In this episode, Rachel shares her journey into tech and how she ended up in the Kubernetes space. She did not have a traditional IT background, but she was always interested in computers and programming. As soon as she discovered the DevOps philosophy and movement, she knew that it was the right fit for her. She went down the rabbit hole of learning how to use Docker, Ansible, Chef, and Kubernetes, and eventually landed a job at Fairwinds, a Kubernetes-centric company.

Rachel discusses the challenges that come with adopting Kubernetes, such as the steep learning curve and the knowledge gap. There are many unknowns if you are not in the Kubernetes space and it can be overwhelming to configure to produce a valuable platform for your teams.

Rachel's journey into the tech space and her experience with Kubernetes provide valuable insights into the challenges and benefits of adopting and migrating to Kubernetes.

Rachel Sweeney is the tech lead at Built Technologies for their migration to Kubernetes. Prior to that she was a tech lead at Fairwinds, a Kubernetes SaaS and consulting company, and before that she worked at the Pew Research Center creating their Kubernetes cluster and migrating workloads to it.

She has been a speaker and panelist at various conferences and events ranging from DevOpsDays Philly to Container Journal, and also wrote a chapter for the O’Reilly title “97 Things Every Cloud Engineer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts”. 

Rachel loves traveling, culture, meeting new people, networking, and helping others grow. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with a message and connect!