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Friday 21st April - Kubecon in Amsterdam
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.
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
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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
Human DevOps
by Richard Bown
Join my newsletter for regular views and news about doing effective, essential human DevOps engineering. I dive into the human factors that make successful DevOps organizations and the teams and platforms at the heart of your socio-technical systems. From leadership to team setup, maximizing performance, tools and techniques.
Is it just me, or is April turning out to be a complete stinker? The rain hasn't stopped, it's cold, and it feels more like October or November than it does at the start of spring. This feeling appears to be pervading work at the moment, too—I sense frustration bubbling under at every turn. We need some warm sunshine and a few days off before heading back to the grind. I have a short trip coming up and a few things to look forward to not least the just-announced Fast Flow Conference in London...
It's notable how trends take a long time to get moving, and suddenly, they seem everywhere. For the last month or so, I've been working for the Team Topologies organisation, helping them gather some knowledge about applying their ideas and techniques across the industry. I've been talking to agile and DevOps practitioners, consultants, and coaches, people who are using techniques in organisations to make them more humane, to make them more pleasant places to work, and to improve the flow of...
A couple of weeks ago, I ran the Amstelveen Marathon in support of Suicide Prevention NL. It's the first marathon I've attempted in over 12 years and my fifth overall. My fastest time ever was 3 hours 46 minutes. This time, I hoped to complete it in under 4 hours 30 minutes. I figured that with decent training, including some strength training, I'd be able to manage this okay. However, I really learned an important lesson on the day. I eventually completed it in an undistinguished time of 4...