DevOps Unpacked

Secrets management is one of the fastest ways to reduce breach risk in modern DevOps — and it’s still one of the easiest things to get wrong. In this episode, we break down what a “secret” actually is (API keys, tokens, certificates, encryption keys), why secrets leak (Git repos, CI/CD logs, long-lived access keys), and how to build a practical workflow that scales across teams.

Monitoring tells you something is broken. Observability helps you explain why it’s broken — fast enough to reduce incident impact and avoid wasting money on noisy telemetry. In this episode, Matt and Helen break down monitoring vs observability in practical terms, then go deep on the three pillars (logs, metrics, traces) and how they work together during real incidents. We also cover the part most...

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) sounds simple until you hit the real-world issues: state, drift, collaboration, and governance. In this episode, Matt and Helen break down Terraform from first principles — what it’s doing under the hood, where teams get burned, and how to run it safely at scale. You’ll learn: IaC (Infrastructure as Code): why defining infrastructure as version-controlled code improves...

In this episode we unpack what containers actually are (and why “done properly” they’re small, portable, and predictable), why container images reduce the classic “works on my machine” failure mode, and a question that matters once you’re operating at scale: is Kubernetes really the orchestrator — or is it being orchestrated by everything around it? We cover: Containers vs VMs (what you’re really...

In this episode of DevOps Unpacked , Matt sits down with Christina (VP of Strategic Initiatives at Cortex , former founding engineer) to unpack what an Internal Developer Platform (IDP) actually is — and why CIOs/CTOs are using IDPs, service catalogues, and guardrails to improve delivery speed without increasing reliability and compliance risk. You’ll learn how high-performing teams turn platform...

If you’re putting LLMs anywhere near production ops, you need guardrails. In this episode of DevOps Unpacked we break down how AI fails in real systems (hallucinations, prompt injection, and data leakage) and what to do about it. We cover practical defences: treating prompts and retrieved text as untrusted input, using RAG safely (scoping and access control), least-privilege tool access for agents...

AI can write code. That doesn’t mean it can run production. In Episode 3, we break down what AI actually changes in DevOps and software engineering — and what stays stubbornly human: requirements, judgement, risk, guardrails, and the messy reality of pipelines and production systems. We cover: Why “AI will replace engineers” is the wrong question Where AI genuinely saves time in day-to-day DevOps...

In this episode of DevOps Unpacked, we tackle the crucial differences between CI CD, continuous integration, and continuous delivery. 🤔 Join us as we explore how tools like Jenkins and GitHub Actions enhance the CI CD pipeline, ensuring smooth deployments. Don't miss out on this essential guide to mastering devops concepts! 🚀

The conversation delves into the essence of DevOps as a culture and the role of a DevOps engineer within that culture. It explores the origins, evolution, and practical implications of DevOps, addressing misconceptions and variations in DevOps engineer roles. The discussion also covers CI/CD, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, testing, and the expanding scope of DevOps to include various disciplines. Additi...