Latest from Mitch
Free Tiers and Open Source LLMs – Mana for Developers, Platform Engineers and QA
Development rarely follows one straight path. You sketch ideas, prototype, test, swap tools, iterate, and repeat. The increasing availability of free, limited-use AI tiers and locally run open-source AI LLMs is accelerating that loop. These tiers are not marketing fluff. They are practical on-ramps for developers and engineers. They offer the freedom to test, compare, […]
Aug 10, 2025 · 3 minAll articles by Mitch Ashley
Showing 1–24We’re Not Being Replaced. We’re Inventing What Comes Next, Including Ourselves.
After graduating with degrees in computer science and business in hand, I entered the software industry with the energy and optimism of someone ready to create great software. My first job wasn’t called “software developer”—I was hired as a systems engineer. And that title mattered, a lot more than I first realized. Right after being […]
Internet Performance Monitoring Wins the Day
We’ve spent years refining our ability to monitor systems, applications and networks, yet businesses still struggle with performance issues. The problem isn’t a lack of data—it’s too much of it. IT, network and cloud operations organizations are overrun with massive amounts of monitoring, performance and telemetry data. So much so, we must move for dashboards […]
2025 Predictions for DevOps and Application Development
Hi everyone. I’m Mitch Ashley, VP and practice lead for DevOps and application development with the Futurum Group. These are my predictions for 2025. First, 2025 is go-time for AI in production. A lot of AI projects have been stuck in the pilot and prototype phases. Matter of fact, some estimates say that only a […]
Bringing DevOps to the Edge
With networks rapidly expanding through edge device proliferation, managing these devices is becoming more arduous. I had the opportunity to sit down with Sudhir Reddy, CTO of Esper, to discuss the growth in edge device deployments and how bringing DevOps, a process discipline normally associated with software development, could help solve a number of today’s […]
DevOps Must Learn From CrowdStrike’s Outage
The CrowdStrike outage on July 19, 2024, is a stark reminder of DevOps practices’ critical role in deploying updates to maintain the security and reliability of applications and systems. While the underlying software defect was the immediate cause, the broader issue lies in the deployment process that allowed a severe flaw to impact a global […]
DevOps Unbound Special Edition from KubeCon Paris 2024 – DevOps Unbound EP 44
During this special KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2023 edition of DevOps Unbound , Alan Shimel and Mitch Ashley are joined by Martin Klaus, Tricentis VP Product Marketing. The trio discuss the progress software testing has made during the rise and adoption of DevOps and cloud native. Adapting to increased delivery velocity and modern cloud native […]
AISecOps: Expanding DevSecOps to Secure AI and ML
AISecOps, the application of DevSecOps principles to AI/ML and generative AI, means integrating security into models’ life cycles.
Techstrong Research PulseMeter: Caching Transforms Application Performance
The Techstrong Research PulseMeter report underscores the critical role of database caching in supporting real-time applications and digital experience delivery.
Techstrong Research: Combatting CI/CD Security Anti-Patterns
Techstrong Research finds the imperative to secure the software supply chain and CI/CD pipelines is undeniable and urgent.
KubeCon 2023: Developer Productivity and Platform Engineering
Venkat Ramakrishnan talks with Mitch Ashley about platform engineering from Kubecon + CloudNativeCon 2023.
KubeCon 2023: What’s Next for Managed Deployment
Mitch Ashley talks with Armory’s Adam Frank about the latest innovations in continuous delivery.
KubeCon 2023: Internal Developer Platforms and Developer Productivity
Mitch Ashley: Hey there, everybody. Welcome back to Chicago to KubeCon 2023. We are on day two of our live-streaming on Techstrong TV across all of our sites, devopsy.kinsta.cloud, Security Boulevard, Techstrong.TV, and Cloud Native Now. So, we’ve got more great interviews. Alan’s just finished a couple and I’m teed up now with Amit […]
Why AIOps is Critical for Networks
Vitria Technology’s Andrew Colby discusses why AIOps, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are key capabilities for organizations to continue providing the level of performance and reliability customers expect.
Splunk: Creating a Resilient and Dynamic Organization
Mitch Ashley talks with Ryan Kovar, distinguished tech security technologist and leader of SURGe with Splunk, and Cory Minton, field CTO for The Americas with Splunk, about building a dynamic and resilient organization.
Splunk Goes Azure With Microsoft Partnership
Splunk announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to build solutions natively on Azure. Mitch Ashley is live at the .conf event.
PingCAP’s Innovative TiDB Database – Techstrong.TV
PingCAP CEO Max Liu discusses PingCAPs innovative TiDB database and cloud technologies for OLTP + OLAP, and PingCAP’s commitment to open source going back more than seven years. Max shares some exciting news about the very first HTAP Summit, coming to the bay area soon. The video is below followed by a transcript of the […]
Transforming Observability
Walking into an unfamiliar operations center some time ago, I immediately noticed database error alerts racing down the primary monitor faster than a Matrix screensaver morphs letters. Strangely, no one seemed particularly excited about it. The situation was a head-turner for me, coming as I did from the “everything must balance” banking world. A senior […]
Microservices Explained: Not Your Father’s SOA
Microservices are frequently referred to as a variant or derivative of service-oriented architecture (SOA), if not essentially the same thing. While there are similarities and both are designed around the concept of services, that’s where the similarities end. Each was created around a different set of principles and intended to address different problems. Microservices architecture […]
DevOps World 2022: A DevOps Retrospective
With the seminal IT conference DevOps World 2022 in Orlando September 26 to September 29 upon us, I think about the pivotal industry conferences and events critical to my path to the cloud, DevOps and cloud-native. It brings me to this brief retrospective, highlighting some of the most significant influences that still guide my path […]
Techstrong TV: Leveraging Low-Code Technology with Tools & Digital Transformation
Low-code is playing a big role in Henkel Corporation’s digital transformation by connect remote workers with 30 shop floors all over the globe. Catarina Pinto, Henkel Digital Transformation Manager discusses how the team leverages low-code technology to deliver weekly releases across ten apps. HCL Software AVP Product Management Andrew Manby shares the role HCL Volt […]
Techstrong TV: Value Stream Management & Value Creation
Lance Knight, ConnectALL President and COO, joins us directly from the Agile 2022 conference. Lance discusses the concepts of value stream management and value creation. The video and a transcript of the conversation are below. […]
Fixing Spring4Shell Starts With Software Supply Chain Management
Spring4Shell is the latest call to action for radically improved software supply chain integrity. While Spring4Shell investigations continue, one conclusion is indisputable: We must holistically rethink the way we continuously inventory and manage the complex landscape of interrelated software and its sources. Whether or not Spring4Shell surpasses the breadth of impact of Log4j, there’s still […]
Updating and Managing Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC)
Infrastructure-as-code (IaC), often embodied by open source Terraform, is an essential ingredient to cloud and cloud-native strategies. But without the ability to scale, secure and manage IaC, you very quickly experience drift. Tim Davis, DevOps advocate with env0, pronounced “N zero”, discusses establishing a single source of truth and reigning in drift by updating and […]