This document summarizes John Mark Troyer's presentation on architecting an IT career. He discusses trends like cloud computing, DevOps, and containerization that IT professionals should learn. Troyer emphasizes becoming a "PI-shaped expert" through continuous learning of new skills and technologies over a 50-year career. He advises gathering a team of mentors and peers to facilitate learning through meetups and open source projects.

1. A R C H I T E C T I N G Y O U R
I T C A R E E R
J O H N M A R K T R O Y E R
1 9 N O V 2 0 1 5
U K V M U G U S E R C O N

2. " A R C H I T E C T I N G "
W H A T ?
https://flic.kr/p/6K9jC4
Y O U R E N T E R P R I S E D A T A C E N T E R A N D A P P L I C A T I O N S
A H O U S E
A 5 0 - Y E A R C A R E E R

3. A R C H I T E C T I N G A N I T C A R E E R
• Not a solution architecture, but a
Framework for the journey
• Technical, but also…
• Business
• Managerial
• Process
• Communication
• Think of Role of IT vs
Role of Infrastructure

4. S O U R C E : S I M O N W A R D L E Y

5. B A C K G R O U N D O F
H I G H - P E R F O R M I N G
I T M A N A G E R S
( 2 0 0 5 )
• Backgrounds
• non-commissioned
officers
• chemical engineers
• auditors
• What do they have in
common?
• discipline, process
K E V I N B E H R , G E N E K I M ,
G E O R G E S P A F F O R D ( 2 0 0 5 )

6. T H R E E W A Y S T O T H I N K A B O U T
I T
A G I L E
D E V O P S
S I X S I G M A
S O U R C E : S I M O N W A R D L E Y

7. H T T P : / / B L O G . I P S P A C E . N E T / 2 0 1 5 / 0 5 / O N - I - S H A P E D - A N D - T - S H A P E D - S K I L L S . H T M L

8. H T T P : / / B L O G . I P S P A C E . N E T / 2 0 1 5 / 0 5 / O N - I - S H A P E D - A N D - T - S H A P E D - S K I L L S . H T M L

9. H T T P : / / B L O G . I P S P A C E . N E T / 2 0 1 5 / 0 5 / O N - I - S H A P E D - A N D - T - S H A P E D - S K I L L S . H T M L

10. A L E A R N I N G F R A M E W O R K F O R A 5 0 -
Y E A R C A R E E R : B E C O M E A P I - S H A P E D
E X P E R T
• Generalist = Printer repair
• Specialist = interesting but limited
• T-shaped Expert = Generalist
with Speciality
• PI-shaped Expert
• Your “T” must move over time!
• Windows -> Storage ->
Virtualization -> Cloud -> Flying
Cars
Generalist

11. F I V E T E C H T R E N D S T O
W A T C H O U T F O R

13. C O N V E R G E N C E A N D D I V E R G E N C E I N
A R C H I T E C T U R E
• End of separate silos and how they are managed
• Storage, networking, security
• New solid state storage and architectures
• New interfaces (NVMe), new silicon (3D X-Point)
• Convergence (hyperconverged) and Dispersion (Rack-
scale architectures)

15. C L O U D
• Everybody drink!
• Automation, Scripting
• Scott Lowe’s Cloud Engineering skills:
• Software development basics & APIs , Linux, Automation and
orchestration, Public cloud services
• Cloud Platforms
• AWS, Azure, GCP, OpenStack, vRA
• Have you spun up… anything in the cloud? It’s 2015.

17. D E V O P S
• Not doing dev? Not doing
DevOps
• Speed up time-to-value with
software
• Value-chain mapping & lean
manufacturing ideas applied to
IT
• Phoenix Project
• Culture, Automation,
Measurement, Sharing
W H I C H O F T H E S E ?

19. C L O U D - N A T I V E A P P S &
C O N T A I N E R S
• Green field new apps
• High vs low approaches
(Cloud Foundry vs Docker
and friends)
• Single cloud (AWS) vs multi
cloud (everybody else)
• Even if you aren’t a
developer, how does this
affect operations and
infrastructure requirements
S O U R C E : B A R A K M I C H E N E R

20. S O J O H N , H O W D O I L E A R N A L L
T H E S E C O O L N E W T H I N G S A N D
A R C H I T E C T A G R E A T 5 0 Y E A R
C A R E E R ?

22. G A T H E R Y O U R T E A M
• Mentors
• Community of
Peers (VMUGs!)
• Meetups and
Open Source
Projects
M E E T U P . C O M

23. V B R O W N B A G C O M M U N I T Y
S U R V E Y

24. V B R O W N B A G C O M M U N I T Y
S U R V E Y

25. A F E W J E D I M I N D
T R I C K S B E F O R E I
L E A V E
• Shift from “operator” mindset to
“creator” mindset
• Do things that charge you up
• “Look up!” -@sfoskett
• Be a communicator &
collaborator: “Yes, And…”
makes you seem smarter
• “To get the job you want, kick
ass at the job you have” -Dom
Delfino

26. - G A N D H I
“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in
the world would also change. As a man changes
his own nature, so does the attitude of the world
change towards him. … We need not wait to see
what others do.”

27. - N O T G A N D H I
“Be the change you wish to see in the world”

28. T H A N K S !
• John Mark Troyer,
CEO TechReckoning
• @jtroyer
jtroyer@techreckoning.com
• TechReckoning links & newsletter:
• http://techreckoning.com
• Geek Whisperers Podcast
• http://geek-whisperers.com
H E L P I N G C O M P A N I E S T A L K T O G E E K S
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