"In IT, as soon as you learn something, it is already time to learn again." – Meet Carlo

From his father's computer to Microsoft MVP

I have had a computer at home since I was a child, because my father worked at IBM. At school we swapped floppy disks with games, sometimes with a basic virus attached. Whenever that happened, my father would ban me from the computer room, as if I could catch the virus myself. Looking back, it was clearly just an excuse: I was spending far too many hours playing games. It did not work as a long-term strategy. I still ended up working with computers.

I started my career in 2002 as a system administrator, working with Debian Linux and Windows NT, 2000 and 2003 servers. Back then, once you learned how a system worked, you could write it in a notebook and use it for years. Today, by the time you finish the notes, there is probably a new version.

My path has been mostly hands-on: studying the technologies I was using at work, closing the gaps through practice and certifications, and doing it again for the next technology. I joined Metyis in October 2023 as Cloud and DevOps Lead. I work on client projects and internal ones, review procedures, improve environments, and interview candidates for Cloud Engineering and DevOps roles across Europe.

Podcasts, conferences and community initiatives

Since 2022, I have run Azure Italia Podcast, an Italian-language show about Microsoft Azure — 80 episodes so far — including one with Marcello Cacciato, Data Science Director at mETYIS, recorded in our offices, after we achieved ISO/IEC 42001 certification for AI management. Every episode requires preparation: I need to understand the subject well enough to follow the conversation wherever the guest takes it.

Beyond the podcast, I attend meetups and conferences regularly. They turn the less exciting part of the job — constantly studying — into something social and useful. You meet people working on Azure, but also AWS, Google Cloud, databases, and nowadays AI, and you see how things are actually used in production. In January 2025, one session I attended was a demo of an algorithm in Q#, a quantum programming language — not something I use in my daily work (fortunately for everyone), but a good reminder of how wide this field really is.

Where the drive comes from, and how it all balances out

It’s all mostly driven by curiosity, and a slightly obsessive habit of collecting conference gadgets. I am joking, although only partly. I do not have a perfect method for balancing it all. The activities tend to feed each other: something from a conference becomes a podcast topic, a podcast conversation clarifies a problem at work, a new technology at work can become a blog post.

Explaining Azure Infrastructure as Code with LEGO

Mostly curiosity, and a slightly obsessive habit of collecting conference gadgets. I am joking, although only partly. For someone who doesn’t know Azure Infrastructure, I would explain it with LEGO. Normally, you build a set by following the instructions and placing every brick yourself — or you skip the instructions and build whatever you can imagine. With Infrastructure as Code, you write the instructions, but a machine builds the model for you. Reuse them, change one line, get the same result the next ten times.

Less fun? Probably, if you like building by hand. But in a professional environment, cloud platforms need to be reliable and repeatable. Teams need to know exactly what was built, change it without guessing, and take it apart safely. That is why it matters: nobody wants an environment that only works because one person remembers how they clicked it together.

Winning the Microsoft MVP Award

I see it less as winning and more as recognition of the work done within the technical community. I received it in the Technology Area of Azure Infrastructure as Code.

I was proud to receive it, especially because it connects several activities I had never really thought of as one journey. Working with cloud and automation at Metyis often gives me ideas for community content. The technologies and many of the questions are shared across the industry, so a topic can naturally become a podcast episode or a talk. It also works the other way around: community discussions give me new perspectives that I can bring back into my work.

This is also close to how I work at Metyis: staying curious, testing new approaches and deciding where they are useful, rather than adopting technology only because it is new.

The recognition has my name on it, but it reflects a lot of conversations: podcast guests, event organisers, colleagues, listeners, people who asked questions. Community work does not happen alone.

What Metyis has given me, professionally and personally

At Metyis, I move between client delivery, internal platform improvements, technical interviews and mentoring. Those activities show me the same profession from a few different angles: the technology itself, the people building it, the people asking for it, and the people joining the company.

I also have room to propose an approach, test it and take responsibility for the result. Not every idea becomes a platform, and not every proposal survives its first meeting, but having the chance to try is what matters.

Working with colleagues across cloud, data, AI and different European offices has also exposed me to questions I would probably not encounter in a narrower role.

Mentoring and what it teaches in return

Several people at Metyis have written to me for advice on a technical problem, a career choice, or a certification, and I try not to turn them away. Several people at Metyis have written to me for advice on a technical problem, a career choice, or a certification, and I try not to turn them away.

Please do not take this as an open invitation for the entire company to message me at once. If that happens, I may need a personal ticketing system. Priority-one incidents will require coffee.

It helps me in two ways: practising empathy — since two people can ask the same question and need different answers — and learning something new almost every time, because solving a problem with someone else is still one of the best ways to learn.

Advice for someone starting their career

I think that are two things that are really important.

First: try to understand what happens behind what you deliver, not just ship it and move on. With AI doing more of the typing for us now, this risk is even bigger — it is easier than ever to deliver something you do not really understand. Ask it what it is doing, how, and why. Spending a few extra tokens on that might be the best use of them there is.

Second: step outside your usual working circle. Go to meetups, meet the community, attend events, and try public speaking — even a small one to start. It is not easy, and you probably will not be great at it the first few times, but confidence and method both come with practice. There is no shortcut for either.