A New Role
Over the course of the next few weeks, I had several interviews. I had a recruiter looking for me as well. Some really good leads, but some things just didn’t pan out. Until I got a call from a recruiter from Kidwell. I had previously applied for a position at Kidwell, not really knowing much about them as I was located in Omaha and their main office was in Lincoln, though they did have an office in Omaha as well. However, the recruiter had scouted me out on LinkedIn. Truth be told, I suspect my previous application didn’t go through because I had been using my company laptop as my primary machine but after returning that, I was trying to survive on a rather old machine that ran horribly and likely never completed submitting my application. Regardless I was brought in for an interview (during an ice storm) and got the job. And none to soon as my wife had just told me half-jokingly that after a month, she was ready for me to get a job and get out of the house. The role was as a Senior Systems Engineer – more or less the job I had been doing but without the title. I would be in charge of pre-sales engineering, project scoping and implementation and working escalated tickets. It was a tall order, but I was excited to dive in. Unknown at the time was that while there was another Senior Systems Engineer, he was getting ready to put in his notice and his last week with the company overlapped with my first week. I was on my own.
Let just say that the imposter syndrome ran deep. When I asked what out tech stack was, I was told “Dell, but we can also do HP”. When I asked about storage arrays, I was told that we did Equallogic (being retired by Dell) and Tinitri. That was about all of the guidance I had. Time to add evaluating options and developing our tech stack and vendor relations to my list of duties. Kidwell is a company that is largely an electrical contractor, but also had it’s hands in low voltage cabling, CCTV, Controlled Access, Business Phone Systems, Nurse Call, ELPAS (Hospital Infant Security), and of course, Managed IT Services. IT was s small portion of what the company did – I believe roughly 5%, Because of that, not only were we a small department (and in the broad scheme of things as the company has grown exponentially all over, but especially in the electrical division) but the Omaha office was small and of all of the staff there, the only IT staff was myself and two Systems Administrators/Engineers that handled the day-to-day operations with our Omaha clients.
Enter Veeam – A Best-in-Class Backup Solution
One blessing however, is that we had a solid mix of backup solutions. While there was a small amount of Datto Alto and Siris appliances, a larger footprint was Barracuda Backup appliances. But for our larger-scale solutions, Veeam had been deployed by my predecessors. I had heard of Veeam – but I hadn’t used it before. This is the humble beginnings of experience with Veeam. While backups were not yet a large part of my focus, they would quickly become so. For those not aware, I have ADHD. One of my favorite hallmarks of ADHD is the ability to hyperfocus, and fixate on shiny new things. I’m a naturally curious person, and Veeam was my new focus. I read scoured manuals, read whitepapers, watched videos, and attended webinars. I quickly became familiar with several Veeam evangelists, many who are still at Veeam, though some are not. I quickly began absorbing information as quickly as I could. Veeam “celebrities” like Rick Vanover and Anthony Spiteri were on my regular webinar rotation. I dove into troubleshooting and best practices. As a Veeam ProPartner Reseller, I was able to acquire NFR licensing and I configured a lab for testing products using old hardware and started playing with Veeam in my own environment, testing out features and learning everything I could.
Moving forward, I pushed for Veeam to be our primary solution for our customers. Not only was it the most versatile, the most powerful, and honestly cheaper than some of the other solutions we had in place. My goal became to migrate all of our customers off of any solution that wasn’t Veeam, and to only use Veeam going forward. I figured this was consider a best in class product, so while use anything else. While our competitors used less featured, less robust, less known products for data protection, we’re leading with the best. They did eventually come around however and now as customers are onboarded, I’m finding those customers coming to us often already using Veeam. I can even say that the quality of their deployments have gotten better with time.
Becoming a Veeam Legend
At the same time, I am also a teacher at heart. I love to help others, and spread the knowledge I’ve obtained. Enter the Veeam Community Hub. While I spent a short time on the Veeam R&D Forums, it didn’t tickly my fancy the same as the Hub. I overcame my initial shyness and started answering questions. Eventually, a lot of questions. I quickly became familiar with other regular members on the community hub. Among the many, some of the most active members I noted were Chris Childerhose and Shane Williford. Excellent – even more people to absorb information from. Eventually I worked over the fear of starting new blog posts on topics as I learned new things. Asking questions when I ran into issues.
I also because aware of the Veeam 100 Program, the brain child of Rick Vanover. And all the benefits of being a member sounded wonderful. It seemed simple enough. More or less, be active enough in the Community Hub, accrue enough activity points, become a Veeam Legend. Post enough information off-premise such as on a blog or LinkedIn or YouTube, etc, become a Veeam Vanguard. Perhaps it was a goal in the back of my mind to become a Legend. I began to interact more with the community. I interacted off-property as well. Getting comments from Rick on Twitter took me by surprise. I had also become an avid Redditor and r/Veeam had come into my regular rotation to my subscriptions to other subs like r/sysadmin and r/MSP. Then, one day, I woke up to a surprise. In my inbox was an email from Madalina Cristil, welcoming me to the Veeam 100 as a part of the second intake of the 2022 class of Veeam Legends. It was unexpected to say the least. With it came a whirlwind of activities. These included calls to become familiar with the inner workings of the program and to become acquainted with other Legends, old and new. A VERY short time later, an invitation to attend the Veeam 100 Summit in Prague, Czech Republic. However, I nearly declined thinking to myself that there was no way that Kidwell was going to foot the bill to send me halfway across the world. Heck, I had only been out of the country once before, and that was only a few hours south to Guatemala. I’d never even been to Europe. I talked to my boss about the invitation but hadn’t asked about attending the Summit. And then I received more details about it. Veeam pays nearly all expenses. Airfare to and from the the event, lodging, and most meals during the event. All I needed to handle myself was any expenses to and from the airports, any meals during traveling, a couple of non-sponsored meals during the event such as dinner during a free evening, etc. Well surely Kidwell would sign off on this. I quickly met up with my boss and he agreed to get approve from the executives, but didn’t see any reason why I couldn’t go. The next hurdle – convincing my family to let me travel for a week overseas, abandoning nearly all parental and spousal duties, to embark on this new adventure with little notice to meet people I’ve only known online, many of whom I had only known via black and white text on a computer screen. But it’s hardly an adventure that could be missed, right? And with their blessing, I booked my travel arrangements with Veeam’s travel company, less than two months later was on a plane starting out on a 3-leg journey to Minneapolis, Paris, and then Prague where I met (nearly) all of the Veeam 100 members who quickly welcomed me into what would become my Veeam family. The shear amount of knowledge among these folks is both astounding and also incredibly humbling.
But these are also people that are now friends for life. When there have been trials and tribulations, many have reached out to see how they can help. Have some crazy fun project to help my son celebrate his birthday, letters and cards were flowing from around the world (more on that in a later post). I looked forward to meeting with everyone at VeeamON 2023 in Miami, and then back to Prague for the Veeam 100 Summit 2023. Prague quickly became one of my favorite places in the world. But then in 2024, due to my wife experienced some severe health issues and required emergency surgery. During her recovery, I was forced to skip VeeamON in Fort Lauderdale. And the road to recovery was long and I made the tough decision that attending the Veeam 100 Summit which was being in Berlin, Germany for the first time simply wasn’t in a wise choice. I was absolutely gutted. But again, offers from folks reaching out to see if there was anything they could do to help was simply amazing. Never have a been a part of such a community and of a world-wide family that people hundreds or thousands of miles away wanted to send well wishes and offer assistance. Just absolutely floored by the care and generosity by this group.
Losing a Legend but gaining a Vanguard
In 2024, besides a chaotic life at home with three kids in three different schools while my wife recovered into what had to have felt like a new world, I was incredibly busy with my expanding roles at Kidwell. I had less and less time to actively contribute in the Community Hub. However, I started blogging (again) in 2023 with the desire to join the elite members of the Veeam 100, the “OG’s”, the original crew representing the Veeam Community – the Vanguards. And while my initial application to become a Veeam Vanguard was declined, I was told that if I was able to maintain my blogging in 2024, there was a good chance I would be able to achieve Vanguard status. I was also selected for a live webinar on World Backup Day. Towards the end of 2024, I received the disappointing, though not suprising news that my status as a Veeam Legend was not renewed. And while it wasn’t a surprise to me, there was a glimmer of hope regarding my Vanguard application. I was told by Madalina that there was good news coming my way in a few weeks. Certainly, this was a sign that I was to be accepted as a Vanguard, right? What else could it be? I held my breath each morning as I checked my email before even getting out of bed every morning. After and excruciating 2 1/2 weeks, I was finally greeted with an email welcoming me into the Veeam Vanguard program. At last, a goal achieved after nearly two years.
Object First Aces Community
At the same time, a fairly new company, Object First, the brain child of the same cofounders of Veeam, Ratmir Timashev and Andrei Baronov, went public, and with it, the start of a new program, the Object First Aces. The Aces are more or less the Vanguards of Object First. It’s a community program modeled more or less after the Veeam 100 and lead by Object First Community Manager, Veeam Legend and Vanguard, Geoff Burke. While most members of the Aces program are Veeam 100 members, not everyone is. The benefits of the Aces program are similar to that of the Veeam 100. Getting the inside track on happenings within the program, access to physical or virtual appliances and monthly calls with executives and/or notable members of the Object First team, quality swag are just some of the features of the Aces program. But there’s no way I’d be a member of the Aces had it not been for the Veeam 100.
So what have I gained as a (former) Legend, Vanguard and Ace?
I touched on this before, but there are immense benefits to being part of the Veeam 100. Access to executives and developers often top the list. But additionally, there’s access to beta’s of upcoming products. The inside scoop of things to come such as new products and features. Special sessions with partners, vendors or even the R&D team where questions can be asked and answers are given. Of course, access to the Veeam 100 Summit and somtimes the VeeamON conference, all, most, or some expenses paid is a major benefit as well. Both online and in person, the professional networking of like-minded data protection data protection evangelists is top notch. Looking around the group, there’s experts at everything. VMware, Hyper-V, Proxmox, Nutanix and more. End users, Resellers and Service Providers. Primary data storage and backup data storage providers. Bloggers, Youtubers, Authors and Podcasters. Members from Europe, Asia, Australia/New Zealand, North and South America and everywhere in between. The culture, experience and knowledge is so diverse, it’s absolute mind-blowing the caliber of folks that are part of the program.
In addition to being part of such an elite group, my company has now started marketing me. While in find it somewhat embarrassing, I suppose marketing your services using a real-life Legend or Vanguard is something to behold.
And finally, a family. A place where everyone cares about everyone else. We celebrate together. We mourn together. We work hard together to build the best community a tech company can ask for because it’s just a small token of appreciation we can give back to the program that gives so much to us.
The Road Ahead
Nobody really knows where the road may take us. We can try and steer our paths, but rarely to things turn out exactly as we intend. As I’ve noted though this two-part post, not everything that has happened to me of the course of my career so far was what I intended but there’s no way I’d change any of it. The Veeam 100 program really open up options the the best of us. For instance, in the 3 years I’ve been involved with the Veeam 100, I’ve seen countless transitions of members moving from one company to another often joining other V100 members at their respective employers. Sometimes doors close for folks for various reasons, but within the network/community, there is nearly always another door opening. And sometimes those doors that open are to the mothership. Several V100 members, especially in the past year and a half have left the Vanguard and/or Legends program to work directly at Veeam often transitioning to the Veeam MVP program.
As for me, only time will tell. I love where I’m at and I love what I’m doing both at Kidwell as well as within the Veeam and Object First Communities. And I love the people that I’m doing it with – truly remarkable people to collaborate with for the betterment of the communities. The Veeam 100 Summit for 2025 in Prague is next week with travel largely starting this weekend, but unfortunately I will be unable to attend due to unexpected family obligations. Like last year, it’s absolutely heart-wrenching to miss the opportunities provided by participating at such an exclusive event, and to continue to meet up with new and existing Veeam 100 Community members for the second year in a row. Still, I’m confident that there is a lot of positive events in store for the upcoming year within the Community, and I look forward to seeing where this journey will continue to take me into 2026.
