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.

Sales professional, technology consultant, and experienced Internet Sales Manager with a demonstrated history of working in areas of technology in multiple fields. Skilled in Marketing, Sales, ITIL, SEO, Network Engineering, Training, Customer Satisfaction, and Management. Trained in AGILE and Change Management.

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