ShipTalk - SRE, DevOps, Platform Engineering, Software Delivery

Welcome to the Season 4 finale of the Ship Talk podcast! Join special host Thomas Dockstader and several industry leaders at AWS re:Invent to discuss the intersection of AI and software delivery. The following is a series of interviews with partners, customers, and engineering leaders on the front lines of AI transformation. Don't miss the "Ship It or Skip It" segment, where our gue...

This is a special episode where we sat down with the speakers at DevOpsNotDead NYC 2026 to hear their perspectives on how AI is transforming software delivery . Connect with our guests: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diamondbishop https://www.linkedin.com/in/sadiojonas/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuamlee/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/akash-thakur-00367a155/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahender-man...

This is a special episode where we sat down with the speakers at SREday NYC 2026 to hear their perspectives on how AI is transforming software delivery .

How do you secure data in the age of Agentic AI? 🤖🔐 In this episode of ShipTalk, Dewan Ahmed sits down with Devan Shah , Chief Architect of Data Security at IBM, to explore the massive shift from traditional DevOps to AI-infused software delivery. Devan shares his journey from being a chef to leading an "army" of 450+ developers at IBM. They dive deep into the technical bedrock of IBM’...

In this special predictions episode of ShipTalk , host Dewan Ahmed (Principal Developer Advocate, Harness)   sits down with Nick Durkin, Field CTO at Harness , to unpack what’s actually coming in 2026—beyond the hype. They explore whether we’re heading toward the first AI-caused production meltdown , how much trust we should place in AI "confidence," and why many teams may face a wave of...

In this episode of the ShipTalk Podcast, host Dewan Ahmed (Principal Developer Advocate at Harness) sits down with Evgeny Ilinykh (Founder of GuidedMind.ai and former Tesla Engineering Manager) to move past the AI hype and get into the engineering reality of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). If your AI agents are hallucinating, the problem probably isn't your model—it’s your retrieval lay...

In this episode of Ship Talk , host Dewan Ahmed (Principal Developer Advocate, Harness) sits down with Marina Petzel , Senior ML Engineer and AI Productivity Lead at Autodesk, to unpack what it actually looks like to ship AI into long-lived, production software. Marina shares her journey from classic predictive analytics to computer vision and LLMs, and how her team brings intelligent features lik...

In this episode of ShipTalk , host Dewan Ahmed sits down with Adeeb Valiulla , a leader in developer productivity and engineering excellence at Harness , to explore how AI is transforming the very definition of software productivity. Adeeb shares his journey from building early engineering metrics systems at Sensormatic to leading developer efficiency initiatives for Fortune 500 companies. Togethe...

Dewan Ahmed sits down with Fatih Bulut, AI Architect at Microsoft and former IBM Research Master Inventor, to separate hype from reality in AI for software delivery and cybersecurity.  Fatih clarifies AI for security vs security for AI, walks through detection engineering as real software engineering, and explains proactive defense across an attack’s phases. He digs into the hard part of shipping:...

In this episode of ShipTalk , Chinmay Gaikwad sits down with Aravind Putrevu , Head of Developer Relations at CodeRabbit , and dives into the evolving landscape of AI in software development. Aravind shares insights on the influence of AI tools across the software development lifecycle, from coding and code reviews to automation and security. Aravind highlights the pivotal role of context engineer...

In this kickoff episode of ShipTalk Season 4, Dewan sits down with Nathen Harve y, DORA Lead and Developer Advocate at Google Cloud, to explore how DevOps metrics and AI are transforming software delivery. From his early days in DevOps to leading the DORA initiative , Nathen shares lessons from open-source communities, the role of culture, and how AI is reshaping documentation, incident response,...

In this special season 3 finale of ShipTalk, host Dewan Ahmed sits down with Puneet Saraswat, VP of Engineering at Harness, for an inspiring conversation about engineering leadership, system design, and the evolution of software delivery. What You'll Learn: Career Journey : Follow Puneet's path from discovering programming in a hot computer lab in North India to building Windows 7 kernel...

In this episode of the ShipTalk podcast, co-host Eric Minick talks with Lukas Gentele , co-founder and CEO of LoftLabs, about revolutionizing Kubernetes infrastructure through virtualization. Lukas shares his entrepreneurial journey starting from age 16 and explains how his company pivoted to create vcluster, a technology that virtualizes Kubernetes control planes similar to how VMs virtualize phy...

In this episode, Dewan sits down (virtually) with Kyle Galbraith, co-founder of Depot, to explore his unique journey from motocross videographer to startup founder. Kyle shares how his early experiences in film and programming shaped his approach to solving technical problems, and why he co-founded Depot to tackle the challenge of slow build processes. Kyle dives into the real impact of inefficien...

In this edition of ShipTalk podcast, Ron Gidron , CEO of X Type, discusses the unique challenges of DevOps in platform-based environments like ServiceNow, emphasizing the complexities of managing multiple code bases and environments. He highlights the importance of visibility, governance, and automation in modern software development, sharing insights from his decades of experience in the tech ind...

Brendan O’Leary shares his journey from helping GitLab scale to IPO to his current role at Prefect.io , focusing on Pythonic orchestration. He explains why Prefect chose Python and how orchestration tools like Prefect complement CI/CD platforms like GitLab CI/CD and Harness in DevOps workflows. We discuss the evolution of Developer Relations, its ROI, and tips for building sustainable open-source...

In this episode of ShipTalk, host Dewan Ahmed sits down with Alex Olivier , the CPO and Co-founder of Cerbos , to explore the evolving landscape of DevOps and the critical role of authorization in modern software development. With a wealth of experience designing enterprise solutions, Alex shares his insights on how to balance developer productivity with security, making the case for adopting tool...

In this episode of the Ship Talk podcast, host Dewan Ahmed welcomes Vishwa Krishnakumar , co-founder of ZenDuty, to delve into the complexities of software delivery, from managing stress as a startup founder to the nuances of DevOps and SRE practices. Vishwa shares his journey from a young coder to a successful entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of physical and mental well-being in high-pres...

In this episode of ShipTalk, we are joined with Ken Ahrens, CEO and Founder of Speedscale. Kubernetes is turning 10 this summer  and we dig into how the ecosystem has been evolving.  Learn more from Ken as he walks through his journey on: * Don't forget the fundamentals  * 10 Years into K8s, what is still challenging * Enthusiasm, a very important skill

Explore the ins and outs of software engineering and organizational culture in the ShipTalk Podcast. In this episode, Dewan Ahmed, a Principal Developer Advocate at Harness, engages in a compelling conversation with Matt Anger, a Senior Staff Engineer at DoorDash. In this insightful discussion, Matt reflects on his career, from a fresh graduate to his current role as an engineering leader at DoorD...

Welcome to the latest season of ShipTalk! In this episode, we get to talk to Dr. Vlad Ukis, Head of R&D for Siemens Healthineers and author of Establishing SRE Foundations.  We cover several great topics from starting and scaling an SRE function in a healthcare/regulated industry to how to go about renegotiating your SLOs.  * Road to SaaS * How to renegotiate SLOs * Changes in SRE practices th...

In this episode of ShipTalk, Arch Mortgage Insurance Company's Head of Infrastructure and Operations, Scott Lee, discusses his home automation solution, deep dives into the massive gap between remote workers and their managers, and share a story about that one time he lived in an RV for 18 months with his wife and 2 dogs. Introductions Just for fun #1 - Automate all the things at home Main to...

In this episode of ShipTalk, Deutsche Bank's Head of Cloud Engineering , Bijit Ghosh, takes us on a culinary journey to Croatia, discusses cloud native adoption and cultural change in the high stakes world of financial services, and brings us all home for meal time with the Ghosh family. Introductions Just for fun #1 - Bijit's favorite travel destination Main topic - Cloud Native adoptio...

In this episode of ShipTalk, our host Jim Hirschauer interviews many of the speakers from the WTF is SRE conference and discusses the many life lessons they express. This episode is packed with important lessons to help you interact with your co-workers and to succeed in life in general. The crew also has some fun discussing foods for a deserted island. Introduction What's your favorite...? I...

In this episode of ShipTalk (The SRE Edition), Red Hat's Chief Mermaid, Hilliary Lipsig, defines a new word that all techies should adopt into their vocabulary. For the main course, Hilliary describes how to use Observability data to do so much more than most companies are doing today. She also shares her favorite hobby which is something I have never heard of before. Introductions Just for f...