Hello George! Shed some light on your life’s journey.
Born and raised in the center of Athens, the capital of Greece, you can say I'm a city rat through and through (not a hooligan, though, I promise :P). I grew up in a quite typical middle-class family and social circle, so nothing extraordinary to report here. Perhaps this lack of adventurous upbringing is what sparked my fascination with escapism and the worlds of fantasy explored through different media (more on that later).
I've always had an affinity for reading (which definitely contributed to me needing glasses), so for every birthday and name day, I would receive books and comics, which I devoured tirelessly. We also had a PC at home for my older brother and game consoles (PS1 ftw!), so we would often play video games together - either in co-op or as opponents. That was my first contact with computers.
During my school life, I studied a lot, so when I scored well in the National Exams, I could choose any university I wanted. I picked Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens because, at the time, it offered the best future prospects and also had the greatest potential to attract me in some field. During the college years, I discovered something about myself that tied me to the IT world: I'm a Jack of all Trades. I may never become the best at one thing, but I can hold my ground across a vast range of topics, which is greatly useful in our field.
What fascinates me the most is how one field has such a variety of areas it touches and shapes - you can never get bored. The problem-solving aspect of the "Engineer" is also quite attractive to me, as I consider this vocation to be modern-day wizardry. When my first-grade teacher asked the dreadful question, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' I said, 'A wizard.' So now, when I chant esoteric Linux commands or brew alchemical hacks to fix problems, that childish part in me cheers gleefully.
What is your professional background?
I work at PERFORMANCE TECHNOLOGIES S.A. as a Team Leader for Applications and Hybrid Cloud Observability. I have been with the same company since 2017, gaining experience across multiple areas: data discovery and protection, database archiving, DevOps, and finally Observability. So today, my role is to coordinate our ever-expanding Dynatrace team and deliver high-quality implementations and services for the largest players in Greece (Finance, Energy, Telecommunications, etc.). Of course, I’m also heavily involved in implementations myself, having daily contact with customers in both technical and business roles.
How does Dynatrace fit into the picture, and what was the biggest challenge Dynatrace helped you overcome?
Dynatrace is a cutting-edge platform that helps solve one of the most important problems an organization faces: internal stability. When the ecosystem rots from the inside, no amount of patchwork will fix it; Dynatrace acts as the doctor diagnosing the illness and providing the treatment. I can recall many cases where different customer teams weren’t even aware that something was wrong with their systems. But through Davis insights and careful drill-down, we pinpointed the root cause.
Another great challenge Dynatrace tackled was providing a newborn application with all the observability needed for optimal use. In that case, we worked with the customer through all development stages until the time came for the public release, and Dynatrace was ready to solve any problem that arose. We have a varied assortment of Dynatrace deployments and implementations: Managed installations, Azure Native, SaaS, using Gen2 and Gen3 dashboards, custom extensions, and API integrations for logs, metrics, and traces.
We are also developing our own Apps, curently for internal use only, but who knows what the future holds? 🙂
What makes Dynatrace Community important to you?
As a long-time denizen of the Internet, I'm familiar with the concept of forums and community portals. Although I have always been a 'lurker', consuming without giving back. Dynatrace Community changed it. I don't even know how it happened.
"All I remember is rifling through documentation, trying to solve a problem, and hitting a wall. Then I turned to the Community page and, lo and behold: someone had the exact same problem with a detailed answer below."
That's when I understood the quality of this forum and made it a habit to scroll through the top page almost every day. Soon enough, I saw questions I had pondered in the past and solved. So, I started with my first shy responses, and the rest is history. Now, I feel as a true part of this Community, among equals from all over the world, brought together through research and perseverance.
Also, I really enjoy badge farming. 😝
Tell us something about you that most people don’t know. What is your biggest joy or passion in life?
Outside work, I'm what some would say is a huge nerd. Books, comics, movies, series, anime, TTRPGS, video games, you name it, I have done it. I cycle through many 'nerdy' hobbies, changing focus every now and then. Lately, I have taken up the wargaming hobby, with Warhammer 40K, and started assembling and painting my first army (Sisters of Battle). Besides that, I'm an avid D&D player, with weekly sessions that last 10+ hours.
I also have a long history with martial arts, from Taekwondo to kickboxing and Muay Thai. This is the form of exercise I enjoy the most, but my weak constitution makes winter unsuitable for these sports. So, I'm just going to the gym for now.
I also enjoy listening to music as it helps me immensely to focus and decompress. I'm not picky about music as long as it sounds good, from metal to folk and hip hop. Good food is a vice of mine too, so I'm always on the lookout for nice places to eat.
Some lesser-known facts about me:
🔹 I have tattooed the date I realized I'm done with my diploma on my wrist. On my bucket list is getting more tattoos, but I wait until I fully visualize them before committing.
🔹 I want to travel abroad, to many destinations, most notable of which are: Japan and the UK (all of it).
🔹 I want to be able to fully support myself and my family financially, and own my own house.
🔹 I want to share some of my party's D&D adventures with the world one day.
🔹 I want to spend a month in Thailand training Muay Thai at a local gym.
What achievement are you most proud of?
One of my greatest achievements is graduating from university. I admit that I struggled a lot during my studies, but I pushed through with the help of some lifelong friends I made there and some good ol' elbow grease.
Other than that, I believe every day spent productively is an achievement in itself, with productivity meaning doing something fulfilling, whether personal or professional.
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