This would not be a complete series if we did not include MR. VMCA RASMUS HASLUND.
Rasmus was my first Veeam trainer in Las Vegas 2015 and as so often happens, your first teacher sets you on the vector of your future success.
Rasmus has pointed many people all over the world in the right direction and I am certain there are a huge number of people out there who feel enormous gratitude towards him. When I think of Veeam Certifications I will always think of the fellow in the green suit at VeeamON!
Geoff:
Hi Rasmus, I am sure this interview will get a huge audience because your work has without exaggeration helped enable so many people's careers!
I always start off with a background question. How did Mr. VMCE/VMCA get into IT? What was your first job and if you had not gone into IT what would have been your second choice for a profession?
Rasmus:
Hi Geoff!
First, thank you for letting me be part of this series. From a young age, my dad brought home computers, the first one being an Amstrad CPC, later Commodore 64, then Commodore PC and from there we started building them ourselves at home. My first job in IT was at the largest telco in Denmark where I worked the business support helpdesk troubleshooting ADSL connections and webhosting. I always wanted to work in IT, so a second profession was never really considered, however, it would probably have been to follow in my dad’s footsteps as a locksmith
Geoff:
You were immersed in IT right from the get-go, so to speak! This is a rhetorical question, but did you ever imagine the kind of success that this profession would bring you? I imagine you must have traveled to almost every country and are known worldwide.
Secondly, and I may be mistaken, I believe you came to the backup world after working a lot with VMware. Is that correct? If so, can you tell us about your journey into the world of virtualization?
Rasmus:
I never thought I would be able to get to a stage where I could impact so many others. Many years ago, I had just gotten my very first consulting gig and to retain Microsoft Gold partner status they requested I started to study for several certification exams. Luckily exactly at the same time a community effort was launched called ’60 days 2 MCSE’ and it was the first time I experienced so many people in the community working together to create study materials – it not only helped me pass the exams and gain my MCSE: Private Cloud certification – it also inspired me to later create the VMCE study materials.
When I started my first IT administrator job we had 4 or 5 VMware ESX hosts back when the service console was still around and a license server. At one point we needed an additional host and it was delivered with VMware ESXi installed as opposed to the older ESX. The IT manager suggested to upgrade everything to ESXi so we did. Our backup software at the time didn’t support ESXi and that was my first time working with Veeam.
From there I moved to a consulting job, where they sent me off to attend the official VMware vSphere Install, Configure, Manage training with the intension of getting certified. The training was amazing, and the instructor introduced me to the VMware User Group (VMUG) in Denmark. Later I was invited to become one of the co-leaders of the user group. After getting my VCP-DCV certification I was assigned customers to deploy/upgrade/optimize VMware installations and it was also the kicker that made me start my blog to document the issues I encountered along with the solutions.
Geoff:
From the sound of it, community activity has had a major impact on your career and your blog. I often hear IT people saying, "What is the point of blogging or community activity? I have too much work as it is." I tend to answer that with two words: "career growth," and I think you are living proof of this. Moving on to education. Did you ever think that you would become such a well-known teacher? Tell us about how that progressed. What was it like teaching your first IT class? How did you get invited to join Veeam and lead their training efforts? I think many people here on the community hub will echo my words when I say that you were instrumental in helping me get my Veeam certifications.
Rasmus:
I never expected to become someone known in the community or have folks walk up and thank me in person at events, but having people explain how the materials helped them pass their exams is motivational and keeps me fueled to create more content. After my first consulting gig and joining VMUG, one of the other members there worked for Arrow in Denmark (shout out to Frank Brix Pedersen!) I was offered a position to work for Arrow Denmark as a VMware instructor in August 2013.
The first class I got to teach was a VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage 5.1 class in Iceland for a room filled with partners. Fortunately, my mentor Frank joined and sat in the back of the room. I was incredibly nervous, but we ended up with good evaluations.
When Veeam launched their education program in 2013/2014, Arrow asked me to also take on the task of becoming a Veeam Certified Trainer and I was the first one globally to pass the VMCT exam (which back then required a score of 85% to pass).
The first step was attending a TTT in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, where the room was filled with prospective trainers and very talented Veeam architects. Funny story is, one of the train-the-trainers was my now current manager, Andreas Neufert. During this TTT, it was clear the content and labs was still under development with some slides being a “wall of text”, but the Veeam education team took all feedback very seriously and were quick to implement them. I shared a lot of written feedback, not only criticism but also offered suggestions on how to solve the issues and improvements over-all – this was the start of a good relationship with the global education director at the time, Anton Mamichev.
2014 was also the year of the first VeeamON where I was invited as one of the instructors to help teach the class. A lot of stories to share 😊
Geoff: That is a perfect way to complete the interview with a stellar Trainer Exam report! When it comes to Veeam knowledge Rasmus does not only talk the trainer talk but walk exam ace walk!
Thank you so much for all the great work you have done and we all wish you even more success in your future endeavors at Veeam!
