Get project-ready faster with a cloud technology coach

Ramp up quickly on a technology and keep your digital transformation on track with hyper relevant, on-the-job training from an experienced cloud coach

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Achieve project success without the long classroom hours

When your team needs to achieve outcomes quickly, classroom training alone won’t deliver results.

That’s when a cloud technology coach can help. With a coach, you get personalized, just-in-time training on the technology and concepts you need. No more sitting through hours training to relearn what you already know!

Get trained on a range of technologies

Linux

Learn to leverage the many variations and distributions of Linux

Kubernetes

Automate deployment, scaling and management of containerized apps

AI & Machine Learning

Use data and algorithms to imitate the ways humans learn

Cybersecurity

Create resilient systems in the face of evolving threats

SysOps

Maintain and manage infrastructure for the cloud project lifecycle

Data Science

Learn techniques for extracting maximum value from your business data

DevOps

Automate and integrate the processes between software development and IT teams

Architecture on AWS, Azure and multicloud

Learn the best ways to combine services to run applications and manage cloud resources

Networking on AWS, Azure and multicloud

Manage public, private and hybrid cloud infrastructures

Do what you’re doing—but better

A cloud coach empowers people and teams to master skills and apply them across a range of IT disciplines.

  1. Maximize ROI on classroom training.

    The real value of training is when new skills and knowledge are applied on the job. A coach can help your team transfer more skills from the classroom to the workplace.

  2. Shorten the learning curve.

    It takes times for teams to ramp up new skills. With a coach’s guidance, the learning curve to competency is shortened and teams leverage new skills and knowledge more completely.

  3. Reduce waste.

    In out-of-the-box training, you pay for a package which often includes training you don’t need. With a coach, you get only the training you need when you need it.

  4. Connect training to your project.

    Because coaching is based on your specific project and goals, the training is highly relevant and immediately applicable.

  5. Increase learning retention.

    When your team relies on classroom training alone, only 20% of content consumed is retained. But with a cloud coach, your team discusses and practices skills and can retain up to 75% of that knowledge. [see diagram]

  1. Maximize ROI on classroom training.

    The real value of training is when new skills and knowledge are applied on the job. A coach can help your team transfer more skills from the classroom to the workplace.

  2. Shorten the learning curve.

    It takes times for teams to ramp up new skills. With a coach’s guidance, the learning curve to competency is shortened and teams leverage new skills and knowledge more completely.

  3. Reduce waste.

    In out-of-the-box training, you pay for a package which often includes training you don’t need. With a coach, you get only the training you need when you need it.

  4. Connect training to your project.

    Because coaching is based on your specific project and goals, the training is highly relevant and immediately applicable.

  5. Increase learning retention.

    When your team relies on classroom training alone, only 20% of content consumed is retained. But with a cloud coach, your team discusses and practices skills and can retain up to 75% of that knowledge.

Cloud Coaching Use Cases

When you need deployment assurance, our coaches provide unbiased, actionable guidance to help teams acquire new skills and knowledge relevant to a specific project or outcome. You set the goals and a coach brings the guidance to help you achieve them.

Use case 1

Use case 1: Keep digital transformation on track

The senior leaders of a services organization were four months into a transformation for their customer and going in wrong direction. Both parties knew that if they didn’t do something fast, the transformation would be in trouble.

A DevOps Coach was brought on board by the services organization. The tactical goal was to stop the downward spiral. The strategic goal was to get the transformation back on track. Within a few weeks, a recovery plan was created, communicated and bought into by stakeholders in both organizations. Teams started to move forward on a trajectory which led to CI/CD pipeline implementation, the adoption of Agile methods and services flowing to the customer on a steady basis. The DevOps Coach worked with key resources in both organizations to ensure everyone was on the same page in terms of what the business goals were and how to achieve them.

What turned the floundering transformation around was the DevOps coach’s ability to listen, facilitate conversation, and get people to fully understand what transformation meant and how to do it. Afterward, the leaders of the services organization understood knowing how to transform was more important than knowing what was being transformed.

Use case 2

Use case 2: Accelerate adoption of new technology and processes

A product company decided wanted to deliver and deploy to their customers using CI/CP pipelines and Agile methods. To adopt Agile, consultants were hired to define plans. The adoption kick-off occurred, but within a month they were in trouble. 

A coach was brought in to help. Within a week, the adoption plan was tuned up and the company started to see the expected results. This coaching engagement was successful simply by training stakeholders on the 6 Core DevOps Principles. The coach used just-in-time training to help stakeholders experience first-hand in real time what and how work needed to be done for successful adoption.

The coach worked with a range of roles from C-level executives to engineering resources in the trenches to uncover a new way of working together.

Use case 3

Use case 3: Establish the leadership DNA to successfully transform

A global industry-leading company initiated what they believed would be the crown jewel of their future. The challenge was working with Agile and DevOps methods—and this type of transformation had not been done before by the leadership.

A coach was brought in to help. Within a few weeks, the leader of the initiative was communicating, collaborating and visually-defining the transformation plan using modern methods. The company’s leadership evolution was kickstarted. In the years to come, the leader and direct reports became the Transformation Center Of Excellence (COE) for the global company.

The key to success was when the company realized they needed to help their leaders and brought in a coach to teach them how to lead successful transformations. The great benefit they hadn’t anticipated was that by bringing in a coach at that level, the coach could take a mentoring approach. The upfront investment is this leader and team led to tremendous success and the transformation progressed ahead of schedule due to the value add of having the team evolve together.

Use case 4

Use case 4: Align key resources and stakeholders with your customer

A company called in a panic. They were on the hook to deliver to their customer within two weeks and had no idea how to pull it off. A coach was hired to review the situation and have conversations with the company. Then the coach did the unthinkable. The coach asked to have a call with the customer.

The coach facilitated an initial call with the customer and panicked company. The result was a follow-on call. After a few more calls, the customer and company were aligned, new dates for specific deliveries were agreed upon, and the relationship between the two companies improved to its best state ever.

What happened? The coach led both companies by example, remaining calm and collected, and provided fresh perspectives for both views. Once the conversations occurred, information and understanding started flowing between the companies. The coach continued to mentor, facilitate and train the panicked company’s resources on how to work through this type of situation.

Use case 5

Use case 5: Ramp up a junior team without months of classroom training

Due to a round of layoffs and attrition, a SaaS engineering team was left with a mostly junior team of cloud architects that needed to ramp up quickly to keep up with project deliveries. Without the option to hire senior architects, they invested in hands-on cloud training so the junior architects could learn skills and earn certifications.

The challenge was the single senior architect didn’t have time to provide on-the-job (OJT) training and mentoring for the less experienced team mates. The company engaged a cloud coach to help mentor, facilitate, and consult with the junior architects, enabling the junior architects to think through the requirements and their options--learning while doing real time work. As needed, architects were provided one-on-one meetings to walk through challenges. In some cases, additional training was provided to team members to dive deeper on topics relevant to their projects. The engineering team was able to keep up the architectural demands, sustaining the ability of the company to flow value to its customers.

The key reason for success was the coach being placed in a position and empowered to use real time situations to ramp up, and more importantly, grow the junior architect’s confidence.  Having confidence and being able to work in a “fail fast” environment where it was safe to learn through failing made the junior architects fearless. They stretched beyond their comfort zone and increased their appetite to take on greater challenges.

Engage a cloud technology coach

Ready to see how a cloud coach can help your team? It’s easy to get started

  1. Request a coach
  2. Get an assessment and recommendation from a cloud expert to understand your current goals and challenges
  3. Schedule a kickoff call with your coach
  4. Receive a minimum of 40 hours of coaching to use over 3 months
  5. Access additional coaching, training and Challenge Labs as needed
Get started

Meet the coaches

We’re dedicated to making sure the training you receive drives results in the real world. That’s why we’ve enlisted dedicated cloud experts to coach individuals and teams outside the classroom.

Coaches are:

  • Certified practitioners in their fields
  • Experienced working on complex projects
  • Proven leadership managing cloud teams

John Ruppel
Transformation Leader & Coach

John Ruppel is actively leading and contributing to the evolution of Agile, DevOps and DevSecOps disciplines. He defines, authors, trains and certifies global DevOps standards which are being brought to market by hundreds of training organizations around the globe.
Having worked with global standards organizations and their leaders to define and author Agile and DevOps/DevSecOps standards, John creates and trains Agile and DevOps/DevSecOps curriculum, classes and certification programs. He then works hands-on in the trenches with people and teams, helping organizations with the real-world application of the standards, methods, concepts, and tools taught in class.
For over 20 years, he has achieved consistent success with Fortune 100 to Entrepreneur-led organizations and individuals to grow business and scale secure, sustainable operations that achieve business critical objectives, hit revenue targets and make dates to quantify executive's forecasts resulting in the business meeting or exceeding its earning's, cost reduction or profitability numbers. Most importantly, he supports the continual improvement in the quality of culture, growing people, and bettering quality of life.

Ken Russell, PhD
Experienced CIO, CINO & CDO; Technology

Ken is an award-winning technologist, trusted digital transformation leader, and innovation amplifier. He is an author, speaker, and board member known for helping organizations define and pursue their digital transformation journeys with guiding experience, connections, conversations, and collaborations.
Key to his success as an active practitioner and coach/mentor is helping senior executives embrace the value of values and prepare for next generation processes and workplace challenges (including policy/process development, validation of technology vision/direction, road-mapping, and Enterprise Architecture). Past leadership roles/experience include CIO, Chief Digital Transformation Leader, Chief Architect, and SVP roles.

Richard Kang
Head of Engineering, Healthcare

Richard Kang has 15+ years of experience in software engineering, architecture and program management in financial and gaming industry. He specializes in large scale, multi-million dollar multi-year projects featuring low latency and high frequency applications and Big Data architecture.
Drawing his connections in Singapore, Malaysia, China, and his expertise in engineering, Richard works with businesses as a technology partner for designs and solutions of wearables, Internet of Things, and Big Data.
Richard is a certified Enterprise Architect, and he holds a Master of Science from the National University of Singapore.

Sam Alapati
Cloud and Data Technical Lead

Sam has over 20 years of experience it IT that spans cloud computing, databases and Big Data. He is a go-to expert when it comes to optimizing a company's strategy for cloud computing. Sam also helps companies lower their cloud spend  so they don't spend unnecessary resources on cloud services.
Sam is always at the forefront of innovation in cloud computing, which led him to author 18 books about cloud computing and cloud services. He is a lifelong learner whose expertise is invaluable. 

Mahesh Kumar
Principal Cloud Consultant

Mahesh has transformed his career multiple times from a Software Developer to Sales Engineer to Solution Architect to Technology Leader to Entrepreneur.
He is responsible for providing leadership along with other department heads, such as marketing, sales, pre-sales, and delivery in designing Google Cloud solutions and as an advisor for technologies improving efficiency and effectiveness.
Mahesh is focused on Cloud, AI & Unstructured Data Analytics. He has experience in Presales, Professional Services, Presenting in Industry events, Mentoring, Training & Enablement.
Mahesh has a Google Cloud Platform Evangelist & Enthusiastic YouTuber maintains a YouTube channel named Learn GCP with Mahesh where interesting Google Cloud Platform concepts are shared & the channel is currently subscribed by 12K+ subscribers with 827K+ views & 50K watch hours.

Shashike J.
Principal Software Engineer

In his current role, Shashike is an end-to-end software architect with a proven track record for building high achieving MVPs, enterprise applications and unlocking millions of dollars in revenue for startups and founders. He has nearly 10 years of hands-on experience in large companies and pre-revenue startups. 
Shashike enjoys writing code that matters and dealing with the roadblocks and chaos that come with building prominent products. He loves to be challenged and has never given up in his work, which is why he's been such a crucial team member for so many companies.

John Ruppel
Transformation Leader & Coach
Ken Russell, PhD
Experienced CIO, CINO & CDO; Technology
Richard Kang
Head of Engineering, Healthcare
Sam Alapati
Cloud and Data Technical Lead
Mahesh Kumar
Principal Cloud Consultant
Shashike J.
Principal Software Engineer
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