Serverless Leaders to Follow Online

Millions of developers have used serverless on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build and operate highly scalable, secure, and cost-effective applications.

This year at AWS re:Invent, taking place over three weeks—from November 30 to December 18—the Serverless track has a lot to offer.

You can learn everything from best practices and architectural patterns for common workloads, such as web applications, data processing, or streaming, to how to make the most of AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, AWS Step Functions, Amazon EventBridge, AWS SAM, and more.

For anyone interested in serverless trends, AWS serverless leaders will showcase innovations and discuss where they believe serverless is going. You can contribute to the conversation by following some key serverless leaders online.

Here they are in alphabetical order:

Gojko Adzic, Partner at Neuri Consulting and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @gojkoadzic

GitHub: github.com/gojko

Why to follow: The author of Running Serverless: Introduction to AWS Lambda and the Serverless Application Model offers deep knowledge of how to build on AWS.

Luca Bianchi, Chief Technology Officer at Neosperience and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @bianchiluca

GitHub: github.com/aletheia

Why to follow: Warm-hearted takes on AWS and serverless in English and Italian.

Forrest Brazeal, Senior Cloud Architect at Trek10 and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @forrestbrazeal

Website: forrestbrazeal.com

Why to follow: Come for the knowledge from a leading light at A Cloud Guru, stay for the novelty songs.

Sheen Brisals, Senior Engineering Manager, The LEGO Group and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @sheenbrisals

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sheen-brisals/

Why to follow: Sheen’s talks were some of the first that felt truly accessible to me when I was starting out with AWS and serverless. His advice is kindly given and based on extensive knowledge.

Kyuhyun Byun, Software Engineer at Danggeun Market and an AWS Serverless Hero.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/novemberde/

GitHub: github.com/novemberde/

Why to follow: Along with all the great technical work, Kyuhyun is also a key part of the serverless community in Korea.

Farrah Campbell, Ecosystems Director, Stackery and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @FarrahC32

GitHub: github.com/Farrah32/

Why to follow: My old colleague at Stackery builds connections wherever she goes, and her talks are not to be missed.

Austen Collins, Founder and CEO at Serverless Inc. and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @austencollins

GitHub: github.com/serverless

Why to follow: You really can’t understand serverless at production without being at least familiar with Serverless Framework. Austen also tweets about Rian Johnson films a lot and it’s good to follow people with good taste.

Ken Collins, Staff Engineer at Custom Ink and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @metaskills

GitHub: github.com/metaskills

Why to follow: Any time you’ve looked at a conference booth’s T-shirts and said “cool swag,” it’s likely it was a Custom Ink shirt. It’s cool to see how they work with serverless!

Yan Cui, Developer Advocate at Lumigo.io and AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @theburningmonk

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/theburningmonk/

Why to follow: Most of what I know about serverless I learned from Yan. Structured logging, performant serverless architecture, you name it: he is the one who took the time to explain it in video and blog post form.

Jeremy Daly, CTO of AlertMe and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @jeremy_daly

GitHub: github.com/jeremydaly

Website: jeremydaly.com

Why to follow: Jeremy’s podcast and newsletter are key parts of the serverless community and one of the only ways to stay truly abreast of the changes that AWS makes every month.

Ben Ellerby, VP of Engineering for Theodo and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @EllerbyBen

Blog: medium.com/serverless-transformation

Why to follow: When you see changes in the AWS platform, the first question is, “What does this mean for me?” Ben often has the best analysis of what changes really mean for your stack.

Nočnica Fee, Developer Advocate at New Relic and an AWS Community Builder.

Twitter: @ServerlessMom

Twitch: twitch.tv/serverlessmom

Why to follow: You think I’m going to compile a list like this and not put myself on it? I’m one of the few people doing AWS development on Twitch.

Rob Gruhl, Senior Engineering Manager at Nordstrom and an AWS Serverless Hero.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rob-gruhl-388a832/

GitHub: Hello Retail Open Source Project

Why to follow: Always neat to see how one of the oldest and largest players in retail has effectively embraced the newest technology.

Eric Hammond, Internet Startup Technologist and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @esh

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ehammond/

Why to follow: A major light in the community, it’s great to see how Eric builds others up.

Peter Hanssens, Founder and Solutions Architect at Cloud Shuttle and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @petehanssens

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/peterhanssens/

Why to follow: Loved his talk this year at the ANZ User Group Summit.

Michael Hart, Director of Research Engineering at Bustle and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @hichaelmart

GitHub: github.com/mhart

Why to follow: Great resource, especially on CloudFormation.

Danielle Heberling, Software Engineer at Stackery.

Twitter: @deeheber

Blog: danielleheberling.xyz/

Why to follow: Human, coder, yinzer.

Prashanth HN, Chief Technology Officer at WheelsBox and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @prashanth

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/hnprashanth/

Why to follow: Advice on how to migrate from monolithic architectures.

Ben Kehoe, Cloud Robotics Research Scientist at iRobot and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @ben11kehoe

Blog: ben11kehoe.medium.com

Why to follow: As serverlerless has matured, there are more and more tools to let you deploy serverless consistently within your team. When Ben looks at these tools, his response is often, “We built something to do that for our team last year.”

Tomasz Lakomy, Senior Frontend Engineer at OLX Group and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @tlakomy

Blog: tlakomy.com/

Why to follow: It’s great to learn about serverless and cloud architectures from a frontend expert.

Kurt Lee, Tech Lead at Vingle Inc. and an AWS Serverless Hero.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kurt-lee-70010391/

GitHub: github.com/breath103

Why to follow: Vingle is a fascinating new platform for creating fan communities and it’s neat to see how they use serverless.

Brian LeRoux, Co-Founder and CTO at Begin.com and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @brianleroux

Website: brian.io

Why to follow: Cool to see someone doing ambitious stuff with serverless PHP.

Tom McLaughlin, Serverless engineer and author and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @tmclaughbos

Website: www.serverlessops.io/

Why to follow: Tom runs serverless hack night and can be trusted to tell it like it is.

Efi Merdler-Kravitz, Director of Engineering at Lumigo and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @TServerless

Blog: lumigo.io/blog/author/efimerdlerkravitz/

Why to follow: Efi still has as his pinned tweet the best definition of serverless I’ve ever read.

Sebastian Müller, Senior Cloud Consultant at superluminar GmbH and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @sbstjn

GitHub: github.com/sbstjn

Why to follow: A knowledgeable serverless person who speaks honestly about the diversity and inclusion issues facing the tech industry.

Dhaval Nagar, Founder and director of AppGambit and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @dhavaln

Blog: medium.com/@dhaval

Why to follow: AppGambit is part of the AWS partner network and Dhaval is an important part of the community.

Matthieu Napoli, Founder at Null and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @matthieunapoli

GitHub: github.com/mnapoli/

Why to follow: Another person building serverless PHP; in fact, he writes a newsletter on the subject.

Serkan Özal, CTO and Founder of Thundra and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: twitter.com/serkan_ozal

GitHub: github.com/serkan-ozal

Why to follow: When asked what deployment tool to use, Tom McLaughlin said, “Yes.” It really is more important to use a tool than which tool you use. Thundra is one of the great tools to make sure your deployments are consistent.

Ran Ribenzaft, Chief Technology Officer at Epsagon and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @ranrib

GitHub: github.com/ranrib

Why to follow: Ran and all of the Epsagon team have pulled off great things by focusing like a laser on the experience of small serverless teams.

Emrah Samdan, VP of Products at Thundra and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @emrahsamdan

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/emrahsamdan/

Why to follow: Thundra is a tool many serverless teams rely on, and Emrah is both informative and funny.

Peter Sbarski, VP of Engineering at A Cloud Guru and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @sbarski

GitHub: github.com/sbarski

Why to follow: If you have an AWS cert, chances are you have A Cloud Guru to thank. Peter is a great supporter of the community.

Aleksandar Simovic, Senior Software Engineer at Science Exchange and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: twitter.com/simalexan

GitHub: github.com/simalexan

Why to follow: Author of Serverless Applications with Node.js and an advocate for testing on cloud architectures.

Anna Spysz, Senior Software Engineer at Stackery.

Twitter: @annaspies

Website: annaspysz.com/

Why to follow: A master coder with a sense of design, Anna’s always got tips on building beautiful things and making them secure.

Ant Stanley, Consultant and Community Organizer and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @IamStan

Blog: medium.com/@IamStan

Why to follow: A heartfelt and insightful look at modern serverless web engineering.

Slobodan Stojanović, CTO of Cloud Horizon and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @slobodan_

GitHub: github.com/stojanovic

Why to follow: Testing is… not an easy process on serverless. The whole concept of running code locally isn't always meaningful, especially when the running code relies on other online components. Slobodan recently gave a great guide to testing in the cloud.

Angela Timofte, Data Platform Manager at Trustpilot and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @AngelaTimofte

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/angela-timofte-it/

Why to follow: Angela is smart as heck and doesn’t have her driver’s license—a dying breed! I salute my fellow car-free adult.

Erica Windisch, Principal Engineer, New Relic, and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @ewindisch

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ewindisch/

Why to follow: An experienced dev leader with a sweet electric guitar.

Shingo Yoshida, CTO of CYDAS and an AWS Serverless Hero.

Twitter: @yoshidashingo

Blog: yoshidashingo.hatenablog.com/

Why to follow: Posts great security best practices.