Top 5 IT wisdoms from keynote speakers |JAX 2016

JAX conference has not only tradition, but also friends. Some are old, others are now —some are keynote speakers who have returned with new information and more energy. Rod Johnson returned to JAX conference after eight years and David Barnes took the JAX podium last year too while Caterina Rindi, a newcomer, impressed the audience with her talk about Bitcoin and blockchain. Here is what we learned from each of our keynote speakers:

The rise of microservices

Rod Johnson, the CEO of Atomist, the creator of the Spring framework and a friend of JAX whose last talk took place in 2008, talked about the JVM and offered the audience some pieces of advice. He opined that languages don’t fly solo anymore and that Java has adapted —but most importantly, that during his eight years of absence from JAX conferences, microservices have risen and now occupy a very important position in the IT industry. He noted that software developers need to map every system they build and reinforced the supremacy of the JVM, which offers stability and high-quality tools.

“Some proclaimed the death of #Java in 08, I was bullish” @springrod at #jaxcon 2016 #openingkeynote pic.twitter.com/BuXL9W58RS

— JAXCON (@jaxcon) April 19, 2016

Innovate through design, focus on UX

Andreas Hauser, the Global Head of the Design and Co-Innovation Center at SAP SE, offered the audience a lesson about the importance of user experience and how SAP focuses on empowering customers and driving innovation through design. The importance of focusing on user experience has previously been emphasized by JAX Finance keynote speaker Eric Horesnyi, who said that “everything (DevOps, CD, Agile, microservices) is a result of this obsession for UX.”  Mr Hauser also talked about the people-centric digital transformation and highlighted the shift from information to innovation technology.

SEE ALSO: Sneak peek into the future of banking: “What’s the magic about unicorns? UX!”

The future belongs to Bitcoin and/or blockchain

Caterina Rindi, a consultant and multilingual speaker, took the floor and talked about how blockchain can and will be part of the future through projects from different industries, including lottery, energy and Internet of Things. She addressed the most sensitive issues of Bitcoin and opined that the identity of this cryptocurrency’s founder is not relevant anymore because Bitcoin has bee created “for the people.” Bitcoin and blockchain —not necessarily taken together— are threatening traditional institutions, but Ms Rindi is convinced that this digital currency “or a variation of it will be in our future.”

NextGen developers want boosted social presence —not money

GitHub’s Lee Faus told the audience that nextgen developers are not interested in money, but in boosted social presence. He advised developers to measure everything and to experiment and talked about Agile and its transformation into something which looks like a set of chores. He emphasized the importance of transparency and welcomed the audience to put the science back in computer science.

IoT will affect every business

David Barnes, IBM’s technology evangelist, believes that the Internet of Things will affect every business and invited developers to be open —not only to changes, but also to finding a common denominator in their relationship with executives. Although they speak different languages, proper communication will make the idea of outsourcing talent go away.

“Think how you are going to connect the #IoT world!” w/ David Barnes live auf der #jaxcon pic.twitter.com/tsfq5qhBxA

— JAXCON (@jaxcon) April 20, 2016

Mr Barnes talked about Hadoop and Spark and noted that anything can become obsolete if they don’t receive help from developers. Just like Rod Johnson, he emphasized the need to be multi-lingual in order to stay relevant.