diff --git a/src/collections/blog/2024/09-27-meet-the-maintainer-aisuko-li/aisuko-li-layer5-maintainer.png b/src/collections/blog/2024/09-27-meet-the-maintainer-aisuko-li/aisuko-li-layer5-maintainer.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..cbbd6a1ef086 Binary files /dev/null and b/src/collections/blog/2024/09-27-meet-the-maintainer-aisuko-li/aisuko-li-layer5-maintainer.png differ diff --git a/src/collections/blog/2024/09-27-meet-the-maintainer-aisuko-li/post.mdx b/src/collections/blog/2024/09-27-meet-the-maintainer-aisuko-li/post.mdx new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..1d07776600b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/collections/blog/2024/09-27-meet-the-maintainer-aisuko-li/post.mdx @@ -0,0 +1,279 @@ +--- +title: "Meet the Maintainer: Aisuko Li" +subtitle: "An interview series with open source maintainers" +date: 2024-09-27 10:30:05 -0530 +author: Anita Ihuman +thumbnail: ./aisuko-li-layer5-maintainer.png +darkthumbnail: ./aisuko-li-layer5-maintainer.png +description: Meet the Maintainer series with open source maintainer, Aisuko Li +type: Blog +category: Open Source +tags: + - Open Source +featured: false +published: true +--- + +import { BlogWrapper } from "../../Blog.style.js"; +import img from "./aisuko-li-layer5-maintainer.png"; +import { MeetTheMaintainer } from "../../MeetTheMaintainer.style.js"; +import { Link } from "gatsby"; +import ForkLift from "../../../../assets/images/app/hero/forklift.svg"; + + + + +
+

+ Continuing in our Meet the Maintainer series, we have{" "} + Aisuko Li. Aisuko is a + maintainer of the{" "} + Meshery Adapters{" "} + project. In this interview, we get to know Aisuko a little better and learn + about his journey as an open source project maintainer and with Layer5 + community. +

+
+ +
+ Anita: +

+ Aisuko, thank you for joining me today. Many people inside and outside of + the Layer5 Community have seen the effects of your contributions, but may + not know the backstory as to who Aisuko is and how you arrived at your + maintainer role. Indulge us. How did you discover the Layer5 community? What + made you stay? +

+
+ +
+ Aisuko: +

+ Thanks for having me here. Actually, Aisuko is my code name. My real name is Bowen Li. I love both of + I used to work for RancherLabs for a while, and I worked to maintain the official Helm (a third-party management tool for Kubernetes manifests) charts repo. These experiences helped me contribute to creating and maintaining Meshery Helm charts. +
+ I like open source software, and I love contributing to the community. + The more you contribute, the more permission you get to help the + community grow and improve. +
+ The Layer5 community is a true open source community. Everyone here can find + a comfortable role. I have been here since 2019 (a long time ago). I’ve seen + new members join and some leave. It's great to see people work together without + any other conditions. This is one of the ways I have fun. +

+
+ +
+ Anita: +

+ You’ve been consistently contributing to a large number of Layer5 projects + (Meshery adapters, mesheryctl, SMI, SMP). Layer5 has a large collection of + active projects. Which one are you currently focusing on? Psst. Also, + which one’s your favorite? I won’t tell. +

+
+ +
+ Aisuko: +

+ Actually, the Meshery project in 2021-2022 has changed a lot. More skilled and + talented contributors joined the community. They are so professional and + active, and their hard work has made Meshery more powerful than before. For + instance, projects like `meshkit` and `meshsync` have grown significantly. + It’s great to have such a strong team working together. +
+ Right now, I am primarily focusing on the `meshery-operator` project and + `meshery-linkerd`, along with fixing bugs across all the projects. I always + aim to make all the projects more controllable and maintain high code quality. +

+
+ +
+ Anita: +

+ Have you worked with any other open source projects? How does Layer5 compare? +

+
+ +
+ Aisuko: +

+ I was active in the Rancher community and the Helm charts project, where I owned + three charts. I’m also still a maintainer of the GNU Hurd. Recently, I’ve been + working on contributions to Kubernetes community projects as well. +
+ Compared to the Layer5 community, the Kubernetes community is much larger. + Many members are not very active, so it can be difficult to get feedback + on PRs and issues from inactive members. +
+ The GNU Hurd project is unique, so there’s no need to compare it with others. + In the Layer5 community, we have a warm welcome for new contributors, and most + projects have active reviewers who provide feedback quickly. +

+
+ +
+ Anita: +

Fascinating. Why did you pick service meshes specifically, though?

+
+ +
+ Aisuko: +

+ I have worked with many middle- and small-sized companies that wanted to migrate + to the cloud. It’s easy to move to Kubernetes, but it’s hard to ensure everything + runs smoothly. You have limited visibility into what’s happening in the cluster, + and service mesh solves that problem by showing real-time traffic. +
+ Service mesh provides direct insights into traffic flows, which is its most useful feature. +

+
+ +
+ Anita: +

+ Haha. Leading on from that, what should Meshery dream about next? What can we hope + to contribute to the service mesh landscape in your opinion? +

+
+ +
+ Aisuko: +

+ I once talked to Lee, the founder of Layer5. Due to time zone differences, we don’t + get many chances to discuss things directly. But I believe we don’t need to create + a new service mesh. +
+ What we should do is provide third-party performance tools for existing service + mesh projects. We should give the choice back to the users, letting them pick the + service mesh that best suits their needs. +
+ We should contribute to SMI and CNCF projects, helping to define performance standards + for the cloud-native industry. That’s why I’m keen on joining these communities. +

+
+ +
+ Anita: +

+ Interesting. Do expand on that. What do you think Meshery could offer, in addition to what it already does? +

+
+ +
+ Aisuko: +

+ I believe we can offer a CNCF-standard performance tool for all service mesh + applications. We can collaborate with service mesh maintainers to define these + standards, which would be beneficial for end-users. It’s similar to what we did + with SMI. +

+
+ +
+ Anita: +

What are today's challenges when working with service meshes?

+
+ +
+ Aisuko: +

+ Even though service mesh has many features, it's still not always stable in production. + I remember that even Istio (v1.1x) couldn’t be upgraded to newer versions easily. +
+ Additionally, we don’t often get test results from real production environments. + Right now, the focus is on multi-cluster service mesh capabilities, which brings + new challenges. +

+
+ +
+ Anita: +

+ That’s good to hear. What do you think we should look forward to with respect to service mesh development? +

+
+ +
+ Aisuko: +

+ I’ve worked with service mesh applications like Linkerd2, Istio, and OSM in development environments. OSM is my preference because it’s modular and has a simpler architecture compared to others. +
+ From my experience, I believe that not all environments need all the features of a service mesh. Some middle or small companies may only need visibility into traffic flows without complex features like mTLS. +
+ So, we should focus on simple architecture and features. For example, integrating traffic visualization with Ingress, so users don’t need to create new custom resources to track traffic. +

+
+ +
+ Anita: +

+ Ah, while I have you here, let me get more reading recommendations lined up. + Cloud Native and especially the field of service meshes is evolving + exceptionally fast. Keeping up with all the developments can be challenging. + Which resources do you use to stay up-to-date? +

+
+ +
+ Aisuko: +

+ People are always interested in new technology, but we are limited by time. I believe + that continuing to contribute to the service mesh open source community is the best way + to stay updated. +
+ Articles and news may include the author’s personal opinions, and we don't always know + if they have strong relationships with the community. We should maintain critical thinking + and focus on solving real-world problems. The best way to learn is through hands-on experience. +

+
+ +
+ Anita: +

+ What does being a Meshery maintainer mean to you? How has being a maintainer impacted your full-time role? +

+
+ +
+ Aisuko: +

+ It’s an honor to be a maintainer of the Meshery community. The membership + is a reward for contributing to the community. Being a maintainer has made me + more enthusiastic about contributing to open source projects. It has also given + me confidence to contribute to other projects. +

+
+ +
+ Anita: +

+ Do you have any advice for individuals hoping to become Layer5 contributors + or potentially maintainers? +

+
+ +
+ Aisuko: +

+ The Layer5 and Meshery communities are always welcoming to everyone. + New features are great, but there’s more to contributing than just code. + For example, writing unit tests and code comments is just as important as + adding new features. +
+ One of our goals is to provide an opportunity for everyone who wants to contribute + to open source projects, so we need to maintain a high level of code quality. +

+
+ +
+ +

+ The Meshery project moves at an impressive pace thanks to maintainers like + Aisuko. Be like Aisuko. Join the{" "} + Layer5 Slack and say “hi". +

+
+ + +