Insightful conversations. Less snark.

Emily Gorcenski, Data & AI Service Line Lead at Thoughtworks, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how big data is changing our lives - both for the better, and the challenges that come with it. Emily explains how data is only important if you know what to do with it and have a plan to work with it, and why it’s crucial to understand the use-by date on your data. Corey and Emily also discuss how big data problems aren’t universal problems for the rest of the data community, how to address the ethics around AI, and the barriers to entry when pursuing a career in data. 

Raj Bala, Founder of Perspect, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to chat about his experiences working in the world of cloud and why he made the shift from Gartner Analyst to Founder. Raj asks the question, “Is AWS truly customer-obsessed?” in the face of their business practices, and challenges the common notion that analysts don’t need to have lived experience with a product to criticize it. Raj and Corey also explore the absurdity of Azure naming conventions, how cloud providers are creating roadblocks to multi-cloud, and the response of the greater public as cloud providers become more and more powerful.

Wayne Duso, VP of Storage, Edge and Data Governance Services at AWS and Nancy Wang, GM of AWS Data Protection, both join Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss data protection and analysis at AWS. Wayne and Nancy describe how AWS Backup has scaled to protect over 90% of the data stored on AWS today. Nancy explains how her team specializes in helping AWS customers develop custom solutions for their specific data needs, and the way that AWS has built out new tools and services to accommodate that customization. Wayne also reveals how important data analysis is to the AWS team when it comes to improving services and developing ground-breaking new innovations. 

Fouad Matin, Co-founder & CEO of Indent, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how to get data security right without creating unnecessary barriers for your development team. Fouad and Corey discuss how getting admin access as a developer can be time consuming and vague, when it should be efficient and come with an easily defined reason for granting access. Fouad also explains why he feels most breaches are due to not getting the basics right, and why he feels storing customer and sensitive data should be done with the same principles as dealing with hazardous waste.

Mai-Lan Tomsen Bukovec, Vice President of Foundational Data Services at AWS, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss her technique for spending time intentionally and prioritizing work-life balance called balcony-hopping. Mai-Lan explains how she created the concept of balcony-hopping and how it has helped her to be a better leader, mother, wife, and boxer. Corey and Mai-Lan discuss how in today’s age, attention is a form of currency and why it’s so important to be intentional with how and where you spend your attention. Mai-Lan also offers practical insights to anyone seeking to feel more productive, present, and balanced. 

Kannan Solaiappan, Head of Reliability and Data Engineering at Circles Life, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss building a team in a start-up environment and the complexities of balancing reliability and security with scale. Kannan describes the challenges of building a semi-platform multiple instances model and how products like Severalnines have helped identify and optimize potential problems before they affect customers. Kannan and Corey also discuss the impact that major outages had on the world at large when it came to fault-tolerance on entry points, and Kannan explains how guardrails can improve reliability without creating the same resistance from engineers that governance can.

Episode Summary

Álvaro Hernandez, Founder of OnGres, joins Corey on Screaming in the cloud to discuss his hobby project Dyna53, the balkanization of AWS services, and all things Postgres. Álvaro and Corey discuss what it means to be an AWS Community Hero these days, and Álvaro shares some of his experiences as being one of the first Heroes to provide feedback on AWS services. Álvaro also shares his thoughts on why people shouldn’t underestimate the importance of selecting the right database, why he feels Postgres and Kubernetes work so well together, and the ever-growing ecosystem of Postgres.

Catharine Strauss joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how doom scrolling lead her to a passionate career in cloud sustainability. Catharine talks about the surprising amount of carbon data creates, and her hopes for the future. She walks through a talk track and action strategy for employees who want to spearhead a sustainability effort in their own companies, as well as her hopes for Amazon’s latest development on their carbon footprint tool. Catharine also explains why it’s necessary to think in terms of the “fourth dimension” like Doc Brown in Back to the Future III when planning for cloud sustainability efforts.

Jeremy Meiss, Director of DevRel at CircleCI, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to define what DevRel is and what it isn’t. Listen as Jeremy explains where he feels DevRel is best positioned to sit in a company, as well as why it’s important to view DevRel as “just marketing” or “just product”. Jeremy also reveals how he sees the role of DevRel evolving as we face economic changes in the market, as well as how DevRel teams can connect to a sense of meaning and purpose in their work to avoid burnout.

Emily Ruppe, Solutions Engineer at Jeli.io, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss the best practices she’s discovered for effectively handling incident responses. Emily explains how she fell into incident response and why it suits her mindset, as well as the different ways she’s seen organizations handle incident response and what seems to be most effective. Emily describes how she managed to not only survive but thrive through an acquisition, why blameless root causes analysis is well intentioned but misses finer points for learning, and what she has most enjoyed about working at Jeli.io.

Aerin Booth, Founder of Cloud Sustainably, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how they were inspired to pursue a career in cloud sustainability, and the cloud sustainability conference they’re launching this year called The State of Open. In this conversation Aerin highlights the importance of creating boundaries in the cloud to promote innovation and efficiency, drawing interesting parallels between early video games and the current state of cloud. Corey and Aerin discuss the importance and shortcomings of AWS’s focus on sustainability, and Aerin reinforces the importance of doing work that you enjoy and makes a positive difference in the world.