John Dietz @ Gannett

I've spent the last 4 years at Gannett working with some really amazing people transitioning the company to a modern technology stack. I've fulfilled a lot of different roles over my years on Gannett’s Content Solutions Platform, including platform architect, solutions architect, build master, and developer.

We've made some huge changes to the platform since I arrived. I've helped guide their application suite from windows to linux, .net to node js, vmware to chef, on-prem to the cloud.

I've also been instrumental in transitioning an error-prone, bureaucratic release process into a sophisticated and streamlined continuous delivery system that has grown to include over 1200 build configurations. That level of automation is a lot to manage, but the versioned template-driven approach we've designed has made for a very nimble and successful approach to Continuous Delivery.

My platform architecture team is currently guiding the technical direction of a cloud-based, geographically distributed, highly available, event-sourced application set which powers the experience of 8.4 million unique daily visitors of the USA Today network sites. It's been a truly amazing experience!

If you're interested, check out some of the recent news on the work we're doing:

• How Gannett Achieved Scalability and Agility With NoSQL
• Gannett Embraces NoSQL and Cloud
• Gannett’s Transformation to Chef and AWS
• Gannett’s Queue Based Solr Indexing With Collection Management