Using higher-level services versus custom infrastructure

early computing experiences with Windows XP and Intel Pentium systems, playing rally car games like Dirt with split-screen multiplayer, transitioning from gaming to server administration through Minecraft, running Minecraft servers at age 13 with memory limitations and out-of-memory exceptions, implementing caching mechanisms with cron jobs and MySQL databases, learning about SQL injection attacks and prepared statements, discovering connection pooling advantages over PHP approaches, appreciating type safety and Object-oriented programming principles in Java, the tendency to over-abstract and create unnecessary abstractions as junior developers, obsession with avoiding dependencies and implementing frameworks from scratch, building custom Model-View-Controller patterns and dependency injection systems, developing e-learning platform for aerospace industry using PHP Symfony framework, implementing time series forecasting in pure Java without external dependencies, internship and employment at AWS Dublin in Frontier Networking team, working on AWS Outposts and Ground Station hybrid cloud offerings, using python and rust for networking control plane development, learning to appreciate Python despite initial resistance to dynamically typed languages, joining AWS Lambda Powertools team as Java tech lead, maintaining open-source serverless development toolkit, providing utilities for observability including structured JSON logging with Lambda-specific information, implementing metrics and tracing for distributed event-driven architectures, mapping utilities to AWS Well-Architected Framework serverless lens recommendations, caching parameters and secrets to improve scalability and reduce costs, debate about AspectJ dependency and alternatives like Micronaut and quarkus approaches, providing both annotation-based and programmatic interfaces for utilities, newer utilities like Kafka consumer avoiding AspectJ dependency, comparing Micronaut's compiler-based approach and Quarkus extensions for bytecode generation, AspectJ losing popularity in enterprise Java projects, preferring Java standards over external dependencies for long-term maintainability, agents in electricity trading simulations for renewable energy scenarios, comparing on-premise Java capabilities versus cloud-native AWS features, default architecture pattern of Lambda with S3 for persistent storage, using AWS Calculator for cost analysis before architecture decisions, event-driven architectures being native to AWS versus artificially created in traditional Java projects, everything in AWS emitting events naturally through services like EventBridge, filtering events rather than creating them artificially, avoiding unnecessary microservices complexity when simple method calls suffice, directly wiring API Gateway to DynamoDB without Lambda for no-code solutions, using Java for CDK infrastructure as code while minimizing runtime dependencies, maximizing cloud-native features when in cloud versus on-premise optimization strategies, starting with simplest possible architecture and justifying complexity, blue-green deployments and load balancing handled automatically by Lambda, internal AWS teams using Lambda for orchestration and event interception, Lambda as foundational zero-level service across AWS infrastructure, preferring highest abstraction level services like Lambda and ECS Fargate, only dropping to EC2 when specific requirements demand lower-level control, contributing to Powertools for AWS Lambda Python repository before joining team, compile-time weaving avoiding Lambda cold start performance impacts, GraalVM compilation considerations for Quarkus and Micronaut approaches, customer references available on Powertools website, contrast between low-level networking and serverless development, LinkedIn as primary social media platform for professional connections, Powertools for AWS Lambda (Java)

Philipp Page on twitter: @PagePhilipp