TNO076: Observability and Automation for AI Networking

Scott Robohn (0:10)

This episode is sponsored by METER, the company building networks from the ground up. I want to take a second to talk about something a lot of us don't think about until it's a problem, the network. I could tell stories here. If your org is running on gear from three or four vendors with no one really owning the whole thing, that's a liability. METER changed how I think about this. One integrated stack, wired, wireless and cellular, with hardware and software that they build in-house. Predictable pricing, no surprise renewals, and you remain in the driver's seat for network management if you want. And if you're worried about the transition, they handle the migration without you losing control. Go to meter.com/tnops, that's meter.com/t-n-o-p-s, and book a demo.

Welcome to Total Network Operations, a podcast for packet delivery personnel. Our mission is simple. We want to bring out great ideas in modern network operations. I'm your friendly neighborhood podcast host, Scott Robohn, along with your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man coffee mug this morning. On today's episode, I am pleased to welcome Christian Adell and David Flores with CoreWeave. Now, if you're a long time listener, you know that they're returning guests. They're back in the previous TNOPs archives on observability with some of your other industry colleagues.

You too are experts in observability.

You've published books, you've done great presentations at Autocon and other forums. Some of it's available on YouTube. We'll put links in the show notes for those. And you're now applying your talents and your skills in this critical space of networking for AI, which is fascinating to me.

But to make sure we don't miss this point, most importantly, your high-quality human beings and my friends. So I'm super pleased to have you both here today. Why don't you go ahead and give yourself a brief introduction and a little history on each of you. And David, I'm going to ask you to go first.

David Flores (2:08)

Okay, sure. Well, thank you for having us again. For sure, Scott. And I really appreciate the entire content of this podcast. I think it's great. I'm a big believer in the operational side of things. That's actually where I grew up.

I come originally from Venezuela. So I started with service provider work there, doing network operation center kind of work.

And so maybe that's why operations is kind of in my DNA kind of thing. I always wanted to work on the automation side of this, how we can make operations better, make those weekend shifts, those night shifts easier. So I mean, I think a lot of the motivation comes from there.

I came over to Ireland, I've been in Ireland for like 12 years now, it's my home now. And definitely, they've been working in different spaces, like I was previously in U2BS, worked with Bloomberg as well, and network to code. And a lot of the effort and work has been on the, I started with the network engineering side of things, so definitely networking has been the route for most of my experience. But I would say definitely that has evolved over time. Right. With automation being now the top of the mind and also now observability on top of the mind, and how can all of these things work together? It's kind of like my day-to-day operations and the things that I think about the most, right? And I'm lucky enough actually to be working with Christian again, with Harry Corwin. And, yeah, the challenges on what, you know, AI data setters scale brings into the table is definitely interesting. So I'm pretty happy, well, about that too.

Scott Robohn (3:49)

And as we go through the conversation today, I think that multi-environment experience really matters, right? It's not like you've spent 20 years in just one environment.

Having, you know, touch points on how different organizations run their apps teams and the different technologies you run into, that's going to come out in this conversation. I will note that, you know, I guess Venezuela just was too sunny for you. You know, Ireland is taking care of that with a little cloud cover and mist. You know, I think of green rolling hills and really good beer. So, you know, I'm just a little jealous, just a little jealous.

David Flores (4:21)

Just a little bit, yeah. Yeah, definitely, I would say that there's a little bit of, actually, Venezuela, you know, culture and, you know, liveness you can see here in Ireland for a while. So, yeah, I'm pretty happy to be here in Ireland for sure.

Scott Robohn (4:35)

I'm going to find a reason to come visit you over there and also visit Christian, who is not averse to the sun. Christian, why don't you give your introduction, please?