South American Cloud Pioneer
Juan Manuel Chávez Ramos, KCNA, CKA, CKAD, CKS, began his professional IT career shortly after graduating in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering. In his first full-time IT role, he was an application developer for an IT services and consulting company. Juan Manuel quickly progressed through several IT roles in infrastructure, operations and server systems administration before focusing on IT and software architecture.
When he moved into IT Architecture work at Banco de Crédito BCP, the bank was going through a digital transformation process. It was through this work that he was introduced to new software architecture paradigms like microservices and emerging cloud native technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
Since 2017, Juan Manuel and his team of developers and engineers have worked to build the foundation that enabled the bank to adopt this new technology stack more easily with a key goal of achieving efficiency and reducing time to market for business teams.
Moving to the Cloud
In the beginning, a key challenge for Juan Manuel was convincing executive leadership of the benefits of cloud technologies. At the time, cloud was new, especially for South American countries like Perú. Leaders needed to understand the efficiencies that could be achieved and, most importantly, that applications running in these new ecosystems were less likely to fail.
“When I first introduced the concepts of cloud native, managed services, containers, and Kubernetes, it was quite challenging to explain to leadership because they were also new to me” said Juan Manuel. “At the time, I wasn’t thinking about certifications, I was too busy designing solutions, planning installations, managing configurations and learning about security in this new form of building applications.”
Getting Certified
After about three years, Juan Manuel felt he had learned a great deal and wanted to pursue Kubernetes certifications as a demonstration of how he had evolved his career. He enrolled in Linux Foundation course + certification exam bundles, in turn earning his KCNA, CKA, CKAD and CKS certifications.
“This was perfect for me because it covered areas that I didn’t have the opportunity to learn in real life,” said Juan. “The courses, the preparation goals and the exam simulators, were really helpful in preparing me to successfully pass the exams.”
Today, Juan Manuel works in the Center of Excellence for Cloud Computing, managing all the cloud native related technologies where he leads a team in charge of the serverless & containers stack.
“When I consider adding team members, I see having certifications as a real plus, since I know how valuable they are and how hard they are to get,” said Juan Manuel. “Also, I think people who have achieved certifications show they value – and are willing to invest in – their careers. Certifications show you have a deep understanding of the technologies you are using for day-to-day operations, giving people confidence in you to solve problems. It also lets others know what you know, making communication easier.”
Juan Manuel recommends the most effective way to prepare for an IT professional certification exam is by getting real-life, hands-on experience where you can make mistakes. “Mistakes make you great. They make you learn more because you have to dive deep into the information,” said Juan Manuel. “Mistakes help give you the experience you need to be almost ready to pass. Without real experience, you only get concepts, which isn’t as useful.”
What’s Next?
Juan Manuel has started studying and hopes to pass his Prometheus Certified Associate (PCA) and Istio Certified Associate (ICA) from the Linux Foundation in the coming months.
Juan Manuel Chávez Ramos, KCNA, CKA, CKAD, CKS
Product Owner, Serverless & Containers – Cloud Center of Excellence en Banco de Crédito BCP
