Sam Tenorio III is a senior account manager, based in Austin, Texas. Inspired by a friend’s suggestion almost ten years ago, Sam changed his career from financial services to the IT industry and became successful in a short period of time.
As a member of the General Datatech’s sales team and more specifically “Team Tenorio,” Sam Tenorio III is working on providing data center solutions for clients from all around the world. He devotes a significant amount of time gaining the expertise his clients expect and assessing the future of data center technologies.
As Sam Tenorio III emphasizes, knowledge in this area will be useful for both IT professionals and for those who are interested in building a career in data center technology and similarly-related segments of the technology field.
We do not often hear people talk about data centers unless they are specifically involved with the IT industry. Could you tell us a bit more about the concept of data centers and the technologies that you use?
Data centers are, in essence, the infrastructure that contains everything needed for a network to function properly with all of its hardware and software components. It includes design, available power supplies, cooling systems, security and cabling, redundant backup and more. Modern data centers date from the mid-nineties. Compared to the extremely complicated and cumbersome systems back then, today we have data centers that are energy proficient and in effect, much less complicated. We can see the networking concepts evolving over time as innovation makes its unstoppable progress toward new technologies.
What was the turning point that led you to choose this career?
I spent my early days in the Bay Area, and after moving to Austin, I started building a career in financing commercial and residential real estate. That financial services experience was a bonus when I started getting into IT. Eight years ago, a close college friend suggested that I try doing something on my own in this field. Although I was not very confident at the time, I soon realized that I had the skills that would allow me to develop close relationships with companies that I had worked with in the past to launch my new career in IT. That certainly helped!
What are the main considerations when working with clients who ask you to build their data center?
First of all, when you work with smaller companies, they usually need their data center to be just in one location. It is a whole different story with bigger enterprises because they often need data centers to be in multiple locations, states and countries. It’s critical to do the necessary research before designing and building a data center. You need to know in advance if you need additional space for potential expansion of the center in the future, what kind of security and power demand is required, and so on. The evolution of networking technology leads us to believe that in the future, physical data centers will turn into empty rooms as everything will be hosted in the cloud.
What do you think about that option? Would it facilitate or impede the functioning of the system?
We can look back to the not so distant history when Tesla discovered the concept of alternating current and changed how electricity would be utilized. Similarly, in the modern IT world, you have the concept known as the cloud, and it stands for an online space created for storage of all kind of data. It seems like an abstract destination, but it actually works brilliantly. The industry is switching from data center facilities to the online space. It will be no surprise that soon all data centers will be moving to the cloud and that most hardware will be replaced by software.
You are currently part of the General Datatech team in Dallas. What are your main responsibilities in the company?
I am mainly focused on developing and growing our data center business. Also, I am dedicated to learning more about network virtualization software and applying everything it offers for modern networks. I’m fortunate that GDT gives me the freedom to grow every day. I am currently focused on the delivery of professional services for companies such as VMware, based in California, delivering visualization solutions for a wide range of enterprises in the government, education, healthcare, energy and retail verticals.
What would you like to achieve in the future, work-wise?
I would love to learn more about the possibilities with the cloud when we talk about data centers and related technologies. The idea of cloud storage is fascinating, and I continue my research on further developing that concept for our clients. Also, at General Datatech, we will strive to make our services available to more countries around the world. At the moment, our resources are available to clients from the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Australia, Singapore, and Brazil.
