Rob_Stand_By_FridgeHow to describe Robert?  Often times people say that they don’t know what they would do without him — but they sure wouldn’t mind finding out!  How’s that for an endorsement?

I’m a 30-something (though I stopped counting at 21) guy from Missouri.  I grew up in St. Louis, MO on Shenandoah Avenue but have been a part of the mid-Missouri community since 1992 when I came to Columbia, MO for college.  I hold a bachelors degree in Computer Science and am currently working on my MBA at Columbia College.  I love to learn just for the sake of learning.  Some day I would love to go on to pursue a Master’s degree in Economics.   Recently my household was featured at CES 2009 by Microsoft as one of the households “living without walls” — take a look at what they had to say about us!

 

Professionally I am an IT guy, but my hobby is marketing.  I’m fascinated by why people make the purchasing decisions they do and love to study ways to engage the customer.  I am also a big proponent of the DevOps movement, which is an offshoot of the Agile methodology.  Automation is driving the future of IT, especially with the movement to the cloud and virtualized systems.  I have a passion for fully automating and instrumenting processes and products in IT — from the traditional workload automation to the configuration, deployment, provisioning and complete life cycle automation.  This automation will free people up to work on what is important for the business, and get them away from the mundane.  It also will drive faster release cycles and more stable deployments — no more “hands” touching production! 

My skillset includes such technologies as C#, SQL Server, BMC’s Control-M, BMC’s Event Management and BMC’s Performance Management product line.  I’m certified in ITIL Foundations, as well as hold a practioners certification for Capacity Planning. As part of the DevOps movement, I am also leading the charge for Cloud Lifecycle Management and working with BMC’s Bladelogic Suite of products.

I love to write about consumer information and technology topics.  I currently ghostwrite a number of blogs and online media for a number of companies.  Chances are you probably have seen some of my writing across the net — to date I have written over 1,750 pieces and counting! 1991 Pontiac Firebird

I’m a Master Mason with my home lodge being Ancient Landmark #356 in Harrisburg, MO.  In addition I also serve on the council for our local Extension office here in Boonville, MO.

When I’m not goofing around with computers I can usually be found messing around with automobiles and the such.  I love F-Body cars from the 1980′s and 1990′s (Camaro, Firebird, Trans-AM) and am always scouring Craigslist or eBay for deals too good to pass up.  You’ll never find a new car in my driveway — that is money thrown down the drain.  Between CARFAX and Craigslist I have all the tools I need to find the wheels I need to zoom around in!

Hopefully you’v enjoyed this 60-second biography of myself; if you have any questions or are just wonder what is running through my mind please drop me a line, or join me over on one of the social networking sites I hang out on.  Heck, feel free to contact me even if you want to point out a grammar error or misspelling!

 Where Can You Find Robert? (Besides Here, Of Course)