Leaving Tetrate: Reflecting on My Next Journey

I will officially leave Tetrate in mid-July, marking the end of a nearly five-year journey and a significant turning point in my career. Over the years, I have been at the forefront of infrastructure evolution, from Hadoop to Kubernetes, Service Mesh, and now the booming field of AI. Now, it’s time to pause and think about the next step.

From Big Data to Cloud Native

In 2013, I entered the big data industry when Hadoop was at its peak, and everyone was talking about MapReduce, YARN, ZooKeeper, and Kafka. In 2015, I encountered Docker and Kubernetes—the kind of technology that completely reshaped application and resource scheduling. It brought me unprecedented excitement and made me realize the structural changes in “software delivery,” prompting me to fully immerse myself in the cloud-native field.

Riding the Kubernetes wave, I came across Service Mesh in 2018. At that time, Istio was just starting, introducing a new paradigm for traffic management and inter-service communication. This transformative architectural concept profoundly influenced my career direction.

Five Years at Tetrate

My years at Tetrate have been a pivotal chapter in my career. As a Developer Advocate, I had the privilege of evangelizing and promoting Istio and Envoy, contributing to the development of Tetrate Academy course content, and sharing best practices for Service Mesh within the community. I also led or participated in writing numerous public blogs, technical whitepapers, and training materials, bridging Tetrate with developers, users, and customers worldwide.

During this time, I closely collaborated with colleagues from around the globe, whether in product, engineering, marketing, or sales teams. I consistently worked to bring the “community voice” into product thinking and transform “enterprise practices” into technical advocacy materials. This ability to connect in both directions has been one of my most valuable takeaways in recent years.

Meanwhile, I witnessed Tetrate’s journey from a startup to a mature product company. Supporting products like Tetrate Service Bridge and TIS (Tetrate Istio Subscription) deepened my understanding of service mesh implementation scenarios, security architecture, and customer value.

Rekindled Interest: The AI Wave

Over the past two years, the AI field has advanced rapidly, with concepts like LLM, Agent, RAG, AI Gateway, MCP, and A2A emerging one after another. Each breakthrough reminds me of the excitement I felt when I first encountered Kubernetes—curiosity and boundless imagination.

As a technical advocate who has journeyed from big data to cloud-native infrastructure, I’ve had limited opportunities to dive deeply into AI in my daily work. This has become a driving force for me to focus on learning and exploring AI in the next phase. I’ve started using LLM tools to restructure my knowledge system, optimize workflows, and explore how to integrate AI technologies into platform engineering, developer experience, and open-source collaboration. This exploration has reignited the passion and excitement I felt when I first entered the tech world.

Reconnecting with the Community and the World

To be honest, in recent years, I’ve focused more on overseas markets and English content, gradually distancing myself from the local tech community. Many friends have noticed my reduced presence in meetups, WeChat groups, or offline conferences.

But this is not the end; it’s a new beginning. I still love the community, content creation, and transforming complex technologies into knowledge that everyone can understand. In the future, I hope to better connect the capabilities and practices of Chinese engineers with the global open-source community while helping more local enterprises go global. After all, I have experience working remotely for international companies and excel at communicating with global customers and developers.

Future Exploration and Thoughts

In the coming months, I plan to explore areas that genuinely interest me, such as:

• Using AI tools to enhance developer experience
• Applying infrastructure engineering skills to AI infrastructure
• Re-engaging in community and technical advocacy
• Considering whether to explore product-oriented roles

Currently, I haven’t locked in a specific job type or company. I’m open to joining small teams with clear visions and technical depth, and I’m not opposed to continuing global remote collaboration. If you know of opportunities that suit me, feel free to reach out via private message or WeChat.

Everything is still in exploration. If you’re pondering similar questions, let’s connect and exchange ideas.

Acknowledgments

During my journey at Tetrate, I want to thank every colleague, partner, and community member. Your support and encouragement have kept me moving forward in the tech world. Special thanks to my team for your trust and companionship, giving me the opportunity to grow in this challenging and opportunity-filled field.

Finally, thank you to all the friends who have followed and supported me. Wherever the future takes me, I will continue to share my technical explorations and thoughts, hoping to grow alongside you.