Faces of SteelCloud: Strengthening SteelCloud with Many Layers of Support
As SteelCloud’s Senior Manager over Support, Ian Martinez supports a lot of things. Primarily, he manages frontline customer support. But he also manages business and internal support, training, sales engineering, and other internal needs while working closely with enterprise consulting and QA. It’s a lot of hats. And he wears them happily.
We recently sat down with Ian to discuss his role and what fuels the energy behind all his roles. Here’s what he said.
What trends are you seeing in cybersecurity automation these days?
Overall, we’re seeing more people adopt STIG and CIS security policies and look into automation. But the big difference is that we are seeing more interactions with private sector companies who either do business with the government or just want to achieve compliance as a baseline. Many of these companies deal with essential infrastructure–infrastructure we all need for our daily lives like manufacturing, financial, and healthcare. Energy, in particular, is a sector that is really interested in strengthening their cybersecurity and they are a vertical we are watching closely.
What are the challenges of the job?
The challenges are pretty much the same for any growing company. There are new ways of doing things. We are transitioning into a different mode of operation. Processes are changing. But, for me, it’s a good thing. I enjoy working on challenges.
So you are a problem-solver type?
Yes, I love to find knots to untangle, both with customers and internally. And I like working with people. So, I get to do a lot of fun stuff each day. I like to cultivate people and watch them grow. I like to look for efficiencies. When others are having anxiety, I think, “what policies and procedures can I implement to keep it from happening again?” I like to relieve areas of friction. Put it all together and I’m swimming in a pool of all the things I like to do at SteelCloud.
Any battle stories you want to tell?
Well, that’s just it. Any of the stories with frustrated people eventually turn into success stories. We demonstrate perseverance and slowly win them over. Once people understand you really do care, they change the way they respond to you. That happens a lot at SteelCloud. So, they are not battle stories as much as they are success stories.
Finally, what do you like best about working at SteelCloud?
The agility that the organization has because of our size. The joy of being here is that when you want to make change, the organization is flexible. Here, if you have ideas, you can present them, get feedback, and can reshape internal policies.
While Ian is very organized and orderly at work, he claims to be a mess at home. He enjoys home improvement and has a library of over 300 board games. Outside of that, his interests fluctuate from sci fi and history to TV and movies. He lives with a highly creative wife who makes custom plush creations and his two dogs, Spoticus and Holly.
