Moving out of systems programming into Kubernetes: is it time to adopt Rust ?

Despite its initial systems programming focus, Rust has seen rapid uptake as a general-purpose programming language for modern application development – when does it make sense to adopt it in your own services over more established choices such as Java and golang?
In this talk, you will learn what makes Rust a compelling, if unconventional, choice for building web services, and the benefits it brings to the table when it moves beyond its low-level, performance-and-safety focussed origins. We’ll also address the cost of those benefits: the learning curve, ecosystem maturity, and where Rust may still fall short compared to other contemporary languages. We’ll do this with reference to a ridiculously but hopefully entertainingly contrived sample application, as well as with concrete anecdotes and experiences from Datadog and Amazon, our employers and fellow rust enthusiasts.
This talk will equip you with the skills needed to decide if and where Rust makes sense in your service landscape, and the shortcomings and tricks to keep in mind if you choose to adopt it.

Ramon Lopez Narvaez

Ramon is a Solutions Architect at AWS. He has a strong background in distributed systems engineering and all things Cloud. From his past as a software engineer at Amazon Prime he learned how to build and scale web apps to 150+ million customers around the globe. He is a strong believer in the “You build it, you run it” operational model.

Scott Gerring
I’ve worked as various exciting variants of a code-pusher since who-knows-when. These days I work as a Developer Advocate @ Datadog. I live in Switzerland in the rather scenic Berner Oberland.
I focus on the technical foundations of software engineering – what does it take to build high-quality software, how can we best use our tools and languages, and how can an awareness of the lower levels of the stack help? I work on the opentelemetry-rust project and a couple of obscure tools that will hopefully, one day, be enormously popular.