Welcome to episode 295 of The Cloud Pod – where the forecast is always cloudy!

Welp, it’s sayonara to Skype – and time to finally make the move to Teams. Hashi has officially moved to IBM, GPT 4.5 is out and people have…thoughts. Plus, Google has the career coach you need to make all your dreams come true.*

*Assuming those dreams are reasonable in a volatile economy.

• Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the cloud dreamers, and Me
• Dreamer, you know you are a dreamer
• You may say I’m a cloud dreamer, but I’m not the only one
• May the skype shut down
• Q can tell me that my python skills are bad
• How many free code assistance does Ryan need to be a good developer: ALL OF THEM
• Oops honey I spent 1M dollars on oracle
• Latest Cloud Pod Reviews: “It’s a Lemon”

01:04 On May 5, Microsoft’s Skype will shut down for good

• In what we swear is the 9th death for Skype, Microsoft has announced that after 21 years (with 13 of those years under MS Control,) Skype will be no more.
• For real this time. Really.
• May 5th is the official last day of Skype, and they’ve indicated you can continue your calls and chats in Teams.
• Starting now, you should be able to use your Skype login to get into Teams.
• For those of you who do this, you’ll see all your existing contacts and chats in Teams.
• Alternatively, you can export your Skype data, specifically contacts, call history and chats.
• Current subscribers to Skype Premium services will remain active until the end, but you will not be able to sign up for Skype at this time.
• Skype dial pad credits will remain active in the web interface and inside Teams after May 5th so you can finish using those credits.

03:37 Matthew – “I think there’s a lot of people and, you know, at least people I know in other countries to still use Skype, like pretty heavily for like cross country communications, things along those lines. So I think a lot of that is that there probably is still a good amount of people using it. And this is just, Hey, they’re trying to make it nicely. So how, you know, nice and clean cut over for people versus, you know, the Apple method of it just doesn’t work anymore. Good luck.”

04:41 HashiCorp officially joins the IBM family

• IBM has finished the acquisition of HashiCorp, which they had announced last year.
• Armon Dadgar wrote a blog post reflecting on the journey that Hashicorp has been on; he talks about the future and that his goal is to have Hashicorp in every datacenter.
• He says while they have made strides towards that goal, he feels incredibly optimistic with IBM, since they gain access to their global scale and increased R&D resources.
• There are also integration opportunities of IBM and the RedHat Portfolio....

Welcome to episode 294 of The Cloud Pod – where the forecast is always cloudy!Ilya Boy, do we have a news packed week for you! Sutskever raised $30B without a product, Mira Murati launched her own AI lab, and Claude 3.7 now thinks before it speaks. Meanwhile, Microsoft casually invented new matter for quantum computing, Google built an AI scientist, and AWS killed Chime (RIP). At this rate, AI is either going to save the world or speedrun becoming Ultron. Let’s all find out together – today on The Cloud Pod!

• Ding – Chime is Dead
• Does your container really need 192 cores
• Quantum is the new AI
• AI is now IN the robots

02:41 Ilya Sutskever’s Startup in Talks to Raise Financing at $30 Billion Valuation

• It’s been a minute since we talked about former OpenAI executives and what they’re up to.
• Let’s start with Ilya Sutskever and Mira Murati, post Open AI career
• The Information reports that Ilya Suskevers’ startup “Safe Superintelligence” is in talks to raise $1Billion in a round that would value the startup at $30 Billion.
• The company has yet to release a product, but based on the name we can guess what they’re working on…

03:22 Ryan – “It’s so nuts to me that they can raise that much without – really just an idea. Doesn’t have to have any proof or POC…”

07:07 Murati Joins Crowded AI Startup Sector

• Mira Murati confirmed one of the worst kept secrets in AI, by revealing her lab Thinking Machine Labs.
• Murati has lured away two thirds of her team from OpenAI.
• We’ll be waiting to see how the funding goes for this one.

08:02 Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude Code

• Anthropic is releasing their latest model Claude 3.7 Sonnet, their most intelligent model to date and the first hybrid reasoning model on the market.
• Claude 3.7 sonnet can produce near instant responses or extended, step by step thinning that is made visible to the user.
• API users also have fine grained control over how long the model can think for.
• Claude 3.7 shows particularly strong improvements in coding and front-end web development.
• In addition to the new model they have introduced a command line tool for Agentic Coding, Claude Code.
• Claude code is available as a limited research preview and enables developers to delegate substantial engineering tasks directly from the terminal (Justin reall...

Welcome to episode 293 of The Cloud Pod – where the forecast is always cloudy! This week we’ve got a lot of new and, surprise, a new installment of Cloud Journey AND and aftershow – so make sure to stay tuned for that! We’ve got undersea cables, Go 1.24, Wasm, Anthropic and more.

• Lets Go!
• Under Sea cables make AI go BRRRRRR
• The CloudPod says it will grow the listeners by 10x by 2027

We’re sponsorless! Want to get your brand, company, or service in front of a very enthusiastic group of cloud news seekers? You’ve come to the right place! Send us an email or hit us up on our slack channel for more info.

01:30 Go 1.24 is released!

• Go 1.24 has been released with a bunch of improvements!
• Go now fully supports generic type aliases.
• It also includes several performance improvements to the runtime that have reduced CPU overhead by 2-3% on average across a suite of representative benchmarks. (Say that 5 times fast.)
• Tool improvements around tool dependencies for a module.
• The standard library now includes new mechanisms to facilitate FIPS-140-3 compliance. And you know we love some good FIPS-140-3 compliance.
• Lastly, it includes some improved WebAssembly support – which we’ll talk about later.

04:46 Unlocking global AI potential with next-generation subsea infrastructure

• Meta announced their most ambitious subsea cable endeavor: Project Waterworth.
• Once the cable is completed, the project will reach five major continents and span over 50,000 KM (longer than the earth’s circumference) making it the world’s longest subsea cable project using the highest-capacity technology available.
• It will bring connectivity to the US, India, Brazil, South Africa, as well as other key regions.
• Waterworth will be a multi-billion dollar, multi-year investment to strengthen the scale and reliability of the world’s digital highways by opening three new oceanic corridors with the abundant, high-speed connectivity needed to drive AI innovation around the world.
• Meta has apparently developed 20 subsea cables over the last decade, including multiple deployments of industry leading subsea cables of 24 fiber pairs, compared to the typical 8 to 16 pairs of other new systems .
• They are also deploying a first of its kind routing system, maximizing the cable load in deep waters at depths up to 7,000 meters and using enhanced burial techniques in high-risk fault areas, such as shallow waters near the coast, to avoid damage from ship anchors and other hazards.
• They wrap up the article by basically saying they’re doing this for AI. Color us surprised.

06:25 Ryan – “I was sort of surprised that this is where Meta is investing. I don’t think of them in that space, like I do internet providers and cloud hyperscalers.”

07:50 Sam Altman lays out roadmap for OpenAI’s long-awaited GPT-5 mode...

Welcome to episode 292 of The Cloud Pod – where the forecast is always cloudy! This week Justin and Jonathan are a dynamic duo, bringing you all the latest in news – and sound effects – because it’s earnings time! Plus we’ve got new from VS Code, Azure Data Studio, CodeBuild and more.

• The Cloud Pod Renames Cloud Earnings to ‘The Gulf of Capex’
• Sorry Elon, OpenAI Doesn’t Want Your Pocket Change
• MacOS gets into the Fastlane for Oil Changes

It’s earnings time!

01:29 Alphabet is planning to spend big on AI again this year, sending shares down

• Alphabet earnings were a bit of a let down with cloud revenue missing and their announcement of spending $75 Billion in CapEx (DeepSeek who?)
• Consolidated revenue rose 12% in the period to 96.5 billion.
• Capex investments of $75b shocked analysts who expected $57.9 billion.
• EPS was 2.15 vs 2.13.
• Revenue of 96.5 billion vs 96.62 expected.
• Ad revenue rose to 72.46 billion vs 71.3, Youtube advertising revenue was 10.47 billion vs 10.22 billion.
• Google Cloud was 12.0 billion vs expectation of 12.19 billion.

02:09 Jonathan – “I’m guessing ad revenue is gonna be down again, Q1, Q2 because I think a lot of ad revenue is driven by the election season. So that’s not looking too good for them.”

03:13 Microsoft GAAP EPS of $3.23 beats by $0.13, revenue of $69.6B beats by $790M

• Microsoft followed up with also weak growth in its Azure cloud computing unit.
• EPS was 3.23 beating expectations by 0.13
• Revenue of 69.6B beating by 780M
• Intelligent cloud revenue was 25.5 billion an increase of 19%
• Microsoft indicated they plan to spend 80 Billion in CapEx for AI and data center growth.

04:02 Justin- “Also international expansion still, I think a big area too, particularly for Azure and Google and even Amazon. Like they’re all announcing more and more regions, more expansion of data centers, lots of laws that are going to pass for data sovereignty that they have to deal with. there’s, there’s spend everywhere.”

04:23 Amazon earnings recap: Stock falls as guidance falls short, CFO indicates capex of more than $100 billion in 2025

• Amazon followed its peers by indicating they will invest $100B i...

Welcome to episode 291 of The Cloud Pod – where the forecast is always cloudy! Justin, Jonathan, and Ryan have battled through the various plagues and have come together to bring you all the latest in cloud news, including Kro, DeepSeek, and CoPilot.

• In Shocking News China Steals US IP
• The Cloud Pod is Now Supported in Gov Cloud
• Microsoft Goes Open Source No SQL… and Hell Hasn’t Frozen Over
• Zombie Buckets Receive How Much Traffic?!?
• AWS, GCP and Azure eat KRO
• Github Copilot for Free, so You Can Win at Coding Interviews
• Customized Best Practices… I don’t think you know what best practices are
• TheCloudPod Leverages Deep Understanding to Make a Nuanced Decision on adopting Copilot

01:23 Is DeepSeek really sending data to China? Let’s decode

• One of the early concerns about DeepSeek was its privacy implications, starting with their privacy policy.
• Allegations are significant but reality is if the open source model is hosted locally or orchestrated via GPUs in the US the data does not go to China.
• But if you’re using the DeepSeek app it clearly states in the privacy policy that the data will be stored in China. Data hosted on Chinese servers can be seized by the Government at any time.
• Maybe rethink using the native DeepSeek websites and mobile apps and just host them locally in LM studio.

02:21 Jonathan – “They’re collecting some weird data. I get collecting conversational data, because that is the business they’re in, but they’re also doing some weird stuff, like they fingerprint users by looking at the patterns of the way that they type. Not just what they type, but how they type, like the timing between hitting different letters – things like that.”

8:06 OpenAI Believes DeepSeek Was Developed Using OpenAI Models

• Listener Note: paywall article
• OpenAI says they have found evidence that the Chinese firm behind DeepSeek developed the AI using information generated by OpenAI’s models.
• This is prohibited by the OpenAI terms of service, and is a practice known as AI model distillation.
• With distillation, the developer asks existing AI models lots of questions and uses the answers to develop new models that mimic their performance.
• This shortcut results in models that roughly approximate state-of-the-art models but don’t cost a lot to produce
• OpenAI said last year it would sell access to its models directly to customers based in China, while MS has continued to resell OpenAI models through its Azure cloud service to Chinese customers.

09:15 Justin- “Oh, you mean the company that stole all the internet data in...

Welcome to episode 290 of The Cloud Pod – where the forecast is always cloudy! It’s a full house this week – and a good thing too, since there’s a lot of news! Justin, Jonathan, Ryan, and Matthew are all in the house to bring you news on DeepSeek, OpenVox, CloudWatch, and more.

• The cloud pod wonders if azure is still hung over from new years
• Stratoshark sends the Cloud pod to the stratosphere
• Cutting-Edge Chinese “Reasoning” Model Rivals OpenAI… and it’s FREE?!
• Wireshark turns 27, Cloud Pod Hosts feel old
• Operator: DeepSeek is here to kill OpenAI
• Time for a deepthink on buying all that Nvidia stock
• AWS Token Service finally goes cloud native
• The CloudPod wonders if OpenAI’s Operator can order its own $200 subscription

01:29 Introducing the GenAI Platform: Simplifying AI Development for All

• If you’re struggling to find that AI GPU capacity, Digital Ocean is pleased to announce their DigitalOcean GenAI Platform is now available to everyone.
• The platform aims to democratize AI development, empowering everyone – from solo developers to large teams – to leverage the transformative potential of generative AI.
• On the Gen AI platform you can:
  • Build Scalable AI Agents
  • Seamlessly integrate with workflows
  • Leverage guardrails
  • Optimize Efficiency.
• Some of the use cases they are highlighting are chatbots, e-commerce assistance, support automation, business insights, AI-Driven CRMs, Personalized Learning and interactive tools.

02:23 Jonathan – “Inference cost is really the big driver there. So once you once you build something that’s that’s done, but it’s nice to see somebody focusing on delivering it as a service rather than, you know, a $50 an hour compute for training models. This is right where they need to be.”

04:21 OpenAI: Introducing Operator

• We have thoughts about the name of this service…
• OpenAI is releasing the preview version of their agent that can use a web browser to perform tasks for you.
• The new version is available to OpenAI pro users.
• OpenAI says it’s currently a research preview, meaning it has limitations and will evolve based on your feedback.
• Operator can handle various browser tasks such as filling out forms, ordering groceries, and even creating memes.
• The ability to use the same interfaces and tools that humans interact with on a daily basis broadens the utility of AI, helping people save time on everyday tasks while opening up a new engagement opportunity for business
• Operator is powered by a new model called Computer-Using Agent (CUA). Combining GPT-4o’s vision capabilities with advanced reasoning through reinforcement learning, CUA is trained to in...

Welcome to episode 289 of The Cloud Pod – where the forecast is always cloudy! Justin, Ryan, and Matt are here this week to bring you a riveting podcast on EU regulations! Are you asleep yet? No? Ok great. We promise it will be a good show – despite the title.

• Stargate: We’re not saying its Aliens, but its $500 Billion
• AWS: Now with extra sessions
• EC2 Flex: Bigger, Badder and Probably still expensive
• SNS FIFO: So fast, it’ll give you whiplash
• Azure: Now with added Legalese (Thanks, EU)
• OpenAI’s Stargate: From Chatbots to Interdimensional Travel (maybe)
• GCP’s Biochar Initiative: Turning Waste into… Well, Less Waste (hopefully)
• AWS Console Multiple Sessions: So you can prove you dropped those databases from multiple accounts
• Amazon still adds new features to SNS and the cloud pod is impressed
• AWS tries to kill chrome profiles

01:47 Announcing The Stargate Project

• Open AI announced a joint investment of $500 billion dollars over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the US, with the intent to deploy $100B immediately.
• This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefits for the entire world.
• The initial equity funders in stargate are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and MGX.
• Softbank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with Softbank having financial responsibility, and OpenAI having operational responsibility.
• Arm, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners.
• The buildout is currently underway starting in Texas, and they are evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as they finalize definitive agreements.
• As part of Stargate, Oracle, Nvidia and OpenAI will closely collaborate to build and operate this computing system. This builds on a deep collaboration between OpenAI and NVIDIA going back to 2016, and a newer partnership between OpenAI and Oracle.
• This also builds on the existing OpenAI partnership with Microsoft. OpenAI will continue to increase its consumption of Azure as OpenAI continues its work with Microsoft with this additional computer to train leading models and deliver great products and services.
• “All of us look forward to continuing to build and develop AI—and in particular AGI—for the benefit of all of humanity.” This quote TOTALLY didn’t terrify us…
• Our conversations back in December about OpenAI trying to figure out their ownership model makes a lot more sense now.

07:22 Justin – “…it’s interesting that SoftBank is investing so much money into it considering, you know, the trade issues with China and SoftBank, you know, being mostly Chinese owned and invested in. Yeah. It’s one of the things abo...

Welcome to episode 288 of The Cloud Pod – where the forecast is always cloudy! Justin, Ryan, and Jonathan are your hosts as we make our way through this week’s cloud and AI news, including back to Vertex AI, Project Digits, Notebook LM, and some major improvements to AI image generation.

• Digits… I’ll show you 5 digits…
• The only digit the AWS local zone in New York shows me is the middle one
• Keep one eye open near Mercedes with Agentic AI

01:59 Nvidia announces $3,000 personal AI supercomputer called Digits

• If you don’t want to hand over all your money to the cloud providers, you will be able to hand over $3,000 dollars to Nvidia… for a computer that is probably going to be obsolete in <12 months. That’s fun!
• The new personal AI supercomputer, called Project Digits, will launch in May.
• The heart of Digits is the new GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, which packs enough processing power to run sophisticated AI models, while being compact enough to fit on a desk and run from a standard power outlet.
• Digits can handle AI models with up to 200 billion parameters, and looks very similar to a Mac Mini.
• “AI will be mainstream in every application for every industry. With Project Digits, the Grace Blackwell Superchip comes to millions of developers,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a press release. “Placing an AI supercomputer on the desks of every data scientist, AI researcher, and student empowers them to engage and shape the age of AI.”
• The Digits system comes with 128gb of unified coherent memory and up to 4tb of NVME storage. For even more demanding apps, two digit systems can be linked together to handle models with 405b parameters.
• The GB10 chip delivers up to 1 petaflop of AI performance, meaning it can perform 1 quadrillion AI calculations per second.
• Suppose you plunk down the money for Digits. In that case, you will also get access to Nvidia’s AI software library, including development kits, orchestration tools and pre-trained models available through the Nvidia NGC catalog.
• The system runs on a Linux-based NVidia NGC catalog, and supports popular frameworks like PyTorch, Python and Jupyter notebooks.

09:25 Jonathan – ““The Blackwell is pretty recent, it’s the one that had a lot of problems with yield. And I kind of suspect that they’re sort of packaging this up and selling some of the chips which didn’t pass all the tests for the commercial products. And so they’re enabling whatever cores they can in these things to sell to consumers… Having all the memories is really great for the big models. It’s not going to be particularly performant now. I think the spec I saw was like one teraflop at quite low precision – like fb4 precision – which is quite low, an...