Field notes
What I learn in production: migrations, tooling, architecture. Real cases, with their numbers and the parts that did not work first time.
- Measure to Understand: An Introduction to Backend Metrics
Let’s set sail aboard a beautiful three-masted ship, bound for a promising land. The destination is far away, and the voyage is full of uncertainty!
For centuries, sailors have relied on instruments such as compasses, maps, and barometers to reduce that uncertainty. Each puts a number to something that can be hard to judge: speed, heading, or depth. On their own, these instruments provide limited information; together, they help the crew understand the situation and adjust course when needed.
- When a Service Slows Down, Where Should You Look?
It is 8:50 a.m. and you have ten minutes to complete an online form before starting work. Once you have overcome your fear of paperwork, you dive into a page full of increasingly incomprehensible text fields and wonder why on earth you chose to sacrifice those precious minutes to boredom.
- Monolith, Modular Monolith, or Microservices: How to Choose Your Backend Architecture
Microservices, microservices, microservices: like Steve Ballmer on stage, a sizeable part of the industry has been chanting this refrain for years. As if microservices had become a prerequisite for any resilient application worthy of becoming the next Netflix.
- Two Hours of Code to Save Twenty Minutes Every Month
September 1, 2026 marks the effective start of France’s electronic invoicing reform . Every company must now be able to receive electronic invoices; large companies and mid-sized enterprises must also issue them in this form. As often happens with this kind of change, I’ve seen plenty of commotion on social media. In an ironic bit of timing, the French tax authority itself disclosed unauthorized access to part of its information system in mid-August, while stressing that the incident was unrelated to the electronic invoicing system.
- No, Your Blog Doesn't Need Kubernetes
Kubernetes is tech’s broken record: it’s been on repeat for years, and “learn this to make it in 2026” influencers keep putting it at the top of the list of must-have skills, the Holy Grail to reach. And yet, for this blog, I made a choice some might call “not sexy” today: a static site generated with Hugo, deployed via a simple GitHub Action that pushes files over FTP to a shared OVH hosting plan.
- Application Tracking: What It's For and How to Set It Up with Matomo
At the start of my career, I worked mostly on B2B projects, where application tracking wasn’t a core concern. The convention was to build based on direct requests from client companies. When I joined Molotov TV in late 2018 — a mainstream french streaming platform — I quickly realized that approach couldn’t keep up with hundreds of thousands of daily users.
- From 30 Minutes to 5 Minutes of CI: Migrating a Java Backend to Go with Generative AI
For a few years now, in my spare time, I’ve been working on NuCorder : a platform that lets musicians rehearse online together with low-latency constraints. Founded by three musicians, I’ve been responsible for all the technical development and infrastructure from day one.
- Welcome to the Cabestan Technologies blog
After 7 years at Molotov TV — first as a Go backend developer, then as Tech Lead and Engineering Manager — and a stint as Head of Software Engineering at Wiremind on Eventori , their revenue management product for stadiums and concert halls, I’m going freelance to work on high-value topics: architecture, developer experience, CI/CD, cloud infrastructure.
