vBrownBag

vBrownBag
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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.

  1. 5D AGO · VIDEO

    Observability 2.0 - More Than Just Logs, Metrics & Traces

    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/

  2. JAN 24 · VIDEO

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

    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

  3. JAN 23 · VIDEO

    Evolution of Tool Use and MCP in Generative AI

    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

  4. JAN 15 · VIDEO

    2026 AWS Survey with Peter Sankauskas

    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

  5. 12/23/2025 · VIDEO

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

    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-9f65-46e3-9f82-9af6603ea903

  6. 11/20/2025 · VIDEO

    How to Build AI Agents with Strands

    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

  7. 11/11/2025 · VIDEO

    KubeVirt for vSphere Admins with Eric Shanks

    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

  8. 11/03/2025 · VIDEO

    From Speech to Speech: A Tale about Amazon Nova Sonic

    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/

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Ratings & Reviews

4.7
out of 5
34 Ratings

About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    vBrownBag
  • Years Active
    2011 - 2026
  • Episodes
    76
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    vBrownBag