All About the Edge – Techstrong Research Review EP 16

here Hi everybody, Mike Rothman here general manager of text from research with another episode of the texturung research review. As always. I'm joined by my partner in crime Mitch Ashley Mitch.

How are you today? I'm doing great. I'm doing great.

It's I'm hoping for some warm weather here matter of fact where I'm going. It's more rather so but that's whole not a story. Yeah.

Okay, that's right. So before we should dive into it, let's talk a little bit, you know, so you're about to head off. I'm actually heading off too, but I'm working because it's like, you know get all working.

No play is my life. Where you go, make sure you having fun. We are we are you know it I think about the fourth time the temperature Diplo zero in Colorado.

We said, you know what? It's just the beach vacate time, you know, we should go in the fall after the first crowds gone. But yeah my spouse Jody holds some Miracles and found some great deals.

It's a really cool place. So we're just Yeah, I told a friend of mine like my objective is to get my feet in the water lay down in the lounge chair in the water and then be a sea turtle the whole week. That's all it's my objective.

Just hang out hang out with the sea turtles. That's fantastic. I'm actually heading to your neck of the woods.

Yeah my step. So right would you fly away? My stepson is on Spring break so so my wife and here going skiing.

I am tagging along to go driving because I'm not in a position when he's getting better definitely recovering but not not ready to hit the slopes because I'm not a very good ski or anyway, so I will be sitting in the hot tub by the fireplace with my laptop not top and hot tub maybe not at the same time, but within similar proximity, you know enjoying some some Mountain Resort time and then the scene and and yeah and then and then no more trouble for so once I get back, I'm in town for the rest of the March, which is you going to Vegas for a vendor conference, but then we have or if they see coming up not too far down and you but that's not what I want to talk. So what are you so, you know, and I think the whole idea of getting small is is, you know, kind of something we To start digging into right, you know, we're working on some some conference materials and and there's some other research that we're planning but it's really about kind of the edge and Computing at the edge and we've danced around the topic before and we've kind of started to you know, dig into it a big but not at any great level, but the fact is there's a lot going on in the edge, right and it's not just, you know, kind of networking and you know kind of moving, you know, some of the compute capabilities out to the edge but we're starting to repatform things to work in the edge starting to get you know, kind of the orchestration layer is starting to mature in terms of how you run things on the edge. When you have a limited capacity type of of environment on that front social Academy.

There's just a lot going on there. It's so so what kind of stuff are you starting to see? What kind of stuff is interesting to you?

I think it's fascinating about the edge is we start thinking about it as a hardware, right? What's at the edge where we're at storage and compute happening and autonomous cars or data that are coming from cars and kind of big chunky applications like that. And what's interesting to me is cloud native moving to the edge also with K zeros and K3, you know lighter weight kubernetes so you can still take a microservices-based approach a serverless base approach, you know kind of further that architecture out to the edge but not bring a clunky heavy weight kubernetes into something you've got, you know, small either memory or processor footprint or you want kind of less minimal configuration and and it's you know, it's not all perfected.

Well, yeah, you know, it's okay three run on different environments and have different advantages some some bigger than other summer kind of mini versus tiny versions of kubernetes, but I love the experiment. Station that's going on is people craft these flavors of kubernetes because it also I think allows developers want to start working with kubernetes to start with an easier environment. I don't need to run the whole stack.

Playing in my development environment if I'm kind of learning their new kubernetes, then go down go down and or go up to the Internet and download a lighter weight version. The other thing is The Edge doesn't look like the center of the cloud There's issues like air gap. What about those kinds of environments There's issues of the dynamic resources available.

I mean, I don't have unlimited, you know computers power and all of that and what I have right now may leave and go away and then come back and connect again, whatever that device or that that compute power is so, you know, we may be running K zero inside our electric car, you know, not too far down the road or maybe we already are who knows? Thanks already. So it's just the it's the evolution of you know, it being the kinds of things we're doing now that are sort of on the edge of software architecture if you will with with Cloud native pushing into other environments, which is I think that's fascinating about the evolution of all, It is and and it kind of gets back to.

Putting a premium on architecture, right and we've kind of talked about this before but as we start, you know kind of re-platforming as we start refactoring some of these things and and again it's not and and we kind of went through that first wave and listen. It's it's a huge Continuum and we're nowhere near done. But the first wave of you know kind of stuff that's moving up to the cloud.

It's pretty much there. Now, you're starting to get folks that are starting to think about. Well, I did it first maybe it was a lifted shift.

Maybe it was just a fairly simple refactor. How can I really start thinking more strategically about what that application looks like right? Are there ways to start peeling off pieces of it since I've started to embrace micro Services a little bit.

Maybe there's a way to start really Distributing the application. So I've got the big data aspect of it again in the cloud we're belongs right, but maybe I start moving some of that, you know kind of compute aspect or or some of the customer facing stuff really closer to them out to the edge, especially with latency intensive. Types of or makes it latency sensitive would be a better way to put it application.

So We're starting to see a lot of these gyrations which again puts a premium on folks that understand how these pieces fit together the architecture piece of it because we can't think about doing something like, you know, I focus on the security aspect of it, right we can talk about devops and how we're going to develop this thing and deploy it and integrated consistently, but until we get that architecture kind of lock down until we start to understand how much can we put out there? Where's the best place for some of the static data? How do we you know again architect the communications lives so that they provide the type of performance that we need, you know for the characteristics of the application all these things are moving pieces, but the reality is we have to start thinking about them because we're going to start running into you know, kind of some issues.

We're starting to see some of the backlash in terms of you know, kind of it seemed great at the time when we're paying for use and and this consumption pricing model and then everything. The consumption pricing model you get no leverage ever right? So so we're starting to see some backlash on that front.

I'm so getting just a lot of movie pieces that folks have to start, you know thinking about which again on one hand is scary right with all that complexity on the other hand is an opportunity to really start, you know, kind of breaking the rules in terms of how you started to build these applications starting to think about again, maybe multiple providers and I'm not talking about multiple clouds on the back end, right? It could be a cloud on the back end with you know, kind of a different Edge provider sitting there to you know, handle, you know some aspects of the application. So again, I think we're gonna see a lot of movement a lot of activity a lot of real cool Innovation and a bunch of new use cases for how we start to build that applications which again to me is tremendously exciting.

What I really like about what you're saying. Mike is I think this the Venn diagram of security and software is architecture and it's something that both camps understand. Holy yes, it's all that, you know, we can talk about firewall so we can talk about microservices or not, but the things in it, but it's what's fascinating is that the architecture of cloud native and the architecture of software distributed software distributed applications and Computing looks like Networks.

I mean if it is networks, it's apis talking to other services other pieces of code could be within a kubernetes cluster Community across clouds right can be all over the place. So that that's something that is very tangible very similar to what a network security person would recognize and you know API Gateway sounds like a similar kind of web application Gateway, maybe a few differences, but you know what we're dealing with apis already in the network world. So I think that's a great conversation that we can help Fosters.

Let's work on the architecture together. Yeah, that's where we get there joint the new dual benefits of both expertise to build a secure architecture to build them that we can actually deploy and support and distribute secure. Well, you know, it's interesting.

We we have you know, any number of different research projects in flight and any given time right, but when you start thinking about, you know, kind of a modernization motion again, most folks say, oh move it to the cloud or re-platform or whatever but modernization can really take a lot of different flavors and and one of the ones you know, we're talking to you know, some clients about now, we're starting to do some research over you'll see the polls up on the site, you know reasonably soon is this idea of again modernizing existing applications what I was you know, kind of talking about really kind of thinking about how can I really architect or or think about the micro services in a different way to optimize what it is that I'm doing there, but it requires collaboration, right? So, you know again, we're gonna do devops connect, you know kind of at RSA see this year and the theme is you know devops is devsecops, right? We can't separate these things out anymore.

Your point match right? We have to collaborate when we start thinking about Edge and actually storing information at the edge. That's one step closer to the folks that want to steal our stuff right?

So can we have to start thinking about how can we build a set of design patterns right in code? That can be distributed and and used by business type of groups that want to start thinking about some of these new Innovative applications. So again this idea of well, it's gonna go up into the you know, kind of big machine in the sky and we're gonna architect it how we want and and we're gonna you know, kind of determine what that is.

Mmm unlimited everything maybe that yeah, maybe not. So so again, we have to start thinking components. We have to start thinking modularization.

We have to start thinking replicability, right we have to start thinking about you know, how are we gonna communicate? a lot of the architectural constructs and code that follows behind it right to these business analysts that are starting to think about these applications in these use cases, you know that are going to be rolling out soon again, it's it's a different mentality. So again, for those of you that are out there, they're just kind of like, wow we get the spec and then we architect us back and then we designed the spec.

Not not anymore. Right things are changing in terms of how these applications get built how they have how their architect and how they are ultimately deployed supported and then modernized at some point. So again, just get right.

I mean the edges really going to kind of be the Catalyst for a lot of these structural changes that have been a long time coming that we're starting to you know, allude to but I think over the next couple years we're gonna see these things really kind of take rude. And again a lot of it is gonna be driven by the fact that you know, we've got to get closer to customers and we've got to think differently about how those applications are built and we deliver those experience is right. They all can be done from some social club or distributed Cloud.

A lot of it has to be at the edge and I think we'll see some interesting new use cases. Also. It's a lot of interest in AI but also yeah right that being part of this as well or at least some some analysis through analytics happening, but if only just to Eight, you know to streamline the process right?

If there are things that I can do and make a decision, you know kind of at the edge have the business logic out there to a degree that it makes sense. It doesn't have to go all the way back. It doesn't have to go through the you know, the big machine and then and we're not talking about you know, kind of oh, it's gonna take an hour, right but, you know get in some of these applications some of these use cases you mentioned, you know car Telemetry and the like and and decisions.

You know, what if I've got, you know, something happening kind of online, you know kind of connected, you know car platform. I'm not sure I have time to go back up to the machine and analyze all the s*** going. trying to get a sense of what's going on, and we've got to Hundred milliseconds this again, right 200 milliseconds not going to cut it in your autonomous vehicle.

Exactly. Exactly. And that's that's one way.

So so, you know, I think we need to you know, kind of really provision and and think about how our applications are going to evolve in this kind of environment. And again, it just it's gonna put stress on a whole bunch of different existing motions and and folks like well, we're just starting to get comfortable with devops and now you're talking about all this other stuff, you know, moving around and all that. It's like well, yeah, but the thing is and with everything else right?

It's not an All or Nothing thing, right? It can be done on an application by application basis. We don't need to again my great everything to the edge all at once right, you know common we start thinking strategically.

What is the business application that would provide the most value to? Hours if it was distributed in that environment and you start figuring it out that way kind of like we did with devops. You didn't devops everything on day one, right you started with one application two applications, you know, and then you've got your machine working and you know infrastructure is code.

You didn't do everything in one application you did or all it wants you did one application that two applications and you build up your design library and you started to be able to you know, gain velocity through these things. We'll see the same motion here. But again the point is you got to be ready.

You got to start thinking about it because it's gone. Think about it you had Edge think about what if webassembly things like that that are sort of on the horizon maybe for monthly. Let's let's dig into that because obviously that has a the potential to really start facilitating much broader.

And again where the compute happens, right, you know kind of what you know, kind of has to happen server side versus what can happen, you know within the browser. So again, there's just a lot of motion. It's not just, you know, kind of K zero K3, right, you know kind of out there it's things like webassembly, you know again, it's it's much more functional Edge, you know, kind of computing platforms that are starting to appear, you know better apis more services on that run again technology continues to march on and it's really kind of impetus upon us as the business users as the technology folks that support the business users to help.

Start to codify and and make it clear to folks how we can start using some of these new energy how we can get gain benefit and deliver value right their customer experiences business value to our customers. Absolutely. I think what's cool too about this is that a lot of people that are at the edge of developers.

That's who frequently are working in their environment, you know, they're they're Edge computer might be their laptop today but might be their browser. What webassembly tomorrow might be some distributed computer. That doesn't look like the central Cloud we go back to for everything today.

You can kind of see that happening with GitHub and one of the activities that are happening just with the most commonly used for pository service. So it's who knows what we're gonna create we're kind of application, you know, use cases Etc. But you know, good thing about the future is we'll see we'll see that's right.

No or anything we know. Or both they might I want to I want to plug our new podcast speaking of the edge. com.

You can get this in audio form and you know, listen to it in the car or if you're taking the bus or you know, maybe your virtually shopping for groceries and you know and hear something about what what's rattling around in the heads of the analysts and and some some good kind of back and forth stuff. So check that out. We have all of our episodes available.

Now, of course, everything new is going up there. So we it was so we're happy to launch that and we have we have devops connect that you mentioned right Monday of rscc on that 24th of April, I believe is that right? Sounds great to me.

Thanks 24th. Yeah. It is 24 this it's Monday of RSA conference week.

We've got Tech strong calm that is happening on March 3rd. 16, March 16. Yeah.

Um, so and and I'm actually recording my sessions next week. So I'm very excited. Are you doing I want to hear about that?

So I'm doing one panel. They're both panels one was gonna be a solo and then I turned into a panel one is really about securing your digital transformation. So I've got Jason Bloomberg of intellax.

He's going to be kind of the the other panelist on there and we're really going to talk about the process of how do you need to think about inserting security into you know kind of the digital transformation motion because it tends to be all businessy like and all you know, we've got to do, you know, it's more about trans transformation, you know, we've got to figure out what that thing should be but there are ways to do it so that you're focused on in doing transformation in a way that doesn't put data at risk right doesn't put your resources at risk. So Jason and I are gonna talk about that and then we've got another panel that's really bad Ai and cyber security. So we talked about that obviously a lot during the last review talk a little bit about the panelists.

We have Caroline long and maybe Ellis and I've had it Adam shows back. So, you know, so he'll be on the panel as well really about it from you just standpoint and the like so Very great panels, we've got and and this is two we've got two tracks going. We've just got you know, probably two dozen different sessions.

That'll be there during textural con and really some very interesting content because and whether you like it or not digital transformation is coming so you need to understand what the impacts gonna be on your specific job responsibilities. And I think textural con is a great place to start getting that that concept. Yeah.

I'm doing a panel at Texan time kind of speaking to digital transformation almost for the developer Community. What we're talking about is let's get past all the hype and stuff about chat GPT and AI we're gonna be talking and I've got Tracy Reagan from deploy Hub. And also Donald Lutz who is a Donald in their architect with towels IBM who works with many companies on cloud native architecture and distributing and modern.

I see applications. We're gonna Going to be talking about AI assisted in AI Jaron generated code Snippets and how that we've already been using this in our tools and our IDs but there's a things like co-pilot and intellisense and there's a number of others that are available today that has the potential to really improve the productivity of developers and maybe expand their repertoire. You know, I don't know all the code that's and get up.

But if I had access to something would tell me there's something that solves that problem for me already good. I'll go work on Commandments, right? So we're gonna explore that particularly in the cloud native world and the edge of course fits into that extremely well, so I'm excited to have that conversation.

I'm recording that today. So that will be available on the 16th. That's how that's right.

So we have a lot going on right or say see text your own con. Yeah, we're gonna be showing up in a bunch of other places as well. Check out all the podcasts and it's not just the text wrong research review that is on the podcast pretty much.

We've got a podcast called Textron 55 which is, you know, again an hour. If you have an hour to you know, kind of have the highlights of what we talk about that day on techstrom TV. I think we have text from 20.

Is that it? So that's a 20 minute version of it as well that we slice and dice to you know, kind of excerpts of some of the good interviews that we have on that front. So just a ton of stuff that's coming out of textural now, it's really an exciting time for for what we have going on.

And again, we're starting to just scratch the service on what we can do with the research team, you know, there's no mystery as to why we're focusing on edge a little bit more that's gonna be one of our you know, the areas of focus we get into you too and we're gonna be doing some much more detail Research into this space as well. So keep an eye out on that make Any other parting thoughts? I mean we do we need to do a quick one today because um, you know, it's it's, you know, we all have stuff to do everybody's got stuff to do there's a beach waiting for me.

Yeah. That's my incentive at least this week. com.

There's 12 different podcasts. So that's we see all our great stuff 55 to all that. No, I I think I'm excited to work on this Edge to research and continue our work on that together Mike because I think there's I want to see what the possibility of where that goes, especially as we engage with the community, you know, the weather is practitioners or what were the vendor Community or people doing research in that area.

So I'm excited to share some findings and share some ideas and maybe a few predictions, of course, you know great thing about predictions as you can always claim. Well things have changed. No, no, you're very serious about our predictions.

It's so that's my parting thought kind of the edge and Beyond right to the edge and Beyond word. That sounds familiar. What was that for?

We have said before. Um, so good so good everybody. Enjoy your week.

We will take a break for next week because Mitch's gonna be on a beach somewhere or doing his sea turtle thing. So we will be back in two weeks after that. But in the meantime, everybody be safe, enjoy yourself and get ready for the edge.

It's good fun in the mouth. See you might