Matt Stine
Salt Lake Software Symposium
Salt Lake City · July 14 - 15, 2017
I Enable Early-Career Enterprise Software Engineers to Continuously Improve
My passion is taking a metaphysical approach to software engineering: what is the nature of the collaborative game that we continuously play, and are there better, more contextually-aware ways to play that game?
By day I lead a team tasked with taking a first-principles-centric approach to intentionally enabling programming language usage at the largest bank in the United States.
By night I write and teach my way through a masterclass in software engineering and architecture targeting early-career software engineers working in large-scale enterprise technology organizations.
What is the primary goal?
To win the game. More seriously: to get 1% better every day at providing business value through software.
Who am I?
I'm a 22-year veteran of the enterprise software industry. I've played almost every role I can imagine:
- Software Engineer
- Software Architect
- Technical Lead
- Engineering Manager
- Consultant
- Product Manager
- Field CTO
- Developer Advocate
- Conference Speaker
- Author
- Technical Trainer
- Technical Marketer
- Site Reliability Engineer
- Desktop Support Specialist
I've worked at Fortune 500 companies, a tenacious teal cloud startup, and a not-for-profit children's hospital. I've written a book, and I've hosted a podcast. I've learned a lot along the way, including many things I wish I'd known when I first got started. And so now I want to pass those learnings on to you, especially if you've only just begun your career.
Presentations
Cloud Native Architecture Fundamentals: Part 1
Cloud continues to grow in importance in even the most conservative companies’ IT strategies. Because of this, even experienced software architects must confront a new world in which many of our normal architectural assumptions no longer hold. Before we create architectures that leverage cloud infrastructure, we need to rebuild our mental model of infrastructure around the appropriate concepts and principles. The purpose of this session is to do just that.
Cloud Native Architecture Fundamentals: Part 2
Cloud continues to grow in importance in even the most conservative companies’ IT strategies. Because of this, even experienced software architects must confront a new world in which many of our normal architectural assumptions no longer hold. Before we create architectures that leverage cloud infrastructure, we need to rebuild our mental model of infrastructure around the appropriate concepts and principles. The purpose of this session is to do just that.
Cloud Native Architecture Patterns: Part 1 - Brick Patterns
Now that we’ve been equipped with an understanding of how software architectures can exploit the unique aspects of cloud infrastructure environments, it’s time to construct a pattern catalog that can guide our decision making as we journey from concepts and principles to concrete implementations. The software industry has long been motivated by the promise of a “component marketplace” from which we can draw commodity components which can be composed via standardized mechanisms to create powerful systems. These systems are often compared to the myriad of possible creations that can be produced using Lego pieces. The power in the Lego “architecture” is found in the amazing diversity of individual pieces that are composed via a universal system of compatibility. Cloud native architectures approximate the same power via Lego-like patterns.
Cloud Native Architecture Patterns: Part 2 - Mortar Patterns
Now that we’ve been equipped with an understanding of how software architectures can exploit the unique aspects of cloud infrastructure environments, it’s time to construct a pattern catalog that can guide our decision making as we journey from concepts and principles to concrete implementations. The software industry has long been motivated by the promise of a “component marketplace” from which we can draw commodity components which can be composed via standardized mechanisms to create powerful systems. These systems are often compared to the myriad of possible creations that can be produced using Lego pieces. The power in the Lego “architecture” is found in the amazing diversity of individual pieces that are composed via a universal system of compatibility. Cloud native architectures approximate the same power via Lego-like patterns.
Cloud Native Architecture Migration Strategies
If you’ve been following along, you’ve realized by now that cloud native architectures are fundamentally different than most traditional architectures. Most of the cloud native architectures that we can see in the wild have been built by relatively young companies that began from a zero-legacy state. Architects in more mature organizations are faced with the daunting challenge of building modern systems that exploit the unique characteristics of cloud infrastructure while simultaneously attempting to migrate legacy systems into those same environments, all the while “keeping the lights on.”
Serverless State of the Union: 2018
On the 2017 tour, I introduced the notion of “serverless” and Functions as a Service (FaaS) platforms. We understood the motivation for serverless computing, compared serverless to other cloud-native infrastructure approaches, navigated some architectural tradeoffs, and took a whirlwind tour of the Big 3 FaaS providers.