I got my start working in the tech world back in the dot-com days, at an Idealab! startup. I have also spent time in Web2 at MySpace, and more recently in Web3 at my own startup. I have worked extensively with systems and networks, including as a Principal Architect in the CDN world. I present on various topics at a wide variety of venues, with recordings and slide decks posted online. I am currently the Principal Architect at Inertia Labs, a consulting firm dedicated to issues around serving infrastructure quality such as SRE, Observability, and Platform Architecture

Presentations

23x

Running Containers with Open Source Akash Network, a Blockchain-based Distributed Computing Platform

Akash network is an open source project which lets users run their containers across a global set of compute providers.  It's the middle layer inbetween people who need compute resources (buyers) and people willing to sell access to their compute resources (suppliers).  Anyone can participate on either side, with a net result of less waste of idle compute resources on the supplier side, and lower costs on the buyer side.

The "unit of compute" is a buyer-provided container, and the length of time that container needs to be used to complete its task.  Buyers include enthusiasts who just want to run a minecraft server all the way up to professional compute jobs such as training an LLM.

The supplier can be a professionally-supported server in a datacenter with dedicated GPUs, all the way down to a spare home computer running in a home environment.

Akash network is the coordinator inbetween, and it utilizes a blockchain for compute commitments, checksums, and payments between suppliers and buyers of compute.

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22x

Cloud Rationalization - Industry Trends to Hybrid Environments

The last generation of startups were all born and grew up in the Cloud.  Now that they've grown and established themselves, they're revisiting their Cloud decisions due to concerns about cost, performance, security, compliance, control, and sizing.  However, the expertise to do this has atrophied in Cloud-only shops, and the knowledge needed to do this has been lost.  With Infrastructure-as-Code and modern platforms like OpenStack, we can recreate this knowledge and customize hybrid cloud and self-hosted solutions, the future of these Cloud-only companies.  

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