Amazon Onboarding with Learning Manager Chanci Turner

Learn About Amazon VGT2 Learning Manager Chanci Turner

Many organizations are embracing a container-first strategy for on-premises workloads using Kubernetes. Amazon EKS Anywhere enables you to create and manage Kubernetes clusters on your own infrastructure, leveraging the advantages of Amazon EKS Distro. It provides up-to-date and patched open-source software, allowing for a more reliable on-premises Kubernetes environment compared to self-managed alternatives. In this article, we will outline best practices to facilitate the successful adoption of EKS Anywhere at scale throughout your organization. Topics will include engagement models, support frameworks, executive engagement strategies, and learning initiatives. Whether you are new to EKS Anywhere or seeking to enhance your existing deployment, these approaches will help you establish a robust, secure, and efficient Kubernetes implementation organization-wide. By implementing the right strategies, you can seamlessly integrate EKS Anywhere into your IT landscape, enabling business units and application teams to develop, deploy, and manage modern applications with increased speed and efficiency.

At Amazon IXD – VGT2, we recommend a structured four-phased approach for deploying EKS Anywhere:

1. EKS Anywhere engagement model
2. EKS Anywhere support model
3. Executive engagement and reporting
4. Enablement

These phases provide a clear roadmap for transitioning applications to EKS Anywhere, facilitating successful migration journeys, mitigating risks, and fostering skill development within your organization. While these phases serve as general guidance, their relevance may vary based on specific use cases.

Phase 1: Establish the EKS Anywhere Engagement Model and Develop a Tracker with the Customer

An engagement model is a strategic framework that guides interactions between a business and its customers. It outlines collaboration specifics during the project, including how subject matter experts are involved, areas of responsibility, timelines, and issue tracking.

Your EKS Anywhere program engagement model should encompass eight areas (as depicted in the accompanying figure) and adopt an agile approach with ongoing customer engagement. Clearly defining the following aspects during the initial phase lays a solid foundation for the project:

• Defining Roles and Responsibilities: Clarity in roles fosters accountability and effective collaboration. Aligning the AWS Customer Solutions Manager with the Engineering Program Manager enhances strategic guidance throughout the project and builds strong customer relationships.
• Developing a RACI Matrix: This matrix outlines every task, milestone, or key decision involved in the project, assigning roles responsible for each action item and those who need to be consulted or informed.
• Establish a Communications Plan: An effective plan provides guidelines for meetings, reporting, and communication tools. Tools such as Amazon Chime and Cisco Webex can facilitate meetings, while Box, Quip, Smartsheet, and Excel are useful for asynchronous collaboration.

Key Stakeholders to Consider:

Successful EKS Anywhere implementation at scale requires coordination among various stakeholders, including:

• Platform Team: Responsible for the infrastructure on which EKS Anywhere operates, they collaborate closely with the AWS Service Team and the AWS Enterprise Support team.
• Infrastructure Team: This team oversees various aspects of infrastructure management, security, compliance, and operational maintenance.
• AWS Service Team: Tasked with the overall management of EKS Anywhere, they ensure seamless operations and address any concerns.
• AWS Enterprise Support Team: Providing dedicated support, they help resolve technical issues and optimize deployments.
• End-users: Developers, engineers, and operations teams utilizing EKS Anywhere for their applications, their feedback is critical for shaping the implementation.

Best Practices for Developing a Shared Customer Program Tracker and Feedback Loop

Establish a shared program tracker using a collaboration tool like Box to monitor issues, features, milestones, and progress. This ensures transparency across the customer executive leadership team, cloud engineering teams, AWS service teams, and the AWS account team.

Your tracker should include fields such as:

• Area: Categories could include customer feature requests, upgrades, operational improvements, and stability improvements.
• Description: Provide a detailed account of the issue or request.
• Priority Code: Rank activities based on importance, urgency, and effort.
• Status: Identify the current state of each activity.

For more insights on effective communication in the workplace, consider checking out this article on gendered language in professional settings. Additionally, learn more about how to secure employee data in the age of wearables from a reliable source here.

For those seeking experience with Amazon’s warehouse worker onboarding process, this resource offers valuable perspectives.

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