 - Welcome and 2026 AWS Survey Introduction

Resources:

Take the survey! https://answersforaws.com/survey/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersankauskas/

Boardgames mentioned:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/201808/clank-a-deck-building-adventure

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148228/splendor

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/264806/were-doomed

#AWS #CloudComputing #DevOps #CloudCareers #AWSCommunity #vBrownBag #AWSSurvey

Join us for the final episode of 2025 as Mark Tinderholt (Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft Azure, HashiCorp Ambassador, and author of "Mastering Terraform") teaches us Infrastructure as Code through Minecraft! If you've ever wanted to learn Terraform in a fun, visual way, this is the episode for you.

Mark demonstrates how to use the Minecraft Terraform provider to build infrastructure in-game, making complex IaC concepts tangible and engaging. You'll see live demos of provisioning Minecraft resources, managing dependencies, handling state, and even importing existing structures into Terraform. This unique approach transforms abstract infrastructure concepts into something you can literally see and interact with—perfect for visual learners, educators, or anyone looking to make IaC training more engaging. Whether you're teaching your team Terraform or just want a creative way to understand infrastructure patterns, this episode shows you how gaming and cloud engineering can come together. Subscribe to vBrownBag for weekly tech education!

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Timestamps

0:00 Welcome & Technical Difficulties

1:27 Last Episode of 2025!

4:41 Planning for 2026

5:37 Mark Tinderholt Joins

6:14 Introduction to Minecraft + Terraform

8:52 Why Use Minecraft for Teaching IaC?

• 12:35 Getting Started: Requirements & Setup

How to find Mark:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marktinderholt/

Links from the show:

Marks repos: https://github.com/markti?tab=repositories

Marks book: https://amzn.to/3N1rnuJ

Mark's Ignite talk: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/7fa5095f-9f65-46e3-9f82-9af6603ea903