Google NY Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Tech Talks, 6 Mar 2025

Google SRE NYC proudly announces our next event in the Google SRE NYC Tech Talk series.

The event will take place on Thursday, 6th of March 2025 at 6 PM at our Chelsea Markets office in NYC. The doors will open at 5:30 pm. Pls RSVP only if you're able to attend in-person, there will be no live streaming.

Join us for an hour of interactive short talks on Site Reliability and DevOps topics with an opportunity to mingle with the speakers and attendees over some light snacks and beverages.

When RSVP'ing to this event, please enter your full name exactly as it appears on your government issued ID. You will be required to present your ID at check in.

Agenda:

Michal Wegorek - Staff Software and Site Reliability Engineer at Google, Bigtable
Canary Analysis. De-Risking Deployments, the SRE Way
How Google SREs use Canary Analysis to help ensure safe deployments for one of the largest No-SQL databases on the planet with 5 9's reliability SLA with no maintenance downtime
Michal is a Staff Software and Site Reliability Engineer at Google, specializing in the intricate world of distributed systems, particularly those at extreme scale. He's part of the Bigtable team. The Bigtable database handles over 10 Exabytes of data, sustains 7 billion queries per second, and maintains an impressive five nines of reliability. As a technical lead, he guides his team through complex design challenges, ensuring robust and scalable solutions. Though he now primarily focuses on architectural design and reviews, his passion for coding remains as strong as ever. Michal is energized by the collaborative spirit of his colleagues, valuing the diverse perspectives that contribute to their collective success. Outside of work, Michal channels his energy into tennis, striving for daily workouts to maintain both physical and mental agility. He believes in the power of teamwork, both on and off the court. He's always eager to connect with fellow engineers and discuss the advancements in distributed systems.

Michael Josi - Senior Director Software Engineering - Head SRE at Transamerica
SRE Psychology: Understanding the Human Element in System Reliability
"What if you have a beautiful SLO Dashboard and it's all red and no one cares?"
The mission of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) is to ensure the reliability, scalability, and performance of critical systems - a goal best achieved through strong collaboration with teams across the organization. We are exploring how SRE is embedded in an organization, how it interfaces with application owners, senior management, business stakeholders and external software/hardware vendors. In all these cases the success of SRE's mission hinges on the effectiveness of the relationships.

We will use plenty of examples of what worked, what failed in our past work and why. Additionally, we will address funding challenges that can unexpectedly impact even well-established SRE teams.

Mike has built his career around driving performance and efficiency, specializing in optimizing the security, availability and speed of cloud applications, data and infrastructure. He developed the first currency program trading system for the Toronto Stock Exchange at UBS and later refined his expertise in optimizing trading systems and migrating core data to the cloud at Morgan Stanley and Transamerica. He is a founding member of the NYZH consultancy, focusing on AI and SRE. Based in Denver, Colorado, Mike is a pilot who enjoys desert racing and cycling, sharing adventures with his wife and three children.

Vishakha Sadhawani - Cloud Architect at Google
Cloud and DevOps, connection with SRE Principles and Practices
Get ready to dive into the world of DevOps & Cloud tech!
This session will help you navigate the complex world of Cloud and DevOps with confidence. This session is ideal for new grads, career changers, and anyone feeling overwhelmed by the buzz around DevOps. We'll break down its core concepts, demystify the jargon, and explore how DevOps is essential for success in the ever-changing technology landscape, particularly in the emerging era of generative AI. A basic understanding of software development concepts is helpful, but enthusiasm to learn is most important.
Vishakha is a Senior Cloud Architect at Google Cloud Platform with over 8 years of DevOps and Cloud experience. Prior to Google, she was a DevOps engineer at AWS and a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the IaC offering CloudFormation in the NorthAm region.
She has experience in diverse domains including Financial Services, Retail, and Online Media. She primarily focuses on Infrastructure Architecture, Design & Automation (IaC), Public Cloud (AWS, GCP), Kubernetes/CNCF tools, Infrastructure Security & Compliance, CI/CD & GitOps, and MLOPS.
Vishakha's tech journey has taught her the value of overcoming challenges and how to thrive in tech; She's keen to connect with fellow DevOps Enthusiasts and SREs to share her experiences and provide support.

Our Tech Talks series are focused on professional development and networking: no recruiters, sales or press are allowed. Google is committed to providing a harassment-free and inclusive conference experience for everyone, and all participants must follow our Event Community Guidelines. The event will be photographed and video recorded.
Event space is limited! A reservation is required to attend. Reserve your spot today and share the event details with your SRE/DevOps friends 🙂