The InfoQ Podcast

In this episode, Thomas Betts talks with Clare Liguori, the technical lead on the open source Strands Agents SDK. The conversation covers how Strands Agents has grown from a Python SDK to a full agent harness running in production. Clare shares some lessons learned from building agents at scale, shifting to a model-driven architecture, and what comes next as the LLMs that underpin agents continue to improve.

Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/4pluNYt

Newsletter:
Subscribe to the Software Architects' Newsletter, a monthly roundup of the patterns and technologies senior practitioners are working through, with the news and lessons from people doing the work:
https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter

InfoQ Online Certification Programs:
5-week online cohorts for senior engineers and architects, built around QCon talks. Programs now cover software architecture, AI engineering, and organizational architecture. Each week you join a four-hour live session with a confidential peer group of practitioners from other companies, apply frameworks from QCon talks to the decisions you're making at work, and earn an InfoQ certification. You leave with new approaches, or confirmation that the calls you're already making are the right ones. Learn more:
https://certification.qconferences.com/

Upcoming Events:
QCon San Francisco 2026 (November 16-20, 2026)
https://qconsf.com/

QCon London 2027 (April 13-16, 2027)
https://qconlondon.com/

The InfoQ Podcasts:
Weekly conversations with senior software leaders about how they build systems and teams, including what they'd do differently. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:
The InfoQ Podcast: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/
Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture
Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/

Follow InfoQ:
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Write for InfoQ:
Share what you've learned building software with a community of senior practitioners, and get your work in front of the people who read InfoQ.
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In this podcast Michael Stiefel spoke to Sarah Wells about the relationship of governance to software architecture. Governance enables teams to work effectively by establishing procedures that minimize system complexity, improve security, and reduce repetitive tasks. Targeted checklists help engineers by reducing the stress over these procedures. This is especially critical in high pressure situations like critical incident response. Architecture should focus on the technical decisions that are difficult to reverse.

The conversation then shifted to exploring the relationship of governance to agentic AI software development. While AI can be very effective for writing code, building internal tools, and automating tasks, experienced engineers still need to validate tests, review outputs, establish clear architectural guidelines, and demand that the AI agents be hypercritical of their own work. With the focus on AI software development, architectural skills are at a premium. Talented individuals that demonstrate architectural skills need to be found and sponsored.

Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/4fndHG3

Newsletter:
Subscribe to the Software Architects' Newsletter, a monthly roundup of the patterns and technologies senior practitioners are working through, with the news and lessons from people doing the work:
https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter

InfoQ Online Certification Programs:
5-week online cohorts for senior engineers and architects, built around QCon talks. Programs now cover software architecture, AI engineering, and organizational architecture. Each week you join a four-hour live session with a confidential peer group of practitioners from other companies, apply frameworks from QCon talks to the decisions you're making at work, and earn an InfoQ certification. You leave with new approaches, or confirmation that the calls you're already making are the right ones. Learn more:
https://certification.qconferences.com/

Upcoming Events:
QCon San Francisco 2026 (November 16-20, 2026)
https://qconsf.com/

QCon London 2027 (April 13-16, 2027)
https://qconlondon.com/

The InfoQ Podcasts:
Weekly conversations with senior software leaders about how they build systems and teams, including what they'd do differently. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:
The InfoQ Podcast: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/
Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture
Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/

Follow InfoQ:
Mastodon: https://techhub.social/@infoq
X: https://x.com/InfoQ
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/infoq/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InfoQdotcom
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infoqdotcom/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/infoq
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/infoq.com

Write for InfoQ:
Share what you've learned building software with a community of senior practitioners, and get your work in front of the people who read InfoQ.
https://www.infoq.com/write-for-infoq

In this episode, Alex Zenla (CTO/Co-founder, Edera) challenges the "laissez-faire" attitude toward modern infrastructure. She promotes "spite-driven development", building software to solve genuine technical pain points rather than passively accepting flawed abstractions, as a philosophy of improving the world of software. The discussion touches on the fragility of the current cloud-native stack, the security risks of multi-tenant Linux kernels, and the inefficiency of repurposing consumer-grade GPUs for AI workloads. Zenla also offers a pragmatic framework for the "AI-native" engineer: treat LLMs as symbiotic assistants for deep learning, not replacements for system-level expertise.

Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/3QZQhxc

Newsletter:
Subscribe to the Software Architects' Newsletter, a monthly roundup of the patterns and technologies senior practitioners are working through, with the news and lessons from people doing the work:
https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter

InfoQ Online Certification Programs:
5-week online cohorts for senior engineers and architects, built around QCon talks. Programs now cover software architecture, AI engineering, and organizational architecture. Each week you join a four-hour live session with a confidential peer group of practitioners from other companies, apply frameworks from QCon talks to the decisions you're making at work, and earn an InfoQ certification. You leave with new approaches, or confirmation that the calls you're already making are the right ones. Learn more:
https://certification.qconferences.com/

Upcoming Events:
QCon San Francisco 2026 (November 16-20, 2026)
https://qconsf.com/

QCon London 2027 (April 13-16, 2027)
https://qconlondon.com/

The InfoQ Podcasts:
Weekly conversations with senior software leaders about how they build systems and teams, including what they'd do differently. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:
The InfoQ Podcast: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/
Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture
Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/

Follow InfoQ:
Mastodon: https://techhub.social/@infoq
X: https://x.com/InfoQ
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/infoq/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InfoQdotcom
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infoqdotcom/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/infoq
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/infoq.com

Write for InfoQ:
Share what you've learned building software with a community of senior practitioners, and get your work in front of the people who read InfoQ.
https://www.infoq.com/write-for-infoq

In this episode, Heroku co-founder and Ink & Switch founder Adam Wiggins argues for a 'local-first' architecture that reconciles cloud-based collaboration with the performance and data ownership of local software. He explores the role of CRDTs and version control primitives in non-code domains, and examines how a hybrid AI future might leverage local models for core productivity tasks, challenging the current over-reliance on centralised cloud compute.

Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/4gkg6m7

Newsletter:
Subscribe to the Software Architects' Newsletter, a monthly roundup of the patterns and technologies senior practitioners are working through, with the news and lessons from people doing the work:
https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter

InfoQ Online Certification Programs:
5-week online cohorts for senior engineers and architects, built around QCon talks. Programs now cover software architecture, AI engineering, and organizational architecture. Each week you join a four-hour live session with a confidential peer group of practitioners from other companies, apply frameworks from QCon talks to the decisions you're making at work, and earn an InfoQ certification. You leave with new approaches, or confirmation that the calls you're already making are the right ones. Learn more:
https://certification.qconferences.com/

Upcoming Events:
QCon San Francisco 2026 (November 16-20, 2026)
https://qconsf.com/

QCon London 2027 (April 13-16, 2027)
https://qconlondon.com/

The InfoQ Podcasts:
Weekly conversations with senior software leaders about how they build systems and teams, including what they'd do differently. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:
The InfoQ Podcast: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/
Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture
Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/

Follow InfoQ:
Mastodon: https://techhub.social/@infoq
X: https://x.com/InfoQ
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/infoq/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InfoQdotcom
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infoqdotcom/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/infoq
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/infoq.com

Write for InfoQ:
Share what you've learned building software with a community of senior practitioners, and get your work in front of the people who read InfoQ.
https://www.infoq.com/write-for-infoq

Daniel Finneran explores how eBPF has evolved far beyond its roots in packet filtering into a robust, safe way to extend the Linux kernel. He explains how the eBPF "verifier", the security guardrail, enables implementation of deep observability and networking without the risks of traditional kernel modules or the slow upstreaming process. He touches on tools like Tetragon that leverage eBPF for "front-foot" security enforcement, proactively intercepting threats such as buffer overflows before they execute, while providing visibility into file systems and drivers without intrusive instrumentation.

Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/4ew9ONB

Newsletter:
Subscribe to the Software Architects' Newsletter, a monthly roundup of the patterns and technologies senior practitioners are working through, with the news and lessons from people doing the work:
https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter

InfoQ Online Certification Programs:
5-week online cohorts for senior engineers and architects, built around QCon talks. Programs now cover software architecture, AI engineering, and organizational architecture. Each week you join a four-hour live session with a confidential peer group of practitioners from other companies, apply frameworks from QCon talks to the decisions you're making at work, and earn an InfoQ certification. You leave with new approaches, or confirmation that the calls you're already making are the right ones. Learn more:
https://certification.qconferences.com/

Upcoming Events:
QCon San Francisco 2026 (November 16-20, 2026)
https://qconsf.com/

QCon London 2027 (April 13-16, 2027)
https://qconlondon.com/

The InfoQ Podcasts:
Weekly conversations with senior software leaders about how they build systems and teams, including what they'd do differently. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:
The InfoQ Podcast: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/
Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture
Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/

Follow InfoQ:
Mastodon: https://techhub.social/@infoq
X: https://x.com/InfoQ
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/infoq/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InfoQdotcom
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infoqdotcom/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/infoq
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/infoq.com

Write for InfoQ:
Share what you've learned building software with a community of senior practitioners, and get your work in front of the people who read InfoQ.
https://www.infoq.com/write-for-infoq