From 6be7bd7613d127e7df7831edaba101bdafc82c59 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Xe Iaso Date: Thu, 5 May 2022 14:58:41 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] blog: I Miss Heroku's DevEx Signed-off-by: Xe Iaso --- blog/heroku-devex-2022-05-12.markdown | 102 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 102 insertions(+) create mode 100644 blog/heroku-devex-2022-05-12.markdown diff --git a/blog/heroku-devex-2022-05-12.markdown b/blog/heroku-devex-2022-05-12.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e512ff1 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/heroku-devex-2022-05-12.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ +--- +title: "I Miss Heroku's DevEx" +date: 2022-05-12 +--- + +If you've never really experienced it before, it's gonna sound really weird. +Basically the main way that Heroku worked is that they would set up a git remote +for each "app" it hosted. Each "app" had its source code in a git repo and a +"Procfile" that told Heroku what to do with it. So when it came time to deploy +that app, you'd just `git push heroku main` and then Heroku would just go off +and build that app and run it _somewhere_ in the cloud. You got back a HTTPS URL +and then bam you have a website. + +The developer experience didn't stop there. Most of how Heroku apps are +configured are via environment variables, and there were addons that let you +tell Heroku things like "hi yes I would like one (1) postgres please" and the +platform would spin up a database somewhere and drop a config variable into the +app's config. It was magic. Things just worked and it left you free to go do +what made you money. + +Heroku's free tier got me the in I needed to make my career really start. If I +didn't have something like Heroku in my life I doubt that my career would be the +same or even I would be the same person I am today. It's really hard to describe +what having access to a platform that lets you turn ideas into production +quality code does to your output ability. I even ended up reinventing Heroku a +few times in my career (working for Deis and later reinventing most of the core +of Heroku as a project between jobs), but nothing really hit that same level of +wonder/magic that Heroku did. + +I ended up working there and when I did I understood why Heroku had fallen so +much. Heroku is owned by Salesforce and Salesforce doesn't really understand +what they had acquired with Heroku. Heroku had resisted integration into the +larger Salesforce organization and as a result was really really starved for +headcount. I had to have a come-to-jesus meeting with the CTO of Heroku where I +spelled out my medical needs and how the insurance that the contracting agency +they were using was insufficent (showing comparisons between bills for blood +draws where paying with the insurance ended up costing me more than not using +it). I got hired and then that was just in time for Salesforce to really start +pulling Heroku into the fold. + +The really great part about working at Heroku was that setting up a new service +was so easy that the majority of the productionalization checklist was just +enabling hidden feature flags to lock down the app. I'm surprised that didn't +get streamlined. + +The Heroku I joined no longer exists. I joined Heroku but I left Salesforce. I +can't blame any of my coworkers from Heroku from fleeing the sinking ship. The +ship has been sinking for years but the culture of Heroku really stuck around +long enough that it was hard to realize the shop was sinking. + +It can really be seen with how long it's taken Heroku to react to [that one +horrible security event](https://status.heroku.com/incidents/2413) they've been +dealing with. Based on what I remember about the internal architecture (it was a +microservices tire fire unlike you have ever seen, it's part of the inspiration +that lead me to write [this post](/blog/make-microservices-cluster-2022-01-27)) +and the notes that have been put on the public facing status page, I'm guessing +that most of Heroku is "legacy" code (IE: nobody on the team that made this +service works here anymore) at this point. When I was there most of the services +on my team were "legacy" code that was production-facing, load-bearing and +overall critical to the company succeeding; but it was built to be reliable +enough that we could overall ignore it until it was actually falling over. But +then because of the ways that things were chorded together it could take a very +long time to actually fix issues because the symptoms were all over the place. + +Don't get me wrong, I loved working there but it was mostly for the people. That +and the ability to say that I helped make Heroku better for the next generation. +If you've ever used the metrics tab on Heroku, chances are that you've +encountered my code indirectly. If you've ever done Heroku threshold autoscaling +or response time alerting, you've dealt with code I helped write. The body of +Heroku remains but the soul has long since fled. + +At the few points of my career that I have tried to reinvent Heroku (be it on my +own or working for a company doing that), there has mostly been this weird +realization that in order to have a thing like Heroku exist it really needs to +be hosted by someone else in the cloud. One of the places I worked for was +selling self-hosted Heroku on top of CoreOS and fleetd (remember fleetd? that +was magical) and while it did have a lot of the same developer experience, it +never really had the same magic feeling. I had the same problem with my own +implementation. Sure you can get the app hosting part of Heroku fairly easily +(and with Docker being as mature as it was at that point yeah it was fairly +easy). But when it comes to the real experience of addons and the whole +ecosystem there, you really need either to get very lucky or become an industry +standard. Realistically though, you aren't going to be either lucky or an +industry standard and then you need to also reinvent the next 80% of Heroku from +scratch on hardware that you don't control. It's no wonder that ultimately +failed (even though one of them was bought out by Microsoft after doing a weird +Kubernetes pivot). + +There was something really magical about the whole thing that I really miss to +this day. Heroku was at least a decade ahead of its time as far as developer +experience goes. Things Just Worked in ways that would probably put a lot of us +out of jobs if they really took off. I miss the process for putting something on +the internet to just be a `git push` and trust that the machine will just take +care of it. I wonder if we'll ever really have something like that on top of Nix +or NixOS. + +--- + +If you're reading this before the 12th, welcome to an experiment! I've been +wondering about how to make some of my posts Patreon exclusive for a week. This +post was published for my patrons on the 5th of May. Please don't share this +link around on social media until the 12th, but privately sharing it is okay.