From Functions to Full Applications: How Serverless Evolved Beyond AWS Lambda with Nitzan Shapira

Tech on the Rocks

In this episode, we chat with Nitzan Shapira, co-founder and former CEO of Epsagon, which was acquired by Cisco in 2021. We explore Nitzan's journey from working in cybersecurity to building an observability platform for cloud applications, particularly focused on serverless architectures. We learn about the early days of serverless adoption, the challenges in making observability tools developer-friendly, and why distributed tracing was a key differentiator for Epsagon. We discuss the evolution of observability tools, the future impact of AI on both observability and software development, and the changing landscape of serverless computing. Finally, we hear Nitzan's current perspective on enterprise AI adoption from his role at Cisco, where he helps evaluate and build new AI-focused business lines.

03:17 Transition from Security to Observability
09:52 Exploring Ideas and Choosing Serverless
16:43 Adoption of Distributed Tracing
20:54 The Future of Observability
25:26 Building a Product that Developers Love
31:03 Challenges in Observability and Data Costs
32:47 The Excitement and Evolution of Serverless
35:44 Serverless as a Horizontal Platform
37:15 The Future of Serverless and No-Code/Low-Code Tools
38:15 Technical Limits and the Future of Serverless
40:38 Navigating Near-Death Moments and Go-to-Market Challenges
48:36 Cisco's Gen .AI Ecosystem and New Business Lines
50:25 The State of the AI Ecosystem and Enterprise Adoption
53:54 Using AI to Enhance Engineering and Product Development
55:02 Using AI in Go-to-Market Strategies