Bret and Nirmal are joined by Rajdeep Saha from AWS to discuss AI agents and the MCP (Model Context Protocol) standard. In this episode, they explore how AI can manage infrastructure with ease and demonstrate creating Kubernetes clusters with a single prompt.
š My next course is coming soon! I've opened the waitlist for those wanting to go deep in GitHub Actions for DevOps and AI automation in 2025. I'm so thrilled to announce this course. The waitlist allows you to quickly sign up for some content updates, discounts, and more as I finish building the course.
https://courses.bretfisher.com/waitlist š¾
We demonstrate AWS's new MCP server for EKS, showing how AI agents can create Kubernetes clusters and deploy applications with simple English prompts. Using Claude Sonnet 4 through the Cline VS Code extension, Raj creates an entire EKS cluster with CloudFormation, deploys a workload, and demonstrates how the AI automatically troubleshoots and fixes deployment issues - all without touching kubectl or writing YAML manually.
We explore the Model Context Protocol (MCP) standard and how it enables AI agents to dynamically discover and use tools, from AWS services to cost calculators. We discuss the security implications of giving AI write access to AWS accounts, the challenges of context window management, and why local LLMs struggle with complex agentic workflows compared to foundational models like Claude.
We cover emerging standards, particularly Google's Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol that was recently donated to CNCF. This complements MCP by standardizing how agents communicate with each other, potentially leading to agent marketplaces where specialized agents can collaborate on complex tasks.
We stress the need for proper security guardrails, best practices, and organizational readiness. As Raj puts it, "Gen AI is an awesome white horse, but you still need Gandalf to ride it."
Looking ahead, we predict rapid evolution in agentic frameworks, multi-agent support, and standardized authentication. For DevOps professionals, the bar is rising - tasks that once took a week may soon be expected in two days with AI assistance. It is becoming crucial to understand these tools before they reach mainstream.
Check out the video podcast version here: https://youtu.be/dAkNUoZ_xtw
Creators & Guests
You can also support my free material by subscribing to my YouTube channel and my weekly newsletter at bret.news!
Grab the best coupons for my Docker and Kubernetes courses.
Join my cloud native DevOps community on Discord.
Grab some merch at Bret's Loot Box
Homepage bretfisher.com