Agenda

This is the published schedule and agenda for Deserted Island DevOps 2021.

All Times Eastern US

Welcome to Deserted Island DevOps 2021!
Sam Aaron | @samaaron | 11:30 EDT

Abstract

We’ll kick off Deserted Island DevOps 2021 with a special live musical performance by Sam Aaron!

Speaker Biography
Professional live coder. Creator of @Sonic_Pi, programmer, educator, musician, PhD. Featured in Rolling Stone and the New York Times.

Opening Comments - 5m

KEYNOTE: People of the World: DevOps Your Life!
Chloe Condon (Senior Cloud Advocate @ Microsoft) | @ChloeCondon | 12:00 EDT

Abstract

As a person who made a career transition from musical theatre to the world of tech, there have been a lot of shiny tools, processes, and buzzwords, that my brain has had to absorb and adjust to. While some have been more difficult to adapt to than others (I’ll take an audition over whiteboarding ANY day!), I’ve discovered that as a human with ADHD applying DevOps to my day to day life has helped made me a more reliable, agile, and collaborative human. In this keynote, I’ll share some ways that I’ve applied DevOps to my day to day life, relationship, and mental health practices to make sure that I am better able to evolve, improve, and be a more reliable human.

Speaker Biography
Chloe is a Bay Area based Cloud Advocate for Microsoft. Previously, she worked at Sentry.io where she created the award winning Sentry Scouts program (a camp themed meet-up ft. patches, s’mores, giant squirrel costumes, and hot chocolate), and was featured in the Grace Hopper Conference 2018 gallery featuring 15 influential women in STEM by AnitaB.org. Her projects and work with Azure have ranged from fake boyfriend alerts to Mario Kart 'astrology', and have been featured in VICE, The New York Times, as well as SmashMouth's Twitter account. Chloe holds a BA in Drama from San Francisco State University and is a graduate of Hackbright Academy. She prides herself on being a non-traditional background engineer, and is likely one of the only engineers who has played an ogre, crayon, and the back-end of a cow on a professional stage. She hopes to bring more artists into tech, and more engineers into the arts.

Dungeons and DevOps: Adventures in Building Empathy
Ryn Daniels (SRE - Terraform Cloud @ Hashicorp) | @rynchantress | 12:30 EDT

Abstract

Some adventures are fun and rewarding. Some (like 2020) are just exhausting. In order to keep on adventuring, it’s important to develop empathy, not only for your fellow adventurers, but also for yourself. Using tales from a year of running a remote Dungeons and Dragons campaign as a backdrop, this talk will cover practical strategies for practicing and leveling up your empathy. From character creation, we can learn how to be kind to ourselves and build individual resilience, even when the dice don’t roll our way. As we build up a balanced party well-set to brave some dungeons, we can look at ways to effectively interview and build stronger teams. And when we step back to look at the big picture story, we can learn valuable lessons for how to make the industry more inclusive and think about how the work we do affects the world around us.

Speaker Biography
Ryn Daniels is a staff site reliability engiqueer who got their start in programming with TI-80 calculators back when GeoCities was still cool. Their work has focused on infrastructure operability, sustainable on-call practices, and the design of effective and empathetic engineering cultures. They are the co-author of O’Reilly’s Effective DevOps and have spoken at numerous industry conferences on devops engineering and culture topics. Ryn lives in Berlin, Germany with a perfectly reasonable number of cats and in their spare time can often be found powerlifting, playing cello, or handcrafting knitted server koozies for the data center.

If a tree falls on a Deserted Island and no one documents it, does it make a noise?
Alanna Burke (Documentation, Training, and Developer Advocacy @ amazee.io) | @aburke626 | 1:00 EDT

Abstract

One of the biggest hurdles that documentation writers face in maintaining documentation is staying on top of everything as it changes. We need to know what’s going on in the organization to be aware of pending changes to the code, so we’re not blindsided by code changes that may break documentation links, and cause docs to be incorrect or outdated. Sometimes it can feel like we’re just trying to catch up with what everyone else has done, which can be exhausting and frustrating. Devops teams tend to move fast and break things, and that doesn’t always work with how technical writers want to operate.

Ideally, engineers would update the documentation as they update code or add functionality, or work with you to update them as the coded feature is being worked on, but that doesn’t always happen. Additionally, the documentation team often has a better grasp of what is important to document for the end user, and is the team that bridges the knowledge gap between the engineers and the end users.

In this talk, we’ll go over strategies for keeping your documentation up to date when you have many engineers and fewer documentation writers.

Speaker Biography
After ten years as a back-end developer, Alanna decided a change was in order. Still carrying a torch for Drupal, content management systems, and helping others, she is now working as a documentation writer, trainer, and developer advocate at Amazee.io. Alanna also serves as a track chair for DrupalCon North America, is on the leadership team of Drupal Diversity and Inclusion, and serves the Drupal Community Working Group as an ambassador to Drupal Diversity and Inclusion. The proud owner of many pets, including several guinea pigs, she is also very involved in animal rescue.

Tracing is More Fun with Friends
Serena Tiede (SRE @ Optum) | @SerenaTiede | 1:30 EDT

Abstract

Distributed tracing is a powerful observability tool, and its value becomes apparent when you have tons of services sending spans. You might be an engineer who has read the Jaeger docs and understand conceptually what distributed tracing can do for you, but how do you get management on board to give you money and engineering time? How do you get your org’s APIs to take that initial plunge or getting your company’s platforms sending spans? If you’re asking yourself these questions, please come along on this adventure! The key takeaway is how to make a successful pitch for a shared service that makes engineers happy and leadership happy!

Speaker Biography
Serena is an SRE who is currently building out a Jaeger offering at UnitedHealth Group. Her main focus is making service outages less scary. In her off time, she runs the most overengineered Minecraft server for a couple friends.

Break - 15m

Bridges and Ramps: Building Accessible Tools in DevOps
Arriana Blais (Senior Software Engineer @ Embark Vet) | @ArriIsHere | 2:15 EDT

Abstract

Is your DevOps toolkit a deserted island of inaccessible tools? Are you unsure if you have enough bridges and ramps for people to get around your island? In this session, I will give you some guides on how to make your tooling usable and easy for differently-abled people!

Speaker Biography
Arri is a software engineer and Accessibility advocate at Embark Veterinary, where she works on the customer delight development team.

Fruit and Turnips: A Cost Management Journey
Amy Negrette (Cloud Economist @ The Duckbill Group) | @nerdypaws | 2:45 EDT

Abstract

Our priorities inform what we do with our money. What do you really need those bells for? Are you trying to add an extension on your home or get a five star island? How will what you buy help? How do you plan to get those bells?

One of the ways to make bells is the selling of fruits and turnips. Fruits are an abundant sellable resource that requires space on your island (infrastructure) and a friend’s island to sell (connections). The return rate is steady but not time blocked. Turnips appear once a week with ten selling windows a week that can vary wildly on price where taking a loss is pretty common.

Knowing this, I’ll demonstrate how spend can tell us what our priorities were and the pros and cons to each approach. Cost management is more than cutting costs, but making sure the costs that are made support those priorities.

Speaker Biography
My name is Amy Arambulo Negrette and I have an abundance of cherries on my island. I've been an application developer for over ten years. I currently work as a Cloud Economist working to manage spend for various AWS customers.

The Long Game
Jack Knives (Lead DevOps Engineer @ Moda Operandi) | @weirdoqueen | 3:15 EDT

Abstract

How large DevOps investments will ensure you, your team, and your organization can spend more time focusing on developing new features (and/or playing Animal Crossing) and less time fiddling with config.

Speaker Biography
Jack is a relative newcomer to the workforce, but is growing fast! They began their career as a Systems Engineer in 2017 at Scholastic, then transitioning into a Senior DevOps role at fashion startup Moda Operandi in 2019. In her free time, she enjoys taking care of houseplants and spending time with her pet bird.

Break - 30m

I streamed a stream in queues gone by
Angelina Uno-Antonison (Software Architect, Center for Computational Genomics and Data Science @ University of Alabama at Birmingham) | @serioushorncat | 4:00 EDT

Abstract

Pick up Apache Kafka and learn how it can enhance a tech stack with distributed real-time event streaming. Hear about how Apache Kafka works, practical use cases, and how to get started. At the end, join my island villagers and myself preparing to host a dinner party demonstrated with Apache Kafka! Afterwards, maybe you too could come up with your own Animal Crossing Apache Kafka themed demo!

Speaker Biography
Angelina is a software developer whom has been messing with computers since she was a tot. Angelina works as a senior developer in the Center for Computational Genomics and Data Science under the direction of Dr. Elizabeth Worthey within the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine. Outside work, Angelina helps organizing a local tech conference, WeRockIT Conf, and mentors within the community. Beyond work she freelances as a french horn player, enjoys k-dramas, plays video and board games, and adventures with her kiddos.

Building Islands and Reliability
Ana Margarita Medina (Senior Chaos Engineer @ Gremlin) | @Ana_M_Medina | 4:30 EDT

Abstract

We might have just spent the last year mastering the art of having the perfect flower field around our home, keeping the weeds out of our island, or just trying to build relationships with our neighbors. The skills and the lessons we’ve mastered through building our islands can also help us in real life, from staying connected to building stronger engineering teams and applications. Let’s take a moment to see the similarities of the work we’ve done on our islands, ourselves, workplaces, and celebrate all we’ve learned.

Speaker Biography
Ana Margarita is currently working as a Senior Chaos Engineer at Gremlin, helping companies avoid outages by running proactive chaos engineering experiments. Before Gremlin, she has worked at various-sized companies including Google, Uber, SFEFCU, and Miami-based startup. Ana is an internationally recognized speaker and has spoken at: AWS re:Invent, KubeCon, DockerCon, DevOpDays, AllDayDevOps, Write/Speak/Code, and many others. Catch her tweeting at @Ana_M_Medina about traveling, diversity in tech, and mental health.


DevOps for High Schoolers?
Daniel Kim (President @ Bit Project) + Emily Chen (Student) | @learnwdaniel | @emsesc | 5:00 EDT

Abstract

DevOps as a field is intimidating, with a Google search turning up corporate webinars and complex diagrams. At Bit Project, a tech education nonprofit, we introduce DevOps tooling as a natural part of the curriculum to develop and ship apps.

During the session, Senior Engineer Daniel Kim and High School student Emily Chen will discuss their experience making DevOps accessible for beginner developers. In addition, they will present student projects that have incorporated CI/CD and Infrastructure in unique and interesting way

Speaker Biography
Daniel Kim (He/Him) is a Senior Developer Relations Engineer at New Relic and the founder of Bit Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated make tech accessible to underserved communities. He wants to inspire generations of students in tech to be the best they can be through inclusive, accessible developer education. He is passionate about diversity & inclusion in tech, good food, and dad jokes. Emily Chen is a junior in high school interested in all things tech, particularly software development, data, and ethical hacking. She currently is a student developer advocate at BitProject, working to make technical education more accessible for people from all walks of life. Recognized by NCWIT Aspirations in Computing for her interest and accomplishments in technology, Emily continues her goals of exploring the world of technology and discovering what it has to offer.

Break - 15m

Building Resilience, Strong Foundations, and Community
Kiran Oliver (Technical Community Builder @ Camunda) | @kiran_oliver | 5:45 EDT

Abstract

Building community can be challenging, but it can be very rewarding. In this presentation we will explore how to build personal resilience during times of struggle, explore the concept of resiliency and how it can impact our lives, learn tips for creating strong foundational building blocks as the basis for a thriving digital community, and how to foster connections in unconventional places–Like Animal Crossing!

Speaker Biography
Rin is a Technical Community Builder at Camunda. They enjoy discussing all things open source, with a particular focus on diversity in tech, improving hiring pipelines in OSS for those that are neurodivergent, and removing accessibility barriers to learning programming. Rin is also a Member of Kubernetes, a contributor to Spinnaker, involved in the Kubernetes Contributor Experience SIG, and is a Storyteller on the Kubernetes Upstream Marketing Team. When not immersed in all things OSS and cloud-native, they can be found hanging out with their wife and pets, making candles, cooking, or gaming.

Tanukis with Hammers: The dangers of third-party tooling
Laura Santamaria (Developer Advocate @ LogDNA) | @nimbinatus | 6:15 EDT

Abstract

It’s lovely to spend time decorating your house and grounds while tanukis come in mysteriously and upgrade your house when you’re not watching. It’s also lovely to build on top of other tooling so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. However, what would happen if Timmy and Tommy decided to tell Mr. Nook that they’d rather watch for shooting stars one night? Do you understand how your third-party tooling works, or, more importantly, why it was built in the first place? Many platforms have been built on third-party tooling without thinking about the full implications of what happens when different systems might go down, and those platforms fall apart when there’s an issue because the folks who built them don’t understand how that third-party tooling they relied on works in the first place. We want to avoid that reckoning, but how? How can we be sure our houses will get upgraded if Timmy and Tommy were to go on strike? Let’s talk about it.

Speaker Biography
As LogDNA’s Developer Advocate, Laura Santamaria loves to learn and explain how things work. She bridges the gap between external developers and SREs and internal engineering teams. Prior to LogDNA, Laura worked as a software developer at Rackspace where, among other things, she owned Deconst, an open-source documentation delivery platform, and MC’ed Rackspace’s internal technical conference. Apart from work, she helps host tech Meetups, taught Python for Women Who Code Austin for many years, is an organizer for DevOpsDays Texas, and volunteers with DevOpsDays Austin. Outside of tech, Laura runs, plays with her dogs, throws discs, and watches clouds—the real kind.

Observability on an Island
Josh MacDonald (Software Engineer @ Lightstep) | @JMacDee1 | 6:45 EDT

Abstract

Telemetry agents (collectors, sidecars) run in isolated environments with expensive communication bandwidth, like an island! Agents are operated remotely and have to be brought up with limited observability. Until the agents become operational, they are operated by field technicians who are usually not experts in observability. After the agents become operational, they are expected to be very reliable, which means they have to meet the highest standard for observability.

This talk will cover the successes and challenges we found, using the OpenTelemetry-Go SDK to instrument the OpenTelemetry Prometheus Sidecar agent at Lightstep.

Speaker Biography
Josh MacDonald has worked on debugging technologies and diagnostics for most of his career. He is a staff software engineer at Lightstep, a leader in the OpenTelemetry Metrics project, and a member of the OpenTelemetry technical committee. He programs for fun and when it’s not observability systems, he prefers programming with math and flashing LEDs.

Closing - 5m