About Me

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Luke standing in front of mountains

Hello there!

I’m Luke. I was named after Luke Skywalker (no joke) and also happen to really love Star Wars. At heart, I’m a true nerd. I love going to conventions such as DragonCon, MegaCon, Star Wars Celebration, and the Star Trek Cruise (yes, it exists!). In my spare time, I enjoy programming, playing video games (such as Minecraft and Halo), playing table-top games (such as Dungeons and Dragons), and reading good technical books.

I have led many community groups, including CloudCFL and Kubernati, with a focus on improving our skills and encouraging others to bring out the best in themselves. I strongly believe that it’s important to be part of the community because it’s both inspiring and infectious to geek out with other like-minded folks. My mentees are equally mentors to me in return.

After living in Orlando, Florida for most of my life, moving to Colorado was one of the best decisions I ever made. With the outdoors, seasons, and mountains, there’s almost nothing for me to complain about. I have settled down in a mountain town near Boulder and am loving this unique lifestyle.

I’m a “beauty school drop out” (a la Grease). I dropped out of college to focus on real-world experiences and certifications (another one of the best decisions I’ve ever made). With over 10 years of cloud and development experience, I never stop trying to learn new skills (both technical and soft) to better help me on my journey through life. I previously did freelance work as a Technical Writer for both Android Police and Chrome Unboxed. My focus was on the nitty gritty details of Linux and gaming in the ChromeOS ecosystem. I am actively involved with many community projects with one of the biggest being winesapOS. For my full-time work experience, check out my resume.

My wife and I keep to a healthy vegan diet and lifestyle. A few years ago, I thought I could never give up a simple thing like cheese. Turns out, I didn’t have to! We’ve adapted and found similar alternatives to meat and dairy products that taste amazing. At home, I love to experiment with new ingredients and recipes. My drink of choice is Pepsi with grenadine. It takes the concept of Cherry Pepsi to the next level!

Traveling is a big part of my life. Every year, my wife and I try to go on multiple trips around the United States and sometimes even the world. Whenever possible, I bring her along with me on my work trips as well! My favorite place I’ve been to so far is Switzerland (which also happens to be where my family originated from).

Thanks for stopping by and learning a little bit about me. I truly hope you gain something from my series of blogs! I love to learn from others as well, so feel free to reach out and chat any time!

Contact


Personality:

  • Hogwarts House = Ravenclaw. “Wit beyond measure is [a hu]man’s greatest treasure!”
  • Star Trek Captain = James T. Kirk. “I don’t believe in the no-win scenario!”
  • Star Wars Character = Luke Skywalker. “I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you!”

Resume

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Luke Short

Work Experience

  • Playtron - 2023 to Present
    • Director of Linux Engineering
      • Creator of PlaytronOS.
      • Leading research and development of open source technologies.
      • Community liaison.
      • Making next generation gaming experiences a reality.
  • VMware - 2021 to 2022
    • Kubernetes Sales Engineer, Advisory
      • Identifying stakeholders’ financial and technical challenges through on-going discovery sessions.
      • Challenging stakeholders to think differently about their problems and the value our solutions provide.
      • Creating custom cloud-native architecture, integration timelines, and defining success criteria.
      • Weekly product and value demonstrations to IT/engineering teams as well as C-level executives.
    • Kubernetes Solutions Architect, Senior
      • Architecting and delivering hybrid cloud solutions.
      • Automating full end-to-end deployments of both infrastructure and applications.
      • Actively involved with technical pre-sales conversations with potential stakeholders.
      • Pair programming alongside stakeholders towards a cloud-native design.
  • Red Hat - 2017 to 2020
    • Cloud Architect
      • Architecting and delivering hybrid cloud solutions.
      • Automating full end-to-end deployments of both infrastructure and applications.
    • Cloud Software Engineer, Senior
      • Designing and developing deployment and life-cycle management tools for Kubernetes and OpenStack.
      • Meeting directly with stakeholders to discuss and iterate on feedback about our products.
  • HostDime - 2013 to 2017
    • DevOps Engineer
      • Architecting and delivering V.I.P. stakeholder solutions.
      • Implementing public and private clouds built with OpenStack.
      • Implementing highly available and distributed HTTP clusters.
      • Infrastructure tool development using Python.

Certifications

  • Cloud
    • Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
    • Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)
    • Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS)
    • Red Hat Certified System Administrator in Red Hat OpenStack
    • Certified Calico Operator
  • Linux
    • Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)
    • Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA)
    • Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Ansible Automation
  • Sales
    • SPIN 3.0 Selling

Technical Expertise

  • 10+ years of experience with…
    • Cloud: Kubernetes/OpenShift, AWS, and OpenStack
    • Virtualization: VMware vSphere, KVM, Xen, docker/containerd, and LXC/LXD
    • Programming: Go and Python
    • CI/CD: GitHub Actions, Tekton, and TravisCI
    • Linux distributions: Fedora (RHEL), Debian (Ubuntu), and Arch Linux
    • Packaging: Docker, RPM spec (Fedora), DEB src (Debian), PKGBUILD (Arch Linux)
    • Load balancing: HAProxy, IPVS, and keepalived
    • HTTP: Apache, NGINX, PHP-FPM
    • Databases: MySQL/MariaDB, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL
    • Storage: Ceph, Gluster, NFS, iSCSI, and Samba
    • Automation: Ansible and Puppet
    • Technical writing: Root Pages notes, Android Police, and Chrome Unboxed

Testimonials

  • “Luke has both the assertiveness and emotional intelligence to be a great leader.” - J. R., Systems Engineer
  • “Luke is perfect for any customer-facing role.” - M.F., Principal Solutions Architect
  • “Luke is an excellent public speaker.” - D. H., Director of Technical Sales & Support
  • “Luke, your smile at work is infectious!” - C. H., Delivery Lead
  • “Luke is a smart and hard worker who works in a fully team and customer centric atmosphere. Always available for helping his team mates, always smiling and positive.” - G. C. , Senior Software Engineer
  • “Even if Luke retired early, I know he would never stop learning about new technologies and working on side projects.” - J. M., Delivery Lead