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Hi everyone.

I'm Graham Dumpleton and I recently joined Red Hat as a Developer Evangelist on the OpenShift team. I am based out of Sydney Australia and will be representing Red Hat in the Asia Pacific region.

For those who don't already know me, I have been quite active in the Python developer community for many years. I am most well known as being the author of mod_wsgi, a module for hosting Python web applications in conjunction with the Apache HTTP server. Apache combined with mod_wsgi is the default way of hosting Python web applications using the Python cartridge under OpenShift, so if you are already using Python with OpenShift there is a good chance you would be using mod_wsgi.

As a result of my deep personal interest in developing better ways of deploying Python web applications, I have watched very closely as web hosting options have grown up with the advent of platform as a service (PaaS).

Although PaaS offerings are in many ways quite similar, I have always had a leaning towards OpenShift. This has been because of its Open Source roots and how Red Hat governs the project, but also because of the extra level of control it provides. As a developer who likes to get in and tinker with things to understand how they work, the ability to actually get shell access to the host running your web application was especially attractive.

When Docker exploded on to the scene, the potential possibilities for web application hosting looked even better.

With Red Hat subsequently announcing the intention to bring Docker and Kubernetes together and overhaul OpenShift to be fully based around these technologies, I knew that I wanted to be a part of it. I have always felt that even with the improvements over the years that PaaS has introduced that Python web hosting options in particular could still be so much better.

Right now I see OpenShift 3 with its Docker/Kubernetes core as the best platform out there for driving a new revolution around PaaS and I want to make sure that support for Python figures prominently in that as a first class citizen.

In my role as Developer Evangelist, as well as getting out there and helping developers to better understand what Docker, Kubernetes and OpenShift are and how to use them, I therefore intend to draw on my years of experience in working on Python web hosting solutions, to work with the OpenShift team to ensure we also have the best story out there for Python web developers.

If you are a Python web developer and have your own ideas for how we can make Python web hosting better, or you would like me to come speak at your conference or local user group, then please do get in touch with me. You can contact me on Twitter (@GrahamDumpleton) or via gdumplet at redhat dot com. Also keep an eye out here on the OpenShift blog for more posts from me in the future about OpenShift, as well as on my own personal blog where I will continue to post on various topics related to Python and my personal projects.

I very much look forward to working in this new role for OpenShift and to getting out there and meeting all those interested in OpenShift and Python web hosting.

PS. And no Australia isn't as dangerous as everyone claims. All the same, I will promise not to bring any snakes or spiders along to any conferences or meet ups.

Graham