ShipTalk - SRE, DevOps, Platform Engineering, Software Delivery

Hosted by By Harness

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Latest episode

May 2026

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EN-US

About the show

ShipTalk is the podcast series on the ins, outs, ups, and downs of software delivery. This series dives into the vast ocean Software Delivery, bringing aboard industry tech leaders, seasoned engineers, and insightful customers to navigate through the currents of the ever-evolving software landscape. Each session explores the real-world challenges and victories encountered by today’s tech innovators. Whether you’re an Engineering Manager, Software Engineer, or an enthusiast in Software delivery is your interest, you’ll gain invaluable insights, and equip yourself with the knowledge to sail through the complex waters of software delivery. Our seasoned guests are here to share their stories, shining a light on the do's, don’ts, and the “I wish I knew” of the tech world. If you would like to be a guest on ShipTalk, send an email to podcast@shiptalk.io Be sure to check out our sponsor's website - Harness.io

Listen to episodes

45 recent

May 8, 2026Episode 111 hr 38 min

ShipTalk Season 4 Finale: Engineering Excellence at AWS re:Invent

Welcome to the Season 4 finale of the Ship Talk podcast! Join special host Thomas Dockstader and several industry leaders at AWS re:Invent to discuss the intersection of AI and software delivery. The following is a series of interviews with partners, customers, and engineering leaders on the front lines of AI transformation.Don't miss the "Ship It or Skip It" segment, where our guests give their rapid-fire takes on everything from AI code reviews to the four-day work week.Connect with our featured host/guests:Thomas Docstater | Ron Miller | Hasith Kalpage | Eric Baran | Tim Knapp | Piyush DiwanWatch the full video on YouTube.Subscribe to ‪@Harnessio‬ YouTube channel for more insights as we prepare for Season 5!

April 10, 2026Episode 101 hr 9 min

Special ShipTalk Episode from DND NYC 2026

This is a special episode where we sat down with the speakers at DevOpsNotDead NYC 2026 to hear their perspectives on how AI is transforming software delivery.Connect with our guests:https://www.linkedin.com/in/diamondbishophttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sadiojonas/https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuamlee/https://www.linkedin.com/in/akash-thakur-00367a155/https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahender-mangalasri/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesbrookbank/

March 16, 2026Episode 91 hr 37 min

Special ShipTalk Episode from SREday NYC 2026

This is a special episode where we sat down with the speakers at SREday NYC 2026 to hear their perspectives on how AI is transforming software delivery.

February 10, 2026Episode 847 min

Crown Jewels In, Crown Jewels Out – The Hidden Risk of AI with Devan Shah (IBM)

How do you secure data in the age of Agentic AI? 🤖🔐In this episode of ShipTalk, Dewan Ahmed sits down with Devan Shah, Chief Architect of Data Security at IBM, to explore the massive shift from traditional DevOps to AI-infused software delivery.Devan shares his journey from being a chef to leading an "army" of 450+ developers at IBM. They dive deep into the technical bedrock of IBM’s "OnePipeline" (built on Tekton and Argo CD), the rise of Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), and the architectural principles required to ship AI features without compromising security or compliance.If you are an architect, SRE, or developer advocate trying to navigate the "Crown Jewels In, Crown Jewels Out" risk of LLMs, this episode is for you.Resources mentioned in this episode: IBM Guardium: https://www.ibm.com/products/guardiumIBM & Anthropic Partnership: https://newsroom.ibm.com/2025-10-07-2025-ibm-and-anthropic-partner-to-advance-enterprise-software-development-with-proven-security-and-governanceModernizing SDLC with AI (Whitepaper): https://www.ibm.com/downloads/documents/us-en/1443d5dd174f42e6Subscribe to ShipTalk for more episodes on the intersection of AI and Software Delivery!#AI #DataSecurity #DevOps #IBM #CyberSecurity #SDLC #ArgoCD #Tekton #DSPM #SoftwareEngineering

December 23, 2025Episode 740 min

CTO Predictions for 2026: How AI Will Change Software Development (with Harness Field CTO Nick Durkin)

In this special predictions episode of ShipTalk, host Dewan Ahmed (Principal Developer Advocate, Harness) sits down with Nick Durkin, Field CTO at Harness, to unpack what’s actually coming in 2026—beyond the hype.They explore whether we’re heading toward the first AI-caused production meltdown, how much trust we should place in AI "confidence," and why many teams may face a wave of AI-driven tech debt before they find balance. Nick shares why the future isn’t about more tools or more gates, but about policy in the pipeline, guardrails instead of roadblocks, and teams finally operating with a shared rulebook.The conversation also dives into:Why DevSecOps may finally go mainstream in 2026How MLOps, agents, and prompts become first-class delivery artifactsThe real risks behind prompt injection, model tampering, and shadow AIWhether AI agents become coworkers—or chaosWhat developer experience looks like when IDEs start to feel like chat windowsHow engineers and teams can stay employable and relevant in an AI-native worldThis episode is pragmatic, optimistic, and grounded in real-world delivery experience—perfect for engineers, tech leads, architects, and executives navigating the next phase of AI-driven software delivery.Listen in for a CTO’s clear-eyed predictions on AI, DevSecOps, and what it really takes to ship safely at speed in 2026.

December 22, 2025Episode 638 min

Beyond the Magic Box: Solving AI Hallucinations with Precision RAG (with Evgeny Ilinykh)

In this episode of the ShipTalk Podcast, host Dewan Ahmed (Principal Developer Advocate at Harness) sits down with Evgeny Ilinykh (Founder of GuidedMind.ai and former Tesla Engineering Manager) to move past the AI hype and get into the engineering reality of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).If your AI agents are hallucinating, the problem probably isn't your model—it’s your retrieval layer. Evgeny breaks down how to turn the "black box" of LLMs into a transparent, production-ready system that developers can actually trust.What we cover:- The Death of Deterministic Software: Moving from hardcoded paths to agentic AI logic.- The "Dark Spots" of Vector Space: Why hallucinations are actually retrieval failures.- Contextual Retrieval: Insights into how system-level context changes the game for accuracy.- Scaling to Production: Solving the "dirty work" of messy PDFs, table parsing, and chunking.- Standardizing AI Delivery: Will RAG become as common as CI/CD in the modern dev stack?RESOURCES & LINKS:1. Connect with our guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eilinykh/2. Explore GuidedMind.ai: https://guidedmind.ai/3. Read the Anthropic Research: https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/contextual-retrieval

December 1, 2025Episode 544 min

Shipping Practical AI: How to Build Real-World ML for 2D Drawings (with Marina Petzel)

In this episode of Ship Talk, host Dewan Ahmed (Principal Developer Advocate, Harness) sits down with Marina Petzel, Senior ML Engineer and AI Productivity Lead at Autodesk, to unpack what it actually looks like to ship AI into long-lived, production software.Marina shares her journey from classic predictive analytics to computer vision and LLMs, and how her team brings intelligent features like Smart Blocks in AutoCAD from ideation to prototype to production on a tight yearly release cadence. She breaks down the often ignored parts of ML work: data pipelines, infrastructure, UX fit, and safety testing, and explains why “garbage in, garbage out” is a law of nature, not just a cliché.They also dive into AI for developer productivity, multi-agent workflows, red-teaming and prompt safety, and how every engineer, regardless of seniority, can start using AI as a genuine skill multiplier. Marina closes with concrete advice for aspiring ML engineers: build more, read less, follow your curiosity, and share your work publicly so your visibility compounds over time.Follow Marina's work: https://marina.petzel.techConnect with her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-petzel

October 17, 2025Episode 436 min

Beyond Dashboards: How AI Is Redefining Developer Productivity with Adeeb Valiulla

In this episode of ShipTalk, host Dewan Ahmed sits down with Adeeb Valiulla, a leader in developer productivity and engineering excellence at Harness, to explore how AI is transforming the very definition of software productivity.Adeeb shares his journey from building early engineering metrics systems at Sensormatic to leading developer efficiency initiatives for Fortune 500 companies. Together, they unpack how AI is changing what it means to be “productive” — from measuring outcomes instead of outputs, to ensuring governance, trust, and quality at AI scale.If you’ve ever wondered how frameworks like DORA, SPACE, and Flow adapt in an AI-driven world, or how to separate “AI-powered” hype from truly “AI-driven” value, this conversation is for you.If you'd like to appear on one of our episodes, connect with Dewan.---Adeeb's Work:1. Comparative Analysis of Engineering Performance and Experience Frameworks: DORA, SPACE, HEART, and Beyond. 2. Developer Experience (DevEx) Measurement in the Age of AI. 3. Other Adeeb Valiulla publications.4. Metrics That Matter podcast Connect with Adeeb.

September 9, 2025Episode 347 min

AI for Security vs Security for AI: From IBM Master Inventor to Microsoft AI Architect

Dewan Ahmed sits down with Fatih Bulut, AI Architect at Microsoft and former IBM Research Master Inventor, to separate hype from reality in AI for software delivery and cybersecurity. Fatih clarifies AI for security vs security for AI, walks through detection engineering as real software engineering, and explains proactive defense across an attack’s phases. He digs into the hard part of shipping: execution, product alignment, and tight feedback loops with customers. On code generation, he calls out failure modes like plausible but wrong outputs and hard coded shortcuts, and raises open questions about responsibility and auditability when AI writes code. The pair map AI across the SDLC, from pipeline generation and troubleshooting to vulnerability triage, then explore transformer limits with huge telemetry and why verifiable tasks such as code and math are near term wins. Fatih remains bullish on AI where outputs are testable and where context usage actually works at scale. Connect with Fatih on LinkedIn.

July 28, 2025Episode 252 min

Debugging Developer Productivity in an AI-native World with Aravind Putrevu (CodeRabbit)

In this episode of ShipTalk, Chinmay Gaikwad sits down with Aravind Putrevu, Head of Developer Relations at CodeRabbit, and dives into the evolving landscape of AI in software development. Aravind shares insights on the influence of AI tools across the software development lifecycle, from coding and code reviews to automation and security. Aravind highlights the pivotal role of context engineering, the continued importance of human oversight in AI-driven workflows, and how teams can harness diverse AI tools for productivity. The discussion also explores Kubernetes' impact on AI workloads, best practices for developer enablement, and the latest trends in developer communities and learning resources.