About

Who am I ?

I'm Frederic Lhoest, passionate about technology and IT. I'm currently working as an IT Architect. I like when computers make complex things on my behalf and therefore, I like when complexity becomes easy. That's the reason why I'm involved into disruptive IT technologies who provides innovative turn-key solutions.

The last few years, startups made amazing progresses into this world : Nutanix, Rubrik, ... and a real eco-system besides them emerged. Today, those startups became major players and the magic quadrant from Gartner move them from challenger to leader. The IT landscape is changing and Open Sources solutions are also playing a big role in this new IT-era. The startups I was talking about also integrates some Open Source technologies.

I'm fortunate enough to travel the world for my job and meet people who are doing today's IT. Travels became with time a new passion. Meeting with people, visiting new landscapes is marvelous. Thanks to this, I can put things in perspective and better understand the world we are living in.

My mother tongue is French and therefore excuse my wording and typos, I'm trying to do my best.

I'm writing this blog in English since this is the usual language in my environment - although I'm based in the French-speaking part of Belgium. You are welcome to support my work on Patreon ! 

 

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Nutanix

I've discovered Nutanix in 2014 - by accident. I'll never forget that day. I was on the phone with a supplier and he asked me if he can do something more for me. I said, probably not, I'm looking at deploying a private cloud in my company and this was probably not in his portfolio. Then he told me Nutanix. I wrote this name somewhere on my notebook. Later in the evening I decided to look at it. I've found the Nutanix youtube channel and ... I spent a big part of the night watching videos. I was so amazed that a company like this exists. This was the beginning of a long story.

Today, I'm using an entry-level cluster in my company to test anything I can and see how real life application can emerge from this. There is a lot add-on to the Nutanix baseline that can accommodate almost any IT needs.

Days after days, I've started to get more and more involved with Nutanix. I got my NPP (Nutanix Platform Professional) certification in 2016. I'm part of the NTC (Nutanix Technology Champion) program since 2016.

http://www.nutanix.com

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Rubrik

Rubrik is a startup that defines itself as having the same DNA as Nutanix but from a different father. They are using the same philosophy than Nutanix (scalable, buy as you growth, ...) applied to Enterprise backup. It makes backup sexy - even if backup is probably the most hated job by IT administrator. Rubrik can guarantee you that backup is done in due time and you don't need to worry about it. I've tested the product and was amazed by its simplicity and extended features. They still have a lot on their roadmap, we can expect to be amazed again in the future.

http://www.rubrik.com

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What else ?

There are other interesting players on the market like StratoScale, Mesosphere, OpenStack, OpenDaylight, OpenMona, containers, .... All those technologies have been initiated by the OpenSource world. This is fun to see how OpenSource is now embraced by the Enterprise. Beside that, we are living in a world where a lot of great tools are simplifying lives of IT guys. I mean tools like Ansible, Puppet, Containers, .... If I'me gaining sufficient knowledge, I'll blog about that too.

Why this blog ?

I've decided to start writing a blog because there are so many good things in IT today that need to be shared. I probably been though the same journey as you and if I can provide support by any ways, then this is fine. Internet is all about sharing. I'll try to post tips & tricks and procedure related to the above products and more ...