DEEP DIVE

LIFE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE OFFICE .

In this Deep Dive , Charbel Khneisser , Regional Director – Technical Sales , META at Riverbed , talks about data centres and his view on the sector .

What would you describe as your most memorable achievement in the data centre industry ?

Speaking specifically about data centre projects , I am especially proud of the role I played in launching the public key infrastructure for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the government ’ s National Centre for Digital Certification ( NCDC ) programme . This was back in 2008 and I was the lead solution architect for the project , tasked with designing and implementing the NCDC data centre that ultimately enabled encrypted transactions and communications between Saudi ministries and citizens . This presented great learning opportunities and the satisfaction of delivering a solution that directly contributed to the Kingdom ’ s Digital Transformation strategy .

What first made you think of a career in technology / data centres ?

In my youth and even today , I had a passion for astrophysics . So , my earliest career ambitions related to this field . However , I also grew up at a point when the power of personal computing was becoming abundantly evident . The computing courses that I took in school made me realise my love for IT and consequently shifted my interests towards computing . The introduction of mobile phones coinciding with this phase catalysed my passion and cemented my decision to pursue a career in technology .

What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?

I subscribe to the philosophy that being a manager is a status that is conferred on you , but being a leader is a title that must be earned . To achieve the latter , you need to inspire your team and one way to do this is to lead by example . I always strive to actively participate with my team through critical activities – whether in supporting them or directing them to the point where they feel confident and capable .

At the same time , I believe in smart trust rather than blind trust . This means staying connected with my team for regular updates , without crossing the line into micromanagement .

An especially effective way to do this is to focus primarily on outcomes . By empowering your team to make decisions regarding how they will achieve the end objective , you enable them to be creative and take the route that permits them to play to their strengths . It is important of course to set timelines when adopting this approach and here too , I let my team propose deadlines which they can then be held accountable to . This allows realistic expectations to be set , which the team members are then themselves more motivated to meet .

What do you think is the current hot talking point within the data centre space ?

We ’ re seeing virtualisation in data centres extend beyond just servers and storage as applications and data centre networks now become increasingly software-defined . Being able to effectively automate data centre activities such as scaling and provisioning is an important aspect of this evolution towards Software-Defined Data Centres ( SDDCs ).

How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office ?

I rigourously follow my physical fitness routine on a daily basis . To ensure I ’ m able to do this , I have dedicated a fixed hour every morning – after waking up my kids and getting them

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