Arek Borucki details how Hugging Face scales its infrastructure to serve millions of models and users, focusing on the evolution of search architecture using MongoDB Atlas and Apache Lucene, robust database scaling with a seven-node cluster and sharding, and dynamic frontend autoscaling with Kubernetes and KEDA to ensure an instant, seamless user experience.
Jim Kleewein's talk outlines the immense challenges and critical research opportunities in building and operating global hyperscale services like Microsoft 365 and Azure. He emphasizes that at this scale, traditional approaches fail, necessitating a "new golden age of applied research" across areas like continuous availability, data management, security, and sustainability. Kleewein also discusses AI's powerful but limited role, stressing the ongoing need for human expertise, and highlights the ethical imperative to prevent failures that can have life-or-death consequences.
Kief Morris, author of 'Infrastructure as Code', and Abby Bangser discuss the evolution of IaC over the past decade. They explore the move from server configuration to complex cloud architectures, the limitations of current tooling, and the need for higher-level abstractions, while also looking ahead to the potential impact of AI and the critical role of platform engineering in connecting infrastructure to specific business needs.
Randy Shoup, SVP of Engineering at Thrive Market, shares insights on architectural evolution, detailing the transition from monoliths to microservices, the principles of building effective platform engineering teams using DORA metrics, and how core distributed systems patterns have both endured and evolved.