I had the pleasure of catching up with my longtime friend Russ Stalters recently.
Russ and I have worked on projects for longer than I can remember - spanning my Microsoft, FileNet, Kofax, Kodak, K2 and Gimmal days.
He is a master at developing processes to create records management, document management, document capture, and archiving solutions. And most important ... building teams of people to manage these processes in a predictable and repeatable manner.
He is launching a new chapter in his life and shared with me some of the things he is working on. His most recent assignment that took up the past few years of his life was to store multiple petabytes of information for a large multi-national organization.
I asked him ...
How would you store a Petabyte?
He said ... very carefully!
Then added a few more points that I took some liberties turning them into questions here:
- What if you had to do it and always make those documents discoverable?
- What if the same documents had to be available worldwide?
- What if those documents were generated in multiple formats - paper & electronic and across disparate systems around the globe?
That's what Russ did!
In his role for a large multinational conglomerate Russ had to make sure that documents and other information were captured, stored, and destroyed when the timeframe was necessary.
This isn't the first time Russ has worked on projects like this. He's worked for software companies and for customers both large and small to ensure that document capture, document and systems workflow, document management & records management and archival efforts work seamlessly and flawlessly.
That's what Russ did!
Recently Russ was in Seattle for some meetings with another multinational conglomerate (Hint: Based in Redmond) and I had the pleasure of being able to catch up with him at our local coffee establishment.
It was great to catch up with them and hear about some of the new projects he is just starting to pick up as he transitions out of his old role and back into his very comfortable and traditional consulting role.
He let me know he'll be back to consulting again with large multinational global we distributed conglomerates and also with smaller companies that are moving to the cloud and trying to ensure that all their documents and content are tracked and manage both securely, properly, and professionally.
In the cloud it is critical to track and manage content securely, properly, and within compliance guidelines
Just like with all documents and information within a business everything needs a governance plan and must be managed and made available in a secure, predictable and reliable format.
Data ROT happens!
Documents, Data and Devices have a Shelf Life
The idea of data rot or bit rot actually happens. The ability to securely and successfully protect paper, microfilm and microfiche has been around for many many years. The ability to protect data both on-site and in secure locations around the world has also been around for many years. There is a need to ensure that both of these data streams are secured and synced.
Russ does that too!
Russ is also working on a few technical papers and a new book about his 20+ years in the industry. I look forward to reading it and maybe even being a proofreader for it. I think you'll want to pick it up too.
If you need help determining where and how to store a Petabyte ... Russ Knows!
If you want to get in touch with Russ there are three options to start - hisLinkedIn profile, his website or send him email directly. Take a few minutes to reach out and he'll be happy to share what he's doing. And, if you have data needs large or small Russ may be able to help you.
As always ...
Russ it was great to catch up!
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This is part of my on-going series of posts where I try to have a little fun and share a little of my insights on People, Process and Technology. Sometimes I get the chance to sing the praises of really smart people too.
This was cross posted to LinkedIn here … if you want to be notified when I post to LinkedIn click on this link and click "Follow" the top of page. Or, just Connect with me on LinkedIn and you’ll also be notified.
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Image Credits: Getting Information Done, CBS Sunday Morning
Tweet him @jshuey or connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google+ He is active in the Microsoft Partner Community and is the co-founder and President of the IAMCP Seattle chapter. He is also active with the Women in Technology and STEMWIT efforts.
He is a contributing author to Entrepreneur, Elite Daily, Yahoo, US News and to the Personal Branding Blog
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