AnsibleFest Atlanta 2019 Trip Report

Background: I started using Ansible in 2014 at a data center company. I implemented Ansible to deploy our customer portal, which contained hundreds of war files, load balancer changes, database schema changes, etc. I’ve used Ansible at every position since. I joined Red Hat as part of the Ansible team in June 2018. I moved over to the OpenShift team in June 2019. I’m a long time Ansible user, advocate, and fan. I work for Red Hat, these views and opinions are solely though. ...

October 14, 2019 · Chris Short

Joining forces with OpenShift

This Monday (2019-08-19) will be my first day as Principal Technical Marketing Manager on the Cloud Platforms team at Red Hat. What does that mean? OpenShift (a lot of OpenShift), Kubernetes, containers, Operators, and all the associated bits will be my day job. Helping folks help themselves with technology is still and always will be the name of my game. But, working full time in the Kubernetes or cloud native ecosystem was a 2020 goal. Crossing off 2020 goals in 2019. #winning ...

August 18, 2019 · Chris Short

I'm a Red Hat Certified Specialist: Ansible Automation

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). ...

January 7, 2019 · Chris Short
IBM to acquire Red Hat for $34 Billion (with a B)

One Fish, Two Fish, Blue Fish Sporting New Red Hat

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. ...

November 2, 2018 · Chris Short

Joining Ansible Team at Red Hat

tl;dr “It is with great pleasure that I announce I am joining the Ansible team at Red Hat as Principal Product Marketing Manager.” In The Beginning… In 1998, I was working at a dial-up ISP in Hickory, NC. We were heavily invested in Windows and needed to reduce costs and increase speed. My CEO at the time had the foresight to know that Linux was the future. She hired two engineers to transform the business into a Red Hat Linux based ISP. These engineers had the challenge of swapping platforms and teaching those of us that didn’t abandon ship Linux. My first Linux distro was Red Hat Linux 5 (not RHEL, Red Hat Linux). From that point on, I knew Red Hat was a platform to watch and utilize. ...

June 25, 2018 · Chris Short