Johann du Toit

I'm a extremely passionate engineer and long time techie. I'm always playing and always learning. Due to this I have a wide scope of language / framework / service knowledge and try to always find the tools that fit. I have a deep understanding of systems ranging from embedded to large data processing services. Also experienced developing successful services from front to back. Currently working on a ton of cool products. I've been voted as one of the top 20 innovate by Google using the web to change lives - ybl.co.za/google-names-africas-top-20-innovators-using-internet-to-change-lives/ I'm a regular on the local tech scene in Cape Town and attend everyone conference I get the chance to attend. I help to run the local NodeJS chapter (meetup.com/nodecpt/) and help other groups organize and source talkers. Regularly take part and win or almost win a lot of local hackathons and competitions like the Google Cloud Developer Challenge. I've done a quite a bit of open source work for non-profits at events I helped to arrange and we are doing this on a regular basis now. I'm experienced in building and team leading large scale systems with past work examples such as a Data Aggregation and Reporting service being used by a few US based financial companies. Currently my main focus is building and leading development for a realtime betting site, where large amounts of data needs to be processed and shown in a way that makes sense to the user. I also built, maintain and lead one of the four national microchip databases for Southern-Africa that is currently working with a few local organisations to find and get animals home if lost. View my blog at johanndutoit.net/ to view a short list of some of the talks / workshops / portfolio / qualifications / achievements and blog posts.

Deploying to the Google Cloud with a grain of salt

The tutorial will focus on demonstrating how to use Google Compute to manage instances, and required infrastructure such as balancers and networks, all while guiding through deployment using Ansible. Geared towards those interested in learning on how to use Google Compute but also how to setup a automated deployment system using Ansible.

The workshop has one goal; have everyone participating running a simple app on Google Compute with automated deployment.

Hand me the salt while I read my news

Millions of people read news monthly, and news tend to happen in bursts. The ideal infrastructure is able to scale up or down as soon as needed and provide a way to let you proactively manage your servers rather than reactively, which in the media game is a deal breaker. It gets even worse when you're running most of the local publication sites, including some big name players.

Focusing on the infrastructure we built, using Salt for management; give insight into the news game and provide examples of challenges our team are facing on a daily basis while servicing users. Expanding also on the workflow put together using various solutions such for logging, notifications with Python acting as the coordinator to keep all these systems in line. Delving into various parts of the system from network monitoring to deploying code.

This talk is meant for anyone interested in getting a glimpse of the systems and workflow put in place that allow us to manage the required load and continue developing with the agility to make the needed quick decisions daily.