In this snippet from "Nerding Out with Viktor," Bryan Cantrill, CTO and co-founder of Oxide Computer Company, explains the critical importance of hardware and software co-design in achieving truly elastic cloud infrastructure. Drawing on his experiences at Joyent, Bryan highlights the limitations faced when sophisticated cloud software is run on commodity hardware from vendors like Dell, HPE, and Supermicro. These limitations in reliability, availability, and performance underscore the need for a holistic approach to cloud computing, where hardware and software are designed together to meet the demands of modern infrastructure. This integrated approach ensures better efficiency and the capability to deliver high-performance elastic infrastructure.