Microcks Maintainers Recap: Bay Area Trip Highlights 🔦

Microcks Maintainers' latest trip to the Bay Area was filled with exciting interactions, collaborations, and fresh opportunities to expand our open source ecosystem. We had the privilege of connecting with some of the most passionate minds in the tech community, particularly this week, around GraphQL and API management.

Here’s a recap of our incredible journey.

Engaging with the GraphQL Community

One of the standout moments of our trip was participating in the GraphQL Meetup. It was an absolute pleasure to be part of such a vibrant and enthusiastic community of GraphQL developers, engineers, and technology enthusiasts. The event offered a unique opportunity to exchange ideas, receive insightful feedback, and build relationships with professionals deeply invested in this growing technology.

The meetup started with an excellent presentation from Vanjikumaran S. , who shared Equinix 's usage of GraphQL and their business expectations. One key statement from Vanji truly resonated with the audience:

Building an application/API is fast now; we can have one in 2 weeks, but maintaining it for 5 years is much harder and more costly.

This observation underscored the importance of long-term API maintenance—a challenge many organizations face. It provided the perfect backdrop for our very own Laurent Broudoux 's talk on GraphQL Federation without the “Dependency Hell”. Laurent’s presentation focused on how to scale GraphQL services efficiently while avoiding the pitfalls of tight coupling and dependency issues, which can often plague large, distributed systems.

Attendees were eager to discuss ways to overcome some of these challenges, and it was refreshing to see so many community members actively engaged in improving API infrastructure. Special thanks to the event organizers and the Hasura team for hosting such a well-organized and inspiring meetup.

Dinner with Josh Long: Spring Boot and the Latest in Java

Beyond the GraphQL scene, we also had a great opportunity to reconnect with our friend Josh Long. Josh, a well-known Spring advocate and Java Champion, has always been at the forefront of the Spring Boot community, and our dinner together was the perfect chance to catch up on the latest news and updates.

As always, Josh was brimming with insights on the newest features and trends in the Spring Boot ecosystem. We shared how Microcks is expanding its vision to support better integration with various API technologies. It was a fantastic evening of food, laughter, and technical discussions that strengthened our mutual understanding of where both communities are headed.

👉 I highly recommend checking out Josh's YouTube channel, "Coffee + Software" where he shares incredible content that's perfect for learning and staying updated.

Two Days at Postman HQ

Another highlight of our Bay Area trip was spending two productive days at the Postman office. Postman, a pioneer in API testing and management, has always been aligned with our partnership and mission to make API lifecycle management easier and more efficient. Our conversations with the Postman team were incredibly fruitful, particularly regarding some of the more technical integration points between Postman and Microcks.

We discussed Microcks' long-term vision and explored opportunities for deeper collaboration to improve the developer experience when dealing with APIs. There was an excellent exchange of ideas on building more seamless integrations to help developers manage their API testing, mocking, and monitoring workflows more efficiently.

This visit reaffirmed that Microcks and Postman share common goals regarding API-first development and that we could collaborate even more closely in the future.

A Visit to Equinix Headquarters

One of the great serendipities of the trip was meeting Vanjikumaran S. at the GraphQL Meetup. Our conversation sparked further interest, and as a result, we were invited to the Equinix headquarters for a dedicated meeting to introduce and demo Microcks. The team at Equinix demonstrated a deep understanding of our approach, and the discussions were both in-depth and highly productive.

We look forward to continuing these conversations and hopefully welcoming Equinix as a new adopter of Microcks.

Their feedback and requirements could help shape our future roadmap as we, the community, work toward improving Microcks' usability and feature set to meet the needs of large-scale enterprises.

GraphQL Conf: Three Days of Deep-Dive Interaction

Following the meetup, we immersed ourselves in the GraphQL Conf, which spanned three days of learning, networking, and insightful talks. While this year’s conference had fewer sponsors and participants compared to the previous year, the quality of interactions more than made up for it. We encountered fewer vendors but engaged with more GraphQL users, developers, and community enthusiasts who are directly involved in advancing the technology.

Microcks gave a talk during the conference, which garnered interest from attendees. It was incredibly valuable to connect with individuals and organizations exploring GraphQL Federation and its role in scaling API architectures. The discussions and follow-ups we’ve had since the conference have been very encouraging, and we’re eager to keep the momentum going as we continue refining our GraphQL integration capabilities.

Morning Meeting with Arun Gupta

To cap off a packed week, we had a fantastic morning meeting with Arun Gupta just before catching our flight back to Paris. The conversation centered around how we can explore the Open Platform For Enterprise AI (OPEA) more thoroughly, including opportunities for contributing to the upcoming Hackathon. Arun was particularly interested in how Microcks could integrate with and extend the ecosystem to enhance the developer experience (DX), especially in the context of the inner loop—the process of coding, building, and debugging.

Our mutual goal is to identify ways to help developers streamline their workflows and improve the overall API development process.

We left the meeting feeling inspired and excited about the possibilities for future collaborations, particularly around extending our integrations and making them more robust and developer-friendly.

Wrapping Up with Some Bay Area Adventures

While our trip to the Bay Area was packed with meetings, talks, and technical discussions, we made sure to balance work with some downtime. Over the weekend, we took advantage of the beautiful California landscape and went on a refreshing hike around Mount Tamalpais State Park. The three-hour hike was not only a great way to clear our minds but also allowed us to appreciate the natural beauty of the area.

Stretching our legs and taking in the views of the Bay Area was a perfect way to recharge before returning to the grind. It reminded us that while we push boundaries in the tech world, it’s important to take time for ourselves and stay physically active.

Looking Forward

Our trip to the Bay Area was filled with valuable experiences and productive collaborations. From engaging with the GraphQL Foundation community and building relationships with key industry players to laying the groundwork for future contributions to the OPEA, we’re excited about what lies ahead for Microcks and our ecosystem.

A big thank you to everyone we met and collaborated with during our trip. Your insights, feedback, and enthusiasm continue to inspire us as we work toward making API management and testing more accessible for all.

We look forward to continuing these conversations and further expanding the Microcks community. Stay tuned for more updates on our next steps, new collaborations, and the exciting future of API management!

Stay connected with us on LinkedIn for future updates, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re interested in learning more about Microcks or becoming part of our growing community.