271 episodes

The Cloud Pod is your one-stop-shop for all things Public, Hybrid, Multi-cloud, and private cloud. Cloud providers continue to accelerate with new features, capabilities, and changes to their APIs. Let Justin, Jonathan, Ryan and Peter help navigate you through this changing cloud landscape via our weekly podcast.

The Cloud Pod Justin Brodley, Jonathan Baker, Ryan Lucas and Peter Roosakos

    • Technology
    • 4.9 • 34 Ratings

The Cloud Pod is your one-stop-shop for all things Public, Hybrid, Multi-cloud, and private cloud. Cloud providers continue to accelerate with new features, capabilities, and changes to their APIs. Let Justin, Jonathan, Ryan and Peter help navigate you through this changing cloud landscape via our weekly podcast.

    The Cloud Pod Goes Nuclear Powered

    The Cloud Pod Goes Nuclear Powered

    Welcome to episode 250 of the Cloud Pod  podcast – where the forecast is always cloudy! Well, we’re not launching rockets this week, but we ARE discussing the AI arms race, AWS going nuclear, and all the latest drama between Elon and OpenAI. You won’t want to miss a minute of it!

    Titles we almost went with this week:

    The Paradox of AI choice
    Amazon just comes across super desperate on RACING to AI foundation model    
         support
    Your new JR developer Test-LLM
    If you can’t beat OpenAI, sue them

    A big thanks to this week’s sponsor:
    We’re sponsorless this week! Interested in sponsoring us and having access to a specialized and targeted market? We’d love to talk to you. Send us an email or hit us up on our Slack Channel. 

    General News 
    01:12  IT Infrastructure, Operations Management & Cloud Strategies: Chicago (Rosemont/O’Hare), Illinois 


    Want to meet cloud superstar Matthew Kohn in person? He’s going to be giving a talk in Chicago, if you’re going to be in the neighborhood. *Maybe* he’ll have some stickers.
    11:30am – 12:30pm: Using Data and AI to Shine a Light on Your Dark IT Estate

    AI Is Going Great (Or, How ML Makes All Its Money)
    03:42 Anthropic claims its new models beat GPT-4


    AI Startup Anthropics, has announced their latest version of Claude. 
    The company claims that it rivals OpenAI’s GPT-4 in terms of performance.
    Claude 3, and its family of models, includes Claude 3 Haiku, Sonnet and Opus, with Opus being the most powerful.  
    All show “increased capabilities” in analysis and forecasting, Anthropic claims, as well enhanced performance on specific benchmarks versus models like GPT-4 (but not GPT-4 Turbo) and Googles Gemini 1.0 Ultra (but not Gemini 1.5 Pro)
    Claude 3 is Anthropics first multi-modal model.
    In a step better than rivals, Claude can analyze multiple images in a single request (up to 20). This allows it to do compare and contrast operations
    However, there are limits to its image capabilities. It’s not allowed to identify people.  
    They admit it is also prone to mistakes on low-quality images under 200 pixels, and struggles with tasks involving spatial reasoning and object counting.  

    05:42 Justin – “Overall, this looks like not a bad model. I do see a little bit of chatter today actually. Some people say it’s not quite as good in some areas, but it’s pretty good in others. And it is not connected to the internet, this model. So it is dated only through August of 2023. So anything that happened after that, like the Israeli Hamas conflicts, it doesn’t know anything about those. So just be aware.”

    06:08 Matthew – “You know, it’s actually interesting now. There’s so many models out there. You know, you have to start to look at what makes sense for your data and what you need, along with also price. You know, I look too closely at what the price is, but you might be able to get away

    • 56 min
    Google Gemini and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

    Google Gemini and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

    Welcome to episode 249 of the CloudPod Podcast – where the forecast is always cloudy! This week, Justin and Ryan put on their scuba suits and dive into the latest cloud news, from Google Gemini’s “woke” woes, to Azure VMware Solution innovations, and some humorous takes on Reddit and Google’s unexpected collaboration. Join the conversation on AI, storage solutions, and more this week in the Cloud!

    Titles we almost went with this week:
    Gemini Has Gone Woke? Uhhh…ok. 

    A big thanks to this week’s sponsor:
    We’re sponsorless this week! Interested in sponsoring us and having access to a specialized and targeted market? We’d love to talk to you. Send us an email or hit us up on our Slack Channel. 
    General News 
    01:48 DigitalOcean beats expectations under the helm of new CEO Paddy Srinivasan


    Quick earnings chat. Digital Ocean, under their new CEO Paddy Srinivasan reported earnings of 44 centers per share, well ahead of Wall Street’s target of 37 cents per share. 
    Revenue growth was a little sluggish at 11% more than a year earlier, but the companies 181 million in reported sales still beat analysts expectations. 
    Full year revenue was 693M for the year. 
    We’re really glad to see the business is still going, and instead of going back on-premise, we think it’s a viable option for many workloads so don’t sleep on them.

    02:46  Ryan – “I like that, you know, while they are very focused on, you know, traditional compute workloads, you can still see them. Dip in their toes into managed services and, and, um, their interaction with the community and documentation of how to do things. I think it’s really impactful.”

    03:34 VMware moves to quell concern over rapid series of recent license changes  


    As we have reported multiple times on the VMWARE shellacking they are doing to the customers, Vmware has released a blog post trying to convince you that they’re **not** screwing you. 
    Broadcom has realigned operations around VMWare Cloud Foundation private cloud portfolio and data center-focused VMWare Vsphere suite, and no longer sells discrete products such as vSphere hypervisor, vSAN virtual storage and NSX network storage virtualization software.  
    They also are eliminating perpetual licensing in favor of subscription-only pricing, with VCF users getting vSAN, NSX and the Aria Management and orchestration components bundled whether you want them or not. 
    Broadcom says this is about focusing on best-of-breed silos, and not disparate products without an integrated experience. 
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    • 58 min
    A Public Service Announcement on Shared VPCs in AWS: Don’t!

    A Public Service Announcement on Shared VPCs in AWS: Don’t!

    Welcome to episode 248 of the CloudPod Podcast – where the forecast is always cloudy! It’s the return of our Cloud Journey Series! Plus, today we’re talking shared VPCs and why you should avoid them, Amazon’s new data centers ( we think they forgot about the sustainability pledge,) new threats to and from AI, and a quick preview of Next ‘24 programs – plus much more! 

    Titles we almost went with this week:

    The Cloud Pod Isn’t a Basic Bitch
    New AWS Data Solutions Framework – or – How You Accidentally Spent $100k’s
    A PSA on Shared VPCs in AWS
    Amazon Doesn’t Even Pay Attention to Climate When it’s on a Building
    Vector Search I Hardly Know Her 
    Google Migs are Less Fun than Russian Migs
    AI Can Now Attack Us; Who Didn’t See That Coming
    Who is Surprised That AWS is Using More Power Than the Rest of the State of Oregon
    Spend all the Dinero in Spain

    A big thanks to this week’s sponsor:
    We’re sponsorless this week! Interested in sponsoring us and having access to a specialized and targeted market? We’d love to talk to you. Send us an email or hit us up on our Slack Channel. 
    AI is Going Great (or how ML Makes all Its Money)
    01:24 Disrupting malicious uses of AI by state-affiliated threat actors


    In this week’s chapter of AI nightmares, ChatGPT tells us how they are blocking the usage of AI by state-affiliated threat actors. Awesome; things went from bad to worse in one week. Cool. Cool cool cool. 
    In partnership with Microsoft Threat Intelligence, they have disrupted five state-affiliated actors that sought to use their AI service in support of malicious cyber activities
    These actors generally sought to use OpenAI services for querying open-source information, translating, finding coding errors, and running basic coding tasks. 

    Charcoal Typhoon (China affiliated) researched various companies and cybersecurity tools, debugged code and generated scripts, and created content likely for use in phishing campaigns.
    Salmon Typhoon (China affiliated) translated technical papers, retrieved publicly available information on multiple intelligence agencies and regional threat actors, assisted with coding, and researched common ways processes could be hidden on a system.
    Crimson Sandstorm (Iran affiliated) used OpenAI services for scripting support related to app and web development, generating content likely for spear-phishing campaigns, and researching common ways malware could evade detection.
    Emerald Sleet (North Korea affiliated) identified experts and organizations focused on defense issues in the Asia-Pacific region, to understand publicly available vulnerabilities, and used OpenAI services for help with basic scripting tasks, and drafting content that could be used in phishing campaigns.
    Forest Blizzard (Russia-affiliated) primarily for performing research on open-source data into satellite communication protocols and radar imaging technology, as well as for support with scripting tasks. 


    OpenAI says the capabilities of the current models are limited, they believe it’s important to stay ahead of significant and evolving threats. 
    To continue making sure their platform is used for good they have a multi-pronged approach:

    • 1 hr 15 min
    ChatGPT Remembers? Oh No!

    ChatGPT Remembers? Oh No!

    Welcome to episode 247 of the CloudPod Podcast – where the forecast is always cloudy! Pepperidge Farm remembers – and now so does ChatGPT! Today on the pod we’re talking about the new “memory” function in ChatGPT, secrets over at OCI, and Firehose dropping Kinesis like its HOT. Plus plenty of other Cloud and AI news to get you through the week. Let’s get started! 

    Titles we almost went with this week:

    I Don’t Think Anyone Wants to be “Good Enough” in AI 
    Oracle Can Rotate All My Secrets
    Amazon Data Firehose – Not Without Kinesis 

    A big thanks to this week’s sponsor:
    We’re sponsorless this week! Interested in sponsoring us and having access to a very specialized and targeted market? We’d love to talk to you. Send us an email or hit us up on our Slack Channel. 
    Follow Up
    00:57 C2C Event 

    Recently Justin was down at a 2gather event Google’s Cloud headquarters near Moffett Field in Sunnyvale. So to those new listeners who heard Justin there and just couldn’t get enough, welcome! We’re happy to have you. 

    Want to see what events are coming up, and hopefully near you? Check out the lineup here. 

    General News
    08:25  Why companies are leaving the cloud 


    A recent study by Citrix, is saying that 25% of organizations in the UK have already moved half or more of their cloud-based workloads back to on-premises infrastructures.  
    The survey questioned 350 IT leaders on their current approaches to cloud computing. 
    93% of them had been involved in a cloud repatriation project in the last three years. 
    Surveyed said their reasons for moving from the Security Issues, High Project Expectations and unmet expectations, with most saying the cost was the biggest motivator, which definitely makes sense to us. 
    In general this isn’t my experience when talking to listeners, or folks at the recent C2C event; there’s always a few companies that probably shouldn’t have moved to the cloud in the first place, but those numbers don’t pan out to us in who we’re talking to. 
    We’re interested in listener feedback here – have any of you been involved in a repatriation project? 

    09:55 Ryan – “I think it’s kind of the same thing that happened in reverse a few years ago, where it’s like all the companies are moving to the cloud. The same reports were, you know, 50 % of companies are moving other entire workloads into the cloud. And now it’s sort of the pendulum swinging the other way.”

    AI is Going Great (or how ML Makes all Its Money) –  ChatGPT gets Reveries
    12:37 Memory and new controls for ChatGPT


    ChatGPT is adding a new “memory” feature; “remembering” allows you to ask the bot to remember things you have chatted about with ChatGPT in the past. 

     So things like you love to travel, you have a daughter, etc.  

    • 57 min
    The CloudPod Will Never Type localllm Correctly

    The CloudPod Will Never Type localllm Correctly

    Welcome to episode 246 of The CloudPod podcast, where the forecast is always cloudy! This week we’re discussion localllm and just why they’ve saddled us all with that name, saying goodbye to Bard and hello to Gemini Pro, and discussing the pros and cons of helping skynet to eradicate us all. All that and more cloud and AI news, now available for your listening nightmares. 

    Titles we almost went with this week:
    Oracle says hold my beer on Africa

    The Cloud Pod Thinks the LLM Maturity Model has More Maturing To Do

    There is a Finch Windows Canary in Fargate

    New LLM Nightmares

    The Cloud Pod Will Never Type localllm Correctly

    A big thanks to this week’s sponsor:
    We’re sponsorless this week! Interested in sponsoring us and having access to a very specialized and targeted market? We’d love to talk to you. Send us an email or hit us up on our Slack Channel. 
    General News
    It’s Earnings Time! 

    01:42 Microsoft issues light guidance even as Azure growth drives earnings beat 


    Microsoft shares were up after they reported earnings of 2.93 per share vs expectations of 2.73 per share.  

    Revenue was 62.02 billion vs 61.12 billion. 


    This represents a 17.6% year over year in the quarter. 
    The intelligent cloud segment produced $25.88 billion in revenue, up 20% and above the $25.29 billion consensus among analysts surveyed by Streets Accounts. 
    Revenue from Azure and other cloud services grew 30%, when analysts only expected 27.7%.  

    Six points are tied to AI as Microsoft now has 53,000 Azure AI customers and 1/3rd are new in the past year (per Microsoft.) 



    02:46 Justin- “I don’t think the count the Open AI customers, do you? Because there’s way more people that have Open AI usage than 53,000. So I think this is legitimately Azure AI – which is Open AI under the hood – but specifically paying for that subscription.”

    04:19 Alphabet shares slide on disappointing Google ad revenue  


    Alphabet reported better-than-expected revenue and profit for the fourth quarter, but ad revenue trailed analysts projections. 
    Earnings per share were 1.64 vs 1.59 expected. 

    Revenue of 86.31 billion vs 85.33 billion expected 


    Google Cloud was 9.19 Billion vs 8.94 billion expected, according to Street. 
    That represents a 26% expansion in the fourth quarter. 

    04:51 Justin- “…which is interesting, because you would expect that they’d have similar growth being tied to Bard and Gemini to be close to what Microsoft is doing.”

    12:02 Amazon reports better-than-expected results as revenue jumps 14% 


    Amazon also exceeded analysis expectations.  

    Earnings per share 1.00 vs 80 cents expected.  


    Revenue

    • 1 hr 3 min
    The CloudPod is the SBOM!

    The CloudPod is the SBOM!

    Welcome to episode 245 of The CloudPod podcast, where the forecast is always cloudy! This week is a real SBOM of an episode. (See what I did there?) Justin and Matthew have braved Teams outages, floods, cold, and funny business names to bring you the latest in Cloud and AI news. This week, we’re talking about Roomba, OpenTofu, and Oracle deciding AI makes money, along with a host of other stories. Join us! 

    Titles we almost went with this week:

    Amazon Decides Roomba Sucks
    AI Weapons: Will They Shift Cloud Supremacy
    Oracle Realizes There is Money in Gen AI

    A big thanks to this week’s sponsor:
    We’re sponsorless this week! Interested in sponsoring us and having access to a very specialized and targeted market? We’d love to talk to you. Send us an email or hit us up on our Slack Channel. 
    General News
    REMINDER: 2gather Sunnyvale: Cloud Optimization Summit

    On February 15, Justin will be onsite in Google’s #Sunnyvale office for the @C2C #2Gather Sunnyvale: #CloudOptimization Summit! Come heckle him, we mean JOIN him, to talk about all things #GenAI and #CloudOps. Consider this your invitation – he’d love to see you there! Sign up →  https://events.c2cglobal.com/e/m9pvbq/?utm_campaign=speaker-Justin-B&utm_source=SOCIAL_MEDIA&utm_medium=LinkedIn

    02:23 Amazon abandons $1.4 billion deal to buy Roomba maker iRobot 


    Amazon is no longer buying iRobot for 1.4 billion, as there is no path to regulatory approval in the European Union.
    We’re not surprised this is the end result.  
    Of course, iRobot proceeded to lay off 350 employees, or around 31 percent of its workforce. 
    In addition CEO Colin Angle, who co-founded the company, stepped down from his CEO position and his chair position. 
    Amazon gets to pay 94 Million in a termination fee to iRobot, which will help pay off a loan iRobot took the year prior. 

    04:02 Terraform fork OpenTofu launches into general availability


    OpenTofu has moved into General Availability. 
    The milestone is after a four month development effort, with hundreds of contributors and over five dozen developers.  
    Now that they have a stable version separated from the main Terraform product, they are promising a steady set of new features and enhancements. 
    The GA version is OpenTofu 1.6, which includes hun

    • 43 min

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
34 Ratings

34 Ratings

mvelasco07 ,

Highly recommend!

If you're interested in cloud computing and the latest developments in the industry, then The Cloud Pod is a must-listen podcast. Jonathan, Ryan, Peter, and Justin are all experts in their fields, and their discussions are informative, insightful, and engaging. I truly learn something every time I tune in - can’t recommend this show enough! 🙌

tgohl ,

Informative and entertaining

The Cloud Pod is my go-to podcast for staying up to date with Cloud news. The hosts are knowledgeable and the delivery is excellent. Thanks for the great content!

Robmartin3 ,

Five stars for the content

Anyone working in cloud projects or trying to keep up with the cloud space, particularly anyone using multiple clouds, should give The Cloud Pod a listen each week. They review all the news from the week from all three vendors and the industry. They give a diverse set of opinions and points of view on the announcements and put them in context. They have a lot of experience clearly and bring that to the discussion as well. Love this as my go to podcast on cloud

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