Big Ideas in App Architecture

“Successful platforming means getting real product managers involved, promoting reuse, and measuring happiness and success. Letting the voice of the customer guide us is essential – we want to be a respected and effective platform” Jason Valentino , Head of Engineering Enablement at BNY Mellon sat down with us to share his highlights and valuable insights from his 10+ year history leading engineer...

Building the software behind life insurance systems is a complicated endeavor. Organizations need to consider the need to keep millions of data records with decades-long histories, factor in the many variables for individual policies, and comply with legal regulations that can vary from state to state. In this special bonus episode with our former host Tim Veil, Tim examines the intricacies of the...

We delve into the journey of Arjun Narayan , Co-Founder and CEO of Materialize , a streaming SQL database for real-time applications, live dashboards, and streaming data pipelines. He shares his personal experiences in the field of data analytics, his fascination with distributed systems, and his passion for working with databases. Arjun shares how his mind was blown by the Spanner paper back in 2...

“My goal is to basically be AWS, but for the developers in the sense that like, my five man SRE team can support 10 developers, it can support 1000 developers” - Hans Knecht, Platform Engineer Hans Knecht has over 10+ years in the industry at companies including Mission Lane and Capital One. Whether he is designing self-serving platforms, creating comprehensive documentation, or providing technica...

Brian Chambers began his Chick-fil-A journey behind the counter. Today, he is the Chief Architect at Chick-fil-A Corporate, where he oversees the teams building the infrastructure that powers every step of the customer journey, from mobile ordering to quality control. Behind its speedy service and chicken sandwiches, is a state-of-the-art architecture that collects over 1 billion data points per m...

Chris Stura, Director of PwC UK has had over 20+ years in the world of software, wearing many hats from Software Engineer to Chief Architect to Director of Technology Delivery. During his time at PwC, Chris’ projects have spanned helping banks migrate from legacy systems to modern architecture, working on the performance analytics software Cloud Cost Assurance, and technical consulting for financi...

In the latest episode of "Big Ideas in App Architecture," we dive into the world of utility facilities and their app architecture with guest Grant Muller , Vice President of Applications and Technology Architecture at Xylem . Grant shares valuable insights on bridging end-to-end solutions while focusing on energy efficiency and data collection in utility facilities. Grant explains IoT standards in...

This week, Mattias Sio Fjellvang , CTO and Co-Founder of Doubble , joins to discuss the technical challenges he’s faced while building a "double dating" application. Mattias discusses tech stack decisions, developing with a completely distributed team, and the incredible month-to-month growth of the application. Mattias talks about what it was like for ‘a React guy’ to develop using Dart and Flutt...

In this episode, Adam Koch , Systems Engineering Fellow at Paycor , discusses transitioning from legacy systems to the cloud and its impact on application architecture. Adam draws on his wealth of knowledge and experience in the field to help frame the evolution of data architecture and infrastructure. He shares his perspective on the limitless possibilities that cloud scale brings, while also giv...

“Aside from math and physics, there are no laws in software engineering.” In this episode, Joe Lynch , a technical leader with decades of experience (Google, Twilio…), discusses the fundamental principles of building software efficiently; and the human obstacles that get in our way. Joe explains the difference between "laws" and tendencies in software engineering and how understanding Conway's law...

In today's episode, we're joined by Yolanda Davis , Principal Software Engineer at Cloudera , to talk about Apache NiFi and its role in streamlining data transfers. Yolanda explains the architecture of Cloudera’s Apache NiFi and the UI developers use of the tool to design and manage dataflows. She also shares how Kubernetes has changed the game in terms of efficiency and scalability (while acknowl...

“I guarantee you no CIO will ever write a check to Cockroach Labs. You have to change the name.” Peter Mattis , Co-founder and CTO at Cockroach Labs , was given that unsolicited advice from an audience member at a conference in 2018. Five years later Cockroach Labs has cashed plenty of checks signed by CIOs from some of the biggest companies on the planet. In this conversation, Peter goes way unde...

This week, we’re with one of those masters of database building, Andy Pavlo , an Associate Professor with indefinite tenure of databaseology in the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University and the Co-Founder of OtterTune . Andy discusses how his introduction to “databaseology” changed the way databases are not only built but also studied for more efficiency at companies. From opti...

Database architecture can be a vital part of enhancing and maintaining customer success! In this episode of "Big Ideas in App Architecture," we explore several crucial aspects of backend engineering including stateless systems architected for resilience and how to do observability well. Our guest, Dan Goldin , Chief Architect at TripleLift , shares his expertise, drawing from his years of experien...

AI is expanding in our lives like never before. How is it changing the way we approach software development for the future? In short, a ton! This week, Stephen Blum , CTO and Founder of PubNub , joins to discuss how specific tech roles will likely change as AI becomes more ingrained in the work of tech companies. Moreover, he theorizes that innovative companies won’t view AI as merely a means of s...

You are effectively scaling your software teams to their maximum efficiency. When is the right time to automate specific features to accommodate your growing team? This week we’re joined by Matt Ranney , Principal Engineer at DoorDash who emphasizes the importance of finding productivity angels in smaller teams with more automation, and how understanding that unit testing isn't the only valuable m...

Get fit in real time with tech’s advancements in the fitness industry! This week, we’re joined by Paul Lawler , Head of Software at Wahoo Fitness as he discusses how athletes everywhere are using technology to understand and grow their physical health in real-time. In this conversation Paul explains his experiences building highly available apps and services for a decade in Ed-Tech before moving i...

Step into the future of app architecture with Gregg Mojica , Co-Founder and CTO of Alloy Automation , as we uncover the magic of multi-region architecture, serverless tools, scaling up and down with Kubernetes, and solving problems for merchants all over the world. Gregg will share his insights on how to build an efficient tech stack that solves problems for ecommerce companies by helping them int...

Get ready to dive into the big ideas shaping the future of hiring software for SaaS companies! This week, Mike Boufford , CTO at Greenhouse Software shares his insights on the creation of Greenhouse's hiring software. Mike was the first engineering hire at Greenhouse and has watched the department grow to over 120 engineers. In this conversation he highlights the challenges they faced when buildin...

Unlock the secrets of the data warehousing industry and stay ahead of the curve of data storage! This week, Ken Pickering , SVP of Engineering at Starburst Data , delves into the intricacies of separating compute from storage, transferring to cloud-based solutions, and keeping up with evolving data storage ecosystems. We also discuss the benefits of incorporating community connectors and designing...