April Yoho: GitHub in 2025 - Episode 346
04/21/25 • 37 min
April is a senior developer advocate and DevOps practice lead for GitHub, specializing in application transformation and DevOps ways of working. Her focus is working on Microsoft Azure to take customers on a journey from legacy technology to serverless and containers, where code comes first, while enabling them to take full advantage of DevOps. April was previously a cloud consultant and solution architect for various partners in the UK and brings her years of experience in helping customers plan their journey. She also serves as a Hashicorp Ambassador, dedicating much of her time to working with infrastructure as code (IaC). She enjoys making Azure and its features more accessible. Her technical expertise includes PowerShell, Golang, and occasionally TypeScript and C#. In her free time, April enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, skiing, and scuba diving. Additionally, she is a triathlete who competes in Ironman and Half Ironman events.
Topics of Discussion:
[1:57] April’s career journey — from U.S. data center outages and 72-hour shifts to discovering cloud and automation after relocating to the U.K. [3:53] How an early Azure migration in 2013 ignited her passion for infrastructure as code and DevOps.
[5:33] GitHub’s evolution into a full end-to-end enterprise platform, with a major focus on security, scalability, and developer productivity. [6:51] Code Spaces: VS Code in the cloud with 60 hours free per user — solving compute and environment parity issues across teams. [10:00] GitHub’s internal use of Code Spaces: every GitHub employee (aka “Hubber”) uses it to work on the github.com codebase. [12:29] Code Spaces’ advantages in lab and hackathon settings, including speed, security, and reliability. [13:55] Breakdown of GitHub Copilot’s flavors: chat, inline suggestions, edits, pull request reviews, and agentic AI. [17:12] Real-world uses of Copilot Edits: generating documentation, writing tests, and making cohesive multi-file changes. [20:00] GitHub’s goal of enabling the “10x developer,” not just in speed but in quality, consistency, and creativity.
[25:00] How AI tooling is changing how we think about architecture, code reuse, and shrinking monoliths into modular libraries. [30:00] Prompting strategies: how different cultures and languages impact the way developers interact with AI tools. [32:47] GitHub Workspaces: start from requirements, generate a plan, and get a head start on writing and converting code. [35:00] April’s belief that AI-driven development is already here, and edits are one of the best ways to experience that transformation now.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at [email protected].
Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)
.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo
.Net Aspire and Data API builder with the Community
Want to Learn More?
Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.
April is a senior developer advocate and DevOps practice lead for GitHub, specializing in application transformation and DevOps ways of working. Her focus is working on Microsoft Azure to take customers on a journey from legacy technology to serverless and containers, where code comes first, while enabling them to take full advantage of DevOps. April was previously a cloud consultant and solution architect for various partners in the UK and brings her years of experience in helping customers plan their journey. She also serves as a Hashicorp Ambassador, dedicating much of her time to working with infrastructure as code (IaC). She enjoys making Azure and its features more accessible. Her technical expertise includes PowerShell, Golang, and occasionally TypeScript and C#. In her free time, April enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, skiing, and scuba diving. Additionally, she is a triathlete who competes in Ironman and Half Ironman events.
Topics of Discussion:
[1:57] April’s career journey — from U.S. data center outages and 72-hour shifts to discovering cloud and automation after relocating to the U.K. [3:53] How an early Azure migration in 2013 ignited her passion for infrastructure as code and DevOps.
[5:33] GitHub’s evolution into a full end-to-end enterprise platform, with a major focus on security, scalability, and developer productivity. [6:51] Code Spaces: VS Code in the cloud with 60 hours free per user — solving compute and environment parity issues across teams. [10:00] GitHub’s internal use of Code Spaces: every GitHub employee (aka “Hubber”) uses it to work on the github.com codebase. [12:29] Code Spaces’ advantages in lab and hackathon settings, including speed, security, and reliability. [13:55] Breakdown of GitHub Copilot’s flavors: chat, inline suggestions, edits, pull request reviews, and agentic AI. [17:12] Real-world uses of Copilot Edits: generating documentation, writing tests, and making cohesive multi-file changes. [20:00] GitHub’s goal of enabling the “10x developer,” not just in speed but in quality, consistency, and creativity.
[25:00] How AI tooling is changing how we think about architecture, code reuse, and shrinking monoliths into modular libraries. [30:00] Prompting strategies: how different cultures and languages impact the way developers interact with AI tools. [32:47] GitHub Workspaces: start from requirements, generate a plan, and get a head start on writing and converting code. [35:00] April’s belief that AI-driven development is already here, and edits are one of the best ways to experience that transformation now.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at [email protected].
Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)
.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo
.Net Aspire and Data API builder with the Community
Want to Learn More?
Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.
Previous Episode
Jerry Nixon: .NET Aspire and Databases - Episode 345
Jerry Nixon is a Principal Program Manager on the SQL Server team focused on the Data API builder. He’s also a fanatic for #CSharp, #StarTrek, and Etymology. He also serves as a professor at Colorado Christian University.
Topics of Discussion:
[3:34] Why Jerry describes his life as a pearl necklace.
[5:15] Jerry recommends the book Never Eat Alone and the importance of community.
[6:01] How engineers and parenting are aligned.
[7:02] Jerry reflects on Microsoft’s history of evangelism, the rise of “opinionated” frameworks, and how .NET Aspire revives a form of proven prescriptive guidance. [9:35] Prescriptive guidance.
[12:03] The inevitable evolution of .NET Aspire and how it simplifies container-based development by handling orchestration behind the scenes.
[16:56] Paying more attention and awareness to the developer community.
[18:30] How GraphQL fits into the Data API Builder experience, giving developers flexibility without needing to write complex backends.
[21:40] Jerry talks about community feedback on Data API Builder and how real-world use cases help prioritize features and fix gaps in tooling.
[31:02] Jerry’s perspective on building container-based solutions.
[32:15] Data API Builder’s community involvement and upcoming features.
[36:15] Docker Desktop.
[38:58] The architectural concept of Data API Builder.
[44:42] C# coding conventions at Microsoft and the friendly battles over things like naming, underscores, and formatting styles across internal teams.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at [email protected].
Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)
.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo
.Net Aspire and Data API builder with the Community
Data API builder for Azure Databases samples
Quickstart: Use Data API builder with SQL
Want to Learn More?
Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.
Next Episode
Adrienne Braganza Tacke: Code Review Patterns & Principles - Episode 347
Adrienne Braganza Tacke is an accomplished author and software engineer with a passion for educating others about software development. Choosing a path distinct from the expected trajectory of nursing, she pursued a degree in management information systems at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Over the course of nearly eight years in the field, she has contributed her expertise across multiple industries, including healthcare and higher education. Currently, she serves as a software development engineer at DebtTrader, where she embraces the challenge of modernizing fintech workflows traditionally dependent on spreadsheets.
Beyond her professional work, Adrienne is an international speaker, instructor, and dedicated advocate for STEM education. Her first book, Coding for Kids: Python, has consistently ranked among the top-selling children's programming books on Amazon. She frequently visits schools to inspire students with insights into software engineering and the transformative power of coding. When she’s not engaging with young aspiring developers, she speaks at tech conferences throughout the U.S. and Europe. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@AdrienneTacke) to stay updated on her latest endeavors.
Topics of Discussion:
[3:20] Adrienne’s journey and the happy accidents and formative moments that led her to working in this field.
[5:46] What does a developer advocate do?
[7:04] Adrienne started teaching in 2017, when tech influencers were starting to become more popular.
[9:02] There is no one-size-fits-all about the code review process, and what it looks like will be different for every team.
[11:19] The price of ineffective communication.
[15:30] The power of fixing things during development and before the code review.
[19:10] Adrienne gives a few real-life examples of time wasters in code reviews.
[22:08] More about Adrienne’s book, Looks Good to Me: Constructive Code Reviews, and how it can help streamline and save time.
[23:44] Like Adrienne’s chapter title, if you can automate it — do it.
[26:51] There are still errors that won’t be caught by static analysis.
[30:46] Some tips to remember when using AI, like making sure your titles are descriptive.
[36:17] Maybe an “auto-polite” button is coming soon? We wish.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at [email protected].
Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor)
.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer’s Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo
Looks Good to Me: Constructive Code Reviews
Want to Learn More?
Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.
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