This week in episode 264 we’re joined by returning guest Brad Christian. In this discussion Brad shares how he selected the technologies on which to focus certification efforts, the story of getting laid off, how he determined working for a VAR (Value Added Reseller) was the right next move, and how we should be intentional in connecting with others in our industry. Original Recording Date: 01-15-2024 Brad Christian is a returning guest and is currently a Solutions Specialist at Computacenter. If you missed part 1 of this discussion with Brad or are looking for links to previous discussions with him, check out Episode 263. Topics – Making a Bet on Technologies for Certification and Focus, Decision to Work for a VAR, Getting Laid Off, Making Connections, Discussing Money, Leaving Leadership 3:01 – Making a Bet on Technologies for Certification and Focus * We’ve spoken to previous guests about making a bet on technology, and it has to be timed appropriately with technology waves. How did Brad know where to place his bet, and what was the decision process he used? * Brad says right now in our industry is weird. The largest security company in the world is Microsoft. It’s going to be difficult for anyone to see the future clearly from here. * Not every bet you make to train on a specific technology pays off. * “When I haven’t known what to do…one thing is clear. Doubling down on fundamentals is not going to hurt you.” – Brad Christian, on where to place your emphasis * Brad thinks the demand for cloud native tools in on-premises environments will only increase. * With the rise of AI, Brad would advise people not to put intellectual property on a cloud, especially leaders. Security would dictate that data come back on-premises, but some of the hardware requirements are pretty crazy. Preparing for this is smart. * Security will be come more important, and the number of breaches will increase. Brad also thinks GDPR will come to the US. * Brad prefers the distributed system approach as opposed to complete centralization. Many workloads will be right for cloud, but there will be those that have to live on-premises. * There will be more storage companies that rise like WEKA. * Brad also says baking FinOps into all of this is an important bet. * Brad foresees more workload variability and continued growth in the edge space. * Brad’s advice for younger listeners or those relatively new to tech is to go and learn networking (get certified there). * The future will be more about things moving around. Storage will be easier to learn when you need it. * Learn about the different workloads which exist and how that is changing. * There are a lot of missing tools and processes when it comes to Kubernetes. * There is a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt). * Brad also believes Red Hat isn’t going anywhere. * Brad shares the story of attending a Red Hat user group recently and being the youngest person there. * It would be wise for younger folks to get out and attend user groups like this. * VMUG attendance dwindled as a result of COVID and hasn’t bounced back to take one example. * Going to meetups is going to get more important moving forward! * If you only know cloud services like AWS today, Brad would encourage you to go and learn the on-premises technologies. * “Learn the hard things. If you’ve been taught to do everything the easy way at scale, learn why we built all that stuff in the first place.” – Brad Christian * John says making a bet on Red Hat isn’t so muc...