I know it’s already six months into 2025, but we recorded this almost three months ago. I’ve been busy with my foray into the world of tech consulting and training —and, well, editing these podcast episodes takes time and care.
This episode was prompted by the 2025 Catchpoint SRE Report, which dropped some damning but all-too-familiar findings:
* 53% of orgs still define reliability as uptime only, ignoring degraded experience and hidden toil
* Manual effort is creeping back in, reversing five years of automation gains
* 41% of engineers feel pressure to ship fast, even when it undermines long-term stability
To unpack what this actually means inside organizations, I sat down with Sebastian Vietz, Director of Reliability Engineering at Compass Digital and co-host of the Reliability Enablers podcast.
Sebastian doesn’t just talk about technical fixes — he focuses on the organizational frictions that stall change, burn out engineers, and leave “reliability” as a slide deck instead of a lived practice.
We dig into:
* How SREs get stuck as messengers of inconvenient truths
* What it really takes to move from advocacy to adoption — without turning your whole org into a cost center
* Why tech is more like milk than wine (Sebastian explains)
* And how SREs can strengthen—not compete with—security, risk, and compliance teams
This one’s for anyone tired of reliability theatrics. No kumbaya around K8s here. Just an exploration of the messy, human work behind making systems and teams more resilient.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit read.srepath.com
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.