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Any mistake that isn ’ t ‘ fatal ’ is one you can learn from .
built a fish cuckoo clock to remind me to feed our fish ). I walk and otherwise try to take care of my body when I can . ( I ’ m still working on that last one ).
If you could go back and change one career decision what would it be ?
My career has not been a straight line . That said , I do not regret any of my choices as that is how I got here , and here is a pretty great place to be ! I have made my share of mistakes along the way , for sure , but any mistake that isn ’ t ‘ fatal ’ is one you can learn from .
What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry ?
Complex systems take longer to learn and are more likely to introduce mistakes . Simplifying our backup process solves both of those problems . Simplifying deployment saves time , which is great . But it can make it easier to see if you have missed an important source of data . Simplifying monitoring makes it faster to check your company ' s backups . And that makes it more likely that you will do so .
Supporting the cloud , as storage and infrastructure , continues to be critical . Cloud storage becomes more scalable , cost-efficient and easy to deploy each year . Running your backups in the cloud is also more attractive each year . Partly this is because of the same benefits of storage , it is scalable , it is cost-efficient and it is easy to deploy . But it also means sharing backup responsibilities and providing end-users with quicker restores .
Finally , security and privacy concerns continue to need on-going development .
What are the region-specific challenges when implementing new technologies in North America ?
Retrospect strives to balance the needs and requirements of different regions around the globe . It is a given that we need to localize our products and our documentation . But we also need to provide regional support for cloud storage . Only one of the 26 supported cloud-service providers is solely based in the United States . Eleven are outside of North America , six are global and eight provide on-premise cloud services . Part of this is due to Retrospect ' s ‘ you own your data ’ philosophy . We have structured our product and services to never lock you out of your own data – there is no central service ‘ owning ’ any customer ’ s files .
What changes to your job role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in the next 12 months ?
After Retrospect was acquired by StorCentric in 2019 , I was able to move to a general manager position , but with a focus on the engineering side . Retrospect was an early adopter of the distributed , ‘ work-from-home ’ school of thought . We have not only found it better for our mental health but also for our productivity . I do not see that changing . I am looking forward to resuming our company potluck at my home however !
What advice would you offer somebody aspiring to obtain a C-level position in your industry ?
I was not aspiring to be a CEO – it was a job that needed doing . While each person ’ s journey in a C-level position will be unique , some things we will all have in common . Keep looking outside , not only of yourself but of your company . Be willing to pivot . You rely on every single employee to do their job , so , as a mentor once told me – trust , but verify . p
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