$ cat post/stack-trace-in-the-log-/-the-firewall-rule-was-too-strict-/-the-service-persists.md
stack trace in the log / the firewall rule was too strict / the service persists
Title: On the Brink of New Realities: A Platform Engineer’s Perspective
June 3, 2019 was just another day at the office, but it felt different. The air was electric with a mix of excitement and anxiety as we navigated the rapidly evolving tech landscape. I spent the morning debugging an issue that had been plaguing our application for weeks. By afternoon, my thoughts turned to broader trends and what they might mean for us.
We were in the midst of formalizing platform engineering—a role that was becoming increasingly important as internal developer portals (like Backstage) started to take shape. It felt like we were at a crossroads, deciding which path to follow as our company scaled into the era of Kubernetes complexity. The SRE roles had been proliferating, and now they needed more hands to support this new platform.
As I tackled that pesky bug—some obscure issue with our custom logging handler—I couldn’t help but think about how far we’d come. Debugging in Kubernetes namespaces was a nightmare compared to running monolithic apps on a single server, but the tools were getting better. ArgoCD and Flux GitOps were maturing rapidly, making it easier to manage and scale our infrastructure.
The Raspberry Pi 4 had just been released, and I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of projects would pop up in my Slack channels. People always come up with amazing ideas when you give them a cheap computer and some spare time. Who knew that tiny dev boards could be such a source of inspiration?
That evening, while reviewing our latest ops logs, I stumbled upon an interesting comment from one of our engineers: “We should probably look into eBPF for tracing.” It had been something we’d discussed in passing but never really got around to implementing. With the rise of Kubernetes complexity fatigue, maybe now was the time to finally give it a proper shot.
Meanwhile, the world outside our bubble was buzzing with activity. The Google Cloud downtime and Chrome vs. Firefox Captcha debates were just another reminder that even giants can stumble. And then there was Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra—another sign that the tech industry was increasingly entangled in complex social and economic issues.
As I prepared to wrap up my day, I found myself reflecting on all this. The rapid pace of change was both exhilarating and overwhelming. We were at a critical juncture where traditional roles like sysadmin were merging with developer responsibilities, creating a new breed of platform engineers. It felt like we needed to find a balance between the old ways and these emerging technologies.
On one hand, I wanted us to stay ahead of the curve—adopting cutting-edge tools like eBPF while continuing to refine our Kubernetes practices. On the other hand, I knew that change had its risks. We needed to ensure that as we embraced new technologies, we didn’t lose sight of the fundamentals: reliability, performance, and security.
As I hit save on a ticket detailing my latest findings, I realized that this wasn’t just about code or infrastructure—it was about shaping our future. The days ahead promised both challenges and opportunities, but one thing was clear: the tech world was evolving faster than ever, and we were right in the middle of it.
That’s where I left off that day, my mind churning with thoughts of platform engineering, Kubernetes complexity, and the endless stream of news items from Hacker News. It felt like a lot to process, but that’s just how things have been lately—full of twists, turns, and exciting possibilities.