Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
đď¸ Introducing Between the Clouds: A Podcast for the Home Lab and Hybrid Cloud Era
What does it really mean to live âbetween the cloudsâ? For many of us in IT whether you're a home lab enthusiast, systems architect, or cloud-native developer it means operating at the intersection of private infrastructure and public cloud services. And thatâs exactly the space this new podcast is here to explore.
Today, Iâm excited to launch the very first episode of Between the Clouds, a weekly show where we build, break, and learn in real-time. Iâm Brandon Lee, the creator behind VirtualizationHowto.com (virtualizationhowto.com/) , longtime home labber, VMware vExpert, DevOps engineer, and someone whoâs spent years getting hands-on with everything from Proxmox clusters to LLMs running on mini PCs, Kubernetes clusters, and serverless functions in AWS.
This podcast is a natural extension of the work Iâve been doing across my blog, YouTube channel, and home lab. Only now, weâre diving deeper, more conversationally, and with plenty of room to explore the tools and trends that are reshaping how we run infrastructure in 2025.
What Youâll Hear in Episode One
In this pilot episode, I cover:
* Running local AI on ancient GPUs: Can a 10-year-old GTX 1060 still handle modern LLMs like Mistral 7B and Gemma 2B? You might be surprisedâbecause I was.
* PCI passthrough with Proxmox: I walk through passing a GPU to both VMs and LXC containers to run Ollama + Open WebUI in the home lab.
* NetAlertX: A fork of PyAlert that offers real-time network monitoring, Home Assistant integration, and modern notification options.
* DevOps Career Tips: I break down 10+ practical steps for transitioning from traditional IT roles into DevOpsâincluding building a home lab, learning Git, using AI as a tutor, and getting hands-on with Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and more.
I also share two of my all-time favorite DevOps reads: The Phoenix Project and The DevOps Handbookâwhich, if you havenât read yet, should absolutely be on your radar.
Why This Podcast?
Most people in this space donât live fully in the cloudâor fully on-prem. Weâre building and learning in a hybrid world where Kubernetes clusters run in garages and homegrown CI/CD pipelines push code to real cloud environments. Thatâs where Between the Clouds lives: in the tension, the experimentation, and the stories of what actually works (and what doesnât).
Each episode will be a blend of:
* Tech walkthroughs and tools Iâm using now
* Commentary on trends in virtualization, cloud, and security
* Community highlights and insights from the field
* Real-world lessons from failed experiments and surprising wins
* Interviews of industry professionals
Whether you're spinning up VMs on a $400 mini PC, running Ollama with GPU passthrough, or diving into CI/CD pipelines and Terraform code, this podcast is for you.
đ§ Listen Now
If this sounds like your kind of content, hit Subscribe so you donât miss future episodes and consider becoming a paid subscriber for premium content and podcasts. And if you enjoy it, please consider sharing and restacking with a fellow home labber, cloud tinkerer, or DevOps hopeful.
Letâs build something greatâbetween the clouds.
âBrandon
Get full access to Between the Clouds Newsletter at bleevht.substack.com/subscribe (bleevht.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
đď¸ Introducing Between the Clouds: A Podcast for the Home Lab and Hybrid Cloud Era
What does it really mean to live âbetween the cloudsâ? For many of us in IT whether you're a home lab enthusiast, systems architect, or cloud-native developer it means operating at the intersection of private infrastructure and public cloud services. And thatâs exactly the space this new podcast is here to explore.
Today, Iâm excited to launch the very first episode of Between the Clouds, a weekly show where we build, break, and learn in real-time. Iâm Brandon Lee, the creator behind VirtualizationHowto.com (virtualizationhowto.com/) , longtime home labber, VMware vExpert, DevOps engineer, and someone whoâs spent years getting hands-on with everything from Proxmox clusters to LLMs running on mini PCs, Kubernetes clusters, and serverless functions in AWS.
This podcast is a natural extension of the work Iâve been doing across my blog, YouTube channel, and home lab. Only now, weâre diving deeper, more conversationally, and with plenty of room to explore the tools and trends that are reshaping how we run infrastructure in 2025.
What Youâll Hear in Episode One
In this pilot episode, I cover:
* Running local AI on ancient GPUs: Can a 10-year-old GTX 1060 still handle modern LLMs like Mistral 7B and Gemma 2B? You might be surprisedâbecause I was.
* PCI passthrough with Proxmox: I walk through passing a GPU to both VMs and LXC containers to run Ollama + Open WebUI in the home lab.
* NetAlertX: A fork of PyAlert that offers real-time network monitoring, Home Assistant integration, and modern notification options.
* DevOps Career Tips: I break down 10+ practical steps for transitioning from traditional IT roles into DevOpsâincluding building a home lab, learning Git, using AI as a tutor, and getting hands-on with Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and more.
I also share two of my all-time favorite DevOps reads: The Phoenix Project and The DevOps Handbookâwhich, if you havenât read yet, should absolutely be on your radar.
Why This Podcast?
Most people in this space donât live fully in the cloudâor fully on-prem. Weâre building and learning in a hybrid world where Kubernetes clusters run in garages and homegrown CI/CD pipelines push code to real cloud environments. Thatâs where Between the Clouds lives: in the tension, the experimentation, and the stories of what actually works (and what doesnât).
Each episode will be a blend of:
* Tech walkthroughs and tools Iâm using now
* Commentary on trends in virtualization, cloud, and security
* Community highlights and insights from the field
* Real-world lessons from failed experiments and surprising wins
* Interviews of industry professionals
Whether you're spinning up VMs on a $400 mini PC, running Ollama with GPU passthrough, or diving into CI/CD pipelines and Terraform code, this podcast is for you.
đ§ Listen Now
If this sounds like your kind of content, hit Subscribe so you donât miss future episodes and consider becoming a paid subscriber for premium content and podcasts. And if you enjoy it, please consider sharing and restacking with a fellow home labber, cloud tinkerer, or DevOps hopeful.
Letâs build something greatâbetween the clouds.
âBrandon
Get full access to Between the Clouds Newsletter at bleevht.substack.com/subscribe (bleevht.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
