SAM WILLIAMS | Becoming a Confident Serverless Developer

Welcome to the ninth episode of The Serverless Mindset podcast!In this episode, I chat with Alex Kearns, a Lead Consultant at Inawisdom, in the UK. Together we walk through what we believe are the most relevant services announced at re:Invent 2022 for serverless developers.Show highlights* The four most relevant services announced at re:Invent 2022 for serverless developers:* Our review of how these services are performing in the real world, nearly two months after their announcement* The drive within AWS for an improved Developer Experience, and how this is causing new enthusiasm within the Serverless community* The concerning pattern of services getting launched without CloudFormation support from day one* Our appreciation for the Cloudscape design system which is making newer services UI’s look a lot nicer* Our thoughts on the ever-closer dream of end-to-end cloud-based development, and how CodeCatalyst helps us get thereLinks and resourcesTop announcements of re:Invent 2022Alex Kearns on LinkedInCodeCatalystEventBridge PipesEventBridge SchedulerApplication Composer This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theserverlessmindset.com

Welcome to the eighth episode of The Serverless Mindset podcast!In this episode, I chat with Jones Zachariah Noel, an AWS Serverless Hero and DevRel at Freshworks in Bengaluru, India.Show highlights* Best options for choreography vs orchestration within the AWS ecosystem* Why direct integrations are often to be preferred over custom code, even though there are challenges (such as testing)* Why Jones recommends using SAM (Amazon’s Serverless Application Model) for building distributed serverless applications* A bunch of useful testing techniques for event-driven applications* How to prevent your Step Functions setup from turning into a monolithic system* Rules of thumb for when to prefer orchestration vs choreographyLinks and resources* Everything AWS, Serverless and Architectures (newsletter curated by Jones)* Jones Zachariah Noel on Twitter* Amazon EventBridge* Amazon Step Functions* SAM***The Serverless Mindset is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.***Music by Anton_Vlasov from Pixabay This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theserverlessmindset.com

Welcome to the seventh episode of The Serverless Mindset podcast!In this episode, I chat with Sam Williams, a serverless consultant and teacher based in Germany.Show highlights* The two-step process for becoming a confident developer: strong foundations and building lots of applications* Deviating from the happy path is a great way to gain confidence and develop problem solving skills* Getting started with a basic serverless setup is perfectly acceptable* Getting to grips with serverless and the AWS ecosystem can be challenging because finding the right information is not easy* AWS Labs are an incredibly useful resource for learning* Picking one teacher is key to make learning serverless a lot easierLinks and resources* “Master Serverless with 7 Projects” course* Complete Coding YouTube channel* AWS Builder Labs***Music by Anton_Vlasov from Pixabay This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theserverlessmindset.com

My guest today is Aishwarya Gupta, a DevOps Engineer based in Bengaluru, India. Aishwarya is a member of the AWS Community Builders programme and has a lot of experience building sophisticated infrastructure using tools like Amazon’s CDK.In this episode, Aishwarya and I discuss the various options available to developers when building infrastructure on the cloud. We then offer some perspectives as to which of those options may be best depending on the use case.Highlights* An overview of the main available choices for development in the Cloud* IaC frameworks that use scripting languages are harder to read and debug, and thus make it more difficult to scale a large project* The CDK makes life easier as it allows developers to write infrastructure using their favourite programming language * How Infrastructure as Code democratises infrastructure and removes blockers so that a single team can own the whole product from development to deployment* Understanding a CDK-made project at first glance can be difficult though since the code can be structured differently depending on team/developer preferences* In the long term, the CDK remains one of the best choicesUseful Links* Aishwarya on LinkedIn* AWS CDK* Terraform* Serverless Framework* AWS SAM This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theserverlessmindset.com

In this episode, I discuss 3 skills that I have found very useful in helping teams better appreciate serverless.Highlights* The three skills:* Infrastructure-as-Code* Event-Driven Architecture* Solution Architecture DiagramsUseful Links* 3 Things You Need to Master to Get Your Team Ready to Work With Serverless* Want to Make Your Work More Professional? Use These Easy Solution Architecture Techniques This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theserverlessmindset.com

My guest today is Dax Raad, a software engineer based in New York City. Dax has rapidly become an influential voice in the serverless community due to, amongst other things, his work with the Serverless Stack framework (SST).In this episode, Dax and I discuss the areas that every serverless team, big or small, should ensure are covered before embarking on a new serverless project. Highlights* It’s useful to have a “full kit”: a toolset that we can benefit from at every stage of our serverless journey* The components that need to be in our starter pack:* Infrastructure as Code and a build system: the CDK solves both issues * A cloud environment for each developer* Code organisation: Domain-Driven Design can be particularly helpful* A system for Configuration and Secrets: SSM is a good place to start, but the SST team is working on a better solution for that 😉* Context/Scope management (e.g. in a multi-tenant application): SST is planning on releasing something to make this easier too* The value of using clean/hexagonal architecture within Lambda for easier refactoringUseful Links* Serverless Stack (SST)* Dax Raad on Twitter This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theserverlessmindset.com

Welcome to the third episode of The Serverless Mindset podcast!In this episode, I chat with Henry George, CTO at fintech startup Trilo, based in London, UK.Show highlights* It all begins with good CICD pipelines* With serverless, testing in the cloud is more effective than testing locally* Reusable and isolated components/microservices are key* Embracing cloud-native services is more effective than using hybrid solutions* The pros and cons of a “distributed monolith” vs pure microservicesLinks and resources* Trilo* Open Banking* CDK This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theserverlessmindset.com

Welcome to the second episode of The Serverless Mindset podcast!In this episode, I chat with Luigi Zuccarelli, a principal software engineer with RedHat, based in Ireland.Show highlights* The non-negotiable value of the design phase * The importance of starting with the end in mind* How to use event storming to establish good foundations before the start of a project* A few tips to ensure that your microservices are small and single-focused* Why you should consider adopting Trunk-Driven-DevelopmentLinks and resources* RedHat* Accelerate (book)* Interview with Luigi on Silicon Republic* Open Practice Library* DDD* Event Storming***Music by Anton_Vlasov from Pixabay This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theserverlessmindset.com

I am excited to launch a brand new podcast! In each episode, I will be chatting with someone who has had an impact on me and the broader serverless community. The very first episode could not have had a better guest than Paul Swail. I hope you will consider subscribing to his newsletter where he shares invaluable serverless wisdom from years of hard-earned experience.Welcome to the very first episode of The Serverless Mindset podcast! In this episode, I chat with Paul Swail, an independent serverless consultant based out of Belfast, in the UK, on how to best navigate serverless best practices. Show highlights* Best practices should be thought of as rules of thumb: they should be followed but it’s ok not to follow them if you have a good reason not to* Context is key: who, what, and why was a best practice created? This is crucial, since it may not apply in your specific context* Serverless is a radically different paradigm, so we are justified in not taking previously accepted best practices for grantedLinks* Paul Swail on Twitter* Paul’s newsletter***Music by Anton_Vlasov from Pixabay This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theserverlessmindset.com