Meet Andrew, IT solutions expert at Arkafort
What is your role at Arkafort?
I design, implement, and maintain technical solutions for clients as well as internal projects. This means that I mostly deal with network, server, and service architectures. Once a specific goal is set, we build the system to support it while ensuring the highest levels of availability, security, and stability without the unnecessary complexity. Apart from building systems from scratch, we also assist clients with improving and supporting existing infrastructure.
I also oversee the technical side of the IT Operations division. In this sector, there is the option to tackle a task or a project in different ways, however, not all of them prove to be necessarily effective. Therefore, we make sure that the technical approach is the right one, and that the technical requirement for each task is met.
What is the most engaging part of your work? Why?
I would say any interesting task or project, really. Particularly those projects where the final result would be directly experienced by end-users. Knowing that the job is done right, and that the client/end-users are content gives me a sense of accomplishment. It’s what keeps me going.
Also, I don’t mind unboxing the cool new hardware we get to receive!
How would you describe your experience at Arkafort so far?
The last six years have been exciting, challenging, and a great learning experience. At first, I was working on IT support. Since at that stage we were a very small start-up, I was exposed to many different and exciting technologies. This, together with a good mentor, helped me gain invaluable knowledge and experience. As a result, I then progressed to where I am now as the company grew further over the years.
Working at Arkafort also helped me develop and enhance my professional skills and personal growth. I have managed to take on more responsibilities — ensuring goals and deadlines are met — learn how to work with colleagues, and how to interact with clients and external entities. I also had the opportunity to meet, work with, and interact with people from all over the world with different backgrounds and cultures.
What does it entail to manage and oversee a datacenter?
Managing a datacenter effectively requires a number of different efforts. There are many factors to take into consideration such as cooling, physical security, logical security, monitoring, efficiency, uptime, redundancy, and the list goes on and on. They are all equally important and none of them should be neglected. It is, overall, quite challenging to implement but it gives you the opportunity to work with a lot of different and exciting technologies.
I manage the technical aspect of Arkafort’s datacenter in Malta which is PCI DSS and ISO compliant while offering 24/7 monitoring and support. In terms of day-to-day, this mostly involves monitoring, configuring equipment, onboarding clients, and tackling client technical requests or queries. All of this is done while following the datacenter’s stringent policies and procedures.
Which Arkafort projects would you describe as most exciting and innovative in your division?
I would say that currently, Arkafort Cloud is the most exciting project. Essentially Arkafort Cloud is a one-stop-shop for businesses where they can build their IT infrastructure on, purchase and manage licenses, procure equipment, and much more. This greatly simplifies and streamlines IT for businesses of any size. You have all the advantages of cloud computing while having the ability to manage your IT, all in a single pane of glass.
I am involved in building and maintaining the infrastructure behind it. The most interesting part of the project is that it is built with high availability, scalability, and geo-redundancy in mind. In practice this means that no matter where you are or what you need, Arkafort Cloud is catered towards you.
What, do you feel, is most challenging in your work. And why?
I would say keeping up with the pace of frequent changes happening in our field. One day you will have a framework that is regarded as best practice, the next day it is completely outdated. This could be disheartening, especially since you put a lot of time and effort into a solution which you then must change. But that is the world of IT, and I have learned to embrace it.
What’s next?
There are a lot of features coming out on Arkafort Cloud, so keep an eye out!
Arkafort Cloud combines cutting-edge technology with per-second billing, providing efficiency, visibility and control. Check it out here.
