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The rate of technology change today is rapid. Ensuring a continuous learning path for your employees is the best way to obtain maximum ROI.
Virtualisation helps developers manage large applications and their supporting infrastructure. However, developers creating cross-platform applications often struggle to ensure their software runs across differently configured environments.
Today, developers rarely build applications that run on only one operating system. Instead, they must consider differences in operating systems, file structures and user interfaces across deployments.
Containers offer many benefits of virtual machines while reducing the time needed to create, configure, deploy and run applications. Containers package and run applications with their dependencies in isolated environments, ensuring predictable and consistent performance.
According to Amelia DeJager, Specialist Trainer at Impactful, containers help applications run consistently across Linux, Windows, cloud and multi-cloud environments.
“A container packages everything an application needs into one box. You can move it between platforms, and the application will continue to work effectively,” she explains.
“Containers and virtualisation are definitely the wave of the future, particularly now that the previous security issues have been corrected. Today, containers have Hypervisor-level security, and are hardened, isolated and protected.”
She adds that not only is the process simplified significantly, but containers are also able to scale instantly as required. This alone offers enormous value to both the development team and the organisation as a whole.
According to Amelia, the benefits offered by containers are such that it would serve most organisations well to ensure that their developers are capable of leveraging containers more effectively.
“In much the same way as most office staff use various solutions like, for example, Microsoft Outlook in their everyday work, but they certainly never utilise anywhere near the full functionality, the same could be said of most developers who use containers,” she explains.
“This is why training is so crucial. It is imperative that organisations place these employees on a training journey to get them where they need to be, by enabling them to leverage the full functionality of containers for the benefit of the broader business.”
Pieter Nel, Executive Head: IT Talent at Impactful, explains that Impactful helps companies train developers to use container technology. Its comprehensive training programmes combine different learning elements to help businesses maximise the technology’s potential.
“It is worth noting that the speed of technology change today is such that enterprises should insist that employees embark on a continuous learning process. Remember that a few years ago a course update would reset your skills knowledge for years to come. Today, only constant learning will allow you to stay up to date in the technology space.”
“This is why it is vital to partner with a learning organisation that can demonstrate the value and the benefits of the solution you are learning and keep employees’ skills honed regularly.”
He emphasises that continuous learning helps businesses stay relevant. Impactful supports this by working with clients to develop tailored training programmes that align with their strategic goals.
“Therefore, we will sit down with the client to analyse their specific requirements, and then use online- and facilitator-based training to help employees build relevant skills over time and, more crucially, also maintain them, in order to avoid skills irrelevance in the future.”
“Our job is to ensure that our facilitators are also learning constantly and building up a huge amount of knowledge so that they can share this with the learners. Ultimately, our training saves developers time because we show them what is possible, and this will, in turn, save the company money. Then, from a personal perspective, the ongoing training helps the developers to elevate their own reputation within the organisation.”
Facilitators are also there to mentor learners, because not everyone learns at the same pace. Thus, coaching and mentoring are key to helping employees to learn.
Amelia de Jager explains that developers skilled in container technology can streamline production, improve product capabilities and deliver solutions to users faster.
“Development methods have changed significantly. Previously, developers wrote, tested and revised code. Agile introduced continuous improvements and faster changes. However, this approach can cause serious problems when teams fail to manage dependencies between different components,” he explains.
“With containers, on the other hand, one can roll out updates, and if there is a problem, you can simply go back to the previous working instance. This means fewer errors, fewer revisions and more rapid and effective updates for apps. Everything we do as an organisation is geared towards helping our customers to be more successful.”
Pieter Nel suggests that there is a large percentage of businesses in South Africa that claim to lack the technical skills needed to innovate fast enough to attract new customers.
“And this is the real end result of containerisation: it is not for the developers - although it certainly simplifies their lives - but rather, to get a product out that is better, released faster and works more effectively.”
“This means that everything we do from a learning perspective, while technically upskilling their people, is ultimately about enabling our clients to provide a better service to their customers, while assisting them to also improve their bottom line,” Nel says.
It is vital that employees are made aware of the advantages of specific technologies, he explains, and especially that they are properly informed as to these solutions’ full capabilities. This is how you get them excited to learn.
“So, a crucial part of the roadmap for us is to actually make the customer aware of what is possible, as well as conversely, what challenges they will face if they don’t embrace such possibilities.”
“Perhaps the most important thing for enterprises to remember is that technologies cost a lot of money. If your people are only leveraging 30-40% of the capability, you are wasting the bigger part of your investment. Therefore, training should never be viewed as a grudge purchase, but rather as a means to obtain optimum value from your technology investments.”
De Jager adds that Impactful is a one-stop-shop, so clients can approach the business with their specific challenge, which will be properly analysed to determine what technologies are required to get them to the end of their journey.
“We help you to determine what your business problems are and then assist with the technologies and processes you need to get you there. And of course, we will then train your people to ensure they are able to leverage those technologies to the best of their ability,” she states.
Nel concludes by pointing out that Impactful offers a training journey, rather than just a course.
“For us, it is all about developing people and keeping them upskilled - not just on containers, but on a range of complementary skills too, such as those related to security, problem-solving, and design. It is delivering this holistic approach to skills development that sets us apart.”
“In a world that is digitally transforming rapidly, with new technologies and solutions coming to the fore all the time, Impactful’s services have never been more needed. We help your employees to attain their true potential while you are able to maximise the return on investment on the technology you have purchased – all while improving your business and your service to your customer,” he concludes.
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