Dusty: Building and testing microservices made easy

Microservices are becoming the standard in modern technology stacks, but building and maintaining a web of interconnected services locally can be complicated and time consuming for engineers. Alex Etling offers an overview of Dusty, a Docker-based local development environment built with the power to make building, testing, and maintaining microservices easy.

Microservices are becoming the standard in modern technology stacks. Using the right tool for the job now means using the right language, database, and API for each problem at hand. This trend has been accelerated by Docker: containerization now allows you to package distinct tools, languages, and dependencies into a shippable bundle that runs the same on all machines. On top of this, services continue to pop up that leverage Docker to make scaling your infrastructure easy. These new developments have put powerful microservice architectures in reach for companies of all sizes. While microservice platforms are powerful, building and maintaining them can have its downsides. One key problem is building and testing these systems locally. Each new service adds extra complications, dependencies, and requirements on developers and their local environments. How can small and medium-sized companies solve this operations problem without hiring a dedicated operations team or overburdening their developers? Alex Etling shows how the team at GameChanger has taken back control of its local environment. Alex explains why you need a Docker-based development environment in a microservice world and outlines why the current tools and technologies in the Docker ecosystem are insufficient for most development flows. Alex then offers an overview of Dusty, a Docker-based local development environment GameChanger built to solve this problem with the power to make building, testing, and maintaining microservices easy.