My Professional Journey: A Multi-Volume Series (1999–Present)
What This Is
This is the entry point to a series of thank you notes—each one a walk down memory lane into a specific technological era, the people who made it meaningful, and the principles that proved durable even as the technologies themselves became obsolete.
These repositories aren’t a resume or portfolio. They’re a time capsule. A retrospective capturing how technology transformed, how the work evolved across continents, and how the foundations built in one era carried forward into the next.
The Volumes
Volume 1: The Proprietary Era (1999–2006)
Foundation-building in Rome across four companies: Atos, TeleAp, RSI Sistemi, and Avaya.
An era when proprietary systems felt permanent. A time capsule of Rome-based IT in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Volume 2: The Cloud Transition (2006–2012)
Six years with IBM spanning three continents: Rome, Dubai, and Melbourne.
The inflection point where cloud computing went from experimental to inevitable. A grateful tribute to the mentorship, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing that shaped those years.
Volume 3: The Cloud-Native Transformation (2012–2019)
The era of standardization. The shift from virtual machines to containers, the victory of open source infrastructure, and the rise of cloud-native architectures.
Volume 4: Software-Defined Everything & AI (2019–Present) [TBD]
The modern frontier. Platform engineering, extreme abstraction, and the integration of Artificial Intelligence into the fabric of operations.
(This volume is currently To Be Determined. Content will be added in the future.)
Why These Repositories Exist
More than twenty-five years have passed since this journey began in Rome. In the relentless pace of technology, that is several lifetimes. The landscape has shifted dramatically: from the deafening hum of physical data centers and proprietary hardware to the silent abstraction of the cloud, and now, to the generative power of AI.
The platforms that dominated the early years—specialized, vendor-locked, manually operated—have given way to open standards, declarative automation, and intelligent systems. The world has moved on.
Yet looking back, the principles learned across these decades remain surprisingly relevant. Systems thinking, resilience, governance, and the importance of culture—concepts that transcended the specific technologies. These frameworks apply equally to modern AI operations, just implemented through different tools.
This series is shared in gratitude:
- To the companies that invested in growth
- To the managers and mentors who shared knowledge
- To the colleagues and teammates who made those years meaningful
- To the technological moments themselves—frozen in time, no longer current, but still worth remembering
If you were there during any part of this journey—if you remember the Y2K preparations, the first virtualization projects, the OpenStack enthusiasm, or the dawn of Kubernetes—then perhaps this is a welcome splash back into those eras. You’ll recognize the concepts even though the technologies evolved.
A Note on the Evolution of Certifications
In the eras documented here (1999–2019), vendor-specific certifications were the primary currency of technical expertise. Navigating the proprietary “walled gardens” of that time required rigorous, formal validation to prove competence on closed systems.
The industry has since matured. With the shift to open source and software-defined architectures, the value of formal certification programs has evolved. Practical contribution, public code, and architectural adaptability often carry more weight today than vendor badges.
The extensive list of credentials in these volumes should be viewed through that historical lens. Many represent mastery of technologies that are now obsolete. They are preserved here not to demonstrate current utility, but to document the discipline of continuous learning that was required to stay relevant during those transition periods.
A Note to Those Mentioned
If you’re mentioned in any of these volumes—if you were a manager, a colleague, a teammate, or a customer—thank you. These repositories exist because of your mentorship, your collaboration, and your willingness to share knowledge.
This is not a résumé. It’s a small tribute to the people and the technological moments that made these years valuable.
Getting Started
Vol. 1: The Proprietary Era — Rome, 1999–2006
Vol. 2: The Cloud Transition — Rome, Dubai, Melbourne, 2006–2012
Vol. 3: The Cloud-Native Transformation — Melbourne, 2012–2019
Vol. 4: Software-Defined Everything & AI — 2019–Present (TBD)
👾 Bonus Level
If you are curious about how it all started—before the career began, back when it was just 8-bit graphics and curiosity—click here:
Vol. 0 – Press Start: The Origin Story
License
All volumes are shared under the MIT License.
Master repository created: November 24, 2025
Purpose: Series entry point and navigation hub
Philosophy: Time capsule, gratitude, and retrospective—not a resume