Expanding AI Agents with MCP Servers & API Platforms

As AI evolves into the Enterprise, will we see greater uptake of AI-native applications or AI add-on applications? Briandon Whichard (@bwhichard) and Cote (@cote) from Software Defined Talk explore the pros and cons. SHOW: 936SHOW VIDEO: Watch the YouTube Live Recording of SDT Episode 525CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:[US CLOUD] Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US Cloud[VASION] Vasion Print eliminates the need for print servers by enabling secure, cloud-based printing from any device, anywhere. Get a custom demo to see the difference for yourself.SHOW NOTES:This week, we try a shorter format inspired by the Dithering podcast. The conversation digs into the difference between apps built with AI from the ground up and those with AI bolted on after the fact.Watch the YouTube Live Recording of SDT Episode 525RUNDOWNFormat inspired by DitheringAn Interview with Cursor Co-Founder and CEO Michael TruellFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodBlueSky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Tanmai Gopal (@tanmaigo, CEO/Founder @HasuraQL) discusses the importance of reliability and trustworthiness for both generative and agentic AI. We discuss the pitfalls in existing data pipelines and how to enhance the results.SHOW: 935SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #935 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK:  http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST:  "CLOUDCAST BASICS" SPONSORS:[VASION] Vasion Print eliminates the need for print servers by enabling secure, cloud-based printing from any device, anywhere. Get a custom demo to see the difference for yourself.[US CLOUD] Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudSHOW NOTES:Hasura websiteHasura GitHubTopic 1 - Welcome to the show, Tanmai. Give everyone a quick introduction.Topic 2 - Our topic today is Reliable and Trustworthy AI Agents. First off, what’s the problem we’re solving for here (define reliability and trustworthiness)? Are we solving for hallucinations? Reliability? Connecting private and Enterprise data to models with fine-tuning or RAG?Topic 3 - How is reliability or trustworthiness measured? I would imagine this isn’t black and white, but maybe a bit more subjective?Topic 4 - How do Agentic and GenAI differ, if at all, with this model? I would think that since Gen AI lends itself more to the creative side and Agent AI is very deterministic, the approaches to solving the problem might be different. Thoughts?Topic 5 - Let’s talk about data pipelines. Today, many organizations take an off-the-shelf frontier or foundational model and then apply a RAG pipeline to it for customization. Sometimes fine-tuning is involved, but in my experience, this is the exception rather than the rule. What is wrong with that architecture today? How is this less reliable?Topic 6 - Let’s talk about Hasura and PromptQL. As I understand it, you are decoupling query planning from execution, thereby creating a more deterministic AI workflow. Now… that’s a mouthful. Can you break down what this means and explain how the architecture differs?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netBluesky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Are the dynamics of the hyperscale cloud providers changing? Will the leaders of the last decade continue for the next 3-5 years, or the next decade? Let’s explore how the market is now rapidly changing.SHOW: 934SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #934 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:[US CLOUD] Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US Cloud[VASION] Vasion Print eliminates the need for print servers by enabling secure, cloud-based printing from any device, anywhere. Get a custom demo to see the difference for yourself.SHOW NOTES:Andy Jassy (Amazon CEO) - Thoughts on Generative AI AWS quarterly revenue growth OpenAI struggling to meet deadline for $20B investment (including Microsoft)Inside Microsoft’s complex relationship with OpenAIGoogle Cloud quarterly revenuesBG2 PodcastEast Meets West 2025 (keynote presentation)TECHNOLOGY WAVES CHANGE MARKET DYNAMICS; INCUMBENTS DON’T ALWAYS LEADRevenues: AWS ($62B, 2021), Azure ($60B, 2021), GCP ($19B, 2021) Revenues (run rate): AWS ($130B, 2025), Azure ($108B, 2025), GCP ($50B, 2025) AWS is on 3rd CEO since pandemic; market questioning their AI strategyAzure + OpenAI alignment strategy went from strategic to questionedGoogle start-stop AI strategy, but coming together; but company breakup loomingApple AI strategy seems completely unknown (Siri,Apple Intelligence, devices, models?)Oracle seems to be rebounding around Oracle Cloud InfrastructureNew hypercloud AI providers emerging? The Amazon/AWS 20%FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodBlueSky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Simon Yu (Co-Founder @SpeakeasyDev) discusses the rise of MCP servers, API integration into AI systems, including SDK generation, and the emergence of the Agentic web.SHOW: 933SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #933 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SPONSORS:[VASION] Vasion Print eliminates the need for print servers by enabling secure, cloud-based printing from any device, anywhere. Get a custom demo to see the difference for yourself.[US CLOUD] Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudSHOW NOTES:Speakeasy websiteSpeakeasy MCP HubThe NewStack article on MCP with SpeakeasyTopic 1 - Welcome to the show, Simon. Give everyone a quick introduction.Topic 2 - API tooling and platforms for AI has become the hot topic this year. Of course, Agentic AI has made significant contributions to this. What trends do you see that we need to pay attention to? What problems are organizations trying to solve?Topic 3 - Let’s dig into MCP Servers. The interest in MCP has taken off. At the highest level, why do they exist?Topic 4 - MCP servers and all the recent announcements around an Agentic Web have me thinking… Do we need to prepare for an Internet where AI agents talk to each other? We had humans and GUIs (web frontends), then we saw the rise of APIs. Is this a third wave or an evolution of the API wave?Topic 5 - How do SDKs and things like AI API tooling play into all of this? API tools to generate SDKs or AI documentation aren’t new. How does the abstraction of AI change this process?Topic 6 - In our experience, API-level integrations are challenging to productize. Sometimes it comes down to something as simple as who is going to pay for it, and developers often have a voice and a seat at the table, but don’t have the budget. What has been your experience? Topic 7 - How does the business side of the house see an advantage to this? What metrics tend to matter and are measurable?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netBluesky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

As Father's Day rolls around, we explore some tales from people taking on their first professional jobs, and how those lessons can relate to managers of newer hires.SHOW: 932SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #932 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:[US CLOUD] Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US Cloud[VASION] Vasion Print eliminates the need for print servers by enabling secure, cloud-based printing from any device, anywhere. Get a custom demo to see the difference for yourself.SHOW NOTES:SOMETIMES WE FORGET HOW CHALLENGING THAT FIRST JOB WASSometimes your first job(s) are just cogs in a machine - you work, but you don’t really careA tale of two first job searches and surrounding activities[Tale 1] Are you qualified for a job? Do you know how to do all the required things?“I’m about to do this first task, and I’m very nervous”“They keep giving me more things to do, and asking if I want more things to do”“Just run with it, own it”We meet 1:1 every week. Sometimes they miss/cancel the meeting. Understanding the entrepreneur’s mindset and challenges[Tale 2] The fork in the road, and the road less travelled. The job that doesn’t pay as well, but provides the necessary experience. FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodBlueSky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Tobi Knaup (@superguenter, VP/GM of Cloud Native @Nutanix) talks about the evolution of the cloud-native ecosystem, the intersection of AI and Kubernetes, and expectations of the next few years.  SHOW: 931SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #931 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK:  http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST:  "CLOUDCAST BASICS" SPONSORS:[VASION] Vasion Print eliminates the need for print servers by enabling secure, cloud-based printing from any device, anywhere. Get a custom demo to see the difference for yourself.[US CLOUD] Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudSHOW NOTES:Nutanix Cloud NativeThe Cloudcast #211 - Mesosphere DCOSTopic 1 - Welcome to the show! Full disclosure for everyone out there, I worked for Tobi at Nutanix. Give everyone a brief introduction and a little about your background.Topic 2 - This is a throwback for our long-time listeners. We had Ben Hindman on episode #211 almost 10 years ago, when D2IQ was Mesosphere, and we also spoke to Dave Lester, who was at Twitter back in 2014.  I’m not going to ask you to catch everyone up on 10 years of your company and the history… but I will encourage everyone to go back and listen to that podcast. It is an excellent snapshot of the early days of cloud native and containers. Today, we will talk a bit about the state of cloud native. The most recent KubeCon EU was a few months ago. What were your thoughts around the event and the current state of the industry? Topic 3 - What are the most prominent challenges organizations face today with Cloud Native adoption?  You hear about the complexity, you hear about Kubernetes is a platform to build platforms… still true?Topic 4 - Where do you think Cloud Native goes in the next 2-3 years? What technologies or design patterns (besides AI, we’ll talk about that later) evolve, and where does the next round of adoption come from?Topic 5 - Let’s talk about storage and data services quickly. Data services for K8s is messy, really messy at times. Give everyone an overview of the problem at scale and the challenges, especially in multi-cloud environments, which I’m finding more and more.Topic 6 - I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention AI and its impact in the space. AI came along and sucked all the air out of the room for a time. How do you think about AI today, now that the dust has settled a bit? Is it just an “app” to run on top? How will AI impact cloud native longer term?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netBluesky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

As we try and predict the future, we explore the possibilities of technology augmenting or replacing the middle of the bell curve. What has history taught us, and where do we expect it to repeat itself or at least rhyme?SHOW: 930SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #930 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:[US CLOUD] Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US Cloud[VASION] Vasion Print eliminates the need for print servers by enabling secure, cloud-based printing from any device, anywhere. Get a custom demo to see the difference for yourself.SHOW NOTES:I Am Disappointed in the AI Discourse (Steve Klabnik)All My AI Skeptical Friends are Nuts (Thomas Ptacek)Pearl Jam - Porch (1991)MOST OF US ARE THE MIDDLE TODAY….BUT WHAT ABOUT TOMORROW?I’d like to give you free intelligence. Later it might cost something, but it’ll be availableIf you choose not to engage with it, your job prospects might be limited in the futureThere ain’t gonna be any middle anymore - how does that relate to AI?“Hollowing out the middle”We can’t force people to use AI, but it’s going to be in the tools you use dailyYou probably have a choice nowAI won’t have binary impacts on everyone (good/bad), but it’ll have impactsI understand that we don’t understand everyone else’s context, but we do have historical contextFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodBlueSky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Brian Gracely (@bgracely) and Brandon Whichard (@bwhichard, @SoftwareDefTalk) discuss the top stories in Cloud and AI from May 2025, including Google I/O, Microsoft Build, OpenAI, and Jony Ive. SHOW: 929SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #929 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK:  http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST:  "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SPONSORS:[VASION] Vasion Print eliminates the need for print servers by enabling secure, cloud-based printing from any device, anywhere. Get a custom demo to see the difference for yourself.[US CLOUD] Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudSHOW NOTES:Link to May 2025 News and ArticlesFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netBluesky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Is it ever a good time for a company to announce vaporware? Let’s discuss the pros and cons of pre-announcements, vaporware, and the strategy of products that may or may not ever exist.  SHOW: 928SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #928 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:[US CLOUD] Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US Cloud[VASION] Vasion Print eliminates the need for print servers by enabling secure, cloud-based printing from any device, anywhere. Get a custom demo to see the difference for yourself.SHOW NOTES:The McGuffin “Challenge” - Software Defined Talk (May 30, 2025)McGuffin (Wikipedia)IS IT EVER A GOOD TIME TO PRE-ANNOUNCE SOMETHING? OR VAPORWARE ON PURPOSE?Russ Hanneman (Silicon Valley) - “No Revenue”Set a big ambition for the companyDistract the market from current company challengesDistract your competitors to chase something where they don’t have strengthsProbe the market for ideas - sort of like a “leak”Get the market to pump your valuation, so you can take other actionsStall your customers from potentially buying a competitive offerFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodBlueSky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Anand Kannappan (@anandnk24, CEO @PatronusAI) talks about evaluating AI models for hallucinations, managing data quality, automating the process, and optimizing models. SHOW: 927SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #927 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS" SPONSORS:[VASION] Vasion Print eliminates the need for print servers by enabling secure, cloud-based printing from any device, anywhere. Get a custom demo to see the difference for yourself.[US CLOUD] Cut Enterprise IT Support Costs by 30-50% with US CloudSHOW NOTES:Patronus AI websiteTopic 1 - Welcome to the show, Anand. Give everyone a quick introduction.Topic 2 - Our topic today is Preventing AI Model Hallucinations. Before we dig into that, I wanted to ask about your time as Lead Data Scientist at Meta. What was it like to be early into that organization, and what did you take away from your time there? Topic 3 - Ok, let’s dig into model evaluations and hallucinations. Let’s start at the beginning. How do model hallucinations come about?Topic 4 - When evaluating models for hallucinations, how does a developer or a data scientist know fact from fiction? Due to its size, complexity, and number of parameters, it’s not feasible to simply fact-check and manually verify inputs to outputs. How is this process evaluated and automated with some level of confidence? Additionally, numerous benchmarks are available. What are your thoughts on the usefulness of the benchmarks?Topic 5 - How does the concept of data quality play into this? How would we know when a model was given insufficient or improper data vs. a hallucinationTopic 6 - We often hear about how frontier models are running out of training data, and increasingly, synthetic data is being used. Does this impact hallucinations in any way?Topic 7 - The last item I wanted to ask you about, Partonus AI, also pertains to model optimization. Can you explain that process?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netBluesky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod