Reliability Enablers

I got the inside word from Manuel Pais, co-author of the seminal Team Topologies book, to explain in a 2-part series about 2 of the most relevant team topologies for reliability work. In this first part, we will talk about enabling teams. A quick refresher on what enabling teams do In the team topologies context: Enabling teams help stream-aligned teams (product or feature teams) to overcome obsta...

Bonus episode on SLOs because Sebastian and I felt that we did not cover the why of SLOs and make them relevant to stakeholders. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit read.srepath.com

This episode continues our coverage of Chapter 4 of the Site Reliability Engineering book (2016). In this second part, we take a deeper dive into the mechanics of SLOs. Here are 5 takeaways from the show: * Start Small with SLOs : Begin with a limited number of SLOs and iteratively refine them based on experience and feedback. Avoid overwhelming teams with too many objectives at once. * Defend and...

In this first part of a 2-part coverage, Sebastian Vietz and I work out how to meet SLAs through SLOs and SLIs. This episode covers Chapter 4 of the Site Reliability Engineering book (2016). Here are 7 takeaways from the show: * Involve Technical Stakeholders Early : Ensure that technical stakeholders, such as SREs, are involved in discussions about SLAs and SLOs from the beginning. Their expertis...

No one wants to get Coinbase’s $65 million observability bill in the future. Sure, observability comes with a necessary cost. But that cost cannot exceed the concrete and perceived value on balance sheets and the minds of leaders. Sofia Fosdick shares practical insights on curbing high observability costs. She’s a senior account executive at Honeycomb.io and has held similar titles at Turbunomic,...

Observability is more than a set of technologies. It’s a practice. Timothy Mahoney is no stranger to this practice, enabling many developer teams to take on better practices in observability. He’s a senior systems engineer at IKEA and is part of its observability enabling team. Tim highlighted the importance of developing and driving frameworks for observability. He also covered the antipattern of...

Chaos Engineering is no longer a nice to have, as Ananth Movva explains in this episode of the SREpath podcast. His experiences with it drove a reduced number and severity of serious incidents and outages. He’s been at the helm of reliability-focused decision-making at one of Canada’s largest banks, BMO, since 2020. Having completed 12 years at the bank, Ananth has seen the evolution of banking te...

This episode covers Chapter 3 of the Site Reliability Engineering book (2016). In this second part, we talk about the costs behind reliability and choosing not to do it well or at all. Here are key takeaways from our conversation: * Prioritize Risk Mitigation : Recognize SRE as a discipline focused on mitigating risks within your organization, including technology, reputation, and financial risks....

This episode covers Chapter 3 of the Site Reliability Engineering book (2016). In this first part, we talk about embracing risk from the SRE perspective. We'll cover how it's very different to the typical IT risk management mindset. Here are key takeaways from our conversation: Embrace Risk with Velocity : Rather than being hindered by traditional governance models and change approval boar...

Platform engineering is replacing SRE and DevOps. Jokes aside, knowing the path to better platforms is key. Abby Bangser is the right person to tell us how to achieve greater maturity in this aspect of software operations. She's previously held SRE roles and currently works as Principal Engineer at Syntasso, the company behind the popular Kratix platform framework. Abby highlighted the need fo...

The observability (o11y) data revolution is well underway, but are we getting the most from the data that is being collected? Richard Benwell thinks we have room for improvement, especially at the usage stage where we query and visualize the o11y data. He is the founder and CEO of SquaredUp, a dashboard software company based out of Maidenhead, UK with over 10 years of experience in the monitoring...

This episode continues our coverage of Chapter 2 of the Site Reliability Engineering book (2016). We talk about the age-old debate of cloud vs on-prem, which is analogous to that other debate we have in the technology of build vs buy. Here are key takeaways from our conversation: Adapt your storage solutions to business needs: Understand the diverse storage options available and tailor them to spe...

This episode covers Chapter 2 of the Site Reliability Engineering book (2016). In this first part, we talk about the intricacies of data center design outlined in the book. One thing is for sure. Building a data center for your own needs is HARD work with many considerations you must make. Here are key takeaways from our conversation: Importance of understanding data center fundamentals : Even if...

Will Platform Engineering replace DevOps or SRE or both? I don’t think this is the case at all. Neither does Ajay Chankramath. He is the Head of Platform Engineering at ThoughtWorks North America, an innovator consulting group. I’d take his word for it since he’s held senior leadership roles in release engineering and more since 2002. In this bonus episode of the SREpath podcast, Ajay shared his p...

FinOps is on the tip of many tongues in the software space right now, as we try to curb our cloud costs. Ajay Chankramath has given talks on FinOps at conferences like the DevOps Enterprise Summit (DOES) among others. He is the Head of Platform Engineering at ThoughtWorks North America, an innovator consulting group. His peers like Martin Fowler and Neal Ford have originated ideas like refactoring...

Observability is going through interesting times. David Caudill believes that delusions are getting in the way of our success in this area. He's a senior engineering manager at Capital One, a US-based bank. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit read.srepath.com

Sebastian and I continue our breakdown of notable passages from Chapter 1 of Google's Site Reliability Engineering (2016) book by Betsy Beyer, Jennifer Pettof, Niall Murphy, et al. We covered passages like: Monitoring is one of the primary means by which service owners keep track of a system's health and availability. Efficient use of resources is important anytime a service cares about mo...

Sebastian and I got together to react to and discuss 5 passages from Chapter 1 of Google's Site Reliability Engineering book (2016) by Betsy Beyer, Jennifer Pettof, Niall Murphy, et al. We covered passages like: The sysadmin approach and the accompanying development ops split have a number of disadvantages and pitfalls Google has chosen to run our systems with a different approach. Our Site Re...

Third and final instalment of the Growing as an SRE series covering practical ideas for planning your career progression This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit read.srepath.com

In part 1, we covered the first truth - that you don't grow in your career merely through tenure. That was a simple one.  Let's explore 2 more truths that are somewhat trickier... Background music credit: Luna by KaizanBlue This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit read.srepath.com

DORA metrics are a hot topic among technology executives in all kinds of enterprise. But there's more to engineering culture than solely relying on the numbers it goes you. We have a rare treat for you because Ash got Tim Wheeler on the pod. He doesn't do much of social media or podcast episodes. Tim is Director of Engineering Excellence at SquaredUp where he follows the DORA metrics but e...

How can you grow as an SRE? You've probably thought about your career progression at some point. Ash put together his initial thoughts on this topic. Listen on to learn how he unpacks the first idea of "You don't get promotions with tenure". This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit read.srepath.com

Jade Rubick needs no introduction in the reliability and observability space. He was VP of Engineering at New Relic from 2010 to 2019. It was my pleasure to take on his non-obvious ideas on managing expectations with teams, especially platform-based teams. We had a few spicy ideas to dive into. We also touched on topics like enhancing engineering practices, DORA metrics, and so much more. Be sure...

I did not know that Google itself does consulting around its SRE practices. This is not a sponsored episode LOL! I wanted to talk with my SRE friend, Yury Niño Roa, about her drawings and SRE ideas, but we dove into a whole lot more than that. We spoke about her work at Google's PSO office, the antipatterns she's seen, and a whole lot more. Listen in for an engaging conversation. You can f...

Sebastian is back for this episode to help set out direction for 2024. We reflected during the holidays on the problems SREs faced in 2023 in terms of job insecurity, burnout, and "that really shouldn't be my sole job". Sebastian and I talked about what we hope to bring to the community in 2024 to make SREs and SRE teams stronger, happier, and healthier at their work. This is a publi...