Simplicity is a form of art...

Containers are the new IaaS

At work, as with many other companies, we're actively investing in new platforms, including container platforms and public cloud. We use Kubernetes based container platforms both on-premise and in the cloud, but are also very adamant that the container platforms should only be used for application workload that is correctly designed for cloud-native deployments: we do not want to see vendors packaging full operating systems in a container and then shouting they are now container-ready.

Not sure if TOSCA will grow further

TOSCA is an OASIS open standard, and is an abbreviation for Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications. It provides a domain-specific language to describe how an application should be deployed in the cloud (the topology), which and how many resources it needs, as well as tasks to run when certain events occur (the orchestration). When I initially came across this standard, I was (and still am) interested in how far this goes. The promise of declaring an application (and even bundling the necessary application artefacts) within a single asset and then using this asset to deploy on whatever cloud is very appealing to an architect. Especially in organizations that have a multi-cloud strategy.

Abstracting infrastructure complexity

IT is complex. Some even consider it to be more magic than reality. And with the ongoing evolutions and inventions, the complexity is not really going away. Sure, some IT areas are becoming easier to understand, but that is often offset with new areas being explored.

Companies and organizations that have a sizeable IT footprint generally see an increase in their infrastructure, regardless of how many rationalization initiatives that are started. Personally, I find it challenging, in a fun way, to keep up with the onslaught of new technologies and services that are onboarded in the infrastructure landscape that I'm responsible for.

But just understanding a technology isn't enough to deal with its position in the larger environment.