My name is Paul Guido, but here on THWACK® I use the handle Radioteacher. Many years ago, I taught the beginning Amateur Radio – Technician test, so I created this specific handle to communicate with my students.
Working as an IT professional since 1993, I've had the privilege of using a number of different hardware and software platforms. Anyone remember 10base2 Ethernet or FDDI? For the past 20 years, I've worked at a financial institution in south Texas, working on systems, networks, monitoring, directories, storage, and virtualization. Throughout this work I always keep security top of mind.
I began by lurking on THWACK in mid-2011, but officially joined THWACK in June of 2012. My first meeting with the SolarWinds team was at VMworld 2012, where I acquired my first swag from the Blues Brothers themed booth—it was a cool, cloth Fedora hat. I also had lunch that day with two Head Geeks™, but at the time I had no idea who they were.
I have attended every THWACKcamp™ since 2013. In 2015, I was the only customer to attend in person at the SolarWinds HQ. During the 2016 and 2017 THWACKcamp events, it was fun to go to Austin and meet other THWACK MVPs from around the world.
The best MVP meeting at THWACKcamp 2017 happened at a restaurant in Bee Cave called Rocco's. Rocco asked if, "You all worked at the same company?" The answer? Nope. "So, you all work at the same types of businesses?" Again, nope.
So, we told him, "All of us use the same software platform to monitor our unique networks for our companies." Rocco looked a little puzzled.
I'm looking forward to the "People Do Dumb Things: Why Security Is Hard for IT Pros" session on Day 2 at 10:00 a.m. CT. Destiny Bertucci, Mandy Hubbard, Sandy Hawke, and I will discuss security from different points of view. You probably already know Destiny, the SolarWinds Head Geek™ and my rambling posts on THWACK. Mandy Hubbard is a software engineer and QA architect, offering deep insights on how current software is made and tested. Sandy Hawke now works with companies to help with marketing, but also leads another life thanks to here two decades of information security experience. Sandy is basically a superhero.
Budget season is coming up, what is your team doing to improve the security posture of your company?
Security's biggest enemy is complacency. Register. Attend October 17-18, 2018.