The hottest Cloud Computing Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

GroupBy #28: Tableflow - The Stream/Table, Kafka/Iceberg Duality, Kafka tiered storage deep dive

VuTrinh. • 59 implied HN points • 26 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Tableflow allows you to easily turn Apache Kafka topics into Iceberg tables, which could change how streaming data is managed.
  2. Kafka's new tiered storage feature helps separate compute and storage, making it easier to manage resources and keep systems running smoothly.
  3. Data governance is important but can be lackluster if it doesn't show clear business benefits, making us rethink its role in today's data landscape.

The Rise of Amazon's Trainium 2

Mule’s Musings • 288 implied HN points • 04 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Amazon is significantly increasing its investments in technology infrastructure, particularly for AI services, showing a strong commitment to compete in the generative AI space.
  2. The success of Amazon's new custom silicon, Trainium 2, could be larger than expected as demand from AI applications grows rapidly.
  3. Trainium 2 represents Amazon's serious entry into the market for training AI models, positioning it as a competitor against established players like Nvidia.

I spent another 6 hours understanding the design principles of Snowflake. Here's what I found

VuTrinh. • 79 implied HN points • 10 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Snowflake separates storage and compute, allowing for flexible scaling and improved performance. This means that data storage can grow separately from computing power, making it easier to manage resources.
  2. Data can be stored in a cloud-based format that supports both structured and semi-structured data. This flexibility allows users to easily handle various data types without needing to define a strict schema.
  3. Snowflake implements unique optimization techniques, like data skipping and a push-based query execution model, which enhance performance and efficiency when processing large amounts of data.

The stream processing model behind Google Cloud Dataflow

VuTrinh. • 39 implied HN points • 27 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Google Cloud Dataflow is a service that helps process both streaming and batch data. It aims to ensure correct results quickly and cost-effectively, useful for businesses needing real-time insights.
  2. The Dataflow model separates the logical data processing from the engine that runs it. This allows users to choose how they want to process their data while still using the same fundamental tools.
  3. Windowing and triggers are important features in Dataflow. They help organize and manage how data is processed over time, allowing for better handling of events that come in at different times.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Data Science Weekly - Issue 503

Data Science Weekly Newsletter • 219 implied HN points • 14 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Machine learning is making its way into finance, and researchers are identifying practical uses for it. This can help finance professionals learn new tools and statisticians find interesting financial problems to solve.
  2. AI platforms, like social media, are becoming crucial in our lives but can be confusing and unreliable. People are figuring out how to use these platforms effectively despite their unpredictability.
  3. Large language models are changing how data scientists work. These models can automate many tasks, allowing data scientists to focus on managing and assessing the AI's outputs.

Microservices vs. Monoliths: Why Startups Are Getting "Nano-Services" All Wrong

Tech Thoughts • 2 HN points • 08 Sep 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Startups should avoid jumping into microservices too early. It's better to keep things simple with a basic structure while you're still figuring out your product.
  2. Creating too many tiny services, or 'nano-services', adds unnecessary complexity. This can slow you down and make it harder to manage your product.
  3. Focus on finding your product's market fit first. Once you have traction and need to scale, then it's time to consider adopting more complex systems like microservices.

Modernizing FedRAMP

Resilient Cyber • 139 implied HN points • 30 Oct 23
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. FedRAMP is being updated to make it easier for the government to use cloud services. The goal is to increase the number of authorized cloud providers and reduce the complicated process that currently exists.
  2. The memo emphasizes the use of automation and machine-readable formats to speed up compliance processes. This means that instead of relying on paper documents, they'll use technology to better manage security assessments.
  3. There's a push to allow more existing security certifications to count towards FedRAMP requirements. This could help smaller businesses enter the market and expand the options available for federal agencies.

Decentralized Cloud Computing

DeFi Education • 679 implied HN points • 31 May 22
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Decentralized cloud computing is changing how we store and process data. It allows users to control their own data without relying on big companies.
  2. This approach can lead to better security and privacy for users. It’s often seen as a more trustable alternative to centralized systems.
  3. As the market for tokens is evolving, exploring decentralized projects can unveil exciting new opportunities in tech and finance. Staying informed can help you find the next big thing.

Understanding Konfig's Opinionation

realkinetic • 19 implied HN points • 11 Jun 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Konfig is an opinionated platform that reduces the investment and total cost of ownership needed for an enterprise cloud platform and speeds up the delivery of new software products.
  2. Konfig promotes a structured platform with a focus on service-oriented architecture and domain-driven design, encouraging decoupling services and promoting durable teams.
  3. The platform enforces group-based access management, uses GitOps for infrastructure management, leverages managed services and serverless offerings, and provides an escape hatch for flexibility outside of its opinions.

Do Developers Dream of Google Zanzibar?

Permit.io’s Substack • 39 implied HN points • 12 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Open-source licenses are changing, and companies are finding it hard to balance fairness and sustainability. This is an important topic in the tech community.
  2. Google Zanzibar is a powerful tool for managing user access and permissions across many applications. It has changed how developers think about authorization systems.
  3. Different authorization models exist, like RBAC and ABAC, but Google Zanzibar offers a simpler, more effective way to handle permissions, especially in large environments.

GroupBy #30: Uber- How LedgerStore Supports Trillions of Indexes, Composable Data Systems: Lessons from Apache Calcite Success

VuTrinh. • 39 implied HN points • 09 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. LedgerStore at Uber can handle trillions of indexes, making it a powerful tool for managing large-scale data efficiently.
  2. Apache Calcite helps build flexible data systems with strong query optimization features, which are vital for many data applications.
  3. Spotify's data platform plays a critical role in their operations, guiding how to build effective data systems in organizations.

Gsnowflake

benn.substack • 792 implied HN points • 07 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Google is technically a database but differs from traditional databases in its structure and content.
  2. Snowflake is introducing features like Document AI that hint at a shift towards focusing on information retrieval rather than just data analysis.
  3. The market for an information database could potentially be larger and more accessible than traditional data warehouses, offering simpler access to basic facts and connections.

Is AI Capex Worth the Money? (ft. Goldman Sachs)

Enterprise AI Trends • 337 implied HN points • 11 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. AI spending is still worth it because it can help big cloud providers move data to their services. This could open up a big opportunity for revenue, making the investment seem less risky.
  2. Most of the useful AI work happens behind the scenes and isn't visible to the public. This means many people might underestimate how much AI is actually helping businesses already.
  3. Companies are really committed to using generative AI and are treating it as a top priority. This commitment means we'll likely see more successful projects in the future.

Deep Dive: Akash Network

DeFi Education • 579 implied HN points • 05 Jun 22
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Akash is a decentralized cloud computing platform that allows users to deploy applications easily. This gives people more control compared to traditional cloud services.
  2. It has a marketplace where buyers and sellers can exchange cloud computing resources. This makes it easier for users to find the services they need.
  3. Using Akash can be more cost-effective than popular centralized cloud providers like Amazon AWS or Google Cloud. This can save users money when they need cloud services.

Clouded Judgement 12.19.25 - The Front Door to the Systems of Record

Clouded Judgement • 12 implied HN points • 19 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Systems of record will remain the essential source of truth, but agents and new interfaces create a different "front door" that could be owned by others and shift where value accrues.
  2. The travel industry shows the pattern: record-keeping platforms kept the data while consumer-facing OTAs captured the front door and most economic upside, implying enterprise SaaS could see the same outcome.
  3. Legacy SaaS firms can either build the new front door or defend by locking data and charging egress fees, and many are likely to adopt defensive tactics that change margins and value capture.

Microsoft Sentinel SOC 101: Detecting and Mitigating Spear Phishing with Microsoft Sentinel

Rod’s Blog • 59 implied HN points • 12 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Spear phishing is a serious cyber-attack that targets specific individuals or organizations. Microsoft Sentinel's tools can help detect and prevent these types of threats.
  2. Microsoft Sentinel allows for the creation of custom analytics rules based on KQL queries to identify potential spear phishing activities. This helps in early detection of threats.
  3. Automation and playbooks in Microsoft Sentinel enable immediate responses like blocking URLs or initiating password resets upon detecting a spear phishing attempt.

The Future of Search and How You Can Shape It

Gradient Flow • 199 implied HN points • 23 Feb 23
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. The blend of artificial intelligence and chatbot interfaces, like seen in ChatGPT, is transforming search applications, with startups emphasizing large language models for better search experiences.
  2. Expectations around user interactions with company websites are changing with the rise of chatbot-equipped search engines, requiring integration of AI and foundation models for improved responses incorporating text, images, videos, and audio.
  3. Data and AI teams are crucial in developing, testing, and maintaining next-generation search applications, with companies likely seeking more control over their data and the potential creation of custom models for enhanced privacy and innovation.

Jio Moment for Indian Hyperscalers?

Sector 6 | The Newsletter of AIM • 59 implied HN points • 08 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Indian companies are growing their data center capacity rapidly, which poses challenges for major cloud service providers like AWS and Microsoft Azure. This means more options for businesses in India when it comes to cloud services.
  2. Government support and new data security rules are fueling the rise of hyperscale data centers in India. This shows a strong push towards more secure and accessible digital infrastructure.
  3. The growth in hyperscale capacity mirrors the earlier success of Jio in the telecom industry, suggesting India could play a big role in the global tech landscape with advances in AI and data services.

Microsoft Sentinel SOC 101: How to Detect and Mitigate SQL Injection Attacks with Microsoft Sentinel

Rod’s Blog • 119 implied HN points • 27 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. SQL injection attacks exploit vulnerabilities in web applications to access sensitive data.
  2. Microsoft Sentinel uses advanced analytics rules and integrates with Defender for SQL to detect and respond to SQL injection attacks effectively.
  3. Organizations can benefit from automated incident response, threat hunting, and incident investigation capabilities in Microsoft Sentinel to mitigate the impact of SQL injection attacks.

AWS IAM Anywhere: Bridging PKI and Cloud Access for Non-Human Identities

ciamweekly • 62 implied HN points • 07 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. AWS IAM Anywhere allows secure access to AWS resources using certificates instead of traditional access keys. This is helpful for organizations that already have a public key infrastructure in place.
  2. Many smaller organizations struggle with managing certificates, leading to outages from expired certificates. This complexity makes it hard for everyone to adopt certificate-based security easily.
  3. The rise of non-human identities shows a shift in how we manage access. AWS IAM Anywhere lets companies use their existing certificate systems to manage both human and automated identities in the cloud.

How to Deploy Microsoft Sentinel Effectively

Rod’s Blog • 59 implied HN points • 01 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. To get the most out of Microsoft Sentinel, organizations should carefully plan and prepare their deployment by assessing security needs and goals.
  2. Choosing the right subscription and pricing model is crucial for optimizing the benefits of Microsoft Sentinel, based on data requirements, user protection, and features needed.
  3. Effective management of Microsoft Sentinel involves monitoring data ingestion, leveraging AI and ML capabilities, automating workflows, and learning from security incidents and feedback.

From Kubernetes to AI maximalism | Stacklok's Craig McLuckie

Dev Interrupted • 14 implied HN points • 25 Nov 25
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Treat AI like engineering — insist on reproducibility, audit trails, and measurable quality so models aren’t just probabilistic parrots.
  2. Use AI to amplify good habits, not hide gaps — have models critique your solutions Socratically and keep humans in charge of architecture to avoid accelerating technical debt.
  3. Replace the "glue person" with composable AI workflows and agent-assisted cleanup, and measure adoption and impact so you can reclaim focus and reduce coordination toil.

Analyze research papers with Gemini 2.0

Gonzo ML • 126 implied HN points • 23 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Gemini 2.0 models can analyze research papers quickly and accurately, supporting large amounts of text. This means they can handle complex documents like academic papers effectively.
  2. The DeepSeek-R1 model shows that strong reasoning abilities can be developed in AI without the need for extensive human guidance. This could change how future models are trained and developed.
  3. Distilling knowledge from larger models into smaller ones allows for efficient and accessible AI that can perform well on various tasks, which is useful for many applications.

Modellion

davidj.substack • 179 implied HN points • 25 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Medallion architecture is not just about data modeling but represents a high-level structure for organizing data processes. It helps in visualizing data flow in a project.
  2. The architecture has three main layers: Bronze deals with cleaning and preparing data, Silver creates a structured data model, and Gold is about making data easy to access and use.
  3. The terms Bronze, Silver, and Gold may sound appealing to non-technical users but could be more accurately described. Renaming these layers could better reflect their actual roles in data handling.

($) DeepSeek Diffusion

Interconnected • 123 implied HN points • 07 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. The ongoing discussion about DeepSeek focuses too much on the rivalry between the U.S. and China. It's more about whether technology is open source or closed source.
  2. Open source technology, like DeepSeek, can spread quickly and widely, getting adopted by various companies across the globe.
  3. Major cloud providers, including U.S. companies, are offering DeepSeek models to their customers, showing its significant impact in the tech world.

You don't know this for sure: How BigQuery stores semi-structured data?

VuTrinh. • 59 implied HN points • 13 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. BigQuery uses a method called definition and repetition level for efficient storage of nested and repeated data. This allows for reading specific parts of data without needing to access other related data.
  2. In columnar storage, data is organized by columns which can improve performance, especially for analytical queries, because only the needed columns are loaded.
  3. Using this method might increase file sizes due to redundancy, but it helps reduce the input/output operations needed when accessing nested fields.

Microsoft Sentinel SOC 101: How to Detect and Mitigate Phishing Attacks with Microsoft Sentinel

Rod’s Blog • 99 implied HN points • 19 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Phishing attacks are a significant threat that targets human vulnerabilities and can lead to identity theft or financial fraud.
  2. Organizations can mitigate phishing attacks by adopting a 'defense in depth' strategy that includes user education, email filtering, and incident response planning.
  3. Utilizing Microsoft Sentinel, Kusto Query Language (KQL), and integrating with Microsoft 365 Threat Protection can enhance proactive threat hunting and response capabilities against phishing attacks.

Rethinking Software Pricing in the Era of AI

Condensing the Cloud • 78 implied HN points • 27 Oct 23
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Software pricing models have evolved over the years, from on-prem software to cloud-native software to AI-powered software.
  2. AI is leading to outcome-based solutions in software pricing, where customers pay based on delivered results.
  3. Outcome-based pricing aligns customers and vendors, emphasizing value delivery and flexible scaling.

GroupBy #33: Data Gateway - A Platform for Growing and Protecting the Data Tier at Netflix, The Cloud Storage Triad: Latency, Cost, Durability

VuTrinh. • 19 implied HN points • 30 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Netflix has created a platform called Data Gateway that helps their developers manage data more easily. It simplifies complex database processes so that app developers can focus on coding.
  2. The cloud storage triad talks about balancing latency, cost, and durability when storing data. Choosing the right storage solution can save money while ensuring data is always available.
  3. Managing data ingestion effectively is crucial for companies like RevenueCat. They faced challenges moving their data and found ways to optimize the process for better performance.

Monitoring Windows pods with Prometheus and Grafana

VTEX’s Tech Blog • 39 implied HN points • 09 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Using Amazon EKS for Windows workloads is becoming popular as it simplifies the management of existing Windows applications without needing to completely refactor them.
  2. Prometheus and Grafana are essential tools for monitoring performance and metrics of Windows pods, helping teams visualize important data from their workloads.
  3. To set up monitoring, install the Windows Exporter daemonset and Kube-State-Metrics on your Amazon EKS cluster, enabling detailed insights into both Windows pods and nodes.

Can BIS Control the Cloud?

ChinaTalk • 311 implied HN points • 31 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. New proposed rules by Commerce focus on regulating US cloud providers to identify customers and monitor large AI training with potential risks.
  2. The regulations aim to prevent misuse of cloud services for cyber attacks and dangerous AI systems, using 'Know Your Customer' schemes.
  3. Enforcement measures include restrictions on customers or jurisdictions engaging in malicious cyber activities, with a focus on setting up reporting processes.

Microsoft Sentinel SOC 101: How to Detect and Mitigate Multiple Microsoft Teams Deleted by a Single User with Microsoft Sentinel

Rod’s Blog • 39 implied HN points • 07 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Cloud Computing
  1. Use Microsoft Sentinel to detect and respond to multiple Teams deletion events in your organization.
  2. Collect Teams activity logs in Microsoft Sentinel to monitor data and detect security risks.
  3. Write custom analytics rules in Microsoft Sentinel to generate alerts for suspicious activities, such as multiple Teams deletion by a single user.