Dimitris Kyriakidis: The technologies that make software engineers’ job easier

The digital transformation at all levels, the constantly changing conditions of everyday life, but also the very high energy requirements, are just some of the parameters to which companies must adapt. The departments and IT managers of the organizations are on a daily alert so that they can meet the challenges.

Managing and storing vast data, multiple and multifaceted security risks, which can lead to incalculable cost losses, as well as constant upgrades and changes in technology data, are factors that can destabilize a business in minutes.D

Dimitris Kyriakidis, Technology Services Manager of Performance Technologies, sets the tone of this technological reality in a long whole matter -technological- interview. Hybrid and public clouds, remote working, Edge, containers and Kubernetes, modern Apps, are some of the terms that accompany cybersecurity and the management and storage of a company’s data. What are the problems and, above all, what solutions are provided to IT executives by VMware and Performance Technologies?

SM: What are the most important problems your customers face with new technologies such as containers?

D. Kyriakidis : The challenges we see have more to do with the adoption of new examples of software engineering and project management, such as the various agile approaches, the use of DevOps practices and tools, and new architectural options such as microservices, serverless, etc. Teams that want to modernize the production and business operation of their digital products and services understand and accept very quickly the value and need for a strong container platform.

The transition and success of these platforms has an important technological component, but also a critical component of culture, methodology and toolboxes of modern development practices. At Performance we have been seeing this parallel for several years and we support our customers both at the level of the required platform and the development of a toolbox and methodologies of what we call “modern software engineering”.

SM: How can we help developers and operators speed up their work?

D. Kyriakidis: I think that the key word is automation, both in the context of the development cycle of a digital service, and in terms of the provision of digital services in general, but also for the time-consuming  and unappealing maintenance work that must be executed. And automation becomes dramatically easier when it relies on a platform that abstracts almost everything, standardizes management, and lets you use automation frameworks you already know or want to use (e.g. ansible, terraform, saltstack, vRealize automation etc.). Beyond that it has to do with the usecase, since there are different needs and approaches for DevOps (or for DevSecOps), the provisioning of digital services and resources for end users, for security and so on.

SM: Security is a big deal. How do we use VMware Tanzu to secure container shipments, especially when we know our customers will be hosting these shipments at multiple locations?

D. Kyriakidis: Tanzu and the VMware platforms in general provide a significant advantage in the design, testing, implementation and monitoring of a DevSecOps operation, both because of the automation capabilities we mentioned earlier and because they provide a holistic approach to security issues, at all levels, from the application to the network and access, but also to the end user device, if we choose. VMware provides – and integrates security solutions with – products and infrastructure that start with the container platform, extend to the data center, include networking – both central and Edge – and reach as far as the computer or mobile of our users.

SM: Closing I would like you to tell me how one begins in this journey of application modernization.

D. Kyriakidis: I believe that especially the organizations that utilize VMware platforms are in the advantageous position to already have a very capable – let’s say – boat for this trip. On the same platform, they can continue to provide – from where they want and in whatever way they want – services based on legacy, but useful systems, while at the same time they will develop new services utilizing the important advantages of cloud computing. And of course they will be able to transform legacy applications in a more organic way, at a pace that serves their needs and expectations.