vExpert Spotlight: Sean Thulin
Sean Thulin
Today’s vExpert Spotlight interview is with Sean Thulin. I finally had the pleasure of meeting Sean in person recently at SpiceWorld in Austin last month. Sean joins us from the Boston area where he is Solutions Architect at SimpliVity. Join us as we jump right into another vExpert Spotlight interview.
The Interview
Star Wars or Star Trek?
Star Wars
Peanut Butter? Creamy, Chunky or No Way!
Creamy
Favorite Adult Beverage?
A medium colored beer
What was your 1st IT gig?
My first gig (not counting internships) was tech support at EMC. I literally graduated on a Friday and started on a Monday fielding calls from customers in regards to the NAS portfolio.
What is your current job title and role?
I am a Solutions Architect for SimpliVity
How many years have you been a vExpert?
This is my 1st year!
What other IT Communities are you involved with or frequent?
In my previous role, I used to co-manage the EMC Elect program. I am currently the green person on Spiceworks for SimpliVity.
What advice would you give to others involved in the VMware community who are looking at becoming a vExpert?
Community is a 2 way street. You get out of it what you put into it. There are a lot of people that are open and willing to help bounce ideas off of, and the hope is that you will be willing to share and help out as well. Above all things, don’t be fake, just be yourself.
Do you currently have a Home Lab environment?
I do, and I’m in the process of expanding it. I had originally based my first whitebox on the baby dragon: http://www.rootwyrm.com/2010/08/meet-my-esxi-server-the-babydragon/ this design from a few years ago was 100% HCL and offered things like dual gigabit nics and a xeon processor, but used local storage.
I recently took a different approach, by adding SSDs to my Synology 1813+ and turning on VAAI for NFS, I am now using intel NUCs as Compute/RAM building blocks for my home lab.How do you use VMware products or services in your daily work life?
I’m in vCenter every day as part of my job, usually demoing the integration of the product (OmniCube).
What certifications do you currently hold (if any)?
I have a VCP4 and VCP5-DCV as well as an EMC Proven Professional Specialist certification
What’s your go to song or music genre when work stress becomes too much?
It all depends on the kind of mood. If i need to just plugin and get work done, the sound track to the social network is great for that. Sometimes, i want to take myself back to my younger years and i listen to older mix compilation from the Ministry of Sound (from around 2000 – 2005).
Tell us something about yourself that the community may not already know.
I tend to be an open book really, I’m not sure there isn’t much about me the community doesn’t already know.
Do you have a blog that you would like to share?
http://thulinaround.com It’s some word play on my last name
Let us know how to contact you via social media.
No Facebook account (I know…crazy)
Twitter: @sthulin
Google+: https://www.google.com/+SeanThulin
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sthulin
Sean thank you very much for being a part of the vExpert Spotlight series! I appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to chat with me & share with our great community.
Please hit up Sean on Twitter & also on his personal blog.
Lookup and browse the current 2015 vExperts in the vExpert Online Directory
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