Hello Dynatrace Community!
Our Community Member of the Month for May 2021 is with us for quite a while (from NAM days) and we finally have an opportunity to thank him for being with us. Let’s all congratulate @fstekelenburg - we really appreciate your activity in our Community, all the discussions you participated and all the help you’ve provided to others. Below you can check out the interview with him:
Can you tell a little bit about your professional life? Where do you work and what do you do in your job?
I am part of the MeasureWorks team, where under our motto ‘Get Fast, Stay Fast” as APM consultant/delivery engineer I help our customers getting full insight into their application behavior.
Since we’re a small firm, my work can be quite versatile. From defining dashboards for a certain application to standing in a data center bringing a tap device in-line for real user monitoring purposes.
MeasureWorks is a sister company of NetDialog, where I used to do this work for over 10 years before the APM activity was transferred to MeasureWorks.
At MeasureWorks we have a team of specialist that combine the knowledge over application chain delivery and website performance in great depth, equipping us with the tools best fit for the job.
What is your story with Dynatrace? Why did you start using our products and for what project?
When I started at NetDialog, we already had a few customers, an employee insurance agency, and a large firm in the semiconductor industry where the first steps in synthetic monitoring were already present. We were still talking Compuware, Testpartner, and Vantage! 😊 From then on, I have helped to build this out and expanded to real user monitoring with NAM products and agentless monitoring devices, and tap products.
Upgrading to the very last versions of NAM, introducing, and ultimately, aiding in the transition to Dynatrace ONE. Fun to mention is that in our team I had become the “tap” specialist, a monkey on my back I never really was able to get rid off 😉
Have you ever had any interesting use case for Dynatrace product that you found out to be particularly intriguing? Could you tell us about it?
While working with Dynatrace I encountered many interesting use cases, as also many interesting opportunities for customers that we needed to convince, that was not quite there yet for the modern and advanced approach we were enabling.
On a technical note, I had a very interesting time setting up real user monitoring with virtual AMDs and virtual taps in a VMWare environment, and on a functional level, I took great pride in us introducing and setting up application chain monitoring (with the, unfortunately, ceased BSM product) within a government agency. But the one I am currently working on I find particular intriguing, where we bring together application monitoring with web page testing, combining the two worlds that we are good at.
What brought you to our community? What is your best memory about it?
Since I was pointed out to the existence of the (old) forum by a Dynatrace engineer with whom we worked closely, somewhere in the far past I can’t remember when I hooked up and enjoyed the power of the community.
Finding that the community was sometimes quicker than filing a support case. All the experts were walking around there too!
What I like best about it, is that I can share my story, write an article about a certain use case or challenge that I came across, and by sharing hoping it will help others, in similar situations.
I always have been very against inventing the wheel twice, three times, ….
And how about your life outside the IT – what is your biggest passion?
Well, I have three beautiful (teenage) daughters, so they top my list of course. And I do like horseback riding with them!
Besides from that, I enjoy the good life, a good walk-in beautiful nature, watching movies in the highest image and sound qualities, the better beers, a good whiskey, a great meal, and trying out new things. Even trying to cook them myself.
But I have to say, music was my first love. And it’ll be my last. Music of the future, and music of the past.
Unfortunately, the only keyboard I really learned how to play, is attached to a computer. Still need to decently learn to play the guitars hanging on the wall.
It would also be great if you could share with us your favorite movie, song and/or a book. Let other Community members discover something new and interesting to watch/hear/read 🙂
I’m a libra, so picking from all the good choices can be hard. But my most favorite song, that defines me most, is Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen. And not just because I am a huge and lifetime fan.
I love to watch movies, and I have a special interest in Science Fiction and Westerns. So in regard to movies, I’ll have to say Once Upon A Time in the West I find most epic. Did I already mention I love music? 😊
Thank you for the interview! The music of Ennio Morricone is just incredible and makes every movie more enjoyable – for sure, I have to check out more Westerns, that he wrote music for. We are really glad to have you in our Community, Frans!
8 Comments
