I am Yongli Chen, the creator of Shifu Framework, a next-gen Kubernetes-native open-source IoT development framework. Ask me anything!

Submitted by saiyan86 t3_za9odv in IAmA

Hello all! I'm Yongli Chen, the creator of Shifu Framework, the next-generation Kubernetes-native open source IoT development framework. I used to work at Microsoft AKS - Azure Kubernetes Service for a few years. Before that, I worked at Azure Container Networking and was in charge of Azure CNI - Container Networking Interface.

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When Microsoft pivoted its strategy from "mobile first, cloud first" to "intelligent cloud and intelligent edge", I started to wonder why and did my research on intelligent edge. Intelligent edge is essentially edge computing. Coincidentally, working at AKS and Kubernetes has become the de facto standard in cloud computing. I started to wonder if we can leverage the power of Kubernetes in edge computing as well. The blocker for edge computing is that it's time-consuming and challenging to develop IoT apps. That's where Shifu comes in...

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Shifu framework makes developing an IoT app as simple as developing a Web app. The high extensibility of Shifu allows it to integrate almost all devices and protocols. Once a device is integrated, Shifu generates a digital twin of the device as a microservice in the system and opens up device data and capabilities in the form of APIs. In this way, traditional IoT application development is simplified to web development, which greatly improves the efficiency, quality and reusability of IoT application development.

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You can learn more about Shifu Framework here: github, and join Discord if you have any further questions.

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Ask me anything about IoT, Kubernetes, Edge Computing, Open Source, and startups. :)

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Proof: Imgur: The magic of the Internet , Twitter, Github

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PeanutSalsa t1_iyl294i wrote

What are the common trends you find between startups that are successful vs. ones that aren't?

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saiyan86 OP t1_iyl4rij wrote

The successful ones always focus on the market. It's impossible to create a market from thin air. As entrepreneurs, we need to stay close to the customers, and listen to them.

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luisapet t1_iyl3fv7 wrote

I always dread being the old person in the mix, but I'm also incredibly curious about technology...Can someone please eli5 (or 50)?

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saiyan86 OP t1_iyl54kf wrote

Let me give it a try! We are trying to make developing IoT solutions as simple as developing an App. Think of iOS/Android, if you develop your App on those platforms, you don’t need to worry about the hardware underneath. Shifu is the iOS/Android of IoT era.

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luisapet t1_iyl9x9x wrote

Ooohhhh! TY! I was originally coming at this 100% from an end-user perspective. This is awesome!

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AxolotlVirus t1_iykwzn4 wrote

Just had a glance, so is Shifu an enhancement to some of the K8s features?

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saiyan86 OP t1_iykxgsj wrote

Yes. Shifu extends the power to the world of IoT. To be more specific, k8s manages containers, and Shifu manages IoT devices (on top of k8s).

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AxolotlVirus t1_iyl2ioo wrote

So which means it can endow Kubernetes with the ability it would otherwise not have, to manage both devices and upper layer applications in the same infrastructure, right?

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BroccoliPark t1_iykyw23 wrote

Got it, but whether its K8s cluster require high performance?

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saiyan86 OP t1_iyl0d7y wrote

k3s works too! Shifu is a CRD which only requires a k8s distribution. It doesn't have to be upstream k8s.

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kevingbzheng t1_iyl0pd1 wrote

what's the minimum hardware requirement to run Shifu?

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saiyan86 OP t1_iyl4tzp wrote

A raspberry Pi with 2GB RAM is sufficient.

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kevingbzheng t1_iyliig9 wrote

Cool, can shifu run on a PLC board? Or similar computing unit? Any restriction so far?

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RachelZhang0922 t1_iykxdwz wrote

I wonder what protocols and devices does Shifu currently support? just some or all of it?

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saiyan86 OP t1_iykxrxk wrote

public protocols: HTTP, MQTT, OPCUA, RTSP, ADS, BACnet, CBus, Eip, Knx, Modbus.

In addition, Shifu can support proprietary protocol/drivers! Here's an example: https://shifu.run/docs/guides/cases/connect-unsupported-protocol

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RachelZhang0922 t1_iykzjat wrote

but what's the difference between shifu and say... Edge X?

it appears the same to me

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saiyan86 OP t1_iyl09ye wrote

Looks like you are the expert of IoT! The main difference between shifu and EdgeX is k8s native. Being k8s native, shifu is inherently highly available and distributed. This is also one of the main reasons shifu is being used in multiple production scenarios.

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MrLeea t1_iykxfsm wrote

Hello, Yonny Chen. I am very very interested in IoT and I would like to know why Shifu used golang instead of rust or other languages?

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saiyan86 OP t1_iyky0j4 wrote

Because we can write Golang programs much faster : P

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sir322 t1_iyl0lta wrote

Interesting… Did you leave microsoft to start your own project? What do you feel about start a company in the current economy?

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saiyan86 OP t1_iyl5d6s wrote

Yes. I left MSFT for Shifu despite of the economic downturn. That how convinced I am about our technology!

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sir322 t1_iyl694e wrote

Good luck! Do you have any advice for people who wants to start a company?

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saiyan86 OP t1_iyl6rh8 wrote

Zoom's CEO Eric Yuan once told me:"Just do it!" And that's how I got started.

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IAmAModBot t1_iyl0qbl wrote

For more AMAs on this topic, subscribe to r/IAmA_Tech, and check out our other topic-specific AMA subreddits here.

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factorsofhappiness t1_iyoz178 wrote

How does your average daily routine look like? How do you combat failure in your profession? Where do you get your grit from?

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saiyan86 OP t1_iyqsjxu wrote

>1. How does your average daily routine look like?
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>TBH, there's no so-called work-life balance for a startup founder. I'm "on vacation" right now, but I still work everyday.
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>2. How do you combat failure in your profession?
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>Luckily I'm pretty chill. The pressure is huge, and you have to find away to release it. The key is to focus on what you CAN influence, and forget about the rest.
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>Where do you get your grit from?
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>You have to set an ambitious goal. A big one. This way you will always be motivated.

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geme-green t1_j04hfir wrote

Good luck dude, our team also take the game in the economic downturn. Pretty interested in your framework. We do have a use case in our ongoing project https://www.geme.bio/solar-compactor

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saiyan86 OP t1_j0sv20p wrote

I'm very interested in your use case! Just sent you a DM.

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