https://alashiban.com/ Notes and essays on platform engineering, cloud architecture, and building things with people. en https://alashiban.com/you-may-not-need-that-costly-time-consuming-infra-re-org/ https://alashiban.com/you-may-not-need-that-costly-time-consuming-infra-re-org/ Thu, 23 Nov 2023 20:11:38 GMT ## Introduction _(I'd like to thank [Jordyn Bonds](https://twitter.com/skybondsor?lang=en), [Nick Tittley](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolastittley/ "Nick Tittley")_ and [Brian Bossé](https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-boss%C3%A9/ "Brian Bossé") _for contributing to the discussion leading to this article)_ The common belief is that reorganizing infrastructure teams will inherently improve effic https://alashiban.com/2023-report-if-platform-engineering-is-so-great-why-isnt-it/ https://alashiban.com/2023-report-if-platform-engineering-is-so-great-why-isnt-it/ Thu, 14 Sep 2023 11:21:06 GMT Several reports have painted an overwhelmingly optimistic portrait of platform engineering. They portray it as a remedy to solve all efficiency challenges. However, the on-the-ground reality often proves far more nuanced. In this post, we will closely analyze findings from the State of Platform Engineering 2023 Report to highlight inconsistencies between the surveys' rosy outlook and real-world complexity.  https://alashiban.com/platform-engineering-landmines-part-1/ https://alashiban.com/platform-engineering-landmines-part-1/ Sat, 26 Aug 2023 16:28:30 GMT _(Read the full version on the [Klotho Blog](https://klo.dev/platform-engineering-landmines-part-1/ "Klotho Blog"))_ As engineering leaders contemplate internal developer platforms (IDPs), many are unaware of the organizational and cultural "fine print" that comes with them. After 15 years building platform and development teams, and interviewing countless peers about developer platforms, I deci https://alashiban.com/the-evolution-of-cloud-infrastructure-and-platform-engineering-organizations/ https://alashiban.com/the-evolution-of-cloud-infrastructure-and-platform-engineering-organizations/ Sun, 30 Jul 2023 20:09:24 GMT _(I’d like to thank [Brian Bossé](https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-boss%C3%A9/) and [David de Regt](https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-de-regt-430ab0132/) for contributing to the discussion leading to this article)_ Modern backend systems have reached a level of complexity that organizations struggle to wield. Many find themselves in a constant cycle of hiring, reorganization and reprioritization https://alashiban.com/search-the-deck/ https://alashiban.com/search-the-deck/ Sun, 08 Jan 2023 06:22:32 GMT ## **Filtering tags is so 90's** When I was putting together Klotho's pitch deck, I followed the classic sections everyone suggested: introduction, problem, solution, target market, market size, competition, go-to-market strategy, product or service, team, financials, funding, milestones, and conclusion. I searched for slide decks, but it was difficult to find the specific sections I wanted to l data https://alashiban.com/how-to-refactor-for-startups-2022-reasons-and-tradeoffs/ https://alashiban.com/how-to-refactor-for-startups-2022-reasons-and-tradeoffs/ Sun, 27 Nov 2022 05:20:05 GMT (Cross-posted from the [Klotho web site](https://klo.dev)) This blog post is a high level overview on the reasons to refactor code and systems in a startup setting. We cover risks, approaches and tradeoffs to consider in 2022. ## How to judge when the cost is worth the gains ### Be honest with yourself The temptation will always be to refactor: real-world code is messy, and engineers don’t lik https://alashiban.com/serverless-vs-microservices-two-sides-of-the-same-coin/ https://alashiban.com/serverless-vs-microservices-two-sides-of-the-same-coin/ Wed, 08 Jun 2022 03:13:20 GMT I just wrote up a piece around the confusion the Internet creates around Serverless and Microservices. The "Serverless vs. Microservices" debate presents a dilemma between two supposedly incompatible strategies that must be fundamentally at odds with each other. In reality, they are as similar as two flavors of ice cream - you might prefer chocolate chip, but strawberry will work just as well. Ch https://alashiban.com/cloud-computing-architecture-for-the-next-ten-years-part-2/ https://alashiban.com/cloud-computing-architecture-for-the-next-ten-years-part-2/ Wed, 16 Mar 2022 01:15:06 GMT Cloud development has become prohibitively complex, and the current generation of solutions have low-level interfaces that require extensive investment from developers and operators to understand how to configure, learn, assemble, and scale them properly. For a new architectural shift to occur, we need approaches that absorbs the cognitive load, not streamline it. ## Maintain benefits from existi https://alashiban.com/cloud-computing-architecture-for-the-next-ten-years/ https://alashiban.com/cloud-computing-architecture-for-the-next-ten-years/ Fri, 07 Jan 2022 06:51:16 GMT In computing, bigger and more ambitious dreams have always been realized by pushing the limits. Cloud computing is no exception; parallel computing, cluster computing, grid computing, and edge computing are all continuously expanding what we consider to be possible. But they also make development more difficult. Cloud computing is now in the phase of streamlining complexity. There are several exa https://alashiban.com/klo-restart/ https://alashiban.com/klo-restart/ Sat, 01 Jan 2022 12:07:21 GMT We've recently launched [Klotho](https://klo.dev), a tool that unlocks the next generation of cloud computing. It's such an exciting time that I decided to reboot the blog 🔥 https://alashiban.com/biggest-ideas-humble-beginnings/ https://alashiban.com/biggest-ideas-humble-beginnings/ Thu, 07 Jul 2016 15:34:59 GMT In the late 80's and 90's, the world for most kids was the immediate hyper local: the neighborhood, school, the friends. Imagine a world where the only people you knew, talked to and experienced life with were people who for sheer coincidence were born around you. That's the reality of nearly everyone in their 30's+ today. One thing did manage to pierce through and burst the locality bubble for a BBS Team Fortress https://alashiban.com/update-scraping-data-mining-beginners-pros/ https://alashiban.com/update-scraping-data-mining-beginners-pros/ Tue, 17 Feb 2015 04:36:59 GMT We've hit the ~10K+ students on the [Scraping and Data Mining for Beginners and Pros](https://www.udemy.com/scraping-and-data-mining-for-beginners-and-pros/) Udemy course. The reviews have been fantastic: [](/images/2015/02/reviews.png) Since creating the course, a few new technologies came up that are worth mentioning: # **[portia](https://github.com/scrapi Data Mining Scrapy Cloud https://alashiban.com/bel-balad-webseries-didnt-happen/ https://alashiban.com/bel-balad-webseries-didnt-happen/ Sun, 01 Feb 2015 04:54:53 GMT 2010, 5 years ago, we ventured into the world of dSLR video. My friend and I decided to explore the capabilities of his newly minted Canon camera for creating short videos. That journey lead us to creating a crew that would produce a pilot for a Mystery-oriented Web Series that never launched. Unlike its final outcome, the journey was delightful, filled with friendships, learning and challenges th ARC Bel Balad DIY LOST https://alashiban.com/make-long-distance-flying-easy/ https://alashiban.com/make-long-distance-flying-easy/ Fri, 14 Nov 2014 20:45:28 GMT Once or twice a year, I tend to fly for 16 hours to visit my home town of Haifa, Israel. If we do some quick math, there’s a total of 64 nightmare-ish hours I spend on an airplane (round trip) cramped up like a box. I’ve been finding ways to minimize the difficulty of the flight, after all there’s been plenty of time to think about it on the plane. If you don’t particularly enjoy the loud backgr Advanced Users Sleeping Bonus Battery Neck Pain SOLVED https://alashiban.com/4-unofficial-things-love-pm/ https://alashiban.com/4-unofficial-things-love-pm/ Fri, 31 Oct 2014 20:56:28 GMT Being a PM has been the most fun and differentiated experience so far in my exploratory career. While there are better known core PM skill sets and super powers, some of the related habits are more subjective to personality types. I'd like to tell you about 4 of my Unofficial Things I Love Doing as a PM, and they have proven extremely invaluable in my work. But first, a tiny insight on building te data Microsoft Researchers NDA PM UX https://alashiban.com/running-xbmc-amazon-firetv-step-step-tutorial/ https://alashiban.com/running-xbmc-amazon-firetv-step-step-tutorial/ Sun, 06 Apr 2014 01:59:42 GMT With the release of the [Amazon FireTV](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5WRAL5kgbY), AppleTV and [TheVerge posts around AndroidTV](http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/5/5584604/this-is-android-tv), the 99$er TV set-top box war is getting into high gear. Let's take a step back though. The FireTV sports a 2GB RAM, dedicated GPU, quad core Qualcomm CPU and a full-size USB port for 99$. This is a fantasti Amazon Android Android Visit APK Enable Debug Enabling Debug Mode Finishing Touches FireTV GPU IP PC SDK TV USB XBMC https://alashiban.com/web-scraping-turn-web-sites-data/ https://alashiban.com/web-scraping-turn-web-sites-data/ Sun, 12 Jan 2014 18:09:16 GMT Every now and then I prototype an idea for an application or tool, and find myself copy/pasting demo data from a service just so I the prototype can feel more real. This is known as web scraping or screen scraping, and it can be both fun and excruciatingly tedious. So I wrote a small script you to use. From Wikipedia: "Web pages are built using text-based mark-up languages (HTML and XHTML), and fr API C# CSS data HTML mono NET scraping Wikipedia Web https://alashiban.com/conferences-vs-unconferences/ https://alashiban.com/conferences-vs-unconferences/ Sat, 31 Aug 2013 05:41:30 GMT Most people I know have attended or are familiar with entrepreneurship and startup related conferences. Conferences gather people, seat them, and then lecture to them on a certain subject. The quality of the conference predominantly depends on the speakers' ability to inspire the audience. However, nowadays you can hear some of the best talks on TED and YouTube, and the value of sitting in a room Ala Shiban Attending Kinnernet Blaise Aguera Debbie Berebichez Foo Camp Jeff Keni Pulver Jeff Pulver Shannon Newton SXSW TED Tel Aviv Uber Conference US VC VPN https://alashiban.com/must-watch-science-1-robotics/ https://alashiban.com/must-watch-science-1-robotics/ Sun, 04 Aug 2013 16:59:20 GMT # Technology is Evolving Think about the world 15 years ago. Ask your self how you used to accomplish these tasks and how they were different back then: - Coordinating and meeting friends in a public place - Discovering what an acquaintance has been up to - Finding and buying a good appliance for the best price around you - Driving and navigating yourself in a new city - Contacting a p Boston Dynamics DARPA Dues Ex Flying Robots Leap Motion Oculus Rift https://alashiban.com/building-a-windows-8-1-app-using-typescript-and-opensource/ https://alashiban.com/building-a-windows-8-1-app-using-typescript-and-opensource/ Mon, 29 Jul 2013 10:45:36 GMT It's been fun following and contributing to the growing sense of transformation in Microsoft. Windows 8 is continuously being improved, with alot of creative innovation going into the core experience, not to mention that even Woz is [appreciative of the effort](http://blogs.computerworld.com/windows/21350/apple-co-founder-steve-wozniak-microsoft-may-now-be-more-innovative-apple). One of the cooler CSS data HTML JSON https://alashiban.com/visiting-singularity-university/ https://alashiban.com/visiting-singularity-university/ Mon, 29 Jul 2013 03:30:09 GMT ## The Visit Recently, I've had the pleasure of joining Singularity University for a week, visiting a good friend of mine who's attending. (Thanks Asaf!) Singularity University brings together amazing people from all around the world: Scientists, entrepreneurs and free thinkers to try and mash them into a problem solving collective that can talk all the world's biggest problems. Similar to seve Michael Vassar Mountain View California NASA Palo Alto PC Singularity University https://alashiban.com/inline-navigateto-devlabs-extension/ https://alashiban.com/inline-navigateto-devlabs-extension/ Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:17:24 GMT Here's a cool project I'm involved with. It makes the NavigateTo experience alot more fun and fluid to use in Visual Studio:  You can now [get this now on the Visual Studio Extension Gallery](http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/5437f2e7-adef-44e2-b841-78be850e763e) under the more experimental section: DevLabs. It is going to be rough around th https://alashiban.com/vs2012-2-get-your-colors-back/ https://alashiban.com/vs2012-2-get-your-colors-back/ Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:26:01 GMT You can now get your color back using [Visual Studio 2012.2 (Update 2 CTP)](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2013/01/30/announcing-visual-studio-2012-update-2-vs2012-2.aspx). If you want more of these fun tidbits, make sure you [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/alashiban) Check it out:  Visual Studio https://alashiban.com/multi-editing-extension-scott-hanselman/ https://alashiban.com/multi-editing-extension-scott-hanselman/ Mon, 11 Feb 2013 04:11:04 GMT #### Check out my new Visual Studio extension for Mutli-Editing - Scott Hanselman has a post about it here: [http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Simulta...](http://t.co/NXM4sAdD "http://www.hanselman.com/blog/SimultaneousEditingForVisualStudioWithTheFreeMultiEditExtension.aspx") Visual Studio https://alashiban.com/multi-editing-tutorial/ https://alashiban.com/multi-editing-tutorial/ Sat, 09 Feb 2013 20:22:16 GMT # Introduction Visual Studio extensions are valuable tools that enhance the day-to-day workflow, keeping the IDE fresh with new functionality, tailored for your work style. We've seen fantastic extensions developed by both Microsoft and the community, including [several that saw over a million downloads each](http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/site/search?sortBy=Popularity). In this tu Command Filter Drawing Points Editor Extension Visual Studio https://alashiban.com/post-number-one/ https://alashiban.com/post-number-one/ Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:37:47 GMT Hello Everyone. To those who don't know me, I'm Ala. I'm passionate about people, and technology that empowers people to do more with life. I enjoy being with people that want to make a difference; Throughout the years I've done some robotics, software design, customer-facing applications, web, image processing, team building and management, business development, all the way to cofounding a volunt