September 2019 Summaries

Hacktoberfest is an annual month-long celebration of open source software that brings together developers from over 150 countries. This year marks the sixth consecutive year of the event, with a growing number of participants and contributions each year. In 2018, 105,341 people contributed 401,231 pull requests to projects on GitHub. The first 50,000 participants this year will be eligible for a limited edition T-shirt. Hacktoberfest is open to both beginners and experienced developers, with the focus being on learning, respecting others, and prioritizing quality over quantity. This year, DEV has been announced as the co-sponsor of Hacktoberfest 2019. The event aims to drive awareness of environmental issues and encourages contributions to projects that support these causes.

Managed Databases for MySQL and Redis have been launched by DigitalOcean to help developers focus on app development while reducing time spent managing infrastructure. The managed databases allow users to set up clusters with just a few clicks, without worrying about configuring, managing, scaling, updating, or securing their databases. There has been significant excitement for Managed MySQL and Redis in the community, and DigitalOcean is grateful for the positive feedback received from its users. Managed Redis is now generally available and provides metrics to monitor performance and cluster health. These include CPU usage, load average, memory usage, disk usage, connection status, throughput, key evictions, memory fragmentation, cache hit ratio, and replication status. DigitalOcean has also expanded support for Managed MySQL and Redis to all nine data centers in response to high demand among developers. The company encourages users to try out the managed databases service and offers assistance from its sales team for any questions related to using DigitalOcean and Managed Databases in their business.

Burnout is a significant issue among remote developers, with 66% experiencing symptoms according to a recent report by DigitalOcean. The most common contributors to burnout include longer working hours than expected, feeling like management expects more from remote workers, and increased stress and anxiety levels. To manage and overcome burnout, it's essential for remote developers to assume responsibility for their time, set clear boundaries, establish fixed working schedules, create routines, take multiple breaks, exercise daily, eat separately from work, spend time with friends and family, make time for themselves, and take vacations when needed. By doing so, remote workers can enjoy the benefits of remote work while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

DigitalOcean has launched its Solutions Partner Program (SPP) aimed at empowering developers worldwide by enabling companies to partner with them in deploying and modernizing their clients' infrastructure. The program offers tools for development teams, access to DigitalOcean technology and support at an attractive price point, particularly benefiting smaller businesses lacking technical capabilities or staffing. Since its pilot launch in March, the SPP has shown promising results, leading to improvements based on partner feedback. New benefits include a partner portal, migration support, access to product team members, enablement resources, marketing benefits, and listing opportunities on a new DigitalOcean Partner Directory. The company views its SPP partners as extensions of their mission and values, aiming to provide them with the necessary resources for success in the developer community.

Memory-Optimized Droplets are now available in Limited Availability in DigitalOcean's NYC3 and AMS3 data centers, offering a new virtual machine instance type with memory and dedicated compute in a ratio of 8GB:1vCPU. This new droplet type is designed to address the issue of running out of RAM, which can cause applications to slow down or crash due to Out of Memory errors. The droplets are tightly integrated into DigitalOcean's platform and offer features such as blazing-fast SSD storage, optional backups and snapshots, monitoring and alerts, network firewalls, and more. Pricing for virtual machines with 2vCPUs, 16GB of RAM, 50 GB SSD, and 4TB transfer is $84 per month, scaling from there based on compute, memory, storage, and bandwidth requirements.