Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

34 articles

Elena Vasquez is a former backend engineer based in Barcelona who now writes about languages, runtimes, and the cost of infrastructure fashion. She has migrated services between clouds and watched container defaults become the product. She focuses on developer experience that survives contact with production, not launch-week benchmarks.

Articles

Logs for an Agent-Built App: What You Need When You Did Not Write the Handler

DevOps

Software Development

Logs for an Agent-Built App: What You Need When You Did Not Write the Handler

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 30, 2026

Context Window vs a Fresh Chat: When Stuffing the Repo Costs More Than It Helps

Artificial Intelligence

Software Development

Context Window vs a Fresh Chat: When Stuffing the Repo Costs More Than It Helps

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 30, 2026

Vercel vs a VPS for an App a Coding Agent Just Generated

Cloud Computing

Software Development

Vercel vs a VPS for an App a Coding Agent Just Generated

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 30, 2026

Should a Solo Developer Use Kubernetes?

DevOps

Docker

Should a Solo Developer Use Kubernetes?

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 27, 2026

GitHub Actions Hosted Runners vs Self-Hosted Runners: Speed, Minutes, and the Machine You Now Babysit

DevOps

Software Development

GitHub Actions Hosted Runners vs Self-Hosted Runners: Speed, Minutes, and the Machine You Now Babysit

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 27, 2026

Why some programmers still pick Clojure when the problem gets messy

Software Architecture

Software Development

Why some programmers still pick Clojure when the problem gets messy

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 18, 2026

Does PHP still have a future in 2026 — or is it just the language the web can’t uninstall?

Software Development

Web Development & Design

Does PHP still have a future in 2026 — or is it just the language the web can’t uninstall?

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 18, 2026

How Microsoft is actually evolving .NET: performance, developer experience, and AI

Programming Languages

Software Development

How Microsoft is actually evolving .NET: performance, developer experience, and AI

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 18, 2026

Why I’d still learn Haskell in 2026 — and why I wouldn’t put it on a job hunt first

Programming Languages

Software Development

Why I’d still learn Haskell in 2026 — and why I wouldn’t put it on a job hunt first

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 18, 2026

Is Spring Boot still worth it in 2026 — or is it just the Java default you inherit?

Programming Languages

Software Development

Is Spring Boot still worth it in 2026 — or is it just the Java default you inherit?

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 18, 2026

Why WhatsApp and Discord bet on the Erlang VM — and when I wouldn’t

Software Architecture

Software Development

Why WhatsApp and Discord bet on the Erlang VM — and when I wouldn’t

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 18, 2026

Go from the inside: generics, goroutines, and whether the language still has a ceiling

Software Architecture

Software Development

Go from the inside: generics, goroutines, and whether the language still has a ceiling

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 18, 2026

Ruby vs everyone: the language that outlived its hype — and why I’d still start a product in it

Programming Languages

Software Development

Ruby vs everyone: the language that outlived its hype — and why I’d still start a product in it

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 18, 2026

Why Java is still the business default in 2026 — and when I'd pick something else

Software Architecture

Software Development

Why Java is still the business default in 2026 — and when I'd pick something else

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

September 18, 2026

The microservice tax: what you actually pay after you leave the monolith

Software Architecture

Software Development

The microservice tax: what you actually pay after you leave the monolith

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

August 28, 2026

Monolith vs microservices in 2026: I still start with one deployable — here’s when I split

Software Architecture

Software Development

Monolith vs microservices in 2026: I still start with one deployable — here’s when I split

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

August 28, 2026

I switched to FastAPI and uv. Here’s what actually got faster — and what didn’t

Python

Software Development

I switched to FastAPI and uv. Here’s what actually got faster — and what didn’t

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

August 28, 2026

Async Python in 2026: when FastAPI + uv is the right stack and when it isn’t

Python

Software Development

Async Python in 2026: when FastAPI + uv is the right stack and when it isn’t

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

August 28, 2026

Node.js after Deno, Bun, and Go: what it’s still best at and what’s leaving

Node.js

Software Development

Node.js after Deno, Bun, and Go: what it’s still best at and what’s leaving

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

August 28, 2026

I would still start a new backend in Node.js. Here’s when I wouldn’t.

Node.js

Software Development

I would still start a new backend in Node.js. Here’s when I wouldn’t.

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

August 28, 2026

Does Node.js still have a future in 2026 — or is the runtime already a legacy default?

Software Development

Does Node.js still have a future in 2026 — or is the runtime already a legacy default?

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

August 27, 2026

Why pick Rust in 2026 when Go and Zig already solve the same jobs

Software Development

Why pick Rust in 2026 when Go and Zig already solve the same jobs

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

August 27, 2026

Choosing Rust in 2026: when the compile-time tax is actually worth it

Software Development

Choosing Rust in 2026: when the compile-time tax is actually worth it

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

August 27, 2026

Why Time Zone Database Updates Quietly Break More Software Than You'd Think

Desktop Computers & Hardware

Explainers

Why Time Zone Database Updates Quietly Break More Software Than You'd Think

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

July 9, 2026

Rust vs Go for Real Projects: Where Each Language Actually Wins

Software Development

Rust vs Go for Real Projects: Where Each Language Actually Wins

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

July 7, 2026

The Hidden Costs of Containerizing Everything in Your Infrastructure

Infrastructure & Systems

Software Development

The Hidden Costs of Containerizing Everything in Your Infrastructure

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

July 7, 2026

Meilisearch vs Elasticsearch for Indie Apps: Ops Burden Versus Query Power

Software Development

Meilisearch vs Elasticsearch for Indie Apps: Ops Burden Versus Query Power

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

April 8, 2026

GraphQL vs REST in 2026: When Your API Style Becomes a Team Tax

Software Development

GraphQL vs REST in 2026: When Your API Style Becomes a Team Tax

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

April 8, 2026

Make.com vs Custom Code for Data Pipelines: When Visual Automation Stalls

Automation

Data Engineering

Make.com vs Custom Code for Data Pipelines: When Visual Automation Stalls

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

April 6, 2026

The Case for a Dedicated Development Machine When You Work Remotely

Digital Lifestyle

The Case for a Dedicated Development Machine When You Work Remotely

Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez

March 7, 2026