🎙️ Cloud Dialogues: Vegas, AI, and What’s Next with Google

This week on Cloud Dialogues, Georgia and Matt are joined by Anupam Phoghat, fresh off the tarmac from Google Next 2025 in Las Vegas, to break down the biggest announcements, hottest trends, and a few surprises from the cloud world’s glitziest event.

But first… the news roundup was 🔥:

🚨 In the News:

• AWS’s Big Growth Energy: 19% year-over-year growth and strong focus on making AI cheaper and faster—thanks to Tranan 2 chips.
• Data Center Power Drain: By 2030, data centers could be drawing more power than Japan. Edge computing, you’re up.
• OpenAI Eyes Windsurf: Rumored $3B acquisition of a VS Code fork to boost its dev game—and catch up to Claude Code.
• Nvidia’s $5.5B Problem: U.S. export restrictions to China are biting hard.
• Kubernetes is Back (Again): KubeCon London showed signs of a Kubernetes renaissance—maybe AI on the edge is to thank.
• MCP Becomes the Standard: Google jumps on Anthropic’s Model Connection Protocol bandwagon. AI models are finally learning to play nice with data.

🎰 Straight from the Vegas Strip: Google Next 2025 Highlights

Anu gives us the inside scoop from the Strip, where 35,000+ attendees spread across 10 hotels saw Google go all-in on AI everything.

✨ Big Announcements:

• The AI Hyper Computer: Custom hardware to supercharge inference at scale
• GKE Upgrades: Now with inference gateway and full VM support
• Cloud Run & Cloud WAN: Big leaps in serverless and networking
• Vertex AI’s Model Garden: A smorgasbord of foundation models, including Claude and Llama
• Agent Development Kit: Tooling to build your own AI agents (think RAG meets agents IRL)
• Open-source + Interop Love: More cross-platform support, less vendor lock-in

We also dug into: ⚾️ MLB’s use of AI agents to manage network ops 🧠 Why your AI is only as smart as your training data 🚩 Twitter/X as a case study in what not to feed your model

Anu wrapped by sharing the mission behind Nebulla Action—his new venture building practical, industry-focused AI tools for healthcare, finance, and retail.

🎧 Ready to decode Google’s big bets and what they mean for your business?

Tune in now wherever you get your podcasts—or hit the link in our bio.

#CloudDialogues #GoogleNext2025 #AI #CloudComputing #VertexAI #DevOps #OpenSource #CloudStrategy #GKE #AIInfrastructure #Podcast

In this episode of Cloud Dialogues, Georgia and Matt are joined by Amit from OpenOps for a deep (and refreshingly honest) dive into the state of cloud automation today—and where it's heading next.

We kick things off with a look at the latest industry news:

• Huawei gears up to produce its own AI chips in response to ongoing tariff challenges

• Microsoft and Amazon hit pause on data center expansion due to power constraints

• And yes… humanoid robots just ran a half-marathon in China (because why not?)

Then we shift gears into automation. Amit brings a wealth of experience—from Microsoft to cybersecurity to autonomous vehicles—and shares sharp, real-world insights on what it actually takes to build a sustainable automation strategy in the cloud.

• The journey from visibility → orchestration → automation

• Why “human-in-the-loop” automation is often the safest bet

• How risk appetite should drive your automation roadmap

• Why not automating can cost you more than you think—especially in cloud security and efficiency

• The growing role of AI in automation (and why it still needs a chaperone)

💡 Amit reminds us that while the dream of fully autonomous cloud ops is on the horizon, we’re not quite there yet—and human oversight remains as crucial as ever.

Whether you're early in your automation journey or deep in fine-tuning, there’s something in this episode for every cloud leader.

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts—and check out OpenOps on GitHub for some powerful tools to get started.

Fine OpenOps on GitHub https://github.com/openops-cloud

#CloudAutomation #CloudOps #AI #DevOps #CloudStrategy #CloudDialogues #OpenOps

In this lively crossover episode, Mark, Michael, Georgia, and Matt bring their unique podcasting perspectives together for a deep (and occasionally hilarious) dive into the world of cloud, AI, and developer experience. Here's what went down:

👋 Meet the Hosts The episode kicks off with introductions: - Georgia & Matt host a show aimed at execs exploring cloud and AI strategy, launched in 2023. - Mark & Michael bring a laid-back, pub-style tech chat that started back in November.

Think of it as business meets banter.

💥 Breaking Prod: A Dev Confession Matt shares a "whoops-that-could’ve-been-bad" moment—he accidentally wiped critical files from a pre-prod app server right before a major CRM migration. The silver lining? A stealthy recovery from backups saved the day, and no one was the wiser (until now).

☁️ Cloud & AI News Roundup The crew unpacks the latest in cloud and AI, including: - Model Context Protocol (MCP): An open standard for LLMs to interface with APIs—recently adopted by OpenAI. - Big Money, Big Roles: A jaw-dropping $255–450K job posting at Anthropic focused on MCP. - AI Art & IP Issues: The debate over AI-generated images and artist rights heats up. - AI + Security = Headache: From vulnerabilities to weaponization, AI’s security implications are growing. - Oracle Data Breaches: Recent incidents affecting Oracle Cloud and Oracle Health (formerly Cerner) spark a discussion on health data privacy.

🛠️ Deep Dive: Developer Experience (DevX) This is where things get real. The team unpacks what’s working—and what’s painfully broken—when it comes to how developers work inside big organizations.

What is DevX, Anyway? - It’s the day-to-day reality of building software: tools, processes, workflows. - Google’s monorepo + DevX team gets a gold star, but most companies? Not quite there yet.

Common DevX Pain Points: - Security rules that block the tools devs actually *want* to use. - Glacial laptops and outdated hardware. - Missing, buried, or just plain wrong documentation. - Slow, bureaucratic approval chains. - No proper API tooling in place (hello, Postman and Backstage!).

Why It Matters: - Bad DevX = unhappy developers = high turnover. - Wasted time for high-salary engineers isn’t just annoying—it’s expensive. - Cloud migration without DevX in mind? Recipe for inefficiency and surprise costs.

Fixing DevX (Yes, It’s Possible): - Build "paved paths"—secure, approved, and actually usable. - Strike a balance between security and speed. - Track where time is wasted (slow builds, anyone?). - Treat developers like customers. Ask what they need. Then deliver it.

📚 Recommended Reads The team wraps with book recs for anyone looking to level up: - Platform Engineering (Michael) - Unlearn by Barry O’Reilly (Matt) - Working Backwards (Georgia) - Amped Up by Frank Sluman - Plus: [DX.com/research/overview](https://DX.com/research/overview) for even more DevX insights

Bottom Line: Whether you’re leading cloud adoption or building internal platforms, don’t overlook DevX. Great tools and experiences aren’t a nice-to-have—they’re your competitive edge.