Stories, ideas, and careers from the people keeping technology reliable.https://rootly.comen-ushttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/michael-kutschhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/michael-kutschPostHog's Michael Kutsch explains why agent skills are becoming an internal developer platform, how autonomy drives adoption, and where deterministic guardrails still matter.Mon, 31 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/blog/how-engineering-leaders-rethink-code-review-in-the-ai-erahttps://rootly.com/blog/how-engineering-leaders-rethink-code-review-in-the-ai-eraEngineering leaders from CircleCI, Airbyte, Flare, Moloco, and Twingate reveal what their teams use instead of traditional code review.Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/james-duffyhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/james-duffyFabric Principal SRE James Duffy explains how AI is rewriting the SRE career path, from getting hired and developing judgment to continuous learning and AI platform engineering.Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/anthony-alcarazhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/anthony-alcarazBigger models cannot fix missing context. The real advantage may belong to teams that teach agents where to look, what to remember, and when to learn.Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/nir-soudryhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/nir-soudryAttackers don't need sleep—and now their malware can make decisions. Nir Soudry explains why security's next race is AI against AI, and where human accountability still has to win.Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/eran-kampfhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/eran-kampfWhat happens when reliability debt starts consuming the whole company? Eran Kampf stopped feature work for a quarter. The gamble—and the architecture that followed—changed how Twingate ships.Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/blog/borrowed-gravity-words-worth-changinghttps://rootly.com/blog/borrowed-gravity-words-worth-changingSome words borrow a gravity they haven't earned, others shrink the job to its smallest piece. On "firefighting," "war room," "postmortem," and "AI SRE".Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/every-incident-is-an-invitation-behind-the-mind-of-a-reliability-experthttps://rootly.com/blog/every-incident-is-an-invitation-behind-the-mind-of-a-reliability-expertThe Glean SRE treats every alert as an invitation to improve the product, a habit that has shaped eight years of reliability work.Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTProfilehttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/hey-claude-wheres-my-database-alexey-grigorevhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/hey-claude-wheres-my-database-alexey-grigorevClaude Code warned him. Alexey Grigorev overruled it. Minutes later, his production database was gone. Here's the chain of decisions behind the outage—and the guardrails he trusts now.Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/hamed-silatanihttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/hamed-silataniPilots rehearse engine failure before it happens. Most engineers meet their first major incident live, in production. Hamed Silatani wants to change that—and argues AI makes training more urgent.Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/maria-vechtomovahttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/maria-vechtomovaMLOps spent years warning teams to version, monitor, and roll back. Then LLMs made everyone listen. Maria Vechtomova explains what truly changed—and what teams still refuse to learn.Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/chase-robertshttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/chase-robertsChase Roberts, COO at Northflank, challenges the conventional wisdom around internal developer platforms (IDPs), making a compelling case that complexity—not just code—may be your team’s biggest reliability risk.Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/gandhi-kumar-twiliohttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/gandhi-kumar-twilioThe first 15 minutes of an incident decide more than the next two hours. Gandhi Kumar explains why mitigation beats diagnosis, silence costs trust, and every extra click matters.Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/cliff-snyderhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/cliff-snyderHow do you move incident response from 600 specialists to 6,000 engineers without lowering the bar? Cliff Snyder shares the 18-month rollout, its compromises, and the metric that exposed what MTTR missed.Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/ganesh-datta-cortexhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/ganesh-datta-cortexAI didn't fix your engineering bottlenecks. It put them on fast-forward. Ganesh Datta explains why platform and SRE teams share the same product problem—and why ownership comes first.Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/dana-lawson-netlifyhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/dana-lawson-netlifySREs spent a decade imagining self-healing systems. Now that AI agents are making them possible, many don't want to let go. Dana Lawson gets honest about fear, identity, and learning to trust the tools.Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/will-wilson-antithesishttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/will-wilson-antithesisThe bugs that cause real incidents are usually the ones nobody thought to test. Will Wilson explains how deterministic simulation searches for them—and why AI-generated code raises the stakes.Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/stephen-townshendhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/stephen-townshendBurnout didn't arrive with a dramatic collapse. It started with a spot in Stephen Townshend's vision, sleepless nights, and a job with pressure but no control. His recovery is a warning—and a blueprint.Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/blog/re-thinking-candidates-take-homes-in-the-ai-era-transcripts-over-codehttps://rootly.com/blog/re-thinking-candidates-take-homes-in-the-ai-era-transcripts-over-codeWhen everyone can ship clean code with AI, the transcript of how they got there becomes a key signal.Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/swizec-tellerhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/swizec-tellerAI can produce the first 90% of an application in minutes. Swizec Teller is interested in the other 190%: the judgment, ownership, and production scars that turn code into a service people trust.Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/blog/your-on-call-team-is-burning-out-heres-how-to-see-it-cominghttps://rootly.com/blog/your-on-call-team-is-burning-out-heres-how-to-see-it-comingIntroducing On-Call Health, an open-source way of detecting responder overload.Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/behind-the-mind-of-a-future-thinking-reliability-experthttps://rootly.com/blog/behind-the-mind-of-a-future-thinking-reliability-expertAt Prolific, Hannah Hammonds turned incident response from a person-dependent process into a repeatable, AI-assisted operating model.Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTProfilehttps://rootly.com/blog/the-sustainable-ops-culture-wellness-learning-and-resiliencehttps://rootly.com/blog/the-sustainable-ops-culture-wellness-learning-and-resilienceResponding to emergencies is a draining job. No matter how much tools evolve, incident management maturity hinges on humans.Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/on-call-policy-wellbeing-sleep-time-off-and-the-human-side-of-supporthttps://rootly.com/blog/on-call-policy-wellbeing-sleep-time-off-and-the-human-side-of-supportLearn how on-call policies impact sleep, stress, and burnout, and how fair scheduling, recovery time, and alert control protect long-term support wellbeing.Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/democratizing-reliability-giving-non-engineers-real-operational-power-with-dileshni-jayasinghe-commonskuhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/democratizing-reliability-giving-non-engineers-real-operational-power-with-dileshni-jayasinghe-commonskucommonsku had strong uptime—and no formal incident process. Dileshni Jayasinghe started by giving non-engineers real operational access, then built the guardrails that made shared ownership safe.Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/blog/from-on-call-to-reliability-how-to-turn-stress-into-system-improvementhttps://rootly.com/blog/from-on-call-to-reliability-how-to-turn-stress-into-system-improvementDiscover simple yet effective strategies to decrease work-related stress and increase productivity for DevOps and SRE professionals. Transform your work life with these 5 easy tips from your friends at Rootly.Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/tomas-hernando-koffmanhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/tomas-hernando-koffmanYour LLM application can change even when your code doesn't. Tomás Hernando Koffman explains how model drift, deprecations, and brittle prompts create a new kind of reliability debt.Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/eduardo-ordaxhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/eduardo-ordaxThe demo worked. The production system never arrived. AWS's Eduardo Ordax explains why companies get trapped between AI prototypes and products—and which organizations are actually escaping.Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/julien-simonhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/julien-simonThe same model can behave differently across providers, regions, and Tuesdays. Julien Simon maps the fragmented LLM stack—and makes the case for owning more of the machinery beneath it.Wed, 19 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/conor-brondsonhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/conor-brondsonAn AI answer can be plausible, polished, and completely wrong. Conor Bronsdon explains why binary tests no longer suffice—and what evaluation-driven development measures instead.Wed, 05 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/blog/the-rootly-intern-programhttps://rootly.com/blog/the-rootly-intern-programHow Rootly is empowering the next generation of engineers to redefine reliability in the AI era.Thu, 16 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/2025s-top-50-people-making-the-world-more-reliablehttps://rootly.com/blog/2025s-top-50-people-making-the-world-more-reliableThe Reliability Top 50 honors those who keep our ambitious systems running, translating SLOs into uptime, transforming postmortems into industry standards, and teaching us all how to fail more gracefully.Tue, 23 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/the-end-of-good-code-ai-throughput-and-reliability-with-circleci-cto-rob-zuberhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/the-end-of-good-code-ai-throughput-and-reliability-with-circleci-cto-rob-zuberAI made code abundant. It didn't make reviews, integration, or production failures disappear. CircleCI CTO Rob Zuber asks whether 'good code' still matters when nobody fully understands what shipped.Wed, 10 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/shery-braunerhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/shery-braunerA system can be technically healthy while its users are stranded. Shery Brauner explains how SLOs cut through alert noise by measuring the journey customers actually experience.Wed, 20 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/blog/how-we-build-at-rootlyhttps://rootly.com/blog/how-we-build-at-rootlyRootly's philosophy and how we build great product.Tue, 19 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/what-to-expect-when-interviewing-at-rootlyhttps://rootly.com/blog/what-to-expect-when-interviewing-at-rootlyAnd why we love work trials! Interviewing is already a job on top of your job. Our goal at Rootly is to run a process that’s clear, respectful of your time, and genuinely predictive of what it’s like to work together—for both you and us. Below is what our hiring process looks like, what we’re evaluSat, 16 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/when-leaders-shouldnt-lead-incidentshttps://rootly.com/blog/when-leaders-shouldnt-lead-incidentsMastering Incident Management in Chaos Picture this: Your company's payment system is down, angry customers are flooding support, and you're on an incident call with twelve people all trying to lead at once. Sound familiar? "Who's in charge here?" might be something you expect to hear from an irateTue, 12 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/brian-shawhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/brian-shawCrypto markets don't wait for capacity planning. Brian Shaw reveals how a banking platform prepares for traffic spikes it cannot predict—and earns trust where finance and crypto collide.Thu, 03 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/david-owczarekhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/david-owczarekAn incident at a startup and one inside a global enterprise may share a pager—and almost nothing else. David Owczarek explains what changes with scale and what never should.Tue, 17 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/ryan-lockardhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/ryan-lockardIn healthcare, reliability failures carry a different weight. CVS Health's Ryan Lockard explores where AI can prevent incidents, unlock legacy systems, and still leave humans accountable.Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/cosmo-wolfehttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/cosmo-wolfeAI pricing changes by the token, model, and moment. Cosmo Wolfe explains why billing infrastructure has become a trust system—and why every charge needs a story you can reconstruct.Mon, 26 May 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/justin-reockhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/justin-reockDid AI make your engineers more productive—or just make the dashboard move? Justin Reock explains how to measure gains without turning metrics into targets people learn to game.Wed, 30 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/marino-wijayhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/marino-wijayEvery resilient application rests on a network most developers barely see. Marino Wijay traces that hidden fabric from virtualization to service meshes—and into the LLM era.Thu, 17 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/mark-quigleyhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/mark-quigleyThe moment a measure becomes a target, it starts lying to you. Mark Quigley examines developer productivity metrics, AI gain claims, and what leaders should ask before trusting either.Wed, 09 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/kaspar-von-grunberghttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/kaspar-von-grunbergIf platforms become digital factories and AI writes the code, what happens to SRE? Kaspar von Grünberg argues the role isn't disappearing—but reliability must move into the golden path.Mon, 24 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/dan-slimmonhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/dan-slimmonStop asking who broke the system. Start asking which hypothesis the evidence supports. Dan Slimmon brings the scientific method to incidents—and explains why the best commanders need social range.Fri, 14 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/mariano-cociriohttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/mariano-cocirioServerless promised that developers could forget the server. AI workloads brought it back. Mariano Cocirio explains why long-running, stateful inference needs a new hybrid architecture.Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/adriana-villelahttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/adriana-villelaYou can't build reliable systems with responders who are afraid to speak. Adriana Villela connects observability, psychological safety, burnout, and the voices technical teams too often miss.Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/sean-goedeckehttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/sean-goedeckeSean Goedecke uses LLMs every day—and still draws a hard line around parts of the codebase. His rule isn't ideological; it comes down to who can debug the result when production breaks.Tue, 18 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/steve-mcgheehttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/steve-mcgheeSteve McGhee read the DOS manual cover to cover, spent 12 years inside Google SRE, then left to correct what the industry misunderstood. His underrated reliability skill isn't a tool—it's reading.Mon, 10 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/hannah-hammondshttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/hannah-hammondsHannah Hammonds treats service delivery as a partnership between engineering and its users—not a queue of incident reports. She shares how mentorship helped her build the confidence to lead it.Wed, 05 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/gaston-rialsaibenehttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/gaston-rialsaibeneGastón Rial Saibene found reliability through curiosity, not a career plan. He shares the advice aspiring SREs should ignore, the book he keeps recommending, and his odds in a zombie apocalypse.Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/nuno-tomashttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/nuno-tomasNuno Tomás turned an engineer's frustration with scattered status pages into isDown.app. He discusses founder tradeoffs, honest incident communication, and the alert fatigue still left to solve.Fri, 24 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/tristan-watsonhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/tristan-watsonServerless removes servers from the developer's view—not from the incident. Tristan Watson explains how observability, Slack, and OpenTelemetry help teams recover the context abstraction hides.Mon, 20 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/matt-gowiehttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/matt-gowieMatt Gowie has seen infrastructure fail badly enough to remember every detail. He explains when infrastructure as code becomes essential, how to weigh OpenTofu against Terraform, and why he still climbs.Tue, 10 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/blog/on-call-gift-guide-for-the-holidayshttps://rootly.com/blog/on-call-gift-guide-for-the-holidaysEggnog and mistletoe? Not this year! Celebrate your on-call heroes with thoughtful, fun, and practical gifts tailored to every stage of an incident lifecycle.Mon, 09 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/adama-lornahttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/adama-lornaGeography led Adama Lorna to maps, curiosity led her to SRE, and YouTube gave her a place to bring both together. She reflects on opening tech's doors without shrinking life to a single identity.Wed, 27 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/stefan-kolesnikowiczhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/stefan-kolesnikowiczWhat changes when an SRE reaches the principal level? Stefan Kolesnikowicz talks influence, continuous learning, and the open-source tools he trusts—then makes room for cameras and guitars.Thu, 26 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/tony-holmeshttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/tony-holmesTony Holmes was a sysadmin before SRE had a name. Now leading SRE at Affirm, he reflects on what the craft retained, how severity guidelines fail, and why mentorship is leadership infrastructure.Thu, 26 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/chris-ferrarohttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/chris-ferraroOne brutal incident taught Chris Ferraro what resilient engineering leadership actually requires. He explains why people return after failure—and how managers shape what happens next.Fri, 30 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/kolton-andrushttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/kolton-andrusBefore chaos engineering became a category, Kolton Andrus watched Netflix teach systems to survive failure on purpose. He shares how the idea won skeptics—and became a company.Fri, 30 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/blog/how-to-build-an-effective-incident-response-team-step-by-step-guidehttps://rootly.com/blog/how-to-build-an-effective-incident-response-team-step-by-step-guideAn effective incident response team requires carefully planned roles and continuous improvement. Learn about common pitfalls and best practices when structuring a performing response team.Tue, 27 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/how-to-build-a-successful-on-call-culture-in-2024-tips-best-practiceshttps://rootly.com/blog/how-to-build-a-successful-on-call-culture-in-2024-tips-best-practicesGood culture can make your team 30% more productive. But how do you cultivate it in the on-call context? Read what SRE leaders are recommending.Tue, 20 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/mason-joneshttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/mason-jonesStartups move fast until their first incident makes time stop. Mason Jones offers advice for that moment, the cultural warning signs leaders miss, and why engineering wasn't his only creative bet.Wed, 14 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/ricardo-castrohttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/ricardo-castroSpotting an SRE anti-pattern is easy. Changing the organization that rewards it is harder. Ricardo Castro talks principal-level influence, community work, and making improvement stick.Wed, 14 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/blog/how-stress-affects-our-learning-abilities-in-incidents-and-what-to-do-about-ithttps://rootly.com/blog/how-stress-affects-our-learning-abilities-in-incidents-and-what-to-do-about-itLearning expert Sorrel digs into how stress inhibits our ability to learn, and what we can do about it.Tue, 06 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/dennis-henryhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/dennis-henryIncidents reveal whether 'servant leadership' is a value or a slogan. Dennis Henry explains how human factors and a career across executive and technical roles changed the way he leads under pressure.Wed, 31 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/krishna-vinnakotahttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/krishna-vinnakotaKrishna Vinnakota landed SRE roles at Microsoft, Amazon, and TikTok. His advice spans both sides of the hiring table—and the on-call practices that keep great engineers after they arrive.Wed, 31 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/nathen-harveyhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/nathen-harveyNathen Harvey has watched DevOps declared dead more times than most. The DORA lead cuts through the platform-engineering debate and explains why communities—not labels—move the practice forward.Fri, 19 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/zameel-syedhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/zameel-syedAfter 30 years in technology, Zameel Syed still remembers his first incident. He explains why security and reliability belong together—and how mentorship keeps a long career from narrowing your view.Fri, 19 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/jessica-finkhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/jessica-finkJessica Fink built incident programs without an engineering background—and learned which questions matter more than technical fluency. She shares the metric she values and lessons from relocating to Singapore.Fri, 28 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/reginald-davishttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/reginald-davisBiology, philosophy, public speaking, and Houston rap all show up in how Reginald Davis leads technically. He talks about earning influence and widening the path into tech.Fri, 28 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/blog/how-wealthsimple-uses-rootly-to-create-a-culture-of-wellness-and-psychological-safetyhttps://rootly.com/blog/how-wealthsimple-uses-rootly-to-create-a-culture-of-wellness-and-psychological-safety"Our goal is to make it easy for employees to come in and run an incident without needing deep technical knowledge about the system. Rootly has made this easier by allowing us to automate a lot of the “hand-holding" someone needs when they’re first navigating an incident."Tue, 11 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/dinesh-sukhijahttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/dinesh-sukhijaDinesh Sukhija moved from building features to building the foundations beneath them. He discusses staying technical as a leader, the developer tool he thinks deserves more love, and an ideal day offline.Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/hazel-weaklyhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/hazel-weaklyHazel Weakly never runs out of thoughts—and the most useful ones connect technical leadership to human systems. This conversation moves from team dynamics to swing dancing and unapologetically bold lipstick.Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/salvatore-furinohttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/salvatore-furinoSal Furino's path to customer reliability started with an ordinary first job and grew through advice worth keeping. He reflects on remote work, career pride, and one splurge he would make again.Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/sebastian-vietzhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/sebastian-vietzLeading SREs means managing people who manage uncertainty for everyone else. Sebastian Vietz discusses that responsibility, the podcast it inspired, and the patience he also brings to woodworking.Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/colin-fitzgeraldhttps://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability/colin-fitzgeraldColin FitzGerald found his way into incident management without following a conventional tech path. He shares advice for others doing the same—and the rituals that help him leave stressful days behind.Thu, 16 May 2024 00:00:00 GMTPodcasthttps://rootly.com/blog/just-hired-an-sre-five-onboarding-tipshttps://rootly.com/blog/just-hired-an-sre-five-onboarding-tipsNo matter how good a new teammate is, a lot of their success is in your hands.Wed, 24 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/navigating-on-call-compensation-for-sres-strategies-and-insightshttps://rootly.com/blog/navigating-on-call-compensation-for-sres-strategies-and-insightsDiscover 5 models of compensation for on-call I was once at a rooftop party with a doctor on her day off: everybody was vibing to a great DJ, escaping Barcelona's summer heat with a beer or a mojito. However, she couldn't drink at all, not until 20:00:00. She was on-call and couldn't let loose. SheWed, 17 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/how-incidents-foster-leadershiphttps://rootly.com/blog/how-incidents-foster-leadershipTo become battle-tested, you need to go through battles, not just read books or mentor newcomers. Both are helpful but the stakes are low. On the other hand, high stake jobs, such as running a big project or managing a team, are hard to get when you lack experience. So how can we solve this dilemma?Wed, 03 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/incident-commander-training-strategies-what-the-books-don-t-tell-youhttps://rootly.com/blog/incident-commander-training-strategies-what-the-books-don-t-tell-youThe Google books offer helpful general principles. In practice, however, you shouldn’t assume they are immediately applicable to your environment. Some companies have comprehensive, high-quality documentation, mature incident response tooling, and more importantly, experienced ICs. However, if yourMon, 26 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/when-more-incident-commanders-are-betterhttps://rootly.com/blog/when-more-incident-commanders-are-betterWhen incidents reach a heightened level of complexity and scale, Strong argues that companies ought to consider having multiple lead roles present, rather than a single Commander overseeing the entire response. In this post, he breaks down when and how he recommends you consider bringing additionalWed, 06 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/working-effectively-with-executives-during-an-incidenthttps://rootly.com/blog/working-effectively-with-executives-during-an-incidentFor many people, the first and only times they interact with Executives is during an incident. It can be an intimidating first introduction! While Execs are first and foremost just people too, they tend to require some specific care when it comes to communication, especially when it involves issuesMon, 02 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/we-need-to-talk-about-the-hero-pattern-among-sreshttps://rootly.com/blog/we-need-to-talk-about-the-hero-pattern-among-sresHans Chung refers to the tendency for SREs to independently zoom in on one task or problem at a time, and the consequences that come with it, as the “solo hero pattern”. In this post, he explores some of the reasons it happens, and what SRE leaders can do about it.Tue, 22 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/how-many-sres-does-your-company-need-here-s-how-to-decidehttps://rootly.com/blog/how-many-sres-does-your-company-need-here-s-how-to-decideTips for deciding how many SREs your company should hire.Sun, 09 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/5-tips-if-you-re-the-1st-sre-hire-by-instacart-s-first-srehttps://rootly.com/blog/5-tips-if-you-re-the-1st-sre-hire-by-instacart-s-first-sreBest practices for “SRE pioneers” – meaning engineers who are the very first SREs hired at an organization.Fri, 27 May 2022 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/podcast-break-things-on-purpose-with-gremlin-building-rootly-with-jj-tanghttps://rootly.com/blog/podcast-break-things-on-purpose-with-gremlin-building-rootly-with-jj-tangOur co-founder JJ reflects on building the fastest-growing incident management platform and the surprising learnings.Sun, 24 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/sre-vs-platform-engineering-the-key-differences-explainedhttps://rootly.com/blog/sre-vs-platform-engineering-the-key-differences-explainedAn overview of the similarities and differences between Site Reliability Engineering and Platform Engineering, including from a career perspective.Tue, 29 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/top-9-skills-for-sres-from-ex-instacart-srehttps://rootly.com/blog/top-9-skills-for-sres-from-ex-instacart-sreA list of the top nine SRE skills, from incident management, to cloud computing, to networking and beyond.Fri, 11 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/analyzing-sre-job-postings-from-amazon-to-microsofthttps://rootly.com/blog/analyzing-sre-job-postings-from-amazon-to-microsoftAn analysis of SRE job descriptions from 4 companies highlights what businesses actually expect SREs to do.Fri, 28 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/who-needs-site-reliability-engineers-sreshttps://rootly.com/blog/who-needs-site-reliability-engineers-sresAlthough every company can benefit from SREs, some need SREs more than others.Fri, 03 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/sre-complete-resume-writing-guidehttps://rootly.com/blog/sre-complete-resume-writing-guideFollow these steps to write a great SRE job resume.Fri, 12 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/sre-vs-swe-similarities-and-differenceshttps://rootly.com/blog/sre-vs-swe-similarities-and-differencesSWE stands for software engineer. Here is what the role covers, how it differs from an SRE, and where the two overlap on reliability.Fri, 29 Oct 2021 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/sre-vs-devops-what-are-the-differenceshttps://rootly.com/blog/sre-vs-devops-what-are-the-differencesSRE and DevOps are closely related concepts, and many businesses can benefit from embracing both of them. Nonetheless, there are important distinctions between SRE and DevOps.Mon, 20 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/what-is-an-srehttps://rootly.com/blog/what-is-an-sreA comprehensive definition of SREs and Site Reliability Engineering, including what SREs do and what makes SREs different from other roles.Fri, 10 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/de-siloing-incident-management-how-to-make-reliability-engineering-everyone-s-jobhttps://rootly.com/blog/de-siloing-incident-management-how-to-make-reliability-engineering-everyone-s-job4 best practices for breaking down silos and establishing a culture of shared responsibility toward reliability.Fri, 16 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMTBloghttps://rootly.com/blog/should-you-be-an-sre-or-a-devops-engineerhttps://rootly.com/blog/should-you-be-an-sre-or-a-devops-engineerSREs may have better long-term job prospects, but DevOps might be an easier career to pursue.Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMTBlog