Abdel Sghiouar with DevOpsSpeakeasy at DevoxxMA 2022

Speakeasy at devox Morocco my name’s

Stephen Chen I’m the VP of devrel at

jfrog and I am joined by Abdel I’m not

going to try to pronounce your last name

you want to do a quick intro yes uh you

can try it’s Abdel but I go by Abdel or

board Abdel on Twitter so um I’m a cloud

developer Advocate at Google I’ve been

there for nine years I’ve done a lot of

things including working in data center

for a while and then working little bit

of Consulting my main focus is

kubernetes and containers and service

mesh since the last few months because

that’s everybody’s favorite topic now I

guess and yeah that’s me cool and this

is an awesome conference we’re we’re

here in ogdir Morocco

um and what what do you what do you

think is most unique about the devox

Morocco event that we’re at

um sure well first of all the location

is awesome

um technically this year we are closer

to takazudes than agadir which is a surf

Hub

um I’ve been surfing in this place when

I lived here a long time ago

um the weather is awesome uh it’s not

European slash North American weather so

that’s great but also the community the

people I think it’s a great mixture of

people doing all sorts of interesting

things it’s not particularly focused on

certain technology or certain

set of Technologies

and we also one of the unique things

about devox Morocco is we get a lot of

young people a lot of students a lot of

people who are just starting their

career so that’s pretty cool because

then you get a lot of interested people

that want to learn things so that’s

that’s very cool

um and I think one of the things I’ve

consistently heard is feedback both I

experienced this in in my keynote when I

gave it yesterday and also from other

speakers is the like the engagements the

the interaction questions after the

session here are much much more the

attendees are much much more engaging

than in Europe or other locations so why

do you why do you think this is the case

I think in just curiosity in general I

think people probably people are

grateful to have a bunch of experts

spending time explaining things to them

and they want to take make the most out

of it so they want to ask questions I

was actually surprised that in my

session on Tuesday like within five

minutes somebody was like up

tell me this so it was pretty cool like

you don’t expect questions within five

minutes of you starting talking about

the topic because it’s just warming up

right

um so that’s pretty cool no that’s

really good and I think that it’s been

like very welcoming like a lot of good

engagement at the conference

um and like like what was your talk

yesterday about what sort of things were

you yeah so I did my talk on Tuesday

that was a deep dive into service mesh

with istio so two hours and then I have

a talk today at the end of the day which

is a little bit of a controversial top

title it’s called you probably don’t

need a service mesh

so so yeah okay and you’re you’re you’re

still employed after giving that talk uh

I have given it before and I haven’t

been fired yet so I still have my access

so so nice nice that’s that’s very

awesome

um and I I think like we have an

upcoming um you did a big road trip yes

around Morocco yeah last week so um

you’ve been an awesome host to folks who

have come here and are trying to

experience the Moroccan culture so what

was how did that go like what do you

think from the

um the the takeaways were from the

experience it was pretty cool and I

think it was pretty interesting to see

how people who are not used to Morocco

kind that react to how things are here

um it could be like Morocco is quite

quite a big country and there are a lot

of things you can do and see we started

in Casablanca and we traveled south we

did like South East and then South and

then we came to agadir and so we got to

actually travel first across multiple

Landscapes so there’s mountains and sea

and different temperatures

um so I think the transition between

those Landscapes was very interesting to

the to the folks at the trip but also

like being in places which are so remote

and there is no one and then being in

places which are just overwhelming

there’s a lot of things going on around

you that that you don’t necessarily

understand if you’re not from here I

think that that was quite interesting

for people yeah it’s a big big

transitions like a lot of unique scenery

and I think one of the things which I I

find interesting about Morocco is

there’s there’s a lot of high tech and a

lot of like working professionals and

folks who who are like doing Cutting

Edge work yes but then you also have

like a very traditional culture and like

a lot of like very traditional foods and

it’s it’s got It’s kept the the unique

culture yes I think

partially the reason for that is because

you know Morocco with it is its history

and all the

countries that were here before

um Rocco became independent in 1955 so

we could technically say that Morocco

that we know today

started being formed in 1955 which is

not too long ago right

um so there are still generations of

people that are hauled into the

tradition and trying to infuse it into

the new generation I am in my 40s so I’m

obviously also passing along that those

Traditions to to the people who are

coming after me but we are also open to

the world we have Internet you know we

can see what the world is doing we have

conferences like this happening here we

have people coming so so people are

interested I think in boats they want to

keep the Traditions but they also want

to learn what people are doing yeah and

also um during the Keynotes yesterday

the um the chancellor and a bunch of

officials were engaging now I mean as as

Geeks it’s funny to see all the the

suits and all of the like the ceremony

around having officials yes but I think

it’s also unique that the the

governments and like the the different

uh ministers and folks in the government

care that much about a technology event

like devox Morocco so what do you think

why why do you think that they that what

do you think the value in devox Morocco

is that they see I think they see the

there is they see that the tech sector

is still booming and it’s sort of almost

like starting

um so there is a lot of opportunities

Morocco have actually been investing in

tech industry a long time ago we had

those offshore zones in different uh

cities in the country where you know

European countries European companies

come in or American companies come in

and they open offices and they hire

local talents

um so I think the experience they take

from devox Morocco is there are people

who are interested in technology and

it’s a great opportunity for the country

for the people and for the economy I

think that the services industry which

includes it and everything around it is

a big big part of the GDP of the country

and and it’s there are huge Investments

being made

um in Morocco in general but also in the

region in the South cool

all right so that’s that’s awesome and

super exciting and so we’re all here at

Morocco now so what’s what’s next for

you what’s up bills bills itinerary so I

have a talk today and then we have the

speaker trip this weekend which is going

to be awesome and then I am gonna be

back to Casablanca on Monday and then

heading back to Munich because I have

another event in Munich next week wow

okay and then you have a lot of travel

planned for the fall yes so back to

Stockholm then I’ll be in Helsinki in

November and then I’ll be somewhere else

in September I forgot yeah it’s a lot of

troubles yes I mean October was

particularly long and a lot of things

going on so

okay so this has been awesome thanks so

much for joining us at the devops Speak

Easy at Morocco with very cultural

backgrounds yeah that’s almost like

that’s from my home City fest so I was

explaining to Steve earlier done by the

devox Morocco team and it’s very very

excited to be chatting to you so thank

you thank you very much thanks for

having me and enjoy the rest of the

interviews we have for the um the rest

of today thank you