Meet Glenn, Software Division leader at Arkafort
What is your role at Arkafort?
I am a back-end software developer and leader of the Software division at Arkafort. Together with my team, I design, develop and implement software solutions based on the requirements provided by clients. As a back-end developer, I primarily focus on system architectures and their implementation using the latest server-side technologies. Essentially, the back-end is the part that deals with all the logic and data processing of an application, while providing an interface for third party components to be able to interact with it.
As a division leader, my role is to oversee, schedule and delegate tasks for ongoing projects, while developing strategies to be able to deliver bespoke software solutions to address our clients’ needs.
In a nutshell, our role is to simplify complexity, and to offer straightforward solutions for complex tasks!
What do you enjoy doing most as part of your job? Why?
I am an engineer at heart; I have always been intrigued with how things work and this since a very young age (proof of this: dismantling too many a toy to see how it works!). Later on I decided to study electronics and computer engineering, and now I feel quite privileged and happy about the fact that I have the possibility to come up with elegant solutions which transform concepts to products or services.
How has the company and team changed over the past few years?
I joined the company in 2017 and back then we were only a team of 7 people operating from a small garage. At that point there was no software team, and I was hired to help out with creating websites, most of which were outsourced at that point. Given that the company was more focused on offering IT support at the time, I used to help out where needed, and that meant going to clients’ workplaces, supporting them and fixing computers.
The company then started to grow steadily and rapidly, with the definite turning point for me in terms of growth being the move to our offices in Qormi. At that point, I started focusing more on development and eventually became division leader when more software developers joined Arkafort. Today, the software division is made up of various members with all the right expertise needed to deliver end-to-end solutions.
How would you describe your experience as a division leader?
As a fresh graduate, at first it was not easy to settle into the mindset of having a team. However, given that the growth of the team was fairly gradual, it allowed me to slowly grow into the idea and understand what I should and should not do. Based on these different experiences and the guidance of my managers, I feel that I have managed to learn the ropes and now I continuously strive to improve the way I deal with the day to day scenarios of the division.
Overall, I feel that it is a good and satisfactory experience. To draw on an engineering metaphor (sorry, cannot help it!! 😊) a team for me is synonymous to a machine, made up of different parts and addressing different purposes that when put together are able to achieve something greater than the sum of its parts.
Which Arkafort project would you describe as most exciting and innovative?
At the moment, I would say the Arkafort Cloud. We had discussed the concept several times in the past, however this year we have been busy implementing the idea. It is one of the first software as a service (or SaaS) projects I was fully involved in. The idea is to offer a one stop shop that facilitates the many technical aspects of businesses, such as server deployments for websites and applications, software licenses, telephony and procurement of business grade components. One of the most interesting parts of this project was being involved in the development of an infrastructure that allows anyone to deploy a sever to any desired specification, in our own data center in Malta with just a couple of clicks. Another interesting aspect of this project is its scalability, and the fact that it is not just intended for the local market but aims to achieve a global reach. The platform will be highly available, without any performance impact anywhere in the world.
From a technical perspective, and according to the latest technologies proposed, how would you rate the progress and efforts of Arkafort?
At Arkafort, we are always up to date in terms of new technologies that help us keep in line with industry standards. There are a number of tools that help with the development life cycle, but it is important to strike a balance between keeping abreast with the latest technologies, and stability.
What’s in the pipeline?
What we have achieved so far in terms of the Arkafort Cloud will lay out the foundations for a platform which will foster the growth of many more cloud-based applications and services in the near future.
We already have a few Arkafort Cloud Apps in mind…but more on that soon!
Arkafort Cloud combines cutting-edge technology with per-second billing, providing efficiency, visibility and control. Check it out here.
