Simplified Inner and Outer Cloud Native Developer Loops - Oleg Šelajev, AtomicJar & Alice Gibbons

Summary

In this informative session, the speakers delve into streamlining cloud-native developer loops for enhanced productivity. They discuss the importance of developer time as a valuable resource and the inefficiency of 'reinventing the wheel.' The session introduces Dapper, a tool for building distributed systems, and Test Containers, which simplifies local development environments. Through live demos, they showcase the integration of these tools to improve developer experiences without compromising production needs. They also highlight Open Feature for feature flagging in production, demonstrating an end-to-end development loop that includes local development, CI/CD, and production deployment with minimal friction.

Takeaways

• 😀 The session focuses on simplifying inner and outer Cloud-native developer loops, aiming to enhance developer experience and productivity.
• 🛠️ Reinventing the wheel is identified as a significant time sink, where developers repeatedly solve similar problems without reusing existing solutions.
• 💡 Dapper is introduced as a set of APIs that facilitate the development of distributed systems, abstracting infrastructure details from application code.
• 🔄 Dapper components allow developers to switch underlying infrastructure without changing the application code, promoting code reusability and modularity.
• 🔗 The sidecar model is highlighted as a way to connect applications to Dapper APIs locally, which simplifies the transition from development to production environments.
• 🍕 A pizza service example is used to illustrate the end-to-end development loop, demonstrating how Dapper can be integrated into a distributed system.
• 👩‍💻 Test containers are presented as a tool to simplify local development by handling container lifecycle and service configuration within the developer's preferred programming language.
• 🔧 Test containers provide an ecosystem of modules for pre-production use cases, making it easier for developers to work with technologies like databases and message brokers in containers.
• 📱 The importance of API-first solutions is emphasized for development, allowing developers to leverage Dapper's API for a better local development experience.
• 🚀 Feature flags, managed by Open Feature and Flagger, are discussed as a way to safely introduce changes in production and A/B test features without impacting all users.
• 🔄 The session concludes by showcasing an end-to-end development loop, from local development with test containers to production deployment with feature flags.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the discussion in the video script?

The main focus of the discussion is on simplifying inner and outer Cloud native developer loops, enhancing developer experience, and showcasing tools and live demos to illustrate how these loops can work in different environments.

Why is developer time considered expensive and valuable in the context of the script?

Developer time is considered expensive and valuable because increased productivity saves money and improves business margins. The script emphasizes avoiding repetitive tasks and reusing solutions to optimize developer time.

What does the term 'Reinventing the wheel' refer to in the script?

In the script, 'Reinventing the wheel' refers to the time-consuming and inefficient practice of repeatedly solving the same problems without reusing existing solutions, which is considered a significant time sink.

What is Dapper, and how does it relate to developer productivity?

Dapper is a set of APIs for writing distributed systems. It abstracts infrastructure access and provides features for observability, security, and resiliency. The script mentions that a survey showed 95% of Dapper users save developer time, which translates to cost savings.

How does Dapper enable a better application developer experience without sacrificing production needs?

Dapper enables a better developer experience by providing a consistent set of APIs that can be used from development to production, allowing developers to focus on application logic rather than infrastructure management. It also supports a sidecar model that keeps the platform and application code modular and composable.

What is the role of Alex in the video script?

Alex works as a developer relations person and is involved with the test containers project. He is responsible for demonstrating the use of these tools in the live demos during the presentation.

What is the significance of the pizza service example in illustrating the end-to-end developer loops?

The pizza service example serves as a practical demonstration of how a distributed system can be developed and managed using Dapper. It shows the composable services of a pizza store, kitchen, and delivery, and how they interact within a development to production pipeline.

How does Testcontainers help in simplifying the local development setup for application developers?

Testcontainers provides an open-source library with a programmatic API to manage containers, allowing developers to run dependencies like databases and message brokers in containers without needing to understand the underlying complexities. This simplifies the local development environment and makes it consistent with production.

What is the purpose of feature flags in the development and production process as discussed in the script?

Feature flags, managed by tools like Open Feature and Flagger, allow for controlled rollouts of new features in production. They enable A/B testing, canary releases, and the ability to quickly toggle features on and off without deploying new code, thus facilitating safer and more flexible production management.

How does the combination of Dapper, Testcontainers, and feature flags contribute to a streamlined development loop?

The combination of Dapper, Testcontainers, and feature flags provides a consistent and efficient development experience. Dapper offers a standardized API for distributed systems, Testcontainers simplifies local development with containers, and feature flags allow for safe and controlled deployments in production, all contributing to a streamlined development loop from coding to deployment.