When you’re offered precisely what you were hoping for…say, “yes.” Now, for the first time, you can choose yourself. You can be responsible for what you do and how you do it. You have to do the hard work of finding and pleasing an audience. But you do have to say, “yes.”
Seth Godin
If you do not want to read the whole story, the summary is simple: starting next Monday, February 17th, I will start my new job at Veeam Software as EMEA Evangelist 🙂
Looking back over the last few years and my relationship with Veeam, it seems to me like one of those long-lasting engagements, which usually ends up with a marriage or a sharp separation. Fortunately for me, I will continue to deal with Virtualization and Data Protection, working for one of the companies that I admire the most, and I think their product is truly one of the best around in its space. It will be my first experience with a vendor, and I can’t wait to get started.
Why I accepted this role? There are several reasons.
First, because it will allow me to do (among many other duties) two of the things I like the most in my work: creating content to share, and getting in touch with other people to talk about technology. As Seth Godin says, when you are offered a job that matches very precisely what you would like to do, what you do? I think you would accept it, and so I did. In my new role I will have to manage together with my colleagues (many of you probably already know Doug Hazelman, Rick Vanover, Mike Resseler and Chris Henley) the social media presence of Veeam, actively participate in Veeam Forums (this is easy for me, I’m already among the best users :)), and create contents. This is a general term for the production of technical articles, posts on Veeam blog, white papers, videos, webinars and more.
Another aspect of my job will be attending events and conferences. I always enjoyed the opportunity to confront myself with other people in person, exchange ideas and opinions, feel “the mood”, hear from others how they use “our” products (I have to get used to say “our” and “we at Veeam” …) and what they would like to be implemented or improved. Those who know me personally, know that I never get tired of discussing anything that is only vaguely about technology. Surely, the first few times that I will go up on a stage to make a presentation I will have an insane fear, but I hope to improve over time. If people like Duncan Epping says presenting makes him nervous, well then there’s hope for me too 🙂
For someone like me who has a blog for more than 6 years (and it will remain, even if only in English), this is an opportunity to bring this activity to a whole new level. Veeam (and in particular the product Backup & Replication) is a solution that interacts with many elements in the infrastructure, from servers to network, storage and other components. In this way, I am certain that I will not focus only on a product, becoming a super expert at the expense of other knowledge, but rather I will have the opportunity to see and learn about lots of solutions and products. Veeam has already signed many partnerships, and surely more will come. For me, each of them is an opportunity to learn new things, and share my experience.
For the first time I will have the possibility to have an active role in the development of a product. I know Anton Gostev (VP of Product Management) since few years, we have often exchanged views and ideas, and for some years I’m a member of Veeam Beta Testers. But having a direct relationship with Veeam R&D department and be able to contribute to the growth of their (our) products is something more. I’m not a programmer, but I hope to bring my experience as an advanced user, my ideas, and to gather opinions and requests from everyone I will meet in my new job.
The only downside, and I will miss it, will be my attendance to Tech Field Day, denied to those who work for a vendor. Stephen Foskett and his team have created over time a real institution, that let me enrich my technical background, by getting in touch with innovative solutions, and at the same time have the honor to share this experience with other talented professionals. I will miss you all, but I’m sure we will still meet in several events, or perhaps in a future Tech Field Day, this time on the other side of the table. Who knows …
Finally, a greeting and a thank you to my current employer. This is not the usual circumstance thanks; I’m sincerely convinced that the experience I gained over more than two years I spent in Moresi.Com is one of the reasons that brought me here. I had the opportunity to work in a datacenter completely based on virtualization technologies, where I could learn many of the technologies that I know in a large environment with high operational requirements, and also I’ve always been given the opportunity to attend conferences and events. A big thank you to Nicola, Renato and all my colleagues for the time we spent together, and good luck for the future.
And to all of you: see you around!