Mastering the Game of Cloud Development
Jeevanjot caught the coding bug - pardon the pun - at a young age. At 14, he started working with Visual Basic, doing game development and graphic design before jumping into full-stack web development. Later he began working on blockchain & other open-source projects, where he learned about Docker and its ability to maintain multiple environments with low overhead.
What follows is a highly classified interview with Jeevanjot Singh - cloud developer elite.
Question: What development tools do you use as a cloud developer?
Jeevanjot Singh: The available plugins for VS Code make it a developer’s first choice as a code editor. I like its SSH plugin (even though it sometimes makes it harder to trace specific connection issues) and multi-language support, especially for rare languages. I mostly do webpages / hybrid / cross-platform development right now, so I use a Vue.js-based framework, such as Quasar; I also use Semantic UI or Materialize CSS for my UI needs, especially for simple SPA projects; and use Node.JS, Python, or Go for the backend.
I use Docker containers to run microservices for a single project, for which I sometimes use Cloud VM instances from Amazon or Digital Ocean. And, of course, Okteto.
Question: What’s the advantage of cloud development environments?
Cloud makes certain development projects a breeze due to open source libraries/tooling and simplified management of custom SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, and FaaS platforms. I use Okteto for multiple purposes, like real-time development in the cloud. Okteto keeps my host machine free from dependencies on build files, ports management, HMR (hot module replacement), and provides secure public endpoints and allows me to track changes on a remote machine.
Cloud development is exciting, especially the ability to work on multiple projects, with different building environments, without switching my current host machine or loading it with other VMs.
Question: Is the migration from local development environments to production environments a common issue?
When I migrate from testing to production environments, there are many things I like to consider; for example, maintaining multiple branches that connect to the developer environment and at least one aligned with the production environment. The complexity of migration also grows when you integrate third-party services. But with a Docker-friendly project and Okteto, this migration is efficient.
Question: How has Okteto helped?
I learned Kubernetes, which led me to Okteto cloud, allowing me to work and manage multiple pods running in different development and production environments very efficiently.
Whether web development or blockchain projects, I like to maintain multiple development environments when using different complex tools. For instance, each blockchain alone has its SDK. I use cloud options to manage my development environments in an isolated fashion.
I can host different pods on Okteto cloud and switch the work environment based on my focus.
I can keep my host machine clean while installing essential build tools on cloud pods under different namespaces. I could use Jenkins in one of those pods to orchestrate this together. And if I want to work with database tools, I can manage that from the cloud and connect them to any machine with just some of the required tools or framework installations on the host machine. If I want Functions to run, I can deploy Openfaas. If I want to experiment with an Erlang tool, I just need to host a pod with an Erlang docker image.
The ability to simultaneously manage different pods in one environment is why Okteto Cloud is exciting.
Helpful links
From bots to websites and apps, here are some projects in which I used Okteto:
- Okteto Community app that used Okteto cloud: https://github.com/genievot/okteto
- Money Over Mail Protocol (MOMP) that utilized and developed with Okteto Cloud” https://forum.aeternity.com/t/money-over-mail-protocol-momp/10066 .
- How to develop and use bots through cloud development environments: https://docs.fine.exchange/docs/cloud_bot/setup_js_environment/
If you're a cloud developer/pro with a cool success story to tell, I'd love to interview you. Please contact me at johnp@okteto.com
John Papageorge
