October 2018 Summaries

During the Kong Summit, Chris Richardson, founder of CloudFoundry.com, delivered a comprehensive talk on the characteristics and implications of microservice architectures, highlighting both their advantages and challenges. He emphasized the benefits of microservices, such as enhanced testability and deployability, while also cautioning against viewing them as a cure-all for software development issues. Richardson discussed the transition from monolithic architectures to microservices, explaining how decomposing an application into loosely coupled, independently deployable services can improve organizational productivity and enable faster, more reliable software delivery. He also covered the complexities associated with microservices, including distributed system management, data consistency, and testing challenges, advocating for the use of architectural patterns and frameworks to mitigate these issues. Richardson's insights were drawn from his extensive experience in software development and his ongoing work in promoting microservice adoption through training, consulting, and a forthcoming book on the subject.

Kong has introduced a new, streamlined way to explore its capabilities on Kubernetes through the Kong Kubernetes App available on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Marketplace, allowing for quick deployment on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) or any Kubernetes cluster. This integration leverages GCP's free tier credits for newcomers, simplifying the process with a few easy steps: setting up a GCP account, deploying a Kubernetes cluster with a single click or command, and installing Kong with minimal effort. A video tutorial is available to guide users through the entire process, including the teardown of the cluster to conserve GCP credits. For those interested in alternative methods, Kong's install page offers various deployment options, including Helm charts and Minikube. Users are encouraged to engage with the community on Kong Nation for support or to contribute improvements via Pull Requests on the project's documentation repositories.

The inaugural Kong Community Call, attended by 37 participants, featured an engaging demo and discussions that highlighted the enthusiasm of the community. Ross Sbriscia and Jeremy Justus presented the Spec Expose plugin for Optum, sharing insights on the role of open source software in enterprises, while Thibault Charbonnier provided an overview of debugging resources for Kong plugins. The call also covered Kong 1.0 updates and Kong Summit announcements, with recordings available for those who missed it. The second call, held on October 16, included a Hacktoberfest-themed introduction to contributing to Kong documentation by Cooper Marcus and a plugin demo from Okta. Participants are encouraged to join future calls, propose topics, and stay updated through an open Google doc agenda.