It’s no secret that we have some incredibly talented people working at Datto. A few of those talented employees are part of our video production team, and they showed off some of their skills while creating a few funny videos for DattoCon16. (Also, who knew we had such talented actors at Datto?)

You’re probably familiar with their work by now, whether it’s SIRIS pancakes, our trailers for the Star Wars midnight premiere, or various other projects. For DattoCon, they decided to take a fun route to explain why you can’t trust just anyone to protect our business data.

Check them out below:

Just half an hour outside of London is the Thames Valley, a part of the UK often referred to as ‘Britain’s Silicon Valley’. It’s also home to Datto’s new EMEA office. Let’s take a look back at the winding road, a story of trials, tribulations, and triumphs.

A Brief History Of Datto In The UK

It began in Aberdeen in 2011. Andrew Stuart, now EMEA’s Managing Director, was working at an MSP when he sought out a new business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) product, which could do things better, faster, and cheaper than existing solutions. Stuart saw the opportunity Datto presented, and set up Paradeon Technologies, which was to be Datto’s exclusive UK Distributor. Initially, Stuart aimed to sell a plethora of products to UK MSPs that weren’t immediately available. However, as time passed, it became obvious that Datto was a winning solution, and Paradeon became Datto UK.

However, Aberdeen wasn’t the most useful place for a vendor’s UK headquarters, so a move ‘down South’ was proposed. Reading in Berkshire was an obvious choice. It’s already home to many prominent industry players like Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco and Symantec. It’s also in close proximity to the capital.

Three of our current staff moved with him: Russell McNally (Dev), Will West (Technical Support Manager) and Jess Wesley (Technical Support). Wesley had only been working at Datto for two weeks when the move took place – that’s a leap of faith. One member of the team, Rob Jones, stayed behind but continued to work for Datto remotely, which is why we have an Aberdeen office to this day.

We’ve moved office spaces four times since then – we just kept growing! In 2013, Datto UK became Datto EMEA, as we made a strategic decision to start selling to the rest of the region.

Over the last four years, Datto EMEA has grown exponentially, and we now have over fifty staff members across seven departments. Datto EMEA now has almost every business function, while still without an  in-house legal team, the times are definitely changing!

We have a fully fledged Sales and Marketing team, including Lead Generation and Partner Success. Rather like the US teams, Datto EMEA splits its Sales teams into territories of Southeast England, Southwest England, Wales & North England, and Ireland & Scotland. However, as we’re quite a lot smaller, we only have two Account Managers handling each region! We also have two dedicated Hunters, along with Hardware Operations,  Software Engineering, Tech Support, Human Resources and, of course, Finance teams.

250 Longwater Avenue

On the 2nd of May, Datto moved to its seventh UK home. We have an office on a beautifully purpose-built office park called Green Park, which is also a Nature Reserve. Datto now has an entire top floor of a building and plans to eventually expand to all three floors.

Like many modern offices, Datto is well equipped. We have

• 144 staff desks
• 12 meeting rooms
• A partner briefing center, including demo suite
• A reception desk
• A kitchen

But what makes us particularly great is ou

• 51 televisions
• 6 game consoles (including a SNES)
• 38 nerf guns….
• ….And an indeterminate number of bullets
• A ping pong table
• A pool table
• A pub, the ‘Blue Ram’
• A cafe, the ‘Tasty Tattie’
• A Beer Garden

Check out some pictures below!

What do Austin McChord and Peyton Manning have in common? Well, maybe not a whole lot. One is a tech giant who launched a company in his parent’s basement and built it into a unicorn, the other is a Super Bowl champion. However, they do have at least one thing in common.

Next week, both Austin and Peyton are keynote speakers at CompTia ChannelCon 2016 in Florida. The event takes place from August 1-3, in Florida. ChannelCon  offers collaboration, education, and networking opportunities for IT vendors, distributors and channel partners.

If you’re at the event, don’t miss Austin’s keynote (9:00 am Wednesday, Aug. 3) and keep an eye out for Datto at booth 504.

You may think the job title alone would be enough to scare some people off, but not Sarah Zaporta. Taking on a new job can be frightening, especially when leaving a company after nine years, but for Sarah this was nothing in comparison to spiders (her biggest fear).

When it was time for Sarah to finish her master’s degree, she knew she wanted to take her skills and passion for technology and put them to good use. That’s when she applied to Datto and within a month later, she was filling out paperwork in DattoU.

Although Sarah’s only spent one month in the Datto world, we decided to put her on the spot and find out about her time here, which she described as “absolutely phenomenal.”

“June 27 was my first day here, since then I’ve been entrusted with a lot of responsibility from the get-go and that’s been quite liberating. I’ve been given enough so I automatically feel like part of the team, rather than other companies who are fairly cautious with new employees. At Datto, they know you have the capacity to do things and they’ll start you off easy, but you get moved into bigger territories very quickly and I like getting into things very fast and learning as quickly as possible.”

So what exactly does Sarah do you might ask? Well, she works in the DattoLabs group, as part of the database team, focusing on maintaining the databases and proposing new changes. A day in the life of Sarah Zaporta may range from solving JIRA tickets that pertain to database systems and finding ways to automate possible database tasks.

“I love how Datto doesn’t say you’re limited to your field,” Sarah said. “It’s very much a creative atmosphere, it’s conducive to communication and everything is structured with a focus on openness, which facilitates communication between teams. The open stairway and floor plan is just really amazing, not to mention the free food.”

Sarah is a big fan of challenging work, and is always excited when she’s introduced to the next level of a task.

“I built a new program my first week here, where it takes a spreadsheet, and spits the contents out into an SQL file, which then goes into the database. It’s a great way to automate data entry.”

“Datto is awesome because it facilities creativity, communication and you’ll never get bored. I’ve been here for less than a month, and it’s just so exciting to see and be a part of the exponential growth.”

Dan Newman, one of the trainers on Datto’s Training Team, was awarded the first ever DattoByte award in July. We grabbed some time with him to learn about the man behind the training.

Dan is known for his energetic and inspiring personality and was specifically recognized for the DattoCon pep rally, which got the entire company excited for DattoCon16 in Nashville.

“It feels a little unjustified; a lot of my job is unique projects, so winning the DattoByte award feels a little unfair. A tech support expert who logs 80 hours a week and solves more tickets than anyone else is just as deserving, if not more so. I’m in a unique position that I get the opportunity to work with a lot of people in different venues. I know I worked hard on things, but I feel like if we are going to chart a graph of people that deserve a DattoByte award, I wouldn’t put myself on top.”

Much of Dan’s job at Datto consists of welcoming new people and helping them get to know the company through Datto’s new hire orientation, Datto University.

“The last new hire orientation was 51 people, which was our largest class ever, compared to a typical class of 30 new hires. I’m the person who gets to meet almost every new hire and teach them how Datto works, which is very exciting, but it also means a lot of people know who I am. It’s hard to keep track of 30 new people every month!” He laughs. “A lot of people come up to me and I remember their face and something unique about them. Now with the DattoByte, even people who didn’t go through new hire orientation know my name and face, so people I’ve never met congratulate me. I don’t have any memory to pull on, so I smile and offer a, ‘yeah..cool..thanks…I appreciate it …high five!’” He pauses. “I guess this is what Taylor Swift feels like.”

The DattoByte award identifies employees who have gone above and beyond and made an impact on the company. Each winner is celebrated during Datto’s internal Town Hall and is given a certificate with their Lego likeness, a plaque, and a ticket to the next DattoCon conference. Next year’s conference is in Denver, Colorado.

“I think the DattoByte award is designed to be more than just an employee of the month. The trip to DattoCon really demonstrates Datto’s commitment, more than just another ‘employee of the month’. People deserve to be recognized for their hard work. Datto employees are doing an incredible job on a daily basis and they don’t often celebrate their successes,” Dan said.

Dan wanted to thank Datto Operations and the Training Team who did a lot of the behind-the-scenes work on a number of his projects. “Thanks for all your help, however, I apologize in advance for the ideas I have cooking for the future. They’re going to be big!”

He’s a developer! He’s a designer! He’s an opera singer?

Get ready for the weirdest mix of talents ever to come out of Datto. Not only has Ian O’Brien, Datto’s Director of Digital Marketing, designed and developed websites, but he also plays several instruments and has performed at Carnegie Hall.

So how does one stumble upon all these crazy talents? I sat down with Ian to find out.

Ian spent his earlier years as a musician, traveling to sing across the United States.

After trying to convince me that he found Datto on Craigslist, Ian admitted to being contacted on LinkedIn by a recruiter who had an opening. Turns out Ian wasn’t exactly looking for Datto, but  became intrigued when he found out about their quick growth.

“I was hired when it was just under 200 employees and now we’re just under 700. I think we’re going to continue that upward trajectory so it’s pretty exciting to be a part of the rocketship that is Datto.”

 Two years later and Ian has become head of all the global marketing websites. “I manage a team of designers and developers who market our product to people who probably haven’t heard of us before. I help manage all the uptime and server balancing with support from an awesome Infrastructure Engineering team; I also work very closely with the Demand Generation team, making sure we get leads to the sales team quickly. Our other charter is working with the Content team for content marketing so they can push out material at a velocity of about two pieces a day. It’s great because this past year we’ve published over 1,200 pieces of content, which is more than we have published in the history of Datto.”

How did Ian get involved with technology from the opera world? After spending many nights in his basement learning to code, Ian discovered a hidden talent. He started working as a web developer and hasn’t looked back since. While he enjoyed singing, Ian realized that it wasn’t the career path for him.

One of his most memorable moments at Datto, was his interview. “I had two interviews before I started, one with marketing leadership and the second with Datto CEO and Founder, Austin McChord, who asked various questions. The most important being, ‘we’re going to grow into a big company, does that excite you or does that scare you?’ I said it sounded pretty exciting, and I started two weeks later.”

Ian’s favorite part about Datto is the attitude of people around here, especially “the ‘go get em’ attitude and everyone’s excitement to try new things.”

“I like the chaos of it… it keeps you busy and you never get into a routine, there’s always something new you’re trying and racing toward.”

Datto’s culture is unlike any other company I’ve ever seen. They welcome everyone in with warm, welcoming arms and make you leave teary-eyed. While I’m sad to leave, I have some great memories to take with me.

My position at Datto is labeled Marketing Intern, but I had the pleasure of working with many different departments and getting to meet everyone. I spent my summer working on my presentation skills, learning how to network, working on my writing skills, and my favorite, doing minor research projects.

I’m not the same coffee-stained girl I was my first day in Norwalk. I’ve learned the Datto way, and my expectations have definitely changed for future companies. It may have taken me a few tries to figure out the best place to park, where to go when I want to take a lunch break, or even whom to talk to when I need a new project to work on, but I’ve learned it all.

While I’m not ready to be labeled a Tech Support Expert, I have definitely learned far beyond what I thought I would. From Salesforce to presentation skills, the Marketing team has taught me wonders about the workforce and I cannot thank them enough for all of their help and support throughout my internship.   

In a world full of ever adapting and improving ideas, staying one step ahead of the curve can be a terrifying concept. Luckily, we have some superheroes to help guide us along the way.

These superheroes don’t wear capes, but they are always on the lookout, waiting for their next bat signal. Datto’s tech support team switch between shifts to make sure there is someone available 24/7/365, ready to save the day. Who are these Disaster Recovery heroes? Let’s meet a few of them…

Joel Silvestre has been with Datto for six years. He’s an eyewitness to all of the success and changes Datto has experienced.

“It’s incredibly fulfilling when we help a client who has a server down and thinks they’re going to lose money, but then here comes Datto to save the day.”

Joel moved up the tech support ladder, and went from a level one, to supervisor during the Sunday through Thursday, 8am to 4:30pm shift.

One of Joel’s most memorable times with Datto was his experience throughout Hurricane Sandy. Joel, among many other tech support staff, basically lived in the office, while some were sent to the data center as a failover in case power was lost at the Norwalk headquarters. He and the tech support team ended up virtualizing over 150 servers.

While Ryan Duffy has only been with the company since October 2015, he is already a tech support supervisor in Rochester, working the morning shift from 8am to 4:30pm. Ryan started off working the night shift (Tuesday through Saturday 4pm to 12:30) for nine months, which he explained is very different from the day shift due to the difference in technical resources.

“Outside of disaster recovery there are a lot of abstract issues, you rarely get an easy call or easy ticket at night, because most partners are willing to wait until the next day to open it. If there is any ongoing trouble or very technically intensive trouble, you’re usually thrust into those situations. These make you a lot stronger technically, and give you a lot of exposure to issues you probably wouldn’t be as likely to see in other shifts. It’s a great position to be in if you’re looking to build up your technical acumen, but there definitely is a lot of following up on open tickets from the day and follow-up and maintenance from general support as well.”

According to Ryan, the culture at Datto is very different from working at any other office. While there are many offices around the world, the Datto culture always remains the same.

“The Datto culture is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, coming in from Rochester to the Norwalk headquarters for training for two weeks, it almost seemed too good to be true. It was very refreshing to see this great atmosphere. As far as the night side of things, working in an office with only six or 10 other people at a time makes you become very close knit, almost like it’s a subculture of the Datto family. You work closely with these six to 10 other people and your supervisor, so you learn everyone’s strengths and weaknesses to become a better unit overall. Moving to the day side of things, I was anxious to see how that dynamic was going to work, and much to my approval, it is just like it but on a larger scale. Everyone plays off each other’s strengths and weaknesses to achieve an overall goal. It’s nice to see that the culture can switch over regardless of what shift you work or the people you work with on a regular basis.”

Elisai Echevarria has been with Datto for about a year and a half. While he started off during the brunch shift, which used to be 11 to 7 and now goes from 9:30-6, he chose to switch into the role of overnight tech support supervisor. Eli manages the overnight team, coaching and training them to make sure they have the resources and knowledge to do their job.

“We work on tickets from US, CA, EU, and new markets like Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia. If we are providing support during our shift and its US/CA based, usually something went wrong. For Tickets in EMEA those are typically less critical as their workday starts at 4am, which means we usually get a fairly “normal” ticket flow from them, like what you would see during the day (backup, hardware replacement). We have some interesting challenges with our newer markets. While there is a language barrier, we are working very hard to build up relations with these partners. This audience is also not as familiar with our product, making it a little bit of teaching and understanding what kinds of environments they have and how their Datto device fits into their scheme.”

While the Datto culture is always described as unique, tech support has their own sub-community.

“There’s a family atmosphere with the overnight shift and it’s just amazing. The Datto culture focuses on the fact that everyone is willing to help each other, and teach, but the overnight culture is extra close-knit. They’re like brothers, they work hard and they hold each other to a high esteem.”

Joel exclaimed that Datto is constantly hiring for tech support, and while Ryan explained that these positions usually involve overqualified candidates, being a superhero for Datto is definitely something these employees are proud of.

Datto’s tech support team goes above and beyond the call of duty to ensure both internal and external issues are resolved. Kyle Mace is no different. Because of that, Kyle was recently honored with August’s DattoByte award.

“It was a really nice surprise and honor to find out I had won the award. I didn’t expect to be picked at all,” said Kyle.

Kyle was honored for his work outstanding work and exemplifying Datto’s values as a Level-2 Tech Support Expert working out of our Rochester Office. Kyle started about 10 months ago, and quickly worked his way up from a Level-1 tech to his current position. Thanks to Kyle’s knowledge and attitude, he has become a go-to guy for questions. He recently moved to the night shift, which provides a unique experience compared to the tech support day shift. Working the night shift entails a large amount of disaster recovery scenarios, and it also allows techs more time to dig into issues, and the opportunity to get in depth with tickets.

For Kyle, winning the DattoByte is all about teamwork both in tech support as well as the other departments throughout Datto. “To me, being a true Datto employee is all about exemplifying the spirit of cooperation. Working and communicating with other departments and ensuring that everyone is aware they can come to me no matter what issue they have”

Austin McChord has been honored by Western Connecticut State University as the Entrepreneur of the Year.

Western will honor Austin on October 5 at the WCSU campus in Danbury. According to WCSU, Austin will discuss Datto’s transformation from his basement, to a small startup, to a company with over 700 employees and offices across the globe. The program’s mission is to encourage, promote, and recognize entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial studies at the Ancell School of Business at Western Connecticut State University for the benefit of WCSU students and the greater Danbury community.

The annual Entrepreneur of the Year ceremony is made possible through the generosity of Constantine “Deno” Macricostas, the founder of Photronics Inc., in Brookfield, who endowed a fund to support entrepreneurial-focused educational projects for students at Western Connecticut State University.

For more information about Austin and the award, head over to WCSU.edu.

In this blog series, women at Datto will post stories from their interviews of each other. This week, we hear from Heather Gallant, VIP Support Supervisor for Tech Support, and Lindsay Henderson, Director of Partner Success.

I first met Lindsay Henderson when she held a webinar explaining the Partner Success Department. Like me, Lindsay has an extensive non-tech academic background. She has her undergraduate degree in Sales and Marketing, along with her Juris Doctorate. I have two undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Social Work and will have my Master’s in Public Administration in December 2016. After graduating from law school, Lindsay was torn between continuing law or joining Datto where her boyfriend (now husband) works.

I faced a similar decision after completing my degree in Social Work. At the end of my second year at the College at Brockport, I obtained a student position in the IT Department. I loved working in technology and adored my co-workers. When I graduated, I had to choose between a life of helping others navigate services or helping users navigate computers. I was offered a full-time position managing their IT Help Desk at the college and accepted the position after some soul searching and parental guidance.

After five years in the college’s IT Department, I had hit a ceiling. My brother attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for Datto’s Rochester office where he met Austin McChord and toured the office. Knowing I was eager for more challenging work, he urged me to apply. In March 2015 I was hired at Datto, not knowing much about it other than that it seemed like a great place to work.

One of my favorite professors, Alex Kralles, used to say, “If a process is holding you up, there’s got to be a better way.” Lindsay uses her marketing knowledge and persuasiveness to be a change agent. “I got to where I am now by, getting into Datto and paying attention to what Datto needs,“ she said. With foresight and management sponsorship, she was promoted from an Account Manager to the Director of Partner Success, a department that was created to fulfill the company’s needs per her suggestion.

This past April I was given the opportunity to help launch the VIP Support program, a new Beta program for our Advisory Board Members. I followed Lindsay’s recipe by getting into the company and paying attention to what it needs. Through dedication and support from my manager, Jason Elston, Director of Technical Support for North America, this Beta now offers a specialized team focused on retaining and growing the sales of our top partners.

Much like Lindsay, I proved myself by seeing where the gaps were. In August I was promoted from Technical Support Expert to VIP Support Supervisor. Starting out as a young woman who took a job at a college IT Help Desk, I never thought I’d work at a place with so much opportunity. Neither did Lindsay. “If I was a musician I would be the songwriter, not the musician. But sometimes you have to perform in order to get your song out there,” she said.  And that is the beauty of working for a tech company like Datto.

The Women in Technology blog series is coordinated by Customer Experience Innovations project coordinator, Rachel Powers.

You can read part 1 here. 

Datto’s own Rob Rae has been named a Top Midmarket IT Executive by the Channel Company and Midsize Enterprise Summit.

The list honors influential executives who have demonstrated an exceptionally strong commitment to the midmarket. Rob was honored for his work with partners and his time spent on the road representing Datto at industry events.

“The Channel Company and Midsize Enterprise Summit are proud to recognize these individuals and the companies they represent for their remarkable efforts to meet the unique IT needs of this fast-growing industry,” said Robert C. DeMarzo, Senior Vice President of Event Content and Strategy, The Channel Company.

The winners were recently honored at the 2016 Midsize Enterprise Summit West in Austin, Texas. In addition, the executives will be features on CRN.com. Head over to their website to learn more!.  

Although being honored as an Tech Support MVP may have been a shock for Austin Hursh, it shouldn’t be all that surprising. Austin, a Tech Support Expert working out of Datto’s Rochester office, regularly goes above and beyond to ensure any issues that may be troubling a partner are resolved. Thanks to his hard work, Austin had the chance to attend a roadshow with the Business Development team at SMB TechFest in California.

Working out of Rochester, Austin doesn’t typically have the chance to integrate with other departments such as sales and business development, which are primarily located in Norwalk. According to Austin, it was an incredible experience all around.

“It was fun to meet some of the sales team and get more interaction with their team. We typically don’t work with them a lot unless one of their partners has a major issue that needs a quick resolution,” said Austin. “Seeing them in action and putting a face to the name gave me a whole new perspective,” he added.

Although the trip was only three days, Austin also had some great interaction with some Datto partners.

“It was a fun and unique experience. I’m always talking to partners on the phone, but I’m working with them when something is broken and wrong and they need immediate help. It was nice to see the partners out of that and converse about some new products or just without urgency.”

In addition to speaking with partners, Austin also had the opportunity to connect with some people who were not familiar with Datto yet.

“In some cases, I just gave a broad overview, but with others, it was cool to get into the nitty gritty technical side and really see their eyes light up when they heard how awesome Datto is,” Austin said.

In this blog series, women at Datto will post stories from their interviews of each other. This week, we hear from Jessica Wesley, Level 2 Technician for Tech Support EMEA, and Wendy Durica, Software Quality Assurance Portal Team Lead.

When you speak to Wendy Durica, it’s immediately clear that she has had quite the journey to get to where she is in her career. Her Datto path has taken her from the support team to QA, on to her current role as team lead for the portal team.

I had a slightly different path into the tech world; it wasn’t something I always wanted to do but when I was told “girls don’t do our IT classes,” I was inspired to prove them wrong. I eventually discovered I loved tech and wanted to learn more and more about the field. I started my Datto career as a Level 1 technical support expert, and I have worked my way up to the first Level 2 tech promoted in the EMEA office and have just been made a finalist for the UK IT Industry, IT Service and Support Professional of the Year. This award is the highlight of my career in the tech industry. Looking back, it amazes me that all this was the result of one off the cuff comment.

When I sat down to speak with Wendy, what really interested me was the Women In Technology (WIT) initiative she started at Datto, as I have a strong passion for working to promote the WIT and their achievements both personally and as a company.

The WIT initiative started three years ago at Datto’s Norwalk office and was intended to bring the women of Datto together. Their first meeting was a cocktail hour in which our CEO, Austin McChord, attended and exclaimed with surprise, “there are more people here than the one year anniversary of Datto in the basement.” Since then, the WIT initiative has grown exponentially and it has become a way for women to learn and network together within a small group across multiple locations and countries within Datto.

Wendy actively promotes the WIT initiative by traveling to schools and colleges to show that working in tech can be fun. She often tells the students, “you don’t just have to be writing software to be in a tech company.” She also agrees that it’s important for women to know these initiatives exist at Datto and to understand that Datto invests in the employees by sending them to events such as Women’s leadership conferences. Just this year alone, we had several Datto women attend the Yale Women’s Leadership Conference in Connecticut and the RBJ Women’s Leadership Summit in Rochester.

 As I have been working to get more involved in this initiative, I was lucky enough to receive an invitation to Downing Street last year for an ‘Inspiring 50’ event and where I met so many amazing women in this industry. Seeing so many women in one room- and more importantly so many women in senior positions- really inspired me to start improving my skills and pursuing a career promotion to Level 2 Technician.   

When I asked what the best bit of advice she has been given in the tech industry, Wendy responded, “an intern once wrote me a note that simply said, ‘Never stop.’” Wendy explained the intern really appreciated the little things Wendy did and how welcoming Wendy was. The best advice she would give someone is very similar, “follow what you enjoy doing and don’t let being a woman stop you from doing what you want to achieve. Sometimes you can be the only woman in the room but if you like what you’re doing, it shouldn’t matter.”

My advice to anyone getting into the tech world is to make sure you keep learning; as long as you can hold your own and prove you can ‘tech it up’ just as good as the men, there’s no reason why anyone will question your skills and you can only excel.

The Women in Technology blog series is coordinated by Customer Experience Innovations project coordinator, Rachel Powers.

It’s not every day a level 3 tech gets to hit the road and attend a major industry event. For Jaden Robideau, having the opportunity to meet with partners and be a champion for Datto was an incredible experience.

Jaden has worked at Datto for about three years, and recently transferred to our Rochester office. As a level 3 tech and Jaden’s knowledge background made him a perfect fit to represent Datto’s technical side at VMworld 2016.

While in the booth at VMworld, Jaden helped attendees check out the Vive VR headset and talked Datto.

“After they demoed the Vive, people would be all excited and wondering what Datto did. I had to explain it was nothing to do with the Vive, but we didn’t lose their interest. Once I got into the pitch about business continuity and total data protection, I was able to answer all their technical questions and get them hyped up on Datto,” Jaden said.

A few months ago, Jaden attended an XChange event, but he said this was on a whole new scale. “At VMworld, it was a different position. We actually felt like one of the small companies, so it was a unique experience to explain what Datto is to some new faces. It was actually refreshing to see the other side of the tech world,” Jaden added.

In addition to talking Datto with some new people, Jaden also enjoyed interacting with some different parts of the company. “It was cool meeting different parts of the team such as the technical marketing group. I enjoyed collaborating with them and bouncing ideas back and forth,” Jaden said. “Having face time and representing Datto is just an overall cool experience. I can’t wait to do it again,” he added.

Sharon Malfesi has worked at Datto for four years, so she’s seen a bit of everything. However, she never saw the DattoByte award coming her way last month.

Sharon was on vacation when it was announced that she had won the award, and it took some time for the news to make it her way.

“While I was on vacation, I didn’t have great service. But once I got back to the hotel and got on the wifi, I started receiving tweets, messages and emails saying ‘congratulations’, and I had no idea what was going on. It was really cool to find out once I got back. It was great news, and I was genuinely surprised and thrilled,” said Sharon.

Sharon is a project manager on the software engineering team here at Datto. In addition to her primary role, she also serves as Scrum Master for her teams.

When Sharon started at Datto, she was number 12 in the department. Now that team has grown quite a bit. Sharon often finds herself working with team members not only in Datto’s headquarters in Norwalk but employees in the Rochester office and UK office as well. “It’s a great experience. The only thing you have to watch out for is time zone differences when scheduling meetings,” said Sharon.

Sharon’s main responsibilities include working on the three Datto Core Products teams and managing the entire software engineering process within those teams. This involves managing workflows, overseeing how information is reported out to other departments within Datto and managing the team’s task board. “I kind of see myself as the referee of the process.”

For Sharon, one of the greatest aspects of working at Datto is the comfortable and welcoming environment that has been established here. “At Datto, I feel like I can be myself and nobody questions it. As far as styles and interests, I lead a pretty alternative lifestyle, and knowing that I can show my true self and not get looked at funny is incredible. It just makes me feel good, I can come here and be who I am.”

Sharon was very adamant that she could not have received this recognition without help from her team members. “I want to thank my team for helping me grow into my role. I wouldn’t be where I am if they weren’t there to mentor me as well. It has been really beneficial to my growth, not only at Datto but my career as a whole,” said Sharon.

Eric Torres, Channel Development Manager at Datto, has been honored by CRN. Eric was named to CRN’s 100 People You Don’t Know But Should 2016.

Eric was honored for being a road warrior that eats, sleeps and breathes channel development, according to CRN.

To learn more about Eric’s honor and view the full list of honorees, head over to CRN.

In this blog series, women at Datto will post stories from their interviews of each other. This week, we hear from Jessica Fleet, Community Manager, who gives us an in-depth perspective on her colleague, Sue Mosovich, Principal Technical Marketing Engineer.

Most of us don’t travel through life in a straight line. More often than not, where we end up is different than where we originally intended; but different isn’t bad. In fact, it could be awesome. Such was the case for Sue Mosovich who, despite joining Datto as a Principal Technical Marketing Engineer, didn’t start in technology.

Mosovich earned a degree in comparative religion; and while she loved her major, she admits it didn’t leave her with many relevant professional skills. After graduating, she landed a job within the Fundraising Department for Oxford University in New York City. It wasn’t long before Mosovich was looking at certain processes and contemplating how they could be improved. Specifically, that typing out a prospect’s name over-and-over seemed inefficient (and tedious). To address this, she created a database out of WordPerfect mail merge for all prospects. This allowed her to create mailings to the prospects and reports about the current status of their fundraising efforts. Management was so impressed, they flew Mosovich out to the UK where she implemented a global database and taught her co-workers how to use the new system. As Mosovich says, “it was totally cool because now I can say I taught at Oxford.”

It was around this time that the proverbial lightbulb went off for Mosovich and she realized just how powerful – and professionally relevant – one could become through technical know-how. It was this new insight that compelled her to go full bore into selling computers. By focusing on relationships and being a trusted advisor to her customers,  she quickly worked her way up the chain from a mom-and-pop PC store, to a regional distributor and ultimately to an international distributor.

After several years in sales, she realized it was time for a break. She wanted to re-focus on her next career move. Bravely, she decided to take a year off to teach English in Thailand and travel through India, Cambodia and Laos. It was during this truly amazing year she realized what she already knew in her heart:

1. She was strong enough to rely on herself
2. There are kind people everywhere
3. Listening is more important than talking
4. She didn’t want to sell anything, anymore.

Because she had built up an incredible wealth of technical knowledge over the years and also had extensive sales experience, she was an ideal candidate for technical pre-sales. However, she once again found herself at a crossroads. She experienced first hand that her employer wasn’t moving fast enough to remain competitive in the marketplace and they kept losing customers to a Norwalk-based startup called Datto. She remembered thinking, “this is a place that understands backup, understands technology and that is really exciting.” This time, it didn’t take a year of international travel, Mosovich knew that Datto was the right choice.

Since joining Datto, Mosovich has capitalized on the ‘Be Can Do’ culture. Meaning, if you think that something should be done better, you’re encouraged to go out and do it. She created an interdepartmental SWAT team. Focused on technical marketing, the goal is to “cross-pollinate interesting technical stories from within the organization” to create content.

When asked, what’s next? Mosovich can’t say for certain where this journey will take her because – as her story illustrates – one’s journey will inevitably take some unexpected twists and turns (especially in the fast-paced world of technology). However, she’s excited about the future; where opportunities to do new and interesting things abound. As she put it, it’s great to be at a place where all the parts of your past have led somewhere awesome.

The Women in Technology blog series is coordinated by Customer Experience Innovations project coordinator, Rachel Powers.

Datto is thrilled to be announced as winners of the 2016 ASCII Cup. Datto took home the honor on October 14 at the ASCII Success Summit in Newport, Rhode Island.

The ASCII Success Summit attendees vote for the vendors in 12 different categories: Top Security Solution; Top Productivity Solution; Top Storage Solution; Top Cloud Solution; Top Revenue Generator; Top Channel Programs; Top Distributor; Best Keynote Presentation; Best Creativity & Innovation; Best IT Management Tool; Best Partner Incentives; and Best Market Opportunity.  The winners at each Summit are selected based on the votes by the solution providers in attendance; at the end of the year, the winner of the ASCII Cup is determined by tabulating the results of all nine events.  The 2016 winners of The ASCII Cup, Gold and Silver Medalists, and Top Distributor were announced at a private industry gathering at the Hyatt Regency Newport.
Read more about the award at ASCII.com.

In this blog series, women at Datto will post stories from their interviews of each other. This week, we hear from Joan Fernbach, Senior Software Engineer, and Karin Steiner, Senior User Experience Designer.

Karin and I were both non-traditional applicants to Datto; we are both somewhat older (more mature) than the average Datto employee. In addition, we both came to our current positions through a more circuitous route. For both of us, it was a great plus that Datto is open-minded about whom they hire. They will consider non-traditional applicants and are not hung up on engineers having degrees; they are more interested in your skills, capabilities and curiosity.

Karin started her career in human resources after receiving a degree in cognitive science. She transitioned into training, and then worked at an audience research company where she honed interview skills and learned multiple research techniques. After several work assignments re-ignited an old interest in visual design, Karin went back to school to study Graphic Design. Subsequent jobs were in print and then interaction design, where she developed an appreciation for the user’s experience. That, in turn, led to another round of studies in user-centered design.

I got into computer science and programming by chance. When I was trying to find a job after my husband passed away, no one would hire me for anything I wanted to do. I noticed an advertisement in the local paper for a part-time masters in computer science, and thought it sounded like fun. I had no background, and thought I was too old to go back to school. However, a mentor at Union College supported me all the way through, and I felt at home immediately.

We talked about the challenges of women both in the next generation and what we have experienced. The greatest challenge for both of us has been balancing work and family and this will continue to be a challenge for women in the next generation. If you choose to be parents, how can you have a successful career and balance it with motherhood and family? Karin noted it is a challenge to find workplaces that support parenthood, maternity leave, flexible schedules and working from home. Unless you have an incredibly supportive partner at home, it’s incredibly difficult to do.

I saw the same challenges coming out of college in the 60s as well. I worked while my husband attended medical school, and then was very fortunate to have the luxury of staying home with my children until they started school. I didn’t go back to school or start my current career until my husband had passed away and my youngest child was in school.

The motherhood/work balance is probably the most significant barrier to female leadership, as well as societal attitudes, though these appear to be less significant at a place like Datto.

The Women in Technology blog series is coordinated by Customer Experience Innovations project coordinator, Rachel Powers.