GitHub visits Deriv Dubai, unveils the future of Copilot, Actions, and Advanced Security
Like the rockstars they are, GitHub sent 3 of their top Jedi to our shores for a day of tech discovery and exploration. Needless to say, we were absolutely thrilled!
Our Dubai office was lit with excitement last week. While on their regional ON-SITE tour, GitHub (yes, the one and only) stopped by on 16 January to grace us with a full-day deep dive into cutting-edge development tools and best practices.
GitHub speakers Pedro Oom, Marcio Tedesco, and Dirk Jan took 70+ of our tech experts on a voyage of discovery focused on empowering our development workflows.
Unveiling Copilot's future: Enhancing code productivity and innovation
The journey began with charting the future of AI-powered coding with Copilot. We explored its current capabilities and upcoming features to learn how this innovative tool can streamline our coding process and unlock new productivity levels.
Next, the discussion shifted to optimising development workflows with Copilot's best practices. From leveraging its suggestions effectively to integrating them seamlessly into existing processes, the session provided practical strategies for maximising Copilot’s impact.
Jothimani Radhakrishnan, our Senior DevOps Engineer, said, “We’re keen on leveraging Copilot’s ability to revolutionise daily coding practices. It’ll significantly enhance productivity and code quality, streamlining our development.”
Riddhi Ojha, our Flutter Development Manager, agrees. “Marcio (of GitHub) gave us an in-depth look at Copilot and its roadmap of the future,” she said. “This helped our team gain a comprehensive understanding of the tool's capabilities and potential enhancements. It also helps us align our development strategies with upcoming features and improvements.”
“Engineers are still needed,” said Elisha Robin, our Senior Back-end Software Developer, in reference to uncertainty around AI taking over jobs. “Copilot is a great tool to help engineers. From a security perspective, it was interesting to learn how to tell Copilot not to train on certain areas due to privacy.”
No development journey is complete without a robust CI/CD pipeline. Using GitHub Actions as our guide, we learned how to automate builds, tests, and deployments, ensuring a smooth sail from code commit to production release. CI/CD best practices and troubleshooting tips equipped our engineers to navigate even the most complex deployment scenarios.
“The best practices shared during these sessions offer practical tips for improving our development and deployment processes,” Riddhi said.
Advanced Security with GitHub
Finally, the session anchored on GitHub Advanced Security, empowering us to proactively identify and address vulnerabilities. Deep dives into code scanning, query writing, and security best practices provided the tools and knowledge needed to build a watertight defence against potential threats.
“The opportunity to have our security queries addressed directly by GitHub experts instilled confidence in our team's approach to security practices,” said Riddhi. “Thanks to the best practices they shared and their direct responses to our queries, we’re able to enhance our overall approach to software security.”
“It was great engaging with GitHub experts,” Jothimani added, “They provided some really valuable insights.”
“We had a peek at how a large organisation like GitHub uses the workspaces feature,” said Elisha. “It was surprising to see how much Github uses Github to develop Github.”
Looking ahead
Emerging from the event, our tech experts were equipped with a treasure chest of actionable insights and practical tools. With Copilot as their AI first mate, optimised workflows as their compass, and robust CI/CD and security practices as their sturdy hull, our tech experts are now better poised to conquer coding challenges confidently and efficiently.