#011 - Kubernetes for Humans Podcast with Charity Majors (Honeycomb.io)
Dec 5, 2023
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Ops engineer Charity Majors discusses the journey from Parse to co-founding Honeycomb for observability. Topics include distinguishing monitoring and observability, challenges in the tech industry with similar tools, benefits of new tools, reflections on building databases, and leveraging CHET GPT for code writing.
Implementing observability in systems is crucial for real-time code interrogation and effective debugging.
Increasing complexity in systems management requires better tools for understanding and navigating dynamic data.
Deep dives
Charity's Background and Honeycomb.io
Charity, the co-founder and CTO of Honeycomb .io, discusses her journey from a college dropout with a music major to becoming an ops engineer. Her experience at Parse, a mobile backend as a service acquired by Facebook, highlighted the need for better tools. Honeycomb.io was born from the necessity of enhancing observability in systems.
Origins of Observability and Differentiation
Honeycomb.io originated the term 'observability' to articulate their emphasis on real-time code interrogation. The platform's focus on high cardinality support, traceability, and an exploratory approach sets it apart from traditional monitoring tools. Unlike metrics that limit questioning to predefined parameters, Honeycomb.io allows dynamic exploration of data for effective debugging and problem-solving.
Future of Engineering and Observability
Charity predicts increasing complexity in systems management as metrics and services expand. She highlights the importance of effective tools for understanding complex systems in real-time. With the evolution of software development tools like GPT models, the challenge lies in cultivating senior engineers who grasp the fundamentals of coding amidst advanced abstractions. Charity believes that testing in production and observability-driven development will redefine modern engineering practices.
Charity is an ops engineer and accidental startup founder at honeycomb.io. Before this, she worked at Parse, Facebook, and Linden Lab on infrastructure and developer tools, and always seemed to wind up running the databases. She is the co-author of O'Reilly's Database Reliability Engineering, and loves free speech, free software, and single malt scotch.
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