S4 Ep2: Unlocking Developer Velocity: API Design and Blackbird’s Game-Changing Tools

We’re pleased to share that the "Livin’ on the Edge" podcast is back for Season 4 after our summer hiatus! We have a special episode for y’all ahead of our Blackbird, generally available release date on October 1, 2024, and with that we have a special guest host, myself (CEO Steve Rodda here). To kick off episode two, I sat down with James Higginbotham, founder of Launch Any, author of API Developer Weekly, well-known API consultant, and all-around great guy. James has been an instrumental tester and feedback producer for our new API development tool, Blackbird. He’s explored it through the lens of ADDR (align, define, design r ), and he also is one of the most well-known API experts in our industry. Needless to say, we had a riveting conversation about how the industry is evolving, his Blackbird experience, and advice for technology leaders looking to end the last quarter of 2024 on a high note. For more, visit getblackbird.io.

We’re pleased to share that the "Livin’ on the Edge" podcast is back for Season 4 after our summer hiatus! With it, we have one new host, Jacob Caddy, and myself (Kay James) will also return as a fellow host. This season, we’re still going to be highlighting all the best Kubernetes practices, but we’re also going to be diving deeper into the world of API development, ephemeral environments, developer tricks, and more. To kick off episode one, I chatted with developer relations manager at Civo, Kunal Khushwaha, for an in-depth interview on all things cloud computing and the main challenges that organizations are facing as it relates to cloud-native development.

On the latest Livin’ on the Edge podcast (and my last episode for Season 3), I interviewed Vasil Kaftandzhiev, a fellow Product Manager at Grafana. We explored the importance of observability in IT systems, particularly in the context of cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes management. Observability is the constant monitoring of the system and of business KPIs with the goal of understanding why something is happening. It goes beyond the here-and-now of just monitoring (which itself is key to observability) and extends to the analysis and understanding of broader problems or issues, the underlying system and root causes. Vasil’s team at Grafana has been focused on building opinionated observability solutions that are based on technology best practices and observability best practices. He shared a few of those best observations with us below. We also dove into the actual difference between plain monitoring and true observability, the role of AI and ML within observability, and, of course, the importance of resource utilization and cost management in Kubernetes.

On the latest Livin on the Edge Episode, Kay James sat down with Women in APIs and APIsFirst, Claire Barrett to discuss the following: - the Women in APIs program with apidays - Trends and strategies in the API space - Tackling common challenges that women face in the industry For more, visit getambassador.io/podcasts.

In our latest Livin’ on the Edge podcast, I chatted with Erik Wilde, well known OpenAPI Initiative ambassador and Principal Consultant at INNOQ, as well as the host of the popular YouTube channel, “Getting APIs to Work.” After both of us attended APIDays New York a few weeks ago, we realized that platform engineering continues to be the talk of the town in this industry. In our discussion, we zeroed in on the four main P’s for a successful platform engineering approach. Whether it’s the importance of treating platforms like products, identifying pain points, standardizing processes, and managing platforms actively to prevent fragmentation…. here are Erik’s TL/DR of it all for successfully managing a platform.

In our latest Livin’ On the Edge podcast episode, I interviewed Keith Casey, senior product manager at Pangea and one of the co-authors of API Developer Weekly. Pangea offers security services in a single platform of API-based security services that can be stacked onto an existing tech stack. We explored authentication and authorization as crucial aspects of building secure and reliable distributed systems, as well as some best auth practices to help make your auth process a breeze for your developer team.

Join us for a special bonus mini episode with host Kay James and VP of appCD/ Kubecrash Co-Founder, Danielle Cook, as we dive into what you can expect ahead of Kubecrash Spring 2024. The theme is Platform Engineering: Building the Ultimate Internal Developer Platform. Kay got the inside scoop with Danielle on what to look out for and some can't miss sessions of this open source focused conference. Register to attend Kubecrash (free + virtual) on April 24: https://www.kubecrash.io/.

In our latest episode we chatted with consultant Matthew Reinbold about the future of the API industry, how to stay sharp in this current economic climate, and the state of developer relations. For more, visit getambassador.io/podcasts. Resources: - matthewreinbold.com - netapinotes.com - APIFutures https://matthewreinbold.github.io/APIFutures - Matthew's mastodon microblogging - https://opinuendo.com

API Federation encompasses a collection of design principles, tools, and infrastructure that enable the exposure of services and event streams within a specific bounded context as a cohesive and standardized API for external customers. API Federation allows individual services within the bounded context to evolve and adapt without imposing additional limitations or constraints. The TL/DR of it all is that API Federation provides a unified and consistent interface for external users while promoting flexibility and agility within the internal service ecosystem. Ok, but what does that mean? Not to fear, our latest Livin' On the Edge podcast guest, Daniel Kocot of CodeCentric AG sat down with us to walk us through it all and the two major concepts that are impacting API Federation today, including shifting mindsets and the language style you choose to code in.

Explore the crucial role of the inner dev loop and quantitative metrics to enhance developer productivity and build a sustainable engineering culture with Guru Kamat, Co-Founder of Neurelo. With over 20 years of experience, Guru has seen it all. From scaling small startup teams to being an integral part of leading technology companies such as Palo Alto and Stripe–Guru has experienced a variety of environments to truly master the art of developer productivity.