* Owned the Kubernetes track at AWS re:Invent 2023; organized international team of speakers and volunteers to delight attendees seeking Amazon EKS and Kubernetes knowledge, best practices, and product updates* Built, hosted virtual Kubernetes Day 0 event AWS Container Day at KubeCon EU 2023 Amsterdam* Taught AWS devs how to do open source for Finch; worked with the dev team to create a build, pull, push, run tool; consulted on tough strategy decisions; built public-facing infrastructure* Launched EKS.news, a newsletter covering the latest updates on Amazon Elastic KubernetesService (EKS); an additional mechanism to inform customers about new features and updates* Authored Amazon EKS 1.22 & 1.23 release blogs; updated customers on critical product changes* Co-lead Kubernetes Contributor Comms team, spreading the word about what's happening in the Kubernetes community, including event comms, crisis comms, and social media presences* Organized and ran GitOpsCon EU 2021, including everything from marketing the CFP to MC’ing

* Co-Lead SIG Contributor Experience Contributor Communications* Written many blog posts for kubernetes.io and kubernetes.dev* Staff for Kubernetes Contributor Summit for many years* Manage social media outreach and spreading important messages far and wide by liaisoning with major Kubernetes vendors to share critical changes in the Kubernetes project and infrastructure* Building out the Contributor Comms team, automations, and roles from the idea phase to productive component of Kubernetes project* Mentoring those new to the project towards becoming full-fledged org members and contributors

Cloud Native, DevOps, GitOps, Open Source, industry news, culture, and the ‘ish between. A weekly newsletter assembled by open source contributor, DevOps veteran, and CNCF Ambassador Chris Short. Attempting to lower the barrier to entry into the DevOps and Cloud Native world while keeping seasoned professionals informed on the latest news, tools, and trends. Sign up for the newsletter today!I strive, every week, to put together the best newsletter covering DevOps, Cloud Native, and Open Source Software. The three main sections of the newsletter are People, Process, and Tools. They are in that order for a reason: People implement Processes using Tools. These three components should be cared for in that order too.

* OpenShift.TV Executive Producer: in charge of finding content, talent, showrunning, marketing, growth, and facilitating technical components of live productions* Training others in how to make use of the infrastructure in place for OpenShift.TV to grow the channel’s bench of hosts and producers across the globe* Turned OpenShift.TV into a Red Hat corporate branded product: Red Hat Livestreaming* Hosted and/or produced over 700 hours of content with over 2 years of live watch time.* Primary community interface as a CNCF Ambassador who is also focused on Operators and their usage for operations teams; led Ansible Operator workshops at AnsibleFest and Red Hat Summit* Acted as a liaison between an Infosec team and a product team after a critical vulnerability was discovered; facilitated responsible disclosure of the vulnerability* Built workshops, Katacoda, and other instructional materials to enabling the field to be informed about Red Hat’s cloud native offerings plus competitive intelligence to position products in the market* Worked with Red Hat D+I, Events teams to make inclusive, constructive learning spaces at events* Evangelized Red Hat and many other open source offerings through official CNCF communications* Gave five talks in three days for IBM FastStart 2020; taught sellers and partners on the advantages of OpenShift for AI/ML workloads, monitoring capabilities of Prometheus, and technical roadmaps

* Evangelized Kubernetes Operators with Ansible in Business Unit by engaging leadership to prove importance; scheduled developers on podcast, worked w/ team to build landing page, and presented talks at Red Hat Summit 2019* Ansible blog curator, editor, and sometimes writer, room facilitator, survey staff management, and official after party event security for AnsibleFest 2018 in Austin, TX* Speaker and content creator for multiple public and private Red Hat events over the globe; enabled field to sell and market Ansible to customers intelligently*Instrumental in bringing community projects into the Red Hat Ansible Automation suite of tools; helped establish standards for testing and acceptance as well as scoring of Ansible content*Selected by leadership, peers as Red Hat Product Marketing Awards — Best New Red Hatter 2019

* Built Ansible-based infrastructure testing tool to identify quality concerns between functional areas delivering virtual machines; suggested remedies to reduce handoffs and increase automation* Set up Ansible automation to deploy Confluent Kafka; built OpenShift deployment for high-availability Kafka UI* Represented SJ Technologies as a public speaker at events across North America; spread our DevOps practice message in talks based on research, experiences, and observations* Worked with business development, sales, and marketing teams to build new customer relationships, marketing materials to attract customers, and leveraged social media to build branding

* Charged with $1M cloud migration efforts; moving physical/virtual datacenter to Amazon Web Services has projected $1M+ savings for company post migration; lead a team of six engineers and stakeholders* Recruited and led a team of five DevOps engineers through hundreds of JIRA tasks, expanding usage of Terraform and Ansible, containerizing workloads, and iterating on DevOps approaches to improve margins* Stood up CoreOS Tectonic in AWS through Terraform during a six-hour hackathon to demonstrate feasibility of Kubernetes platform

* Worked with product teams to improve documentation of Ansible development environments; identified additional tests for Ansible roles that could be done via Test Kitchen, Docker, and Serverspec or GitLabCI* Converted 300 GB MySQL table from MyISAM to InnoDB utilizing existing backup, MySQL replication, and Rackspace OnMetal instance; converted to more tolerant storage engine consistent with app architecture* Upgraded internal and customer TLS/SSL Apache Web Server configurations; trained staff on proper implementations, potential issues/concerns, and automated changes with Ansible* Utilized AWS EC2 and SQS in tandem with systemd and custom AMIs as well as existing application code to build job servers that would collect, verify, and purge duplicate copies of archived mail messages in AWS S3* Installed and maintained Jenkins for Continuous Delivery as well as automate Ansible Playbook runs against production infrastructure

* Instituted configuration and systems management via Ansible; inventoried and standardized system configurations and package installations; trained other team members in the use of Git and Ansible* Identified inefficiencies in proxy and load balancing systems; interfaced with networking team members to utilize F5 load balancer for SSL termination, load balancing, proxying, and Shibboleth single sign-on* Worked with Duke Health Technology Solutions Windows Team to connect Linux to Windows environment for researchers working on the Duke Apple ResearchKit application, Autism & Beyond* Collaborated with vendor to build an Ansible Playbook and Role to standardize system setup and Ruby on Rails application deployment; enforced application configuration, security settings, and user management

* Created standardized naming scheme; utilized Ansible to programmatically implement system configuration settings on Fedora/RHEL systems; multiple discrepancies eliminated across systems in two cloud environments* Audited and standardized SSL implementations across all systems ensured best practices were being followed; used Ansible to improve Qualys SSL Labs scoring from failing to A ratings in most cases for customer installations* Improved DNS configurations/security while changing provider to CloudFlare; created standardized SMTP implementation making use of Mandrill to insure messages created within application were reaching customers* Repaired multiple failures in MySQL replication across environments; created standard process to convert tables from MyISAM to InnoDB and rebuild replicants; improved capabilities/performance in database and application* Provided guidance to developers on modern systems and PHP application architectures; audited application for potential security vulnerabilities and worked with teams to answer questions and mitigate identified issues

* Instituted Ansible for configuration management and automation across four environments; guaranteed 100% reproducible system setup fixing numerous systems issues and speeding implementation time* Worked hand-in-hand with development team to identify/resolve cloud portal issues; eliminated bugs and identified need to break up functions across multiple systems before customers adversely impacted* Provided guidance/documentation and improved alerting for Tier 1 team to better handle systems issues; reduced response times and temporary fixes implemented during off hours* Instituted patching policy for both Linux and Windows systems allowing patching on pre-existing schedule; reduced number of outstanding vulnerabilities; secured systems with minimal down time

* Maintained over ninety Solaris 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 and 6, and Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) 6 virtual (VMWare ESX) and physical servers; began standardization and usage of RHEL 6 and OEL 6 as company migrated away from Solaris.* Identified discrepancies in Oracle Support Doc ID 761566.1 (Oracle E-Business Suite Installation and Upgrade Notes Release 12 (12.1.1) for Linux x86-64); worked with Oracle and Cree developers to get documentation updated (Apr 17, 2014). Oracle built an RPM to install all necessary dependencies for EBS to run on OEL 5 & 6. Document update and RPM eliminated a difference of opinion between Operations and Development on how system should be setup and configured providing a clean route to system standardization.* Built RHEL 5, RHEL 6, and OEL 6 yum repo mirrors to speed installation of numerous packages needed by various users and departments; previous software installs were done using RPM and satisfying dependencies manually.* Broke an "install everything" mentality in the Linux environments; guided stakeholders toward getting a better understanding of what their applications truly needed to run leading to leaner, more efficient systems being provisioned.* Monitoring of Unix and Linux systems did not exist prior to my arrival at Cree. Setup Xymon Monitoring server which provided near real time system monitoring. Data used to "right size" Factory Automation systems as well as identify a lack of bottlenecks in Oracle E-Business Suite systems.* Eliminated numerous issues related to server clocks being wrong. Identified NTP servers maintained by network infrastructure team; standardized NTP configuration across all systems.

* Planned and executed crontab and script migration of 57 different user accounts from users spread out across the US from RHEL 3 to CentOS 5; corrected errors from different versions of Perl, PHP, and Python* Charged with configuring DHCP, TFTP and Cobbler to enable unattended PXEBoot Linux server provisioning* Installed two HP TippingPoint IDS/IPS systems in primary and secondary data centers as well as TippingPoint Security Management System; worked with TMC personnel to mitigate issues during setup/installation* Bolstered time services by enhancing NTP server scheme; added CDMA time receiver in primary data center providing accurate timing to two data centers; optimized NTP system for operation during site isolation* Decommissioned 200+ defunct, inconsistently setup Drupal sites that had been compromised by spammers in massive effort to free up filer resources; removed potential vulnerabilities and cleaned up systems* Upgraded 80+ blade center switches to latest firmware; minimized production network down time* Maintained six Cisco 5500 ASA firewalls; planned, announced, and upgraded to remove DHCP vulnerability

* Spearheaded NIST compliance efforts on RHEL 5 and 6 systems used for federal student loans program; applied Security Technical Implementation Guides by hand in accordance with company priorities.* Trained network admins and instructed IT staff on Network Time Protocol and best practices for implementation; engineered/implemented RHEL 6 based, NIST compliant NTP server in under 8 hours.* Instilled/implemented sound, best practice administration standards to eliminate “wild west” mentality; standardized configurations on mail systems that were performing identical duties in two locations.* Built RHEL 6 boxes using custom Kickstart config file to meet requirements of WebSphere administrator.

* Tasked with ensuring RHEL 3 and CentOS 5 Linux servers and network infrastructure used efficiently.* Proactively addressed system errors/warnings to stave off emergencies; developed best practices for use during critical network/server outages. Created/disseminated documentation to entire support team.* Identified/corrected several inefficiencies that contributed to excessive bandwidth utilization through Akamai. Saved company $2,000.00/month in overage costs. Employee of the Month – June 2011.* Performed configuration management on 98 Linux servers hosting 96 web sites across 30 US markets for the third largest newspaper company in the United States; successfully steered operational goals and tasks.

* Designed 440th Airlift Wing network enterprise—eliminated redundant infrastructure; reduced overall project cost by over $13 million. Awarded 43d Airlift Wing Comm. & Info NCO of the Year.* Trained 24 operators on General Dynamics Joint Biological Point Detection System; tested and reconfigured wireless network capabilities to exceed standards—credited with saving the $900 million defense program.* Updated 196 key leader BlackBerry devices in five days; eliminated web browser vulnerability. Set up base’s first BlackBerry Common Access Card (CAC) reader; enabled mobile message encryption.* Engineered data jack/port security solution for 207 Cisco devices; secured 7,300 data ports without service interruption—eradicated base wide network vulnerability with minimal customer impact.

* Flawlessly managed unit readiness programs, including equipment worth $56K and databases for 380 personnel. Scheduled/facilitated courses for 19 Airmen prior to global war on terrorism deployments.* As facility manager, coordinated redesign of a $303K furniture upgrade for the multi-agency Headquarters Joint Component Command, completing an eight year old modernization project under budget.* Lauded by the Buckley Agency Program Coordinator for attention to detail and superior organization of the Squadron Government Purchase Card Program receipt account; created improved systems for base to use.* Created a first of its kind medical/dental requirements tracking program that improved completed appointments by 30%; brought squadron from worst to best in medical requirements tracking.

* Identified US Central Command classified network Cisco router configuration flaw that baffled previous technicians; restored network connectivity to forward deployed Joint Task Force-West.* Critical to success of US Southern Command’s first-ever deployment of $40 million Deployable Joint Command & Control prototype; outperformed host base contractors—tripled base communication capacity.* Supervised the packing and movement of over $10 million worth of equipment during redeployment from US Central Command Forward Headquarters—100% accountability, all cargo safely returned.* As Unit Training Manager, expertly revamped unit training/tracking system; created SharePoint based resource allowing senior leadership to determine personnel and equipment mission readiness in real-time.During the invasion of Iraq a small contingent from the National Security Agency was stranded without any IT personnel. One of their Linux systems was no longer responding. With a war going on this mission critical system not working was a major concern. Recovered system from persistent kernel panics by shutting off non-essential services and configured SSH server so their remote IT team in Fort Meade, Maryland could get the proprietary software working again.

* Flawlessly fabricated over 100 proprietary data cables for a technical control facility rewiring project; saved $200K+ in contracting costs/fees—overcame many obstacles to restore full mission services.* Devoted off-duty time to train outside career field; certified on satellite communications/telephone switch operations—increased personal knowledge base/ensured success of unit’s most complex missions.* Reconfigured eight multiplexers; doubled capacity to distribute command and control circuits.* Planned, designed, and built portable training mock-up and test equipment cabinet—assembled using old, discarded equipment. Saved the unit $3,000 in material costs; trained 20 technicians.Shortly after arriving at this assignment I took part in the Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment which features some of the most unique applications of technology in a military war simulation. I convinced a team of senior personnel and government contractors that one of our primary network monitors should be running Linux instead of Windows. After taking ownership of installing, maintaining, and training others how to use this system I installed the first open source piece of software to run in Air Combat Command's Network Operations and Security Center. While other systems on the network were being compromised this box held firm, identified areas of concern during repeated cyber warfare attacks, and was never compromised during the entire length of the exercise.

* Maintained modem banks and administered Windows NT based environment for dial-up ISP* Designed websites for sandtech.net and SanTech Computer Services customers* Level 2 Help Desk for customer Internet access issues* Built custom computers for customers, network installations at customer locations, and met general IT staffing needs for customers