Virtually Benevolent

Michael Stanclift

About

I’m not a perfect person. There’s many things I wish I didn’t do. Like reboot the wrong ESX host that one time…

IT isn’t just my career; it’s a dedication to understanding technology, engineering solutions and empowering administrators and developers to drive their businesses forward

Community Engagement

IT is not just about what happens in the 9-to-5 – it’s engagement with the community that surrounds the infrastructure ecosystem

Certifications

IT is about continued learning, and continued certifications

Personal Technology

I try to have mostly Apple products at my disposal for my daily computing needs.

  • Apple MacBook Pro 15” 2017 in Space Gray (provided by VMware)
  • Apple iPhone X (256GB) in Silver on T-Mobile
  • Apple Watch 2 (42 mm) in Silver Aluminium

In terms of software, I try to leverage the first party Apple applications whenever possible. Apple Notes is my goto for things I have to get down. I flip flop between Reminders and Things depending on how dedicated I am to my GTD program that month.

I’ve struggled with this recently, in terms of performance native integration with Office 365, while I prefer using the native Mail, Calendar and Contact applications on each platform, unless I need to open Outlook to schedule meetings or set out of office notcies. Recently I’ve been using Airmail on Mac along side Fantastical, and the VMware Boxer client on iOS. This combonation seems to be working well.

On iOS, I do have a collection of third party applications that I can’t go without. Chiefly among these are 1Password and Overcast. More of them can be found here.

Corporate Overlords

I’m currently a Technical Account Manager for VMware focused on healthcare clients. (Please note, all opinions expressed on social media are mine, and may not relect theirs.)

Prior to that, I spent a year working as an Integration Engineer for DST Systems which is a financial services and healthcare technology provider. As an IE, my primary function was to work directly with the company business units and help assess their infrastructure needs and design solutions for them that were consistent with the best practices established by the enterprise architecture teams. I supported our pharmacy solutions and business workflow automation groups. I put in my notice the same week a transaction to purchase them was going through, for $5.4 billion. They’re now owned by SS&C.

For six years I was a Sr. Systems Engineer for AOS which is now owned by ConvergeOne. I left a few months before they got bought. I did mostly VMware, Cisco and EMC data center consulting projects for them. What can I say? It was VAR life. If you’re not sure what that means, I suggest listening to episode 130 of the Datanauts podcast where the panel explains exactly what that means.

Prior to that, I was a Systems Administrator for a company called Perceptive Software, that company was purchased by Lexmark right after I started working for them, for around $250 million. Shortly after I left they rebranded the entire operation to Lexmark Enterprise Software but then bought a competitor called Kofax for $1 billion dollars. Some Chineese investors bought Lexmark a couple years ago, and then divested all of the software. Kofax became a seperate company again, and the original company I worked for was sold to a different competitor called Hyland. I only worked there for a year.

For four years I was a Network Analyst for Rockhurst University which is a small Jesuit college in Kansas City. I did a bunch of crazy things there including one of the first major VMware VDI implementations in education. Wyse did a case study on it, and it won an award from ComputerWorld Magazine. Here’s the video version, where you can see a very nervous, 40 pounds lighter, 25 year old version of me explain why desktop virtualization is great.

Find me on Twitter, LinkedIn or Github.