Deploy Friday

The internet economy would not be what it is today without the influence and the value added by open source software. As software development in general has become more sophisticated, complex, and time-consuming, maintaining open source software has, too. Today we talk about the importance of funding open source software sustainably with Pia Mancini, Co-founder & CEO of Open Collective, and Luis Villa, Co-founder of Tidelift.

Time vs. money in open source

Open source software is not exactly “free”. As Pia Mancini explains, “It's free in the sense that you do not have to pay for it in hard cash. But someone is paying for it with their time.”

And as open source software has gotten more complex, it takes more time to develop and maintain it. Luis Villa adds, “When I first started, you could hack something useful and put it out there in a weekend. But now it can take decades or centuries of effort.”

As Luis points out, having that time is also a function of privilege. “Part of why open source is even less diverse than software as a whole is because for a long time, it required a lot of economic privilege to get involved.”

The current imbalance in the open source world

Pia says the current ubiquitousness of open source is the result of a successful “battle” to convince companies of its value. But winning that battle has come with a cost. She explains, “There’s a huge imbalance between those who are using and profiting from open source software, and those who are creating but not profiting from it. And the lion’s share of the burden falls on the side of the maintainers.” 

Braiding sustainability into open source’s future 

Luis and Pia have a few ideas on how to remedy this imbalance and work towards a more sustainable open source future. For one, we can start thinking about sustainability more holistically. Pia says, “Sustainability is as much financial sustainability as it is sustainability of the community.” To make sure your project thrives as part of a sustainable community, Pia suggests:

• Good onboarding practices to make your project inviting to newbies

Try Tidelift and Open Collective on Platform.sh today to bring sustainability and open source together.

Platform.sh

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Platform.sh is a robust, reliable hosting platform that gives development teams the tools to build and scale applications efficiently. Whether you run one or one thousand websites, you can focus on creating features and functionality with your favorite tech stack and leave managing infrastructure and processes to us.

Apache Camel is an open source Java framework that helps developers make integrations faster and easier. Our two guests, Christina Lina, a Java developer and software architect, and Hugo Guerrera, a software developer and open source advocate, speak about how Camel can help you implement inter-system Enterprise Integration Patterns (EIP).

Apache Camel helps developers with integration

If you listen in the podcast, I define Apache Camel as integration between database web servers, Apache Kafka, and other message brokers. The communication Apache Camel does is crucial, because as Christina Lin points out, developers spend a lot of time connecting and integrating. Apache Camel holds many benefits for developers hoping to simplify and cut down on the duplication of effort in this process

• Reduce manual labor with automated processes— Christina Lin talks about how integration often involves a great deal of duplication, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Apache Camel helps you save time, so you don’t have to write custom code. “When you’re doing integrations, Camel also helps by transforming your data automatically. You can specify how you want it to be transformed.”

Save time and reduce manual labor in your integrations with Apache Camel on Platform.sh 

Platform.sh

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Watch, listen, and subscribe to the Platform.sh Deploy Friday podcast:

Platform.sh is a robust, reliable hosting platform that gives development teams the tools to build and scale applications efficiently. Whether you run one or one thousand websites, you can focus on creating features and functionality with your favorite tech stack and leave managing infrastructure and processes to us.

Simplify and speed up cloud-native development with Micronaut

Micronaut is an open-source, JVM-based framework for building full-stack, modular, easily testable microservices and serverless applications. In this episode, we speak with Iván López Martín, a JVM Developer and Micronaut committer at Object Computing, and Rodrigo Graciano, a Java User Group leader, about how Micronaut can help developers build their cloud-native applications more simply and easily.

Faster start time and lower memory usage 

One difference between Micronaut and other frameworks is it performs dependency injection at compile time instead of runtime, which helps developers greatly reduce startup time and memory usage. Iván says, “When you have more code it takes more time and memory to start your application because the framework needs to keep all that in memory to really know how your UI application behaves. What Micronaut does is compile ahead of time so when you start your application, the framework doesn't need to do much of anything, so you get really low memory consumption and really fast start time.”

Build for cloud native

Other JVM-based frameworks like Quarkus, Grails, and Spring Boot perform similar functions as Micronaut, but many of these frameworks are used with monolith migration in mind. Iván adds that because of how some of these frameworks are built and structured, “they still pay the performance penalty.” Micronaut, however, was designed for compatibility with cloud-native and microservices, and it has extensive cloud native support services to back it up.

Go serverless

Micronaut can also be used for serverless applications more easily than other JVM-based frameworks. Iván explains why, “If I'm a JVM developer and want to go serverless, you probably don't want to write JavaScript or Python. With Micronaut, you can create your application and continue using the same framework, tools, and languages that you want to.”

Save startup time, money, and memory by trying Micronaut on Platform.sh

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Platform.sh is a robust, reliable hosting platform that gives development teams the tools to build and scale applications efficiently. Whether you run one or one thousand websites, you can focus on creating features and functionality with your favorite tech stack and leave managing infrastructure and processes to us.

OpenAPI: Clarity and structure for API development

The OpenAPI specification (formerly known as Swagger) is a blueprint to help develop APIs and to make sure what’s in the API is clear and understandable, before development even starts. Lorna Mitchell, a Senior Development Advocate at Nexmo and one of our guests today, explains it like this, “OpenAPI is an API description standard. It's a way of explaining everything in your APIs. So think of when you would write documentation and the endpoints, the parameters, the responses you should expect, but it's in a machine-readable format. So you can generate documentation, but you can also generate mock servers, clients, feed into Postman and try out the requests. There's a bunch of possibilities.”

OpenAPI, open standard

Because OpenAPI is an open standard, one of those possibilities (and advantages!) is being able to use a variety of tools with it. Lorna continues, “So OpenAPI, because it describes your API in its entirety, gives you a bunch of things that you can do out of the box, it's an open standard. So there's a lot of different tools, providing a lot of different features. When the machines basically read this detailed spec, you can use JSON, you can use YAML. The big advantage is that by sharing the standard, then we can also share the tools.”

Postman, a leader in API testing

As the need for building APIs with a clear structure has risen, so has the need for testing them. This is where Postman comes in. Joyce Lin, a Senior Developer Advocate at Postman, describes Postman as a flexible, extensible API development platform that you can use for testing, deploying, as well as documenting your APIs. Joyce says the two primary use cases for OpenAPI and Postman are:

• Driving the design and development of your API

She adds, “Postman is like a tool chain. And it’s opinionated, but it's not going to shame you because you've poorly designed your API. What Postman can help you do is interact with it a little bit more.”

She reveals support for OpenAPI in Postman happened because of customer’s requests, “Last year, one of Postman’s most requested features was support for OpenAPI. So we finally launched that, and we've been making some improvements.” Other improvements in Postman’s future include improved JSON schema and Graph SQL support.

Build and test your APIs more easily with OpenAPI and Postman on Platform.sh 

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Platform.sh is a robust, reliable hosting platform that gives development teams the tools to build and scale applications efficiently. Whether you run one or one thousand websites, you can focus on creating features and functionality with your favorite tech stack and leave managing infrastructure and processes to us.

Defining Kafka

Apache Kafka is an open-source stream-processing software platform which aims to provide a unified, high-throughput, low-latency platform for handling real-time data feeds. Anna McDonald, one of the Apache Kafka experts we speak with in this episode, describes it like this, “The easiest way to describe it is a durable log. And that makes it different from most all other messaging systems, where a message goes in, you have to broadcast it out. And as soon as it's consumed, it's gone. And Apache Kafka, it lives until your retention period, which is fantastic. ” Ricardo Ferreria, another expert on Apache Kafka, adds to this definition, “Kafka is not actually a messaging technology, it’s more of a data streaming technology.”

How Kafka is different from other messaging brokers

• Pull-based  — Kafka data consumers  fetch data when, how, and how fast they need it, without affecting performance. In push-based messaging technologies, the broker pushes messages to consumers, creating potential bottlenecks and scalability issues.

Treat Kafka as your “single source of truth”

Both of our experts today talk about treating Kafka as your “single source of truth,” your system of record. Ricardo explains further, “You can have multiple different consumers interested in the same data set, but each one of them are using the data set differently. So when you start using Kafka this way, you start building architectures that are not only super resilient and scalable, but also it is a very good replacement for very expensive end databases.”

Try Apache Kafka on Platfporm.sh today to get your “single source of truth” 

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Platform.sh is a robust, reliable hosting platform that gives development teams the tools to build and scale applications efficiently. Whether you run one or one thousand websites, you can focus on creating features and functionality with your favorite tech stack and leave managing infrastructure and processes to us.

Diversity and inclusion is a perennial challenge in the tech industry. In this episode, we have two guests from Witty Works to help us learn more about research-backed ways to be more inclusive in our hiring processes and everyday lives.

Unconscious bias starts very early in life

Unconscious bias is one important factor behind the underrepresentation of women and other marginalized groups we often see in certain fields and leadership positions. Our guests Lukas Smith and Nadia Fischer tell us unconscious bias due to early socialization is ubiquitous, though it can present differently across cultures.

How unconscious bias can show up in the workplace

Pattern-based thinking is a useful survival strategy that can serve us well in other situations, such as making us jump back from an oncoming car — a task our rational brains would be too slow to handle. But when it shows up in the workplace, especially in the interview process, the impacts can be negative. Nadia says, “Typically, white males always get asked questions about where they can really show off their potential in interviews. Where marginalized communities are actually asked more questions about their past and defend what they've already achieved in their career.”

How to make strides towards diversity and inclusion

Unconscious bias doesn’t go away by itself. Everyone can, however, take steps to be more aware of it in themselves, and actively mitigate its impacts.

• Be aware of the impact of language — Using the term “culture add”, instead of “culture fit” is a simple but effective change. Lukas says, ask, “What does that person add to the organization that we don't have yet?”

Witty.Works can support your company to take practical steps towards diversity and inclusion.

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Platform.sh is a robust, reliable hosting platform that gives development teams the tools to build and scale applications efficiently. Whether you run one or one thousand websites, you can focus on creating features and functionality with your favorite tech stack and leave managing infrastructure and processes to us.

Our two guests, Jeanne Boyarsky and Adam Bien, are both long-time Java developers. On today’s episode, we talk about what consists of “good” architecture in the changing world of software development, and where exactly Java fits in to the puzzle.

Defining software architecture

Pinning down a solid definition of software architecture can be tricky these days. Our guest Jeanne Boyarsky agrees. ”Architecture feels a little like a vocabulary word because it means so many different things to different people. But to me, it feels like the high level, what-are-you-going-to-put-together so that things make sense. Similarly, you don't want every application you have to be different, that makes it hard to work on anything. Architecture also includes non-functional requirements. If my app works, but takes a year to get back to you, it's useless. So I think all those things together.” 

Timeless principles of quality software development

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed or distracted by software trends, concepts, and developments, such as microservices, cloud-native, or serverless. But Adam and Jean say some key principles about what makes “good” software development will never “go out of fashion.”

• Stay flexible — Adam Bien says, “I think it is really important just to suggest things, and not to say, this is the absolute rule. Because nothing is absolute in software development, not even architecture, you always have exceptions. I think this is the most important thing.”

Adam’s final words of advice? “Just build stuff”. And he adds, half-jokingly, “And don’t forget how to code once you become an architect.”

Try Quarkus on Platform.sh: https://bit.ly/3bBUmNs

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Branding is just as much a part of your product as its code, but it can be hard to nail down a definition: branding means different things to different people. For some, you say “brand” and they think “logo”. But for the Platform.sh team, branding goes a lot deeper than that.

Savannah Bergeron, Communications Designer at Platform.sh, defines their branding process this way. “We really wanted to build something that helps express that emotional reaction someone has to our product when they understand it for the first time. So branding is more than just colors, it's really how do we translate and facilitate that conversation, about all of the things that our product means to different people, in a visual way.”

What is your brand’s Personality Statement?

It can be hard to sift through many contributing factors to grasp a cohesive idea of what your brand is. Savannah, together with Allison Simmons, VP of Product & Design at Plaform.sh, suggest interviewing both your customers and your internal team. Throughout their cross-examination, “We found these repeats that really resonated with people, it was a string of about five or six, maybe seven words. So we kind of took those words and wrapped them into this personality statement. Before anyone writes or designs anything, I like to refresh myself with our personality statement to just kind of get in the mode of who we actually are.” 

Keep going until you find your “Aha!” moment 

Savannah explains how customers pulling all the pieces together is critical for laying the building blocks of your brand, “One thing that's universal is this ‘Aha!’ moment. It’s this revelation our customers have when they understand our product and what it delivers. It really became a base in trying to figure out our brand and how to move it forward.”

Branding is dynamic

Both Savannah and Allison agree that your brand should evolve over time. Says Savannah, “Approach your brand from a human perspective, and know that your brand is a living entity. It's not a one-size-fits-all, and it's not a statue, you need to be able to change it and adjust it and kind of go with the flow.”

Talk to Platform.sh to help uncover your brand voice.

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Platform.sh is a robust, reliable hosting platform that gives development teams the tools to build and scale applications efficiently. Whether you run one or one thousand websites, you can focus on creating features and functionality with your favorite tech stack and leave managing infrastructure and processes to us.

Meilisearch is an open source search engine meant for small-to-medium size applications that are just getting off the ground. With a simpler, more elastic experience than many of the market leaders, Meilisearch aims to provide an executable, fast, and easily customizable search engine to fit more common use cases.

Meilisearch deeply values its open source roots

Meilisearch has been open source from its beginning. In fact, the three founders, Clément Renault, Thomas Payet, and Quentin de Quelen, never had a strategy for making it commercial. Instead, they aimed for Meilisearch to adhere to the values of open source as much as possible. Erlend Sogge Heggen, of Meilisearch Developer Relations emphasized, “When you have an open source product that you want to drive forward, you want to make it sustainable, make sure people can actually get paid to work on this thing, while at the same time maintaining your open source values and not doing something that feels like it goes against the open source ethos.” 

Meilisearch appeals to the developer experience 

In addition to their open source origins, Meilisearch aims to appeal to developers in other ways. As Thomas Payet, Meilisearch COO, says, “We are really sensitive when it comes to developer experience. And we know that not all developers work in the same ways.” The use of Rust as the language of choice for Meilisearch is another example. Thomas calls it a “no-brainer” and cites a few advantages of Rust for developers, such as:

• The ability to maintain a big codebase easily

Meilisearch provides speed in multiple areas

Other commonly used search engines, like Elasticsearch, have a lot of power, but they can take so long to set up and configure that it wastes everyone’s time. In a small or medium size company, time is an especially precious resource. Meilisearch aims to be fast to set up, configure, and to use. Thomas refers to Meilisearch’s instant “as-you-type” search results, saying, “We know that the person that will use our search engine, they will just type the beginning of the word and they want to find the document as fast as possible.”

Try Meilisearch in action  https://docs.platform.sh/

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Spring’s wide ecosystem of modules simplifies the development process

Spring is the most popular Java-based framework for application development for many reasons. One of them is its wide ecosystem of modules and integrations, which you can use to:

• Develop REST APIs

Josh Long, a Spring Developer Advocate, says Spring’s variety of integrations “makes it as easy as possible to do anything you want.”

Spring has investment from the open source community and big companies alike

“Spring is a very vibrant open source project,” according to Josh, “There's all the small contributors and all the people that submit pull requests. So it's a very active project, all the different projects are active on GitHub, but there's also huge organizations that are invested in it.” 

He ticks off, among others, Spring Cloud for Alibaba, Google Cloud, Amazon, Microsoft, and Kubernetes. Josh sums it up, “Everybody converges on Spring because it's a very natural place to build apps. And so as a result, today it’s the most ubiquitous Java technology on the JVM except for Java itself.”

Spring Boot’s auto-configuration grants developers flexibility 

Loiane Groner, a Citibank software engineer, defines Spring Boot as “what people use nowadays to create the applications. It's just a way to abstract all the configuration, what's going to be your main file, like your index, JSP, index, HTML.” Josh adds that when Spring Boot starts up, it looks at cues in the environment and “auto-configures,” granting developers almost total flexibility. 

Spring boosts application development productivity

Loiane says, “I believe most Java developers started using Spring because it makes it easier for you to develop your applications.” Josh Long adds to this. “The reason I have enjoyed some measure of success is not because of me, it's because of Spring. Spring is just super productive.” 

Try Spring with MongoDB on Platform.sh to be super productive building your applications.

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Platform.sh is a robust, reliable hosting platform that gives development teams the tools to build and scale applications efficiently. Whether you run one or one thousand websites, you can focus on creating features and functionality with your favorite tech stack and leave managing infrastructure and processes to us.