Team Ontrack – Champions in Data Recovery

With all of the talk in the news about different teams from around the world, I thought it would be a great time to meet some of our worldwide data recovery team.  Here is just a glimpse of why we are so passionate about recovering our customer’s data.

Have you ever wished your daily wins at your job could be celebrated by millions of people?  Maybe you could be a world-renowned IT Support Specialist, Sales Representative or Blog Writer! If you are like me, with an average ability in sports, your job might be the best avenue to become a champion.  The closest I may get to the medal stand is working for a company comprised of a worldwide team striving to recover data for our customers.  Even the tiniest of wins can make you feel like a champion and oftentimes our customers treat us like one.  Each recovery is unique and poses different challenges.  Our team of sales, engineering and support from around the world work together to accomplish what is sometimes viewed as “the impossible.”  Our data recovery team is constantly training and developing new skills to stay ahead of new technology (and the competition). When a new challenge presents itself, our global Just In Time teams work together to take advantage of different time zones in order to quickly find a solution.

Just like a champion athlete, it takes an amazing combination of skill, knowledge, patience, perseverance (and sense of humor) to be a part of our winning data recovery team.   Here is your chance to meet some of our Data Recovery team members from around the globe who will stop at nothing to recover your data.

Ted Persing – United States of America

Remote Data Recovery Engineer

What is your Role in Recovering Data:

I work with logical damage to file systems both in our labs and remote connections.  I also specialize in flash media.

What is your favorite part about working at Ontrack:

Working in data recovery at Ontrack allows you to research different areas and encourages new ideas for possible solutions.  The ever-evolving IT world always provides new challenges to overcome.  It’s exciting for me to spend my time at work researching something I am interested in in order to solve a customer’s problem.

Favorite Sport (Winter or Summer):

I was a wrestler in high school and always enjoyed watching that on a global scale, but curling is a close second.  There is always something fun about watching people scream at an inanimate object in different languages.

What similarities do you see between Athletes and Data Recovery Engineers:

Well, we could always go with the cliché answer of “They strive to be the best in their field on a global scale” but that is way too easy to say.  I think everyone wants to be the best at what they like to do.  A better answer I feel would be that in both situations, you get to do and see things that very few people get to do or see.  Athletes are able to travel the world, and as a data recovery engineer we get to see the internal working of computers on a scale few people even think of.

Mike Sewell – United Kingdom

Data Services Consultant

What is your Role in Recovering Data: I have the initial conversations with our customers and am their main point of contact for them and our engineers  regarding the technical details and possibilities for data recovery.

What is your favorite part about working at Ontrack: Helping. It is great to be a part of something where you get to help people and relieve their worries. Also, the office/lab atmosphere is very friendly.

Favorite Sport (Winter or Summer): I am an avid rugby fan and player, so I have to say that. But I also like cycling. The atmosphere in a velodrome is unbelievable.

What similarities do you see between Athletes and Data Recovery engineers:  Both engineers and athletes have to do an incredible amount of training to get to the top of their respective fields. Also, with the human body and technology developing at a rapid pace you see athletes and engineers both completing tasks that, until now, were considered impossible

Dominique Gitto – France

Data Recovery Manager Ontrack® EasyRecovery & Services

What is your Role in Recovering Data: I manage our French territories call center where we help people with all different type of data loss

What is your favorite part about working at Ontrack: I am proud to help people access critical data again, whether their data is professional or personal.

Favorite Sport (Winter or Summer): I love swimming.

What similarities do you see between Athletes and Data Recovery Engineers: The challenge is common to both athletes and Data Recovery Engineers.  An athlete will go the extra mile to get a medal. When facing some complex server configurations, a data recovery engineer will also go the extra mile to find the right combination to recover the lost data.

Martin Hiller – Germany

Data Recovery Cleanroom Manager

What is your favorite part about working at Ontrack: I like the challenge of emergency jobs when customers need their critical data back as soon as possible. When I get my part solved during weekend or through the night then I feel quite satisfied.

Favorite Sport (Winter or Summer): The Biathlon, Decathlon and Triathlon.

What similarities do you see between Athletes and Data Recovery Engineers: Every successful recovery in cleanroom is kind like a victory in race for me. When I finish several successful recoveries in a day then my day is a good day.

Massimo Scaniglia - Italy

Cleanroom Supervisor

What is your favorite part about working at Ontrack: Working together with my team and international Data Recovery Ontrack teams sharing experiences.

Favorite Sport (Winter or Summer): diving (Summer) – downhill (Winter)

What similarities do you see between Athletes and Data Recovery Engineers:

•  Data recovery engineers must be training about technology developments like athletes need to be training to maintain their physical condition.

•  Date recovery engineers must be focused on the goal of recovering data like athletes need to be focused on victory.

•  Data recovery engineers must fight until the end to solve the case like athletes fight to the end to win the competition.

•  Data recovery engineers must love their job like athletes must love their sport.

•  Data recovery engineers can rely on other data recovery like athletes can rely on their teammates if they play in a team.

Przemyslaw Solich - Poland

Data Recovery Engineer

What is your Role in Recovering Data:   I am responsible for the software part of data recovery - I work using drive images and try to put all of the digital puzzle pieces back in the  correct order, so that our customers can have access to their data even if they were  deleted, partially overwritten or simply lost.

What is your favorite part about working at Ontrack: Working in a great team of professionals and (as with almost all of IT individuals) people with good sense of humor

Favorite Sport (Winter or Summer): Curling and mountain biking

What similarities do you see between athletes and Data Recovery engineers:  Both need to practice through training, we need to be in shape, stay focus on the task and target, work both as individuals and teammates, understand what the goal is and how to reach it; if one person makes a mistake the whole team may fail in achieving their goal.

Kane Southgate - Australia         

Engineering Services Technician             

What is your Role in Recovering Data: As an Engineering Services Technician (ES), I am responsible for diagnosing incoming drives requiring data recovery. I am also responsible for the engineering behind the tape services offered here in Australia and I source parts for our very varied level of work that we see on a daily basis.

What is your favorite part about working at Ontrack: The workplace is very dynamic and I see new challenges every day, often more than once per day.  The chance to push yourself to new limits and consistently take on new knowledge is a real obsession of mine and it translates well to the end user who benefits from our innovations. 

Favorite Sport (Winter or Summer): Road Racing (Cycling). It is a very interesting and high octane sport due to the many different challenges a cyclist faces and the leverage you have as a team.  I would love to see my favorite team in person.

What similarities do you see between Athletes and Data Recovery Engineers:  One of the biggest similarities between the data recovery engineer and a cycling athlete is the mental preparation for each task we set our sights on.  For cyclists in road events, it’s all about the team work and strategic approach that gets you over the finish line with maximum results and the same can be said about data recovery engineers.  We both specialize highly in our relevant fields and the attention to detail we both apply is enormous.

As you can see, we are comprised of a team of people who are very passionate about data recovery. I believe there is only a select group in the world that would give their all to recover a person’s or business’s data and I am fortunate to be working with them.

Image: http://www.technocrazed.com/top-20-examples-of-geek-art-inspired-by-high-tech-photo-gallery