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May 8, 2021 · 51 min
Temporal Product: Managing State with Ryland Goldstein
Microservice architecture has become very common over the past few years because of the availability of containers and container orchestrators like Kubernetes. While containers are overall positive for scaling apps and making them more available, they’ve also introduced hurdles like persisting data and state, and container restarts or pod failures. Development teams put significant work into designing applications that take these hurdles into account because without precautions you can lose valuable data or crash your app. The company Temporal provides tools for both building complex microservices as well as for apps that use microservices. They use 2 primary function types: workflow and activity. Workflow functions persist all local variables and threads so that if the server the app runs on crashes, it’s picked up on a different server where it left off, down to the line. Activity functions automatically initiate retry logic if the service the function invokes fails for something like its server being down. Temporal provides visibility into end-to-end workflows that can span multiple services. In this episode we talk to Ryland Goldstein, Head of Product at Temporal. Previously, Ryland was the Lead Product Manager at Reshuffle and a Software Engineer Lead at Parallel Machines. We discuss the challenges of managing state in micro services, orchestrating microservices and how Temporal simplifies this process for development teams. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
May 7, 2021 · 48 min
Botpress: Natural Language Processing with Sylvain Perron
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a branch of artificial intelligence concerned with giving computers the ability to understand text and spoken words. “Understanding” includes intent, sentiment, and what’s important in the message. NLP powers things like voice-operated software, digital assistants, customer service chat bots, and many other academic, consumer and enterprise tools. The company Botpress provides open-source developer tools to create NLP tools for process and FAQ automation. They use the latest NLP models for domain-specific, contextual and goal-oriented conversations. This technology is free and available through simple API routes. They also maintain integrations with popular messaging services like Facebook Messenger, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. For other proprietary systems, they provide a raw Messaging API. In this episode we talk to Sylvain Perron, CEO of Botpress. Sylvain was previously a Director of Engineering at Protorisk Limited and a Software Developer at ArcBees before that. We discuss the current advances in Natural Language Processing and how NLP powers Botpress. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
May 5, 2021 · 53 min
New Relic: Telemetry and Intelligent Observability with Zain Asgar and Ishan Mukherjee
In software engineering, telemetry is the data that is collected about your applications. Unlike logging, which is used in the development of apps to pinpoint errors and code flows, telemetry data includes all operational data including logs, metrics, events, traces, usage, and other analytical data. Companies usually visualize this information to troubleshoot problems and understand patterns and opportunities in how their applications are used. The company New Relic is a modern observability platform built to optimize your entire software stack from one place. New Relic includes a Telemetry Data Platform that acts as a single source of truth for telemetry data. Built on top of that are tools for full stack observability to visualize and troubleshoot your data in milliseconds. When a problem does occur, New Relic’s applied intelligence will detect and understand the problem to help resolve it faster. In this episode we talk with Zain Asgar and Ishan Mukherjee. Zain is currently the GVP/GM - Pixie at New Relic, through the acquisition of Pixie Labs Inc where he was the co-founder and CEO. Ishan leads GTM for all New Relic products and is a co-founder and CPO of Pixie. We discuss big data, application observability, and how New Relic provides data observability and intelligence in one platform. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 28, 2021 · 50 min
Bridgecrew: Cloud Security with Barak Schoster
Cloud computing provides tools, storage, servers, and software products through the internet. Securing these resources is a constant process for companies deploying new code to their cloud environments. It’s easy to overlook security flaws because company applications are very complex and many people work together to develop them. Wyze Labs, for example, had millions of users’ data stolen due to a mistake by a single employee. The company Bridgecrew is a cloud security platform helping to prevent mistakes like that from happening. Bridgecrew integrates into developer workloads to automatically find infrastructure errors in cloud accounts, workloads, and infrastructure as code. Their platform also monitors code reviews and build pipelines to prevent errors from being deployed into production. If an error is found then Bridgecrew’s software reverts that code back to its last known correct state. In today's episode we talk with Barak Schoster, CTO and co-founder at Bridgecrew. Barak previously worked as a senior software architect at RSA Security and as a software architect at Fortscale before that. We discuss cloud security, Infrastructure as Code, and big data architecture. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 27, 2021 · 50 min
Uber Mobile Engineering: Distributed Payment Systems with Gergely Orosz
Modern applications are increasingly built as large, distributed systems. A distributed system is a program where its components are located on different machines that communicate with one another to create a single cohesive app. Components may exist as multiple instances across “nodes,” the computers hosting them, which form clusters of nodes that span across geographic regions. The platform Uber is built on distributed systems. The benefit of this architecture is higher availability, higher load capacity, and lower latency. This is essential for Uber because it needs to process up to thousands of requests per second. But this architecture also presents challenges. Some data, like payment requests, needs to be 100% accurate, which can be challenging for a system where its data is spread out across multiple nodes. The data needs to be durable as well-- if a node fails, the data it holds needs to be readily available on another. Their nodes also need to be up-to-date with the information from other nodes so they process the right requests. Any company using distributed systems faces these challenges. In this episode we talk with Gergely Orosz. Gergely is a software engineer and author of The Software Engineer’s Guidebook and his blog The Pragmatic Engineer. He previously worked as an engineering manager at Uber, working on their payments experience platform. We discuss distributed systems, payment technology, and the challenges he overcame working at Uber. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 26, 2021 · 50 min
Makepath: Geospatial Technology with Brendan Collins
Geospatial technology impacts every person who uses a smartphone, drives a car, or flies in airplanes. It refers to all of the technology used to acquire and interpret geographic information. In more advanced settings, geospatial technology is used for constructing dynamic maps, 3D visualizations, and scientific and governmental simulations. The company Makepath specializes in geospatial technology and full-stack application development. Makepath helps companies to create beautiful and simple visualizations from mountains of complex data. Using open-source Python libraries and real-world validation, they create state-of-the-art analytics, web applications, and other robust automation processes. They are also passionate about the open source ecosystem and contribute to many ongoing projects. In this episode we talk with Brendan Collins from Makepath. Brendan is a founder and the principal of Makepath. He previously worked as the principal of Parietal and was a software developer at Anaconda, Inc before that. We discuss geospatial data science, the work they do at Makepath, and their broader open source projects. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 23, 2021 · 53 min
Speedscale: Automated Testing with Ken Ahrens and Matt LeRay
Large portions of software development budgets are dedicated for testing code. A new component may take weeks to thoroughly test, and even then mistakes happen. If you consider software defects as security issues then the concern goes well beyond an application temporarily crashing. Although even minor bugs can cost companies a lot of time to locate the bug, resolve it, retest it in lower environments, then deploy it back to production. The company Speedscale provides an intelligent, Kubernetes-friendly testing toolkit that runs at build time. Their virtual SRE-bot works inside automated release pipelines to forecast and test real-world conditions the new code will encounter. This process requires no manual scripting because Speedscale uses existing traffic to generate tests and mocks. The feedback is immediate after every build and covers regression, performance, fuzzing, and chaos tests automatically. In this episode we talk with Ken Ahrens and Matt LeRay. Ken is a founder and the CEO at Speedscale. Previously Ken worked at New Relic as a senior director, solutions architects. Matt is a founder and CTO at Speedscale. He previously was the VP of Product at Observe, inc. We discuss testing in distributed environments, how Speedscale intelligently tests and mocks during builds, Kubernetes, and their future goals with Speedscale. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 22, 2021 · 40 min
Skiff: Secure Document Collaboration with Andrew Milich
Encryption algorithms provide the means to secure and transfer sensitive information by taking input and transforming it into an unreadable output. Usually a special key, or multiple keys, are needed to unscramble the information back to the original input. These algorithms power the security of everything from our cell phone lock screens to Fortune 500 company servers. The company Skiff is protecting data privacy with their first product, the only end-to-end encrypted document collaboration platform with password protected folders, expiring links, and secure workplaces. Skiff’s document platform has all the traditional features of a typical document editor, making it feel familiar and comfortable. Their end-to-end encryption and built-in password protection are 2 of several methods that make collaborating on documents more safe and within user control than on any other platform. In this episode we talk with Andrew Milich, CEO of Skiff. Andrew was previously an associate product manager at Schmidt Futures. We discuss data privacy and security, the Skiff document collaboration platform, and potential future security products. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 21, 2021 · 50 min
Uniswap: Creating Liquidity in DeFi with Noah Zinsmeister
A liquid market enables individuals or groups to quickly buy and sell assets. Decentralized platforms can struggle to execute trades when their platform does not have much liquidity for a specific token. Newer tokens or tokens with limited supply are most often the least liquid because there might be an imbalance of buyers and sellers. You can’t sell token A for price X without a consenting buyer on the other end. The company Uniswap is a decentralized protocol for creating liquidity and trading ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum. Uniswap encourages users to be “liquidity providers” whereby they pool their assets into funds that enable people to complete trades without an opposite party. Instead, they swap against the liquidity pool created by the liquidity providers. Every swap incurs a small fee, which is distributed proportionately to liquidity providers when they decide to pull their funds. Uniswap prices coins based on the simple formula x*y=k. In this episode we talk with Noah Zinsmeister, engineering lead at Uniswap. Noah also maintains web3-react, a framework for building blockchain applications. We discuss cryptocurrency liquidity, the Ethereum blockchain, and how Uniswap is building a community of liquidity providers and traders. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 20, 2021 · 47 min
Showtime: Crypto Art and NFTs with Alex Masmejean
Non-fungible tokens are proofs of authenticity that are stored on a blockchain. Unlike fungible tokens, such as cryptocurrencies which are interchangeable, non-fungible tokens aren’t inherently equivalent to any other token. Because they are unique, they can be used to represent any unique asset. Their presence on a blockchain enables an NFT owner to trade the asset and prove they are its owner. One such use case for NFTs is artwork, and the company Showtime is bringing artists and creators together to showcase their work. Crypto art is verified with NFTs and therefore can’t be authentically reproduced. This lets artists sell their original work to prospective buyers. With Showtime, you can discover and follow new crypto artists, browse the trending page and like, comment, and share artwork. The platform shows a variety of art styles and experience levels. In this episode we talk with Alex Masmejean, co-founder and CEO at Showtime. Before Showtime Alex worked as an advisor at TapIn and operations at MetaCartel DAO. We discuss non-fungible tokens, the world of crypto art and the growth and future of Showtime. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 19, 2021 · 53 min
Synthetix: Derivatives Trading in DeFi with Justin Moses
Volatility is the degree of fluctuation of something’s price. Highly volatile assets may see rapid and large price changes, while less volatile assets will maintain a steady price. This concept is important in decentralized finance because cryptocurrencies tend to be volatile assets. The company Synthetix provides assets called Synths that provide exposure to an asset without holding the underlying resource. For example, you can hold and trade Synths that track the price of USDs, synthetic gold and silver (measured by the ounce), and other currencies and commodities. Users use Synthetix to trade the price equivalents of real-world assets on Ethereum. This lets them diversify their investment portfolios with less volatile assets while staying on the blockchain and executing trades against smart contracts. In today’s episode we talk with Justin Moses, CTO at Synthetix. Previously Justin worked as CTO at Haven and as a Tech Advisor at blueshyft. We discuss derivatives trading in DeFi, the liquidity and volatility of synthetic assets, and the rewards and features available from using Synthetix. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 17, 2021 · 49 min
1inch Exchange: Decentralized Exchange Aggregation with Anton Bukov
A decentralized exchange, usually referred to as a DEX, is a platform for exchanging cryptocurrencies. Depending on trading volume for different coins, some DEXs are more liquid than others. On the one hand you can freely swap unlisted tokens and maintain full control over your private keys and wallet information. On the other hand, without the right supply and demand it’ll be difficult to swap a particular coin at the right price. 1inch Exchange is a decentralized exchange aggregator that can split a single trade transaction across multiple DEXs. Their Pathfinder API ensures users get the best price by using a discovery and routing algorithm to find the best possible paths for token swaps and then splits the swap across multiple exchanges and market depths of the same exchange. 1inch uses multiple liquidity sources, including private liquidity providers, to ensure there is sufficient liquidity for all swaps on their platform. If the rate of a trade becomes more expensive than the user has confirmed from the UI, the algorithm can cancel part of the route and simply return the unswapped tokens to the user’s wallet. In today’s episode we talk with Anton Bukov, co-founder of 1inch. Anton was previously a senior smart contract engineer at NEAR Protocol and chief blockchain engineer, consensus researcher at MultiToken. We discuss the pros and cons of decentralized exchanges, splitting cryptocurrency swaps across multiple exchanges with 1inch Exchange, and the growth of decentralized finance. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 16, 2021 · 53 min
Census: Data Accessibility with Boris Jabes
A data warehouse is a data management system that often contains large amounts of historical data and is used for business intelligence activities like analytics. It centralizes customer data from multiple sources to be an organization’s single source of truth. Getting the data from your data warehouse into the different applications used by your organization can be difficult. The company Census simplifies syncing your data warehouse with other applications. Census works on top of existing infrastructure and lets users pick destinations apps, map the data, and then handles maintaining live, in sync metrics. Because Census runs inside your data warehouse, data remains secure and is never stored on their servers. In today’s episode we speak with Boris Jabes, CEO of Census. Boris was previously a managing partner at Polynome and a Senior Director at LogMeln. We discuss the complexity of data warehouses, how the field of data analytics has grown over the years, and how Census makes data accessibility easy and secure. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 15, 2021 · 49 min
Gold Fig Labs: Cloud Infrastructure Security with Vikrum Nijjar and Greg Soltis
IT infrastructure are the components required to operate IT environments, like networks, virtual machines or containers, an operating system, hardware, data storage, etc…. As companies build out different deployment environments with infrastructure configurations, they must maintain the different environments, replicate them, and update them. The management of infrastructure, often automated to some extent, is referred to as Infrastructure as Code (IaC). The company Gold Fig Labs helps growing companies better understand their deployed infrastructure beyond the basic IaC principles. Gold Fig Labs developed 2 main tools to deliver the clearest view of infrastructure security and compliance. Their tool Checkup provides periodic security and best practices reports for AWS accounts. The report details specific, actionable, and relevant advice to improve security posture. Their other tool, Introspector, is a unique security and auditing tool that provides in-depth analysis of larger cloud deployments with complex regulatory requirements and custom internal policies. In this episode we talk with Vikrum Nijjar and Greg Soltis. Vikrum is co-founder and CEO at Gold Fig Labs. He was previously an angel investor with Angel and special advisor for Google’s onboarding acquisitions, compliance, and security. Greg is co-founder and CTO at Gold Fig Labs. Previously he was a senior software engineer at Google and a software engineer at Firebase. We discuss the principles of IaC, how Gold Fig Labs helps customers go beyond what IaC intends, and the complexity of cloud infrastructure security and regulatory compliance. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 14, 2021 · 58 min
Compound: Cryptocurrency Interest Rates with Jared Flatow
Decentralized applications, termed “dApps,” are applications that feel like normal apps but are actually deployed (mostly) on the Ethereum blockchain. This means dApps can’t be taken down, can’t be censored or blocked, typically use Ethereum accounts as identity, and would only experience downtime if Ethereum itself went down. There are a lot of things you can do with blockchain applications, particularly with decentralized finance. The company Compound develops protocols, built on the Ethereum blockchain, that establishes money markets. Money markets are pools of assets with algorithmically derived interest rates based on supply and demand. The Compound protocol represents assets as fungible ERC-20 token balances called cTokens. cTokens automatically increase in value from the amount of the initial underlying asset. The interest generated and managed through the Compound protocol can be used primarily for long-term investing in Ether and tokens as well as dApps and other entities. Compound provides lots of documents and discords for infusing interest and liquidity into dApps and related projects. This enables dApps to manage assets that generate interest and could lead to entirely new blockchain-based business models. In this episode we talk with Jared Flatow, Director of Protocol at Compound. Previously, Jared worked as a software engineer at Caffeine and founded the company Quasi Convex Union. We discuss the importance of liquidity and interest-earning assets in DeFi, how Compound is helping enhance dApps and the role and growth of dApps overall, and his goals for Compound going forward. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 9, 2021 · 46 min
OPYN: DeFi Options Trading with Aparna Krishnan
A ‘token’ can represent almost anything in Ethereum, according to Ethereum.org: Lottery tickets, points in an online platform, fiat currency, and much more. These tokens must follow a standard called ECR-20 to have the same type and value of any other token, and behave just like the ETH. The platform Opyn lets users buy and trade decentralized finance (DeFi) options on ETH and ECR20s. “Options” represent underlying assets with predefined (strike) prices and expiry dates that can be bought and sold. Opyn provides options protocols through smart contracts that are powerful and capital efficient. Using options helps secure against volatility and flash crashes, typically have lower margin requirements, can yield interest bearing collateral, and are noncustodial with Opyn. In this episode we speak with Aparna Krishnan, a co-founder of Opyn. We discuss options trading and how it differs from trading pure cryptocurrencies, developing and using smart contracts to define DeFi protocols, and the unique benefits of using Opyn for options trading. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 8, 2021 · 46 min
AAVE: Liquidity Protocol with Ernesto Boado
In decentralized finance (DeFi) a liquidity pool is a collection of cryptocurrency funds created from the deposits of many users and usually multiple different currencies. There are 2 main types of pools: custodial and non-custodial. Custodial pools are controlled by a third party manager which contains information like the private keys and the funds. They are most commonly web-based. Non-custodial pools mean that each contributor has complete control of their private keys (their funds) and are often browser based or keys can be stored and funds traded using hardware devices. AAVE is a trusted, open-source, and non-custodial liquidity protocol on Ethereum. Participants use AAVE to either deposit or borrow funds. Depositors earn interest on their funds in the same currency they deposited: USD-USD, DAI-DAI, etc. When demand is high for the deposited currency, the earned interest increases automatically. Borrowers deposit collateral and then borrow from any currency in the protocol. Their entire platform, from their APIs to smart contracts, are open-source and reviewable by anyone. This has been the basis for many platform audits, providing high reliability to users and enabling integration into other services and products. In this episode we talk with Ernesto Boado, a full stack and blockchain developer currently co-leading the development of the AAVE protocol. We discuss decentralized finance, token economics, and how AAVE aTokens make their service unique. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 7, 2021 · 51 min
Chainlink: Connecting Smart Contracts to External Data with Sergey Nazarov
A smart contract contains the “terms” of a blockchain transaction between a buyer and a seller as well as the capabilities to execute those terms. In order for smart contracts to include outside data from the world, such as stock market data, weather, sports data, etc…, the contract needs a third party service called an oracle. The industry standard blockchain oracle is Chainlink. Chainlink is a decentralized and open-source oracle network that connects to any blockchain with seamless API connections. Their nodes connect to trusted data with cryptographic proofs that make their network tamper-proof. Chainlink is used with smart contracts that secure billions of dollars of value for blockchain projects. Their oracle network greatly expands the value of smart contracts and is used to create cutting-edge, modern blockchain applications. Sergey Nazarov is the co-founder of Chainlink and joins us to talk about their platform. Sergey has also co-founded SmartContract, a smart contract middleware service, Secure Asset Exchange, which provides smart contracts with real-time revenue sharing and multi-signature escrow, and CryptaMail, a secure and 100% decentralized email service. He is an expert in smart contracts and discusses Chainlink, the role of oracles in the blockchain ecosystem, and the future of smart contracts and blockchains. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 6, 2021 · 46 min
MindsDB: Automated Machine Learning with Jorge Torres
Using artificial intelligence and machine learning in a product or database is traditionally difficult because it involves a lot of manual setup, specialized training, and a clear understanding of the various ML models and algorithms. You need to develop the right ML model for your data, train the model, evaluate it, optimize it, analyze it for outliers and anomalies, assemble confidence ranges of the predictions and feature importance, and eventually deploy it to make predictions. An emerging field in AI, called Automated Machine Learning (AutoML), lowers these barriers to entry by using AI to automate much of this process. One of the market leaders in AutoML is MindsDB. Their service lets business users and developers make predictions on top of data at its source. Rather than make expensive copies of databases, a process that creates complex infrastructures, MindsDB trains and deploys models right inside the database. The results of their ML models can be queried with standard SQL statements and integrated into other applications as easily as querying any other database. In this episode we learn more about the progress that has been made in AutoML to simplify incorporating machine learning throughout organizations. We discuss the current features available from MindsDB, the difference their product has made for companies trying to leverage AI, and the future of AutoML and artificial intelligence generally. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com
Apr 5, 2021 · 49 min
WorkOS: Making Enterprise-Ready Apps with Michael Grinich
The typical procedure many companies follow to reach production-level code is design the program, code and test it in different environments, and put it in a pipeline to deploy to production. Developers can make it pretty far into building their core features before inevitably breaking to include enterprise features and security standards like Single Sign On, Okta security and authorization for different user groups, Workday integrations, etc…. Including these requirements can put stress on a team with newer developers or limited resources. For some large projects, these standards need months to fully build out and test. The company WorkOS is dramatically shortening the time it takes to make applications enterprise ready so that developers and IT teams can focus on the application itself. WorkOS provides developer-minded tools like RESTful endpoints, JSON responses, framework-native SDKs, and a developer dashboard, among other tools, to integrate otherwise complicated enterprise standards in just a few lines of code. Their mission is to simplify building applications for enterprise users so that developers can focus on creating core features in a timely manner. In this episode, we discuss the process of building enterprise applications, the challenges of modern security and administrative requirements, and how WorkOS is solving those issues. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com

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