VMblog:  If you were giving an AWS re:Invent attendee a quick overview of the company, what would you say?  How would you describe the company?

Shaun O'Meara:  Mirantis helps organizations ship code faster on public and private clouds, increasing developer productivity by removing the stress of managing infrastructure. The company combines automated platforms and cloud native expertise to provide a ZeroOps approach to managing and operating Kubernetes and cloud environments. Mirantis delivers a public cloud experience on any infrastructure, from the data center to the edge, with one cohesive cloud experience for complete app and DevOps portability, a single pane of glass, and automated full-stack lifecycle management, all based on open source.

VMblog:  Your company is sponsoring this year's AWS re:Invent event.  Can you talk about what that sponsorship looks like?

O'Meara:  The broad range of capabilities offered by AWS helps accelerate software development and enables our customers to rapidly build value, and the collaboration opportunities at events like AWS re:Invent help to ensure that developers and end users get to share problems and ideas in open forums. Mirantis is glad to be part of this again as an official sponsor in the exhibit hall.

VMblog:  How can attendees of the event find you?  What do you have planned at your booth this year?  What type of things will attendees be able to do at your booth? 

O'Meara:  Chat with Team Lens from Mirantis at Booth 1006, where we'll be presenting demos of the latest features of Lens, as well as our lightweight k0s distribution, and k0smotron, our multi-control plane manager.  Come get your Lens t-shirt and be sure to book a demo with one of our cloud native experts - we'll send you a $100 Amazon gift card after the meeting!

VMblog:  Have you sponsored AWS re:Invent in the past?  If so, what is it about this show that keeps you coming back as a sponsor?

O'Meara:  Yes, we have attended and sponsored AWS re:Invent for some years now.  The value of the investment is in the opportunity to interact with a broad range of developers, including many Kubernetes users. There is a very good alignment of our business, product portfolio, and target audience. We really enjoy participating in the conference and interacting with the re:Invent community.

VMblog:  What do you attribute to the success and growth of this industry?

O'Meara:  The cloud computing industry and particularly Kubernetes provide powerful tools to help accelerate the development of business applications and reduce the time to value for those applications. The open source nature of cloud native solutions offers plenty of opportunities for organizations to provide valuable extensions and add-on capabilities to help companies drive successful lines of business development.

VMblog:  What are you personally most interested in seeing or learning at AWS re:Invent?

O'Meara:  There are two key areas I am most interested in learning more about, the first area revolves around the rapid adoption of multi-cloud technologies and the practical implications of making it work effectively, and the second area is around the impact of AI technologies on both the operational aspects of cloud native infrastructure and the impact that AI workloads will have on Kubernetes adoption.

VMblog:  What kind of message will an attendee hear from you this year?  What will they take back to help sell their management team and decision makers?

O'Meara:  The key message that we want to convey this year is that it is possible to consume  multi-cloud Kubernetes with no operational impact on your developers by working with the open source solutions and adopting the Mirantis ZeroOps approach and support model.

VMblog:  Can you double click on your company's technologies?  And talk about the types of problems you solve for an AWS re:Invent attendee.

O'Meara:  With our ZeroOps approach, we apply open source-based technologies to deliver automation for managing and operating Kubernetes at scale in a wide range of mission critical environments. By supporting and extending cloud-native implementations, Mirantis is helping organizations ship code faster by increasing developer productivity and infrastructure stability and choice. Our Lens open source Kubernetes development platform supports more than 50,000 companies and 1 million users - testimony to its ability to simplify Kubernetes for novice and experienced users, alike.

VMblog:  While thinking about your company's solutions, can you give readers a few examples of how your offerings are unique?  What are your differentiators?  What sets you apart from the competition?

O'Meara:  The dimensions that make our solutions unique fall into two main categories, the first is our ZeroOps support model that was based on our extensive experience managing solutions for some of the most demanding organizations in the world. This approach allows our customers to focus on building value for their business while Mirantis takes care of the infrastructure. The second dimension is in our open source approach to  cloud native products that allows us to be flexible and extend the value of our core offerings quickly and efficiently to meet our customers unique needs.

VMblog:  Are companies going all in for the cloud?  Or do you see a return back to on-premises?  Are there roadblocks in place keeping companies from going all cloud? 

O'Meara:  Most companies see value in both public and private clouds and are adopting a hybrid cloud model. Specific workloads are staying on-premises for various reasons, such as keeping points of presence (PoPs) for edge computing in close proximity to end users, fulfilling specialized hardware requirements, ensuring security compliance, etc.

VMblog:  The keynote stage will be covering a number of big topics, but what big changes or trends does your company see taking shape as we head into 2024?

O'Meara:  Heading into 2024, I think we are going to see more focus on operational simplification and reduced effort to adopt Kubernetes especially in multi-cloud environments, in addition to that, AI will continue to be a hot topic with more practical and valuable solutions being adopted as part of the norm.

VMblog:  Do you have any advice for attendees of the show?

O'Meara:  As veterans of several AWS re:Invent conferences, it can be overwhelming at first. So, it's best to start with planning what you'd like to learn and focus your attention on those conference sessions and on the exhibit floor. That way, you'll get the most out of your time invested at the event.