From master of Engineering Physics of Tsinghua University to open source entrepreneur of cloud computing

2005 year —2011 year Microsoft

Fall in love with IT Master of Engineering Physics

Science and technology makers ： Master of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University , Why do you choose IT As one's own career in life ？

Jiang Peng ： When I was in college, I became interested in computers and software , I 1998 Went to university in , At that time, the Internet was far less developed than it is now , In Colleges and universities, we still use the education network 、 LAN , The platform for communication is BBS Mainly . At that time, what was more popular in Colleges and universities was Firebird A relational database system like this , Students who are more interested in software will go to BBS Get Firebird The system of , And then I'll be in Linux、UNIX perhaps FreeBSD Compiled on , Build a forum . It's time to graduate , I just wonder if it's better to be in the direction that I'm interested in .

Science and technology makers ： What kind of consideration did you choose to join Microsoft after graduation ？

Jiang Peng ：2005 In the year , A big foreign company like Microsoft , It's an attractive choice for anyone . At that time, it was not the same as it is now ,BAT It's not as hot as it is now , There are not too many Internet startups , If you want to engage in IT Industry or software industry , Big foreign enterprises are a good start for most people .

Science and technology makers ：“ Big or start-up ”, quite a lot IT Professional graduates will tangle with this topic , What do you think are the gains and losses of choosing a large enterprise ？

Jiang Peng ： The advantage is good treatment 、 The system is rigorous and standardized , Interpersonal relationship is relatively simple , My colleagues are excellent , There is a set of standardized new training system inside , And good institutions can effectively support people and people 、 Team to team collaboration .

The bad thing is , In large companies, most employees are just a screw , The areas of responsibility are very limited , Usually , If you don't try to break through the border , Your vision will be relatively small .

Science and technology makers ： Looking back at the beginning of your career , What do you think is the most important decision ？

Jiang Peng ： At Microsoft , I work for Microsoft's global technology center in Shanghai , It is mainly responsible for the technical support and service of Microsoft products , And technology centers have two different growth directions , One is to go deep into the back , Turn to the core product R & D team , The other is to turn forward , Become a technical expert , Communicate with customers , Help clients plan 、 The implementation of .

After two years at Microsoft , Find that you want to know more about the actual needs of your customers , So I chose to turn forward , Join the solutions specialist department PFE. At that time, we were in contact with some large enterprise customers , Like cars 、 Bank , More communication with these customers , Learn more about how to use the product in a customer scenario , What are the needs of customers , Whether the product evolution direction or iteration can really meet this requirement ？ This is a rare learning opportunity .

2011—2015 Citrix

Sharpen management collaboration in large solutions

Science and technology makers ：2011 Why did you choose to join Citrix？

Jiang Peng ： Working at Microsoft 6 Years later, , I have a relatively thorough grasp of Microsoft's product line , Want to challenge more .2011 Cloud computing is an era of surging clouds , Microsoft has a rich product line , but Azure At that time, the promotion in China was not very strong .Citrix Small size , But more focused and professional in Cloud Computing .

2011 year , I joined as a solution consultant Citrix, Although the nature of the work is similar , But the scope of responsibility is much larger . stay Citrix You need to provide a complete technical solution , Need to build solutions for customers from a business perspective , The solutions offered are not only Citrix Products , There will also be other open source solutions or third-party solutions .

Science and technology makers ： What challenges does this new job bring to you ？

Jiang Peng ： There are a lot of challenges in making a large overall solution , We have delivered complete automation of the global training department for well-known large factories 、 Cloud new environment delivery platform , This project is a combination of third-party closed source 、 Open source 、 Self research and other programs , Services are still being provided .

The first challenge is management , For the first time, I managed a mixed team of internal and external . Managing internal teams is relatively simple , Because they are relatively familiar with each other , The skill level of each colleague 、 You know what you're good at , It is easier to coordinate resources 、 Arrange the division of tasks . But with an external team , You only get to know him when you get into the project , It takes time to understand their skill level , Find out if they are suitable for this part of the job . In the first two or three months of the project , It's all about running in the team .

The second is the technical challenges of business complexity , No one did it in those days , It is not a mature software product , It's a new system that integrates various components into a whole solution , The technical challenge is big . We started out with an ideal plan , After half a year of code development, you can deliver one MVP Version to show customers , Complete the first phase of the goal . However, in the integration test phase , We found a lot of problems , I remember 2012 The end of the year is the most painful time , We're going to deliver the first MVP edition , It took nearly two months to do integration testing . The testing process is very complicated , It connects to a variety of systems , Each test takes a long time , A lot of problems have been exposed , It's hard to test 、 repair Bug Pain . In those two months, we worked into the early hours of the morning every day 3：00, The next morning I got up and went on .

Besides the challenge , This experience also made me understand open source software better , We have a more intuitive and profound understanding of the business model and influence of open source software .

2016— so far Rancher

Challenge the prospective entrepreneur , What no one does has to do

Science and technology makers ： There are two modes of awakening in growth , Or what kind of person I want to be , Or something I want to do , You seem to be the latter ？

Jiang Peng ： Yes , Join in Rancher For a similar reason ,Rancher 2015 Enter China at the end of the year , There were only two employees in my early days Citrix My former colleague , They invited me to join , I went to learn about container technology , After understanding, I judged that the container may represent the development trend of technology , At least one . I've always been interested in Cloud Computing , I thought it would be good for my future growth and joined in , As for team size 、 Is it stable , I don't care much about .

Science and technology makers ： in the capacity of Rancher Chinese pioneers , accurate · How about the entrepreneurial experience ？

Jiang Peng ： Compared to a real business , At least we don't have to worry about the day when we can't pay （ laugh ）, But the overall entrepreneurial experience should be similar , from 0 To 1 Team building for 、 The development of internal rules and regulations process 、 The establishment of various systems …… wait , We have all experienced .Rancher Early colleagues had many roles , Find out there's something nobody's doing , You need to do it .

Science and technology makers ： From Microsoft to Citrix It's more like a personal ability upgrade , It's vertical , But entrepreneurial organizations may need more lateral capabilities , What are the challenges from outside the comfort zone ？

Jiang Peng ： speech （ laugh ）, I believe that many entrepreneurs of technical background have similar experiences , People who do technology are usually introverted , I don't like to talk in a crowded place , But in startups , A lot of times you have to make some speeches , Let everyone know more about your company and products . I'm not confident because I'm not good at it , More preparation is needed , I'll go through it again and again before the speech PPT, Simulate the speech process , Make sure you're ready before the tension subsides .

Science and technology makers ： Talk about your understanding of open source software commercialization model ？ A question that never stops, but there is always no standard answer .

Jiang Peng ： There's an article about open source , The author is Peter Levine, He has a lot of experience in open source , It used to be XenSource Of CEO. He believes that successful open source software should meet three criteria ：

First of all , Project and community match ,project-community fit, Can open source projects create a better developer community , Community members can contribute code actively to the project . With this as the standard ,Rancher It is a relatively successful open source project ,Rancher Currently in GitHub There are 15.6k Of star, It's the domain of container management platforms star The highest number of projects .

second , Product and market match ,product-market fit.PMF It's a core topic for any business project , It doesn't matter whether it's open source or closed source , There's no need to explain it .

Third , Value and market match ,value-market fit, Whether the software value proposition matches the customer's willingness to pay . This part Rancher Still groping , Although we already have quite a number of paying customers , But compared to the total number of users in the open source community , The proportion is still relatively low , This is the direction we are constantly exploring and moving forward .

Science and technology makers ： Many technologists are faced with 35 Age dilemma , A lot of voices blame it on the iterative innovation of Technology , What do you think of this phenomenon ？

Jiang Peng ： I think technical people must have the ability of continuous learning , But I don't think the iteration of technology will directly lead to the elimination of personnel , People who have the ability of continuous learning can always find more opportunities , It can also create a better business empire in front of strong enough competitors .

Rancher The founder, Dr. Liang Sheng, once wrote an article _《 For programmers 》_, He mentioned , Many technical people think that job hopping for a high salary is IT Standard growth model of the industry , But he thinks it's more important to build a reputation than to earn a salary , And the way to build a reputation is “ To be the best in the world ”. In fact, there is the possibility of iterative upgrading in any industry , For example, Google is for search ,Zoom For video conferencing . Technologists may complain about IT New knowledge of the field 、 New languages emerge in endlessly , But there are many things in common , For a friend who has the ability to learn , He was able to quickly adapt to changes in the surface .