Container Solutions is a professional services firm specializing in cloud‐native engineering and digital transformation. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Container Solutions founder Jamie Dobson to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Jamie Dobson’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Dobson said:
“By background is, more than anything, in computer programming. That all started when I was a kid and got my hands on a Commodore 64 and a book full of BASIC programs. Later I studied computer science and after that, computational science. This started my journey to the cloud, that’s to say large-scale distributed computing.”
“Because I was – for a computer programmer – good with people, despite not being a manager, I ended up leading and organising teams of people to create some of the world’s first web-scale applications. The lessons I learnt about management, leadership and software development would eventually transform from trauma into a coherent set of ideas that we built Container Solutions around.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Dobson shared:
“In the depths of one project, when I was about 26, the ideas of people central management, creativity and high-performance teams were swirling around. I then picked up a book, Maslow on Management. Right there on page 1 he said that work, in the hands of the right manager, could be a utopian technique. I wanted to change the world and realised if I took all I knew about computing and smashed it together with Maslow’s ideas, I could create a cool company. That company, many years later, is Container Solutions.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Dobson reflected:
“It’s not the big things that you remember but the little ones, such as a message I got from a former colleague who said only now that he was older, and after working at other companies, did he realise what we were trying to do with Container Solutions. I also once “borrowed” the ideas of Professor Lawrence Freedman who wrote an international bestseller, Strategy: a History. I tweeted about it and before I knew it was at his university swapping notes over a cup of tea. Doing my first keynote at Scala Days in Berlin was also pretty special.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core services? Dobson explained:
“Primarily we help companies move to the cloud. That always starts with assessment not least because a sliver of thought upfront points the company in the right direction, saving time and a lot of money. This is all covered in our, reasonably famous book, Cloud Native Transformation. Once the plans are aligned, we then provide hands on engineering help. Our team is one of the best in the world, having helped companies from Adidas to ING bank.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Dobson acknowledged:
“COVID aside, presently the trend amongst businesses is to try and do more work with many fewer workers. Some think this is possible because of artificial intelligence systems. Others think that technology workers are spoilt and a correction had to happen. But mainly companies are asking their teams to do more work with fewer people because of the economic crisis we are presently in. Growth has slowed and conflicts around the world have made people jittery. This is a challenging moment for businesses, for thousands of laid-off workers who have never experienced such turbulence before and whom you can’t help feeling sympathy for, and for governments and policy makers who are struggling to come to terms with the slump the world finds itself in.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since its launch? Dobson noted:
“Interestingly enough, not really. Technologies have incrementally evolved and improved but not changed dramatically. The process of succeeding with distributed computing systems has not changed at all. So in the last ten years we have gotten better and better at what we do. Most recently, we invented the world’s first open-source continuous compliance framework. This arose because compliance is manual and error prone and requires a huge number of people to do it. This is the latest part of our service offering – we’ll get you to the cloud and make sure you’re secure and compliant.”
“Generative AI has of course arrived, but the use cases are presently not completely clear, so you’ll have to ask me again in a year.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Dobson cited:
“Doubling our revenue for a number of years in a row, raising an investment round with Growth Capital Partners, moving to England and Germany in the same year, creating the open source tool, External Secrets Operator and then backing that up with CCF (Continuous Compliance Framework), and then in the depths of the COVID misery creating a mega newsletter and conference called WTF is Cloud Native? all stand out. Should I go on? Spending last year putting together my new book Visionaries, Rebels and Machines but to be fair, that was more of a personal milestone.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Dobson highlighted:
“Tolstoy wrote that happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. The same is true for our customers. For example, the miserable ones, led usually by egomaniacs, want to accelerate their cloud program but when they do so they accelerate directly into a brick wall. The reality of cloud computing is that quick ramp ups are followed by embarrassing ramp downs.”
“One of the world’s most famous telecommunication companies worked with Container Solutions. That work was all about making sure we built the right thing followed by a great team building it right. Every now and then, people from that company, who have moved on, reach out for help at their next places. They all still remember that project and insist, at their new place, it is Container Solutions who helps.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Dobson assessed:
“Since we build cloud and AI platforms, right now we can’t estimate that since our work benefits every potential customer in the world.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Dobson affirmed:
“As I said earlier in this interview, my career is built around two things: I am good with computers and, for a programmer, good with people. We built our whole business around outstanding engineering and outstanding management. Hardly any company can claim that. However, to our skills we can add one more thing – we’re the nice guys and girls of the cloud. We don’t ‘neg’ our customers, a despicable trait of tech companies and especially one of those from the US, we don’t claim superiority of any kind and all of our principles and the confidence we gained from our experience boil down to a wicked sense of humour, which our customers love.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Dobson concluded:
“We spent the last decade automating delivery, infrastructure provisioning and security. The last bastion for us is compliance. We have developed our Continuous Compliance Framework to help our customers with a really niggly problem. So, the goal for the next 24 months is to continue our outstanding engineering work and, where appropriate, marry that to continuous compliance.”
