Ettore Berardi
Tech Lead at the BBC
Ettore Berardi is a Software Engineer based in London, UK. Currently working as a Tech Lead at the BBC, he oversees a team of 8 developers managing the routing and resiliency layer for the BBC. During his eight-year tenure, he architected and built software serving BBC News, Weather, World Service, and Sport websites and apps, handling millions of requests per hour.
Previously, he worked at Macmillan Science and Education, building the publishing platform for the Nature magazine. Worked as a freelance consultant for various clients, including fashion and media companies. He also tried running a pub. His career began at Apple Computer, in Ireland.
Talk:
How Elixir Powers the BBC: From PoC to Production at Scale
This talk chronicles the four-year journey of adopting Elixir at the BBC, evolving from our initial proof-of-concept to serving almost all BBC’s web and app traffic. The presentation will explore how a small team successfully introduced a niche language in a risk-averse enterprise environment, built critical infrastructure components, and gained organisational trust. We’ll dive into practical examples of how Elixir’s strengths were leveraged to handle traffic spikes, implement circuit breakers, and create powerful DSLs for route management.
Key Takeaways:
- Practical strategies for introducing and scaling Elixir in large, traditional organisations
- Real-world examples of building resilient systems handling high-traffic loads
- Lessons learned from developing internal tools and testing strategies to gain corporate confidence
- Insights into team structure, hiring, and maintaining Elixir expertise in a predominantly JavaScript environment
Target Audience:
- Mid to senior-level developers and technical leaders interested in:
- Adopting Elixir in enterprise environments
- Building and scaling mission-critical infrastructure
- Managing organisational change and technical risk