Author: ctsmithiii

The rise of Kubernetes, cloud-native, and microservices spawned major changes in architectures and abstractions that developers use to create modern applications. In this multi-part series, I talk with some of the leading experts across various layers of the stack — from networking infrastructure to application infrastructure and middleware to telemetry data and modern observability concerns — to understand emergent platform engineering patterns that are affecting developer workflow around cloud-native. The next participant in our series is Ville Aikas, Founder of Chainguard and formerly a staff engineer at VMware and software engineer at Google, where he was one of the earliest members of the Kubernetes project.

Q: We are nearly a decade into containers and Kubernetes (K8s was first released in Sept 2014). How would you characterize how things look different today than ten years ago, especially in terms of the old world of systems engineers and network administrators and a big dividing line between these operations concerns and the developers on the other side of the wall? And what has that meant for developers’ responsibilities around security concerns?

Passwords have long outlived their usefulness, yet they stubbornly persist as the default for authentication. 61% of consumers believe passwords are inherently insecure, while 47% find them inconvenient and frustrating. With password reuse rampant and phishing on the rise, individuals juggle over 100 passwords on average.

"We've been dependent on passwords for 60 years. That's a long time for a technology most agree has failed us," said Andrew Shikiar, Executive Director of the FIDO Alliance, an industry consortium creating standards for passwordless authentication.

The rapidly evolving world of technology demands constant creativity, innovation, and adaptation from professionals in the field. At Oktane 2023, Okta's user conference, world-renowned chef and humanitarian Jose Andres delivered an inspirational keynote speech highlighting valuable lessons for developers, engineers, and architects on driving innovation in their work.

Andres is an award-winning chef and restaurateur known for his creative cuisine and trailblazing restaurants. But beyond his culinary fame, Andres is also a prominent humanitarian and founder of the non-profit World Central Kitchen, which provides nourishing meals to communities in need after disasters around the world.

The traditional username and password combo remains the go-to for most web and mobile authentication. But as Bhawna Singh, CTO of Okta Customer Identity Cloud, shared during the Developer Keynote at Oktane 23, “It’s time we move past it.” She rallied developers to embrace flexible, cutting-edge identity solutions that eliminate passwords and customize experiences.

Singh knows developers crave security but loathe friction and constraints. “Our commitment remains firm to make sure your experience is always simpler and faster without sacrificing security,” she pledged.

At Oktane23, Okta revealed new solutions to automate identity governance, implement privileged access management, and enable continuous authentication and threat protection.

Introduction

Identity has historically been regarded as the gateway to grant or deny access to an enterprise's digital resources and applications. But in today's increasingly complex technology landscape rife with sophisticated cyber threats, identity must transform into so much more. At Okta's annual Oktane user conference, the identity management leader announced innovative new solutions that will redefine the role of identity in securing the modern enterprise while removing productivity roadblocks for users.

Integration is becoming increasingly complex in today's hybrid IT landscapes. With data and applications distributed across on-premises systems, multiple clouds, SaaS platforms, and more, connecting everything in a seamless, scalable, and secure way is a major challenge. This is especially true for developers, who face accelerating demands and limited time to meet business needs.

To gain insights into how integration platform provider Boomi aims to make life easier for developers, engineers, and architects, I spoke with Matt McLarty, CTO at Boomi. We discussed the company's approach to supporting developers, the role of AI and automation in simplifying integration, and key innovations on the roadmap.

Boomi CEO Steve Lucas took the stage at Boomi World Tour to outline his vision for the company's integration and automation platform. With over 20 years of experience at companies like Marketo and SAP, Lucas brings a unique perspective on how Boomi can help developers and enterprises simplify integration and automation.

Relentless Technology Change

Lucas kicked off by framing the context of relentless, accelerating change in technology and business. He cited the progression from mainframes to PCs, the internet, mobile, and now AI as examples of innovation waves companies must continually adapt to.

Ransomware continues to pose a serious and growing threat to organizations of all sizes and across all industries. According to a new research report from Zerto and Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), nearly two-thirds of IT and cybersecurity professionals view ransomware as one of the top three most serious threats to the viability of their organization. With AI-driven attacks becoming more frequent and sophisticated, organizations must take action now to improve ransomware preparedness and mitigate risks.

Ransomware Prevalence and Impacts

The ESG survey of 600 IT and cybersecurity professionals reveals troubling statistics about the prevalence of ransomware and its impacts. 

CrowdStrike welcomed over 4,500 cybersecurity professionals to its annual Fal.Con23 user conference last week in Las Vegas. President Mike Sentonas delivered an inspirational keynote outlining CrowdStrike’s bold vision for leveraging artificial intelligence and cloud-native technology to make security teams significantly faster, smarter, and more proactive against increasingly sophisticated and relentless threats.

The Need for Speed: Winning the Modern Security “Formula 1”

A pervasive theme throughout Sentonas’ keynote was the imperative for greater speed in security operations. He likened today’s escalating cyber threat landscape to an intense Formula 1 race, where shaving mere tenths of a second off response times can mean the difference between a catastrophic breach or successfully defending critical systems.

The exponential growth of data presents both immense opportunities and challenges for organizations. Valuable insights are often buried across massive, complex datasets too large and unwieldy for traditional analytics tools to handle. SQream offers a purpose-built solution to help companies fully harness all their data to drive unprecedented speed and scale in analytics.

I recently had an illuminating discussion with Deborah Leff, Chief Revenue Officer of SQream, during Oracle CloudWorld to understand their unique value proposition, enabling customers to rapidly gain insights from massive structured data stores. She provided compelling examples of how prominent brands across industries leverage SQream to make more informed decisions powered by deep analytics.

Java recently marked 30 years since its inception and remains one of the world's most widely used programming languages. However, some have argued Java risks falling behind newer languages like Python and JavaScript along with modern frameworks.

I sat down with Georges Saab, Senior Vice President of Development for Oracle's Java Platform Group, and Chad Arimura, Vice President of Developer Relations, at Oracle CloudWorld, to get an insider's perspective on how Java is evolving to stay relevant for the next generation of cloud-native development.

The healthcare industry has lagged nearly a decade behind other sectors in adopting cutting-edge technologies like cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and advanced data analytics. Impact Advisors is at the forefront of helping healthcare organizations modernize their technology stacks through platforms like Oracle Health Cloud.

During the Oracle Health Conference, I recently had an insightful discussion with Sandeep Sabharwal, Managing Partner at Impact Advisors, about their technical approach to guiding healthcare companies through much-needed cloud transformations and digital innovation initiatives. Sabharwal provided unique perspectives on migrating critical clinical systems to the cloud, leveraging AI to improve care quality, centralizing data, and the profound cultural shifts required for healthcare to become genuinely modern digital enterprises.

Safra Catz took the stage at Oracle CloudWorld 2023 for an inspirational keynote centered around how companies are embracing change and leveraging cloud technology to transform digitally. She engaged in insightful discussions with IT leaders from major organizations like Uber, AON, Loblaw, TIM Brazil, Emerson, and First Solar to uncover how Oracle has helped fuel their innovation and growth.

Uber's Journey to a Super App

First on stage was Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who reflected on his six years leading the ridesharing pioneer. What began in 2010 as an on-demand transportation app has evolved into an expansive "go/get" platform, managing 2 billion trips per quarter.