PurePerformance
Technology
About
The brutal truth about digital performance engineering and operations. Andreas (aka Andi) Grabner and Brian Wilson are veterans of the digital performance world. Combined they have seen too many applications not scaling and performing up to expectations. With more rapid deployment models made possible through continuous delivery and a mentality shift sparked by DevOps they feel it’s time to share their stories. In each episode, they and their guests discuss different topics concerning performance, ranging from common performance problems for specific technology platforms to best practices in development, testing, deploying and monitoring software performance and user experience. Be prepared to learn a lot about metrics. Andi & Brian both work at Dynatrace, where they get to witness more real world customer performance issues than they can TPS report at.
Episodes
- Observability in the AI‑Native Era with Hilliary Lipsig and Rob Rati
Hilliary Lipsig and Rob Rati join Andi Grabner on PurePerformance to discuss their book, "Observability in the AI-Native Era." They explore how observability must evolve for AI-driven systems, focusing on AIOps, automation, and the challen…
- Don't babysit your AI Agents to keep them on track with Lukas Holzer
In this episode, Andi Grabner interviews Lukas Holzer about the challenges of AI coding agents, focusing on quality concerns beyond speed. They cover the "Lost in the Middle Syndrome," risks associated with large context files and imperfec…
- From Bowling Lanes to AI Lanes: Chris LaBrado on MDCD and the AI Interface Era
In this episode of PurePerformance, Chris LaBrado discusses the impact of AI on software development, enterprise workflows, and the emergence of MDCD. The conversation covers his work with generative agents, the role of AI as an enterprise…
- AI-Ready Codebases: Engineering Discipline for Agentic AI with Adam Tornhill
Adam Tornhill joins PurePerformance to discuss the impact of agentic AI on software engineering. The episode covers the risks of AI-assisted coding, how code quality affects AI performance, and strategies for ensuring a codebase is ready f…
- AI‑Native: Building Faster Than We Can Spec with Wolfgang Heider & Benedict Evert
Wolfgang Heider and Benedict Evert discuss the impact of AI on software engineering, covering "AI-native" software development, the importance of engineering fundamentals, multi-agent workflows, and the evolving role of junior engineers. T…
- Resilience in the Age of AI and Why we Still Suck at it with Adrian Hornsby
Adrian Hornsby joins PurePerformance to discuss why resilience remains a challenge in 2026, exploring factors like system complexity and the impact of AI. The episode covers AI-written code, AI-powered SRE agents, and the significance of t…
- From Zero to Open Source Contributor with Diana Todea
Diana Todea shares her experience transitioning from zero knowledge to becoming an open-source contributor and receiving an award. She discusses how to find opportunities, the prerequisites for contributing, and provides insights into the…
- The many facets of an SRE with Alexandra Franz
Alexandra Franz shares her career path from Systems Engineer to SRE, detailing how her team at Dynatrace manages capacity and costs for high-traffic events like Black Friday. The discussion also covers the challenges and rewards of respond…
- 10 Fundamentals to get Vibe Coding right with Jeff Blankenburg
Jeff Blankenburg discusses 10 fundamentals of 'vibe coding' with AI, using his experience building a baseball card collecting website. He covers utilizing Git Issues for AI backlogs and managing AI conversations effectively.
- Semiotics - A Future of Observability we are yet to see with William Louth
William Louth joins PurePerformance to discuss the future of observability, emphasizing a shift from data collection to meaning-making. The episode explores situational awareness and how systems can use symbols to represent their state wit…
- From Vibe Coding to Vibe Architecting with Abhimanyu Selvan
Abhimanyu Selvan discusses his experience building a ride-sharing platform for RoboTaxis, sharing key takeaways like focusing on one tool, improving agent communication, and applying macro context with micro incremental improvements.
- AI-Augmented Chaos Engineering in Practice with Bartek Pisulak
Bartek Pisulak discusses AI-Augmented Chaos Engineering, a practice of introducing controlled failures to improve system resiliency. The episode covers how AI enhances efficiency in the five key phases of chaos experiments: Steady State, H…
- The Pragmatic Approach to Becoming AI-Native with Pini Reznik
Pini Reznik explains that successful AI adoption requires a transformational approach, not the traditional methods used for older technologies. He argues that AI project failures stem from incorrect problem framing rather than the AI itsel…
- Back to Basics: Increase DevEx in the Age of AI with Laura Tacho
Laura Tacho, CTO at DX, joins PurePerformance to discuss how to increase Developer Experience (DevEx) and efficiency in the age of AI. The episode covers rethinking software delivery, measuring DevEx using frameworks like DORA and SPACE, a…
- Whats Hot in Cloud and AI-Native and what we learned from the AWS Outage
This episode discusses the AWS US-East outage and its implications for system resiliency. It also covers insights from various tech meetups and outlines an upcoming US tour on Cloud and AI-native topics.
- How to test, optimize, and reduce hallucinations of AIs with Thomas Natschlaeger
Thomas Natschlaeger, a Principal Data Scientist with 30 years of AI experience, provides an overview of AI's history and evolution. The discussion covers AI training, optimization, and crucially, how to test and validate AI outputs, includ…
- Hello BOB - Cloud Native Cybersecurity with Bill of Behaviors with Constanze Roedig
Constanze Roedig introduces Software Bill of Behaviors (SBoB), a runtime behavior profile for software, as a complement to SBoM. This approach uses tools like eBPF to detect malicious software behavior in real-time, helping cybersecurity t…
- AI-Native: The Next Revolution after Cloud Native with Pini Reznik
Pini Reznik joins PurePerformance to define the emerging AI-Native concept, comparing it to the early days of Cloud Native. The discussion covers lessons from past innovations, the importance for businesses, and the need to look beyond cos…
- State of AI Observability with OpenLLMetry: The Best is Yet to Come with Nir Gazit
This episode discusses the common failures of AI projects, attributing them to non-optimized models or code. The solution proposed is observability, with a focus on OpenLLMetry, an open-source project for AI observability. Nir Gazit shares…
- Platform Engineering is not just a trend and why Terraform is not dead with Artem Lajko
Artem Lajko joins PurePerformance to explore the platform engineer role, common challenges with Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs), and the ongoing relevance of Terraform. The discussion covers why platform engineering is more than a tren…
- What is Privacy Engineering and Why Its not as complicated as it sounds with Cat Easdon
Cat Easdon defines privacy engineering as implementing privacy laws in code. The episode covers forming a privacy engineering team, diverse interpretations of privacy, and specific privacy concerns within the observability sector to build…
- Platform Democracy NOW! How to keep your Platform Promise with Daniel Bryant
Daniel Bryant discusses measuring platform engineering impact, avoiding common anti-patterns, and the concept of Platform Democracy. The episode also touches on the influence of Agentic AI in the field.
- DX Core 4 Applied - Measuring Developer Productivity with Dušan Katona
Dušan Katona discusses the DX Core 4 metrics (Speed, Effectiveness, Quality, Impact) for measuring developer productivity and platform engineering impact. He shares how a single point improvement can save 10 hours per developer annually.
- In the AI Age being Smart is not enough for Tech Leadership with Marian Kamenistak
Marian Kamenistak shares insights on tech leadership in the AI age, emphasizing that being smart is no longer a differentiator. He explains the importance of focusing on value impact, building a network, and differentiating between mentors…
- The Research Behind the AI and Observability Innovation with Otmar Ertl and Martin Flechl
Otmar Ertl and Martin Flechl discuss the Dynatrace Research Lab at Johannes Kepler University, focusing on innovations in GenAI, Agentic AI, and Observability. They share insights on their research and contributions to open source projects.
- Organizational Sustainability through Platform Engineering with Lesley Cordero
Lesley Cordero explains that organizational sustainability requires balancing social and technical changes. She highlights Platform Engineering as a solution, emphasizing its sociotechnical principles and community-driven support for devel…
- Run Towards the Fire: Why we should love incidents with Lisa Karlin Curtis
This episode discusses incident management with Lisa Karlin Curtis, exploring how to plan for, triage, and report on incidents. It highlights the benefits of embracing more publicly shared incidents for organizational learning and touches…
- MCPs (Model Context Protocol) are not that magic, but they enable magic things with Dana Harrison
Dana Harrison from Telus discusses Model Context Protocol (MCPs), an open-source standard for connecting AI assistants to data systems. The episode covers practical use cases for increasing developer efficiency, the distinction between loc…
- The History & Power of Distributed Tracing with Christoph Neumueller & Thomas Rothschaedl
This episode explores the history and current state of Distributed Tracing, featuring experts Christoph Neumueller and Thomas Rothschaedl. They discuss its evolution, global standards like W3C Trace Context, the role of OpenTelemetry, and…
- An Inside Look into Platform Engineering for Architects with the authors Max, Hilliary & Andi
This episode features Max Körbächer, Hilliary Lipsig, and Andi Grabner, authors of "Platform Engineering for Architects." They discuss their book's focus on creating timeless platforms by emphasizing purpose, measurable impact, and continu…
- How CERN analyzed 1 PetaByte per second using K8s with Ricardo Rocha
Ricardo Rocha from CERN explains how they use Kubernetes to analyze 1 Petabyte per second of data from the Large Hadron Collider. The discussion covers the balance between ease of use and throughput in large-scale implementations, the impa…
- Why Compliance is Important and not Boring with Michiel de Lepper
Michiel de Lepper shares his perspective on the importance of compliance in IT, explaining its role in security and threat detection and its connection to security posture management.
- What's next for Feature Flagging and OpenFeature with Ben Rometsch
Ben Rometsch, Co-Founder of Flagsmith, joins PurePerformance to discuss the evolution of Feature Flagging, its current adoption as "Feature Flag-Driven Development," and the future direction of the market. The conversation covers the role…
- Observability Predictions 2025 Under the Covers with Bernd Greifeneder
Bernd Greifeneder, CTO of Dynatrace, shares his 2025 observability predictions, discussing the evolution from reactive to preventive operations, the convergence of observability and security, and the role of observability in sustainability…
- From Infra to Services to Happy End Users: The role of SLOs at Uber with Vishnu Acharya
Vishnu Acharya of Uber shares insights on scaling infrastructure and platform engineering for 4000 engineers, discussing SLOs across the stack and end-to-end understanding of critical user journeys.
- The Road to OpenTelemetry Adoption at Booking with Anton Timofieiev
Anton Timofieiev, Engineering Manager for Site Reliability at Booking.com, shares his experience leading the adoption of OpenTelemetry for observability in cloud-native deployments. The episode covers the growth of R&D, replacing a homegro…
- Why Security and Compliance must not be a showstopper for SaaS with Milan Steskal
Milan Steskal discusses how security and compliance need not hinder SaaS adoption, drawing from his healthcare experience. He guides listeners on evaluating SaaS options for observability data and highlights Dynatrace's data protection cap…
- Every Byte Counts: Web Performance Flashback with Andreas Taranetz
This episode features software engineer Andreas Taranetz discussing Web Performance Optimization. Topics include historical insights from Steve Souders, the relevance of web performance to sustainability, caching strategies, and the Static…
- The Security and Resiliency Challenges of Cloud Native Authorization with Alex Olivier
Alex Olivier, Co-Founder and CPO at Cerbos, joined PurePerformance to discuss the challenges in modern software development regarding secure, fast, and resilient authorization mechanisms. The episode covered attribute-based vs. role-based…
- Open Source: Why its the Best Thing that happened to IT with Marcio Lena
Marcio Lena, an open-source advocate with over 20 years of experience, shares insights on open source's impact on IT. The discussion covers identifying healthy projects, managing vendor lock-in, the significance of open standards like Open…
- Understanding DORA - Europe's Digital Operational Resiliency Act with Kay Young
This episode discusses the EU's Digital Operational Resiliency Act (DORA), which takes effect in January 2025. Guest Kay Young explains what DORA is, its importance for EU financial institutions, and how organizations can meet its requirem…
- Lessons learned when building the NAIS Platform with Hans Kristian Flaatten
Hans Kristian Flaatten discusses the development of the NAIS Platform, a central application platform for DevOps teams. He covers the reasons behind their custom abstraction layer and developer portal, as well as the challenges encountered…
- Why Developer Observability is not a tooling problem with Viktor Farcic
Viktor Farcic argues against overwhelming developers with specialized tools, advocating for simpler observability solutions. The discussion covers Kubernetes, Crossplane, and product-oriented platform engineering.
- Pitfalls to avoid when going all-in on OpenTelemetry with Hans Kristian Flaatten
Hans Kristian Flaatten discusses the challenges of adopting OpenTelemetry within Norway's public sector for welfare services, focusing on scaling observability backends and managing data noise. He shares insights from NAV's platform engine…
- So you think you should Serverless? Things to know before you do with Sebastian Vietz!
Sebastian Vietz discusses key considerations for adopting technologies like Serverless, including understanding limits, identifying best-fit architectural patterns, and factors influencing technology choices. He highlights specific example…
- Observability that is Battle tested by Millions with Marco Sussitz and Wolfgang Ziegler
Marco Sussitz and Wolfgang Ziegler, from the Dynatrace OneAgent Java Team, share insights on developing and testing observability code for millions of systems. They discuss auto-instrumentation, continuous innovation with a global team, an…
- Using Observability to Prioritize CrowdStrike Remediation with Josh Wood
Josh Wood explains how to use observability data to identify and prioritize systems needing remediation after the CrowdStrike incident. The episode covers the technical details of the BSOD, how to leverage observability for a prioritized f…
- Is it the time for WebAssembly (Wasm) to take off with Matt Butcher
Matt Butcher, CEO at Fermyon, explains the history, current status, limitations, and opportunities of WebAssembly, a technology that runs securely and fast from any language across multiple platforms.
- Decrypting software reliability into a plain English with Ash Patel
Ash Patel, Reliability Advocate and host of the SREpath podcast, explains the importance of reliable software systems, sharing experiences from his 15 years in healthcare operations where software failures impacted patient treatment. He em…
- Platform Engineering Maturity Model: Reaching 10x Efficiency with Abby Bangser
Abby Bangser joins PurePerformance to discuss the Platform Engineering Maturity Model, emphasizing meeting users' needs to achieve 10x efficiency. The conversation covers avoiding bottlenecks, the necessity of multiple platform interfaces,…