Ergün Kemaldar has been working in the tech industry for more than two decades. He started out as a tech support agent and sysadmin, and has since worked in a variety of roles including managed services provider, cloud architect, and Azure operations expert. Earlier this year, he joined GroupWave as an Azure operations expert. In this interview, Ergün discusses his long career in the tech industry, how he ended up at GroupWave, and his current role at his client.

Long winding roads

Though Ergün has been working in IT for over two decades, he actually studied to become a social worker. Ergun: “I always loved helping people, and I thought that being a social worker would allow me to help people in need. However, I realized that the work was not for me. So after a brief try at becoming a police officer, I decided that a job in tech would suit me better.”

After that, Ergün’s career in tech began. He started out working as a generic ‘IT guy’ in a small company, but quickly moved on to working as a sysadmin at Sony. Ergün: “When I started working at Sony, I quickly realized that sysadmin was the job for me. I loved the feeling of being able to help people by solving their technical problems.”

Unfortunately, after a round of restructuring, Ergün was forced to find a different job, which led him into a number of positions, including working as a sysadmin for Belgium’s prison system, responsible for upgrading the servers in all of Belgium’s prisons. “It was a big job. I had to drive all over the country and work with different teams in each prison. It was a great experience though where I really learned a lot.”

After that, Ergün had a few more jobs in his career, while trying to balance commute distance and challenge levels. Ergün: “My career has oscillated between wanting a job where I can challenge and grow, and having a reasonable commute to spend more time with my family. Now that I work at GroupWave I think I found the perfect combination: I get to work from home three days a week – and I get to work for a company that really wants me to grow and take on new challenges.”

The GroupWave team

Ergün is grateful to be working with a small but highly dedicated team like GroupWave. He appreciates the opportunity to learn and grow his skills as an Azure operations expert. 

Ergün: “I’m working with a colleague to eventually replace him so he can move on to a new GroupWave client where he can better challenge his skillset. In the meantime, he’s been helping me settle in, and he’s been a constant source of information and support. I’m always impressed by how well my colleagues represent GroupWave with their clients. They’re knowledgeable, professional, and always go the extra mile to make sure our clients are happy. It really motivates me to go the extra mile as well!”

Ergün: “I’m also currently working on my Azure DevOps certificate, my third one so far! I’m getting great practice, because my client project allows me to take my theoretical skills and really put them into practice”

Looking Forward

When looking forward, Ergün talks about how he feels cloud computing is the future. A view which perfectly aligns with GroupWaves mission to guide companies in their digital transformation. Managed services will be an important part of that, and Ergün is already looking into how GroupWave can help its clients with managed services in Azure.

Ergün: “With cloud computing, businesses can scale their operations quickly and efficiently, without having to invest in expensive infrastructure. Additionally, cloud computing provides businesses with a high degree of flexibility, as they can easily change their service provider or add new services as their needs evolve. Finally, cloud computing is more secure than traditional methods, as data is stored remotely and encrypted.” 

It was great getting to know Ergün and hearing about his long career in the tech industry. We’re excited to have him on board as an Azure operations expert and we know he’ll be a valuable asset to our team. If you want to learn more about GroupWave, or if you’re interested in joining our company, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We would love to hear from you!

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