On the lighter side of things , we ask the industry experts what makes them tick . . . .
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Michael Meskes , Senior Director of Cloud Products , NetApp
wWhat would you describe as your most What memorable career achievement ?
My most memorable career achievement is founding credativ together with a good friend in 1999 . We were able to grow the company into an internationally known open-source specialist , helping our customers to better operate their open-source infrastructures .
We merged credativ with Instaclustr last year and I became the CIO . Instalcustr provides a SaaS platform for open-source technologies , using only the open-source versions of technologies like Apache Cassandra , Kafka , Redis , PostgreSQL and Cadence .
Things have gotten even busier since then : Instaclustr was recently acquired by NetApp , and I serve as the Senior Director of Cloud Products . It has been quite a year-and-a-half , and it has made that career moment of starting credativ back in 1999 more memorable in hindsight .
What first made you think of a career in technology ?
I didn ’ t even consider a career in technology as a kid thinking about what I ’ d be when I grew up . Computers themselves were not yet commonplace so it wasn ’ t on my radar for a while . It was later on when I did finally get my hands on a computer , consistently , that I became deeply interested in IT . I was hooked and began looking forward to a career in it .
style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?
I believe that flatter hierarchies , open communication and leading as a close member of the team are the keys to cultivating a positive and successful company culture . Much like open-source , my team is itself an open community where any discussion or questions are welcome .
While the CIO or other tech leader can ’ t put out every piece of company information or collaborate on every decision , I ’ ve come to find that keeping communication as open as possible is tremendously beneficial . For my own part , I also make a point of remaining closely involved with development work on open-source projects , which keeps my feet on the ground as a team member .
What do you think is the current hot technology talking point ?
Enterprises have absolutely embraced open-source data infrastructure like never before . That said , maintaining reliable , available , scalable , secure open-source projects requires thoughtful and knowledgeable support . As a technology leader , I take special care in ensuring that any open-source project we adopt is extensively vetted and that we ’ re ready to go all-in with our commitment to delivering support at a stellar level of quality .
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