There are around 500 sessions crammed into a speedy three day schedule -- so it is impossible to catch everything. (That's one reason that I'm promoting things like theCube streaming channel and recorded sessions on our Youtube channel -- it's a way to catch all the things you can miss, even if you attend something every hour.)

If you haven't already mapped out everything to see and do, the trailmaps are a great place to start to get the cream of every topic area.

I have created my own, unscientific list of the app dev and middleware-related sessions that caught my eye in the session catalog.

Stuff to Do

There are after-parties most nights, some on site at the Moscone Center and some at the conference hotels. Keep an eye on the signs in the lobbies -- there are lists there. For those passionate about app development, middleware, and application architecture:

  • There will be a press panel including Mike Piech (VP of middleware) and Harry Mower (Red Hat Developers) in the Intercontinental Hotel Ballroom A. Space is limited, so it will also be broadcast live on theCube at 11am.
  • There is a rockstar cocktail hour on Wednesday evening, starting at 5:30 in Moscone West.
  • Also on Wednesday, Mike Piech and Mark LIttle will do an interview with theCube. Along with streaming live online, you can see it in person in the Moscone West lobby.
  • The Red Hat Summit wrap party is Thursday night at the Armory, starting at 7pm.

Integration

Trailmap: Integration

Distributed API management in a hybrid cloud environment
Tuesday, 10:30am, Moscone West 2003
Why it's cool:
This is a real customer story on how they used API management with 3scale to manage thousands of services across a hybrid environment.

Practitioner's guide to API strategy
Wednesday, 3:30pm, Moscone South 207
Why it's cool:
Anything with "strategy" in it catches my eye. This session goes over why and how an API initiative should be structured to be successful.

Introducing AMQ streams - data streaming with Apache Kafka
Thursday, 11:15am, Moscone West 2014
Why it's cool:
Microservices -- or any kind of distributed computing system -- comes down to a question of managing data. This looks at some new technologies in AMQ so that the messaging platform can span a variety of data architectures, from IoT to enterprise integration to (also) data streaming.

Decompose a monolith with microservices
Thursday, 3:00pm, Moscone West Level 2, Discovery Zone
Why it's cool:
 Another session hitting the same point -- distributed architectures are complex. You need a clear understanding of interdependencies, integration points, and data (among many other things), and this session breaks down what you need to know and best practices for addressing it.

Future Technologies

There are a lot of separate, and separately interesting, technologies on the horizon. The ones that seem to stick out at this Summit revolve around serverless computing or Istio Service Mesh.

Containers, microservices, serverless: On being serverless or serverful
Tuesday, 10:30am, Moscone South 207
Why it's cool:
Burr Sutter presenting plus serverless and microservices in the title.

Istio: Solving the challenges of hybrid cloud
Tuesday, 3:30pm, Moscone South 208
Why it's cool:
 This goes over how Istio can be used in an infrastructure that spans OpenShift containers, Kubernetes, and virtual machines. Managing data across environments effectively is a major challenge as applications and services need to be able to scale.

Low-risk mono to microservices: Istio, Teiid, and Spring Boot
Tuesday, 4:30pm, Moscone South 207
Why it's cool:
This looks at how to break a monolith -- fully recognizing that there are no clear-cut boundaries in a monolith and the interdependencies get messy.

An eventful tour from enterprise integration to serverless computing
Wednesday, 10:30am, Moscone South 207
Why it's cool:
This looks at the different architectural designs and choices for event-driven computing, microservices, messaging, and data management. There isn't a single perfect solution that works for everyone -- each infrastructure has its own priorities and needs, and those have to be reflected in the architecture.

Internet of Things

Trailmap: IoT

Making IoT real across industries
Tuesday, 11:45am, Moscone West 2007
Why it's cool:
Tell me a story. IoT is essentially a highly complex integration story, integrating not only applications but physical devices. Three different industries -- technology, petroleum, and transportation -- highlight different aspects of IoT as it was done in real life.

Internet of Things: Open, integrated, managed, and secure
Thursday, 3:00pm, Moscone West 2016
Why it's cool:
How do you take a cool idea (or a business necessity) and make it happen in real life? This section includes common reference architectures for industrial IoT deployments.

Cloud-native and App Dev

Trailmap: Cloud-native apps

Containerizing applications -- existing and new
Wedneesday, 1:00pm, Moscone South 155
Why it's cool:
Anything practical is immediately appealing. Most organizations aren't dealing with a greenfield of applications, and this looks at how to move both cloud-native and legacy applications into a container.

Using machine learning, Red Hat BPM, and reactive microservices
Thursday, 11:15am, Moscone West 2004
Why it's cool:
Business process automation, decision management, event processing -- these tend to be treated as commodity actions. The things you have to do to get an application to be more responsive with less intervention. I like the approach of adding machine learning to process management, giving more intelligence to the overall architecture.

Java Awesomeness

Eclipse Microprofile and Wildfly Swarm
Tuesday, 11:45am, Moscone West 2011
Why it's cool:
There isn't a ton of Java on this lit (I don't really know why), but this is definitely a don't-miss session for Java developers. Wildfly Swarm is a way to create cloud-native, container-native Java applications. So ... all your Java expertise, in a tiny container.

EE4J, MicroProfile, and the future of enterprise Java
Wednesday, 3:30pm, Moscone South 215
Why it's cool:
 There are probably a dozen think-pieces a year on the imminent death of Java -- yet it continues to evolve across new architectures and to take on new technologies. This session takes a more optimistic (realistic?) view of the future of Java.

Microservices data patterns: CQRS and event sourcing
Thursday, 11:15am, Moscone South 208
Why it's cool:
Microservices (as Christian Posta is fond of saying) represent a data challenge. The more distributed the data is, than the more structured and clear the data architecture needs to be.

Crossing the chasm between traditional and agile planning
Tuesday, 1:45pm, Moscone West 2103
Why it's cool:
Teams are people. Technology has to be developed and executed and maintained by people. Making any kind of shift, whether changing the planning structure or the infrastructure architecture or something else, requires an understanding of how to manage and inspire teams.

 


About the author

Deon Ballard is a product marketing manager focusing on customer experience, adoption, and renewals for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the foundation for open hybrid cloud. In previous roles at Red Hat, Ballard has been a technical writer, doc lead, and content strategist for technical documentation, specializing in security technologies such as NSS, LDAP, certificate management, and authentication / authorization, as well as cloud and management. She also wrote and edited the Middleware Blog for Red Hat and led portfolio solution marketing for integration and business automation.

Read full bio