The Cloudcast

Massive Studios

<p>The Cloudcast (@cloudcastpod) is the industry's #1 Cloud Computing podcast, and the place where Cloud meets AI.  Co-hosts Aaron Delp (@aarondelp) &amp; Brian Gracely (@bgracely) speak with technology and business leaders that are shaping the future of business. Topics will include Cloud Computing | AI | AGI | ChatGPT | Open Source | AWS | Azure | GCP | Platform Engineering | DevOps | Big Data | ML | Security | Kubernetes | AppDev | SaaS | PaaS . </p>

  • 27 minutes 11 seconds
    The Future of Enterprise Software?

    Are we ready to move into an era of wild predictions about where the future of Enterprise software is headed in 2026 and beyond? 

    SHOW: 999

    SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #999 Transcript

    SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET 

    CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotw

    CHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"

    SHOW NOTES

    WHAT HAPPENS TO ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE NEXT?

    • How much do enterprises want to write their own software? 
    • How much do enterprises wish they could write more software?
    • How much do enterprises not understand the economics of owning their own software?
    • How much does “big SaaS” or just “big Enterprise software” actually help because people already know it?
    • Is it possible that this new Agentic-driven software could create a type of new software community? 
    • Are “open” software communities prepared for the emerging economics of AI-created software? 

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    4 February 2026, 6:00 am
  • 32 minutes 42 seconds
    The Rise of Digital Sovereignty

    We take a listener question about digital sovereignty, tariffs and UK/EU independence from large US cloud providers, also Brian reaches out to the Melbourne, AUS listeners. 

    SHOW: 998

    SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #998 Transcript

    SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET 

    CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotw

    CHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"

    SHOW NOTES

    THE FUNDAMENTALS OF DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY 

    • What is the definition of Digital Sovereignty? What about Digital Assurance? 
    • Sovereignty from who or what? 
    • What laws are you attempting to comply with? How are they audited or measured? 
    • Data Sovereignty - Maintaining control over how data is collected, classified, processed and stored to ensure that data regulations are met
    • Technical Sovereignty - Running workloads without dependence on a provider’s infrastructure or software, and protected from all extra-territorial interference and scrutiny.
    • Operational Sovereignty - Visibility and control over provider operations from provisioning and performance management, to monitoring of physical and digital access, to the infrastructure.
    • Assurance Sovereignty -Ability to independently verify and assure the integrity, security, and reliability of digital systems and processes including resilience of critical services.


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    1 February 2026, 6:00 am
  • 47 minutes 40 seconds
    AI &amp; Cloud Trends for January 2026

    Aaron Delp (@aarondelp), Brian Gracely (@bgracely) and Brandon Whichard (@bwhichard, @SoftwareDefTalk) discuss the top stories in Cloud and AI from January 2026.

    SHOW: 997

    SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #997 Transcript

    SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET 

    NEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST:  "CLOUDCAST BASICS"

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    28 January 2026, 6:00 am
  • 23 minutes 49 seconds
    10 Questions about what Cloud 2.0 might look like

    Following on the discussion of the Cloud 1.0 to Cloud 2.0 transition, we explore what that future cloud might look like. 

    SHOW: 996

    SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #996 Transcript

    SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET 

    NEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS" 

    SHOW NOTES:

    Q1 - What didn’t Cloud 1.0 achieve from the grand vision?

    Q2 - What seemed promising but might have been the wrong timing? 

    Q3 - Why didn’t more SaaS get bundled by the hyperscalers?

    Q4 - Does multi-cloud become easier?

    Q5 - Do primitives continue to be the core offering, or do more integrated offerings dominate the landscape?

    Q6 - Do a bunch of existing primitives get turned off to make room for new AI capabilities (DC capacity)?

    Q7 - Is security on by default? 

    Q8 - Do more private/sovereign capabilities get offered?

    Q9 - What are the new AI capabilities that nobody has even thought of yet?

    Q10 - How does the mix of AI workloads get distributed across clouds, or across private and public? 


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    25 January 2026, 6:00 am
  • 49 minutes 28 seconds
    The Cloudcast Playbook - Lessons from 1000 Shows

    After 1000+ shows of The Cloudcast, when critical lessons have we learned about the industry, our our journey, and tips for anyone in tech. 

    SHOW: 995

    SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #995 Transcript

    SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET 

    NEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS" 

    SHOW NOTES:

    Lesson 1 - Why did we create The Cloudcast? [Career expansion]

    Lesson 2 - How did we learn all the topics we covered? [Skills development]

    Lesson 3 - What have been the biggest Cloud trends we’ve covered [Trends]

    Lesson 4 - How did you think about technology transitions over the last 10-15 years? [Change]

    Lesson 5 - How important was it for you to learn the business side of cloud? [Follow the money]

    Lesson 6 - What structural changes do you think Cloud will have on IT in 10 years? [Legacy]

    Lesson 7 - What lesson from an episode do you think about the most frequently?

    Lesson 8 - What surprised you the most about the Cloud 1.0 era?

    Lesson 9 - What did you expect to happen, which never really happened?

    Lesson 10 - What were the most important lessons you personally learned? [Lessons Learned]



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    21 January 2026, 6:00 am
  • 21 minutes 7 seconds
    It's the beginning of Cloud 2.0

    15 years ago, when we started The Cloudcast the definition of cloud was pretty clear cut. But now in 2026, the rules are all different and a new era of Cloud is upon us. Let’s explore what the next generation might provide. 

    SHOW: 994

    SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #994 Transcript

    SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET 

    CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotw

    CHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"

    SHOW NOTES


    WHAT IS AND ISN’T CLOUD IN 2026?

    • Cloud isn’t a single company
    • Cloud isn’t just public cloud
    • A CIA cloud isn’t a Gov cloud isn’t your Enterprise Cloud
    • Multi-cloud is a real thing that needs technology
    • Google, the people that invented “cloud” are a real company in cloud
    • Defining cloud by purity, or IaaS/PaaS/SaaS terms doesn’t really matter
    • Does data locality matter more in an AI-Cloud era?
    • Do we begin to see price wars over the core Cloud 1.0 primitives?
    • Are we in the 9th inning of Cloud, and the 1st inning of what’s next? 
    • AI has replaced SaaS in immediacy, so does that have impact on Cloud services? 
    • Does the lack of application portfolio finally come back to bite AWS? 
    • Can niche cloud services emerge (e.g. is Vercel another Digital Ocean, or something unique?)


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    18 January 2026, 6:00 am
  • 22 minutes 22 seconds
    RAG That Survives Production

    Adam Kamor (@tonicfakedata, Founder & Head of Engineering) talks about building RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) systems in production for AI data. 

    SHOW: 992

    SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #992 Transcript

    SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET 

    NEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS" 

    SHOW NOTES:

    Topic 1 - Adam, welcome to the show. Give everyone a brief introduction.

    Topic 2: Our topic today is RAG systems, specifically RAG in production. Let’s start with customization sources and types. When it comes to customizing off-the-shelf LLMs, RAG is one option, as is an MCP connection to a SQL database, and there is pre- and post-training, as well as fine-tuning. How does an organization decide what path is best for customization?

    Topic 3 - RAG came on the scene as the savior for organizations that want to use customer AI without the need for fine-tuning and additional training. It has either gone through or is currently still in the trough of disillusionment. What are your thoughts on RAG's evolution and the challenges it faces?

    Topic 4 - Let’s walk through the basics of validation. Once you set up RAG, how would an organization know it works? How is accuracy measured and validated? Are you looking for hallucinations? Context quality?

    Topic 5 - What is Tonic Validate, and where does it fit into this stack? Is it in band? Out of band? Built into the CI workflow?

    Topic 6 - Accuracy is one aspect, but we hear more and more about ROI for Enterprises. How should ROI, risk, and compliance be measured?

    Topic 7 - Where and how does security fit into all of this? Also, your thoughts on synthetic data for training vs. real data?


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    14 January 2026, 6:00 am
  • 25 minutes 56 seconds
    20 Years of OSS Databases

    Peter Zairsev (@PeterZaitsev, Founder of @Percona) talks about the history of OSS databases, and how AI is reshaping the demands on modern databases. 

    SHOW: 991

    SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #991 Transcript

    SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET 

    NEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS" 

    SHOW NOTES:

    Topic 1 - Welcome to the show, Peter. Give everyone a brief introduction, and we’ll also dig into the details of Percona after that.

    Topic 2 - Percona is basically a household name in our space. Part of that is the excellent tech, and part of that is the longevity. Tell everyone the origin story of Percona.

    Topic 3 - How have OSS databases evolved? Going back 20 years is a bit far, but what recent trends stand out? How have cloud (i.e. the hyperscalers) and SaaS in particular changed this landscape 

    Topic 4 - Percona plays in the same space, and with, MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL. If you don’t mind, help everyone connect the dots there and why that matters.

    Topic 5 - What are the typical business cases and implementations you are seeing today? What are organizations trying to solve for the most?

    Topic 6 - How has AI and the rise of embeddings and vector databases impacted the OSS space? What are your thoughts here? Is this complementary/competitive/both?

    Topic 7 - What do you wish people knew more about Percona?


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    7 January 2026, 6:00 am
  • 44 minutes 10 seconds
    AI &amp; Cloud Trends for December 2025

    Aaron Delp (@aarondelp), Brian Gracely (@bgracely) and Brandon Whichard (@bwhichard, @SoftwareDefTalk) discuss the top stories in Cloud and AI from December 2025.

    SHOW: 990

    SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #990 Transcript

    SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET 

    NEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST:  "CLOUDCAST BASICS"

    SHOW NOTES:

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    4 January 2026, 6:00 am
  • 1 hour 2 minutes
    Cloud and AI Predictions for 2026

    Aaron and Brian make some bold predictions for the 2026 Cloud and AI markets, as well as reviewing the biggest issues going into 2026.  

    SHOW: 989

    SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #989 Transcript

    SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET 

    CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotw

    CHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"

    SHOW NOTES:

    2026 CLOUD + AI PREDICTIONS (AND BIG ISSUES TO REVIEW)

    • OpenAI Revenues and Focus Areas
    • NVIDIA customer profitability
    • Companies moving to GOOG TPUs
    • Enterprise success beyond CoPilot/Gemini
    • Enterprise data+model trainability
    • Enterprise price hikes
    • Broadcom, AMD, Groq - alternative HW options
    • Data Center buildouts
    • Does AI spending shift
    • What is Agentic AI?
    • Long term spending + short term refocuses

    PREDICTIONS:

    • At least one big AI IPO in 2026, and it won’t go well. (Aaron says Anthropic)
    • People will question whether Sam Altman is the right person to lead OpenAI
    • AI will be a central issue in the 2026 US elections, either about job losses or electricity prices
    • One major LPU/TPU/dedicated inference chip will break through in 2026
    • Azure will be the Number One Cloud… (Aaron has to keep it going)
    • We will start to see a shift in the Enterprise from big models in the sky (1+trillion parameters) to dedicated, purpose-built models of 500M or less in size for efficiency and security
    • Gemini will dominate the consumer/prosumer space, OpenAI will go through the trough of disillusionment
    • The industry will shift to a base/instruct and a reasoning split of models
    • AWS and Azure will double down on being a solutions provider instead of a primitive supplier for AI and infrastructure

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    31 December 2025, 6:00 am
  • 21 minutes 15 seconds
    The Craziest Year (so far) comes to a close

    A lot changed in the world of Cloud and AI this year. And then it changed some more, and some more, and so more. The only constant was change. 


    SHOW: 988

    SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #988 Transcript

    SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET 

    CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotw

    CHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"

    SHOW NOTES

    IT WAS AN INTERESTING YEAR IN CLOUD AND AI TECHNOLOGY

    • AI has become a mainstream technology, political and social talking point
    • AI went through 7yrs of news cycles in 1 yr
    • DeepSeek - Maybe NVIDIA chips aren’t needed?
    • NVIDIA acquihired Grok and their technology
    • Maybe AWS’ lead in the cloud is now in question
    • Google got their act together with GenAI, after inventing the technology in 2017
    • Microsoft and OpenAI sort of broke up, or at least they are seeing other people
    • OpenAI forecasts 100x their current revenue in future computing needs
    • The US Gov’t either bailed out, or socialized Intel
    • Bitcoin - 94k, up to 125k, down to 84k


    FEEDBACK?

    28 December 2025, 6:00 am
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