Pieter Canters Senior Systems Engineer TEC Communications Pieter has been with TEC Communications since 1995, after receiving his M.S. in Information Systems from American University. During his tenure, Pieter has become highly certified in various specializations: SPECIALIZATIONS: Data Center & Storage Phone Systems / Voiceover IP CERTIFICATIONS: Cisco: Collaboration Architecture Systems Engineer, Unified Communications on Unified Computing Systems, IP Telephony, WebEx Solution Design & Implementation, Video Network Representative Adtran Express Collaboration Systems Engineer (Representative & Representative v2) Express Foundation Field Engineer Representative Express Foundation Systems Engineer Representative CCNA Collaboration CCNA Routing & Switching CCDA PBX Fundamentals Q: What sets you apart from most of today’s IT engineers? What motivates you to continue to improve in today’s world of technology? A: I focus on the outcome for the customer. At times that may not make my job easier (as there might be easier solutions), but my goal is to solve our customer’s problems to the best of my ability – including being one of our ‘go-to’ engineers for the newest technologies. A customer once said to me: ‘Pieter, you are instinctive and pay very close attention to detail as you strive to deliver accurate solutions in a timely manner.’ I want to make things easier for our customers – including helping them save time and money. Staying current with technologies is the optimal way to do that. Q: What IT missteps do you encounter most frequently? A: I don’t see frequent missteps as much as misunderstandings of how some technologies function. Q: What do you see as the most significant IT development by 2020? Beyond? A: We’ll continue to see movement to the Cloud as companies outsource management and maintenance of platforms and software, so they can concentrate on running their business. It will be all about SERVICES – software and hardware – augmenting an adaptable IT infrastructure Q: Tell us about one of your proudest accomplishments at TEC. A: Overall, I’d say my managing to last 25 years in the technology industry (which changes VERY rapidly) impresses me! In one memorable instance, we migrated an existing voice environment from an on-premise solution to a hosted co-location environment, while at the same time moving the associated dial-tone from the provider AND the entire Wide Area Network (WAN) environment – all in one afternoon! The end-user experience was never interrupted, and deployment went exactly as planned, with no significant downtime or network issues. Q: What would our partners and customers be surprised to know about you? A: While I’m serious about serving customers and resolving their challenges, I like to laugh and have fun. Even in tough situations or when under a deadline, we need to enjoy life and the people around us. A sense of humor is the most universal thing we all share Have an IT question for Pieter? Maybe a problem he might be able to help solve? Email him at at pcanters@tec4it.com, or he’s just a phone call away at (440) 333-5903.
