TL;DR = HashiCorp makes cool stuff for IT Ops (and more). I’m going to HashiConf while on sabbatical to learn more and write about it.

Depending on how we met, you might not know that my career started with 7 years in an IT Operations hands-on role at a university. This involved a little bit of everything – Netware to Linux to VMware (started w/VI3) to NetApp to Cisco firewalls/switches/routers to login creation automation to much more. Over time I moved into more of a project role where after initial research & setup would try to automate the post-implementation day to day work or hand it off. I wasn’t “too good to do anything” but didn’t like repetitive daily tasks if I could avoid them. 😉 Hopefully that’s a “good lazy”.

Given that, HashiCorp and their products have really struck a chord with me. While my datacenter days were definitely pre-cloud, solving datacenter problems relating to provisioning, service discovery, security, and more really resonate with me. The Tao of Hashicorp is particularly awesome – go read it, I’ll wait until you get back.

The Tao of HashiCorp

So…how do HashiCorp products help? I’m glad you asked – this video from Dave McJanet is a great walkthrough of HashiCorp’s product suite.

Of course, there’s Wikipedia and lots more great YouTube content out there by the co-founders and CTO’s – Armon Dadgar and Mitchell Hashimoto.

Sadly, I’ve not been able to spend as much time as I’d like learning about Terraform/Packer/Consul/Serf/Vagrant/Nomad/Vault…until now. As part of some personal development time during my sabbatical, I’m really excited to attend HashiConf. Huge thanks to Amber Rowland to helping with a media pass and Justin Warren and Stu Miniman for helping make the connection. Thanks as well to Eric Wright and Rebecca Fitzhugh for first introducing me to Hashicorp projects.

While I’m planning to live-blog/tweet the keynote and write up additional content around other sessions, I’m even more excited to sit down with Mitchell Hashimoto himself on Tuesday for 30 minutes – have got some topics I’m looking to explore.

If you have any comments about HashiCorp, questions for Mitchell, or anything else, do let me know!

Disclaimer: I attended HashiConf on a free media pass however paid for my own flights and hotel. There was no requirement for me to blog about any of the content presented and I was not compensated for my time at the event (unless random booth swag from sponsors counts). No materials discussed were presented under NDA.