Every story begins with people who make a difference. In our interview series, it is precisely these people who have their say: NWS employees who share their experiences, ideas and insights with us. We want to know what drives them and what we can all learn from them.
We continue our series of interviews with Achim Ledermüller, Senior Manager Cloud.
What is your position at NETWAYS Managed Services and what are you responsible for?
As Cloud Manager, I am responsible for the technical management of our cloud team. This team is responsible for the operation and further development of NWS Cloud Services. In terms of content, this involves data center work, servers, routers and switches. And, of course, the services running on them, such as SDN, storage and OpenStack, which serve as the basis for other products such as Managed Kubernetes®, Object Storage, Air Gapped Backup, Customer Center and, of course, our NWS Cloud. All components must run stably so that our Managed Services team and MyEngineer® can operate our customers’ setups.
That sounds like a lot of work at first, but luckily we have specialists in all areas. For me, this means a lot of discussions within the team so that I can keep track of things and provide further sensible planning.
How do you define the role of cloud services today?
I see cloud services as a basic infrastructure that should be as natural and reliable as water from the tap. Most applications in companies need this basis, which is why it must be simple, fast, fair and stable to use.
What advantages do you see for customers when they rely on the cloud instead of their own infrastructure?
Above all, I see the advantage of being able to concentrate on your own core business. Stable and secure operation of your own services is usually very time-consuming. If you lack the necessary capacity and knowledge in certain areas, it is better to use a reliable service provider.
How do you prioritize service developments: through customer feedback, market trends, technical innovations or a mixture?
Of course, new features and offers often arise from requests and feedback from our existing customers. If a solution we find is a good fit for our platform, we often turn it into a new service that is made available to all customers. A current example is our Air Gapped Backup. An individual customer request has resulted in a service that can be conveniently used by everyone.
Other developments, on the other hand, are often driven by technical innovations. Customers often only experience the benefits indirectly, for example through an improved, more stable service, such as the conversion of our “old” network to a modern spine-leaf architecture or the migration of SDN to OVN.
It is often difficult to find the right point of entry for other market trends. As a provider, you need solutions that can be operated in a stable and scalable manner. The open source world often delivers good products, but it often takes years to solve all the problems. One example is Docker, which has shaken up the container world. With Mesos and Marathon, good schedulers were also quickly available. The CNCF replaced or further developed both products and only made the “trend” available and stable for everyone with Kubernetes. Without a cluster API or similar, operating many clusters is still time-consuming.
What role do transparency and audits play in building customer trust?
I believe that insights into our environment, processes and technical details give our customers a little more control over the requirements they have to meet, such as availability and confidentiality. It is necessary for customers to understand which services and processes have which effects in the event of an error. Errors happen from time to time, of course, whether they are technical or human. Our task is to minimize the impact on our customers as much as possible.
Audits and recognized certifications such as ISO 27001 or PCI DSS serve as independent confirmation that our internal controls, data protection and availability measures comply with industry standards. They create a trustworthy foundation on which new customers can also quickly assess whether our security and quality level meets their own requirements.
What expectations do customers have of cloud services today and how do you meet them?
The expectations of cloud services are extremely diverse: high availability, robust security, transparent and low costs, flexible use of resources, almost unlimited scalability, well-documented APIs, reliable support, sustainability and optimal performance. At the same time, the demand for usable services and features is increasing, meaning that the catalog that a cloud provider must provide is constantly growing.
It is therefore important for us to find a balance between the costs of operation and further development and to identify exactly which requirements our (potential) customers actually have. Unfortunately, this also includes switching off products and services that have not been booked.
What has been the biggest technical challenge in recent years?
In addition to individual new technologies and products that need to be learned, the biggest technical challenge for me is the smooth operation of all components. There are many interlocking gears that need to be maintained and, if necessary, replaced. During operation, there is little room for errors and inaccuracies. Any malfunction in one component has an impact on other services and therefore contradicts customer expectations.
What technological trends do you think will shape the next few years in the cloud world?
Good question, of course I can’t give you a glimpse into the crystal ball.
However, AI models and solutions will of course be used more and will be included as another product in the world of cloud providers. The adaptation of existing services so that they can be used by agents, for example, will also be an issue.
Serverless and FaaS could gain even more momentum. The infrastructure used is abstracted even further than with Kubernetes, which enables a better focus on your own application. However, Kubernetes will certainly be with us for many years to come.
I also find developments such as low-code environments interesting, but they are not yet in demand on our platform.
0 Comments