Insightful conversations. Less snark.

Corey sits down with Matt Coulter, a senior architect at Liberty Mutual. Matt defines CDK and explains CDK’s supported languages. They discuss Corey’s experience using CDK with his twitter client lasttweetinaws.com and his issues with Cloud Formation. Matt talks about the 6 pillars of the “Well-Architected Framework,” the updated serverless portion of the Well-Architected Tool, and Corey and Matt discuss the results of the community CDK quarterly survey.

Adam Elmore joins Corey to chat about all things AWS, including a course he’s creating for developers to help them learn how to leverage AWS for their businesses. Adam explains how his skills and thirst for knowledge led him to complete every certification that AWS offers in a mere six weeks, how he started contributing to the AWS CDK, and how he hopes to continue helping developers with AWS in the future.

Alex Rasmussen, data engineering consultant at Bits on Disk, returning guest, and a former Principal Cloud Economist for the Duckbill Group, joins Corey to reminisce about working on AWS bills and larger data/infrastructure questions. They compare the value of their opposite areas of expertise and how they complemented one another. They also explore some of the ingenious data solutions Alex came up with in his time at Duckbill and discuss the value of human consulting in an automated industry.

Today Corey is joined by returning guest Steren Giannini, Group Product Manager, Google Cloud. Steren is back to discuss his Google Cloud 20% project: Google Cloud Carbon Footprint, an initiative that is now available for all Google Cloud customers to help them understand and reduce their carbon emissions. Corey and Steren discuss individual versus corporate environmental responsibility, and Steren talks about how Google Cloud’s net operational emissions are zero because of renewable matching. He goes on to talk about Google Cloud’s goal to be net zero in 2030. Steren shares that picking the cleanest regions is one of the simplest actions a customer can take to reduce their gross carbon emissions. They discuss the tool Google Cloud Region picker, which allows customers to identify their priorities with carbon footprint, price, and latency, and then choose the ideal region for their needs. Steren and Corey discuss at what point of scale carbon usage begins to make a significant difference, and they conclude by talking about the relationship between economics and efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Today Corey chats with Alex Su, Head of Community Development at Ironclad. Alex explains his company, Ironclad, a a digital contracting technology that helps accelerate business contracts. Corey and Alex talk about Alex’s experience getting into TikTok and creating content and how that ultimately led to his job at Ironclad. Corey asks Alex about his unique position in a job that blends the traditionally at-odds fields of sales and legal. Alex discusses what it takes for a person to be a great salesperson, including having the right personality and also the right learning. Alex talks about how he doesn’t prescribe solutions but instead believes in creating conversations, as with his TikTok content. Corey and Alex talk about their shared affinity for shit-posting and its effectiveness, and discuss the way creating content is related to actual sales.

Today Corey chats with podcaster and influencer Jon Myer. They begin by talking about what it’s like for Jon as someone who used to work at AWS and is now exercising his own voice and influence post-Amazon. Jon talks about his current endeavors including valuable content creation for different brands. He shares his unique philosophy for deep-diving products and developing long-term relationships with brands. Corey and Jon discuss the challenges, benefits, and scalability of being associated with and creating content for different brands. They conclude their conversation by talking about Jon’s process for building content.

Corey sits down with Duckbill Group Alumnus, Tim Banks. They begin by reminiscing on Tim’s time at Duckbill, and by exploring how the pandemic has affected work culture and work relationships. Tim talks about his management strategies and how giving employees the tools they need to thrive requires so much more than just a great salary. Corey and Tim discuss the importance of solving human problems with human solutions, not technical solutions. Corey talks about one of Tim’s innovations at Duckbill, the creation of a third type of engagement with clients that has been a huge success, and Tim explains how he was inspired to create it.

Corey chats with Anton Chuvakin, Security Strategy Something at Google Cloud. Anton begins by talking about his journey to a technical role at Google prefaced by a position at Gartner, and a job as head of security for a start-up that was acquired by Google. Corey asks Anton for his opinion on the role and positioning of security vendors, and Anton talks about the challenge of deciding when to tell clients they’re on the wrong path and when to help them tread their own path with the least pain. Corey and Anton talk about the hotly debated definition of what XDR actually is, and then move into a discussion about whether or not cloud vendors should view security as a profit center and how cost should be factored into cloud security. Anton shares about his own podcast, “Cloud Security Podcast” and the narratives he’s found interesting lately.

Today Corey talks with Anadelia Fadeev, the Senior Director of Demand Generation at Teleport. Anadelia starts by talking about the three core areas of a marketing team: product, content, and demand generation. Corey and Anadelia discuss the “inbound” and “outbound” aspects of marketing - what is bringing people to you, and what you’re doing to add value and build trust. Anadelia talks about how, in her career, she has ended up specializing in a particular audience versus a specific product. Corey and Anadelia commiserate on marketing woes and talk about the non-linear journey of the consumer, then discuss how building trust is paramount, even when there aren’t measurable results. They finish up by speculating on the fine line of knowing when to build gates into the marketing process, and “thinking about thinking” - understanding how customers think and where they’re going to look to find solutions to their problems.

Today Corey interviews Jeff Smith, Director of Production Operations at Basis Technologies. In a post-2020 world, they discuss the pros and cons of remote work. Jeff talks about the trade-off that gets made when employers allow workers to forfeit face to face time in favor of working from home. Jeff and Corey make the point that often the interactions that are cited as pros — i.e., chatting with a coworker in the hallway — are the very same exchanges employees identify as interruptions to their actual work. They come to the conclusion that the loss of face to face interaction is often still worth the benefits to employees and companies. Corey and Jeff conclude their conversation by talking about what Jeff has learned about the power of telling your story and using your voice since the release of his book, “Operations Anti-Patterns.”

Today Corey chats with promoted guest, CTO for cloud at EDB, Benjamin Anderson. They start by talking about the evolution of the market space for cloud-hosted database services and relational database trends over the years. Corey and Benjamin discuss different philosophies of open source and talk about EDB’s different cloud offerings, including primarily BigAnimal as well as EDB’s newer open source project “Cloud Native PG.” Benjamin explains how EDB approaches maintenance windows and answers Corey’s question about what kinds of workloads are not best suited for BigAnimal. They discuss different database systems and Benjamin talks about working with various systems over the years and why he recommends Postgres. EDB has recently received an investment from private equity, so Benjamin talks about how he feels that will affect the future of the company. Corey and Benjamin conclude with a discussion of the crowded cloud-hosted database market space and how a smaller company can have more specific focus and offer the customer more value for their managed service.

Today Corey sits down with Brandon West, Team Lead for Developer Experience and Tools Advocacy at Datadog. They discuss Brandon’s unique career path, starting at SendGrid, working a stint at AWS, and landing in developer relations at Datadog. Corey and Brandon talk about the problem DevRel often has with successfully telling stories about itself and communicating the need for advocacy. They move into a conversation about the relationship between marketing and DevRel, and how the two are often aligned even if they’re not one and the same. Brandon addresses the challenge of metrics and quantifying success for developer advocates and emphasizes the role of empathy in DevRel. Corey and Brandon chat about the impact of branding on the public perception of Developer Advocacy and the amount of consideration it receives. They end the conversation by discussing uncertainty about your role early on versus later in a career.