I had the privilege of contributing to T-Mobile’s digital transformation after I rejoined in 2016. My part was bringing container platform systems to the enterprise—starting with Cloud Foundry and a couple of years later, Kubernetes. Now, I get to take that same technological excellence and bring it to the future of container storage at Portworx by Pure Storage.
T-Mobile’s Cloud Native Journey
T-Mobile started their cloud native journey with the incredible success of their Cloud Foundry platform. We knew the next step in our container journey was stateful workloads. Cloud Foundry is a fantastic platform for stateless containers, but we kept finding customers who were running into issues managing state in a cloud native way. There were some amazingly resourceful teams who came up with some very clever solutions, but we quickly realized there was a gap in what we were offering versus what our customers wanted.
The gap became even more apparent when we discovered that several teams had deployed their own platforms—some using Mesos, others Swarm, and even Kubernetes. However, it was still unclear which platform we should standardize on. By late 2017, though, we felt the question had been answered: Kubernetes FTW. So we kicked off an initiative to build a new managed service.
By early 2018, we built a working Kubernetes deployment and started to look for a storage management solution. It was at this time I was first introduced to Portworx from some of our team who had already scouted the container data management landscape. We found there weren’t many options that supported the topology we wanted to run, and it came down to the Pure PSO CSI (we were running on FlashArray) and Portworx. We very quickly found that Portworx was the right solution to handle our critical workloads that were running at scale.
Cloud-native platforms fundamentally changed T-Mobile’s ability to innovate and speed to market while simultaneously improving operational efficiency through standardization and moving the needle on system stability. Our team achieved amazing things and built a foundation that will enable T-Mobile to continue to lead the market and revolutionize customer experience.
I’m incredibly thankful to my colleagues and leaders at T-Mobile for their collaboration and support over the years. I’ll be watching and cheering for Team Magenta as they continue to push boundaries.
The Future of Container Storage with Portworx by Pure Storage
Now, as I step into my new role at Portworx, I’m excited for opportunities that lie ahead. Pure Storage and Portworx are on the cutting edge of cloud native storage and data management, and the work we’re about to undertake will help shape how enterprises tackle the next wave of innovation. I’m looking forward to diving into how our platforms can accelerate AI-driven data strategies, expand Kubernetes adoption across industries, and explore emerging modern virtualization technologies like KubeVirt, which are positioned to make a significant impact at scale.
The potential for innovation with modern applications is immense, and I’m excited to contribute my experience to help Portworx customers stay ahead of the curve. I can’t wait to collaborate with a talented new team and drive the next phase of growth for both Pure Storage and its clients.
Thank you to everyone who’s been part of my journey so far. Here’s to new beginnings, fresh challenges, and a future full of opportunity!
