Things I've Learned About Conference Speaking

On the wall across from my desk, I’ve got badges from all the conferences I’ve been to. The collection has grown quite a bit over the past two years. Recently, taking a look at it made me take a trip down memory lane and reflect on the first few talks I gave, as well as the ones I’m giving now - what’s changed, what I do differently, and the things I’ve learned. This blog is going to be about some of those learnings. ...

January 4, 2024 · 8 min · Arsh Sharma

Building a Blog With a CMS Using Hugo and Netlify

I consume a ton of media - books, shows, movies, games, you name it. And there are moments or lines in them that stick with me long after I’m done. So, I wanted a place to keep all these gems. Instagram was a big no-no for me because I have a love-hate relationship with that app. I wanted something different. Surprisingly, I couldn’t find a convenient solution to save and list all these snippets for later viewing. ...

November 15, 2023 · 10 min · Arsh Sharma

Setting Up a GitOps Workflow with Argo CD and GitHub Actions

GitOps is gaining increasing popularity these days, and for good reason. The principles of GitOps promote the use of Git repositories as the ultimate source of truth for application infrastructure and configuration. This concept revolves around storing all application-related files and manifests in a Git repository, leveraging it as the central hub for deployment management. By combining GitOps principles with declarative continuous delivery tools like Argo CD, you can significantly improve your deployment workflow and expedite the shipping processes, achieving faster and more efficient results. ...

October 14, 2023 · 9 min · Arsh Sharma

Platform Engineering and Developer Experience: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Around a year ago, the term “developer experience” was all the rage. It was on everyone’s lips, with discussions about its immense importance. However, the current focus seems to have shifted towards “Platform Engineering” - a term that, in my personal opinion, has become quite convoluted. Nevertheless, I feel both concepts essentially revolve around the same idea. Platform Engineering is merely a means to achieve a better developer experience. But what exactly does that mean? Let me explain in more detail over the course of this article. ...

September 23, 2023 · 6 min · Arsh Sharma

If You're Using Helm, Why Not Give It a Pretty UI As Well?

Helm Dashboard is an open-source project by Komodor that offers a visual and user-friendly way to manage and visualize all the Helm charts installed in your clusters. Instead of using the terminal, you can leverage the Helm Dashboard’s intuitive UI to perform a variety of tasks that make working with Helm a breeze. Here are some of its key features: Visually pleasing chart list: The dashboard presents all the installed charts in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Comprehensive K8s resource view: Get a clear overview of the Kubernetes resources associated with each chart installation. Manifest visibility: Easily access and examine the manifests included in the charts. Chart upgrade notifications and UI execution: Stay informed about available chart upgrades, and perform upgrades directly from the UI. One-click rollback: Effortlessly revert to a previous chart installation with just one click. Manifest diffing: Quickly identify and understand the differences between manifests when upgrading or rolling back to a different version. In addition to these features, Helm Dashboard offers many other handy functionalities, which I will discuss further in the article. To summarize, almost anything you can do via the CLI, you can now accomplish with a few simple clicks in this elegant UI. ...

September 17, 2023 · 5 min · Arsh Sharma