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Business News/ Brand Stories / Building the Best DevOps Team in India: Roy Bernat, CTO & Co-Founder of IAMOPS
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Building the Best DevOps Team in India: Roy Bernat, CTO & Co-Founder of IAMOPS

In an interesting conversation with Roy Bernat, CTO of IAMOPS he revealed, “If engineers have the right mindset and they are passionate about DevOps technologies then we can definitely work on refining their potential and help them become the best DevOps engineers.”

Building the Best DevOps Team in India: Roy Bernat, CTO & Co-Founder of IAMOPSPremium
Building the Best DevOps Team in India: Roy Bernat, CTO & Co-Founder of IAMOPS

The cloud computing industry has grown rapidly since its inception in the early 2000s, and companies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) have become major players in the tech industry. However, it's important to note that the growth of cloud technology is ongoing and there are still opportunities for individuals to get involved and learn new skills.

In an interesting conversation with Roy Bernat, CTO of IAMOPS he revealed, “If engineers have the right mindset and they are passionate about DevOps technologies then we can definitely work on refining their potential and help them become the best DevOps engineers."

Having started working in the DevOps field more than 20 years, Roy has a lot to say about creating his own company by bridging the technological gap.

1. How did the idea of starting IAMOPS surface and how has that idea grown?

I've been in tech for 20 years and have had the experience of working with brands like MSN, AON, and Cisco.

I worked with intense production environments when I was at Cisco, and there I found that these companies could not afford even a second of downtime. I developed an expertise in high-volume production environments and eventually started being a consultant to these companies.

At first I was doing it alone, but since there was a huge demand, I decided to build a team to provide my services to more companies.

At that point, Eyal and I met and started brainstorming about the right way to do it. We came to a conclusion that India is the right place to build our team. Gradually, we hired more team members and grew our company.

Today, we are offering DevOps teams for early-stage and high-growth startups. We help them build strong DevOps foundation and be “production grade" ready.

2. What problems were you looking to solve and what makes your solution better?

Start-ups usually begin with some developers working on an innovative product. When they want to scale, they need more expertise in different domains to turn their POC to production grade. But these developers often lack the knowledge and time to upgrade their infrastructure into "Production grade".

So they either recruit inhouse DevOps employees or outsource their DevOps workload to DevOps as a Service companies like IAMOPS. It is important to these start-ups to have a DevOps whom they can rely on to scale their infrastructure.

From our experience with our clients, we found that the most important things for CTOs when it comes to DevOps services is responsiveness, professionalism, and dedication.

It is obvious that CTOs wants to know that their DevOps will follow best practices when it comes to security, performance, and cost.

But the greatest pain point CTOs experience when they work with other companies is the lack of responsiveness and dedication. They usually get one or two days a week of DevOps services, and if the tasks are not completed or the developer needs urgent support they will need to wait till next week when the DevOps will come back.

IAMOPS was created to address these pains. Our DevOps team is extremely responsive 24/7 so the client always feels that he has a DevOps in his team. We are quick, accurate and very proactive. We work as a part of our client’s team and not as a separate unit. This is the major difference between other companies in the market vs IAMOPS.

3. The tech landscape is ever-changing, how do you ensure you cope and deliver?

Keeping up with technology is very important, and we encourage all of our employees to do so. I spend hours a day reading, learning new technologies, and discovering new viewpoints. DevOps is always changing, so you need to keep up with all the information from whitepapers, podcasts and blogs.

4. Hiring the right candidate for the right role is difficult! What is your method to assess candidates?

This is a one-million dollar question. We measure their approach towards problem solving in our technical interviews, but the most important part is still the attitude of the candidate. I value passion towards learning the most, as well as being able to express yourself and being hands-on. We have been hiring in India for very long, and from my experience, young engineers and graduates are very adaptable and smart. They have a passion for learning, which makes them a very good fit for IAMOPS.

Even if they don’t have the technical expertise yet, we have a well-rounded internship program, where they can learn how to execute the right solution efficiently.

5. How does IAMOPS make a difference in start-ups?

IAMOPS is offering a new alternative for onboarding a DevOps in an R&D team.

Before IAMOPS you could hire a DevOps employee or outsource your DevOps workload to a DevOps as a Service provider who’s availability and responsiveness would be very limited.

Today, you can enjoy the same level of dedication and responsiveness you get from an employee, but still enjoy the benefits of working with DevOps as a Service company.

Let me give you an example about our dedication:

We are always trying to optimize costs and resource utilization for our customers. I always tell my team, when cloud costs are increasing for the customer, it feels like money is going out of my own pocket. So we work together to solve challenges. From our experience, we know that we can reduce overall 10%-50% of cloud costs a month when we start working with a new client.

The first thing we do when we start working with a new client is making sure we are aligned with its interests and pain points. That’s the starting point of being the most dedicated DevOps as a Service company in the market.

6. If engineers are unsure about their career path, can they find their passion in DevOps?

Even though DevOps is trendy, it’s not for everyone. There’s a lot of learning involved in this field and if you’re not passionate, you can get burnt out quickly. For anyone who is really interested in doing what it takes to become a DevOps, there are many paths to start. For example, if you’re in System administration you can start learning about cloud and infrastructure as a code, and if you are a software developer you can start by learning networking and operating systems.

There is a learning path for everyone.

7. What is the vision you would like all the new joiners/ existing employees to align with?

The first step is to align with the IAMOPS way. The IAMOPS way is expertise, accountability and trust.

We aim to provide the best solution, the best service, and be responsible for our customer’s infrastructure. I want them to feel like we are a member of our client's team, not an outsourcing company.

Aligning with the IAMOPS way means treating the client’s problems like your own problems and building trust, so they can rely on you. Making mistakes is fine, if we admit them and try to do better every time.

8. What is something DevOps professionals often underestimate?

The importance of security cannot be overstated.

While DevOps are extremely aware of their infrastructure’s security, they often neglect basic security actions when it comes to their own environment.

Always be aware of how you can make everything more secure. How you can better protect your passwords, desktops, and apps. Your customers can be very secure, but if you don't protect your data, you can both be hacked.

In the end, protecting your customers is useless if you aren't protecting yourself.

9. Had you not been a CTO at IAMOPS, what would be your alternative career path?

Maybe a doctor! Basically, I love solving new problems and I always want to learn something new. Doing the same thing over and over again would be boring for me.

Disclaimer: This article is a paid publication and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of Hindustan Times. Hindustan Times does not endorse/subscribe to the content(s) of the article/advertisement and/or view(s) expressed herein. Hindustan Times shall not in any manner, be responsible and/or liable in any manner whatsoever for all that is stated in the article and/or also with regard to the view(s), opinion(s), announcement(s), declaration(s), affirmation(s) etc., stated/featured in the same.

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Published: 24 Feb 2023, 06:54 PM IST
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