Insightful conversations. Less snark.

No company names are off limits for some often deserved snark here on “Screaming,” but Jamf pretty much takes care of itself. Levi McCormick, Cloud Architect at Jamf, is here to defend their honor—we kid. In reality Levi’s role at the enterprise architecture team over at Jamf gives him a high level, enterprise view of the cloud and in turn gives him some valuable takes. Corey and Levi talk about Duckbill Group’s use of Jamf, which for them is primarily centered around hardware. Now, Jamf has their head in the cloud and Levi and his team are crucial to that progress. Levi talks about the day to day operations of his team, and where they focus their energy and efforts to build out their products. Levi also offers some excellent insight on how to keep your various teams consistent, efficient, and perhaps most important—happy. Check it out!

When Corey went to the 2021 re:Invent, Corey made a surprising discovery. One of those was Aaron Booth, Cloud Product Consultant at Embue LTD. Aaron was making his first trip to the US just for re:Invent, and somehow managed to survive it and Vegas. Despite the miasmic nature of it all, Aaron walked away with some stories under his belt. Aaron talks about his prep work for re:Invent, which included watching “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” But, more importantly, Aaron discusses what he is most excited about following his trip and all the announcements. Aaron also offers some takes on sustainability and the cloud, and provides some hopeful perspectives on a topic that is so steeped in cynicism.

We shouldn’t forget security until the very end—and Ell Marquez, Security Research Advocate at Intezer, is here to keep us honest! Ell’s job title is just a minor indication about her own work in security, which can be so much more than blue hued charts (ahem, AWS)! Ell pipes up for some solid insight on how to step up the security game. Ell shines the light on some of the esoteric nature of security, and the importance of entire organizations sharing the security responsibility. She offers her take on third party contractors, Target kerfuffles, and chats with Corey about Pokémon’s security choices. Ell’s security chops come to the forefront too, as she and Corey debate some of the importance of various practices, and as they talk about her own work as a podcaster and more!

Serena a.ka. @shenetworks as she is known on TikTok, or @notshenetworks on Twitter, is a Network Engineer who has made her mark on the digital sphere! Serena’s work on the social end of the spectrum is only a facet of her work. As a network engineer in the age of cloud, Serena has much to say about the work of data centers. Corey and Serena talk datacenters, cybersecurity, and the role that her social media presence plays into her work in that typically curmudgeonly world. She traces the rise of her content, which has only be going on for around year, and how she intends to utilize that previously untapped space to spread the network “vibes”!

Sometimes we veer into interviews that aren’t just about cloud infrastructure. For this episode we’re joined by Anil Dash, CEO of Glitch, to talk about learning to code and creating a community around. Which, for Anil, is where to start—then “the tools will follow.” Anil and Corey discuss Glitch and how it is bringing the esoteric nature of coding into a larger audience. Anil talks about starting at the community level, then letting the room for innovation and approachability growing outward from there. Anil shines the light onto the unique ways that Glitch, through apps, is changing the way people execute their technical ideas!

Dan Woods, CISO and VP of Cybersecurity for Shipt (a Target subsidiary), has joined this Corey this week for a round of “Screaming.” Dan has recently come off an impressive stint as the CTO of the Biden campaign—the second staffer to join the “Screaming” line up! Dan has been at Target for years, which ended up serving as an experience that set him up for success in the political realm. Dan discusses his history at Target and the accolade of being a distinguished engineer. Dan goes into the challenges of tech leadership in the political sphere, where those under you are volunteers. He discusses some of the technical challenges they faced, which compliments well the insight of previous guest Jackie Singh. Dan breaks down the IC (individual contributor) role and how it has influenced his own leadership, and how he balanced it with his work in tech.

After crossing paths at Monktoberfest, Julia Ferraioli, co-founder of Open Source Stories, has been politely badgered by Core to come on the show. Now she has set down to chat with Corey to cover the open source spread. From her own work, to things that need change, to what works, Julia has a lot to offer! Julia talks about the general project at Open Source Stories, and the ways they are making the user a primary motivation when building out products. She and Corey reflect on the open source community and what her definition of open source is. They take a deep dive into some of the nuances of open source and Julia’s observations are articulate, well thought out, and worthwhile.

From across the pond in jolly old England we are joined by Jake Hendy, a Technical Lead at the Met Office, to inform us about what it is like to work on the cloud for a government. Avoid the knee jerk reaction of “should governments be working on things that crash all the time?” and take a moment to hear Jake’s take. Jake discusses his work at the UK’s National Meteorological Service and the wide array of work they do, and the various organizations they do that work with. From NATO to airlines to supermarkets, the Met Office and Jake’s work is a pretty fascinating space to keep an eye on. Jake goes into how institutional figures like his own office are using the cloud, and the possibilities that they can leverage to the field.

Almost everyone is using Slack, and a lot of that is because of the work of those like Frank Chen, Slack’s Senior Staff Software Engineer. Frank is here to tell us how Slack keeps us all angrily typing. But equally as important is his own trajectory which is multifaceted to say the least. Frank discusses the common thread with the many places where he has worked, which for Frank is fun and exciting people. Frank offers up some cat centric anecdotes that helped lead him to his work at Slack, and reflects on how Slack has shifted how we work. Frank also shows a determination to work through failures and how to build on that, and the best way to make those connections with the human component of our work. Frank offers up a lot of insight on constantly learning, and his perspective is quite worthwhile.

Today’s guest, Robert Reeves, CTO and Co-Founder of Liquibase, has stomped around Corey’s home grounds in Maine. They first crossed paths at “Monktoberfest” and since then have been waiting for a chance to sit down and chat about people, companies, interests, and more! Robert talks about launching into Liquibase and the answers that they are aiming to solve when it comes to automating database schema change. He goes into how Liquibase is helping to dissolve the database bottlenecks, and provides some details on how they’re doing so. Despite getting there as quickly as they can, to the chagrin of one particular baking executive, Liquibase is now on the scene. Tune in for the technical details on what Liquibase is up to!

In the continual effort to highlight folks who inspire us on “Screaming,” especially when that person brings a forceful sense of humor to the question. Thankfully Danielle Baskin, CEO of Dialup, makes her adroit sense of humor quickly known. An excellent example, the first time she and Corey crossed paths was at Oracle OpenWorld where she was dressed as a seer. Yeah, you read that right. Danielle and Corey regale her hilarious gimmicks over the years at various oracle theme conferences. Be they about the cloud, or communing with the ether. Danielle has some great anecdotes that, in short, helped to also highlight some peculiarities of the industry. Alongside her prolific work in tech, Danielle is also a robust artist, whose work straddles realm digital, physical, and other. Check out the conversation!

For the first in-person episode in quite some time, Corey is joined by Sahir Azam, Chief Product Officer at MongoDB. Recording during the madness known as re:Invent, Sahir has graciously taken some time to bring us up to speed on what the folks at MongoDB have been up to, both in their work with AWS and outside of it. With re:Invent in the rearview, Sahir reflects upon MongoDB’s week well spent. Sahir and Corey discuss MongoDB’s history as a “staple of the internet” and how MongoDB is now set in stone as one of the leading cloud database companies. MongoDB has made purpose a central focus for its database build. This purpose is something the company provides to its customer base as a wide array of organizations make the transition to the cloud. Sahir and Corey discuss the nuances of general purpose databases and their potential shortfalls, plus how to craft a more specific database that allows space for innovation.