vBrownBag — Listen to the Podcast

vBrownBag

A How To , Education and Business podcast

About the show

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. Most frequent activity is producing the vBrownBag podcast. vBrownBag also attends global conferences to produce TechTalks and theater sessions.

Newest episodes

The "S" in Generative AI is for Security

Nov 5, 2026 59 min Video

Join us as AWS Security Hero Rowan Udell digs into why the S in Generative AI stands for Security (spoiler: it doesn't) and what that means for anyone building or running AI agents. Rowan walks through this year's greatest hits in agent security failures, from an agent that deleted a production database to agents escaping their test sandboxes, then breaks down Simon Willison's lethal trifecta of sensitive data, untrusted content, and external actions. You will learn why you can't trust the context, why guardrails alone aren't enough, and how to scope data, curate input, and go read-only so your IAM permissions, not your prompt, decide what an agent can actually do. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 4:33 Rowan's Background and the AWS IAM Guide 10:38 2026's Greatest Hits in Agent Security Failures 21:02 The Lethal Trifecta 26:45 The CSA's Assessment of 100 Production Agents 32:22 You Cannot Trust the Context 36:39 Why Guardrails Aren't Enough 47:10 Fixing It - Scope the Data, Curate the Input, Go Read-Only 52:07 When the Agent Got Around the Hooks 57:22 The AWS IAM Guide & Wrap-Up How to find Rowan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rowanu/ https://rowanudell.com Links from the show: https://awsiamguide.com https://slider.rowanudell.com/vbrownbag/slides.html

AI: Your New Social Media Designer

Nov 4, 2026 51 min Video

Join us as Caitlyn Feletar shows how to turn Claude into a personal social media designer that looks and sounds like you, and not like generic AI slop. Caitlyn walks through building a Claude project from scratch: an interview-style prompt that captures your brand voice, a design system pulled from your website, logos, and photos, and reusable templates for Instagram carousels. You will learn which AI tells to ban in your prompts, what to gather before you start, how to fix the system instead of fixing every single post, and why this approach is built for people who can't hire a designer, not as a replacement for one. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 7:21 Why AI Posts Look (and Sound) Like AI 8:50 Setting Up the Claude Project 12:11 The Interview Prompt and the Don't Sound Like AI Rules 16:43 Capturing Your Voice in a Voice & Content Guide 21:33 Building the Brand Design System 29:33 Live Demo - Making an Instagram Carousel 32:45 Fix the System, Not the Post 39:04 Saving Templates and Reusing Them 44:54 Where to Find Caitlyn & Wrap-Up How to find Caitlyn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlynfeletar/ https://caitlyngreffly.com/ Links from the show:

Unleashing AI On My Homelab

Sep 4, 2026 1 hr 2 min Video

Join us as Cobus Bernard takes us on a live tour of his sprawling homelab - and explains why Claude wrote most of the Terraform and Ansible running it. Cobus walks through a Proxmox setup running Traefik, Vault, Nomad, Keycloak, and a three-node Kubernetes cluster that doesn't quite work yet, all built by handing infrastructure-as-code tasks to Claude and slowly deciding how much of it to trust with real commands. You will learn how Cobus structures Terraform state and variables so an AI agent can safely extend it, why he still won't let Claude run terraform apply unsupervised, how MCP servers control what an agent is allowed to touch, and why confabulation might be a better word than hallucination for what these models actually do. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 8:50 What's Running in the Home Lab - Proxmox, Traefik, and Vault 13:48 A Kubernetes Cluster That Doesn't Work Yet 17:09 MCP Servers and What Claude Is Allowed to Run 21:46 Is It That Claude Wrote the Terraform? 23:06 Trusting Claude with Terraform Apply 27:43 The Home Assistant Confession - Copy-Paste vs. Actually Learning 36:57 Naming Things - Solving the Classic Kubernetes Problem 43:52 Confabulation - A Better Word for AI Hallucination 48:49 Building a Tax Calculator App With Claude How to find Cobus: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cobusbernard/ Links from the show:

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All episodes

The "S" in Generative AI is for Security

Nov 5, 2026 59 min Video

AI: Your New Social Media Designer

Nov 4, 2026 51 min Video

Unleashing AI On My Homelab

Sep 4, 2026 1 hr 2 min Video

Responsible AI with Amazon Bedrock

Jul 21, 2026 1 hr 6 min Video

Join us as Faye Ellis breaks down what responsible AI actually looks like in practice on Amazon Bedrock - live demos included, straight from her prep for the AWS Generative AI Developer Professional certification. Faye walks through the NIST AI risk framework's core characteristics of trustworthy systems, then demos two hands-on builds: a RAG pipeline using S3 Vectors as a low-cost knowledge base, and Bedrock Guardrails blocking financial advice, prompt injection attacks, and sensitive information in real time. You'll learn the difference between prompt engineering and guardrails, how contextual grounding checks catch hallucinations before they reach a user, why data cleaning and deduplication matter as much for cost and sustainability as for bias, and what Faye wishes she'd known going into one of AWS's hardest professional-level exams. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 9:28 What Makes an AI System Trustworthy - The NIST Framework 15:19 Famous AI Failures - From ChatGPT Code Leaks to Biased Systems 22:56 Building RAG with Bedrock Knowledge Bases and S3 Vectors 26:29 Live Demo - Setting Up RAG with S3 Vectors 31:19 Prompt Engineering and Bedrock Prompt Management 34:46 What Are Bedrock Guardrails and How They Work 41:22 Live Demo - Blocking Financial Advice, Jailbreaks, and PII 53:00 Preparing for the AWS Generative AI Developer Professional Exam 59:04 Resources and Wrapping Up How to find Faye: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fayeellis/ https://app.pluralsight.com/profile/author/faye-ellis Links from the show: https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/ https://skillbuilder.aws/ https://aws.amazon.com/certification/

AI Observability: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Jul 13, 2026 1 hr 2 min Video

Join us as John Mark Troyer and Rakesh Gupta break down what AI observability actually means once agents leave the demo and hit production - and why the old playbook for monitoring doesn't cut it anymore. John Mark and Rakesh walk through why errors and latency are just the starting point for agents, how quality became a much harder thing to measure once bots went from answering questions to taking autonomous action, and why token-based costs are creating a confusing new economics problem for engineering teams. You'll learn the difference between online and offline evals, why a new engineering role has emerged just to build testing harnesses for agents, how trace data works differently when every prompt is its own trace, and what teams are doing to catch prompt injection and other AI-specific failure modes before they become expensive mistakes. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 3:20 Full Disclosure - Observe, Snowflake, and How This Conversation Started 7:07 From Developer Concerns to Boss's Boss's Boss - Spending Out of Control 8:29 What Actually Gets Measured - Errors, Latency, Quality, and Cost 10:30 The Casino Chip Problem - Confusing Token Pricing Models 13:47 Defining Quality When the Task Itself Is Nebulous 18:41 The New Role - Engineers Who Just Build Testing Harnesses 22:00 Non-Determinism and Why Testing Agents Is Expensive 32:10 Trace Data, Tool Calls, and What Observability Tools Actually See 55:08 Prompt Injection, Zero-Width Characters, and Real World Failures How to find John Mark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmarktroyer/ How to find Rakesh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rg0/ Links from the show:

Learning New Skills and Languages in the AI Era

Jul 10, 2026 1 hr 0 min Video

Join us as Bob Belderbos breaks down how to actually learn new skills and languages in a world where AI can write the code for you before you've even finished the thought. Bob shares why he taught himself Rust the hard way, how keeping deliberate friction in your learning process protects you from skill atrophy, and why AI is incredible at explaining concepts but dangerous as a crutch for understanding them. You'll learn the difference between using AI to explain versus using it to do, how to structure a project-based learning path with tests as your guide, why coding autocomplete might be quietly hollowing out your skills, and how his Python and Rust cohorts are teaching professional engineers to use agents without losing ownership of their code. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 1:09 Bob's Background - From VBA to Python to Rust 4:39 Why Learn Rust When Python Already Works 11:43 AI as a Learning Assistant vs. a Socratic Teacher 12:30 The Slot Machine Problem - Agents and Skill Atrophy 17:24 Working Outside Your Expertise - The Fast LED Story 27:02 Structuring Prompts That Actually Teach You Something 33:56 Teaching Agentic AI in Production - The Expense Classifier Cohort 36:07 Autocomplete, Copilot, and the Line Between Helping and Hollowing Out 44:03 AI Slop, Coauthorship, and the Anti-Slop Engineer 53:49 What's Next - Rust, Haskell, and Bob's Upcoming Cohorts How to find Bob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bbelderbos/ https://belderbos.dev/ Links from the show:

Getting Started with Local AI (2/3)

Jul 6, 2026 48 min Video

Join us as Du'An digs into the real mechanics of running AI locally and in production - from GPU memory math to multi-agent architectures, observability, and the economics of self-hosted inference. Du'An walks through how model weights and KV cache compete for GPU memory, why continuous batching matters when you have more than a handful of users, and how agent architectures like single-agent, workflow, graph, swarm, and supervisor patterns each solve different problems. You will learn how to instrument your agents with Langfuse for observability and cost tracking, when to use Ollama versus vLLM, how prompt caching can cut provider costs by up to 75%, and why GPUs should never sit idle. Episode two of three - the next episode covers deploying at scale. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 1:47 Du'An's New Role at Akamai Cloud 3:10 Data Privacy and the Case for Self-Hosted AI 7:21 Anthropic and OpenAI as the New Cloud Layer 12:48 Local Models for Specific Use Cases - Cancer Detection Example 15:02 GPU Memory Math - Weights, KV Cache, and Context Windows 19:32 Continuous Batching and GPU Time Slicing 20:03 Observability with Langfuse - Live Demo 27:44 Agent Architectures - Single Agent, Workflow, Graph, Swarm, Supervisor 36:36 Token Economics, Prompt Caching, and GPU Cost Planning 45:32 Ollama vs vLLM - Prototyping vs Production How to find Du'An: https://duanlightfoot.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/duanlightfoot/ Links from the show: https://langfuse.com/ https://github.com/akamai-developers/akamai-workshop-solution-architect-agent https://amzn.to/4bvHn1p https://vllm.ai/

AI (for Normal People) with AWS Hero Thorsten Hoger

Jun 26, 2026 52 min Video

Join us as Thorsten breaks down how everyday people - small business owners, retirees, hobbyists, and anyone who isn't a developer - can use AI to get real things done without writing a single line of code. Thorsten runs an AI roundtable for small and medium businesses in Germany and shares hands-on use cases from his own life and clients: a family recipe database built entirely on a mobile phone, 13 months of fitness data analyzed into actionable coaching, a personal AI project manager that reads his calendar and meeting transcripts, and real-world implementations for a dental practice and a tax advisory firm. You will learn how to think about AI as a team you never had, why prompts are the new apps, how to handle privacy and data regulations, and how to start this week with just one task. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 5:17 Who Is Thorsten and What Is Normal People AI 8:51 The Recipe Database Use Case 16:46 Fitness Tracking and Personal Coaching 22:27 Building an AI-Powered Personal Project Manager 34:23 Using Fireflies and MCP for Meeting Intelligence 41:14 Real Business Use Cases - Dental Practice and Tax Advisory 44:27 Privacy, GDPR, and When to Use Local Models 47:06 Getting Started - One Task This Week How to find Thorsten: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hoegertn/ Links from the show:

Agentic AI: In The Real World

Jun 15, 2026 1 hr 0 min Video

Join us as Dave walks through what it actually takes to build custom AI agents from scratch - not theory, but real projects he has shipped for his family, his work, and his community. Dave shares how he used Kiro and Claude to solve real problems: normalizing flood-damaged library inventory data, automating AWS well-architected review collateral, building a room-cleaning task agent for his 12-year-old, planning family menus with Apple Calendar integration, and post-processing live concert recordings. You will learn how agents reason and take action, when to reach for a Kiro power versus a simpler automation, how MCP servers connect agents to real-world tools, and practical strategies for keeping agents accurate without burning through tokens. Timestamps 0:00 Welcome & Introduction 7:57 Dave's Background and How He Got Started with Agents 13:00 The Library Flood Story - First Real-World Agent Use Case 16:00 AWS Well-Architected Review Automation 17:09 What Are Kiro Powers and MCP Servers? 22:13 Kiro Pricing and Bedrock Integration 28:13 Live Demo - Room Cleaning Agent with AWS Rekognition 41:24 Family Meal Planning and Apple Calendar Integration 44:27 Automating Live Concert Recording Post-Processing 52:31 Getting Started - Dave's Recommendations for Beginners How to find Dave: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-stauffacher/ Links from the show: https://kiro.dev/

How to get to AWS re:Invent FOR FREE

Jun 9, 2026 47 min Video

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:

How to get to AWS re:Invent FOR FREE

Jun 9, 2026 59 min Video

Trusted Publishing

Jun 9, 2026 59 min Video

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:

Yelling at LLM Costs

May 28, 2026 56 min Video

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:

The AI Dev Skills You Need to Future-Proof Your Career

May 26, 2026 1 hr 4 min Video

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 57:0...

Claude / Codex / Gemini / Open-model Gen AI from Zero with Andrew Brown

May 10, 2026 59 min Video

Andrew Brown (ExamPro) joins the vBrownBag crew to talk Gen AI skills, bootcamps, and whether vibe coding has made "learning to code" irrelevant. 🤖 Spoiler: it hasn't. Andrew walks through his upcoming Cloud Code Camp, demos agentic workflows he's built using Claude Desktop and Claude Code, and breaks down how to actually think about coordinator patterns, MCPs, and token-efficient development. 💡 The crew also gets into the "coders are obsolete" debate, AI-assisted JRPG game development, and whether AI certifications are worth your time in 2026. 🎮 Chapters: 00:00:01 - Andrew Brown, Classified Backstories, and Gen AI Fatigue 00:08:45 - Cloud Code Camp: Who It's For and What You'll Actually Build 00:15:38 - Building MCPs and Agentic Workflows with Claude Desktop and Claude Code 00:32:22 - Vibe Coding, Junior Devs, and Why Technical Skills Still Matter 00:54:03 - Are AI Certifications Worth It in 2026? #GenAI #CloudComputing #AIAgents #ExamPro #vBrownBag

Survive & Thrive: Skills for Techs in 2026 with Stephen Sennett

May 9, 2026 1 hr 1 min Video

AWS Hero Stephen Sennett joins the vBrownBag crew to argue that foundational knowledge matters more now, not less. 🧠 They dig into why communication skills have become a functional technical requirement, 💬 how to build a T-shaped career that AI can't commoditize, and where LLMs still fall completely flat. 🤖 There's a live car wash prompt test 🚗, an honest AGI reality check, and a look at how junior and senior expectations are shifting in the cloud careers era. ☁️ Worth the watch for anyone mapping out their tech skills strategy for 2026. Chapters: 00:01:35 - Why Foundational Knowledge Is Your Advantage in the AI Era 00:12:50 - Communication Is Now a Technical Requirement (AI Proves It) 00:20:07 - T-Shaped Skills, Learning in Public, and Standing Out in Cloud Careers 00:34:46 - What AI Still Can't Do: The AGI Reality Check and Car Wash Test 00:49:20 - How AI Is Reshaping Junior, Mid, and Senior Dev Expectations #CloudComputing #AWS #TechCareers #AISkills #vBrownBag

Getting Started with Local AI

Apr 21, 2026 1 hr 17 min Video

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/

AI for Good

Apr 20, 2026 37 min Video

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/ M...

700,000 Learners Later: AWS Education Community and What's Changed

Apr 18, 2026 44 min Video

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:

Uncovering the Hard Truth of Vendor Neutrality in OTEL

Apr 7, 2026 50 min Video

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/

Troubleshooting AWS Hallucinations from Vector Store DBs

Mar 5, 2026 48 min Video

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/

AI Agents Made Simple: Everything You Need to Know

Feb 27, 2026 1 hr 9 min Video

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/

This is Fine: Tech Employment in the AI Era

Feb 20, 2026 Video

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

AI Governance for Virtualized Infrastructure: What vSphere Admins Need to Know

Feb 16, 2026 59 min Video

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/

FinOps - What It Is & Why It Matters

Feb 12, 2026 1 hr 0 min Video

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

Observability 2.0 - More Than Just Logs, Metrics & Traces

Feb 1, 2026 37 min Video

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/

Teaching AI to Terraform (So We Don't Have To)

Jan 24, 2026 59 min Video

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

Evolution of Tool Use and MCP in Generative AI

Jan 23, 2026 58 min Video

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

2026 AWS Survey with Peter Sankauskas

Jan 15, 2026 40 min Video

Join the vBrownBag crew and AWS Hero Peter Sankauskas for the 2026 AWS Community Survey 🎯 – your chance to shape the conversation around AWS careers, cloud adoption trends, and emerging technologies. Peter breaks down this year's survey methodology, shares surprising insights from previous years, and explains how your responses help the entire AWS community understand compensation trends, service adoption patterns, and career development paths. Whether you're a cloud architect, DevOps engineer, or just starting your AWS journey, your voice matters ☁️ Take the survey from January 6 to February 6, 2026, and help build the most comprehensive snapshot of the AWS ecosystem! Chapters: 00:00:03 - Welcome and 2026 AWS Survey Introduction 00:04:14 - Survey Design and Methodology Explained 00:12:45 - Key Insights from Previous AWS Surveys 00:21:30 - New Questions for 2026: AI, FinOps, and Career Trends 00:28:15 - How to Complete the Survey Effectively 00:35:03 - Closing Thoughts and Survey Timeline Resources: Take the survey! https://answersforaws.com/survey/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersankauskas/ Boardgames mentioned: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/201808/clank-a-deck-building-adventure https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148228/splendor https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/264806/were-doomed #AWS #CloudComputing #DevOps #CloudCareers #AWSCommunity #vBrownBag #AWSSurvey

Learn Infrastructure-as-Code [the FUN way] through Minecraft

Dec 23, 2025 1 hr 12 min Video

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-9f65-46e3-9f82-9af6603ea9...

How to Build AI Agents with Strands

Nov 20, 2025 1 hr 13 min Video

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

KubeVirt for vSphere Admins with Eric Shanks

Nov 11, 2025 1 hr 1 min Video

Dive into KubeVirt with the vBrownBag crew and guest Eric Shanks! 🎤 Discover how vSphere admins can bridge their virtualization skills into Kubernetes, exploring practical architecture, live migration, and what it really takes to blend VMs and containers. Perfect for anyone facing VMware changes or curious about next-gen infrastructure. 💡🐧 Chapters: 00:00:00 Welcome & Guest Intros 00:06:30 Why KubeVirt? Market Shifts & Motivation 00:15:00 KubeVirt Fundamentals for vSphere Admins 00:38:30 Storage and High Availability in Kubernetes 00:48:50 Live Migration Demo & Q&A Resources: https://kubevirt.io/ https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/cloud-computing/openshift https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericshanks/ #KubeVirt #Kubernetes #vSphere #virtualization #cloudnative #DevOps #vBrownBag

From Speech to Speech: A Tale about Amazon Nova Sonic

Nov 3, 2025 1 hr 8 min Video

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. 👉 Subscribe to vBrownBag for more weekly deep-dives with community experts and learn something new in cloud, DevOps, and AI every episode! ⸻ Timestamps 00:00 – Intro & catching up with Eric Wright 05:00 – Meet Dominik Wosiński & Halo Radius 06:15 – Why speech-to-speech matters 10:00 – Challenges with chatbots and customer experience 15:00 – Latency, realism, and the human connection 20:00 – Evolution of synthetic voices (“Jennifer” demo) 25:00 – Why speech is hard for computers 30:00 – Architecture of speech-to-speech systems 40:00 – Inside Amazon Nova Sonic 48:00 – AWS Bedrock integration & limitations 52:00 – Pricing, tokens, and performance 55:00 – Lessons learned from real customer projects 57:00 – Live demo of Nova Sonic in action 01:04:00 – Q&A and closing thoughts How to find Dom: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominik-wosi%C5%84ski-b27535b7/

OpenStack Demystified: A Practical Guide for VMware Admins with Damian Karlson

Oct 24, 2025 53 min Video

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

Building FAST Channels with AWS MediaLive, MediaTailor, & MediaConvert

Oct 22, 2025 59 min Video

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

AWS Heroes On Kiro

Sep 30, 2025 57 min Video

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. 🎮💻🤖☁️ #AWSHeroes #Kiro #SpecDrivenDevelopment #CloudDev #TechTalk #vBrownBag Chapters 00:00 Welcome & AWS Heroes Introductions 08:00 Getting to Know Kiro 23:00 Spec-Driven Development Explained 35:00 Pricing Debate & Challenges 44:00 Multiplayer Voice-Controlled Game Demo 50:00 AI Coding Workflow & Feedback Loops 1:00:00 Wrap-Up & Future Thoughts on AI Coding Resources: https://kiro.dev/

DevOps Without the "Oh, ****!" Moments with Shala Warner

Sep 30, 2025 56 min Video

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. 🦸‍♀️🛠️✨ #DevOps #Terraform #TechTalk #FailSafely #vBrownBag #Sandboxing Chapters 00:00 Meet Shala, Chris & Damian 08:00 Turning Fear into a Superpower 🚀 17:00 Break Stuff Safe: The Terraproof Way 🛡️ 28:00 Demo Time: Sandboxes & Real Stories 🏗️ 36:00 Q&A, Life Advice & Wrap-up 💬 Resources: https://events.giftedlane.com/links

Hack Your Own Cloud: The Most Common Mistakes and How to Stop Them with Rajeev Joshi

Sep 5, 2025 1 hr 1 min Video

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/

Designing Tomorrow: Where AI Meets the Human Touch

Sep 4, 2025 53 min Video

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

Cloud Credibility: Marketing Yourself in the AWS ERA

Aug 22, 2025 59 min Video

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/

Why Vibe Coding Isn't Enough

Aug 14, 2025 1 hr 12 min Video

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

Cannibalism (as a Metaphor for Love) in Open Source

Aug 12, 2025 54 min Video

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 us for this wide ranging and very informative conversation❤️ 00:00 - Intro 12:20 - Cannibalism! 14:07 - List of great pro-cannibalism movies for your next Thanksgiving family dinner conversation 16:20 - Kat actually ties it all together 19:20 - Self care (not in the Devinyls way) & how to contribute healthily 25:25 - Get your popcorn out 36:00 - Good CoC/Bad CoC 46:46 - Q&A How to find Kat: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katcosgrove/ https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:sssh66tbit7kv4ssomldnc4d Kat's links: https://policies.python.org/python.org/code-of-conduct/Best-Practices/ https://training.linuxfoundation.org/training/inclusive-open-source-community-orientation-lfc102 https://consent.academy http://press.stripe.com/working-in-public https://www.minimus.io/

DevOps is a foreign language (or why there are no junior SREs) with Josh Lee

Jul 22, 2025 56 min Video

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

Applying Chaos Engineering to ML & Gen AI Workloads with Jenn Bergstrom

Jul 4, 2025 58 min Video

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/

How to Vibe Code Responsibly (with a little help from MCPs)

Jun 24, 2025 50 min Video

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/

Building an AWS Well-Architected Review Crew with GenAI featuring Alex Kearns

Jun 2, 2025 1 hr 13 min Video

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:

API-Driven Linux: Simplicity At Scale

May 27, 2025 53 min Video

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/

From Ops to Dev: Understanding the Evolving Developer Landscape

May 16, 2025 48 min Video

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. 🔔 Subscribe to vBrownBag for more expert talks on AWS, AI, cloud computing, and career development 00:00 - Intro 02:05 - The AI tools we're currently playing with 07:26 - A Time of Change 17:45 - Things to know when using AI Agents 25:46 - Demo time + adding memory and tasks lists via rules in Cursor 38:00 - AI can be expensive, watch out for these gotchas 34:21 - The AI skills in demand today! 40:30 - Q&A How to find Andrew: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfawcett/ Andrews' links: Cursor rules for creating task lists - https://playbooks.com/rules/task-lists Cursor rules for adding memory to your app - https://playbooks.com/rules/memory Tutorial Repo - https://github.com/heroku-examples/heroku-dotnet-notepad

Increasing Confidence in Your Software Supply Chain with Mike Fiedler

May 8, 2025 57 min Video

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

Experimenting with Foundation Models

May 2, 2025 48 min Video

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! 🔔 Subscribe to vBrownBag for more expert talks on AWS, AI, cloud computing, and career development 00:00 - Intro 02:03 - The AI tools we're playing with 08:15 - What is Amazon Bedrock? 15:22 - AWS SDK for Python (boto3) 16:23 - The Converse API 29:39 - Demo time! 32:56 - QR Code to tutorial and code base 34:21 - The AI skills in demand today! 37:58 - Q&A How to find Faye: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fayeellis/ Bluesky: @faye-ellis.bsky.social Faye's links: Tutorial - https://bit.ly/converse-faye Code - https://bit.ly/converse-demo-code

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The "S" in Generative AI is for Security

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Podcast details

Created by: vBrownBag
Status: Active
Latest episode: Nov 5, 2026
Episodes: 69
Release period: Weekly
Avg. episode length: 56 min
Explicit: No
Language: English

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