James Casey Email & Phone Number

Austin, Texas, United States

I lead the QA efforts to bring an MVP version of a new product to market under a tight schedule. This product integrates all software components of the Swarm storage system within a containerized, orchestrated (k3s) software stack, designed for deployment across a wide range of hardware, from small NVMe-only devices to large multi-PiB systems.I spearhead the development and execution of testing strategies for customized installations on diverse hardware configurations. Ensuring… Show more I lead the QA efforts to bring an MVP version of a new product to market under a tight schedule. This product integrates all software components of the Swarm storage system within a containerized, orchestrated (k3s) software stack, designed for deployment across a wide range of hardware, from small NVMe-only devices to large multi-PiB systems.I spearhead the development and execution of testing strategies for customized installations on diverse hardware configurations. Ensuring seamless, automatic, and unattended software upgrades is a key focus, covering system-level components like k3s, Flux, and various operators. Within four months, we successfully delivered both a prototype and the MVP 1.0 version to the market.In this role, I supervise a team of three test developers who specialize in automated UI testing, S3 compatibility, and integration into Swarm's CIDC framework. I also develop and execute a VM-based testing environment to verify the migration path from CentOS7 to Rocky Linux 8 for Swarm's PXE boot platform. Additionally, I train new QA hires and provide ongoing consultation to the QA staff in our Bangalore office, ensuring consistent quality across the board. Show less

Austin, Texas, United States

I assumed responsibility for all QA activities in the Swarm division following DataCore's acquisition of Caringo. In this role, I took on the challenge of building and leading a team of developers to expand test coverage and enhance QA capabilities for the entire Swarm product line. My focus has been on ensuring that our products meet the highest quality standards while aligning with the company's strategic goals.Starting from scratch, I hired, trained, and managed a technical team… Show more I assumed responsibility for all QA activities in the Swarm division following DataCore's acquisition of Caringo. In this role, I took on the challenge of building and leading a team of developers to expand test coverage and enhance QA capabilities for the entire Swarm product line. My focus has been on ensuring that our products meet the highest quality standards while aligning with the company's strategic goals.Starting from scratch, I hired, trained, and managed a technical team, with members located in Austin and Bangalore. Together, we significantly expanded test coverage for the complex Swarm product family within a few years. I guided my team in analyzing design documents, writing detailed test plans, and presenting their findings in engineering meetings, which has been instrumental in their professional growth and the overall success of our QA initiatives.I directed the development of automated tests for various Swarm components, including storage clusters, S3 protocol gateways, platform servers, and UIs for cluster administration and content management. To ensure comprehensive validation, I orchestrated build validation testing using Jenkins pipelines, executing thousands of unit tests, system-level regression tests, and UI component tests before major releases. This rigorous approach has been crucial in maintaining the integrity and performance of our products.Additionally, I expanded our QA capabilities by developing a suite of automated tests for both legacy and new UIs, adding over 300 tests focused on anti-ransomware features for the Content Gateway, and implementing more than 200 tests to enhance security for the core storage cluster. I also designed and executed stress tests using Warp, standardized performance testing with Locust, and led the QA effort for the “Transporter” media ingest appliance, ensuring it was delivered on time and met all specifications. Show less

Austin, Texas, United States

I expanded the automated test framework to cover new storage cluster features such as erasure coding, remote replication feeds, search feeds (Elasticsearch), and object versioning, adding nearly 2,000 new tests. This expansion was critical in ensuring comprehensive coverage and reliability across the storage system, even as the complexity of the features grew.To achieve this, I employed up to 16 test clusters, each with 4-8 servers, along with a dozen client servers, primarily operating… Show more I expanded the automated test framework to cover new storage cluster features such as erasure coding, remote replication feeds, search feeds (Elasticsearch), and object versioning, adding nearly 2,000 new tests. This expansion was critical in ensuring comprehensive coverage and reliability across the storage system, even as the complexity of the features grew.To achieve this, I employed up to 16 test clusters, each with 4-8 servers, along with a dozen client servers, primarily operating in a Linux environment. Using Java and Python, I developed tests that provided robust validation of these new storage cluster features, ensuring they met all necessary quality standards before deployment.I played an active role in product design sessions, regularly contributing critical feedback on Caringo Update Proposals (CUPs) and authoring corresponding test plans (TCUPs). This involvement was key to aligning our testing strategies with the evolving product designs and ensuring that all new features were rigorously tested.I received a patent for co-developing one of the first namespace management systems for an object storage system. I also engineered a "file system gateway" product that allowed for the seamless storage of SMB and NFS file system contents within an object storage system, which was a critical advancement in storage technology at the time.As the team size reduced from four to one after the acquisition by DataCore, I incrementally took over testing responsibilities for multiple components, including the Content Gateway, UIs, PXE boot platform (CFS), Filefly (file-to-object ingest tool), and Swarm NFS gateway. Despite the reduced team size, I ensured that all testing processes were maintained at the highest standard, adapting to the increased workload and complexity. Show less

Austin, Texas, United States

I contributed to the development and validation of a file system gateway (NFS and SMB) and a database management system for object storage namespaces. As the project evolved, I transitioned to enhancing the automation framework for feature validation and regression testing of the storage cluster, which was crucial in maintaining the integrity and performance of the system.Collaborated on the automation framework project, where we transitioned from Junit to TestNG, significantly… Show more I contributed to the development and validation of a file system gateway (NFS and SMB) and a database management system for object storage namespaces. As the project evolved, I transitioned to enhancing the automation framework for feature validation and regression testing of the storage cluster, which was crucial in maintaining the integrity and performance of the system.Collaborated on the automation framework project, where we transitioned from Junit to TestNG, significantly improving testing efficiency. This shift allowed us to streamline our testing processes and ensure more reliable outcomes. In this role, I developed nearly 1,000 tests for the storage cluster's native API, a dialect of the HTTP protocol, ensuring comprehensive coverage of the system's functionalities.One of my key achievements was co-developing an automated testing framework in Java for the object storage cluster. This framework integrated SQL database storage for test results, which enabled our small team to create and manage thousands of regression tests efficiently. By leveraging my expertise in C++, database tools, and Java, I was able to drive significant advancements in our automation and testing initiatives, contributing to the overall quality and reliability of the product. Show less

Austin, Texas, United States

During my time as a Software Engineer, I focused on developing key software solutions for object storage systems, with a particular emphasis on integrating file system protocols and ensuring efficient data management. My work involved leveraging my expertise in Java, C++, and SQL to design and implement innovative products that significantly enhanced the storage capabilities of the systems I worked on.In addition to these developments, I utilized my skills in Java, C++, and SQL… Show more During my time as a Software Engineer, I focused on developing key software solutions for object storage systems, with a particular emphasis on integrating file system protocols and ensuring efficient data management. My work involved leveraging my expertise in Java, C++, and SQL to design and implement innovative products that significantly enhanced the storage capabilities of the systems I worked on.In addition to these developments, I utilized my skills in Java, C++, and SQL databases to design and develop core software components that improved system functionality. My work required extensive interaction with HTTP, SMB, and NFS protocols to ensure compatibility and optimal performance, and I created and optimized SQL database stored procedures to support robust data management and retrieval processes. Show less