Military To Mission-Critical

PART THREE

Welcome to the third and final article in a series exploring careers in data centers through the lens of those who have served in the US military. Veterans represent about 35 percent of CoreSite’s data center operations team. Each of these veterans made the transition to civilian life and has a unique story to tell about what they learned in the service and how those experiences apply to their roles in data centers.

Three questions have remained consistent throughout the series:

• What compelled you to join the service?
• What parts of your experience in the military are relevant to your role at CoreSite?
• What advice or insights would you give to other veterans who are considering a career in data centers?

This article offers a special perspective by featuring two women veterans—Stephanie Gallegos and Rebecca Clontz—who represent a minority of data center professionals in the male-dominated data center industry. What follows are their perspectives, pulled from interview transcripts that have been edited for clarity.

REBECCA CLONTZ

Nuclear Engineering Machinist Mate (US Navy), Data Center Operations Technician III (BO1)

To say that military service is in my DNA is not an exaggeration at all. My dad has someone on his side of the family tree that was in the American Revolution. I have ancestors who served on both sides in the Civil War and my granddaddy was in the Korean War. Both of my parents are veterans. They were stationed together in Japan during the Vietnam War, where they met and were married. Also, one of my older sisters served in the Air Force, and my older brother served in the Army.

So, I had always seen myself in the military. And then, one day when I was 17, I got a recruiting post card with the headline, “Do You Want to be a Navy Nuke?” I said to myself, “Yes, yes I do.”  My parents signed a consent form, and I was soon in bootcamp at the Naval Station Great Lakes, near Chicago. Once I joined the Navy, my sister, brother, and I were all serving in the military at the same time. Eventually, I was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia.

I served on the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Eisenhower, both nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, as a Nuclear Engineering Machinist Mate. I was part of the teams on those vessels that operated and maintained the propulsion systems. It was our responsibility to make sure the ship was ready for anything, anytime. Of course, I had been highly trained for that—first in “Nuclear Field A School” to study electronics, schematics, and math; then in “Nuclear Power School,” with an intense concentration on nuclear physics, reactor theory, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and reactors; followed by hands-on drills and simulations.

You asked me about how my experiences in the Navy apply to my role at CoreSite. The first thing that comes to mind is the training and drills. We frequently run drills in the data center to ensure that we follow procedures minimizing any system downtime. You need to expect the unexpected, and you need to have full, encompassing knowledge of the entire data center’s operations. It’s also essential to have an overarching understanding of the facility to be able to provide the best service for customers. For us, running simulations involves table-top exercises where we work through scenarios in a conference room, as well as drills in the data center itself.

Teamwork is another aspect—maybe the most important. An aircraft carrier is like a floating city. It takes an entire community of sailors, working independently and in teams, to keep it in top shape. And if someone needs help, you step up. When we face an unusual or unexpected situation in a data center, such as power generators not being available or chillers not functioning as intended, we need to adapt and overcome it. That’s critical in data centers; you really need redundant power systems in place to ensure that business-critical data processing and connectivity are always working. It matters when we talk about mission-critical use cases—fire and rescue services, police, transportation infrastructure, and healthcare.

When issues arise, we pull together for a great meeting of minds to talk through the root cause, what needs to be done to fix the issue, and how to prevent it from happening again. These collaborative meetings, and the steps we take to solve the problem, cannot be done by one person. We all put in extra time, add to the staffing as needed, and work as a team to solve the issue. In one case, I worked for about 21 days in a row to ensure our data center was running smoothly. And I know that people on my team would step in for me if I needed it.

If you’ve ever been through something like that, you know that it brings your team together. As we’ve talked about, there are a lot of vets at CoreSite. A few days ago, a couple of fellow Navy Nukes and I got talking about days at sea without seeing sunshine. One went 88 days, the other 102—both in submarines. I was lucky, and I got to see the sun most days during the six years I was on active duty. Not everybody can relate to these experiences.

I think that’s unique to CoreSite; whether you are male or female, CoreSite sees your military background and appreciates it. That’s why I would encourage any veteran to speak with CoreSite if they are thinking of either starting or taking the next step on a career path in the industry. Because frankly, the work I do isn’t a “male job” or a “female job.” It’s a job for everyone.

STEPHANIE GALLEGOS

Cryptologic Technician Communications (US Navy), Shift Manager, Operations Support Center (LA2)

When I was in the Navy, my job was essentially to make sure that everyone made it home safely. I was stationed at the Naval Air Station Fallon, which is about 60 miles east of Reno, Nevada. The base is where Navy pilots train, and of course, there is an operations center. I was the Cryptologic Technician and my responsibilities included monitoring the radio networks and sending, as well as receiving, secure communications. On any given day, I would coordinate messaging about the scheduled training flights, monitor the airspace to make sure no “unfriendly” aircraft was present, and exchange messages with the pilots.

Today, after 15 years of experience in data centers at CoreSite, I believe clear communication with my team and customers is one of the most important aspects of managing an operations support center. It just so happens that I am now in Los Angeles, at LA2, not in the Nevada desert. So, for me, one throughline between the military and my role is communication.

Let me back up. I joined the Navy after graduating from West Covina High School, which is about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Truth be told, I was very much into basketball and was determined to play at the college level. Unfortunately, that wasn’t financially feasible, and after taking the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test during my junior year, then meeting with a recruiter in my senior year, I opted for military service. Two weeks after my 18th birthday, on January 2, I was in a bootcamp at the Great Lakes Naval Academy just outside of Chicago—a California kid “culture shocked” by the cold weather and complete loss of privacy that living in a barracks with about 88 people brings. We marched on black ice and slept with the windows open because, you know … germs.

I’ll admit I wasn’t happy at the time. I should also add that there’s a deep family history of military service. My brother joined six months after I did. Both my great grandfather and grandfather also served.

I mentioned my passion for basketball. Actually, I love all types of sports. I also played softball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, and ran track growing up. In the Navy, teamwork is everything, right? Just like sports. So, for me, it was easy to transition into the military. When I made the transition to civilian life, job opportunities that involved teamwork, system operations, and communication seemed to be a good fit. I think that a critical part of being on a team is being able to clearly communicate with each other.

In regard to why I chose to work at CoreSite, it was the network operations part of data centers that first caught my attention. It allowed me to use the skills I gained at the Fallon training base and in my first job out of the service, at a large telecommunications company. I thought that I would be focused only on the NOC (network operations center) within the facility when I was hired at CoreSite. Instead, I was also trained with data center operations technicians, and so I got to see the entire data center and gain an understanding of the bigger picture.

Having that big picture perspective is essential to my role as Operations Support Center Manager. In addition to doing customer communications for the company, we perform systems maintenance, monitor all the infrastructure and networks, and handle provisioning tasks in switches and other equipment. We respond to trouble tickets, remote hands and building service requests, and even help customers bring equipment into the data center through the loading dock. Everyone on my team wears a lot of hats, to say the least!

It’s during incidents that I am reminded of how my military experience applies to operations management. First, I have to be ready for anything. Second, I need to gather information from any interdepartmental team members who are involved and provide proper communication to  impacted customers—via email or, if necessary, person-to-person over the phone. 

Customer service is huge for us. We often talk with customers and work with the Client Services team to resolve issues very quickly. Part of that might simply be telling a customer, “We are not the right department, but I will get you there,” and doing so without sending them on a frustrating call-transfer merry-go-round. We are here 24/7, so we are the first line of response anytime customers need help outside of regular business hours.

I attribute my communication skills to my sports background. On any team, you need to be able to communicate clearly and intelligently. That said, I also had the importance of communication ingrained in me during my time in the military. We had to be very clear in what we were sending out because pilot safety was at stake—truly mission-critical communications.

When I was in the Navy, a “good day” was when nothing unusual happened. In data centers, even though there are routines, every day is a little different—which is a good thing. There’s always something to learn, especially as our data centers are evolving to support artificial intelligence, multi-cloud deployments, and data networking. Just because I am in the OSC doesn’t mean I don’t need to understand the facility side, the operations side, and the network side. It all intertwines and, again, we’re all one team.

You asked for “words of wisdom” I’d pass on to anyone who is thinking about working in data centers. For women, let’s face it, the data center industry is male-dominated. But knowledge is power, and speaking up and being a champion for yourself is a huge thing. If you think you deserve a promotion, you have to advocate for yourself, and you have to be able to back it up.

LESSONS LEARNED—FROM THE MILITARY TO MISSION-CRITICAL SERIES

Firstly, CoreSite extends a truly sincere “thank you” to every veteran who has shared their story in this series. It’s a reminder that it takes people from all types of backgrounds and a broad range of special skills to keep highly complex, interdependent systems not only available but also operating at the highest achievable level of performance.

Every interview in this series shows that it takes teamwork, commitment to each other and to customers, and person-to-person communication to ensure that critical services—such as 911, emergency response, healthcare, and education—as well as the economy and daily activities that we take for granted, remain available.

Another common theme: The military promised an opportunity to expand horizons, to “see the world.” Not one person saw their service as a pathway to the data center industry. But when the opportunity presented itself, their military experience enabled them to take advantage of that opportunity. This was true whether a veteran had served for three years or decades, and whether they are now executives or continuing to build their careers. Opportunity for personal and professional growth is still present. Finally, “family” is consistently part of their stories. It seems that the camaraderie and bonds that develop in mission-critical situations, inside and outside the service, are very much like the bonds developed among the special people, with and without military experience, who are the true backbone of CoreSite data centers.