Welcome to my blog! Here, you’ll find a collection of articles on DevOps, Platform Engineering, Leadership, and various technical topics. I regularly update this page with new insights, experiences, and knowledge I gain in my journey as an engineering leader. Feel free to explore the articles below and don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and comments.

April 8, 2024

Welcome to the Edge Security: Lessons from a Journey That Could Be Yours

Welcome to a story about edge computing, where innovation collides with data security and regulatory compliance challenges. Organizations like Lil' Big Mining Co. are at the forefront of this evolving landscape, leveraging existing and new use cases yet to be uncovered. However, a significant challenge they face is securing this new frontier while meeting stringent compliance standards. Our journey with Lil' Big Mining Co. highlights their strategic decision to pursue SOC2 certification, a critical step in addressing these challenges.

December 11, 2023

From Friction to Flow: Elevating Teamwork with Terraform, Vault, and Consul

Abstract In this blog post, we’ll explore the common sources of friction that teams encounter when writing, deploying, supporting, and securing applications. We’ll examine various personas within a team and discuss how the HashiCorp stack, comprising Terraform, Vault, and Consul, can help alleviate these challenges and foster a high-functioning, content team. Introduction Friction is an ever-present challenge in the world of software development and IT operations. In today’s interconnected IT landscape, teams across various domains face a multitude of hurdles when it comes to writing, deploying, supporting, and securing applications and systems.

June 29, 2023

Decompression: How Scuba Diving Teaches Us to Beat Burnout

Recently, I’ve been feeling tired, really tired. The kind of tiredness that isn’t fixed by a good night’s sleep. On a drive home the other day, my mind was buzzing with thoughts of work until it landed on something different – my new hobby, scuba diving. Not long ago, my eldest son and I completed our PADI Open Water scuba certification. In our training, we learned about ‘safety stops’ - a planned 3-minute pause during the ascent from a dive.

May 7, 2023

Secrets Management at Deployment Time with HashiCorp Vault and Waypoint

I presented this talk at HashiConf Global in 2021 and always intended to write it as a blog, finally getting around to it. In this blog post, we will discuss how HashiCorp Vault and HashiCorp Waypoint can be used together to manage secrets during application deployment. In addition to secret management, Vault provides excellent auditability, which can help with tracking down who used what secret and meeting compliance requirements. Understanding Secrets and Ephemeral Credentials A secret is a piece of sensitive information, such as API keys, passwords, or certificates, that should be kept confidential and secure.

May 2, 2023

What I Wish DevOps Candidates Knew: The Importance of Asking Questions

As someone who hires for DevOps roles, I’ve learned that asking questions is a key indicator of curiosity and intelligence. In fact, I purposely include new and challenging elements in the technical challenge portion of my hiring process to see how candidates react. Those who are willing to ask questions and seek help are the ones who stand out to me as great team players and innovators. Let me share an example of how we approach technical challenges during the hiring process.

April 24, 2023

Thriving in the Unknown: The Importance of Community Connections for Reducing Stress

As human beings, we crave a sense of belonging. We want to feel accepted, supported, and valued for who we are. And this is where the power of community comes into play. The Benefits of Community Joining a community, whether it’s a local meetup group, an online forum, or a professional network, can have a positive impact on your personal and professional life. Here are just a few of the benefits:

April 13, 2023

Shut Up and Listen

In a world dominated by assertive and vocal leaders, it’s easy to overlook the importance of empathy and active listening in leadership. Empathy enables leaders to better understand and support their team members, fostering an environment where everyone can thrive. In this article, we’ll explore the crucial role of empathy and active listening in leadership, discuss its connection to psychology, and illustrate its impact on preventing burnout and dissatisfaction through a fictional story.

April 3, 2023

Terraform Cloud/Enterprise State Management - When things go wrong

Managing infrastructure with Terraform can be a breeze when everything goes according to plan. However, we all know that the dreaded “something” can and will go wrong, especially when working with complex infrastructures. In these cases, it’s essential to have a plan in place for managing Terraform state in a break glass scenario. This is particularly important when your Terraform state is managed by Terraform Cloud or Enterprise. In this blog post, we will discuss how to manage Terraform state when something goes wrong during a Kubernetes cluster deployment using Terraform and a Helm chart.

March 26, 2023

How Istio and Consul are Making Multicloud a Breeze (and Saving You Dough)

Are you tired of managing multiple clouds and services separately, causing a headache for your team and budget? Fear not, as service meshes like Istio and Consul are here to save the day! In this blog, we’ll explore how these amazing platforms provide a single pane of glass for traffic, observability, and security, making hybrid multicloud solutions easier to manage and optimize. But first, let’s define what a service mesh is.

March 14, 2023

Technical Certifications: A Journey of Growth and Self-Improvement

I recently polled my network on how they felt about technical certifications, on whether they matter or not, or if they felt that sometimes they do. Most of the “sometimes” camp were bang on. Themes such as " they matter when backed by relevant experience", or " some certs that are hands on vs multiple choice are better than others" I felt were bang on. I said I would share some of my thoughts on yes certs matter (or why not) once the poll closed.