Node.js and the Cloud Native Experience
In April, DockerCon descended upon Austin, TX for four days of conversations, networking and education around the next generation of distributed apps built with containers. The Node.js Foundation had the opportunity to set up shop in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) booth, another project under the Linux Foundation, to provide more information around Node.js to DockerCon attendees.
A special thank you 😀 to our Node.js Foundation members Codefresh and NodeSource for helping spread the Node.js love at DockerCon!
NodeSource, a company that delivers enterprise-grade tools and software for Node.js environments, and Codefresh, a company that provides pipeline automation and staging environments on-demand for Docker, attended DockerCon to connect with the operations teams that use their products, and to spread more voice around using Node.js in the enterprise.
Many DockerCon attendees were pleasantly surprised to see a larger Node.js presence at the show. Node.js is quickly becoming the runtime of choice in cloud native infrastructure. Given that cloud native is really defining how developers deploy next-gen apps, it was important to have a presence at the conference and get feedback from operations and DevOps teams.
We sat down with two Foundation members: Dan Shaw, Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist of NodeSource, and Dan Garfield, Full-stack Developer at Codefresh, for conference highlights via a Node.js lens. If you weren’t able to come, here’s the lowdown on the event.
Why was it important for you to be at DockerCon?
Dan Shaw: This was a great opportunity for us to engage with more folks on the Ops team. Often times, we find that the developers that we work with need more buy-in from the Ops team. Overwhelming, Node.js products are in Docker containers and orchestrated in Kubernetes, so this is a great place to be.
From the standpoint of the larger Node.js ecosystem, this year we are really concentrated on connecting the dots on how Node.js is the key runtime in cloud native infrastructure. Cloud native is defining how we are doing deployments for the next generation of apps and Node.js is overwhelmingly the runtime of choice.
We are really focused on ensuring that Node.js can scale within these environments and everyone is well serviced for a great Node.js experience.
Dan Garfield: For Codefresh, it’s really about us being able to show engineers our product. It changes how folks view and interact with you. We showed one guy a demo, and his jaw literally dropped. Those are the kinds of reactions we really like to see. It’s also important for our more junior developer evangelists to go to these conferences to meet people and network.
What were some interesting technologies that you saw at the conference that you think would be helpful to Node.js developers?
Dan Garfield: The most exciting thing to come out of DockerCon was multi-stage build support. Multi-stage build support makes it much easier to create lean Docker images.
Before multi-stage, Codefresh got around this by providing an API to facilitate image creation, but now anyone can bring their Dockerfile with all the build stages included. We can onboard people even faster now.
Dan Shaw: A big highlight for me was seeing storage in a containerized environment. There was a lot of vendor interaction around managing storage in cloud native environments. This has been a major challenge and it’s great to see this come to the forefront.
It’s also nice to see all the efforts that Docker the company has put into open source. They’ve made a lot changes this year with their product, and the company together, especially with Moby. I’m impressed with the evolution they’ve made this year. Moving open containers into a much larger open source ecosystem will really enable the future that they are investing in.
What were some of the biggest takeaways for you?
Dan Shaw: It was really great connecting with Dan G. and members of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. There’s a lot of great progress that we can make as a group and it was nice to collaborate and see how we might be able to make technology for the future.
Dan Garfield: One cool thing about DockerCon is that Docker has so many use cases, IT, DevOps, developers. It felt like every crowd was represented and our product really intersects across all of these areas.
Also to reiterate what Dan S. said, it was great to collaborate with him and also CNCF. This really gave us the chance to share our shared values in open source.
And a final note from Dan and Dan:
For more DockerCon insights check out Codefresh’s blog. The company is also offering a $300 credit when you sign up for Codefresh through June 15th*. Use code: NODELOVESDOCKER47
If you’re still trying to figure out a way to get to Node Summit 2017, Node Source is offering a chance to win a free ticket to the event. The company is giving away 2 tickets to Node Summit 2017, which will be held on July 26–27 in San Francisco, CA. You can enter to win here — you’ll need to submit before June 15.
