2024 Review
While learning new things is an important part of job satisfaction, I also value building on existing skills. There are often repeatable patterns or concepts—mental models—that allow comparing what is already known with something new; in other words, “this is like that.” As opportunities present themselves, we may need to switch roles and bring different skills to the table. These are the various “hats” or roles I’ve assumed over the last 12 months and what helped me.
The Solutioner Hat
My current official role is as a Cloud and Managed Services Pre-sales Solutioner. This time last year, I was involved in proposing solutions to reduce compute and database costs for a large European telco. This complex proposal, involving thousands of servers and databases, as well as a significant application development component, became one of the largest contracts ever awarded to Capgemini Spain. Besides requiring knowledge of compute, databases, and cloud services, one of the things that helped me in my section was the theory of marginal gains. This concept shows how small, achievable changes, can help reach a target.
The Cloud Architect and Admin Hat
Shortly after the above contract was awarded, I was assigned to deliver part of the service. We had a very short timeframe for transition, and the developer teams needed to start work within a few months. It had been a while since I had gotten my hands on the tools, and it was great to have authority over design and deployment. In this case, it meant learning some new skills, specifically Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. While I have delivery experience with AWS and, to some extent, Azure, OCI was completely new. The “this is like that” model helped, as the experience with the other hyperscalers enabled me to get up to speed much faster than if I were starting from zero.
My contribution lasted six months, and we delivered on time. I left the team with detailed design and deployment documentation, SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), and a series of training videos. While at times it was tough—because technology is difficult—not knowing and having to find out is usually uncomfortable, demanding, and at times mentally exhausting. However, previous experience helps create a mental structure that guides where you should best focus energy, how to put ideas in order, and how to document effectively.
The Portfolio Hat
My years of experience designing, deploying, and maintaining VMware clusters surprisingly became a rare skill in 2023. Following Broadcom’s takeover of VMware and subsequent price changes, many customers wanted to assess their options. Working with the global portfolio team, we created a two-phase offer of “Rapid Insight” and “Options Assessment.” By developing a methodology along with reusable assets in advance, teams can focus on understanding the customer’s situation and options to mitigate price increases.
This brought together consulting and advisory skills, an understanding of VMware architecture and performance, and the art of creating effective presentations to explain the changes and options. I had the chance to deliver some of these engagements, which for me is key. It’s like Friday practice in Formula One; you have to take the theory for a drive to know what works and what doesn’t.
The Advisory Hat
Another important project I undertook was advising a favorite customer on their journey to the cloud. Initially, they asked me to evaluate the feasibility and cost of extending their current on-premises setup to a twin data center in an active-active configuration. They also sought advice on what to recommend to the C-suite: whether to remain on-premises or migrate to public cloud, and if so, which hyperscaler would be the best fit for them. As is often the case, the answer depends on multiple factors. High availability and disaster recovery requirements are critical considerations for a customer currently operating from a single on-premises site. License portability is a key factor when choosing a hyperscaler, while experience and support are crucial for those who have invested time in proof-of-concept trials. In addition to these considerations, factors such as latency, dependency on core services like Mainframe, and several other aspects must be assessed before we even begin to analyze the cost of infrastructure — which is topic I’ll address in another post.