Cloud lock-in isn't just about where your data lives—it's about how deeply cloud-specific code permeates your applications. Mark Fussell, co-creator of Dapr and CEO of Diagrid, joins Cory O'Daniel to explore how Dapr provides clean abstractions for common distributed system patterns, enabling teams to build portable applications without sacrificing cloud-native capabilities.

The conversation covers:

• How Dapr creates a clean separation between application code and underlying infrastructure services like messaging, state management, and secrets
• Why platform teams struggle with tight coupling between applications and infrastructure, and how Dapr solves this problem
• The benefits of Dapr's sidecar architecture for local development, testing, and production environments
• How Dapr automatically handles cross-cutting concerns like security, observability, and resiliency without boilerplate code
• Introduction to Dapr's workflow engine for durable execution and the emerging world of stateful AI agents

Whether you're a platform engineer struggling with cloud lock-in or a developer tired of rewriting code for different infrastructures, this conversation demonstrates how Dapr can simplify your distributed systems while maintaining access to the unique capabilities of each cloud provider.

Guest: Mark Fussell, Co-founder of Dapr and CEO of Diagrid

Mark Fussell is the CEO of Diagrid, a cutting-edge company that simplifies building and scaling cloud-native applications. As the co-founder of Dapr (Distributed Application Runtime), Mark has played a pivotal role in shaping the future of modern application development by empowering developers to build resilient, distributed systems with ease. With decades of experience in the software industry, Mark has been a driving force behind innovative solutions that bridge the gap between developers and complex infrastructure.

Diagrid

Dapr

Links to interesting things from this episode:

• "XML Bible" by Elliotte Rusty Harold
• OpenTelemetry
• SPIFFE
• DataGalaxy case study
• Cloud Native Computing Foundation

Did you know that software engineers often "learn things the hard way" because they lack a standardized system to share knowledge about reliability issues? While security professionals have CVEs to catalog vulnerabilities, reliability engineers have been left to reinvent the wheel with each new bug or outage.

Tony Meehan, co-founder and CTO of Prequel, introduces us to Common Reliability Enumerations (CREs) - an open-source approach that's doing for reliability what CVEs did for security. After spending a decade at the NSA hunting vulnerabilities, Tony recognized that the same community-driven approach could revolutionize how we handle reliability issues.

This conversation covers:

• How CREs help developers detect and mitigate reliability issues before they cause outages
• The open-source tools Preq and CRE that allow teams to leverage community knowledge
• Practical ways to implement these tools in your development workflow (locally, in CI/CD, and production)
• How this approach can reduce cloud costs by identifying issues rather than over-provisioning
• Tips for debugging mysterious production issues when no CRE exists yet

Guest: Tony Meehan, CTO at Prequel

Tony is an engineering leader obsessed with bugs. He dedicated a decade to vulnerability and exploit development at the National Security Agency (NSA) before leading Engineering at Endgame and Elastic. In 2023, Tony co-founded Prequel to change the way application failure is detected and resolved.

Tony Meehan, X

prequel.dev

github.com/prequel-dev

Prequel, X

Links to interesting things from this episode:

• Blog post about the partial outage at Endgame
• Common Reliability Enumeration (CRE)
• Preq
• XKCD: Standards
• Episode on security with Danny Allan from Snyk
• Brendan Gregg's blog

What if you could turn a five-year software project into a one-month endeavor? Gene Kim, co-founder of IT Revolution and author of The Phoenix Project, reveals how AI-powered Vibe Coding is transforming the way developers work.

Kim shares insights from his upcoming book about how developers are achieving unprecedented productivity, including how his co-author produces 12,000 lines of production-ready code daily using AI assistance. But it's not just about speed - learn how this approach enables developers to tackle previously impossible projects and explore larger design spaces.

From DevOps evolution to practical AI implementation, Kim discusses:

• What Vibe Coding really means and how it differs from traditional development
• Real examples of AI accelerating development without sacrificing quality
• Common pitfalls to avoid when implementing AI in your development workflow
• How AI is making developers more ambitious rather than replacing them
• The critical role of testing and feedback loops in successful AI implementation

Whether you're a seasoned developer or a tech leader wondering about AI's place in your development workflow, this conversation provides practical insights into the future of software development.

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