Monoliths are out and microservices are in. Not so fast. Many of the benefits attributed uniquely to microservices are actually a byproduct of other architectural paradigms with modularity at their core. In this session, we’ll look at several of the benefits we expect from today’s architectures and explore these benefits in the context of various modern architectural paradigms. We’ll also examine different technologies that are applying these principles to build the platforms and frameworks we will use going forward.

Along the way, we’ll explore how to refactor a monolithic application using specific modularity patterns and illustrate how an underlying set of principles span several architectural paradigms. The result is an unparalleled degree of architectural agility to move between different architectural paradigms.

Big architecture up front is not sustainable in today's technology climate where expectations are high for delivering high quality software more quickly than ever before. To accept change, teams are moving to agile methods. But agile methods provide little architectural guidance. Attempts to define the architectural vision for a system early in the development lifecycle does not work. In this session, we provide practical guidance for software architecture for agile projects.

We will explore several principles that help us create more flexible and adaptable software systems. We’ll expose the true essence of what’s meant when we say “architectural agility.” And we’ll explore the real goal of software architecture and how we can accommodate architectural change to help increase architectural agility.

Microservice architecture is a modern architectural approach that increases development and delivery agility by focusing on building modular services. The framework we use has a tremendous impact on how quickly and easily we can deliver servcies. New frameworks are emerging that embrace new approaches for helping us deliver microservices.

In this session, we will explore some modern Java frameworks for building microservices (aka micro frameworks). Example frameworks you may see include Dropwizard, Ratpack, Spark, Ninja, RestExpress, Play, Restlet, and RestX. We'll demonstrate each framework by using a programming kata to build the same service using several different frameworks. Optionally, bring your own laptop, clone the github repo, and you can build the services along with me. To do this, you must have Java 8+ and Gradle.

The way we build and deliver software is changing. We must deliver software more quickly than ever before and traditional approaches to software architecture, infrastructure and methodology do not allow us to meet demand. We’ve reached the limits of agility through process improvement alone, and further increases demand we focus on improving architecture, infrastructure, and methodology simultaneously. 12 Factor is an app development methodology for building modern apps in the modern era.

Building modern apps requires modern methods and 12 Factor is an app development methodology that helps development teams build software by emphasizing development practices that meld together modern architectural paradigms with agile practices like continuous delivery for deployment to cloud platforms. In this session, we’ll examine the 12 Factors and explore how to apply them to apps built using Java.

Java 9 with the Jigsaw module system is here. In this session, we'll explore the basics of the Jigsaw module system and examine the impact it will have on how we build Java applications. We will dig into it's major features, including dependency management and Jigsaw services. Once we understand Jigsaw's basics, we will explore what it's going to take to migrate existing Java application to Java 9 and leverage Jigsaw.

Jigsaw's impact stands to be consequential. Jigsaw will restrict application code from accessing non-published JDK classes (ie. sun.com), require you to be explicit in declaring your dependencies, and more. We will explore Jigsaw basics and then dig into the impact Jigsaw will have on migrating existing Java applications to Java 9.

Everyone (including your humble speaker) talks about Modularization. For once, let's focus on other interesting and exciting parts of Java 9 that does not involve modularization. In this presentation we will talk about key improvements and additions to the Java language and the JDK introduced in Java 9.

We will focus on first things that can be done better in Java 9 compared to previous versions on Java.
Then we will look at things we simply could not do before but we can benefit from now.
And finally, we will not talk about Modularization, well I lied, will discuss that just a bit.

Reactive Programming is no longer an esoteric idea. Many libraries and tools have started providing excellent support for this idea of programming. So much that Java 9 has embraced this idea by including it into the specification. In this presentation we will take a dive into what reactive programming looks like from the Java specification point of view.

Reactive Programming
What problem does it solve
How to use it from Java point of view?
What can you do to make good use of it.

After years of stagnation, Java is one of the most vibrant languages of current times. Java 8 saw several improvements and Java 9 a few more. Well, that's only the beginning. Come to this talk to learn about where Java is heading, what's brewing in the language and the ecosystem, well beyond Java 9.

We will look ahead into the next versions of Java, what you can expect, and how you can get ready.

JavaScript is no longer that scary nasty language. There are so many wonderful features in the modern versions of this language that I can't stop praising it. In this presentation we will focus on some of the most exciting features of the language that make programming in JavaScript a pleasant experience.

We will dive into beautiful parts and features from ES 6, ES 7, and ES 8.

To say the least, writing classes in JavaScript was a weird experience. It never felt right. Well the language has set it right finally. In this presentation we will learn about the different capabilities in JavaScript to do OO programming. Along the way we will dive into some advanced concepts as well.

Learn how to program with this powerful language that has matured significantly in the recent years.

In this example-driven presentation, you'll learn how to leverage Spring Boot to accelerate application development, enabling you to focus coding on logic that drives application requirements with little concern for code that satisfies Spring's needs.

For over a decade, Spring has sought to make enterprise Java development easier. It began by offering a lighter alternative to EJBs, but continued to to address things such as security, working with various sorts of databases, cloud-native applications, and reactive programming. And, along the way, Spring even took steps to make itself easier to use, offering Java-based and automatic component configuration. Even so, there's still a lot of near-boilerplate code required to develop Spring applications.

Enter Spring Boot. Spring Boot's primary purpose is to make Spring easier to work with. It achieves this in three ways:

• Automatic configuration : Considering what's on the runtime classpath as well as other factors, Spring Boot can automatically configure components in a Spring application context.
• Simplified dependency management : Taking advantage of transitive dependency resolution at build-time, Spring Boot offers several “starter” dependencies, focused on specific characteristics of an application, that transitively bring in libraries to enable development of those characteristics.
• Runtime insight : Spring Boot offers insight into the inner workings of a running application via REST endpoints and/or JMX MBeans to better understand what makes a running application tick.

All together, Spring Boot lets you focus on fulfilling your application's requirements without worrying about writing code that satisfies the needs of a framework.

In this session, you'll learn how to take your Spring Boot skills to the next level, applying the latest features of Spring Boot. Topics may include Spring Boot DevTools, configuration properties and profiles, customizing the Actuator, and crafting your own starters and auto-configuration.

TBD

In this session, you'll learn how to use Spring Data to rapidly develop repositories for a variety of database types, including relational (JPA and JDBC), document (Mongo), graph (Neo4j), and others (Redis, Cassandra, CouchBase, etc).

For decades, relational databases and SQL have enjoyed their position as the leading choice for data persistence. Even though many alternative database types have emerged in recent years, the relational database is still a top choice for a general purposes data store and will not likely be usurped from its position any time soon. When it comes to working with relational data, Java developers have several options.

But relational databases are not a one-size-fits-all solution. Thankfully, there are many options for data persistence, including relational, document, graph, key-value, and column-store databases, each presenting their unique way of handling data suitable for different problems.

Spring Data makes it easy to work with various databases by offering a programming model that is consistent, regardless of which type of database you're working with. And regardless of the database you're dealing with, you will find that Spring Data eliminates a lot of boilerplate code.

In this session, you'll see how to take Spring Data's automatic repository generation to a whole new level. We'll look at ways to model data and manipulate Spring Data to produce repositories and APIs that are more than just CRUD layers on top of a database.

TBD

In this session, you'll learn how to take advantage of the latest features of Spring Security and Spring Boot to secure an application, both at the web layer and at the method-level.

Information is probably the most valuable item we now have; crooks are looking for ways to steal our data and identities by sneaking into unsecured applications. As software developers, we must take steps to protect the information that resides in our applications. Whether it’s an email account protected with a username/password pair or a brokerage account protected with a trading PIN, security is a crucial aspect of most applications.

Spring Security is an extension to the Spring Framework that provides security to Spring applications both at the HTTP request level as well as at method invocation.

There are lots of questions on how to get Docker applications into a production environment. This is the session to discussion the options along with pros and cons.

This session will start with the discussion of why we need a container orchestrator and will dive into and compare the top contenders which include:

• Kubernetes
• Apache Mesos
• DC/OS
• Swarm

There is no question that Docker has the attention of the majority of developers. It is clearly easy and better to isolate applications and their dependencies in the docker image and container runtime. Less easy and obvious is how to manage these container in a production environment. This session will be lead by a speaker that has been running docker in production since pre-1.0 days and works with dozens of companies that do the same.

This session is broken into 2 parts. The 1st part is focus on the different options and approaches for running docker in a production environment. This includes running docker from statically partitioned nodes managed by puppet or chef.. to running Kubernetes and DC/OS in a more modern Datacenter.

The 2nd part is focused on lessons learned from running docker including:

• upgrading docker
• upgrading services
• logging and debugging
• most common failure modes

In the container orchestration space, one of the top contenders is Kubernetes (K8S). This session will go into detail of each component in Kubernetes along with how to use it. Anyone attending this session should be able to easy get stated with K8S and have an understanding of what they would need to do to their application to enable it to be K8S friendly.

This session will dive into different applications (stateful/stateless, data-focused/micro-service focused) and how they are managed with the different components of kubernetes:

• kube-apiserver
• etcd
• kube-controller-manager
• kube-scheduler
• kubelet
• kube-proxy
• pods
• container resource monitor
• UI

So your server is having issues? memory? Connections? Limited response? Is the first solution to bounce the server? Perhaps change some VM flags or add some logging? In todays Java 9 world, with its superior runtime monitoring and management capabilities the reasons to the bounce the server have been greatly reduced.

This session will look at the Java monitoring and management capabilities, which includes the ability to make VM argument changes on the fly. This session will dive into the different memory compartments and how they are used by the JVM. Final this session will explore the different GC options and how they affect response times and throughput.

This session will include new features in Java 9 to make it more container aware.

By the end of this conference you will have learned many new tools and technologies. The easy part is done, now for the hard part: getting the rest of the teamand managementon board with the new ideas. Easier said than done.

Whether you want to effect culture change in your organization, lead the transition toward a new technology, or are simply asking for better tools; you must first understand that having a “good idea” is just the beginning. How can you dramatically increase your odds of success?

You will learn 12 concrete strategies to build consensus within your team as well as 6 technique to dramatically increase the odds that the other person will say “Yes” to your requests.

As a professional mentalist, Michael has been a student of psychology, human behavior and the principles of influence for nearly two decades. There are universal principles of influence that neccessary to both understand and leverage if you want to be more effective leader of change in your organization.

In this session we discuss strategies for getting your team on board as well as when/how to approach management within the department and also higherup in the organization.

In Part 1, you learned the core principles of influence and persuasion. How to we take this back to the office and apply what we've learned?

We dive deep in to specific strategies to get both the team and the business on board with your ideas and solutions. We cover several realworld patterns you can follow to be more effective and more persuasive. Part 1 was conceptual, part 2 is practical.

On the NFJS tour, there are questions that seem to come up again and again. One common example is “How do we determine which new tools and technologies we should focus our energy on learning?” another is “How do we stop management from forcing us to cut corners on every release so we can create better and more maintainable code?” which, after awhile becomes “How can we best convince management we need to rewrite the business application?”

There is a single metaanswer to all these questions and many others.

It begins with the understanding that what we as engineers value, and what the business values are often very different (even if the ultimate goals are the same) By being able to understand these different perspectives it's possible to begin to frame our arguments around the needs and the wants of the business. This alone will make any engineer significantly more effective.

This session picks up from where “Stop writing code and start solving problems” stops discussing what is value, how do we align the values of the business with the needs and values of the engineer.

In this presentation, we will dig deeper into creating applications with React.

We will take a deeper look into creating components, dealing with life cycle events, managing state, when and how to use Redux, and how to approach automated testing of the front-end code you create.

React is a very targeted library for creating rich front end. While React does fairly well what it intends to provide, developing a practical application requires more than using React alone.

In this presentation we will build the front end for a small application that pulls data from a backend and along the way learn how to use React and related libraries to achieve the desired results.

JavaScript is one of the most powerful and yet perilous languages. It is arguably the most ubiquitous language, the king of the client side programming the web. The dynamic nature of the language offers many benefits, but the weak typing and lack of tooling can make changes unpredictable, that is, if we're not careful. Automated testing can greatly alleviate the pains and lead to more fruitful development.

In this presentation we will take look at the tools, but also the approach to automate the tests for JavaScript code. We will start with simple cases at first, but quickly dive into dealing with dependencies, and measuring code coverage.

JavaScript is a very powerful and ubiquitous language. At the same time, it is also a language that is often misunderstood and misused. Better quality code greatly reduces the effort and time to maintain software. So, there is a good incentive to improve quality of code.

In this presentation we will cover two things. We will discuss dos and don'ts for programming with JavaScript. Then we will look at a set of tools that can help keep an eye on our code and prompt us to improve the quality.

Kotlin is a language that brings the strengths and capabilities of multiple languages into one. If you have looked at two or three different languages and said “I wish I could do this, that, and that also,” well now you can, thanks to Kotlin. In this presentation we will learn the key benefits and power of this exciting language.

Ways to compile and run
Using REPL
Typing
Creating functions
Working with lambdas and functional style
Destructuring and other interesting features
Null types
Using Extension methods
Classes, objects, and inheritance
Delegation
Creating DSLs

Apache Spark is the fast data processing of large document stores and databases. Spark is highly distributed, optimized, and redundant for large clustering manipulation and aggregation.

This talk is an introduction to Apache Spark, it's architecture, and it's programming API. We start with an introduction to DataFrames, the Catalyst Optimizer, and Spark SQL. We will then venture onto DataSets, discuss the DataSet API and the functional programming aspects of it. We will touch lightly on RDD and the pros and cons of using the API. We will then finish with how to connect to data sources like HDFS, S3, Cassandra, Elastic Search, and Kafka. This presentation will have samples that you can try out at home or at the office.

Spark Streaming is one of the few additions that are available with Spark that uses its internal architecture and creates a Streaming processing framework to process data in real time.

In this presentation, we will start with a small reintroduction to Spark and it's architecture and what it does. Then we delve into streaming, what purpose does it serve, how to set up Spark Streaming and how to use it. We will discuss how to set it with time, how the internals work, and how also to integrate it with Kafka. We then will talk about some of the more high-end features like checkpointing, and windowing.

Kafka has captured mindshare in the data records streaming market, and in this presentation, we knock on its door and see what lies behind. What is the draw? What makes it an attractive addition? How does it compare to Message Queues and other message streaming services?

We will do a thorough introduction into what is Kafka. We will also discuss Consumers, Producers, Streams. Integration with ZooKeeper, and discuss the performance aspect of using Kafka.

Serialization is important for anything Big Data. We need to send information over the wire and we need to do so efficiently. This core concept presentation covers various serialization techniques and libraries. That way you can use Akka, Kafka, Spark, and various MQs efficiently

For this presentation, we will focus on three topics: Core Java Serialization, Apache Avro, and Google's Protocol Buffers. We will review serialization and deserialization ease of use, review performance, and how to integrate with Akka, Kafka, Spark.

Serverless is a big topic these days. More specifically, Function as a Service (FaaS) enables small-scale functions deployed in the cloud to be enabled only as needed. Compared to Platform as a Service (PaaS) services which are “always on” and require explicit scaling, FaaS services wake up when needed and are scaled by the platform automatically.

Imagine a service that only gets invoked one per hour. In PaaS, that service is always running and ready to handle requests, consuming processor resources and ultimately costing more to be ready at a moment's notice. In contrast, FaaS services awaken quickly upon invocation and go away when finished, conserving resources and cost.

In this example-driven session, we'll see how to create and deploy Function as a Service (FaaS) services with Spring and Spring Boot.

Big Data is exploding into our industry and these skills are increasingly in demand. Much of our existing body of knowledge needs to be updated, however as Big Data solutions present a number of unique challenges. In this half-day workshop we start with the question “What is Big Data?” and “How do big data solutions differ from traditional data architectures.” We then dive into core Hadoop technologies to tackle your Big Data challenges and dive into several tools and technologies for distributed processing of large datasets.

The Big Data Space is rapidly changing and with a seemingly dizzying number of technology choices, one might not know where to begin. Our goal with this half-day workshop is to give you an overview of a number of technologies, their respective strengths and weaknesses, and enough knowledge to make informed decisions and built great tech!

Big Data is exploding into our industry and these skills are increasingly in demand. Much of our existing body of knowledge needs to be updated, however as Big Data solutions present a number of unique challenges. In this half-day workshop we start with the question “What is Big Data?” and “How do big data solutions differ from traditional data architectures.” We then dive into core Hadoop technologies to tackle your Big Data challenges and dive into several tools and technologies for distributed processing of large datasets.

The Big Data Space is rapidly changing and with a seemingly dizzying number of technology choices, one might not know where to begin. Our goal with this half-day workshop is to give you an overview of a number of technologies, their respective strengths and weaknesses, and enough knowledge to make informed decisions and built great tech!

This session covers the landscape of Big Data tools, technologies and best practices in 2018. You'll leave this session armed with the knowledge you need to build Big Data solutions by assembling the best technologies for you.

We cover the components of a big data pipeline, options available for each module and the pros, cons and best practices for each option.

It happens to us all; there are simply days where it seems impossible to get anything done. This session focuses on techniques and tips to get into the zone, stay in the zone and to protect your productivity, even in disruptive environments.

Rather than focusing on any one productivity methodology (e.g. GTD) This talk analyzes the internal and external factors that affect our productivity and offers broader strategies to get back on track.

Unlock your latent photographic memory. In this session you'll learn failsafe techniques and systems that allow you to never forget names, appointments, or numbers. In the process you'll be more effective and imaginative at work; improve reading speed and comprehension, and shorten study times.

An improved memory will change your life, literally. In the session we will describe in detail several memory techniques that, with a little practice, will have you remembering virtually anything you want.

Good discussions are supposed to diverge from their intended path. Free association is a feature, not a bug, and helps you see new connections between ideas. Without structure, however, it can be difficult to add context to new ideas and understand how they relate to more immediate problems. This talk discusses the technique of mental bookmarks – how to remember where you were when a discussion diverged. In addition to giving you a reputation for having an amazing memory, the skill also helps with personal awareness in general.

To give the technique context, we'll look at the fractal nature of success – the way we tend to see our current environment in relative terms, always comparing ourselves to those slightly more successful and slightly less successful.

This is a revised and updated version of the previous talk, with current thinking from practice and the literature. The talk presents why conflicts with your manager are inevitable based on differences in priorities and perspectives, and how to plan for them. The goal is to show you how to build the loyalty relationship that allows you to get what you need when you need it.

Topics covered will include diagnosing communication styles, lessons from game theory, working within the organizational hierarchy, and lessons on how to build a relationship with your manager that still allows you the freedom to express yourself and what you really want.

Java is now on a six-month release schedule, with new features being added all the time. This talk summarizes the features that have been added to Java, including collection factory methods, private methods in interfaces, records, the enhanced switch statement, and more. The goal is to show not only what has been added, but why and where to use them.

Additional topics will include Local Variable Type Inference, the new HTTP client, the pattern matching, and text blocks. This talk will be updated throughout the year as more features are added to new releases.

Gradle is the build tool of choice in the open source world, and rapidly becoming the standard in industry as well. Anyone who works with Gradle on a Java project knows the basics of the Java plugin and how to write simple tasks in Groovy. Gradle can do much more, however. This talk will demonstrate how to write your own custom task classes and how to create Gradle plugins from them. Other Gradle features will be demonstrated as well, including file manipulation, incremental builds, generating the Grade wrapper, and resolving conflicts in dependencies.

Gradle Inc also provides a free build scan capability to analyze build files. This too will be demonstrated, as well as profiling your build, determining dependencies, and more.

Spock is a groovy based testing framework that leverages all the “best practices” of the last several years taking advantage of many of the development experience of the industry. So combine Junit, BDD, RSpec, Groovy and Vulcans… and you get Spock!

There are 3 tools I use on every Java project I control… this is one of them and with good reason.

This session assumes some understanding of testing and junit and builds on it. We will introduce and dig deep into Spock as a test specification and mocking tool. Topics include:

Unit testing
Data driven tests
Mocking and Stubbing
Partial Mocks
Spock Extensions

Think back over your career as a software developer. How many great–and I mean truly great–software developers have you worked with? The chances are you can count them on one hand? Developers with 20-30 years experience can rarely name more than two or three. What does it take to be considered truly great? Michael can certainly tell you what NOT to do… from cold, bitter experience.

Ego Driven Development is a humorous and brutally honest look at a career spanning nearly two decades. We dive into war stories, train wrecks and so many misguided attempts at greatness. There is a path to becoming a truly great software engineer, but it's not always where we first look.

For those still grappling with Generics. This will be an attempt to clear the air about generics. What are wildcards? What is extends? What is super?  What is covariance? What is contravariance? What is invariance? What is erasure? Why and when do I need this?

Generics or parameterized type is one of the more pain items in any statically typed language on the JVM. This presentation is set to overcome some of these hurdles and understand some of these confusing terms. We will cover the following:

• Covariance
• Contravariance
• Invariance
• Erasure
• Generic Assignments
• Weird Generic Funky Stuf
• Use-Site vs. Declaration-Site Variance
• Differences between Java vs. Scala vs. Kotlin

Back in the day, it used to be so simple. Our projects had a main.js file that contained a few hundred lines and every so often the corporate communication department would ship out some new CSS files. But now things are not quite so easy. With more and more single page apps containing thousands or hundreds of thousands of lines of JavaScript, we're going to need a bigger boat.

In this talk I will explore various options you can deploy on your projects to tame the mass of code that lives on the front end of our applications. From NPM to Gulp to Webpack, this talk will help you establish a front end pipeline.

Development teams often focus on getting code to production losing site of what comes after the design and build phase. But we must consider the full life cycle of our systems from inception to deployment through to sunset, a discipline many companies refer to as site reliability engineering.

While your organization may or may not have an SRE team, you have someone playing that role and we can all benefit from looking at the principles and practices that we can bring to bear on our projects. In this talk, I will introduce the concepts of SRE and how you can adopt these ideas on your applications.

By now I bet your company has hundreds, maybe thousands of services, heck you might even consider some of them micro is stature! And while many organizations have plowed headlong down this particular architectural path, your spidey sense might be tingling…how do we keep this ecosystem healthy?

In this talk, I will go beyond the buzzwords into the nitty gritty of actually succeeding with a service based architecture. We will cover the principles and practices that will make sure your systems are stable and resilient while allowing you to get a decent night's sleep!

JavaScript UI frameworks continue to evolve but centers of gravity have clearly formed around Angular and React. With both libraries boasting of big company backing and passionate communities, which one is right for your next project? While we cannot crown the one true framework, we will dive into the differences and the similarities with an aim to help you make an informed decision on your next web project.

Picking a framework is often fraught with clashing opinions, in this talk I'll try to help you make a good choice for your team.

In this session, we'll explore the new reactive features in Spring 5 to build reactive, non-blocking applications using Spring's familiar programming model.

Traditionally, applications have been built using a blocking, synchronous model. Although comfortable and intuitive for most programmers, this model doesn't scale well. And although there are several new approaches to reactive programming, they don't necessarily fit into the familiar programming model that Spring developers are accustomed to working with.

Spring 5 has introduced a set of new reactive features, enabling non-blocking, asynchronous code that scales well using minimal threads. Moreover, it builds on the same concepts and programming models that Spring developers have used for years.

Micronaut is a modern, JVM-based, full-stack framework for building modular, easily testable microservice applications.

In this session we'll dive deep into Micronaut, it's strengths, capabilities and best practices when building & testing services, functions and reactive apps.

Let me guess - your company is all in on “the Cloud” but no one can really agree what that means. You’ve got one group Dockering all the things while another group just rearchitected the Wombat system as a set of functions…as a service. It is enough to make a busy developer’s head spin - how do we make sense of all the options we have? I hate to burst your bubble, but there are no silver bullets, just a set of tools that we can leverage to solve problems. And just as a master carpenter knows when to use their favorite framing hammer and when they need to reach for the finish hammer, we need to use the right tool at the right time to solve our problems.

In this talk we will survey the various options today’s application teams have at their disposal looking at the consequences of various approaches. We will clear up the buzzword bingo to give you a solid foundation in various cloud computing approaches. Most importantly, we will discuss why the right answer will almost always be: and not or.

Continuous delivery is not a pipe-dream technology, reserved only for the “cool kids” at hip tech startups. Although it's not easy, many concepts are within reach of most teams. That being said, it require more than simple technology changes. Attend this session to learn the fundamental concepts of CD, how to build your CD pipeline with Gradle and Jenkins, and recommendations on tools and best practices.

No prior knowledge is assumed and this talk will start from first principles.

Part one begins with a detailed overview of what CD is (and isn't) and how to build a business case for CD. Making both the technical case and business case for CD is vital as it's necessary to get the entire organization on board with the changes required.

Part two is a deeper dive into building a continuous delivery pipeline with Gradle and Jenkins (although the broader concepts can be applied to the tooling of your choice) You'll see how easily Gradle integrates with Java and how to leverage configuration management and gradle plugins to build all of your quality gates.