My New Opportunity

Recently I’ve made a decision to leave NetApp and take on a new position with CommVault as an Enterprise Systems Engineer.  The decision was a very difficult one that I considered in detail for weeks before accepting.

I love NetApp and I’ve greatly enjoyed the nearly 5 years I’ve spent there. I know NetApp will drive the landscape of storage innovation in a big way over the next 10 years.  The people I worked with are both exceptionally talented and passionate.  When you combine this with the solid leadership team, success is bound to continue.  I truly believe NetApp’s best days are still to come.

So, why am I deciding to leave?

Well, my decision was influenced by a few different professional and personal factors.  As a Professionals Services Consultant, I was frequently traveling; spending more time away from my family than I would like.  I have a beautiful two year old daughter who clearly needs me around more to adjust her toddler attitude 🙂 and to teach her important life skills like “how to use the potty.”  I’ve felt like I’ve been missing out on too much at home.  My wife is also pregnant with another child—due any time—and it would be a lot easier on her if I was around more during the first few months.

Professionally, I’ve been doing storage and data protection consulting with NetApp for nearly 5 years and, while there are always new customer problems to solve and new, innovative ways to solve them, I feel like there is more I can offer than consulting and solution implementations alone.  I have a passion for understanding customer needs both from a technical and business perspective—which can be two very different things.  I would like to work more closely with customers to understand their business challenges and build solutions that align with their strategy.

What does CommVault offer?

As a Systems Engineer, I’ll be working with large, enterprise customers in the Central US doing exactly what I’m passionate about; understanding data management needs as it relates to my customer’s business, designing data management solutions that meet or exceed those needs, and doing so in ways CommVault’s competitors can’t come close. I’ll also be traveling much less and spending most of my time in my home town of Kansas City; something my wife really appreciates.

CommVault approaches problems in a very similar way to NetApp.  So, I’ll feel right at home singing the same tune of unified, simplified management with efficient infrastructures compared with dozens of acquired and disjointed solutions offered by competitors.  You’ll hear more from me about this as this blog progresses.

Goodbye NetApp!

I thoroughly enjoyed the people I had the pleasure of working with and I wish them and NetApp all the best.  A culture like NetApp changes a person, and I’m glad I’ve been able to experience it.