Big Ideas in App Architecture

​Most teams moving AI into production quickly discover that generating an output is the easy part; running it reliably, efficiently, and at scale is a discipline of its own. In this episode, David talks with Philip Kiely, engineer at Baseten and author of Inference Engineering , a free guide to building and operating AI inference systems.  Philip argues that every company will soon need a dedicate...

In Kubernetes environments, concerns like retries, security, observability, and traffic control often end up scattered across application code, leading to duplicated logic, inconsistent behavior, and systems that are harder to operate and debug.  The service mesh was designed to solve exactly that. In this episode, David talks with William Morgan, co-founder and CEO of  Buoyant, about the origins...

Most workflow and orchestration tools rely on external systems and fragile state management, making it hard for applications, especially AI agents to recover from failures or long running interruptions. In this episode, David talks with Peter Kraft, co-founder of DBOS, about a new approach to durable execution. DBOS is a lightweight, database-backed library that checkpoints program state so applic...

Most observability platforms are built around siloed signals, metrics, logs, and traces; not the rich context engineers actually need. The architecture of observability tooling hasn’t kept pace with the architecture of today’s distributed systems.  In this episode, David sits down with Charity Majors, co-founder and CTO of Honeycomb.io and co-author of Observability Engineering, to rethink how mod...

Most CI/CD pipelines are built to detect failure, not to resolve it. As software systems grow more distributed and complex, that limitation is becoming a bottleneck for resilience. In this episode, David sits down with Tomer Karin, a seasoned software architect in the automotive industry, to explore a new paradigm he calls Continuous Integration and Continuous Solution (CI/CS). Tomer argues that t...

Most databases are designed for success cases. Real systems fail– the difference is whether they’re built and tested for it.  In this episode, David sits down with Spencer Kimball, co-founder and CEO of Cockroach Labs, to explore the architectural and testing decisions behind CockroachDB, and why validating systems under worst-case conditions is essential to building reliable infrastructure at sca...

In this episode, David sits down with Nishant Raman , a seasoned data infrastructure expert, to explore the evolving world of data engineering, AI integration, and building scalable systems from the ground up. With experience across logistics, healthcare, and fintech, Nishant shares hard-won insights from years of building resilient, cost-conscious infrastructure that scales with company growth an...

In this episode, David sits down with  Masaru Hoshi , a cloud architect at Qlik, to explore his unexpected journey into cloud architecture, the cultural influences that shaped his career, and the evolving disciplines transforming enterprise technology today.  Join as we discuss: Masaru’s path from developer to cloud architect and his open-source contributions The rising importance of site reliabil...

In this episode, David sits down with Peter Mattis , co-founder, CTO, and CPO of Cockroach Labs , to dive into the world of resilient databases, the evolution of AI in tech, and the journey of building a company that’s transforming how engineers approach scalability and performance. Peter shares insights from Cockroach Labs’ mission to create CockroachDB, a distributed SQL database designed to be...

In this episode, David sits down with Joe Duffy , CEO of Pulumi , to explore the revolutionary changes in cloud infrastructure and the power of Infrastructure as Code (IaC). Pulumi is redefining how developers and organizations manage cloud resources by enabling them to use familiar programming languages for scalable, efficient infrastructure management. Join us as we discuss: The evolution of clo...

Connectivity has become as essential as power and water—without it, our modern world would grind to a halt. In this episode, David sits down with Anand Bajaj , Chief Architect at Ericsson , to explore the revolutionary shifts taking place with 5G technology. Anand breaks down the evolution from wired networks to the unparalleled flexibility of 5G, highlighting the power of network slicing in creat...

What does it take to build systems that thrive in today’s fast-evolving tech landscape? In this episode, we talk with Jim Hatcher , Solutions Engineer at Cockroach Labs , about the future of application architecture. From cloud commitments and database optimization to the transformative role of AI, Jim shares expert insights into building resilient, scalable systems. We explore the shift to cloud-...

In this episode, David welcomes Ari LiVigni , Senior Cloud Solutions Architect at GitHub , for an engaging conversation about cloud infrastructure, cloud adoption, AI, and security.  Join us as we discuss: The importance of effective cloud solutions for data protection and security, including a look at tools from GitHub, AWS, and Azure. GitHub's significant milestones, including its acquisition by...

Ever wondered how cloud architecture works in the public sector? In this episode, David Joy is joined by Nik Mayer , Principal Cloud Architect at Maximus , a company that partners with state, federal and local governments to provide critical health and human service programs. Nick discusses his journey into cloud architecture, emphasizing the impact of public cloud on innovation and accessibility....

This week, David is joined by Dom Scandinaro , CTO at Cameo , the platform that allows users to send personalized videos from celebrities and creators. Scandinaro gives an in-depth overview of Cameo’s rapid growth from a simple idea into a robust and deeply personalized fan experience platform with the digital infrastructure to match.  Join us as we discuss: How Cameo’s tech stack has evolved as t...

In this episode, our host David Joy speaks with Samarth Shah, Senior Network Architect at Equifax to learn about the steps they took to modernize from the mainframe to the cloud, as well as the impact AI has on the industry. Join as we also discuss: The limitations of the mainframe and what enterprises need to consider when moving towards a cloud architecture. How to address modern security challe...

In this episode, we dive into the heart of cloud architecture, disaster recovery, observability, and more with  OneStream’s Senior VP of Cloud Architecture, Ryan Berry . Whether you're a tech enthusiast or finance professional, this episode offers indispensable knowledge on navigating modern cloud landscapes and optimizing financial software solutions. Join as we discuss: The importance of learnin...

In this episode, David is joined by Head of Product Engineering and Chief Architect at Altimetrik, Ignacio Segovia.  From revolutionizing product engineering to harnessing the power of cloud technologies, Ignacio breaks down the themes of digital transformation in today's rapidly evolving landscape, and how Altimetrik fosters cultural alignment and innovation on their engineering teams. Join as we...

This week, David is joined by Unmesh Joshi, Principal Consultant at Thoughtworks and author of “ Patterns of Distributed Systems ” for a conversation on the technical intricacies that keep modern applications running smoothly.  Join as we discuss: Key concepts behind distributed systems, including fault tolerance and consistency models, consensus algorithms, and more. Unmesh’s inspiration behind ...

With a growing library of media properties including CNET, Lonely Planet, and Bankrate, Red Ventures ’ data platform has scaled from handling 16 million events per day to nearly 2 billion. To dive into the evolution of their architecture and understand how data effortlessly travels through their systems, our host David Joy sat down with Principal Software Engineer Majid Fatemian . Join as we discu...

For the engineering team at digital analytics company Amplitude, real-time customer feedback and cutting-edge Northstar metrics play a significant role in helping them adapt their tech stack and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving market. To learn more about the innovative approaches at Amplitude, we sat down with their SVP of Engineering, Shadi Rostami, for a discussion on the significance of owners...

Modernizing database infrastructure can solve more than just data problems. It can also simplify your software architecture and the way your engineering organization works. In this episode, David sits down with technical evangelist, Rob Reid from Cockroach Labs,  to discuss the importance of architectural simplification through proven patterns, real-world examples, and practical use cases.  Join a...

“Customer experience is top priority, if the customer isn’t happy and you scale it, it doesn’t matter, nobody's gonna use it!” This week, David is joined by Sachin Joshi, Director of Enterprise Architecture at Vimeo, to discuss customer experience as the north star of architecture work, the evolution and impact of AI, and Vimeo's code-to-cash process for business efficiency.   Join us as we discus...

How to leverage real-time data processing for enterprises In this episode, David is joined by Andrew Sellers , Head of Technology at Confluent , to discuss the dynamic world of data streaming and its transformative impact in the enterprise as well as everyday applications. Andrew sheds light on the evolution of data infrastructure and how Confluent is constantly working to revolutionize data manag...

Developers need a toolkit to build AI into their applications – models, functions, & data, Hypermode does just that. To learn how the world of data and databases have been rapidly evolving for the age of AI, we sat down with their CTO Gajanan Chinchwadkar (previously Chief Systems Architect at Visa).  Join as we discuss: The evolution of database technologies from niche markets to a $100 billi...