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“If I can make my client’s life better, I’m happy,” Trace3 Principal Solutions Architect, Jeff Stone shared. “I get to learn something every day. And, fortunately in this field, even the failures are learning opportunities.”
Jeff joined Trace3 10 years ago. His career with the company is built from a solid foundation made up of resilient relationships with both colleagues and clients. An empathetic designer at heart, Jeff’s goals are always to identify a client’s need and create an agile solution that fits them best.
LIGHTING ROUND
Favorite holiday tradition? Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights. Got to keep being a kid!What’s a superpower you wish you could possess? Remove politics from solution achievement. Technology is easy, but we get in our own way of achieving. There are too many ways to say no, how do we instead find a way to say yes?
Favorite mid-work-day snack?
Lucky Charms
What job did you think you’d have as an adult at age 10?
Either a board game designer or a Time Lord from Doctor Who.
What’s your favorite emoji? An actual phone call. We’re in a world with so many interactions, and something should grow out of those interactions. So, I’m a fan of getting on the phone and having a conversation.
All Clients are Unique
“Every client is different,” Jeff said. “I try to put myself in the client’s shoes.” One of the most vital aspects of Trace3’s work is locating the “best of breed of parts” – creating a worthy and available solution that is specific to the client.Always keeping a pulse on the infrastructure conversation, Jeff keeps an open mindset around blending emerging and existing technologies to best serve his clients. “When I’m creating a better solution, I don’t make decisions in a vacuum.” Instead, when Jeff notices something does fit, he doesn’t just accept it for what it is, he asks why and how.
The Ever-Changing Infrastructure Landscape
The infrastructure conversation is ever-evolving – once an architect establishes a basis with a current practice, it morphs and changes. This constant growth is a great thing for clients – it keeps architects on their toes, in constant learning mode, and agile enough to implement a new solution if something better, or more reliable, presents itself in the process.Doing More with Less
The current staffing market presents a huge challenge for most businesses around the globe. To combat staffing concerns, clients are looking to implement more lines of automation. Artificial Intelligence can step in to alleviate the pressure on talent and time – allowing people to do the work they do best. Automation helps to streamline and simplify basic process and tasks – allowing businesses to become more focused.Security x3
Clients are most concerned with well-architected and well-managed security solutions. Jeff helps them stay out of the news – strong security protocols, applications, and tools greatly reduce the likelihood of a successful cyberattack. Jeff knows threats are inevitable in today’s environment – but works with his clients to make sure they’re aware and prepared if they’re ever targeted by an attack.Technology Solves Problems
“Technology is a vehicle for innovation and agility, but it’s not the technology specifically that solves everything,” said Jeff. “Rather, it’s the innovation behind the technology that drives the possibilities.” When used appropriately, technology solves problems – but it is also a service or behavioral change that can create new possibilities. Embracing change leads to greater possibilities for growth and success.Identifying Pain Points
One of Jeff’s passions in his role at Trace3 is the opportunity to identify pain points and alleviate those for clients. He thinks of his role as a crafter of an experience rather than sales. Diving into his love for designing, engagements where Jeff takes a problem and physically sketches out possible solutions always turn out to be critical engagements to his clients’ end solutions. He’s even had a client 3D print a dry erase marker bandolier because he’s always at the ready to sketch up a solution.A Little More About Jeff
In the office Jeff is known for his “Jeffisms.” His fellow engineering team could likely write a book full of them, but his favorite is one he learned of from a fitness app - successful people do what unsuccessful people won’t. This saying is one that Jeff brings with him to every client meeting, every brainstorm session, and every workday. A career in technology is critical and filled with pressure. We know that pressure can create either a diamond, or dust, and Jeff chooses to create diamonds in his career with Trace3.This Employee Spotlight is Brought to you by Trace3’s Partner Western Digital
Western Digital provides data storage solutions and has long been at the forefront of game-changing innovations. They believe in the promise of data, and they create environments for data to thrive so you can unlock its full potential. Their new OpenFlex Data24 does just that. The appliance is built to deliver high availability and enterprise-class reliability.The Performance of NVMe™ Flash in Shared Storage
Western Digital’s OpenFlex Data24™ NVMe-oF™ storage platform extends the high performance of NVMe™ flash to shared storage.NVMe means nonvolatile memory express, which is a communications interface with newer storage accesses and transport protocols for flash and next-generation solid-state drives, or SSDs. This technology enables servers to share NVMe flash storage as if it were local. This means the OpenFlex Data24 can deliver its memory in an extremely fast response times regardless of its type of workload.
The appliance boasts unsurpassed connectivity in its class using Western Digital RapidFlex™ NVMe-oF controllers, allows up to six hosts to be attached without a switch, like a traditional JBOF.
NVMe-over-Fabrics, or NVMe-oF, is a networked storage protocol that allows storage to be disaggregated from compute to make that storage widely available to multiple applications and servers. By enabling applications to share a common pool of storage capacity, data can be easily shared between applications or needed capacity can be allocated to an application to respond to application needs.
You can learn more about the OpenFlex Data24 by visiting the Western Digital website.