July 2017 Summaries

Hollie Haggans, the head of global partnerships for DigitalOcean's Hatch program, has worked with over 1,600 startups that have built their infrastructure on DigitalOcean through the incubator program. Marley Spoon, a subscription meal kit company based in Berlin and a Hatch startup, uses DigitalOcean to power its customer-facing platform and internal-facing production and distribution platform. The company models its engineering teams around user flows, with four teams working together to provide a seamless experience for customers. The teams are organized around the needs of the business, with product managers and designers integrated into the engineering teams as needed. Marley Spoon uses a workflow-based approach, similar to Kanban, to manage its development process. The company's technology stack is mainly Ruby-based, using Rails for web apps, but it is currently in the process of upgrading its stack to include React.

DO now supports over 1 million users worldwide, growing from a modest start in 2012 with only 4-5 servers and a handful of engineers. The company has expanded to multiple datacenter regions, launched several international datacenters, and partnered with various companies like GitHub and Docker. Developers have played a significant role in helping DO grow by providing feedback and creating tools that extend the API. Many community members have become part of the DO family, contributing articles, engaging with other users, and even joining the DO team. The journey to 1 million users is a testament to the company's commitment to meeting their growing infrastructure needs and collaborating with its users.

DigitalOcean is participating in the Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality, emphasizing the importance of an open internet for innovation and fair competition. The company supports the Federal Communication Commission's Open Internet Order and network neutrality principles, which they believe are crucial for protecting small businesses and individuals from unfair networking practices. DigitalOcean strongly opposes the Commission's proposal to dismantle the 2015 Open Internet Order, citing concerns about creating an anti-competitive market environment and barriers to entry for small businesses. The company urges lawmakers to codify Title II reclassification into law to uphold network neutrality principles and promote investment in New York, eliminate business uncertainty, and support competition in the broadband market.