Career
My Most Expensive Engineering Decision
Sharing the story of an engineer's most costly 'yes' decision in their career, with lessons learned from 20 years of experience.
#career
94 posts found.
Career
How to Survive as a Developer in the Age of AI?
With 20 years of experience, I explain how developers should position themselves in the AI era, emphasizing the importance of technical depth and real.
Career
✍️ Hand-written
From Eggdrop to AI Agents: It's Not Actually That New
AI agents, MCP, tool calling feel brand new — but to anyone who ran an Eggdrop bot on IRC, it's familiar. The real shift wasn't tech, but access to knowledge.
Career
✍️ Hand-written
One Night a Storage System Died and Changed How I Think About Software
One night a storage system died and I realized the problem was never the disks — it was assuming nothing would fail. On assumptions, trust, and safety.
Career
The Only Rule That Hasn't Changed in 20 Years: Real Experience
Drawing from my 20 years of experience in system architecture, networking, and software development, I share what truly lasts in a changing tech world...
Career
The True Value of an Idea: The Cost of Success and a Pragmatic
With 20 years of system architecture experience, Mustafa Erbay discusses the true value of an idea, the most expensive mistake in his career, and the pragmatic.
Career
Building a Product vs. Marketing It: Which is Harder? A 20-Year
In my career, I've learned that the difference in difficulty between building a great product and marketing it isn't what we often think. Here are my.
Career
Is Software Engineering Dead?
A bold look at the current state of software engineering with 20 years of system architecture experience. With real experiences and a pragmatic approach...
Career
BGP Route Flap: The Cost of Stability in Scalable Networks
I explore BGP route flap issues, their impact on network stability, and how I've managed such incidents in my own operations, drawing from my experiences.
Career
Dependency Vulnerability Pattern: Management Status in Small Projects
I examine the challenges of dependency vulnerability management in small projects, the patterns I've encountered, and my pragmatic solution approaches.
Career
Offline-First: Necessary for Every App, or Over-Engineering?
Is Offline-First architecture a must for every application? Based on my own experiences, I'll discuss the advantages, costs, and real needs of this approach…
Career
Distributed Locks in Side Projects: 4 Simpler Approaches
Learn how to implement distributed lock mechanisms in your side projects using simpler and more pragmatic methods.
Career
Managing High Cardinality Metrics in 3 Steps: Cost vs. Detail
I'm discussing the costs associated with high cardinality metrics and practical ways to manage them. Balancing the level of detail and cost…
Career
Monorepo or Polyrepo? 3 Critical Consequences of Your CI/CD Choice
My experiences with how monorepo and polyrepo choices in software projects affect CI/CD processes, team dynamics, and long-term project health…
Career
Eventual Consistency: When to Choose It Over Strong Consistency
I explain the differences between consistency models in distributed systems, when I chose which one in my own experiences, and their trade-offs.
Career
The Principle of Least Privilege: Operational Speed's Security Cost
An in-depth analysis of the principle of least privilege's impact on operational speed, security risks, and practical applications.
Career
Monolith vs. Modular: Which of the 3 Architectures is Right for You?
Choosing a software architecture determines a project's fate. I'll share my experiences with the trade-offs between monolithic, modular monolith, and.
Career
RED Metrics: Are Comprehensive Implementations Necessary in Every
What RED metrics are, when they are needed, and whether they are always comprehensive...
Career
3 Deploy Strategies for CI/CD: Cost and Efficiency Analysis
Based on my experience, I analyze the costs, efficiencies, and operational burdens of CI/CD deploy strategies in detail.
Career
The On-Call Cost of Distributed Locks
I examine the operational burden of distributed locks, the hidden costs they impose on on-call engineers, and simpler alternatives.
Career
Why Does VPN Dual-Stack Configuration Always Cause Problems?
MTU, DNS leaks, and routing issues I encountered while trying to run IPv4 and IPv6 in the same VPN tunnel. Solutions proven by experience.
Career
Cardinality Explosion: Should Every Detail Really Be Observed? And
What is cardinality explosion in monitoring systems, why does it happen, and how does this situation affect both systems and an engineer's career? Practical...
Career
Multi-Tenant Architecture in ERP: How to Make the Right Trade-offs?
Trade-offs to weigh when choosing and implementing multi-tenant architecture in ERP systems: cost, data isolation, and scalability, from real experience.
Career
Log Level Strategies: Detailed Monitoring or Minimum Noise?
Correctly setting log levels in our systems requires striking a critical balance between detailed monitoring and reducing unnecessary noise. This…
Career
Why Does Using an ORM Decrease Database Performance? An Experience...
I explain how the convenience of ORMs negatively affects database performance, especially in enterprise applications, using my own field experiences.
Career
Log Level Strategy: Is Debug Always Unnecessary?
Effective management of log levels is critical for system health and troubleshooting processes. In this article, we explore the necessity of the debug level.
Career
CI/CD for Side Projects: 3 Pragmatic Design Choices
I explain how I set up CI/CD processes in my side projects using pragmatic approaches and the challenges I encountered during these processes.
Life
BGP Knowledge for Indie Hackers: Is It Really Necessary?
I examine how important BGP truly is for indie hackers, when it's an unnecessary detail, and what you should focus on instead.
Career
Shared Build Cache: Makes Sense for the Independent Developer?
I analyze the practicality of shared build cache solutions for independent developers in terms of cost, performance, and maintenance. From my own experiences...
Career
Transitioning from Monolith to Modular: A Comparison of 3 Different
I delve into 3 different strategies you can use when transitioning from a monolithic to a modular architecture, examining their trade-offs and providing.
Career
Transitioning from Monolith to Modular Monolith: 3 Pragmatic Reasons
I'm sharing the 3 core reasons that convinced me to transition from a monolith to a modular monolith in enterprise software architecture, along with my.
Career
Monolith vs. Microservices: Which is Better for Your CI/CD Pipeline?
Comparing the impact of Monolith and Microservices architectures on CI/CD processes, with practical experience. Deciding when to choose which.
Career
The Cost of Kernel CVE Patching Frequency in SLA Commitments
How often should you patch kernel CVEs while meeting your SLA commitments? I took a deep dive into the costs and risks involved.
Career
Database Partitioning Cost: Is It Really Worth It?
I analyze the benefits and costs of database partitioning. When should you partition, and when should you avoid it? I share my experiences.
Career
Three Challenging Aspects of the Kernel CVE Patching Process: My
I examine three critical challenges in the Linux kernel CVE patching process, with concrete examples and practical solutions.
Career
Why is BGP Route Flap Management Only Easy in Theory?
I explain the fundamentals, causes, and practical solutions for BGP route flap issues based on my own experiences. Why theoretical solutions are challenging in.
Career
The Impact of Eventual Consistency on the Developer Mindset
I explore the burden of working with eventual consistency in distributed systems on developers and my approaches to managing this situation.
Career
GitOps vs Push-Based CI/CD: Which One for Consulting?
Based on my hands-on field experience, I compare GitOps and push-based CI/CD approaches. Which one should we choose for different scenarios?
Career
Mobile Offline-First Sync: Necessity or Luxury for Indie Hackers?
Analyzing when offline-first synchronization in mobile apps is a necessity and when it's a luxury for indie hackers. Real-world scenarios, cost analyses, and.
Career
Modern Approaches to Secret Rotation: Securing Your Systems
Learn modern secret rotation practices to keep your systems secure. In this guide, we will walk through the process step-by-step.
Career
Reducing Pager Fatigue: Why Excessive Alerting Systems Fall Short?
Analyzing pager fatigue and the shortcomings of excessive alerting systems with my operational experience accumulated over the years. Real problems...
Career
Database Transaction Isolation Levels: Why They Are Always Critical?
The importance of database transaction isolation levels in real-world applications, the problems I've encountered, and how the right choice impacts my career.
Career
The Hidden Cost of CI/CD Pipeline Complexity: Maintenance and
Explore the unseen costs of complex CI/CD pipelines, maintenance challenges, and consultancy expenses through Mustafa Erbay's pragmatic perspective...
Career
Pragmatic Switch Hardening: 3 Critical Configuration Steps
I'm sharing the switch hardening steps that form the foundation of network security based on my own experiences: DHCP Snooping, DAI, and IP Source Guard.
Career
Fast Deploy Decisions: Team Stress and the Edge of Debt Accumulation
A guide from my personal experiences on team stress, technical debt, and trade-offs encountered when choosing deploy strategies.
Career
Blue/Green vs. Rolling Deploy: Risk and Cost Analysis
A deep dive into the risks, costs, and practical applications of Blue/Green and Rolling deployment strategies in software delivery.
Career
Security Patching on My Own VPS: Hours Stolen from a Client Project
I explain step-by-step a security vulnerability encountered during a client project and how I patched it on my own VPS. Lessons from field experience.
Career
✍️ Hand-written
When Systems Aren't 'Up' in Consulting: Eroding Customer Trust
How does a system not being 'up' in consulting projects erode customer trust? I address this topic with practical approaches and my experiences.
Career
✍️ Hand-written
My Own VPS Crisis: That Moment of Panic During a Client Meeting
I share the panic I experienced when my VPS crashed during a critical client meeting and the process of resolving it. Technical details and lessons learned.
Career
The Lasting Cost of Quick Fixes: An Architect's Regret
An in-depth guide to the long-term costs of emergency fixes and an architect's experiences on the topic.
Career
The Idempotency Crisis in Distributed Systems: An Operational…
Explore — through Mustafa Erbay's lens — the idempotency concept and the crisis that turns into an operational nightmare in the complexity of distributed…
Career
IAM Role Mess: The Cloud Identity Management Swamp
Discover the causes and risks of IAM role mess in cloud environments and the ways out of this swamp. Best practices for a secure cloud infrastructure...
Career
Hidden Sentinel Wars in Production: A Firewall Betrayal
Dig deep into the unexpected effects of Sentinel-based firewalls in production and these 'hidden wars.' Strategies and solutions.
Career
The Disaster a Single DNS Record Can Create
Discover the critical importance of DNS and how a single wrong record can lead to massive disasters. How to manage these risks in your career and operations...
Career
Cross-Team Tension During a Crisis: An Incident Story
Explore the causes and consequences of cross-team tension during a critical incident, and the steps needed to manage it. Effective leadership…
Career
The Paralysis of Architectural Debt: A Project's Silent Death
A deep dive into the destructive effects of architectural (technical) debt that we encounter so often in software projects, and how a project gets dragged…
Career
The Curse of Stale Cache in High-Traffic Applications: Strategies and…
Learn how stale data hurts performance in high-traffic applications and the ways to break out from under that curse.
Career
State Management in the Cloud: An SRE's Lost Battles
Explore the challenges of state management in cloud environments and the battles fought in this space, told from an SRE's perspective.
Career
The Legacy of an Old Internal Load Balancer: An Engineer's Test
An old internal load balancer fails unexpectedly — and shapes the technical and career-defining test it puts an engineer through.
Career
✍️ Hand-written
An Old Engineer's Notebook: The Automation Nightmare
In a world where we keep pushing the limits of automation, what is the cost of losing the human factor? Technology and the future from an old engineer's…
Career
The Failover Paradox: Bringing Down a System While Trying to Save It
Learn how you can unintentionally take your systems down while trying to save them, and how to avoid the Failover Paradox.
Career
The Dark Side of Technology: The Unscalable API Gateway Wars
An in-depth guide to API gateway scaling problems, the complexity of system architecture, and how these wars affect your career.
Career
From Monolith to Microservices: The DevOps Culture Wars
Migrating from monolithic architecture to microservices isn't just a technical transformation — it's a deep cultural shift. Through DevOps principles, in…
Career
The Hidden Trap of Auto-Scaling: A Capacity Engineer's…
Learn about the unexpected challenges of auto-scaling and how, as a capacity engineer, you can avoid these traps.
Career
The Invisible Burden of DevOps Teams: The Operational Cost of…
Examining the invisible burden technical debt places on DevOps teams and its operational cost, with strategies for managing it.
Career
Managing a Security Vulnerability: A Leader's Hair Shirt
Learn the challenges and strategies of managing security vulnerabilities effectively as a leader. Use this guide to turn crises into opportunities.
Career
The Zombie Process Hunt in Production: Anatomy of a Hidden…
A detailed look at the 'zombie process' problem in production environments and how to analyze and resolve this hidden form of resource waste.
Career
Cloud Provider Lock-In: An Engineer's Career Test
What is cloud vendor lock-in? The career risks for engineers and the strategies that help you avoid getting stuck.
Career
Disk Space Saturation: Anatomy of a Silent Production Crisis
Explore the silent crises caused by disk space saturation in production environments, their root causes, and proactive resolution strategies.
Career
Critical Database Migration: Decisions With No Way Back
Discover why database migrations sometimes turn into decisions you can't undo, and what that means for your career. Detailed planning, risk…
Career
Ephemeral Storage Crisis in Production: Containers' Instant Memory…
Read Mustafa Erbay's take on the crises caused by ephemeral storage in the container world and how these instant memory wars affect your career…
Career
Multi-Tenancy Migration in a SaaS Monolith: An Architect's Hidden…
Read Mustafa Erbay's account of the challenges of moving a monolithic SaaS to multi-tenancy, the lessons learned, and the strategies for success.
Career
Time Sync Differences: Ghost Bugs in Distributed Systems…
Discover the 'ghost bugs' caused by time sync differences in distributed systems. How they appear, how to diagnose…
Career
Post-Mortems After Major Outages: The Engineer's Invisible Burden
A post-mortem after a major outage isn't just a technical review. Understanding and managing the psychological, invisible burden engineers carry through it…
Career
Hidden API Gateway Limits: Unexpected Bottlenecks in Production
How do hidden API Gateway limits cause unexpected issues in production? In this article, we explore strategies and practical solutions to prevent these.
Career
Hidden Performance Issues in the Shadow of Service Mesh: For Your…
Beyond the advantages Service Mesh offers, the often-overlooked performance costs and how they reflect on a software engineer's career…
Career
Hunting Zero-Day Vulnerabilities: The Security Team's Sleepless Nights
Zero-day vulnerabilities are one of the biggest threats in modern cybersecurity. The tough fight security teams put up against this invisible enemy and…
Career
Server Room Nightmare: When Physical Infrastructure Betrays You
Learn about server room nightmares and how physical infrastructure problems affect your career. Discover how to solve and prevent these issues.
Career
Database Sharding Decisions: An Architect's Regrets
Examine the challenges of database sharding decisions and possible architectural regrets through Mustafa Erbay's eyes. Technical depth and practical advice.
Career
Multi-Cloud Adoption: Team Skills Crisis and Career Transformation
The rise of multi-cloud strategies has surfaced a real skills crisis on engineering teams, but it also opens up huge career transformation opportunities for…
Career
Packet Loss in a Multi-Layer Network: Fighting a Performance Killer
Learn the causes of packet loss in multi-layer networks and how to deal with this hidden performance killer. Optimize your network performance.
Career
Hunting Single Points of Failure: Anatomy of a Filthy Server Room…
We look at the single point of failure problem in system architecture through the lens of the risks created by a physically neglected server room.…
Career
From VM to Container: The Identity Crisis of Traditional Ops
We look at the move from virtual machines to containers, the identity crisis traditional operations (Ops) is facing, and the new skills needed to keep up.
Career
The Human Side of SRE: From Pager Fatigue to Proactive Trust
Discover that SRE is not just about technology, but also about human health and team well-being. A roadmap for moving from pager fatigue to a proactive…
Career
The Load Balancer Nightmare: Hidden Configuration Errors and Team…
An in-depth look at how overlooked load balancer configuration errors can wreck system stability and devastate engineering teams.
Career
Chaotic Recovery: The Human Touch When Automation Falls Silent
Explore the limits of automation and the indispensable role that the human touch, critical thinking, and empathy play in crisis management when systems…
Career
The Human Cost of Technical Debt: Battling Legacy Systems
Discover the challenges that technical debt and legacy systems bring, plus the human cost behind them. Save your career and your projects with practical…
Career
The Vendor Lock-in Nightmare: The Real Cost of Database Migration
A deep look at vendor lock-in risk in database choices, the visible and hidden costs of migration, and the strategies you can use to avoid these traps…
Career
Hidden Dependencies: Production Backfires and Architectural Lessons
How hidden dependencies in systems lead to unexpected production issues, and the architectural lessons we need to take away to reduce those risks…
Career
From Pager Burnout to System Resilience: An SRE Transformation Story
Discover the journey from the engineer's nightmare of Pager Burnout to amplified system resilience and sustainability through SRE principles.
Career
Postmortem Culture for Technical Leaders
A leadership guide for transforming the postmortem process from a blame-finding meeting into a learning team practice.
Career
Career Planning as a Software Engineer
A guide for treating your career not as a 'job title' but as an impact area and skill portfolio, and for building a 6–12 month plan with measurable steps.
Technology
AI Won't Make Us Unemployed, But...
With 20 years of system architect experience, I discuss AI's future role and how it will shape us. We won't be unemployed, but we will transform.
Career
Why Do Most SaaS Companies Fail?
With 20 years of system architecture experience, I explain why most SaaS startups fail and what the right steps should be.