Now Hiring -Apply Within

Joining a company during a big transition is a pretty exciting thing.   The amount of chaos and work to get done is immense especially when you are trying to fundamentally re-shape something that exists to best in class and ultimately industry leading again.  While I can’t tell you specifically what I am thinking yet, we have already begun making at some of the necessary changes to deliver on a big mission.   The overall content strategy that AOL is marching down is going to drive some very interesting infrastructure and operations related challenges (You may have seen the recent purchase of Huffington Post and some others) with even greater challenges ahead.  From time to time I am going to post some positions that I have open in my organization in case any of my readers may be interested or know someone that is interested.  I know some of you read this for more of my industry related thoughts – but you might be interested some of the things we are doing here as well.  If not, you can skip to the next post. 

So without further ado…

NOC Engineers

I am dramatically expanding the size of our Network Operations Center and capabilities – Do you know someone smart who is interested in breaking into one of the top ten largest Internet companies (as measured by infrastructure) and wants to get a good feel for managing Internet scale operations, multiple data center locations, and tens of thousands of machines?   Are you a returning veteran looking for your next career move?   Are you a college student wondering how to break into this space at scale? This is an area that is going to evolve greatly in the coming weeks and months within the organization and its a chance to get some great experience  and be at the ground floor of a company significantly driving automation and the next big thing.   This would include significant career paths into multiple technology directions.  These positions are based in Dulles, VA – so we would be looking at the Virginia, DC, and Maryland area for candidates.  I am extremely motivated to fill these roles quickly.

CDN/EDGE/Applications Engineering Manager

We are looking for strong candidates to manage a team that will be an integral part of our overall future delivery strategy specifically targeted at distributed CDN and Edge computing capabilities and help drive various application engineering efforts within the organization.   This position reports up through our Network Engineering organization but will be deeply embedded into other engineering teams, product teams, and architecture efforts.

DNS Engineer

We are looking for DNS engineers to join the engineering teams and help drive the future of our name space management and technologies along with some operational related responsibilities managing our global DNS infrastructure.  As we are significantly adding to the business from the content aggregation side of the house the DNS function will be an integral growth area for the business.

If you or someone you might know is interested in these postions please reach out to me via comment on this blog post (I’ll keep it private) so I can tell you where to send your resumes to.   I am not interested in sourcing these positions from outside agencies at this time.

\Mm

Tags: Hiring, DNS Engineers, NOC Engineers, CDN Engineers, Edge Engineers, Application Engineering, AOL

 

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Best of Luck to a Great Guy…

I just read that Chris Crosby has announced his departure at Digital Realty Trust. As an alumni of that great firm I can definitely tell you that Chris’ hand-prints are all over that company.  I had the pleasure of interacting with him, before I joined,  heavily in my role there, and have maintained our relationship since leaving.   Chris was an influential force in defining how that company ran, operated, and ultimately succeeded in dominating the wholesale data center market.  Not to mention that he was always a charismatic tour-de-force as one of its primary faces and pitchmen.

I don’t know what Chris is up to next but I wish him the greatest success and happiness.  If his near term goal is a little time off, Lord knows he has earned it.  I do know that his tornado like energy wont keep him out of the fray for long.

\Mm

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Preparing for the Cloud: A Data Center and Operations Survival Guide

This May, I once again have the distinct honor of presenting at the Uptime Institute’s Symposium. This year it will be held in Santa Clara, CA from May 9 through the 12th.  This year my primary topic is entitled ‘Preparing for the Cloud: A Data Center Survival Guide.’   I am really looking forward to this presentation on two fronts.  

First, it will allow me to share some of the challenges, observations, and opportunities I have seen over the last few years and package it up for Data Center Operators and IT professionals in a way that’s truly relevant to how to start preparing for the impact on their production environments. The whole ‘cloud’ industry is now rife with competing definitions, confusing marketing, and a broad spectrum of products and services meant to cure all ills. To your organization’s business leaders the cloud means lower costs, quicker time to market, and an opportunity to streamline IT Operations and reduce or eliminate the need for home-run data center environments. But what is the true impact on the operational environments? What plans do you need to have in place to ensure this kind of move can be successful? Is you organization even ready to make this kind of move? Is the nature of your applications and environments ‘Cloud-Ready? There are some very significant things to keep in mind when looking into this approach and many companies have not thought them all through.  My hope is that this talk will help prepare the professional with the necessary background and questions to ensure they are armed with the correct information to be an asset to the conversation within their organizations.

The second front is to really dig into the types of services available in the market and how to build an internal scorecard to ensure that your organization is approaching the analysis in a true – apples to apples kind of comparison.   So often I have heard horror stories of companies

caught up in the buzz of the Cloud and pursuing devastating cloud strategies that are either far more expensive than what they had to begin with.  The cloud can be a powerful tool and approach to serve the business, but you definitely need to go in with both eyes wide open.

I will try to post some material in the weeks ahead of the event to set the stage for the talk.  As always, If you are planning on attending Symposium this year feel free to reach out to me if you see me walking the halls.  

\Mm

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