{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-author-jsx","path":"/blog/author/alejandro_alex_jaimes/","result":{"data":{"prismic":{"allFeaturedblogs":{"edges":[{"node":{"featured_blogs_enabled":true,"heading":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"Featured posts","spans":[]}],"featured_blog_1":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Blog","_linkType":"Link.document","blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":790,"height":395},"alt":null,"copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/6d8d81b1-971a-4313-b033-b4e125cb14a0_MondoDB-blog-header-790x395.PNG?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"Introducing DigitalOcean Managed MongoDB – a fully managed, database as a service for modern apps","spans":[]}],"blog_post_date":"2021-06-29","blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"MongoDB is one of the most popular databases, and it’s ideal for apps that evolve rapidly and need to handle huge volumes of data and traffic. It offers advantages like flexible document schemas, code-native data access, change-friendly design, and easy horizontal scale-out.","spans":[{"start":22,"end":44,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://db-engines.com/en/ranking","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"However, building and maintaining MongoDB clusters from the ground up can be a huge undertaking. Developers often complain that they have to spend their valuable time and resources on database management. Well, we’ve been listening and have some great news: accessing and managing MongoDB on DigitalOcean just got a lot simpler!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We are excited to announce that DigitalOcean Managed MongoDB is now in General Availability. Managed MongoDB is a fully managed, database as a service (DBaaS) offering from DigitalOcean, built in partnership with and certified by MongoDB Inc. It provides you all the technical capabilities that make MongoDB so beloved in the developer community. Together we have ensured that you will get access to all the latest releases of the MongoDB document database as they become available.","spans":[{"start":32,"end":91,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/managed-databases-mongodb/"}},{"start":230,"end":241,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.mongodb.com/","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Managed MongoDB simplifies the MongoDB administration. Developers of all skill levels, even those who do not have prior experience in databases, can spin up MongoDB clusters in just a few minutes. We handle the provisioning, managing, scaling, updates, backups, and security of your MongoDB clusters, allowing you to offload the complex, time consuming –yet critical – database administration tasks to us. This empowers you to focus on what really matters: building awesome apps.","spans":[]},{"type":"embed","oembed":{"height":113,"width":200,"embed_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvHQSV7jnKA","type":"video","version":"1.0","title":"Create a MongoDB Database on DigitalOcean","author_name":"DigitalOcean","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/c/Digitalocean","provider_name":"YouTube","provider_url":"https://www.youtube.com/","cache_age":null,"thumbnail_url":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NvHQSV7jnKA/hqdefault.jpg","thumbnail_width":480,"thumbnail_height":360,"html":"<iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/NvHQSV7jnKA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen></iframe>"}},{"type":"heading2","text":"Benefits of Managed MongoDB","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Easy set up and maintenance: We create the database clusters for you. Simply choose the cluster configuration (e.g., memory, disk size, number of nodes, etc.), and the data center in which you want to host the database. Follow a few simple steps and your database cluster will be up and running in a matter of minutes. You can spin up clusters using the cloud control panel, CLI, or API.\n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":28,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Automatic daily backups with point in time recovery: Data is one of the most important assets of an app, so it’s critical to backup your database. We take backups of your entire clusters automatically on a daily basis, for free. We also provide a point in time recovery for 7 days, that way if things go wrong due to human error, machine error, or some combination of both, you can easily restore the database as it was at any point in the previous 7 days. \n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":52,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Automatic updates and access to latest MongoDB releases: You get access to MongoDB 4.4. This is the latest release of MongoDB and comes packed with numerous enhancements like hedged reads, rust, and swift drivers. Since we have developed Managed MongoDB in partnership with MongoDB Inc, you will always get access to new releases as they become available. With Managed MongoDB, the updates happen automatically. Just select a date and time for the updates and we take care of the rest. This makes it easy to stay up to date with MongoDB releases without disrupting your business.\n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":56,"type":"strong"},{"start":148,"end":169,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.mongodb.com/new","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"High availability with automated failover: If your database goes down, it can take down the entire app, leading to bad customer experiences. With Managed MongoDB, you can easily minimize the downtime for your database and make it highly available with standby nodes. Standby nodes add redundancy, so if for example the primary node fails, the standby node is immediately promoted to primary and begins serving requests while we provision a replacement standby node in the background.\n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":42,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Scale up easily to handle traffic spikes: As your app gains traction and the usage grows, it’s important to have a database that can keep up with the increased demand. With Managed MongoDB, you can easily scale up the size of database nodes when needed.\n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":41,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Secure by default: Since data is critical, it also needs to be secure. We encrypt data at rest with LUKS and in transit with SSL. When you create a new cluster, it’s placed in a VPC network by default that provides a more secure connection between resources. You can also restrict access to your nodes to prevent brute-force password and denial-of-service attacks.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":18,"type":"strong"},{"start":178,"end":189,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/networking/vpc/"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"The need for Managed Databases","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"DigitalOcean’s mission is to simplify cloud computing so developers, startups, and SMBs can spend more time building software that changes the world. While databases are a critical component to any application, building, maintaining, and scaling them can be complex and time consuming. For developers that are building apps for their business, database administration is often not a core focus area. But it’s quite common to find developers that write the code and then also roll up their sleeves to maintain databases. Such users would rather offload the tedious database administration and focus their limited time and energy on building and enhancing their apps. ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"With this in mind, we introduced Managed Databases a couple of years ago and are excited to add Managed MongoDB to our portfolio. With this release, DigitalOcean Managed Databases now supports the following engines:","spans":[{"start":33,"end":50,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/managed-databases/"}}]},{"type":"image","url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/87745cc1-1c5f-4463-b104-104b7fc30dc7_managed-databases-logos.png?auto=compress,format","alt":null,"copyright":null,"dimensions":{"width":849,"height":104}},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Managed MongoDB launch comes on the heels of DigitalOcean App Platform, a modern, reimagined PaaS (Platform as a Service) that we released a few months ago. App Platform makes it very easy to build, deploy, and scale apps and static sites. You can deploy code by simply pointing to your GitHub and GitLab repos, and App Platform will do all the heavy lifting of managing infrastructure, app runtimes, and dependencies. App Platform, along with Managed Databases, helps fulfill DigitalOcean’s mission by empowering developers, startups, and SMBs to focus more on their apps, and less on the underlying infrastructure and databases.","spans":[{"start":45,"end":70,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"How Managed MongoDB works","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"DigitalOcean provides you with various compute options to build your apps like:","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Droplets: On-demand, Linux virtual machines suitable for production business applications and personal passion projects.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":8,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"DigitalOcean Kubernetes: Managed Kubernetes with automatic scaling, upgrades, and a free control plane.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":23,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"DigitalOcean App Platform: A fully managed Platform as a Service.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":25,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"No matter which compute option you choose to build your apps, you can easily add Managed MongoDB to it. In addition to this, Managed MongoDB also integrates with the Node.js 1-Click App from DigitalOcean Marketplace making it a lot easier to build Node.js apps.","spans":[{"start":166,"end":215,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/nodejs"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Simple, predictable pricing","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Just like all DigitalOcean products, Managed MongoDB provides simple, predictable pricing that allows you to control costs and prevent any surprise bills. You can spin up a database cluster for just $15/month, or a highly available three-node replica set for $45/month. Click here for more information.","spans":[{"start":270,"end":301,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/#managed-databases"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Regional availability","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Managed MongoDB is currently available in the following regions:","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"NYC3 (New York, USA)","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"FRA1 (Frankfurt, Germany)","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"AMS3 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We will be making Managed Mongo available in other regions soon. Please check out the release notes for most up to date information on regional availability.","spans":[{"start":86,"end":99,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/release-notes/"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Join us at deploy, DigitalOcean’s virtual user conference","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Today we have deploy, DigitalOcean’s signature user conference, which focuses on celebrating, educating, and connecting awesome builders from all over the world.","spans":[{"start":14,"end":20,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://deploy.digitalocean.com/home"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Check out the keynote session from DigitalOcean's CEO, Yancey Spruill, in which he talks about where we're headed as a company and shares some exciting product updates. His keynote will be followed by sessions from community members, engineers, customers, and other experts that are building technologies and businesses powered by the cloud. With live Q&A and an active Discord server, there’s ample opportunity to engage and learn something new. Click here to attend the deploy conference.","spans":[{"start":14,"end":69,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://deploy.digitalocean.com/agenda/session/552806"}},{"start":347,"end":384,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"http://do.co/deploy-discord"}},{"start":461,"end":489,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"http://do.co/deploy"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We are also launching a hackathon for DigitalOcean Managed MongoDB. Learn how you can participate, submit an app and get a t-shirt.","spans":[{"start":24,"end":66,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/mongodb-hackathon"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We hope you will give Managed MongoDB a try. Here are some sample datasets and sample apps that you can use to kick the tires. Check out the docs and let us know what you think!","spans":[{"start":22,"end":43,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://cloud.digitalocean.com/databases/new?engine=mongodb"}},{"start":59,"end":90,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://github.com/do-community/mongodb-resources","target":"_blank"}},{"start":141,"end":145,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/databases/mongodb/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"If you’d like to have a conversation about using DigitalOcean and Managed MongoDB in your business, please feel free to contact our sales team.","spans":[{"start":120,"end":142,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/company/contact/sales/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Happy coding!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"André Bearfield","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Director of Product Management","spans":[]}],"tags":[{"tag1":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Tag","tag":"Product Updates","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"product-updates"}}}],"author":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Author","author_name":"André Bearfield","author_image":{"dimensions":{"width":553,"height":547},"alt":"André Bearfield","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/fdc7c85186f0a850b04083e1d4306bd1c19772e8_andre-bearfield.png?auto=compress,format"},"_meta":{"uid":"andre-bearfield"}},"_meta":{"uid":"introducing-digitalocean-managed-mongodb"}},"featured_blog_2":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Blog","_linkType":"Link.document","blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":790,"height":400},"alt":"Droplet Console","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/710499ae-78cc-4179-afc1-15793637b200_DODX3727-790x400-logo-2.jpg?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"Securely connect to Droplets with SSH key pairs using a new Droplet Console","spans":[]}],"blog_post_date":"2021-08-10","blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"The famous author Ken Blanchard once said, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.\" This is something we truly believe at DigitalOcean, and we always strive to enhance our products based on customer feedback.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"With this goal in mind, we are excited to introduce a new Droplet Console that will make it much easier to connect to your Droplets securely. The new Droplet Console provides one-click SSH access to your Droplets through a native-like SSH/Terminal experience. It also eliminates the need for a password or manual configuration of SSH keys. Starting today, we’re pleased to announce that the new Droplet Console is now available to all Droplet users.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Why you should be using Secure Shell (SSH) ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Password-based security is notoriously insecure due to password fatigue and the overuse of passwords such as ‘123456’. Secure Shell or SSH is a network communication protocol that solves this by using passwordless solutions for encryption, enabling two computers to communicate and securely share data. At a high level, SSH works by creating cryptographic key pairs consisting of a public and private key, which are computer generated and stored separately to ensure their security. ","spans":[{"start":80,"end":117,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://cybernews.com/best-password-managers/most-common-passwords/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"SSH has become the default encryption protocol for many industries, but it was difficult to use SSH keys with DigitalOcean’s current Recovery (VNC) console, which is why we developed our new Droplet Console. The new Droplet Console is backed by an agent that security supervises the key pair, while also providing one-click SSH access to our users. You can see the full list of features below.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"The new Droplet Console: More time saving, less time wasting ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The new Droplet Console is for everyone who is looking to build fast, secure apps and avoid hassles with SSH access & usability issues.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"In addition to easier SSH access, the new Droplet Console comes with:","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Copy/paste text: Instead of typing lengthy key pairs and text manually, you can use copy/paste to save time. ","spans":[{"start":0,"end":17,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Multi-color support: Multi-color support makes the console more useful and intuitive, and breaks the conventional standard appearance which is black text on a white background. ","spans":[{"start":0,"end":41,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Multi-language support: DigitalOcean’s new Droplet Console supports multiple languages, meaning you can now type and view any content in any language that is supported by UTF-8","spans":[{"start":0,"end":24,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"OS/images supported: Linux distributions (Ubuntu(16.04 - 20.04), Fedora (32 & 33), Debian (9), CentOS (7.6 & 8.3), CentOS 8 Stream, Rocky Linux and Marketplace images.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":20,"type":"strong"},{"start":148,"end":159,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The new Droplet Console is available by default on any new Droplets you spin up. You can also enable it manually on older Droplets. Click here to learn more!","spans":[{"start":132,"end":157,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/connect-with-console/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Check out this short walkthrough video that shows the new Droplet Console in action: ","spans":[]},{"type":"embed","oembed":{"type":"video","embed_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt7QihVuxiE","title":"Access Your Droplet Terminal Through the Web Console","provider_name":"YouTube","thumbnail_url":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Qt7QihVuxiE/hqdefault.jpg","provider_url":"https://www.youtube.com/","author_name":"DigitalOcean","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/c/Digitalocean","height":113,"width":200,"version":"1.0","thumbnail_height":360,"thumbnail_width":480,"html":"<iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qt7QihVuxiE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen></iframe>"}},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We hope you’re excited about the new Droplet Console. You’re welcome to spin some Droplets up right now, and try out the new Droplet Console – why wait?","spans":[{"start":72,"end":103,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://cloud.digitalocean.com/droplets/new"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Happy coding!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Harsh Banwait, Senior Product Manager","spans":[]}],"tags":[{"tag1":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Tag","tag":"Product Updates","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"product-updates"}}}],"author":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Author","author_name":"Harsh Banwait","author_image":{"dimensions":{"width":600,"height":399},"alt":null,"copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/e83ff690-b20c-4d88-a2b6-57e562558cd6_download.png?auto=compress,format"},"_meta":{"uid":"harsh-banwait"}},"_meta":{"uid":"new-droplet-console-ssh-support"}},"featured_blog_3":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Blog","_linkType":"Link.document","blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":790,"height":400},"alt":null,"copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/588e28d3-d41e-480b-937b-8c3b19201f6e_DODX3568-790x400-Blog.jpg?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"How to scale your SaaS product without breaking the bank","spans":[]}],"blog_post_date":"2021-06-22","blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"These days, if you are in the business of software, chances are you are delivering or plan to deliver your services using a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. A combination of internet-based delivery, subscription-based pricing, and low-friction product experiences have made SaaS solutions valuable tools for their users, and an excellent vehicle for software builders looking to distribute their products.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"These factors have made SaaS solutions ubiquitous; SaaS is the largest segment in the public cloud market, and is used to provide functionality ranging from personal finance apps for consumers, to productivity software for businesses, and even tools and services for software developers themselves to compose their applications and simplify their workflows. It is also not uncommon to find micro-SaaS applications being built for specific industries such as retail, job functions such as accounting or marketing, or tasks such as event management. ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The best thing about this SaaS wave has been that it has allowed a new generation of software builders to build and monetize applications and participate in the digital economy. Previously, you had to be a big company with lots of resources, name recognition and distribution networks to successfully sell software products. Now, irrespective of whether you are a single person working on a passion project, a small team of developers in a startup, or a small and medium-sized business (SMB), the SaaS model enables you to express your ideas in the form of software and deliver them to customers anywhere in the world.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"The unique challenges of building SaaS solutions","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Despite the opportunities that come with the widespread adoption of SaaS products, software builders still have to answer key questions in their journey to building successful SaaS products. Understanding what customers to target, features to prioritize, how to price your product, and how to acquire customers are all critical questions to figure out while you are also doing the important job of actually building and operating the product. ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Writing the code, testing, deployment, monitoring the usage in production, and ensuring that your apps are able to handle the additional demand when customer base and usage grows are all essential and time-consuming tasks.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Additionally, being able to test multiple ideas, pivot, and double down on the ideas that actually work is critical in early stages of SaaS development. Once growth comes, it is equally important to scale up without compromising on performance or reliability. Needless to say, all of this needs to be economically viable as well, since not everyone has the resources of large SaaS providers like Salesforce or Adobe.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Cloud Computing enables builders but also poses challenges","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Fortunately, for the act of building and operating your apps, cloud computing can help take some load off your shoulders. Unless you have the scale and resources of Facebook, chances are you are not going to set up your own data centers to host the computing infrastructure that powers your SaaS company. Public cloud infrastructure providers can bring great value to SaaS builders by providing on-demand computing services with usage-based pricing. However, just like how the legacy software companies weren't built for the SaaS model, the early (and big) cloud computing services were not optimized for the unique needs of small SaaS building teams. ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Smaller SaaS teams face challenges with large cloud computing providers, including:","spans":[]},{"type":"heading4","text":"Too many technology options","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"There are just too many options for tech stacks on which to build your SaaS - programming languages, application development frameworks, libraries, runtime environments, architectural patterns, and deployment models - and the list is growing by the day.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading4","text":"Complexity of cloud computing services","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Even when you have decided on a technology stack, there is a lot of cloud vendor-specific terminology you need to learn and heavy lifting you need to do to build on the cloud, not all of which contributes to making your SaaS applications successful.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading4","text":"Unpredictable costs","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The experimentation necessary in early stages of SaaS development, as well as the scaling of applications required during the growth phase, call for affordable and predictable pricing from your cloud provider. The last thing SaaS teams want is surprising and indecipherable bills from your cloud provider. Unfortunately, smaller businesses often experience unpredictable costs with cloud providers who are busy serving only the large enterprises.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"DigitalOcean provides a simple, cost effective solution for SaaS builders","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Fortunately, at DigitalOcean we have a laser focus on small software development teams, who are trying to build the next generation of applications. Today, DigitalOcean customers are already building SaaS applications which serve all kinds of customers.","spans":[{"start":191,"end":217,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/solutions/saas/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We believe SaaS builders should focus on building apps that power their business, and not spend their valuable time on managing infrastructure. That is exactly what we have been able to enable through our intuitive products that are built for scale and reliability.","spans":[{"start":205,"end":223,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Vidazoo is an advertising technology company specializing in video streaming and serving. It serves video ads to thousands of websites and handles close to 10 billion requests per day. \n\n“We are as much a data company as an adtech company. Our business relies on speedy and accurate data processing at massive scale. DigitalOcean provides us the perfect set of tools to operate our SaaS business profitably, while not making us feel the need to become full time system administrators. We plan to move a lot of our apps to DigitalOcean App Platform and other fully managed products.” - Roman Svichar, CTO of Vidazoo","spans":[{"start":0,"end":7,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://vidazoo.com/"}},{"start":187,"end":583,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We believe in meeting customers where they are. If they already have an understanding of cloud infrastructure technologies, they should be able to leverage that knowledge and get started with our products without any further ramp up.","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Whatfix is an enterprise SaaS provider that offers a digital adoption platform to businesses. The company helps enterprises gain the full value of their investments in enterprise applications by providing real-time, interactive, and contextual guidance to users of those applications. \n\n“What we really love about the DigitalOcean platform is the ease of use. We feel like we know infrastructure and can handle most of the configuration and management. What we needed from a cloud was not bells and whistles but efficiency and reliability. DigitalOcean provides us a platform to build our apps and then gets out of the way. Just how we like it.” - Achyuth Krishna, Director of Engineering of Whatfix","spans":[{"start":0,"end":7,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://whatfix.com/blog/driving-the-future-now-were-excited-to-announce-our-90-million-series-d-funding/"}},{"start":287,"end":648,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We understand that scaling while maintaining reliability of applications and profitability of business is important, so we provide robust solutions which minimize downtime.","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Centra is a SaaS-based e-commerce platform for global direct-to-consumer and wholesale e-commerce brands. Centra provides a powerful e-commerce backend that lets brands build pixel-perfect, custom designed, online flagship stores. \n\n“How do we enable our customers to create differentiated online experiences? How do we ensure their e-commerce apps stay up and running at all times? How do we scale on-demand when traffic grows or new customers come in? These are the questions that we ask ourselves every day. Thankfully, we have a partner in DigitalOcean that provides just the platform to answer those questions enabling us to guarantee 99.9% uptime for our clients.” - Martin Jensen, CEO of Centra","spans":[{"start":0,"end":6,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://centra.com/"}},{"start":233,"end":673,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"These are just a few examples of SaaS businesses finding success on DigitalOcean. We are constantly amazed by the creativity and innovation that software builders are utilizing our platform for. If you are interested in learning more about product updates, technical deep-dives and best practices for building SaaS products and businesses, please contact us to learn how we can help you get started. ","spans":[{"start":340,"end":357,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/migrate/?utmmedium=blog","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Come build with DigitalOcean!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Looking to migrate your SaaS to DigitalOcean? Leverage free infrastructure credits, robust training, and technical support to ensure a worry-free migration.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":156,"type":"strong"},{"start":0,"end":156,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/migrate/?utmmedium=blog","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Raman Sharma","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Vice President, Product & Programs Marketing","spans":[]}],"tags":[{"tag1":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Tag","tag":"Developer Relations","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"developer-relations"}}}],"author":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Author","author_name":"Raman Sharma","author_image":{"dimensions":{"width":512,"height":512},"alt":null,"copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/497b4b14-d192-493a-8b66-7ae176ba99f3_raman.png?auto=compress,format"},"_meta":{"uid":"raman-sharma"}},"_meta":{"uid":"how-to-scale-your-saas-product-without-breaking-the-bank"}}}}]}}},"pageContext":{"limit":12,"skip":0,"numAuthorPages":1,"currentPage":1,"uid":"alejandro_alex_jaimes","data":[{"node":{"author":{"_linkType":"Link.document","author_name":"Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes","author_image":{"dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":1067},"alt":"Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/2ef201f3af242c6dface5c525637e5d45cac7050_ldv_20150519_0485.jpg?auto=compress,format"},"_meta":{"uid":"alejandro_alex_jaimes"}},"blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":785,"height":418},"alt":"AI letters illustration","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/00c473ae5146ad0b8a9257482741784cfd64d74e_ai_3_blog_kasia.png?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"AI in Practice","spans":[]}],"blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"This is the final installment in a three-part series on artificial intelligence by DigitalOcean’s Head of R&D, Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes. Read the first post about the state of AI, and the second installment about how data and models feed computing.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":247,"type":"em"},{"start":162,"end":177,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://blog.digitalocean.com/the-state-of-ai/"}},{"start":212,"end":246,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://blog.digitalocean.com/how-data-and-models-feed-computing/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"So what does AI as a service mean for hobbyists, professional developers, engineering teams, the open source community, and companies today?","spans":[{"start":134,"end":139,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Starting an AI (or machine learning) project can be a daunting task at any level, and the steps should be different depending on the context. It’s important to note that sophisticated algorithms are not a requirement for AI and more often than not solutions may be simple. Even the most basic machine learning algorithm can do a decent job for some problems and once a process is set up, more sophisticated iterations are possible.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"An alternative is starting with sophisticated algorithms—as long as there’s a good understanding of what those algorithms do and it’s “easy” to get them up and running. You don’t want to start your first iteration setting a large number of parameters you don’t understand.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"There are some exceptions, and arguably, choices that depend on many factors, including level of expertise, but in general, it’s feasible to start small, build, and iterate quickly—you want to build an initial solution that demonstrates value. Even if it’s imperfect, setting up a process, and obtaining data, gets you off the ground. It’s imperative, however, to ask the right questions, focus on the solution, and the needs of who will be using whatever you build, and be resourceful and creative in combining data, models, and open source frameworks. Here’s how that applies to different players in the tech space:","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Hobbyists have the most flexibility and can perhaps dream up the wildest ideas, albeit with very limited resources. In many ways, this puts them in the best position to explore; a perfect scenario for an iterative approach, focused initially on a proof of concept, starting with simpler algorithms and existing models and datasets. Start small and experiment—a lot. There are a ton of open source tools and datasets for machine learning. Many city governments, for example (NYC and SF are prime examples) have open data initiatives that can be leveraged.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":9,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Professional developers and engineering teams should focus on solving very specific problems. In many “first” cases, these could evolve around cost saving, speed, efficiency, or specific product features. The “how”, however, can follow the process outlined above for hobbyists. To start, treat the project like any other, by figuring out what is needed in terms of data and other resources, defining clear metrics, working closely with your product team to ask the right questions and focusing strongly on how the solution will be used- that’s the most critical issue because it will determine what algorithms and data are required. In many cases, answers to the questions might point to simple solutions that may not initially need AI, but that will enable it later. A change in an interface, for example, can significantly impact what users do and that could make the AI problem you are trying to solve a lot easier.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":45,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"The open source community has never played a more critical role, and there’s no doubt that’s one of the reasons AI is having such an impact. Important initiatives towards the future include working on tools for cleaning, processing, and handling data, as well as tools for exchanging models and repurposing them, as well as packaging task-specific models for specific application domains so they can be easily implemented as services.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":25,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Companies need to focus on processes to enable access to data, constant updating of models, and experimentation. The field is evolving quickly, so making AI part of the cultural fabric of the company is what’s really most critical. Algorithms will change, hardware will evolve, but the processes that enable AI have a clear path. In addition to data and experimentation, the focus should be, on one hand, on improving productivity and using AI as an enabler, and on the other hand, in having a workforce that evolves with it. That requires a strong Human-Centered perspective and a strategy that helps employees be more efficient and focused on customer needs. Internally, this means empowering developers and engineers to have flexibility in choosing the tools they use, and setting up programs to keep them constantly in the loop on product and user needs, not in AI or other “silos”.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":9,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"The Future","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The field is evolving extremely quickly and one could argue that most of the research being published consists mainly of experimentation, on either applying known deep learning architectures to new problems or tweaking parameters. It’s clear, however, that efforts—and progress—are being made n areas such as transfer learning, reinforcement learning, and unsupervised learning, among others. In terms of hardware, it’s too early to say, but it’s very positive to see new developments in the space.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Perhaps more important than advancements in algorithms, we can expect advances in how AI augments human abilities. There will be a much tighter integration between humans and machines than what computing has created thus far. For hobbyists, professional developers, engineering teams, the open source community and companies, this really translates to having a strong human-centered focus.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Conclusion","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"I’ve referred to AI throughout this series, but most of my examples relate to machine learning. One of the key differences between the two is that true AI applications will have an even stronger focus on user interaction and experience. At the end of the day, it’s the applications we build that will make a difference, AI or not. How “smart” the system is, or what algorithms it uses, won’t matter.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Try your hand at Machine Learning with the DigitalOcean Machine Learning One-Click application.","spans":[{"start":43,"end":82,"type":"strong"},{"start":43,"end":82,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/one-click-apps/machine-learning/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"*Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes is Head of R&D at DigitalOcean. Alex enjoys scuba diving and started coding in Assembly when he was 12. In spite of his fear of heights, he's climbed a peak or two, gone paragliding, and ridden a bull in a rodeo. He's been a startup CTO and advisor, and has held leadership positions at Yahoo, Telefonica, IDIAP, FujiXerox, and IBM TJ Watson, among others. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Learn more by visiting his personal website or LinkedIn profile. Find him on Twitter: @tinybigdata.*","spans":[{"start":27,"end":43,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"http://www.alexjaimes.com/"}},{"start":47,"end":63,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexjaimes/"}},{"start":86,"end":98,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.twitter.com/tinybigdata"}}]}],"blog_post_date":"2017-12-05","tags":[{"tag1":{"tag":"Engineering","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"engineering"}}}],"_meta":{"uid":"ai-in-practice"}}},{"node":{"author":{"_linkType":"Link.document","author_name":"Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes","author_image":{"dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":1067},"alt":"Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/2ef201f3af242c6dface5c525637e5d45cac7050_ldv_20150519_0485.jpg?auto=compress,format"},"_meta":{"uid":"alejandro_alex_jaimes"}},"blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":785,"height":418},"alt":"AI letter illustration","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/3dc3d453e2c54f4c2ef5be82c48a6b38ca07a854_ai_2_blog_kasia.png?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"How Data and Models Feed Computing","spans":[]}],"blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"This post is the second in a three-part series on artificial intelligence by DigitalOcean’s Head of R&D, Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes. (Click here to read the first installment.)","spans":[{"start":0,"end":173,"type":"em"},{"start":131,"end":171,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://blog.digitalocean.com/the-state-of-ai/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Not every company, nor every developer will have the resources or the time to collect vast amounts of data to create models from scratch. Fortunately, the same repetition that I described in my last post occurs within and across industries. Because of this, particularly with deep learning, we’ve seen two very important trends:","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"(1) creation and sharing of public data to build models; and","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"(2) sharing of the models themselves even when the data is not released.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"While the companies that have the most data may never release it, such data is not a requirement for every problem. It’s clear, however, that teams that leverage existing public models and combine public and proprietary datasets will have a competitive advantage. They must be “smart” about how they use and leverage the data they are able to collect, again with an AI mindset and strategy in mind.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Supervised and Unsupervised Learning","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The majority of successes in AI so far have been based on supervised learning, in which machine learning algorithms are fed with labeled data—labeled data refers to a sample group that can be identified with a meaningful label or tag—versus unlabeled data. Labeling data is expensive, time consuming, and difficult (e.g., maintaining the desired quality, dealing with subjectivity, etc). For this reason, the ideal algorithms will be “unsupervised”—in other words, learning from unlabeled data. While promising, those algorithms have not shown the success levels needed to have the desired impact. Teams should then rely on creative strategies to leverage existing datasets, and combine supervised and unsupervised methods for now.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A number of companies offer labeling and data collection services. But there are ways to use algorithms to simplify the manual labeling process (e.g., with a “small” dataset one can create an algorithm that labels a much larger unlabeled dataset, so that humans have to correct errors made by the algorithm instead of labeling all of the data from scratch), or to create synthetic datasets (e.g., by using algorithms to generate “fake” data that looks like the original data). The bottom line is that no matter what size the project is, there are almost always alternatives to either obtain new data or augment existing datasets.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"AI as a Service","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Generally, significant efforts are required in developing models to perform tasks in accurate, efficient ways. For that reason, many companies and teams focus on specific verticals—building functionalities that are limited, but that work well in practice (versus the ideal of building a “human-like” AI capable of doing many things at once).","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"In some cases, those functionalities can be applied across domains. Developing a speech recognition system from scratch, for example, is a major effort, and most companies and teams that need it would be better off using a service than building it from scratch.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"As the AI industry advances, we can expect to see more and more of those functionalities coming from specific vendors and open source initiatives, similar to the way software is built today: combinations of libraries, APIs, and open source and commercial components, coupled with custom software for specific applications.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"In addition, given the nature of AI, building an infrastructure that quickly scales as needs shift is a major challenge. This implies that running AI will mostly happen on the cloud. Note that in the new AI computing paradigm, growing datasets, experimentation, and constant “tweaking” of models is a critical component.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Therefore, AI will be used as a cloud-based service for many applications. That’s a natural progression and in many ways leads to the commoditization of AI, which will lead to greater efficiency, opportunities, innovation, and positive economic impact. In our next installment, we’ll explore what all of this means for today’s developers.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"In line with the trends we’re seeing in research and industry, we’re releasing a powerful set of tools that allow developers to easily re-use existing models, work with large quantities of data, and easily scale, on the cloud. We encourage you to take a look at our machine learning one-click. What other tools or functionalities would you be interested in having us provide? Feel free to leave feedback in the comments section below.","spans":[{"start":266,"end":292,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-the-machine-learning-one-click-install-image-on-digitalocean"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"*Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes is Head of R&D at DigitalOcean. Alex enjoys scuba diving and started coding in Assembly when he was 12. In spite of his fear of heights, he's climbed a peak or two, gone paragliding, and ridden a bull in a rodeo. He's been a startup CTO and advisor, and has held leadership positions at Yahoo, Telefonica, IDIAP, FujiXerox, and IBM TJ Watson, among others. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Learn more by visiting his personal website or LinkedIn profile. Find him on Twitter: @tinybigdata.*","spans":[{"start":86,"end":98,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"twitter.com/tinybigdata"}}]}],"blog_post_date":"2017-08-31","tags":[{"tag1":{"tag":"Engineering","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"engineering"}}}],"_meta":{"uid":"how-data-and-models-feed-computing"}}},{"node":{"author":{"_linkType":"Link.document","author_name":"Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes","author_image":{"dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":1067},"alt":"Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/2ef201f3af242c6dface5c525637e5d45cac7050_ldv_20150519_0485.jpg?auto=compress,format"},"_meta":{"uid":"alejandro_alex_jaimes"}},"blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":785,"height":418},"alt":"AI letter illustration","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/4192a269dfed282ea3298d24ab19081824e1277d_ai_blog_kasia.png?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"The State of AI","spans":[]}],"blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"This post is the first in a three-part series we're publishing this year on artificial intelligence, written by DigitalOcean’s Head of R&D, Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":164,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"In recent months, the amount of media coverage on AI has increased so significantly that a day doesn’t go by without news about it. Whether it’s an acquisition, a funding round, a new application, a technical innovation, or an opinion piece on ethical and philosophical issues (“AI will replace humans, take over the world, eat software, eat the world”), the content just keeps coming.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The field is progressing at amazing speeds and there’s a lot of experimentation. But with so much noise, it’s hard to distinguish hype from reality, and while everyone seems to be rushing into AI in one way or another, it’s fair to say there is a good amount of confusion on what AI really is, what sort of value it can bring and where things will go next.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"While the reality is that AI has the potential to impact just about everything and be embedded in just about anything—just like software already is—getting started can be daunting, depending on who you ask.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"In this post, I will first explain why computing is now AI. Then, in future posts, I’ll describe the most significant trends, outline steps to be taken in actually implementing AI in practice, and say a few words about the future.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Computing Is Now AI","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"AI is already embedded, in some form, in most of the computing services we use on a daily basis: when we search the web, visit a webpage, read our email, use social media, use our phone, etc. Most of those applications use some form of machine learning to perform “basic” tasks, like spam detection, personalization, and advertising. But like computing itself, penetration of AI doesn’t stop there. Our transportation systems, security, cargo shipping, banking, dating, and just about everything else is likely “touched” by algorithms that use machine learning.","spans":[]},{"type":"image","url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/c7357ac1b776146a21e76fd1c46a7091c7e75b9a_ai-umbrella-1.png?auto=compress,format","alt":"Ai umbrella","copyright":null,"dimensions":{"width":282,"height":264}},{"type":"preformatted","text":"AI is really an umbrella term that encompasses many subfields. For the sake of simplicity, most of what people think of as AI currently has machine learning, and/or deep learning. The ideas behind the three concepts are rather straightforward: AI aims to \"emulate or supercede human intelligence,\" machine learning is concerned with algorithms that learn models from data, and deep learning is \"simply\" a subset of machine learning algorithms that learn from data with less human intervention. In building \"traditional\" machine learning algorithms an engineer has to design features, but in a deep learning framework the features themselves are learned by the algorithm—those algorithms, however, need significantly greater amounts of data.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Some industries use computing technology in more advanced ways than others. Tech companies, in particular, have taken the lead in developing products and services around data and AI (in various forms), and scaling to millions and billions of users. This has led to significant advances in some areas where having large, diverse datasets can improve performance to the point where problems that seemed out of reach now seem solvable. Other industries, such as healthcare and education, have been slower to adapt, but we're beginning to see significant progress with very promising prospects.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"If we look closely at trends, and technical requirements (for AI to deliver in products and services), it's easy to see that AI can already be applied everywhere. More specifically, where repetitive patterns occur, and those patterns can be recorded, whether the data is individual or aggregated. One could easily argue that everything in life—and business—consists of cycles, and what's changed significantly in recent years is our ability to record, store, and process behavioral patterns at every level. AI adds prediction, which is extremely valuable.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The power of AI comes at multiple granularities. There are a plethora of decisions made every day based on simple, repetitive patterns—and those apply to businesses as much as they do to individuals. It's no surprise then, that most companies are using AI today to cut costs and improve efficiency. As more processes become digital, AI, then, becomes not just a critical part of the ecosystem, but the driving force, in large part because its main benefit is efficiency. And if we look at things from this perspective, it's easy to see why computing and AI are already converging to the point where there's no distinction. It the very near future, it will be assumed that AI is part of computing, just as networking and other technical components are.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"This is not a minor shift, however. It is massive because it emphasizes processes that leverage data, and evolving models (vs. \"fixed\" algorithms), impacting how software is developed. This has several ripple effects that I'll describe in future posts, including pushing the hardware boundaries. I would argue that the companies and teams that understand this and think and operate with this mindset will now have a significant advantage over others that try to \"add\" AI at a later stage.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"On one hand, this means that individuals and teams must constantly learn and grow, remain up to date, and rely on the larger community for the exchange of models, ideas, code, and knowledge. It also means that applications will be increasingly built by layering components and data—nothing will be built from scratch. For hobbyists, \"professional\" developers, engineering teams, the open source community, and companies, this translates into significant synergies—an ecosystem that relies on the cloud, which is the perfect platform to combine multiple resources and scale with a single click. Ultimately, this implies that AI skills will be as critical to individuals as they are to companies, and they will form the basis of economic progress for decades to come.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We'd love to get your thoughts on AI. How it has impacted the way you build software? What do you think you need to make AI part of your workflow? What opportunities and barriers do you see? What are the topics you'd like to learn more about or the tools you'd like to use? Let us know in the comments below!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"*Alejandro (Alex) Jaimes is Head of R&D at DigitalOcean. Alex enjoys scuba diving and started coding in Assembly when he was 12. In spite of his fear of heights, he's climbed a peak or two, gone paragliding, and ridden a bull in a rodeo. He's been a startup CTO and advisor, and has held leadership positions at Yahoo, Telefonica, IDIAP, FujiXerox, and IBM TJ Watson, among others. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Learn more by visiting his personal website or LinkedIn profile. Find him on Twitter: @tinybigdata.*","spans":[{"start":27,"end":43,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"http://www.alexjaimes.com"}},{"start":47,"end":63,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexjaimes/"}},{"start":86,"end":98,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"http://www.twitter.com/tinybigdata"}}]}],"blog_post_date":"2017-05-31","tags":[{"tag1":{"tag":"Engineering","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"engineering"}}}],"_meta":{"uid":"the-state-of-ai"}}}]}}}