Datacenter Technical Deep Dives

Join us as Dale Orders (AWS Community Builder, four-time All Builders Welcome participant from Australia) walks through everything you need to know about getting to AWS re:Invent completely free - flights, hotel, conference pass, and more. Dale shares her personal journey from being rejected the first time to attending four AWS conferences through the All Builders Welcome grant program, including two as a mentor. You'll learn the exact eligibility criteria, what the grant actually covers (flights, accommodation, Uber vouchers, a prepaid Visa card, and a free AWS exam voucher), how to write an application that stands out, and the one thing that will get yours rejected immediately. Dale also covers what happens after you're accepted, how to handle the visa process if you're outside the US, and a full list of other tech conference grant programs beyond AWS. Applications typically open in late June - this episode is your head start. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 4:11 What is the All Builders Welcome Program? 8:03 Dale's Journey: Rejected Once, Accepted Four Times 11:07 Eligibility Criteria & Who Should Apply 15:49 The #1 Thing That Will Get Your Application Rejected 16:03 Everything the Grant Actually Covers 17:42 How to Apply & Timeline 18:41 Writing a Winning Application 35:18 Visa Process Warning: Don't Ignore This 38:41 Other Tech Conference Grant Programs & Wrap-up How to find Dale: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dale-orders/ Links from the show:

Join us as Dale Orders (AWS Community Builder, four-time All Builders Welcome participant from Australia) walks through everything you need to know about getting to AWS re:Invent completely free - flights, hotel, conference pass, and more. Dale shares her personal journey from being rejected the first time to attending four AWS conferences through the All Builders Welcome grant program, including two as a mentor. You'll learn the exact eligibility criteria, what the grant actually covers (flights, accommodation, Uber vouchers, a prepaid Visa card, and a free AWS exam voucher), how to write an application that stands out, and the one thing that will get yours rejected immediately. Dale also covers what happens after you're accepted, how to handle the visa process if you're outside the US, and a full list of other tech conference grant programs beyond AWS. Applications typically open in late June - this episode is your head start. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 4:11 What is the All Builders Welcome Program? 8:03 Dale's Journey: Rejected Once, Accepted Four Times 11:07 Eligibility Criteria & Who Should Apply 15:49 The #1 Thing That Will Get Your Application Rejected 16:03 Everything the Grant Actually Covers 17:42 How to Apply & Timeline 18:41 Writing a Winning Application 35:18 Visa Process Warning: Don't Ignore This 38:41 Other Tech Conference Grant Programs & Wrap-up How to find Dale: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dale-orders/ Links from the show:

Join us as Mike Fiedler (AWS Hero, PyPI Safety & Security Engineer, Python Software Foundation) makes the case for eliminating long-lived credentials from your release workflow - before an attacker does it for you. Mike walks through the real-world incidents that motivated Trusted Publishing, how OIDC-based short-lived tokens work under the hood, and the step-by-step process for setting it up in GitHub Actions. You'll learn how the 2024 Ultralytics compromise was forensically investigated thanks to Sigstore attestations, why that API token in your repo is just a password with a fancy hat, common pitfalls that will have you debugging for four hours, and why deleting your old token after setup is the step everyone forgets. PyPI went from 10% Trusted Publishing adoption in February 2024 to 36% today - this episode is how you become part of that number. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 4:00 Mike's PyCon US World Tour Recap 8:00 The Scale of PyPI: 13B Requests/Day & 36% Adoption 12:09 Why Long-Lived Tokens Fail: Four Attack Models 16:47 Case Study: The 2024 Ultralytics Compromise 21:44 What is Trusted Publishing? OIDC Explained 27:04 How the GitHub Actions Flow Actually Works 34:12 Other Registries: npm, RubyGems, crates.io, NuGet 36:34 Common Pitfalls & Debugging Tips 42:29 Provenance & Sigstore Attestations 44:22 The Step Everyone Forgets: Delete Your Old Token 47:06 Migration Guide & Getting Started This Week How to find Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miketheman/ https://www.python.org/psf-landing/ Links from the show:

AI subscriptions are becoming as essential as internet bills - and just as expensive. The vBrownBag gang takes a hard look at the real cost of LLMs and what happens when the free ride ends. Chris, Shala, and Damian dig into the Anthropic pricing plot twist, why AI data centers consume 10x the power of traditional racks, the DeepSeek distillation controversy, and what happens when the first hit's free phase ends. You'll learn practical strategies for reducing token burn, why local models are becoming a viable cost escape hatch, how to pick the right model for the right job, and why blindly using Opus for everything is lighting money on fire. This is the unfiltered conversation every AI practitioner needs to have - before the subsidies disappear and the real bills arrive. Timestamps 0:00 Cold Open: Get These Darn Kids Off My Lawn 1:27 Chris's Big News: Leaving IBM for Six Feet Up 8:09 How Many AI Subscriptions Do You Have? 16:41 Stack Overflow Is Dead, Long Live Claude 17:12 Don't Just Blindly Copy and Paste (AI Edition) 31:00 Anthropic Gross Margin 2025: Negative 53% 35:30 When Token Costs Exceed a Junior Dev's Salary 42:02 Find the Model That Fits the Job 46:11 AI Multitasking Is a Lie (Just Like Humans) 49:05 We Are Uniquely Bad at Making Money Off This Show 53:19 Supply Chain Attacks and GitHub Actions 54:45 Did We Solve Anything? Yes. No. Maybe. 55:58 Grateful for Friends & Wrapping Up Links from the show:

Join us as Brian Hough (CEO & Founder of Tech Stack Playbook, AWS Hero) gets brutally honest about the state of tech hiring and what skills developers actually need to survive - and thrive - in the AI era. Brian walks through his frontline perspective on why tech layoffs aren't about skills - they're about market economics - and what that means for engineers trying to stay relevant. You'll learn which roles are actually hot right now (ML engineer, AI engineer, cloud architect, full stack dev), why companies want utility players who can build end to end, how to use social media and building in public to get quietly hired, and why the engineers who thrive will be those who can go from vision to deployed system. Brian also covers practical strategies for positioning yourself before the next wave hits, including using roadmaps as a personal curriculum and leveraging AI as a career accelerator rather than a threat. Timestamps 0:00 Cold Open 0:11 Welcome & Introduction 2:16 Taking Vibe Code to Production-Grade Systems 3:01 Brian's Update: Dog Feeding & Building Internal Tools 8:05 Mac Maximus: Building on AWS EC2 Mac 9:49 Let's Get Into the Presentation 10:10 Agenda Overview 11:11 Is Anyone Actually Working Less Because of AI? 12:52 What Happens When You Don't Understand What You Built 20:10 AWS Root Account Horror Story 23:24 The Skills You Need in 2026 24:09 Tech Scene Overview & Job Posting Divergence 26:19 What Companies Actually Want: Utility Players 28:00 Hot Roles: ML Engineer, AI Engineer, Cloud Architect 32:00 The Layoff Reality: It's Market Economics, Not Skills 40:49 Now Is the Best Time to Start a Startup 42:31 Roles & Salaries Breakdown 43:55 This Advice Is for Everyone - Not Just Job Seekers 48:01 What's Getting Replaced vs. What's Irreplaceable 49:14 How to Become an Irreplaceable Engineer 52:42 Maximum Viable Product 53:02 Building in Public & Social Media Strategy 55:32 Positioning Yourself Before the Next Wave 56:19 Brian's Closing Thoughts 57:03 AI on Your Resume = Getting Hired Fast 58:12 Using Brian's 30-Day Plan as a Claude Curriculum 59:55 Platform Engineering Hot Take 1:03:05 Wrap-up & See You in Seattle How to find Brian: https://brianhhough.com/techstackplaybook Links from the show: https://roadmap.sh/python https://roadmap.sh/ai-engineer https://roadmap.sh/machine-learning https://roadmap.sh/ai-agents

Andrew Brown (ExamPro) joins the vBrownBag crew to talk Gen AI skills, bootcamps, and whether vibe coding has made "learning to code" irrelevant.

AWS Hero Stephen Sennett joins the vBrownBag crew to argue that foundational knowledge matters more now, not less.

Join us for Part 1 of a 3-part series as Du'An Lightfoot (Senior AI Engineer at Akamai) breaks down everything you need to know to get started running AI models locally on your own hardware. Du'An walks through the fundamentals of local AI - from understanding why you'd want to run models privately (data ownership, air-gapped environments, IP protection) to the hardware concepts that make it possible. You'll learn how inference actually works under the hood, why GPUs matter for AI workloads, how to choose and quantize models for your hardware, and how to get up and running with tools like Ollama. This is Part 1 of a 3-part series - future episodes cover serving models via API and distributing inference at the edge with Kubernetes. Timestamps 0:00 Cold Open: Why Local AI? 0:26 Welcome & Introduction 1:30 Following Up on the Frontier Models Episode 2:25 Du'An's Background & AI Inference at Akamai 3:49 What If You Wanted to Own Your Data? 5:00 Local AI vs Cloud AI: A Different Layer of the Stack 5:47 Why GPUs Matter: The Nvidia Story 7:03 CPU vs GPU: Serial vs Parallel Processing 8:28 Model Weights & Quantization Explained 12:45 Choosing the Right Model for Your Hardware 18:22 Getting Started with Ollama 24:16 Live Demo: Running Your First Local Model 30:41 Hardware Recommendations & Requirements 36:52 Hugging Face & Finding Models 42:18 Performance Tips & Benchmarking 48:35 Use Cases: When to Go Local vs Cloud 1:01:30 Live Demo: Claude Put-in-Work Repo 1:11:17 Bonus: Building a Deck with Co-work Live 1:16:36 Preview: Episodes 2 & 3 1:17:17 Wrap-up How to find Du'An: https://www.duanlightfoot.com/ https://github.com/labeveryday/ Links from the show: https://ollama.com/ https://apxml.com/ https://localllm.in/ https://huggingface.co/ https://github.com/labeveryday/claude-put-in-work https://claude.ai/

Join us as Kira Intrator (MIT-trained urban planner, systems thinker, and social impact technologist based in Geneva) makes the case that AI for Good isn't failing because of models - it's failing because of systems. Kira walks through why so many AI pilots never reach deployment, drawing on her experience building tools scaled across 9,000 users, three ministries, and six countries in Central Asia. You'll learn the five factors that kill AI projects in the development sector, why 80% of clinical AI models are trained on data that can't be deployed outside Western contexts, and what the $2.6 trillion opportunity in developing markets actually requires to unlock. This episode is equal parts systems thinking masterclass and call to action - a rare perspective from someone who has moved AI from prototype to production in places most tech professionals never consider. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 2:47 Kira's Background: MIT, Geneva, Central Asia 3:54 The Core Thesis: It's About Systems, Not Models 5:20 AI is Our Generation's Revolution 6:35 The $2.6 Trillion Opportunity 7:17 The 80% Western Data Problem 8:20 Why AI Projects Fail in Development: 5 Factors 9:28 Systems Mismatch & Low-Bandwidth Environments 9:52 Built for Pilot vs. Built for Deployment 10:29 Ownership, Economics & Sustainability 18:22 Real-World Case Studies 24:16 What Actually Works: Levers for Scale 30:41 The Role of Tech Companies & Foundations 33:39 Crystal Ball: Merging the Two Universes 35:01 A Call to Action 38:48 Wrap-up How to find Kira: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiraintrator/ Links from the show: Infrastructure & Platforms Anthropic Beneficial Deployments: https://www.anthropic.com/ Google Research Global South Labs: https://research.google/ Lelapa AI: https://lelapa.ai/ Microsoft AI for Good: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/ai-for-good OpenAI Foundation: https://openai.com/ Research & Innovation Hubs Data Science Africa: https://www.datascienceafrica.org/ Masakhane: https://www.masakhane.io/ Stanford HAI: https://hai.stanford.edu/ Wadhwani AI: https://www.wadhwaniai.org/ Global Governance & Policy OECD AI Observatory: https://oecd.ai/ UNICEF Office of Innovation: https://www.unicef.org/innovation/ World Health Organization AI: https://www.who.int/ Funders & Philanthropies Gates Foundation: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ Patrick J. McGovern Foundation: https://www.mcgovern.org/ Conferences AI for Good Global Summit (July 7-10, 2026 - Geneva): https://aiforgood.itu.int/ Data Science Africa 2026 (July 20-24 - Kampala, Uganda): https://www.datascienceafrica.org/ Deep Learning Indaba 2026 (August 2-7 - Lagos, Nigeria): https://deeplearningindaba.com/

Join us as Hiroko Nishimura (AWS Hero, LinkedIn Learning Instructor, and author of AWS for Non-Engineers) reflects on seven years of teaching cloud to 700,000 learners - what she's learned about learning, and how AWS education has changed. Hiroko walks through the evolution of AWS certification content, what changed when the Cloud Practitioner exam shifted focus, and her honest take on the industry's move away from non-engineer focused learning. You'll hear her best advice for anyone wanting to build a career in tech through content creation, why you only need to be 1-2 steps ahead to start teaching others, and how community has shaped her entire journey. This episode is equal parts AWS education deep dive and career inspiration - whether you're studying for your first cert or wondering how to break into the cloud community, Hiroko's 700,000-learner perspective is exactly what you need to hear. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 1:42 How We Get to 700,000 Learners 3:37 The 22 Courses Explained 6:15 How AWS Cloud Practitioner Has Changed 7:31 The Shift Away from Non-Engineer Focus 12:45 What Actually Changed in the Exam Content 18:22 Hiroko's Teaching Philosophy 24:16 How AI Has Changed the Learning Landscape 30:41 Community Building & AWS Heroes 35:00 Content Creation as a Career Strategy 39:02 Key Takeaways: You Only Need to Be 1-2 Steps Ahead 41:08 The Origin Story: 700,000 Learners from One Study Blog 44:02 Wrap-up & Where to Find Hiroko How to find Hiroko: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hirokonishimura/ https://hirokonishimura.com/ https://hiroko.io/ Links from the show:

Join us as Josh and Adriana call BS on the oversimplified vendor neutrality narrative - because switching observability vendors isn't magic, even with OpenTelemetry. Josh and Adriana walk through the hard truths about OTel vendor neutrality using their favorite analogy: switching from iOS to Android because vCard exists. Sure, your contacts will move, but what about everything else? You'll learn what vendor neutrality actually means in production, why vendor-neutral instrumentation still matters (your code artifacts survive tool changes), the real challenges and pitfalls of switching vendors, and best practices to make the process as pain-free as possible. This episode cuts through the hype with honest talk about what works, what doesn't, and why OpenTelemetry is still valuable even when it's not a magic wand. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 3:32 Getting Into the Talk 4:28 Origin Story: From LinkedIn Post to Full Presentation 5:35 Standards We Love: USB-C, Stop Signs, McDonald's 8:00 The No Name Brand Analogy 12:45 What Vendor Neutrality Actually Means 18:22 The iOS to Android / vCard Comparison 24:16 What You Lose When Switching Vendors 30:41 Why Vendor-Neutral Instrumentation Matters 36:52 Real Challenges & Pitfalls 42:18 Best Practices for Switching 46:17 Shameless Self-Promotion & Resources 49:03 Wrap-up How to find Josh & Adriana: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuamlee/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianavillela/ Links from the show: https://opentelemetry.io/

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 18:22 How Embeddings Work 24:16 The Hallucination Discovery 30:41 Testing Strategies for Vector Stores 36:52 Debugging Vector Similarity Search 42:18 Real-World Troubleshooting Workflows 44:26 Where to Find Amelia & Wrap-up 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? 18:22 Agent Frameworks Overview 24:16 When to Use Agents vs Simple LLM Calls 30:41 Building Your First Agent 36:52 Live Demo: Strands Pack 42:18 MCP Servers Explained 47:35 WriteStats MCP Demo 52:14 Real-World Applications 58:33 Du'An's Second Brain System 1:04:01 Bookmark Manager Walkthrough 1:07:17 Organizing Cloud Storage & Email 1:09:06 Wrap-up & Next Episode Teaser 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 18:22 Entry-Level Roles Disappearing 24:16 What Skills Actually Matter Now 30:41 Building Career Resilience 36:52 The Fundamentals Still Win 42:18 Community & Support Networks 47:35 Practical Job Search Strategies 52:14 What AI Can't Replace (Yet) 55:06 Things We're Thankful For 59:00 Wrap-up & Resources 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 18:22 AI Governance for vSphere Admins 24:16 Data Lineage & Model Transparency 30:41 Risk Assessment Frameworks 36:52 Practical Implementation Strategies 42:18 Integration with Existing Tools 47:35 Common Governance Challenges 51:12 Vendor Landscape Discussion 54:27 Missing Innovation in the Space 58:09 Wrap-up & Resources 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? 16:32 The Three Phases: Inform, Optimize, Operate 22:18 Getting Leadership Buy-In 28:45 Cost-Aware Architecture Design 34:20 Hybrid Cloud & On-Prem Cost Tracking 40:15 FinOps Team Structure & Roles 46:30 Tools & Platforms Discussion 52:14 Accounting & Finance Collaboration 54:13 Starting FinOps Before Cloud Migration 57:17 FinOps for Small Teams & DBAs 1:00:13 Wrap-up & Resources 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 18:22 ML & AI in Anomaly Detection 24:16 LLM Observability Explained 28:32 Cost Optimization Strategies 30:04 Context Windows & Token Management 32:00 Self-Healing Systems Discussion 34:15 Edge Cases: When Dynamic Sampling Doesn't Work 36:27 Wrap-up & Resources 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? 18:22 Setting Up the Terraform MCP Server 24:16 Demo: Claude Desktop Integration 30:41 Creating Infrastructure with AI Prompts 36:52 Reading & Analyzing Existing Terraform Code 42:18 Generating Landing Zone Configurations 47:35 Working with Terraform Workspaces 50:37 Creating Variables Automatically 52:14 Model Selection: Sonnet vs Opus 55:11 Live Demo: Workspace Variable Creation 58:33 Getting Started & Resources 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! ⸻ Timestamps 0:00 Introduction & Welcome 7:28 Gautam's Background & Journey to AI Product Management 12:45 The Evolution of Tool Use in AI 18:32 What is Model Context Protocol (MCP)? 24:16 MCP vs Traditional API Integrations 30:41 Building Your First MCP Server 36:52 MCP Server Discovery & Architecture 42:18 Real-World Use Cases & Examples 47:35 Best Practices & Implementation Tips 51:12 The Competitive Landscape: Skills, Extensions, & More 52:14 Q&A: AI Agents & Infrastructure Predictions 55:09 Closing & Giveaway 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

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! ⸻ 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 16:47 The Minecraft Terraform Provider 20:18 First Demo: Provisioning Basic Blocks 28:32 Managing State in Minecraft 35:41 Working with Dependencies 42:16 Advanced Patterns: For_each & Count 48:55 Importing Existing Structures 55:23 Real-World Applications & Teaching 1:00:17 Q&A: Provider Limitations & Features 1:05:24 Minecraft Level Building Tools Discussion 1:09:05 Final Giveaway & Wrap-Up 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

Join Du'An Lightfoot, AI Developer at AWS, as he dives deep into building AI agents with the strands framework. In this technical walkthrough, Du'An demonstrates how to create custom AI coding assistants and multi-agent systems in just a few lines of code. Learn how agentic AI frameworks have evolved from basic function calling to sophisticated systems that can rival tools like Cursor and Cloud Code. Du'An shares practical examples, including building content pipelines, preprocessing systems, and even generating a book outline from his own YouTube content. Whether you're looking to automate workflows or build your own AI-powered tools, this session covers the frameworks and techniques you need to get started with AI agents. Perfect for developers, DevOps engineers, and anyone interested in leveraging AI to enhance their development workflow. Subscribe to vBrownBag for more community-driven tech education! ⸻ Timestamps 0:00 - Introduction & Welcome 6:43 - AI Tools Discussion & Current Usage 9:33 - Technical Background & Getting Started with Agents 15:00 - Introduction to Strands Framework 25:00 - Building Custom AI Agents Demo 40:00 - Multi-Agent Systems & Workflows 55:00 - Content Pipeline & Preprocessing Examples 1:05:00 - Book Generation Demo 1:10:00 - Q&A & Wrap Up How to find Du'An: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duanlightfoot/ Links from the show: https://s12d.com/vbrownbag-2025 https://github.com/strands-agents/samples https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/getting-started/intro https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/building-effective-agents https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-bedrock-agentcore-samples https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/python-sdk https://modelcontextprotocol.io/llms-full.txt https://openai.com/index/whisper/ https://github.com/openai/whisper

Dive into KubeVirt with the vBrownBag crew and guest Eric Shanks!

In this week's vBrownBag, Principal Software Engineer Dominik Wosiński takes us on a deep dive into Amazon Nova Sonic — AWS's latest speech-to-speech AI model. Dominik explores how unified voice models like Nova Sonic are reshaping customer experience, DevOps workflows, and real-time AI interaction, with live demos showing just how natural machine-generated speech can sound. We cover what makes speech-to-speech difficult, how latency and turn-detection affect conversational design, and why this technology marks the next frontier for AI-driven customer support. Stick around for audience Q&A, live experiments, and insights on where AWS Bedrock and generative AI are headed next.

Join the vBrownBag crew for an insightful session with guest (and host!) Damian Karlson as he breaks down OpenStack for VMware administrators. From Broadcom's shake-up to cultural, operational, and technical migration differences, Damian offers a practical, grounded walk-through of what it means to move from VMware to OpenStack. ☕️ Chapters 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:07:10 – Why organizations are leaving VMware 00:20:45 – Technical differences 00:33:00 – Operational differences 00:43:30 – Culture shift and community resources Resources: https://www.openstack.org/vmware-migration-to-openstack/vmware-to-openstack-migration-guide https://www.openstack.org/coa/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/damiankarlson/ #OpenStack #VMware #OpenInfra #CloudMigration #vBrownBag

Luis is an AWS Community Builder, CTO, and game developer! In this session, you'll learn how to build a live FAST (Free Ad-Supported TV) channel using AWS Elemental MediaLive. We'll walk through the end-to-end process: from ingest and transcoding, to dynamic ad insertion with MediaTailor and VOD integration via MediaConvert. This talk is perfect for engineers, architects, or media professionals looking to deliver scalable, serverless streaming solutions on AWS. 00:00 - Intro 04:50 - Building FAST Channels 06:20 - Key Concepts 18:10 - Architecture of the demo 21:00 - QRs for repo and player demo 22:25 - Building the demo live! 46:51 - Alternate Architectures 2 & 3 How to find Luis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-valdivia-humareda/ Luis' links: https://github.com/lvaldivia/vbrownbag2025

Join an epic panel of AWS Heroes as they dive into their experiences with Kiro, the AI-powered IDE shaking up development workflows. From spec-driven coding to pricing discussions and game demos, this conversation mixes deep tech insights with fun moments. Whether curious about AI's impact on coding or just looking for some cloud community vibes, this session offers laughs, honest feedback, and expert viewpoints.

Ready to conquer DevOps fearlessly? Watch as Shala Werner walks through “DevOps Without the Oh, ****!” moments—sharing real-world stories, and her creative Terraproof sandbox for breaking things safely (without blowing up production)! Whether you're a seasoned engineer or just getting your feet wet, you'll pick up new strategies and learn how to turn nerves into a superpower. Stick around for laughs, relatable tech tales, and some solid advice on experimenting and failing smart.

Unlock essential cloud security lessons with Rajeev Joshi and the vBrownBag team as they explore the most common AWS mistakes: misconfigured S3 buckets, over-permissive IAM, open ports, hard-coded secrets, and blind spots in logging. Hear real-world breach stories and learn practical best practices for safer cloud deployments, whether starting out or leveling up as a security engineer. #CloudSecurity #AWS #CyberSecurity #DevSecOps #CloudCareers #vBrownBag #Infosec Chapters 00:00:03 Cloud Security Introduction & Welcome 00:05:31 Why Cloud Security Matters: Data Breaches, Shared Responsibility 00:18:31 Top Mistakes: S3 Bucket and IAM Misconfigurations 00:31:12 Open Ports, Bad Security Groups, and Real-World Case Studies 00:40:29 Hard-Coded Secrets, Logging, and Monitoring 00:54:54 Best Practices, Careers, and Closing Advice Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeev-joshi-7964b4221/

Snigdha Joshi is a UI/UX Designer: In this session, we unravel how artificial intelligence is redefining the future of creative technology from intuitive UI/UX design to dynamic content creation, generative art, immersive storytelling, and beyond. Gain insight into how AI is unlocking new dimensions of expression, streamlining design processes, and giving rise to transformative career roles at the intersection of imagination and intelligence. 00:00 - Intro 03:50 - Designing Tomorrow 05:00 - Fear of AI 10:29 - User Research 24:18 - Beyond Chat 36:37 - Tools that Do More 41:45 - Final Takeaway 51:22 - Q&A How to find Snigdha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/snigdha-joshi-20a476253/ Snigdha's links: https://snigdhajoshi.framer.website

Janvi Bhagchandani is an AWS Community Builder and an AWS Cloud Captian! In this episode she talks about personal branding and self-marketing within the AWS ecosystem while covering aspects like credentials as social proof, visible expertise, community recognition, and other psychological marketing angles that tie these elements together in the AWS context. 00:00 - Intro 05:43 - Cloud Credibility 07:46 - Authority Bias 16:01 - The 7-38-55 Rule 23:09 - The Primacy Effect 34:45 - The Reciprocity Principle 40:57 - Liking Principle 53:00 - Q&A How to find Janvi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janvi-bhagchandani-b58853256/

In this episode we talk to AWS Hero Brian Hough: Vibe Coding with GenAI is fast and fun — until your app has to actually work in production. That's when reality hits: fragile APIs, missing auth, surprise AWS bills, strict constraints, and no clear path to scale. In this Dev Chat, I'll share what it takes to evolve from AI-generated MVPs to real-world, production-ready apps for millions of users. We'll talk infrastructure as code, scaling APIs, adding observability, and building systems that don't break under pressure. If you've used GenAI tools like Amazon Q, Bedrock, or your favorite code copilot, this session will help you ship faster and smarter. 00:00 - Intro 15:43 - Why Vibe Coding Isn't Enough 17:10 - The vibe coded initial app 18:30 - What could possibly go wrong? 24:42 - (Agenda) How we're going to fix the vibe coded app 27:55 - Fixing our vibe code workflow 29:06 - The Architecture 31:29 - Our Toolkit & Fixing all the things! 55:17 - The repo to play along at home! 55:23 - Q&A How to find Brian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianhhough/ https://brianhhough.com/ Brian's links: https://github.com/BrianHHough/aws-summit-2025

In this episode we talk to Kat Cosgrove, Head of Developer Advocacy at Minimus! We get into a bunch of topics: Horror movies, cannibalism, contributing to open source, how we (sometimes) destroy the things we love

Join Josh Lee and the vBrownBag crew for a lively conversation about why DevOps feels like learning a new language, and the real reasons why there aren't more junior SREs. Explore how layers of abstraction, culture, and tools make breaking in so tough, and hear how mentorship, networking, and a bit of career focus can make all the difference. Whether you're new to tech or a seasoned engineer, this talk delivers practical advice, fresh perspectives, and a few laughs. #DevOps #SRE #CareerAdvice #AIEngineering #TechLearning #vBrownBag #CloudCareers Chapters 00:00:05 DevOps Is a Foreign Language: Why There Are No Junior SREs 00:14:00 DevOps & Linguistics: Lessons from Language Learning 00:26:30 AI and the Modern Learning Stack 00:40:00 Mentorship, Networking, and Finding Your Why 00:50:00 Career Advice & Community Resources Resources: https://bsky.app/profile/joshleecreates.bsky.social https://osacom.io/events/2025/osaf-2025/ https://sessionize.com/osacon-2025/ https://altinity.com/blog/getting-started-with-altinitys-project-antalya

Join Jenn Bergstrom and the vBrownBag crew for a deep dive into chaos engineering for machine learning and AI models. Discover how deliberate failure injection can improve system resilience, explore real-world experiments on AI model vulnerabilities, and learn why testing for failure is critical in today's fast-moving AI landscape. Whether you're an engineer, data scientist, or tech leader, this conversation is packed with practical insights, cautionary tales, and a touch of humor. #ChaosEngineering #MachineLearning #AI #vBrownBag #AIOps #ModelResilience #TechTalk Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction & vBrownBag Welcome 02:45 – What Is Chaos Engineering? 10:45 – Netflix, Chaos Monkey, and the Origins 16:40 – Chaos Engineering for AI & ML Models 27:00 – Non-Determinism in LLMs and Testing Challenges 46:00 – Organizational Adoption & Q&A Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenn-bergstrom/ https://amzn.to/44JBw5D - "Security Chaos Engineering: Sustaining Resilience in Software and Systems" https://amzn.to/4l3fFMi - "Chaos Engineering: Site reliability through controlled disruption" https://amzn.to/4kiqY1W - "Chaos Engineering: System Resiliency in Practice" https://netflix.github.io/chaosmonkey/

In this episode we talk to Rizel Scarlett - Tech Lead at Block. She talks about vibe coding, MCPs, how to do it right, and then a live demo! Join us for excellent insights & fun! 00:00 - Intro 07:05 - What is "vibe coding"? 13:34 - The Problem 15:22 - Enter MCPs 28:42 - Live Demo! 31:07 - The Dark Side 32:35 - How to be responsible How to find Rizel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rizel-bobb-semple/ Rizel's links: https://block.github.io/goose/

Unlock the power of generative AI for cloud architecture! In this vBrownBag episode, Alex Kearns demonstrates how to build a well-architected review crew using agentic AI, AWS Bedrock, and open-source tools. Learn to automate AWS Well-Architected Framework reviews, leverage knowledge bases, and see a live demo analyzing CloudFormation templates. Whether you're a cloud consultant or developer, discover practical ways to scale best practices and save time with GenAI. #cloud #AWS #AI #GenerativeAI #WellArchitected #vBrownBag #CloudComputing #DevOps Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction & Guest Welcom 04:00 – Alex's Cloud & AI Journey 17:00 – Building the GenAI Review Crew 34:00 – Live Demo: Automated Well-Architected Review 53:00 – Q&A & Future of AI in Cloud Architecture Resources:

In this episode we talk to Justin Garrison - Head of Product at Sidero Labs, the makers of Talos! The Talos distro is a reimagining of Linux for distributed systems like Kubernetes. Talos strips away everything unnecessary—no shell, no SSH, no package manager—leaving just what you need to run K8s clusters. All system management is done through a secure API, eliminating configuration drift and reducing your attack surface with a read-only filesystem. 00:00 - Intro 06:25 - New AI business ideas! 11:51 - What does "API Driven Linux" mean? How to find Justin: justingarrison.com Justin's links: Talos: https://www.talos.dev/ Getting started: https://www.talos.dev/v1.10/introduction/quickstart/

The tech landscape is evolving faster than ever! Even if you've been in a traditional Ops role, knowing "how developers do" is essential knowledge. In this talk Andrew Fawcett, Heroku VP of Developer Relations will talk with us about how YOU can evolve your career and your development game using AI the RIGHT way.

Mike Fiedler, PyPI Safety and Security Engineer for the Python Software Foundation, joins the vBrownBag to talk about risks of software supply chain insecurity, and the concrete actions that software consumers & producers can take to make their software safer. Chapters: 02:12 Introducing Mike 07:20 What is software supply chain security? 08:45 Recent examples of software supply chain compromises 12:15 How do we prevent compromises in open source software? 18:57 Software consumers & software producers in the software supply chain 21:32 Recommended practices for software consumers 42:40 Recommended practices for software producers 50:15 Where to find Mike, and audience questions Resources: https://lnk.bio/miketheman https://blog.pypi.org

We're excited to welcome Faye Ellis — Pluralsight instructor, AWS Hero, and one of my favorite people to learn from! In this session, Faye shares inexpensive and accessible ways you can start learning about Foundation Models (FMs), Large Language Models (LLMs), and AI. Whether you're just starting your AI journey or looking for practical experiments without a huge investment, this episode is packed with actionable insights. Faye also shares the top AI skills needed in 2025!

Whitney Lee is a well-known figure in cloud computing. She is an international keynote speaker, the host of several successful streaming shows, and a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Ambassador. But here's the wild part: Whitney wrote her first line of code EVER when she was almost 40 years old, only 6 years ago

Yufa Li is a Fullstack Software Engineer who has been freelancing for years! In this episode we get into ALL the questions: What was her journey like? What are the ups and downs of freelancing? What works, what doesn't, what you should charge, EVERYTHING! 00:00 - Intro 08:00 - Let's talk about freelancing 12:00 - Freelance Statistics 2025 14:30 - The Pros 21:30 - The Cons 29:00 - How to get started freelancing! 37:50 - Q&A 39:15 - Use a dedicated business account How to find Yufa: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yufa-li/ Her blog: https://the-zen-programmer.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Amanda Ruzza is a DevOps Engineer, world famous Jass Bassist, and a Services Architect at Datadog! in this episode she shares how she ‘migrated' traditional music studying techniques into learning Cloud and all things tech related! "Study is fun and it's all about falling in love with the journey

Mark Tinderholt, Azure architect and author of the book "Mastering Terraform", joins the vBrownBag to talk about his top 5 Azure automation mistakes to avoid. Learn how to approach complex automation tasks and how to solve them, all while maintaining your sanity.

Du'An Lightfoot, AWS Developer Advocate, joins the vBrownBag crew to talk about how he went from frustrated tinkerer to confident builder. He'll demonstrate his actual workflow, and live-code a project using nothing but vibes and Amazon Q Developer. Come see how and why anyone with ideas can now be a developer. Chapters: 00:00 Introductions 02:49 What is vibe coding? 03:42 The importance of our foundational knowledge 07:12 Getting a high-level overview of your project 10:53 Digging deeper into specific implementations 17:30 Amazon Q Developer builds a website from scratch 25:22 Amazon Q Developer deploys the website to AWS 34:11 Documenting what it did 49:45 How Q Developer works Resources: https://twitter.com/@labeveryday https://www.linkedin.com/in/duanlightfoot https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/devops/code-security-scanning-with-amazon-q-developer/ https://x.com/KanikaTolver/status/1902488505109848176

Robby Stahl, technical account manager at Platform9, joins the vBrownBag crew to vJailbreak, an open source tool that automates VM migration from VMware ESXi to KVM. Chapters: 00:00 Robby & Damian banter 04:49 What is vJailbreak? 10:06 vJailbreak on GitHub 13:45 A demo is attempted, but the demo gods do not approve 22:00 A video of the demo is attempted, but the video gods do not approve 23:40 Robby shares some successful customer anecdotes 34:12 Philosophizing ensues Resources: https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seThilJ5ujM&list=PLUqDmxY3RncV-_mzIgL3P29Jssri7Y052&index=5 https://www.linkedin.com/in/robby-stahl/

Matthew Bonig, chief cloud architect at Defiance Digital, and co-author of the AWS CDK book, joins the vBrownBag crew to talk about leveraging observability & AI in software development. Chapters: 00:00 Roger, Damian, and Matthew have a bit of a chit-chat 03:27 Introducing Matthew

Aaron Hunter, AWS principal developer advocate, joins the vBrownBag crew to discuss general tips on preparing for certifications, the AWS AI/ML certification catalog, and great tools YOU can use to help pass an AWS AI/ML certification. Chapters: 00:00 Sean, the prodigal son, returns! There is much rejoicing across the lands!

Kyler Middleton joins Chris and Damian to talk about her free and open-source generative AI solution for the enterprise. The second link below includes a free 30 day subscription to Substack. You have Kyler's express permission to cancel on the last free day.

Ashley Lyon joins Shala, Chris, and Damian for an entertaining yet insightful discussion about impostor syndrome, getting past being afraid of The Worst Thing Happening, and more. Resources: https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/129099/how-to-know-if-i-am-a-real-developer https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleylyon1/