Alex Khaerov

Director, Cloud Foundations | Infra Developer Platforms | Network Backbones | GenAI for Engineering

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.

$30 per seat per month.

$1.4 million annually.

I called it "digital transformation."

The board loved that phrase.

They approved it in eleven minutes.

No one asked what it would actually do.

Including me.

I told everyone it would "10x productivity."

That's not a real number.

But it sounds like one.

HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.

I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."

They stopped asking.

Three months later I checked the usage reports.

47 people had opened it.

12 had used it more than once.

One of them was me.

I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.

It took 45 seconds.

Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.

But I called it a "pilot success."

Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail.

The CFO asked about ROI.

I showed him a graph.

The graph went up and to the right.

It measured "AI enablement."

I made that metric up.

He nodded approvingly.

We're "AI-enabled" now.

I don't know what that means.

But it's in our investor deck.

A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT.

I said we needed "enterprise-grade security."

He asked what that meant.

I said "compliance."

He asked which compliance.

I said "all of them."

He looked skeptical.

I scheduled him for a "career development conversation."

He stopped asking questions.

Microsoft sent a case study team.

They wanted to feature us as a success story.

I told them we "saved 40,000 hours."

I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up.

They didn't verify it.

They never do.

Now we're on Microsoft's website.

"Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot."

The CEO shared it on LinkedIn.

He got 3,000 likes.

He's never used Copilot.

None of the executives have.

We have an exemption.

"Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction."

I wrote that policy.

The licenses renew next month.

I'm requesting an expansion.

5,000 more seats.

We haven't used the first 4,000.

But this time we'll "drive adoption."

Adoption means mandatory training.

Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.

But completion will be tracked.

Completion is a metric.

Metrics go in dashboards.

Dashboards go in board presentations.

Board presentations get me promoted.

I'll be SVP by Q3.

I still don't know what Copilot does.

But I know what it's for.

It's for showing we're "investing in AI."

Investment means spending.

Spending means commitment.

Commitment means we're serious about the future.

The future is whatever I say it is.

As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

I’m speaking at HashiDays 2025 Singapore about self-service infra, IDPs & DevEx. https://t.co/AbHVh7nnTE And yes — there’s a sticker for it 😼

Remixed from the classic YAML meme — inspired by @memenetes. Want one? DM me.
#HashiDays #PlatformEngineering #IDP #DevEx

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

“(Non-tech) ASICS DS Trainer History” by Alex Khaerov
https://t.co/1ac7iKtcLv

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

Trust me, I'm an engineer - Believers vs. Researchers https://t.co/9isOcUvZAH

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

“Part 2 | Why Building IDPs is a Challenging Business?” by Alex Khaerov
https://t.co/lZOiSiaGN6

[memenetes @memenetes]

Project Docs: Just install this CRD.

Process of installing CRD

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

Why You Should Never Schedule Cron Jobs Exactly at Midnight https://t.co/D8FaNmSWHV

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

“Comparison of UFW, iptables, and nftables on Alpine Linux” by Alex Khaerov
https://t.co/xH6JQADUsP

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

Comparison of UFW, iptables, and nftables on Alpine Linux https://t.co/tt5gcra9wi

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

My Favorite Chair: Herman Miller Mirra https://t.co/1FxiYEtmS9

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

AI now stands for “Apple Intelligence.” 🍏 But jokes aside, let’s talk about IDPs: What Comes to Your Mind? IDentity provider? Internal Developer Platform? 🔗 Read the full article https://t.co/u0vAkV8wor #IDP #Infrastructure #DevOps #AI #AppleIntelligence

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

Watched “What’s New with Traefik v3” https://t.co/3OkLLw32bJ and I have a burning question: Why does Traefik even make sense? Provocative, I know, but as an Nginx user since 201X, it works perfectly for me. Change my mind! Can someone explain why Traefik is a “must”?

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

"ChatGPT is unavailable for some users. https://t.co/B5BKcEKZgD " How can anyone even think about LAMs (Large Action Models) when current GenAI isn't working reliably? #AI #GenAI #LAM #tech #development

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

🌟 Engineering & Everyday Life 🌟
What do this mailbox and typical automation solutions have in common? 📨 🔍 Hint: Think about state and idempotency. #EngineeringLife #Automation #TechInsights

[memenetes @memenetes]

Platform engineer: "The cluster is running smoothly!"

The cluster:

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

@Juev @shersh_ru Это антисовет - grammarly даст вам лишь вредную привычку пихать все туда и потом верить что вы пишите грамотнее. Многое в этом сервисе сомнительно или наверно.

[memenetes @memenetes]

Using the HPA without a metrics server

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

Hashicorp User Group is BACK!!! https://t.co/s3DL1593bK #Meetup via @Meetup

[Alex Xu @alexxubyte]

New developer vs Old Codebase

Don’t do this on Friday 🙂

Video credit: unknown. Please let me know if you know who created it, and I will add the credit.

[Alex Khaerov @hayorov]

@bytebytego @alexxubyte maybe worth to cover such weird things in one of the next videos? 1 item in card and card in empty 🤡🤡🤡 @AmazonFresh