August 4, 2009 by ted.

For the past year (about), I’ve been working for Applied Materials. Overall, my experience there was a good one. Lots of exposure to Data Center technologies, something really ground-breaking for me. I got to work in a very large Data Center servicing the entire world. I was fortunate enough to get to implement a lot of new technologies in the Data Center and helped push out the end-of-life stuff. Getting to implement the Nexus 7000, VSS, and ASR platforms was great.

While the things I learned were really helping me to grow, I was still finding myself in the “daily grind”. I simply wanted more exposure, I wanted to work with new technology all the time. Once I implemented all this new stuff, I was sitting back telling myself, “ok, what’s next”. In this kind of job, I wouldn’t be doing new installations and implementations like that on a reoccurring basis. I won’t get into the minutiae for all my reasons for wanting to move on.

I had a conversation with my sister a few months back who works for NASA. I was asking her how her job was going and her response really jolted me. Her response was simply, “Amazing”. I was thinking to myself, “Hmm, I wish I felt the same way about my job”. I started putting things into perspective and realized it may be time for me to start searching for that “Amazing” job.

I needed something that’s going to keep me on the cutting edge all the time. I need to really be challenged. I’ve also realized I really want to branch out and learn something other than just Cisco all the time. It’s in my best interest to make sure I can speak multiple languages in a sense. A daily grind job just isn’t going to work for me anymore. I’m never going to feel amazed with what I’m doing unless I do something totally new and unfamiliar in some ways.

Mid-July I started working for a company based out of Houston called Accudata Systems. My role is a consultant and I also assist with technical pre-sales when I have free cycles. I also deal with post-sales projects (installs) and customer incidents. My primary territory is Austin and San Antonio, but I could end up in Dallas or Houston on occasion. The company has less than 200 employees and a really great culture. The exposure in my role with Accudata is huge. It’s going to allow me to work with all sorts of different technologies from partners such as :: Cisco, Juniper, Aruba, Riverbed, Citrix, F5, and EMC. Those are the major ones on the infrastructure side, but the list continues to grow within the other areas like security. They won Cisco partner of the year for 2009 as well (in our region)!

This is definitely a change for me. I’m enjoying getting out there and meeting with the customers and partners on a daily basis. New faces and challenges every day. The great thing is that we sell new technologies, so I have to make sure I’m staying up with all the latest stuff. I’m really enjoying working with all of our partners and learning their products. It’s a little stressful at first, since there’s so much I need to learn, but it’s good for me. I think it’s a really good fit for me. I feel like when I look back at where I’m at today 6 months from now, I’ll be astonished as to how far I’ve come. I’ve met with a majority of the partners in my area and the training opportunities and their support is really incredible. Being a consultant is a definite change of direction, but I think it’s a necessary one to keep me focused on my strengths.

I definitely feel like I’m on track to earning that “Amazing” feeling about what I do for a living.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say when I’m fully awake…

Deuces,

Ted Romer
CCIE No. 21785

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December 23, 2008 by ted.

Happy Holidays!

http://cisco.e-cards.bill.globulebleu.com/2008/e-card.html

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November 18, 2008 by ted.

I’ve been busy these last couple of weeks while starting this new job at Applied Materials. Many would question why to leave a great company like Cisco. Well, here in Austin, I’m very limited to what I could have done locally unless I wanted to relocate. Originally, I was open to the idea of relocating when it was time to move to another department. At this time in my life, I’m not able to move and I’m really not open to working from home (a lot of things change in a year I guess).

Applied is a great opportunity for me in Austin. Their main data center is here in Austin and really puts me in the right place in the company to grow and stay local. I have the opportunity to work on many different areas of technology including :: wireless, voice, data center, storage and security. I’m currently focusing on a lot of the new data center technologies which is quite a bit of fun. I’m mainly project-based which allows me to focus more on design and implementation, not to mention the great hands-on experience.

Last week I racked 2 brand new Nexus 7000 switches to be used for our future distribution upgrade. I also got to install 2 of the brand new ASR 1000 routers as well as 2 6509E chassis with the new Virtual Switching supervisor. I can’t wait to start implementing them into our existing network. It’s nice to be hands-on again. Not to forget all the new toys to play with!

Ted

P.S. I am still working on my second CCIE in Voice as that’s still very important to me.

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August 25, 2008 by ted.

Get 10% off the following ::

-Blended Learning Solution
-Boot Camp
-End to End purchase

Use this coupon code

TRomer

Pretty nice deal. Any little bit helps when you’re trying to scrape together cash for CCIE expenses (believe me, I have spent my fair share of cash!)

Deuces,

Ted

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April 30, 2008 by ted.

Ok, so I’ve been slacking and it’s about time I get with the program here… In all honesty, since I got a job at Cisco, I’ve been more than busy! I plan on making a personal goal to start getting better about updating this site. I will start making at least one post a week from now on. I do apologize for the stagnancy for the last few months…

So working at Cisco so far has been quite a learning experience. I’m very much surprised with how much I’ve been able to develop new skills since starting. The Voice side of things is a much needed change for me and I find it extremely challenging. The variety in things is also nice as no two customers are the same. I’ve gotten to a point to where I feel comfortable (I mean this very loosely) with Unified Communications. I’m looking to expand now on the IPCC side of things. Contact Center is a whole new can of worms and I’m liking what I’ve seen so far.

Part of why I have been so busy is because I’ve been studying for the CCIE R&S lab. Imagine coming home from work at 3pm and having to start a lab that lasts until 11pm at night (Yes, time is money). While I do have access to some hardware at work, I prefer to use a pre-configured environment like Proctor Labs. I plan on discussing more of my experiences so far with my CCIE studies.

More to come…

Ted

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