Dapr (Distributed Application Runtime, an open-source CNCF project) provides developers with common cloud-native capabilities for reliable service invocation, asynchronous messaging, cross-cutting concerns such as observability, security, resiliency, and more - accessed via standardized APIs that decouple application code from the underlying infrastructure. This allows for implementing distributed systems in a language and platform-independent manner, according to best practices and patterns. Operating on this higher level of abstraction brings significant benefits but involves important trade-offs; in this session, Marc Klefter will explore these aspects by guiding you through the building blocks of Dapr and how it solves typical cloud native application challenges, adoption strategies for greenfield and migration (i.e. moving away from direct integration with vendor-specific services) scenarios, and the organizational implications for application and platform engineering teams.