OpenStack Nova

Build a career path for your technical individual contributors — here’s how nellmarie.colman Mon, 08/03/2020 - 07:18   Not everyone wants to manage people, but many companies don’t provide alternate pathways to progress a career in tech, leaving ... [More] technical individual contributors (ICs) stuck. “This is a dilemma if you’ve spent years building skills to become a tech expert,” says Rackspace Technology Principal Architect — Product Architecture Nicholas Garratt, who sits on the Rackspace Technology Technical Career Track (TCT) board. “If your only option is to manage other resources, skills atrophy. You become less competitive through moving away from the skills that brought you to a company in the first place. You lack time to do what you once enjoyed.” Garratt explains experts often want to mentor people, help companies transform and be public advocates — “what they see as the good parts of a leadership role” — but without being estranged from hands-on skills. This is why some large tech companies develop TCTs. These initiatives identify and nurture technical ICs, providing them with a path to a technical leadership role that’s the equivalent of executive-level leadership within an organization. They drive the business forward, but don’t have to manage people nor leave the technical work they love behind. “It’s about empowering and promoting them to help them become leaders — without a move to management,” says Garratt. But what benefits does this bring to your organization? And can this model work for companies with smaller, more specialized technical teams and less opportunity for growth?   Why highly skilled, technical ICs are vital to every organization Rackspace Technology has over 6000 staff — and yet only around 50 are TCT members. The program is fastidious in its selection process, choosing only the best technical people who’ve reached the pinnacle of their traditional tracks. These professionals have great technical skills and leadership potential, and a desire to do more. As Garratt notes, smaller organizations have a more limited pool of resources to draw from, and tend toward simpler organizational structures. “Developing highly specialized technical IC roles is something that’s not going to be as practically possible for them,” he says, adding that it’s therefore hardly surprising TCTs are far less common in smaller companies. However, David Porter, Principal Engineer at Rackspace Technology — and another TCT board member — believes similar structures nonetheless have the potential to bring key benefits to smaller organizations. “Retention is the most obvious,” he says. “If your company has fewer than 100 people, you might still have the original engineers. So you’ll want to keep them to train people up and share critical knowledge.” For medium-sized businesses, Porter suggests fostering technical leaders is more about retaining talent to get “maximum velocity for change” and to involve them in mentoring and evangelism. “In short, try to keep the people who represent the business.” Garratt adds morale is a factor: “When people leave, that’s a poor signal. Oust a respected, trusted individual through a lack of care and attention and that can cause lasting damage to subsequent recruitment efforts.” By contrast, technical ICs in leadership roles strengthen organizations by being seen as “positions to aspire to — that other tech resources look up to for leadership and guidance.”   How to identify technical leaders and help them thrive Creating a technical career track is easier said than done, though, and the specifics will vary depending on your organization’s size and the composition and disposition of your teams. But four fundamental tips should help get you started.   1. Identify your top technical resources Spotting technical ICs with leadership potential might not come naturally if your company has centered on traditional promotion routes, or doesn’t have a history of identifying such individuals. Garrett says they must be “discovered organically.” Within every tech team is that person others turn to, who can provide answers, opinion and thought-provoking conversation. “Don’t force anything. Their status must be organically earned.”   2. Get buy-in According to Porter, it’s vital any program you pursue “goes all the way to the top.” He warns against delegating programs like the TCT, because relevant policy can’t be made if people’s hands are tied. Also, get buy-in from the participants themselves. That might seem obvious, but some companies miss this step. “Have a dialog with them,” says Porter. “Find out what they want to do, and don’t force people into roles they’ve no interest in.”   3. Create a plan Porter says you must offer people more than a pay increase and a fancy title they might just use to get a job elsewhere: “There needs to be a plan — a set of roles that describe what your technical leaders need to do.” Individuals can measure their efforts accordingly, and the company can monitor their progress and promote automatically based on key milestones. “Ensure you have a clear path, to retain people and keep improving them until they reach the highest possible level,” he adds.   4. Be flexible and balanced Garrett reasons many people who manage tech resources lack direct experience in managing the career paths of technical ICs, and so shifts in thinking might be required. An important one is to “balance their schedule, leaving time to accommodate ad-hoc requests and investigate things.” But he says it’s counter-productive to impose a rigid structure on how and when to engage, and that the technical ICs must be flexible, too, since they’ll have many conversations that aren’t core to their role.   Maximize value from people for success Whether you enact a full TCT program or put in a more modest system to define, develop and empower your technical ICs, the result will add value to your company. As Porter notes, too often the reasoning behind TCTs is about good people “not wanting to be managers,” but he asks: “What if a company loses a person’s value by making them a manager? What if someone would otherwise have been a more effective contributor at accomplishing the business’s goals?” For medium-sized and smaller companies alike, this is critical. When resources are stretched, make optimum use of them. You want best-of-breed talent, and so must empower your technical leaders and ensure they don’t get stuck in a rut — or leave — because you offer them no other choices. And as Garratt says: “Just because someone doesn’t go down a path to directorship that doesn’t mean they lack valuable insight into improving an organization.” Failure to appropriately engage with your distinguished technical ICs can lower morale and job satisfaction, potentially driving attrition in a challenging technical skills market. Engage and encourage your high performers who, as Porter says, “manage nothing more than doing the best possible work for your customers,” and you’ll move faster, transform your organization and have the best possible advocates for your business — inside and out. Our TCT Rackers help us move fast and help our customers to move fast too. Check out our customer stories to hear how our top technical staff can make their expertise work for you.   Build a career path for your technical individual contributors — here’s howOur experts explore why highly skilled, technical individual contributors are vital, how to identify and help them thrive, and an approach to consider that can maximize their value.See how our technical leaders put their expertise to work. /customer-storiesRead customer stories Professional ServicesCloud InsightsJeff HighleyBuild a career path for your technical individual contributors — here’s howAugust 4, 2020 [Less]

Johan Christenson and Mohammed Naser share why open source contribution matters and how organizations can get their employees started in the community. The post Contributing to Open Infrastructure: Everybody Wins, So Let’s Get Started appeared first on Superuser.

Over 400 participants located in more than 60 countries representing 200+ companies tuned in at OpenDev: Hardware Automation The post OpenDev Hardware Automation Recap and Next Steps appeared first on Superuser.

StackHPC's Mark Goddard to present on Kayobe and Kolla-Ansible at the London and Manchester virtual OpenInfra meetup.

The Summit Programming Committee has shared topics by Track for community members interested in speaking at the upcoming Summit, October 19 - 23. The post Submission Tips for the Virtual Open Infrastructure Summit appeared first on Superuser.

Storytelling is one of the most powerful means to influence, teach, and inspire the people around us. To celebrate OpenStack’s 10th anniversary, we are spotlighting stories from the individuals in various roles from the community who have helped to ... [More] make OpenStack and the global Open Infrastructure community successful.  Here, we’re talking to Alan Clark from... Read more » [Less]

Happy 10 years of OpenStack! Millions of cores, 100,000 community members, 10 years of you. Storytelling is one of the most powerful means to influence, teach, and inspire the people around us. To celebrate OpenStack’s 10th anniversary, we are ... [More] spotlighting stories from the individuals in various roles from the community who have helped to make... Read more » [Less]

Creating great customer experiences, in a new challenging era nellmarie.colman Sun, 07/26/2020 - 15:52 It’s always critical to treat your customers with the respect they deserve. But in these challenging times, you can respond in ways that really set ... [More] your business apart. With some effort, you can improve your customer experience and show your customers, in tangible ways, that you’re committed to achieving the best results possible for them. Your business has something to gain from improving your customer experience as well. In fact, 36% of companies that excel in customer experience report they exceed their top business goal by a significant margin. By comparison, only 12% of mainstream companies achieve that outcome. Through more than a decade of working with customers as a system and network administrator and now as a technical onboarding manager, I’ve identified five keys to creating a great customer experience. You can start today to put them into practice, for yourself and your teams:   1. Listen to your customers This is where the “we’re in it together” sentiment comes to life. You have to really listen to your customers and get to know their needs. Come alongside and learn about their struggles and the goals they want to achieve. Remember that you’re not in this for yourself; you’re in it for them. Work closely with your customers to make sure they’re on track to achieve their desired outcomes.   2. Build a great team Every day, surround yourself with people who can come together to reach common goals. I’m thankful that every person I work with — from the brilliant engineers and architects, to the sales team, project managers and customer success managers — is passionate about delivering the best customer experience possible. From jumping on calls at 5 a.m. or 11 p.m. or helping on weekends to make sure we’re doing right by our customers — it’s that team spirit that can keep everyone moving forward and making a real difference.   3. Stay one step ahead As the first point of contact with customers, technical onboarding managers and project managers need, more than ever, to stay one step ahead. Be aware of possible issues that might come up — and when something does, bring it to everyone’s attention early so you can present alternatives quickly.   4. Save your customers money Customers are especially sensitive to budget changes right now. This is a challenge we must overcome by keeping projects on track and on time, and by setting the appropriate expectations with stakeholders. Transparency is key here. Always look for solutions that are free-of-charge or that will incur the absolute minimum price increase possible for your customer.   5. Weigh the real cost Especially in this difficult economic climate, try to be flexible with those customers who are struggling financially. It’s usually worth it to lose a little short-term revenue in order to keep your customer from going elsewhere and losing their business altogether. By listening to customers and giving them the help they need, your actions will speak louder than words. At Rackspace, we’ve been focused on creating great customer experiences for over 20 years. We even coined it Fanatical Experience™. Every day, we combine our obsession for customer success with our passion for technology. Get to know us.     Creating great customer experiences, in a new challenging eraShow your customers you’re committed to their success. Start here, with the five keys to creating great customer experiences. Focus on what’s next for your business/solutionsGet started Cloud InsightsRodrigo Garcia PereiraCreating great customer experiences, in a new challenging eraJuly 31, 2020 [Less]

What is a solution architect? Get to know these problem-solving enthusiasts. nellmarie.colman Sun, 07/26/2020 - 15:41   Solution architects (SAs) play a major role in solving today’s most-complex modern business challenges. In the last few years ... [More] , the rise in demand for SAs has exploded, fueled by a growing number of transformation projects and, more recently, business continuity and optimization projects. They are now a familiar figure in many organizations, providing a technical mind with a broad skill set to help organizations identify the best path forward with technology. According to Gartner, SAs combine guidance from different architecture viewpoints — including business, information and technical — to find solutions. You can think of a SA like a translator who quickly interprets certain information and turns that into a technical solution. SAs devote their lives to understanding your business challenges and needs, but how much you know about them? Isn’t it time we all got to know the people behind the tech, and see them in a different light without the documentation and whiteboard pens?   Hear directly from solution architects In our latest CloudSpotting podcast episode, “A day in the life of a solution architect,” we sit down with SAs from Rackspace Technology EMEA. Listen in to discover what it means to be a SA, what makes them tick and what attracts them to extremely complex business challenges. CloudSpotting hosts Alex Galbraith and Sai Iyer, who are both UK-based SAs themselves, are joined by SAs Simon Roberts (UK), Sashka Ninchovska (Netherlands) and Markus Schmid (Germany). Tune in to learn: What exactly is a SA What motivates a SA and makes them seek out chaos The challenges of being a SA, such as partial information, restricted budgets and conflicting requirements What value they add in the chain of turning an idea into a finished solution The value of peer reviewing and drawing from the village well of knowledge How to get into this field of work and what a career path might look like   Solution architects are problem solvers Sai explains the different hats of the role during a project, “You need to be not just an architect, but a [subject-matter expert] and a technology leader of sorts, as you need to lead the solution implementation with multiple architects.” Simon explains that the consultative element can sometimes feel odd if you don’t know some of the specifics, but you need to apply logic. “Part of it is applying logic, and if you are thrown something where you don’t know the particular product or service you need to know how to manage that, which can feel like tapdancing when you don’t know what the tune is. You also need to show humility and let customers know when you have exhausted all the information you have, and you need to gather more information.”   How to succeed as a solution architect Alex gives his perspective of what he thinks helps you succeed in this role. “You can have all the technical nous in the world, but the best architects are those people you want to emulate because of how they work, run meetings and ask questions. You pick up these skills through shadowing people and those human connections.” Simon delves deeper to explain what drives SAs and attracts them to extremely complex business challenges. “The dopamine hit of getting the solution right is something that you want to go back and experience again, and you seek out larger, more complex and higher value problems to solve. That’s why we do it.”   What is a solution architect? Get to know these problem-solving enthusiasts. Learn what it means to be a solution architect and what attracts them to extremely complex business challenges.Get to know our solution architectshttps://cloudspotting.fireside.fm/25Listen here Professional ServicesCloud InsightsChris SchwartzWhat is a solution architect? Get to know these problem-solving enthusiasts.July 29, 2020 [Less]

10 Years of OpenStack, OSF events, project updates and more The post Inside open infrastructure: The latest from the OpenStack Foundation appeared first on Superuser.