February 17, 2022
By: Kim Morgan
We’ve featured Nick Stover before in this blog. He’s shared his expertise on Desktop as a Service (DaaS), provided valuable insights on the Rise of Cloud Adoption, and most recently broken down the skills necessary for a successful Cloud Migration.
But who is Nick Stover? Nick plays an integral part in the design, implementation, and maintenance of cloud migrations for Mindsight’s clients, and even our own internal processes. We sat down with Nick and discussed his strengths, memorable experiences at Mindsight, and even how he likes to unwind when he doesn’t have his head “in the clouds” (#dadjoke).
Who are you and what do you do?
First thing, how long have you been at Mindsight, and what is your role? I have been with Mindsight for approximately 5 years and my official title is Solutions Architect and Datacenter Practice Lead.
What does your day to day look like? My days are a combo of meetings with various prospective clients to understand their needs and building, designing, and pricing solutions to meet the their objectives. I’m also the escalation point for engineers, in addition to project work.
Working at Mindsight
Can you provide an example of one of your most memorable experiences working with a Mindsight client? We recently just completed a complete lift and shift Azure Migration for a very large, Chicago-based, manufacturing company in which we were tasked with migrating their entire infrastructure with minimal downtime. The client was moving out of their building so it was imperative that we meet their deadline. We performed a pre-assessment of the environment to de-risking the migration by identifying application dependencies ahead of time as well as ensuring each machine was ready to be migrated to the cloud. We then designed a cloud environment to replace the current on-premises infrastructure and migrated/upgraded all of their on premise workloads without causing any disruption to the business.
What has made you successful in your role? I think I’m a self-starter, but still try to be personable. I try to shift my communication style to and speak the same “language” to my point of contact at a particular client, whether that means being extremely technical or speaking in a way that even non-technical people can understand. I strive to understand what the client is telling me straight out, as well as trying to read between the lines and learn the things they are not telling me but still need to be considered. I bring a proactive mindset to the table, which minimizes the need to be reactive.
How do you define client success? Meeting client objectives in a way that adds value to the business without causing disruptions to the business cycle. I like to think ahead and design solutions for our clients that are scalable over time, not just address the short-term need.
The Softer Side
Who was your most important mentor and what did you learn from them? This may sound corny but my father. He was very adamant about doing the work and only getting out what you put in. This has very much shaped the way I handle things today.
There’s a lot of talk about maintaining a work-life balance. What does that mean to you, and to what degree have you achieved it? Maintaining a work life balance in this industry is imperative. The burnout rate is extremely high in IT. Having a work life balance reduces the likeliness of this occurring which ultimately leaves you unhappy with your job. If you are unhappy with your job or current roles, odds are you are not going to be giving it all that you should be.
Favorite ways to escape and recharge? Sports – I am a huge sports fan. I also try to engage in outdoor activities – we spend a lot of time indoors in IT.
Follow up question: Team fandom can be controversial in Chicago, what are your favorite sports teams? No comment…
And lastly, What are some things you know now that you wish you’d known at or near the start of your career? Just because you graduate with a degree does not mean you have everything you need to be successful in this field. In fact, you find out how little you know once you start. I feel like hands-on experience is the only way to truly understand any piece of technology.
About Mindsight
Mindsight, a Chicago IT services provider, is an extension of your team. Our culture is built on transparency and trust, and our team is made up of extraordinary people – the kinds of people you would hire. We have one of the largest expert-level engineering teams delivering the full spectrum of IT services and solutions, from cloud to infrastructure, collaboration to contact center. Our customers rely on our thought leadership, responsiveness, and dedication to solving their toughest technology challenges.
Contact us at GoMindsight.com.
About The Author
Kim Morgan is part of the Marketing Department at Mindsight. Since 2007, she has devoted her career to using digital media to educate and effectively communicate a variety of topics at all levels of expertise. Kim’s favorite part about Mindsight is how team members are encouraged to always be curious, and continue developing not only professionally, but also personally. When not working, she can be found toting her 4 kids around in her sweet sweet minivan while rocking out to hits from the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
About The Expert
Nick earned a Bachelors in Computer Science with a core focus on Network Security from Northeastern Illinois University. He has been with Mindsight for five years. Having worked for other MSPs over the years, he has vast experience in migrating production workloads to the cloud in addition to designing cloud solutions for clients based on business needs.
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