Cover art for podcast The Python Podcast.__init__

The Python Podcast.__init__

390 EpisodesProduced by Tobias MaceyWebsite

The podcast about Python and the people who make it great

1:24:34

LibCloud with Anthony Shaw

Visit our site to listen to past episodes, support the show, join our community, and sign up for our mailing list.

Summary

More and more of our applications are running in the cloud and there are increasingly more providers to choose from. The LibCloud project is a Python library to help us manage the complexity of our environments from a uniform and pleasant API. In this episode Anthony Shaw joins us to explain how LibCloud works, the community that builds and supports it, and the myriad ways in which it can be used. We also got a peek at some of the plans for the future of the project.

Brief Introduction
  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
  • Subscribe on iTunes, TuneIn or RSS
  • Follow us on Twitter or Google+
  • Give us feedback! Leave a review on iTunes, Tweet to us, send us an email or leave us a message on Google+
  • Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas.
  • I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. For details on how to support the show you can visit our site at pythonpodcast.com
  • Linode is sponsoring us this week. Check them out at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for your next project
  • The Open Data Science Conference in Boston is happening on May 21st and 22nd. If you use the code EP during registration you will save 20% off of the ticket price. If you decide to attend then let us know, we’ll see you there!
  • Your hosts as usual are Tobias Macey and Chris Patti
  • Today we are interviewing Anthony Shaw about the Apache LibCloud project
Interview with Anthony Shaw
  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python? – Chris
  • What is LibCloud and how did it get started? – Tobias
  • How much overhead does using libcloud impose versus native SDKs for performance sensitive APIs like block storage? – Chris
  • What are some of the design patterns and abstractions in the library that allow for supporting such a large number of cloud providers with a mostly uniform API? – Tobias
  • Given that there are such differing services provided by the different cloud platforms, do you face any difficulties in exposing those capabilities? – Tobias
  • How does LibCloud compare to similar projects such as the Fog gem in Ruby? – Tobias
  • What inspired the choice of Python as the language for creating the LibCloud project? Would you make the same choice again? – Tobias
  • Which versions of Python are supported and what challenges has that created? – Tobias
  • What is your opinion on the state of PyPI as a package maintainer? What statistics are most useful to you and what else do you wish you could track? – Tobias
  • Could you walk our listeners through the under the cover process details of instantiating a computer instance in say, Azure using libcloud? – Chris
  • Does LibCloud have any native support for parallelization, such as for the purpose of launching a large number of compute instances simultaneously? – Tobias
  • What does it mean to be an Apache project and what benefits does it provide? – Tobias
  • What are some of the most notable projects that leverage LibCloud for interacting with platform and infrastructure service providers? – Tobias
  • Could you describe how libcloud could be extended to abstract away a new type of service that’s not yet supported – e.g. a database? – Chris
  • Would you suggest that libcloud users extend libcloud to cover ‘native’ services they might use like AWS Lambda, or should they mix libcloud and ‘native’ SDKs in cases like this? – Chris
  • Could you talk a little bit about the cloud oriented network services that libcloud supports? Is it possible to create AWS VPCs, subnets, etc using libcloud? – Chris
  • Do you know if people use LibCloud for abstracting the APIs of a single cloud provider, even if they don’t have any intention of using a different platform? – Tobias
  • Do you think that people are more likely to use LibCloud for bridging across muliple public cloud platforms, or is it more commonly used in a hybrid cloud type of environment? – Tobias
  • What is on the roadmap for LibCloud that people should keep an eye out for? – Tobias
Keep In Touch Picks

Links

The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Educational emoji reaction

Educational

Interesting emoji reaction

Interesting

Funny emoji reaction

Funny

Agree emoji reaction

Agree

Love emoji reaction

Love

Wow emoji reaction

Wow

Listen to The Python Podcast.__init__

RadioPublic

A free podcast app for iPhone and Android

  • User-created playlists and collections
  • Download episodes while on WiFi to listen without using mobile data
  • Stream podcast episodes without waiting for a download
  • Queue episodes to create a personal continuous playlist
RadioPublic on iOS and Android
Or by RSS
RSS feed
https://www.pythonpodcast.com/rss

Connect with listeners

Podcasters use the RadioPublic listener relationship platform to build lasting connections with fans

Yes, let's begin connecting
Browser window

Find new listeners

  • A dedicated website for your podcast
  • Web embed players designed to convert visitors to listeners in the RadioPublic apps for iPhone and Android
Clicking mouse cursor

Understand your audience

  • Capture listener activity with affinity scores
  • Measure your promotional campaigns and integrate with Google and Facebook analytics
Graph of increasing value

Engage your fanbase

  • Deliver timely Calls To Action, including email acquistion for your mailing list
  • Share exactly the right moment in an episode via text, email, and social media
Icon of cellphone with money

Make money

  • Tip and transfer funds directly to podcastsers
  • Earn money for qualified plays in the RadioPublic apps with Paid Listens