CNCF Projects and Open Source Evolution with Taylor Dolezal

Mark Tinderholt joins us to talk through practical cloud decision-making, why he prefers Terraform in multi-cloud setups, and the realities of working with Azure policies, Bicep, ARM templates, and more.Mark is an experienced technologist whose journey began in application development, spanning web and client-server applications to sophisticated distributed systems and microservices. Along this path, he developed deep expertise in automation and DevOps, leading diverse project teams and guiding organizations through strategic, operational, and pre-sales leadership roles. Currently, Mark holds a hands-on engineering position at Microsoft, contributing directly to the Microsoft Azure platform.Beyond his professional work, Mark shares his passion for cloud computing through his YouTube channel, "The Azure Terraformer." He is also the author of "Mastering Terraform," a practical, multi-cloud guide to Cloud Architecture and Infrastructure-as-Code covering AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, and has created the Udemy course "Terraform 101.”

Nana Janashia, the force behind TechWorld with Nana, has helped millions learn DevOps. In this episode, we explore how DevOps has evolved from scripting and configuration management to platform engineering, the growing role of AI in cloud infrastructure, and the challenges engineers face in keeping up with rapidly changing technologies.Nana Janashia is a self-taught DevOps Engineer, instructor, and tech entrepreneur. As the Co-Founder of TechWorld with Nana, she has taught in-demand DevOps skills to millions worldwide through her YouTube channel and online courses. In just four years, her channel has grown to over 1,2 million subscribers, establishing her as a trusted source for high-quality DevOps education. Nana also collaborates with leading tech companies and startups globally, sharing her expertise in Cloud and DevOps technologies.

Thomas Hatch has spent years building and scaling infrastructure, from the early days of SaltStack to watching Kubernetes and microservices reshape the industry. In this episode, he shares how automation has changed operations at scale and why some companies are rethinking their cloud strategy.About the GuestThomas is currently the CEO of a stealth startup developing the next generation infrastructure management platform. He is the creator of the Salt open source software project and founded the company SaltStack which he sold to VMware in 2020. He has spent his career writing software to orchestrate and automate the work of securing and maintaining enterprise IT infrastructure from core data center systems to the very edge of the network and IoT. Thomas built fully automated, secure IT environments for the U.S. intelligence community in addition to decades of experience implementing global infrastructures for the largest businesses in the world. He has shared his knowledge of IT security and management automation with tens of thousands of practitioners at more than 100 industry events. Thomas and SaltStack have been recognized with numerous awards ranging from open source community growth to innovation in automation and cybersecurity. For his work on Salt, in 2012 Tom received the Black Duck “Rookie of the Year” award and was named to the GitHub Octoverse list in both 2012 and 2013 for leading a project with the highest number of unique contributors, rubbing shoulders with projects from Android, Mozilla, and OpenStack. More recently, SaltStack SecOps was chosen by CSO Magazine as one of the hottest new products at RSA Conference 2019.

With infrastructure growing more complex, automation is no longer optional. Adrian Iliesiu shares how Cisco DevNet is making it easier for developers to work with APIs, Terraform, and SDKs to streamline infrastructure management at scale.Adrian is a lifelong learner turned developer advocate. A network engineer at heart who loves technology, he is very excited about automation and network programmability. In his current role, he covers everything developer related for enterprise networking and multi-domain technologies at Cisco. He enjoys helping, mentoring, and meeting new people.

In this episode, Sundar Subramanian shares his experiences managing large-scale systems. He highlights lessons learned from supporting global customers, tackling drift detection, and balancing self-service flexibility with enterprise-level compliance.Sundar Subramanian is the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Infrastructure Management at Progress. In his role, he leads by setting a vision, elevating his team to address complex customer challenges across DevOps, DevSecOps, application performance monitoring, full stack observability and network and security operations. Over his career, he has built, scaled and sold SaaS products, including leading AthenaHealth’s platform teams and serving as VP of Products at Citrus Payment Solutions, acquired by Naspers. Sundar also served as VP for Kaseya, where he built multiple cross-functional teams charged with driving the company’s revenue growth, and he was the Director of Product Management at Salesforce, after co-founding a startup company Salesforce acquired.Sundar holds a Master’s in Computer Science from Drexel University and a Bachelor’s in Electronics Engineering from the University of Mumbai.‍

Join Ohad for a special KubeCon edition of The IaC Podcast, featuring conversations with community leaders about Kubernetes, Infrastructure as Code, and the growing influence of AI in shaping cloud infrastructure.Thank you to our amazing guests for this KubeCon edition:‍Solomon Hykes - Co-Founder of Dagger and Docker‍Andrew Martin - Co-Founder & CEO at ControlPlane‍Rotem Tamir - Co-Founder & CTO at Ariga‍Marc Boorshtein - CTO at Tremolo Security‍Eldad Assis - Principal DevOps Architect at JFrog‍Miguel Luna - Principal Product Manager at Elastic‍Derek Morgan - DevOps Course Creator at More Than Certified‍Daniel Bryant - Head of Product Marketing at Syntasso‍

Join us as Taylor Dolezal unpacks the intricate workings of the CNCF, covering project lifecycles, technical advisory roles, and the impact of community contributions on open-source evolution.Taylor Dolezal is the Head of Ecosystem at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), where he fosters collaboration and innovation across the cloud-native community. Formerly a Developer Advocate at HashiCorp, supporting tools like Terraform, he also brings experience as a Lead SRE Engineer at Walt Disney Studios.

Join Omry Hay, Co-founder and CTO of env0, as he hosts a special episode of The IaC Podcast from DevOpsDays Tel Aviv. Hear his conversations with guests about IaC trends, key lessons, and what’s next for the DevOps community!Thank you to our amazing guests for this DevOpsDays edition:Roi Ravhon - Co-founder & CEO at FinOut‍Shiran Melamed - DevOps Group Lead at JFrog‍Baruch Sagodursky - Developer Relations & DPE Advocacy at Gradle‍Yishai Beeri - CTO at LinearB‍Shem Magnezi - Co-Founder & CTO at Wilco‍ Avishai Ish-Shalom‍

How did Chef and Puppet shape the early days of Infrastructure as Code? Join Matty Stratton as he shares his experiences with these foundational tools and how they paved the way for modern IaC practices. We explore the power of open-source solutions and how they've transformed DevOps workflows.Matty Stratton is the Director of Developer Relations at Aiven, a well-known member of the DevOps community, founder and co-host of the popular Arrested DevOps podcast, and a global organizer of the DevOpsDays set of conferences.Matty has over 20 years of experience in IT operations and is a sought-after speaker internationally, presenting at Agile, DevOps, and cloud engineering focused events worldwide.

What does the future hold for DevOps and platform engineering? Patrick Debois, the creator of DevOps Days, shares his thoughts on the evolution of DevOps practices. From the emergence of AI-driven automation to the challenges of building effective internal platforms, this episode covers the key trends and developments shaping the industry. Learn about the skills and strategies that will be crucial for the next generation of professionals.Patrick Debois is a versatile technologist with a breadth of experience across Dev, Sec, and Ops. Known for his aptitude in harnessing emerging ideas , he skillfully guides teams and advises businesses ranging from startups to enterprises in their journey. Recognized as a trusted ally among dev, sec, ops communities, and beyond, he is currently immersing himself in the world of AI & Machine Learning continuously pushing the boundaries of his technical expertise.