Magazine WEB+DB PRESS Vol.136: Interview “Work with development team to achieve globalization and stable operations” Seongwon Youn and Daisuke Nakano [ part 2 ]

※This article is machine translated.

It first appeared in a Japanese magazine, and after Cocone received permission, it was translated into English and published.
first appearance: WEB+DB PRESS Vol.136 ( Gijutsu-Hyoron Co., Ltd. )

Explore Cocone’s engineering capabilities to open up a new era of Web3

Top-level performance in the world’s favorite digital world

Part 4: Work with development team to achieve globalization and stable operations

Cocone uses on-premise and cloud computing (both AWS and Google Cloud) for each service. What is their policy, how are the roles of the team divided, and how do they plan to develop in the future? We asked Mr.Seongwon Youn and Mr.Daisuke Nakano of the Infrastructure Office.

– Please introduce yourself.

Seongwon Youn (Youn): My name is Seongwon Youn, General Manager of Cocone’s Development Division. I am also the head of the Infrastructure Office.

Daisuke Nakano (Nakano): I am Daisuke Nakano, Deputy General Manager of the Infrastructure Office.

– What do you emphasize in Cocone’s infrastructure?

Youn: First of all, performance, stability, and cost. In addition, it must be simple to operate. We look at these factors from many angles and try to create a well-balanced structure. We don’t just tell our team members, “We’ve created something that performs well!” We also consider operational management after construction to be important so that the system can be used for a long time and can be used by other team members as well.

Nakano: From a slightly different perspective, it is about collaboration with the server-side development members. The division of roles differs from company to company. In some cases, when it comes to production, server operations are left out of the hands of development and handled by the infrastructure team, while in others, it is handled by the server-side development members. At Cocone, it is closer to the latter, so we tend to work closely with the infrastructure team. So, as a person in charge of the infrastructure side, I would like to have the know-how to be able to step into the development side.

A challenging infrastructure team for new technologies

– What skills and experience do you and your infrastructure team have?

Youn: When I first became an engineer, I was a DBA (database administrator) for Oracle Database while doing development, and later I learned various databases such as MySQL, MariaDB, and MongoDB. When I first came to Cocone, I was a database administrator.

Nakano: My previous job was building and maintaining infrastructure at a web-based company. Racking servers in data centers, software installation, setup, tuning, and after service release, monitoring and fault handling. At Cocone, the environment is cloud-centric, but what I do is similar to my previous job.

– What kind of engineer would be a good fit for Cocone’s infrastructure team?

Youn: If you are interested in cloud-native technologies and SRE, or if you like to work together with the development team, you will find it rewarding. Cocone does a lot of in-house development, so you can gain a lot of experience and hone your skills.

Nakano: In the future, we will have more opportunities to collaborate with developers through containers, Kubernetes, and IaC, and we will also adopt SRE, so if you are interested in such technologies, you will have opportunities to try them. Cocone has an atmosphere and culture that is very positive about taking on challenges. If there is a good reason for selecting a proposal from the field, and if the infrastructure is stable and sustainable, the proposal will be adopted with a positive attitude and a “Let’s do it!” If the reason for selection is sound and the proposal can achieve stability and continuity of the infrastructure, the proposal is often adopted positively.

– We also have the Web3 technology initiative.

Youn: Since Cocone is actively working on Web3 technologies, I think the infrastructure team will have more opportunities to get involved in technologies such as blockchain and NFT. In addition, the blockchain used by Cocone is developed and operated by a Cocone group company, but we have connections with Cocone’s infrastructure members, so there may be opportunities to get involved if you are interested.

Nakano: There are some new things to learn, such as Web3 protocols, but I don’t think it is that difficult if you have a good grasp of basic infrastructure knowledge and read reference materials.

Challenges are globalization and enhanced security

– What do you want to focus on in the future?

Youn: Since the Cocone Group as a whole is focusing on globalization, our infrastructure is also geared toward globalization. We do not simply mean globalization in the sense of building a similar environment around the world to provide services in each region, but rather we are aiming for a truly global service that connects to the entire world with a single system.

Nakano: Specifically, for example, we utilize AWS Global Accelerator for networks, distribute application servers across regions, and have a lot of other know-how.

Youn: The biggest challenge is what to do about the database architecture. We will be looking for optimal solutions such as how to distribute the server load and how to maintain data consistency, such as creating replicas in each region or making it multi-master.

Nakano: Since I also serve on the security team, I often think about infrastructure security and application development environment security. I would like to see each team collaborate, to successfully integrate security into CI/CD to achieve DevSecOps, and to further focus on vulnerability diagnostics and penetration testing.

– What do you like about Cocone as a place to work?

Youn: The place has excellent facilities and systems, including a cafeteria and gym. Also, around the time we moved to our current building, the Corona disaster started and the infrastructure team had to go to work a lot for relocation-related work and teleworking environment, but we had a large parking lot so we commuted by car. At the time of the emergency declaration, it was a relief to avoid commuting by train. Even now, if I don’t have a drinking party, I come to work by my own car.

Nakano: I walk to work (laughs). I like the flextime. It’s nice to be able to work flexibly.

Click here for the part 1

[Related Article]

Must-see server engineers!What is the new web3 service server technology created by Go and Kotlin?cocone Tech Talk Vol.6 Event Report
Training Report of 6 New Graduate Engineers – AWS Jumpstart for New Grads 2022
Interview with Cocone employees, Part 3! Infrastructure Development: Mr. Tanizawa

Click here for a list of engineering jobs