2025 in Review and Goals for 2026

funkysi1701@gmail.com (funkysi1701) — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

2025 in Review

What a year 2025 has been! I published 24 blog posts covering a wide range of topics from cloud-native technologies to AI experiments, and even some personal reflections. Here are the key themes and highlights from my blogging year:

Cloud-Native and DevOps

This was a major focus area for me in 2025, not really surprising as I moved into a DevOps role this year, with deep dives into modern infrastructure:

Learning Kubernetes - Started my journey into container orchestration and shared my beginner experiences
Deploying Hugo with Helm - Deployed this very blog to Kubernetes using Helm charts
Kubernetes and Let’s Encrypt - Tackled SSL certificate management in Kubernetes
Monitoring with Nagios Docker - Explored monitoring solutions in containerized environments

.NET and Development

My bread and butter continues to be .NET development, with several posts exploring new features and tools:

Blazor and .NET 10 - Covered breaking changes, fixes, and new features in the latest .NET release
Adding Elasticsearch with .NET Aspire - Integrated search capabilities using Aspire
Aspire 9.2 - Explored the latest Aspire release
NuGet Central Package Management - Streamlined dependency management
What’s New in C# - Covered the latest language features
Exceptions - Best practices for error handling

Observability and Monitoring

Understanding what’s happening in production became a key theme:

Getting Started with OpenTelemetry - Made observability easy with modern tracing
OpenTelemetry Logs - Extended observability to include logging
Setting up Grafana - Built dashboards for monitoring

Cloud Platforms

Merging Two Projects into One - Shared my experience consolidating codebases

AI and Creativity

Fun with AI - Explored ChatGPT’s image generation capabilities
Using AI - Practical applications of AI in daily work
Mandelbrot Set - A fun mathematical exploration

Professional Development

The Pragmatic Programmer - Book review of this classic software development book
The Hacker Ethic - Reflections on developer culture and values
Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone - Personal growth and career development
Volunteering at NDC London - My experience at this major .NET conference
Periodic Table of DevOps 2025 - A visual guide to the DevOps ecosystem

Fun Projects

Festive Naughty or Nice Checker - A seasonal AI-powered fun project

Thank you to everyone who read, commented, and shared my posts throughout the year. Your engagement and feedback mean the world to me!

2025 by the Numbers

24 blog posts published
Major topics: Kubernetes, .NET, OpenTelemetry, AI
New skills acquired: Helm, Kubernetes, observability tools
Conferences attended: NDC London (as a volunteer) and DDD North
Submitted content to https://festivetechcalendar.com

Goals for 2026

Looking ahead to 2026, I’m excited to build on this momentum. Here are my blogging and technical goals:

Content Goals

Publish at least 24 posts - Maintain the pace from 2025
Deep dive into AI/ML - Go beyond experimentation to practical implementations
More hands-on tutorials - Provide step-by-step guides that readers can follow along with

Technical Skills

Master Kubernetes - Move from beginner to intermediate proficiency
Advanced observability - Implement comprehensive monitoring across distributed systems
Cloud-native patterns - Explore microservices, event-driven architectures, and service mesh
AI integration - Build practical AI-powered features into applications
Platform engineering - Create better developer experiences and internal platforms

Walking

At the end of 2024 I made the following goal:

2024 took an unusual turn. In June, I walked a half marathon across the Peak District, and since then,
I have been doing lots of walks. Walking is good for my physical and mental health,
so I intend to do more of it in 2025. I have a 5k scheduled for January,
which should be lots of fun as it is around the wildlife park.

Well I enjoyed my walk in January 2025, which then led to two 10k walks (in July and September) and a 7.5k night walk (in Blackpool to see the Illuminations). This led me to explore parkrun and I completed my 8th run this morning. I say run, not walk as I am slowly becoming more of a runner and less of a walker.

So my goal here is to keep doing this, as I am so far enjoying getting out and about.

What Would You Like to See?

I’d love to hear from you! What topics would you like me to cover in 2026? Are there specific technologies, patterns, or problems you’d like to see explored?

Drop a comment below, reach out on social media, or send me a message. Your feedback helps shape the content direction for the year ahead.

Here’s to a fantastic 2026 filled with learning, building, and sharing! 🚀

2026-01 on Funky Si's Blog