We’ve asked a few of our lead engineers to weigh on who and what they think will be the industry’s biggest movers and shakers this year. We also asked about their geeky New Year’s resolutions. Here’s what they had to say:
What’s your thoughts on where Web is headed in 2017?
By using today's web technologies, besides responsive offline first web apps, it's also possible to build native mobile and desktop apps. I believe that scope will be much bigger. In general, I think there will also be a huge rise of progressive web apps. WebVR will be another amazing thing. It's a very bright future for web development in 2017.
And what about New Year’s resolutions?
I’m going to read all the articles in my Pocket, and make Internet Explorer great again.
Tell us what new and exciting things might be rocking the Android world this year.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality is becoming more and more popular. Also, Android development is getting way faster than before thanks to great technologies and libraries developed by the community.
Any geeky goals for 2017?
Build better apps and never never ever write Java method with more than 42 lines of code.
Are exciting times ahead for iOS?
Well, I think there will be fewer users of native mobile apps, because mobile web is getting better and better. And I'm really curious what Apple is going to introduce at WWDC and of course new hardware.
What do you have in store for yourself?
With a few friends, we started a small hackerspace called The Cave last year. So this year we will try really hard to attract more people who are interested in building something and don't have the experience or equipment. I guess this year will be full of Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, IoT, creating new workshops, making DIY kits, and I hope we will learn a lot, and our visitors will enjoy the fun of making something.
What’s gonna be new for Backend this year?
Backend consists of many parts, each of them heading somewhere -- server solutions, databases, deployment, etc. For larger projects, it seems to me that backend is moving towards microservice architectures with smaller lightweight pieces replacing big monolithic backends. For smaller services, backend developers might tend to use serverless architectures more and not worry about the infrastructure that much. I am also curious if GraphQL becomes more adopted by companies as it looks like a good alternative to classical REST APIs. In terms of deployment, using app containers seems to me more and more popular. These are just pieces that come to my mind. Overall, I am really looking forward what 2017 brings to us.
What’s your geeky New Year's resolution for 2017?
My New Year's resolution is quite clear: learn as much new stuff as I can. The IT world is moving forward so quickly, and I would love to keep pace with the latest technologies. It's always great when a new smart solution appears that helps you handle new challenges in a cleaner and easier way.
