Operations notes
from the team running the cluster.
No buzzwords. No polished case studies. No 30-minute webinars. What we learn running HeroCtl in production, written as a technical journal.
Zero-downtime deploy without Kubernetes: a practical tutorial in 2026
You don't need Kubernetes for zero-downtime deploys. Full tutorial with 2 servers, Caddy/Traefik in front, and rolling update via script or lightweight orchestrator.
Read postSelf-hosted API gateway: when it's worth installing Kong, Traefik or similar
An API gateway solves auth, rate limiting, transformations and observability — in exchange for one more critical component. When a simple reverse proxy is enough vs. when a dedicated gateway is worth it.
Is service mesh overkill for a Brazilian startup? When Istio/Linkerd is worth installing
Service mesh solves real problems (mTLS, inter-service observability, traffic shaping). But adds 30-50% RAM/CPU overhead and complexity. When it's worth it and when it's overkill.
How to leave AWS without rewriting the whole stack: practical 2026 guide
Migrating from AWS to a cheaper cloud (Hetzner/DO) or self-hosted seems like a 1-year project. In practice, you can do it in 6-8 weeks if you map the 12 AWS-only services your stack actually uses.
Redis (and Valkey) in production: managed vs self-hosted in 2026
Redis changed its license in 2024, Valkey was born as an OSS fork, Dragonfly hits benchmarks. In 2026, choosing cache is no longer choosing Redis — it's choosing between 4 products. Honest analysis with costs.
GitHub Actions vs GitLab CI vs Drone: which CI/CD to pick for a Brazilian startup
GitHub Actions won mindshare but has minute costs. GitLab CI is more complete but heavier. Drone (and Woodpecker) self-hosted runs on a small VPS. Practical comparison.