Puppet Podcast

After several decades of use, should we consider open source software (OSS) a business model? In short: No! In this conversation, open source evangelist Javier Perez welcomes technology evangelist and CNCF ambassador Dotan Horovits to provide context for the biggest changes happening in OSS, discuss what a sustainable future looks like for open source, and explain what to do when companies choose to go not-so-open with their source code.Highlights:Why open source shouldn't be considered a business modelThe “disturbing trend” in OSS and why “nothing is written in stone” when it comes to open sourceHow tools can differentiate themselves from the ‘open source-ness' of their projectsSpeakers:Javier Perez, Open Source EvangelistDotan Horovits, Cloud Native Ambassador at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and host of the OpenObservability Talks podcastLinks:Get the new State of Open Source Report from OpenLogicFind Dotan on LinkedIn and TwitterRead Dotan's articles on ‘vendor-owned open source' and ‘When Your Open Source Turns to the Dark Side'Read Javier's articles on the State of Open Source in 2024 and concerns over the future of open sourceListen to OpenObservability Talks on YouTube and wherever you get podcastsFind Us Online:puppet.comApple PodcastsTwitterLinkedIn

When Sean Atkinson says that “We're on a trajectory to have the most vulnerabilities ever identified in a single year, starting this year,” take note: As Chief Information Security Officer for the Center for Internet Security, he knows what he's talking about.He's referring to the ever-increasing tide of weaknesses and flaws that undermine the security of software used every single day by teams around the world. Between a more active threat landscape, demands for development velocity, and the rise of generative AI, the cat in this proverbial game of cat-and-mouse has their work cut out for them.In this conversation, Robin Tatam, Puppet's Evangelist and Certified Information Security Manager, talks with Sean about the role of a CISO, what's behind the unprecedented rise in vulnerabilities, and how smart integrations turn automation into a first-line defense against threats, misconfiguration, errors, and software vulnerabilities.Highlights:What a CISO actually does versus a CIO or a CTO The difference between “security” and “compliance” How compliance helps build the backbone of a long-term security posture Who really owns IT security and where IT operations fits into the security conversation What CIS Benchmarks are, what they do, and how CIS “wizards” keep them up-to-date on the latest vulnerabilities How Puppet's partnership with CIS puts the power of automation behind CIS's widely recognized frameworksSpeakers:Robin Tatam, Senior Technical Marketer and Evangelist, Puppet by PerforceSean Atkinson, Chief Information Security Officer, Center for Internet SecurityLinks:Learn more about Security Compliance Enforcement, a premium feature for Open Source Puppet and Puppet Enterprise that automates secure configurations hardened against CIS Benchmarks and DISA STIGsListen to Sean's podcast with CIS, “Cybersecurity Where You Are,” wherever you get podcastsFind Us Online:puppet.comApple PodcastsTwitterLinkedIn

It's all good news, we promise! The Forge has always been the go-to spot for Puppet users to find, download, and update content and modules. On this episode, we're revealing a few of the exciting changes that are going to make the Forge even easier and more valuable for all Puppet users, like personalization, filters, and features to track module versions and updates against your Puppet file.As of today, there are 7,508 modules on the Puppet Forge – some active, some deprecated, some created and supported by Puppet Labs, some by community groups like Vox Pupuli. While it's become a hub for all Puppet users, we've heard feedback on ways it could be even better. We see a brighter future for the Forge – one built for and shaped by users like you! Join Ben Ford as he talks to Forge Product Manager Saurabh Karwa about what the Forge is today, the subtle changes that are already in the works, the near-term roadmap, and the long-term vision for the Forge.Speakers:Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by PerforceSaurabh Karwa, Product Manager at Puppet by PerforceHighlights:Introducing Saurabh, the Product Manager for the Puppet ForgeWhat the Forge is today and what it needs to become THE place for Puppet usersThe role of the Puppet Community in shaping the future of the ForgeAdding personalization, new filters, and features to track module versions and updatesWhy you should join our new Ecosystem Advisory BoardLinks:Join the Puppet Community SlackTell us what you think of the Forge and PDK with the Ecosystem Advisory Board surveyEmail Saurabh at skarwa@perforce.com

The 2024 State of DevOps Report: The Evolution of Platform Engineering is live! In this episode, we're taking you behind the scenes with the authors of the report and one of the people who helped run the survey.Download the 2024 report for free here!On this episode, join us as host Ben Ford, report authors Margaret Lee and David Sandilands, and project manager Stephanie Fairchild pull back the curtain on the 2024 State of DevOps Report.What are the characteristics of successful platforms? Why is the new practice driving a surge in security? Where is platform engineering going next? Learn more in this episode!Highlights:Why the State of DevOps Report pivoted to cover platform engineering last yearWhat we wanted to find out this yearThe big takeaways from the 2024 reportOur predictions for the next year of platform engineeringSpeakers:Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by PerforceMargaret Lee, Manager of Product Management at Puppet by PerforceDavid Sandilands, Principal Solutions Architect at Puppet by PerforceStephanie Fairchild, Senior Manager at ClearPath StrategiesLinks:Download the 2024 State of DevOps Report: The Evolution of Platform EngineeringEmail Margaret at Margaret.Lee@perforce.comFind Ben on Mastodon, Twitter, and in the Puppet Community Slack as binford2kFind David on Mastodon and TwitterCheck out another episode with Ben, Margaret, and David about how return-to-office plans are shaping platform strategiesRead the episode transcriptFind Us Online:puppet.comApple PodcastsTwitterLinkedIn

Platform engineering is all about giving devs the tools they need to work independently. Work-from-home policies give people flexibility in where and how they work. It should be a match made in heaven, right? Well... it's more complicated than that.Research, feedback, and evangelizing are critical to building an internal developer platform (IDP). But WFH can make that communication tough. And that's before you've even considered compliance and security (ugh, the 2FA). A human-focused IT strategy was crucial in supporting a shift to remote work during the pandemic, and it's going to be equally as important as we shift to a platform paradigm.In this roundtable discussion, Ben leads a roundtable discussion of how return-to-office plans can impact platform engineering, joined by Margaret Lee and David Sandilands, authors of Puppet's 2024 State of DevOps Report: Platform Engineering Edition.Speakers:Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by PerforceMargaret Lee, Manager of Product Management at Puppet by PerforceDavid Sandilands, Senior Solutions Architect at Puppet by PerforceHighlights:The remote/in-office flexibility your platform needs to considerHardening measures essential to a secure IDP in the hybrid eraWhat we learned about accommodating a workforce during the pandemicEvangelizing a platform without the in-person connectionLinks:Email Margaret at Margaret.Lee@perforce.comFind Ben on Mastodon, Twitter, and in the Puppet Community Slack as binford2kDavid Sandilands on TwitterGet the 2023 Platform Engineering Report and sign up to receive 2024's when it releasesRead the episode transcriptFind Us Online:puppet.comApple PodcastsTwitterLinkedIn 

Politics is everywhere in your organization. No, not THAT kind of politics – the kind that happens when you need something and can't get it, or when you get good at something and people start noticing. Actually, politics happens just about whenever decisions get made. Joshua Zimmerman says that kind of politics is rooted in people, and with the right mindset, you can use politics to make things better in your organization – for you and your entire team.Joshua is a DevOps manager and organizer who thinks you could benefit from understanding and navigating the political landscape of your organization so you can help shape it. In fact, his presentation at DevOpsDays Chicago 2023 was all about that, and we were so impressed, we invited him on the podcast.After listening to this episode, we hope you'll be able to figure out how decisions get made where you work, define your political structure, and leave with a few tools you can use to gain leverage with your team to make better decisions together.Highlights:Helping unpack the term “politics” in the context of your jobWhy org charts aren't great for determining the real structure of your orgWhy trust matters more than authority (and how to sniff out both in your org)How to build lasting trust in your team and orgHow to subvert hierarchy to get what you need (without making anyone mad)Speakers:Ben Ford, Developer Relations Director at PuppetJoshua Zimmerman, SRE/DevOps ManagerLinks:Find Josh on LinkedIn, Mastodon, and TwitterWatch Joshua's talk at DevOpsDays Chicago 2023 (2:26:00 – 2:54:30)Find Ben in the Puppet Community Slack as binford2k and on MastodonFind Us Online:puppet.comPulling the Strings on Apple PodcastsTwitterLinkedInRead the episode transcript

Great things – tools, spaces, companies, brands – are supported by great communities. The Vox Pupuli are perhaps the most prominent, active group in the Puppet community. Here's what they're up to lately, what it's like being one of them, and what Puppet (the community) means to Puppet (the company).The Vox Pupuli are 200+ strong; they maintain dozens of modules on the Forge; even executive leadership knows their name. On this episode of Pulling the Strings, join Puppet community members Gene Liverman, Tim Meusel, and Ben Ford for a casual discussion on what what Vox Pupuli actually do, the role of community in shaping a company like Puppet, what Vox Pupuli is focused on now, and what drives the highly engaged group. As Tim puts it, “There is no excuse to not participate.”Highlights:How Vox Pupuli worksThe relationship of Puppet (the company) to the Vox PupuliThe power of independenceThe time Vox Pupuli helped Puppet avoid disaster in a new releaseWhat Vox Pupuli is working on nowSpeakers:Gene Liverman, SRE at LTN Global and former SRE at Puppet by PerforceTim Meusel, Vox Pupuli PMC Community MemberBen Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by PerforceLinks:Find out more about the Vox Pupuli at https://voxpupuli.org/Find Tim on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BastelsBlogFind Gene in the Puppet Community Slack as genebean https://puppetcommunity.slack.com/team/U3DCRQQKAFind Ben in the Puppet Community Slack as binford2k and on Mastodon at https://hachyderm.io/@binford2kFollow the Puppet Community Team on Mastodon https://fosstodon.org/@puppetListen to Tim's previous episode discussing how to build an awesome open source community https://www.puppet.com/resources/podcasts/awesome-open-source-communityFind Us Online:puppet.comPulling the Strings on Apple PodcastsTwitterLinkedInRead the episode transcript

Open source has always moved fast. Today, it moves faster than ever, driven by both community demand and corporate interest. On this episode, Perforce's Javier Perez and OSI's Stefano Maffulli discuss the impact of recent license changes and the historical push-and-pull between consumers and providers in the world of open source.Highlights:Reflecting on 25 years of OSI and its widening scopeThe historical changes that set the stage for open sourceWhat's shaping Linux distributions today (CentOS, RHEL restrictions, HashiCorp's switch to BSL, and more)The “social contract” between companies and communitiesThe pros and cons of single companies driving open-source communitiesThe commercialized future of open sourceSpeakers:Javier Perez, Chief Open Source Evangelist and Senior Director of Product Management at PerforceStefano Maffulli, Executive Director at the Open Source Initiative (OSI)Links:Learn about Puppet's commitment to open source projects like Bolt and Open Source Puppet (OSP): https://www.puppet.com/community/open-sourceFind Stefano at https://www.maffulli.net/Follow Javier on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jperezp_bosOSI's programs (including a new Advocacy and Outreach program) https://opensource.org/programs/“Defining an open source AI for the greater good”: How OSI is approaching AI https://opensource.com/article/22/10/defining-open-source-ai“Friend or Foe? ChatGPT's Impact on Open Source Software” by Javier Perez for DevOps.com https://devops.com/friend-or-foe-chatgpts-impact-on-open-source-software/Read the episode transcriptFind Us Online:puppet.comPulling the Strings on Apple PodcastsTwitterLinkedIn

In the past few years, developer experience has become one of the biggest concerns at the C-level. Gartner found it's the top value factor for adopting IDPs, performance engineering, CI/CD, and more core aspects of platform engineering. In 2021, McKinsey said it should be “the cornerstone of talent strategy” – and still, it's a sticking point for a lot of software orgs. Turnover, burnout, skill gaps – symptoms abound that can often be contributed to bad DevX.Justin Reock is Field CTO at Gradle, makers of Gradle Enterprise and Gradle Build Tool. He's focused on the developer experience at an intersectional level – where right-brain creativity, left-brain productivity, and ‘joyful activity' combine to make development better for the people who do it. In conversation with David Sandilands, Senior Solutions Architect at Puppet, Justin shares his perspective on where platform engineering is headed and how the future of platform engineering – up, down, or flat – depends on using tools to engineer the developer experience.Speakers:David Sandilands, Senior Solutions Architect at Puppet by PerforceJustin Roeck, Field CTO at GradleHighlights:Justin's career to date and starting a year of living out of an RVWhy the future of platform engineering depends on a developer experience focusInstructions for organizations to adopt real practices, not just hypeThe personalities needed to make stuff like platform engineering actually workLinks:Download Puppet's 2023 State of Platform Engineering ReportOrganizational Physics by Lex SisneyFind your nearest devopsdays eventJustin Reock on TwitterJustin Reock on LinkedInDavid Sandilands on LinkedInDavid Sandilands on TwitterRead the episode transcriptFind Us Online:puppet.comApple PodcastsTwitterLinkedIn

The opportunity to write a Puppet 8 book landed in David Sandilands's lap when he had just started at Puppet and with a child on the way. About a year and a half later in mid-2023, “Puppet 8 for DevOps Engineers” launched via Packt. This is the story of everything that happened in the middle.Speakers:Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by PerforceDavid Sandilands, Senior Solutions Architect at Puppet by Perforce Learn More About Puppet + DevOps[10+ YEARS OF DEVOPS REPORTS] Highlights:What other Puppet books didn't haveThe joy of creating a book that doesn't have to cater to one audience or anotherWhat it's like to work with a publisherLearning to lean on your community for supportHard-learned tips for writing your own bookLinks:Check out David's book, “Puppet 8 for DevOps Engineers,” via Packt“Puppet Best Practices” by Chris Barbour and Jo RhettBen Ford on TwitterDavid Sandilands on Twitter

So your organization failed a compliance audit and got slapped with fines and penalties. Bummer! You pay the fine, spend a few days fixing your configurations, run a scan, and get ready to do it again come the next audit. But that approach doesn't work anymore: The risks are too high, and fixing months of configuration drift at the drop of a hat (let alone hunting down all the paperwork for auditors) certainly isn't your team's favorite thing to do.Demo Puppet Comply + CEM for cross-department visibility and automated complianceThe broad scope of today's compliance management requires a coordinated effort from more than just the security team. In this episode of Pulling the Strings, two Puppet compliance experts make the case for cooperation among security, compliance, ops, and just about everyone else in your organization. They discuss the crumbling walls between security, compliance, and ops, as well as tools organizations use to ensure continuous compliance.Highlights:Why organizations always wait until something goes wrong to pay attention to compliance + securityThe simple micro-adjustments that prevent massive corrections come audit timeWorking toward better alignment between teams so that they're making compliance easierThe point and benefits of continuous compliance – and why ‘cowboy compliance' isn't enoughWhy compliance frameworks matter across security, compliance, and opsSpeakers:Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by PerforceClaire McDyre, Senior Product Manager at Puppet by PerforceRobin Tatam, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Puppet by PerforceLinks:Try Puppet Comply + CEM to give your whole team the power to tackle complianceRead Claire's content on the Puppet blogRead Robin's content on the Puppet blogRead the episode transcriptFind Us Online:puppet.comApple PodcastsTwitterLinkedIn

Modules are the basic building blocks of Puppet. They're made to solve common challenges, extend functionality, and optimize your use of Puppet. They're also reusable and shareable – you can find thousands on the Puppet Forge – and best of all, anyone can make them. But what does that really mean?On this episode of Pulling the Strings, Ben Ford sits down with Yeshua Hall to talk about Yeshua's experience building the Puppet module known as zend_common, initially released in December 2022.Highlights:How to build a Puppet moduleWhat zend_common doesWhat to know before you start buildingHighlights:How to build a Puppet moduleWhat zend_common doesWhat to know before you start buildingSpeakers:Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by PerforceYeshua Hall, Senior Solutions Architect at PerforceLinks:Download the free guide, “How to Start Automating in a Few Steps with Bolt”Download zend_common on the Puppet ForgeFollow Yeshua Hall on TwitterFollow Ben Ford on TwitterRead the episode transcriptFind Us Online:puppet.comApple PodcastsTwitterLinkedIn

Supposedly, Albert Einstein once said, “If you can't explain it to a six-year-old, then you don't understand it yourself.” That might be a bit harsh, but it holds true for teaching just about anything: You've got to meet learners where they are. That's why Puppet recently launched new on-demand training courses and more. There's a new, engaging way to learn how to do things with Puppet without going down too many rabbit holes.On this episode of Pulling the Strings, Ben Ford interviews Principal Training Solutions Engineers Jain Waldrip and Tom Chisholm about designing training with “highly calibrated visuals,” the exciting new avenues for Puppet learners, and much more.Highlights:What's led Jain and Tom to their roles in Puppet trainingWhat you can expect from Puppet's new on-demand training courses Introducing Puppet Console Overview, an interactive, guided tour of the Puppet ConsoleSpeakers:Ben Ford, Community Lead at Puppet by PerforceJain Waldrip, Principal Training Solutions Engineer at Puppet by PerforceTom Chisholm, Principal Training Solutions Engineer at Puppet by PerforceLinks:Take new on-demand Puppet training coursesCheck out the PE Console OverviewGet in touch with the Puppet education team at education@puppet.comJoin Jain and Tom in the Puppet Community SlackRead the episode transcriptFind Us Online:puppet.comApple PodcastsTwitterLinkedIn

“It doesn't matter how small the contribution is – I think everyone benefits from the different environment, the different culture, of open source communities.” From ‘free software' to the Mars Rover, the scope of open source is expansive, growing, and offering new challenges to organizations and practitioners alike. Now, Perforce Director of Product Management Javier Perez is excited to share the latest findings from the 2023 State of Open Source Report with the context of his 26+ years in the software industry. Look into the past and peer into the future with this exciting discussion between two open source evangelists.Join Javier and host Ben Ford, Developer Relations Director at Puppet by Perforce, as they discuss the history of open source, examples of open source software dating back to the 1950s, the communities that have formed around open source, where open source software is headed, and highlights from the highly anticipated 2023 State of Open Source Report, which asked ~900 global respondents about their use of open source software.Highlights:AI and machine learning took the number one spot as a technology that most survey respondents were interested in.The number-one reason organizations use open source software is access to innovation — not cost savings.How initiatives intra-organization methodologies like InnerSource are breaking down silos between companies.Why AI and Web3 are trends worth watching in the open source space.Speakers:Ben Ford, Developer Relations Director at Puppet by PerforceJavier Perez, Director of Product Management at PerforceLinks:Get the 2023 State of Open Source ReportFollow Javier on TwitterRead the episode transcriptFind Us Online:puppet.comApple PodcastsTwitterLinkedIn

In this episode, join special guests Nigel Kersten, KasparvonGrünberg, Fatih Degirmenci, and Ronan Keenan as they discuss the recent surge in popularity of platform engineering and how these teams are fast becoming vital to enterprise success. In this panel discussion they explore: The history and advent of platform engineeringWhat platform engineering looks like todayWhere to get started in platform teams3 key fallacies to avoid to ensure success 

Creating and maintaining community is hard, especially when you don't bump into each other in the hallways on the regular. And community is vital, especially when it advocates for you and helps create a safe space to bring your whole self to work. Todd and Melissa share their experiences with Puppet's Pride ERG and how they're using it to work towards systemic change.Learn More:Join our community at https://slack.puppet.comFind Melissa on Twitter as @mcasburn or on LinkedInFind Todd on Twitter as @ShawnTErvin or on LinkedIn

Managing the configuration of an entire ecosystem is not an easy thing to do, and bootstrapping the system that manages that configuration is even more challenging. Edwin from Puppet's Solutions Architects team shows us a tool they've built that aims to simplify that task.Learn more:Join our community at https://slack.puppet.com and chat with Edwin.Try out the module from its Forge page and file any issues on the linked source repository.Using Process Mapping to target your automation efforts.Find Edwin on Twitter here.

CentOS has become the de facto standard operating system for many organizations since it's basically the same thing as RHEL, rebranded and without commercial support.CentOS was originally a community project, but over time Red Hat has become more influential in its direction and has shifted it to a "Stream" model, effectively moving CentOS 8 from being a downstream release (built after RHEL) to an upstream release (built before RHEL). This isn't exactly suitable for production use and thus many users are looking for alternatives.Paul joins us today to share insights and give some advice on how you can evaluate your options and migrate your infrastructure as painlessly as possible.Learn more:Join our community at https://slack.puppet.com.Read the blog post this podcast references.Try out Paul's module.

Cortez worked his way up through the ranks as a cloud security and compliance engineer, managing hundreds of production applications. Now he's taking those grueling lessons and teaching the team at Relay how to automate away tedium and toil. Join us as Cortez shares stories from the field and some of the motivation behind Relay's cloud compliance enforcement capabilities.Learn more: Join our community at https://slack.puppet.comFind more about Relay at https://relay.shLet us know about new integration ideas at https://pup.pt/ideasFind Cortez on LinkedIn

The recent log4j fiasco reminded us that not only is it important to stay updated and current with security news, but it's also critical to have safe ways to deploy configuration updates or orchestrate reporting/remediation scripts across your infrastructure as quickly as possible. Jeremy and Nick join us today to share best practices and automation suggestions.Learn more:Join our community at https://slack.puppet.comContribute to the module at https://github.com/puppetlabs/log4jscannerDownload the module from its Forge page: http://forge.puppet.com/puppetlabs/log4jscannerRead about Puppet's security response policies https://puppet.com/security/Reach Jeremy Mill on Twitter at @living_synUpdate: the GI Joe quote our hapless host massacred was  – "Now you know; and knowing is half the battle."

Puppet has been open source since day one and our success has largely been built on community contributions. One could even say that it's part of our DNA. Now the question is where do we take it from here? Puppet CTO Abby Kearns and Chief Architect Chip Childers have a long and storied history with open source. Join us to hear their thoughts on how Puppet will map out the open source roadmap ahead.Learn more: Join the Puppet Community Slack, we'd love to hear your ideas.Take a look at the Puppet Toy Chest for some projects that we're inviting you to adopt.Get involved by contributing written content or to one of our modules.Read about open source at Puppet.Read as Chip introduces himself to the community.Read more of Abby's ideas on her Medium pageFollow Abby and Chip on Twitter.

The DSC configuration engine is the standard way to manage Windows systems, and it's incredibly powerful. Now it's easier to use too, because all the PowerShell Gallery DSC resources are only a `puppet module install` away. Mike and Bill are here to tell you the whole story, from building the integration and the publication pipeline to deploying DSC Resources for customers and debugging them in the field.Learn more: Using PowerShell DSC Resources with PuppetPuppet & DSC: Puppetizing and DebuggingPicaroons by Michael T LombardiJoin our community at https://slack.puppet.com

User research shows that a huge number of our customers were using ServiceNow alongside Puppet Enterprise. It only made sense to teach the tools how to integrate with each other so that users didn't have to switch between them. Molly and Milad join us from Puppet's Integrations team to tell us how they put user experience front and center when building the new extensions.Learn more: Join our community at https://slack.puppet.comFind more about the integration at http://puppet.com/integrations/servicenow/Let us know about new integration ideas at https://pup.pt/ideast/ideas

Learning new tools is hard enough on its own. But then you often have to install software, set up a working environment, download a dev kit, or more. Our Education team recently released the new Puppet Practice Labs, which let you learn the Puppet ecosystem at your own pace and remove all these impediments from your progress.The labs run right in your browser and require no extra downloads. And best of all, they're free and you can access them any time. Many are even short enough that you could run through one over your lunch hour. Join us to chat with the team about how they built the platform and how you can best use it.Learn more: Boost your skills with Puppet Practice LabsLooking for more ways to learn Puppet? Check out Puppet Compass.Have more ideas? Take a look at the Puppet Idea Portal. 

Pride is a celebration of our true selves -- of loving yourself for who you are, and of accepting and loving others for who they are.It can be a challenge to feel safe being out and proud without role models providing guidance and showing the way. Listen to Melissa Casburn share her personal and professional journey.Learn More: To go more in depth, read Melissa's post on Medium

Abby Kearns and Deepak Giridharagopal share their unique experience of being co-CTOs and where Puppet is headed in the near future on this episode of Pulling the Strings.Learn more: Stay up to date with Abby's Medium or follow her on Twitter.Follow Deepak on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Ben Ford explains the importance of content and why developer insights help to build stronger communities on this episode of Pulling the Strings podcast. He also provides details on a better Puppet Developer Kit (PDK) and improvements to the Puppet Forge.Learn More:Learn more about the Puppet Developer Experience. Make your voice heard

Acceptance testing is fun, I know! In this episode of Pulling the Strings, Lucy Wyman, Gene Liverman, and Trevor Vaughan explain multi-node testing with Beaker, how Beaker is different from Litmus, and future plans for Beaker.Learn More: Install Beaker here.Watch the presentation of Beaker with PDK.  Join the Puppet Community on Slack. Learn more about Vox Pupuli.

I had virtualization… Then you gave me Kubernetes on top of virtualization. I thought Kubernetes was supposed to be the answer, and now you’re telling me it’s not the answer and I need something else on top of Kubernetes?! The conundrum is solved on this episode of Pulling the Strings with Martez Reed and Bruno Andrade.Learn MoreThe Puppet Kubernetes moduleWatch how you can install and bootstrap a Kubernetes cluster with the Puppet Kubernetes module.

Hear about the behind-the-scenes process of creating the 2020 State of DevOps Report. Nigel Kersten and Michael Stahnke dive deep into the data that drives the narrative of the report and take us on a journey dissecting numerous conversations with IT DevOps practitioners and decision makers alike in this episode. Learn moreDownload the 2020 State of DevOps Report.Read the 2020 DevOps Salary Report to discover how salaries changed during the pandemic.  

What is Onceover testing you may ask? A tool to automatically run basic tests on an entire Puppet controlrepo, it was written mostly while sipping inflight cocktails on airplanes. Dylan Ratcliffe explains Onceover testing and addresses some of the reasons it exists in the first place. Tune in to gain the clarity you need for your automation woes.Learn MoreGet started with Onceover.Learn how to use Onceover to start testing your Puppet Control repository.

Alex Hin shares his expertise from years in the cybersecurity industry on compliance and the importance behind adhering to CIS benchmarks.Learn MoreLearn more about Puppet Comply.See a demo of Puppet Comply in this session from Puppetize Digital.Learn more about Puppet’s journey into Continuous Compliance.

Martin Alfke from example42 drills down into the unique value of Hiera Data Manager and how it heavily reduces time needed for data analysis and setting.Learn MoreHiera Data Manager 

We know Halloween is over; however, these #DevOps stories are still mentally wreaking havoc on all that was involved. Ben Ford, Rob Nelson, and Mike Smith bravely share their experiences that were close to creating resume generating events in this episode. Tune in for how they recovered and the timeless lessons learned.

What has 2020 brought us besides cultural and operational change? Hopefully, it has pushed you to appreciate the aesthetically pleasing design of Puppet’s User Interface. Rick Monro is one of the wizards behind the architecture curtain of the Puppet UX. Rick explains why IT Directors should care about UX Design, some of the ethics around the new Puppet code terminology, and how he designs the Puppet Way in this episode. Learn MorePuppet Test Pilots: https://puppet.com/community/puppet-test-pilots/Find out why Puppet is moving toward a more diverse culture and also removing harmful language from its code and the correlation to the #blacklivesmatter movement. 

Have you hit a wall with your Open Source automation platform? Are you frustrated that your support has been limited? Well, Jesse Brennan and Claire Hernandez will calm your nerves with four words: Open Source Puppet Assist. They share how you can gain access to exclusive tools and content on Puppet, and help you make sure that you don’t take your Open Source journey alone.Visit the OSP Assist Portal: https://ospassist.puppet.com/hc/en-us

As the new normal continues, the evolution of open-source software thrives. Lucy Wyman runs down the evolution and importance of Puppet’s Open Source Stewards on this episode.  Learn moreFind out why Puppet is moving toward a more diverse culture and also removing harmful language from its code and the correlation to #blacklivesmatter movementSeaGL: https://seagl.org/

Are you using Slack to do cool things (other than chatting about Netflix episodes at the virtual water cooler)? In today’s episode, Martez Reed and Demetrius Malbrough discuss how Hydra integrates with Slack to create and scale virtual environments. If you are interested in how your environment can be automatically created and spun up behind the scenes, this episode is for you!

What do you get when you mix DevOps Engineers, BBQ, and uncontrollable fits of throwing yourself off of mountains? You get Tim Meusel and Robert Müller dropping science around Vox Pupuli and how to build an awesome open source community. They also share some valuable insights around how they got started with Ruby, some lessons learned from a few mistakes they’ve made, and most importantly how to get involved with Vox Pupuli in this episode of Pulling the Strings Podcast. Learn moreDocumentation for vox-pupuli-tasksReviewing a module pull request

Have you considered putting your backups on auto-pilot? Rebecca Fitzhugh, Director of Developer Relations at Rubrik, discusses the modules that leverage Puppet on Pulling the Strings. Learn how to automate your Service Level Agreements and a simple way to install Backup Connectors across a fleet of servers simultaneously. After listening to this episode and grabbing the module off of GitHub, your boss might consider giving you an extra vacation day. Be sure to stay until the end to learn about a recent Ransomware attack and how immutability gives you control to recover quickly.

What does cross-team collaboration, git murder mysteries, and role-playing games have in common? The incredible DevOps superpowers of Ben Ford and Garrett Rowell answer those questions for you in this Pulling the Strings episode. Their collaboration resulted in an engaging game that debuted during Puppet Camp for attendees to play. The rocking, virtual scavenger hunt allows you to use your technical skills to solve problems while also having fun at the same time. Put your headphones on and crank up the treadmill!

Cloud teams are drowning in an increasing, unsustainable volume of external events: cloud events, git events, monitoring alerts, tickets, incidents, and others. In response, engineers manually perform a disparate set of actions across various cloud providers, container platforms, CI/CD tools, config mgmt tools, and hundreds of other APIs. To make this better, some developers try to create their one-off automation tools or integration hubs, usually per team or project. Eric Sorenson and Melissa Sussmann discuss Puppet’s event-driven automation, Relay, and how it helps clean up the “DevOps Dumping Ground” in your environmentLearn moreWe’re building the future of DevOps automation with Relay. Join the launch here Relay Launch

Puppet's developer experience has been through a lot of growing pains. Many of us learned Puppet before the PDK existed, when the state of the art was SSHing into a Puppet master, manually making a module's directory structure, and cracking open Vim to edit our manifests. Some of us still do that; old habits die hard. But the point is that the barrier to entry used to be really high, and it didn't have to be. James Pogran is a Puppet developer on a mission to change that and simplify the experience for practitioners of all levels. He's here to talk with us today about his work on the Puppet VS Code Extension.Learn moreInstall the Puppet VS Code Extension today!See more about the Puppet VS Code extensionGet started with the PDK today

In this podcast, Eric Sorenson and Melissa Sussmann will be exploring the challenges that DevOps engineers face in using cloud-native infrastructure and how Puppet can help with your deployments.Continuous deployment is essential to the growing cloud-native space, especially in the case of containerization. Everyone we’ve interviewed is looking to adopt cloud-native technologies, but they face significant challenges in adopting containers, microservices, and serverless infrastructure for even simple cloud-native applications.Project Nebula provides automation that helps customers easily work on provisioning, rollbacks, application deployment, and notifications all through one tool. Nebula also provides teams with a platform for sharing workflows and best practices to build consistent and coherent deployments. It's our latest offering for teams that are adopting various cloud-native and serverless technologies and need to unify this heterogeneous toolset into a single, end-to-end deployment workflow.Sign up for Project Nebula here: https://puppet.com/project-nebulaWe are offering a free bluetooth wireless speaker and welcome kit to the first 100 active users who provide product feedback for Project Nebula. To be an active user, customers must actively use the app for a couple of weeks and create and run custom workflows. To give product feedback, customers must schedule 1:1 time with the Nebula product team.Learn moreWatch Kenaz’s Puppetize PDX talk on Project NebulaWatch Eric Sorenson’s Puppetize PDX talk to learn about cloud-native configuration managementAttend Eric’s Panel at KubeConRead "Cloud Native Infrastructure" by Kris Nova and Justin GarrisonRead 6 Best Practices for Creating a Container Platform Strategy from Gartner

Puppet’s Nigel Kersten and CircleCI’s Mike Stahnke go behind-the-scenes of the 2019 report to talk about the shift to a security-focused report and where they see these challenges heading and evolving. Learn more• Download the 2019 State of DevOps Report• Listen to: Doing the DevOps with Yasmin Rajabi and Nick Maludy

In today’s episode, we talk to Nick Maludy DevOps Manager at Encore Technologies. He shares his career journey going from a developer to managing teams and applying DevOps at scale.Doing the DevOps can be hard and transformation takes time, Nick shares insight on how his team has implemented changes and continues to improve over time. Learn what tools they used and what advice he has to help introduce DevOps into your teams. Mentioned in the episode:• Nick's twitter: @NickMaludy• Puppet's slack channel:  http://slack.puppet.com• Blogs resources: https://puppet.com/docs/bolt/latest/bolt.html• encore tech blog: https://encore.tech/blog/• S**t Gary Says: http://garylarizza.com/• Rob Nelson's blog: https://rnelson0.com/• Bolt hands-on lab: https://puppetlabs.github.io/bolt/

We’re covering a few DevOps parallels, data-driven diaper changing, and, apparently, Baby Shark.Taking care of a newborn is a gargantuan task for everyone involved. We invite one of our technologists to tell us more about how he and his partner are automating the rough manual tasks away to make more time for rest and peace of mind.Automating chunks of the newborn/baby experience is beyond software. It’s about taking out manual tasks to make more time for important things… like sleep. Screenshots mentioned in episode• Example of data collected via Snoo bassinet • A closer look at a data-delivering changing table and feedings• A screenshot of baby room monitoring and controls via Amazon Alexa * Andrew Nhem is the managing editor at Puppet Learn more• Check out Dad Verb's YouTube Channel • Here's an overview of Dr. Karp's "Five S's for Soothing Babies"• If somehow you've made it through most of 2019 without listening to "Baby Shark"... (you're welcome)

Last month, we spent two and a half days in Budapest with some of our best community friends. I think the summary of Contributor Summit was the one common complaint I heard:"There was too much good content and it was really hard to decide between workshops!" said everybody.That's a really good problem to have and is the hallmark of a great experience. The key was in how the event was organized. Rather than tightly control the messaging, we simply asked our facilitators to build workshops that spoke to them and to just bring their best selves to the table ready to collaborate.This was part of our new focus on the community contributor experience. The whole Summit practically crackled with electricity and what felt like every attendee came up to tell me how productive it was for them. What are we covering?In this podcast, we talk about what made Contributor Summit special and some of the lessons we learned. We spoke with Tim Meusel, better known as bastelfreak, about the critical role that Vox Pupuli plays in our ecosystem. We even talked about marathon training, dispelled some misconceptions that Ben had about his mom's cooking, and established a clear winner in the German vs. Hungarian goulash rivalry.What else? Well, you'll just have to listen to find out!  Learn more• Have opinions about the best goulash recipes• Help review Vox Pupuli pull requests• Join the Portland Marathon training plan• See Portland's premiere pinball venue• Register for PuppetizePDX• Puppet Open Source projects (including Litmus)

Sometimes big challenges need to be tested and solved for at a much smaller scale. In this case, it’s the 1:87 model train scale with an interesting experiment coming out of Puppet.  Learn more about a new way to bring people together and automate with Bolt.On this episode, Engineers Cas, Ken, Jacob, and Managing Editor Andrew chat about “bolting” remote task orchestration and automation onto a HO-scale model train set. The vision: sending  Bolt plans to operate a model train at Puppet’s Portland headquarters.Hear how this cross-functional team solves for the automation of remote devices, navigating network security requirements, possibly provisioning containers, and (most importantly) building a fun project that brings people together.

You've probably heard that we've got a conference coming up soon. But have you also heard about the exciting additional events going on around Puppetize PDX? We're coming back home to Portland, and are super excited to show you some of our favorite parts of our city.We've added a few extra events into the Puppetize PDX agenda and in this podcast, we'll talk with a small handful of Puppet employees who're helping facilitate some of those experiences for you. They range from integral parts of the conference, like the Birds of a Feather discussion sessions that Gene is facilitating, to the technical extras, like the Bolt workshop and the Hackday, all the way to the unrelated-but-still-fun Puppet-sponsored Portland Marathon team and the informal pinball tournament at Ground Kontrol.Come along; we hope you enjoy the listen!*Ben Ford is a software engineer and developer advocate at Puppet.* Learn more• See the Ground Kontrol facilities.• Read about Portland Marathon training plan• See the Puppetize PDX agenda• Check out Puppet's guide to Portland• Read about the Birds of a Feather format• Play with the self-paced version of the Bolt workshop

In this podcast, Eric talks with Bryan Belanger from Fervid about working with Puppet in highly regulated compute environments. As a consultant for US Government agencies, Bryan's been working to get "Authority to Operate" for governmental cloud services, to speed up time to delivery and reduce compliance risk. The Puppet modules for STIG hardening, especially for Windows servers, let them build a baseline from existing systems and enforce that across the environment. We talk about the Forge, about Cloud, and about... Canada! Windows hardening module: https://forge.puppet.com/autostructure/harden_windows_server *Eric is a technical product manager at Puppet.*