Episode Details

The conversation covers: 

• The difference between cloud computing and cloud-native, according to AJ
• Whether it’s possible to have a cloud-native application that runs on-premise 
• The types of conversations that AJ has with customers, as VP of product. AJ also talks about the different types of customers that DigitalOcean serves.
• How the needs of smaller teams tend to differ from the needs of enterprise users — and the challenges that smaller teams face when learning and implementing cloud-native applications.  
• Making decisions when using Kubernetes, and how it can be overwhelming due to the sheer number of choices that you can make. 
• Some of the main motivations that are driving smaller companies to Kubernetes. AJ also explains what he thinks is the best rationale for using Kubernetes.
• Popular misconceptions about cloud-native and Kubernetes that AJ is seeing.
• Why customers often struggle to make technology decisions to support their business goals. 
• AJ’s advice for businesses when making technology decisions.
• Why startups are encouraged to start by using open source — and why open source wins in the end when compared to proprietary solutions.

Links

• DigitalOcean: https://www.digitalocean.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/apurvajo 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apurvajo/ 

Transcript

Emily: Hi everyone. I’m Emily Omier, your host, and my day job is helping companies position themselves in the cloud-native ecosystem so that their product’s value is obvious to end-users. I started this podcast because organizations embark on the cloud naive journey for business reasons, but in general, the industry doesn’t talk about them. Instead, we talk a lot about technical reasons. I’m hoping that with this podcast, we focus more on the business goals and business motivations that lead organizations to adopt cloud-native and Kubernetes. I hope you’ll join me.

Emily: Welcome to The Business of Cloud Native. I'm Emily Omier, your host, and today I'm chatting with AJ. AJ, can you go ahead and introduce yourself?

AJ: Hey, I'm AJ. I’m vice president of product for DigitalOcean. I've been with the company for about 15 months. Before that, I spent about a couple of decades with Microsoft. I was fortunate to work on Azure for the last decade, and I had the opportunity to build some cloud services with the company.

Emily: And thank you so much for joining us.

AJ: Thank you, thank you for having me.

Emily: I always like to start out by asking, what do you actually do? What does a day look like?

AJ: [laughs]. It’s an interesting question. So, yes, the day is usually all over the place depending on the priorities and things that are in motion for a given quarter or a week, per se. But usually, my days involve working with the team around the strategic initiatives that have been planned, driving clarity around different projects that I [unintelligible]. Mainly working with leadership on defining some of the roadmap for the product as well as the company. And yeah, and talking to lots of customers. That's something that I really, really enjoy. And every other day I have a meeting or two talking to our customers, learning from them, how they use our products and how can we get better.

Emily: I'm going to ask more about those conversations with customers because that's what I find really interesting. But first, actually, I wanted to start with another question. What do you see as the difference between cloud compu