Nov 12, 2018Wrangling FoundationDB: Zero downtime OS upgradesNot only am I an Operations Wrangler leading a production engineering team running Wavefront, but also work on running some of the largest deployments of FoundationDB. This is our story. [This is a sneak peek of some topics I’ll be talking about at the FoundationDB Summit on Dec 10. …Wavefront2 min readWavefront2 min read
Nov 1, 2018Thoughts from an Operations Wrangler: Oncall is a day at the beachThoughts from an Operations Wrangler; I lead the production engineering team, running one of the largest SaaS observability platforms on the planet. Wavefront started in 2013 (I joined in 2016) and was acquired by VMware in 2017. These thoughts are all mine. Charity Majors posed a question on Twitter that…Observability3 min readObservability3 min read
Oct 23, 2018Thoughts from an Operations Wrangler: How we use alerts to monitor WavefrontThoughts from an Operations Wrangler; I lead the production engineering team, running one of the largest SaaS observability platforms on the planet. Wavefront started in 2013 (I joined in 2016) and was acquired by VMware in 2017. These thoughts are all mine. I find myself more and more talking with…Wavefront4 min readWavefront4 min read
May 26, 2015doing as my father didI have some pretty fond memories of my Dad, a math teacher, bringing home one of the (or maybe it was the) Apple II computers from work when I was in first or second grade. That’s how I got introduced to computers (and where I learned how to spell catalog)…1 min read1 min read
May 25, 2015on authenticityNon-authentic is a virus in anything you do in life. Non-authentic is not benign. It metastasizes like a tumor. ~ @cookfix When I first started people managing, I was given some simple advise: always find one personal thing from each person’s life and remember to ask them about it every…2 min read2 min read
Feb 8, 2015A TestHe stepped out into the cold, glad to be through and glad to be out. The cold winter wind slapped him in the face as if scolding. He hadn’t really bundled up too well — just wanted to leave. He stood there now pulling together his jacket, fastening the zipper…3 min read3 min read
Dec 21, 2014thank you marieI never had a lot of friends in high school. Senior year was somehow different. I don’t know why but by graduation I knew and was known by those I considered the “in” crowd. I’m a believer in recognizing those who do good and as I read George Saunder’s convocation…2 min read2 min read
Dec 18, 2014managing or leading?“People want to be led by someone they know. Someone they trust.” ~ https://popforms.com/death-to-top-down-leadership/ More than five years ago I started managing a team. Five years later I wasn’t so much as managing a team of 60 as I was leading a team of 60. There’s a big difference between…1 min read1 min read
