Work Place Flexibility: Hybrid Legal Entity: Entergy Services, LLC

*This position is based out of The Woodlands, TX, New Orleans, LA, Little Rock, AR, West Monroe, LA or Jackson, MS. Those outside of these areas would be required to relocate. Relocation assistance and sponsorship is not available for this posting. The official job title for this position is IT Consultant or IT Specialist Sr.*

Job Summary/Purpose This position ensures the stability and integrity of the data network environment. This is achieved by planning, designing, implementing, and operating the network environment and components across the organization.

Job Duties/Responsibilities

• Provide detailed network designs in support of business requests. This includes routing, switching, load balancer, DDI, Mesh Networking and wireless technologies in Data Center environments, corporate environments, Operational Technology environments and Wide Area Networking solutions.
• Develop implementation plans in support of simple and complex change requests.
• Participate in the installation, monitoring, maintenance, support, and optimization of all network hardware, software, and communication links. Perform analysis at physical, data plane, control plane, and higher order protocol layers in troubleshooting support.
• Create and maintain documentation as it relates to network configuration, network mapping, processes, and service records.
• Oversee and implement new and existing equipment, hardware, and software upgrades.
• Conduct research on network products, services, protocols, and standards to remain abreast of developments in the networking industry.
• Develop, implement, and maintain policies, procedures, and associated training plans for network administration, usage, and disaster recovery.
• Interact and coordinate with vendors, outsourcers, and contractors to secure network products and services.
• Respond as the Data Network representative in an ‘on-call’ 24x7 rotation to resolve emergent issues in both Corporate, OT and Automated Metering / Distribution Automation network environments.
• Work with Business and Project Management teams to review strategies and requirements. Ensure business and functional requirements are maintained throughout the development/configuration process. Review and analyze results to validate the functions of the delivered solution.

Introduction to Microservices

Microservices architecture is an approach where a single application is developed as a suite of small, independently deployable services. Each service runs its own process and communicates with lightweight mechanisms, often an HTTP resource API.

Key Characteristics

• Decentralized Governance: Teams can choose the best technology stack for their specific service.
• Independent Deployability: Services can be deployed, updated, and scaled without affecting other services.
• Small and Focused: Each service typically handles a single business capability.

Comparison with Monolithic Architecture

| Feature | Monolithic Architecture | Microservices Architecture |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Size | Large, single codebase | Small, independent codebases |
| Technology | Usually uniform stack | Polyglot persistence and programming |
| Deployment | Deploy the entire application | Deploy individual services |
| Scalability | Scale the entire application | Scale only the required services |

Benefits

1. Improved Fault Isolation: Failure in one service does not necessarily bring down the entire system.
2. Faster Time to Market: Smaller codebases are easier and faster to modify and deploy.
3. Technology Diversity: Allows the use of the right tool for the right job.

Challenges

While beneficial, microservices introduce operational complexity:

• Distributed Transactions: Managing transactions across multiple services is challenging.
• Inter-service Communication: Network latency and reliability must be handled.
• Monitoring and Logging: Requires robust distributed tracing and logging systems.

For more details, see the seminal work by Martin Fowler on Microservices.