Happy New Years, everyone.

I thought I’d ring in the new year with some site stats from 2011.

• Only 10 posts published.
• 59,238 pageviews.
• 24,829 visitors (22,634 unique)
• 1.32% bounce rate.
• Multiple job and business opportunities in direct response to articles I wrote including a new job (more details below).

I really want to write more. My resolution then is to “write more.” Using a more quantified approach, I will spend at least 30 minutes a day writing for at least five days a week. That doesn’t mean I will publish five articles a week. One of my big issues with writing is the amount of time that goes into each post. I approach my writing very academically and try to back up my ideas with citations; this research takes time. I also, very frequently, solicit feedback from other people before publishing. But I really enjoy writing and I really enjoy receiving feedback on my ideas through this blog so I would like to continue doing it.

Other resolutions of mine include physical health and professional development (I’d really like to give a talk at a conference this year).

I also have some really exciting news. Starting on Monday I will officially begin my employment with dotCloud on their Site Reliability Engineering team! This is exciting for two reasons.

First, working at dotCloud is going to be an awesome experience. Everyone I’ve talked to is incredibly smart. Our CEO, Solomon Hykes, was also just named on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list. Third, and probably most importantly, is that I’m going to absolutely love the work. I love solving problems, particularly in devops, and I love writing tools that make people’s lives easier (which is precisely what dotCloud does). If you’re looking for a Platform as a Service provider, try out dotCloud and let us know how you like it.

The second reason this is exciting because, in the process of starting at a new company, I’ve managed to expand my personal consulting practice. I don’t think I’ve said so before, but I provide systems engineering services to Loud3r Inc. I’m their only “web ops” engineer and we’ve managed to completely turn things around in the past 6 months; we’re providing our services better (more reliable, more frequent updates), faster, and cheaper than before. Rather than cancel the contract entirely, the CEO of Loud3r and I felt it was a good idea for me to subcontract a large portion of my workload to a trusted colleague of mine.

How about you? Is there anything exciting you would like to share about the progress you made during 2011 or large changes you’re making in the start of 2012? Tell me all about it!