I began my IT career in the mid 90’s. The first Pentium processor had just been released, and I spent all of my time learning about computers–initially, the hardware aspects of computing. I then discovered the world of BBS and from that point forward I was an absolute addict. Connecting to someone else’s computer to gain access to and share information blew my mind. I learned how to host my own BBS and I learned all of the networking behind BBS. I obsessed. Then, the Internet. My life was changed forever. I became deeply obsessed with Internet and again, networking. I learned everything I could about Internet protocols.
I landed my first job as a PC technician, repairing workstations. I worked my way up and began supporting customers’ networking and server environments–Novell, NT 4, and Linux on the server side and then 3com, Livingston, Ascend, Nortel, HP, and Cisco on the networking side. I was connecting multi-site environments via WAN, mostly Point-to-Point and Frame Relay.
I continued working my way up and launched an ISP for my Employer. This was my first exposure to BGP. That business dried up when Broadband made its way in to the market (we were primarily a dial-up shop) and right around that time the company landed a contract on a new line of business. At this time, I transitioned in to a role supporting the new business, which included standing up servers and establishing WAN connectivity to State Government agencies.
As the business continued to grow, we won more business and I switched roles, handling Information Security. After a number of years over Security, I once again moved back in to Networking and handled all of the company’s networking needs, which had become quite complex. I was also over the voice infrastructure, which grew with the business to eventually include multiple 24×7 IVRs and a few hundred Call Center agents handling calls 24×7.
After some years over the company’s Network Operations Center, at the beginning of 2018 I made yet another switch, this time in to Cloud. I am now happily continuing my passion for computing and networking in the Cloud Environment–both Public and Government clouds.
