We’ve been in Teams meetings together with customers for many years, but do you get the chance to really meet the people? This section of our newsletter aims to shine a light on the people behind the service, and Joe Cozzi drew the short straw of being interviewed this month.
Tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m based in Bracknell in Berkshire (not as bad as everyone makes out), married to Danielle for 5 years, and have two daughters Mia (6) and Lilly (1) – you’ll see them all in the pictures. With Xmas around the corner, I’m more likely to be found hiding Barbie’s Dream House (it’s huge!) than out with the lads playing Sunday football. I used to play a lot and at a good level when I was much younger, but age and injuries made the dream of playing for Arsenal fade away, compared to spending time in the safer environment of the gym. In my rare moments of downtime, you’ll find me playing role-based games – Indiana Jones is the current favourite – it helps feed my love of puzzles and problem solving.
What’s your role at BlueFort and what does it involve?
I’m a technical consultant with a wide understanding of our solutions but more in-depth with some of our technologies such as F5 and Silverfort. This means I could be supporting customers in matching the right solution to their needs, setting up evaluations, scoping and installing the right solution, and then supporting the customer’s technical teams.
What do you love about your job?
I love meeting customers, uncovering their challenges, and trying to solve the puzzles. It’s very rewarding to help identify things that could be fixed or improved, and then being there to see that make a difference. My favourite part of the role is pre-sales as it’s all about problem solving.
How did you get started?
I joined BlueFort in the commercial team and was originally an account manager. During Covid I found myself drawn towards finding out more about technology and so started with a lot of self-learning about cyber security, networks, and the solutions we deployed. The more I delved, the more interested I became, and it was clear that my skills were more closely aligned to the technical team than sales. Fortunately for me, the sales manager allowed me to apply for a technical role and I haven’t looked back.
What is your favourite technology right now?
We’ve got such a variety of solutions it can be hard to pick but if pressed I love the simplicity of Silverfort. I find it really straightforward and among other things, it fixes an often-ignored security gap with service accounts – they probably need multifactor authentication as much as remote users but it’s not easy without a specialist tool.
If you could have a super-power, then what would it be?
If you’ve seen the size of Barbie’s Dream House, you’d know that a cloaking mechanism would come in handy! Otherwise, unlimited strength so that I stop getting injured playing centre back.
