S Buchanan

Steve Buchanan on the SuperHuman Mindset Podcast

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I recently had the honor of being a guest on the SuperHuman Mindset Podcast, hosted by my good friend and respected CISO and Cybersecurity expert Felix Asare. I have always loved the name of this show because it perfectly captures its mission.

About the Podcast

The podcast dives deep into the minds of extraordinary people who break barriers, push limits, and achieve what many might think is impossible. Each episode uncovers the mindset, habits, and stories behind their success, with the goal of inspiring you to unlock your full potential and elevate every aspect of your life.

Felix is intentional about the guests he brings on. Past guests have included:

  • Former Ghanaian President John Kufuor
  • CISO Amy Bogac
  • Physician Dr. Kambiz Farbakhsh
  • Team USA Gold Medalist Chrissy Holm
  • Many more inspiring individuals

To be invited among such an incredible lineup is something I really consider an honor.

What We Talked About

In this episode, Felix and I went beyond tech and had a wide ranging conversation that touched on:

  • Where AI is heading and how to stay plugged in
  • Authoring books and creating courses including how I overcame imposter syndrome to publish my first one
  • The Modern Developer Experience and Cloud Native trends
  • What it takes to reach the next level in tech
  • What drives me personally and professionally
  • Advice for those working their way to the top

It was one of those conversations that flowed naturally, blending personal stories with big picture insights.

Watch or Listen

You can check out the full episode here:

SuperHuman Mindset Podcast – YouTube

If you are interested in tech, mindset, or just hearing stories of pushing past limits, I think you will enjoy this one.

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My 28th Pluralsight Course Published! Agentic AI Safety and Alignment

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I’m excited to announce the release of my 28th Pluralsight course, and it’s a timely one as its about a topic that’s becoming more important by the day: Agentic AI Safety and Alignment.

As AI agent adoption accelerates, developers and product teams are under increasing pressure to ensure these systems behave responsibly. It’s no longer enough to build capable AI agents, they must also operate safely, ethically, and in alignment with your organization’s values.

That’s exactly what this course is about.

🧠 Why This Course Matters

The rise of autonomous AI agents brings incredible potential. but also significant risk. From runaway costs to prompt injection attacks, the stakes are high. In this course, I cover:

  • Prevent unintended behaviors
  • Embed ethics and safety checks into agents
  • Guard against issues like prompt injection
  • Keep human oversight (human in the loop)
  • Avoid unexpected bills or policy violations

To balance the theory and practice, I run through some demos using Microsoft Co-Pilot Studio and Flowise. You’ll see how to put in safety checks, define agent constraints, implement value alignment, and put in controls that keep your agentic AI safe.

📘 Official Course Description

“As companies rapidly adopt autonomous AI agents, developers and product leads face growing pressure to ensure these systems operate safely and align with organizational values. In this course, Agentic AI Safety and Alignment, you’ll gain the ability to design and deploy agentic AI systems that are both effective and ethically sound. First, you’ll explore how to identify potential risks and prevent unintended behaviors in autonomous agents. Next, you’ll discover how to embed your organization’s values by integrating rules and safety checks into your agent design. Finally, you’ll learn how to apply guardrails that keep agents aligned and under control. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge needed to build AI agents that operate responsibly and stay true to your company’s principles.”

If you’re building, leading, or managing AI agent systems, this course will help you. Check out the course here:

https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/agentic-ai-safety-alignment

I hope this course serves as a valuable resource in your AI journey. Thank you for your continued support, and Be sure to follow my profile on Pluralsight so you will be notified as I release new courses! 

Here is the link to my Pluralsight profile to follow me:

https://www.pluralsight.com/authors/steve-buchanan

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First Docker.com Blog Post – Using Gordon (AI) to Containerize Your Apps and Work with Containers

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I’m excited to share that my first official blog post as a Docker Captain has been published on the Docker blog! It’s an honor to contribute to a platform that’s been so foundational in shaping how we build, ship, and run applications today. This first piece dives into Ask Gordon, Docker’s new AI assistant that helps developers go from source code to a running container with less friction and guesswork.

In the post, I walk through how Ask Gordon makes it easier to containerize your applications, even if you’ve never written a Dockerfile before. By analyzing your source code and asking a few smart questions, Ask Gordon generates everything you need to build and run your app in a containerized environment. It’s good for beginners getting started with containers and equally valuable for experienced devs looking to speed up repetitive setup tasks.

One of the things I appreciated most about Ask Gordon is how it bridges the gap between the developer’s intent and the actual container configuration. Rather than copy-pasting snippets from docs or Stack Overflow, the AI gives you context-aware Dockerfiles, Compose files, and clear next steps for your app. It’s a great example of how AI can elevate the developer experience without overcomplicating things.

This is just the beginning of my journey as a Docker Captain, and I’m looking forward to sharing more tutorials, insights, and real-world use cases that can help developers simplify their container workflows. If you haven’t checked it out yet, give my new post a read here:
👉 Containerize Your Apps with Ask Gordon

A big thanks to the Docker team for the warm welcome and opportunity!

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Officially a Docker Captain!

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I’m excited to share some exciting news I’ve officially been recognized as a Docker Captain 🐳!

You can find my Docker Captain profile on the Docker.com website here: https://www.docker.com/captains/steve-buchanan

For those unfamiliar, Docker Captains are a group of handpicked technology leaders who are passionate about Docker and the broader container ecosystem. The program highlights community members who are not only technically sharp but also deeply committed to sharing their knowledge and supporting others in the community. I am honored to join this community of 163 captains globally and 34 in the US. This award is similar to the Microsoft MVP award. The award is annually based.

Being named a Docker Captain is a huge honor. This recognition means a lot to me especially because it’s not just about what you know, but how give back to the community and share with others. Whether it’s speaking at conferences, creating tutorials, helping others get started, or experimenting with the latest container tools, it’s about lifting the community up together!

What This Means

As a Docker Captain, I’ll have access to:

  • Private product briefings with Docker engineers and insiders.
  • Early previews of tools, templates, and content.
  • A private Slack group with other Captains around the world.
  • The opportunity to share what I create with a wider audience through Docker’s channels.
  • A chance to meet the Docker product groups and other Captains once a year.
  • And of course… exclusive Docker swag 😎.

They already sent some cool swag in the welcome package:

But above all, it’s about continuing to give back. I’ve always believed in sharing what I know and helping others level up in tech, and this just fuels that mission even more.

What’s Next

I’ll be using my blog and other platforms to

  • Publish more Docker and container content here.
  • Share real world use cases from the trenches.
  • Highlight new and lesser known tools in the Docker ecosystem (like Ask Gordon/Docker AI, which I recently blogged about).
  • Collaborate with the global Captain crew on exciting community initiatives.

Stay tuned for more. And if you’re just starting your Docker journey, or deep into production workloads, I’d love to hear from you. Let’s connect, collaborate, and continue building awesome things, one container at a time.

A special shout out to Shelley Benhoff and Eva Bojorges for helping with this with award and opportunity! Also thanks to Docker for the warm welcome and to everyone in the community who’s been part of this journey so far. 🚢

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My 27th Pluralsight Course: “Generative AI Concepts for DevOps” Has Published

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I am excited to share that my 27th overall course and 3rd AI related course has published! This course is titled “Generative AI Concepts for DevOps“.

This course will help you to learn how to integrate generative AI into DevOps workflows for tasks such as generating IAC code in YAML Terraform scripts, and more. Here are the modules in the course:

Here is the full description of the course: Generative AI is revolutionizing how DevOps teams approach software development and operations by offering powerful tools to automate tasks, optimize workflows, and tackle challenges with remarkable speed and precision.

In this course, Generative AI Concepts for DevOps, you’ll learn how generative AI can help DevOps teams work faster and smarter by exploring key tools, understanding how they fit into workflows, and applying them to real-world DevOps problems.

First, you’ll explore the foundational concepts of transformer-based generative AI models and self-attention mechanisms in DevOps. Next, you’ll dive into the tools and platforms for generative AI, such as GitHub Copilot, Duet AI, Amazon Q, and more, learning how they can be integrated into DevOps workflows using YAML and manifests. Finally, you’ll discover how to apply generative AI techniques to solve DevOps challenges, leveraging tools and platforms like Terraform and Kubernetes to drive efficiency and innovation.

By the end of this course, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge and tools to harness generative AI in your DevOps workflows, driving greater efficiency, scalability, and innovation in your operations.

You can access this new course here:

http://www.pluralsight.com/courses/generative-ai-concepts-devops

I hope this course serves as a valuable resource in your tech education. Thank you for your continued support, and Be sure to follow my profile on Pluralsight so you will be notified as I release new courses! 

Here is the link to my Pluralsight profile to follow me:

https://www.pluralsight.com/authors/steve-buchanan

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Tech Together Podcast: My Journey to Microsoft, Prince’s Studio, the Future of Tech, and Navigating AI

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I recently had the opportunity to be a guest on a new podcast series brought to you by Tech Together, a collaboration between CreateMPLS and Genesys Works Twin Cities. Hosted by Shannon Seaver and Allison Barman.

This is the third episode in the series and it’s titled: “Tech Together with Steve Buchanan: Navigating Careers and Embracing Change in Technology.”

This wasn’t just another podcast recording, it was an experience. 🎧 We recorded at a studio inside Urban Ventures in Minneapolis, a space funded by Prince himself. I even got to check out one of his guitars, signed by the legend.

In this episode, I sit down with Shannon and Allison to talk about my journey in tech, from my early days navigating bootcamps and building a network, to eventually landing at Microsoft. We unpack the highs and lows, the importance of persistence, lifelong learning, and what it takes to grow a career in today’s tech landscape.

We also dive into the future of tech, covering the impact of AI, the need for more collaboration across the industry, and why computer science education for all is more critical than ever. As I shared in the episode:
“Give 200%. Share knowledge. Stay ready for what’s next.”

We wrapped things up with a fun rapid-fire Q&A session. Shoutout to Shannon and Allison for making it such a thoughtful and enjoyable conversation. 🙌

🎙️ Check it out for insights and tips on how to elevate your tech journey and navigate the evolving AI-driven world:
👉 Listen here on Spotify

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My 9th Book – The Modern Developer Experience Published on O’Reilly!

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I’m thrilled to share that my latest book, The Modern Developer Experience (ISBN: 9781098169695), is now available on O’Reilly! 🎉It is a shorter book known as a report with 4 chapters total. You can read the book on O’Reilly’s learning platform.

I am excited about this book because in today’s fast-paced tech world, developers don’t just write code, they navigate cloud platforms, cloud native tools and frameworks, integrate AI, automate workflows, and collaborate across teams to drive innovation. This book is a deep dive into the evolving role of developers and how modern tools, frameworks, and methodologies are shaping the future of software engineering.

Here is the offical book description:

DevOps has delivered transformative changes to tooling and processes, but with it comes new layers of complexity. More modern frameworks and tools, like containers, Docker, Kubernetes, Platform Engineering, GitOps, and AI can accelerate development, but understanding their unique challenges (and how to address them effectively) can make the difference between a team that struggles and one that thrives.

This report explores how organizations can improve the developer experience (DevEx) by reducing complexity, streamlining workflows, and fostering supportive environments. Whether your organization is deeply invested in DevOps or simply looking to improve team performance, this report highlights strategies to elevate your development practices and outcomes.

Here are the chapters:
1. The Modern Developer Experience

2. Raising the Bar, Providing the Right Developer Environment

3. Using AI to Enhance DevEx

4. Developer Experience and the Secure Supply Chain

📖 Whether you’re a developer, team lead, or engineering manager, this book will help you refine your processes and create an environment where developers can thrive.

🔗 Check it out here: The Modern Developer Experience on O’Reilly

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AI Panel at University of St. Thomas

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Wrapping up an incredible week with one final event over the weekend! I was honored to be a panelist this past Saturday for the 14th Annual Kente Summit at the University of St. Thomas. 🎓

We had an engaging discussion on all things AI, with thoughtful questions from the students and great insights from my fellow panelists:

🤝 Adill Ade – Student at St. Thomas

🎥 Chris McDuffie – Distinguished Photographer and Filmmaker

💡 Ishmael Efejuku – Student at St. Thomas

Big thanks to Adrian Perryman, M.A., and Kenneth Cooper, Ph.D., for the opportunity to be part of this important conversation!

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Student Minority Day at the Microsoft Innovation Hub 2025

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Another highlight from last week is that BAM Midwest hosted another successful Student Minority Day at the Microsoft Innovation Hub in Minnesota! 🎉

At this event, we welcomed 90+ high school students from around the Twin Cities. The day included a keynote by Dieumerci Christel Founder, a hands-on AI workshop with Microsoft Copilot, a Financial Literacy Workshop, and a Career Panel featuring:

🎤 Jote Taddese Tadesse – VP at Optum

🛡️ Peju Nordvik MS, CISA Nordvick – Cybersecurity at Microsoft

🤝 Ahman Airitam Amiritan – Deal Manager at Microsoft

💡 Haftom Dessalegn – AI Hardware Engineer at Microsoft

For lunch, we enjoyed some amazing Jamaican food from Nanny’s Jamaican Kitchen.

The students stayed engaged, asked thoughtful questions, and had the chance to network with Microsoft and other tech professionals. It’s always inspiring to see the next generation of talent getting excited about tech and their future careers! 🚀

I’m honored to be part of the BAM MW team! 🙌 Kudos to Sosena Alemayehu, Lovell Davis, Dontavis Funderburk, Mattea Hullander (Nybo), Ahman Airitam, Peju Nordvik MS, CISA, Robin Tinnie, and Corey Bullard for the incredible work and impact you’re making. 💪

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Microsoft Museum and Brothers in Tech Dinner

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Last week was packed with activities, one of them included another trip to Microsoft HQ in Redmond. I attended onsite team meetings, connected with colleagues, and caught up with my friend Ayobami Ayodeji, MENG, PMP.



After 13 years of traveling to Redmond, I finally made it into the Microsoft Museum with Ayo! 🏛️ Every previous time, it was either closed or under construction.



The highlight of this trip was attending the Brothers in Tech dinner, hosted by Billy Anders (thanks for the invite!). The friendships and brotherhood at this dinner go back decades among some these veterans and heavy hitters at Microsoft. It was an honor and privilege to be included in such a special gathering.



Being able to plug into a community like this is rare. At the dinner, I finally met one of my mentors, Derek Hazeur, in person. I also had the chance to connect with Corey Rosemond, Rodney Bryan, David Fowler and many others. The laughs never stopped! 😂



Big shoutout to Glenn Grant for being a great colleague, the ride, and congrats on 35 years at Microsoft!

I’m looking forward to attending more of these dinners in the future, and continuing to get to know these brothers and build friendships.

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