Frustrated by working around complex dependencies while developing an automation application, Mumshad Mannambeth discovered Docker on his quest to find a better way of engineering. It was the first step in a long cloud native journey, which he has helped countless others on.
“My co-developers and I were finding it hard to set up development environments with these dependencies in place. So I created virtual machine images that had all dependencies pre-installed. And that worked initially. But I soon realized that everytime a new package had to be in there, I had to re-install, re-package it and share the several GB sized image again. And they had to get rid of the original VM and install the new image and move their code over! I knew there was a better way to go about this and that’s how I discovered Docker.”
Able to create a Docker image that could be easily shared with others to develop and test the application, his team quickly learned how to package the same image for production and deploy it on cloud platforms easily. “And that was how I first got into the world of cloud native,” he explained.
Paving the way for others
Wanting to make the journey easier for others, he created some free training materials on Docker and everything he had learned while building the app, and uploaded them to YouTube.
“As soon as I learned about Docker, I had to share the knowledge with others. My course got a great reception, so I went on to create more courses on Kubernetes and other CI/CD tools. I’ve built a team and together we have created more than 40 courses on various topics now.”
Mumshad Mannambeth
Mumshad’s courses focus on simplifying complex concepts using “byte-sized” lectures and hands-on labs that are tailored to each lecture. This helps make learning much more fun, engaging and efficient and solves the challenges of not having access to the right infrastructure.
“One of the most common issues students face while starting their cloud native journey is not having access to the right infrastructure to learn,” he explained. “That’s not having a system with sufficient hardware resources, or access to cloud platforms without worrying about costs. The hands-on labs solve these challenges by providing instant access to an environment specifically made for each lecture in each course.”
Today, he runs KodeKloud, and has helped more than 200,000 students take their first steps in cloud native through free training courses, which prepare them to prove their expertise through exams like the hands-on performance-based Kubernetes Certifications such as the CKA CKAD and CKS certifications. He’s now focused on expanding his course portfolio to other areas such as Linux, Security and Cloud.
“From my first experience with cloud native until today, I’m driven by making it easier to go from having an idea to getting it out as a product. The cloud native ecosystem makes it easy to go from having an idea, to building a prototype, to going production without much friction.”
Mumshad Mannambeth
Learn through Teaching
Mumshad discovered he learned best through explaining, and encourages everybody to document and share their knowledge. “Do it in whatever format you feel comfortable with. This could be documents, blogs, videos, presentations.”
And in terms of focussed learning, he recommends picking up the basics of Linux, cloud native computing fundamentals and GoLang as soon as possible, since so many cloud native projects are written in it.
Start by Listening
Like almost everybody in #TeamCloudNative, Mumshad admits he was intimidated at first.
“It can be quite intimidating at the beginning. Start by learning and get involved in the community as a listener. Joining the CNCF slack community and meetups can be a good starting point.
“In addition, look for issues in popular projects that are tagged “for beginners” and send in your first Pull Request,” he recommends. “And as always – keep learning!”
Ready to Begin?
If Mumshad’s experience has inspired you to get started learning and contributing, why not check out his free courses at kodekloud.com and the free courses offered by CNCF and the Linux Foundation? Plus there’s great material on edEx.
And if you’re feeling motivated to create your own content, tag us on Twitter @CloudNativeFdn and share the great work you’re doing! Plus you can always go to Cloud Native Contributors to start contributing today (especially if you spot some gaps in any CNCF project’s documentation!)