In this episode of “High Bit,” Brett Gibson chats with Kurt Mackey, CEO of Fly.io, to break down how they challenge big cloud providers, overcome global logistical nightmares, and continuously evolve their software stack. From hardware setup challenges to growth-driven solutions, Kurt explains the highs and lows of managing a developer-focused public cloud.

As a company, Fly.io is a platform for running full stack apps and databases close to users.

Interesting learnings:

  • Public clouds grew out of physical data centers, but they’re still tethered to the original data center concept.
  • In order to effectively create something for the future, one must know the past well enough. Like Fly.io’s old school internet people who are now building the technology based on their understanding and experiences with old school internet technology.
  • Based on Kurt’s realizations as a CEO, as one becomes more invested in what they’re building, they have to be several steps ahead in guessing what could go wrong with the product and in the process.

Video Highlights:
• 3:26 Zooming in on the developer experience
• 19:23 Key takeaways from setting up the public cloud globally
• 25:20 What we can expect from the developer-facing stack trend