The last week of November 2018, I made a trip to the Red Hat office in Westford, MA. I was enrolled in Automation with Ansible I (DO407) with exam (EX407) class. One of my co-workers scoffed when I told him I was going. He didn’t seem to quite understand why I wanted a certification I don’t need (I do work for Ansible now after all). I hope to address that and why Product and Marketing people should get certified (not only Ops). ...
A former co-worker and now friend used to have a tagline, “Everyday is a school day.” I remind myself of this fact nearly every time I learn something new. Overall, 2018 was great for me professionally. I’d like to share some things I picked up on this most recent journey around the sun we call 2018. I’ll make some predictions about 2019 in the process too. Kubernetes Will Get Easier Last year, I mentioned that Kubernetes Will Find Its Way in 2018. I do believe that came to fruition this year. Pretty much every major IT company has a range of ways to consume Kubernetes. They’re all Cloud Native Computing Foundation members at the very least. Operationalizing Kubernetes is getting easier as more people gain experience with Kubernetes. Even lab or cloud-only experience might be enough to get a job at the moment. ...
I went to KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2018 in Seattle, Washington this week. My trip was cut short due to a work meeting in Raleigh, NC. But, I definitely pushed myself to my limits in Seattle. Make no mistake, had I been staying the entire week as planned I would not have done the time on site the way I did. I wore quite a few hats on this trip: ...
It’s the most wonderful time of year! When everyone gets together with family or friends they haven’t seen in who knows how long. Of course, the topic of Trump, social media, and burnt gravy stories will come up. But, my personal favorite topic is, “I have this issue with PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY XYZ. Please help me!” Luckily, despite having not worked on anything other than Mac and Linux the past seven years, I don’t get too many wild questions from family. I’ll sit down with Grandma and help her with an iPhone issue from time to time. My mother-in-law has some legacy e-mail stuff all filtered in her Gmail. Sometimes AT&T changes something and it breaks. These things happen. Complex systems are hard enough. No sense in me being an asshole about it (although I will get frustrated from time to time). ...
Since Sunday afternoon, I’ve been in a whirlwind of meetings, discussions, and calls about IBM’s plan to acquire Red Hat for $34 billion. My mind has been racing but, after some consideration, I’ve decided to share my thoughts as a narrative timeline. Trust me when say that I have given this format considerable thought. It is likely the safest way (regulatory-wise) to deliver my thoughts on the topic. I would like to point out that I have updated my disclaimer and this site’s terms. My views do not reflect those of my employer or entities I’m affiliated with. Names are withheld for obvious reasons. ...