The technology sector continues to grow by leaps and bounds, with every year bringing new developments and trends to the forefront. As an organization committed to staying on the leading edge of innovation, Red Dog Media is proud to invest in ongoing training for its talented team of programmers. The 2018 DEVintersection conference held at MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas presented the team with an unparalleled opportunity to hone their skills among other industry leaders, and meet face to face with the teams who are building the platforms upon which the future is being built.
The past several years have shown that the future of software and computing will be cloud based, and some of the most forward thinking innovations are being presented by Microsoft. The powerful Azure platform from Microsoft is helping organizations around the world bring their computing and programming needs years into the future. The capabilities of Azure are continuing to grow at such a rate that continuing education and orientation are imperative. At DEVintersection the Red Dog Media team was able to learn directly from the top Microsoft minds behind these very projects.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are top buzzwords for 2018, and this was quickly apparent at DEVintersection. Red Dog Media team members were able to attend a seminar focused on ML.NET, an ongoing machine learning project from Microsoft for machine learning. ML.NET offers a library for C# and F# programming languages and is capable of supporting Python models as well. Forward thinking applications for ML.NET include predictive algorithms for pricing or efficiency as well as complex classification problems. The integration of machine learning technology has the ability to help organizations stay ahead of the competition while at the same time increasing profitability. The opportunity to converse with some of the most respected pioneers in the machine learning space was invaluable for Red Dog Media.
For anyone working on complex projects, the ability to write flexible code allows for fewer errors and greater efficiency. The Polly Project is a .NET library which integrates retry, circuit breakers, bulkhead and fallback in order to create incredible levels of flexibility. A game-changing innovation towards system reliability, the Red Dog Media team was proud to attend the seminar and gain a greater understanding of the practical use cases of Polly Project towards increasing reliability in any number of circumstances. Our team was also brought up to speed on the ambitious future of Polly Project, as it works to increase its capabilities far beyond the only comparable project, Netflix’s Hystrix project. The implications of Polly Project toward the future of cloud computing are substantial, and Red Dog Media is excited to be an early adopter.
Beyond specific projects, DEVintersecion presents a unique skill-building opportunity for the programmers at Red Dog Media. Being immersed in the cutting edge atmosphere the event provides promotes a unique opportunity for conversation and the ability to open one’s eyes to different applications of systems with which they are already familiar. Speakers such as master software architect Juwal Lowy captivated Red Dog Media team members and helped inspire them to approach their work in new ways. Put perfectly by one programmer, “His talk really opened my eyes to software design and architecture. Rather than writing code to do X or Y, you should be finding the boundaries of volatility and decomposing on those boundaries. It makes your code more resilient to the inevitable changes that come as a project develops.” Experiences like these simply cannot be had in the standard work environment, and help to foster greater professional development.
It was not all work, as the team was able to find time to enjoy each other’s company as well. Team lunches and dinners presented an excellent opportunity for team-building and camaraderie. Great conversation about each individuals various passions when it comes to software development were had and new perspectives were gained.
Red Dog Media is a forward-looking organization which places a high premium on ensuring that each of their team members has every chance to further their interests and abilities. Keeping up with the speed of innovation is no easy task, but it is one that Red Dog Media is committed to offering each and every programmer on the team. We are excited to attend the 2019 DEVintersection conference being held once again at the MGM Grand from November 18th to the 21st, 2019.