Dive into an extensive exploration of Spring Cloud.next and modern microservices development in this comprehensive conference talk. Discover the key features of Spring Boot 2.0 and Spring Cloud Finchley, including functions-as-a-service with Spring Cloud Function, functional reactive REST endpoints, and reactive programming with Spring Framework 5. Learn how to leverage flow control at every layer and optimize CPU usage for input/output operations. Explore the integration of Kotlin with Java libraries, messaging capabilities with Apache Kafka, and the new reactive Spring Cloud Gateway. Gain insights into cutting-edge technologies and best practices for building efficient, scalable cloud-native applications.