2018 is ending. Time for my annual retrospective.

Major Achievements

1. Scaled to 10x Traffic

Our traffic grew 10x this year. Our infrastructure handled it:

  • Kubernetes auto-scaling worked perfectly
  • No major outages
  • Response times stayed under 100ms

This validated our 2017 Kubernetes migration.

2. Migrated to Java 11

Upgraded all services from Java 8 to Java 11:

  • 20% faster startup
  • 10% better throughput
  • Modern features (HTTP client, var keyword)

3. Adopted Helm

Standardized Kubernetes deployments with Helm:

  • Reduced deployment time from 30 minutes to 5 minutes
  • Eliminated configuration drift
  • Made rollbacks trivial

Technologies I Learned

Java 11

LTS release with modern features. Worth the upgrade.

Helm

Kubernetes package manager. Game-changer for managing deployments.

Go Modules

Official dependency management for Go. Much better than dep.

Vue CLI 3

Zero-config tooling for Vue. Faster builds, better DX.

Projects I’m Proud Of

1. Observability Platform

Built comprehensive monitoring:

  • Prometheus for metrics
  • Grafana for dashboards
  • Jaeger for distributed tracing
  • ELK for logs

We now see everything. MTTR (Mean Time To Recovery) dropped from 2 hours to 15 minutes.

2. CI/CD Improvements

Optimized our pipeline:

  • Parallel test execution
  • Docker layer caching
  • Helm-based deployments

Build time: 15 minutes → 5 minutes
Deployment time: 30 minutes → 5 minutes

3. Performance Optimization

Optimized our main API:

  • Added Redis caching
  • Optimized database queries
  • Implemented connection pooling

Response time: 200ms → 50ms
Throughput: 1000 req/s → 5000 req/s

Mistakes I Made

1. Over-Optimizing Too Early

Spent 2 weeks optimizing a service that wasn’t the bottleneck. Should have profiled first.

Lesson: Measure before optimizing.

2. Not Documenting Decisions

Made architectural decisions without ADRs (Architecture Decision Records). Six months later, couldn’t remember why.

Now we write ADRs for all major decisions.

3. Ignoring Technical Debt

Postponed refactoring to ship features faster. Debt accumulated. Spent Q4 paying it down.

Lesson: Allocate time for technical debt regularly.

Technical Lessons

1. Observability is Critical

You can’t fix what you can’t see. Invest in monitoring, logging, and tracing.

2. Automation Pays Off

Every hour spent automating saves 10 hours of manual work.

3. Simplicity Scales

Simple solutions are easier to understand, debug, and maintain.

4. Test in Production

Staging never matches production. Use feature flags and canary deployments.

Soft Skills

1. Project Management

Transitioned from full-time coding to 50% coding, 50% project management:

  • Planning and estimation
  • Stakeholder communication
  • Risk management
  • Team coordination

2. Mentoring

Mentored 3 junior developers. Watching them grow is rewarding.

3. Technical Writing

Published 48 blog posts. Writing clarifies thinking and helps others.

Books I Read

  • Designing Data-Intensive Applications (re-read)
  • The Manager’s Path - Transitioning to management
  • Accelerate - DevOps and organizational performance
  • Database Internals - How databases work

Blog Stats

  • 48 posts published
  • ~100,000 page views (2x growth)
  • Most popular: “Kubernetes in Production: 6 Months Later”

What I’m Excited About for 2019

Technologies

  • Kubernetes 1.14: Windows container support
  • Go 1.12: Module improvements
  • Java 12: Switch expressions
  • Vue 3.0: Composition API, better TypeScript support

Skills

  • Distributed systems design
  • System architecture
  • Team leadership
  • Public speaking

Goals for 2019

  1. Speak at 2 conferences: Share our Kubernetes journey
  2. Contribute to open source: Give back to the community
  3. Learn Rust: Interested in systems programming
  4. Build a side project: SaaS product for developers
  5. Write 50 blog posts: Continue the streak

Career Transition

This year I transitioned from Senior Engineer to Tech Lead:

  • 50% coding, 50% leadership
  • Responsible for technical direction
  • Mentoring team members
  • Stakeholder communication

It’s challenging but rewarding.

Advice to My Past Self

  • Invest in observability early
  • Document architectural decisions
  • Don’t over-optimize prematurely
  • Allocate time for technical debt
  • Automation is worth the investment
  • Simplicity scales better than complexity

Thank You

Thanks to:

  • My team for their hard work
  • The community for answering my questions
  • Everyone who read my blog

Here’s to 2019! 🎉

What did you learn in 2018? What are your goals for 2019?