BrownBags are a series of online webinars held using GotoMeeting and covering various datacenter & datacenter Certification topics. These BrownBags are held live at various dates and times around the globe and each covers a different bit of datacenter related specialization.
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/
Damien Burks is the Founder of the DevSec Blueprint: "a comprehensive, free, and open-source learning guide designed to equip you with the essential skills and knowledge needed to transition into DevSecOps or grow within your DevSecOps career."! In this episode he walks us through the blueprint, his inspiration for creating it, and how to get started! 00:00 - Intro 04:27 - About The DevSec Blueprit 09:04 - Pre-requisites 23:34 - The Blueprint 38:00 - DevSecOps projects How to find Damien: Website: https://www.devsecblueprint.com/ Twitter: @damienjburks Bluesky: @damienjburks.bsky.social GitHub: https://github.com/damienjburks LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damienjburks/
AWS Community Builder and Software/Platform Engineer Ervin Szilágyi joins us today to talk about his project: creating a BlueSky Bot (for good, not evil
Every year AWS Hero Peter Sankauskas creates the AWS Survey. In it we can see trends for the various services: what's hot, what's not
Welcome to the New Year and the first episode of the year: We are excited to be talking with Developer Advocate Jessican Deen about GitHub Actions and how you can use them to automate your workflows! 00:00 - Intro 05:49 - What are we going to talk about? 08:23 - Reusable Workflows 14:21 - Job Summaries 18:45 - Matrix Jobs 34:58 - Artifact Attestations 41:47 - OIDC 50:47 - Additional Resources How to find Jessica: Twitter: @jldeen Bluesky: @jldeen.dev Website: jessicadeen.com GitHub: github.com/jldeen Show Resources: Keylight CLI: github.com/jldeen/keylight-cli Excalidraw: https://excalidraw.com/ Learn GitHub Actions: https://github.com/features/actions Actions Marketplace: https://github.com/marketplace?type=actions GitHub Actions Docs: https://docs.github.com/en/actions
Andrew Brown joins Shala, Chris, and Damian for a re:Invent re:cap of their favorite announcements, tips on how to attend re:Invent, and more. Resources: https://genai.cloudprojectbootcamp.com/ https://www.exampro.co/ https://x.com/andrewbrown https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-wc-brown/
What better way to learn about Machine Learning than with an AWS Machine Learning Hero??? Join us as we talk with Cyril Bandolo about the best ways to learn about this exciting new field! 00:00 - Intro 08:20 - What is serverless? 16:00 - What is Machine Learning? 18:38 - ML vs GenAI vs DL 31:35 - Path #1! 33:34 - Path #2! 38:06 - Path #3! Resources: Twitter: @BandoloCyril Bluesky: @cyrilbandolo YouTube Channel: @datasciencewithcyril Serverless ML Course: https://training.serverlessguru.com/courses/serverless-machine-learning
AWS Hero Linda Mohamed joins the vBrownBag to show us how she uses Amazon Q to scale community engagement (also a sneak peek for her AWS ReInvent 2024 session!) 00:00 Intros and chit-chat 09:05 Linda is a juggler, and Damian is fascinated by juggling math
Jeramiah Dooley joins the vBrownBag to discuss his experience at and insights from GitHub Universe 2024, and explores the transition from individual contributor to people manager. Great career tips inside! 00:53 Introducing Jeramiah Dooley 07:11 Experiencing GitHub Universe 2024 22:06 Interesting announcements @ GitHub Universe 2024 39:30 Jeramiah's journey from IC to manager 43:00 The hardest moment in Jeramiah's career 58:57 Jeramiah's thoughts on the ideal manager communication style Resources: https://gh.io/badger https://gh.io/spark-signup https://bsky.app/profile/jeramiah.net
Aaron Miller joins the vBrownBag to discuss the human side of DevOps, HumanOps, a recap of an AWS event in London, and his experience in the AWS New Voices program. 02:56 Introducing Aaron Miller 11:42 Aaron's quest to understand DevOps 13:00 What DevOps is all about 23:12 People, tools, and processes 36:10 What is HumanOps? 37:30 The five HumanOps principles 38:25 Recap of AWS London re:Inforce re:Cap Resources: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/devops-guidance/the-devops-sagas.html https://github.com/HumanOps/HumanOps
AWS Hero, CTO, & long time friend of the show Calvin stops in to help make developers lives easier!
Damien Burks joins the vBrownBag to demo a solution he architected & uses Terraform & GenAI to accelerate his content creation 01:10 Call to action! Who's hiring? Let us know and we'll promote
JJ Asghar shares his thoughts on IBM TechXchange & InstructLab with Chris Williams Resources: https://x.com/jjasghar
Keith Townsend (Futurum Group & The CTO Advisor) shares his thoughts on IBM TechXchange with Chris Williams Resources: https://x.com/CTOAdvisor
Microsoft technologist Kevin Evans explores the general trend of technology maturation, certifications for aspiring cloud solutions architects, his thoughts on near-future changes for existing cloud solution architects, and more. 00:00 Welcome and a detour into homelabs 05:33 Kevin's role at Microsoft and technology maturation 10:48 Damian's wife sets off the smoke alarms
AWS Hero Vivek Raja goes beyond the GenAI hype and explores AWS AI/ML offerings, AI ethics, and more. 04:05 Introducing Vivek
Andrew Brown presents a roadmap for understanding generative AI that covers the learning journey from getting started with GenAI, to prompt engineering, learning through use cases, and more. 04:25 Starting the GenAI journey
In this episode of the vBrownBag, Damian does a deep dive on getting started with PowerShell on AWS Lambda. He covers setting up a development environment, packaging & publishing PowerShell on Lambda, lessons learned, and more! 00:28 A quick overview of PowerShell & AWS Lambda
In this episode of the vBrownBag, Shala demonstrates how & why she uses Hashicorp Terraform (for her day job!) to stand up proof of concept tests on AWS far faster than what is possible in the console. 00:00 Intro 1:37 Shala walks us through her GitLab repo
In this episode of the vBrownBag, Damian does a deeper dive into the Meatgrinder, showing how the different AWS services interact, how the process logs to CloudWatch, and more! 00:00 Intro 1:20 The AWS Services that power the Meatgrinder
In this episode of the vBrownBag, a host is a guest! Damian does a deep dive into the vBrownBag Meatgrinder, an event-driven automation solution built with AWS Serverless that powers the show behind the scenes. Meatgrinder uses AWS S3, Event Bridge, Step Functions, Lambda, and Cloud Watch and handles post-production automation of vBrownBag content. We'll talk about the design decisions made while architecting the solution, and lessons learned along the way. 00:00 Intro and so much banter! 10:14 We actually start talking about the topic
Riaan Nolan is a HashiCorp Ambassador that has developed Hashiqube, a DevOps development lab that runs all HashiCorp products. Hashiqube has a Docker daemon inside meaning we can run containers inside Hashiqube using Kubernetes (Minikube) or Nomad or Docker run. It runs all Hashicorp products: Vault, Terraform, Nomad, Consul, Waypoint, Boundary, Vagrant, Packer and Sentinel. It also runs a host of other popular Open Source DevOps/DevSecOps applications (Minikube, Ansible AWX Tower, Traefik etc.) showcasing how simple integration with Hashicorp products can result in tangible learnings and benefits for all its users. In this episode, we'll explore HashiQube on GitHub CodeSpaces. 00:00 Introductions 02:00 Introducing HashiQube
Reuven Lerner has been using Python for 30 years and teaching it for over 20. Join us as we talk about "How to sort anything with Python". This is sure to be a fun & interesting show as we learn more about Python with Reuven. 00:00 - Intro 03:00 - How to sort anything
Sr. Software Engineer Kat Morgan has been in the IaC and software space for a long time and she has opinions! Join us as we talk about the shifting landscape of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), AI, Programming Languages (cough cough Python) and how Orchestration is changing! 00:00 - Intro 03:20 - Kat's mad libs idea
In this episode, AWS Support Engineer Deepti Trivedi talks about how she gamified her AWS certification process and how she leveraged that process to get her AWS Solutions Architect Professional cert! 00:00 - Intro 01:25 - A Story of Procrastination 09:48 - 22:20 - Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepti-s-trivedi/ https://aws.amazon.com/training/digital/aws-cloud-quest/ https://skillbuilder.aws/
In this episode, VP of Cloud and Data Solutions Jenn Bergstrom talks with us about multi-cloud! It's an often used phrase, but what does it really mean? She defines what multi-cloud is, what are both good and bad uses cases, and says "it depends" a lot! Join us for this extra funny episode
In this episode, Ben Dalton talks with us about VPCs: How you should connect them, why you should connect them, and which services are best in which use cases! 00:00 - Intro 03:20 - What is VPC Peering? 06:38 - Problem scenario 12:45 - When to use other options 18:47 - Conclusion 20:48 - Q&A Resources: https://github.com/b-dalton https://medium.com/@b-dalton/using-vpc-peering-to-enable-private-inter-vpc-communication-a5c0f52150b9 __________ DISCLOSURES ❤ This description contains affiliate links that allow you to find the items mentioned in this video and support the channel at no cost to you. vBrownBag is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.amazon.com. Thank you for your support! __________ *About #vBrownBag * SUBSCRIBE! https://www.youtube.com/@vbrownbag Socials: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vbrownbag Threads: https://www.threads.net/@vbrownbag Twitter: https://twitter.com/vBrownBag Facebook: https://facebook.com/vBrownBag Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/vbrownbagitunes https://vBrownBag.com is a community of people who believe in helping other people. Specifically, we work in IT infrastructure and we help other people in the IT industry to better their careers through education. Our most frequent activity is producing the vBrownBag podcast. vBrownBag also attends global conferences to produce TechTalks and theater sessions. *About vBrownBag Podcasts* The vBrownBag crew host podcasts where community members present on topics that will help others in the community. Some podcast series are aimed at helping people achieve certifications. Other podcasts help community members learn an entirely new subject area like storage, automation, programming, and more! The podcast has been running weekly since 2010. *vBrownBag TechTalks* The vBrownBag crew love IT conferences, the only place where we actually see each other, the awesome people who are our presenters and the community members who follow the podcast. The conferences are also a great place to generate some more community learning content. More about vBrownBag: https://vbrownbag.com/brownbags/what-is-vbrownbag/ Intro music attribution: Artist - MaxKoMusic
In this episode, the vBrownBag crew gets into something that we've all been thinking about but very few folks are addressing out loud. The impact of the tech layoffs, how we're all being affected, and what you can do if you've been affected.
In this episode, Suresh Madhu, Lead Architect for Pure Storage, walks us through new innovations in the Pure Storage Disaster Recovery portfolio & gives us a live demo of the Pure Protect DRaaS platform! __________ Chapters 00:00 - Introduction 01:33 - The landscape today 07:46 - Data Resiliency Strategies 12:21 - What is Pure Protect // DRaaS? 23:03 - Solution Overview // DRaaS for vSphere to AWS Native 50:24 - Live Demo! __________ Resources https://www.purestorage.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/suresh-madhu-9544181/
In this episode, join Morgan Willis, Principal Cloud Technologist from AWS, as she guides you through mastering your AWS Cloud skills.
Join Bruno Schaatsbergen, DevRel Manager at HashiCorp, in this detailed walkthrough of Terraform 1.8's new feature: Provider Defined Functions!
Star Trek puns incoming! Red Alert! Join Mark Tinderholt as he captains a journey through the uncharted territories of Azure with Terraform in 'Terraforming Azure: Boldly Going Beyond 'azurerm'. This talk offers an overview of the landscape of Terraforming Azure, including the innovative and lesser-known features available in Azure, showcasing how Terraform can be utilized beyond the traditional 'azurerm' provider. Explore new frontiers in cloud infrastructure and discover how to leverage the expansive Terraform world of Azure. Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 04:53 - azurerm 08:34 - azuread 12:48 - azurerm_template_deployment 14:39 - azapi 22:32 - Kubernetes & Helm 34:25 - Minecraft! 39:54 - modules Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marktinderholt/ GitHub AT-AT Module: https://registry.terraform.io/modules/markti/azure-terraformer/github/latest Azure DevOps AT-AT Module: https://registry.terraform.io/modules/markti/azure-terraformer/azuredevops/latest Minecraft Automation Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsOrrjBMkLaRXWri2EvqLAUKWJI7TH0kH
For almost 10-years now, future-focused datacenter teams have been trying to evolve to more cloud-like operating model. Some of us have succeeded, some of use have failed. During this fun-filled, example-heavy session, Pure Storage Solutions Architect Tristan Todd will share patterns of failure, patterns of success, some practical examples, and recipes for success on how organizations have succeeded in realizing success in adapting to a cloud ops model. And, of course, Tristan will highlight how Pure is helping Customer with real transformation. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 02:49 - The Problems 08:53 - What are Cloud Service Models 16:46 - Cloud Ops Diagram 20:54 - 5 tenets of Cloud Ops Model success 32:17 - What are vVols? 45:00 - Q&A Resources: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/vvols-and-your-cloud-operating-model-with-tristan-todd/267115907 Intro music attribution: Artist - MaxKoMusic
Dive into the future of healthcare with AWS Hero Danielle Heberling as she unveils the transformative power of AWS Serverless services in streamlining electronic health records. In this insightful presentation, Danielle sheds light on the previously cumbersome medical record updating process and demonstrates how AWS Serverless tools like Lambda and EventBridge are revolutionizing the way medical assistants manage records. Get ready for a deep dive into the intersection of technology and healthcare efficiency.
AWS Hero and Senior Software Engineer Danielle Heberling joins us to talk about AWS Serverless in the modern healthcare space!