Gwen Shapira

Gwen Shapira, a Principal Engineer at Confluent and a Kafka expert, and Ian Thomas, Senior Principal Engineer at Flutter International, share their insights on the evolution and complexities of event-driven architectures (EDA). They discuss the transition from monolithic systems to EDA, emphasizing the importance of trust and domain models. The conversation highlights Kafka topic design, the significance of observability, and best practices for managing upgrades. Their experiences in the betting and gaming industry reveal the unique challenges and advantages of implementing EDA at scale.

Gwen Shapira, founder of Nile and a database expert with a background at Confluent, dives into the complexities of multi-tenant databases. She discusses the challenges of implementing Distributed DDL at scale and the transition from big tech to startup life. Gwen touches on AI's role in project management and the balance between human intuition and automation. The conversation highlights the advantages of Postgres over NoSQL, the importance of data isolation in AI applications, and the synergy between LLMs and traditional machine learning techniques.

Gwen Shapira, co-founder and CPO of Nile, is a notable force in the PostgreSQL world after leading Kafka development at Confluent. She shares her journey from cloud-native technologies to the PostgreSQL community, highlighting its vibrant evolution. Interesting discussions include PostgreSQL 17's new features, the integration of vector embeddings for AI applications, and the importance of SSL for secure connections. Gwen also explores how PostgreSQL supports diverse SaaS applications, emphasizing its flexibility and scalability.