Meet Darlene Dralus
With more than 20 years of experience, Darlene Dralus knows the IT profession like the back of her hand. She’s dedicated to serving the needs of Concept Technology’s clients and has fun while she’s at it. To learn more about Darlene, read on below:
On the business side:
Q: What are some of your daily tasks/main responsibilities at Concept Technology?
A: I’m a lead engineer in our Network Operation Center (NOC), so I monitor systems and respond to alerts. I’m also available for escalations when our helpdesk and solution engineers hit tricky problems.
Q: What’s your most memorable IT-related challenge you’ve overcome at Concept Technology?
A: I had two nights of after-hours work on an Exchange server. I was on the phone with Microsoft support until about 3:00 a.m. both times trying to get a half-broken mail environment fixed after an update was installed. I learned a lot and got really good at keeping my cat off the keyboard.
Q: What is one of your biggest pieces of advice for clients when managing their IT?
A: Pay attention to the soft skills. You are handing control of critical business infrastructure to a third party. You have to be able to trust them. Technical skills are a must, but so is good communication.
On the fun side:
Q: You’ve been given access to a time machine, where and when would you travel to?
A: To the future, to see how my story ends.
Q: If you could add any person to Mt. Rushmore, who would you add and why?
A: How about a whole new set: Eleanor Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, Sacajawea and Grace Hopper.
Q: What is your favorite season and why?
A: Fall: changing colors, cool evenings, Oktoberfest and Halloween. What could be better?
