At its final All Hands event, Karsun Solutions celebrated the more than 1400 hours of training, professional development, and certifications earned by its team members in 2020. This incredible accomplishment was driven by the Karsun Innovation Center (KIC) and its newly launched Practice Areas. These employee-centered teams introduced a series of Dojos, Brown Bag, and certification workshops to ensure all teams had the experts they need to Do Extraordinary while Defying Assumptions.

The KIC was first introduced as an in-house Research and Development unit. Later, in 2016, it added Karsun Academy, a professional development program aimed at supporting team member technical certifications. In 2018 it introduced the first of five Practice Areas. These currently include Solution, DevSecOps, Lean, Data, and Development Practice Areas.

These areas span Karsun offerings with a dedicated lead for each and a core set of practice advocates in every delivery program. They also drive excellence through the creation of reusable assets and toolkits, the establishment of guidelines, industry certifications and technology partnerships, and the enablement of active collaboration among employees. It is through these industry partnerships, with vendors like Red Hat, AWS, and StreamSets, that the center offers a full training curriculum designed to familiarize teams with the latest enterprise modernization technologies and solutions.

Subject Matter Experts Share Experience in Multiday Dojos

Karsun Practice Leads introduced Dojos as a format to deliver multiday, hands-on training to delivery teams. These in-depth workshops bring team members up to speed on best practices and emerging methodologies. While initially created as in-person events, the Innovation Center quickly enhanced its digital workplace tool suite, Karsun Konnect, to offer these events in a remote environment.

DevSecOps Practice Adapts Ansible 101 to Virtual Workshop

Karsun is a long-standing Red Hat Ready Partner. Karsun Academy previously hosting multiday in-person workshops led by Red Hat experts. This year the KIC adapted some of this training into an Ansible 101 Digital Dojo. Led by Samir Bham, the Director of the DevSecOps practice, this virtual workshop allowed team members to log in remotely, gain hands-on experience with a subject matter expert all while learning best practices.

Employee to Employee Sharing in Weekly Brown Bags

Brown Bags, hosted by any Karsun team member, spotlights team member expertise in short, one-hour presentations. The training and professional development team introduced these shorter sessions to augment Karsun Academy certification courses. Today, sessions cover a range of professional development topics from new vendor solutions to soft skills.

Lunchtime Workshop Focuses on Migration & Disaster Recovery

Madhu Chellappa, of Karsun’s DevSecOps practice, led one such workshop on Migration and Disaster Recovery. This short, one-hour session discussed a solution using Cloud Endure. This highly automated rehosting solution from AWS simplifies and expedites migration.

Certification Programs Ensure Expert Teams Ready on Day One

Certification programs formed the original backbone of Karsun Academy. This provided employees with industry-standard certifications. Through this program, for instance, the Innovation Center ensured over 40 Karsun team members are AWS certified!

DataOps NoVa Hosts StreamSets Certification Workshop

The Innovation Center also hosts DataOps NoVa through its Data Practice. Members in that Meetup group attended a three-day data engineering workshop from StreamSets alongside Karsun team members. Participants enhanced their data pipelines skills with a combination of vendor-led presentations and hands-on challenges using the StreamSets DataOps platform. After the workshop, most participants had the opportunity to be fully certified as Expert StreamSets Developers.

Karsun Solutions is repeatedly recognized for growth by publications like the Washington Business Journal and Inc. Magazine. Innovation Center Practice Areas ensure team members will continue to Grow with Karsun. These programs in turn create a pipeline of Enterprise Modernization Experts ready to solve difficult government transformation challenges. To learn more about how Karsun’s modern software development, cloud solutions or data solutions complete the form located here.

The DataOps NoVa Meetup wrapped up its first 101 series at Karsun Solutions in Herndon, Virginia. Launched in October 2019, this group introduces modern data practices to the Northern Virginia tech community. The first series included discussions and demonstrations from DataOps vendors StreamSets and Dataguise. Wrapping up this series was the introduction to data encryption using middleware components as a viable option to the rapidly emerging issue of sensitive data management in legacy platforms. That session was led by a member of the Karsun Innovation Center (KIC).

Those that attend monthly Meetup events are also invited to attend training workshops at Karsun Solutions. The 101 series culminated with a three day data engineering workshop from StreamSets. Around thirty participants enhanced their data pipelines skills with a combination of vendor-led presentations and hands-on challenges using the StreamSets DataOps platform. At the conclusion of the workshop, most participants had the opportunity to be fully certified as an Expert StreamSets Developer.

The next training series will also include several Meetups featuring vendor discussions and demonstrations, ending with a multi-day workshop. DataOps NoVa March will feature speakers from DataKitchen. This presentation on DataOps Workbenches will be held Thursday, March 19th at 6:00 pm at Karsun Solutions in Herndon. Interested participants may RSVP on the Meetup website.

Shaunak Ashtaputre and the Karsun Data Practice

DataOps NoVa is organized by the Karsun Solutions Data Practice and hosted at the training center at Karsun Solutions in Herndon, Virginia. The practice area formed within the Karsun Innovation Center in 2018. This employee-centric unit melds DevSecOps practices with data integration resources into training and prototyping initiatives.

Shaunak Ashtaputre, an industry expert with more than 20 years of experience, leads the Data Practice and co-organizes the DataOps NoVa Meetup. His extensive background includes experience in business intelligence, data platforms, and data warehousing. In addition to the topic introductions at the monthly Meetups he also speaks at industry events. He will present “Data Pipelines and Delivery in Multi-Tenanted Cloud-Based Data and Analytics Platforms” on March 11th at the rvatech/DataSummit in Richmond, Virginia.

About Karsun Solutions

Karsun Solutions is a fast-growing, innovative, enterprise modernization firm serving the U.S. government. Our teams deliver software development, cloud, and advanced analytics solutions to customers at agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration, and General Services Administration. The Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Washington Business Journal, and Inc. all recognize Karsun Solutions among the fastest growing companies in the Washington, DC region. We are an established firm, with a DCAA Approved Accounting System, CMMI Level 5 – DEV appraisal, and AWS Government Competency as well as ISO 9001, ISO 20000 and ISO 27001 certifications