What went down?
On Wednesday 22nd February 2023, Red Hat South Africa came to Villa Rosa Kempinski Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. I was privileged to attend this Intel-sponsored event from 9am - 5pm that Wednesday, getting the chance to network with the Red Hat team & Nutanix team and learn about their work cultures, DevOps, DevSecOps and their other services. Red Hat, Inc. is an American software provider that offers businesses open-source software goods. Nutanix, Inc. sells software, cloud services (like Desktops as a Service, Disaster Recovery as a Service, and Cloud Monitoring), and software-defined storage. Nutanix and Red Hat held this meeting to pitch their services to various other tech companies to help them become more agile as well as maintain the right culture.
Culture Talk
The culture talk segment preached heavily on the term “transformation”, a way of unlocking new lines of business in tech. 5 key elements of transformation as well as the top reasons for product failure were outlined in that talk; Leadership from the standpoint that companies prevent change from happening. Product is another key element that fails due to the fact that companies build things that don’t matter. Development, the third element would be affected if the wrong things were built with the wrong specifications. Architecture and Operations round out this list; Architecture fails when a company builds something wrong. Operations fail due to incidents and outages.
Services Discussed
As for the services side of the seminar, Red Hat discussed two major services that they deploy to other companies and Nutanix discussed one major service of theirs called Nutanix Clusters.
Red Hat OpenShift
At number 1 we have Red Hat OpenShift, for me, this was the most fascinating software product out of the three. OpenShift is a feature-rich, open-source container application platform for the creation, deployment, and administration of applications. With the ability to host a self-managed or fully managed service on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid environment, this software makes the deployment and operation of a hybrid infrastructure simpler.
Chris Mulder, the speaker of the OpenShift session informed us that Red Hat 2017 has been deploying its OpenShift platform to BMW the globally renowned German automobile manufacturer. OpenShift supports BMW Connected Drive, an app that maintains communication between the driver and the outside world through three key digital services: the BMW Connected app, Driving Assistance Services, and Digital Services. They are made to offer more convenience, amusement, safety, and ultimately, driving enjoyment. Amazing right?! Two companies of such importance globally collaborate to provide such a convenient service.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
The Ansible Automation Platform is the other major service Red Hat discussed in the seminar. The Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a complete program designed to offer a cooperative approach to automation that aids your team in achieving its objectives. The hybrid cloud console can be used to access hosted services with other Red Hat cloud services, combining the best of on-premises automation innovation. Their featured customers include Microsoft, Reserve Bank of New Zealand and Superscripts, all automate and orchestrate their IT activities with Red Hat Ansible Automation, which promotes automation throughout IT stacks.
Nutanix Clusters
Nutanix presented their software called Nutanix Clusters, a hybrid and multi-cloud platform offering that permits direct integration of hybrid cloud installations into public clouds. The goal of Nutanix Clusters is to provide a consistent user experience in both on-premises and public cloud settings. To fully free yourself from any lock-in to the underlying cloud, you can move applications between these environments without taking on the risk, expense, or time required to refactor them. Clusters are used by Tata Consultancy Services, FSB, HAPEV and many other companies. That winds up the presentations for the event.
Food, Games and Goodies
Other than the presentations for Nutanix and Red Hat, we were provided delectable snack breaks and lunch around 2 in the afternoon. Plus desert, top-notch food you won’t get everywhere. Villa Rosa really came with the heat man! See it in the pictures below.
The hosts gave out power banks to those who attended the event. The Nutanix team hosted a game called Wheel of Fortune during the tea breaks where contestants could win a notebook if they spun on the " You Win a Prize " section or "Answer a Question About Nutanix." If you spin the "Sorry Better Luck Next Time" section, well you just got to try again. I personally spun two and landed on the "Sorry Better Luck Next Time" section. Despite my pathetic skills at spinning the wheel and failing to win anything, I was awarded a Nutanix key chain as a consolation prize for my efforts.
Networking
As for the networking side of things, a couple of attendees I met work at Britam Holding PLC as System Administrators. While another group of two I met are from Customerix Ltd, they are in Web Development. The rest are fellow university students from KCA and JKUAT. Speaking of students, Red Hat started offering some short courses and learning platforms for students called Red Hat Academy. Currently, the program is being piloted by the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. In the future, more universities will benefit from this platform.
Conclusion
Finally! I have concluded my report to you on what went down at the Red Hat Day Event at Villa Rosa Kempinski. Special thanks to my friend Tony Gaya for notifying me about this event, it was a blast. It was a lot to unpack for a day that was full of learning, networking, eating and participation. I hope I have captured your attention on such tech conventions as either a new techie or a seasoned techie. Thanks for taking the time to read this article, I hope you have enjoyed it.
