EQUIP | The making of ngrok - Alan Shreve (ngrok)

Summary

In this talk, the creator of Enrock shares the journey of its development, from a personal project to learn Go to a full-time business serving over 40,000 developers. The speaker discusses the initial problem Enrock solves—enabling web hooks reception behind firewalls—and how it evolved through customer feedback and experimentation. The talk also covers the benefits of using Go for building network-heavy, asynchronous applications and the innovative architecture that simplifies microservices without the orchestration overhead. Finally, the speaker shares insights on leveraging customers for growth and the unexpected meanings of 'Enrock' in different contexts.

Takeaways

• 🎉 The speaker created Enrock to solve the problem of receiving webhooks on devices behind a firewall or NAT without a public IP address.
• 🌐 The initial motivation for building Enrock was to learn Go, not specifically to address the webhook issue.
• 🔄 The concept of Network Address Translation (NAT) broke the fundamental model of end-to-end connectivity of the internet, creating a need for solutions like Enrock.
• 🛠 Porting an existing application to a new language is an effective way to learn that language, as it provides a clear scope and comparison point.
• 📲 Enrock simplifies the development process by providing public URLs for local development services, allowing for immediate feedback without deploying.
• 🔍 The speaker discovered additional use cases for Enrock beyond Twilio, such as showing off projects without deploying or remotely managing IoT devices.
• 💡 Listening to customer support requests can guide product iteration, even if customers are not the best communicators.
• 🛑 The importance of addressing common customer problems was highlighted, as they may indicate a larger user base facing the same issue.
• 🚀 Experimentation with new features, like exposing SSH through Enrock, can lead to unexpected but valuable use cases and product evolution.
• 💬 Leveraging users for growth by encouraging them to spread the word about the product can be an effective marketing strategy.
• 🚀 Enrock's success is attributed in part to the capabilities of Go, which enabled rapid development of a performant, concurrent application.

Q & A

What is the primary purpose of Enrock as discussed in the transcript?

Enrock was primarily built to solve the problem of receiving webhooks when a user's device is behind a firewall or NAT that doesn't allow incoming communications, and to provide a secure way to receive webhooks even when the device does not have a public IP address.

Why did the speaker choose to build Enrock using Go?

The speaker chose to build Enrock using Go as a means to learn the language. Additionally, Go was well-suited for the project's requirements of handling network-heavy, asynchronous, and concurrent applications efficiently.

What was the original application that Enrock was ported from?

Enrock was ported from an application called Local Tunnel, which originally solved the problem that Enrock addresses.

How did the speaker use the process of porting an application to learn a new language?

The speaker used porting as a way to restrict the scope of the project to something that already exists, making it easier to focus on learning the new language by comparing and contrasting the new implementation with the original.

What is the significance of the name 'Enrock' and how was it chosen?

The name 'Enrock' was chosen because it was available as a domain name (enrock.com), and the speaker was excited to find a short and memorable domain that was not already taken.

What is the issue with using NAT for connecting multiple devices to the internet?

NAT (Network Address Translation) breaks the fundamental model of end-to-end connectivity of the internet by assigning private IP addresses to devices, which are not globally unique, thus preventing direct communication with other devices on the internet.

How did the speaker streamline the development process with Enrock?

The speaker streamlined the development process by using Enrock to create a tunnel that provides a public address for the local development service, allowing for webhooks to be received directly without the need for a public IP address.

What is the 'replay button' feature in Enrock and how does it help in development?

The 'replay button' feature in Enrock allows developers to replay HTTP requests generated through the tunnel, enabling them to test and iterate on their applications without the need for repeated, expensive HTTP requests.

How did the speaker handle customer support requests for Enrock?

The speaker handled customer support by iterating on the product to make it as easy as possible for users to solve their issues without needing to contact support, and by providing clear feedback and documentation within the application.

What is the architecture of Enrock like, and how does it simplify the service-oriented architecture?

Enrock's architecture consists of multiple services running on each server, with each service communicating over the loopback interface on a defined port. This setup simplifies service-oriented architecture by avoiding the need for orchestration and providing a straightforward path for scaling and future upgrades.

How did the speaker leverage the 'pay what you want' model for growth?

The speaker leveraged the 'pay what you want' model by encouraging users who couldn't afford to pay to spread the word about Enrock on social media or to their friends, which helped in growing the user base and raising awareness about the product.