# Justin Garrison

> Justin Garrison is a platform engineering veteran who helped launch Disney+ from zero to 50 million subscribers, spent 3.5+ years as a Senior Developer Advocate at AWS working on EKS, and now serves as Head of Product at Sidero Labs. He co-authored 'Cloud Native Infrastructure' with O'Reilly, hosts the Ship It! and Fork Around and Find Out podcasts, and is one of the original chairs of the Kubernetes SIG on-prem. He's known for critical, no-hype takes on cloud native trends and a deep commitment to open source community.

- **Role:** Head of Product at Sidero Labs
- **Organizations:** Sidero Labs, CNCF, Kubernetes SIG on-prem
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** MS in Information Technology, Azusa Pacific University, BA in Math/Physics, Azusa Pacific University
- **Known for:** Co-authored 'Cloud Native Infrastructure' (O'Reilly Media) with Kris Nova, Helped launch Disney+ from 0 to 50 million subscribers managing 50k+ containers in 4 regions, Original chair of Kubernetes SIG on-prem

## Career timeline

- **2001-2005** — BA in Math/Physics from Azusa Pacific University
- **2010-2015** — MS in Information Technology from Azusa Pacific University
- **2017-2019** — Built infrastructure for Disney+ launch - managed 50k+ containers across 4 regions
- **2019** — Speaker at USENIX LISA on Disney Streaming Services
- **2019-2022** — Senior Developer Advocate at AWS, focused on EKS, EKS Anywhere, and AWS App Runner
- **2020** — Spoke at KubeCon North America 2020 Virtual on 'Infrastructure for Entertainment'
- **2021** — Co-authored 'Cloud Native Infrastructure' with Kris Nova (O'Reilly Media)
- **2021-2022** — Ran 123dev Newsletter for 100 issues
- **2021** — Launched Ship It! Podcast (cloud, SRE, platform engineering)
- **2022** — Helped launch EKS Anywhere and worked with Karpenter team
- **2024** — Joined Sidero Labs as Head of Product
- **2024** — Co-launched Fork Around and Find Out Podcast with Autumn Nash
- **2024-2025** — Active speaker at All Things Open 2024 and SCALE 22x

## Achievements

- Co-authored 'Cloud Native Infrastructure' (O'Reilly Media) with Kris Nova
- Helped launch Disney+ from 0 to 50 million subscribers managing 50k+ containers in 4 regions
- Original chair of Kubernetes SIG on-prem
- Senior Developer Advocate at AWS working on EKS, EKS Anywhere, and AWS App Runner
- 80,000+ YouTube subscribers
- Documented Karpenter consolidation reducing CPU compute costs from $244,000 to $71,000/month
- Ran 123dev Newsletter for 100 issues helping engineers learn development
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) and Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)
- Regular contributor to The New Stack and How-To Geek
- Oscar-winning contributor to Disney Animation films

## Latest updates

- **2026-01** — Published 'Favorite Books and Papers of 2025' on his blog
- **2024-12** — Published guide on running a Bluesky PDS from home
- **2024-09** — Published 'Platforms Engineering' blog post with critical analysis of the industry
- **2024-06** — Published 'Ten Years of Kubernetes' retrospective
- **2024** — Joined Sidero Labs as Head of Product

## Links

- Website: https://justingarrison.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justingarrison/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/rothgar
- GitHub: https://github.com/rothgar
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCOfb0euSR3nlKMMX9xZBEw

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/justin-garrison
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-21