My 3 years with an OpenStack startup
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Jules Fakhoury worked for 3 years at Ormuco, an OpenStack startup. Over this time, he transitioned from technical support to research and development to sales and business development. He learned skills in system administration, software development, and business. Fakhoury discussed how to get started with OpenStack, challenges of working with system administrators and developers, and navigating the business world to bridge the technical and business sides of an OpenStack startup.
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My 3 years with an OpenStack startup
- 1. My 3 Years with an OpenStack Startup HOW TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN THE TECHNICAL AND BUSINESS SIDES OPENSTACK SUMMIT BOSTON 2017 JULES FAKHOURY, DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONS ENGINEER, ORMUCO INC. MAY 11TH 2017
- 2. Presentation Jules Fakhoury o Bachelor of Engineering (Honours Electrical) from McGill University o Worked for Ericsson Canada in the Business Unit Global Services o Currently part of the engineering team at Ormuco since April 2014 Ormuco Inc. o Began in 2008 as a telecommunications provider o Today, offers public, private, and hybrid cloud solutions o HP Helion Network Charter Member o Headquarters in Montreal (Canada), with offices in London (UK) and Seattle (USA) 2
- 3. Outline 1. How to Get Started with OpenStack 2. Working with system administrators and developers 3. Navigating in the business world 3
- 4. HOW TO GET STARTED WITH OPENSTACK
- 5. What is OpenStack? Open-source software for cloud computing IaaS platform for public and private clouds Collection of open-source projects Written in Python Large community Scalability, Interoperability, Cost-effectiveness HOW TO GET STARTED WITH OPENSTACK 5
- 6. History of OpenStack Began in 2010 as a joint project of Rackspace Hosting and NASA 6-month release cycle 15 distributions so far! Latest is Ocata Managed by the OpenStack Foundation More than 500 companies have joined the project HOW TO GET STARTED WITH OPENSTACK 6
- 7. Getting Started… Try OpenStack: o Public clouds on the market o Local dev environment: devstack.org Learn OpenStack: o Attend summits, watch past summit videos o User stories, books Deploy OpenStack o Choose a distribution o Follow installation guides step-by-step More info at www.openstack.org HOW TO GET STARTED WITH OPENSTACK 7
- 8. Some of my First Personal Projects Competitive analysis of major public clouds Build my home test server! Single-node-deployment using Packstack: https://www.rdoproject.org/install/quickstart/ Learned Ceph and install it: http://docs.ceph.com/ Openstack Installation using CentOs: https://docs.openstack.org/ HOW TO GET STARTED WITH OPENSTACK 8
- 9. Navigating through the Documentation OpenStack Documentation: https://docs.openstack.org/ Try them at home! Keep a cheat sheet of command-line reference! Use them to make your own scripts! HOW TO GET STARTED WITH OPENSTACK 9
- 10. Challenges of Working with OpenStack Steep learning curve o Develop the needed skills Cross-domain technical expertise o Different modules that need to be configured Rapid 6-month release timeframe o Hundred of features added in each version Large community o Various teams working on different components HOW TO GET STARTED WITH OPENSTACK 10
- 11. Get Involved! Subscribe to OpenStack mailing lists Join OpenStack IRC meetings Join an OpenStack User Group: https://groups.openstack.org/ Go to OpenStack meetups Answers and ask questions (Ask OpenStack) Fix Bugs https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/How_To_Contribute HOW TO GET STARTED WITH OPENSTACK 11
- 12. WORKING WITH SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS
- 13. Engineering Teams at Ormuco Network and Support System Engineering Automation WORKING WITH SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS 13
- 14. Year 1 – Technical Support Technical Support Research and Development Sales and Business Development YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 Technical support for 50+ enterprise clients Researched new cloud computing technologies Training received: Cisco CCNA Routing & Switching Attended the OpenStack summit at Vancouver in 2015 WORKING WITH SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS 14
- 15. Year 2 – Research and Development Technical Support Research and Development Sales and Business Development YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 Developed cloud infrastructure and software Worked with system administrators and developers Training received: Red Hat OpenStack, RHCSA, RHCE Python Codecademy Joined OpenStack Magnum team weekly meetings WORKING WITH SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS 15
- 16. Year 3 – Sales Eng. and Business Dev. Technical Support Research and Development Sales and Business Development YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 Delivered presentations to key stakeholders Developed sales and business tools Training received: Cisco Business Value Specialization Cisco Advanced Collaboration Architecture Sales Specialization WORKING WITH SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS 16
- 17. Milestones As a System Administrator: New regions deployed: Montreal, UK, … OpenStack installation and automation Deployment of test and production environments As a Software Developer: User Cloud Portal Reseller Portal Cloud Management Interface WORKING WITH SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS 17
- 18. Training and Certifications Other: o Cisco Certifications o Attend OpenStack events o Join an OpenStack team o OpenStack Foundation Certification Program System Administration: o Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) o Red Hat Certified System Administrator in Red Hat OpenStack o Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) Software Development: o Python: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/python o HTML, CSS, JavaScript: http://www.htmldog.com/guides/ https://www.w3schools.com/jquery/ WORKING WITH SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS 18
- 19. Mentorship Program Mentorship: o Leverages the expertise of others o Fosters relationships between employees New-hire training program Career and professional development OpenStack Mentorship Program (Sponsored by Women of OpenStack) WORKING WITH SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS 19
- 20. Lessons Learned Working with people experts in their fields Project and time management skills Being independent and knowing when to ask for help Innovate and impress others WORKING WITH SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS 20
- 21. NAVIGATING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD
- 22. Business Need for OpenStack Business Challenges: Fast-paced market conditions with competition from web- based companies IT Operations Challenges: Deliver secure, on-demand, self- service capabilities to customers Developer Challenges: IT strategy and infrastructure that is cost-effective, flexible, and agile NAVIGATING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD 22
- 23. OpenStack Benefits Speed and Agility Organized Resources Through Interoperability and Hybrid Cloud Vibrant Commercial Ecosystem Open Source and Modular Design NAVIGATING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD 23
- 24. Use Case: Government IT Background • Public client with more than 800 servers • Wanted to become global leader among smart cities Solution • IaaS: virtualized resources for Compute/Storage/Networking • PaaS: App/Database/API Management/BI Services Benefits • Reduced costs and increased operational efficiencies • Security and scalability • Better service to citizens NAVIGATING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD 24
- 25. Cultural and Organizational Changes Consider piloting 1 Start with a cross-functional team 2 Employee training 3 Measuring costs and determining values 4 NAVIGATING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD 25
- 26. IT vs. Business Skills NAVIGATING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD 26
- 27. My Business Projects Business Tools • Use Cases • TCO Calculator Sales Engineering • Requests For Proposal (RFP) • Technical Demonstrations NAVIGATING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD 27
- 28. Bridging The Gap Understand the shift Fill the skills gap Collaborate with the IT and business teams Know how to communicate to your audience NAVIGATING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD 28
- 29. Conclusion 29
- 30. THANK YOU! ANY QUESTIONS? Jules Fakhoury jules.fakhoury@ormuco.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/julesfakhoury www.ormuco.com Link to Presentation Slides: http://bit.ly/2q4y2Wn
Notas del editor
- OK! Let’s get started! Thank you all for your interest in my talk I hope you have been enjoying so far your week at the OpenStack Summit here at Boston Today, I will be talking about my experience working for 3 years with an OpenStack startup called Ormuco
- Let’s start with some presentation My name is Jules Fakhoury. I have been working with the engineering team of Ormuco since April 2014, Before that, … Ormuco is a cloud-based service provider. We started in 2008, … I wore multiple hats during my journey at Ormuco: I worked in technical support, research and development, and sales and business development I hope to share with you today the challenges faced both personally and as company while working with OpenStack and the lessons I have learned.
- My talk is divided into three main sections First, I will discuss the initial steps I took to get started with OpenStack, and the challenges I faced. Then, I will give you insights into working with system administrators and software developers, and highlight some of the lessons I learned at Ormuco. Finally, I will shed the light about the business use case of OpenStack, and discuss my own experience navigating into the business world. At the end of the talk, all of you, whether you are an engineer or a manager, will leave the room with a good understanding of the typical challenges employees or a company as a whole can face while progressing in the OpenStack world, and how to address those challenges effectively.
- OpenStack is a complex project, and getting started with it can seem daunting at first. - It is important to know how to take the first steps to make the learning process as effective as possible.
- First, what is OpenStack? OpenStack is an open-source software for cloud computing. It provides the platform to “consume” computing, networking, and storage resources, which could be deployed in a public or private cloud. The software is free and open-source, and it is written in Python. There is a large community of operators, developers … contributing to this project. The main characteristics of OpenStack are its scalability, interoperability, and cost-effectiveness.
- OpenStack started in 2010 as a joint project of Rackspace Hosting and NASA. It has grown a lot since then: 15 distributions have been released so far, with a 6-month release cycle. The latest distribution is Ocata. Currently, the OpenStack project is managed by the OpenStack Foundation. More than 500 companies have recognized the potential of OpenStack and have joined the project.
- To get started with OpenStack, simply TRY it: register and create test accounts with the major OpenStack cloud providers, compare the features of those clouds, see which ones work best After you tried OpenStack , LEARN it: … Finally, after you learned the technical concepts, try to DEPLOY OpenStack on your own: … I will provide more details on how to use the OpenStack documentation later on.
- Here is a list of some of my initial projects with OpenStack during my first at Ormuco (List all the projects) … Packstack: proof-of-concept cloud on one node running RHEL; Ceph Cluster to perform storage Working on those projects allowed me to experiment with and practice what I have read and learned about OpenStack I highly recommend to setup your own test server early in your learning process: this will keep you motivated to innovate and to constantly develop your technical skills
- Knowing how to navigate through the documentation is essential to get the most out of it. The OpenStack documentation website contains tons of information: installation tutorials, administrations guide, contributor guides, and son on … I have highlighted here the 3 sets of documentation I personally found quite useful while learning OpenStack. First, the installation tutorials: those are the step-by-step instructions on how to install and configure the OpenStack services. Second, the user guide: more specifically the OpenStack Command-Line Interface reference. Those are the commands which will let on interact with OpenStack from your CLI. What I did to learn them is to keep a cheat sheet of the most useful commands for each service: for e.g. the command to list all users with Keystone, or the command to create a server with Nova. Finally, you have the API Guides, specifically targeted to the developers. You can use them to develop code and automate some actions like launching hundreds of servers or creating storage containers.
- I have summarized here the main challenges I faced when I started working with OpenStack. If you’re managing young engineers, you can expect your staff to have similar challenges. Here’s what you have to do. Challenge 1: Steep learning curve learn how to use the documentation, personal projects, trainings and certifications Challenge 2: Cross-domain expertise mentorship program where young employees can learn from various experts, cross-domain projects, collaboration among teams Challenge 3: Rapid 6-month release timeframe be ahead of the technology, join an OpenStack team to know the feature ahead of time, constantly innovating Challenge 4: Large community understand the different OpenStack projects and get involved in the community
- You can get involved in the community in many ways. (… list all the ways…), Mailing list: operator, developer, technical writer, … OpenStack is an open-source project. It’s important not to forget to contribute to it. Getting involved is an excellent opportunity to give back to the community and at the same time improve your skills.
- - After I became comfortable with OpenStack, it was time for me to work with the senior system administrators and software developers in my company.
- The engineering department at Ormuco is divided into 3 main teams. Network and Support Team: responsible for internal and external client technical support Automation Team: system administrators, working on the OpenStack installation, developing tools to automate deployments System Engineering Team: software developers developing the APIs and the user interface of our main cloud product I am currently part of the system engineering team, but I had the opportunity, during my 3 years at Ormuco, to work with each of those teams
- First year: Technical Support Let a team of engineers and technicians to provide technical support for over 50 enterprise clients Learned OpenStack and research emerging technologies Trainings: …
- Second year: Research and Development At that time, I worked with both the system administrators and the software developers, analyzing client requirements and developing cloud infrastructure and software. I received extensive training, mainly from Red Hat on Linux and system administration. I also followed online course on Python programming language. Finally, I joined the OpenStack Magnum team weekly meetings and got an idea of how OpenStack project development is being done.
- Third year: I reached a mature position in the system engineering team, and I started getting involved with the Sales and business Development Department. For example, I delivered engineering presentations to key stakeholders. I also developed sales and business tools. I received training from Cisco on business analysis and technical sales.
- - My Milestones! With the system administrator team, we launched datacenters in different regions, very important for respecting data sovereignty. We also automated the installation of OpenStack, and we deployed new test and production environments for our developers and clients. With the software engineering team, we first developed the main portal for our public and private clouds where customers can sign in and create virtual resources. As we grew, we started building partnerships with resellers who were using our solution and selling it in their specific markets. We built a Web Portal just for them to monitor the consumption and manage the users. Finally, we also built a cloud management interface, mainly used by our technical support team to manage resources and policies.
- I have summarized here all the technical training and certifications I have completed myself. Certifications create pathways for advancement within your organization and help you establish yourself as a subject matter expert. However, it is important to select the right one to align with your career path and objectives. On the system administration side, I found the Red Hat certifications to be quite useful, specially if you’re working with Linux servers. On the software development sides, I followed online courses to practice Python, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can find other useful certifications from Cisco or Mirantis. The OpenStack Foundation has also their certification program in OpenStack. Finally, attending OpenStack events and joining OpenStack teams can help you further develop your skills.
- I was fortunate at Ormuco to have mentors to guide me through the company, to help me grow my skills and to make the biggest positive impact to my team. I believe mentorship is key to the success of young employees. Mentorship can also take the form of a new-hire training program to quickly bring the employee up to speed, or a career development service for long-term growth. There is also an OpenStack mentorship program sponsored by Women of OpenStack. You can sign up as a mentee or as a mentor. It’s open to all genders. Earlier during the summit, on Monday, there was a speed mentoring lunch where mentees and mentors were being introduced to each others. I just think that’s a great resource to have for those just starting with OpenStack.
- My experience with system administrators and software developers at Ormuco brought many lessons. I am focusing here on the soft skills I have acquired from this experience. First, working with people experts in their fields challenged me to outperform myself and made me understand the value of a mentor. Second, because I was working with multiple teams and projects at the same tine, I developed high project and time managements skills. Third, I learned the value of working independently, learning and finding the information by yourself, also knowing when to ask for help when you cannot continue without the assistance of others. Finally, OpenStack is a fast-moving train. It pushes you to constantly innovate and stay ahead of the technology.
- As I progressed at Ormuco, I developed interest in the business side and started to slowly contribute to it I began to understand why OpenStack was so important and how it could generate business value to customers Navigating in the business world allowed me to experience OpenStack from a different perspective which I will share with you in this section
- Why do we need OpenStack? Let’s answer this question by looking at challenges companies face from different perspectives From a business perspective, IT companies are facing tough competition and want faster time to market From an operations perspective, they want to deliver secure, on-demand, and self-service capabilities to customers Finally from the developers perspective, they don’t want to wait too long for resources and want to speed up their release cycles.
- OpenStack has many benefits for enterprise needs First, it is speedy and agile: customers can provision resources quickly and on-demand Companies can take advantages of a hybrid cloud to do cloud bursting to the public cloud when demand on private resources is too high OpenStack has also a strong commercial and community support providing the right platform for enterprise IT Finally, OpenStack consists of several complementary projects designed in the open. Users can use and contribute to one or more projects to meet their needs.
- I will quickly give you an example of a use case to show how OpenStack can be used in real life This was a government client we worked with at Ormuco They operated more than 800 servers, and they wanted to perform an unprecedented technological change to stay as a leader among smart cities The client was looking for a managed infrastructure that allows their operators to provision computing, storage, and networking resources. They also wanted a solution that provided Applications, Database, API Management, and Business Intelligence services for the client developers. Our hybrid cloud based on OpenStack came as a the right solution The business benefits in this case were a lower TCO, increased operational efficiencies, security, and scalability. All of this leading to better service to citizens.
- Now that we understand better the business use case of OpenStack and its benefits, how do you go, as a company, into shifting to the OpenStack market. I was fortunate to join Ormuco during its growth and transformation phase, while it was shifting from traditional IT services to the OpenStack cloud market. This transformation came with many cultural and organizational changes. - (1) Consider piloting: We kept our traditional IT services running, and we built a test cloud on the side, providing a good learning experience for our developers and operators (2) Start with a cross-functional team: we started with a cross-functional team who was in charge of making all decisions regarding deployment and architecture (3) Employee training: As we grew, we invested in employee training and onboarding. I, myself, went through a series of technical and business training. Sometimes, it is more effective for companies to train their own staff rather than look for rare personal in the market. (4) Measuring costs and determining values: Finally, we built tools to keep track of costs and determining long-term values. It’s important also to consider the intangible benefits of OpenStack such as improvements in operational efficiency and user productivity.
- We talked a lot about employee training Robert Katz, a social and organizational psychologist, defined 3 sets of skills managers must have: (1) conceptual skills, (2) human skills, and (3) technical skills Whether you are a first-line manager or a top executive, it is important to have a good balance between your soft and hard skills For example, if you’re managing engineers or developers, strong technical skills will allow you to discuss the technologies with your team and to gain their trust and respect On the other hand, if you’re a developer and you’re interested in managing people and contributing to the business success of your company, you want to develop your soft skills early on in your career. Follow a leadership training course or join a public speaking club like toastmasters. In the latter portion of your career, you can focus on updating your IT skills to stay current with technological shifts.
- As I progressed through the engineering team at Ormuco, I was interested in contributing to the business side as well: in my third year, I developed business tools for the company and worked on some sales engineering projects My IT background proved to be an excellent asset for those type of projects For example, my technical understanding of OpenStack and the hands-on experience I received provided me with the knowledge to develop business use case or to respond to technical RFPs Finally, the soft skills I had acquired from technical support and from managing research projects gave me the confidence to engage with clients and stakeholders
- The technical and the business sides may seem to be two different worlds, but you can bridge the gap with the right mindset It is important first to understand the IT shift. There is a strong shift towards a services and consumption model. This shift requires more horizontal skill-set and the ability to align with business initiatives. As a manager, identify the most useful skills to your strategy and start training your team in these. Encourage collaboration between the IT and business teams. As a first step, implement a lunch and learn program in your company to share knowledge and foster employee relationships. Finally, don’t forget to develop your soft skills. It is important to know who your audience is and how to communicate your message
- - In my 3 years at Ormuco, I first went through a steep learning curve to get started with OpenStack. I followed a mentorship program and a series of technical training to successfully work with system administrators and software developers. Finally, I used my IT skills to my advantage when collaborating with the business side. OpenStack provides an unique opportunity to develop diverse skill-set, and to contribute to users and to the community. Of course, I still have much to learn myself, and I found adaptability to be important in my experience: always be willing to embrace change and engage in new areas. Thank you and Good luck!