01-28-13 | Blog Post

IT Employment Up at Online Tech’s Michigan Data Centers

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As mentioned in a previous post, we here at Online Tech are looking to add another 25% to our already strong employee base. In the past few months we’ve been able to grow dramatically as we focus on our goal to add four new data centers in the next two years to our Ann Arbor data center, Ann Arbor 2 data center, and Mid-Michigan data center. I had the chance to speak with some of our newest employees to find out more about their backgrounds and how they fit into our Online Tech community. Here’s a little about some of our sales team members:

Michael Richards had worked as a Data Center Consultant before moving here to Online Tech, helping data centers work through issues like the high cost of cooling (he explains that 60% energy expended in a data center is focused on cooling). Throughout his four years of experience selling within the data center sphere, he said he had to learn the industry from the ground up, and says he loves the work because ‘I learn something new every day. I love the work being done to make things smaller, faster, more efficient. Also, seeing startup companies coming in, and watching them get off the ground, because that’s the American Way, really.’ Mike is working as an Inside Account Manager here, and said he chose to work here as opposed to the other offers he received due to the culture.

Shannon Withem is one of our newest sales executives with over 12 years of experience with Enterprise and Solution selling. He has worked at great length with SaaS and Technology/IT solutions, and said of the greatest joys he gets from the sales process: “being able to provide a solution that fits best for the specific problems companies face. I love hearing them say ‘wow, you fixed this for us!’ Also, the problem solving that comes out of that process. Really making it a team effort with the client to find out exactly what they need and what they don’t, and working to a resolution together”. With much of his experience focused on the software, he says getting more experience with the infrastructure side gives him a different perspective.

Judson Pitt has worked previously as an IT Director and CIO. He said he had started out in sales, “I was good at it, but I wasn’t great. I had a conversation with my dad and he said ‘hey, this computer thing is kinda getting big’.  I didn’t really like what I was doing so I got a degree in computer science.” Now, after more than 12 years of experience, he’s Online Tech’s newest Enterprise Architect. This, to him, seems like a great fit. “It’s more of a hybrid role, playing a technical role with a more consultative approach, which is nice, because I’ve been on both sides of the desk already, so it really fits. Also, I realized the way to keep things exciting was to keep things different. Here, I’m meeting with different companies every day, helping them with different solutions. It’s different by the hour”. When I asked him why he decided to be a part of our team, he said: “I was aware of the culture of Online Tech. It was an opportunity to work with a lot of great people, in a place that was growing rapidly, and they’re great at taking care of customers.”

Here are a few opportunities we still have available:

Client Services Manager
We’re looking for an “A” player highly energetic client services manager with excellent technical, people, analytical, and leadership skills who wants to help us build one of Michigan’s success stories. This is a full-time exempt (salaried) position working in one of our three data centers, reporting to our CEO and responsible for the budget, people, process and systems for client deployments, support, and communications for services delivered at three data centers growing to five+ data centers; managing a 24/7 staff of five staff and growing; and managing an annual budget of $500k+ and growing.

Infrastructure Manager
We’re looking for an “A” player highly energetic infrastructure manager with excellent technical, people, analytical, and leadership skills who wants to help us build one of Michigan’s success stories. This is a full-time exempt (salaried) position working in one of our three data centers, reporting to our CEO and responsible for the budget, people, process and systems for:

  • Building, power, and cooling at three data centers, growing to five+ data centers over the next five years;
    • Network, cloud, and storage systems:
    • Network, including circuits/ISP; core routers; cable plant; access switches
    • Cloud, including servers/SANs, and network switches
    • Storage, firewalls, Universal Threat Management (UTM), load balancers, etc.
  • A 24/7 technical staff of six people and growing
  • A budget of $1M+ and growing over the coming years

You can find more as well on our careers page!

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