Jonas Björk is product owner for Binero's Container as a Service (CaaS) offering.
He is responsible for the development and operation of container-based solutions and helps many of our customers get started with their container journey. In this interview, we take a deep dive into how our CaaS solutions facilitate everyday life for our customers, what new opportunities open up, and what the most common questions he receives about container operation are.
How did you end up working with container development, operations, and training?
I have always enjoyed working with Linux server operations, so container management was a natural step from there. The reason I teach is largely because I discovered that I have a talent for teaching and that I am good at conveying what I know. It would be a shame to waste such a superpower, I think!
Briefly explain how CaaS benefits our customers.
By letting our skilled technicians take care of the underlying platform, our customers can focus on delivering updates and features in their applications and services. Our technicians work with several clusters and detect faults and disturbances early, which means that other customers are often not affected by problems that have already been identified and resolved.
One of the biggest advantages of our CaaS solution is that it relieves customers from the technical burden of infrastructure management. This allows them to allocate their resources to innovation and improving the user experience of their products. By not having to worry about platform operation and maintenance, they can also scale up their operations more effectively and quickly adapt to changing business needs.
Security is often a recurring theme, perhaps due to recent developments in the world. It is then good to be able to answer that container-based operations offer both higher intrusion security and availability.
Why choose CaaS at Binero?
We have extensive experience with container operations and currently run systems that are critical to society. We own our own datacentre, are based in Sweden, and place great emphasis on security and privacy issues.
How is the relationship with our CaaS customers?
It partly depends on the customer's needs. We have weekly meetings with some customers where we review the operational solution and plan the future together, while other customers feel that a meeting once a month for follow-up works well, and some only want to contact us as needed.
What usually comes as a surprise to our customers after they have purchased CaaS from Binero?
The high availability of our technicians and their commitment to their operational solutions.
What is it like to help organisations on their container journey?
It is a privilege in our work to be able to work so closely with our customers. It is exciting to meet a customer for the first time and listen to what they want and need, then plan a solution and finally implement it and go into production. For me, it is a magical journey and very rewarding to be a part of.
There is a rumour in town that you can turn a Windows technician into someone who can deploy and manage a small container environment. Is that really true?!
Haha, what can I say? There are many skilled Windows technicians out there, but then they face a situation where an application provider has decided to run the application in a container-based operating environment on Linux. For many this is difficult, partly because it is Linux, and partly because it is a container. These are two completely new areas that they have rarely encountered before.
Two years ago I wrote a training on how to get started with container-based operations for Windows technicians. In the course, I start by explaining what Linux is and how it works. Three days later, the participants have themselves deployed and managed applications in an OpenShift cluster. Anyone can work with container-based operations as long as they have the right conditions to get started.
CaaS is a managed container platform that makes it easier to manage your modern applications. Container as a Service is designed for agile working methods that free up valuable time which can be used for other activities, such as product development.
Our Container as a Service offering includes both IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a service). All data stored with us is stored and managed exclusively in Sweden and is subject to Swedish legislation and GDPR.
Containerisation and Kubernetes help development teams keep up with the high pace required in modern system development.
With CaaS, you get the icing on the cake. We take care of the infrastructure, platform, and all maintenance. You can focus on developing your business.
By containerising your application, you also avoid vendor lock-in. You can more easily move applications between multiple IT environments, which means you are not tied to specific vendors. At Binero, we like openness and choice, which is achieved with container-based applications.
We are driven by helping our customers achieve increased innovation and cost-effective IT. Talk to one of our experts and we will gladly tell you more.
