This feels a bit weird but i have talked to the mirror and asked myself the same questions i have asked my fellow NPX colleagues. So this is my interview with myself:)
- Name: Magnus Andersson
- NPX Number: 005
- Employer: Nutanix
- Blog URL: http://magander.se
- Twitter: @magander3
- Virtualisation background: Started back in the days playing with VMware workstation and continued on with Solaris zones and VMware ESXi. Focus over the past +10 years has been software based platform built on VMware software.
- Storage Background: Storage has never been my primary focus but i have been involved in architecture, implementation and operation for a wide variety storage solutions including EMC, Dell, Hitachi, HP and IBM.
- Hyper Converged Infrastructure background: Was following Nutanix for about one year before i got the opportunity to join the company. So understanding of the technology for about 2 years now and it has obviously been my primarily focus the past 16 months.
- Future of HCI and other emerging technologies: Based on number of companies that creates HCI solutions these days i must say that it will most likely play a big role over the next years when data centers are being built. After that i think it will be the standard way of building data centers. Not everything will be replaced by HCI but the target is absolutely the wast majority of the workloads we see today. HCI will be the foundation for truly software defined and invisible infrastructure. All of the following things are to its favour:
- Form factor
- How easy it it to manage
- Its self healing capabilities
- Predictable in terms of cost & performance.
- Easy to scale
- Automation capabilities
- Value of NPX: NPX is not a Nutanix software only certification meaning the focus is not to know all commands and know exactly why and when a piece of data is moved between data tiers and potentially Nutanix nodes. NPX is about putting together a solution that can run the customers applications the best possible way based on customer business and technical requirements. This requires knowledge in infrastructure (compute, network and storage), hypervisor(s) and applications. NPX requires extensive knowledge about two different hypervisors which is unique in the industry today and gives the NPX holders additional options when creating a design. So remember that NPX is about the complete solution and not just an hypervisor and Nutanix even though you need very strong Nutanix skills as well.
- What made you go for NPX: You need to improve your skills all the time while working in the IT industry so the main driver for my NPX certification was gaining experience same time as increasing my knowledge. Another key driver was to see if i got what it takes to meet all the aspects of NPX.
- Advise to people looking into the NPX track: NPX obviously requires Nutanix knowledge so if you are not working (in any way) with Nutanix Xtreme Computing platform today i would suggest you start with Nutanix Community edition. You don’t need an existing X level certification to apply for NPX but if you do it’s for sure a good start. I suggest anyone looking for a great challenge to start looking at NPX. Be prepared for hard work:)