Huw Nichols

Excuse the pun but Go is one of my goto languages :) Been using it now for a couple of years for all backend work. I've designed and written several micro-service based systems which are now in production using Docker It's also fantastic for creating CLI utilities and helpers with. Some of the more fun ones I've done include chatops deployment robots for hipchat and jira integrations, Linking to AWS APIs for monitoring and control of a clients infrastructure, MongoDb backup utils and an image processing pipeline. I also use the Go language to teach programing, I find it a better fit rather than a more complex language like Java or Javascript. Clients seem to grasp the concepts far easier using a small but powerful and statically typed language - then they can move onto explore scripting languages and more complex concepts according to their needs. Current Go projects include another gaming venture where I am architecting and writing the persistent universe / MMO side of a new startup in that space.

I build end to end workflows based around docker. From developers laptops through test stages and into production all using the exact same dockerized artifacts. I offer advice and training on the best way to get started introducing Docker to your workflows, what problems it will solve, cost savings and so forth. Another major aspect I have solutions for is integration of Docker into modern IDE based development environments so that you gain the benefits of a known repeatable stack and its versions whilst also getting to keep your IDE and all of its features such as intellisense, debugging, hot-reload and so on.

Over the years the devops part of the job has changed a lot. Back in the early days I'd frequently be up to my elbows, literally, in the internals of a PC based server or an IBM mini or a VAX. Now I don't touch the actual hardware very much, lave that to the data centers, it's what they are good at. Devops is more about provisioning the cloud, designing the backend infrastructure, enabling CI/CD, keeping the systems running, backups, monitoring and providing instant feedback methods when attention is needed. For a hell of a lot of this my current main tools of choice are GoLang, Docker, Bamboo, DO (Digital Ocean), bash, node, 3rd party logging providers, chatops into hipchat (written by me) and a bunch more. In short my role in devops is to "Make it work" helping both the business needs as well as those of the dev team. I often consult and design the workflows and procedures for startups and established teams in how to best introduce or integrate real devops.

I've worked in a full stack environment pretty much all of my career, if not actually coding both back end and front end then I've been architecting them for other teams to build. Always keeping abreast of the latest technologies and how they can best be used to solve real world problems and architect cost effective solutions. One thing I tend to say a lot in this field "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should or that it's a good solution" — The craft is in knowing what works and what does not, both from a business and technical point of view.

well over a half a million lines of code written (about 50 / 50 coffeescript and JS based) - advert servers (think banner adverts with full logistics and deployment conditionals based on bidding) - game servers - stock websites - utilities Before golang if it ran on the web use node

Been using this since it was released. Prior to that I was using DARCS since let's face it SVN and friends are just not nice. Has to be distributed, offline available and fast.

goto db unless one needs transactions or a more specialized solution