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Oracle

Oracle: From customer discovery to working cloud automation

Principal Cloud SpecialistSeptember 2020 – February 2022

Cloud architecture · Customer delivery

Worked with independent software vendors moving on-premises workloads to OCI, connecting architecture reviews, reusable automation, demonstrations and early adoption.

Context & constraints

A cloud migration has to fit the customer’s software, business needs and ability to operate the result. At Oracle, I worked with independent software vendors through discovery, design, implementation and adoption. The role combined customer-facing architecture with hands-on engineering: understand the constraints, review the requested solution, build the migration assets and help the customer use them.

  • Existing on-premises workloads brought their own assumptions and dependencies; a requested cloud design needed technical review in that context.
  • Migration assets had to become usable provisioning and bootstrap automation, not stop at an architecture presentation.
  • Delivery required coordination between customers, sales, cloud specialists and engineering, with feedback incorporated into the solution.
  • The handover needed to support early adoption and the practical questions that appear once the customer starts using the result.

My contribution

  • Gathered and translated business and technical requirements into practical OCI migration approaches.
  • Reviewed requested designs, challenged assumptions and proposed better-fitting alternatives where appropriate.
  • Built infrastructure provisioning and bootstrap workflows using Terraform, Ansible, Cloud-Init and Bash.
  • Tested the implementation, prepared technical presentations and demonstrated working migration assets directly to customers.
  • Incorporated customer feedback, delivered final scripts and stayed involved through early adoption and follow-up.
  • Worked across sales, cloud specialists and customer engineering while retaining responsibility for implementation and supporting colleagues with technical questions.

Technology context Oracle Cloud Infrastructure · Terraform · Ansible · Cloud-Init · Bash · Linux

Customer delivery process

A customer migration delivery loop, from discovery and workload assessment through architecture, repeatable automation and adoption. Each design responds to the customer’s workload and constraints.

Components & responsibilities

Discover constraints
Business needs, existing workloads, requirements and customer context.
Review the design
Challenge assumptions and select a practical migration approach.
Build automation
Terraform provisioning plus Ansible, Cloud-Init and Bash bootstrap work.
Test & demonstrate
Validate implementation and show working migration assets.
Deliver & support adoption
Handover, customer feedback and early follow-up.

Connections & flow

  1. Discover constraints to Review the designRequirements & constraints
  2. Review the design to Build automationImplementation approach
  3. Build automation to Test & demonstrateWorking assets
  4. Test & demonstrate to Deliver & support adoptionValidated delivery
  5. Deliver & support adoption to Review the designCustomer feedback

This process view describes my contribution across discovery, design and implementation; individual customer architectures varied.

Decisions & trade-offs

Review the request against the underlying need

A requested architecture is a starting point for discussion; workload and business constraints determine whether it fits.

Trade-off: Challenging an assumption adds discovery work but can prevent a poor fit from becoming implementation debt.

Deliver repeatable automation

Provisioning and bootstrap scripts turn architectural intent into assets that can be tested, demonstrated and handed over.

Trade-off: Automation requires validation and clear handover, especially when customer environments differ.

Stay involved through adoption

Demonstration, feedback and follow-up help connect a technical delivery to the customer’s ability to use it.

Trade-off: Delivery continues beyond the initial implementation and needs coordination across several groups.

Outcome & operation

Delivered tested migration and provisioning assets, technical demonstrations and adoption support for independent software vendors moving workloads to OCI. The work connected customer discovery to implementation and gave architecture decisions a practical path through delivery.

Notes & references

Professional experience
Customer-facing cloud engineering at Oracle between September 2020 and February 2022.

Related career context

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