Confluent Developer ft. Tim Berglund, Adi Polak & Viktor Gamov

As the fundamental data abstractions used by developers have changed over time, event streams are now the present and the future. Coming from decades of experience in messaging, Dan Rosanova (Senior Group Product Manager for Confluent Cloud, Confluent) discusses the pros and cons of cloud event streaming services on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, and Confluent Cloud. He also compares major stream processing and messaging services: Cloud Pub/Sub vs. Azure Event Hubs vs. Confluent Cloud, and outlines major differences among them. 

Also on the table in today’s episode are cloud lock-in, the anxieties around it, and where cloud marketplaces are headed.

EPISODE LINKS

• Don’t Get Locked Up in Avoiding Lock-In
• Join the Confluent Community Slack
• Fully managed Apache Kafka as a service! Try free.

SEASON 2
Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov
Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed
Music by Coastal Kites 
Artwork by Phil Vo 

•  🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. 
• ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes.
• 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 
• 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.

As a programmer, Kent Beck chats about various topics of broad interest to developers, including some of his books: “Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change,” “Test-Driven Development: By Example,” and “Implementation Patterns.” He wrote “Implementation Patterns” to highlight the positive habits a developer should form in order to write accessible code. 

He also shares about what it’s like to experiment with new ideas and implement them, especially when others doubt what you're trying to achieve. This relates to the concept behind the explore-to-expand transition and a short piece he wrote titled "Idea to Impact." Finally, Tim and Kent talk through the difference between refactoring and tidying, Kent's involvement with agile software and test-driven development, and what exactly test-commit-revert is. And yes, they talk a little bit about event streaming too!

EPISODE LINKS

• Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change
• Test-Driven Development: By Example
• Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns
• Implementation Patterns
• Oh, the Methods You’ll Compose (inspired by “Implementation Patterns”)
• Idea to Impact
• Fast/Slow in 3X: Explore/Expand/Extract
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
• Nominalism and Realism
• Robert Mathus, W.V.O. Quine, and Thanos
• Join the Confluent Community Slack

SEASON 2
Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov
Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed
Music by Coastal Kites 
Artwork by Phil Vo 

•  🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. 
• ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes.
• 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 
• 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.

Ask Confluent is back! From questions on Apache Kafka®, data integration, and log aggregation, to potential interview questions that Tim would ask if he were to interview himself, anything goes. 

If you're already a Kafka expert (or any type of expert), think about becoming a speaker. Gwen and Tim talk through how to submit a proposal and get accepted to conferences. As experienced conference goers, they explain that what makes a successful talk is making sure you present for the attendee instead of making it about yourself. In essence, what can your idea or code do to help someone else? 

From there, the pair chat about the secret for a long marriage, REST Proxy and where it exists in Confluent Operator, how Kafka relates to Splunk when aggregating logs, and whether Tim can start making some use case based video content so that people can better understand Kafka and how it works. For those who have just started integrating Kafka, Tim and Gwen also provide some pointers about how to go about understanding it. 

EPISODE LINKS

• Confluent REST Proxy Documentation
• What is Apache Kafka?
• Splunk Connect for Kafka – Connecting Apache Kafka with Splunk
• Watch the video version of this podcast
• Join the Confluent Community Slack

SEASON 2
Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov
Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed
Music by Coastal Kites 
Artwork by Phil Vo 

•  🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. 
• ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes.
• 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 
• 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.

Domain-driven design (DDD) is helpful for managing complex processes and rules—especially those between business experts and developers/users—and turning them into models. 

CEO of Virtual Genius Paul Rayner describes how the vast tooling in DDD enables developers to focus on the coding that really matters and makes systems more collaborative, taking into account three primary considerations: (1) how to get better at collaborating, (2) strategic design and understanding why design really matters, and (3) modeling codes. He also touches on bounded context, microservices, event storming, event sourcing, and the relationship between Apache Kafka® and DDD.  

EPISODE LINKS

• What is Domain-Driven Design?
• Microservices, Apache Kafka, and Domain-Driven Design
• Turning the Database Inside Out with Apache Samza
• Let’s Build “eBay” by “Turning the Database Inside Out” and Using Serverless
• Designing Event-Driven Systems
• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
• The Event Storming Handbook
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
• Explore DDD Conference
• Join the Confluent Community Slack

SEASON 2
Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov
Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed
Music by Coastal Kites 
Artwork by Phil Vo 

•  🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. 
• ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes.
• 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 
• 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.

TensorFlow is an open source machine learning platform that can be used with Apache Kafka® for deep learning. Chris Mattmann, author of Machine Learning with TensorFlow, introduces us to TensorFlow as a Google technology that teaches computers how to think and make connections like humans do. For example, when there is a signifier that the mind processes, out comes a label to the object in front of you. TensorFlow is Google's version of wrangling various technologies to help group them together and work smoothly as large amounts of data flow through. 

Chris also breaks down neural networks, how technology simulates cerebral processes that take place when our visual cortex receives a new image, plus a use case that involves Apache Kafka and event streaming to achieve TensorFlow's goals.

EPISODE LINKS

• Ask Confluent #13: Machine Learning with Kai Waehner 
• Join the Confluent Community Slack
• Get 40% off Machine Learning with TensorFlow using the code podcon19

SEASON 2
Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov
Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed
Music by Coastal Kites 
Artwork by Phil Vo 

•  🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. 
• ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes.
• 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 
• 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.

As an engineering leader managing a team, Gwen Shapira talks through the steps she took to get to Confluent and how she got started working with Apache Kafka®. She shares about what it's like being on the Project Management Committee (PMC) for the Apache Software Foundation as well as some of the responsibilities involved, such as choosing Kafka Improvement Proposals (KIPs), monitoring releases, and making contributions to the community. 

For Gwen, part of finding Kafka was her willingness to take risks, learn all types of code bases, and leave companies for a new technology that showed promise and sparked her interest. Given that not only Kafka itself but also how people learn Kafka has changed, Gwen shares her best tips for approaching the project. 

There are differences between distributed systems engineers and full stack engineers, and for anyone who wants to work at a company like Confluent, it’s important to showcase design and architecture knowledge, a knack for solving problems, and confidence in your ideas. 

EPISODE LINKS

• Apache Governance Guidelines
• Tim’s GitHub GIFs
• Apply to be an infrastructure engineer 
• Join the Confluent Community Slack
• Get 30% off Kafka Summit London registration with the code KSL20Audio

SEASON 2
Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov
Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed
Music by Coastal Kites 
Artwork by Phil Vo 

•  🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. 
• ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes.
• 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 
• 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.

Whether it's stream processing, real-time data analytics, to adding business value, Professional Services helps customers thrive within their chosen software or products and ultimately be successful as a digital enterprise. As a solutions architect and member of the Professional Services Team at Confluent, Jakub Korab discusses what Professional Services actually is and how it relates to customer success. It all centers around what customers want to do, and you’ll hear about trends, Apache Kafka® use cases, and real-life examples of Professional Services in action within various industries over the last year.

EPISODE LINKS

• Understanding Message Brokers by Jakub Korab
• Apache Camel Developer's Cookbook by Jakub Korab
• Join our team
• Learn more about Professional Services
• Join the Confluent Community Slack
• Get 30% off Kafka Summit London registration with the code KSL20Audio

SEASON 2
Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov
Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed
Music by Coastal Kites 
Artwork by Phil Vo 

•  🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. 
• ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes.
• 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 
• 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.

What is Knative and how does it simplify Kubernetes-related processes through seamless extension? Jacques Chester (Software Engineer, VMware) is publishing a book called “Knative in Action” that walks through the problems Knative is trying to solve. You don’t need to be an expert to fully understand Knative, so start getting hands on and see what you can do with it! You also don't need to be an expert on Kubernetes to read the book, but some experience with the tool can help you get it working with your software more quickly. This episode will help you understand the relationship between Knative and serverless and simplify your Kubernetes cluster.

EPISODE LINKS

• Learn more about Knative
• Factory Physics by Hopp and Spearman
• Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World  by John D. Sterman
• Matt Stine's tweet
• Join the Confluent Community Slack
• Get 30% off Kafka Summit London registration with the code KSL20Audio
• Get 40% off Knative in Action with the code podcon19

SEASON 2
Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov
Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed
Music by Coastal Kites 
Artwork by Phil Vo 

•  🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. 
• ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes.
• 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 
• 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.

The Stitch Fix team benefits from a centralized data integration platform at scale using Apache Kafka and Kafka Connect. Liz Bennett (Software Engineer, Confluent) got to play a key role building their real-time data streaming infrastructure. Liz explains how she implemented Apache Kafka® at Stitch Fix, her previous employer, where she successfully introduced Kafka first through a Kafka hackathon and then by pitching it to the management team. 

Her first piece of advice? Give it a cool name like The Data Highway. As part of the process, she prepared a detailed document proposing a Kafka roadmap, which eventually landed her in a meeting with management on how they would successfully integrate the product (spoiler: it worked!). 

If you’re curious about the pros and cons of Kafka Connect, the self-service aspect, how it does with scaling, metrics, helping data scientists, and more, this is your episode! You’ll also get to hear what Liz thinks her biggest win with Kafka has been.

EPISODE LINKS

• Putting the Power of Apache Kafka into the Hands of Data Scientists
• Join the Confluent Community Slack
• Get 30% off Kafka Summit London registration with the code KSL20Audio

SEASON 2
Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov
Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed
Music by Coastal Kites 
Artwork by Phil Vo 

•  🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. 
• ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes.
• 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 
• 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.

Jun Rao (Co-founder, Confluent) explains what relational databases and distributed databases are, how they work, and major differences between the two. He also delves into important lessons he’s learned along the way through the transition from the relational world to the distributed world. 

To be successful at a place like Confluent, he outlines three fundamental traits that a distributed systems engineer must possess, emphasizing the importance of curiosity and knowledge, care in code development, and being open-minded and collaborative. You may even find that sometimes, the people with the best answers to your problems aren't even at your company! 

Originally from China, Jun moved to the U.S. for his Ph.D. and eventually landed in IBM research labs. He worked there for over 10 years before moving to LinkedIn, where Apache Kafka® was initially being developed and implemented. 

EPISODE LINKS

• Get 30% off Kafka Summit London registration with the code KSL20Audio
• Join the Confluent Community Slack

SEASON 2
Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov
Produced and Edited by Noelle Gallagher, Peter Furia and Nurie Mohamed
Music by Coastal Kites 
Artwork by Phil Vo 

•  🎧 Subscribe to Confluent Developer wherever you listen to podcasts. 
• ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube, and hit the 🔔 to catch new episodes.
• 👍 If you enjoyed this, please leave us a rating. 
• 🎧 Confluent also has a podcast for tech leaders: "Life Is But A Stream" hosted by our friend, Joseph Morais.