Open at Intel

Driving Open Source Innovation: Upstream Contributions, Security, and AI

In this episode of the Open at Intel podcast, host Katherine Druckman sits down with Nithya Ruff, the head of Amazon's Open Source Program Office. They discuss the importance of upstream contributions, improving collective security posture, and the fast-paced world of AI. Nithya shares insights on how Amazon embraces open source across the company, making it easy for developers to work with open source and ensuring the platform is open source-friendly for customers. They also explore the concept of ownership in open source and the responsibilities that come with it. Nithya emphasizes the need for companies to be good citizens of the open source community and highlights the role of organizations like the OpenSSF in coordinating efforts and creating standards. They discuss the challenges of prioritizing resources for upstream work and share practical advice on how to approach it. The conversation also touches on the importance of security in open source, especially in the context of AI, and the need for collaboration and standardization in this rapidly evolving field. Throughout the episode, Nithya and Katherine express their enthusiasm for open source and their optimism in its ability to solve complex problems and drive innovation.

 

Guest:

Nithya A. Ruff is the Head of Amazon’s Open Source Program Office. Open Source has proven to be one of the world’s most prolific enablers of innovation and collaboration and Amazon’s customers increasingly value open source innovation and the and cloud’s role in helping them adopt and run important open source services. She drives open source culture and coordination inside of Amazon and engagement with external communities. Prior to Amazon, she started and grew Comcast and Western Digital’s Open Source Program Offices. Open Source Program Offices are a critical part of a company’s digital transformation and innovation journey. Nithya has been director-at-large on the Linux Foundation Board for the last 5 years and in 2019 was elected to be Chair of the influential Linux Foundation Board. She works actively to advance the mission of the Linux Foundation around building sustainable ecosystems that are built on open collaboration. She is a passionate advocate and a speaker for opening doors to new and diverse people in technology and can often be seen speaking and writing on this topic. Nithya graduated with an M.S. in Computer Science from NDSU and an MBA from the University of Rochester, Simon Business School and is an aspiring corporate board director and governance enthusiast. You can follow her on twitter @nithyaruff and you can find her on https://www.linkedin.com/in/nithyaruff/

Open Source Leaders: Melissa Evers

In this special bonus episode, Melissa Evers, Vice President in the Software and Advanced Technology Group and General Manager of the Strategy to Execution organization at Intel, shares valuable insight on open source citizenship, giving back to the community, her own open source journey, and what's on the horizon.

Guest:

Melissa Evers is Vice President in the Software and Advanced Technology Group and General Manager of the Strategy to Execution organization at Intel Corporation where she is responsible for a portfolio of transformative software capabilities including Intel’s open source strategy. Melissa holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA degree from the university’s McCombs School of Business. An active champion of diversity and inclusion, as well as a certified coach, Melissa frequently coaches leaders across the industry.

Good Security Hygiene

Microsoft Cloud Security Advocate, Sarah Young, joins us to talk about good security hygiene, security tooling, and how to think like a hacker.

 

Guest:

Sarah Young has worked in security since before it was cool. She loves to connect and engage with security communities all over the globe. Security affects every single one of us and it is Sarah's firm belief that everyone can (and should) know things about security to keep themselves (both on a professional and personal level) safe from security threats.

Making Open Source Magic

Even as a developer or technologist, adopting a marketing mindset can help you create magic in your communities and projects.

Open source marketing and community leader, Lori Lorusso, joins us to give us some tips for improving communication, getting the word out, and capturing that special sauce that leads to success.

Guest:

Lori Lorusso has a passion and enthusiasm for working with the developer community and has traveled across the globe speaking at and attending conferences and community events advocating on behalf of developers. Lori was elected 2023 Marketing Chair of the CNCF, appointed Chair of the CDF Outreach Committee, is the program chair of cdCon, and is active in the OpenSSF outreach committee. She is a co-organizer of VJUG and frequently volunteers to support other JUGs at virtual and in person events. She co-hosts the CD Pipeline on behalf of the CDF with TechstrongTV. She is committed to helping open source and other tech communities grow and adapt in our ever changing environment.

Developer Experience Is Everything

Whitney Lee, Staff Technical Advocate at VMware and CNCF Ambassador, appreciates the value of good developer experience and smooth app delivery.

Whitney joins us to talk through Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs), and how implementation best practices and clear communication make platform teams and developers happy. We also explored evaluating products in the immense cloud native landscape, GitOps, and more.

Resources

⚡️Enlightning by VMWare Tanzu

You Choose - DevOps Toolkit Channel

Cloud Native Live - CNCF

Guest:

Whitney Lee is a lovable goofball who enjoys understanding and using tools in the cloud native landscape. Creative and driven, Whitney recently pivoted from an art-related career to one in tech. She is active in the open source community, especially around CNCF projects focused on developer productivity. You can catch her lightboard streaming show ⚡️ Enlightning on Tanzu.TV. And not only does she rock at tech - she literally has toured playing in the band Mutual Benefit on keyboards and vocals.

 

 

Lessons From GitHub

Ashley Wolf, Open Source Program Office Director at GitHub, joins us to share lessons learned at GitHub.

As the home of so much open source code, GitHub has a unique view of the open source ecosystem. Ashley shares her own take on the role of an OSPO, trends in open source software development, and the tools her team gives back to the community.

Resources:

github-ospo repo on GitHub

Stale Repos GitHub Action

Guest:

Ashley Wolf is the Director of Open Source Programs at GitHub. She runs initiatives and programs to empower developers to be successful with open source. She is also passionate about helping companies participate in the open source community. Prior to joining GitHub, Ashley led the Yahoo (acquired by Verizon) open source program office. Ashley also serves on the steering committee for the TODO Group.

The Best Ethernet on Mars

Intel Ethernet and open source have been making history for decades. Doug Boom and Kevin Bross join us for a history lesson and a look toward future innovation.

If you drive a car, use a phone, or travel to Mars, chances are you'll encounter foundational ethernet technology Kevin and Doug have helped foster. We take a deep and nerdy dive into the world of open source software and ethernet and learn how it impacts all our lives.

 

Resources:

Westport Channel: Intel® Ethernet Network Adapter E810-XXVDA4T

Logan Beach: Intel® Ethernet Network Adapter E810-CQDA2T

 

Guests:

Doug Boom is a Principal Engineer at Intel Ethernet.  Heading into his 29th year at Intel Ethernet, Doug has done it all when it comes to Ethernet.  Driver writer, product technical lead, architect, people and project management, he has lately been doing custom implementations with Intel Ethernet partners.  His code is in everything from soda machines, enterprise ethernet switches, lottery kiosks, ultrasound machines, cars, planes, trains and even rovers on Mars.  He has over 20 patents, and has invented technologies used in billions of dollars of solutions.  He’s had code in the Linux kernel since the old 2.4 days, but for reasons he can’t explain, his favorite distro is Ubuntu.   Doug is an Ethernet evangelist, you can see him talk about Ethernet basics at this YouTube link and history and some product stories at this YouTube link.  Doug writes fiction, makes board games and plays video games in his spare time.

Kevin W. Bross is an Intel Principal Engineer and modular systems architect in Intel’s Network and Edge Group (NEX).   Over the past 30+ years at Intel, he has held a variety of engineering and marketing roles at Intel, including defining bladed systems products, architecting Intel's first M2M/IoT gateway product, working on the development/trials of 64-antenna Massive MIMO cellular base stations, and architecting Intel’s first three timing-related network adapters.  Kevin is currently working on 5G infrastructure and system design for Intel reference designs and numerous customer systems.

Guest Host:

Chris Norman An avid promoter of open source ecosystems, Chris writes documentation and presents at open source events, helping developers better understand Intel’s contributions to operating systems, languages, and runtimes. He also moderates the Clear Linux community forum.

 

Kubernetes, DevOps and Reinventing Ourselves

Building upon existing technology is at the heart of much technical innovation and is the essence of open source culture, and embracing our history provides invaluable perspective.

Kat Cosgrove, a lead developer advocate at Dell and Kubernetes release team member, joins us to talk DevOps culture, reinventing ourselves and our technology, and how to get involved in projects like Kubernetes.

 

Guest:

Kat Cosgrove In her role as a Lead Developer Advocate at Dell, Kat focuses on the growth and nurturing of open source through authentic contribution. In particular, her specialties are approachable 101-level content and deep dives on the history of technology, with a particular focus on DevOps and cloud native. She has served on the Kubernetes release team since v1.22. When she’s not at a conference, she spends her time playing video games, watching horror movies, or reading science fiction, but her current hyperfixation is film photography. She lives in Scotland with her cat, Espresso, who is the real brains behind the operation and actually ghostwriting all of her tweets.