// Developer Experience

Feature flags sound deceptively simple — they're just if statements. But mastering them requires a mature DevOps foundation and disciplined release engineering. Chris Reddington is joined by Chris Ayers (Azure Fast Track Engineer at Microsoft) for a deep dive into separating deployments from releases, choosing the right tooling, and implementing feature flags safely using Azure App Configuration, LaunchDarkly, and Optimizely in .NET applications.

If there's an easy way to achieve something, then I'm all for it! You may have noticed that I've been putting a lot of effort into refactoring my site and open sourcing the original Cloud With Chris theme. I've now released that as the Hugo Creator theme for Hugo. As part of the refactoring process into a reusable theme, I had to make several breaking changes. This meant that I'd need to update the contents of my site. I want to share a quick tip that I discovered to add captions to my images in markdown.

Chris is joined by LaBrina Loving, Developer Advocate for Gaming at Microsoft, who shares her journey from twenty years of .NET and enterprise development into the world of game development. The episode covers growing cloud adoption among game studios, the key technical differences between enterprise and game development (latency, UDP vs TCP), how enterprise development skills transfer directly to gaming, and practical tips for any developer considering the leap.

Most organizations undergoing digital transformation are moving through maturity stages — from localized, monolithic setups toward agile, cloud-native, data-driven platforms. But what does it take to architect that journey? In this session, Asanka Abesinghe shares a practical framework covering the six design principles of digitally-driven organizations (decentralized, lean-agile, open standards, customer-centric, cloud-native, and data-driven), how to layer business, information, application, and technology architecture, and the evolving role of the architect as an organizational bridge between business strategy and technical execution. From the build-vs-buy decision to maturity-model road-mapping, this is an essential session for architects leading or contributing to enterprise transformation programmes.

Chris Reddington is joined by Lee Williams to explore game streaming — the technology that streams a game to your device from cloud-hosted infrastructure, rather than running it locally. The episode covers how cloud economies of scale make low-latency game delivery viable, the consumer shift toward subscription models (Xbox Game Pass, Google Stadia), what the streaming model means for game creators building games as living services, and the future of multi-device gaming experiences.

What is Developer Relations, and how do you build a career in it? Chris is joined by Martin Woodward — Director of Developer Relations at GitHub and the person who brought Git to Microsoft — to explore the open source contribution funnel, what drives community leaders, the community-building skills that underpin a DevRel career, and how platforms like GitHub Actions achieve explosive growth through network effects.

Open source projects and communities are the backbone of modern software development, yet the human side of building and sustaining them is rarely discussed as openly as the technology itself. In this episode, Chris is joined by JJ Asghar, Developer Advocate at IBM, who shares hard-won lessons from over a decade cultivating open source communities — from a small Linux distribution to OpenStack, Kubernetes, Tekton, and Istio. This is not a tools talk; it is a candid conversation about the soft skills, scoping decisions, and leadership approaches that separate thriving projects from those that burn out.

In this episode, Chris Reddington is joined by Peter Gallagher — Software Consultant, Microsoft Azure MVP, Pluralsight Author, IoT expert, and Meetup organiser — to explore the Internet of Things. They cover Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT Edge, digital twins, IoT simulators, and the lessons learned from real-world IoT deployments. Whether you are just starting your IoT journey or looking to go deeper with Azure's cloud-connected device ecosystem, this episode has something for you.

In this episode, Chris Reddington is joined by Melissa Jerkoys — technologist, co-founder of Diversify Thinking, and advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in tech. Melissa shares her 25-year journey from engineer to leader, the barriers underrepresented groups face in technology careers, and why a diverse team is not just the right thing to do — it is a critical driver of startup and enterprise success.

Chris is joined by long-time friend Erin Davies — an Agile Coach who accidentally stumbled into tech after applying for what she thought was a buying and merchandising role at John Lewis. Erin shares her journey from studying law and sociology at Warwick to becoming an Agile Coach, offers honest reflections on women in tech and imposter syndrome, and explains what Agile really looks like in practice when you're in the trenches. The episode also explores content creation, starting a podcast, and finding your voice in the tech community.