Corey Martin, a customer solutions architect at Heroku, interviews Ariel Assaraf, the CEO of Coralogix, a platform that helps companies get a grasp on their log data. All too often, logs are considered as only a useful debugging tool. After receiving an alert around high resource usage or an elevated error rate, a developer might check their logs to see what caused the issue. But Ariel argues that this is too late to investigate a problem; by visualizing and alerting log data, you can figure out production problems before users encounter them.

Metrics, in other words, are a lagging indicator, while logs are a real-time representation of how your code is really performing. One way to reconcile these two is to aggregate log data and funnel it into other long-term metric storage. This would allow you to see longer term trends. Ariel provides a scenario where log records appear in groups, such as a user purchasing a product, followed by an API call to Stripe, and concluding with an email notifying the user. A platform like Coralogix can automatically identify that the three logs arrive together within a certain time frame. If, for any reason, one of these steps fails to log, then a notification can be set up to notify the team to proactively investigate, rather than a customer writing in to report an error.

For an organization to beginning using logs as time-series data, Ariel recommends three things. First, a unified log format, which could be something structured like JSON. These can be generated by a middleware service. Next, a shared understanding across teams on the severity with which to log a message. The final step is to set up an alerting policy; not only which types of alerts to create, but also where they go, such as Slack, email, or text message. After that, you can begin to incorporate your logs into your monitoring processes.

• Coralogix is an observability platform for logs, metrics, and security

Anand Gurumurthi, a Director of Engineering at Salesforce, is joined by Marcus Blankenship, a senior manager at Heroku Salesforce on the Runtime Networking Team. Their topic for this episode is to provide career advice for experienced engineers looking to advance their career.

There are several all too common scenarios individual contributors face, which Anand and Marcus discuss and offer their perspectives for. These include learning how to ask overcoming bias on your own work and figuring out how to better assess your strengths and weaknesses. In addition, Marcus and Anand discuss getting over the fear of asking for help. They agree that showing an active interest in finding out how a system works is a good way to show that you're engaged in your work and want to grow.

In summary, confidence in the workplace is the key to getting what you want. Whether you're looking for a promotion or want to better understand a problem, you are in charge of starting those conversations. In situations where you're looking for guidance, ask for specific feedback from people who want to help you.

Chris Castle is a developer advocate at Heroku and Salesforce. He is joined by Carter Rabasa, the lead organizer of CascadiaJS, as well as Julián Duque, a developer advocate here at Salesforce/Heroku who organizes NodeConf and JSConf in Colombia. Carter shares his first experiences at a tech conference, finding it to be surprisingly intimate and a great community of well-intentioned web developers that wanted to learn. He was inspired to start CascadiaJS, a JavaScript conference situated in the Pacific Northwest. Over time, he realized that it's the people and the networking opportunities that really makes CascadiaJS special.

When COVID-19 made it clear that in-person events would not happen for 2020, he and his team struggled to figure out how to put on an event that their community would love. It required them to imagine a future where software to support their vision didn't exist yet. They became certain that the event would need to learn how to be virtual for a long time. They accepted this challenge, and set to work building a conference model that they felt was interactive and immersive. There was just a tremendous excitement and enthusiasm to see if they could do something that hadn't been done yet.

Of course, they stumbled in several ways; there were issues sending swag to customers, for example. Still, there are many reasons to keep the virtual conference format. For one, it's more accomodating for people with physical accessibility issues as well as attendees all over the world. There's more flexibility in the timing of events, where speakers can just play their sessions one after another; attendees can hop between different workshops and talks at the click of a mouse. Julián agrees that CascadiaJS' hybrid format of a recorded talk followed by a live Q&A was great for engagement, as speakers were chatting with viewers as their session played. Overall, Carter is excited at future conferences having a serious virtual component to them.

• CascadiaJS 2020 went virtual-only for the first time
• We Need Better Virtual Dev Conferences article
• NodeConf and JSConf in Colombia are just two events grappling with the pandemic

Dr. Mireille Reece is a practicing clinical psychologist and, along with Adam Stacoviak, editor-in-chief of the Changelog, they run Brain Science, a podcast exploring behavior change and mental health. Chris Castle, a Developer Advocate at Heroku, continues a previous conversation with them on how to take care of one's mental wellbeing. Their discussion centers around the neuroplasticity of the brain, how new habits can be created and formed.

One of the best antidepressants is exercise. Adam advises that it's not necessarily about physical fitness, but rather that your brain really needs that motion. It can serve to provide one with a different perspective. As well, activating any of your senses--smell, touch, and so on--can bring on a calming effect. Other suggestions include meditating, which can bring on a greater sense of self-awareness, and journaling, which can be helpful in tracking your thoughts over time.

Dr. Reece advises that keeping tracking of your moods can help hone in on the source of negative emotions. It's all about cause and effect. For example, if you eat a lot of fried foods, it might taste good, but ultimately, there are long term health affects associated with it. It's not that our actions are bad or good, but about recognizing the effects of them. Once we hone in on unfavorable consequences, we can start the process of adjusting our behaviors away from their sources.

• Brain Science is a podcast exploring the human brain to understand behavior change, habit formation & mental health
• Headspace and Calm are two apps which can help with mindfulness
• Day One is an app for journaling
• Essentialism is a book on "pursuing less" which Adam recommends

Dr. Mireille Reece is a practicing clinical psychologist and, along with Adam Stacoviak, editor-in-chief of the Changelog, they run Brain Science, a podcast exploring behavior change and mental health. Chris Castle, a Developer Advocate at Heroku, is interviewing them to find out more about the stigma associated with mental health. There's an acknowledgement that while everyone at one point or another struggles with their mental health--be it through anxiety, depression, isolation, or stress--we, as a society, tend to be hesitant to discuss our struggles publicly. Dr. Reece posits that people view this as a weakness, one they're not willing to admit. There's a fear that if you reveal this part of yourself, you'll be rejected.

Chris points out that mental health is not like physical health: if you break a finger, you can go to a doctor and get a splint. But if you have some mental anguish, it feels like your very identity is hurting, and Dr. Reece concurs that there's no "quick fix" to the problem. The first step, however, is to differentiate that how you hurt is not equivalent to who you are. You have to admit that you don't have the tools or skills to resolve the problem on your own, which will inevitably lead you to wanting to find a solution in a therapist.

The dialog concludes with a recognition that there are many different types of therapy available, and it can be overwhelming to identify the one that works for you. The important thing to do is to find someone you can trust, and have a conversation with, because you'll be more willing to act on their advice. This might also mean seeing multiple therapists before discovering one that "fits." Adam posits that it can be helpful to imagine a future version of yourself as an end goal, from which you can begin to work towards through changing your habits and behaviors.

• Brain Science is a podcast exploring the human brain to understand behavior change, habit formation & mental health

Greg Nokes, Master Technical Architect at Heroku, is joined by Alex Broussard, the CTO of THINKMD. THINKMD is a technology company that's working to build next-generation clinical logic. The primary aim is to put healthcare tools in the hands of anyone, anywhere, but especially in places where healthcare access is limited. As Alex points out, the obvious challenge in such a platform is to optimize the application to work in low bandwidth settings. To work around this limitation, THINKMD designed their platform as a progressive web application, ensuring that, not matter what, it function as an "offline first" app. Data is collected and stored locally, and transmissions between the client and the server occur when Internet connectivity is restored.

In addition to networking challenges, the functionality and the visual design of the app also has strict hardware limitations. The mobile devices running THINKMD are not smartphones, but rather older feature phones which lack touchscreens and keyboards. However, they're still very durable, with incredible battery life, and operate better under remote conditions. These phones run an operating system called KaiOS, which allows developers to build networked apps that run in Chrome browser environment. As well, THINKMD was founded by two doctors, which requires every update to the app to pass very rigorous clinical standards. Information that's presented cannot just have a good UX: it must also be accurate, as it's literally dealing with life or death situations.

THINKMD's frontend runs on Vue.js. This choice was partially made because of Vuetify, which provides localization support, a component that's key to the app as it's used in over a dozen languages. By trusting how Vue and Vuetify support the look-and-feel of the app, Alex and his team can focus more on the backend data retrieval and delivery, including setting up duplicate servers across Asia and Africa to address latencies. For other teams who are building a multi-regional app targeted at low latency countries, Alex strongly suggests that you consider optimization techniques in advance of feature development.

• THINKMD's mission is to eliminate preventable deaths by increasing healthcare access via new and disruptive technologies
• KaiOS brings smartphone functionality to affordable devices

Greg Nokes is a Master Technical Architect at Heroku, and he's interviewing a returning guest, Ryan Townsend, the CTO of SHIFT Commerce. SHIFT Commerce is an e-commerce PaaS that provides an online space for businesses to host their websites and sell their goods. Their customers aren't exclusively virtual; some of them have brick-and-mortar shops which have had to shut down due to COIVD. As the volume of online ordering increased, some of these businesses noticed that their distribution centers couldn't keep up with the orders. This was due both to pent up demand as well as social distancing guidelines slowing the pace of operations.

Working with these retailers, SHIFT Commerce came up with a rather simple solution: when an online order was placed, the platform would check to see whether a store closer to the customer already had the item they bought. If it did, then the customer would get their item shipped locally, rather than from the distribution center. This had several benefits: it saved the business money; it reduce emissions from vehicles driving all around the country; and it preserved the retail employees' jobs, as their tasks shifted from ringing up customers to selecting and packing shipments.

Implementing the technical algorithm to perform this logic took just about a week; after that proof of concept, it took another four to six weeks to build a full fledged microservices that's completely API driven. The components used to design this were technologies that SHIFT Commerce had already invested in: Postgres, Redis, Apache Kafka, and so on. Ryan suggests that software companies always be prepared for unexpected changes, such as a new competitor entering the market. Having the flexibility to make decisions with agility helped SHIFT Commerce pivot and respond quickly to external changes, such as COVID.

• SHIFT Commerce delivers scalable e-commerce solutions
• Learn more about SHIFT Commerce in the Application Performance and Building SaaS on PaaS episode

Greg Nokes, Master Technical Architect at Heroku, is joined by Meg McLaughlin, THINKMD's Director of Research and Implementation. THINKMD is a technology company that's working to build next-generation clinical logic. The primary aim is to put healthcare tools in the hands of anyone, anywhere, but especially in places where healthcare access is limited. The platform starts by guiding a user to provide some initial data about who they are. It then goes on to take the medical history of the person being assessed. By comparing a person's history, symptoms, and habits against the result of broader community data, THINKMD analyzes and visualizes that data to present information like the overall population and individual health.

Using a system called syndromic surveillance, THINKMD can look at incoming data to assess epidemics, such as malaria or COVID. By looking at trends of data over time, such as people's temperatures, syndromic surveillance can help identify potential cases and clusters, ultimately assisting health systems to manage where to allocate testing, equipment, or treatments. THINKMD is operating in over 13 countries--primarily in Africa and Southeast Asia--requiring the platform to target a variety of languages and cultures.

Tracking data is just one part of THINKMD's mission; the other portion is providing education and support for their on-site partners. Establishing campaigns to distribute vaccines and educating the populace on sanitary practices are just some of the challenges they face. They solve these problems by working closely to transfer knowledge to individuals who the community trusts.

• THINKMD's mission is to eliminate preventable deaths by increasing healthcare access via new and disruptive technologies

Corey Martin is a Customer Solutions Architect at Heroku. He's interviewing Brandon Stewart, the founder and project lead of GNAR, and Yuri Oliveira, one of its software engineers. GNAR is a software consultancy, and one of their projects involves building an Internet of Things solution for RMS, a freight transportation company. Internet of Things is a broad term used to describe any object that can connect to the Internet or communicate with other devices; popular examples include the Next Thermostat or Amazon Alexa.

For RMS, Brandon and Yuri built a system to monitor trucks transporting shipping containers. Without an IoT infrastructure, truck drivers would communicate with their managers via radio signal, to get a sense of the optimal routes to take or the next task to focus on. With GNAR's IoT setup, the trucks communicate with their home base wirelessly, and there's no ambiguity over what to prioritize. Managers can also take a look at monthly data to track productivity, as well as individual drivers' performance. This gives them insights into both broad analytics and live behavior.

The team at GNAR uses Heroku Postgres, Heroku Data for Redis, and Apache Kafka on Heroku to ingest, process, and store data. Placing their faith in Heroku's products lets them concentrate on building the unique aspects of their business, while offloading the DevOps responsibilities. For both Yuri and Brandon, the delight in working with IoT comes from using their abstract software development skills to affect changes in "the real world." Having that physical impact on a business' operations has been incredible to watch. Brandon believes that there are many industries that could benefit from incorporating IoT. He suggests that people interested in the space investigate industries, ask people questions, and see where opportunities can be found.

• GNAR is a software consultancy
• Learn more about how GNAR uses Heroku
• Discover how to run Apache Kafka on Heroku

Jason Salaz is a member of the Heroku support team, and he's leading a conversation with Daniel Klein, a software engineer at Landing. Landing is a network of pre-furnished apartments that provides its users with a lease-free place to live for as many months as they need to. As remote work has becoming increasing necessary, the people who use Landing are able to live in any city they feel like across America. Aside from a monthly rent and annual membership, there are no other fees. In addition to furniture, the apartments have kitchen and bathroom basics, and maintenance is taken care of 24/7.

Obviously, Landing has been affected by COVID and the lockdowns, which has limited people's ability to travel. With restrictions slowly easing, they've been seeing growth returning. In particular, Daniel's noted that retirees make up the most surprising portion of their customer base. Older individuals with no job and the freedom to travel can visit cities which they've always dreamed of seeing.

• Landing is a network of fully furnished apartments in cities all across the country