
This third installment of the HPCC Systems platform team mini-series features our host, Flavio Villanustre, VP Technology & CISO, LexisNexis Risk Solutions Group, interviewing two of our technologists responsible for supporting the overall infrastructure, builds and releases, Michael Gardner, Software Engineer III and Xiaoming “Ming” Wang, Sr Consulting Software Engineer, both with LexisNexis Risk Solutions Group. Flavio begins with Ming giving a background on joining the company in 2013 with his initial focus on managing the builds and related tools. Now with the move to the cloud, his role has expanded to involve integrating third party solutions such as Kubernetes and AWS with HPCC Systems. Michael joined in 2014 through the internship program and began working on the administrative tools supporting the platform builds, and like Ming, has now shifted to more cloud management tasks, like Docker, helping to expand the HPCC Systems ecosystem.
Both explain the challenges with the shift from bare metal to the cloud and give insight on how it has been beneficial in many aspects from setting up a cluster, data storage, performance improvements, to deployment. Being an open source platform, they also have to keep in mind usability, and taking an adaptive approach for providing different builds and configurations for supporting a wide variety of users. Through our own cloud initiatives, Michael and Ming share tips on deployment strategies and stress the need for testing. This is where the open source community plays a big role in contributing feedback to help fine-tune the environment. Ming and Michael are very active in the community with delivering Tech Talks, presentations and also mentoring students in our internship program. Be sure to listen to the full episode to catch all the helpful information they share to help you with your cloud journey!