It's still cold in Amsterdam this week and while I’d love nothing more than to say that the tulips and the daffodils have been welcoming us into the spring in their thousands, only a few are showing their heads.

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​Kubecon however did come to Amsterdam this week. While I didn’t buy a ticket, I did go to a couple of events on the fringes and I came away with a familiar feeling. Firstly, I’m really not one for big conferences, I prefer the DevOpsDays and corridor track type of affair. Secondly, I feel that not so many of us should be so interested in Kubernetes.

This week I listened to engineers talking about Petabytes of information and comparing TPS scores on different k8s configurations and I'm thinking - yes - this is the cutting edge and I get the excitement - but not everyone needs to go there. For the most of us, Kubernetes is still mainly CV Driven Development. Kubernetes geeks though are generally very happy geeks.

Kubernetes, technically, also has had me in a bind (sorry). I’ve been using it on and off for over five years and I still don’t really want to get too much closer. It's complicated and I've seen many organisations implement a flavour of it and struggle to both optimise their developer experience while handling the core changes that are required for infrastructure. Kubernetes implementations are hard and they suck in the brightest and best in your company. Those individuals will want to put it on their CV and then where do you end up?

Chasing technology solutions sometimes causes us to lose focus of what we are. Many years ago the Dutch Bank ING decided that they need to completely revector their business - they see themselves now as a technology company with a banking license. The talks from their employees that I saw this week backed this up. Their approach to Namespace as a Service for their Kubernetes developer experience (and commitment to their own data centres) is a real eye opener. Check out this LinkedIn post from Thijs Ebbers for the slides of this incredible presentation. Also note that at the end of the presentation there's a download link for a free copy of the Cloud Native Transformation book on O'Reilly by Pini Reznik, Jamie Dobson and Michelle Gienow. Worth checking out.

As Vaughn Vernon also said on LinkedIn this week:

“A few of us are still more impressed by delivering than by tools.”

Let's not be seduced by the tools. Let's use them appropriately.

Have a great weekend!
-- Richard​

​How to be a Happy Engineer​

Published on April 19, 2023

The expert gets up on the stage. His t-shirt is large and tight over his round belly, tucked into the top of his jeans. His hair is thinning. He looks proud. With an easy smile, he takes ten minutes to introduce himself. He’s an entrepreneur, and he’s dreaming big. With over 20 years of experience,… Read More »How to be a Happy Engineer​

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