HomeAuthor InterviewsInterview with Pablo Iranzo Gómez

Interview with Pablo Iranzo Gómez

Pablo Iranzo Gómez, Miguel Pérez Colino and Scott McCarty, are the authors of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Administration, we got the chance to sit down with Pablo and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.

Q: What is/are your specialist tech area(s)?

Pablo: Systems management, automation, virtualization… I’ve been touching different areas during my career in IT environments, currently focus is on Cloud Technologies for Telco use case, first OpenStack and now OpenShift (based on Kubernetes).

Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?

Pablo: Many years ago I started writing some notes about Linux administration but as I was the only one working on it and it was a side project, so I couldn’t make that progress. Having this opportunity allowed me to touch base with that project and make it real and at the same time, it allowed me to share my experience in Linux systems management.

Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?

Pablo: I’ve been using Linux for many years, not only for work, but also from my systems at home, explaining the basics for increasing knowledge and experience. Checking latest developments in Linux features stressed some of the new points to cover, but to be honest, most of the topics covered are things used on regular basis (combining commands, getting data out of files to later process, etc), so there was not a lot of preparation required before starting to write what I do almost every day.

Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?

Pablo: Trying to explain some of the topics while using real-world scenarios without making it too complex was sometimes a bit challenging, but for me, the worst part was the chapter on exercises… all the topics in the book were covered already, so I felt I was not having anything new to ask without falling into similar questions, but it came out in an interesting way.

Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?

Pablo: I’ve been using Linux for years, I even managed to earn a living out of it.. so it’s something in demand in the market, and, on top of that, during the last years we’ve seen a rise in the usage and visibility of Linux (lifts, Android devices, set-top boxes) and all the infrastructure powering them like the cloud providers that empower internet services.

Q. Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?

Pablo: Well, we’ve put lot of efforts in approaching the topics in an easy and practical way, following the recommended practices for operating and trying not to teach or instruct everything but involving the readers into the process that will help them to face unseen situations by making use of the basics learnt.

Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?

Pablo: Very practical knowledge about Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the features included with lot of tips and practical examples that can be reused in day-to-day operations

Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?

Pablo: Be open minded, try to catch with newest developments and of course, use the technology for your personal use, not only for work… in that way, what you use at home, will come naturally when working, making readers more fluent in the technology and staying ahead of those that keep isolated spaces between tools for home and tools for work… Open Source empowers you to do that in a very easy way, and of course, allowing the users to reach the upstream communities that develop the components to dig deeper and get involved.

Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?

Pablo: Yes, I post about several topics from time to time at https://iranzo.io . I’m not blogging every day not every month, but I use the blog also as a place to share some tips about stuff I’m doing (like a personal notes book)… as many times, you know how hard was to reach to some knowledge, to later say… Hey, it was not that hard!… but in reality, it took time to get there, and by sharing some of those steps and motivation, can help others to get faster to that point to further progress.

Q. Can you share any blogs, websites, and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?

Pablo: For RHEL I would recommend the Red Hat Developers Blog and Fedora Planet, where lot of the people involved in the projects that build up the product, share their views, their work, etc.

Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?

It was my first time working with a publisher, but the process felt very natural, very similar to Open Source development, where each iteration, was given feedback, agreements on what to do, what to cover, how to word it, etc. The strangest thing for me, used to asciidoc or markdown was to use other formats, but perfectly usable and of course, very grateful about all the attention, support and guidance from the Packt Team

Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?

Pablo: Set some time for writing, a scheduled slot, and if you’re not focused for it, then, go and do something else, if not, progress will still not be made, anf frustration would appear. In my case, having plenty of time between chapters, helped me to interleave writing days with relax days, getting to a good balance.

Q. Would you like to share your social handles? If so, please share

Pablo: https://twitter.com/iranzop https://t.me/iranzo/

You can find Pablo’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Administration  – Available on Amazon.com