vExpert Spotlight: Jason Langer
Jason Langer
Today’s vExpert Spotlight interview is with Jason Langer. If you don’t know who Jason is well then you are missing out. Jason is a super cool down to earth guy with a passion for VMware as well as helping others. He has been involved with projects on the #vBrownBag series as well as being a founding member of the #vDB (Virtual Distributed Braintrust).
Today we let Jason break it down for us…
The Interview
Star Wars or Star Trek?
Star Wars
Peanut Butter? Crunchy, Smooth, or No Thanks!
Crunchy
Favorite Adult Beverage?
Appletini
What was your 1st IT gig?
My first IT role was doing phone technical support for PC game maker and publisher Sierra Online (remember Kings Quest/Police Quest?). I spent my days answering calls or customer emails ranging from creating DOS boot disks to free up memory to troubleshooting yoke and pedal configurations for our flight simulators.
What is your current job title and role?
I work for Denali Advanced Integration, a value add reseller in Redmond Washington as a Solutions Architect. In my activities I work with customers in either a pre-sales/post-sales (or sometimes both) capacity in achieving there virtualization goals.
How many years have you been a vExpert?
This is my 4th year as a vExpert
What advice would you give to others involved in the VMware community who are looking at becoming a vExpert?
I would say just to participate in some manner. Get active in your local VMUG (leader, committee, or customer presentations), start a blog, or join the “conversation” on Twitter. But the real advice would be to do it because you have a passion for it. While programs such as vExpert, Cisco Champion, Veeam Vanguard, etc can be seen as accomplishments, if your activity is based on achieving these “titles” it will probably seem more like work than “giving back” to the community.
What other IT Communities are you involved with or frequent?
I am part of the Seattle VMUG steering committee and founding member of the #vDB.
Do you currently have a Home Lab environment?
My home lab consists of:
3 x SuperMicro based 2U servers with 32GB of RAM (compute cluster)
2 x Intel NUCs with 16GB of RAM (management cluster)
1 x Cisco 2960 switch
1 x DLINK 10GB XS708E switch
1 x Synology DS1812+How do you use VMware products or services in your daily work life?
Working for a VAR, VMware is pretty much what I do on daily basis. I am either talking, reading, playing, or testing VMware’s product suites.
What certifications do you currently hold (if any)?
I hold the following certs: VCP-3/4/5, VCAP-DCA4/5, VCAP-DCD5, VCAP-DTD5
Tell us something about yourself that the community may not already know.
Passion for Volkswagen and Audi cars. Either new or old, air cooled or water cooled doesn’t matter. I will always have one in the garage.
What’s your go to song or music genre when work stress becomes too much?
I go for the old skool hip hop. RUN-DMC, Beastie Boys, EPMD, etc.
Do you have a blog that you would like to share?
Let us know how to contact you via social media.
Twitter: @jaslanger
Jason, I can’t thank you enough for stepping into the hot seat for today’s #vExpertSpotlight. As a friend who has personally leaned on for advice around VMware & VMware products, I appreciate you and the contributions you give back to our community.
Please hit up Jason on Twitter & his personal blog. You know Jason will be attending VMworld 2015 next week so be sure to track him down and ask him about his Audi!
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