Full Stack Journey 005: Patrick Kelso

Episode #5 of the Full Stack Journey Podcast features Patrick Kelso, an independent consultant. (Patrick is patrickkelso on GitHub and on Twitter.) He works predominantly in the UNIX/virtualization/cloud space. He spent quite a number of years at EMC, then branched out and made the move to Puppet. Since then, he’s started working on his own. Patrick is based in Sydney, Australia. Show Notes * Patrick’s view of a full stack engineer is similar to my own—an engineer who’s comfortable working across multiple technology domains. A full stack engineer doesn’t restrict himself or herself to one silo; instead, they understand multiple silos: networking, APIs, automation, etc. * This broader view of the various silos and layers of the data center stack gives a full stack engineer the ability to communicate more effectively with other IT teams. * As opposed to a generalist, a full stack engineer typically has one technology domain where he or she is strongest and deep technical expertise. For Patrick, he’s currently focusing on automation. * Patrick references a presentation by John Mark Troyer (recording here on YouTube) talking about a “pie-shaped” skill set. In a pie-shaped skill set, you have deep knowledge on one thing with more general knowledge on other things, but you’re already cultivating/building the deep skill set on “the next thing.” * Patrick was pulled into using Puppet through a job he was doing for a client, where the use of Puppet made compliance audits incredibly simple and easy. * Other things he’s spending time with now: other configuration management tools, cloud providers (AWS, Azure), and even some “non-sexy” technologies like Oracle Solaris and HP OpenView. * However, even when using “older” technologies he always asks about how that tool or technology can be automated. It’s an “automation first” approach. * In making the transition from storage-focused person to “infrastructure as code”-focused person, one big challenge Patrick faced was sticking with something long enough to build expertise. He had to battle the “ooh look something shiny” mentality that is common among IT professionals. * Docker has been very helpful to Patrick—it helps him get to the point where he can evaluate the value of a technology instead of getting stuck in the minutiae of installing or configuring the product. * You still need to go back and understand the minutiae, but that can be done after you’ve figured out whether it’s worth the time and effort (instead of being forced to invest that time and effort up front when you don’t even know if this technology will be useful). * Setting up ELK (ElasticSearch, LogStash, and Kibana) using Docker is one example of being able to evaluate the tool before having to invest time in getting it running. * It’s faster to “getting business value” out of a particular technology. * Vagrant also does this, but in some cases Docker does it faster. * Don’t skip out on going back to understand the details of how these things work! * Pluralsight is a great resource for keeping up with technologies. * Patrick’s also found Linux Academy to be helpful. Being able to watch informational/instructional videos while offline has worked well for him. * Patrick is a fan of David Allen’s GTD,