A Day in the Life: Systems Engineer

December 22, 2022

by Tiffany McCabe

At BDK, Inc., one of our biggest assets is our people. Our teams are comprised of innovators, problem solvers, trailblazers, and leaders with more than a century of combined experience in the IT field. Our motto, “IT Made Simple” directly correlates to our down-to-earth and service-oriented employees who make IT approachable for our customers.

Last week, we spotlighted our Data Center Operations team their vast experience and technical abilities—ensuring our customers hosted server infrastructure needs are met. This week, Peter Kuyatt, Systems Engineer, provides a glimpse into how he got started in the IT field, day-to-day responsibilities, and what makes BDK a great place for IT professionals to work.

What is your role at BDK, Inc?
As a Systems Engineer, my main responsibility is to work on the more advanced and technical projects for BDK and our customers. I focus a lot on routers, switches, firewalls, virtualization, data center infrastructure, and other more complex systems. I also support migrations from on-premise hosting to the Cloud, and handle maintenance for our data center, including weekly checks to get ahead of any potential issues and monthly patches to ensure our network remains secure and operating.
How did you end up in the IT field, and ultimately, working at BDK?
I have been interested in computers for as long as I can remember, which was helped by my parents teaching me how to use them at a young age. In college, I developed an interest in music and went on to be a music teacher for a while before I realized it wasn’t for me. I then went on to work at a local gym, where I spent half my time fixing their website and managing SEO. My manager at the time even noted my passion for tech and helped me get a job in IT. From there, I went back to school and started pursuing IT professionally.

Several years later, my former networking teacher, who I had developed a relationship with outside of school, told me about BDK and mentioned they could use more talented engineers on the team. After my interview and personal recommendation, I decided to make the move to BDK’s Data Center Operations team and have enjoyed the work I have gotten to do here for nearly two years.
Describe your typical day as a Systems Engineer?
To tell the truth, no day for me looks the exact same and the projects I work on vary greatly. That said, I start most mornings catching up on emails and alerts that I received overnight and checking for any issues that require my immediate attention. From there, I start plugging away at my customer-focused and data center projects, which have recently included migrating a customer to new servers and updating their infrastructure, on-site to Cloud migrations, and syncing a client’s on-premise directory with Azure AD directory for multi-factor authentication. I mostly receive projects from our CTO and Project Manager, they sometimes originate from me making recommendations to customers and working directly with their engineers to get the task accomplished.

While most work can be done during normal business hours, some tasks are performed after hours and in special cases, in the middle of the night. This is so updates are the least disruptive they can be to our customers and BDK daily operations.
What do you enjoy most about working for BDK?
BDK really takes care of everyone who works for them. There are some employers who will take advantage of their employees, but I have never gotten a whiff of that in the almost two years I have been here. It is clear BDK cares about their employees and wants them all to succeed both personally and professionally.

Check back in the coming weeks for more “Day in the Life” features of our team members. To read more of our content and learn more about our team, click here.

A Day in the Life: Systems Engineer

December 22, 2022

by Tiffany McCabe

What is your role at BDK, Inc?
As a Systems Engineer, my main responsibility is to work on the more advanced and technical projects for BDK and our customers. I focus a lot on routers, switches, firewalls, virtualization, data center infrastructure, and other more complex systems. I also support migrations from on-premise hosting to the Cloud, and handle maintenance for our data center, including weekly checks to get ahead of any potential issues and monthly patches to ensure our network remains secure and operating.
How did you end up in the IT field, and ultimately, working at BDK?
I have been interested in computers for as long as I can remember, which was helped by my parents teaching me how to use them at a young age. In college, I developed an interest in music and went on to be a music teacher for a while before I realized it wasn’t for me. I then went on to work at a local gym, where I spent half my time fixing their website and managing SEO. My manager at the time even noted my passion for tech and helped me get a job in IT. From there, I went back to school and started pursuing IT professionally.

Several years later, my former networking teacher, who I had developed a relationship with outside of school, told me about BDK and mentioned they could use more talented engineers on the team. After my interview and personal recommendation, I decided to make the move to BDK’s Data Center Operations team and have enjoyed the work I have gotten to do here for nearly two years.
Describe your typical day as a Systems Engineer?
To tell the truth, no day for me looks the exact same and the projects I work on vary greatly. That said, I start most mornings catching up on emails and alerts that I received overnight and checking for any issues that require my immediate attention. From there, I start plugging away at my customer-focused and data center projects, which have recently included migrating a customer to new servers and updating their infrastructure, on-site to Cloud migrations, and syncing a client’s on-premise directory with Azure AD directory for multi-factor authentication. I mostly receive projects from our CTO and Project Manager, they sometimes originate from me making recommendations to customers and working directly with their engineers to get the task accomplished.

While most work can be done during normal business hours, some tasks are performed after hours and in special cases, in the middle of the night. This is so updates are the least disruptive they can be to our customers and BDK daily operations.
What do you enjoy most about working for BDK?
BDK really takes care of everyone who works for them. There are some employers who will take advantage of their employees, but I have never gotten a whiff of that in the almost two years I have been here. It is clear BDK cares about their employees and wants them all to succeed both personally and professionally.

Check back in the coming weeks for more “Day in the Life” features of our team members. To read more of our content and learn more about our team, click here.