Red Hat OpenShift & IBM Cloud Paks

Draft release of Red Hat OpenShift v4.x and IBM Cloud Paks on IBM Power

"Click on the book to download now."

I have always loved IBM Redbooks for the clarity of the technical information they provide. I was introduced to the series at my first IBM Business Partner back in the '90s. A great source of information as I quickly learnt all about RS6K, SSA AIX etc.

My first role was as Field Service Engineer providing 24/7 4-hour hardware and software fix to biometric fingerprint and forensic science systems. This was very innovative technology and a pleasure to work with. I recall using the AIX V4 Redbook Certification guide to obtain accreditation and passed the knowledge on as my team grew. I accepted roles as Southern Coordinator and then Regional Field Service Manager before moving to another BP.

While based at IBM UK HQ, I enjoyed supporting Enterprise Systems running Unified Messaging Systems all over the World and worked with IBM Hursley to design infrastructure for the worlds largest UM systems, with HACMP Clusters with SAN Storage. Redbooks once again played a big part in my learning adventure, adding to the wealth of knowledge gained from IBM Training. SAN was extremely new at this point, so much so that I travelled to IBM Atlanta and Raleigh for SAN and DS4000 education because this was not yet available in the UK. Although I had an IBM Gold Card and completed many training courses in 2001, Redbooks and IBM Systems Technical Universities kept my learning momentum going.

I recall keynotes from the Tech Uni in Innsbrook back in 2002 talking about autonomous, self-healing systems.

Redbooks remained a great source of information as I moved into my next role as Consultant for my third Business Partner. I provided consultancy to hundreds of Enterprise customers.

This time around, I was the instructor, also performing presales, providing workshops, writing designs, implementing solutions, skills transfer, post-sales support.

I enjoyed the end to end journey, from vision to implementation and providing ongoing support with my customers.

My library of Redbooks was never further than an arms reach away.

Redbooks have served me well!

As an instructor, I always valued the opportunity that teaching gave me to maintain my skills, gain confidence in new features and functionality, gain experiences from students' environments and questions. Having Lab kit to try new ideas was also a welcome bonus. Insight from these sessions brought a wealth of experience and helped me understand when to introduce new technology into production and probably more importantly when not to!

Time doesn't stand still, and neither do I, it was time to join Big Blue. My first year-long project was designing the virtualisation and implementing Enterprise SAP systems for the transformation of the UK's largest Building Society's core banking systems.

The second leading the design and implementation of four POWER6 Enterprise systems, which replaced a couple of hundred troublesome x86 servers. The savings on Oracle licenses saved the WW Energy company ￡M's.

I was honoured to receive an Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for my efforts. Rebooks, still never far away!

Lifelong learning is ingrained deep inside me. It was time to move into a full-time technical presales position where I would once again rapidly learn the latest technologies as they become available, designing new systems to help customers. It's been a wonderful experience, working with the greatest HW, SW and people the industry has to offer.

I welcome the opportunity to meet up with folks from all around the World at Technical Universities and working with R&D as a matter of routine.

I was responsible for the architecture and strategy of Bank's private clouds, and arranged UK Customer Tours for Chief Architect & Develoment Leads based from the home of IBM Power Systems in Austin, Texas.

It's great to work with wonderful customers and colleagues alike and Redbooks have always contributed to my learning experience. In addition, I have always said that if I could only have one formal piece of education a year, it would be IBM Systems Technical University.

I now have the pleasure of working in IBM Systems World Wide Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Technical team, supporting Customers, Business Partners and IBMers all across Europe.

Working directly with Offering Management, Development and Red Hat, providing feedback from the field and influencing product roadmaps, modernising applications and building cloud-native, hybrid cloud solutions based on the very best infrastructure and software the industry has to offer .

There's truly nowhere else I'd rather be! #BestJobInTheWorld

Time to give back

It's been my absolute honour and privilege to work with such a great team, who have produced this new Redbook. We already have plans to enhance this with volume three and will not let COVID-19 get in the way of that, as we continue to produce Redbooks remotely across the World, sharing with those that wish to learn.

Next year will bring more change, and I embrace that we will continue to learn and improve!

I hope that you enjoy the book, and continue #lifelonglearning