So the first part of this blog topic was about the people that made me love the things I love, and be who I am in my career. I’m going to extend this half of the topic to the people that keep me in touch and help me grow. This list will be focused on the blogs that help me maintain my focus, are a consistent help when I need information, and probably, I know them on twitter so I can bug them.

IT hollow – https://theithollow.com – Eric Shanks @eric_shanks

No surprise here. The guy is still killing it. Eric continues to expand my automation insights, and now he’s got a great series on vSphere 7 with kubernetes and Tanzu Suite that really help those interested in getting started. The guy has a way of writing that helps one conceive of what is being done instead of why. I get that understanding “why” is important but the “what” helps us actually get the “why’ to work, so that helps. He also has some great “How-To’s” to give development to those interested, and also some help for those troubleshooting issues. Great blog 100% certified fresh.

Digital Thought Disruption – https://digitalthoughtdisruption.com – Paul Bryant – @emcpebryant

Paul Bryant has been a great friend to me. I’m not saying that because he’s helped me several times with NSX issues, or because his blog has really pinpointed some major issues within our lifestyle. He writes what he thinks. It’s awesome that so much traffic is going to his blog, and I still can’t believe when he first started he actually asked for my opinion… MINE? This guy knows how to push your career, and push you out of your comfort zone and into a better position to help you succeed.

Virtually Ghetto – https://www.virtuallyghetto.com – William Lam – @lamw

I’d be amiss if I didn’t mention William Lam’s blog. The dude pumps out content like a -t ping. He’s always tinkering with something and posting about physical hardware as well as the software behind it. He’s also a great automation insight, as he writes script to do what some would think is impossible. I think his k8s on vSphere 7 says enough about his chops. If not, how about his developing a Folding at Home image for vCommunity to use during covid crisis?

vmguru – https://vmguru.com/ – Multiple authors

This blog has been helping me keep up with a lot of things that I never play with, Ansible being one of them. This past week I looked into how to connect with Ansible in vRA, and they not only had information on how to do it, but they had some great solutions to build your control machine, add it into vRA then add additional stuff to it. Pretty slick stuff. They have been around for a while and have really helped me keep tabs on the new solutions I can utilize.

**Outside of these blogs, I tend to be very “Hot Topic” focused. New products that hit the market tend to be my “insta-press” when I see documents on how someone used it. I use Twitter a lot to keep tabs on the information coming out of the community and consuming blogs. I’ve found some great resources there that have really helped me keep up to date on other things, such as Kubernetes, Infrastructure as Code, and other automation solutions.** – I think you need a better closing sentance