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Cossacks Arjan



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For hosting the ZEN Gathering in Alkmaar, Zoia & Dasha presented me with a classic Cossack shirt. 

Дуже дякую!

Kyiv Epicenter visit

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The Maxeda Digital team set out to experience ‘Epicenter’ in Kyiv. This massive DIY retailer was a good study object for our trip. In addition to the study-trip we made good progress on architectural improvements for frontend distribution and microservices implementation.

**Update 2022-02-25:** It pains me to see the Epicenter again, in the news, besieged.

Year start with Kyiv Team



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To start the Year 2019 off well, a team from the Amsterdam office flew to Kyiv to start the year. Celebrate past successes and plan for the coming year. Ukraine in winter is great, we were not disappointed with -12c.

Challenges for 2019 were to be as successful as 2018 when the team delivered a new e-commerce platform and finished the majority of the cloud transformation.

It was a good visit! time to head back west.

Team update in Odessa



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For technical and design workshops we set off to Odessa. We had a successful collaboration and solved a number of interesting digital puzzles. In good spirits we set off to have dinner outside in Odessa’s beautiful historic city center.

Some of the Amsterdam gang went for a run and sightseeing at once.

After the workshops were finished the team enjoyed the nightlife in Odessa, Club Ibiza.

For technical and design workshops we set off to Odessa. We had a successful collaboration and solved a number of interesting digital puzzles. In good spirits we set off to have dinner outside in Odessa’s beautiful historic city center.

Some of the Amsterdam gang went for a run and sightseeing at once.

After the workshops were finished the team enjoyed the nightlife in Odessa, Club Ibiza.

Get in touch

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Team Start and Global Gathering, Odessa



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For the Maxeda Cloud Transformation and new e-commerce platform we scaled up our Software operation and setup new teams of experts at HYS Enterprise in Odessa.

This means introducing the teams into the ways of Maxeda, the systems and the plans for the near future. In 1 week we gave a number trainings and started to co-develop software straight away.

The teams were productive immediately and took responsibility for the back-end systems.

**Update: 2016-11: Global Gathering, Odessa**

The whole Amsterdam, Brussels and Kyiv team joined forces with the Odessa Team. Together we held  workshops, demos and enjoyed the Kanban game, in competition!

Here is the winning team of the local Kanban game competition, afterwards we enjoyed the legendary nightlife of Odessa.

Remote Development in the Cloud



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Remote development has become increasingly popular in recent years. It allows developers to take advantage of powerful cloud computing resources and be available everywhere using a managed central configuration. There are several cloud-based solutions available for remote development, including Google Cloud Workstations, AWS Code Catalyst, and traditional virtual machines (VMs). In this article, we will compare the costs and advantages of each option.

Remote development has become increasingly popular in recent years. It allows developers to take advantage of powerful cloud computing resources and be available everywhere using a managed central configuration. There are several cloud-based solutions available for remote development, including **Google Cloud Workstations, AWS Code Catalyst**, and traditional virtual machines (**VMs**). In this article, we will compare the costs and advantages of each option.

Google Cloud Workstations is a cloud-based development environment that provides a fully managed developing environment in the cloud, including popular tools like the JetBrains IDEs such as IntelliJ Ultimate, IntelliJ IDEA and PyCharm. 

It is designed to offer a high-performance environment that can handle even the most demanding development tasks.  Google Cloud Workstations come with a large amount of customization and control options that can help manage costs and productivity. 

Fully managed and ready-to-use development environment

Accessible from anywhere with an internet connection

Integration with other Google Cloud services

 All popular IDEs like IntelliJ Ultimate and IntelliJ IDEA

AWS Code Catalyst is a cloud-based development environment provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is designed to help developers collaborate on code, automate workflows, and manage projects in the cloud. AWS Code Catalyst provides a wide range of tools and services that can help developers build, test, and deploy code. 

Wide range of tools and services available

All popular IDEs like IntelliJ Ultimate and IntelliJ IDEA

Only available in the US West (Oregon) region. 

 US West only availability causes higher latency if you are far away (EU / Asia). 

Using a virtual machine (VM) hosted in either Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or Amazon Web Services (AWS) can be a great option for developers who need a flexible and scalable development environment. However, these basic VM options don’t come with pre-installed developer tools and other useful components and tools. This downside is compensated by the fact that they are generally cheaper than the Cloud workstations or CodeCatalyst options and can be made even cheaper when using the spot prices and discounts.

Flexibility: You can choose the amount of CPU, memory, and storage you need, as well as the operating system and software configurations.

Cheaper: The basic VM is cheaper than the other mentioned alternatives. 

Management of the VM is manual; no easy broad management of all deployed VMs 

The VMs aren’t pre-configured; all config and installation of software is manual. For example you will
        have to manually install all your favorite JetBrains IDEs and other development tools. 

To compare the pricing, I have added the following table. In this table the pricing is listed for a machine of 4 vCPUs and 16GB of memory. For each option, the hourly cost and the monthly cost is listed. 

Google Cloud Workstation

AWS CodeCatalyst

SSH VM

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One way of connecting to one of the services is through JetBrains Gateway; here, I will go through the steps for AWS CodeCatalyst. The use of JetBrains Gateway is quite easy, just log in using the big login button and follow the steps shown on the screen. These steps include signing in to your AWS builder account and allowing JetBrains Gateway access to some of your information. After Signing in, you will see the following screen, which shows your projects and dev environments. 

Here you can also create new dev environments through the “Create Dev Environment” button. Clicking this button shows you the same options you would have in the web interface. After configuring just click the button to create and a popup should show telling you its working on it. Once its done it opens the newly created dev environment. 

To connect to your remote development environment, you just simply click on the environment you want to boot. This process can take a few minutes and goes through multiple steps.

Once the dev environment is ready, it will open the IDE just like it would do if you were using it locally. The only difference is that there is an extra menu at the top left showing the status and latency of the machine. Clicking on this menu opens the memory, storage and CPU usage. 

And Done! You are ready to use your remote developing environment!

When it comes to remote development, there are several options available, each with its own advantages and costs. Google Cloud Workstations and AWS CodeCatalyst provide fully managed and ready-to-use development environments with a wide range of tools and services. They are designed for large teams and enterprise-level projects, but their costs can be significant. 

Normal VMs provide a customizable and cost-effective solution for small teams or individual developers but don’t have some of the ease-of-use features that Google Cloud Workstation or AWS CodeCatalyst has. 

One thing to note is that AWS Code Catalyst is significantly cheaper than most other options. However the limited available zones might make the working experience significantly worse and thus an alternative service could be of interest to use even though it might be more expensive. 

Ultimately, the choice of which option to use depends on the specific needs of the project, the size of the team, and the available budget.

Cossacks Arjan

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Cossacks Arjan

Kyiv Epicenter visit

Year start with Kyiv Team

Team update in Odessa

Team Start and Global Gathering, Odessa

Remote Development in the Cloud

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