In April, we want to continue featuring our MVPs! This Friday, we are excited to introduce @Nuno Silva . Nuno is an Infrastructure Services Manager based in Portugal. He has more than 19 years of experience in IT and was awarded his first MVP award in 2014.
Job Title: Infrastructure Services Manager
Company: GFI Portugal
MVP Profile: https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/PublicProfile/5000804?fullName=Nuno%20%C3%81rias%20Silva
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NunoAriasSilva
Tell us a little bit about where you work and your role in the organization.
I work at GFI at Infrastructures Division, responsible for Office 365 and Azure areas, MCT, with an active role in design and implementation of Microsoft solutions. My main areas of expertise and those where I am focused are: Office 365, Azure, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Active Directory and Virtualization. I have and active role of technical responsibility, from day 1 to the closure of the project. I am also responsible for delivering the necessary documentation, providing feedback directly to the customer manager. I’m also have responsibility of Engagement Management and pre-sales.
You’ve been in IT for 19 years, what’s the most significant change you’ve seen, in terms of your career roles and responsibilities or the skills required to be successful?
The most significant change is based on skills—always be informed, learn new technologies as they arrive, and have a vision to the emerging future technologies to be more successful on IT like Cloud Solutions of Office 365 and Azure. With this approach, the change on career role is natural to be a person who is always up to date with technologies and have gave me the opportunity to climb the stairs of my career step by step.
You have a number of certificates – where do you go to prepare for these exams?
To prepare for exams, I use TechNet, Forums, Articles, News, Videos and finally have labs to test and implement those technologies.
Beyond certifications, how do you continue to learn and stay up to date on new technologies and product updates?
To continue to learn it’s always a step to be more creative in learning new integrations and architectures within new technologies, I read articles, read blogs, and forums.
You’ve had experience in several different industries, including government, healthcare, and telecoms. How does the approach to IT differ across industries? Are there any particularly unique industries in terms of their approach to IT?
Industries have their differences, regarding their business, profitability, responsibility and how IT is seen in each industry and company. With these differences, it’s always different in the approach to IT in industries and even companies in the same industry. In government, it is particularly unique because their approach to new technologies is different because by nature are not a business with profits and the IT is seen as complementary to their needs.
What’s the biggest challenge in getting clients to adopt new technologies?
The biggest challenge in customers adopting new technologies is helping them understand the value of technology by its features compared to its price. Some customers only upgrade their systems by feature by end of support, not the price itself. But the price is always present because they are normally doing a business case that each new technology is a part of an investment divided by a couple of years or months.
Continue the conversation on user adoption as part of April's End User Adoption month!