Brent Laster, who’s in charge of R&D at SAS, will be on hand to talk about container technology on Thursday, both for an in-person audience in Columbia, South Carolina, and for people watching globally on Zoom.
With a brand spanking new version of Kubernetes being released today, here’s an event that might be just what the doctor ordered for many.
On Thursday, December 9 (that’s tomorrow, and we apologize for being so late with this), the folks behind the All Things Open conference are presenting a single-night free event in Columbia, South Carolina called Containers 101.
This will certainly be great for those who live in the Columbia environs who can see the event live and in-person, but it’s just as good for folks living anywhere on the planet who could use a little better understanding of what containers are and what they’re good for (hint: they practically run IT these days), as the event is being livestreamed on Zoom as well.
So, how much will you need to already know for this presentation to be worthwhile? Not much, ATO said, adding that even folks with more knowledge, such as those who know the difference between Kubernetes and Swarm, or who work with Kubernetes daily, stand to benefit.
“Technical enough to engage technologists at every level, yet not so technical early career attendees are lost,” ATO said in a statement. “Every technologist, regardless of level, needs to understand container foundational principles.”
Look Who’s Talking
Speaking will be Brent Laster, who’s spent over 13 years at SAS, the last two as director of research and development. He’s also the author of Professional Git, Jenkins 2: Up and Running, and Jenkins X. Along the way, Laster spent five years at O’Reilly Media and nearly five years as a software developer for IBM.
In addition, he’s the founder and president of Tech Skills Transformations, LLC – a company dedicated to making technology understandable and usable.
“Throughout his career in software development and management, Brent has always made time to learn and develop both technical and leadership skills and share them with others,” ATO said. “He believes that regardless of the topic or technology, there’s no substitute for the excitement and sense of potential that come from providing others with the knowledge they need to accomplish their goals.”
About Thursday night’s presentation, Laster said in an abstract for the talk:
“We’ll learn about what containers are, how they are used, and how they work and are created. You’ll also come away with an understanding of the differences between images and containers and how we can use Docker to work with them. We’ll use visuals to explain and explore key concepts so you feel comfortable progressing on to more advanced topics such as Kubernetes.”
Attending In-person
For those attending in-person, the event will take place at the USC Alumni Center, 900 Senate Street, in downtown Columbia, South Carolina. Doors will open at 5:30 pm Eastern Standard Time, with the event scheduled to start at 6:30 pm EST.
In addition to the presentations, food from a hot potato bar as well as drinks will be available at no cost. Also, like at any good open source conference, there will be plenty of giveaways and swag, which will include All Things Open t-shirts and stickers, a variety of hardware (“mechanical keyboard and more,” ATO says), books, and sponsor swag.
Of course, at any in-person event right now, the elephant in the room is the potential threat posed by COVID-19. ATO founder and chairperson, Todd Lewis, who launched his first post-COVID ATO conference in October (and shared some of what he learned in an article on FOSS Force), assures us that every precaution has been taken to protect all attendees.
“There is a mask mandate indoors,” he said on the event’s web page. “We don’t want anyone getting sick, or getting someone else sick over the holidays. However, we have reserved the entire outdoor patio for networking (no mask mandate outdoors). Also, there is no mask mandate when eating and drinking. Food and beverage areas have been strategically chosen and located, [and] the entire floor space (including lobby, ballrooms and networking area) will be configured to allow for and maximize social distancing.”
Again, in-person attendance is free, but registration is required.
Attending Online
Livestreaming for online viewers watching from home will begin at 6 pm. Just as with the in-person event, attendance is free but requires registration (here with Zoom, which will be streaming the event).
ATO’s presentation of Containers 101 is being sponsored by Camunda, Fidelity Investments, and AlmaLinux.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
