Cloud Technology News of the Month: June 2022
Tags: cloud, kubernetes, news, devops
Published: 2022-07-11 11:25:10

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>There’s a wave of layoffs and executive step-downs running through the industry, that’s for sure. As the tech meltdown progresses, cloud companies are taking a hit. What happened in the cloud world this June? Keep on reading to find out!</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>_____</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:heading -->
<h2 id="story-of-the-month-has-the-tech-bubble-finally-burst">Story of the Month: Has the Tech Bubble Finally Burst?</h2>
<!-- /wp:heading -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>So far, the companies we’ve seen struggle - like GoPuff or Robinhood - were ones operating on the seam between high tech and other sectors. But now tech businesses face trouble too. The cloud security firm <strong>Lacework</strong> is laying off 20% of its staff.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Most of these companies grew really fast and their cloud bills followed. Robinhood’s technology and development spend was up <a href="https://bankautomationnews.com/allposts/wealth/robinhood-technology-and-development-costs-surge-248-yoy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">248% YoY</a> in 2021, likely including cloud expenses. Roblox Cost of Goods Sold for Q1 2022 was $0.136B, a <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/RBLX/roblox/cost-goods-sold" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">38.49% increase YoY</a> that is in part driven by the <a href="https://structureresearch.net/2021/03/18/gaming-platform-roblox-using-colocation-aws-infrastructure-costs-steadily-rising/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">steadily rising infrastructure costs</a> (including AWS services).</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>And now we have one more story that illustrates the bubble burst really well: <strong>Tiger Global</strong>.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>https://twitter.com/intelligencer/status/1543041574334042112 </p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p><strong>As of June 2022, the investment firm lost $25 billion, a record figure even in the world of hedge funds.</strong> “The poster child” of the current tech meltdown, Tiger Global made a bunch of investments that increased the prices of speculative tech stocks. Once those positions started dropping, being at the center of this growth bubble was (and still is) bad news.&nbsp;</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Take a look at the most talked-about Tiger investments: Peloton, Roblox, Uber, Robinhood, Warby Parker, and Carvana. Some of them noted losses of over 90%.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:quote {"className":"is-style-plain"} -->
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-plain"><p>Many startups that expanded fast during the pandemic <strong>are now paying a steep price </strong>for their unchecked growth. Since most of them run on the cloud, optimizing their infrastructure expenses is likely to make <a href="https://cast.ai/blog/tech-companies-can-endure-recession-if-they-fix-this-one-neglected-cost-item/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the biggest impact on their bottom line</a>.</p></blockquote>
<!-- /wp:quote -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Sources: <a href="https://www.protocol.com/enterprise/lacework-layoffs-cloud-security-startup" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Protocol</a>, <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/06/tiger-global-poster-child-of-the-tech-meltdown.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York Magazine</a></p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>_____</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:heading -->
<h2 id="the-business-of-cloud">The Business of Cloud</h2>
<!-- /wp:heading -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p><strong>Broadcom's</strong> recent acquisition of <strong>VMware</strong> has been affecting its existing customers, and the transition proves to be challenging.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/30/broadcom_strategy_vmware_customer_impact/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Register</a></p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p><strong>Amazon’s retail CEO Dave Clark</strong> is resigning after 23 years. Is this connected with the company’s overbuild in the last years or the role he lost to Andy Jassy?</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/3/23153327/amazon-ceo-consumer-retail-businesses-dave-clark-resigning" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Verge</a></p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>During the last few decades, <strong>the US</strong> has been losing its <strong>dominance over the semiconductor industry</strong>. If things continue the way they’re going, we’re looking at the loss of the foundational building block of modern technology. This insightful piece dives into the major causes of this issue and suggests a solution.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Source: <a href="https://semianalysis.substack.com/p/why-america-will-lose-semiconductors" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SemiAnalysis on Substack</a></p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>_____</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:heading -->
<h2 id="security-outages">Security &amp; Outages</h2>
<!-- /wp:heading -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Security is a concern for <strong>Kubernetes</strong> and container-based projects, according to <strong>Red Hat</strong>’s latest Kubernetes security report. Here are the key findings:</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:list -->
<ul><li><strong>93%</strong> of respondents <strong>experienced at least one security incident</strong> in their Kubernetes and container environments in the past 12 months (sometimes resulting in losing customers or revenue). 38% have had a major vulnerability in the past 12 months.</li><li>55% of respondents delayed or slowed down application deployment due to security concerns.</li><li>53% detected a misconfiguration in Kubernetes in the past 12 months.</li><li>78% have a DevSecOps initiative either in the beginning or advanced stages.</li><li>43% consider DevOps as the role most responsible for Kubernetes security.</li></ul>
<!-- /wp:list -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.redhat.com/en/resources/state-kubernetes-security-report" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2022 State of Kubernetes Security</a></p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://twitter.com/ryankaz42/status/1532042636458176512","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} -->
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://twitter.com/ryankaz42/status/1532042636458176512
</div></figure>
<!-- /wp:embed -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Over the past year,&nbsp; <strong>Microsoft Azure</strong> experienced 6 “nightmare” cloud security flaws. Security researchers agree that cross-tenant vulnerabilities emerge as a new type of risk customers need to be aware of (even if the cloud was supposed to be free of it).</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.protocol.com/enterprise/microsoft-azure-vulnerabilities-cloud-security" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Protocol</a></p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Podcast enthusiasts couldn’t listen to their favorite shows for over 8 hours due to an outage on <strong>Megaphone</strong>, the podcast hosting platform <strong>Spotify</strong> owns. What happened? The company failed to renew Megaphone’s security certificate. Yes, it’s that simple.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/31/23148682/spotify-podcast-outage-ssl-joe-rogan-ringer-megaphone" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Verge</a></p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>_____</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:heading -->
<h2 id="food-for-thought">Food for Thought</h2>
<!-- /wp:heading -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>The latest <strong>StackOverflow Developer Survey</strong> is here and tells us a lot about the cloud landscape from the perspective of engineers.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p><strong>AWS</strong> is still the most used cloud platform for all respondents and Professional Developers. <strong>Azure</strong> stole the second-place spot from <strong>Google Cloud</strong>.&nbsp;</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>And significantly more Professional Developers use AWS and Azure compared to people learning to code. Here we see a different usage of cloud platforms - <strong>Heroku</strong> is a top choice among them (35%). Interestingly, <strong>Google Cloud</strong> is also part of this list 31% of devs learning to code use it, as opposed to 26% of Professional Developers.&nbsp;</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:image {"id":10806,"sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"none"} -->
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://cast.ai/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-04-at-14.14.43-1200x736.png" alt="" class="wp-image-10806"/></figure>
<!-- /wp:image -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p></p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Source: <a href="https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022/#technology-most-popular-technologies" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2022</a>&nbsp;</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>_____</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:heading -->
<h2 id="meanwhile-at-cast-ai">Meanwhile at CAST AI</h2>
<!-- /wp:heading -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>If you’ve ever wondered how to benefit from automated cloud cost optimization but still remain in control, here’s something that delivers just that: updated rebalancing!</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p><strong>Rebalancing helps your cluster reach the most cost-efficient state by replacing suboptimal nodes with better ones, and moving your workloads automatically.&nbsp;</strong></p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Previously, you’d optimize the entire cluster. Now, you can pick the specific nodes you’d like to swap. You can also taint the new nodes to avoid moving workloads to them before the node creation process ends. <a href="https://cast.ai/release-notes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read more</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>_____</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>This series explores the most attention-grabbing cloud technology news, bringing you up to speed with the latest releases, acquisitions, research, and hidden gems in cloud computing – the stuff actually worth reading.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Get the next portion of cloud technology news directly to your inbox.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:html -->
<div id="cloud-tech-news-form"></div>
<!-- /wp:html -->