“The People Behind” is a blog series meant to share stories of the amazing individuals behind DriveNets. From developers and engineers to sales managers, we’ll get to the heart of the team behind the disruption of the networking industry, so you can get to know them a little better!
This week, meet Peter Cucinell. Peter is a Senior Technical Cloud Sales manager with many years of providing IP networking leadership in high performing technical sales organizations. He has focused on developing great working engagements between the customer, sales, support, and engineering, joining DriveNets after 19 years at Juniper.
What brought you to DriveNets?
“I saw that a lot of the industry was moving in the direction of using white boxes,” said Peter, “there is certainly a lot of interest in open standards and non-OEM based solutions for a lot of the hyperscalers.”
Peter had always been in networking. So, he wanted to get on-board with a company that had a strategy for doing something that was different in the networking space.
“Previously, I worked for big vendors like Juniper and Cisco and I was like alright, so I’ve done that, and
I was interested in a company that was shaking things up in the industry.”
Peter was drawn and started using Linux early in his college years and participated in some of the early Linux tech forums. As an undergrad, systems administration was a hot skill and Peter was asked to teach a basic sys admin class for the University of Maryland – Baltimore campus. “It was a lot of fun and I was able to construct the entire semester using open source tools and the basic PCs available to me.”
What are your job responsibilities now?
Peter wears a lot of hats now. “I’m definitely a technical salesperson here, but I tend to wear both the SE and the account manager hat.”
From account-based sales coverage with hyperscalers to helping out with some of the service providers on the technical side, Peter fills many different roles. “I am doing both sales and SE technical work, as well as business development,” he said.
He enjoys the environment where he is not pigeonholed into a single role or task. “It is a lot more fun for me to be able to exercise a variety of skills,” he said, “that can be on the one hand developing the account management strategy with various business leads, working the numbers with sourcing, and on the other hand going in the lab and building something cool. It is sort of the best of both worlds.”
Why should Service Providers prefer the DriveNets solution over the competition?
“I think COVID has proven that using OEM’s caused a lot of problems for service providers logistically, like supply chain wise,” said Peter, “they continue to experience shortcomings in supply chains and logistical coverage.”
Peter explained that for service providers now it’s a total strategy for them, going after the approach of hyperscalers that have a dual vendor strategy.
“The companies that are taking advantage or have the capacity to implement a strategy that involves multiple vendors for roles and for networking components will have a lot smoother supply chain options than companies that rely on single source vendors.”
Also, in several recent meetings, the senior architecture teams shared that they do not know or fully recognize the scale they will need to build for in the next 18 to 24 months. “That is a really small window to make decisions. We can scale horizontally so that is a big advantage for both us and the service providers & hyperscalers.”
What is the most exciting part of working in DriveNets?
For Peter, the most exciting part of working at DriveNets is that it’s a small company and where you feel that every contribution matters. “Everything you do, every day, has a direct impact on the success and outcome of DriveNets,” he said.
How do you like to start your working day?
Early.
“I wake up early and because of the time zone I slip right into work,” Peter said, who is currently based in Bend, Oregon. He doesn’t go to the gym or anything like that first thing in the morning but does that later in the day.
“I wake up super early to sync with the team in Israel or APAC. Just the way it has to be,” said Peter, “the benefit for me is that I am going to bed early and waking up early. Good habits for anyone who wants to live a healthy life.”
Do you have a favorite quote?
First impressions are lasting. Once a first impression is made, if it’s less than great, unfortunately it takes a long time to change it.
– Harvey Mackay
What are three things people don’t know about you?
- Ran 9 marathons
- Open water swimmer – does two to three mile open water races
- Working on refurbishing an old house in Hawaii
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