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Description
Behind every reliable software system, there are people working hard to keep it online.
Humans of Reliability is a series that spotlights the engineers, leaders, and innovators at the heart of incident management and system reliability. Through candid conversations, we explore the challenges, lessons, and personal journeys of those navigating complex technical landscapes to ensure the systems we rely on run smoothly.
From unforgettable incident stories to favorite tools, workflows, and hobbies, Humans of Reliability uncovers the human side of technology—offering insights and inspiration for anyone passionate about building and maintaining resilient systems.
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21 Episodes
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In this episode, Julien Simon, longtime voice in the open-source ML world, reminds us that even in the era of GenAI, reliability fundamentals haven’t changed. Julien breaks down why calling “the same model” from different providers can produce wildly different results, how deployment choices introduce hidden variability, and why reliability teams need to think of LLM systems as distributed systems. He explains the growing gap between experimentation and production, the operational pitfalls of...
Only 50% of companies monitor their ML systems. Building observability for AI is not simple: it goes beyond 200 OK pings. In this episode, Sylvain Kalache sits down with Conor Brondsdon (Galileo) to unpack why observability, monitoring, and human feedback are the missing links to make large language model (LLM) reliable in production. Conor dives into the shift from traditional test-driven development to evaluation-driven development, where metrics like context adherence, completeness, and ac...
Is “good code” still the right measure of engineering success in an AI-driven world? In this episode of Humans of Reliability, Rob Zuber, CircleCI CTO, joins Sylvain to explore how coding assistants are reshaping developer workflows and changing what teams value. Rob shares what he’s seeing across CircleCI’s customer base: a clear boost in throughput, new bottlenecks shifting from code creation to code review, and the rise of “vibe coding,” where engineers trust AI-generated code they may not...
What does it really take to move from firefighting incidents to building reliability at scale? In this episode of Humans of Reliability, Shery Brauner (Razor, ex-Zalando) shares her unique journey from frontend and backend engineering to leading site reliability practices. She explains why protecting the user journey is the key to effective incident management, how SLOs cut through noisy alerts, and why observability must come first. Shery also talks about practical steps teams can take to ad...
Sylvain Kalache sits down with Brian Shaw, Senior Engineering Leader at Uphold, to explore the reliability challenges that arise when operating at the intersection of traditional finance and crypto markets. Brian shares how unexpected market events can create massive traffic spikes, how their platform architecture and Kubernetes setup help them stay resilient, and why Uphold's transparency and regulatory approach make them both trustworthy and a high-profile target. The conversation also touc...
Incident response is as much about people as it is about systems. In this episode, David Owczarek, a veteran engineer leader and seasoned incident commander, joins Silvan Kalache to unpack the human dynamics behind effective reliability leadership. Drawing on experiences across startups and global enterprises, David shares what really matters when everything breaks, including: – How incident response strategies shift between small companies and large enterprises – Why not every engineer shoul...
AI is transforming reliability work—from reactive firefighting to proactive engineering. In this episode, Ryan Lockard, VP of Platform Engineering and AI Enablement at CVS Health, joins Sylvain Kalache to break down how AI is showing up on the frontlines of healthcare infrastructure and operations. From LLM copilots to cultural shifts in ownership, Ryan walks us through: How AI tools help troubleshoot legacy systems and assist during real-time incidentsWhy proactive reliability is finally wit...
In this episode, we sit down with Cosmo Wolfe, Head of Technology at Metronome, to unpack how reliability, trust, and architecture intersect in one of the most critical and overlooked parts of the AI product stack: billing. As AI workloads introduce unpredictable usage patterns and nontraditional pricing models—from token-based to outcome-based—companies are navigating a new frontier of customer trust. Cosmo explains why billing is more than just a backend function; it’s a key moment of truth...
Internal platforms promise speed, consistency, and scale — but what happens when they become a distraction? In this episode, Chase Roberts, COO at Northflank, joins Sylvain Kalache to examine the quiet ways platforms erode developer experience when not planned carefully. From abandoned golden paths to shadow deployments and brittle YAML pipelines, Chase walks us through: Why early PaaS got developer experience right and what it missed The cultural bias toward building over bu...
In this episode of Humans of Reliability, we sit down with Justin Reock, Deputy CTO at DX, to unpack the real impact of generative AI on developer productivity. Drawing from early data in DX’s GenAI Impact Report, he explains why time savings alone don’t tell the full story and why the real value might lie in shifting cognitive load toward meaningful work. We also explore how traditional productivity metrics like PR throughput can backfire, why teams need to move beyond DORA, and how mo...
In this episode, we explore how networking has shaped reliability as we know it. Marino Wijay cloud networking expert and Staff Solutions Architect at Kong shares how his journey began not as an SRE, but with cables, routers, and switches. Marino explains the evolution of the fabric holding systems together through virtualization, and how software-defined networking, which is now a key element to resilient applications. This episode also dives into the new challenges LLMs are introducing into...
In this episode of Humans of Reliability, Ryan McDonald is joined by Mark Quigley, Head of Platform Engineering at 90, for a conversation that cuts through the noise around developer productivity metrics and AI. Mark dives deep into how teams can measure what matters—without falling into the trap of turning every measure into a target. He shares how tools like Developer NPS, DORA metrics, and balanced scorecards can help teams optimize for both output and well-being—but only when framed with ...
Last year, over 89% of companies claimed to have adopted platform engineering. And, in the past month, LLMs have been disrupting how we think about software development. In this context, Kaspar, asks if the role of Site Reliability Engineers is being obsolete as we know it. Kaspar argues that while SREs aren’t going anywhere, their responsibilities are evolving—fast. We talk about: The need for the SRE role to be transformedHow to build reliability as part every golden pathThe role of AI and ...
Dan Slimmon is an incident management veteran who's worked at Etsy, HashiCorp, and now leads consulting and training on pragmatic, non-bureaucratic incident response. In this episode, Dan shares his philosophy on "scientific incident response," the importance of hypothesis-driven troubleshooting, and why incidents should be seen as normal in complex systems. We also explore: Why asking the right questions is more important than knowing all the answers. How to use nerd sniping...
Mariano, Staff Product Manager at Vercel, explains why serverless architectures are hitting unexpected limits—they’re too fast. The industry has spent millions optimizing serverless for speed, but AI workloads are changing the game. In the AI realm, slower execution often leads to better results. The challenge? Paying for all that idle compute time while waiting for AI responses. Mariano explains how Vercel Fluid is introducing a new execution model that blends the best of serverl...
In this episode, we sit down with Adriana Villela, Principal DevRel at Dynatrace and OpenTelemetry contributor to break down how observability impacts reliability. We dive into what contributes to SRE burnout and how managers can create psychologically safer spaces for responders. Adriana also shares her perspective on AI as an observability-buddy to navigate incidents. SHOW LINKS: Video and takeawaysAdriana’s podcast: Geeking Out with AdrianaPodcast with Hazel Weakly mentio...
In this episode, we sit down with Sean Goedecke, Staff Software Engineer at GitHub, to discuss where LLMs fit into real-world development. Sean shares how he’s using LLMs how he’s drawing the line for AI-assistance in the codebases he manages—though, as he says, this might all change by next summer. Sean also weighs in on how LLMs could assist SREs during outages—especially when you’re only half-awake at 3 a.m. after a rather inconvinient page. Tune in for a nuanced take on ...
In this episode of Humans of Reliability, we sit down with Steve McGhee, Reliability Advocate at Google, to discuss his journey from early SRE work to advocating for reliability best practices. Steve shares fascinating stories from his time at Google, the challenges of implementing SRE in enterprises, and what people often misunderstand about the discipline. He also offers valuable insights on incident response, distributed systems, and the underrated skill every reliability engin...
What does it take to lead service delivery at a company experiencing massive growth? Hannah Hammonds, Service Delivery Lead at Prolific, shares her journey from an IT networking apprentice to a tech leader shaping reliability and incident response. We discuss the evolving role of service delivery, the power of mentorship, and how confidence transforms careers. Plus, we debate hot dogs, spoilers, and The Office. Tune in for career insights, leadership lessons, and a few laughs! 🎙️🚀...
What happens when a Google-trained SRE joins a fast-moving e-commerce company? Gastón Rial Saibene, SRE Lead at Boozt.com, joins Humans of Reliability to talk about adapting reliability practices for different company sizes, the limits of SLOs, and the importance of automation. We also dive into decision-making, his favorite books, and—just for fun—whether he’d survive a zombie apocalypse. Tune in for insights, laughs, and a fresh perspective on the world of reliability engineerin...
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