Episodes
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In this special episode, we are featuring That Digital Show. In Australia, every employee is required to select their superannuation fund of choice to help them invest a portion of their income. Having celebrated its 40th anniversary recently, UniSuper, one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, is committed to delivering value and efficiency for its members. Started as a fund for the higher education and research sector, it has now opened its platform to all industries across the country.
Today, UniSuper invests more than $120 billion on behalf of more than 620,000 members. With the new Treasury Laws Amendment Act 2021, Your Future, Your Super, that aims to improve the outcome of superannuation funds for Australians, UniSuper decided to undergo a data centre transformation, taking on an 80/20 rule on cloud hosting and adopting the right digital technologies to improve its performance and portfolio.
In this episode, Angelo talks about how Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) underpins UniSuper’s shift to the cloud as it moves existing VMware-based workloads from on-premises data centers to the cloud. This enables the organization to quickly scale up while having the flexibility and agility it needs to drive operational efficiencies as it continues to deliver the best returns for its customers. He also shares how the COVID-19 pandemic presented him with some crucial moments of thought that have resulted in some of the changes in best practices across the organization today.
Angelo Furina, Head of Enterprise Infrastructure & CloudAngelo is the Head of Enterprise Infrastructure and Cloud at UniSuper and is passionate about business transformation and bridging the gap between technology and business strategy. With more than a decade of industry experience, Angelo has delivered technology solutions across manufacturing, telecommunications, media and finance.
Theo DaviesTheo is the Head of Cloud Sales Excellence & Productivity at Google Cloud. He is a record-breaking salesperson, sales leader, coach and speaker with a 20+ year career beginning in sales. Theo is also the President of the Google Public Speaking Academy.
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In this special episode, we are featuring That Digital Show. As the electric vehicles (EV) sector accelerates, drivers are finding it a challenge to conveniently access charging points. This has become one of the biggest concerns for EV drivers around the world. Intending to solve this problem, Taiwan-born company ChargesSmith offers EV users an end-to-end charging solution by developing a map for drivers, with the most updated information on location and availability of charging points around the country.
Today, ChargeSmith serves more than 70% of EV users in Taiwan, partnering with various charging point operators to give users a high level of accessibility. Their vision and goal is to organize and share energy with communities, countries, and the earth.
In this episode, ChargeSmith CEO Andy Chen talks about sustainability in the EV market and the growth of EV adoption. As an EV driver himself, Chen shares the issues he faces first-hand, and how ChargeSmith is leveraging data to solve the challenges of today while paving a future for EV drivers of tomorrow. In this episode, we also hear from Alex Kuo of GAIA, who shares how his team collaborates with ChargeSmith to use cloud technology as an enabler in this evolving landscape. Are you ready for a cleaner driving experience? Tune in to find out.
Andy Chen, CEO of ChargeSmithAndy is one of the earliest EV adaptors in Taiwan. With enthusiasm for the EV community, he has led ChargeSmith to build up Taiwan's largest EV charging roaming network. Andy enjoys observing the market’s pain points and using data-driven strategies to accelerate the adoption of the product.
Alex Kuo, Sr. Account Manager of GAIAAn accomplished sales professional, Alex has led sales teams across the IT industry to success, helping SMB and enterprise clients achieve impressive business growth. With a passion for blockchain technology, Alex enjoys innovating and developing new products and services for clients that ultimately contribute to the growth of the industry.
Theo DaviesTheo is Head of Cloud Sales Excellence & Productivity at Google Cloud and host of “That Digital Show APAC”. He is a record-breaking salesperson, sales leader, coach and speaker with a 20+ year career beginning in sales. Theo is also the President of the Google Public Speaking Academy.
InterviewChargeSmith: https://www.chargesmith.com/ev/
Hosts
Theo Davies and Paris Tran
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In this special episode, we are featuring That Digital Show. AI is seen as a powerful tool and enabler for businesses around the world. At the same time, more organizations are looking for ways to operate more sustainably. To combine the two, Recursive AI was established in 2020, formalizing the way AI can be used for sustainability. Whether it’s through innovation, improving productivity, providing better education, or using AI for prevention and mitigation efforts in managing climate change, Recursive AI is changing the sustainability landscape one project at a time.
In this episode, Recursive AI co-founder Tiago Ramalho puts on a new lens to the way we think about AI. He tells us how neural networks, which form the core infrastructure of AI, can simulate systems quickly, finding new and improved solutions to existing problems. He also shares how the company is predicting the future of natural disasters so that organizations can take action before it is too late.
When it comes to sustainability, no action is too small. Listen in to find out how the organization is innovating by leveraging AI technology to solve the sustainability problems of today and tomorrow.
Dr. Tiago Ramalho, Recursive Co-founder and CEOTiago is the co-founder and CEO of Recursive AI, a company focused on building AI tools to help companies grow their sustainability impact. Tiago is a physicist and former Googler at Google DeepMMind with a passion for technology and sustainability. Through Recursive, Tiago is able to marry the two to help others create a greener tomorrow.
Theo DaviesTheo is Head of Cloud Sales Excellence & Productivity at Google Cloud and host of “That Digital Show APAC”. He is a record-breaking salesperson, sales leader, coach and speaker with a 20+ year career beginning in sales. Theo is also the President of the Google Public Speaking Academy.
InterviewRecursive AI: https://recursiveai.co.jp/en/
Hosts
Theo Davies and Paris Tran
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In this special episode, we are featuring That Digital Show. In the Philippines, class sizes in schools are often quite large with an average of 30 students per class. This makes keeping track of individual students’ progress a challenge. To solve this problem, John and Chris Fiel, co-founders of Wela School Systems developed a digital solution for schools, teachers, and parents to keep track of basic administrative tasks like daily attendance-taking and keeping record of grades, among other things to keep paperwork at bay.
Starting with just three schools upon launch, Wela now serves more than 200 schools on its platform. To make sure it meets the needs of users, the duo constantly asks for feedback from customers, and pick out the most common needs to address and build around. The startup also follows a freemium model so that schools can test and discover if the product is really adding value for them, before deciding to purchase it.
Listen in to hear how Wela continues to win the hearts of educators, and the impact they are making on the Philippine education system. In this podcast, they also share their views on the future of education and how data can be used to improve teaching processes and the learning environment.
John Fiel, CEO, Wela School Systems
John’s interest in the startup industry brought him to establish his own game development startup after college, which lasted for two years. Now, he is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wela School System. Wela is one of the Pioneering DOST Funded Startups in the Philippines. Wela is now running for five years and serving over 190 schools both national and international.
Chris Fiel, CTO, Wela School SystemsChris is a serial technopreneur with the aim of creating disruptive and useful apps using the latest technology trends. His heart and inclination is into programming where his 25 years of experience as a freelance developer can speak of. He is currently into ERP, IoT and blockchain and looking for consulting and development projects along these areas.
Theo DaviesTheo is Head of Cloud Sales Excellence & Productivity at Google Cloud and host of “That Digital Show APAC”. He is a record breaking salesperson, sales leader, coach and speaker with a 20+ year career beginning in sales. Theo is also the President of the Google Public Speaking Academy.
InterviewWela School System: https://wela.online/
Hosts
Theo Davies and Paris Tran
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In this special episode, we are featuring That Digital Show. Theo Davies and Stephanie Wong speak to Sartaj Singh, Head of Technology at GoJek, who shares inside knowledge on GoJek’s explosive growth, from being a ride hailing app, to a multi-platform one that is a now a major eCommerce player in Indonesia, especially in last mile delivery.
Sartaj shares GoJek’s focus on three pillars, customer incentive, driver rewards and pricing, to ensure consistency in service delivery quality. He also discusses how he looks to improve platformization with his team through innovation, by putting people over processes, and helping engineers address challenges in order to stay agile and scalable.
From sitting at the side of the street to solve production issues, to managing and growing a team of over 1,000 in just a few years, listen in as Sartaj shares interesting personal excerpts on GoJek’s journey in shifting from a startup “hustler” mindset, to a more corporate way of working, and everything that it entails.
Sartaj SinghSartaj Singh is the Head of Engineering Platforms at Gojek. Sartaj is one of the few engineers who has been with GOJEK since the early days. As a literary enthusiast, he never thought that he would end up working in tech. Sartaj is responsible for driving growth, standardizing and improving Indonesia’s multi-service platform.
Theo DaviesTheo is Head of Cloud Sales Excellence & Productivity at Google Cloud and host of “That Digital Show APAC”. He is a record breaking salesperson, sales leader, coach and speaker with a 20+ year career beginning in sales. Theo is also the President of the Google Public Speaking Academy.
Cool things of the week5 GKE features to help you optimize your clusters blog
InterviewGojek site
Gojek: Using Machine Learning for forecasting and dynamic pricing blog
Introducing Firehose: An open source tool from Gojek blog
Meet Optimus, Gojek’s open-source cloud data transformation tool blog
Gojek: Helping drivers reach their pickup points up to 20% more quickly with Google Maps Platform blog
What’s something cool you’re working on?Theo is trying out Snapchat and is excited about Snap partnering with Google Cloud
Hosts
Stephanie Wong and Theo Davies
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Happy Holidays from all of us at Google! This week, hosts Carter Morgan, Stephanie Wong, and Max Saltonstall are sharing their favorite moments from the year! From great partnerships with national companies, new releases in some of your favorite Google software tools, and a trillion digits of pi, we’re breaking down some 2022 highlights and introducing special guest Podcast Producer Kevin McCormack to help with a fun podcast trivia game!
Carter MorganCarter Morgan is Developer Advocate for Google Cloud, where he creates and hosts content on Google’s Youtube channel, co-hosts several Google Cloud podcasts, and designs courses like the Udacity course “Scalable Microservices with Kubernetes” he co-created with Kelsey Hightower. Carter Morgan is an international standup comedian, who’s approach of creating unique moments with the audience in front of him has seen him perform all over the world, including in Paris, London, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with Joe White. And in 2019, and the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Previously, he was a programmer for the USAF and Microsoft.
Stephanie WongStephanie Wong is a Developer Advocate focusing on online content across all Google Cloud products. She’s a host of the GCP Podcast and the Where the Internet Lives podcast, along with many GCP Youtube video series. She is the winner of a 2021 Webby Award for her content about data centers. Previously she was a Customer Engineer at Google and at Oracle. Outside of her tech life she is a former pageant queen and hip hop dancer and has an unhealthy obsession with dogs.
Max SaltonstallMax Saltonstall is a Developer Relations Engineer at Google Cloud. He is a father, teacher, storyteller, speaker, educator, nefarious villain, game designer, juggler, and is only part zombie.
Cool things of the week Boost medical discoveries with AlphaFold on Vertex AI blog 6 common mistakes to avoid in RESTful web API Design blog Marketing Analytics With Google Cloud blog Our Favorite Episodes of 2022 Stephanie’s Favorites GCP Podcast Episode 290: Resiliency at Shopify with Camilo Lopez and Tai Dickerson podcast GCP Podcast Episode 315: Cloud Functions (2nd gen) with Jaisen Mathai and Sara Ford podcast GCP Podcast Episode 307: FinOps with Joe Daly podcast Carter’s Favorites GCP Podcast Episode 308: New Pi World Record with Emma Haruka Iwao and Sara Ford podcast GCP Podcast Episode 327: ML/AI Data Science for Data Analytics with Jed Dougherty and Dan Darnell podcast GCP Podcast Episode 289: Cloud Security Megatrends with Phil Venables podcast Max’s Favorites GCP Podcast Episode 316: Google Cloud for Higher Education with Laurie White and Aaron Yeats podcast GCP Podcast Episode 317: Launching Products at Google Cloud with Anita Kibunguchy-Grant and Gabe Weiss podcast GCP Podcast Episode 325: Digital Sovereignty with Archana Ramamoorthy and Julien Blanchez podcast Stephanie’s Honorable Mentions GCP Podcast Episode 323: Next 2022 with Forrest Brazeal and Stephanie Wong podcast GCP Podcast Episode 298: Celebrating Women’s History Month with Vidya Nagarajan Raman podcast Carter’s Honorable Mentions GCP Podcast Episode 312: Managed Service for Prometheus with Lee Yanco and Ashish Kumar podcast GCP Podcast Episode 290: Resiliency at Shopify with Camilo Lopez and Tai Dickerson podcast Max’s Honorable Mentions GCP Podcast Episode 326: Assured Workloads with Key Access Justifications with Bryce Buffaloe and Seth Denney | Google Cloud Platform Podcast podcast HostsStephanie Wong, Carter Morgan and Max Saltonstall
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Max Saltonstall and Stephanie Wong welcome fellow Googler Marcos Grappeggia and Antoine Castex of L’Oreal to talk about Cloud Workstations, Google’s software that provides managed development environments.
Marcos elaborates on the power of Cloud Workstations and all the features and offerings this software provides. The preconfigured nature of Cloud Workstations means developers simply press a button and get an IDE so they’re ready to code quickly. Other teams benefit as well, with templates created by Cloud Workstations that specify options to be preinstalled. Marcos talks more about the benefits of Workstations over local environments, especially in the areas of security and productivity. L’Oreal chose Google Cloud years ago when they began their transition to the cloud, Antoine tells us, and we hear how L’Oreal offered Marcos suggestions and feedback as Workstations was developed. Working with Cloud Workstations today, L’Oreal’s teams spread across the globe are able to begin realizing the dream of creating environments with parameters specific to different regions and areas.
While Cloud Workstations and Cloud Shell are similar solutions in some ways, Marcos helps us understand the differences as well. For example, Cloud Shell is less flexible while Workstations is highly customizable. Antoine talks more about the adoption process of Workstations at L’Oreal and how they plan to continue using the software with more teams in the future. He offers advice for other companies looking to introduce it.
Workstations works with the Software Delivery Shield suite to build and maintain a secure software supply chain. Security features developers are used to in productions services are easily applied to development environments in Workstations as well. Marcos talks about the future of Cloud Workstations, including deeper security integration.
Marcos GrappeggiaMarcos is a Product Manager at Google Cloud, leading Cloud Workstations and Cloud Shell. Marcos is an engineer from University of Campinas (Brazil) and École Centrale Paris (France). Prior to joining Google, he led product at Appurify (acquired by Google, now Firebase Test Lab), enabling mobile test automation on real devices for mobile developers.
Antoine CastexAntoine is a curious French man, a Serverless Guru multiple times GCP Certified and C2C French Club Co-President & Co-Founder.
Cool things of the week Introduction to custom org policy video How to configure rules and policies in Google Cloud Armor video 1:03 - What this video covers 2:03 - How to create a new rule from scratch 4:54 - How to clone an existing out-of-the-box rule and modify it to create a new rule 7:44 - How to copy a rule or policy and apply it to multiple backends / Rate limiting feature 12:46 - How to use a Rule in Preview mode and test a new rule before enabling it / Threat intelligence feature 17:35 - Wrap up Interview Cloud Workstations site Cloud Shell site Software Delivery Shield site Cloud IDE site Google Cloud Console site C2C site How to increase developer productivity with Cloud Workstations video What’s something cool you’re working on?Max is teaching his cats to do silly tricks!
Stephanie is planning a vacation!
HostsMax Saltonstall and Stephanie Wong
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Guests Sharon Fang and Michael Sudakovitch are here this week to talk with Max Saltonstall and Daryl Ducharme about Google’s Active Assist optimization portfolio and managing cloud projects efficiently.
Michael, tech lead at Uber, first employed Active Assist for the company in their security department, but they have since realized how useful Active Assist is in many areas of the resource management space. Responsible architects, Michael points out, continually evaluate their resources and patch, update, or remove as necessary to ensure proper security and optimize spending. Sharon helps us understand resource management further and how Active Assist helps teams find resources that can be changed or even removed for better spending, tighter security, and smaller carbon footprint.
Active Assist will even recommend the removal of entire projects that have become dormant. Michael talks in detail about Uber’s use of Active Assist and how it helped them find vulnerable projects that could be removed for better security. Sharon highlights the effects of Active Assist on reducing CO2 emissions as well, as discontinued projects keep hardware running needlessly. As Michael and his team at Uber began taking advantage of all Active Assist had to offer, Google worked with him to answer questions, tailor resources, and take feedback to improve offerings. The future includes a portfolio expansion of resource life cycle management tools to identify more idol systems like GKE clusters and helping larger customers take advantage of Active Assist at scale automatically.
Together, Sharon and Michael tell us stories about the partnership and interesting findings and results of Uber’s carbon footprint reduction journey.
Sharon FangSharon Fang is a Product Manager for Google Cloud’s Active Assist, which aims to help users optimize their cloud operations with recommendations.
Michael SudakovitchMichael is a Tech Lead at Uber’s Engineering Security organization, focusing on securing and optimizing Uber’s Multi-Cloud infrastructure.
Cool things of the week Solving internal search problems with Dialogflow blog Automating self-service tech support with Tensorflow blog Introducing IAM Deny, a simple way to harden your security posture at scale blog Supporting healthcare delivery with cloud-native medical imaging blog Interview Active Assist site Uber site Uber Engineering Blog site How ML-fueled recommendations help developers optimize security, price-performance, and carbon reduction blog Introducing Unattended Project Recommender: discover, reclaim, or deprecate abandoned projects under your organization blog Reduce your cloud carbon footprint with new Active Assist recommendations blog What’s something cool you’re working on?Max is sorting out the final blog posts of the year, planning some secret Santa holiday festivities for the team, and prepping cranberry sauces.
Daryl is planning videos for the new year, including a video to help celebrate our 1 millionth subscriber on the Google Cloud Tech YouTube channel and several videos to help people get the most out of Google Cloud IAM features.
HostsMax Saltonstall and Daryl Ducharme
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Stephanie Wong talks with guests Shachar Guz, Inna Weiner, and Gabe Weiss about Google’s Database Migration Service and how it helps companies move data to Google Cloud. What typically is a complicated process, DMS simplifies everything from planning to security to validating database migrations.
DMS has undergone some changes since last we spoke with Shachar and Gabe. It’s gone GA and helped thousands of customers benefit from the service. Migrations are possible from any PostgreSQL database source to AlloyDB for PostgreSQL, which is designed to support HTAP data (transactional and analytical). One of the most exciting updates is the introduction of the DMS modernization journey, which allows customers to change database type during migration (heterogenous). In addition, migrations with DMS can be set up to continuously replicate data between the old and new database. With this feature, developers can compare the application performance against the old vs. new database.
Inna talks about the benefits of keeping your data in the cloud, like secure, reliable, and scalable data storage. Google Cloud takes care of the maintenance work for you as well. DMS takes security seriously and supports multiple security methods to keep your data safe as it migrates. We talk about the different customers using DMS and how the process works for homogeneous and heterogeneous migrations. Before you even start, Gabe tells us, DMS helps you prepare for the migration. And tools like Dataflow can help when customers decide full migration would be too difficult. We talk about the difference between Datastream and DMS and use cases for each.
We wrap up the show with a look at the future of DMS.
Shachar GuzShachar is a product manager at Google Cloud, he works on the Cloud Database Migration Service. Shachar worked in various product and engineering roles and shares a true passion about data and helping customers get the most out of their data. Shachar is passionate about building products that make cumbersome processes simple and straightforward and helping companies adopt Cloud technologies to accelerate their business.
Inna WeinerInna is a senior technical leader with 20+ years of global experience. She is a big data expert, specializing in deriving insights from data, product and user analytics. Currently, she leads engineering for Cloud DMS. Inna enjoys building diverse engineering organizations, with common vision, growth strategy and inclusive culture.
Gabe WeissGabe leads the database advocacy team for the Google Cloud Platform team ensuring that developers can make awesome things, both inside and outside of Google. That could mean speaking at conferences, writing example code, running bootcamps, writing technical blogs or just doing some hand holding. Prior to Google he’s worked in virtual reality production and distribution, source control, the games industry and professional acting.
Cool things of the week Flexible committed use discounts — a simple new way to discount Compute Engine instances blog Understanding transactional locking in Cloud Spanner blog Interactive In-console Tutorial site Interview Database Migration Service site GCP Podcast Episode 262: Database Migration Service with Shachar Guz and Gabe Weiss podcast AlloyDB for PostgreSQL site PostgreSQL site Datastream site Dataflow site CloudSQL site Spanner site What’s something cool you’re working on?Gabe has been tinkering with new Google Cloud databases and managing a new team.
HostsStephanie Wong
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On the show this week, Carter Morgan and Anu Srivastava talk about AI and ML data analytics with Dataiku VP of Platform Strategy, Jed Dougherty, and Head of Product Marketing, Dan Darnell. Dataiku is an AI platform targeted for business team collaboration. The low and no code environments make it easy for developers and not so tech savvy employees to work together on analytics projects. It strives for everyday AI, making these normally highly technical data processes more accessible.
Our guests detail the tools Dataiku provides customers, including ML Ops features for efficient models. Dataiku’s managed offering allows businesses to concentrate on the model while Dataiku takes care of things like the deployment processes behind the scenes. We hear about the partnership between Dataiku and Google Cloud and Dataiku’s integration with AlloyDB. Through a real example, our guests run us through the use of these two tools together. Jed talks about why Google Cloud works so well with Dataiku, especially for businesses looking for cutting edge technology.
Jed DoughertyJed is the VP of Platform Strategy at Dataiku. In this role he acts as a strategic technical advisor to Dataiku customers and prospects. He also works tightly with Engineering and Product stakeholders in order to ensure that all technical platform requests are properly followed, scoped and implemented.
Dan DarnellDan has over 20 years of experience in the analytics industry at established software companies, hyper-growth technology companies, and small technology start-ups. As the Head of Product Marketing at Dataiku, he owns positioning, evangelism, and content creation for product offerings and education on products for customers and partners.
Cool things of the week Google Cloud supercharges NLP with large language models blog Practicing the principle of least privilege with Cloud Build and Artifact Registry blog Interview Dataiku site Dataiku YouTube videos BigQuery site Kubernetes site GKE site AlloyDB for PostgreSQL site Accelerate AI Adoption: 3 Steps to Deploy Dataiku for Google Cloud Platform blog Implementing Dataiku with BigQuery docs GCP Podcast Episode 238: ASML with Arnaud Hubaux podcast GCP Podcast Episode 229: Lucidworks with Radu Miclaus podcast What’s something cool you’re working on?Anu is working on interesting speech use cases and Google’s Speech to Text. Join in with this tutorial!
Carter is working on getting organized and working on something super cool!
HostsCarter Morgan and Anu Srivastava
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Hosts Max Saltonstall and Daryl Ducharme are joined by Bryce Buffaloe and Seth Denney to chat about Assured Workloads and the sovereignty control Key Access Justifications so customers can see how their data is used and control who can see what.
Assured Workloads with Google is a security and compliance engine that allows users to control their data with the help of Google. With the expansion of data use around the globe, data sovereignty has become more important as well, and Google Cloud products offer myriad tools to maintain control, privacy, and compliance no matter the location. Seth talks more about sovereignty and how it’s changing data storage and management. Our guests talk about how Google has tackled the sovereignty issues, difficult decisions that had to be made, and the process of working with clients to optimize tools for different security and sovereignty scenarios.
With Key Access Justifications, Google has bolstered its offerings to provide clients with trustworthy controls to keep data secure and sovereign, from Compute Engine VMs to BigQuery. We learn what Key Access Justifications look like for users and how the encryption keys work in different Google Cloud services. Customer managed key material is stored outside of Google and the key manager must give permission for access for an added layer of trust and security. Seth and Bryce explain why this is important and describe how KAJ are used with some examples. These features may also be used to improve security in the future by preventing data from being decrypted and stolen should someone ever get access to your system. We hear more about the future of data security and sovereignty, including simplifying the process with managed services and easier onboarding. Strategic European partnerships are helping Google tackle these important issues overseas so clients can focus on their businesses and worry less about data security.
The catalyst for KAJ was a large German bank that recognized the sovereignty changes coming, and we hear more about the origins of KAJ and the path to where it is today. When paired with Assured Workloads, clients get maximum sovereignty coverage. Seth talks a little about the Sovereignty Access Controls done internally as well. Bryce walks us through using these Google services with a European example.
Bryce BuffaloeBryce is Product manager for Google Cloud Security managing the portfolio of the Assured Workload’s solution suite.
Seth DenneySeth is KAJ Tech Lead, responsible for ensuring the integrity and usefulness of KAJs to support customer data sovereignty
Cool things of the week DevFests site Best Kept Security Secrets: Tap into the power of Organization Policy Service podcast Interview Assured Workloads site Assured Workloads Playlist videos Key Access Justifications docs Compute Engine site BigQuery site GCP Podcast Episode 325: Digital Sovereignty with Archana Ramamoorthy and Julien Blanchez podcast T Systems site What’s something cool you’re working on?Daryl just released a video about using Workflows’ new parallel step.
Max is working on crossover episodes across our various podcast streams, so we can have SRE guests on to the GCP podcast to talk reliability, for example, or bring some of the Kubernetes hosts to the Cloud Security podcast to discuss securing Kubernetes workloads.
HostsMax Saltonstall and Daryl Ducharme
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This week, Max Saltonstall and Chloe Condon welcome guests Archana Ramamoorthy and Julien Blanchez to talk about digital sovereignty and what goes into a technical strategy for dealing with this complicated facet of web projects.
Our guests start the show with a thorough explanation of digital sovereignty, explaining that it typically involves a state or regulatory agency exerting control over data and technology. As more and more data is taken into the cloud, countries are understandably concerned about a loss of control over this data, and nations are enacting laws and regulations to help manage security of data in the cloud. Standardization has been a human issue for a long time, from trains to international travel and more, Archana reminds us, and this challenge is now moving to the management of cloud data out in the world. As sovereign nations implement their own standards, cloud providers must adapt to help developers create projects that follow these laws.
Julien talks about the discussions around digital sovereignty in Europe, especially as it affects data security. Lawmakers, cloud providers, and companies have been working together to think through effective laws and strategies for digital security around the world. Googlers across the globe are working locally to make sure Google’s suite of products are compatible with government regulations and the needs of developers. Archana and Julien talk about the three important action segments Google employs to make sure tools allow for control over who has access to data when and how, and we hear the journey Google has trekked from the very beginning to now as the company has worked for strong security and versatile data management. Local partnerships are a big part of the advancements made in the sovereignty space, Julien tells us, increasing trust with developers in the area and leveraging local knowledge.
With offerings like Cloud Key Management, Google provides unique options for developers to control and secure data. To keep things easy, especially in the case of hybrid solutions, this portfolio of sovereignty products uses the same APIs, streamlined onboarding setups, and familiar interfaces Google product users are accustomed to.
Archana RamamoorthyArchana is the Director of Cloud Security Product Management. She has spent a lot of her career building security products for enterprise organizations.
Julien BlanchezJulien looks after the coordination of Google’s local digital sovereignty partnerships and how to position them in the market, after many years helping regulators and highly regulated customers in EMEA on their Google Cloud adoption journey worldwide.
Cool things of the week Google Cloud Podcasts site Cloud Security Podcast podcast Google Cloud SRE Podcast podcast Developer Community Keynote: The thing about burnout video Interview Google Cloud Next ‘22: Meet digital sovereignty requirements site Announcing Sovereign Controls for Google Workspace blog Cloud Key Management site Confidential Computing site What’s something cool you’re working on?Max is working on expanding Google’s podcast platform, giving it some more visibility. He’s also working on Halloween and LARP costumes and teaching new board games.
Chloe is working on her Halloween costume, too, and working on Google Cloud Reader.
HostsMax Saltonstall and Chloe Condon
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Debi Cabrera and Stephanie Wong have more great Next content this week as we focus on launches specifically related to data and analytics with guests Bruno Aziza and Maire Newton.
We start the episode with a look at current customer trends in data, including tools for increasing efficiency when working with many different types of data. Data governance and security is another area where Bruno sees advances in satisfying customer needs. Maire talks about the steps Google is taking to help customers implement knowledge gained with data, including Looker and new integrations with tools like Looker Studio to easily connect tools for better data access and use. Strategic partnerships with companies like Tableau help accomplish these goals as well.
With 21 data and analytics launches at Next, exciting solutions are out there for customers. Bruno and Maire highlight their five favorites, like BigQuery support for unstructured data, allowing analysts working with SQL to do more with more data. To simplify workflows, BigQuery integration with Spark is a new feature that Maire tells us about, and we hear more about BigLake and it’s increased format support. Data reaches more people easier now with Connected Sheets available for anyone using Google Workspace, and finally we talk more about Looker. Bruno details the four use cases of business intelligence customers and how Google’s suite of data products satisfy their needs for a reasonable price.
Bruno AzizaBruno is head of data and analytics for Google Cloud and leads the outbound product management team. He has more than two decades’ of Silicon Valley experience, specializing in scaling businesses, and has written two books on Data Analytics and Enterprise Performance Management.
Maire NewtonMaire is an Outbound Product Manager at Google Cloud with almost 15 years of experience partnering with organizations to develop data solutions and drive digital transformation. She’s passionate about helping customers develop data-driven cultures by using technology to meet users where they are.
Cool things of the week Google Cloud Next for data professionals: analytics, databases and business intelligence blog ANA104 How Boeing overcame their on-premises implementation challenges with data & AI site ANA100 What’s new in Looker and Data Studio site ANA101 What’s new in BigQuery site ANA106 How leading organizations are making open source their super power site Google Cloud Next: top AI and ML sessions blog Interview Building the most open data cloud ecosystem post Data Journeys videos Google Cloud Next ‘22 site Looker site Looker Studio site Tableau site BigLake ste BigQuery site Use the BigQuery connector with Spark docs Connected Sheets docs What’s something cool you’re working on?Debi is getting married and working on Dataflow Prime.
HostsStephanie Wong and Debi Cabrera
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Forrest Brazeal joins Stephanie Wong today on the second day of Google Cloud Next ‘22. We’re talking about all the exciting announcements, how the conference has changed in recent years, and what to expect in the days ahead.
The excitement and energy of the first in-person Next since 2019 was one of the best parts for Forrest. With 1300 releases in just half the year, a lot has happened in BigQuery, AI, Looker, and more. Next includes announcements in many of these areas as well, as Google Cloud expands and makes Cloud easier for all types of projects and clients. Strategic partnerships and development have allowed better use of Google Cloud for the virtual work world and advancements in sustainability have helped Google users feel better about their impact on the environment.
New announcements in compute include C3 VMs, the first VM in the cloud with 4th Gen Intel Xeon scalable processors with Google’s custom Intel IPU. MediaCDN uses the YouTube infrastructure and the new Live Stream API optimizes streaming capabilities. Among many other announcements, Network Analyzer is now GA allowing for simplified network configuration monitoring and Google Cloud Armor has been extended to include ML-based Adaptive Protection capabilities. Software Delivery Shield and Cloud Workstations are recent offerings to help developers in each of the four areas of software supply chain management. Advancements in Cloud Build include added security benefits, and new GKE and Cloud Run logging and security alerts ensure projects remain secure through the final stages of development.
The best way to ensure secure, optimized work is with well-trained developers. And in that vein, Google Cloud is introducing Innovators Plus to provide a new suite of developer benefits under a fixed cost subscription. Forrest tells us about #GoogleClout and the challenges available in the Next portal for conference-goers. Assured Workloads helps with data sovereignty in different regions, Confidential Space in Confidential Computing provides trust guarantees when companies perform joint data analysis and machine learning training, and Chronicle Security Operations are some of the exciting security announcements we saw at Next.
On the show next week, we’ll go in depth on data announcements at Next, but Steph gives us a quick rundown of some of the biggest ones today. She talks briefly about announcements in AI, including Vertex AI Vision and Translation Hub. Forrest wraps up by talking about predictions for the future of tech and cloud.
Forrest BrazealForrest Brazeal is a cloud educator, author, speaker, and Pwnie Award-winning songwriter. He is the creator of the Cloud Resume Challenge initiative, which has helped thousands of non-traditional learners take their first steps into the cloud.
Cool things of the week Unlock biology & medicine potential with AlphaFold on Google Cloud video Interview Google Cloud Next ‘22 site Google Cloud Innovators site What’s next for digital transformation in the cloud blog New cloud regions coming to a country near you blog The next wave of Google Cloud infrastructure innovation: New C3 VM and Hyperdisk blog 20+ Cloud Networking innovations unveiled at Google Cloud Next blog Introducing Software Delivery Shield for end-to-end software supply chain security blog Developers - Build, learn, and grow your career faster with Google Cloud blog Advancing digital sovereignty on Europe’s terms blog Introducing Confidential Space to help unlock the value of secure data collaboration blog Introducing Chronicle Security Operations: Detect, investigate, and respond to cyberthreats with the speed, scale, and intelligence of Google blog What’s new in Google Cloud databases: More unified. More open. More intelligent. blog Building the most open data cloud ecosystem: Unifying data across multiple sources and platforms blog Introducing the next evolution of Looker, your unified business intelligence platform blog Vertex AI Vision site New AI Agents can drive business results faster: Translation Hub, Document AI, and Contact Center AI blog Open source collaborations and key partnerships to help accelerate AI innovation blog Google Cloud Launches First-of-Its-Kind Service to Simplify Mainframe Modernization for Customers in Financial Services, Retail, Healthcare and Other Industries article Project Starline expands testing through an early access program blog What’s something cool you’re working on?Steph is working on the developer keynote and DevFest and UKI Google Cloud Next Developer Day. Check out her Next talk “Simplify and secure your network for all workloads”.
HostsStephanie Wong
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On the show this week, we’re talking updated DevOps practices for 2022 with hosts Stephanie Wong and Chloe Condon and our guests Nathen Harvey and Derek DeBellis.
Nathen and Derek start the show with a thorough discussion of DORA, the research program dedicated to helping organizations improve software delivery and operations, and the state of DevOps report that Google publishes every year. This year, the DevOps research team strengthened their focus on security and discovered that one of the biggest predictors in security practice adoption is company culture. Open, communicative, and trustful company cultures are some of the best for accepting and implementing optimized security practices. Derek tells us how company cultures are measured and scored for this purpose and Nathen talks about team and individual burnout and its affects on culture.
Low, medium, high, and elite teams are another indicator of culture, and Nathen explains how teams earn their label through four keys of software delivery performance. Each year, they let the data show these four clusters of team performance. But this year there were only three, and Derek talks more about this phenomenon and why the elite cluster seems to have disappeared. When operational performance analysis was added, the four clusters reemerged and were renamed to better suit the new analysis metrics. Nathen details these four new clusters: starting, which performs neither well nor poorly and may be just starting out; flowing, teams that are performing well across throughput, stability, and operational performance; slowing teams, which don’t have high throughput but excel in other areas; and retiring teams, which are reliable but not actively developing projects. We discuss how companies may shift from one cluster to another and how much context can affect this shift.
We talk about key findings in the 2022 DevOps report, especially in the security space. Some of the most notable include the adoption of DevOps security practices and the decreased incidence of burnout on teams who leverage security practices. Nathen and Derek elaborate on how this year’s research changed from last year and what remained the same.
Nathen HarveyNathen works with teams helping them learn about and apply the findings of our research into high performing teams. He’s been involved in the DevOps community for more than a decade.
Derek DeBellisDerek is a Quantitative User Experience Researcher at Google, where Derek focuses on survey research, logs analysis, and figuring out ways to measure concepts central to product development. Derek has published on Human-AI interaction, the impact of Covid-19’s onset on smoking cessation, designing for NLP errors and the role of UX in ensuring privacy.
Cool things of the week Try out Cloud Spanner databases at no cost with new free trial instances blog Chipotle Is Testing More Artificial Intelligence Solutions To Improve Operations article Gyfted uses Google Cloud AI/ML tools to match tech workers with the best jobs blog Interview 2022 Accelerate State of DevOps Report blog DevOps site 2022 State of the DevOps Report Report site DORA site DORA Community site SLSA site Security Software Development Framework site Westrum organizational culture site Google finds culture, not tech, is the biggest predictor of DevOps security outcomes article GCP Podcast Episode 205: DevOps with Nathen Harvey and Jez Humble podcast GCP Podcast Episode 284: State of DevOps Report 2021 with Nathen Harvey and Dustin Smith podcast GCP Podcast Episode 290: Resiliency at Shopify with Camilo Lopez and Tai Dickerson podcast What’s something cool you’re working on?Steph is working on talks for DevFest Nantes and a Google Cloud dev conference in London. She’ll be talking about subsea fiber optics and Google Cloud networking products.
Chloe is a Noogler, so she’s been working on learning as much as she can! She is excited to make her podcast debut this week!
HostsStephanie Wong and Chloe Condon
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Jason Smith, founder of the Mixed Googlers group here at Google, joins Stephanie Wong to talk about DEI and the importance of belonging in tech.
Jason helps us better understand what the concepts diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging mean to him. It’s more than just including different types of people, Jason tells us, companies must also give them equal opportunities and say in their jobs. We talk about the difference between DEI and belonging. Belonging means feeling comfortable and accepted and conveys a more concrete, real-life sense of community that brings DEI to life. While DEI is easy enough for a company to measure, it’s sometimes tricky to get a clear picture of belonging in a company. Jason talks about possible solutions to this problem.
Growing up as the child of both a white and a black parent, Jason understands the importance of feeling a sense of belonging as a mixed race individual. In that vein, he founded Mixed Googlers, and he tells us more about how this group supports other mixed individuals at Google. He talks about the events they have hosted, including talks with famous mixed race speakers, and how the grassroots efforts to form and grow Mixed Googlers has created a great community.
Later, Jason talks about DEI and belonging in tech companies and cloud specifically. He introduces us to some fun ways to incorporate DEI principles into company culture in a way that encourages all individuals to contribute their personal perspectives. He stresses the importance of allowing mistakes, especially when discussing diversity issues with your coworkers, so the conversation can be about growth and not about confrontation.
Jason SmithJason Smith is a Customer Engineer supporting application modernization and the founder of Mixed Googlers, an ERG dedicated to mixed race individuals.
Cool things of the week Sign up for the Google Cloud Fly Cup Challenge blog Google Cloud Firewall introduces Network Firewall Policies, IAM-governed Tags and more blog Building trust in the data with Dataplex blog Interview Google Belonging site Google 2022 Diversity Annual Report site Sugi Dakks: Not the Only One | Talks at Google video Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Keynote site BigQuery site What’s something cool you’re working on?Stephanie is working on content for Next and the Drone Racing League.
HostsStephanie Wong
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Vertex AI Experiments with Ivan Nardini and Karthik Ramachandran
Hosts Anu Srivastava and Nikita Namjoshi are joined by guests Ivan Nardini and Karthik Ramachandran in a conversation about Vertex AI Experiments this week on the podcast. Vertex AI Experiments allows for easy, thorough ML experimentation and analysis of ML strategies.
Our guests start the show with a brief introduction to Vertex AI and go on to help us understand where Experiments fits in. Because building ML models takes trial and error as we figure out what architecture and data management will work best, Experiments is a handy tool that helps developers try different variations. With extensive tracking capabilities and analysis tools, developers can see what is working, what’s not, and get ideas for other things to try. Ivan tells us about the two concepts to keep in mind before using Experiments: runs, which are training configurations, and experiments, adjustments you make as you look for the best solution.
Vertex ML Metadata, a managed ML metadata tool, helps analyze Experiment runs in a graph, Ivan tells us. He takes us through an example ML model build and training using Vertex AI Experiments and other tools. He and Karthik also elaborate on the relationship between Vertex AI Experiments and Pipelines. We talk about the future of AI, including the foundational model, and some cool examples of what’s happening in the real world with Vertex AI Experiments.
Ivan NardiniIvan Nardini is a customer engineer specialized in ML and passionate about Developer Advocacy and MLE. He is currently collaborating and enabling Data Science developers and practitioners to define and implement MLOps on Vertex AI. He is an active contributor in Google Cloud.
Karthik RamachandranKarthik Ramachandran is a Product Managed on the VertexAI team. He’s been focused on developing MLOps tools like Vertex Pipelines and Experiments.
Cool things of the week Expanding the Google Cloud Ready - Sustainability initiative with 12 new partners blog Large Language Models and how they are used with Natural Language Understanding. pdf Interview Vertex AI site Vertex AI Experiments docs Vertex AI SDK for Python docs Vertex ML Metedata docs Vertex AI Pipelines docs Vertex AI Workbench docs Vertex AI Tensorboard docs Track, compare, manage experiments with Vertex AI Experiments blog Vertex AI Experiments Notebooks site What’s something cool you’re working on?Anu is working on demos for Next.
Nikita is testing new features for Vertex AI.
HostsNikita and Anu Srivastava
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Host Stephanie Wong chats with storage pros Sean Derrington and Nishant Kohli this week to learn more about cost optimization with storage projects and exciting new launches in the Google Cloud storage space!
To start, we talk about the Storage Spotlight of years past and the cool Google Cloud products that Google is unveiling this year. Optimization is a huge theme this year, with a focus not only on cost optimization but also performance and resource use as well. Enterprise readiness and storage everywhere, Sean tells us, are the most important pillars as Google continues to improve offerings. We learn about Hyperdisk and the three customizable attributes users can control and the benefits of Filestore Enterprise for GKE for large client systems.
Nishant talks about Cloud Storage and how clients are using it at scale for their huge data projects. Specifically, Google Storage has been working to help clients with large-scale data storage needs to optimize costs with Autoclass. Storage Insights is another new tool launching late this year or early next year that empowers better decision-making through increased knowledge and analytics of storage usage.
GKE storage is getting a revamp as well with Backup for GKE to help clients recover applications and data easily. Google Cloud for Backup and DR helps keep projects secure as well. This managed service is easy to use and integrate into all cloud projects and can be used with on prem projects and then backed up into the cloud. This is ideal for clients as they shift to cloud or hybrid systems. Companies like Redivis take advantage of some of these new data features, and Nishant talks more about how Autoclass and other tools have helped them save money and improve their business.
Sean DerringtonSean is the Group Product Manager for the storage team. He is a long time storage industry PM veteran; he’s worked on Veritas, Symantec, Exablox (storage startup).
Nishant KohliNishant has a decade plus of Object Storage experience at Dell/EMC and Hitachi. He’s currently Senior Product Manager on the storage team.
Cool things of the week Cloud Next 2022 site Integrating ML models into production pipelines with Dataflow blog Four non-traditional paths to a cloud career (and how to navigate them) blog Interview What’s New & Next: A Spotlight on Storage site Google Cloud Online Storage Products site GCP Podcast Episode 277: Storage Launches with Brian Schwarz and Sean Derrington podcast GKE site Filestore site Filestore Enterprise site Filestore Enterprise for fully managed, fault tolerant persistent storage on GKE blog Cloud Storage site Cloud Storage Autoclass docs GCP Episode 307: FinOps with Joe Daly podcast Storage Insights docs GCP Podcast Episode 318: GKE Turns 7 with Tim Hockin podcast Backup for GKE docs Backup and DR Service site Redivis site What’s something cool you’re working on?Stephanie is working on new video content and two Next sessions: one teaching how to simplify and secure your network for all workloads and one talking about how our infrastructure partner ecosystem helps customers.
HostsStephanie Wong
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Tim Hockin joins Kaslin Fields and Anthony Bushong to celebrate GKE’s seventh birthday! Tim starts with a brief background on GKE from its beginnings in 2015 and its relationship to Borg to the visions Google developers had for the software. GKE is meant to help companies focus on what they’re good at and leave the rest to Google’s managed Kubernetes service.
Tim talks about his acting gig in a Kubernetes documentary, including some fun facts about Kubernetes’ early days and the significance of the number seven. Over time, the teams working on open source Kubernetes and GKE have worked together, with advances in the open source software influencing updates in GKE. Kubernetes 1.25 was released the day this episode was recorded, and Tim describes how much work and thought goes into building these updates.
GKE offers GCP users unique ways to leverage Kubernetes tools like scaling, and Tim shares stories about the evolution of some of these tools and his experiences with networking. Talking with the Kubernetes community has helped refine GKE mult-icluster tools to help companies solve real problems, and Tim tells us more about other features and updates coming with future iterations of GKE. KubeCon is in October, so come by and learn more!
Tim HockinTim Hockin is Principal Software Engineer working with Kubernetes at Google Cloud.
Cool things of the week What’s new with Google Cloud blog Power Your Business with Modern Cloud Apps: Strategies and Best Practices site Securing apps for Googlers using Anthos Service Mesh blog Interview GKE site Kubernetes site Anthos site Borg: The Predecessor to Kubernetes blog Enabling multi-cluster Gateways docs Cloud Load Balancing site Multi-cluster Services docs Keynote: From One to Many, the Road to Multicluster- Kaslin Fields, Developer Advocate, Google Cloud video GCP Podcast Episode 272: GKE Turns Six with Anthony Bushong, Gari Singh, and Kaslin Fields podcast What’s something cool you’re working on?Kaslin is working on NEXT and KubeCon stuff.
Anthony is working on GKE Essentials and getting ready to go on leave.
HostsKaslin Fields and Anthony Bushong
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This week, Max Saltonstall and Stephanie Wong go behind the scenes at Google Cloud with Gabe Weiss and Anita Kibunguchy-Grant to learn how new products move from idea to market.
To start, our guests walk us through a typical end-to-end life cycle as Google creates new and exciting products for users. Starting with a problem sometimes brought to light by users, a solution is workshopped, and a team is brought together to tackle the issue. Once the product is workable, Gabe and his team step in to evaluate and pass it on to Anita for market launch. With examples like BigQuery Omni and AlloyDB, Anita and Gabe walk us through a real launch scenario, from naming the product to promotion and observing the satisfying impacts of a product solving real-world problems.
Anita details the three phases of a product launch and which teams are involved. The phases are pre-launch, during launch, and post-launch. In pre-launch, things like naming and messaging are crafted, priority is assigned via tier assignment, and plans are made to interact with various promotional and other teams who may need to be involved with the launch. Launch day activities are coordinated next as various marketing avenues are leveraged for maximum visibility and development teams work together to make the technical side successful. Post-Launch involves some debriefing on the success of the marketing as well as analysis of use, press coverage, page views, revenue, sentiment among users, and enabling sales teams for success.
Gabe talks about the importance of his team in the process as they test products for customer usability and QA before launch as well. He and Anita elaborate on the differences with Google launches versus other companies, including the stages involved in launch and the naming of these stages. Many launches are done at big Google Cloud events, like Google I/O, Anita points out as a unique feature of Google, which can be a gift and a curse. Challenges are addressed as our guests talk us through possible problems and the ways launch teams address them. Anita and Gabe emphasize empathy and communication in product launching and the importance of clear, productive feedback.
Anita Kibunguchy-GrantAnita Kibunguchy-Grant is a Product Marketing Lead at Google with extensive experience across Data Analytics and Databases products and solutions. Before Google, she led awareness and go-to-market programs at VMware.
She has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and is passionate about helping customers use data and technology to transform their businesses.
Gabe WeissGabe leads the database advocacy team for the Google Cloud Platform team ensuring that developers can make awesome things, both inside and outside of Google. Prior to Google he’s worked in virtual reality production and distribution, source control, the games industry, and professional acting.
Cool things of the week Leveling up your data analysis skills as a student blog Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude site How Google Cloud blocked the largest Layer 7 DDoS attack at 46 million rps blog Interview BigQuery site Datastream site Database Migration Services site Cloud SQL site AlloyDB site PostgreSQL site Google I/O site Qwiklabs site Agones site Databases blog What’s something cool you’re working on?Max is wrapping up his hosting of summer interns and getting ready for vacation! He plans to play a lot of board games and video games!
Steph also enjoyed hosting interns this summer!
HostsStephanie Wong and Max Saltonstall
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