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Meet Master ASE, JoAnn Catcott with M2 Technology

Learn why JoAnn made the change from the Arts to Technology in this Mastermind profile.

JoAnn CatcottJoAnn Catcott

Name: JoAnn C. Catcott

Employer: M2 Technology

Title/Role: Director, Solutions Architecture

Location: Round Rock, Texas

Education: High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Houston, TX

LinkedIn Profile:  JoAnn C. Catcott

 

 

 

 

 

Certifications:

 

How did you get started? 

I was hired by Digital Equipment Corporation while in college, and they invested in training and developing my technology skills.  My major was in Art, but after being introduced to technology, I was intrigued.  There were no boundaries, technology was growing, developing rapidly and creativity was valued.  They wanted individuals who thought outside the box.  While I had strong artistic skills, I was also drawn to pattern and logic.  Computers were a natural fit.  I soon knew there was no doubt the career path I wanted to take.”

What is your favorite HPE technology? 

"HPE Storage has long been my focus.  That focus goes back to my early days supporting Digital as a Value Added Reseller in the mid-1990s.  To me, storage and the storage area networks were always more complex, in particular, disaster recovery solutions.  You had to have both knowledge and vision to determine the best path for the customer.  In many ways, it is like doing a puzzle - not only seeing the picture but finding all the pieces and putting them in the right place."

Any interesting customer stories you would like to share? 

“Wow, there have been many customer issues over the years.  The ones that immediately come to mind are those where the customer wants to embrace the future.  They are willing to step out and do things in a new and different way.  3PAR introduced new ways of delivering the solutions the customer needed in a dynamically changing market.

“One of the recent scenarios was taking an existing 3PAR customer, meeting their immediate business needs by showing them how expanding the current environment could provide a storage consolidation platform.  Absorbing old HPE and multi-vendor arrays into a single environment.  This environment provides not only historical data for reporting, but a current virtualization and database oriented performance optimized solution.  This resulted in a hybrid solution not previously deployed.

“At the same time, the customer’s secondary business goal was for a campus-wide disaster recovery solution.  We educated them on using 3PAR to replicate to a secondary site.  We then built the ultimate solution utilizing technology they had become comfortable with 3PAR so introducing new technology into the solution with a StoreOnce deployment made it much easier for the customer to accept.”

What are the benefits of being a Master ASE?

“My Master ASE helps to substantiate with customers, HPE Account Managers, Solution Architects and Leadership and even within my own company that I am knowledgeable and capable of being a trusted advisor and competent technical resource.”

Any advice for women interested in pursuing a career in technology? 

“Don’t let your imagination be bounded by a women’s traditional role in technology.  You see many women today in IT marketing, sales, or software support and development.  You see very few in pre-sales roles in this growing market.  With the evolution of technology, there is as much challenge, opportunity and ability to make your mark in pre-sales as there is with the more traditional roles in which you typically see women.  Go for it!”


As a Master ASE, you will be recognized as having reached the pinnacle in HPE Certifications. Customers will rely on you to bring rich technical skills to design and implement their most complex solutions. You’ll also see personal and business rewards while being able to network and share with one of the most exclusive teams in the industry.

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SarahA

I’ve been in marketing in high-tech for 20+ years.