End_Word In practice, continually innovate to grasp the essence of things #

Hello, I’m Jingyuan.

Time flies, and our course is coming to an end. From preparation and launch to the completion of this column, it has taken about six months.

To be honest, I didn’t expect the journey to be this long. Creating a column is a process of accumulating knowledge, requiring much more effort and energy than I anticipated. Unlike courses and producing articles for public accounts, a column must be “strict in academic research” and “help students understand”. I hope to be highly responsible for each point of knowledge, not only in conceptualizing how to present it, but also by incorporating the latest practical techniques and experiences and illustrating them through case studies.

Therefore, I especially want to thank my teammate “Zhege” for reviewing each article with great dedication and patience. Sometimes, we even discuss with users and other experts, playing different roles to raise questions. In order to refine a course, we often communicate with each other into the late hours of the night.

But it was all worth it. While refining the course and answering questions in the comment section, I have also been constantly growing and improving my knowledge system in the field of Serverless.

In fact, the concept of Serverless is constantly advancing in the spiral of recognition and challenge. When I discuss with myself, internal team, customers and users, as well as industry experts, we often raise questions like “how should the path of Serverless be?” “Is the current state of function computing very primitive after N years?” “How can governance in Serverless be more native?” and so on.

In the face of this highly uncertain future, there are only two things we can do: First, thoroughly understand a specific product technology and constantly grasp the essence of Serverless in practice; Second, start from the end, and constantly create new products and solutions. These two points are also the principles that I practice in the field of Serverless.

Mastering the Essence of Things in Practical Combat #

This title has two keywords: practical combat and essence.

Let’s start with practical combat. Before engaging in practical combat, we need to select a highly certain core area from the rapidly evolving technology. For example, our course starts with learning about FaaS and serverless. Once we thoroughly grasp the technical principles of this part, we can absorb practical experience more efficiently and rapidly improve our immediate combat effectiveness. And each practical combat experience will, in turn, bring us closer to the essence of technology. As mentioned in the preface, this closed loop enables us to ultimately reach a state of immersive concentration and effortless use of skills.

So, what is the essence of Serverless? What was the original intention behind proposing Serverless?

Different perspectives and starting points lead to different conclusions.

In my opinion, the original intention of “Serverless” to “reduce costs and increase efficiency” is what allows users to focus more on their own businesses and create greater social value. On the platform side, it has been evolving towards more elasticity, usability, and operability. All our practical combat endeavors are also moving towards this essence.

Therefore, when you don’t know in which direction to improve yourself, you might as well look back and think about the problems this technology itself aims to solve. After considering its essence, our subsequent actions are less likely to deviate.

Continuous Innovation #

Is staying on track the end point?

We have mentioned the concept of “drawing an analogy” several times in the course. The connotation of Serverless has been continuously extended. We cannot just learn the “moves”. If we only operate step by step according to the knowledge points without understanding how to adapt, it means we have not truly understood. We need to unleash more imagination, continuously innovate, while staying true to the essence and original intention.

So, what can we specifically do?

First, learn with a sense of communication. In the course, I intentionally left spaces for reflection. Some readers have excellent thoughts, such as their understanding of centralized scheduling services in Lesson 3, and their questions about VPC creation in Lesson 10.

Second, work with deep thinking. For example, when examining system problems, if all you see are logs and alerts, you may at most consider it a bug, without grasping the “crux” of the product and the inner demands of the customers. This approach is not enough.

Therefore, we can think more about the underlying problems at work, such as:

What does the customer truly want behind this business scenario and problem? What should we do next? Why do I think this way? What else can be done?

You may feel that the first question has nothing to do with you and is more within the scope of product managers. However, this kind of self-questioning and self-answering can promote further thinking in your work.

If we don’t pursue this kind of questioning or set high standards for ourselves, our imagination and enthusiasm in our work will gradually diminish. This weakening of thinking ability will hinder us from creating more valuable products.

Lastly, do not be constrained and dare to try. Let me share an example from my own experience. Due to insufficient manpower in the team, we needed to simultaneously develop public cloud, private cloud, and other products while considering Function Compute, resulting in the need to maintain multiple sets of engine foundations, which was very troublesome. Later, we carefully analyzed and studied the commonalities of several products, and boldly transformed the general authentication and engine scheduling systems. As a result, this kind of construction is also worth learning from and reusing in subsequent elastic application and container scheduling, greatly reducing maintenance costs through a group of L-shaped empowerments.

Therefore, abandon the so-called common sense and dogmas, especially when standing at the forefront of technological trends. We should listen to good ideas, absorb new knowledge, and dare to try.

I hope that in this column, you can not only systematically learn about Serverless-related knowledge, but also utilize the knowledge and methods you have learned to “reduce costs and increase efficiency” in your own business, thereby gaining a significant advantage in salary increase and promotion. More importantly, you will no longer be bound by established rules, but instead start to cultivate new ways of thinking about problems, actively evolve your own thinking, grasp the essence of technology through products, and dare to try.

I firmly believe that, with your support, there will be more forms of Serverless technology and products released.

Finally, I have prepared a graduation questionnaire. I hope you can take two minutes to fill it out. I will carefully listen to your opinions or suggestions regarding this column, and look forward to your feedback. I will also keep the course updated with the latest technology. Thank you again for choosing me. See you again in the future.