About Me

Why

To improve peoples digital experience when interacting with companies or governments.

How

Improving the software supply chain to help application developers deliver value at speed with safety.

Experience

With a couple of decades in the ISP, web hosting and cloud industry as a systems administrator Mick’s focus has evolved to now focus on enabling high performing application development teams through the use of platforms and continual learning.

Mick’s experience includes Linux, opensource, devops and has writen code in either Ruby, Puppet, golang, Ansible and Terraform. Sometimes poorly.

In early 2017, Mick completed a 16 month engagement at the Australian Government’s Digital Transformation Agency to help build clearer, simpler, faster public services.

Most recently, he lived in California working with Fortune 500 companies on their digital transformation journey. As a trusted advisor he worked with leaders and engineers to adapt to treating operations as a platform with a product mindset. Through the use of UCD, Lean and Devops, customers are able to efficiently, continuously and securely deliver business value into the hands of their customers.

Projects and Publications

• pajuna Configuration management for Laptops
• Islands of puppet I co-presented this with Lindsay Holmwood at the first Puppetcamp in Sydney Australia in 2012.
• moving operations up the stack
• containers in cloudfoundry

What’s your favourite food or drink

• Fried Eggs !
• Mexican Food !
• Scotch Liqueurs

Movies I like

• The Castle
• Crocodile Dundee
• Office Space

How did you get into your profession?

I started hacking on a Commodore 16 at home and Apple IIe at school. I learnt to write programs in basic on the C16. My first app was a 64 room (8x8) adventure program - Haunted House.

Later on I was sitting with a friend in a garage with Wingate as a proxy and a 28,8 modem (in the 1990’s) - “we want faster internet and we don’t want to pay for it”
That’s where we started an ISP and I ‘had to learn’ Linux because we got told Wingate was lame.

What do you like doing when you’re not at work?

• I am continually learning new skills that help me with my job or home life.
• I co-founded Devops Sydney along with Lindsay Holmwood in Feb 2010 - a monthly meetup for ideas and knowledge sharing around helping development and operations work more efficiently together rather than in silos.
• Vice President of Devops Australia - incorporated in 2014 to aid in facilitating a yearly ‘devops’ conference and to help those that run or want to run ‘devops’ related meetups in Australia.
• I was a volunteer firefighter with the NSW Rural Fire Service (wildfires), since I was 14 (1989)
• I bought 25 acres in the Australian country (nearest pub was 25kms - nearest shop was 45kms).
• The Glebe phone exchange area packs around 14,000 households into 28 square kilometres; while Windellama's 166 households occupy more than 520 square kilometres.
• This was bare grazing land - so I started with a clean canvas. No running water, no electricity etc. Turning this ‘blank canvas’ into somewhere to live is what consumed a lot of my non work time.
• I lived there, off grid for 4 years and learnt alot about myself & sustainable living.
• I am an avid weather watcher with a keen interest in cold weather climate and weather extremes/weather statistics.

Favourite movie quote?

How’s the Serenity ! - Michael Caton - The Castle

What’s a little known fact about you?

As a child and teen I competed in Ballroom Dancing.
I won over 50 trophies and was on TV a few times. Sports Sunday, the Today Show and some others.
Can you all see that I am super fit still !

I am alergic to eggs. Not anaphylactic but it is an allergy and not an intolerance and not fun.