Real World Serverless with theburningmonk

Latest Episodes:

#5: Managing complex AWS organizations at Moneyou Apr 01, 2020

Show notes

This is part 2 of my conversation with Olaf Conijn and Tjerk Stroband at Moneyou, a Dutch bank based here in Amsterdam, Netherlands. We discussed the challenges Moneyou has faced with AWS Organizations and the difficulty of managing a complex AWS environment using the built-in tools. And why they built and open-sourced org-formation as a way for you to manage your entire AWS organization using infrastructure-as-code (IAC).
In part 1, we discussed Moneyou's journey towards serverless over the last 2 years and why it serverless makes sense to Moneyou. We talked a lot about risk and many of the misconceptions about risk when it comes to serverless. And of course, vendor lock-in was a big part of that discussion! It's refreshing to see a bank approach serverless and the vendor lock-in debate with such thoughtfulness rather than just following the mainstream narrative without understanding the underlying risks first.
You can find Olaf on Twitter as @OConijn and check out org-formation.
For more stories about real-world use of serverless technologies, please follow us on Twitter as @RealWorldSls and subscribe to this podcast.
Opening theme song:
Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

#4: Understanding risk and vendor lock-in at Moneyou Mar 25, 2020

Show notes

This is part 1 of my conversation with Olaf Conijn and Tjerk Stroband at Moneyou, a Dutch bank based here in Amsterdam, Netherlands. We discussed Moneyou's journey towards serverless over the last 2 years and why it serverless makes sense to Moneyou. We talked a lot about risk and many of the misconceptions around risk when it comes to serverless. And of course, vendor lock-in was a big part of that discussion. It's refreshing to see a bank approach serverless and the vendor lock-in debate with such thoughtfulness rather than just following the mainstream narrative without understanding the underlying risks first.
In part 2, we will talk about the challenges Moneyou has faced with AWS Organizations and the difficulty of managing a complex AWS environment using the built-in tools. And why they built and open-sourced org-formation as a way for you to manage your entire AWS organization using infrastructure-as-code (IAC).
You can find Olaf on Twitter as @OConijn and check out org-formation.
For more stories about real-world use of serverless technologies, please follow us on Twitter as @RealWorldSls and subscribe to this podcast.
Opening theme song:
Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

#3: Building a fully serverless insurance company with Joe Emison Mar 18, 2020

Show notes

This is part 2 of my conversation with Joe Emison, who has been building serverless applications since 2015 with Firebase on GCP and then later with AWS Lambda. We talked Joe's recruitment philosophy for Branch Insurance, where he primarily hires junior frontend developers, for two very pragmatic reasons. We also talked about pain points that Joe sees with adopting serverless today and why Microsoft will be the main challenger to AWS in the cloud computing market.
In part 1, we discussed the value of serverless, especially to startups, and why he has built Branch Insurance to be fully serverless. Joe is a strong proponent for the monorepo approach, and we had a good chat about why he feels so strongly about this approach and how his team structures their application in a monorepo. And of course, we also covered the pain points of this approach and the tradeoffs his team has accepted.
You can find Joe on Twitter as @JoeEmison and check out his new venture gobranch.com.
For more stories about real-world use of serverless technologies, please follow us on Twitter as @RealWorldSls and subscribe to this podcast.
Opening theme song:
Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

#2: The case for monorepoes with Joe Emison Mar 11, 2020

Show notes

This is part 1 of my conversation with Joe Emison, who has been building serverless applications since 2015 with Firebase on GCP and then later with AWS Lambda. We discussed the value of serverless, especially to startups, and why he has built Branch Insurance to be fully serverless. Joe is a strong proponent for the monorepo approach, and we had a good chat about why he feels so strongly about this approach and how his team structures their application in a monorepo. And of course, we also covered the pain points of this approach and the tradeoffs his team has accepted.
In part 2, we will talk about how serverless has changed his recruitment philosophy, the pain points with adopting serverless and why Microsoft will be the main challenger to AWS in the cloud computing market.
You can find Joe on Twitter as @JoeEmison and check out his new venture gobranch.com.
For more stories about real-world use of serverless technologies, please follow us on Twitter as @RealWorldSls and subscribe to this podcast.
Opening theme song:
Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

#1: Serverless at Zoopla with Ricardo Espirito Santo Feb 18, 2020

Show notes

I caught up with Ricardo Espirito Santo to talk about Zoopla and how they're using serverless, their experience with it so far and the challenges they have experienced with serverless technologies.
You can find Ricardo on Twitter as @ricardoespsant and check out Zoopla's open positions here.
For more stories about real-world use of serverless technologies, please follow us on Twitter as @RealWorldSls and subscribe to this podcast.
Opening theme song:
Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/