[Sponsored by Japan MSP Association] A competition will be held to compete the skills of infrastructure engineers

This is Haraoka from Beyond.

This time, we will be talking about the "MSPJ Migration Competition 2018 in Winter," which tests the skills of infrastructure engineers

The other day, Beyond became a full member of the Japan MSP Association

We have become a regular member of the Japan MSP Association.

About the MSP Association

An MSP is a business that undertakes the operation, monitoring, and maintenance of a company's servers and networks. They regularly check whether the system is in a state where it can provide services properly, and any problems are discovered. Some MSPs also provide services such as monitoring system load and informing customers as a reference for additional investment. There are two types of MSPs: those that are provided as an additional service to hosting services data center operators and those that are stand-alone services that only undertake management without providing hosting. MSPs guarantee uptime and other factors, and prices are determined according to the content and level of management.

Source: IT Glossary

To begin with, what is an MSP? It is essentially a job to keep servers running properly.
The Japan MSP Association is an organization that works to improve IT infrastructure operation techniques such as servers, and to discover and develop human resources.

Organization name: Japan MSP Association
Established: November 1, 2014
URL: http://mspj.jp/

MSP Association Activities

As part of its activities, the Japan MSP Association conducts school visits and infrastructure study sessions

[School Visit] Visit to Future University Hakodate (20171018)

[Event Announcement] Fukuoka Infrastructure Study Group to be held

As a highlight of the association's activities, we host a competition called the Migration Competition.
This is a competition to develop operational skills for the development of young infrastructure engineers.
While various hackathons are held around the country for program development,
a gathering aimed at networking and technical exchange among infrastructure engineers is extremely valuable.

Migration Competition 2017 Overview

The theme this time is

We are migrating a certain e-commerce site

Topic: I want to migrate the current system to a new environment

[Something I would like]
I would like the current environment to be completely migrated to a new environment.
I would like a report on what was done and the results.
When shutting down the system, I would like to be notified to users, so I would like to be contacted.
It is an old environment that has been used for a long time, so I would like it to be upgraded.
If possible, I would like to switch over in a way that does not affect users.
If possible, it would be great if there were documents related to the server.
Currently, we are not taking any backups, so I would like to be able to take backups
. If possible, I would like to make the system redundant as the number of users will increase in the future.
If possible, it would be great if the information necessary for handing over to the new infrastructure engineer was compiled.

[Comment from the person in charge]
There have been various changes in the organization and so we no longer have anyone who understands the system.
We've been using it for quite some time, so this is a good time to refresh it.
Business is still running on the site, so I hope the impact on users will be as minimal as possible.
Oh, and a new infrastructure engineer is due to join us soon, so I hope we can hand it over to him. I
really want to do a lot of trendy things to make it feel good.

It sounds like a
very rewarding experience.
It sounds like a lot of fun, but there is an age limit for participation, and only people under 30 can participate.

Last year, three young employees from our company participated

We participated in "Migration Competition 2017"!

Although we were not able to win any prizes, it was a valuable experience that was very stimulating for us. Three young employees are planning to participate again this year, so we are looking forward to seeing what results they will achieve

How to apply

Even if you are not affiliated with a member company of the Japan MSP Association, you can participate as long as you are under 30 years old on the day of the event, so
if you are an infrastructure engineer, why not consider attending?

We are accepting applications via the link below, so please join us!
[conpass] MSPJ Migration Competition Application