Jack Shaffer likes staying busy. And he likes to make a positive impact. So when he decided to join the Advantage Technology team earlier this year, it was a match made in technology heaven. (No wonder his expertise is in Cloud-based systems!)
With more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of technology, Shaffer brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in his new role as Business Transformation Director. In his previous work, Shaffer has done systems development, enterprise application integration, networking, telecommunications, data center operations, database administration, disaster recovery, security and mobile computing. He also has a long track record of successfully managing and implementing large, mission critical projects on a broad range of technology infrastructures and application architectures for both start-up ventures as well as Fortune 500 companies in multiple industries ranging from energy to healthcare.
Before joining the company, Jack talked with Advantage Technology’s President and CEO, Richard Wilbur III, about the future of technology – specifically, concerning the trends in cybersecurity, cloud systems, and newer software-as-a-service applications. And while Advantage Technology is on the leading edge, the only constant in the technology sector is that of change, and Advantage needs to continue to lead its customers through this change. So Shaffer is working hard to move Advantage Technology forward to start capturing and using these new technologies to the benefit of its customers. And, he says they’re making a lot of progress already.
Shaffer jokes that it’s like he has joined the Advantage Technology story in the middle of the movie – since they have been very successful for quite a while – but he wants to play an important role in broadening the organization’s capabilities going forward. One of the first projects he undertook was to push Advantage Technology into providing a 24×7 cybersecurity operations center and delivering that as a service to its customers. Shaffer says the company has made great strides there and soon will have a complete cybersecurity monitoring center in place to help its customers prevent, detect, and respond to cyber-attacks. Another step forward Shaffer is spearheading, is that of cloud computing. He says Advantage Technology is starting to help customers move to Microsoft Azure, which allows them to eliminate the need to have computer servers on-premise, and to better leverage the scalability and flexibility of cloud service providers like Microsoft and Amazon.
It’s a good thing Jack likes to stay busy. He describes himself as high energy and proudly says that he has always focused on moving the needle forward. He said that makes him fit right in at Advantage Technology, where everyone is high-performing, engaged, and very talented. A year from now, Shaffer said he expects Advantage Technology to have its cloud services and managed services being fully beneficial to its customers as well as the company itself. He calls himself a big fan of metrics and data, and says he wants to use that data more efficiently and effectively for both customers and the company itself.
Shaffer says his years of management and executive leadership experience in a variety of fields makes him an ideal virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO). He notes that he and Advantage Technology Executive Vice President B.J. Evans, have decades of mission-critical IT experience between them. Shaffer says his time in leadership roles with large-scale and diverse industry enterprises allows him to bring a unique perspective as a virtual CIO. And, Shaffer soon will have his Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certificate from the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC)². He calls it the gold standard for security professionals and says it would allow him to be a virtual Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) as well as a CIO, all to the benefit of Advantage Technology’s customers.
Jack lives in the Eastern Panhandle with his wife, son and stepdaughter. While he said he doesn’t believe in hobbies, and prefers to work 24×7, he admits to doing some carpentry and remodeling because he likes to work with his hands and it’s totally different from computers and technology. His family also enjoys camping. Shaffer has a B.S. in Computer Information Systems and an M.B.A. from the University of Charleston.
