Fale's GoToSocial

👋 Hello Fediverse! This account mirrors 20+ years of blog posts from fale.io, but never had a proper introduction. Here it is.

I'm Fabio Alessandro "Fale" Locati, Senior Principal Architect @ Red Hat. For 20+ years I've helped organizations, from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises, turn automation, cloud and security strategy from a slide deck into something that actually works when it matters.

🛠️ Automation, containers, hybrid cloud, security
🐧 Fedora contributor, self-hosting & home automation enthusiast
🌍 Also contribute to Kubernetes, Ansible and other OSS projects
📘 Author of 5 books on Ansible and OpenStack
🎤 100+ talks at FOSDEM, CfgMgmtCamp, DevOpsDays and more
🎓 30+ active certifications because apparently I can't stop studying
🌐 Blog: https://fale.io

Expect mostly tech here, some privacy/digital ethics, and whatever breaks in my homelab that week.

#Introduction #FediIntro #Automation #Kubernetes #OpenSource #Fedora #SelfHosting #Security #RedHat #Ansible

Last Friday I renewed my Red Hat Certified Specialist in Managing Automation with Ansible Automation Platform (EX467). I wrote about the exam experience and the new Red Hat certification program, which now renews all your certifications at once when you pass any exam at or above your highest level.
https://fale.io/blog/2026/07/09/red-hat-ex467-exam
#RedHat #Ansible #certification #automation

Podman 6.0 dropped cgroups v1, iptables, CNI, slirp4netns, and BoltDB. All replaced by modern alternatives that have been the defaults for years. Removing deprecated features is always hard, but necessary.
https://fale.io/blog/2026/06/25/on-podman-6-and-weeding-out-legacy
#Podman #containers #OpenSource #Linux

Had a Btrfs scare last weekend. One disk failed, then a second seemed to die mid-recovery. Turned out it wasn't the disks. Full story: https://fale.io/blog/2026/05/31/btrfs-scare
#Btrfs #Linux #SelfHosting

Fedora 44 is out. Wayland is now the only session installed by default, X11 is gone from the official images. After 10+ years on Wayland, it was about time.
https://fale.io/blog/2026/04/30/fedora-44-released
#Fedora #Linux #Wayland #bootc

Most companies have automation. Few have an automation strategy. Wrote about why a collection of scripts and cron jobs is not the same as a platform, and what the difference costs you over time.
https://fale.io/blog/2026/03/31/on-the-value-of-an-automation-platform
#automation #platformEngineering #InfrastructureAsCode

After 20+ years in IT, I've come to believe the work we share matters as much as the work we deliver. Wrote about why thought leadership is important for the community, for companies, and for ourselves.
https://fale.io/blog/2026/02/27/on-the-importance-of-thought-leadership
#thoughtLeadership #IT

Renewed my Red Hat Certified Specialist in Containers (EX188). Mostly smooth, though one exercise caught me off guard this time.
https://fale.io/blog/2026/01/20/red-hat-certified-specialist-in-containers
#RedHat #Podman #containers #certification

I rewired my house with KNX and wrote an HTTP API server to control it programmatically. The code is now available on GitHub as knx-go v0.1.
https://fale.io/blog/2025/12/29/knx-with-http-api
#KNX #homeAutomation #SelfHosting #Go

Passed the Red Hat EX374 to renew my Certified Specialist in Developing Automation with Ansible Automation Platform. This is by far the most difficult Red Hat Ansible exam I've taken.
https://fale.io/blog/2025/11/13/red-hat-ex374-exam
#RedHat #Ansible #certification #automation

Renewed my AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03). Noticed a lot more AI-related questions compared to three years ago. The exam was straightforward even without prep time.
https://fale.io/blog/2025/10/16/aws-ssa-c03-exam
#AWS #certification #cloud

After years on AWS, I decided to close my account and move everything somewhere else. The financial and cognitive cost just wasn't worth it for personal infrastructure anymore.
https://fale.io/blog/2025/09/18/moving-out-of-aws
#AWS #SelfHosting #infrastructure

Renewed my Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible Network Automation (EX457). The exam leaned more toward Ansible patterns than networking plumbing, which was unexpected.
https://fale.io/blog/2025/08/31/red-hat-ex457-exam
#RedHat #Ansible #certification #networking

Renewed my Google Professional Cloud Architect certification. The renewal exam is shorter and the booking experience is finally getting better. Maybe by 2027 it'll be as smooth as other vendors.
https://fale.io/blog/2025/07/30/google-professional-cloud-architect
#GCP #Google #certification #cloud

If you don't understand how your providers make money, you can't predict how they'll behave. I wrote about how different business models shape provider behavior and what questions to ask.
https://fale.io/blog/2025/06/30/on-your-providers-business-models
#business #strategy #SaaS

I'll be at CEC2025 in Gothenburg, Flock in Prague, and DevConf.cz in Brno over the next couple of weeks, speaking about Ansible, Podman, and Event-Driven Ansible. Come say hi.
https://fale.io/blog/2025/05/31/upcoming-events-cec-flock-and-devconf_cz
#Ansible #Fedora #DevConf #Flock #openSource

I set up Kubernetes-like network isolation for my home lab using Podman networks and Traefik. Each app gets its own private network, and Traefik routes traffic from a shared DMZ. Here's the setup.
https://fale.io/blog/2025/04/30/route-traffic-across-podman-networks-with-traefik
#Podman #Traefik #containers #SelfHosting

Scaleway Dedibox doesn't offer Fedora, but with bootc you can install it from a container right on top of Rocky Linux. Here's how I did it.
https://fale.io/blog/2025/03/31/fedora-on-scaleway-dedibox-with-bootc
#Fedora #bootc #Scaleway #SelfHosting #Linux

Modern smartphone cameras make it trivially easy to decode a physical key from a photo. Treat your keys like you'd treat a PIN written on paper: don't photograph and share them.
https://fale.io/blog/2025/02/28/on-photographing-physical-keys
#security #physicalSecurity

Heading to CentOS Connect, FOSDEM, and CfgMgmtCamp over the next few days! I'll be giving two talks at CfgMgmtCamp on Ansible with Podman and Event-Driven Ansible. Say hi if you're around.
https://fale.io/blog/2025/01/31/upcoming-events-centos-connect-fosdem-and-cfgmgmtcamp
#FOSDEM #CfgMgmtCamp #Ansible #openSource