A New Role

The past couple of weeks have been very eventful, but things have finally sorted themselves out and I wanted to share the events with readers here. A few weeks ago, I was approached by a well-respected individual in the storage industry about joining a major storage vendor. I guess it’s OK to mention who it was: Network Appliance.

As you probably know, NetApp is a great place to work—voted #6 on the “Best Places to Work” list last year, if I recall correctly. NetApp has a great environment, great people, an awesome benefits package…it’s a great opportunity all the way around. I initially accepted the offer, but my current employer—ePlus Technology—then put forth a counter-offer and I was faced with choosing between two great organizations. It was a difficult position to be in because I have a great deal of respect for both Network Appliance as well as ePlus.

In the end, I selected to remain with ePlus, but to move into a new role within the organization. I won’t be spending as much time in the field with customers, although I will still be involved with some projects. I’ll be focusing almost exclusively on and serving as a technical lead for virtualization technologies and related products. This is very similar to what I would have been doing at Network Appliance, but by staying with ePlus I’ll get to include other technologies such as HP VirtualConnect, Ardence (oops, Citrix Provisioning Server), and eventually other virtualization platforms like Virtual Iron, Citrix/Xen, and Microsoft Hyper-V. For a technology geek like me, it’s a great opportunity to get my hands on all kinds of different products and get to know them really well. I also enjoy teaching—I was a Microsoft Certified Trainer in a past life—and there will be some of that involved as well.

All in all, I’m excited about the opportunity before me. I strongly suspect that this new role will mean even more technical content here than in the past.

One final note to those at Network Appliance with whom I spoke during this process: You guys are a great group of people building a fantastic team. If there is anything I can do for any of you, please don’t hesitate to let me know. You know how to get in touch with me!