{"id":421,"date":"2023-03-30T13:35:18","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T10:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/us\/2023\/03\/30\/nathaniel-ham-solving-problems-customers-managed-kubernetes\/"},"modified":"2023-03-30T13:35:18","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T10:35:18","slug":"nathaniel-ham-solving-problems-customers-managed-kubernetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/blog\/nathaniel-ham-solving-problems-customers-managed-kubernetes\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathaniel Ham: Solving problems for customers with Managed Kubernetes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before you invest time and resources into building a new product, you have to know that it will meet the needs of your customers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When UpCloud\u2019s Orchestration Team set out to build UpCloud’s Managed Kubernetes (UKS) platform, how did they know what customers needed? And how did they turn that knowledge into the final product?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sat down with Senior Software Engineer, Nathaniel Ham, to find out how he approaches problem-solving when it comes to building complex platforms.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nathaniel has more than a decade of experience in software engineering, working across industries from medical technology to cloud infrastructure and IoT. He now lives in Helsinki and works in our Orchestration team, who have just launched the UpCloud Managed Kubernetes service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy time in the UpCloud Orchestration team has already been an exciting journey so far! Since joining in 2021 – as the second member of the team – I have especially enjoyed the problem-solving aspects that have come with building the new UKS platform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a senior team member, I am responsible for scoping and planning new features, participating in architectural design choices, and researching new technologies. But specifically on the UKS project, I\u2019ve been in charge of building and maintaining our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Problem-solving with Managed Kubernetes <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration system for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nathaniel and his team are responsible for the discovery and development of the recently-launched UKS, as well as maintaining and improving the product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is one of UpCloud\u2019s newest products, and working with Managed Kubernetes gives Nathaniel the chance to put his problem-solving skills into action to help customers and users overcome their companies\u2019 own unique challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cManaged Kubernetes reduces both the complexity of maintaining your own cluster and the mental burden of deploying and maintaining user workloads,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith Managed Kubernetes, you will also be able to build highly available systems, take advantage of industry-standard security practices, and save costs as there is no need to maintain expensive infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe automatic scaling feature also allows for decreasing infrastructure during off or down hours, promoting even more efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really enjoy solving problems, and this UKS realm gives me a chance to constantly try new things\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

User-Centred Design in product development  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But building and maintaining the platform is only part of the task for Nathaniel and his team, who have also had to use a number of product design and agile working techniques in order to create something that meets the needs of the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI Iove how wide of a domain I\u2019m involved in. There are constantly new challenges, and I really enjoy seeing how many different pieces fit together as part of a complex system,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Nathaniel is also keen to point out that the problems he solves have to be the ones that the customer needs most. He tells us about one technique the Orchestration Team use for designing a product based on the needs of the end-user: User-Centred Design (UCD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUCD focuses on placing the user\u2019s needs at the focal point of the design process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen building complex platforms, such as Managed Kubernetes, it is crucial that you are building something that actually brings measurable value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis approach defines the what and the why of product development. For example, we might interview users to learn about their challenges, and then we would then take this input as the basis for our product\u2019s features.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UCD approach is designed to build trust with the user, who is at the centre of the product. Similarly, the end result should be packed full of features that solve their immediate needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn practice, this will mean understanding your user\u2019s actual needs – not making features \u2018just because\u2019,\u201d said Nathaniel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe get to know the user\u2019s unique needs and that helps us find the right solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before you invest time and resources into building a new product, you have to know that it will meet the needs of your customers. When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":57976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"223,814,691,229,73,199","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Blocked by a filter function","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcloud.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}