vExpert Spotlight: Larry Gonzalez
Larry Gonzalez
Today’s vExpert Spotlight interview is with Larry Gonzalez. This vExpert hails from Costa Rica where he is the VMUG Leader down there! I wish I was visiting a tropical paradise right now. Super cool. Larry is also very involved with the LATAM #vBrownbag as a co-host too.
So Larry, tell us more…
The Interview
Star Wars or Star Trek?
Star Wars
Peanut Butter?
No Thanks!
Favorite Adult Beverage?
Wine!
What was your 1st IT gig?
Working as a Lab assistant at the University, had to manage the Novell Network, with bunch of PCs that were in bad shape. In the week of big projects for students in the lab (around 40 PCs) one guy hit one of the coaxial cables of the network and disconnected everybody from the network, most people were at 90% completion of the project. I had to repair the coaxial links reboot the Novell servers, and bring the lab back online just to realize most of the people lost their projects which needed to be delivered next day, imagine that!
What is your current job title and role?
Director of IT for a Software Development Company, I handle a team that oversees internal support and management of the company infrastructure and we also provide support to our software licensees designing and helping to configure their hardware infrastructure. This is a 24/7 company with customers in the 5 continents, so it gets interesting.
How many years have you been a vExpert?
3 years
What other IT Communities are you involved with or frequent?
I participate in the VMUG, and VMware, and Nutanix communities. I’m also the VMUG Leader for Costa Rica.
What advice would you give to others involved in the VMware community who are looking at becoming a vExpert?
More than becoming a vExpert, the idea is to collaborate with this amazing community, share knowledge, help other people and have fun!
The vExpert title is a nice recognition about all that extra work you are doing and a sign that you are doing it right.Do you currently have a Home Lab environment?
My home lab is a custom PC with 16GB of RAM, 3 SSD drives 1 SATA drive and VMware Workstation, that is where I run most of my stuff and also helps save energy not having a huge server.
How do you use VMware products or services in your daily work life?
VMware is everyday in our work, 80% of our company is virtualized and our customers infrastructure is also based on VMware products so this is our daily job.
What certifications do you currently hold (if any)?
VCP-DV, MCP
What’s your go to song or music genre when work stress becomes too much?
Jamiroquai pretty much will do it. But I also listen to rock and pop.
Tell us something about yourself that the community may not already know.
I played electric bass for over 10 years with different rock bands in Costa Rica. I know pretty much play at home but really miss the stage!
Do you have a blog that you would like to share?
Let us know how to contact you via social media.
Twitter: @virtualizecr
Larry thank you very much for being a part of the vExpert Spotlight series! I hope you are having a great time this week with VMworld 2015!
Please hit up Larry on Twitter & also his personal blog.
Lookup and browse the current 2014 vExperts in the vExpert Online Directory
Learn more about VMware’s vExpert Program: https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vexpert
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