Serverless Days Conference
One of the biggest takeaways from the serverless conference, for me, was something that I feel is really key to development as a practice.
As an apprentice software engineer, it is my goal to understand the concepts behind the technologies I use. I like to know what I’m using so I can use it in the right context and in the right way. Beyond that, I don’t always need to know all the ins and outs of the tools I use.
Let’s take the analogy of driving a car. I know how to drive a car, I know when to change gears, when to use the indicator. I even know enough about maintenance to know that I have to keep the oil topped up, that I need to add water for the windscreen wipers, and that I need to make sure I change the timing belt every 80k miles or so. Some people probably know a lot more than me. If I am not sure about something, or if my car starts to play up in some way, I can always take it to a garage, where I pay someone with more knowledge and experience than me to fix it. Another thing that person has, is the time to fix it, because that’s the job they’ve chosen.
During the conference my takeaway was, that this is exactly what using serverless tech is about. It’s about being able to focus on a different area of expertise, or to focus on a broader range of tasks, while leaving others who create serverless technology to provide you with the means to set up and maintain your software, saving you time and offering you support in the process!
To complement this concept, another perspective that I felt was emphasised during the conference, was the fact that the term ‘serverless’ is just a word. Everyone gets upset about the term serverless, because, we all know it’s not really serverless, there is still a physical machine that houses our software. “It’s just someone else’s computer, not our own”, to quote Erica Windisch. Erica said; let’s move past this debate, and stop spending our time complaining about this word, and let’s really get to the interesting discussions.
I personally feel that, despite everyone’s fears about security, or feelings of having less control over our software and data, out of pure practicality, we will end up adopting serverless technology to some extent.
Most of us already do use a form of ‘serverless’ technology, on a personal level, mostly through our phones, for apps, games and perhaps for saving our photos to Google Drive. Of course, this is not so direct, and comes without the responsibilities we have when handling our own data. Personally, I feel that there is real beauty in being able to serve data across a multitude of different devices without being tied to a physical machine that would otherwise be expensive and physically cumbersome.
The conference itself felt very welcoming, with a wide range of talks for varied levels of experience and knowledge. There was an acceptable balance of speakers, from different backgrounds, although there could have been more variety. I really enjoyed the small badges that were given out, and the fact they were placed at different stalls, where we were encouraged to talk with people and find out about the companies and software being presented during the conference!
The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly, and although there was a lot I didn’t quite grasp, I feel I am another step closer to understanding this area of software engineering. I’d definitely attend again! There’s a lot more I could talk about, but, as usual, most of it has morphed into one big pleasant experience and picking it apart takes more time than I currently have!
Image and badge artwork is by Kate Holden.
