Develop Great Managers

In this podcast, I interview Kit Colbert, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the Cloud Platform Business Unit at VMware.

In this role, Kit is responsible for driving technical strategy and innovation for the vSphere, VMware Cloud on AWS, and VMware Cloud on DellEMC product lines.

Previously, Kit was GM of Cloud-Native Apps, CTO for End-User Computing, the Chief Architect and Principal Engineer for Workspace Portal, and the lead Management Architect for the vRealize Operations Suite. At the start of his career, he was the technical lead behind the creation, development, and delivery of the vMotion and Storage vMotion features in vSphere.

Kit holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Brown University and is a recognized thought-leader on Cloud-Native, End-User Computing, and Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure trends. He speaks regularly at industry conferences, on the main stage at VMworld, and is the Hybrid Cloud voice for the VMware Office of the CTO.

I got to know Kit while at VMware. Kit has always been someone that I had an easy time connecting with. He is technically very deep but is able to simplify concepts in order for others to understand. For me, this proved to be incredibly valuable when Kit and I talked about challenges that we were facing or working on opportunities to work together. Many of these brief conversations happened in the VMware gym while we were stretching and cooling down from a workout!

The reason I wanted to have Kit on the show, other than that he is incredibly smart and very articulate, is that he has moved in and out of management. His experiences in doing this have been both energizing and exhausting. The lessons that have come from these experiences will be valuable to any technologist struggling with whether to go into management.

I really hope you enjoy!

In this podcast, I talk to Cody Hosterman, Technical Director for VMware & Cloud Solutions at Pure Storage, about his career path.

In his current role, Cody's team focuses on the VMware ecosystem and cloud-based offering integration with the Pure Storage FlashArray and Cloud Block Store. He has a deep background in virtualization and storage technologies, including experience as a Solutions Engineer and Principal Virtualization Technologist. In his current position, he is responsible for VMware & Cloud integration strategy, best practices, and developing new integrations and documentation.

Cody has spoken internationally on the topics of virtualization and storage at numerous conferences and events such as VMworld and various virtualization-related user groups and trade shows. He is the author of several technical whitepapers and guides related to virtualization, storage, and data center infrastructure. He is the co-author or contributor to multiple technical reference books and his frequently-updated personal blog contains his latest work and contributions.

Prior to working for Pure, Cody worked at EMC and Penn State, where he graduated with a degree in Information Sciences and Technology.

I have known Cody for a while now. He is the husband of the sister (Janice) of my daughter in law (Nicole). My son Anthony got to know Cody when he and Janice started dating him. Cody helped Anthony to find a job at Pure Storage. I got to know Cody through Anthony.

Wow, that was hard to explain.

Since getting to know Cody, we have spent a good amount of time together. We had Cody and Janice over to a VMware get together during VMworld Barcelona - where he had a great time connecting with VMware folks that only knew Cody through his blog. We have gone snowshoeing. Attended Cody and Janice's wedding. And have attended numerous family gatherings.

Cody has been an early listener of my podcasts. He gave me feedback and now that he has become a manager, is perfect to have on the show!

I hope you enjoy!

In this podcast, I interview Cody Hosterman, Technical Director for VMware & Cloud Solutions at Pure Storage.

In his current role, Cody's team focuses on the VMware ecosystem and cloud-based offering integration with the Pure Storage FlashArray and Cloud Block Store. He has a deep background in virtualization and storage technologies, including experience as a Solutions Engineer and Principal Virtualization Technologist. In his current position, he is responsible for VMware & Cloud integration strategy, best practices, and developing new integrations and documentation.

Cody has spoken internationally on the topics of virtualization and storage at numerous conferences and events such as VMworld and various virtualization-related user groups and trade shows. He is the author of several technical whitepapers and guides related to virtualization, storage, and data center infrastructure. He is the co-author or contributor to multiple technical reference books and his frequently-updated personal blog contains his latest work and contributions.

Prior to working for Pure, Cody worked at EMC and Penn State, where he graduated with a degree in Information Sciences and Technology.

I have known Cody for a while now. He is the husband of the sister (Janice) of my daughter in law (Nicole). My son Anthony got to know Cody when he and Janice started dating him. Cody helped Anthony to find a job at Pure Storage. I got to know Cody through Anthony.

Wow, that was hard to explain.

Since getting to know Cody, we have spent a good amount of time together. We had Cody and Janice over to a VMware get together during VMworld Barcelona - where he had a great time connecting with VMware folks that only knew Cody through his blog. We have gone snowshoeing. Attended Cody and Janice's wedding. And have attended numerous family gatherings.

Cody has been an early listener of my podcasts. He gave me feedback and now that he has become a manager, is perfect to have on the show!

I hope you enjoy!

In this podcast, I interview Eddie Dinel, Senior Director of Product Management at VMware, where he has been since 2002!

In his role, Eddie has two key responsibilities. The first is VMware Validated Designs, a new way of approaching the problem of SDDC deployments. And the second is the "Enterprise Readiness" program across all products at VMware, focusing on reducing the friction involved in operating VMware software.

Eddie has held many previous roles at VMware, across product development, technical alliances and IT. He has been involved in nearly every product that VMware has ever shipped.

Prior to VMware, Eddie was at Zack Systems and HighWire Press.

Eddie graduated with a Bachelor of Art in History as well as minors in Physics and Computer Science from Stanford University.

I have had the pleasure to work with Eddie in most of the roles that I had at VMware. He is a passionate leader with a unique level of depth and breadth across VMware products.

I hope you enjoy!

Welcome to the first Develop Great Managers podcast for 2020.

This will be a new and fun year!!

I start by celebrating 2019. We then move into what will be different. Before I get to that, I would like to stop and celebrate 2019. Number one on the list was the launch of this podcast as well as growing subscribers well above the goal of 500 to more than 900!

Thank you!

Now on to 2020.

In order to make the podcasts more valuable, I will move to focus more deeply on the topics that are most important to you. This will give me more time to get into the details.

I will spend one to two months on each topic. During this time, some of the podcasts will be just me, and others will include invited guests. There will continue to be interviews with great managers. These will be interspersed with podcasts on the various topics.

Before getting into the topics that I plan to cover, I discuss why managers are so important. I share information from Google and Gallup.

I then get into what makes a great manager and how the topics will address these.

Thank you again for the great 2019. Here is to an even better 2020!