Whitney Lee

🌩️ Thunder: Kubernetes Custom Resources Explained (CRDs, Controllers, & Operators)

🌩️ Thunder: Cilium Explained: eBPF-Powered Kubernetes Networking

KubeCon North America: KubeHound: Identifying Attack Paths in Kubernetes Clusters at Scale

AI for the Rest of Us: How to Trust a Liar: Instrumenting AI Execution with OpenTelemetry

Software Defined Interviews: AI Doesn’t Fix Bad DevOps, with Nathen Harvey

SOPS is a CLI tool that encrypts and decrypts files. But can you use it declaratively?

@andyserver.com explains in this 🌩️ Thunder episode:
youtu.be/9jgKuHzaYpU

#SOPS #CLI #SecretsManagement #DevOps

GPG, AWS KMS, GCP KMS, Azure Key Vault — why learn four CLIs when one will do?

@andyserver.com explains how SOPS gives you one interface for all of them in this 🌩️ Thunder episode:
youtu.be/9jgKuHzaYpU

#SOPS #SecretsManagement #AWS #GCP #Azure #CloudSecurity

Helm or Kustomize? The real question is: how do you get secrets into either one safely?

@andyserver.com explains how SOPS integrates with both in this 🌩️ Thunder episode: youtu.be/9jgKuHzaYpU

#SOPS #GitOps #Helm #Kustomize #Kubernetes

Database credentials, SSH keys, Kubernetes secrets — how do you protect them all without juggling different tools?

@andyserver.com explains in this 🌩️ Thunder episode: youtu.be/9jgKuHzaYpU

#SOPS #SecretsManagement #Kubernetes #CloudSecurity

Thunder episode thumbnail featuring Andrew Block and Whitney Lee. Large yellow text reads "Managing Secrets in Configuration Files with SOPS". Andrew appears on the left in a headshot, Whitney on the right looking excited with hands near her face, wearing a plaid shirt. A lightboard with SOPS architecture diagrams is visible in the background. The Thunder logo appears in the top left corner.

In this episode of 🌩️ Thunder, @andyserver.com explains SOPS — a CLI tool that encrypts and decrypts files using GPG, AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, or HashiCorp Vault. One interface, any backend. We also cover how SOPS fits into GitOps workflows.

Watch now →
youtu.be/9jgKuHzaYpU

Software Defined Interviews podcast graphic with hosts Whitney Lee (top left, laughing and clapping) and Michael Coté (top right, smiling, bearded, in a blue plaid shirt) above the show logo with stylized clouds. Below, guest Jason Hand smiles warmly, with longer silver hair and a tan jacket. An arrow points to text reading "with guest Jason Hand."

Jason Hand built a scheduling app because he was tired of giving his personal details to a corporation just to coordinate drinks with a buddy

Listen to the latest Software Defined Interviews podcast where we talk vibe coding, AI Tools Lab, & 10 years of DevRel →
softwaredefinedinterviews.com/115

`kubectl logs` works fine until you need to ship logs somewhere. Then you're configuring collectors, routing rules, credentials, RBAC permissions, and buffering strategies.

Peter Wilcsinszky explains what Logging Operator handles for you in this 🌩️ Thunder episode: youtu.be/NDsaw0hO0T8

Do you have a KubeCon proposal that didn't get accepted? The CFP for Cloud Native Rejekts Amsterdam is still open, until January 17!

Submit!!! ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ

sessionize.com/cloud-native...

What happens when one team's logging volume overwhelms everyone else's pipeline? How do you give teams autonomy without sacrificing stability?

Peter Wilcsinszky explains how Logging Operator's Flow and Output custom resources solve this in this 🌩️ Thunder episode:
youtu.be/NDsaw0hO0T8

Fluent Bit works, but what if you want more flexibility at the collector layer? What if you want to use OpenTelemetry Collector instead?

Peter Wilcsinszky explains how the new Telemetry Controller makes this possible in this 🌩️ Thunder episode:
youtu.be/NDsaw0hO0T8

#OpenTelemetry #LoggingOperator

What do you do when your legacy app writes logs to files instead of stdout? Or when you need Kubernetes event logs alongside container logs?

Peter Wilcsinszky explains in this 🌩️ Thunder episode:
youtu.be/NDsaw0hO0T8

#Kubernetes #LoggingOperator #Observability #CNCF #DevOps

Thunder episode thumbnail featuring Peter Wilcsinszky and Whitney Lee. Large yellow text reads "Logging Operator" with subtitle "Multi-Tenant Kubernetes Logging". A lightboard with Kubernetes logging architecture diagrams is visible in the background. Peter appears on the left, Whitney on the right smiling.

In this episode of 🌩️ Thunder, Peter Wilcsinszky, maintainer of Logging Operator, explains how the project's Flow and Output custom resources bring Kubernetes-native control to log routing.

Watch now →
youtu.be/NDsaw0hO0T8

#Kubernetes #LoggingOperator #Observability #FluentBit #CNCF #DevOps

During the holiday break I went on a waterfall tour of the Chattahoochie National Forest in North Georgia ♫ https://whitneylee.com/2026/01/07/070649.html

Fluent Bit was designed for tiny IoT devices with barely any memory. Why did cloud native teams running massive Kubernetes clusters adopt it instead?

@edsiper.bsky.social explains in this 🌩️ Thunder episode: youtu.be/t6RxvVGvM7Q

#FluentBit #IoT #Observability #CloudNative #CNCF #Kubernetes

Transformation, DevOps, Open Source, and Fast Food Operations, with Andrew Clay Shafer: https://whitneylee.com/2026/01/06/transformation-devops-open-source-and.html

@cote.io

What happens when Fluent Bit's built-in functionality isn't enough for your use case? The plugin architecture lets you extend your pipeline with custom logic — including Lua scripts — right out of the box.

@edsiper.bsky.social explains in this 🌩️ Thunder episode: youtu.be/t6RxvVGvM7Q

Thank you!

12 years ago, collecting logs from different sources meant dealing with incompatible formats everywhere. How did we get from that chaos to the unified pipelines we have today?

@edsiper.bsky.social shares Fluentd's origin story in this 🌩️ Thunder episode:
youtu.be/t6RxvVGvM7Q

#Fluentd #FluentBit

If Fluent Bit and OpenTelemetry Collector both collect, process, and export telemetry data, when should you reach for one over the other?

@edsiper.bsky.social explains in this 🌩️ Thunder episode:
youtu.be/t6RxvVGvM7Q

#FluentBit #OpenTelemetry #Observability #CloudNative #CNCF

In this episode of 🌩️ Thunder, @edsiper.bsky.social, creator of Fluent Bit, walks through the project's evolution. We also discuss Fluent Bit's plugin architecture, and when to use it vs OpenTelemetry Collector. Fun!

Watch now→
youtu.be/t6RxvVGvM7Q

Software Defined Interviews podcast graphic featuring hosts Whitney Lee (left, smiling and clapping) and Michael Coté (right, smiling) above the show logo with stylized clouds. Below the logo, guest Russell Davies appears, a bearded man with his hand near his chin, smiling warmly.

Some people create constantly. What's their secret?

When @cote.io and I asked how our guest Russell Davies stays so prolific, his answer surprised me: "I have quite low standards."

Yet, by any measure, Davies has a wildly successful career. Listen and learn:
softwaredefinedinterviews.com/112

🌩️ Thunder: Logging Operator: Multi-Tenant Kubernetes Logging

Just a DIY holiday musical that merges the plot of Wiked with the characters from Lord of the Rings while critiquing capitalism and celebrating queerness!

terrorpigeon.us

KubeCon North America: The Questions Not Asked: A Critical Retrospective on Platform Engineering