I'm a server and infrastructure guy with a penchant for the big picture and a lifelong love of technology.

I'm not looking for new opportunities at this time.

Ask me about my homelab, and ignore the huge backlog of projects. I've redone my home networks for the end of my Meraki licenses, then switched back. I've worked in networking and storage although it's been a little while. I have never been a developer. I've never waited tables (even database tables) but respect those who do. I admit what I don't know and learn quickly. 

Today I'm an engineering product manager for UCS networking in the compute business at Cisco. 

From 2022-2023 I was product line manager for software management products at Supermicro. 

From 2018-2020 I focused on channel partner enablement, partner sales engineering, solutions engineering at Cisco. 

From 2014-2018 I played storyteller/matchmaker between big data ISVs, Cisco channel partners and internal sales teams, and occasionally a customer or 100. I've been doing big data since late 2003/early 2004 (really) and Hadoop since probably 2008 (CDH1). I presented at partner events and public conferences including Strata+Hadoop World (2x) and Cisco Live (4x, Distinguished Speaker). 

On the first day at Cisco (right after lunch), I pushed a half million dollar deal over the edge with my personal experience outweighing a competitor's positioning. From then on, I brought context and proportion to challenging situations, helping our customers succeed and our sales teams make money. I believe those two should not be mutually exclusive, and I consider it my mission to bring them together wherever I work. 

Before Cisco, I was a senior level Silicon Valley systems operations professional with nearly 20 years (different years, even) of production UNIX system administration in multiple varieties of UNIX (Solaris, Linux, BSD) as well as experience in other desktop and server platforms. I built a proven history of delivering enterprise class scalable server, network, and DR/BC environments within stringent budget and time restraints.

I blog at rsts11.com and rsts11travel.com. 

Specialties: Big data platforms, hardware, and education; system administration, hardware planning and management (even clouds need hardware), Hadoop, written English (documentation is our friend), UNIX-based email systems, coffee preparation & procurement, operations team building and sustaining. 

I'm not a developer or coder although I can read or tweak some code. I don't have an MBA or a PhD. 

I'm not looking for new opportunities at this time.

Robert Novak

I guess there's a new way to scream THIS IS SPAM. 

This company is "reaching out to you on LinkedIn on the basis of its legitimate interests"

My legitimate interest is to receive an advance payment of $100 before reviewing the often-poorly-targeted inquiry you're spamming me with. You can put the amount in manually on https://ko-fi.com/robnovak, and by sending me money through this link, you accept that I do not commit to anything in return. I usually thank people but I don't commit to even that.

🚝Robert Novak

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Six months ago I brought up a Proxmox VE cluster on my Lenovo P360 Ultra stack (see comments for my "banana for scale" equivalent). I did this on the dining room table, so I had to take it down, and it's been waiting for some shelf space. 

The first generation used a $36 ZTYUAV 2.5/10G switch (now $28, https://amzn.to/3LLBWBS) and the onboard 2.5gbe ports on the P360s. 

I upgraded the quad gigabit Ethernet cards to Lenovo 10GBase-T cards and got a small low power 10GBase-T switch from Woot (Zyxel XGS1250-12, currently $180 on Amazon, https://amzn.to/4aWf8tv). 

I'm planning to bring the 10G platform up, upgrade (or fresh install) to VE9, possibly add some more internal storage for Ceph, and do some testing and recording. 

Then it's time to install the ConnectX-4 cards (https://ebay.us/vNnoJR, under $40, with some $20ish 10GTek cables for a loop network) and see what it feels like on higher speeds. 

Hoping to get a video series next month and a blog post or two around the same time. Then maybe I'll find some enterprise grade gear to warm up. 

As an Amazon and eBay affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases, including those through links above, at no extra cost to my readers.

Hobby Shop

Dedicated to embedded system development.

Retiree at large

Theatro

I'll be building automated regression testing for their devices. More later...

Senior Automation Manager

Dell EMC

We're now Dell-EMC. Currently I'm working on Symphony, our new Vcesystems management application.

Principal QA Engineer

MART Pro-Service Solutions

We provide QA/test services to companies wanting to outsource or augment their resources. I develop software, test solutions and provide project management for our clients. Co-developed a log capture tool for use in distributed environments.

VP of Engineering

Cisco Systems

Designed, implemented, and maintained software tools used by a large system test group. This included tools to manage test documentation, test data, test environments, and automate troubleshooting for test engineers. Mentored summer interns and helped them develop Flex on Rails internal web application.

Senior QA/Test Automation Engineer

UltimateMatch

Contract QA/test work for online dating service. Designed and executed system tests for web application.

QA/Test Engineer

Yonaguska Services

Managed crew that provided cleaning services to businesses around the Texas hill country.

Owner

Solomio

Developed tests and test automation for SMS application.

Senior QA/Test Engineer

Agilent Technologies

Contract engineer in QA/test organization. Designed and executed system tests.

Sun Microsystems

Managed QA for the Sun.com portal. Developed test documentation and processes and integrated them with development processes. Managed Sun's test tool contract. Mentored interns.

Software QA/Test Manager

Developed Sun's computer telephony integration (CTI) architecture for its call centers and implemented deployment lab.

Performance and behavioral research for consolidated serve project. Implemented lab and managed senior system administrators. Developed test strategies and managed execution of the studies.

Deployment of Javastation network computer. Implemented deployment architecture and managed lab and senior system administrators. Mentored summer interns.

Senior Software Engineer

I am an seasoned engineer with a breadth of experience developing automated systems, tools, infrastructure monitors and process automation. I am an experienced manager, researcher, engineer and technician and always up for a challenge.

Specialties: System engineering, development, automation, telecom, data communications

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